[BSOM180]

Alright, this is just some idle speculation here on the general accepted fate of Rand dying and what not.

Stories, tales, books, novels, all that crazy fun stuff. As I recall most if not all stories worth reading are "unusual" "out of the ordinary" "an exception" "A unique occurence" or something of that nature. In almost every cycle storyline I've read the only reason we are told about the cycle and how many times it's happened, is because the story you read is an exception, and something is supposed to happen to knock the cycle off course. It's even been hinted at that that's why Shai'tan is constantly trying

Cycle goes as such, Shai'tan bound, weakens seals, touches world, dragon born, he breaks out, big arse fight, bind shai'tan, Repeat.

It has supposedly been done millions of times, and each time the Dragon wins. The only reason Shai'tan keeps at it is because eventually he can break the cycle. Well if he can break the cycle, so can Rand right? Now the only question is how do you break that cycle? It can't be killing, that's obvious. Kill Dragon, he's just reborn later to kick shai'tans butt. Kill shai'tan, well I think that just sends him back to his hole.

So what is the difference in this book, and what could possibly knock the cycle off course?

I think the only way for Shai'tan to do it is to get the Dragon on his side. But the Dragon is always a stubborn mule-head, so that just doesn't seem likely. What could the Dragon do to stop the cycle though? Get Shai'tan on his side? That would be funny.