Will the Real Thomas Covenant Please Stand Up!

[Mr.Land]

After finishing Fatal Revenant I feel pretty confident that Linden has actually summoned Thomas Covenant, rather than some imposter or doppleganger. Wow, what a great read and how cool to finally have Covenant back. I keep going back to the some of the things that Covenant supposedly said to Linden earlier through Anele or in dreams, however. "Find Me", "I can't help you unless you find me", "Don't trust me. Remember I'm dead". Covenant didn't seem to excited that Linden had summoned or recreated him at the end of FR. How else could he have helped if not in physical form? Is some aspect of Covenant still in the Arch of Time? Are we led to believe that Covenant's resurrected but still dead form is now shuffling around The Land while his eternal aspect is up in the Arch?

Anyone have any thoughts?

[dlbpharmd]

I agree that this is the real Covenant, but I think his summoning will be nothing like the disaster that Infelice said it would be.

[The Dreaming]

Doom and Hope are chronicly intertwined in the Land, I imagine that this is comprable to the *disaster* at the One Tree at the end of said book. Of course, it *might* be cool if the world is actually destroyed, and they have to spend the rest of the series back in time trying to prevent their own destruction of the world.

[Seppi2112]

He said to FIND him, not to reincarnate him. Big difference. A living manifestation of the arch can be slain - god knows how many other ways Linden could have accomplished the same feat without making the *mistake* of summoning him back from the dead.

[Aleksandr]

Re: He said to FIND him, not to reincarnate him.

So she was supposed to find him so he could stare at her and say nothing?

[Seppi2112]

Lol... I'm just saying that finding him (whether as a spector in Andelain or maybe within a caesure?) is different that doing what she did. Find me != wake the worm, heh.

[stormrider]

Lol... I'm just saying that finding him (whether as a spector in Andelain or maybe within a caesure?) is different that doing what she did. Find me != wake the worm, heh.

I doubt what she did was worse than using a caesure to find him, though. Interfering with any of his past deeds in the Land would have messed Time up in a big way and brought down the Arch.

The whole "find me" thing was just confusing.

[earthbrah]

Seppi2112 wrote:

A living manifestation of the arch can be slain

Yeah, that's interesting man. What has happened to the Arch now that TC is back from the dead? Is it in more peril with TC being all corporeal and stuff, or what? Or can he still act as Timewarden while being in a physical body?

As for the TC mutterings to Linden through her dreams or Anele, it occurs to me that this voice could actually have been the Despisers. He did say that he hasn't actually done anything, but rather whispered a word of council here and there, and awaited events. When he said this to Linden, was he mocking her directly? He was mocking her throughout that whole interchange. Did he mean her events, ones that she would bring about? If this is even possible, how did he use TC's voice, how did he trick her into thinking it was TC speaking to her? Her resurrecting TC surely serves the Despiser. Or not?

[Xar]

Seppi2112 wrote:

A living manifestation of the arch can be slain

Yeah, that's interesting man. What has happened to the Arch now that TC is back from the dead? Is it in more peril with TC being all corporeal and stuff, or what? Or can he still act as Timewarden while being in a physical body?

That's my thought as well... if TC's resurrection means that the Arch is vulnerable (either through him or because TC's return to corporeality means he is torn out of his place as keystone), it would fit that Foul would set Linden on this course - she would wake up the Worm and, even if she could prevent that somehow, she would STILL leave the Arch finally open to attack, removing its main defender. Truth be told, when Covenant became the keystone at the end of the SC, he essentially made Foul's subsequent efforts mostly moot - while he stood there, Foul couldn't break the Arch, could he? So it would be fully in character for Foul to arrange things so as to remove his enemy from that position, and so he can finally find the Arch open to attack...

[Borillar]

The bigger question is this: if people die in the "real world" when they die in the Land, what happens to the real-world body of a formerly dead person when they are resurrected in the Land? The word "zombie" comes to mind.

[Ur Dead]

Seems they are dead in their real world.. TC never came back as a zombie.. But he was sorta quasti-dead, so that could have made him a half dead zombie in his old world. Or coulda been a non-moving zombie. Would have made a great Halloweed prop.

[dlbpharmd]

Seppi2112 wrote:

A living manifestation of the arch can be slain

Yeah, that's interesting man. What has happened to the Arch now that TC is back from the dead? Is it in more peril with TC being all corporeal and stuff, or what? Or can he still act as Timewarden while being in a physical body?

That's my thought as well... if TC's resurrection means that the Arch is vulnerable (either through him or because TC's return to corporeality means he is torn out of his place as keystone), it would fit that Foul would set Linden on this course - she would wake up the Worm and, even if she could prevent that somehow, she would STILL leave the Arch finally open to attack, removing its main defender. Truth be told, when Covenant became the keystone at the end of the SC, he essentially made Foul's subsequent efforts mostly moot - while he stood there, Foul couldn't break the Arch, could he? So it would be fully in character for Foul to arrange things so as to remove his enemy from that position, and so he can finally find the Arch open to attack...

Makes perfect sense to me.

[variol son]

I agree that this is the real Covenant, but I think his summoning will be nothing like the disaster that Infelice said it would be.

In the same was that Covenant's surrender to Lord Foul wasn't the disaster that Kevin said it would be. I think that deep down Linden realised that so many people prophesy so many different dooms that she's damned no matter what she does (or doesn't do). At least this way Covenant is back to face the Despiser with her.