Wheel of Time - Page 33

I guess i'm happy to have finally finished. The general thrust of the novel was satisfying, particularly for Rand and Perrin. That said, there were certainly plenty of opportunities missed to my eyes - such as the Rand/Egwene confrontation, No real resolution reached with Tuon and the Seanchan, but it being all roses at the end regardless, Demandred was a boss and all but unfortunately aside from his interaction with Shendla was rather one dimensional... and so forth.

One of the main reasons I've loved WoT so much during my life was that Robert Jordan packed so much meaning and truth into it. It was a condensed version of everything he knew about our world. The power, and Tel'aran'rhiod in particular were such amazingly versatile metaphors for discussing (and explaining) things that lay beyond our normal understanding of this world. However, while I enjoyed reading about the various battles and tribulations of the characters in AMoL, there was rarely any meaning that I could discern from any of it. I can only assume that these meaningful sequences and ideas came directly from RJ's notes, the very zen understanding Rand reaches by the end for example. The rest was just a regular old fantasy novel.

1. Where did Rand get the sword that he gave Tam? He says he got it from "a kindred spirit" or something like that.

2. When Rand recreates the Dark One's prison, the book says that he is using a "new" power. Do you think this new power is what was used by the Creator to create the world? Does the catechism that "at the moment of creation, the Creator bound the Dark One in Shayol Ghul" perhaps refer to the "Adversaries" like Rand who faced the dark one and created a new prison?

3. Who is the Aiel woman that Avienda sees during her second trip to Rhuidean, and that Rand sees when he leaves the cavern leading to the Bore carrying Moridan? Is she the same woman that Egwene runs into during (I think) book four in the World of Dreams who tangles her fingers in Egwenes ter'angreal, forcing her to feel a flash of pain and wake up? Maybe this woman was the last "Adversary" that created a new prison for the Dark One? Maybe she is an incarnation of the Creator?

I'm especially interested in question number 3, I really am at a loss to explain who this woman is.

1. I suspect it's Justice, Artur Hawkwings sword. It's possible it's Lews Therin's, some archaeologists dug it up from god knows where. It could also be an old false Dragon's. He said it belonged to a kindred spirit, IIRC, which could mean almost anything. (Some ta'veren, some Dragon, someone from the Age of Legends we never heard about, etc).
2. Rand is somehow weaving the pattern (and talking in CAPSLOCKese) the same way the Creator does, yes. I would guess the DO is using "Adversary" to mean "current agent of the Creator".
3. The Aiel woman's name is Nakomi, and Sanderson explicitly said somewhere that he wouldn't say who Nakomi was. Personally I have no idea, and I'm not even sure she was a real person, but that could mean any number of things. There's a forthcoming encyclopedia of some kind which might clear up a few loose ends, but there are also some things that Robert Jordan specifically noted to be left ambiguous. Rand's pipe-lighting shenanigans are one such thing, maybe she's another. She could certainly have been sent by the Creator in some form, and I don't recall the TAR scene with Egwene you're referring to. Speculate away; I'm not sure that we'll ever know that.

The sword was Laman's sword. I assume he bested the other blademaster in a duel, his first one perhaps, and made himself a "true" blademaster by taking his sword. He was a "kindred spirit" because they were both blademasters, I guess.
EDITEDITEDIT: Wiki'd it, AVIENDHA gave him the blade for some reason something to do with repaying her toh to him which he countertrolled by giving her gems in the hilt and scabbard so he thought he being nice but it fucked her toh because it wasn't the full payment then since he "refused" it.

The new power = saidin+saidar+true power.
Shayol Ghul is just where the Bore was originally opened by Lanfear and that other dickhead in the Age of Legends. The catechism is just incorrect. Because as myths fade to legends etcetc as the wheel of time turns that's just how things have been since anyone can remember; the dark one being a shayol ghul since the age of legends.

When Rand leads the cavern I think its Alivia, the old super powerful damane who rand released way back. She helps him "die" by giving him lots of money and a horse and shit so he can start a new life when nobody knows who he is (since very few people recognize moridin, maybe avienha from Book 8 BUT she's bonded so she knows anyway)
I dunno why alivia dresses as aiel, cant remember tbh.

Remember rands body was fucked, but yet he carried "a body" out of Shayol ghul before it was shut, so he must have been in moridins body then, and alivia probably is a massive beast and figured out that it was really rand and helped him hide while everyone else discovered rands dying body conveniently just outside shayol ghul.

I reread again and it seems like yes, saidin+saidar+true power creates weaves in the wheel, since rand lit his pipe without having access to any of the 3, it seems he has a mini version of the Creator. The creator must have split the 3 powers after creating the world and sending the wheel weaving or w/e

Tuon meeting artur: Hi I'm a pretty big fan of you you're kinda the foundation of our own empire
Land of madmen: No longer mad since saidin cleansed hurrdurr
Shara lost the vast majority of their channelers but it won't matter since peace is coming to the land since shara is the only land not in the dragons peace they will not last long. They were being misled by a forsaken anyway they'll be feeling pretty silly
Moiraine gets to have some fun sexy times after all her hard work with Thom as they travel around
Rand goes on and lives happily ever after having sweet hot emotional-self-resonance-amplication sex with his 3 hot babes
and now he's tall dark and handsome instead of tall red haired and handsome without lots of unhealable wounds and a fucked up brain

The one plot hole that is really annoying me is that the DO should know the true power is essential to fully resealing him(That has already happened many many many times from his point of view), if he had just denied it to Moridin when Rand entered the cave he would have broken the pattern of being fully sealed at the end of the third age

The dark one isn't a sentient being like that, he exists as a form of pure chaos and isn't capable of reason the way humans are

Besides he's probably concentrated completely on trying to win ONCE and break the cycle forever and it's that kind of close-mindedness that is the bane of the forces of evil throughout the series despite having sizeable advantages from being able to manipulate and sow chaos among humanity.

If they were organized the 13 could link and run around balefireing everything until the pattern unraveled or even just kill rand and be done with it, but they dont trust each other and assume the guy controlling the link would just kill the rest when he has all their power which he WOULD

Most of the 13 wouldn't want to balefire the world into oblivion, the DO influence them but they are still free beings. Agreed on the take Rand out part but that's part of the organised light side vs stronger but chaotic dark side. IDK about the dark one not being sentient, maybe he lose most of his memories when the pattern reset back to the first age(and I guess that's when the balefired threads come back too) but its been shown that he remember the 2nd age pretty clearly

Well I know for certain that the sword that Rand gives to Tam wasn't Laman's that Avienda gave him, because Rand had Laman's sword with him when went into the cavern. I have a feeling you're just making stuff up : )

yes im making stuff up, you caught me, im trying to undermine jordans creation
what?
the only other sword that rand acquired from besting a blade master is Turak Aladon's sword. I MIGHT be his but it wasnt mentioned to be a heron marked, so I'm not sure. It's probably one of rands old swords from somewhere in books 6-10, it's pretty minor but being the first sword that rand "earned" would make sense

edit: I googled it, apparently it's "justice" Artur Hawkwing's sword. Makes sense since it's "ancient" and "well-used"

"Rand slipped back into the portion of the tent where he'd awakened. Laman's sword was there, sitting atop a neat pile of mixed clothing."

Rand is given a sword at some point during the last three books (can't remember where exactly). It was dug up from somewhere. It's never explicitly stated that it's Justice, but there are hints.

Many people have been speculating that Nakomi is an avatar of the Creator. Presumably his rules about not interfering are somewhat bendable.