Rand and the True Power

[grump]

Why are saa drifting across his eyes when he loses his hand to Semi. Did his link to Moridin have anything to do with it? Did he somehow just find it when LLT blocked him from the one power. Was it part of what Semi threw at him. Is the blurryness in his vision one of the side effects.

 

 

I have the questions Anybody besides RJ got answers?

[Jellybelly]

Please, not another one...

[TheDiceAgain...]

It's not the saa. He has just had a fireball explode directly in front of his face and take off his hand. He's in shock and his eyes are injured. He has not channeled the True Power. The descriptions of Rand's vision and the effects of the saa are not the same.

 

The effects on his vision may have been something that Semi did, but again, they have nothing to do with the True Power. She is not allows to use it, only Moridin is.

[grump]

You want to give me chapter and verse on why moridin only is allowed. The way I read it was any of the chosen can use it but don't want to pay the price and think moridin is foolish for using it only

[TheDiceAgain...]

This is from the WoT FAQ. It gives locations for most of what we know about the True Power at the moment:

 

http://www.steelypips.org/wotfaq/1_dark/1.3_how-work-dark/1.3.2_true-power.html

[RobertAlexWillis]

People see spots all the time that are not saa. For example, if I were to punch someone in the face, he might see spots, but that would not be a sign of using the True Power.

 

Regarding who can use the True Power ... in Winter's Heart, chapter 13 Wonderful News, Demandred's POV:

 

That had been the True Power; he had felt nothing. A black fleck floated across Moridin's blue eyes, then another, in a steady stream. The man must have been using the True Power exclusively since he last saw him to gain so many saa so quickly. He himself had never used touched the True Power except at need. Great need. Of course, only Moridin had that privilege now, since his ... annoiting.

 

So, according to Demandred's thoughts, only Moridin can use it now.

[Gentled Ben]

There is a point where it's stated that the saa doesn't affect Moridin's vision. I think it's when he's the watcher during Graendal and Sammael's playing of Sevanna with the "fool boxes." Anyway, it isn't saa that's causing Rand's blurriness, because, in addition to the reason the others stated, the saa doesn't cause blurriness in Moridin.

[grump]

There is an involintary link between Rand and Moridin. Rand feels at one time that all he has to do is want to and he can open that link When Semi hit him with the ball of fire and LLT blocked him from the One Power I believe he accessed the True Power through Moridin fast enough to save all but his hand and the black flecks were saa and the blurriness was a side effect of the true power.

 

Yes a ball of fire bursting in your face also messes with your vision but shiny spots and shapes of light not black spots

[TheDiceAgain...]

Well I suppose you are perfectly free to hold that opinion, no matter how wrong it is.

[algspkr]

There is an involintary link between Rand and Moridin. Rand feels at one time that all he has to do is want to and he can open that link When Semi hit him with the ball of fire and LLT blocked him from the One Power I believe he accessed the True Power through Moridin fast enough to save all but his hand and the black flecks were saa and the blurriness was a side effect of the true power.

 

Yes a ball of fire bursting in your face also messes with your vision but shiny spots and shapes of light not black spots

Assuming he did save himself with the True Power, a theory I do not believe, it still would not have caused saa. All evidence is that it takes time working with the True Power to gain them. On top of which we have never seen Moridin comment on the saa, only other forsaken, while we have only seen Rand comment on his black flecks.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Yes a ball of fire bursting in your face also messes with your vision but shiny spots and shapes of light not black spots

 

I'm sorry ... are you speaking from experience? Damage to the eyes can manifest itself in many ways, from bright spots, to blind spots, to colored spots, to intermittent loss of sight, to causing a wavy, watery appearance to everything (another non-saa effect Rand describes), to black flecks clouding your vision, to many other things I haven't mentioned. What Rand experiences is in no way related to the True Power, for all the reasons previously stated.

[Luckers]

Rand was looking right at a bright light in close proximity resulting in subsequent photo-sensitivity and blurriness of vision. This is not only reasonable, it is perhaps required for the texts to be medically accurate.

 

Moreover, saa does not cause blurriness of vision.

[Bob T Dwarf]

You guys are trying to lump everything together.

 

The spots may have one cause and the blurriness a separate cause. A lot of very strange things all happened at about the same time. To say one, and only one, of them caused all the effects and side effects really isn't warranted.

[RobertAlexWillis]

The spots may have one cause and the blurriness a separate cause. A lot of very strange things all happened at about the same time. To say one, and only one, of them caused all the effects and side effects really isn't warranted.

 

Actually, since they all happened at the same time, it is VERY likely that there is a single cause.

 

An exploding fireball. Right in his FACE. Why is this so hard to accept?

[Luckers]

Suggesting that symptoms of occular damage that occured directly after over-exposure to light as being caused by something else--which, i might remind you, does not actually fit given the nessasary requirement for the Dark Ones direct permission each and everytime the True Power is channled--is what is unwarrented.

[grump]

Why is Moridin looking upset when rand touches him that time Rand may not have had time to develop saa but moridin has and is not controling the contact.

and yes when I have had a bright light flashed in my faceI don't see black flecks but do see shiny floaty balls of light

[Trib4l]

Let's put it this way.

 

Rand has experienced the sickness when channeling. He's now seen Moridin's face when channeling, and has seen Moridin looking angry, but also sick.

 

Rand has also experienced the sickness on occasion when he's not channeling, but I believe has also seen the face at those times.

 

It's a safe bet that they make each other sick when they channel right now.

[algspkr]

It's a safe bet that they make each other sick when they channel right now.

But at least Moridin does not have to fight with LTT.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Ahhh, but that's what Moridin wants to do. And, I think that is what Jordan is setting up.

 

My own personal theory is that we're not going to see a lot of battlefield stuff during TG. What we will mostly see is the war that is raging inside Rand's head between Moridin and LTT.

 

I think that's what the whole merging but only one surviving thing is all about.

 

Which of the three personalities emerges from that conflict is the real question. That is, if any of the three do. Supposedly one does, but then there's the whole Arthurian three in a boat thing and the three at a bier thing.

 

There are a lot of things that Rand has thought about and already planned out to which we are not privy. How/why/when/where Alivia "helps him to die," is one of those things.

[grump]

Bob Do you think LLT will move to Moridins head at TG and try to destroy his old enemy from within?

[Bob T Dwarf]

I honestly have no idea how the big showdown will go.

 

We do know that Ba'alzamon tried to rip Rand's soul out of his body in Tear. My guess is that we haven't seen the last of that form of attack.

 

Who does the attacking and how successful he or she will be? I've got no clue right now.

 

The kind of fight I spoke about, above, might be in Rand's head or it could be in Moridin's head, too.

[chemteach1977]

I think we are being a bit simplistic about the "problem" with Rand's eyes. I do not believe Rand channeled the TP. Seems silly for all the reasons stated above. Others would see the Saa, not Rand.

But if the problem was simply from the fireball, why can't Nynny fix it? Seems like that would be fairly easy to do for her. Her comment that something is not right with his eyes may be a first reference to something totally unrelated to Semmy's fireball.

Possibilities:

 

1. Complications from LTT beginning to assert himself?

 

2. Some other problem that will lead to blindness so Rand ends up just like the fisher-king?

 

3. Complications from the connection to Moridin?

[Thor]

When was the last time Nynaeve probbed Rand before the Semirhage hand incident?

 

If we find that time, then we can narrow down what might be wrong with Rand's eyes.

[cloglord]

Also lets not forget that the injury inflicted to Rand was inflicted by the most talented healer of the AoL. Who says that she didn't mix some other nasty weave in with the fireball? If Moghedian can tie a shield so that it is nearly impossible to be untied, why can't Semhirage cause injuries that are nearly impossible to be healed?

[Zardi]

The eye problem occurred right after the fireball blew Rand's hand off. I really do think it's as simple as eye damage from a very bright light. Such injuries happen in the real world, too. I can buy the theory that Semi's weave somehow caused a different sort of eye injury, but I doubt it gets more complicated than that.

 

If you think that the eye problem is related to Moridin or LTT, why did it manifest itself right at that moment?

 

As for why Nynaeve couldn't heal it...well, eyes are complicated structures, and I doubt that Nynaeve has ever had to heal an eye injury like that before (blunt trauma, splinters in the eye, etc...probably yes; but I think that even modern doctors have trouble curing eye injuries like the one Rand may have). Perhaps she did not feel confident that she could do so without causing more damage?