The Merger Idea Revisited

[thewormoftheworld'send]

I'm beginning to think that if any merger is going to happen at the end, it's not going to involve Covenant and LF. When I stop and consider the archetypes involved here, more likely any merger is going to involve the Creator and LF, good and evil.

The idea seems trope-ish, but then that's 90% of the Chrons. I'm reminded of the Star Trek episode Double Double, in which Kirk splits into two beings, one good but weak, the other evil but strong, each of which was useless without the other. The Creator is the epitome of weakness, he can't even touch his Creation much less save it.

[wayfriend]

What convinces me more than anything that something like this is in the works is the repeated theme of beings consuming/devouring beings in the Second and Final Chronicles. So much so that I'd feel rather disappointed if that theme doesn't appear in the resolution. (I am starting to fear a LOST ending, where not everything gets explained.)

What form that would be is anyone's guess. Donaldson is if anything capable of finding the unexpected twist.

Before AATE, I had wondered if the events of WGW implied that Covenant and Foul might have merged somehow, that Covenant absorbed Foul in some way when he absorbed the power that Foul poured his very self into.

Now that's not looking like the way it's going. (Although I don't admit my theory had a stake through the heart, either. After all, where IS Foul?)

Which leaves me believing the same as you: some sort of merge will happen, probably due to consuming/devouring, but not what we might have imagined when we started the Final Cs.

One thing that intrigues me is that Foul is a eternal, celestial being, who is confined to temporal sequence and physical limits only because he is trapped. If Covenant (or someone) were to unite with such a being, and then that being is freed from his trap, what would that be like for Covenant (or someone)? Would they be "like gods"?

Roger has hinted about becoming like gods. My theory of epic vision points towards the characters being godlike before the end. So I think that this is a point worth pondering.

[Orlion]

I think the merger would be completely unnecessary in the scope of the story. Foul/Creator/et al are all ready part of each of the characters.

[Vraith]

This may be a horse that's dead boring to ya'll, and I'm beating too much, but I don't think so...or maybe I just hope not...on the merging. There will be some aspects/expressions of it perhaps, and lessons learned from it in relation to the consuming/devouring...I'm thinking particularly of SHE here, and the Worm...SHE will learn due, in part, to what she has eaten, at least some Elohim will survive and learn from being treated as Worm-food.
But, for the rest, because of the emphasis on realms and constructs, separation is in the offing.
Along O's lines: despite, despair [small-d's] as aspects of a mortal beings heart will remain, but Despite [LF] will be separated. SHE will be separated [though both her faces, love and rage from betrayal, still possible]
On the Worm, I'm wobbly, but perhaps...just perhaps...even It is altered a bit such that yes, it IS the Worm of the World's End. But what if its real/intended role is a bit different. What if it isn't intended to awaken and cause the destruction of/consume the life/beauty of the World; instead, to wake when life/beauty have reached their natural ends [or ascended to something else], THEN it eats, and sleeps, and a new world arises? [that's far outside the scope even of the last dark, I think, a story never told/revealed].

[wayfriend]

"Every weakness is a strength misapplied, every strength is a weakness which has found its proper use."

IMO, Donaldson won't propose that an answer involves excising some part of oneself. Rather, he'll propose that it involves acceptance of all aspects of oneself, the bad and the good. The trick is figuring out how to live with your parts, and when to use them. Integration. Wholeness.

[shadowbinding shoe]

For me there hasn't been enough meat to the story of the Creator, his pantheon of sibling eternals and their timeless God-realm to make me care enough about an ending that centers around them.

The story is about Linden, Thomas and their companions and places they see. Of course that may change in the last book but for now it's too abstract and sketchy.

[Bill the Cat]

I can see the Creator and Foul merging as Covenant's psyche finally accepting his fate. All of this is inside Covenant's head IMO, and I believe Donaldson alluded to that in one post in the progressive interview. Covenant has created these characters in his mind and as each situation resolves itself, that's one more part of his mind that accepts the fact that he is dying...

[Ananda]

I can see the Creator and Foul merging as Covenant's psyche finally accepting his fate. All of this is inside Covenant's head IMO, and I believe Donaldson alluded to that in one post in the progressive interview. Covenant has created these characters in his mind and as each situation resolves itself, that's one more part of his mind that accepts the fact that he is dying...

Thomas Covenant lies in a hospital bed and, each day, a wheaten haired doctor comes in and stands at the foot of his bed, just in front of a framed poster of a linden tree on the wall. She lifts up his chart that has the name of a drug company and their logo on the back- Avery pharmaceuticals.

[shadowbinding shoe]

I can see the Creator and Foul merging as Covenant's psyche finally accepting his fate. All of this is inside Covenant's head IMO, and I believe Donaldson alluded to that in one post in the progressive interview. Covenant has created these characters in his mind and as each situation resolves itself, that's one more part of his mind that accepts the fact that he is dying...

Thomas Covenant lies in a hospital bed and, each day, a wheaten haired doctor comes in and stands at the foot of his bed, just in front of a framed poster of a linden tree on the wall. She lifts up his chart that has the name of a drug company and their logo on the back- Avery pharmaceuticals.

So everything after the first novel is a dream? I thought Donaldson promised somewhere he wouldn't go down that route. And what about the whole Linden Avery perspective for the last 6 books?

[SkurjMaster]

Fantasy environment as an externalization of inner character turmoil aside, the Land has been shared with and by too many real-world people for it to only be in TC's mind alone, delusion, dream or not. TC and Foul will merge, but probably not in the way we might expect. One theory: Once TC fully accepts Foul as just one side of himself, we won't so much see a merger as there will no longer be a need for Foul to be external to TC. Possibly the same thing with the Creator, but I predict that that will be handled separately.

[Vraith]

TC and Foul will merge, but probably not in the way we might expect. One theory: Once TC fully accepts Foul as just one side of himself, we won't so much see a merger as there will no longer be a need for Foul to be external to TC.

But, see what's being missed IMHO...though yours here is a little closer, I think...TC has ALREADY merged with his Despiser for the most part. The need is really two-fold...yes, beings have to accept that what LF stands for, symbolizes[same applies to SHE] as aspects of themselves. But they ALSO must separate the literal presence of such beings from the time-bound, mortal world. One can only unify the physical and the metaphysical symbolically/psychologically/metaphorically...to do so literally isn't to create/restore/merge into unity, it is to obliterate the physical/literal.
At least one important thing often ignored about TC is that, however much he is/has been/will be a Creator and a Despiser, Savior or Damnior, in relation to the Land he is neither Creator nor Despiser. He isn't, never was, capable of saving or damning because of his connection with the Land, but because he was separate/independent of it. [this is true even if the Land really is "just a dream," I think...mostly for people the problem with conscious/subconscious isn't the influence/connection, it is the separation/disjunction]