Galad can channel!!

[metallicafan08]

I've been on loads of forum sites like this related too TWOT but no-one has ever mentioned one of the greatest scenes in the prologue to KOD where Galad fights Valda. In the paragraph just before they fight it reads "Galad was not distracted. Every creak of saddle leather was clear and distinct, every ringing stamp of hoof on paving stone. He could hear the flies buzzing ten feet away as though they were at his ear. He almost thought he could see the movements of their wings. He was one with the flies, with the courtyard, with the two men. They were all part of him, and he could not be distracted by himself" is it just me or is this not clear evidence that galad can channel? He also mentions seeking the flame and the void or the "oneness" like his masters taught him. Come on how awesome is that? Also it is still bugging me that Rand and Galad are half brothers and that hasn't been openly discussed between anyone. Your thoughts please people.

[Lews Therin Kinslayer]

I think he's got a point, people.  He could be right.  Wouldn't that be something?

[JenLenaMom]

The oneness is a focus technique used by lots of different people.  Tam Al'Thor originally teaches it to Rand to help him with his archery.  Lan also talks about it in New Spring.  It's clearly something that the great blade masters learned from somehwere and passed along to all their students.

[Navaros]

Quite some channelers related (or at least partly related) to Galad. So you truly might be up to something. Not definitive proof of anything but still opens a solid possibility of character development. He is son of Taringail, who fathered Elayne, who can channel. He shares the same mother with Rand, who can channel. So the gene of channeling is certainly present. Almost certainly from Taringail's side; he is Moaraine's half-brother, etc. And possibly from Tigraine's side as well, after all she gave birth to the Dragon, that's gotta count for something when it comes to genes. :)

[JenLenaMom]

Galad is also past the age where he would have sparked already and he's quite sane so I doubt there's any chance he's been only channeling on the sly, like Thom's nephew did.  He may have the gene to pass on, but he can not channel.

[Navaros]

Galad is also past the age where he would have sparked already and he's quite sane so I doubt there's any chance he's been only channeling on the sly, like Thom's nephew did.  He may have the gene to pass on, but he can not channel.

 

Note that you don't have to be a sparker to be a channeler. Sparkers are just very strong channelers who are bound to channel at a certain age. But a lot of channelers, including a respectful number of Aes Sedai, are learners - they can be thought to channel, but if noone took on teaching them they would've never channeled.

[JenLenaMom]

Granted he could learn if he was so inclined which as a whitecloak I highly doubt he would be, but as of the end of KOD he can not channel.

[metallicafan08]

oh come on we all know by now how RJ writes and the passage i put forward is distinct of the way he writes about someone who is channeling. The way he is aware of everything, even the flies buzzing 10 feet away and he reaches this state of awareness by quote "feeding his rage into an imagined flame as his two teachers had taught him". This is exactly the way we know Rand was describing channeling before he knew what he was actually doing. And as was mentioned Galad certainly has the genes so i think it makes perfect sense. I really cant believe no-one else picked up on it first read!! It's the first thing i thought "OH MY GOD GALAD CAN CHANNEL!!!!!!!!"

[el Nynaeve]

I don't know about this. For now I am inclined to agree with JLM on this because there is no evidence of him having learned. It could just be the 'flame and void' technique which channelers and non-channelers alike use. He is certainly past the sparking age for sure.

 

As to learning, well Galad is a Whitecloak yes, but he is rather unusual for what he is. He was in love with a novice, his sister is AS, he doesn't seem to have that all fanaticism and devoted hatred the rest of them seem too. He may not be as averse to learning as you think. But unless he's been having hitherto unmentioned 'lessons' I doubt he's channeling at that point.

[Navaros]

Something I forgot to mention earlier is that he might have actually managed to rein in saidin without knowing. Much like any female wilder. And taint might not have affected him because (since he doesn't know what he is doing) he channels very rarely/channels very insignificant amount of the OP/started channeling only recently while doing his regular concentration exercises. And metallicafan08 puts forth another strong argument - the way the paragraph is written tells us that RJ wanted us to think of channeling when we read it. Whether that is just a red herring or actually setting basis for later revealing that Galad can channel, we can only speculate at this point.

[DemandredFO]

It wouldn't surprise me since Rand and Elayne are very strong channelers.  On the other hand, the flame and the void as said is a blademasters concentration technique.  On balance it is possible but unlikely that Galad can channel.

[Swigaro]

There is one problem with Galad channeling.  He we would have to be a sparker, as, clearly no one has trained him while he was serving in the CotL.  If he were a sparker, he would have actually channeled by now, not to mention the channeling sickness (like the sickness Rand experienced in TEotW).  Remember when Rand was figuring out how to channel, he cured Bella and blew up an Inn.  Galad has done nothing like this.  In fact all he has done is shown that he is an intelligent, exceptional swordsman, which, we already knew he was.  We have had enough POV's of his and chapters about him that any channeling or debilitating channeling sickness would be noted.  It is possible that he can be taught, but he isn't a sparker, and he certainly wasn't embracing Saidin when he fought Valda. 

[Hybrid]

I agree.  Galad is simply in a state of extreme concentration and focus similar to meditation.  It takes a lot of discipline, but that's one thing that Galad definitely has.

[Navaros]

Galad is simply in a state of extreme concentration and focus...

 

Is the situation extreme enough to be called the biggest need he ever had? The need that gets you channeling? I'm just shooting blindly there as I fail to remember how old is Galad. Can anyone answer this for me? If I remember correctly he's a couple of years older than Rand, but does that definitively put him out of sparking age?

 

On the other hand, I'm thinking about him sparking earlier in his life. However, I find that less likely since he should've probably started goin looney by now.

[Cockta]

Oh, this would so be an interesting discovery if it was true, but I don't thinmk it is, of all the fact that is shown against Galad being a channeler.

[Swigaro]

He is enough older than Rand, thus he is definitly out of sparker range.  Rand started channeling at about 18, Galad is several years older.  He would have sparked several years prior to the events in The Eye of the World.

[Ireond]

Wehn men become wilders, without being found, but before they go crazy... what happens? I know they get really lucky, and things go well for them, but ah well..

 

I think it's possible, but I'll wait until it comes out in print

[mb]

Granted he could learn if he was so inclined which as a whitecloak I highly doubt he would be, but as of the end of KOD he can not channel.

 

I am not sure if Galad could even learn.

Elayne might have gotten channeling through just Morgase, Rand through just his father, and Moiraine from just the non-Damodred side of her family; though I am not certain on any of these.

 

 

"Galad was not distracted. Every creak of saddle leather was clear and distinct, every ringing stamp of hoof on paving stone. He could hear the flies buzzing ten feet away as though they were at his ear. He almost thought he could see the movements of their wings. He was one with the flies, with the courtyard, with the two men. They were all part of him, and he could not be distracted by himself"

 

This does not prove that Galad could channel or even learn.  Awareness of surroundings I think is part of the void.

 

[Alderthal]

A study of genetics - or how it's very unlikely that Galad can channel

 

What we know of channeling from a genetic stand point:-

 

A - It is a recessive gene (mentioned in the guide).

B - There are many different genes defining channeling abilities, so it's akin to height or skin tone (this can be safely assumed since not all channelers have the same strength, and the channeling does not manifest in the same way).

C - None of the genes involved in channeling are linked to the sex chromosomes (this assumption is based on the number of channelers. If even one gene is linked to the female sex chromosome (the X) then any channeler will always bear male and female channelers -so technically, any wilder female will bear children who can channel, regardless of them being male or female, and that any female who isn't a channeler, but carries a channeler gene, will have about 50% of her sons able to channel and if her partner is a channeler, then also 50% of her daughters will have the ability to channel).

 

These above assumptions are based on the fact that only one gene from the genetic pool is needed to channel to any degree, and that it is linked to the sex chromosome. Judging by the numbers, then channelers during the Age of Legends will be more numerous. Judging by these numbers, then any wilder present in the current age would produce an extraordinary amount of sons who could channel -even to a minor degree-.

 

So judging by that, we can safely assume that there are no genes associated with channeling present on sex chromosomes. Thus, the chances of Galad being able to channel would be extremely low.

 

As for the description in the book, Lan is the same way. The oneness isn't a channeler technique, it's a meditative one that introduces calm, which would then allow one to reach for saidin/saidar.

[triadruid]

What we know of channeling from a genetic stand point:-

 

A - It is a recessive gene (mentioned in the guide).

RJ has also denigrated the Guide as "inaccurate in some places".

B - There are many different genes defining channeling abilities

Source plz?

 

It's possible that Galad can be taught, but I agree that if he's subconsciously channeling in that scene, it's a BIG change in his behavior. It would explain some of his uncanny swordsmanship, but I think he's just That Good (in every blasted sense of the word).

[Paviel]

He attributes his lack of disabling wounds to luck, though. When he was feigning fatigue, attacking and defending a bit more slowly than he could have, he took fewer wounds than he was expecting. "Only luck kept him from taking more wounds in those exchanges. Or perhaps the Light really did shine on this fight."

 

Not conclusive by any means, and it is awfully late for Galad to have taught himself to channel... and he certainly couldn't have learned any other way.

[Auld Manriva]

"Galad does what he thinks is right, no matter what" ... He thinks channeling is wrong. He'd off himself if he thought he was channeling. He's not... He is simply accessing the void in that passage. As has been said many times in this thread already..

[Hydroc Claw]

Galad may be able to learn to channel, but that scene has no bearing on that. All the scene proves is that Galad is a swordsman of blademaster quality, which we already knew. The scene is written similarly to some of the scenes where Rand channels, but if you go back to some of Rand's early fights, specifically against High Lord Turak in TGH, that it is written similarly, but with specific mention that Rand was not holding Saidin.

[lordofsoup]

it seems to me that he can channel, normally when in the void, you are one with only a few number of objects, and can feel them.  But Galad can feel many more than a small number of objects, including ones that a person in intense consentration would not notice.  Also Rand first channeled at an hour of great need for him, when Egwene was going to be left behind because Bela was not strong enough, Galad could channel at one of the same important times

[Ashaman Kovan]

Even if Galad could learn to channel, I think it's extremely irrelevant at this point in the books. With one more book to come out, and i'm assuming not a whole lot of time before TG happens, even if he could learn, decided he wanted to learn, then took the time to learn, his channeling would be of no real use to the storyline whatsoever. There just wouldn't be time for him to become adept at channeling before the last battle happens.