Kevin's Watch

Dear Watchers,

What are your thoughts on Jeremiah as the ultimate weapon against Despite?

Every character in the LC's has a reason to loathe themselves, at one point or another. Joan because of her rejection of TC. TC because of his rejection by everyone. Linden because of her inner capacity of death and evil. Roger, maybe because of powerlessness. But what about Jeremiah?

Is he the ultimate weapon because of his as-yet ambiguous relation to the Necessity of Freedom?

Hmmm. That's one to ponder.

I'm next to certain that Jeremiah with his Rainman-style gift of building constructs of the highest power is going to prove central to the conclusion. Let's face it, not much could protect against a really upset Elohim like Infelice aka Tinkerbell - but his bone shelter is completely immune to all she can throw at it. No other "normal" character has shown themselves proof against the Elohim, but Jeremiah can make himself such.

I think the fact that Jeremiah has unlocked the door to his own mind by the end of AATE is crucial - beforehand, he was incapable of involvement and therefore entirely powerless (except admittedly in the boneyard of the Quellvisk, where he was able to do one thing... release himself) - and as we already know, only the powerful can be redeemed, or indeed redeem.

Now that Jeremiah has found himself, he presumably has gained free will and with it, the necessity of freedom. Mind you, he's only 15 and one wonders whether at that tender age, SRD is going to give him the role of making choices that will either preserve or damn. Because of his youth, it feels a little like he could not in fairness be held totally accountable for whatever decisions he may now make. Because he's young, he has a level of innocence - and moreso because he's spent so long entirely uninvolved and inactive within what's transpired in either world. In SRD's worlds, innocence does not lead to power.

We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

I don't know about him being 'the ultimate weapon' and I honestly don't like to think of him as a weapon at all.
He may prove to have the best answer to despite.. And how his building skills can save the Land I'm not 100% sure. But either way, whatever happens from here on in will also be determined by TC, LA, Roger and Kastenesssen, SHE and the Worm, not just Jeremiah and the Grey Slayer.

he's obviously important, of course. I think one key is: LF DOES see him as a weapon, and so do the Elohim. Linden and TC don't.
BUT: his previous problem [isolation] was because he was protecting himself...making him vulnerable in one way.
now, he's out of that...which makes him vulnerable in another way...and that vulnerability is actually even greater as a direct result of the protection he gave himself in the beginning.
In a way, he grew up in a "clean room," so he didn't get sick, but didn't have much chance to learn/do anything. Now he's free to do stuff...but his resistance is incredibly weak, cuz he wasn't exposed to anything.

I predict he will face a rock/hard place decision that, due to the above he is ill-equipped to deal with...save something he loves, that serves evil, or watch what he loves die, to serve good. [it will really be more complicated than that...but he will not be able to see it].

" I Did It! " Spoken by Jerry to his Mom. Freedom, rather than innocence , appears to be the emphasis. Yes, Jerry is Free of all that ,not only what is loathsome about themselves but the ability to be loathsome. He is Free of a lot of " things" that serve to encumber. The metaphor of rising from a graveyard mind,,being reborn,,free of the life draining Croyel..excellent imho.

So, yea..how he handles all that is coming his and the gang's way..could be an exposition of what he is Free of. It will be interesting,,what parameters , if any, the author places on the character.Jerry's talent appears to be engineering,,creating and building constructs. If that evolves to building a whole new Land, then maybe "weapon" isn't the right word . Leader or Example may be closer to what the author intends. We'll see. How cool would it be..if he attained freedom from all that is " the Land" And the author's " real" reality?

As far as limits on his power, he needs specific materials.

He's not a weapon, weapons are used to destroy. Instead, he's a proto-creator.

Orlion wrote:As far as limits on his power, he needs specific materials.

Yes he does...which is why I have a dozen potential plot-paths in my head, and new ones popping in practically daily...cuz there's a spare White Gold ring around...

earthbrah wrote:He's not a weapon, weapons are used to destroy. Instead, he's a proto-creator.

Yup. The first time in the Last Chronicles that the arch of time was mentioned I thought to myself, "Maybe Jeremiah will build a new arch of time or augment the first one so the white gold can go unlimited and snuff foul out for good."

What is it that TC says to Linden (in his head not out loud I think)... Something about nothing she's ever said to Jeremiah was ever unheard or that her love was never not felt.
It was beautiful and I think a powerful statement hinting at the bond that Jeremiah and Linden are going to have.

(newbie delurking to note that...)

It does seem that Jeremiah is going to be the key to the eventual resolution of this.

If just using his build-prisons-out-of-stuff powers to cage the Worm isn't the answer - the characters seem to disagree as to whether that's a good idea - then we've been told what his ultimate role is going to be.

If it's true that Foul's been keeping him around to cage the Creator after the breaking of the Arch of Time, then Jeremiah can also cage Foul. Ending Foul's efforts to escape his rather pleasant prison in the Land by putting him into a less pleasant, more escape-proof prison would have a certain irony to it.

earthbrah wrote:He's not a weapon, weapons are used to destroy. Instead, he's a proto-creator.

Right. So far we've seen him build portals and traps. I'll be interested to see if he discovers a new type of construct in the fourth book or if those two specific types of construct give us the ultimate clue to what his role will be.