Moiraine's weilding in tEotW

[Tomp]

In the last read-through of tEOtW I noticed that Rand unknowingly sensed Moiraines channeling on, at least, two different times.

 

1 When M heals Tam. (He feels chills)

2 When M moves the staff over them to send their smells along the river. (Feels chills every time the staff passes over them)

[brolie]

yeah there are times he talks about chills or the hair standing up on the back of his neck (like when the raven is watching them when he first meets moiraine) and wondering when moiraine is channeling and he feels it. i've noticed quite a few times but dont remember anymore

[trakand_01]

I'm reading tEotW again, for the 5th time, now. As the original poster said, you don't really notice things the first time around, or maybe even the second, and I'm slightly concerned that even now i'm only 'noticing' things because I've read other people's opinions on here and have them cemented as 'fact' in my head which of course isnt necessarily the case.

 

However, without getting drawn into the 'when did Rand first channel' debate (for what it's worth, i think it was rejuvenating Bela) I'd like to offer my comment on the original issue - loss of 'spectacular' events with the power.

 

In my opinion, firstly as time goes on, there is less and less need to do such spectacular things. As has been stated already, relatively quickly, we discover travelling.

 

However, I DO think that our main characters have a lot of very good skills that in their own way, although not full of fireworks and ingenious deceit of the enemy, are quite spectacular in themselves.

 

1 - Nynaeve can heal almost anything Darlin/Dobraine (I forget which one got wallopped on the head) is the proof of that. Just a few chapters ago someone (Moiraine i think) said that there 'used to be aes sedai could heal when only a spark of life remained, but we have lost so much' - cue Nynaeve. She can also heal being gentled and stilled - quite astounding in itself. I'm not sure how much I can say about her actions in the last book so I won't but anyone who's read it will understand.

 

2 - Egwene is quite stunning in herself. Of course she has to be or she'd be a pretty boring Amyrlin but her tenacity, her dreaming and quite frankly, the image of her standing atop that pile of rubble in the White Tower battle makes her a brilliant Green.

 

3 - Elayne isnt my favourite character but she CAN make ter'angreal which again, not too long ago in tEotW, Moiraine remarked as another 'lost ability'. Again, the last book contains some innovation too.

 

4 - Avi is probably the one most likely to use her power in innovative ways, I think. She funnelled the water out of the river when the guardsman caught fire, and so on. Along with Egwene, she maintained the storm over the valley when they faught the Shaido and Mat killed Couladin.

 

Rand himself is pretty innovative, too. He created the igloo when Avi had gone into the river and so on. However, I think he probably relies more on charsima and 'presence' in the future.

 

The forsaken are probably the ones with the most original uses of the power, however and this doesnt really dwindle out of proportion with their numbers. I seem to remember Rahvin giving Rand a run for his money so to speak in the palace at Caemlyn - did he throw his voice? I can't remember. I'll be back there soon. Graendal has her own little skills; compulsion being a pretty useful one. Mesaana, although I personally think she's reasonably boring as forsaken go, did manage to conceal herself successfully for a long time within the Tower.

[Dastion]

One unique thing about Moiraine is that she is very adept at using focuses to create interesting effects.

 

I believe that Aes Sedai have discovered, perhaps unwittingly, that including verbal, somatic, or material components in their weavings causes them to take less of the power. With the drawback that once you use one of these components with a weave it becomes more difficult to use one which does not include these components.

 

Moiraine portrays this the best, on several instances she uses her stone as a focus for eavesdropping, and there are hints just before she battles Lan'fear that she is using the stone for something else (Rand repeatedly notices the stone glinting when it should not). There are the instances of the Staff (which was used for the scent spell), and also the coins she gave the boys which were more than just a simple tracer as they included a small dose of compulsion and also appeared to have formed a minor bond that allowed her to track them and tell where they had been (though part of this could be attributed to her having touched them all with healing, an effect mentioned in book 1 and then never brought up again).

[Luckers]

There is a good reason she used the coins. It stated that placing a Seeker on a person, or clothing, causes it to fade swiftly. On metal, though, it holds strong. This is why Elayne placed Hark's Seeker on his belt buckle.

[water_seeker]

I think people have been very creative throughout the series. The feeling that they haven't been as you go along might have something to do with how the first few books set up the story. Not to mention that the viewpoints at the beginning are from inexperienced country bumpkins so everything is written with a touch of wonderment that you don't see later as those bumpkins become more experienced...

[Dastion]

There is a good reason she used the coins. It stated that placing a Seeker on a person, or clothing, causes it to fade swiftly. On metal, though, it holds strong. This is why Elayne placed Hark's Seeker on his belt buckle.

 

I'm aware of that. I was speaking of Moiraine's near Talent for using Focuses compared to other Aes Sedai. In this case, the fact that those coins also contained a small dose of compulsion.