sdboka, i dont think rand used mashadar, i think he just knew that his weaves would destroy alot of land and therefore, what better place to scrub off the earth... his weaves didnt seem to use mashadar atall... it was a saidar scrubber, and then he just pumped saidin through... destroying aridhol seemed like a well planned accident :)

thats what im thinking sdboka :) the last scene with lanfear, shows me that she does have remorse for her actions... it mayve taken her death and re-birth, it may've taken her mindtrap and continual servititude and torture to break her of those wants. and, i see no reason why moridin would try to trick rand in this fashion.

and i dont think fain will be key to defeating the DO, but i do think he will be key to resealing the bore... fine line of distinction, yes, but still :) and moraine said in eotw, that all the aes sedai, together(what, 200-400 linked?), could not kill mashadar, which fain is rapidly becoming, if not surpassing... im not sure, after rand neutralizes the dark one, if he will be able to fight fain(and win)... which then, makes him being stuffed into the prison and sealed there, almost a needed thing, instead of merely happenstance. probably alot easier to push fain then to kill him

and yes, i've always had a theory about nyaneve+lan being hero's of the horn, and being the last king/queen of manetherin reborn... in those days "lan" died, "nyaneve" goes psycho and kills everybody(their old names skip my mind)... and since she's the only character we know of who can channel angry........ draw your own conclusions... i think the wheel spins them out together, and they have the tragic love+death scenes over and over... making her place not with rand, but with lan, and the only other character who fits with moraine and calendor, is lanfear :)

who knows wether lanfear or moridin will return, but i think at least one of them will, and im banking on lanfear.

and for fain, who said the creator wasnt powerful enough to destroy the dark one? perhaps, even on a cosmic scale, good and evil must be balanced? perhaps the dark one, is a part of the age lace, he has greater influence over the pattern to balance that the creators greater power...

and i dont see them destroying the dark one, i see it more as two standing waves, each nullifying eachother... both rand, and the dark one destroy eachother, but the rands life that he shares with moridin, will restore him... rand isnt the creator, but he's as close to the pattern as the dark one is... he's just been jailed away to keep him from effecting anything on any really bad scale, until late

and i doubt fain will save the day, but he does play a very important role. i really think that after the dark one is destroyed, that fain will be stuffed in its place and the bore sealed. its the only ending that makes sense to me.

what greater purpose would RJ have had for a character thats gotten progressively darker then anything we've yet seen, and even, fain was introduced in book 1. clearly his role is greater then just being creepy. not to mention, that fain is moving through the blight increasing his darkness, and probably will be right near shaelgul for TG... he's the right guy, in the right place, at the right time, and i dont believe in coincidences ;-)

despotha, good points :) but, lanfear led the team to drill the bore TO look for an alternate power source, they knew what they were doing, they may not have seen the inevitable chaos that has led from their choices, but still. they understood the pre-bore well enough to know what it was, and that another power source lay beyond it. i still think she would be the best candidate to tell rand how to seal it :)

and yes, i do think the sealing will have to be a side effect of the three taverin boys. but, i dont think the dark one can fit in the prison anymore... i think that rand+2 women(moiraine & lanfear)+calendor main job will be to slay the dark one, then the fain is stuffed in in its place as a "young dark one" and then the bore sealed.

ultimately, i dont see nyaneve making it to rand... i think she'll end up going to fight with lan...

as i see it, the two women who will circle with rand and calendor, arent nyaneve and moraine... it'll be moraine, and lanfear... which will be intentionally ironic, seeing as lanfear and moraine probably dont like eachother much...

and min may've found some few hints, in a metaphysical way of peoples thoughts on how to seal the bore... but thats a large jump from metaphysical to being able to put it into reality...

i disagree sdboka, while rand and moridin are sharing certain personality traits, rands epiphany came because he was pushed so close to becoming the champion of the dark and had to make the choice between hatred and love... moridin has never had even one step towards the light...

even the man who's name is skipping me, at falma, was a dark friend, but he had remorse, he didnt like what he was ordered to do. i see nothing even close to that in moridin. moridin seams to take pleasure in his evilness... he strokes his cosourvra for fun, and many other aspects... he controls several other forsaken, directly or indirectly. i really doubt he will return.

and as far as we know, rand has absolutely no idea how to seal the bore. Lanfear probably does. and i dont see lanfear telling rand, unless, she walks again to the light...

respectfully, i completely disagree...

i dont think moridin will come to the light... there has been no forshadowing, no reason aside from him sharing a bond(of sorts) with rand... he has never shown remorse or anything of that like... 1:10

and i think that lanfear will, whe's the one who made the bore in the prison, she would be the perfect candidate to show rand how to patch it... she knows TAR better then anyone else alive(aside from possibly rand sedai, and brigetta)... and, she's already contacted rand seeking for help. she's constantly worked against (most of) the other forsaken and the dark one... cruel and vindictive, yes, remorse, i think so.

she wanted 2 things, 1) to challenge the dark one, and 2) to have lews. when she died, and got re-embodied, she was far weaker, and the chodenkals have already been destroyed... take away the one thing someone wants most, and they fall back onto the second. and she knows rand will win now. id give her 9:10 of returning to the light.

also taelin, the capitalization of "D"eath makes me think that its a name... moridin. which leads me to think, that its a reference more to slayer then hopper :) moridin said he'd give grendal the dream spike and the man with two souls... clearly they know eachother.

i like the idea, but i dont think perrin knows the song(yet)...

i think, that its more likely, that the wolves know it, as noam says, "the wolf is peace"... and as wolves have such long memories, they would be at a good position to remember it... so, perrin may charge the dark one singing the song, but stemming not from nakomi, but from the wolves(or a mix thereof)... and would explain why it has been lost, if it can only be sung by a wolfbrother... not many have existed until recently...

plus, it fits in with the brutal irony of the tinkers searching for the song, but their dogs know it(or at least know of it)

:D just my theory

and redshield. aviendha has not resolved to take the aiel back to the waste... she's resolved to get rand to give the aiel a purpose :)

the correlations between the folklore, of present day and past days, are so intertwined, that i'm not surprised of the crossovers between wot and norse/asian/north american and many other nations, intentional or accidental :)

yet, in that quote "Yea, and the Broken Wolf, the one whom Death has known" Death is capitalized, meaning it probably is a proper name... moridin... and as far as i know, moridin and perrin have no connection... *scribbles out the theory*

i think the broken wolf might be perrin...

perrin because of his fight with slayer, where he got arrowed in the leg in TAR... in TGS (i forget where), he has "a shadow of pain" across his leg when he stepped through a gateway... and if he dies, it will bring fear and sorrow to many men... *goes looking for the reference*

another big assumption there, is that verin joined the ranks of the hero's... i couldnt see her being a hero before, i would assume the dark one would know who they are, and thus, why recruit from that lot...

ill admit that it may be a hero of the horn(which kinda is a hand of the creator if you think about it) that is bleeding into the real world while rand was having his epiphany on dragonmout(timelines are confusing, so it may've crossed)... rand was powerful enough to reflect his real image into TAR, so its possible he was weakening the boundaries between the worlds, or they were just closer in the age lace...

and verin died before rands epiphany, so its "possible" that it was her... might explain the coals, food, the unending backpack, how she appeared/left without a trace, and her knowledge of the aiel :)

but that theory is based on several assumptions(timeline is a big one)

the coin that moiraine made was of air/water... not a physical coin :)

and its possible that she was from TAR that bled through as rand had made his choice at dragonmount... but i still dont buy it :) she seems like a turning point in the future... most turnings are slow in nature, but this seems more abrupt and intentional...

can a "fake" vision/ghost create real food? i dont think thats in the nature of this series... no, i think she was really there...

i doubt that moriken, aviendha could channel, and would have felt if the woman had used the power to cook the food faster, open a gateway in/out, increase the fire size, etc...

and we've never seen anything like mindreading(i dont think), so i dont see how she would know what aviendha(or any other wise one) would need to hear... this woman is unlike anything else we've yet seen.

i have to agree with the idea of nakomi being like a spiritual guide... she has all of the similarities...

- she came when aviendha was on her "journey in the wilderness"...

- she asked aviendha for aid(warmth(fire), food), and when given freely given, she increased what aviendha gave(greater fire, more food)

- she came as she left... without a trace, when nobody was looking...

- aside from the gifts, she only gave wisdom, to make aviendha think in a different way... and in the one thing that aviendha needed...

i see this as the creators hand... not directly involving itself, but acting so others wouldnt know... :)

---

and the dark one and the creator seem polar opposites to me :) black-white, down-up, chaos-order, hatred-love...........

i know! always wondered about that one too :S

not to mention that the cure for cancer was found long ago :S

ya... i agree virtuehall :) that makes me believe stronger that perrin wont survive the last battle sane :) the more i hear, the more i think faile is going to die and her death will push perrin over the edge into full wolfhood :)

never mind! :D its in the filename XD

but what number is it?!? this is going to ruin my organization :S

thanks tho :D

i... sadly agree... perrin started out as a VERY interesting character, and has got increasingly boring ever since... theres minor characters with more entertainment value... pivotal, but boring...

i agree al'corey :) i always thought of them more along the chinese dragon(the serpantine one) with wings...

also that the fluted rod was white, not bone, and was glowing fiercely bright during that battle :)

and that her hair makes it look like she's falling... i always pictured it more... wild...

other then those, a very nice picture :)