Kevin's Watch

After Elena had consumed the Blood, broken the Law of Death by summoning Kevin and then battling him - could Covenant have taken a sip, ordered Kevin back to the grave and thus prevent the events of the next four books?

+JMJ+

pasdaddy wrote:What if Covenant had drunk the Blood?

Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

If you view the Blood of the Earth in context with the world Covenant had left behind him - the nightclub, Susie Thurston, the one-armed Trucker, the unnamed man at their table, and of course, Sheriff Lytton ...

There is also the probability that nothing would've happened had Covenant drank the Earthblood. Although never truly unaffected by the Land's influence, it's magic, it's health, it's people, Thomas Covenant was still the Unbeliever.

pasdaddy wrote:After Elena had consumed the Blood, broken the Law of Death by summoning Kevin and then battling him - could Covenant have taken a sip, ordered Kevin back to the grave and thus prevent the events of the next four books?

I think that once the Law of Death had been broken, simply ordering Kevin back to the grave would have been moot.

Could the consequences of breaking the Law of Death (including the destruction of the Staff of Law) have been prevented had Covenant sipped the Earthblood and issued a command to restore the Law of Death? Only if we assume:

(a) that such a use of the Power of Command was possible (it perhaps wasn't);

(b) that Covenant would have known what kind of command to give (he almost certainly didn't); and

(c) that such a command wouldn't have had other unintended consequences that were potentially worse than what actually happened (odds are it would have done).

In a similar topic about Hile Troy being the lead character in the Illearth War, I imagined what he might have done had he been given the chance to exercise his "power of command", (with respect to the Heamatite).
I would have suggested that Troy could have liquefied Lord Foul's army, but this would have been just another form of Desecration. If you can imagine all that dark force soaked into the earth of the Land.
No, Wildwood took care of all that evil much more cleanly and efficiently.

Covenant, however, would have to have been held down and the Blood of the Earth forced into him. He recognized the "Danger of Dreams" and would never have dared to partake.

Covenant was the leper rapist. If you understand anything about his dilemma then you'll see that he never needed to drink any raw magic to invoke the Power of Command.
And why should he! No one paid any attention to what he had to say.

Vizidor wrote:Covenant, however, would have to have been held down and the Blood of the Earth forced into him. He recognized the "Danger of Dreams" and would never have dared to partake.

That's the essential reason why this 'what if' is impossible to consider. Covenant would never, never, never, ever have drank the Earthblood. He was scared of power to the core of his being, and he believed his Dream was seducing him to it. And he would not have tried to save the Land because, at that time, he didn't care.

IMO, if anything, he would have Commanded the Land to release him of responsibility, or to give it to another. Which would have destroyed him.

Interesting points. Covenant did spend the bulk of the First Chronicles trying to deny he had any power or responsibility over what was happening. Drinking the Blood would certainly not have been in character. I was just pondering the ramifications - a what if kind of mental exercise.

Wosbald wrote:+JMJ+

Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

Wosbald's idea reminds me of Star Trek: TMP. Where Decker and Ilia join together at the film's climax, possibly creating an alternate universe - Q continuum?

Covenant and Elena could never have did anything similar, for obvious reasons. But Troy and Elena ... ?

Which leaves me to wonder what the Blood of the Earth might've tasted like. Undistilled treasure berries, perhaps?

I can see it now... TC takes a drink and it burns his throat so much he exclaims "Hellfire!"

And the world is consumed by flames...

Or, to say the same thing another way, he exclaims "Hellfire!" and bloody damnation ensues.

pasdaddy wrote:Interesting points. Covenant did spend the bulk of the First Chronicles trying to deny he had any power or responsibility over what was happening. Drinking the Blood would certainly not have been in character. I was just pondering the ramifications - a what if kind of mental exercise.

OK!
So Covenant drinks the blood and has a profound revelation.
Instead of turning this golden opportunity as did High Lord Elena, on ideas of destroying Lord Foul and his army, rather he looks back to where it all started - the activation of the Krill.

Only this time instead of a blinding light shining from the heart of the mysterious gem, Thomas Covenant sees a galaxy of stars.
In fact he's seeing the Horsehead Nebula.
This he now realizes as his focus is tempered by the soothing touch of Elena's cool fingers on his troubled brow.

Just North of the Nebula is the multiple star, Alnitak.
- Where it doesn't take a great leap of insight to spot Amok, messenger and guide to the Seventh Ward of High Lord Kevin Landwaster.

I may not always know how to respond, V, but I do enjoy your posts.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Face it: Covenant would NEVER have drank the Earthblood. At that point he was still unconvinced of the Land's reality, and to drink the blood would be him admitting that the world he was in was real. That was never going to happen at that point.

Covenant, in another misguided attempt to "test" the reality of the Land like he did when he grew his beard, drinks the Earthblood and Commands himself to wake up!

Orlion wrote:Covenant, in another misguided attempt to "test" the reality of the Land like he did when he grew his beard, drinks the Earthblood and Commands himself to wake up!

The Power "holds no sway over anything which is not a natural part of the Earth's creation."

But I was thinking along the same lines above.

What if the Earthblood was simply pure drinking water? It's redness and blood-like quality just an illusion caused by the reflection of something else within the cave?

I once gave someone a small quantity of lichen wrapped in tin foil, saying it was homegrown cannabis. I watched the person unwrap it, roll it, and smoke it. How funny I thought to see his eyes light up then turn dull and dopey, just as if he really had toked on a spliff. (We were young punks back then.)
My point being, if someone really believes there is a potency within a given substance would it not then follow the same pattern?
Elena was carrying the Staff of Law!

Hypothetically: Mohram might easily have said to Elena, "You are the Land".

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Last Chronicles Spoiler

Spoiler

I doubt the Worm would journey all the way to the Land for a drink of pure water.......

I agree that it would have been out of character for TC to drink the Earthblood.

First, he had sworn not to kill again just recently.
Second he was looking for a way to make anyone but him responsible.
Third, by then he knew the danger of power. Matter of fact he warned Elena.

But if he was to drink it, what could he have wished for that was within the power of the Earthblood? I cant think of a thing that didnt have the risk of concequences that might have been worse than not doing anything.

Mhoram might have been the only one who could have figured out something...but only prior to the Illearth war. He was Seer and Oracle but when he discovered the secret to the limitation they had with the Wards he lost some of these abilities.

Thomas Covenant, the way I see him, isn't exactly the anti-hero more so the anti-fantasist. Under those conditions he is the only character in the entire Chronicles to have both feet firmly fixed to the ground.

This for me is the real genius of Stephen Donaldson. To keep a constant grip on the contradiction and the paradox that is Thomas Covenant.

SoulBiter wrote:But if he was to drink it, what could he have wished for that was within the power of the Earthblood? I cant think of a thing that didnt have the risk of concequences that might have been worse than not doing anything.

He could never have drank the Earthblood simply because of what happened in the nightclub at the beginning of the story - the music stops, the house lights are switched on, and the spell is broken.

Spoiler

Too sobering to bear for any dedicated fantasy fan.