Gray man

[Dash72]

Hi all,

I'm not completely finished aMoL but I just read something that confused me a bit during the chapter The Last Battle (p.689-692).

From previous encounters with Gray Men I remember that normal weapons do not harm them, nor does that one power (if memory serves, the threads can't touch them, right?).

So that's why during the attack of the Gray Men on Mat and Tuons tent, there were some things that didn't add up for me:

 

1. "Siuan used the One Power to haul one of the Gray Men away from Mat." - How is this possible given what previous encounters with Gray Men showed regarding the One Powers affect on them?

 

All in all there was said to be three Gray Men.

 

1. The first was already dead once Min came back into the tent ("One Gray Man was dead, but there were two  others...")

 

2. The second was apparently killed by a dagger Min through ("Min's knife spun through the air, reflecting flames, and took the Gray Man over Tuon in the chest. Mat breathed out. Never in her life had she been so happy to see a knife fly true.").

 

3. The third was also apparently killed or possibly delayed by a dagger ("Mat had cursed, turning about, botting his aggressor in the face. He followed that with a knife, the scrambled for Tuon." after Min pauses by Siuans body which is why I assumed the Gray Man was dead..)

 

Now -

1. Have their been mentions in the past about how to kill Gray Men?

2. How did Siuan use the One Power to haul the Gray Man off of Mat, if the One Power has no affect on Gray Men?

3. How did Min and Mat's knives kill the Gray Men?

 

 

Could it be that they had power-wrought weapons? Would that matter?

 

 

I want to apologize in advance if there are other threads about this, like I said I haven't quite finished the book so I didn't want to run into any other spoilers on the way, and would appreciate if none are given here!

 

Thank you all very much,

[Feral]

Could you be confusing Grey Men with the gholam(sp)? As far as I remember Grey Men die the same as anyone. It could be me getting confused though.

[batcaver]

What confused me about this was why it happened at all.  Why would the shadow want Tuon dead at that point in the story?  The Seanchan were gearing up for a major attack on the Aes Sedai, which could only work to the Shadow's favor.  Why would it make sense to do anything to disrupt that happening efficiently and effectively?  Why alert them to any other threat when they were focused on harming the forces of the Light?  I could never see how this made any sense at all. I suspect it may have just been thrown in thoughtlessly to give Mat a flashy entrance.  Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[Rhienne]

Could you be confusing Grey Men with the gholam(sp)? As far as I remember Grey Men die the same as anyone. It could be me getting confused though.

 

You're right.  Grey men are hard to spot but once seen they can be killed by anything.  Throughout the series they have been killed by lots of different things - one of the first was a dagger to the chest in tGH.

[Pinzarn]

Gray men = hard to spot, no distinguishing features, your gaze just slides right off them.  They are just as mortal as any other human (if you can see them to hit them).  I don't know if there have been discussions on how many gray men there are.  Make great assassins.

 

Gholam = This is a specail construct.  Not human at all.  The one power does not harm them.  Unlike other contructs, they can travel through a gateway.  Only a handful were ever made.  Easy to see, but moves like quick silver.  Seem to have been constructed as an assassin of channelers.

[Dash72]

You guys are correct, I got confused.

Thanks!

[aranyaka]

What confused me was why Mat had so much difficulty to kill these grey men.

[Pinzarn]

What confused me was why Mat had so much difficulty to kill these grey men.

 

As described in the books, even looking right at them, you may not see them.  Makes it tough to kill them if you can't see them.  Actaully, due to his luck, Mat might be the best at killing them since a random toss of a knife might land true.

[Barid Bel Medar]

as stated in the pinned thread about creating topics, please keep the title relatively spoiler free in the future.

[aranyaka]

 

What confused me was why Mat had so much difficulty to kill these grey men.

 

As described in the books, even looking right at them, you may not see them.  Makes it tough to kill them if you can't see them.  Actaully, due to his luck, Mat might be the best at killing them since a random toss of a knife might land true.

Sure.

 

He had killed one inadvertently in Tar Valon. I thought he only needed to throw two knives casually as he did before. It also surprised me when his knife missed the grey man in Ebou dar.