LTT/Rand...Relating to The Soul/Body/Memories/Identity/Personality thiing.

[Eichhörnchen]

Rand's self-denial prevented the soul locked in him from finally unleashing itself and hence a manifestation in the form of "the voice" was created.

[Terez]

From where I'm sitting, he was a manifestation of the taint. But at the same time, yes he was real. He had the personality and memories of LTT coalesce into an avatar capable of thinking and acting like LTT.

The construct camp has always argued that Rand exhibited more true traits of Lews Therin than the 'voice' did. The 'voice' was not an accurate representation of Lews Therin but rather a representation of how Rand perceived Lews Therin, through the lens of his Third Age upbringing. Everyone always brings up the drawing example, for instance, to prove that Lews Therin was 'real'. Aside from the fact that no one ever alleged that the memories were not real, the drawing example is actually a point in the construct camp's favor. The voice did not teach Rand to draw - Rand simply remembered how to draw. What, then, makes the 'voice' any more 'Lews Therin' than Rand?

 

The voice was not Lews Therin, but rather Rand's subconscious - his suppressed thoughts and emotions which just so happened to include anything to do with Ilyena. It also included Lews Therin's mistrust for Taim and his cronies. The idea that Lews Therin was a separate consciousness was an idea slowly developed by Rand over the course of books 5 and 6. That way, when he remembered things from his past life, he could blame them on Lews Therin, the madman in his head, rather than accepting personal responsibility for those memories. This is all spelled out fairly clearly when Lews Therin 'disappears' near the end of ACOS (he doesn't reappear until TPOD), though of course there are plenty of clues elsewhere.

 

To me it's a matter of semantics.

The semantics do confuse the issue quite often, but there's more to it than that. The use of the world 'real' is not particularly helpful because it is a rather simple-minded way of describing this idea that Lews Therin was a separate consciousness, who supposedly had his own thoughts that Rand was not privy to (though 'Lews Therin' seems to be able to hear Rand's thoughts, and it would be rather odd for it to not work both ways), his own will, and an agenda separate from Rand's (i.e. killing himself). Much, much simpler to assume that there was only ever Rand, his memories of his past life (as Lews Therin), the encroaching taint insanity, and most importantly I think, Rand's own motives.

[b3arz3rg3r]

I think LTT's voice was real enough, but in a way it still was Rand's madness. I figure, due to him being ta'veren for Rand the taint instead of making him see Myrdraal where there aren't any broke down whatever barrier keeps the various lives of a soul separate. As that barrier broke down more and more pieces of LTT came through to Rand. And Rand's mind simply couldn't properly deal with all those different mannerisms and memories who came out of nowhere and that's where LTT's voice came from. It was an ego created because the LTT incarnation and the Rand incarnation of the soul were dissimilar. Only through that epiphany on DM did Rand realize the truth about the Rand-ego and the LTT-ego and they merged completely.

Most likely 3,000 years of taint on saidin were all to allow Rand and LTT to fuse so he could gain the full power of the champion of the light. The pattern realized the need for the next incarnation of the dragon to achieve that power so it made use of the ta'veren LTT and forced the counterstrike of the DO so that 3,000 years later Rand could merge with LTT.