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Wheel of Time: Towers of Midnight
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Most striking example is what happened in the prologue of the eye of the world - LTT leads the strike against the DO and 'wins', only to have the DO drive him and all other male channelers hopelessly and incurably insane. Ishamael then shows up and uses the true power to push the crazy aside long enough for LTT to realize that 1) he is totally batshit insane and 2) at least one of the forsaken made it past the battle without getting trapped in the seal.
Points go to the DO in that little exchange. I mean, you couldn't even call it a Pyrrhic victory - the seal didn't work as planned, the world is being actively destroyed, and the DO's agents are still out in the world. The only thing I can think to call it is one hell of a contingency plan.
But none of that indicates a memory dump of all his past lives into his head.
Also, I think it would be interesting to see Collander wielded by three people using the three power sources.
Well, the seals were meant to hold the DO, not the Forsaken. The fact they were there was just a bonus. So their plan worked, just with some very major collateral damage. So I'd say Pyrrhic Victory applies to it. The Shadow would have consumed the world if they hadn't of 'won'. Granted, it wasn't stopped for all time, but war pretty much never is and they'd remained mostly Shadow Free for a good while.
Of course, mostly isn't totally so I suppose it's a matter of degrees of success. Now that I think about it more I suppose you may be right. :P
Re: Callandor and 3 power sources- Neat idea, but in the end I don't think it would really do anything since it only amplifies the male half of the True Source. So the True Power and female half would just be there. Unless, of course, it doesn't work out that way...
Yeah, I think Birgette (as she is now) is a much closer approximation of what Rand is.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Uh, what?
That quote is easily seen as being metaphorical.
Unless, as I said, you truly believe he had a moment of complete omniscience or something. (Which is also possible but still doesn't argue against the point.)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
It takes place in an intensely personal "in his head" type scene. Metaphor is not out of place here. He comes to his conclusion and he "sees in his mind's eye" which doesn't have to mean LITERALLY sees but rather can imagine or see metaphorically. His revelation "shows" him (metaphorically) that lives are full of happiness and joy and love and carebears and all that shit and that this is why we live again and again.
Could go either way really, we'll see next book.
Regardless even if it is literal it's still not a refutation of him being LTT specifically come back. LTT is, after all, the only voice in his head. And as TGS goes on, we see that Rand and LTT are becoming one. Hell, the impetus for his whole mutual suicide pact with existence is his guilt over LTT killing Ilyena. Or, rather, him killing his wife.
Right, and she remembers much of her past lives. They are just so long ago as to be irrelevant to anything happening now. (Though... dangit, now I can not remember about exactly when her last life was. It seems she was alive during the Age of Legends, as Moghedian knew who she was even before she herself did. Grr... will pay attention as I get to that book during my rereads. I must say having these books in ebook form is frigg'in awesome. Quite nice to have them all easily accessed.)
I am curious why you are certain that scene wasn't literal. I see no reason to think it wasn't so. We are talking about a point where he had pulled more of the power than any other being has ever held, period. Probably even as part of a group. And, since we are talking about a magical world...
Yes, and that's why I said "Approximation".
She's closer to Rand in that she is essentially Birgitte reborn. The hero herself come back to life. Not Birgitte returned as a new person, but Birgette herself returned.
That's not the way it's normally done.The normal way is your soul gets spun out again as a new person. No memories, no nothing. A new life, a new body, a new person, a new everything.
Rand is The Dragon Reborn. He's LTT come again. Not the soul spun out into a new body, but that specific guy, returned from the dead somehow in a different body. With memories and personality and madness and everything.
Because while it may be a "magical world", there's rules. If he got ALL his past memories back, it came out of nowhere.
Also, you should continue reading, as he then talks about how he knows he will never hear LTT voice again: "For they were not two men, and never had been." There's no mention of the other infinite number in his head. Because the whole thing is about his integration with LTT. With realising they are the same person.
So, basically, there's only that 1 line in the entire series that implies that it is to be taken as him literally seeing the memories of everyone he's ever been.
Its been pretty much confirmed that he got Lews Therein's memories seeping into his head because the taint 'broke' the barriers that keep lives and memories seperate in his soul.
Where?
He's probably talking about when they captured Semirhage.
For one book split into three, this felt like it got about three times as much stuff accomplished as any other book. I think I need to be refreshed on a few points, though.
Wasn't Morgase controlled by one of the Forsaken? Bryne and Gawyn and most everyone else seemed clueless, but I thought most people found out earlier. Also reminds me, if all the Aes Sedai reswore, guess that mean the two that were stilled have them back again.
What happened to the one Aes Sedai whose twin sister died? I remember her being on a quest for revenge, I think she died too. I can only vaugely remember Noal...isn't he the grandson or cousin of one of the Horn of Valere heros? What happened to the other Wolfbrother?
Those are all just random things I was wondering while reading, since I haven't kept up too closely with the books. I wonder...is there a site that lists all the sword forms/stances/attacks and their descriptions? I was always very interested in those, they were used pretty nicely by a WoT MUD I played on.
The one without Mat is Path Of Daggers. On reread I found it alot better then I remembered the first time. It gets a bad reputation for a) having no Mat and b) being the first of the shorter/"less good" type of books in the series. On reread, it's got quite a few good things in it and, frankly, no Mat chapters is better then a bunch of chapters of Mat doing nothing. (If I wanted to get really mean, I'd point out that people bitching about no Mat chapters in PoD is pretty much the direct cause of Crossroads of Twilight being what it is)
As to your questions:
2) Also not accounted for. Last seen in Winter's Heart I believe, when he kills him some renegade Asha'man. No clue where he is now.
3) Loial was last seen in KoD. He's gone off to get the Ogier to fight at the Last Battle.
4) Galad has taken control of the Whitecloaks who've left the Seanchan (the Questioners and the rest of the Whitecloaks are still with the Seanchan) and is both very much alive and is going to be meeting Perrin next book.
5) Yes, Morgase was controlled by Rhavin. She escaped but is thought to be dead by almost everyone. Only a few know she is alive. She is currently posing as Maighdin, a maid servant to Faile.
6) The Aes Sedai sisters were Vandene and Adeleas. Adeleas got murdered and Vandene gets killed later when Elayne is captured in KoD, but not before Vandene finds out who her sisters killer was and knifes the bitch right before she is killed herself.
7) Noal is some old guy who Mat met in an alley in Ebou Dar. Is presumed to be Jain Farstrider, although he seems to be broken by something that happened to him to do with the Shadow and is hiding under an assumed name and refusing to admit who he is.
8) Elyas, the other Wolfbrother and the guy who showed Perrin what he was, is alive and well and with Perrins ragtag group.
I don't remember all of that either. And I've been beated with much better answers anyway! But:
Almost no one knows Morgase was being controlled. Mainly because they're not trying very hard to tell people.
Pretty sure the twin sister found out who killed her sister, killed the murderer, then got killed herself. I think when Elayne tried surprising a bunch of blacks and got them all caught instead? God, this is just making me realize I need to re-read all these books...or read a nice summary....
People close to Rand that believe him, and some that don't.
Mat (found out independently)
Morgase's entourage.
Maybe one or two of the Forsaken, but who cares about them.
A bunch of the people who know don't believe Rand, even though when he did the deed he wasn't anywhere near insane.
I don't know if this might interest anyone, but there's a strange modern fantasy book where Robert Jordan is the main villain's reason for becoming evil.
"Nineteen pages on a harvest!?" has become the first thing I think of when warning someone about the WoT books ever since.
I finally got to read Gathering Storm.
Awesome fucking book. My favorite scenes had to be:
2) Verin's epic reveal. If anyone does a WoT phalla that should be a role. :P
3) Rand's epitome is further proof that WoT needs to be made into an anime, so that this scene can be given the proper shounen music theme treatment it deserves.
I wonder how much of the improvements in this book where Jordan realizing his character's had devolved into terrible caricatures and fixing it, and how much Sanderson bringing some fresh insight to the whole thing. Because it's amazing that the series has managed to make these people likable again.
Thoughts on the future:
Gawyn needs to have Morgase show up and give him a smack down as well. This is necessary to complete the redemption of his character. It's astounding that Galad is currently the more likable of the two.
Let's pray Elayne is not a bitch whenever she shows up again.
It answered a few questions I'd had, that one. And yes, it really should.
OK, I haven't read TGS yet but,
Like, this would be the role pm:
If it is at least Day 5 and you are still alive, you may EPIC REVEAL all the other Black Ajah members in the thread. If you do, you automatically die that night but gain the Village win condition.
You should really just read it, but if you really want to know:
I'll be damned. I never even realized Galad > Gawyn. Boy did Gawyn go to hell. Good call.
Thats true for so many characters. I never thought while reading the first two books that the following would end up true for me:
Nynaeve >>> Perrin
everyone else in books >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Elayne
Robert Jordan writes some very unpleasant heroes. This was the first book I think where I actually liked Egwene.
So are Nynaeve and Egwene. Probably.
Gawyn is really annoying.
Egwene: Rand didn't kill your mom.
Gawyn: Ok.
Two books later
Egwene: Rand didn't kill your mom.
Gawyn: Ok.
G:"Siuan Sanche should never have gotten you mixed up in her plots!"
E:"I dove headfirst into that trap!"
G:"Still! You can't handle Aes Sedai plots!"
E:"But I'm a plotting Aes Sedai and you're a moron!"
G:"Blah blah I hate Rand"
I don't see why this comes up. The characters haven't really changed at all really between KoD and TGS. I mean, they evolve as the story goes on, but there's no big massive change where suddenly the characters in TGS are completely different.
Well, other then Mat feeling a bit off in how he was written.
Answer:
Doesn't Verin
I don't mind spoilers, I won't be reading these books for a looong time but this has always bothered me.
Well