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DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

mdnyttokr

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News item Comments posted by mdnyttokr

  1. Nicely done as always, Despothera. Good WoT theorists should be well-paid! At least until the end of the series.

     

    I've always agreed that Padan Fain will play some role in the "blood on the rocks" prophecy. I don't know about him "replacing" the Dark One, but I could TOTALLY see him being sealed into the Dark One's new prison. Yes, NEW prison. I don't think Rand's plan is to "re-seal" the old prison, or to patch it. I think he's going to somehow create a NEW one, and into that prison will go the D.O. and Fain, much in the same way the Forsaken were sealed up with the DO, now it will be Fain's turn. Rand's wound is the foreshadowing of this. Rand's health has become the health of the world, and Rand's body has become symbolic of the rest of the world. His wound contains elements from the DO and Mordeth, locked in combat with each other inside Rand's body, but sealed up so they cannot harm him as long as they have one another to deal with. The same thing will happen to the world, with Shayol Ghul becoming the symbolic equivalent of Rand's wound, the world itself becoming the symbol for Rand's body (as it is already starting to become, since his epiphany in Veins of Gold.)

     

    Of course, I'm often wrong about most things, so this could just be another false trail. But I still think it sounds fairly likely, after reading Despothera's theory.

     

    Can't wait to hear about Slayer, so tell your life to leave a message next time. Voracious readers need their Theory-fix. Priorities! :)

  2. Is there a poll on a forum thread somewhere that allows people to choose which characters they think will die? Because it seems like on THIS subject, WoT fans are more divided than the Republican Party.

     

    I've seen virtually every character nominated as a Death Candidate, but I'll be surprised if ANY of them actually die. My prediction is that Rand is the only person who dies, but since I think he gets resurrected too, I cannot technically say that "he'll be dead by the end." At the end of Book 14, I think all major and top supporting "good-guy" characters will live, including Lan. Anyone who is NOT a darkfriend will be alive by the end, and I do not count "alive" as having died and woken up in T'A'R. That's dead.

     

    If I had a gun to my head and was told to choose one character besides Rand that is MORE LIKELY than the others to die, it would be Aviendha, simply because she wants to prevent everything she saw in her vision, her death would do that, and she is certainly not afraid to die.

  3. I have had exactly three personal interactions with Robert Jordan. The first was via a letter he sent to me while I was in the Air Force back in 1995. In the letter he had commented about how he had given up on the idea that the series would be completed in 8 novels. Book 6 had just come out, and he said that his hope was that he'd be able to finish it without writing another 6 books.

     

    The second time was an in-person meeting in San Jose, at the book signing for Winter's Heart. I was too nervous to ask him anything, so it was very awkward.

     

    And the last time I met him, was for the Knife of Dreams signing. I thanked him for the great story, and all the great books that had given me endless hours of enjoyment. He smiled and said "you're very welcome!" Then I told him that it was extremely cool of him to do these book tours and remain accessible to his fans, even when he knew his books would sell just as well without the personal appearances. He said that he enjoyed the book tours and signing appearance specifically because he treasured the interaction with fans, and that even if he outsold every other author in the world, he's still do the appearances as long as people wanted to come meet him.

     

    I count myself very lucky to have met one of my artistic heroes, and to have had the opportunity to thank him for his work, and to tell him that it meant a lot to me.

  4. @mark I'm fairly certain that Rand DID know that he had to cleanse the taint near Shadar Logath, not merely because he needed to scorch a lot of earth, but because he intended to turn mashadar against the DO's taint on saidin. He'd seen what has happened with the wound on his side, and knew that two different evils would try to annihilate one another. His cleansing would not have worked anyplace other than at Shadar Logath. If he'd channeled all that power at, say, Ebou Dar, nothing would have happened except Ebou Dar would have been destroyed, but the taint would have remained. For the taint to be removed, it HAD to be directed at Shadar Logath.

     

    @lancer, Mark is right about the Towers representing the Forsaken, but I think the largest tower represented Moridin, not Graendal. Moridin is by far the most powerful and dangerous of the Forsaken, remember that he was killed in TDR (hence the tower falling down) then transmigrated into Moridin, where he has grown even more powerful, using the True Power almost exclusively now. I don't remember one tower standing "against the shadow." I remember the towers were all black as midnight, hence "Towers of Midnight."

  5. I've thought for years that somehow, Elan Morin would be redeemed. I had this wacky theory a year or so ago that he and Rand would "merge" in some way, perhaps at the same time that the One Power and True Power might also merge. We've seen strange things happen with Rand and Moridin where the True Power is concerned. If the Dark One is the source of the True Power, and the Creator the source of the One Power, what then are the implications of their respective champions joining? Might the OP and TP also merge and join to create something new; something more "gray?"

     

    But then I came to my senses. It'll be a fight. Rand will win. The Wheel will be preserved, and the situation with the Seanchan will NOT be resolved. Remember one of Nicola's Foretellings: "The future stands on the edge of a knife." Which to me, means it could go either way, and that's AFTER the Last Battle. I think that's how the ending will leave us: the DO will be dealt with, but the Seanchan will not.

  6. I'm still pretty convinced that Aviendha is going to survive, but I do like the idea that her death could effectively save the Aiel from the future she witnessed. Since one of her descendants (was it her grand-daughter?) is responsible for breaking the alliance with the Seanchan and effectively getting the Aiel wiped out, perhaps Aviendha has the idea that if she dies, her descendants will never live to start the war. Hmm.... Good idea.

     

    But Nicola's foretelling pretty much assured that all three of Rand's ladies would survive. So far, I have not seen a Foretelling that did not come true in some way.

  7. The ghostly-looking Myrrdral doesn't do it for me, nor does the cartoon-y one, but I REALLY like the Padan Fain pic. I always envisioned Padan Fain like this, sort of like what Steve Buscemi would look like after a 5-day cocaine and meth binge.

     

    As for the creepy one, well, I hope this isn't an unpopular opinion, but I LOVE it! Drakhar SHOULD be creepy. I think they're intended to be creepy in the books. So this is a very tasteful creepy that I like. It reminds a little of HR Giger, only less abstract and with fewer random body parts surgically attached to alien machinery.

  8. Egwene's development throughout the series is truly one of the highlights of the Wheel of Time as a whole. She was one of my least favorite characters until about book 5. Then with the Aiel Wise One training, I felt her character change; start to grow. Her masterful manipulations in th tower when she was captured showed that really was ready to be Amyrlin. Now one of my favorite characters, and certainly one of the most complex characters in the story.

  9. In book 2, in Shienar, when Nynaeve stood up for herself to Suian (then Amyrlin), and Lan was standing in the room. I can't remember exactly what the conversation was about, but Nynaeve felt the Amyrlin was talking down to her, and Nynaeve didn't like it one bit. She decided to show the Amyrlin that Two Rivers women have a VERY strong spine. Lan, impressed with the way Nynaeve handled herself, mutters only loud enough for Mynaeve to hear: "Tai'shar, Manatheren." To me, it said that he wanted Nynaeve to know that despite the fact that he's a warder, she is first on his list priorities, and to make that statement in front of the Amyrlin Seat no less, showed that he was completely (wonderfully) unapologetic about it.

     

    My favorite Moiraine moment was her letter to Rand. The first time I read that part of Book 5, I was spellbound. I was so "in to" the book at that moment, that I could not sit down. I read that part pacing in my living room. But when Rand got to the part where Moiraine tells him "Be wary also of Master Jasin Natael," I felt a chill go down my spine. She knew all along who Natael really was, and despite what I'm certain was an INTENSE BURNING NEED to see Asmodean punished or even just KILLED for his crimes; despite all her training telling her that this Forsaken must be caught and taken to the Tower at all costs, she knew Rand needed a teacher, and she trusted him to handle Asmodean properly. It was the first time I think that it dawned on Rand that she had believed in him all along, and he'd been wrong about her. It changed Rand.

     

    So that's it. Thanks for reading!

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