Counterargument to Rand's Ability to Sense DF's

[Suttree]

In fact didn't Moiraine say at one point that if a Darfriend was "dark" enough, an Aes Sedai would be able to sense it, same as shadowspawn?

 

I never understood this as you would think at some point in WT history a BA member would have been detected in this manner...

[Eht Slat Meit]

redundant, deleted

[Sharaman]

k, unchanged from first print? The "as if" would be my clue not to take literally.

 

However Fain is insane so not that reliable, RJ may not have phrased it carefully, etc... Well it's always worth fighting, but there's probably better things we can fight about :)

Point is, he can tell them at a glance. Which means it is possible. And Rand (who is also insane) may therefore possess a version of the same ability.

[Cybertrolloc]

No, big stretch. Assuming RJ paid enough attention to a minor point, all it says is that Fain thinks he can do that. That he fails to do so in the same book is probably due to not wanting to give us specific info on which AS Fain sees are black.

 

I think the antithetical nature of Mordeth power/dark one would account for such an ability should it exist. True, Rand is infected with that, but wouldn't think LTT was :)

 

I haven't reread the ToM epilog recently, but surely something that happens in a dream may not be applicable to a new ability in general. Don't want to comment further before reprising that.

[Kahsm]

I don't think it's Rand detecting DFs, I think it's DFs detecting Rand, and him detecting their inability to look directly at him.

 

Pretty sure it's this. And there's some "level control" with it. When he's at Maradon, obviously it's turned up quite high. Seems possible that whatever that power is, is what is seen visibly by Ituralde, who says Rand seemed to be glowing. Given Ituradle is not a channeler, and Men don't have a nimbus, that would normally be impossible, unless of course Rand happened to be channeling something that made him glow visibly for some reason, distraction maybe, to draw trollocs right at him? who knows.

 

But in Tear, the DFs just flinch a little which allows him to identify them. So there are clearly levels. What I suspect is that he can somehow "flex" it like a muscle, so he can pair the timing of the reactions to his specific action. That would be more definitive than someone who just looks freaked out around the Dragon Reborn, which would probably be fairly common even for non darkfriends.