So you might be wondering, is that title clickbait like what type of bombshells could be dropping about a book that came out 10 years ago? And if you thought that, you're wrong. This is a legit bombshell. This past week marked the 10 year anniversary of the release of a memory of light, the final book in the Wheel of Time series. Brandon Sanderson and the Inkeeper from the Dusty Wheel did a live stream discussing their thoughts and revealed a secret that Brandon had been keeping since the release of the book. In today's video, I'll tell you not only what that secret was, why it's such a bombshell, but also what it means for the Wheel of Time universe and the end of the books. Stay tuned. So a couple things before revealing this thing. For one, the most important thing that you can do right now is to smash the like button. That's what all good people do. Don't be somebody that's not a good person. Obviously sarcasm aside, liking my videos helps more people actually see them, so I appreciate all of the likes. And lastly, even though I changed the spoiler system and you just see this little spoiler icon right here now, I want to make sure that you see it today because we're going to be talking about some very pivotal stuff from the ending of the book. And if you don't want spoilers, this one might not be a good one to watch. With that out of the way, let's get into it. As I mentioned this past week marked the 10 year anniversary of the release of a memory of life. I can legitimately remember what I did that day. I picked up my copy at midnight at a Barnes and Noble. I stayed up all night and all of the next day reading it before crashing at night right after I finished the thing. I read it essentially in one sitting and I could not put the book down. It was a finale to a chapter of my life, or at least I thought so at the time. Little did I know I would be talking about this thing many, many years later, running a YouTube channel, a Wheel of Time convention and covering the TV show. It's been a whirlwind. I've broken down these stories over and over on live streams in person panels and on countless videos. I've written wiki articles. I've read the full series more times now than I legit can remember and I'm on basically a constant reread cycle. I would consider myself for the most part to be an expert on the Wheel of Time. But buried in all of that, there was a piece of the story that apparently was obvious to a very small group of people, not to me and not to many others, that Brandon Sanderson had written into a memory of life. This is something that he revealed on Friday and it not only rocked my world as a fan, but it totally actually satisfies an itch that I feel like now I should have seen coming. I will have the video to that full live stream linked in the description of this video so that you can watch the whole thing and listen to Brandon explain this himself, but here is the reveal in a show. Brandon approached a memory of life trying to understand what each character would have wanted for their ideal result at the end of the book, essentially asking what is their motivation and what do they want to happen. As he was going through the various characters, he realized that one character specifically didn't have much of a future no matter what happened. That character was of course Lanfere and at the time named Sending. If the Dark 1-1, Lanfere would sit so low on the totem pole or the hierarchy of the chosen at that point. In fact, she even says to Perrin that she's not a chosen anymore. She had defied the Dark 1, she'd gone her own way, she was screwed if the Dark 1-1. If the light wins, they're going to hunt her down, they're going to capture the remaining for Saken if she isn't killed in the fighting. They're going to be looking for her always. So the ideal situation for her was one in which the light won and everyone believes her to be dead. And she is just that type of manipulator to make that happen. So the entire final book Lanfere helps Perrin. She builds a degree of trust with him. She makes him believe that he can't be compelled. And then at the very end, she makes him believe that he killed her to defend Rand. And then she lives. So the secret is that Lanfere survives the last battle with everyone believing that she is dead killed at the hands of Perrin. But in fact, Perrin was compelled the whole time. So to be very, very clear, Brandon was very clear on this. This is not a retcon. This is the way the story was written. This was done deliberately. Team Jordan knew about it. And it actually makes sense. I always thought Lanfere's plan seemed so stupid. And I wondered why she needed Perrin to kill Rand, worked to kill Moraine or to kill Nineave. When she simply could have done it herself, they were helpless. But I never dreamed that she was manipulating events to this degree. And to me, this is going to prompt me to skip ahead in my re-read. Right now, I'm on Lord of Chaos. I'm going to jump right back into a memory of light. And I'm going to look at it differently this time around. Make sure to watch the livestream and its entirety, the one with Matt and Brandon. I'm leaving out quite a bit of the context in some of the other clues. And I'm sure we'll have a lot more to discuss in the future here. But what I want to talk about now is what this means for the lore of the Wheel of Time in general. Lanfere played a massive role in the victory of the light. That much was certain even before this revelation. That doesn't mean she's a good person. That doesn't mean that she was on the side of the good guys. In fact, Lanfere was on Lanfere's side, as Rand so directly pointed out in a memory of light. But her selfishness, her drive to achieve her own ends to protect her own ass, ended up helping the light achieve victory. Well, how? First of all, remember all the way back in the Great Hunt when his shamael stabbed Rand in their fight in the sky. That wound in his side, it was going to kill him. Lanfere is the one that sealed it off and healed him of a sort. Without her showing up there, Rand dies. She also gives Rand as Bodian. She lets him have the Choding call. And she even plants some of the ideas in his head about how they can be used. She was genuine when she said that she meant that together they could challenge the dark one. Then we get the events of a memory of light. She helps parent fairly directly in freeing the black tower. She's the one that helps him understand how to use the dream spike. She gives him guidance on the world of dreams and fighting slayer. She even helps him learn how to step in and out of the dream and the flesh. She then heals him. She helps him defeat some of the Asha Man at one point. All of this saved the light. Without parent doing his stuff, they lose. Now in hindsight, she was under a course over so she had to do this secretly and not totally open. That's why she was always kind of paranoid. But she needed the light to win. She even exposed parent to compulsion at one point to show him what it was. But this was simply to set up that ending where she fakes her death when it seems certain that Rand is going to win. The plan is actually genius and in hindsight, it does make sense. So to reiterate here, this is not a retcon. Brandon was careful to make sure that this was known and that this was the intention. Team Jordan was not only aware, but they endorsed the plan. Matt Hatch discovered it in the beta read before the book even came out. He thought it was obvious, but Brandon disagreed and it appears here that Brandon was correct because most of us did not see this coming. But what does this mean for the story in the future timeline? Well, obviously we don't have any more story, but this leaves Land Fear alive when no one knows she's alive. And she is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful person alive other than maybe Rand, not only because of her strength and the power, but also her knowledge of the world of dreams and of course just her knowledge of things from the age of legends in general. Brandon hinted that she might carve out some form of power for herself, and this would seem to me to be something that she would do, not directly and not openly and certainly not at first, but she would secure her own ambitions. She can't help it, that's who she is. She may have helped the light win, but she is the same person that she always was. She isn't good, she's just selfish and for a time her selfish interests aligned with the good guys. So I will say this cast Slam Fear in a new light to me and I will certainly re-approach her character analysis in the near future, just given the new context. What do you think of this reveal? Let me know in the comments of the video. I want to hear your thoughts, I want to hear your ideas about this, how does this make you feel? I know there are some folks that are upset about what this does to parents character. Make sure again to like the video if you liked it and make sure to subscribe to the channel and press the bell icon to get more Wheel of Time content. If you don't click the bell icon, you won't be notified when videos are coming out and subscribing isn't enough, so hit both. Huge thank you to my patrons for your support, you all rock. Check the link in the description to become a patron. Lastly, watch this video here on Land Fear to get more information about the daughter of the night. Thanks for watching, until next time, see you later.