Timewaster's Guide Archive

Based on my quick readthrough of the movie website, the only real connection I see is the "Shadow" character who can block the psychic vision of others, kinda like how Smokers create a Coppercloud.  Of course, that's not an original idea anyways.  I'd never heard of Push before but I'm sure it'll be a good way to waste $15 - I always like to support sci-fi or fantasy movies, even if they suck.  It makes me hope that eventually a few decent movies in that genre will be made.

The three primary characters of the story (Rand, Mat & Perrin) could not die up to this point because it has been prophesied that they are all essential to success at Tarmon Gaidon.  Thus, when Mat had the building fall on him at the end of book 7, it was obvious that he was not dead, even though we never heard from again until well into book 9.  We also know from RJ's comments that Mat will survive (and Tuon), because he was planning to write a spinoff book about them.  Perrin is also highly probable to survive and have some share of ruling Saldaea with Faile in the future.

Rand of course is the big mystery.  The vision of Logain walking over a puppet-faced Rand on his way to glory (see Egwene's dream in ACOS, Ch. 10) implies that Rand may fake his death and allow Logain to rule in his place.  Whether that is over the Ashaman or some portion of Rand's empire remains to be seen.  Also, it is possible this occurs earlier in the story of AMOL so that Rand is free to focus solely on Tarmon Gaidon, free of political maneuvering.  I think it is highly probably that Rand does die in some form during the end of AMoL; there is too much foreshadowing of his death to ignore it.  As to how that is finally resolved...any of the theories mentioned in this topic is possible.

Nynaeve & Lan are also likely to survive - Lan's upcoming run through the Borderlands, gathering the scattered Malkieri to his side, will likely help set up his post-Tarmon Gaidon future of ruling the rebuilt kingdom of Malkier.  Unfortunately, there aren't any prophecies that refer to this, so this is just speculation.  It is also possible that Lan & his Malkieri will die in the attempt to hold back the Shadow at Tarwin's Gap.  I just don't think it likely.

Elayne will at least survive until her babies are born, which will take several months (she is two months pregnant as of the end of KoD).  Since the books are currently covering approximately a month of time per volume, I'm guessing that these births won't happen until after the main part of the story is over (perhaps in an Epilogue of AMoL).  Aviendha is also supposed to have Rand's babies, but as far as we know she is not pregnant yet (or at the very least, even more recently than Elayne).  This is because Elayne & Aviendha's sister-bonding experience forbid anyone being pregnant - the Aiel wise women involved would have detected if this was the case and stopped the process immediately.  It's possible they did it behind the scenes since then...but then the same explanation for Elayne would apply here as well.  Min we have no idea about, although it is expected that she is one of the three women who mourns Rand's death in her own viewing of Rand from TEOTW.  Unless that is part of the trickery of Rand faking his death...

Egwene I am unsure about.  If there was ever a time for her to die, it would be when the Seanchan attack the White Tower.  It's quite possible Gawyn chooses wrong and picks the path in which he would try to kill her, but since she had her own dream about the Seanchan swordwoman helping to save her live...it's likely that any attempt to kill her during this attack would be unsuccessful.  I don't see how Gawyn would be caught in any other situation to kill her aside from the upcoming attack, where he would be forced to choose a side that may not be the same as Egwene's.  Egwene is also prophesied to bond Gawyn, which throws a wrench into her possible death.  I guess that could happen before the attack, but then it would be highly doubtful a warder would kill his own Aes Sedai.  Too much uncertainty on this one, but I would guess that Egwene indeed does survive and becomes Amyrlin over whatever Aes Sedai are remaining after Tarmon Gaidon.  Assuming the White Tower even survives....

That's all I've got for now - need time to think about the other 50 important secondary characters.

Rand will die, at least temporarily, but it will not last.  Perhaps Nynaeve will figure out how to bring someone back to life, as she has been dreaming to do since the series started.  Mat will survive according to RJ, as he had plans to write one spinoff novel involving Mat and Tuon.  As for the wheel being broken, I seriously doubt this would happen unless the Dark One won the final battle.  Remember, the Dark One's goal is to kill time by destroying the Wheel - it is the Wheel that essentially keeps him trapped in his prison completely.  And I can't see RJ devising an ending where the Dark One wins, because the point of this entire world is that everything is cyclical, that the Dragon is constantly reborn to fight and defeat the Dark One to save the world.  The light will win in the end, although the manner of their victory is a big unknown.  RJ is also not the type to come to slaughter all his good guys; he can't even kill off Moiraine in the end.  I would be shocked if Egwene died too; she has her, as of yet, unfulfilled dream involving a Seanchan woman saving her.  Since the upcoming Seanchan attack on the White Tower would be the perfect opportunity to knock her off, it seems quite improbable that she will meet her demise at all.  There has been absolutely no foreshadowing for that, and RJ hints at pretty much everything that happens in this story (although it's often pretty difficult to figure out all the details).

All that being said, I'm greatly anticipating this final volume.  There will be a few big surprises I'm sure.

I agree that this is a brilliant discussion.  There are so many factors to consider in determining which magic user is more powerful.   However, I think the first thing we need to do is level the playing field.  There were a lot of comments of "if the the Mistborn could sneak up on the channeler," or "is the channeler an Aes Sedai or Ashaman" that make this discussion a bit confusing.  I think you have to say that this is a pre-arranged match, where each side knows the basic abilities of the other and has time to prepare for it.  Otherwise, you could slant events to make either side more likely to win.  Also, you would have to release the rules on Aes Sedai channeling and just focus on the powers that they have.  Since we're assuming that all Mistborn have the same basic abilities and skills, I think we have to assume that the channeler in this battle would have a good grasp of all five powers and knowledge of all the different types of weaves.

Assuming the above conditions, the Mistborn is most likely dead.  They have no protection against Compulsion (as previously indicated), and if the channeler were to use it immediately they could just have the Mistborn slit his own throat.  Atium would not help defend against that as they could not see what weave the channeler would use, just simply that they were going to use a weave.  A duralumin fueled iron-pull would be the only way to get away from it, as I believe a Compulsion weave has to follow a distinct physical path from the channeler to the subject.  That being said, unless the Mistborn were able to move far enough away (out of sight), the channeler could quickly get them again.

Essentially, this battle would end up going two ways - over in seconds with the channeler winning, or a long game of cat-and-mouse where the Mistborn hopes pewter dragging would allow them to tire out the channeler.  In direct face-to-face combat the channeler has too many weapons to attack or counteract anything the Mistborn could do to them.  Emotional allomancy, as previously mentioned, is a risky game of trying to disturb the channeler while hoping you don't get caught up in a bubble of air, a wall of fire, a massive lightning storm (like the one Rahvin uses in Fires of Heaven that "killed" Mat and Aviendha) or those crazy red lines that shoot out of Rand's hands in Crown of Swords and Crossroads of Twilight.

I really like the idea of the grey man Mistborn, although since the grey men aren't really people anymore (just hollow shells with no souls), I don't think that it would be possible since they are devoid of independent thought.  Otherwise you'd see grey men channelers.  Mistborn would be the ultimate darkfriends, however, used to assasinate whomever the Forsaken wished.

This entire topic just makes me more excited for A Memory of Light - Tarmon Gaidon here we come!