The 'No More RAFO' Thread--Existing Questions

[JakeBarnes]

The seed represents the Seanchan. Burning the tree is their occupation of Tarabon. 'Again the seed slays ancitent wrong' is a reference to the eradication of shadowspawn from the Seanchan continent. Now that the Last Battle is here, they again fight Trollocs.

[Talmanes]

I know Rand gave Elayne a seed for an angreal now that I think of it, but I doubt that is what the prophesy was referring too.

[Talmanes]

The seed represents the Seanchan. Burning the tree is their occupation of Tarabon. 'Again the seed slays ancitent wrong' is a reference to the eradication of shadowspawn from the Seanchan continent. Now that the Last Battle is here, they again fight Trollocs.

I quite like that interpretation.

[Stormcrown]

Who is Gaidal Cain, who was he reborn as?

[Spujr]

Who is Gaidal Cain, who was he reborn as?

 

Oliver is the general consesus but we have no offficial confirmation in the books.

[Stormcrown]

 

Who is Gaidal Cain, who was he reborn as?

 

Oliver is the general consesus but we have no offficial confirmation in the books.

 

Damnit.

 

No, its not Olver. RJ/Brandon both said it is not him.

 

The only theory is Gadren, Grady's son. He was described as being horribly ugly.

[Suttree]

Grady's son is 4 years old. Not young enough.

 

Indeed though not only is Olver not the general consensus it has explicitly been ruled out by RJ. Not to mention the timing never ever worked for it so we didn't even really need that to rule it out.

[Stormcrown]

We were told we would have answers!!!

 

*Shakes fist in the air*

[Callandora]

RAFO currently stands for Read And Find Out-IMO after AMOL it should stand for Read And you might Find Out

[Stormcrown]

To be fair, some of these might have been things that Robert Jordan did not leave notes for, and Sanderson felt uncomfortable making something to fit.

[Andea]

Pfff... Moridin is my favourite character, and so I resent it that we are left in the dark about Moridin's role in the Last Battle. We can only speculate about this, I guess. Just like Rand, Moridin was frozen, but what was he doing during Rand's confrontation with the Dark One? My guess is that the Dark One needed Moridin to take the form he faced Rand in during their battle. It would seem that the Dark One, being forced to battle a human being, must find a form suitable for such a confrontation. Otherwise how should the Dark One, among other things, speak intelligibly to a human being? 

 

Along such lines we can probably also explain why Shaidar Haran was introduced in the book: to make the Dark One's manifestation in the world plausible. We've seen on previous occaions where the speech of the Dark One appears in the world that Shaidar Haran is also present (when, for instance, Moghidien suffered the creation of her mindtrap).   

[MauricXe]

I was under the impression Gaidal's rebirth, and Brigitte's for that matter, where not to be a major or even minor part of the story.  Fans kept insisting, but it really wasn't to be.  Brigitte's role was to be Elayne's warder. Gaidal Cain was more of a character building accessory for Brigitte.

 

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Olver could be Gaidal, or anyone over the age of 1 year lol. We see Gaidal Cain during the series (TSR 47), the series only spans ~2 years in the, so there is absolutely NO WAY he could be ANY of the children we have seen.

[Callandora]

Possibly but i remembered someone in team jordan [think it was Maria] RAFOing 90 percent of the questions asked in an interview that pertained to Verin and the black ajah. Very few if any of the questions were answered or even remotely touched upon in AMOL.  So im finding alot of authors using RAFO as a kind of a shield to not answering questions for theier own particular reasons.

[jwillis7]

I was under the impression Gaidal's rebirth, and Brigitte's for that matter, where not to be a major or even minor part of the story.  Fans kept insisting, but it really wasn't to be.  Brigitte's role was to be Elayne's warder. Gaidal Cain was more of a character building accessory for Brigitte.

 

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Olver could be Gaidal, or anyone over the age of 1 year lol. We see Gaidal Cain during the series (TSR 47), the series only spans ~2 years in the, so there is absolutely NO WAY he could be ANY of the children we have seen.

In TGH how long did it take them to get to falme a few months right?  what i am getting at is the books at the begining cover much more time than the later books when they have gateways, so in TSR like a year has passed.  so yea Gaidal would be under 1 depending on who you want to quote about when the soul goes in the body.  AMoL or RJ.

[shaiel]

I was under the impression Gaidal's rebirth, and Brigitte's for that matter, where not to be a major or even minor part of the story.  Fans kept insisting, but it really wasn't to be.  Brigitte's role was to be Elayne's warder. Gaidal Cain was more of a character building accessory for Brigitte.

 

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Olver could be Gaidal, or anyone over the age of 1 year lol. We see Gaidal Cain during the series (TSR 47), the series only spans ~2 years in the, so there is absolutely NO WAY he could be ANY of the children we have seen.

THIS. It doesn't matter who Gaidal is. In-story, no one cares. 

[Stormcrown]

It's mostly idle curioisity as far as I know.

 

It seemed like a question that would eventually be answered.

 

I was honestly really surprised by the lack of questions. After I finished I kept trying to think of stuff unanswered, that mattered, and had very little in thought.

 

No details felt crammed in like "oh shit we gotta answer that!" - It was done well, for the most part.

[MauricXe]

Err...looks like we won't know some of these questions until later..if at all:

 

https://twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/294198148539244544

 

Q:

Who was Nakomi? How did the body swap happen? How did Rand light the pipe?

 

A:

You've asked all three of the big questions I'm not allowed or unable to answer, I'm afraid. #torchat

 

kind of makes the entire twitter discussion meaningless lol....for me at least.

 

I suppose finding out about Verin's letters or if Alanna was BA is somewhat interesting...if he will answer.

 

 

===

Another question about Nakomi and her being the creator was asked. Brandon said:

 

This is one that I'm not answering, I'm afraid. RJ wanted some things about the ending to remain ambiguous.

 

 

so...we might never know.

 

===

 

Appears Rand's 3rd question did ask if he could kill the DO.

 

===

 

Some have asked if Nakomi was an invention by BS to address a topic in the notes. Turns out, RJ did write her in directly.

 

https://twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/294203184098967552

 

"I did Perrin and some of the in-between writing with Loial. RJ did Mat, Rand, scene exiting the mountain, and others."

 

 

From further questions, BS does not know how Rand lite the pipe.  I wonder if Harriet knows. If not....I guess it dies with RJ.

[wRAR]

Cads is the next Amyrlin, Faile has the Broken Crown, Rand after 5 years is "happy", Oath Rod continued to be used by AS, Dobrain is alive but not mentioned in the notes after the FoM council.

 

Warder bonds moved to the new Rand's body though BS has no idea why.

 

 

Moraine was needed "to stop Rand and Egwene from going to the last battle separately, instead of together".

[Lisa Campbell]

I said earlier that I thought the baby Logain hands back to his mother at the end when he finds his glory could be a nod to fandom about the Gaidal question. I agree it's not important anymore just a matter of curiosity. The way that BS answered other fan "we really wanna know"s makes me think he threw it in there somewhere.

 

Sutts, where does it say that Grady's son is four? Just point me in the right direction if you don't want to elaborate. Cheers

 

Also on a semi-related note, aren't the twins (Shevan & Haevel???) supposed to herald the new age? If this is true they can't be Elayne's babes because the new age is starting now, not in 3 months time when she is due. I think it is more likely that Gaidal and Birgitte have other identities in the "stories" and could in fact be them. Actually, Thom tells us that he's found stories that he thinks are about Birgitte under a different name early on. Gaidal and Birgitte were integral in founding the White Tower, that was the beginning of the 3rd Age wasn't it? I could have the timing wrong though.

[MauricXe]

I don't think the Rand is happy bit is cannon. Someone asked BS for his personal opinion.

[MauricXe]

BS: To RJ, RAFO sometimes meant "Read, think about it, and decide." It didn't always mean "I'll give an answer."

[wRAR]

Setalle is alive. Hawkwing met Fortuona.

 

Taim became DF only after being recruited by Demandred (though I'm not sure about the timeline wrt his False Dragon campaign and the freeing of the Forsaken).

[Suttree]

so far, we don't. we know that mostle of the last battle was written by RJ, and the ending too I think, but that's all. 

A note Luckers got from Peter that sheds some light on what was written by RJ.

 

Peter

Jim's ending includes Rand looking back and seeing Cadsuane watching him. Brandon wrote the intervening Cadsuane POV. It breaks up the flow a bit, but they determined this was the best way to include what happens in her POV.

 

I should also say, Rand's epilogue scene is the one Jim wrote in full, but he did leave summaries of where other characters ended up at the end of the book, plus a few lines of dialogue, and that's what Brandon built the last chapter and the rest of the epilogue from. Brandon said most of this in one of the interviews I did of him this week for various sites, so I think it's OK to say here.

Think most people assumed RJ's "ending"(based on earlier statements) was much bigger and complete than this originally.

[Vambram]

I am curious how much of the scenes between Rand, Moridin, and the Dark One were left in Robert Jordan's notes, and about how much of those scenes did Brandon have to create along with Team Jordan.

[newimperium]

I am pretty sure we'll see more WoT books in the future, no matter what they say.  Of COURSE they have to say "no" now, but in five years?  We'll see. George Lucas said there would never be another Star Wars sequel trilogy.  Guess what?  We're getting another Star Wars trilogy (like it or not).   Fandom (demand + money) eventually wins out, every time. 

 

 It will probably be years, until the movies or TV series' are eventually made.  It might even have to wait for whomever inherits the estate someday from Harriet. But eventually someone is going to write more Wheel of Time books.  They don't have to be in RJ's "voice". They can be written by supplemental authors. I'll take it either way. 

 

 I love RJ.  I want to honor his memory.  But if another author writes Wheel of Time books, that is not going to soil RJ's legacy in my mind. He was the creator of the series; it all started with him.  Same with Walt Disney, George Lucas, JRR Tolkien, et al.  What happens to his franchise does not affect how he will be viewed.

 

  I believe the Wheel of Time belongs to us, the fans, now. 

 

 Feel free to disagree. Think there will NEVER be more stories in the WoT universe?  ;-)