Kevin's Watch

Imagine if the new Thomas Covenant arrived back with an entire body, with two whole hands!!

Hahahahaha.............!

That would be great!
And why not?

Do you really think that even if TC could come back completely whole he would choose to? If he did have a choice in the matter, I don't see him healing himself that way.

Why in the world would he *choose* NOT to?
He knows that he's not going back to the "real" world so losing his leper training (what freaked him out in the first chronicles) isn't an issue anymore.
He was hoping for hurtloam when he first arrived in the 2nd too.

A leper-free and full fingered TC would also fit with my earlier mentioned "TC really is Berek" theory (that someone shortly blew out of the water by asking how Berek could lose his fingers if TC already lost his!)

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that he might consider it "dishonest" in some way, like he was denying his own past. Of course, this is entirely speculation, but from my understanding of the character, he'd be unconfortable with the idea of completely erasing (one of) the biggest fact of his existence for years, and the consequences it brought. Leprosy played a huge role in shaping the man he has become, and even though he doesn't like it, he might have a problem simply deciding to erase it...

As I said, this is entirely speculation, but I don't see him wanting to do that, even if he was able to...

....the answer can be found TWL. Hile Troy as Caer-caveral still had no eyes. He had sight, but no eyes. Covenant won't have leprosy, but the physical traits will still be there, therefore a halfhand.

An excellent point, Drew!

....I do have a few good points from time to time.

drew wrote:....the answer can be found TWL. Hile Troy as Caer-caveral still had no eyes. He had sight, but no eyes. Covenant won't have leprosy, but the physical traits will still be there, therefore a halfhand.

Nope.
Hile Troy never died until Sunder Killed him.
That was still his original "translated" body.

Who knows what Covanent "body" we're going to get this time.
A "brand new" one might be new and improved (so to speak)

...getting technical, Hile Troy's body was changed into a tree.
His forestal body was new. If Carroll Wildwood could have given him eyes, I'm ssure he would have.

There is no telling what might happen!!

SRD revels in shattering the rules! From start-to-finish the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are a rule shatter-fest!

As for Hile Troy's eyes, I think I am right in saying that his eyeless condition was congenital.

On the other hand, TC's finger-loss was not!

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If SRD gave TC back his fingers, everyone would then have to focus on Jeremiah as the "Halfhand" to be wary of, and, well it strikes me that then Linden's reaction to TC could be very amusing.

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[I've edited this to take out a *JOKE* as I suspect it caused unintended offence. My intent was entirely to express goodwill and humour and affectionate respect, and to add levity into a thread that was *never intended* as technically serious. ]

High Lord Tolkien wrote:

drew wrote:....the answer can be found TWL. Hile Troy as Caer-caveral still had no eyes. He had sight, but no eyes. Covenant won't have leprosy, but the physical traits will still be there, therefore a halfhand.

Nope.
Hile Troy never died until Sunder Killed him.
That was still his original "translated" body.

Who knows what Covanent "body" we're going to get this time.
A "brand new" one might be new and improved (so to speak)

Er... there's a fundamental difference between Hile Troy's and Caer-Caveral's bodies, as I recall... Hile Troy had eye sockets, but they were just empty (Covenant sees this when Troy removes his sunglasses for him the first time); Caer-Caveral did not even have eye sockets, just smooth skin where they should have been (as Linden notices when she first sees him).
I suppose that after the transition from human to Forestal, he consciously chose this new appearance (maybe to unsettle people a little less than having to talk with someone with empty eyesockets and no sunglasses?) - or maybe it was chosen for him.