Kevin's Watch

...I answer that the Fatal Revenant is Linden Avery.

A Revenant is a spirit back from the dead. A fine contradiction the author creates by sticking Fatal in front of Revenant, aye? So the Thomas Convenant of the first part is an illusion,,created by a Glamor..uuummm.how many here have stated that they wanted the Last Chronicles to be more TC?..a Glamor indeed ,and with it the author so easily pulled off the Illusion on those so enthralled with TC.

The " real" TC doesn't show up to just about the last page,,,so that kinda eliminates TC all together as the Fatal Revenant..imho,,leaving Linden,,as the spirit back from the dead( the " I'm dead belief still being teased as untrue by the author) and because she is beginning to actually make her own choices,, yes,, some of her choices are " fatal" to some of the other characters, but they are also " life affirming" in that she is discovering more and more about her " self"...She is on the road to "Earning Knowledge". By Earning Knowledge,, self discovering,,she is killing off her olde self ,,so Fatal has another dimension and application here. The contradiction of Fatal and Revenant brings forth a " new" understanding. Alls I am doing is taking Donaldsons own words in FR and showing how Linden is the only character that they " fit". Seems to me Linden is The Fatal Revenant.

How do you see it?

There are plenty of fatal revenants, Lurch. Roger is a revenant of TC's and Joans imperfect union. Joan's ring is a symbolic revenat of the same. Jeremiah too, is a revenat of the despiser's earlier attempt to crush TC/Joan. Also, Anele is a revenant... whose nature is yet to be revealed.

Hrmm, I'm pretty sure It's TC. This is particularly clever because you are fooled into thinking Roger is he in the first part of the book, but if it is *really* Covenant, that has interesting implications.

It's Thomas Covenant. He's going to make things really bad for Linden. Unintentionally of course, but still.... She doesn't know that yet. But meeting him in Andelain will be seriously bad karma for her. He's the Fatal Revenant because he's going to really mess it up. BAD. This isn't a spoiler; I don't know for sure. It's my belief, that's all.

Where is Wayfriend, guru of the GI when you need him? Didn't SRD say something about Linden being the Fatal Revenant in the GI or did I totally dream that up?

CJ..its been awhile for me, so, can you help me out with the " GI"..? ..Does Donaldson still do the q&a at his site?

And..i find it amusing that the author chooses to use only one or two lines in the whole book of Fatal Revenant, to ever so slightly hint that Linden may yet be alive in the real world.. the quick little " was it her imagination" that she may be in a ambulance rushing to a hospital,,oww, that son of a gun!!

GI is the Gradual Interview which is the Q&A section of his websites where fans can ask questions.

CJ..thang yup!..its all coming back to me now..Will have to check it out..I can definetly understand how it is that Linden is THE Fatal Revenant. He such a word smith!!

I know, I love him too.

Not to sure who I think is the Fatal Revenant? It could be more like Fatal Revenant's

I mean in this book everyone we know of from the 'real' world is dead. TC for sure, Jerimiah...Linden...and Roger.

The only one who is brought back to life in the Land is TC at the end.
I think the Book is the best yet, but don't have a clue about the title, or cover art for that matter! I mean the Forestal was in the book for what 3 or 4 pages? Important as hell, but still very cameo.

I vote that the Fatal Revenant is TC!!

Stutty must go abed, but as I just finished this masterpiece I have some thoughts.

Revenant - returning from lost, usually dead
Fatal - us native Englishers are all thinking doomed or causing death or something on those lines. but "fatal" has other implications in it's meanings....


more bis morgen... guten nacht!
stutt

Ok, here's what I was so obliquely referencing that late night.

From www.dictionry.com def 3 - 5 of "fatal"
3. decisively important; fateful: The fatal day finally arrived.
4. proceeding from or decreed by fate; inevitable: a fatal series of events.
5. influencing or concerned with fate; fatalistic.
Plus two obsolete definitions ironically "Doomed" and "Prophetic."

Seems to me "Returning (especially from being dead)" + definitions 3 through 5 pretty clearly indicate TC. Clearly the most important, and hence titular, character in the book.

Doesn't seem like much now, but just being post FR and near 1am, it was a puissant revelation.

stutt

In addition to what everyone else has said, don't forget that a croyel is a Fetal Ravenant.

But seriously, thanks to Linden, TC is definitely a revenant at the end of the book. It's the method of creating the revenant that is fatal, not neccessarily TC himself.

lurch wrote:And..i find it amusing that the author chooses to use only one or two lines in the whole book of Fatal Revenant, to ever so slightly hint that Linden may yet be alive in the real world.. the quick little " was it her imagination" that she may be in a ambulance rushing to a hospital,,oww, that son of a gun!!

Whoah...missed that! What page ref!?!?

Under defs. 4 & 5, it would be Linden. Her waking the worm was foreseen, and was unavoidable, her being who she was.

And she does return. And she is dead in the real world (You don't survive a bullet-wound of that kind.)

Emotional Leper wrote:Under defs. 4 & 5, it would be Linden. Her waking the worm was foreseen, and was unavoidable, her being who she was.

4. proceeding from or decreed by fate; inevitable: a fatal series of events.
5. influencing or concerned with fate; fatalistic.

I think I can still win this.

Being part of the Arch of Time, I don't see how anyone could be more "proceeding from fate" or more "influencing or conerened with fate" than TC.

bring it EL.

stutt

Stutty wrote:

Emotional Leper wrote:Under defs. 4 & 5, it would be Linden. Her waking the worm was foreseen, and was unavoidable, her being who she was.

4. proceeding from or decreed by fate; inevitable: a fatal series of events.
5. influencing or concerned with fate; fatalistic.

I think I can still win this.

Being part of the Arch of Time, I don't see how anyone could be more "proceeding from fate" or more "influencing or conerened with fate" than TC.

bring it EL.

stutt

Will still don't know what TC's powers as Timewarden are. Roger seemed to not lie, but we can't be sure of alot of things.

If TC is part of the arch of time, and knows all that will happen in the past and future, he's impotent. He can't do a damn thing to change anything. All he can do is play his assigned role to make sure things come out. His omniscience has rendered him impotent.

TC, Linden and Jer are all Revenant's, as Jerico here said, but it's Linden who is doing all the killing throughout the whole book, and the whole book is about her. It has to be Linden.

I found two more, which are obviously candidates.

6. doomed (obsolete)
7. prophetic (obsolete)

Cameraman Jenn wrote:Where is Wayfriend, guru of the GI when you need him? Didn't SRD say something about Linden being the Fatal Revenant in the GI or did I totally dream that up?

The only thing I can find in the GI on the topic is:

In the Gradual Interview was wrote:According to my dictionary, a "revenant" is "a person who has returned, esp. supposedly from the dead." Are there any characters in the story who fit that description?
(08/29/2007)

Now, I swear that SRD at some point that both words in "Fatal Revenant" had at least two meanings, and that they all applied, in different parts of the book. But, if he said that in the GI, I can't find it. It may have been in another interview.

He never said that Linden was the fatal revenant AFAIK. But he never said she wasn't, either. I can see how Linden could match the meaning that is "doomed person who returns". And TC can match the definition that is "decisively important ghost".

I could see how Roger could be "causing destruction, misfortune, ruin, or failure", but I don't see any way that Roger can be a Revenant. No meaning of Revenant hints at disguise or illusion that I can see. He has not returned. And he's not a ghost.

I'll go back to the multiple, layered meaning of FR. SRD has never made it easy to discern his intent, and usually he crafts language that speaks to multiple meanings.

As I said earlier..."There are plenty of fatal revenants. Roger is a revenant of TC's and Joans imperfect union. (and is plenty fatal) Joan's ring is a symbolic revenant of the same (and is proving to cause a lot of fatality...just ask the denizens of Woodhelvenin). Jeremiah too, is a revenat of the despiser's earlier attempt to crush TC/Joan (and left to his impassivity and manipulation at the hands of the Croyel will proove to be a rather mighty dealer of death himself). Also, Anele is a revenant... whose nature is yet to be revealed."

Then there is TC. I doubt that he can be aptly called a "revenant" though. He has been RESTORED.