The last time I really thought about how free will and fate work in the world building of The Wheel of Time was back in August of 2020, right before I started The Fires of Heaven. The events of the story began to become more complicated in book five, expanding the cast of main characters and scattering our heroes even further across the continent. Jordan’s world building remained as on-point as ever, but its focus was on the physical landscape, the different countries and cultures, and on our young heroes’ developing understanding of the One Power. It makes sense that I, as a reader, would be asking fewer questions about how the Pattern works and what Fate means for our heroes, since Rand himself began asking fewer questions. Once he committed to his identity as the Dragon, he was no longer questioning the truth of his identity or fighting against the very idea that his destiny might be Foretold.
Recently, however, he has begun to ask different sorts of metaphysical questions. Questions about the Dark One’s prison, about the seals, and about what the Last Battle will actually look like. He turned to Herid Fel to help him tackle these questions—and in honor of that slain philosopher, I thought I would also tackle a few questions about the nature of reality, the Pattern, and free will in The Wheel of Time.
(A note: At the time of this essay, the author has finished up to Chapter 20 of A Crown of Swords; all conjecture and discussion is based on information provided in the narrative up to that point. Essay may contain slight spoilers for the same.)
The last time I wrote on the subject, I posited that the Pattern directs people’s lives in certain directions until they come to moments of choice, at which point their free will kicks in and they direct the course of the Pattern in turn. This felt in line with Moiraine’s understanding of how the Wheel worked—when she learned of the Dark One’s plot to attack the Eye of the World, she believed that the Wheel had orchestrated the event. The news came to her at a moment in which she had all the tools she needed to meet the threat. Not only did she have with her three ta’veren, whose presence would help direct the outcome of a confrontation at the Eye, she also happened to be in the presence of an Ogier, whose knowledge of the Ways would allow her to reach the Eye in time. But although the Wheel may have been responsible for bringing Moiraine and the others together in a specific moment in time and place, it never appeared to force her hand. She had a choice as to whether she would go to the Eye, instead of, say, to Tar Valon to warn the Aes Sedai. The choice was also Loial’s—he could have refused to guide them through the Ways, and indeed, did consider it. Moiraine also acknowledged that Rand, Perrin, Mat, Nynaeve, and Egwene all had to make their own choices as well, and did not force them to come.
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There really is no evidence to say that the Pattern affects the way people think. (Ta’veren powers do, but we’ll get to that later.) Of course, it is theoretically possible that every thought in every head is spun out by the Wheel, but neither the text of the books nor the philosophy and religion of the characters suggests that this is so. As Loial explained to a much younger and less worldly Rand earlier in The Eye of the World, the Pattern is flexible. If someone wants to make a change to their life and the Pattern can accommodate it, it will. Small changes are easily accepted, while large changes rarely are. This is an easy concept for the reader to grasp because it fits with how we observe the world to work—both our world and Rand’s. If a man is born a farmer and tries to become a king, there are a lot of obvious logistical reasons that such a feat will be difficult to achieve, even before one considers a metaphysical reason like the Will of the Wheel. And even in the case of more significant players—such as rulers, powerful Aes Sedai, and people like Moiraine who are directly tied up in affecting how the world will meet the Last Battle and the confrontation with the Dark One—they are still constrained by factors such as the political landscape, the opposition of other powerful groups, and the basic laws of physics.
The Fall of Malkier is one such example. Powerful though they were, the Aes Sedai couldn’t travel the distance between the White Tower and Malkier fast enough to reach it before it was destroyed. Now, if they had rediscovered Traveling by that point in time, they might have been able to, but even Traveling is not an unlimited ability, and it’s fully possible that the timely arrival of many Aes Sedai might still have not been enough to stop the Dark forces that consumed Malkier. And so we must ask ourselves, did the Wheel intend the Fall of Malkier for some reason?
It’s certainly possible—perhaps the catastrophe occurred because the Pattern needed Lan to be set on a certain path, needed the thread of his life to be woven in the direction of Moiraine’s, and eventually with Rand’s. As tragic as Malkier’s destruction was, it may well have been an intended part of the Pattern, important for the larger warp and weft of the Age. Then again, perhaps it was not. Perhaps the pattern presented the important players in Malkier with choices, and left them, and their free will, to direct the outcome. A third option, of course, is that it was the Dark One’s touch that made the difference, since Corwin was a Darkfriend, and that the Fall of Malkier was in some ways a corruption of the Pattern.
The existence of Darkfriends raises some interesting questions about the existence of free will, and how we define “free will,” in the world of The Wheel of Time. We know that, as the Dark One’s prison weakens, he is able to touch the Pattern and corrupt it—that is what is happening to the weather, first with the winter that won’t seem to end, and then the continual, scorching heat and drought the world is still facing in A Crown of Swords. But while the anomalies of the weather can certainly be called the Dark One’s touch on the Pattern, can the more subtle effects of his existence be counted in the same way? Most of what the Dark One does to affect the world is through human agents, who are part of the Pattern. Because their lives are threads woven by the Wheel, the Dark One’s influence on their choices and actions could in some ways be considered the Dark One influencing the Pattern. He isn’t touching it directly, as he does when he affects the weather, but he is still affecting it.
So, if you look at it one way, the Darkfriends prove the existence of free will in this universe, because if their choices were predestined by Fate and the Wheel, then that would mean that the Dark One’s influence was also woven into the Pattern by the Wheel. On the other hand, if the Dark One’s influence is a corruption of the Pattern, then the choices made by his followers might be considered a corruption as well, and their “free will” a result of his contamination rather than a part of the Pattern.
I don’t really think that’s true, but it’s an interesting thought exercise, and a reminder that the concept of “free will” can be looked at a few different ways. Still, if we subscribe, as the inhabitants or Rand’s world do, to the belief that no one can be so deep in the Dark One’s service that they cannot return to the light, then the Pattern must intend that people have the power of choice. The power to choose the pollution of the Dark One, and the power to choose to turn away from it.
The concept of ta’veren, how they exist and how their nature affects the Pattern and the people within it, also asks some interesting theoretical questions about free will and choice. Rand, Perrin, and Mat were all fated to be ta’veren; it wasn’t something they could choose, anymore than Rand, Egwene, and Nynaeve could choose whether or not they would eventually touch the One Power. But the effects of the boys’ ta’veren natures on the world are more complicated to understand. Some things, like Mat’s luck allowing him to mostly win at gambling, or Rand causing spontaneous marriages in a random village he passes through, seem meaningless, accidents that are neither intended by the ta’veren in question (Mat’s trying to win, of course, but his desires don’t seem to have any connection to when or how his luck kicks in) or by the Pattern. But though they appear random, we can’t know for sure that the Pattern doesn’t intend every single effect of ta’veren presence. We can’t know for sure that every unexpected wedding or well going dry does have a place in the weaving.
And there definitely are moments where it seems like the Pattern intends the results of Rand’s powers acting passively on the world, such as the way some people are drawn to leave their lives and go wandering. They don’t know what they are looking for, but this wide-spread and powerful change to the world seems to fit well with the prophecies that the Dragon will upend all current order and break all current bonds of fealty. It has the feel of Fate, of the Pattern directing the threads of human lives towards the Last Battle and, if the Light prevails, a new Age.
Then there are other moments, moments in which Rand’s ta’veren powers seem to be directed by his choices. He draws Perrin to him with his need, a need that may be metaphysical but is also literal—he has specific plans he needs Perrin to execute. Rand also affects how people respond to him. Like Perrin, he is often able to convince people to follow him or agree with his plans as his ta’veren powers bolster his arguments and persuasive abilities. This seems to indicate that Rand’s free will, his choices, are directing how his ta’veren nature affects those around him in these moments. It also suggests that the free will of others is being sublimated by Rand’s own will. It would seem that free will does indeed exist in this world—and also that there are ways the Wheel overrides free will when it needs to, through ta’veren, and perhaps by other means as well.
But what of Rand’s free will, specifically? Loial said that the Pattern will accept small changes, but not big ones. From the perspective of the people in the world, the events that are happening now are big changes, impossibly big in some cases. But looked at from the outside, from the Wheel’s point of view, if you will, it could be argued that these events are an intended part of the Pattern. The Wheel intends to continue, to keep the Dark One imprisoned, and to preserve the Pattern’s existence. So Rand’s existence, and his battle, might not be called a change to the Pattern at all, but merely the current direction of the Weave of this Age.
The Dragon is a soul that is specifically created to fight the Dark One and preserve the Pattern—the Pattern intends Rand to win the Last Battle, and ostensibly will bend all its threads to that purpose. It will push Rand, pressure him in the direction it intends, as Rand himself noted when he was being pursued on the road to Tear, where he would eventually take Callandor and declare himself the Dragon. Even then, he felt that his steps were being directed, that his fate was inescapable.
But does that mean that Rand’s entire course is basically predestined, and that he is acting out what the Pattern intends with only the illusion of choice? Colavaere’s fate is an argument that suggests this may be so—Rand had the choice to order her execution by hanging or to spare her life, but either choice ultimately led to the conclusion that Min had already viewed. Will Rand’s every inclination towards mercy or hardness, every military strategy and political coup, lead to the same place regardless of the exact specifications of his choices?
Or is it more subtle than that? We could posit that there may be more than one path to achieving that victory, and that Rand has the ability to make different choices at different times, and even make mistakes, without it being a violation of the Pattern and the Wheel’s intention for him. Thus he has both free will and predestination working in tandem, with neither canceling out the other.
It’s even possible—and the more I think about this idea the more I am drawn to it—that Rand may have more free will than your average citizen. If it’s true that the Pattern allows for small changes but resists big ones, perhaps Rand is specifically imbued with the ability to change the Pattern in large ways, ways that wouldn’t ordinarily be possible, so that his choices can affect the direction of the Weave. Almost like the Dragon is a sort of reset button—not to a factory default, but like shaking a box of puzzle pieces you’ve been staring at too long, so you can see them in a different order.
Perhaps free will—Rand’s certainly, and maybe everyone else’s as well—exists within the Pattern specifically as a tool to fight the Dark One. As the walls of the Dark One’s prison weaken he has begun to be able to touch the Pattern and affect it. And as the weave is distorted by his touch, the influence the Wheel ordinarily has over the threads may weaken or disappear. The Pattern needs another way to be directed when some of its connection to the Wheel is not what it should be.
So, even if the Pattern means that people’s lives and choices are largely pre-ordained, the Dark One’s touch is a corruption of that predestination. Free will might exist as a tool to allow them to direct the Pattern in their turn, allowing them to resist that influence of the Dark One and to make their own choices in moments when the Pattern is disrupted. A fail safe, if you will. A weapon. For Rand, yes, but also for every person who exists in this world.
In the end, all of these conclusions have led me back to my original belief about free will in The Wheel of Time, though it is somewhat more complex and nuanced now. I believe, and I think the evidence here supports that belief, that there is both free will and predestined, inescapable fate within the world of The Wheel of Time. Sometimes one or the other may be more favored, more powerful, than its counterpart. Just as the One Power is a single whole composed of two equal but contrasting halves whose interaction drives the forces of creation, so we can see that free will and fate are not two separate things that are in direct opposition to each other but rather two sides of a coin, two parts of a single whole, weaving the Pattern together. The Wheel of Time… and humankind.
Sylas K Barrett doesn’t really believe in binaries, but he does believe in symbiosis, and he enjoyed being a philosopher for a day.
Sylas. I appreciated your reasoning. It was well thought out.
Very interesting thoughts here, Sylas. Thanks for this analysis! I think RJ intentionally left some larger philosophical questions like this open for discussions (or the occasional bar fight, as RJ would say). But it was definitely clear by the end that free will and choice were important elements for him despite the other strong elements of determinism in this world. And you hit some very important points here.
I don’t necessarily agree that Rand has *more* free will than anyone else; if anything, I think he has less. He certainly has other major powers that are the key to making things right (or very wrong) again. But he does have some free will and that ability to choose is ultimately crucial. And you’re also right that the choices exercised by the common folk are also important to the metaphysical state of affairs. As poor Herid Fel said, “Belief and order give strength.”
My take on Min’s ability is different, not a support of predestination, but more similar to how the Christian God is supposed to be outside of time and can see the path that you will choose but doesn’t choose it for you.
Or in Rand land context, everyone else lives on the outside of the wheel, while she lives on the inside and can see the incoming weave.
The Ta’veren concept was only mentioned once on the Amazon TV Show
I’m pretty sure the Dark One, and thus Darkfriends, are all part of the weave of the Wheel and thus subject to the whims of the pattern. Not sure if it’s been made clear quite yet at this point in the books, but the Dark One’s entire struggle is to break the Wheel and escape the Pattern once and for all. Not entirely dissimilar from Lucifer’s rebellion against the divine plan.
@2 – I tend to agree with your interpretation about Rand and his free will. I don’t think that his ta’veren effect is a projection of him having greater agency in his own life (though I do still believe he has free will) as Sylas seems to imply. The ta’veren effect is simply the Pattern putting its proverbial thumb on the scale at certain points to ensure Rand, and thus the Pattern, gets what he/it wants. Which is why it was so shocking in a way that Tuon was able to actually resist Rand’s influence later in the series. Thought I suppose you could argue that the Pattern intended her to get what she wanted despite the ta’veren effect in order to get Rand on a path that helped him realize he was headed toward a very bad place. Lol, you can twist every one of these points and arguments into a pro-free will or pro-determinism.
@5 – The DO is actually outside of the Pattern. I’m by no means an expert, but the DO is really the embodiment of entropy more than anything and the Patter, order. Completely antithetical to one another. Somehow the Creator was able to seal the DO away from directly corrupting/unmaking the Pattern. It was only after Lanfear drilled the Bore that he was able to actually influence the Pattern in any way. Darkfriends are definitely within the Pattern and thus bound by it. They still have free will to make choices, but because they are literally service entropy you could argue that they actively make any and all BAD choices to further that goal. Whereas someone in Randland that is little ‘b’ bad may still make harmful decisions, they are not consciously doing so in alignment with a being that wants to unmake reality. Thus even unintentionally they are probably still making “good” choices in the grand scheme of the Pattern and its desire to continue
So, later on in the story, there is a sequence that spells out pretty clearly that there is free will, and it is important. But, I’ll just leave it at that.
As for Rand, I’ve always kind of thought that he is constrained. He has less free will, but the scale on which he makes his choices is larger, so the ‘small changes’ that he makes are bigger in comparison to the rest of the world.
As for the Pattern and weaving about Darkfriends, it’s pretty apparent that the Pattern is some form intelligent; the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, right? So, I came to the conclusion that the Pattern plans around the fact that the Dark One and Darkfriends exist, but also acts to preserve itself (hence the Dragon to stop the Dark One).
As for Min, I look at her ability as getting the teaser trailer of a movie in advance, to use an awful metaphor. She gets a glimpse of what’s coming as a result of the decisions, and those decisions have already set the event that she sees into motion.
@7 – I actually LOL’d at this: As for Min, I look at her ability as getting the teaser trailer of a movie in advance, to use an awful metaphor. She gets a glimpse of what’s coming as a result of the decisions, and those decisions have already set the event that she sees into motion.
I now have this mental exercise running where Min is hearing Movie Trailer Guy’s voice with all her viewings. “In a world where Colavaere will die no matter what…”
@8 I hadn’t thought of that, but that is a great mental image.
“One man, One Power, One Last Battle… Rand al’Thor is… Crazy. Rated R.”
@6: The DO, if you posit a Creator, must also have been made by the Creator. Therefore the actions of the DO were intended. It’s the classic problem of Evil and ultimately the argument put forth in MoL is that the DO was necessary to provide certain elements of (at minimum) human personalities that are nevertheless good when guided by a moral sense. Force of will, ambition, etc.
I find this discussion somewhat moot, because any story with a cyclical history cannot claim to allow free will to its characters.
The author can try to fool the readers into thinking otherwise, but it seems pretty clear. If the same Ages repeat again and again, as spokes on a Wheel, there can be no allowances for deviations. The past dictates the future.
The Bore is a great example of this. We know (as Herid Fel reasoned) that the Bore must be sealed eventually by Rand, because the Age of Legends will come again and Lanfear (and the other guy) will pierce the Pattern again, creating the Bore, which will have to be patched by the Dragon, and so on.
Can any of those characters claim to have free will? Of course not. They’re all merely players acting out their roles.
That’s why Ishamael is such an interesting case. As a philosopher, he figured out all of this and theorised that the Dark One had an infinite number of chances to win. More importantly, that any actual change to this cycle could only happen if the Dark One wins. Unfortunately, he failed to realise that it can never happen. If this battle has been (and will be) fought for all of eternity, the outcome is fixed. The Dark One cannot win. My interpretation of his later appearances (as Moridin) is that he has reasoned this out. That would explain how he seemed so listless, basically just going through the motions of the role he has to play.
Anyway, it doesn’t make the story any less compelling. There’s a difference between knowing the path you’ll take and actually walking that path. Great writers can tell us the destination and still make the journey fascinating.
@10 Well, that is the case in christianism because it is explicitly stated that God created Lucifer (and everithing else). In the Wheel of Time however (correct me if I am wrong) it is never stated that the Creator created the Dark One. It is entirelly possible that the Dark One exited already alongside the Creator.
Regarding free will, IMO it’s pretty clear that most folks have mostly free will most of the time, but that there will be circumstantial, mental, or spiritual “nudges” from time to time to keep things on track, with Ta’veren providing a strong central thread in the Age Lace around which other threads (or wills) can be woven in more extreme ways without destabilizing the entire Pattern (the Ta’veren thread holds it all together). The sheer scale of the disruptions necessary with the Last Battle would explain why 3 Ta’veren were necessary at the same time, why the DO promoted the use of Balefire, and why the Flame of Tar Valon weave was so important – the combination of nearly every life in Randland being radically disrupted simultaneously with the raw damage of snipping whole sections of the Pattern at once would have been far more damage than one “super thread” could handle, and three very nearly weren’t enough; the FoTV weave provided a patch over the gaps that most threatened the integrity of the pattern. This probably means that Ta’veren have even less free will on the grand scale if they’re fighting their purpose, but more on the small scale if they’re trying to fulfill their purpose (perhaps akin to Jonah when he fled his role as prophet vs. when he finally accepted it). It’s like the difference in ability to control your boat rowing against a current compared to with the current.
We don’t have many details about the cosmology and theology of Randland, so pretty much any theories would be so much speculation, but IMO the best description of the DO is as a parasite that has latched onto the Pattern and draws something from the act of corrupting/destroying it. The prison is like a metaphysical cyst that traps the DO and isolates it from the Pattern, and the Bore was akin to a rupture (in this case deliberately lanced by Lanfear and co.) that lets the poisonous byproducts of the parasite leak. Rand had an opportunity to get the parasite to consume itself and be destroyed, healing the Pattern and allowing it to continue on without the damage the DO was inflicting, but instead allowed himself to be persuaded that the poison was an integral part of the Pattern.
I’d long thought that the only way to “win” was to eliminate the Dark One and break the wheel in a controlled fashion, freeing everyone from the endless cycles of repetition and futility. The actual conclusion of the series was a disappointment to me because the entire thing hinged on a claim made by the DO, which is called “Father of Lies” for a reason, but which Rand ends up taking at its word. I don’t ascribe to the philosophies that believe in reincarnation for the purpose of eventual perfection, which is a best-fit for the purpose of an endlessly spinning Wheel of Time. I prefer to think that the Wheel was a protective measure implemented when the DO started preying on the Age Lace and the threads that formed it, essentially trapping the DO in an endless cycle until the Dragon (the Creator’s surgeon, or perhaps anti-parasitic medicine) could figure out a way to destroy it and remove its influence, after which point the Wheel is no longer necessary.
@12 – My understanding is the same as yours, that the Creator didn’t create the DO, just that he/it existed separately. @10 – I get what you are saying but I don’t think the DO was created intentionally, I think he exists separately. Therefore his presence and actions aren’t intended per se. I think the Creator was aware that the DO and the decay/entropy he represents would need to be accounted for in the Pattern, which isn’t the same thing. Which means that free will does exist and the Wheel is only as guaranteed to make its next rotation as the decisions made by those living in it.
@11 – I don’t think that having cyclical time is any guarantee at all that it will continue in perpetuity. The Wheel and Pattern have mechanisms in place to set up conditions for it to continue (ta’veren being the major example) but that isn’t guaranteed. Yes, there are major events and themes that occur over and over in each age but there is still the possibility for decisions to be made which would end that cycle as well.
@14 – I love your metaphor there with regard to the DO. I think it is very apt but I’m not sure it’s entirely on the mark either. I think that the DO and what it represents: Destruction, Decay, Entropy, are both necessary and antithetical to what the Pattern and Wheel represent: Order, Existence, Creation. You cannot have one without the other. I only play a philosopher on TV but what is light without dark or good without bad? Unless there is something to juxtapose good with, can you really have evil with a small e or capital E? I don’t think so. The same goes for the realization Rand made at the end of the series. If there are literally no possibilities to make a wrong/Wrong choice than can there truly be any good/Good in the world? And if that is the case therefore is free will even possible? In Rand’s mind, the answer is no. If all choices are bereft of any moral context by the person making them and there’s no outside perspectives from others that would be able to equate that choice as good or bad then all choices are essentially the same. I liken it to going to Baskin Robbins and choosing ice cream in a world without taste. If you have no context to decide you like one flavor over another and no one else in that Baskin Robbins has that context either than what difference does it make if you get chocolate vs vanilla? Or strawberry, or any of the other 28 flavors? I’d argue none. They are all the same. They are all ice cream, no one has a preference or aversion to any of them. Sure you can pick any of the 31 flavors but if they are all the same and no one can really tell the difference (or care about a difference) than all choices are effectively the same and free will is an illusion. That’s why, for better and worse something like the DO is a necessary evil/Evil.
It will be interesting to read these essays as the ‘read’ goes on.
I didn’t get to this at first, so it’s kind of fitting that I ended up reading it right as I also was catching up on the Rhythm of War reread which also just hit a thematic chapter. In fact, coming full circle, in that comment thread, I mentioned something that happens towards to the conclusion of this series (one of Rand’s epiphanies in TGS). Even if time is cyclical, or if the ending may be pre-ordained (assuming Min’s visions aren’t just outside of time)…HOW we get there matters, and I do think may be still subject to free will.
@13 – yeah, I am with you, although my reasons for not fully caring for the ending may be a little different. I’m of the mind that ‘good’ is not something that requires evil to recognize or to have value (even if I recognize the paradox inherent in @15…somewhere there is some explanation that is more than just ‘the lack of evil means the lack of all variation and choice’) . But I like the idea that the ultimate ending could have been breaking the wheel itself, not to end reality, but to just continue on out of the loop.
But that said, as I said above, I don’t think the cyclical nature itself makes it futile or meaningless. The moments/connections/relationships matter.
IMO one of the DO’s big lies is that it is responsible for evil and that, without it, the capacity for free will goes away. Evil is not a positive thing. It’s a negative. It’s much like darkness, in that it exists simply because it is an absence of a thing. Light is a positive thing, darkness is the absence of light. Good is a positive thing, evil is the absence of good. The capacity for evil is not required for free will, rather free will is required for the capacity for evil (assuming the Creator is good and created everything to be good as well).
I see a similarity between the DO and Mashadar, in that they are both manifestations of the evil that man generates through his own thoughts and actions. Indeed, the existence of Mashadar and the fate of Shadar Logoth is proof of my argument that evil exists outside of and independent from the DO, for the evil of Mashadar is inherently opposed to the evil of the DO, even as it is also opposed to good (or Good, as the case may be).