At TG, are the forces balanced?

[RobertAlexWillis]

Besides, this is supposed to be fantasy. There's supposed to be an element of bigger and better than real life about it.

 

:lol: Well, if it makes you feel better, real people can't pinch your bottom with the Power when they're feeling grumpy.

 

But seriously, real people don't have to deal with the same things these people have had to deal with. We're talking real end of the world stuff here. Writing it like they're just going to take it in stride would be .... Eddings-like.

[Bob T Dwarf]

That's my point. Everybody behaves as though what's going on is no different from what happened yesterday. Nobody "gets it." This aint yesterday. This is a whole new can-o-worms. It requires different thinking. Different ways of interacting. New strategies. New tactics.

 

If they're going to get through this they have to learn to cooperate and all work together. Otherwise their world will truly end.

 

But, nope, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, just keeps tryna elbow their way to a better spot at the feeding trough. Sad.

 

11 books in and everybody is still in denial. It's time for an intervention.

[RobertAlexWillis]

That's my point. Everybody behaves as though what's going on is no different from what happened yesterday. Nobody "gets it." This aint yesterday. This is a whole new can-o-worms. It requires different thinking. Different ways of interacting. New strategies. New tactics.

 

If they're going to get through this they have to learn to cooperate and all work together. Otherwise their world will truly end.

 

But, nope, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, just keeps tryna elbow their way to a better spot at the feeding trough. Sad.

 

11 books in and everybody is still in denial. It's time for an intervention.

 

Real people really do act like that until the last screws are in place. The Cold War was a decades long case of what you just pointed out. Building enough weapons to turn the entire surface of the planet radioactive 3 times over and then pointing them at each other isn't the most rational thing ever done ... but it happened. Political discourse today still ... well ... you said it best ...

 

dumber, more selfish, more shortsighted, more perverse, and less in touch with their true, best self-interest

 

Tell me that's not the case ...

[Bob T Dwarf]

Oh, it most certainly IS the case.

 

If that's what I wanted to read about exclusively, I'd just pick up the WSJ, NYT, and WP. I didn't. I went to a bookstore and bought a series of works of fiction... fiction, not reality TV on paper.

 

A little verisimilitude is needed to keep the story believable. A tired rehashing of the headlines ...???

 

Where's the entertainment in that?

[RobertAlexWillis]

Ah well .... nobody is putting a gun to your head and making you read.

 

 

Yet .....

 

 

 

Mwahahahahhahahahahahahhahahah

[Bob T Dwarf]

Vee haff vays ... und vee vill use zem ... just as soon as you elect us to a couple more terms in office....

 

I hope we all are smart enough to know that's what's really going on in the real world. But, WOT aint the real world, and if this buncha putzes manages to win TG without breaking a sweat, or learning anything new, it's gonna be a real letdown.

 

To return to the original question, though...

 

Jordan has set things up so that the Forces of Light are supposed to be badly outnumbered. Somewhere off in the great by-and-by there are hordes of Trollocs and Fades. Traitors. Provocateurs. New Dreadlords. BA ( both Ajah and Asha'man ). Creepy-crawlies. Greymen. Gholam. Weather. Reality distortions. Voracious foliage. Things that go bump in the night. It's supposed to be Fourth and Forty with two seconds on the clock and down by 4. Lassie is still trying to make Mom understand that Timmy is dangling from a cliff with nothing but a wilted dandelion to hang onto.

 

It's gettin' tense, folks. This is for all the marbles.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist. A serial needs to be like boxing. You've gotta keep those jabs coming. Keep the reader too busy dealing with each new episode to catch his breath and realize the ponderous silliness of it all. 3+ years between installments is just too long. The suspense is gone. The characters have grown tiresome and it's just hard work to care what happens to them anymore.

[Oregon]

Based on the information we have, things look a lot less hopeless for our heros than one would expect. Of course, this is just the calm before the storm. Things could go bad in a hurry.

 

So, without further ado Here are some reasons to hope for the "worst" (e.g., that things get so hopelessly hopeless looking that when the good gouys finally-emerge-victorious-against-all-odds it's actually as satisfying as the conclusion to a superdupermegaepic ought to be):

 

 

Foot Soldiers. Trollocs were engineered for a reason: they're big, mean, and strong. Also, they probably aren't as incompetent as they've sometimes looked when they're being spoonfed to the supreme heros of the Light. Are a few thousand extra channelers (of various, and dubious, ability) for the good guys really more tactically significant than potentially millions of extra trollocs and assorted shadowspawn in the Dark One's camp? I don't know, but if I'm some random member of the Kin and I'm suddenly responsible for taking out a hundred trollocs, some halfmen, and a handful of assorted blight-spawn just to do my part in evening the numbers...I can't say that I'd be one hundred percent confident. That said, I don't think this battle will be won or lost on the strength of foot soldiers, archers, or calvary.

 

Murandy. The questionable loyalty of Murandy has been mentioned on more than one occasion. Heck, what isn't questionable about the darned place? Bloody Lugarders. Assuming that's Demandred's stronghold (which I hope it isn't - after all this, I want Demandred to be more insidiously planted than that), God knows what he's got prepared.

 

Random Shadowspawn. Untold horrors inhabit the Blight, and I'm guessing we'll see plenty of them in A Memory of Light. Nasty critters swallowing up batallions of troops, etc. Probably not the deciding factor, but I'd say we have to give the Dark One home court advantage in this fight.

 

Mazrim Taim.He's a tricky devil, although I do wonder whether he'll even make it to TG. Can Rand really be so blind to the threat he poses? For the moment, let's assume that he has at least underestimated Taim and his Asha'man. If Taim is roughly as powerful as Logain, and slightly less powerful than Rand, that should put him roughly on par with the weaker Forsaken. Not someone to be trifled with. Plus his whole "Lord of Chaos" babbling he does at the end of KoDs hints at trouble to come. Is he sworn to Moridin? Does he, too, have designs on being Nae'blis? (Hopefully not, since that would seem to indicate more Dark channeler in-fighting, the time for which has ended!)

 

Demandred. I've never been clear where Demandred stands among the Forsaken, other than the fact that he's obviously weaker than Moridin and probably Rahvin and Lanfear (though not necessarily Cydane). He's a big player to have sat things out this long, and it sure seems likely that he's hasn't just been enjoying a nice long siesta whilst his "brothers" and "sisters" are actively scheming for power. I have high hopes for this subplot.

 

If he's just been screwing around raising a second rate army this whole time, I immediately demote him to "Most Disappointing Supervillain Ever". That said, I fully expect him to knock my socks off. By all accounts he belonged on the Age of Legends All-Star Team - both as a good guy and a bad one. A great general and super-envious of Lews Therin. Hard to imagine his ambitions stopping with taking over Murandy and just sitting on it while the Dragon Reborn gears up for the battle to end all battles.

 

Gawyn/Galad. Obviously, these two aren't evil but both have reasons to dislike Rand. Seems like one or both could have a monkey wrench to thrown his way.

 

The White Tower. Who says the White Tower will rally behind Egwene in time? It's still a broken, divided, force and far from the preeminent power in the land. Surely the White Tower will be behind Rand at the last battle, but how diminished will it be?

 

The Black Ajah. It's really hard to say how many Black Sisters there could be, but you've got imagine that they are eager to repeat Liandrin's theft on a much grander scale. Imagine the White Tower's entire collection of ter'angreal, angreal, and sa'angreal in Black Ajah hands come the big fight. That'd be worth a few extra channelers, I should think.

 

Betrayal. Looking into the back stories of the Forsaken, many of them were champions for the Light until something (usually their own pride or greed) lured them down a darker path. Would it be so very shocking to see one of the Dragon Reborn's most trusted advisors turn on him at the last? Would it be more shocking if it didn't?

 

Moiraine. With everyone so excited about Moiraine's return, myself included, a pertinent question would seem to be: how much has her captivity at the hands of the 'finn changed her? Is she the same person she was before? What price did they exact from her? It better be something pretty freaking terrible after making us wait for seven books.

 

Dark Sa'angreal. Consider, also, the possibility of Moridin or one of the other Chosen - Demandred, say - coming into possession of a powerful sa'angreal. As I recall in either The Dragon Reborn or Shadow Rising, Moiraine explains that Callandor is the third - third! - most powerful sa'angreal created in the Age of Legends. We all know what the very most powerful one was, but did we ever hear about number two? I don't recall. One of the Chosen with that puppy in his hands would be quite formidable. Or one of the female Forsaken, too, I suppose. Heck, even Mazrim Taim. Seems like that'd even the odds against the Dragon Reborn a bit, yes?

 

(A Digression: Do you think the Forsaken ever wonder if they kind of blew it by not taking care of business during those brief months and years when they ruled most of the major nations? They were in such a commanding position of power, and they squandered it all away. I'd say that's a bigger blunder than anything the good guys have done.)

 

Slayer. I'd completely forgotten about him/it until just a moment ago. I have no idea how this will play out. Stangely, no doubt.

 

The Dragon.Could Lews Therin snatching the Power away from Rand at the wrong moment prove detrimental at TG? You bet it could. Rand's been dodging this bullet for a while, but you'd think it would catch up to him eventually.

 

Demandred. Have I mentioned how disappointed I'll be if he's just screwing around in Murandy? All of the other Forsaken - even the lame ones, like Mesaana - have gotten more face time. Hmmph.

 

The True Power. How this will impact the inevitable struggle between Moridin and Rand is unclear to me, but it seems like an edge has to go to the Nae'blis here. It's something that Rand doesn't even know is coming, and probably isn't prepared to defend. Can the True Power be channeled through an angreal? Are there angreal for the True Power? How much of the True Power could Moridin handle? How powerful does it make him?

 

The Dragon Reborn. Heck, forget about one of Rand's ally's turning against him. What about the possibility of Rand himself being forcibly bound to the Dark One? That would sure screw up some prophecies. Also, a catacylsm for morale purposes the likes of which have never been seen! An unlikely possibiliy, I grant you, but an enticing one. Beyond this scenario, questions abound about his ability to channel at all without losing his breakfast, and the two nasty wounds he carries with him. And the fact that his hand went bye-bye.

 

The Big Cat. Lastly, let's not underestimate the Dark One himself. Last time he could really touch the world, he tainted all of saidin for three thousand years. I'd say that on the slopes of Shayol Ghul, with who knows how many seals still holding (I'm guessing we haven't seen the last one broken, however - call me crazy! :lol: ), he becomes a bit of a wild card.