The Destruction of the Dark One (Contains spoilers from Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom and Ian Irvine's Three Worlds, and Far-Fetched Speculation)

[Johnny King of Sindhol]

Throughout The Wheel of Time, we have seen many times foreshadowings that the near-eternal turning of the Wheel is coming to an end. I think someone, probably a Forsaken, said "the Great Serpent heaves its last gasps". Perhaps this suggest that Time itself is coming to an end, or perhaps I'm dreaming.

 

In any case, it has now been Rand's goal for quite some time not just to seal the Dark One up again, but to "slay him", or at least, somehow destroy him. As a reader, I would be a bit disappointed if he only achieved what we assume every other Dragon has achieved, and the Dark One can eventually erode the seals and break free again. Of course, Rand might find some way to seal him from the Pattern permenantly (one of the Nine Impossible Things?).

 

But it would be a nice ending if the Dark One was rid of for good. Although, there may be consequences of which only the Forsaken, possibly only Moridin, may be aware, which he vaguely indicated in A Place To Begin in The Gathering Storm.

 

There are a few other similar book series that may be of some relevance here. In Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom, the main protagonist Arthur discovers that the Architect (Creator) of the Universe had been using him as an unwitting tool to destroy that Universe, as the Architect's antithesis, the Old One, had been bound inside the Universe and condemned to endless suffering. As such, the Architect could not die, or unmake herself, until the Old One had been inadvertently destroyed by Arthur. After the Universe had been destroyed and both the Architect and the Old One were unmade, Arthur took the place of the Architect and remade the Universe somehow exactly as it was.

 

In Ian Irvine's Song of the Tears trilogy of the Three Worlds Series, the Profane Tears, which were used for evil by the God-Emporer, were destroyed by being crushed together - the tears themselves were their own antithesis.

 

Perhaps the Creator is a bit on the tired side after so many infinite eternities of existence and wants to get rid of the Dark One. Notice the similarities between Garth Nix's Nothing, which destroys the Universe, and balefire (what happens if you balefire the Dark One?).

 

The only evidence that we have from the Wheel of Time (that I can be bothered finding) that something like this could happen is the poem at the end of A Crown of Swords:

"Master of the lightnings, rider on the storm,

Wearer of a crown of swords, spinner-out of fate

Who thinks he turns the Wheel of Time,

May learn the truth too late"

eg, Rand will discover that by releasing the Dark One, Time and the Universe will be destroyed, and the Creator will come along and destroy the Dark One, but destroy itself in the process. The explanation of the Wheel itself in Robert Jordan's The World of the Wheel of Time tells us that "This design (The Pattern)is predetermined by the Wheel...". Thus, Rand would have access to a full blueprint of time itself, so he can remake everything.

 

Both the poems in the beginning and end of most of the books and the Karaethon Cycle both imply that the Dark One will be released to touch the world directly. The Forsaken seem very sure though, that the Dark One has only one purpose: to destroy time.

 

Although, many basic questions about the Wheel of Time haven't yet been answered - where did the Dark One come from? What Ages are touched by his shadow - randomly or in a set order? Also, in the last few books we have seen Min attempt to come down to the philosophy of things - will she tell Rand that the Creator may have to step back in to fix everything, or bring up the antithesis point? I'll feel a bit cheated if the only riddle she manages to solve is the Callandor Prophecy.

 

"Because in his pride he had believed that men could match the Creator, could mend what the Creator had made and they had broken" - Lews Therin (I think men refers to humans in general - Mierin technically drilled the bore)

 

But the Creator is supposed to have abandoned men a long time ago. So does that mean that the Bore that was opened before the Bore that was opened in the Age of Legends was closed by the Creator? How long ago was that? Herid Fel had a quick chat to Rand about it but they didn't get anywhere.

 

The whole thing is a bit on the unproven side, but personally I wouldn't mind if something new and definitive happened to end the series. The question is, can the Dark One be destroyed, and what would that mean for the Wheel?

[KrisAnton]

It might be fun for rand to THINK he's destroyed the DO, but he won't. That might make a neat twist, maybe that's why everyone thinks the DO is gone in future ages when the bore is drilled again.

[herid]

 Neither  Keys to the Kingdom nor Song of the Tears could have any bearing at all on the ending of WOT  as both were written much later than the Eye of the World.  It's well known that RJ knew the ending from the very start.

There are clear inbook clues that Rand will NOT succeed in killing the DO. Sorry, I don't want to repost the whole thing here as it is rather long.

 

The two inbook clues you mention actually both support that too. There is a recurrent theme in the series that you can not have Light without Darkness. E.g.Thom tells Mat

 

"There’s always a balance, you know. Good and evil. Light and Shadow."

--TDR, CH 31

 

Or in the conversation between  Gawyn and Kaisea in ToM

 

"You cannot have light without shadow, great Lord,  the woman said. "Create more light, and you will create more shadows."

--TOM, ch 33

 

 Rand's conversation with Moridin in tGS actually supports this too

 

 

"There is a way to win, Moridin," Rand said. "I mean to kill him. Slay the Dark One. Let the Wheel turn without his constant taint."
Moridin gave no reaction. He was still staring at the flames. "We are connected," Moridin finally said. "That is how you came here, I suspect, though I do not understand our bond myself. I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement."

--tGS, ch 15

 

Rand thinks that he can kill the DO but Moridin knows better. And the quote from aCoS you mention supports this as well.

 

Master of the lightnings, rider on the storm,
Wearer of a crown of swords, spinner-out of fate
Who thinks he turns the Wheel of Time,
May learn the truth too late

 

What it suggests is that Rand may think he can kill the DO and he will surely try but he'll find out that he is wrong and in fact, his attempt to kill the DO might end in disaster.

[Entreri]

Shai'tan cannot be killed. Now that he is Rand Sedai he knows better.

 

However, there may still be a way to shut Shai'tan off for good, from Randland at least.  I don't think so, but we will have to RAFO.

[herid]

Shai'tan cannot be killed. Now that he is Rand Sedai he knows better.

 

 

No, he doesn't. He still wants to kill the DO.

 

 

One answer kept coming to Rand. A dangerous answer. One that Lews Therin hadn’t considered.

What if the answer wasn’t to seal the Dark One away again? What if the answer, the final answer, was something else? Something more permanent.

-AMOL, ch 1

[Suttree]

Shai'tan cannot be killed. Now that he is Rand Sedai he knows better.

 

 

No, he doesn't. He still wants to kill the DO.

 

 

One answer kept coming to Rand. A dangerous answer. One that Lews Therin hadn’t considered.

What if the answer wasn’t to seal the Dark One away again? What if the answer, the final answer, was something else? Something more permanent.

-AMOL, ch 1

 

Shhhhh Herid! You are treading dangerous territory with the Jesus Rand crowd. Didn't you know he has evolved to something super human and is incapable of having a wrong thought at this point?

[Johnny King of Sindhol]

Hmm. Perhaps we will see something new happen if he tries and fails. Or maybe something entirely different will happen.

I know that the other series were written after or only planned before tEOTH, and I'm not saying theres any copying going on, but sometimes there are overlaps...

[WhiskyJack]

The very idea of Rand killing DO is absurd.

[Johnny King of Sindhol]

If the Pattern changes, as Min pointed out, the Prophecies change too. But that's probably overthinking it too much.

[Johnny King of Sindhol]

"The very idea of Rand killing DO is absurd"

Exactly!

I said it was far-fetched...

[DSgamer64]

The very idea of Rand killing DO is absurd.

 

Not really, but there is nothing to suggest that it is currently possible. We know that there was a flaw with trying to seal the Bore by Lews Therin and the One Hundred Companions during the Age of Legends, who is to say that killing the Dark One isn't the only way to eliminate him from the Pattern and to protect the world from destruction forever.

 

What if Rand is capable of tapping into the Dark One's own power through Moridin? Since Moridin is Nae'blis, he has the ability to use the True Power. Only those selected by the Dark One can use his power, though I believe Moghedien can use a little bit of it because Moridin owns her soul in the Mindtrap and that in itself creates a link between two people, and therefor a link to the Dark One. We know Rand can use the True Power, while it would be cliche to create such an obvious ending, to me it might be plausible unless RJ debunked the theory. Using balefire enhanced by the True Power and Callandor itself, Rand could possibly destroy the Dark One completely. But even Callandor is flawed, I wonder if the only way to use it would be in a circle with the male channeller using the True Power. It hasn't been confirmed what the true flaws are in Callandor, so it could be a workable theory.

[Suttree]

RJ already said the amount of balefire needed to kill the DO would destroy the world. As for the true power it works by destroying the pattern. Everything that is done with it  involves destroying the pattern. That would hardly be any kind of answer. Further the DO is the dark counterpart to the Creator. He can not be destroyed if we are to continue the balance themes and no beginnings/endings that are central the series.

 

As an aside the flaws with callandor are magnifying the taint and wildness of the mind. A manufacturing flaw made it so it doesn't have any buffer.

[Gordar]

Impossible. Rand may think it'd be the best sollution, but if the DO could be killed (or wasn't somehow necessary) the creator wouldn't have just locked him away outside the pattern.

 

This either means the DO is equal to the creator, in which case I doubt Rand will ever have the power to kill him, as Rand himself isn't even close to the power the creator must have posessed when he created the world/universe, or, the DO is necessary, which would eventually mean the end of everything if the DO ever got killed, since I don't think the creator implemented a plan B (linear time) in case his plan A (circular time) failed. 

 

If the creator had done that, he might have skipped plan A altogether, or we would have seen that outcome ages ago (keep in mind that the DO getting access to the world & him being resealed has already happened countless times).