FAQ query. Was Logain cleansed from the taint when gentled?

[CandymanGT-]

When men are gentled by the Red Ajah, they pine away and often die young but they no longer go mad or suffer from the rotting disease. Likewise, Robert Jordan has stated that after the taint was cleansed, male channelers would not get any worse nor would they get any better. Whatever mental damage is done by the taint is permanent. So Logain would have stayed in the same mental condition from the time he was gentled until Nynaeve Healed him. He was then subject to the taint once more until Rand and Nynaeve cleansed the taint with the Choedan Kal.

 

Looks like i'm challenging conventional wisdom again already so I'd best get my flameproof suit out.

 

I'm not sure this is 100% correct. When Rand saw Logain in EotW he was completely bonkers. Proper mad with no holds barred.

 

Then once he was gentled he was pretty much normal again, if a touch depressed. Hence the name "gentling". At no point since then has he shown signs of being that mad. Even once he was Healed.

 

Now I agree with the idea that when Rand cleansed the source it didn't return all the men to normal. Whatever level of madness they had reached at that time is where they remained. But this is different from the effects of gentling which is clearly (imo) a reset button on the madness level. So Logain is currently only at a few months worth of mad, rather than a stark raving loony.

 

 

The reason this is important is because it means that any half mad male channeler (ie Rand) can now get themselves gentled and Healed and be totally sane again. This last part is a touch convenient and not likely to happen in the books (nobody will put 2+2 together in time and the men wouldn't trust Aes Sedai to do it for them anyway) but I'm fairly sure I have read the earlier part about Loagin (and Taim) becoming non-mad when they were Gentled.

[CowardsLiveLonger]

When Rand saw him he wasnt crazy! He saw Rand through his bars and recognised a man who was going to cause huge chaos, or something like that........

 

But I disagree, I think the taint would just stay at the same level if they were gentled! And I see it as still being completely sane, slightly affected by the taint and then going straight into insanity, not a really steady gradual thing! Its known that insane men dont question their sanity so aslong as our men do that we know they're sane :)

[V1zharan]

I don't see gentling as a reset button, if you are gentled, you are cut off from the Source, and therefor cut off from the taint, if the taint is removed from the Source, you are also cut off from the taint. I guess one way to think of it...if you trickle water into a bowl, and then you take away the source of water, is there any less water in the bowl because the source of the water has been taken away? No, it is still there, but while it is not losing water, nor is it gaining. So whatever state male channelers were in before it was cleansed, they stay at.

 

~V1zharan~

[schneb]

I'll admit that it has been a while since my last re-read, but the way I remember it, Logain was not acting crazy at all in the procession. He was acting almost regally, as if the Aes Sedai were his honor escort rather than guarding/shielding him.

[Kadere]

The effects of the taint remain the same with or without the use of the Power. Logain wasn't a total looney in EotW, and after being genteled he was just as "mad" as he had been when he had the use of the power. After before being healed though he had discovered a reason to live and fight on, plus Rand had declared himself the Dragon, and Rand had set up that no man who can channel should be touched. So with all of that he became more detrimed and less wild, but he's just as "mad" now as he's always been.

[CandymanGT-]

OK I actually got my copy of EotW out for this one.

 

 

Seems I remembered it wrong. It was like you say. Logain was Regal and dangerous. Not raving.

 

 

I'll get me coat :oops:

[Luckers]

Yeah RJ has said that being severed will not get rid of the effects of the taint, just stop them from getting worse. Same with the cleansing.