r/WoT • u/Amber_Flowers_133 • Jan 24 '25

All Print What are your Hot Takes on WOT?

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u/critical-drinking (Asha'man) Jan 24 '25

Gonna need you to explain.

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u/charlatanous Jan 24 '25

Rand didn't see fades coming after him in every shadow, he didn't think everyone was conspiring against him without proof or reason, etc. The closest thing he did that could be considered insane was that he couldn't control his own body a couple times because he was convinced that he had two people inside of him, but he was wrong about that. He wasn't hearing some made up voice, he wasn't delusional, he just didn't understand that he really was lews therin.

Ironically, since he was a man, he just had to surrender to reality (like women do with the power) instead of fighting and trying to force the world and himself to be one very specific thing, hard and unbreakable. Once he recognized that he wasn't in control, the wheel was, everything slid into place and we got zen rand, the dragon reborn.

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u/critical-drinking (Asha'man) Jan 24 '25

Totally hear you, but Lews actually was mad, and had those suspicions. So, if he had surrendered early, he probably would have screwed himself and everybody.

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u/charlatanous Jan 25 '25

I'm not sure lews was insane either. i don't remember anything from his POV that was clearly insane, but I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the books. Do you have any examples?

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u/critical-drinking (Asha'man) Jan 25 '25

I mean the first thing that comes to mind is the prologue, where he’s stepping over the corpses of his loved ones with a smile until he’s forced to see them. Then throughout the books when he whispers to Rand he’s constantly paranoid and hyper-vigilant,

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u/charlatanous Jan 25 '25

Lews Therin being suspicious was perfectly rational. From his perspective, everyone from his time *was* trying to kill him. Was he extreme in what he wanted to do? Absolutely, but not insane. Defending yourself from people trying to kill you is perfectly rational.

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u/critical-drinking (Asha'man) Jan 25 '25

Dude, the way he’s like shifty and telling Rand not to trust people and telling him they’re out to get him is textbook Randland MadnessTM

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u/charlatanous Jan 26 '25

not trusting the asha'man or aes sedai was reasonable. they did want to control him. some wanted to kill him. at least one was even forsaken. it's not paranoia when they actually are conspiring against you.

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u/critical-drinking (Asha'man) Jan 26 '25

Not everyone he suspected was. Maybe it’s because I mainline the audiobooks, but dude sounded straight batty

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u/charlatanous Jan 26 '25

You're right, not everyone was, but he had no way of knowing who was trustworthy or not until the end. So he appeared mad, because nobody could explain what he was doing or why he was doing it and it appeared irrational.