Subject: PNH killed Asmodean!! (was Re: Thanks to PNH!)
From: [email-masked] (Bill Garrett)
Date: Sometime in April, 1996

[email-masked]> writes:
} svensson, [email-masked] wrote:
} [email-masked] (Dylan Flynn Alexander) wrote:
} }}
} }}Not to take anything away from PNH, but his is standard Tor OP for new
} }}releases.
} 
} }Hmmm... According to the FAQ, OP stands for One Power.
} 
} so you're saying PNH killed Asmodean?

Yeah, that's it, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden killed Asmodean.
Perhaps events went like this:

TOM DOHERTY: Well, James, your manuscript for _The Fires of Heaven_
looks pretty good.  Patrick has a comment or two, though.

PATRICK: The one thing that disappoints me about the story so far is
that none of the good guys _die_.  The story's so darn warm and fuzzy, it
reads like a child's fairy tale.  Why don't you kill some characters.

JORDAN: Such as who?  Where?

PATRICK: Well, in the end of TFoH here, you have Asmodean skulking
around the Andor palace, spying on Mat and Aviendha, and getting
himself a beer.  To be honest, that's kind of boring.  I think you
should have Asmodean wax Avi and Mat and *then* go for Miller Time.

JORDAN: Aviendha and Mat are required for the last scene in the
story.  I've had that scene in my mind since I began writing.

PATRICK: Okay, well, how about you have Rahvin toast Nynaeve during
that climax scene.  Rand wins, but Nynaeve buys the farm.

JORDAN: No, she's part of the last scene, too.  In fact, the last
sentence of the story is "Nynaeve sniffed disdainfully."  That wouldn't
work too well if she were dead.  Why, I'd have to change the whole
conclusion, and I simply can't do that this far into the story.

PATRICK: Hmm, well, is there _anyone_ who isn't critical to the last
scene?  How about those stable men, Hu and Tad?

JORDAN: They're there.  They saddle Bela for Egwene to ride home.

PATRICK: ARGHH!!! KILL!! MUST KILL!!

JORDAN: I sense that you are frustrated.

TOM: Just kill someone and make him happy.  I need to keep Patrick
sane since he does pretty good work around here.

JORDAN: Well, I suppose I could wax Asmodean.  I was going to have
Rand kill him in book 7, right after Asmodean killed Demandred, who
had become Rand's friend.  But I could off Asmodean now in book 5,
and maybe have Taim off Demandred.  How about this as a new ending:

	"He pulled open a small door, intending to find his way
	to the pantry.  There should be some decent wine.  One step,
	and he stopped,	the blood draining away from his face.

	"Editors aren't supposed to appear in the story!"  His words
	hung in the air as the copy-editing pen killed him.

PATRICK: <sputters> You must be kidding!

JORDAN: What do you want me to do, make some character Travel in just
to kill him and then Travel away?  Maybe I don't need a character to
be the murderer... Maybe a rug could trip him so he breaks his neck,
or a vase could leap off a pedestal and hurl itself at him.  Hmmm?

PATRICK: I've heard of your ``Bubbles of Evil'', but what would this
be, ``Bubbles of Stupidity?''

JORDAN: <growls> I'll bubble your arse, you bloo--

TOM: Gentlemen!  Let's calm down here.  Now, James, isn't there a
way you can kill Asmodean sensibly?

JORDAN: <sniff>  Okay, how about:

	"He pulled open a small door, intending to find his way
	to the pantry.  There should be some decent wine.  One step,
	and he stopped, the blood draining away from his face.

	"You? No!"  The word still hung in the air when death took him.

PATRICK: Oookay, so who killed Asmodean?

JORDAN: You did.

PATRICK: I thought you said you weren't going to say that.

JORDAN: I didn't.  I didn't say in the story _who_ killed Asmodean,
and I don't plan to.

PATRICK: So you're never going to tell the readers?

JORDAN: Of course not.  If I told them it was you, I'd be breaking
my promise to Tom.  So I'll just leave them guessing.

PATRICK: Huh?

JORDAN: I've already said that I don't plan to tie up every loose end.
This is just another that won't be resolved by the close of the story.

PATRICK: But the three of us here know that _I_ killed Asmodean?

JORDAN: Yup.  You murderer, you.

PATRICK: <sigh> Sometimes I wonder why I didn't become a doctor, or a
lawyer, like my mother wanted me to.

-- 
Bill Garrett                     "These are my principles, and if you don't
[email-masked]                like them, I have others."  -Groucho Marx
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~garrett/