Luc's Role

[Thor]

@aliriel: She thought he was Rand's 'mean uncle'. Curious that - why didn;t she think 'that't Rand's father'? She knew from Amys who Rand's blood father was, and that he had died in the Blight. (TSR34)

 

because egwene knows that rand's father is aiel, and luc doesn't look aiel.

[FarShainMael]

@aliriel: She thought he was Rand's 'mean uncle'. Curious that - why didn;t she think 'that't Rand's father'? She knew from Amys who Rand's blood father was, and that he had died in the Blight. (TSR34)

 

because egwene knows that rand's father is aiel, and luc doesn't look aiel.

 

Mmm. Luc is described as tall, having dark reddish hair and dark blue eyes (TSR33). Rand is also tall, with dark reddish hair (TGH1) and grey eyes (tEotW). A few Aiel are also described as having dark reddish hair, Avi for example (TFOH31) and Bael (LoC10). I'm not really convinced, but it's possible that could have been what Eg was thinking.

[yoniy0]

I'm confused. @FSM, I read your post as your saying the same thing, that she knew it couldn't have been Rand's father (more important than the fact that he's Aiel is that he's dead ).

[FarShainMael]

I'm confused. @FSM, I read your post as your saying the same thing, that she knew it couldn't have been Rand's father (more important than the fact that he's Aiel is that he's dead ).

 

We (the readers) know that the dead can hang around in T'A'R (at least, the dead Heroes) and I sort of assumed that Eg knew that as well. She has seen Birgitte there (TSR11) but she puts it down to having listened to too many of Thom's stories. So.. Dunno.

 

The way I would have expected her thought processes to run was thus:

 

Hey. That looks like Rand. Brother? no. Too old. Father? no, he's dead.. But wait a mo, I saw someone who looked like Birgitte, and I know she's dead.. what's going on here? Better ask Amys about that..

 

But no, she leaps straight to 'uncle'.

[David Selig]

The obvious explanation is that "uncle" is ironic here, since Luc really is Rand's uncle, but Egwene doesn't know it, and RJ was having a little fun with this mention. ;)

 

BTW, it's a bit strange that Elayne didn't recognise Luc. Shouldn't she have seen some portraits of him? She certainly had seen some of Tigraine, and remembered them well enough to note Rand looked a lot like her back in TDR. At least she should've noted how much Luc looked like Tigraine, we know they were so similar in looks that Janduin couldn't defend himself against Luc in the Blight.

[Sharaman]

Generic similarity rather than obvious fit in terms of features?

According to Amys, Rand looks "something like" his mum. We don't know how close the sibling resemblance was. The Andor noble Houses are generally Aiel in physical features - fair, tall, fair hair, etc.

Even if Eg knows / suspects that dead HotH could hang out in TAR, she would tend to instinctively discount the possibility wrt Janduin. He's Aiel, there are no known Aiel HotH, she knows he wasn't a Dreamwalker while alive, etc.

[FarShainMael]

The obvious explanation is that "uncle" is ironic here, since Luc really is Rand's uncle, but Egwene doesn't know it, and RJ was having a little fun with this mention. ;)

 

Very likely

 

BTW, it's a bit strange that Elayne didn't recognise Luc. Shouldn't she have seen some portraits of him? She certainly had seen some of Tigraine, and remembered them well enough to note Rand looked a lot like her back in TDR. At least she should've noted how much Luc looked like Tigraine, we know they were so similar in looks that Janduin couldn't defend himself against Luc in the Blight.

 

Good point!

 

Elsewhere, I've wondered if it was actually Janduin they saw at that time.. but that would require him to be a HotH..