This is an interesting idea. I always accepted the story and just thought she did something like LTT did, that is to say overchanneled the OP to go out in a blaze of glory. But your theory makes a lot of sense. I wonder if this is something that might be worth asking BS.



At the end of the book, we see Elayne arrive at the meeting shortly before Rand does. Egwene sees Elayne suddenly look at Perrin's camp when the clouds part, and realises that Rand has arrived and Elayne felt it through the bond. Perrin too thinks in his POV, that Rand has come and will face Egwene the following day. So it is very likely that Elayne will be at the meeting, and will not be at Caemlyn when the trollocs invade. Unless ofcourse I am confused about the timeline and the meeting and the trolloc attack are not happening approximately around the same time.



As mentioned above, Elayne is with Egwene at the meeting with Rand. Her mother is there too, Gawyn sees her and is overjoyed to find that Morgase lives.



I think it pretty much has to take part now. Rand has arrived and is with Perrin in his camp (Perrin's POV) and is going to confront Egwene. The armies are all there, everyone is there, and Rand's POV makes it clear that he is serious about the meeting. It would take something pretty big to disrupt it now. I suppose news from Caemlyn about the trollocs or an attack by Seanchan would do it.



Possible. I wonder how the shadow managed to break through the waygates protections? If Demandred can break through whatever wards Rand has placed, then all the gates are vulnerable and a simultaneous attack like you suggest is possible.



Again, the end of the book tells us that Egwene is planning to meet with Rand and confront him. Besides, this would not make all that much sense anyway given Egwenes thoughts. If Egwene would not go, then Rand would break the seals for certain is what she would be thinking.



I am not sure how the shadow would arrange such a massive attack? Through the Tar Valon waygate? How well is that guarded btw? I mean if the forsaken managed to break through protections placed by Rand when he was already merging with LTT, then it seems probable that they could certainly break the one at TV.



This would actually be pretty cool, though in truth I suspect that Demandred will not be as competent as you hope. I suspect there probably won't the be the kind of allout war that will lead to the shadow and demandred conquering all the way you suggest. Though I do admit that having a really competent forsaken and a real show that the shadow is an immense threat would be fun, before the end.

I should also mention that Cadsuane got Callandor from wherever she had sent it and gave it to Rand for his meeting with the borderlanders. What happened to the thing afterwards is unknown, but it seems probable that Rand will have kept it to himself rather than giving it back, so Cadsuane can die if need be.



Rand is a potential wildcard in the whole Caemlyn attack. If he could do at Caemlyn what he did at Maradon, drawing on the light for extra power or something, then the city might be saved. The problem is that Rand felt that what he did was dangerous. If he tries to do this again to save Elaynes city, then it could lead into disaster.



I made another post about this. As far as we know from the book, Rand does not yet fully know what he is supposed to do or what role Callandor is destined to play the day he meets with the borderlanders. And we know that this was one day before the planned meeting and the breaking of the seals. In other words, I wonder how he can go straight to Shayol Ghul from the meeting, when he does not know what the heck he is supposed to be doing.

I also wonder how the attack to SG will happen. Will Rand just travel there after breaking the seals, with maybe a small force? Hmm. I wonder why the dreamspike is not at at SG actually, to prevent Rand from just traveling straight there. For that matter, all the forsaken likely know how to block traveling, so why is it that the SG and the inner blight is not full of wards to keep Rand from traveling there. Maybe it is actually, that might explain the need for all the armies and dragons and such. If Rand cannot travel to SG directly, he will need to go there the oldfashioned way, by walking.



We know from Rand's POV that he intends to break the seals, no matter what happens at the meeting. So the seal thing was not a clever decoy unfortunately. Beyond that, I too wonder why it is that now that Rand has gained LTT's memories of not just Demandred, but everything, he has not done more to take advantage of it.

For example, there are all those ter'angreal from Rhuidean sitting in those wagons. Since Rand can now recognize ter'angreal by sight (he does it to most of Cadsuanes) one would presume that he would be able to do the same to many/most of the ter'angreal in his control. Who knows what kind of incredibly usefull devices there might be in those places. Several more dreamspikes perhaps? Protective ter'angreals like the ones Cadsuane&Nynaeve have. Rand even says that as LTT he WORE a "paralis-net" like that so we know he is willing to take advantage of ter'angreal to aid him in combat.

What exactly did the new and improved Rand/LTT even do in that month? Maradon, Bandar Eban and the meeting with the borderlanders are the major things that come to mind. He did not even bother to deal with the Black Tower which might result in its fall. What the heck was Rand doing?!? I really hope the reason we did not see Rand doing anything, was because he has something really great planned. If not, if the supposedly "greatest man of an age" basically accomplished only what we have seen in ToM, then I will be really disappointed.




Yes, confirmed by his POV. You should re-read the end of the book.



This is something that really bugs me about Rand. Why is he so gungho about breaking the seals without a proper plan in place. That will only make things worse until he DOES have a plan. Maybe he will learn of the Caemlyn attack, and change his intentions to break the seals, but right now atleast Rand is utterly committed to breaking them.



Yeah, I think it possible that Rand may hand over full command of all his forces to Mat. That would leave Rand free to basically deal the more spiritual/metaphysical struggle with the DO and Moridin/Shaidar Haran, while Mat will take care of the more mundane armies. I wonder what Perrin is meant to do though?



Rand's current status is unclear, and I think it was intentionally left that way since we only had one very short POV from him. I hope we get a bit more of Rand's thoughts in the final book.



Maybe. I am not so sure. For one, I don't think there is enough time left for men to join the Aes Sedai, nor I think enough trust in the world yet. It would feel just a bit strange to me if BT falls, and the survivors who most Aes Sedai are terrified off thanks to their status as male channelers, decide to suddenly become part of the WT. If the BT falls, I think it far more likely that the men would go elsewhere to build a new BT.



Not the full AS symbol, but rather the dragons fang below and separate of the Flame of Tar Valon. If the flame represents saidar, and the fang saidin, then if anything, the TAR moment suggests that the two sides will remain separate of each other, though the fact that both were there likely means that they will be working together. Or perhaps balancing each other, BT and WT.



One thing that comes to mind, is that when Rand attacked the trollocs in Maradon, the fortificatins were left essentially unharmed. I speculated elsewhere that maybe if Rand somehow drew on light/creator for extra power (which would explain the fact that he glowed and the fact that the darkfriends went mad in the vicinity), then that power could only be used to hurt things of the shadow, and that is why Rand's attacks did not hurt the fortifications. If so, he might be able to replicate that at Caemlyn, and basically use weaves of mass destruction in the city against the trollocs, without actually blowing up the city and its people in the process.



The support I meant was less political or military support, but rather the support of an old childhood friend and more importantly, a fellow ta'veren.



Yep. If Callandor is used as implied (Though I suspect not), then Rand already has more than enough channelers. He also has the Wise Ones, and many AS loyal to him. Egwene is not really in the position to rob Rand of all female channelers, no matter what.



Yep. Whether Mat will be caught in the Caemlyn attack really depends on whether Grady takes him and Moiraine straight to Rand.



I think the potential problem is the political implications of submitting to the Seanchan. He could lose support/trust in his own allies, which could be very bad if he is supposed to be a symbol for them against the DO. Unless Rand somehow manages to kneel to Tuon without giving the appearance of being her inferior, and I don't know how that would work.

I mean sure, as a Servant of All Rand might be serving the Seanchan too, but somehow I doubt his followers would be satisfied if he explains actually kneeling to Tuon with that.




Rand knows that Cadsuane is not a BA, since darkfriends apparently cannot be in his presence anymore without clear physical signs (Weiramon and the other guy who plucked out his eyes). So if Egwene sent an order and Cadsuane just ignored her, what could Egwene have done? I doubt Rand would have allowed the WT to kidnap his advisor, and Cadsuane thinks she is near the end of her life so I doubt she worries too much what would happen after the last battle when Rand's influence is gone.

Now how much of this Egwene knows is up for debate. Siuan would likely have told Egwene everything she knows, and Verin atleast came to believe that Cadsuane was not a BA, and would likely have written so in his books. Egwene could also have learned about Rand's anti-DF powers since the whole scene with Weiramon was very public.



Nynaeve would find disobeying far more difficult though. Egwene raised her, and as such many don't consider her a real Aes Sedai at all (until the test). If Egwene decided to throw the book at Nynaeve, she would be screwed. Cadsuane however is a full AS, very old, and has a huge legend to rely upon. She would be far more able to just ignore Egwene and get away with it. Especially if Rand supported her.



Maybe.



One thing worth mentioning is that we have Cadsuanes POV at the end of the book, where she does not show any real concern at Rand's plan to break the seals. The onlything she worries is about whether they are ready. Which is actually quite odd since Rand is apparently NOT ready. One would expect Cadsuane of all people to have asked Rand to explain his full plans after he breaks the seals, and protest once she learns he does not fully know.

Instead she is quite content with the idea, even though she is aware that Rand does not yet know what to do with Callandor.



Maybe, though its a moot point by now. I doubt any DF could be around Rand now for extended periods of time without being discovered, and if Egwene has learned of the Weiramon incident then she should know this too. This would eliminate any belief that Rand is being manipulated by darkfriends. Then again, Egwene might not be willing to accept that Rand really has become the Creators avatar (or whatever). It may be ironic that Egwene was first chosen to be Amyrlin partially due to her connection to Rand, and now this may actually be a weakness in her since Rand has changed so massively from the boy she grew up with thanks to LTT's memories and the whole avatar/champion of light status that he has achieved.



You might be right that the DO will be the one to take the lips and such. The capitalization might indeed point to that. I still that LotE might be separate though.



This is where I disagree. Remember what you said about Rand earlier:



Basically, you admit that Rand has become something more than man, and shows that the Creator still cares. You even point out the possibility of Rand being somekind of avatar.

Rand clearly has some newfound connection to the Creator/Light, but also just as clearly he is still Rand. The Creator has not possessed him completely. If Rand is Lord of the Morning and is still himself despite being empowered by Creator, then why could Moridin not still be himself as Lord of the Evening, despite being empowered by Shai'tan.

Ishamael has basically been claming this from the very beginning:



So the idea is that Rand has been imbued with newfound abilities by the Creator and has truly become his Champion. Rand is Lord of the Morning.

And Moridin will perhaps be imbued with similar but opposite abilities by Shai'tan and will in the process become the Dark Ones champion and Lord of the Evening. This will give a more human face for Rand to defeat.

It might end up being Shaidar Haran instead, but I think Moridin fits better. He and LTT/Rand have a lot more history than SH does. Not to mention that Rand and Moridin are merging somehow, so it would make even more sense for Moridin to be the opposite of LotM.



But back then it was presumably just a title. Perhaps something in some prophecy (which would fit with the whole Lord of the Evening dark prophecy). However I don't think LTT actually caused the sun to appear around himself like Rand does, so one might say that Rand deserves the title more now. Ofcourse Rand is LTT too now and LTT is Rand, but one might equally say that what was only a title for LTT at AoL, has now become truth for him. Just as Moridin could be LotE, but it will not become truth until he fully becomes Rand's opposite and DO's champion.