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DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

jemron

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Posts posted by jemron

  1. Most die, but some get lucky, learn on their own, and become quite strong. They're the equivalent of "Wilders" in the WT. They learn "tricks" that help them get what they want/need. Stilling, killing, and capturing (shielding) Aes Sedai could very easily be some of those tricks that they learn to survive. Those who don't learn those tricks don't last very long. That's why there aren't that many false Dragons nor are there many wilder male channelers who "slip through the cracks" and live very long to go crazy.

     

    Also, it's highly possible that some male channelers (like Taim, perhaps) make oaths to the DO and receive/received training from Ishamael.

  2. There are some bands that have written songs with lyrics referring to Rand al'Thor and the Dragon. Can't remember where I heard this, but I think it was somewhere on Dragonmount.com. Also, I don't know if it's intentional, but I sometimes get the feeling that the writers of "Fringe" on Fox are WoT fans. Nothing specific, but some of their ideas seem very WoT to me.

  3. General consensus from my perusing the boards over the years:

     

    CoT is not so great (always ranks as the least favorite book in polls). Personally, I skip it on each re-read, though I've considered giving it one more chance for my final re-read before the last book comes out.

     

    KoD is MUCH better. Many people, though obviously not all, think that it is one of the top 5 best books in the series. I think it's in the top 8...

     

    Personally, I LOVE TGS and ToM, and I'm always surprised when people talk bad about them. They are definitely not RJ books entirely, but they are GOOD.

     

    In Summary: It is worth it. My brother had the same problem as you, but he got bored at like book 7. I told him to stick with it. He was so pleased after finished TGS and ToM that he immediately started a re-read of the series.

  4. Maybe it is directly linked to his removed link to the SL dagger?

     

    I do remember, right after Mat escapes from Tar Valon in tDR, and he accidentally kills that "footpad" in the streets, and then a guy in a common room playing dice says something to Mat like, "You have the Dark One's own luck!" or some such, and Mat freaks out about it, wondering if maybe his link to the dagger and/or separation caused him to actually have the DO's luck.  </end run-on sentence>

     

    Maybe this is part of it?

  5. I guess I must've just interpreted this a certain way and then assumed that my interpretation was fact, because I thought it was explained very clearly that the dice in Mat's head have to do with important events or decisions that have to be made.  When those things happen, the dice stop dead.  This are all important events that have to occur in order for the Pattern to "properly" thread a certain way...  This is what I thought the dice were.

     

    To better explain, whether it has to do with luck, or winning a battle, or just saying certain words that seem to have no apparent significance to someone at the time, all of these things are important to the Pattern and Mat's ta'veren "power" making things happen a certain way.

     

    When he says something weird to Tuon, and the dice immediately stop, it's because those words had significance to the overall Pattern of events that NEED to occur.  I don't think I'm explaining this very well, but I think the dice stopping are meant to give significant emphasis on events that occur to/around Mat at the time.  This makes sense in my head, but I don't think I'm explaining it well.

  6. Thanks, all, for the answers on Ishy's partial entrapment.  I just wish that we had more information on WHY he was only partially sealed within the Bore.  There seems to be no real answer for that (yet).  If all of the other Forsaken were locked in and totally out of commission for 3K years, why was Ishy spared partially?  I wonder if this is at all meaningful or just a non-issue part of the plot that we are just supposed to accept.

     

    I went back and read the part of tEotW where Ishy as Ba'alzamon monologues on how he was never trapped and all of the things he has done since the AoL.  Very cool to read it now in retrospect.

     

    ~TheTraveler

     

    That is an interesting question, but it likely won't be answered.  I think I have a partial answer though.  Aginor and Belthamel (sp?) were trapped so close to the surface (they were the furthest away from the center of the Bore I guess?) that they actually sat and watched 3000 years pass by.  They witnessed everything, and because of that, their bodies weren't preserved as well as the bodies of the other Forsaken.  Trapped in a semi-state of consciousness for 3000 years not only took a terrible toll on their bodies, but on their minds as well.  They both learned the current version of the language spoken in Randland, but being trapped while conscious for 3000 years addled their brains and made them crazy.  I suppose maybe something similar happened to Ishamael.  He was even closer to the edge than Aginor and Belthamel, thus causing him to occasionally be able to break free of his entrapment.  This is more a guess than a statement of proven fact from the books.

  7. What am I missing???

     

    He wasn't completely trapped, as some of the characters in the books have realised / pointed out. And they think that's the reason he seems to have gone mad.

     

    You missed one of his names, Ba'alzamon. ;)

     

    According to the BWB (the Big White Book, called "The World of Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time") and a few other sources mentioned in the series, it has been inferred that Ishy was a special case.  He wasn't entirely sealed like the other Forsaken, he was "spun out" of his entrapment every 40 years or so and freed for a time to continue to influence and effect the world in a negative way.  Ishamael, over the course of those 3000 years, was being spun out every 40 years, and going crazy bonkers from his on-again/off-again exposure to the world and his use of the TP, and he eventually began to believe that he was in-fact the Dark One.  He started to call himself Ba'lzamon (sp?) and he continued keeping control over various darkfriend groups, including the Black Ajah.  He kept those dark organizations together over a 3000 year period.

     

    He was responsible for "whispering in Artur Hawkwing's ear" during one of those out-of-prison experiences, and that is what caused Hawkwing to kinda go all paranoid on Aes Sedai at the end of his life.  Ishy was also responsible for warping the Seanchan versions of the Prophecies of the Dragon, which eventually led to them thinking that Rand needs to bow to the Crystal Throne, but in reality, the true prophecies say that the Nine Moons will be bound to him.

     

    He wasn't entirely lying to the boys in the first few books when he told them in their dreams that he was actually the one who was responsible for certain false Dragons like Roalin Darksbane and Guiare Amalasan (sp?), etc...

     

    It is because of Ishy's continued dedication for 3000 year to the DO that he was given such power and influence in the current age as the prison again began to weaken and the DO gained some of his influence back...

     

    Phew.  Does that answer your questions?

  8. Are we certain that rand in fact used the "true power" from the dark one to break the bonds or could it have been some kind of "light version" of the true power - i.E. the true light power that has its source from the creator instead of the DO?

    The One Power (True Source) is the "light version" of the True Power.

     

    The True Power is begotten from the Dark One. The True Source is begotten from the Creator.

     

    This is an opinion, not a "fact."  We don't know with 100% surety that the OP comes from the Creator.  We do know that the OP was used by the Creator to create the Wheel of Time and the Universe (or, the Earth).  I assume this statement is correct, but it can't be stated as fact, only as opinion.

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