An Ending: Rand al'Thor

This post contains spoilers for A Memory of Light. 

Read at your own peril.  

Rand did a lot in this book, but for me, the beginning confrontation with him, Egwene, and all the leaders went pretty much exactly how I expected. (Except for those trees growing out of nowhere. My oh my! Our little Rand is all grown up isn't he?) I loved his exchange with Mat, the two of them trying to one up each other. That was just wonderful, though I wish we had more Rand and Mat time together. Thinking back to the first three books, those two were all each other had for a very long time (even if it was crazy Dagger Mat). It would have been nice to get a longer interaction between the two.

Speaking of people I would have liked Rand to talk to: why couldn't he have told Galad himself they were brothers? I had been greatly looking forward to that interaction. But having Rand tell Gawyn who told Galad just didn't work the same for me. But I'll discuss more about Galad in a later post. 

On to the two major Rand related things:

The Battle with the Dark One

This was not what I expected, and yet I also wasn't surprised. To be clear, I totally expected that Rand would fix the Dark One's prison. The Wheel of Time is after all a Wheel. Things repeat. I knew he wouldn't be able to kill the Dark One (and I'm really unsure how one goes about killing something that's not a person in the first place) and plus the Dark One-less land vision totally underscored that.

I don't know why, but I didn't expect Rand's battle with the Dark One to be so philosophical. I guess I thought it was going to have more Moridin/Rand battle than it was. I mean Moridin has always been our personification of the Dark One. Since the beginning. The whole series started out with Lews Therin and Ishamael after all. I guess a part of me expected their last battle to be more like Falme, you know? The two of them battling in the skies, and everyone able to see it. 

But the philosophical battle made sense, which is why I wasn't surprised. Because in many ways the Dark One's entire battle against Rand has been a psychological one. So it makes sense it would culminate in yet another psychological one. And for a moment when Rand was remembering his father's advice to "Let go", I was horrified. And I was like, "NO! RAND! Absolutely do not let go." But then it all made perfect sense. Because he did have to let go of all that self blame. The Last Battle was not his fault. And it was high time he learned that.

But back to the importance of Moridin: what I didn't expect was that Callandor was a trap for Moridin. Did not see that coming at all. I should have guessed it. I can't see why I didn't. It was all set up and made perfect sense. It was almost inevitable. All of Rand's worry that Moridin would be able to use him through Callandor and instead he used Moridin! It was perfect. It was beautiful. It was right.

But....the body swap....how did that work? Rand was Rand when he carried Moridin's body out, right? The others verified that, said that. So how did they switch bodies? I mean we knew they were connected (stabbing your own hand, Moridin, very clever), but I don't get where the body swap came from. I don't understand how Rand pulled that off. It's obviously involved with that Aiel woman mentioned at the beginning of the epilogue since she told him he did right pulling out Moridin's body, but still. A little more explanation would have been nice.

Which leads me to.....

The End

Part of me feels like Rand shouldn't have lived at all. That is was a little JK Rowling of Robert Jordan to get his main character out of death. But another part of me feels like if there is anyone in that world who deserves a second shot at life, it's Rand al'Thor.

Also can I just say....Alivia helped him die, huh? That was anti-climatic. All she did was steal some clothes, horse, and money. And how the heck did she know? How did she know Rand and Moridin body swapped? I...I....just don't know.  

And holy crap! He can twist the freaking pattern? Who needs the Power when you can twist the world like it's Tel'aran'rhoid. (I totally had to look up the spelling of that. lol) 

I desperately want to know what sort of life Rand is going to live now. What name is he going to go by? Will he ever get to see his children? Because despite his thoughts otherwise, it's not likely any of his ladies will be able to follow him. Oh, I imagine they'll come to him from time to time, since they're still bonded to him and can sense him, but they all have their own duties now. They can't just throw that away and follow him on his life as a nomad.

So by that thought process Rand won't even get a normal life. He won't get to make a little home with his family in some corner of the world. He'll just be a nameless wanderer. And there is something infinitely sad about that, even sadder than if he had just died.

Rand, in Summary

For a long time reading this series, I hated Rand. On my first read through I was very young, and I didn't understand his choices, why he made the decisions he did. And slowly he got darker and darker, not helping me like him one bit. 

On my second read through, I liked him much better. I understood better the forces that were trying to manipulate him and the struggle he was going through. And his growing dark hurt me more than it infuriated me.  

And in the end, I think he proved a worthy hero. He proved himself worthy of the faith the world had put in him. And in the end, I liked him as a character, as a person. 

He came so far from being that boy walking beside his father's wagon. It was a rough road. 

I wish Rand the best of luck at his second, anonymous shot at life, but I worry for him. (Silly to worry for a fictional character I know). Because his life must have a certain level of anonymity. Will his life be a lonely one? I hope not. 

Maybe he'll become a gleeman and tell the great stories of his age. He did apprentice as a gleeman after all. He can find a flute, and maybe Moridin can sing well. And he'll be able to travel and see the world, while telling the tales of the end of the Third Age. 

Good luck, Rand al'Thor. May you find peace for the rest of  this life. Because we all know the Wheel repeats, and someday you'll be Lews Therin again, and...well both happy and unhappy things lie in your future/past. 

And sheesh, now I'm all sad again.