SilenceYourTongueAndWitness, on 27 December 2010 - 04:18 AM, said:
Okay so i finished the book today and it was amazing, it was everything i had been hoping for and more and i figured it deserved some praise, However for most of the novel i was confused about something.
When Rand walked into Tar Valon it seemed pretty ballsy to me and couldn't for the life of me figure out why he was so calm about the whole thing, Or again when he was with the Borderlanders at Far Madding where he couldn't channel. It wasn't until after they had slapped him in the face (totally unexpected and awesome moment) and he said
Quote
"You don't know how close you came to doom," Rand said softly. "If I had come to you but a short while earlier, I'd have returned those slaps with Balefire"
"Inside the Guardian?" Tenobia sniffed disdainfully.
"The Guardian blocks the One Power," Rand whispered. "The One Power only."
Did that I remember during book 12 he had touched the "True Source". So he can't be be cut off from power, a circle of 13 means nothing, male A'dam mean nothing (did i mention how badass Rand is).
Also on a completely different topic anyone else think his ability to just say "screw the hand didn't need it anyway"(minor paraphrase
) was just an awesome way to show Rand being hard as steel.
Anywho enough of my Rand Fanboy rant
One Power=True Source
True Power=Dark One
Anyway, here's something weird about Rand's powers now, and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the True Power. It's basically the essence of the Dark One, and can't possibly be a good thing, though it did get him out of a bind once. It had horrible consequences that almost led to him destroying the Pattern. If he does still use the True Power, then it has to be somehow filtered so that he is immune to its taint (which I gather is rather different from the taint that was on
saidin - much more dangerous in its own way), and I find that to be highly unlikely. I think he was mostly not worried about the Borderlanders because he believed that he could trust them - he did ask Nynaeve to be prepared to make a gateway just in case. But that was part of the whole Dark Rand business - he mistrusted everyone. He overcame that on Dragonmount - that's why he told the Borderlanders that he'd have balefired them IF he'd come a few days before. It's implied that he no longer would consider it, partly because the slaps didn't anger him as they would have, but partly because he wouldn't use the True Power again.
He somehow knew that he should go to the Tower when he came down off the mountain, though last he heard Egwene was still a rebel outside the city. How would he even know that Egwene had control of the Tower? Rand controls his dreams now - is he a prophetic dreamer? He had a dream about going to Tar Valon way back before he even left the Two Rivers:
TEOTW9, Tellings of the Wheel said:
"Noooo!" he screamed ... and grunted as paving stones smacked the breath out of him. Wonderingly he got to his feet. He stood on the approaches to one of the marvellous bridges he had seen rearing over the river. Smiling people walked by on either side of him, people dressed in so many colors they made him think of a field of wildflowers. Some of them spoke to him, but he could not understand, though the words sounded as if he should. But the faces were friendly, and the people gestured him onward, over the bridge with its intricate stonework, onward toward the shining, silver-streaked walls and the towers beyond. Toward the safety he knew waited there.
He joined the throng streaming across the bridge and into the city through massive gates set in tall, pristine walls. Within was a wonderland where the meanest structure seemed a palace. It was as though the builders had been told to take stone and brick and tile and create beauty to take the breath of mortal men. There was no building, no monument that did not make him stare with goggling eyes. Music drifted down the streets, a hundred different songs, but all blending with the clamor of the crowds to make one grand, joyous harmony. The scents of sweet perfumes and sharp spices, of wondrous foods and myriad flowers, all floated in the air, as if every good smell in the world were gathered there.
The street by which he entered the city, broad and paved with smooth, gray stone, stretched straight before him toward the center of the city. At its end loomed a tower larger and taller than any other in the city, a tower as white as fresh-fallen snow. That tower was where safety lay, and the knowledge he sought. But the city was such as he had never dreamed of seeing. Surely it would not matter if he delayed just a short time in going to the tower? He turned aside onto a narrower street, where jugglers strolled among hawkers of strange fruits.
Ahead of him down the street was a snow-white tower. The same tower. In just a little while, he thought, and rounded another corner. At the far end of this street, too, lay the white tower. Stubbornly he turned another corner, and another, and each time the alabaster tower met his eyes. He spun to run away from it ... and skidded to a halt. Before him, the white tower. He was afraid to look over his shoulder, afraid it would be there, too.
The faces around him were still friendly, but shattered hope filled them now, hope he had broken. Still the people gestured him forward, pleading gestures. Toward the tower. Their eyes shone with desperate need, and only he could fulfill it, only he could save them.
Very well, he thought. The tower was, after all, where he wanted to go.
Even as he took his first step forward disappointment faded from those about him, and smiles wreathed every face. They moved with him, and small children strewed his path with flower petals. He looked over his shoulder in confusion, wondering who the flowers were meant for, but behind him were only more smiling people gesturing him on. They must be for me, he thought, and wondered why that suddenly did not seem strange at all. But wonderment lasted only a moment before melting away; all was as it should be.
First one, then another of the people began to sing, until every voice was lifted in a glorious anthem. He still could not understand the words, but a dozen interweaving harmonies, shouted joy and salvation. Musicians capered through the on-flowing crowd, adding flutes and harps and drums in a dozen sizes to the hymn, and all the songs he had heard before blended in without seam. Girls danced around him, laying garlands of sweet-smelling blossoms across his shoulders, twining them about his neck. They smiled at him, their delight growing with every step he took. He could not help but smile back. His feet itched to join in their dance, and even as he thought of it he was dancing, his steps fitting as if he had known it all from birth. He threw back his head and laughed; his feet were lighter than they had ever been, dancing with ... He could not remember the name, but it did not seem important.
It is your destiny, a voice whispered in his head, and the whisper was a thread in the paean.
Carrying him like a twig on the crest of a wave, the crowd flowed into a huge square in the middle of the city, and for the first time he saw that the white tower rose from a great palace of pale marble, sculpted rather than built, curving walls and swelling domes and delicate spires fingering the sky. The whole of it made him gasp in awe. Broad stairs of pristine stone led up from the square, and at the foot of those stairs the people halted, but their song rose ever higher. The swelling voices buoyed his feet. Your destiny, the voice whispered, insistent now, eager.
He no longer danced, but neither did he stop. He mounted the stairs without hesitation. This was where he belonged.
Scrollwork covered the massive doors at the top of the stairs, carvings so intricate and delicate that he could not imagine a knife blade fine enough to fit. The portals swung open, and he went in. They closed behind him with an echoing crash like thunder.
"We have been waiting for you," the Myrddraal hissed.
And the Shadow
was waiting for Rand in the Tower...up until Egwene executed a quarter of the Black Ajah and forced the rest to flee. Just after Rand woke from this dream - in the very next chapter - the Pattern wove Egwene into the mix:
TEOTW10, Leavetaking said:
"Very well," Moiraine said after a moment. "You may come with us."
A startled expression darted across Lan's face. It was gone in an instant, leaving him outwardly calm, but furious words erupted from him. "No, Moiraine!"
"It is part of the Pattern, now, Lan."
"It is ridiculous!" he retorted. "There's no reason for her to come along, and every reason for her not to."
"There is a reason for it," Moiraine said calmly. "A part of the Pattern, Lan." The Warder's stony face showed nothing but he nodded slowly.
Rand and Egwene again, with a POV switch (and a nice reference to Moiraine):
LOC18, A Taste of Solitude said:
Egwene bounded to her feet. "Rand, you have to help me with the Wise Ones; they'll listen to you," she burst out before she could stop herself. That was not what she had intended at all.
"It is good to see you again too," he said, smiling. He was carrying that length of Seanchan spear, carved with Dragons since she saw it last. She wished she knew where he had gotten the thing; anything Seanchan made her skin crawl. "I am well, thank you, Egwene. And you? You look to be yourself again, full of ginger as ever." He looked so tired. And hard, hard enough to make that smile appear odd. He seemed harder every time she saw him.
***
He caught sight of himself in a gilt-framed mirror. "At least you didn't let her see you were tired," he told his reflection. That had been one of Moiraine's more succinct bits of advice. Never let them see you weaken. He just had to become used to thinking of Egwene as one of them.
The last line in particular is interesting, but the main point is Moiraine's advice. That might have a good bit to do with why Rand was so calm with the Borderlanders and in the Tower - if he let them see him weaken (as he did here), then they would only think of their advantage over him. The next time Rand and Egwene saw each other:
LOC27, Gifts said:
"I don't trust any Aes Sedai. They" – there was a hesitation in his voice, as if he had started to use another word, though she could not imagine what – "will try to use me, and I will try to use them. A pretty circle, don't you think?" If she had ever considered the possibility that he could be allowed near the Salidar Aes Sedai, his eyes disabused her of it, so hard, so cold, that she shivered inside.
Maybe if he got angry enough, if he struck enough sparks with Coiren that the embassy went back to the Tower empty-handed, on their own... "If you think it is pretty, I suppose it is; you are the Dragon Reborn. Well, since you intend to go through with this, you might as well do it right. Just remember that they are Aes Sedai. Even a king listens to Aes Sedai with respect, even when he doesn't agree, and he'd set out for Tar Valon on the hour if summoned. Even the Tairen High Lords would, or Pedron Niall." The fool man grinned at her again, or at least showed his teeth; the rest of his face was as blank as river rock. "I hope you're paying attention. I am trying to help you," Just not the way he thought. "If you mean to use them, you can't make them bristle like doused cats. The Dragon Reborn won't impress them any more than he does me, with your fancy coats and your thrones and your fool scepter." She shot a scornful look at the tasseled spearhead; Light, the thing made her skin crawl! "They aren't going to fall on their knees when they see you, and it won't kill you when they don't. It will not kill you to be courteous, either. Bend your stubborn neck. It isn't groveling to show a proper deference, a little humbleness."
"Proper deference," he said thoughtfully. With a sigh, he shook his head ruefully, scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I suppose I can't talk to an Aes Sedai the same way I do to some lord who's been plotting behind my back. It's good advice, Egwene. I'll try. I will be humble as a mouse."
Trying not to look hurried, she rubbed at her face again with the handkerchief to hide her goggling. She was not really sure her eyes were popping, but she thought they must be. Her whole life, any time she pointed out that right was a better way, he stuck out his chin and insisted on left! Why did he have to choose now to listen?
...
Leaning back in that thronelike chair, Rand looked at the chests with a near smile. The Aes Sedai studied him, faces masks of composure, yet Egwene thought she detected a hint of complacency in Coiren's eyes, a faint increase of contempt on Galina's full lips. Nesune... Nesune was the real danger.
Abruptly the lids snapped down without a hand touching them, and the serving women leaped back, not bothering to muffle their squeals. The Aes Sedai stiffened, and Egwene prayed as hard as she sweated. She wanted him arrogant and a touch insolent, but just enough to put their backs up, not to the point of making them decide to try gentling him on the spot.
Suddenly it occurred to her that so far he had shown nothing of that "humble as a mouse." He had never intended to. The man had been toying with her! If she were not too frightened to be sure of her knees, she would go over and box his ears.
...
As they turned to go, Rand spoke again, casually. "I forgot to ask. How is Alviarin?"
"She is well." Galina's mouth hung open for a moment, her eyes widening. She appeared startled to have spoken.
Coiren hesitated on the brink of using the opening to say more, but Rand stood impatiently, all but tapping his foot. When they were gone, he stepped down, hefting that spearhead and staring at the doors that had closed behind them.
Egwene wasted not a moment striding toward him. "What game are you playing at, Rand al'Thor?" She had taken half a dozen steps before a glimpse of her reflection in the mirrors made her realize she had walked right through his weave of saidin. At least she had not known when it touched her. "Well?"
"She's one of Alviarin's," he said thoughtfully. "Galina. She is one of Alviarin's friends. I'd bet on it."
Planting herself in front of him, she sniffed. "You'd lose your coin and stick yourself in the foot with a pitchfork, too. Galina is a Red, or I never saw one."
"Because she doesn't like me?" He was looking at her now, and she almost wished he was not. "Because she's afraid of me?" He was not grimacing or glaring, or even staring particularly hard, yet his eyes seemed to know things she did not. She hated that. His smile came so suddenly she blinked. "Egwene, do you expect me to believe you can tell a woman's Ajah by her face?"
"No, but – "
"Anyway, even Reds might end following me. They know the Prophecies as well as anybody else. 'The unstained tower breaks and bends knee to the forgotten sign'. Written before there was a White Tower, but what else could 'the unstained tower' be? And the forgotten sign? My banner, Egwene, with the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai."
"Burn you, Rand al'Thor!" The curse came more awkwardly than she could have wished; she was not accustomed to saying such things. "The Light burn you! You can't really be thinking of going with them. You can't!"
He showed his teeth in amusement. Amusement! "Didn't I do what you wanted? What you told me to do and what you wanted."
Her lips compressed indignantly. Bad enough that he knew, but throwing it in her face was just rude.
I can see this being a parallel to Rand's meeting with Egwene in TOM, and what he essentially forced her to do (to help him gather all of the nations of the world at the Field of Merrilor, and the Aes Sedai) along with what he actually asked her to do - she thinks that he really wants her to stop him from breaking the seals, as if there is only some small part of him that acknowledges it's the wrong thing to do:
TOM Epilogue, And After said:
"Egwene, what if al'Thor isn't coming? What if he did this to distract everyone from whatever else he's doing?"
"Why would he do that?" Egwene said. "He's already proven that he can avoid being found, if he wants to." She shook her head. "Gawyn, he knows he shouldn't break those seals. A part of him does, at least. Perhaps that's why he told me-so I could gather resistance, so I could talk him out of it."
Anyway, that last quote from LOC was the last time they really saw each other until TOM. Except this bit where Rand spies on her in
Tel'aran'rhiod:
LOC32, Summoned in Haste said:
As soon as Egwene disappeared, Rand stepped out from among the columns. He came here sometimes, to look at Callandor. The first visit had been after Asmodean taught him to invert his weaves. Then he had changed the traps laid around the sa'angreal so only he could see them. If the Prophecies could be believed, whoever drew it out would "follow after" him. He was not sure how much he did believe any longer, but there was no sense taking chances.
Lews Therin rumbled somewhere in the back of his head – he always did when Rand came close to Callandor– but tonight the gleaming crystal sword interested Rand not at all. He stared at where the huge map had hung. Not really a map, there at the end, but something more. What was this place? Was it simple chance that drew him here tonight instead of yesterday, or tomorrow? One of his ta'veren tugs on the Pattern? No matter. Egwene had accepted that summons meekly, and that she would never do if it came from the Tower and Elaida. This Salidar was where her mysterious friends were hiding. Where Elayne was. They had handed themselves to him.
Laughing, he opened a gateway to the reflection of the Palace in Caemlyn.
And of course, the only thing Rand ever managed to do with that information was to send Mat and Aviendha down there, which led to Mat going to Ebou Dar and securing the only slice of the Dragon's Peace that Rand and Egwene can't manage on their own.
I think it's especially interesting because I believe that Rand tried to force that prophecy and therefore it might not even refer to
Callandor at all. What if it refers to Justice?
All that being said, it may be that Rand is constantly connected to the One Power now - it might explain why his kids with Aviendha turn out that way, if he's like that when he impregnates her - but I have a feeling that a lot of Rand's 'miracles' in TOM have more mundane explanations than are readily obvious. Or at least, that they have possible mundane explanations. It may be that RJ intended to leave these things questionable as a reference to the Jesus miracles and other such messiah-type things. He seems to be a lot stronger than normal at Maradon, but it may just be that the integration of his memories helped to raise his skill level. It's not entirely clear. The Light thing when he channels is quite strange, and it seems to be connected to the light that is warding his brain against the taint. It may be that Rand really does control his
ta'veren powers now to a greater extent than before. It might be a balance to all the shit the Pattern has put him through up to this point. He earned it. I just doubt it's all over with; I think there are problems Rand has yet to overcome quite aside from the Shayol Ghul business.
Complex issue, no easy answers.
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