Rand the Healer

[b9anders]

I don't know if this has been picked up on before, but I've been thinking about what the Dragon Reborn's role actually is. In ToM, he says he thought he was being shaped into a weapon but realised that was wrong, but when Min asks him what he was then being shaped into, he changed the topic.

 

I am thinking, along the lines of his transformation from darth rand to mahatma rand, that the true purpose of the Dragon Reborn is not really to fight the Dark One, but to heal the world of him/his taint. His very presence these days is cleansing to the world around him, he has denounced himself as a weapon.

 

This might also have some implications for the last battle. Egwene and her camp are thinking of winning the battle in terms of re-sealing the bore. But I think Rand sees it, or will come to see it, as healing the bore. The first time around, they simply put a patch on the wound by applying the seals. This would also make sense in terms of needing to break the seals. If you want to heal it altogether, as opposed to simply sealing him back in, you have to take out the old stitches.

 

Then there is the fact that the one Aes Sedai he definitely wants with him at the last battle is Nynaeve, the main female healer in the world.

 

It's not exactly an earthshattering theory that changes everything, it's really just a different way of looking at it all. But different ways of looking at things have proven rather consequential to the story so far (as a poignant example - rand's transformation to darth rand because he saw himself as a weapon). I think it does make sense on some levels. We know from Verin that the Dark one is not fighting this battle the way everyone thinks it is being fought. It is an intriguing idea to me that maybe Rand is throwing the DO a curveball himself by not fighting the battle the way the DO thinks it can be fought. That Rand has no intention of going to Tarmon Gaidon to do battle (though I'm sure there will be one, the trolloc hordes will still need defeating) at all, he is there to heal the bore, not fight the dark one (his defeat will simply be a 'side effect' of this course of action).

 

It also occurs to me that if Rand himself was thinking along these lines when he asked his questions of the Aelfin, it might be a way for him to gain clues to his victory whilst circumventing the clauses about asking about the dark one.

 

Be interesting to see what role Callandor is discovered to have and whether it can fit into this theory.

[Aliriel]

I like this idea, it kinda fits in with one of the ways I see Rand Sedai beating the shadow, but then again, I still want to see him unleash some AoL/3rd age fusion type kick-a$$ on the DO and his cronies.

 

A.

[shrubgoddess]

This also would be cool since Rand keeps thinking to himself that he has little healing ability. Perhaps some foreshadowing?

[yoshinobu]

I was thinkin that he was going to say 'I though i was being forged into a weapon, but i was wrong, i was being forged into a man'. but got interuppted. I say this because he told that one guy to give the message to the black tower 'we are not weapons, we are men' or somthing. Sorry for all the misspells.

[A Rant Lord]

Good idea!

[Mandro]

I was thinkin that he was going to say 'I though i was being forged into a weapon, but i was wrong, i was being forged into a man'. but got interuppted. I say this because he told that one guy to give the message to the black tower 'we are not weapons, we are men' or somthing. Sorry for all the misspells.

 

and include the interaction with Nyn.

 

That's good.

[EvilSocrates]

Huh. For some reason, I always thought he was going to say "a shield."