Dawngreeter wrote: Someone make it easy for me.
Isn't there a thread around here about What Happened at the End of WGW?
Anyway, my own personal opinion is that this is about being graceful in the face of things you can't change. "Unattractive truth," in Neil Peart's words. Authenticity. Acceptance. Sacrifice. Death.
Lord Foul is part of Covenant. It's the part of him that hates himself. You can fight that up to a point, as he did in the 1st Chronicles. And that's fine--as long as you realize it's ultimately futile. We should fight against our darker nature and not allow it to rule our lives. But this can go into inauthentic extremes, and Mhoram showed with his Oath of Peace epiphany in TPTP. People can stifle their "good" side by denying their bad side.
So Covenant realized that he was going to end his battle against Lord Foul, and let Foul attack him with all Foul had. When we deny ourselves is when we do our worst damage to others (and ourselves). In this context, giving Foul the ring was the bravest thing he ever did. He admitted the darkness within his passions.
Actually, I said it better back in 2006. (I found my old post.)
Once upon a time in 2006, I wrote:As some of you may remember, I subscribe to the "internal" interpretation of the Chronicles. So it may not come as a surprise that I think what's happening at the end of WGW is just TC finally looking at his own internal Despiser authentically.
Authenticity. I think this is the most important point of the Chronicles: to face reality with unflinching courage, the kind of courage that allows you to accept your guilt at raping a young girl, to accept your responsibility as a free agent in the world, to accept your own potential for violence and Desecration. Lord Foul isn't some foreign enemy, but the enemy within. Most of us are uncomfortable thinking about how we all have the potential within us to do horrible things--and we especially don't like to think about bad things we have already done. It's part of being human.
So how does this help us understand the end of The White Gold Wielder? Let's first look at what happened at the end of TPTP: Covenant's previous solution was strength, resistance, fighting Despite. And that is a valid solution up to a point. We must fight against our own potential for "evil," constanly overcoming it on a daily basis. But if we take that battle too far, it becomes denial. We cannot fight Despite to the very end, because we ultimately cannot rid ourselves of it completely (hence TC's unwillingness to completely kill Foul in TPTP). To make such an attempt is inauthentic, because it denies this essential part of ourselves. No one can force themselves to be perfect.
At the end of WGW, Covenant is accepting his own despite, and taking it upon himself. He is allowing himself to be human, to be imperfect, to be mortal. Afterall, his victory in the Banefire wasn't a purge of the venom, but a FUSING of the venom with the wild magic. It isn't about getting the venom out of his being, but instead not allowing that venom to get out and wreak havoc upon the lives of those around him. Control. Wild magic is passion; and passion isn't always pure. Sometimes passion is angry and violent. Wild.
So by Covenant allowing LF to attack him rather than the Arch, he is absorbing his own despite upon himself, accepting it as part of himself as a way to contain it, not allowing it to hurt those around him--but instead taking that pain upon himself. "I wouldn't dream of fighting you." He is no longer fighting his dark side. "All you can do is hurt me. But pain doesn't last. It just makes me stronger."
By giving Foul the ring, he is acknowledging the venom in his passion, giving his passion over to their more negative aspects. But he is containing their affects through acceptance.
"But each assault hit nothing except the specter, hurt nothing except Covenant. Blast after blast, he absorbed the power of Despite and fire and became stronger. Surrendering to their
savagery, he transcended them . . . He became an unbreakable bulwark raised like glory against destruction.
At the same time, each attack made Lord Foul weaker. Covenant was a barrier the Despiser could not pierce because it did not resist him;"
Because Covenant did not resist his Despiser, he had the power to contain it. It is denial that causes us to fling our malice outwards upon each other. We want others to hurt because we cannot stand/accept our own pain. But Covenant learns the paradoxical solution of defeating-Despite-though-accepting-it.
I think that's cool.
He fought his own mortality during nearly the entire 1st two Chronicles, fought his leprosy and his own end as if it could be defeated. But in the end, he did the opposite of Kevin: he sacrificed himself instead of sacrificing the Land.
) but still overlooked. Good job Nerdanel.
damm I'm starting to sound like Avatar)
