Date: 2009-11-06
Type: Paraphrased
Location: West Chester, PA
Reporter: Paul Grow
He spoke with obvious and heartfelt passion about the Wheel of Time and mission in front of him.
I asked him a direct question: Where is Demandred? On whom or on what did the Dark One order him to use balefire in book 6? I answered my own question: Surely he is with the Borderlander Army waiting to use balefire on Rand directly. Rand would be burned out of the Pattern and the Pattern would unravel because it it couldn’t exist without him. The Dark One wins.
Brandon said someone killed by balefire could be reborn and woven back into the Pattern later, but the Dark One cannot resurrect that person.
What a cool moment! I wish we could have talked all night.
One fan said his favorite character was Padan Fain and ask if we would see more of him.
Brandon responded that he could not say, but joked that he may or may not have been writing about him on the train.
I laughed and said as I was typing that “Brandon said Padan Fain will be in the next book.”
Brandon looked at me with little humor, saying “I did NOT say that.”
So let that be a warning to you and to me. I take full responsibility for this media report, I hope I get everything right but anyone can make a mistake or misunderstand something, so reader beware.
Brandon talked at length about Mat, saying he is undergoing great changes having just been married, which might explain some of his behavior in The Gathering Storm .
He talked about Jordan’s use of time in the series, explaining that Perrin’s storyline is maybe a whole month off the other storylines.
Brandon explained that the True Power can only be used by someone that the Dark One has allowed to use it. The True Power is perhaps more powerful than the One Power in the way a drugged up person is more powerful than someone not drugged up. In the moment the drugged up person may be, but in the long run maybe not.
Further explaining the True Power, he said the Guardian in Far Madding cannot stop it.
One fan asked him not to make us wait another book for Moiraine’s rescue.
Another asked him, considering how The Gathering Storm ends, if he will miss writing in Lews Therin’s voice.
Brandon said probably, but he was not 100% sure that we will not see Lews Therin’s voice again.
Another fan asked if the balefiring of Graendal could bring back Asmodean, if in fact Graendal was the person who killed him.
Brandon essentially said no, because it happened much too long ago. At best balefire burns someone out of the Pattern three days to a week at the absolute most. But usually more like five minutes.
Brandon named many of the characters that we did not see in The Gathering Storm and pointed out the need for three books to wrap the series up.
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