TDR. Aiel killed by Myrddraal in chapter 39.

[Prempt]

When Nynaeve balefired the three Myrddraal, why didn't Dailin and the other fallen Aiel come back to life? Egwene thought it was balefire, and judging by the description, I think it was.

[Great Lord of the Dark]

She didn't know the weave for balefire so it was probabl a very very very very very very very very very very very hot and bright fire

[elmis]

Yeah, that is a strange scene. It has to be balefire, but maybe it wasn't strong enough to reverse all the actions of the Myrddraal. Either that, or RJ slipped up. :)

[Tyrell]

..Or Nynaeve's balefire was just too weak, I don't have the book on hand, but at that time Nyna wouldn't be at or near her potential, so while she might have had enough strength to make balefire, theres no saying that it'd be worth much in terms of burning threads back in time, maybe less than a second even, who knows! In my oppinion that's the most useful kind of balefire - much less pattern destruction, and the same kind of insta-kill effect!

 

Edit : elmis kinda said it while I was writing, but nevermind.

[Seer]

It was a very thin bar, in other words, too weak to turn back time that bloody much.

 

But then, can it really bring people back from death? I mean, it saved Mat's life, but he wasn't technically 'dead.' Perhaps when someone's thread is snapped, that's it until they're reborn. Unless they're balefired, in which case they can't be reborn.

 

 

[DemandredFO]

Mat, Asmo and Aviendha were dead and rand used a LARGE amount of Balefire and Rahvin, well.  Balefire undo's everything that person did but the everything is determined by how large the balefire is.  Great Lord it was balefire, from the description as I remember it makes it clear it was balefire.  Elmis and Tyrell are correct I think in that the balefire was too weak, I don't remember the description of the balefire so I can't be certain it wasn't an RJ slip after all it was only book 3

[Great Lord of the Dark]

whatever. i still say that it was just fire that was just short of balefire, but balefire isn't fire is it. It's made of spirit and fire, so no matter how much of fire you use, you can't make balefire without spirit. So that implies that unless she used some unknown trick that she hadn't leanred yet (like Rand) then it is completely impossible for her to make balefire. But she channels without knowning so it might be possible, but I still say it's like plasma or something that made them into ash or molecueles

[Great Lord of the Dark]

okay nevermind. i just reread it and it is balefire. Kodoos to you dudes

[Davian93]

still say that it was just fire that was just short of balefire, but balefire isn't fire is it.

 

I would suggest that it was almost certainly balefire.  The description is identical and she even thinks about, I believe, when balefire is directed at her in TSR.

[Andrew the Great]

It was a very thin bar, in other words, too weak to turn back time that bloody much.

 

But then, can it really bring people back from death? I mean, it saved Mat's life, but he wasn't technically 'dead.' Perhaps when someone's thread is snapped, that's it until they're reborn. Unless they're balefired, in which case they can't be reborn.

I know this is totally me being picky, but balefire doesn't stop a person from being reborn. It just prevents the DO from transmigrating their souls into a different body. They can still be reborn when the next age comes around.

[elmis]

Andrew is right on that, RJ said so in QotW once. On a personal note, I've always thought that was kinda stupid though, given what the Dark One says about it in the prologue in LoC (personal opinion).

 

Anyways, back to the scene. The logical thing is that it was too little balefire to bring back the people, but Nyn is strong, and she was furious and afraid, when she just "threw" the power at the Myrddraal.

 

The question here is how long after the Aiel took the wounds, did the Myrddraal get balefired. From what I can gather reading, and rereading the scene, it takes about a minute from when the Aiel enter, to when the Myrddraal get balefired.

 

Even if Nyn wasn't strong enough to shave of a full minute then (Moghedien most certainly is in aCoS when her balefire made the boat go from 50 paces ahead to 50 paces behind), she would have at least taken something off. As for the Aiel who caught the wounds.. even with a Myrddraal blade you don't die instantly, do you? You don't even do that with the Shadar Logoth dagger! You die a lot quicker though, the wounds fester and are hard to heal. But I've never been under the impression it's some kind of life zapping sword, one nick and you're dead. This is just speculation from me, but I think if they took it in the gut, they'd have a minute, at least, before they'd be full dead. On another note, they could have taken the sword right in her heart, which would kill them instantly, or near enough. I don't think that happened though, as the Aiel all say it's the "shadowman steel" that killed them, not where their wounds was.

 

I still think it's weak. It's one of those scenes that makes me think the effects of balefire, might have been edited later on in the series. Going from an instakiller weave, to a instakiller weave that'll help the plot.

[Tyrell]

What does it matter how long they took to die? The balefire needed to be strong enough to kill the Myrddraal back in time enough to make it so that it had never inflicted the wounds, even if the Myrddraal mortally wounded them 60 seconds ago and the balefire killed it 59 seconds ago, they still took those wounds, and therefore are still dead.

[elmis]

LOL, you're totally right. I have no idea how I managed to make that mistake.

 

Anyway, I still hold fast that I don't really like that scene. ;)

[The Lost One]

I always thought the purpose of that scene was to set up some future event where Nyn, Egw or Elaine would use balefire.  My thoughts were...based on this scene, we know Nyn knows the weave and it is more than likely that Egw and Elaine saw the weave and could duplicate it. 

 

This is what I originally thoguht, but it has not happened.........yet. 

[Tyrell]

Just using a weave doesn't nessecerily give you knowledge of it. Take Avi's case - in a moment of desperate need/panic she Traveled (afaik way prior to any other light-friend female channeler). She doesn't remember the weave she used, however, and as a result suffers from the second-learned weave limitation when using the Travelling weaves shown to her by (Elayne? Idunno, one of that circle of people).

[DemandredFO]

Unless Egwene learned it someplace else, I'm pretty sure she said she didn't see what Nyneave.  Nyneave did it by accident, Now Moiraine, she did on purpose and said she would be severed if anyone.  I don't think Nyneave remembers either or, if she does would forget it.  Cadsuane and Verin may know and a few others.  As for who among the Asha'Man knows, no clue

[balefireruinssteaks]

And Rand was running on almost nothing but instinct when he first started channeling.  He was always doing something he had no idea how to do.  So I think there are instict-weaves that people just suddenly know how to do, even if they aren't aware of it...kind of like if you're scared and you are running and you jump over a wall and later realize the wall was way too high, but you suddenly knew how to get over it.  (where did THAT come from? haha)

[Jenkins]

Her balefire was in fact weak. I believe it was in TFoH that Moirane talks with Rand about Balefire after he burns the darkhounds. I remember her mentioning that her balefire could only erase a couple seconds from the patter. I imagine Nynaeves only erased a second or so as well.