Thesis:

The most basic summary of this theory is that Rand will break the Wheel of Time, and end the cyclic rotations, thus creating a linear time line and ending the predestined reincarnation ages.

Rand will break the wheel of time ending the cycles and thus creating free destiny. The dark one will not be destroyed, however without a pattern to influence, being as he is OUTSIDE the pattern; he will not be able to intervene in the human world.

Just as the DO is trapped in all worlds, or if freed in one world is freed in all worlds, so the Wheel of Time governs all realities. Breaking it in one breaks it in all. The fabric of the pattern, the very threads are human life, or souls, being woven into pattern, breaking the wheel frees the pattern and allows man a free destiny that is not preprogrammed.

Because the wheel is broken, no souls will be reborn. Life becomes finite, as there is no longer a reincarnation. To die is to die.

Without a wheel to spin a pattern for the threads, humanity will have free destiny, no predestined roles to be filled, man kind will have true freedom. Since the creator and the dark one are outside the pattern, it is possible they may still be able to influence humanity, but more as a fundamental difference between good vs. evil, right and wrong, polarized diametric opposites. Once broken, the wheel can’t return.

Thus ending the DO threat of remaking the world.

Hence THE LAST BATTLE!!!

Details:

What is the Wheel of Time?

Well, for this I direct attention to the following:

TEOW Glossary pg 669

***Wheel of Time, the: Time is a wheel with seven spokes, each spoke an Age. As the Wheel turns, the Ages come and go, each leaving memories that fade to legend, then to myth, and are forgotten by the time that Age comes again. The Pattern of and Age is slightly different each time an Age comes, and each time it is subject to greater change but each time it is the same Age.***

Now basically, the way I see it there can’t be a literal wheel spinning real threads somewhere. So it is a metaphor for the machinations of the process of the cycle of Ages. The ‘Wheel’ rotates around and around, spinning the same basic pattern but it has some variation, change that gets greater with each turning. (Is its path perhaps a spiral?).

TEOW chap 36 pg 466

***”…You see, the Wheel of Time weaves the Pattern of the Ages, and the threads it uses are lives. It is not fixed, the Pattern, NOT ALWAYS. If a man tries to change the direction of his life and the Pattern has room for it, the Wheel just weaves on and takes it in. there is always room for small changes, but sometimes the Pattern simply wont accept a big change, no matter how hard you try…”***(emphasis mine)

There is some free will, a little wiggle room, but this is still a predestined universe. How could prophecies even exist, if the pattern isn’t predictable? Predestined predictability. Rand specifically has been born or reborn to do whatever it is he does to shut away the DO. This is the 3rd age. And age to come and an age long past. It is possible to introduce new threads into the pattern. This can be seen with Bridgette being thrust into the pattern irregularly, or SH perhaps as well, however, there is an awful lot of soul recycling (all the heroes of the horn, LTT, hawkwing, cain, brig, the twins, etc, these souls are all spun out as corrective devices of the pattern to make sure the changes that are greater with each rotation don’t deviate too far beyond what can be maintained to hold a PATTERN). Patterns, in of themselves suggest predictability, and since there are 7 spokes, 7 ages, this is the 3rd (starting from where the book counts as 1, being as there is no reason to assume that was truly the “FIRST” age, just the 3rd they can remember atm…)which is to come and has already passed. The ability to predict the ‘spinning’ and interpret the pattern and create prophecies suggests that it is readable and predicable at least to a select talented few. In short: PREDESTINY

So what is making the Wheel spin?

The one power, this is easily verifiable through many quotes peppered in TEOTW, I’ve gathered a few:

****TEOTW prologue pg xiii

He was still touching Saidin, the male half of the power the drove the universe, THAT TURNED THE WHEEL OF TIME…”***

***TEOTW chap 8 pg 88

The Power. The One Power, drawn from the True Source THAT DROVE THE WHEEL OF TIME.***

Why is this relevant? Because it establishes a connection between the power that everyone uses and the Wheel of Time. Infact, the power POWERS the Wheel. It is the force that SPINS the wheel. This creates a connection for channelers. The connection into the Source which is spinning the Wheel.

What is it spinning?

The Great Pattern. The Age Lace, etc see TEOTW glossary

The woven fabric that is the “BIG PICTURE” that the threads create. (Providing it was a tangible weave to be seen.)

What is interesting though is a specific sentence in the definition of the Great Pattern:

***TEOTW Glossary pg 664

Great Pattern: The Wheel of Time eaves the Pattern of the Ages into the Great Pattern, WHICH IS THE WHOLE OF EXISTANCE AND REALITY, PAST PRESANT AND FUTURE. Also known as the Lace of Ages*** (emphasis mine)

On one hand this can be taken as dashing my whole theory stating that reality doesn’t exist without a pattern. But is the wheel the only thing that can create a pattern? I see this as linking past, present and future into a woven predictable pattern that gets repackaged every turning of the wheel.

Breaking the wheel that creates a system that rotates every seven periods doesn’t have to mean that the pattern process is destroyed. That just means that the wheel that locks it into THESE SPECIFIC seven ages is broken. Allowing for a completely NEW 8th age.

An age that has never before been a reality because the wheel kept spinning the same 7 patterns for however many rotations up to date. There will still be threads. Threads will still interact with each other. There will no longer be a guiding hand on the loom that is spinning out the destiny of those threads. Forcing them down certain roads, or resisting them on ‘big changes’. The wheel is gone. But a pattern still remains. It’s just not dictated by a reincarnation system. There is no wheel to force specific souls here, or there, or fix this problem. Mankind becomes free willed, completely, without influence. So breaking the wheel doesn’t necessitate destroying the pattern process. It is just a removal of the hand that is guiding the loom, dictating the pattern.

What about the Dark One?

That’s the thing; the DO is outside of the pattern. The hole was open in AOL, how come he didn’t come out then? He is on the outside trying to get IN.

**BWB: The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

CHAPTER: 1 - The Wheel and the Pattern

The only known forces outside the Wheel and the Pattern are the Creator, who shaped the Wheel, the One Power that drives it--as well as the plan for the Great Pattern--and the Dark One, who was imprisoned outside the pattern by the Creator at the moment of creation. No one inside and of the Pattern can destroy the Wheel or change the destiny of the Great Pattern. Even those who are ta'veren can only alter, but not completely change, the weave. It is believed that if he escapes his prison, the Dark One, being a creature or force beyond creation, has the ability to remake the Wheel and all of creation in his own dark image. Thus each person, especially each of those born ta'veren, must struggle to achieve his or her own best destiny to assure the balance and continuation of the Great Pattern.**

Rand has been prophesized to do 9 impossible things. You can’t discount this theory because its ‘impossible’. Rand does impossible things.

***COT: chap 17 pg 431

“Ever since we found out she has been Foretelling, she’s been Foretelling two or three times a day, to hear her tell of it. Or rather, to hear Areina tell of it. Nicola is smart enough to know everyone is aware she can’t remember what she says when she Foretells, but Areina always seems to be there to hear and remember, and help interpret. Some are the sort of things anyone in the camp with half a brain and a credulous nature might think up –battles with the Seanchan, or the Asha`man, an Amyrlin imprisoned, THE DRAGON REBORN DOING NINE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, visions that might be Tarmon Gai`don or a bilious stomach—and the rest all just happen to indicate Nicola ought to be allowed to go faster with her lessons. She’s always too greedy for that. I think even most of the other novices has stopped believing her.”***(emphasis mine)

However, the credibility of Nicola’s foretelling is somewhat dubious, as seen in by the quote. Or is it? This is just the personal judgment of the speaker. Nicola could be faking it sometimes, and not faking it other times. I'm sure if she has a foretelling about going faster in training, that can be discounted (perhaps) out of hand, but can you dismiss 9 impossible things as easily? It has been shown that she has SOME reliability, with the ‘amyrlin imprisoned’ bit as is… so this may or may not be a ‘real foretelling’, but it certainly cant be dismissed, yet.

Where is the DO?

OUTSIDE the pattern.

Everywhere, nowhere. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that existence is possible without a pattern, proven by the very fact that the DO EXISTS OUTSIDE the pattern.

The thing that gives him creative control over the world is the wheel that has the ages locked in this cycle which gives him the ability or opportunity to escape from outside the pattern INTO the pattern.

Has the idea of the broken Wheel have any precedence within the WOT?

Yes.

As seen below when Ishmael is speaking with Rand:

**TITLE: Great Hunt, CHAPTER: 15 - Kinslayer

"I have a thousand strings tied to you, Kinslayer, each one finer than silk and stronger than steel. Time has tied a thousand cords between us. The battle we two have fought-do you remember any part of that? Do you have any glimmering that we have fought before, battles without number back to the beginning of Time? I know much that you do not! That battle will soon end. The Last Battle is coming. The last, Lews Therin. Do you really think you can avoid it? You poor, shivering worm. You will serve me or die! And this time the cycle will not begin anew with your death. The grave belongs to the Great Lord of the Dark. This time if you die, you will be destroyed utterly. This time the Wheel will be broken whatever you do, and the world remade to a new mold. Serve me! Serve Shai'tan, or be destroyed forever!"**

Ishmael is stating that the Wheel will be broken no matter what Rand does. Is Ishmael the most reliable of sources? That is left up to the reader to decide. With in all lies, a seed of truth germinates. He could be mistaken about the Wheel, just plain wrong. Sure that’s a possibility. But so is the possibility that he is privy to private knowledge from the DO, or possibility that the taint has eroded his barrier between souls and he too, has memories from previous lives (assuming that effect is a byproduct of the taint, and rand/LTT is a example of the taints effect on the barrier within a soul between past lives, it could be within the realm of the DO to grant such memories to his antidragon/proxy)

So could this be the “LAST BATTLE” because this is the battle in which rand seals the DO away then breaks the wheel, ending the cycle that dictates he will break out and effect man kind.

Perhaps the breaking in of itself nullifies the DO’s ability to affect the world as closely as he has been. It is conceivable that without a reincarnation system, and no wheel to spin a controllable pattern, that the DO will be forced to be as inactive and indirect as the creator.

Thus creating a true balance between good and evil.

Conclusion:

There is a link between mankind and the source that drives the wheel. The wheel dictates a predestined pattern (with some predictability, despite its variance each rotation)

Impossible things have been done.

Rand is ‘destined’ to do impossible things.

One of the things Rand does that is ‘impossible’ is to break the wheel. In the breaking of the wheel, the hand that guides the pattern is removed. Without a hand to guide the pattern, it spins freely, allowing man to determine his own fate. It is the LAST BATTLE, because after its destruction, there is no possibility of the DO being able to remake an age in his image. There is no control over fate. The DO is reduced to activity similar to the creator, in that he will have no ability to have direct control over the fate of man. It will be the LAST direct confrontation against the DO, the LAST BATTLE to ensure man remains FREE to choice right and wrong. Death becomes final. The cycle ends and time becomes a straight line, traveling forward.