Traveling

[Roxinos]

If the Gateway actually rotated it would cut in curved lines.

 

No, it wouldn't.

 

Take a curved blade and hold it perpendicular to a surface. Cut along that surface. You'll notice the cut is perfectly straight.

 

The shape of a cutting object does not determine the straightness of the cut itself.

 

Similarly, a straight edge can produce a curved cut if the straight edge moves as it cuts.

[AltonJakeStorey]

From what I understand, the edges look much like the elevator. But the rotation, I think, is inside the gate. Imagine taking a large 7' by 5' picture in front of you, sideways, so that it looks like a line. Then rotate it so that it is facing you. For a moment the image will be horizontally compressed until it faces you. I think that is what it looks like, so it feels like it's rotating, even thought it's not.

[Roxinos]

From what I understand, the edges look much like the elevator. But the rotation, I think, is inside the gate. Imagine taking a large 7' by 5' picture in front of you, sideways, so that it looks like a line. Then rotate it so that it is facing you. For a moment the image will be horizontally compressed until it faces you. I think that is what it looks like, so it feels like it's rotating, even thought it's not.

 

That's what mandersen said above. And yet, if you can only see a two-dimensional representation of the portrait in your example, then there is no illusion of rotation but rather the illusion of stretching, and it's likely it would have been described as such. The only reason you know there's rotation in your analogy is because you have a three-dimensional concept of the portrait (whereas a gateway is inherently a two-dimensional construct).

[Roxinos]

Alright, I found a passage that supports, essentially, what I think only dEVabox said:

 

Here's a relevant quote from Crossroads of Twilight that I think definitively decides that dEVabox is right:

 

Crossroads of Twilight, chapter 10, page 334, paperback:

Aviendha [...] wasted no time in opening the gateway, a rotating view of a stableyard in the Royal Palace that widened into a hole in the air and let snow from the meadow fall onto the clean-swept paving stones as near three hundred miles away as made no difference.

 

Essentially, it's a vertical slit that widens elevator-door style and the view beyond the gateway is what rotates until it's opened.

 

So there you go. Word of God beats all.

[Kudzu]

yea i dont believe it actually rotates, they do say in the books that it does not but that it appears to.

 

Seriously, show me a quote where they say that.

 

There are definitely examples of it being ambiguous whether it was widening or rotating, probably in LoC. I'm at work so don't have the books, but I'll try to remember to look for one tonight.

[Kudzu]

tFoH Chapter 31

 

Suddenly a shimmering vertical line appeared in the air near her. It widened, as if rotating, into a gateway.

 

LoC Chapter 3

 

A bright vertical line appeared in the air, widening quickly into an opening the size of a large doorway. In truth, it seem to turn, the view through it, a sunlit clearing among a drought-draggled trees, rotating to a halt.

 

LoC Chapter 37

 

The thin curtain she wove did not produce the shimmering effect, and it lasted only a moment before snapping together in a vertical line that was suddenly a slash of silvery blue light. The light itself widened quickly-or perhaps turned; it looked that way to her-into... something.

 

Based on those descriptions I'd say mandersen's gif is the most accurate. I don't recall ever reading a description that made me think the vertical line was rotating on a Z axis as in the black and white gif.

[Roxinos]

I already said my GIF was wrong. But mandersen is not right.

 

In each of the quotes you provided as well as the one I provided, the rotation is occurring in the view through the gateway. Mandersen's rendition has no such rotation. The only one who said that already was dEVabox.

 

The gateway widens open, and as it does so, the view through it rotates until the gateway is opened.

[mandersen]

I already said my GIF was wrong. But mandersen is not right.

 

In each of the quotes you provided as well as the one I provided, the rotation is occurring in the view through the gateway. Mandersen's rendition has no such rotation. The only one who said that already was dEVabox.

 

The gateway widens open, and as it does so, the view through it rotates until the gateway is opened.

 

Seriously? look at the quotes again. they're pretty clearly saying the vertical slash itself is what "widens" or "rotates".

 

tFoH Chapter 31

 

Suddenly a shimmering vertical line appeared in the air near her. It widened, as if rotating, into a gateway.

 

LoC Chapter 37

 

The thin curtain she wove did not produce the shimmering effect, and it lasted only a moment before snapping together in a vertical line that was suddenly a slash of silvery blue light. The light itself widened quickly-or perhaps turned; it looked that way to her-into... something.

 

 

Emphasis added.

[Roxinos]

I already said my GIF was wrong. But mandersen is not right.

 

In each of the quotes you provided as well as the one I provided, the rotation is occurring in the view through the gateway. Mandersen's rendition has no such rotation. The only one who said that already was dEVabox.

 

The gateway widens open, and as it does so, the view through it rotates until the gateway is opened.

 

Seriously? look at the quotes again. they're pretty clearly saying the vertical slash itself is what "widens" or "rotates".

 

tFoH Chapter 31

 

Suddenly a shimmering vertical line appeared in the air near her. It widened, as if rotating, into a gateway.

 

LoC Chapter 37

 

The thin curtain she wove did not produce the shimmering effect, and it lasted only a moment before snapping together in a vertical line that was suddenly a slash of silvery blue light. The light itself widened quickly-or perhaps turned; it looked that way to her-into... something.

 

 

Emphasis added.

 

 

Hence the ambiguity that is at the heart of this entire discussion. The ambiguity that arises from the quote I provided and the other quote that Kudzu provided.

 

A bright vertical line appeared in the air, widening quickly into an opening the size of a large doorway. In truth, it seem to turn, the view through it, a sunlit clearing among a drought-draggled trees, rotating to a halt.

 

and

 

Aviendha [...] wasted no time in opening the gateway, a rotating view of a stableyard in the Royal Palace that widened into a hole in the air and let snow from the meadow fall onto the clean-swept paving stones as near three hundred miles away as made no difference.

 

Emphasis mine.

 

It's not clear at all.

 

Look, I'm not saying that you're not welcome to whatever image you want. That's what's bloody wonderful about books! It tickles your imagination and you begin to add to the world itself! While I know that my imagining of it is mostly wrong, I'm okay with that. I'm still going to keep imagining it my way because I think it's cool.

[Kudzu]

Personally I find it pretty easy to see an illusion of rotation in mandersen's gif, even the first one and I think it fits all the descriptions very well.

 

But as you said, these are books. We're free to imagine things as we like.