The Towers of Midnight - speculation and observation
First things first... ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVE READ the entire series should read this. Jeff, that means DO NOT go under the cut or you will be spoiled. A lot.
Just finished reading the Towers of Midnight, the second-to-last novel of the Wheel of Time series, started by Robert Jordan (a long-winded author indeed) and being finished by Brandon Sanderson (a fantastic author). I can tell you... wow... STUFF HAPPENS. For those of you familiar with WoT, this is actually a profound statement. More than a couple books in WoT had almost nothing of any significance happen. They were like those 'filler' episodes in TV that have no real purpose but to fill space before the grand finale.
Towers of Midnight, and the previous The Gathering Storm, are when the Last Battle approaches. In the Gathering Storm, we saw the reunification of the White Tower through the careful and patient efforts of Egwene Al'Vere, the revelation that Verin Mathwin was Black Ajah... and that she used the oaths of the Black and Darkfriends against them, taking a poison that would kill her in an hour... and allow her to betray them because the oaths she swore were "To serve till the hour of my death". The Black Ajah was routed... we find out that Moiraine is alive and in captivity...
We also see the hardening of Rand's heart... he almost killed Min and his father... moment after moment he becomes worse... until at the very end, he is about to draw enough power to kill himself and everyone in the world... and is saved. The disparate personalities of Lews Therin and Rand Al Thor... they both realize that they are one and the same. The Dragon is truly and completely reborn... and they've always been the same person.
Towers of Midnight... even more so... has shit happening. The end is coming. Rand is changed, but more the same person he was before the series began... and more than that at the same time. He's finally ready to face the Dark One. What I found interesting was that part of Perrin Goldeneyes' story actually takes place DURING the events of The Gathering storm, because we realize that he's present in the Wolf Dream when Rand is making his decision to annihilate himself or redeem himself. Slayer is finally killed as well.
Plots and threads started in the VERY FIRST book finally resolve, with Perrin finally getting his chance to defend his actions in killing two Children of the Light in book one. Interestingly, he finds himself deemed guilty. Galad DAmodred, the Lord Captain Commander, the one who will pronounce his sentence, ends up FOLLOWING Perrin.
Mesaana and Aran'gar meet their ends... well, Aran'gar is destroyed by balefire... Mesaana... her mind is SHATTERED by Egwene in the world of dreams, and she's left a gibbering, drooling lunatic trapped in her own mind.
Mat manages to kill the Gholam that's been hunting him... and he, Thom and Noal go to save Moiraine. When they get out, it's revealed that Noal is Jain Farstrider, one of the mythical heroes.
The last part... well, the last part is the most interesting... Avhienda, one of Rand's three lovers, goes back to Rhuidean to enter the pillars of light as the last step in becoming a Wise One of the Aiel. Something that she does to them changes them... and instead of showing the hidden past of the Aiel, they show the future... a horrible, terrible future. One that has the Aiel becoming and honorless, horrific shadow of their former selves... and a world where the Seanchan have come to rule entirely. The Last Battle was won.... the dark one sealed away... but what was left was a world still divided. Avhienda comes out of the pillars knowing full well that this is NOT a possible future, this IS THE FUTURE. Period.
Here's where my speculation comes in... in these visions... there is NO MENTION of the Asha'man, or male channelers at all. This has to have been intentional. Interesting thought, that... did the end of the Last Battle kill all male channelers in the world?
Another thing that's been poking at my skull... it's said that male Aiel who are channelers are sent to the blight to fight the shadow until they die. But the interesting thing is... I think that many of them don't die. They're turned to the Shadow. A little blurb at the end of the book tells me there's something totally new coming... that A Memory of Light may be the end of the WoT story... but still new things are coming.
I would love for more to be written. The tale of Rand Al Thor and the 2-3 years which the series run through, they are one story... but there's a lot more out there. I want to see more stories from the series and world... and sincerely hope that Sanderson revisits it a bit.
Just finished reading the Towers of Midnight, the second-to-last novel of the Wheel of Time series, started by Robert Jordan (a long-winded author indeed) and being finished by Brandon Sanderson (a fantastic author). I can tell you... wow... STUFF HAPPENS. For those of you familiar with WoT, this is actually a profound statement. More than a couple books in WoT had almost nothing of any significance happen. They were like those 'filler' episodes in TV that have no real purpose but to fill space before the grand finale.
Towers of Midnight, and the previous The Gathering Storm, are when the Last Battle approaches. In the Gathering Storm, we saw the reunification of the White Tower through the careful and patient efforts of Egwene Al'Vere, the revelation that Verin Mathwin was Black Ajah... and that she used the oaths of the Black and Darkfriends against them, taking a poison that would kill her in an hour... and allow her to betray them because the oaths she swore were "To serve till the hour of my death". The Black Ajah was routed... we find out that Moiraine is alive and in captivity...
We also see the hardening of Rand's heart... he almost killed Min and his father... moment after moment he becomes worse... until at the very end, he is about to draw enough power to kill himself and everyone in the world... and is saved. The disparate personalities of Lews Therin and Rand Al Thor... they both realize that they are one and the same. The Dragon is truly and completely reborn... and they've always been the same person.
Towers of Midnight... even more so... has shit happening. The end is coming. Rand is changed, but more the same person he was before the series began... and more than that at the same time. He's finally ready to face the Dark One. What I found interesting was that part of Perrin Goldeneyes' story actually takes place DURING the events of The Gathering storm, because we realize that he's present in the Wolf Dream when Rand is making his decision to annihilate himself or redeem himself. Slayer is finally killed as well.
Plots and threads started in the VERY FIRST book finally resolve, with Perrin finally getting his chance to defend his actions in killing two Children of the Light in book one. Interestingly, he finds himself deemed guilty. Galad DAmodred, the Lord Captain Commander, the one who will pronounce his sentence, ends up FOLLOWING Perrin.
Mesaana and Aran'gar meet their ends... well, Aran'gar is destroyed by balefire... Mesaana... her mind is SHATTERED by Egwene in the world of dreams, and she's left a gibbering, drooling lunatic trapped in her own mind.
Mat manages to kill the Gholam that's been hunting him... and he, Thom and Noal go to save Moiraine. When they get out, it's revealed that Noal is Jain Farstrider, one of the mythical heroes.
The last part... well, the last part is the most interesting... Avhienda, one of Rand's three lovers, goes back to Rhuidean to enter the pillars of light as the last step in becoming a Wise One of the Aiel. Something that she does to them changes them... and instead of showing the hidden past of the Aiel, they show the future... a horrible, terrible future. One that has the Aiel becoming and honorless, horrific shadow of their former selves... and a world where the Seanchan have come to rule entirely. The Last Battle was won.... the dark one sealed away... but what was left was a world still divided. Avhienda comes out of the pillars knowing full well that this is NOT a possible future, this IS THE FUTURE. Period.
Here's where my speculation comes in... in these visions... there is NO MENTION of the Asha'man, or male channelers at all. This has to have been intentional. Interesting thought, that... did the end of the Last Battle kill all male channelers in the world?
Another thing that's been poking at my skull... it's said that male Aiel who are channelers are sent to the blight to fight the shadow until they die. But the interesting thing is... I think that many of them don't die. They're turned to the Shadow. A little blurb at the end of the book tells me there's something totally new coming... that A Memory of Light may be the end of the WoT story... but still new things are coming.
I would love for more to be written. The tale of Rand Al Thor and the 2-3 years which the series run through, they are one story... but there's a lot more out there. I want to see more stories from the series and world... and sincerely hope that Sanderson revisits it a bit.