Rand the Murderer?

[Zappa3837]

In regards to the book "the Dragon Reborn": Was the merchant woman and her guards that rand killed (they approached him and asked if they could share his fire) just normal people, or dark friends? If they were just normal people, that makes him a murderer, so please tell me they were dark friends. I hope I just missed something.

[Barid Bel Medar]

They were Darkfriends.

[ShenAnCalhar]

Rand always remebers them as darkfriends, but he was absolutely insane at that point in the story on his way to the Stone. Is it ever actually confirmed that they were darkfriends? I have no idea how he would be able to determine if they were so instantly.

[TommyRocker]

I thought that he had specifically camped in a poor campsite unlikely to have travelers, and the fact that they showed up and tried to camp with him was fairly strong evidence that they weren't normal travelers.

[kght22]

wasnt there a grey man with them, he kills them, and when he is done notices somebody he hadn't seen before (but still killed)?

[Mr Ares]

RJ did confirm that they were Darkfriends. As Testy says, there was a Grey man present as well.

[GYLD]

Yeah, there was a Grey Man with the group so they were definitely Dark Friends. However he did not notice the Grey Man until he killed them all so his actions are still a bit unsettling.

[Maleshub]

Yeah, there was a Grey Man with the group so they were definitely Dark Friends. However he did not notice the Grey Man until he killed them all so his actions are still a bit unsettling.

 

Not as unsettling as the balescream or threat to teach borderlanders a lesson. Those were scary!

[Barid Bel Medar]

It wasn't that bad really. He was in the middle of nowhere, some random guys come and try and "camp" near him. At this point he is being chased by DF's, Forsaken are messing with his dreams, he is going insane, and even still he feels bad for killing the woman, even though she is a Darkfriend.

 

Not like he just killed them randomly, they were searching for him. He would have met other people on the more populated roads, and didn't just burn everyone he saw. He was at least relatively certain they were Darkfriends.

[Byzantine279]

Don't forget that the rest of the group had a similar encounter, and unlike Rand they nearly got killed because they let the darkfriends attack first.

[Agitel]

Everything else aside, whether they were darkfriends or not, it was pretty disturbing when he arranged them so that they were prostrated or kneeling towards him.

[Suttree]

Everything else aside, whether they were darkfriends or not, it was pretty disturbing when he arranged them so that they were prostrated or kneeling towards him.

 

Yup, and it was specifically what RJ was going for here...

 

 

 

Interview: Oct 29th, 1998

 

TPOD Signing Report - Kevin Bartlett (Paraphrased)

 

Kevin Bartlett

In The Dragon Reborn, when Rand encountered the lady merchant and her soldiers and slaughtered the whole bunch, did he have a good reason for doing so? Were they all really Darkfriends? Was that eleventh man really a Gray Man, or did Rand just count wrong?

 

Robert Jordan

He said that it's not supposed to be clear to the reader exactly what is going on. What is supposed to be clear is that there was definitely a Gray Man in the party. But whether or not Rand knew that before he lopped off their heads, we're not supposed to know. It's supposed to be unclear whether Rand is just very observant, or whether he's on the brink of madness.

[condonmc]

"I am the storm" and He began to channel........