Galad has a hard time fighting Eamon Valda

[Kaznen]

pretty much.

 

He's like Richard Rahl was after he was stripped of his magic.

[Builder]

Wow, must be nice to be Lan  :)

[Matrim DeLaneous]

What could Lan's weakness be?

 

Hard to imagine anything... except CHANCE I suppose!  Remember Matt's slogan before every confrontation... "It's time to roll the dice!  Don't have the old tongue version at the moment.

[Builder]

I understand what you're trying to say. Maybe his weakness is bad luck, but could something like that be called a weakness?

[Matrim DeLaneous]

I understand what you're trying to say. Maybe his weakness is bad luck, but could something like that be called a weakness?

 

Not a philosopher by any means <damned accountants>, but would say that chance / bad luck is an inherent weaknesses for anyone who engages in deadly combat.  It sure was for Eamon Valda, Couladin, the Seanchan Lord Rand took out in TGH, and many other characters. Can't remember the exact reference but I remember one of the Forsaken talking bout LTT's luck. 

[CUBAREY]

No, Valda knew the sword moves - his book learning, to use my example. If his experience was true he would have applied what he learned in the fights to it and he would not have tried bleeding Galad to death after seeing Galad was able to hold his own for a time. This stupid move cost Valda his life and that move is why I think Galad is the better fighter. Galad kept a cool head and that is something we are told repeatedly in the series is absolutely required.

 

Actually Valda is much more experienced then Galad. Moreover, he had already been deemed to be a masterswordmen (either by three masterswordmen or by killing one). However, Valda knew how good he was and had become both conceded in his expertise and contemptous of his opponents (those are his weaknesses). He should have, and almost did, beat Galad. However, Galad was a very good swordsman himself and was told what Valda would attempt to do. Thus, it was the luck of having someone on his side who told him of Valda's tendencies and Valda's concete that helped Galad win. Absent either one of those elements Valda would have killed Galad.

 

What could Lan's weakness be?

 

 

Lan's weakness was his unwillingness to face his destiny. He was born and raised to be Daiden(sp?) Lord and King but he never wanted to lead men to what he assumed would be their death. This Nyneave was able to fix in Knife of Dreams but throughout his adult life lan has been running away from his destiny.

 

 

[Mr Ares]

What could Lan's weakness be?

Kneecapping. That'll put him down.

 

No' date=' Valda knew the sword moves - his book learning, to use my example. If his experience was true he would have applied what he learned in the fights to it and he would not have tried bleeding Galad to death after seeing Galad was able to hold his own for a time. This stupid move cost Valda his life and that move is why I think Galad is the better fighter.[/quote']Except this was a known tendency of Valda's. Something he has done before. He has fought duels, and won, and is a blademaster. Where was Galad's experience? This "stupid move" was something Valda had done enough that he was known for it. More than once, then, likely many more. And he didn't die any of those other times, did he? He made a mistake and Galad got lucky.

[Matrim DeLaneous]

What could Lan's weakness be?

Lan's weakness was his unwillingness to face his destiny. He was born and raised to be Daiden(sp?) Lord and King but he never wanted to lead men to what he assumed would be their death. This Nyneave was able to fix in Knife of Dreams but throughout his adult life lan has been running away from his destiny.

 

So.... how does that tie in with the question regarding possible weaknesses than can be exploited in combat?

[Mr Ares]

What could Lan's weakness be?

Lan's weakness was his unwillingness to face his destiny. He was born and raised to be Daiden(sp?) Lord and King but he never wanted to lead men to what he assumed would be their death. This Nyneave was able to fix in Knife of Dreams but throughout his adult life lan has been running away from his destiny.

So.... how does that tie in with the question regarding possible weaknesses than can be exploited in combat?

Point over his shoulder and say "Look! Your destiny!" in order to distract him.

[Matrim DeLaneous]

What could Lan's weakness be?

Lan's weakness was his unwillingness to face his destiny. He was born and raised to be Daiden(sp?) Lord and King but he never wanted to lead men to what he assumed would be their death. This Nyneave was able to fix in Knife of Dreams but throughout his adult life lan has been running away from his destiny.

So.... how does that tie in with the question regarding possible weaknesses than can be exploited in combat?

Point over his shoulder and say "Look! Your destiny!" in order to distract him.

 

Riiight... and there wouldn't be any Makieri around to help him when he gets beaten to death by some lucky farmer with a staff or sheperd's crook. 

[Builder]

Ok, I see my question has gotten a little out of hand, so I'll be pesky enough to ask the question again.

 

What could Lan's weakness be?

[RobertAlexWillis]

What could Lan's weakness be?

 

Chocolate cream pie.

[Cillian]

What could Lan's weakness be?

 

Chocolate cream pie.

 

I can sympathize with Lan there.

There be legend, no not even that, a whisper of a myth, that says one day long ago a young Lan came across a whole Fortress made of Chocolate Cream Pies.

Of course Lan, brought up by warriors was never allowed near sweets ("you'll never face a trolloc and live if your thighs chaffe together, boy!") but he was out on his own for the first time now, no one to stop him he thought. So he ate the whole Fortress of Chocolate Cream Pie but for the very last one... (he couldn't move to pick it up, but boy did he want it)

It took 9 hard years to work off all those calories. Some say one more pie would have killed him.....

 

...that last Pie still haunts him to this very day. 

 

So pray the Shadow doesn't know the recipe to Chocolate Cream Pie and bring one to the field of battle at Tarmon Gai'don...

[solarz]

On 3/18/2009 at 2:00 AM, jsbrads said:

assumption 1. Warder training is top of the top, no one in the world matches.

Fact 1. Galad sticks out as being best of the best in this group.

assumption 2. Hammar is a blade master

Fact 2. Gawyn kills Hammar

Fact 3. Galad is way better than Gawyn as a student.

assumption 3. Galad continues to grow in his skill until he fight Valda.

 

? what the heck is going on in that fight ? how can it be Eamon has a chance ?

 

The problem is with your assumptions. Not just the ones you spelled out, but the ones you are making implicitly as well.

 

#1: You assume that the better swordsman wins every time.

 

Luck plays a huge factor in any fight. We also don't know the circumstances behind Gawyn killing Hammar and Coulin. Did Hammar and Coulin hesitate? Were they exhausted from previous fights?

 

#2: You assume Valda cannot be more skilled than warders.

 

Not all warders are blademasters. Even warder blademasters are not necessarily better than non-warder blademasters.

[Sabio]

Brandon even said  Gawyn wasn't as good as he thought he was so I assumed some luck or something else came into play with Gawyn killing Hammar.  

 

Valda was a experienced blademaster.  We don't have a lot to go on for Valda's skill.  We know Galad was really good but both Lan and Dem could take him, Ran with both hands was pretty darn good.  I also suspect Tam was a match for Galad.  So is it so shocking Valad might be a match for Galad?

[szilard]

Finally someone brings back the 'who is the stronger'-type of posts. I missed them so much...   I'm evil, I know.

 

I will get on the soft side of this duel.
 

Quote

 

 I want one thing straight in your mind before I kill you, though. The wench was hale the last I saw her, and if she’s dead now, I’ll regret it.” That smile deepened, both in humor and disdain.

“She was the best ride I ever had, and I hope to ride her again one day.”

Red-hot, searing fury fountained inside Galad, but with an effort he managed to turn his back on Valda and walk away, already feeding his rage into an imagined flame as his two teachers had taught him.

 

 

Valda gives immense power to Galad with these words.
 

But this is not my problem. In fact, I had always thought that Morgase's case/thread was an insult not just to her, but to us too. Her totally irrelevant storyline (ok, RJ wanted to show us a fall of a monarch - parallel with daughter's ascent; not to mention the she was raped so many times - true, we formulated theories that these 'men' are impotent, so maybe she was 'just' touched inappropiately, and Valda just did 'a little' rubbing off nothing else, I almost wrote nothing serious, while even standing next to a disgusting person is a very bad experience) culminates in giving power to Galad, and rescuing Faile

 

Much ado about nothing.

 

I really feel for her, becuse her role should have been something else. Early death, laying low far away, anything

 

Back to Galad: the bigger the rage, the bigger the flame.

 

[solarz]

3 hours ago, szilard said:

Finally someone brings back the 'who is the stronger'-type of posts. I missed them so much...   I'm evil, I know.

 

I will get on the soft side of this duel.
 

 

Valda gives immense power to Galad with these words.
(...)

Back to Galad: the bigger the rage, the bigger the flame.

 

 

I don't think it was the rage that helped Galad win. Eamon Valda lost because he underestimated Galad.

 

Valda was one of those people who believed that what they believed to be true must be true. He certainly was a highly skilled swordsman, and had he seen Galad as a dangerous opponent, he very likely would have won.

 

Instead, Valda dismissed Galad as young and inexperienced from the start. He taunted Galad believing that the latter would become consumed with rage (and thus make mistakes), and he truly believed he could end the duel immediately with a decapitating strike.

 

That Galad held his own surprised him, but when Galad started to act tired and desperate, Valda believed what he wished to believe, and fell for the trap.

 

[TheSociopath]

On 3/23/2009 at 1:27 PM, Builder said:

Ok, I see my question has gotten a little out of hand, so I'll be pesky enough to ask the question again.

 

What could Lan's weakness be?

well, in New Spring Lan has the crap beaten out of him by some Darkfriend, although, admittedly that was twenty years ago.

[Sabio]

Not to mention Lan didn't have the advantage of the Warder Bond when he fought the Darkfriend.  Lan admits the DF was better then he was.  But I would agree that in the 20 years since Lan skill has improved a lot.  I would say now Lan weakness would be that he is starting to get to the age where his speed and reflexes would start to slow, so his main weakness is probably age.

[jack of shadows]

@solarz,

"valda dismissed galad as young and inexperienced..."

 

how old do you think galad was when he fought eamon valda?

galad is six and half years older than rand,in the beginning of

our story he is 25 years and 10 months old,the duel between

them did happen two years later,so galad was almost 28 years

old! 

in my book,he was old and experienced enough to fight anyone,

incidentally,how old was eamon valda? 50? 60?

[solarz]

Valda was probably around 40.

 

I don't recall where it was mentioned that Galad is 6.5 years older than Rand, but regardless of his actual age, when he fought Valda, he had barely been in the Whitecloaks for a year, and hadn't had any battle experience that Valda knew of.

[jack of shadows]

@solarz,

"i don't recall where it was mentioned that galad was 6.5 years older

than rand..."

 

it wasn't mentioned anywhere ,but it's easy to calculate,galad was born

in the spring of 972ne,his mother tigraine vanished from caemlyn the

same year,rand was born on the last day of the battle of the shining

walls,november 25 978ne,hence 6.5 years difference,rand is the only

character in the wheel of time story we know his birthday.

 

"he had barely been in the whitecloaks for a year,and hadn't had

any battle experience that valda knew of."

 

true,galad was relatively new as a whitecloak,but he was a prince of

andor since the day he was born,trained by the best andoran 

instructors,not to mention white tower warders,and they all knew

his past,dismissing galad as young and inexperienced(knowing

his personal background) was incredibly stupid.

[Sabio]

Well we know he had some battle experience, he cut down an angry mob.  Sadly the companion doesn't say when Valda was born.

[solarz]

On 2/26/2018 at 5:14 PM, jack of shadows said:

@solarz,

"i don't recall where it was mentioned that galad was 6.5 years older

than rand..."

 

it wasn't mentioned anywhere ,but it's easy to calculate,galad was born

in the spring of 972ne,his mother tigraine vanished from caemlyn the

same year,rand was born on the last day of the battle of the shining

walls,november 25 978ne,hence 6.5 years difference,rand is the only

character in the wheel of time story we know his birthday.

 

"he had barely been in the whitecloaks for a year,and hadn't had

any battle experience that valda knew of."

 

true,galad was relatively new as a whitecloak,but he was a prince of

andor since the day he was born,trained by the best andoran 

instructors,not to mention white tower warders,and they all knew

his past,dismissing galad as young and inexperienced(knowing

his personal background) was incredibly stupid.

 

Why would Valda be aware of Galad's training? It's not exactly public information. Valda would only know Galad was training in the White Tower, but he would have no idea how intensive that training was, or how seriously Galad took it. Valda likely judged Galad's upbringing to be like most lordlings, spoiled and pampered. That Galad was a fine officer was to his credit, but Valda likely thought that to be the extent of Galad's competency.

 

Regardless of justifications, it is portrayed quite clearly in the duel that Valda was highly dismissive of Galad's swordsmanship.

[Sabio]

Warders do have a reputation for being deadly fighters.  True, Galad didn't finish the training, but he should at least know Galad isn't some punk off the street.  So a smart person should at least be a little wary.

 

Companion describes Valda as a true blademaster and his primary goal was self-aggrandizement.  So Valda was a cocky I'm the best and I'm more important type from the start.  I think that's what it came down to, Galad was no blademaster, Valda was, Valda was the Lord Captain, Galad was just some newer recruit etc..  So Valda was I'm better, this is just some upstart.  Had he taken a moment to consider Galad had at least some warder training and was probably also trained by one of the great generals growing up he might of been a bit more cautious.  But from the sounds of it that wasn't in Valda's nature.  Valda was the type to assume his titles meant he was the better man.