#the tragedy isn't that rand's loved ones hate him it's that he hates himself

[markantonys]

down with the fandom narrative that min and nynaeve are The Only Ones Who Still Care About Rand/The Only Ones Who Don't Abandon Him just because they're the only ones who are permitted by the plot to stay physically near him throughout the second half of the series. his other loved ones love and worry about him so much! and it's extremely unfair to say that the fact that they can't take a break from their geographically-far-away plot obligations to go be his fulltime cheerleader like min and nynaeve can means they love him less.

What happened to your hand? Light-blinded fool, take better care of yourself. -Perrin

That arm ended in a stump. The first time Mat had seen that - a few weeks back - it had shocked him. How had Rand lost the hand? The man barely seemed alive, propped up like that, unmoving. Though his lips did seem to be moving, mumbling or muttering. Light! Mat thought. Burn you, what are you doing to yourself?

"This is what it must have been like for Rand. No, worse. The stories say he was locked in a box smaller than my cell. At least I can spend part of the evenings chatting with you [Siuan]. He had nobody." -Egwene

"He is well, and he will be well," Aviendha whispered fiercely, as if she intended to assure his survival by killing anything that threatened him.

He was not exactly as [Elayne] had dreamed of him. There had been a boyishness about him sometimes, but it was gone as if burned away. She mourned that for him. She did not think he did, or could.