Towers of Midnight synopsis

[Gertrude]

Another thing I've been thinking about is whether Rand will reveal just how intergrated he is with Lews Therin. Especially to the 3 girls. It's one thing to love to love a half crazy young guy but another to love a 300-400 year old guy with the memories he has.

This doesn't seem like it would be an issue to me. Why is loving a half crazy young man who is unbalanced, distant and dangerous easier than loving a young man who is centered, wiser and has integrated the knowledge of an age past into his still young brain and body without displacing his personality? After all they've been through, the memories of a man long dead will be nothing - they are all familiar with Birgitta and the world of dreams, they know how things work.

[Slurktan]

This doesn't seem like it would be an issue to me. Why is loving a half crazy young man who is unbalanced, distant and dangerous easier than loving a young man who is centered, wiser and has integrated the knowledge of an age past into his still young brain and body without displacing his personality? After all they've been through, the memories of a man long dead will be nothing - they are all familiar with Birgitta and the world of dreams, they know how things work.

Because he's not just a young man with some memories like Mat is. Rand actually is Lews Therin. He is going to be significantly different then he was before, he definitely won't have the same personality because it isn't Rand anymore. For example how is Min going to react when he doesn't act like the awkward sheepherder in private moments anymore? He has seen and done things she can't imagine, she is now the simple country bumpkin when compared to him. That is a huge change in their personal dynamic.

How will Elayne react if she thinks about how it's very possible that she is just a surrogate for Ilyena Sunhair and nothing more?

How will Aviendha react when she knows that he is Lews Therin and so she can never be his equal? I don't think it will happen but I'd like to see some parts of Aviendha in the columns learning the history and so knowing that the Aiel were all essentially Gai'Shain to Lews Therin.

[Old Nan]

It's hard to say, but it will probably involve much sniffing, crossing arms under breasts, and spanking. Possibly all three at the same time.

[Gertrude]

Because he's not just a young man with some memories like Mat is. Rand actually is Lews Therin. He is going to be significantly different then he was before, he definitely won't have the same personality because it isn't Rand anymore.

This is where we disagree. They share a soul, but are not the same man IMO. When Rand was dealing with the bleed through he didn't know where these thoughts were coming from and essentially created Lews Therin and assigned these thoughts to him. We have no idea if all the memories are all even from Lews Therin's life. It seems most of them are because they are pretty specific, but the humming with pretty women might be Lews Therin, might be some other guy - the point is, Rand took all of this and assigned it to the Dragon living in his head. He now realizes this is bleed through from past lives, but that Lews Therin doesn't actually exist anymore.

I believe that he will be able to use what he's learned and apply it to his situation, but that Rand is still the only personality in his head. It can't help but affect him in small ways and color his outlook, but I think his personality will remain essentially the same. LTT doesn't exist anymore except as a shared soul, but this is the accepted theology of Randland so I can't see anyone having a problem with it. Everyone is reborn, it just happens that Rand knows where his soul has been and can access part of it. It might cause some comment, but Rand is the Dragon Reborn after all, it's not like they didn't know some small part of him was LTT.

In a month we'll know which theory is right :)

[Wouter]

This was an awesome chapter and a logical conclusion of the end of the last book. Admittedly, it did really feel more like it should either have been the epilogue of that book or in the prologue of the new one, but it doesn't lose its shine because of that.

I loved it that a very minor but nevertheless remembered character from book 1 made an unexpected return. As one of the first who truly helped Rand back then (besides major characters like Thom or Moiraine, that is), it feels good that Rand returns the favour now to Bunt. The WOT is very long winded, but the wide span of the series does allow powerful scenes like this. It was incidentally during his encounter with Bunt during TEOTW that Rand first had the dream about "the dragon being one with the land" - very nice. In the same book, Rand had a dream of walking trough Tar Valon, cheered on by the people who urged him to go the White Tower. It ended with a Fade waiting for him in the tower. I wonder if this dream, minus fade probably (though Mesaana is around), will happen in TOM. Now that Rand seems to have sunshine and happiness following him around, he may well produce the effect that he had in the dream. And the spoiler chapter does seem to indicate he wants to meet the Amyrlin Seat - going to Tar Valon is likely what he has put off for so long.

[Humble Asskicker]

I'm about halfway through Path of Daggers and it's stunning how sluggish the series becomes. It is truly impressive the amount of nothing RJ managed to disgorge just by giving description to every action (relevant or irrelevant) to every one of the hundreds of characters on stage. Crown of Swords spans little over a week for most characters. The Egwene sequence, however, gives a premonition of how incredibly slow the series becomes, spanning a mere two days.

Path of Daggers tops that fabulously. The first 150 pages actually leads up to the point Mat's storyline in the previous book ended, which is three days earlier than Rand's storyline of the previous book. And then comes Perrin's sequence, which lasts all of two days and is basically one interminable accounting of various characters meeting up and doing...well, nothing.

Rand's sequence is pretty much the same, so far, but at least it's interesting watching him plummet to a new level of craziness.

PoD isn't even half a book. It's like the introductory sequence before the book even gets into motion.

No wonder it got slammed by such by reviews. Lazy river writing my ass. Even lazy rivers actually maintain some momentum.