A Memory of Light

[Shaggy]

Still…I was hoping for something a little different.……………

[Shard]

I don't think the DO can ever really be defeated, as someone asked RJ if you could balefire the DO would he die.  RJ said yes but so much BF would be used that it would destroy existence. The DO is the balance of Dark Vs Light, you can't have one without the other. This series has been about character journey's, not the ultimate show down between badass Villains versus there good guy counter parts. This series to me has been about the way historical truths become myth and legend and then eventually forgotten in the mists of time. I suspect the ending to this series will be the continuing cycle of life and not a "They killed the big bad and lived happily ever after".

Even Jo had to admit there would be other Dark Lords and bad wizards for Harry to deal with after Voldemort.

[Shaggy]

I see what you're saying…it's an interesting thought. But…who's Jo?

[Shard]

Jo Rowling, author of Harry Potter.

Tad Williams is another author who ended things showing that life and death events still went on even though the main story that had just read was finished. Sorta like that prophecy Nicola said "The great battle done, but the world not done with battle."

[Shaggy]

Oh, hehe right.  Most people refer to her as J.K. Rowling, so I didn't know who you were talking about  back there. Sorry.

[Shard]

Yeah most do, I just got used to her saying she didn't mind if people refered to her as Jo. Which when you say that off of a HP forum can confuse people. So I do understand the confusion.

[happyman]

I don't think the DO can ever really be defeated, as someone asked RJ if you could balefire the DO would he die.  RJ said yes but so much BF would be used that it would destroy existence. The DO is the balance of Dark Vs Light, you can't have one without the other. This series has been about character journey's, not the ultimate show down between badass Villains versus there good guy counter parts. This series to me has been about the way historical truths become myth and legend and then eventually forgotten in the mists of time. I suspect the ending to this series will be the continuing cycle of life and not a "They killed the big bad and lived happily ever after".

Even Jo had to admit there would be other Dark Lords and bad wizards for Harry to deal with after Voldemort.

This is wonderfully put.  The Wheel turns.

In a way, the real world is like this.  Barring something really cataclysmic, for the foreseeable future, life will simply continue the way it always has.  Even if you defeat some resounding evil, you will die eventually.  The wheel turns.

[Shaggy]

And although you can defeat the (specific) evil (in this case, the Dark One), you can never defeat evil itself. 

[Loud_G]

The plot between LTT and Rand is realy a funny one. LTT think Rend is a mad voice in his head, and Rand think LTT is a mad voice in his head.
I dont think LTT is mad anymore, he did get healed before he did die, but he is/was a very sad man, so sad that he think he is crazy and have a voice in the head (Rand). I f you think about it, he did hear voices before he was healed (lanfear did say that male channelers did that before the madness did take them) so its not strange that he still think he is mad and refuse to "talk" to the voice (Rand).

I used to wonder if there was some sort of time-breaking link between LTT and Rand. So each heard the voice of the other in his own lifetime. So when LTT went mad for the first time his mind got linked up with his future self, and when Rand went mad he linked up with his past self. So that the two timelines are happening simultaneously in their respective heads. Rand wasn't merely hearing voices, but the thoughts that LTT thought a thousand years ago and vice versa.

Trippy, I know, but such are my thoughts sometimes....

[darxbane]

I don't think you are that far off, Loud.  It is obvious that many characters in this book are recycled souls.  Their intuitive knowledge is a dead giveaway.  The real trippy thing about Cyclical history is that the souls of those who live have knowledge of who they are going to be, as well as who they were.

[Cynewulf]

Actually, he is pretty far off. Robert Jordan soundly debunked the "speaking to each other across the gap of time" theory. Time is cyclical, but two different times cannot be occurring at the same time. Everything that is happening is happening in the present, and LTT did not speak to Rand in the AoL.

[Shard]

So what is LTT then? He does have the knowledge and skills of LTT, Rand can now draw because of him and he knows the faces of the Forsaken because of him, not to mention all the different weavings for channeling. Is it some dormant part of Rand's soul remembering the old persona?

[melbatoast]

Maybe LTT's voice was Rand from the last turning of the wheel. You'd think that they would do similar things each time.

[Shaggy]

Or maybe the DO's just trying to do something to screw him up.…

[happyman]

I have a theory about LTT that doesn't involve time travel or torture.  The DO torturing him is unlikely because LTT has been remarkably helpful in cases where the DO would definitely not want him to be competent.

Basically, we know it is possible to have memories that are not from your own life.  Matt got his head filled with memories from other people, and Birgette naturally remembers memories from her previous lives (although she is now forgetting them.)  In both cases, we get a perfectly well-balanced person who just happens to remember a whole bunch of stuff from the past.  Note especially the fact that Birgette produces a single, integrated personality that is constant across all her lives.

I suspect that Rand is experiencing something similar, but with key differences.  Unlike Matt, these memories are from his own soul.  It seems likely that the soul makes a difference; give the same soul the same memories and you get the same personality back.  Thus Rand's personality, as he regained his LTT memories, would begin to overlap and absorb the personality of LTT.  Notice the fact that he starts unconsciously picking up LTT's mannerisms and using LTT's memories without being aware of it.  Note especially that if he doesn't notice it, there is nothing crazy about what he does with LTT's memories.  He is LTT reborn, and so his essence is the same person as LTT, just like Birgette reborn is always Birgette at core; a core which we see in the world of dreams.

Thus I claim that Rand has these extra memories in his head of his previous life, like Birgette.  Unlike Birgette, however, he does not want to admit to himself why he has these memories.  He does not want to admit that he is LTT and that he really did all the things he remembers doing.  These memories are extremely painful ones for him, partly because of LTT's reputation, and especially because of what he did at the end.  Combine his attempt to deny himself (because denying that he is LTT is denying himself) with fact that the taint is probably driving him crazy, and it is easy to see how he could end up constructing an alternate "persona" he could assign the LTT memories to.  Thus LTT is just Rand talking to himself, refusing to admit that he's gone slightly around the bend.

Of course, part of the question is: why does he remember being LTT?  The only answer I can come up with is that the taint triggered it somehow, a la Semihrage's (sp?) explanation in Knife of Dreams that crazy people (even before the taint) somehow remember past lives.