Ask Simple questions, get simple answers (aMoL version covering the entire series)

[patrick5988]

ahhhhh indeeeed---- the phrase that mat said to grady --- hinderstrap - i brushed off to some fish in skyrim , that maybe mat was just dropping a hum bug on him.

 

indeed indeed. thank you.

[Mr Ares]

 

No, they were playing him (letting him think he was overhearing stuff they didn't want him to hear when actually the scene was staged and he heard only what they wanted him to hear and nothing more).

 

Balefire is as capable as anything else of passing through a Gateway - simply put an open Gateway in the path of the balefire and it will pass through it.

I know that they staged a conversation for him to hear, and during it she was asked if he could hear. She said no, straight out knowing it to be a lie. She didn't try to evade at all. I think the oath should have held, to me similar to the experiments to try to evade the rod. What would not make it hold this time?

 

by everything we've seen so far, balefire isn't effected by other weaves, it effects them by unraveling the pattern. The only exception is the new weave. I am as glad as anyone that gateways are finally being used in more creative ways, but it shouldn't make the most dangerous weave obsolete.

If you open a Gateway then there is a big hole surrounded by a weave - balefire can pass through it in exactly the same way Mat can, by simply not touching the weave itself.

 

In reply to the question about the oversight regarding Channelers at TG, I think you can chalk that one up to Mr. Sanderson not having the military background that Mr. Jordan possessed.

That's a pretty silly excuse - he doesn't need military experience to keep a count of how many channelers there are, or to come up with stuff for them to do. Nor does he need it to make the battle make sense. Most of what he writes about is stuff outside his direct experience, and the same is true of most authors.

[patrick5988]

Did Rand get his hand back? He said all the pain was gone, wound was healed on his side.

 

but he said hed chop some wood to pay his way, kind of nostalgicly, or what have you.

 

 

His Hand? Back? OR nat?

[shortkut]

What would happen if they out mat's medallion on someone who had heavy compulsion? Would the weaves dissipate or would the person be left a mindless sack?

[Agitel]

 

I tried but no one answered it there so I asked here instead. I sort of like that it is vague to it is like the ending of Battlestar Galactica (the new series) I was mad as hell the first time I saw it that we never got to know exactly what Starbuck was and how it all fit together but then when I had gotten some time to think about it I really think the end of the series was much better for the vagueness, if they had gone right out and said no she is an angel or oh she is a Cylon then that would have been a flatter ending than leaving it vague. I feel about the same about Rand's final scene in Wheel of Time, if all information had been given sure that would have solved the mystery but it would have been a less powerful ending. Well I like it except I get the iffies from people loosing their ability to channel.

 

 

Never compare BSG to this... The ending of that series is absolutely awful... Watch some of Ron Moore's commentary on those last episodes... Especial parts about throwing darts at a story board to decide who is or who isn't a cylon... That series made a bunch of promises and emphasized a lot of plot devices that turned out to be absolute BS... I have never watched a single episode of that show since... HORRIBLE ending.

 

Starbuck's end was a little cheesy, but overall it was good, imo. Discounting the epilogue.

[Agitel]

Did Rand get his hand back? He said all the pain was gone, wound was healed on his side.

 

but he said hed chop some wood to pay his way, kind of nostalgicly, or what have you.

 

 

His Hand? Back? OR nat?

 

He took Moridin's body, and Moridin didn't have those wounds and had both hands. So Rand has two hands now.

[patrick5988]

an itchy little frustration...

 

GATEWAYS.... Ground woven..... masses of troops marching fall through.... and are dead because shadow spaw n can not go through them...

 

 

 

err ERRarRRR cool dragonmount lava ...

 

ERRARRERRRRR

 

why not floor drop them

 

errrarrrerrrrrr

[patrick5988]

I thought at the end, rand looked into moridins eye as he was dead..... and they saw the evil in his eye only one?

 

 

was it a mirror? i am not buying that he took moridins body

[SylvanFox]

When Rand lives at the end in Moridin's body, why doesn't anybody want him dead? I mean, a few people know that he is Rand. I am assuming Nynaeve knows because she had her hand on his shoulder in that one scene near the end. Rand's three ladies also know. But when Rand and Moridin are in that tent recovering (or not), everybody thinks that the Dragon Reborn rescued one of the Forsaken for some unknown reason. Why doesn't anybody want to kill him? Just because Rand rescued him? Nobody seemed to trust Rand's judgement before. Are they going to try to find him now, thinking that he is one of the Forsaken?

[patrick5988]

think the epicness of the situation left him as no threat. and as rand just saved the world. they would grant him his measure of neccesity.

[Agitel]

What are the chances that Rand burned Moridin's body's connection to the source out by pulling too much if the TP through him through Callandor? Callandor has no buffer. I know circles are supposed to protect people from burning out, but working with the TP instead of the OP might be different. Also, as a sa'angreal for the TP, it might have been too much to channel directly without some kind of access key like the Choedan Kal.

[Tud]

Mr Ares, I don't quite understand your response to my post,. "That's a pretty silly excuse - he doesn't need military experience to keep a count of how many channelers there are, or to come up with stuff for them to do. Nor does he need it to make the battle make sense. Most of what he writes about is stuff outside his direct experience, and the same is true of most authors."

.I'm wasn't making any excuses for Mr. Sanderson's failure to include the Seanchan channelers, etc..I was merely posting a possible explanation of why he failed to utilize the sooner and in greater numbers.  Frankly, I can't understand why he didn't have the Seanchan deploy their other exotics sooner..The Lopar and Crolm pretty well made mince meat of the trollocs they faced and Crolm apparantly drive untrained horses crazy so why didn't he use them during the earlier battles? 

 

 As for the fact that Mr. Sanderson had Mat abandon the high ground, while I can accept the necessity of the move, to do so without bobby trapping the site was just ridiculous..At least IMHO

[Swigaro]

What are the chances that Rand burned Moridin's body's connection to the source out by pulling too much if the TP through him through Callandor? Callandor has no buffer. I know circles are supposed to protect people from burning out, but working with the TP instead of the OP might be different. Also, as a sa'angreal for the TP, it might have been too much to channel directly without some kind of access key like the Choedan Kal.

 

I'd say that is exactly what happened, but I don't think the nature of Callandor was the issue for Moridin.  When he used the TP to shield Taim, Demandred thinks that doing so risks burning him out. With Callandor, Rand was pulling orders of magnitude more of the TP through Moridin than Demandred did with Taim.  I'd say, further that the reason that Rand isn't experiencing any of the typical negative side effects of being burned out (death wish, etc...) is that he wasn't in Moridin's body when he was burned out. 

[Mr Ares]

Mr Ares, I don't quite understand your response to my post,. "That's a pretty silly excuse - he doesn't need military experience to keep a count of how many channelers there are, or to come up with stuff for them to do. Nor does he need it to make the battle make sense. Most of what he writes about is stuff outside his direct experience, and the same is true of most authors."

 

.I'm wasn't making any excuses for Mr. Sanderson's failure to include the Seanchan channelers, etc..I was merely posting a possible explanation of why he failed to utilize the sooner and in greater numbers.  Frankly, I can't understand why he didn't have the Seanchan deploy their other exotics sooner..The Lopar and Crolm pretty well made mince meat of the trollocs they faced and Crolm apparantly drive untrained horses crazy so why didn't he use them during the earlier battles? 

 

 As for the fact that Mr. Sanderson had Mat abandon the high ground, while I can accept the necessity of the move, to do so without bobby trapping the site was just ridiculous..At least IMHO

You put forward an explanation that doesn't make sense. Not being in the military doesn't excuse the failings in Brandon's ability to write about armies and battles. Other authors avoid these mistakes. He didn't get the numbers right, he didn't get the tactics right, and that has nothing to do with him never having been in the army. Nothing at all.

 

I thought at the end, rand looked into moridins eye as he was dead..... and they saw the evil in his eye only one?

 

 

was it a mirror? i am not buying that he took moridins body

Epilogue: "I need a mirror. He found one beyond the next partition of the tent. He held up the candle, looking into the small mirror. Moridin's face looked back at him." So much ambiguity.

[Hagazussa]

One question, since being turned to the Shadow only works for channelers, so it obviously have something to do with being a channeler, if someone who have been turned against their will where to be severed, is then there a chance they would turn back to the Light? Yes I know this is speculation as it never happen in the books, but I have been wondering if it would be possible to turn someone back to the Light that way, not the most comfortable way but since severing can be healed at that point in the series it might be a possible solution for some.

[PhoenixUK]

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One question, since being turned to the Shadow only works for channelers, so it obviously have something to do with being a channeler, if someone who have been turned against their will where to be severed, is then there a chance they would turn back to the Light? Yes I know this is speculation as it never happen in the books, but I have been wondering if it would be possible to turn someone back to the Light that way, not the most comfortable way but since severing can be healed at that point in the series it might be a possible solution for some.

no idea but my guess is that its similar to the taint on saidin. gentling does not cure saidin users who are already mad, it merely stops it getting worse. 

 

so i would speculate that gentling/stilling 13x13 turned people would not cure them. More likely to need a weave similar to how Nynaeve cured the madness, which she likened to a form of Compulsion from the Dark One. 

[Hagazussa]

I guess it would depend on how the involuntary turning works, my theory is that since the connection to the Source is a part of the soul, having such a spiritual part allow a way for corruption to piggy back into the channeler's soul. I would agree though that in that is the case then having that connection active would not matter much when it comes to staying corrupted enough, just like pulling a funnel out of a bottle to not remove the liquid you have poured into that bottle, it only prevent you from pouring in more.

[Tud]

,Mr. Ares,I guess we're just going to have agree to disagree. I think  your point regarding Mr. Sanderson and other authors is an almost complete non sequitar. You think my "possible explanation" for Mr. Sanderson's failure isn't sensible. Whatever.

 

   However, just to be clear, I will reinterate, once again, that I wasn't excusing the mistakes he made, just offering a "possible " reason why. 

 

Frankly,. I'm just glad that we have something to grouse about.

[Paul H]

This question is fairly simple, though I don't know if the answer is simple or complex.  I asked this on the Egwene thread and didn't get a reply, so I will try here:

 

What was the point of Leilwin shadowing Egwene throughout the book (AMoL), and eventually becoming her Warder for all of about two pages?  Was there some significance to this that I missed?  Or is it just something that happened, with no larger meaning behind it?

[Agitel]

This question is fairly simple, though I don't know if the answer is simple or complex.  I asked this on the Egwene thread and didn't get a reply, so I will try here:

 

What was the point of Leilwin shadowing Egwene throughout the book (AMoL), and eventually becoming her Warder for all of about two pages?  Was there some significance to this that I missed?  Or is it just something that happened, with no larger meaning behind it?

 

The only thing I can think of is that it fulfills the true dream Egwene had about needing to be saved by a Seanchan woman.

 

[Paul H]

 

This question is fairly simple, though I don't know if the answer is simple or complex.  I asked this on the Egwene thread and didn't get a reply, so I will try here:

 

What was the point of Leilwin shadowing Egwene throughout the book (AMoL), and eventually becoming her Warder for all of about two pages?  Was there some significance to this that I missed?  Or is it just something that happened, with no larger meaning behind it?

 

The only thing I can think of is that it fulfills the true dream Egwene had about needing to be saved by a Seanchan woman.

 

Thanks.  I don't remember that dream, but I will look up the list of Egwene's dreams in the FAQ and see if I can find it.

[Paul H]

OK, I looked up Egwene's dreams, and I found this:

 

Rand confronting her, and the women with her, and one of them was a Seanchan.

 

I guess this would refer to Rand confronting Egwene at Merrilor, and I think that Leilwin was with Egwene then (though I might be mistaken).  It could also refer to Rand confronting Egwene in the White Tower at the beginning of ToM, except that Leilwin definitely wasn't with her then.

 

I also found this one:

 

A golden hawk stretched out its wing and touched her, and she and the
hawk were tied together somehow; all she knew was that the hawk was
female.

 

The speculation on the meaning of this dream in the FAQ says, in part, "Alternatively, the hawk could refer to a Seanchan noblewoman, possibly Tuon (the golden hawk is the symbol of the Seanchan Blood). . . ."

 

So I guess that those two dreams do shed some light on Leilwin's attachment to Egwene.  I had read through all of the prophecy sections of the FAQ before reading AMoL, but I guess I had forgotten those two dreams.

[Agitel]

I found one more. The "familiar drawling accent" gives away it is a Seanchan woman.

 

 

Crossroads of Twilight

Chapter 20

"She was struggling up a narrow, rocky path along the face of a towering cliff. Clouds surrounded her, hiding the ground below and the crest above, yet she knew that both were very far away. [...] Abruptly, the ledge dropped away from under her with the crack of crumbling stone, and she caught frantically at the cliff, fingers scrabbling to find a hold. [...] Suddenly a woman appeared, clambering down the sheer side of the cliff out of the clouds, making her way as deftly as if she were walking down stairs. There was a sword strapped to her back. Her face wavered, never settling clearly, but the sword seemed as solid as the stone. The woman reached Egwene's level and held out one hand. "We can reach the top together," she said in a familiar drawling accent."

[RugbyPlayingAshaman]

 

This question is fairly simple, though I don't know if the answer is simple or complex.  I asked this on the Egwene thread and didn't get a reply, so I will try here:

 

What was the point of Leilwin shadowing Egwene throughout the book (AMoL), and eventually becoming her Warder for all of about two pages?  Was there some significance to this that I missed?  Or is it just something that happened, with no larger meaning behind it?

 

The only thing I can think of is that it fulfills the true dream Egwene had about needing to be saved by a Seanchan woman.

 

 

This question is fairly simple, though I don't know if the answer is simple or complex.  I asked this on the Egwene thread and didn't get a reply, so I will try here:

 

What was the point of Leilwin shadowing Egwene throughout the book (AMoL), and eventually becoming her Warder for all of about two pages?  Was there some significance to this that I missed?  Or is it just something that happened, with no larger meaning behind it?

 

Yes. Leilwin saved Egwene when Egwene was escaping the Sharan enemy lines after the Sharan surprise attack. It was Leilwin who dealt with the Sharan dreadlord who had Shielded Egwene when they were trying to escape Kandor. This fulfilled the prophecy that a Seanchan woman would save her. The Bonding of Leilwin was more of a character building moment for Egwene that showed her that not all Seanchan were untrustworthy, but there really was no time to ruminate on that.

[Thaed]

Do we know if juilin survived the last battle?

 

I know Hurin died and several others but I can't recall a mention of him.

Thanks in advance!