@gwenifer.

i read the dark prophecy in tom hundred times,and changed my mind regarding the broken wolf at least a dozen times,in the end i arrived to the same conclusion as you,the broken wolf is rand.

let me start from the end,the only one to cause fear and sorrow to the hearts

of men is rand,because he is the focal point of the forces of light and their greatest champion,the other are not that important,not perrin nor lan and

certainly not the others(iturralde,bashere etc).

rand as ltt died in dragonmount,so he knows death.

i believe the midnight towers are the forsaken,not the towers of midnight in

seanchan,and first among the forsaken is moridin,so there is going to be a

battle between rand and moridin.

now to the broken wolf part:rand reffered to himself as a wolf a few times in

the past,i don't remember exactly when,but it was in a conversation with min.

the wolves named rand shadowkiller and many went to dragonmount when

rand was at his lowest ebb.

when rand met egwene she asked him:

what has happened to you?

and rand answered:i was broken.

@metal head

i don't believe a fight between moiraine and lanfear is going to happen.

lanfear knows more about the bore more than anyone alive or dead,and she

is going to help rand.

we know from tom that rand doesn't have all the answers regarding the bore,

so he is going to free lanfear from the mind trap,and persuade her to help him.

we already know that rand can not use brute force nor direct contact with the do,so to avoid another taint rand will use padan fain as a buffer between himself and the do,in other words fight evil with evil,after that he will use callandor to reseal the bore using saidin and saidar this time.

like cromwell said,padan fain will be in shayol ghul long before rand,and probably shaidar haran and moridin too,so it will be interesting to see who kills whom.

here is,in my opinion a fitting quote for the dragon reborn:

i forget nothing,aes sedai.

i said six could come,but i count nine.

i said you would be on equal footing with the tower emissaries,

and for bringing nine,you will be.

they are on their knees,aes sedai.kneel!!!!(dumai's wells)

@mark,

oh come on,she is a wonderful girl and she will be a terrific warder,cool,smart,

in control(yea right) and very very powerful.

its not her fault that she has eyes only for rand,and he is always surrounded

by three hotties.

mark my words(pun intended),lanfear will help rand seal the bore.

the only one for me was always lanfear!!!!

my second warder will be moiraine,on second thought forget about moiraine

with the two of them as my warders,i will be dead within a week.....lolololol

@snowball

i found the seanchan empire with its rigid class structure,absolute ruler and

worst of all slavery very distasteful(to say the least).

because of its rigidness i dont see any middle ground between the seanchan empire and randland.

others said it before,and i agree,i do believe that the seanchan prophecies

were intentionally corrupted a long time ago,lets face it,its unthinkable from

seanchan pov that their absolute ruler will bow to anyone,but bow they will

crystal throne or not to rand!!!

we had country bumpkin rand,erratic rand,distrustful rand,dark rand,zen rand and one man army rand-its time for demi god epic rand and he will

kick tuon bonny arse back to seanchan(politely saint dwynwen lol)

@mashiara,

i totally agree with you,the children of the dragon are not the biggest problem in aviendha visions.

there are two crucial points in aviendha flashforwards:

the first one is the new raison d'etre for the aiel clans after the last battle,and i already wrote about this yesterday.

the second one is the relations between the seanchan empire and randland including the aiel,a showdown between rand and tuon is

inevitable.

the future aviendha saw is like any other wot prophecy,a possibility,nothing more.

rand can change some of it:

command all the aiel clans to return back to the three fold land,to turn the clans into a nation,to abolish all blood feud,build cities,use the ocean of sweet water underneath rhuidean to turn their arid land green.

open trade with other nations etc,etc...

the aiel need a new purpose?not a problem,here is a 1000 years purpose!

first of all,aviendha must meet rand before his proclamation and tell him

everything.

there is a wide range of possibilities between lived happily ever after and the bleak future aviendha saw 50-100 years after the last battle when all

randland is under the seachan yoke.

rand paid a terrible terrible price just to be in the field of merrilor,so for him

alone i will settle for some happiness.

@snowball.

your zen rand is also a one man army now lol.

there is the apples blossom in the beginning of tom,but also the destruction of the trolloc army in maradon.

in the veins of gold episode,rand overcame his ultimate crisis point,and i find the change in him utterly fascinating.

for the first time since the eye of the world book he behaves like a real leader,powerful,in control but also compassionate.

@mashiara sedai,

rand did not just accept lewis therin memories,it was never that simple,

rand accepted lews thering whole being.(inside him)

when rand met egwene in tom,she asked him:

which are you?

and rand answered: i am both.

@pandemonium.

in my opinion rand powers and abilities were always there,he just didn't

know how to use them.

in tsr lanfear told rand that he is not using even one tenth of his powers.

eventually rand got better using a combination of buried memories and instincts,but after the epiphany of gold episode,when he became one with

lews therin,he learned his full abilities.

the same with the strands of light in rands mind,he always had them,probably from birth,we just didn't know it until nynaeve abilities grew.

@metal head

i agree with you.

rand is clearly not mad now.

i just finished rereading tom,and in my opinion rand is the sanest person there lol.

you can add one more thing to the extreme pressure he was under,and i

am talking about lews therin.

rand never understood nor accepted the fact that lews therin and he are one.

throughout the series rand behaves like they are two different persons:

"i am rand al'thor,i am a poweful channeler and i got lews therin job"

hence some erratic behavior(voices,mutterings etc)

the first time rand really understood that he is the dragon re-born was in

the veins of gold epiphany,and suddenly everything fell into place.

consider it a mental block,different from what nynaeve had,but mental block nevertheless.

let me finish with something trollocslayer said in different words

cadsuane alone is enough to drive any person(even perrin) insane!!!!!

@dammer flinn

hear hear!!!!!!

i agree with every word you wrote.

we the randlanders are the real heroes,its our money,our time,our devotion and our patience.

the one and only,the amazing lanfear.

in my opinion,robert jordan biggest mistake(story wise) was to remove both

moiraine and lanfear at the same time,it created an enormous void.

so two books later we got the grandmother from hell cadsuane,and a book after that the two-dimensional insignificant character cyndane.

part of what made lanfear so attractive were her many interactions with rand,it created a very tense(to say the least) dance between a dragon and a very unpredictable cobra,and because of that,every time rand and lanfear were together sparks flew lol.

regarding cyndane,rand never even knew she existed until the end of tom.

@philosophic mind.

i agree.rand is the strongest living ta'veren(and probably more).

since his fusion with lews therin(veins of gold)he is also so much stronger.

tuon has really no idea how powerful rand is,so its going to be a very

interrsting meeting.

@mark.

first one is how i imagined mierin eronaile going to a rendezvous with lews therin(before he broke up with her).

the first picture is absolutely stunning.

a fitting tribute to the hotest,coolest and most regal woman in randland.

bad guy or not,i prefer her a hundred times over some of the "good" guys

like egwene,cadsuane or zarine bashere.

@philosophic mind

i urge you to read the meeting between rand and egwene again,i read

it 20 times myself.

i my opinion rand played egwene from start to finish,he pushed all the right buttons to rile her up,but not enough for her to explode!

he clearly was not happy doing it,but he did it anyway.

i still dont understand the why,lets face it,rand will go to shayol ghul no matter what egwene will say or do,and she has no alternative to solve the problem,its very easy to say no without any

real solution.

"that is why i came to you,to let you plan"(smirk)

so yes,he aknowledged her station,and he was polite,but he also was in total cammand of the meeting,not her!!!

regarding tuon,rands behavior has nothing to do with the outcome

in a memory of light,because of a different agendas,but that is his

problem to solve,lol.

after all he is the dragon reborn.

first time i noticed the eye of the world was in a bookstore around 1991,and immediately(here we go again lol) disliked the cover,especially the female

midget ha ha ha(sorry moiraine).put the book back and forgot all about it.

in february 1992 i visited london for the first time,and near my hotel was a toys/games/books and comics store called forbbiden planet,in was then in

new oxford st,and there i saw the eye of the world again with(i think)two more books from the serie.

i decided to give it a try,now the store was very busy with people coming and going all the time,but i still managed to read a few pages....

a few minutes with rand were enough and twenty years later i am still reading the damn books!!!!

@zarquan.

hear.hear!!!!!!

i agree with you completely.

by the way,in my opinion,the gathering storm cover is as bad as lord of chaos

if not worse.

@reaper0131

i checked michael whelan sketches,and i think it just light/shadow play.

what intrigues me more is the "thing"behind and a little to the left of rand's

left leg,it looks like a head on a pile of rocks,padan fain head maybe????

@damer flinn

wonderful work in progress drawings from michael whelam.

in one of the you can see(i assume) a picture of our "lovely" padan fain

looking more like gollum by the way lol,so he is going to be there too.

@paul p.

i dont believe its egwene,evidently she is very much against the notion of rand going to shayul ghul to break the last seal,so i dont see her accompanying rand.

soon,in my opinion she will have her hands full with a huge battle at the field

of merrilor.

@fikkie77

lanfear is the strongest female channeler period.

after finnland,cyndane is strong as alivia and stronger than graendal.

i think that lanfear is an amazing charcter,she made books 2-5 so much

more interesting,so much more fun to read.some of her encounters with rand

made me smile,or laugh or nervous lol.

if you read carefully the first books,you'll notice how much respect she gave rand,unlike let's say egwene!!!!

so yes,i like her,actually,i like her a lot lol....

if you're asking if i want to see her in the last battle with rand,you bet i do...