What questions are left to be answered in AMOL?

[neen]

It's admittedly been a while since I read WoT (over a year now) and I just wanted a refresher on what questions there are which are left to be answered in A Memory of Light.

 

For example, which of Min's viewings have yet to be explained? Demandred's identity (I know this is revealed in the Prologue which is already out, but I haven't read it yet) has yet to be revealed. What else is there?

 

I think other people will find this useful as well - as much as I'd love to go back and read all of the other books, I just don't have the time to do so before AMOL comes out! ;)

 

Please don't spoil anything in the Prologue, since I haven't read it. I don't want the answers - I only want the questions!

[NitroS]

Major min viewings are logains glory and rand dieing and the sun dawning twice mostly the other ones are of lesser importance. The main things to be answered still are what has demandred been doing all this time, how the last battle will be fought, whats going to happen at shaoul ghoul (sp) with moiraine and nyneave. Whats happening at the black tower with th 13x13 and how is that going to be handled, moiraines reunion with everyone, how rand is going to make the seanchan listen to him, whos going to come back as a hero of the horn, will lan die at tarwins gap, whats slayer going to do, who is still an unrevealed dark friend. Theres hundreds of things still to happen i think most of the big reveals have already happened in the past 2 books though.

[herid]

@neen First, an FYI (I don't think I'm spoiling anything here), Demandred's alter ego is NOT revealed in any of the released AMOL material. You were misinformed there.

About the thus far unfulfilled viewings. Check this link for a full list of all prophecies, dreams, and viewings. A ton of them are as yet unfulfilled. Here is another list where they give interpretations of the ones that have been fulfilled. Do not, however, buy everything they say. The authors of that site are just regular fans. Some of their interpretations are definitely wrong like the one about Min's viewing of Carlinya. It's actually been fulfilled correctlyaccording to BS despite what that site says.

 

And as NitroS says, there are lots and lots of open questions about AMOL, way too many to list: who will live and who will die, how will Rand die and live again and how he'll defeat the DO, will he kill him for good or not, will time remain circular, will any of the Forsaken turn, what's the story with Verin's letters, who is Nakomi, what's Alanna up to and how she sneaked out of Tear, what role will Fain play in the LB, ditto Slayer, what will happen to the Aiel after the LB, how the a'dam issue will be resolved and so on and so forth.

 

There are a few past mysteries that are as yet unresolved although some (like who killed Barthanes and who sent the gholam to kill Herid Fel) are too old and have become stale and irrelevant, same as what's happened with the "who killed Asmodean" question. Some of the old questions are:

• what's the VOICE at the end of tEoTW?
  
• what happened to the fat man angreal that was taken from Rand when he was kidnapped in LoC
  
• who betrayed Egwene in COT?
  
• what were the dealings of Annoura and Masuri with Masema and are any of them DFs?
  
• who was behind the attack on Algarin's manor in KoD?
  
• who was Slayer's mystery employer in WH?
  
• what happened to Merilille and Talaan?
  
• what happened to Berylla Naron, Jeaine Caide, and Rianna Andomeran?
  

[Olver_is_a_Forsaken]

I started a thread when I was doing my reread(life caught up with me at LoC):

http://www.dragonmou...lved-plotlines/

 

There are many of the questions in there to complement the sources herid has listed.

There are SOOO many prophecies to be fulfilled and questions to be answered that I am sure we will be left with many things to ask once we have all read AMoL.

(and this is assume an-errate free ending)

[neen]

Wasn't it confirmed that Graendal killed Asmodean?

 

Another question: why is the shadow after Padan Fain? He probably must pose a thread of some kind to the DO.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Wasn't it confirmed that Graendal killed Asmodean?

 

Another question: why is the shadow after Padan Fain? He probably must pose a thread of some kind to the DO.

 

1. Pretty much, but people still hang on to blades of grass beacause the ToM Glossary said Graendal was "responsible" for the death of Asmodean, and didn't say "she was the one who actually did it."

 

2. Fain betrayed the DO after the DO gave him some very special powers. He is attacking the Shadow as much as he is Rand, so they want the traitor dead.

[skalors3]

I'd really like to see Rand find peace in the grave. I think it'd be a kindness to him.

 

Other than that, I want to see the WotL find their song and the Ogier to resolve their conflict on whether they want to fight.

 

Also, finding out a little more about SH would be nice.

[Carnacarn]

What the Finn meant when they sat Mat became the center of it all. The Last Battle hasn't been fought yet, and Rand is supposed to the key to that. Plus, who kills Rand/how does Rand die?

[skalors3]

What the Finn meant when they sat Mat became the center of it all. The Last Battle hasn't been fought yet, and Rand is supposed to the key to that. Plus, who kills Rand/how does Rand die?

 

I thought Rand said his job wasn't to fight the Last Battle, but to fight the DO. I could be completely wrong. I haven't read the books in some time.

[herid]

Wasn't it confirmed that Graendal killed Asmodean?

Yes, it was. What I meant was that this particular mystery was left to stew way too long and became boring and irrelevant. I really didn't care what the answer was by the time ToM rolled around. It no longer had any relevance to the plot. It was clear that it was one of the Forsaken but it didn't matter which one. Some of those old unresolved questions I mentioned suffered the same fate. For example, the question of who betrayed Egwene doesn't seem to inspire much interest any more.

[Balefire to da face!]

Too many to list.

 

I attempted to, and Logain's glory alone requires it's own thread to really discuss the various foreshadowing and threads that look to play into it. I've noticed that with Brandon's trilogy featuring the BT more prominently many seem to think that Logain's role in the BT is what will bring him glory, but there is still the question of what happens after, and of course Egwene's dream of....

 

"Logain, laughing, stepped across something on the ground and mounted a black stone; when she looked down, she thought it was Rand's body he had stepped over, laid out on a funeral bier with his hands crossed at his breast, but when she touched his face, it broke apart like a paper puppet."

 

For the longest time many thought this meant Logain would assume command of the Armies of the Light after Rand's death(either the first or second one). But with Rand's change to the Champion of the Light role, this seems very unlikely. It seems more likely that Logain will simply take command over the Ashaman.

 

What I find most interesting here is how old foreshadowing mixes with what we know about what's going on now. This dream suggests that the fight for the BT is going to be even more serious then we think. This suggests Logain may not take control over it until after Rand dies. And it even suggests Rand's first death may be in relation to the fight for the Black Tower. This makes sense, with Rand finally acknowledging the BT in ToM, it seems like Rand will get involved. Considering that the BT timeline is behind, that means it has to not only catch up to, but pass the current FoM timeline in order to reach the meeting point of at least Rand dying before the resolution, but perhaps even being involved. Which means the BT arc is going to take up a huge part of the book. Maybe even as much as the Rand/Egwene and Mat/Perrin arcs in TGS and ToM. I had always kind of assumed that the BT would have to be resolved prior to the Last Battle in order for Rand to have Ashaman fighting for him, but I think it may turn out that the battle for the BT runs nearly towards the end(as much as there is an end in the book) of the fight.

 

Furthermore, this death seems as though it will be the three on a boat skimming, funeral bier death of Rand. The mask part even suggests that this may be post bodyswap(though the body swap theory doesn't seem to be as in vogue as it once was). And that Rand's actions at Shayol Ghul will take place after this.

 

But then how does that tie into Nicola's foretelling....

 

"The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the return, and the guardians balance the servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade."

 

I think this one may be the most troublesome bit of foreshadowing in the series as far as determining the timeline for events. There now seems to be a definite divide between the Sealing of the Dark One and the actual, terrestrial battle of The Last Battle. So is the great battle the former, or the latter? Does the great battle and the battle not yet done stand for one or the other, or is "the great battle" either the sealing OR the actual battles and the "battle not yet done" is simply a nod to the fact that the world will remain at war even after the Dark One and the hordes have been defeated(the subsequent line summing of the situation between the Seanchan/Randland and Aes Sedai/Ashaman suggests the latter is the case).

 

And yet, if that's the case, this suggests there may be only one death for Rand, post Sealing. If that is the case, does that mean Logain won't take ascend the black rock until AFTER Rand has sealed the Dark One? That would probably mean the BT arc runs pretty much the whole length of the book and doesn't get resolved until near the end.

 

But anywho, yeah.....as I said. There is just too much, for me at least, to list. Because it all makes me want to go into more detail about it.

 

But for a quick, totally not comprensive list, I wanna know what the hell happened to Alanna and what was written in every one of Verin's letters!

 

I would say I want to know what Moiraine asked the 'Finns, but that is another 5,000 words topic to ramble off into.....

[Carnacarn]

What the Finn meant when they sat Mat became the center of it all. The Last Battle hasn't been fought yet, and Rand is supposed to the key to that. Plus, who kills Rand/how does Rand die?

 

I thought Rand said his job wasn't to fight the Last Battle, but to fight the DO. I could be completely wrong. I haven't read the books in some time.

 

Rand's sealing/fight w/ the dark one is key to the last battle. so wouldn't he be central to the pattern? yet the finn and their pattern reading would say otherwise now with Mat's center of it all bit.

[neen]

"The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the return, and the guardians balance the servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade."

 

Do we even know if the "he who is dead yet lives" bit refers to someone on the boat? If it doesn't, it's possible (though extremely unlikely) that this doesn't even refer to Rand at all...

[Balefire to da face!]

Rand's sealing/fight w/ the dark one is key to the last battle. so wouldn't he be central to the pattern? yet the finn and their pattern reading would say otherwise now with Mat's center of it all bit.

 

For lack of a better word, Rand seems to have had the revelation that his role is more spiritual then physical. That is why his "one with the land" role took on such prominence in TGS/ToM. Rand means to unite the nations at the FoM, set them on their path,and then his path is the conflict with the Dark One. And probably a showdown with Moridin, since they are now even closer to being two sides of a coin. Though whatever he does with the Seanchan and the BT will have to be in there, as well. But his role as the Commander in Chief of the armies of Randland is pretty much at an end, I think. He will hand the reigns over to Mat(likely).

 

"The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the return, and the guardians balance the servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade."

Do we even know if the "he who is dead yet lives" bit refers to someone on the boat? If it doesn't, it's possible (though extremely unlikely) that this doesn't even refer to Rand at all...

 

Well, the Lion Sword, Dedicated Spear, and she who sees beyond are Elayne, Min, and Avi. I would say he who is dead yet lives would have to be on the boat, this foretelling itself leaves little doubt. "Three on the boast, and he who is dead yet lives".

 

And this almost certainly connects to Min's viewings where it is explicitly stated that Rand is the corpse in question....

 

three women standing over a funeral bier with you on it

 

Three women before a pyre.

 

Egwene/WO Dreams....

 

"Melaine and Bair dreamed of you on a boat with three women whose faces they could not see, and a scale tilting first one way then the other.

 

 

There seems to be a chance of a misdirection here, centering on the details of Rand's corpse. Just to be clear, from my reading the differences here are....

 

A funeral bier is a stand on which a casket or corpse is laid to be rested, displayed, or carried to the grave.

 

A funeral pyre is obviously related to the ritual some cultures practiced of burning a corpse. To make things even more complicated(if you are supposing a misdirection) is that a pyre could be said to burn the corpse on a flammable bier.

 

And then there is the boat. Which is mentioned multiple times, is probably the same boat, but not explicitly.

 

I should mention before hand, that I favor a reading where these are all pretty self explanatory and connected. However, they are all tied together mostly through the "three". The three are only named in one telling, and if RJ wanted to misdirect it strikes me as just something he would do to trick us into associating a three with the three.

 

So what do each of them tell us? Well lets start with Nicola's foretelling. It contains the most information.....

 

The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives.

 

So we know that at some point Avi, Min, and Elyne will be "on a boat"(theorized very strongly to be a boat for skimming) with a man who is dead(yet lives). This is almost certainly Rand, but we'll set that aside. The important thing is to say that the death here is ambiguous.

 

Next we have the Wise One's Dream....

 

"Melaine and Bair dreamed of you on a boat with three women whose faces they could not see, and a scale tilting first one way then the other.

 

 

The important link here is the boat. It is in Nicola's Foretelling and the Wise One's dream. Here we have confirmation of Rand's identity. We have the three, but no definite identity of them. We also have no indication of Rand being...well....dead. The "scale titlting first one way then the other" could very well be related to "he who is dead yet lives".

 

 

Next we have Min's viewings.....

 

three women standing over a funeral bier with you on it

 

Three women before a pyre.

 

Keep in mind, these are two different viewings. The first made all the way back at the beginning of The Eye of the World. The later is from The Gathering Storm.

 

In the first, we have the first mention of an actual bier. Yet again no confirmation of the three, but so far it is confirmed the three are all women in each case.

 

The second one, by itself confirms very little. Which is what makes it the most likely to be a misdirection to me(though I wouldn't bet on it, since it's still a viewing OF Rand). So we have three women before a pyre, in connection with Rand. That is all this one taken by itself tells us. Up until now we've had clues of an ambiguous death that suggests a possible resurrection. A pyre is a much more permanent affair. Also suggesting a possible misdirection. Or, deeper clues on how Rand's fake death will play out(meaning, if they cook the goose, Rand is going to have to have body swapped, or the popular idea nowadays seems to be him popping out of TAR intact).

 

And lastly, back around to the one that started my rambling.....

 

"Logain, laughing, stepped across something on the ground and mounted a black stone; when she looked down, she thought it was Rand's body he had stepped over, laid out on a funeral bier with his hands crossed at his breast, but when she touched his face, it broke apart like a paper puppet."

 

Just to be clear, with all my rambling in my first post, I don't take this to literally mean that Rand will be laid out on the Tower grounds, and certainly not that Logain will literally step over the body. Just that even in a non-literal sense the important bit of info here seems to be that Rand will have to have died by the time that Logain ascends the black stone.

 

That said, what does this tell us? We have no mention of the three, a pyre, or a boat. But, we do have a bier, it appears to be Rand on it, but again we have the face of a paper puppet(which, if these are connected, brings the ambiguous death tally up to being one of the most prevalent themes).

 

 

There are many more references to Rand's death. Mostly an ambiguous death. But these are the ones that connect in some way specifically to the three on a boat imagery. If there are more I missed, I would love to hear them. Even though RJ was found of giving easy answers to the wrong questions, Min's viewing, the WO dream, and Nicola's foretelling are all so connected that I would almost consider it cheap if they aren't roughly the same event.

 

The Logain scene is much more loose. It strikes as more symbolic There may be some sort of wake for Rand where his loved ones attend, or it may just be the three. So Logain may be there when Rand is on his funeral bier, but I think it just means that Rand's "death" (whatever it may be) will lead to Logain taking command of the Ashaman forces.

[neen]

Isn't the dedicated spear Avi, and the one who sees beyond Min? (Aiel's and spears and all)

[Balefire to da face!]

Isn't the dedicated spear Avi, and the one who sees beyond Min? (Aiel's and spears and all)

 

Yeah, and the Lion Sword is Elayne.

[neen]

It's interesting that Rand's body "falls apart like a paper puppet". I think that strengthens the idea that he is not really dead.

 

Perhaps this is really saying that his death is an illusion, and upon further investigation the illusion is shattered?

[FarShainMael]

Isn't the dedicated spear Avi, and the one who sees beyond Min? (Aiel's and spears and all)

 

Not necessarily.. As Balefire points out, there could be some misdirection. I've said elsewhere that these three need not be Rand's women: see this thread

[herid]

@FSM well, really, the symbolism here is much too obvious. It clearly means Avi, Min and Elayne. and as you yourself say in that link it strongly parallels the Arthurian legends and the three women involved with Rand/Arthur. The foretelling symbolism also closely resembles the triple goddess parallels: maiden=Avi, mother=Elayne and crow(seer)=Min. When taken separately they may possibly mean some other people (say, she, who sees beyond might have meant Egwene) but when all three are mentioned together like they are in this foretelling they have to be Rand's girls.

[Balefire to da face!]

Rand's "death" description goes well beyond the series of "three on a boat" connections.

 

It would probably take it's own thread to cover them all. Some seem to support the body swap(he who is dead, yet lives seems to me fits perfectly with the idea of a body swap that results in the death of Rand's body containing Moridin's soul). Others seem to suggest an outright faked death, like Alivia helping Rand die. And then there's just the vague ones, like the Finn's "if you would live, you must die" which could support any number of theories.

[herid]

I'm constantly surprised why some people believe into faked death theory. apart from not fitting the Aelfinn answer and the other prophecies BS confirmed that Rand will die in several interviews.

 

Interview: Nov 19th, 2009

 

TGS Signing Report - Matrimony Cauthon (Paraphrased)

Question

 

Some kid, to much laughter, asked if Rand was really going to die.

Brandon Sanderson

 

Sanderson said something to the effect of 'What did the Finn say?' He then said that the prophecies must be fulfilled or the Pattern will break.

 

 

 

He also talked about it directly at the Toronto signing I posted about recently. When discussing Min's viewings he mentioned Min, Avi and Elayne sitting around Rand's body.

[Balefire to da face!]

I'm constantly surprised why some people believe into faked death theory. apart from not fitting the Aelfinn answer and the other prophecies BS confirmed that Rand will die in several interviews. Among other places, he talked about it directly at the Toronto signing I posted about recently. When discussing Min's viewings he mentioned Min, Avi and Elayne sitting around Rand's body.

 

I am probably just out of the loop.

 

I have never favored the fake death theory simply because I've never seen a narrative way to make it interesting. But I mention it because I know at one time it was pretty popular. I didn't realize that it had pretty much been debunked by Brandon.

[Centauri25]

Well, that quote by Brandon Sanderson does absolutely nothing to prove Rand will die - as in heart stop, breathing stop, spirit leaves the body, etc., etc.

 

 

As for the topic at hand, I expect a thorough understanding/explanation of Shaidar Haran. Dude appears, is setup to be a big bad, but hasn't really done anything. (Has he ever been in the same scene with Moridin?)

 

Who is the Creator, and how is he related to the Dark One?

 

What is the History behind the horn of Valere?

 

What is the Blight?

 

Will Tuon channel?

[neen]

I, too, want to see what's going on with Shaidar Haran. I'm of the opinion that when he mentioned Shayol Ghul and not wanting to have to go back that he was mentioning it because it was inconvenient for him.

 

We still don't know what "die" means. People have "died" in real life only for them to later be discovered to actually be alive (i.e. not faked or anything).

 

And I still think there is possibly a lot of significance to Rand's body falling apart like a paper puppet. The description of that was too specific for it to be meaningless (unless it was just a Red Herring, which is possible).

 

I'm also very curious to find out what's going on with Alanna!

[FarShainMael]

@FSM well, really, the symbolism here is much too obvious. It clearly means Avi, Min and Elayne. and as you yourself say in that link it strongly parallels the Arthurian legends and the three women involved with Rand/Arthur. The foretelling symbolism also closely resembles the triple goddess parallels: maiden=Avi, mother=Elayne and crow(seer)=Min. When taken separately they may possibly mean some other people (say, she, who sees beyond might have meant Egwene) but when all three are mentioned together like they are in this foretelling they have to be Rand's girls.

 

I've replied on the 'Three on a boat' thread.