Balefire

[Guest Toad]

Finally finished book 11 and was left with two huge questions (only posting one here):

 

Why didn't Rand use balefire on Semihirge to get his hand back?  Was he afraid Cadsuane would slap him again?

[Bob T Dwarf]

Rand still can't knowingly kill a woman.  ANY woman.

[Guest Toad]

That makes perfect sense - teach me to post beofre I think.  Cadsuane was there and probably wouldn't do it because - who knows the repercussions???  BUt Logain was there and Nynaeve, and they don't seem to have the same view of taboos as Cadsuane.  Why didn't they do it.  She has a death sentence.

 

Maybe I just want my heroes all in one piece.  Had the same problem with Roland getting his fingers chewwed off by a crab in the Dark Tower.

[Feral]

I suspect they want to try and get information out of Semi before they get rid of her. Besides, Rand probably wouldn't let them.

[Guest Toad]

How frustrating!  Rand won't kill a woman, Mat won't kill a woman - has the whole world gone mad?

[maximuswynn]

It's quite frustrating when no one does their job. I amke few discriminations, but I would never let a Forsaken live, whatever gender.

[scotthunt]

I think you make a really good point. I also think Semirhage will not tell them anything as she always gives ut torture so she can probably indure it. Also she will probably get killed by another Forsaken to stop her from revealing anything. I also agree with you. Im not so happy Rand lost his hand.

[Corbett]

Also there is the possibility that Logain was never taught balefire and that Nynaeve has no idea how to do it again as she doesnt know that is what she used in DR and has shown no hint that she remembers how to use it.

[Guest Dreadlord]

I reckon Semirhage will talk. Cadsuane may not be up for torturing but she is a very strong character and I think Semirhage wont be as smug in AMoL.

 

If Semirhage escapes I wont be happy. By now the Light has shown it is more than capable of dealing with Forsaken, that Rand isnt the only one that can deal with them, and if Cadsuane lets Semirhage slip through her fingers I will be disapointed.

[Mr Ares]

It's quite frustrating when no one does their job. I make few discriminations, but I would never let a Forsaken live, whatever gender.

Then you're a fool. Both Moghedien and Asmodean were both used as teachers very successfully.

 

How frustrating! Rand won't kill a woman, Mat won't kill a woman - has the whole world gone mad?

It's a Two Rivers thing.

 

Why didn't Rand use balefire on Semirhage to get his hand back? Was he afraid Cadsuane would slap him again?

He wasn't afraid of being slapped. He didn't care about the hand that much. He can't kill women. She is more useful alive. Balefire is damaging to the Pattern, and such a selfish and unnecessary use of such a dangerous weave is idiotic.

[Guest Toad]

If using balefire is idiotic - which it apparently is - then why didn't the world end outside of Caemlyn when the Black Ajah was using the balefire wand and killing hundreds of people at a time.  I would think having that many threads snipped at once in the same spot would have some impact, but I don't recall any ripples being observed after the attack.

[Mr Ares]

If using balefire is idiotic - which it apparently is - then why didn't the world end outside of Caemlyn when the Black Ajah was using the balefire wand and killing hundreds of people at a time.  I would think having that many threads snipped at once in the same spot would have some impact, but I don't recall any ripples being observed after the attack.

One use of balefire may not be disastrous. Twenty uses may not be diastrous. How willing are you to accept that this time things will be fine when you're using a weave that disrupts the Pattern to so great an extent that in the War both sides gave up using it. No truce, no agreement, they just both decided that continuing to use it was too great a risk. And I didn't say that using balefire was idiotic, I said that such a trivial and unnecessary use of such a dangerous weave was idiotic. Against Rahvin or the Darkhounds or Be'lal it made sense - those Chosen can't be brought back (not that Rand and co. know this, but still...), and Mat was saved from death on two occasions because of it. But to get back a hand he doesn't even care about, at further cost to his own sanity, the loss of a potentially valauble intelligence asset, not to mention the further damage to the Pattern when the Pattern is really not in such a good state that this is a good thing, is nothing short of idiotic.

[Asmo]

Rand's reasoning is pretty obvious if you think about it.

 

1) He doesn't want to kill any woman. More precisely, he can't kill any woman.

 

2) Balefire disrupts the Pattern by burning threads outside of time continuity.

 

3) Semirhage was very useful as a captive.

 

4) Rand doesn't really need both hands to channel, and he doesn't have to do many things manually since he can channel. Losing a hand would be more of an inconvenience than a disaster to him.

 

5) If he had used Balefire there, Logain, Narishma and Sandomere would have learnt it, since Rand doesn't know how to reverse the weaves (maybe it's impossible with saidin anyway), and that was definately something Rand didn't want to happen.

[Guest Toad]

I guess if you're expecting to die at the last battle, a hand isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.  As I said before, I just like my heores whole.  If he had lost the hand during the last battle, no big deal - part of the sacrifice he must make.  Just hoping he would make it no more handicapped than the wounds in his side.  Rats!