Out of the Box Thinking

[jballer08]

Someone in this Forum has a quote in their profile from RJ stating something along the lines that if the answer we received was too easy, consider the fact that we asked the wrong question. We have all seen questions posed (in the past and recently) to Team Jordan that cover a wide range of topics and story lines within the books. Some of these questions are straightforward and some are quite clever. I wanted to start this topic for some out of the box thinking so that maybe we can come up with questions that have not been posed before so that the folks who speak with Brandon could potentially ask him. That being said I will kick things off!

 

RJ was once asked if Fain was new to the Pattern and the answer was essentially that he was unique to this Age. That poses all kinds of questions that would most likely get RAFO'd. However, we are fairly smart so maybe we can figure it out (or pose it in a way to Brandon so that we can get an answer). Ponder this: Has the Dark One ever tainted Saidin before?

 

Discuss!

[A Rant Lord]

Given the reactions of the forsaken when learning that Rand is going to try and cleanse Saidin I would say that if the DO has done it before, it has not been told to them. Moridin however acts very coolly and says capture or kill him. This can be interpreted two ways: 1. He knows the obvious; Without the taint, protection is no longer nessecary, so there might be 1 or 2 forsaken turning/dreadlords will side up with them in a less amount because they have no need for protection.

2. He knows ("we have been fighting a hundred times as champions of the dark and light) the consequenses of the move and therefore knows it should not happen. However I think that had Moridin known that saidin has been tainted before and cleansed before, he would step up to the field himself and take matters in his own hands. Now we have 2 conclusions: Had Saidin been tainted and cleansed before it was either no big deal, or it never happened.

[jballer08]

Given the reactions of the forsaken when learning that Rand is going to try and cleanse Saidin I would say that if the DO has done it before, it has not been told to them. Moridin however acts very coolly and says capture or kill him. This can be interpreted two ways: 1. He knows the obvious; Without the taint, protection is no longer nessecary, so there might be 1 or 2 forsaken turning/dreadlords will side up with them in a less amount because they have no need for protection.

2. He knows ("we have been fighting a hundred times as champions of the dark and light) the consequenses of the move and therefore knows it should not happen. However I think that had Moridin known that saidin has been tainted before and cleansed before, he would step up to the field himself and take matters in his own hands. Now we have 2 conclusions: Had Saidin been tainted and cleansed before it was either no big deal, or it never happened.

 

I have to imagine that if Saidin had been tainted before and you had another Beaking it would have been remembered in some form of myth or legend yet you never hear anything like that. So if it never happened then that is now two things unique to this Age: the Taint and Fain. Therein lies the question of Why are these two items unique to this turning of the wheel? One could say that the Wheel wove Shadar Logoth into existence in order to course correct because the Taint had thrown things way off. Could Fain then, being an anomaly do something that could change the Wheel permanently? Many people have posed the idea of Fain killing the Dark One or, killing Rand. If an act like this has never happened before what would that mean for the future after the Last Battle (assuming there is one)? Sorry if I am rambling. I am just trying to get everyone thinking about these questions differently.

[Byzantine279]

Josh, Each book opens with the premise that by the time the event happens again it is completely forgotten. Over time knowledge is lost and corrupted, that is a known fact, well multiply that by tens of thousands of years, multiple near world-destroying events, and it becomes clear that things can just be forgotten as unimportant in comparison to the immediate events at that time.

 

As for Fain: he is a wildcard, something that neither the DO nor the Wheel has control over, and that is something that has never happened before, something that could lead to the destruction of both. If Fain plays his insane and deadly cards right he will end up destroying the Light and Shadow in one blow. However, it is unlikely Fain will be able to accomplish his goal but it is likely that he will change the Age Lace forever, how is what we do not know.

[OptimusPrime]

I duno if saidin has been tainted before, but Im thinking it was supposed to happen. Just like the Shadar Logoth thing was supposed to happen.

[herid]

unorthodox questions are good. I've seen some good ones mentioned on the forum before. For example, there are lots of theories about the dark prophecy in TGH. In particular there as a discussion about the following part

 

Daughter of the night, she walks again.

The ancient war, she yet fights.

Her new lover she seeks, who shall serve her and die, yet serve still.

 

Somebody (I forgot who, was it Luckers?) theorized that "her new lover" might mean Moridin and they asked BS if Moridin is gay. He said that he was not sure which definitely ruled out that theory.

I thought this was really clever as the question looked very innocent.

But keep in mind that BS has some people monitoring this forum (terez posted on this recently) so perhaps it's not such a great idea to air such tricky questions here if you are actually planning to ask BS about any of them. No need to forewarn the enemy .

[bloodyflamingthisandthat]

I've though since the Cleansing of the Source that Rand would somehow trap Fain and the DO together. The evil of Shadar Logoth and the Taint on saidin destroyed each at SL. So wouldn't sealing Fain and the knife into the bore somehow do the same?

[SethBaker]

I've though since the Cleansing of the Source that Rand would somehow trap Fain and the DO together. The evil of Shadar Logoth and the Taint on saidin destroyed each at SL. So wouldn't sealing Fain and the knife into the bore somehow do the same?

 

I don't think it will be used to kill the Dark One - I think his evil/strength has to be greater than Fain's. I think Fain could be used as a buffer to keep the Dark One from directly touching the Power, though, which is what they need to keep the Source from being tainted again.