A change in details....

[Dagon Thyne]

I am reading the part in TGS when Rand uses Balefire to destroy Graendal. I noticed somethng is different in this book than the others.....

 

In past books, only the user of balefire and anyone who was involved with the person who was burned out of the pattern remembered anything that happened.....for example, Mat remembered being attacked by a Darkhound in Rhuidean.

 

But After Rand destroys the fortress where Graundal is living, Min and Nynaeve both remember the Balefire and the fortress and Nynaeve remembers that she had just tested the man Rand sent to talk to Graendal for compulsion.....but by the nature of Balefire, there should not have been any compulsion to test, so Nynaeve should have had no memory of it.

[Sid]

This is why balefire is tricky. It does not actually affect people's memories in the way you suggest.

 

By your logic, when Nyneave was in T'A'R with Moghedien on the a'dam, she used her to turn the hallway Rahvin was standing in into a fiery death trap. He was then balefired by Rand to several minutes ago, thus there would be no reason for Nyneave to have turned the hallway into a fiery death trap because no one was there to attack.

 

In ACoS Mashiara, Lan sees the boat that Moghedien hit with balefire in one place, and then suddenly it's further back and partially underwater. He rightfully assumes that balefire was used because that's the only explanation. He wasn't directly involved with the ship or Moghedien, he was just paying attention.

 

Asmodean thinks about many Aielmen expressing surprise to see him alive, mentioning they were sure they saw him die.

 

When balefire is used, the person or thing it removes from the pattern is removed in the past, but the memory of how someone interacted with those people or things or their actions during that time remains. The pattern is forced to shore up the gaps in reality that are created from its use, and it usually results in confusion and uncertainty to people that weren't really paying attention. It's difficult to wrap your head around. There have been enormous discussion threads on the subject in the past.

[username13]

Yeah, balefire causes headaches and Sid gave the best explanantion. The person dies, their actions are undone, pattern goes wonky, memories remain. Those memories though are now of actions that basically never occurred which is gonna cause headaches