Kevin's Watch

Dear Watchers,

I am not sure if this kind of questioning belongs in this part of the Watch or not, but here it goes. I also hope that this has not been explored this pointedly in another topic. If it has, please forgive me for clogging up the Watch. Anyway....

If I remember correctly, SRD said that he, in so many words, laid the foundation for the Last Chronicles in the Second. So, just how extensive is this foundation? Has anyone collected all, in one place, of what we believe to be the foundational elements of the Last Chronicles from the Second Chronicles?

Oddly enough I think SRD wrapped up everything quite nicely at the end of WGW.
I mean, everything was back in place.
If left alone we readers would have imagined a world where whatever future manifestation of Foul would have been unable to destroy the Arch due to TC's actions in the WGW and perhaps Foul would have been forever minimized as a threat at all (with a new Staff he wouldn't have had Earthpower to heal him like last time).
That Health would have returned and all would have been well eventually.

Whatever foundations he had laid required him to break what he had created at the end of WGW:
Lose the Staff, require the Haruchai to misinterpret Brinn's victory, create a whole new race of beings that are suddenly critical to the story, have Foul be able to influence people on our world (which is a lousy concept!).

With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear that the seeds for TLC included:
Kastenessen
Cail's departure for the Dancers of the Sea
Joan and the cult

Things that I never saw coming:
Jeremiah
Roger
Linden's problems with using power

Beyond that, I have to agree with HLT. WGW seemed perfect to me.

I think laying the foundation falls into several categories.

1. That which was complete, but which could be added to.

2. That which seemed complete, but which, upon closer examination, really isn't.

3. That which wasn't complete.

Now, as Donaldson could not know whether or not he'd ever write a third Chronicles, I think he did a good job staying away from category three. Although I think that there are some.

For example, there was the significance of the Staff missing those runes.

There are definitely plenty of the second category. It's easy to write them off and say, "He left that up to our imagination". But that's not the same as completing something.

Things like what happened to Nom after Covenant released him knowing that he contained the fragments of a Raver. That's a disaster waiting to happen... how can we leave that unanswered?

Or even what are the consquences for the Land with both the Law of Life and the Law of Death broken? Obviously, this isn't a good way for the Land to continue. How could we leave that unanswered?

wayfriend wrote:
For example, there was the significance of the Staff missing those runes.

Things like what happened to Nom after Covenant released him knowing that he contained the fragments of a Raver. That's a disaster waiting to happen... how can we leave that unanswered?

Or even what are the consquences for the Land with both the Law of Life and the Law of Death broken? Obviously, this isn't a good way for the Land to continue. How could we leave that unanswered?

He was very specific about it not needing runes.
I actually loved that idea. It was more powerful and easier to use, imo.

Nom gained the knowledge to help his kind. He was passive and respectful. I was satisfied/pleased that the Sandgorgons would be freed and leave humans alone like it was suggested.
I think the Sandgorgon version of a Crips gang is a weak idea, based on what we've seen so far. I expected to see the Sandgorgons to each have a colored bandanna or something.

I was satisfied with the state of the Law of Life and Death being broken.
Other than in the 1st Chron it wasn't really explained that it was a bad thing. It was never used as a tool of evil. If anything, their breaking enabled TC to act more than he could have before.

Again, this is all how I felt at the end of the WGW.

Keep in mind that the story was complete after tPtP. Yet, we have more, and things that we may not have seen as being significant at that end (such as the breaking of the Staff of Law) being very, VERY important. As far as expectations, I could have expected the new order established by Mhoram to have lead to awesome peacefulness... but that isn't what happened, but just because the Clave clashes with my expectations, that doesn't mean I did not enjoy it.

Overall, we've only scratched the surface. Even the Sandgorgans haven't really revealed too much of what they are up to.

As far as the original posting, I was thinking of reading the Second Chronicles with these foundations in mind, see what I came up with... but that's a little way off... stupid school.

WF's right, I forgot about Nom as an obvious loose thread. But, like HLT I was satisfied with the explanation that the Staff was a "living Staff" and did not need runes.