8 hours ago, DigificWriter said:

^ In the TV series,, the Two Rivers four don't symbolically represent sparks fighting against darkness; they are the sparks fighting against the darkness, which is why Min's vision physically showed the four of them with actual sparks and darkness surrounding them.

Except that they aren't literal sparks.  They're people.

Even interpreting it that way means it's figurative.

In the books, this specific viewing is figurative.  Given the identical language in the show, on what basis is it supposed to be literal?

A few things mentioned by others but need some further exploration.

1: Moridin is Ishamael resurrected into another body.

2: The physical connection between Rand and Moridin didn't exist yet at Falme, so injuring one didn't directly affect the other.  The connection was made at Shadar Logoth when both used Balefire against Mashadar.  And, like the Gostbusters did, "crossed the streams."

3: Specifically, the connection was made because while Rand was channeling Saidin, Moridin was using the True Power.  The connection eventually allowed Rand to use the True Power himself, once he figured out what it was.

4: At the end, when they switched bodies, Rand didn't light his pipe with either the One Power or the True Power, since his body had been burned out in the process.  He used his unique ability as uber-ta'veren to directly alter the pattern.  It's an ability the story alluded to when threatening Cadsuane, as well as when he made plants grow.

5: As Moiraine explains when telling the story of Aridhol/Shadar Logoth, Mashadar is evil that men made, rather than what came from Shai'tan.

One thing to clarify about the nature of evil in Jordan's world - Light and Shadow are used in the same way yin and yang are in Asian philosophies.  As both opposite and complementary forces.  Most dichotomies (like male and female, or fire and ice) can be represented by them without moralizing. 

"Good" and "Evil" are value judgments applied to them by humans who seek simplistic explanations.  But aren't necessarily direct parallels.

Unlike good and evil, the forces that drive the universe require both - and the tension between them - to have movement and life.

Given the descriptions of the two, it certainly seems like Jordan wanted everyone to make that connection.  But it can't be, since Cain was still in TAR after Olver was already born.

He could have played with the differences in time between the waking and dream worlds to make it work, but he apparently said definitively that it wasn't true.  Sanderson has also said that he knows (based on RJ's notes), and that it isn't Olver.  But he hasn't said who Cain was reborn as.

If it's like other similar "mysteries" you could probably figure it out.  But I haven't heard of anyone doing so.

What about a dome of Air with the Banner of Light floating above the top, wreathed in smoke and lightning.  Surrounded by crowds of fighters pressing toward it?

You wouldn't need specific people's faces in that case, just the groups.

None of the Heroes of the Horn have just a single name.  Each has a new name when spun out into the living world, but each is recognized when they appear according to whatever name the witnesses associate with them.  As we see at Falme, other names are remembered when looking at some of them.

"But he heard a hundred names when he looked at each face, some so different he did not recognize them as names at all, though he knew they were.  Michael instead of Mikel.  Patrick instead of Paedrig.  Oscar instead of Otarin."

Any of those are just as much their names as any other.

For the Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon is one name.  Rand al'Thor is another.  We never hear of any others, but we know they exist(ed).

14 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

The show may have combined Dragon and Amaresu to a single soul

Which would be another kind of pointless change from the books.

Amaresu is seen at Falme, when the Dragon has already been reborn.  They can't be the same soul.

On 12/15/2021 at 12:43 PM, AdamA said:

If we're going to subject cosmologies with reincarnation to logical scrutiny, seemingly souls have to be genderless. Since biological sex is a random coin flip with proportions that aren't totally constant from one generation to the next (close to 50/50, but never exactly), at least a few would need to flip.

 

Consider that population is not always growing, especially given the drastic dropoff from the population that earth would have been able to support from Age of Legends to post breaking. That's going from post-scarcity probably at least 20 billion population to a medieval world that supports maybe a few million. That means the overwhelming majority of souls don't reincarnate at all just because there aren't enough bodies available, at least not until thousands of years later when the world recovers. So how would they decide who is worthy? If you're forcing souls to only ever reincarnate into bodies with the same biological sex as their first body, you've effectively implemented a gender-based quota that can't possibly be fair. Maybe that's what the Randworld creator in fact did, but that is jacked up.

Which is, of course, one of the primary criticisms of reincarnation as reality in any world.

On 12/15/2021 at 5:42 AM, Caesar804 said:

The quote you're looking for is like half of the books. When the two forsaken from eotw are reincarnated, one is reincarnated into a woman's body, yet he can still touch saidin. Magic is a function of gender which is a function of the soul.

Though I would call that more of a resurrection than a reincarnation.

An existing (but killed) soul is placed into an existing adult body.  Rather than being reborn.

On 12/15/2021 at 3:33 AM, dwn said:

It's only a possibility if you ignore the fact that we've already seen Rand channel.

Only if you believe that Rand will be the only male channeler in the bunch.  Or that being a male channeler is relevant in a world where the Dragon can be a women.

There is nothing so far to say the show will stick to that, either.

On 12/14/2021 at 1:15 PM, WOTReader2 said:

Most people will probably miss it on the first read, but he does use the one power in the book (lightning blows up the Inn) before Caemlyn. 

 

Actually, he uses it much earlier than that.

"With all his heart and desperation he silently shouted at Bela to run like the wind, silently tried to will strength into her.  Run!  His skin prickled, and his bones felt as if they wewre freezing, ready to split open.  The Light help her, run!  And Bela ran."

This was Rand's first use of the one power that we see in the books.  And it comes before they're even out of sight of Emond's Field.