I've got a theory about how Rand lights his pipe.

The 'True Power' Is what the note was drilled for.

 Lews Therin describes while Rand uses it as literally the Dark One.

It is also stated the Dark One is the only person who can allow access to the power. 

Given everything in the Wheel of Time is balance, could there be an argument that the Creator has a power that is HIS essence like the True Power is for the Dark One. The creator may be more discerning on who has access and Rand had to win the Last Battle to be deemed worthy for this power.

Saidar & Saidin are the powers that drive the Wheel of Time but they're not the creator's essence.

44 minutes ago, solarz said:

Mat definitely ranks above Demandred.

 

Demandred got wounded fighting Galad, while Mat took out both Galad and Gawyn at the same time while he could barely stay on his feet.

 

Mat fought the frickin' gholam to a standstill!

Very true but Demandred is also able to poke a hole in Lan in a one on one duel which is pretty darn impressive. Plus Demandred probably isn't completely focused on the duels he is fighting man on man but rather more the duel he fights with Mat on with their armies.

That said Mat is pretty darn badass and ok I'll put him up to no. 1 cus I genuinely think Lan and Demanded need to be together on the list

Ok so this is a subjective list. Open for wild debate and likely to involve a number of duels being challenged.

Rules are no channelling allowed fighters are allowed to be selected at peak skills (e.g. Rand pre KoD). (Also due to them not dueling per say and the fact I've no idea where to fit them in I'm leaving the Aiel out... but if you want add them in to any conters)

1. Lan - got to be!

2. Demandred - close 2nd probably if he concentrated could have been 1st but you lose concentration against Lan and you die.

3. Mat rarely seen in a fair fight he could be no. 1 possibly but I'm putting him in at 3 as he can't be lower.

4. Rand pretty sure he peaked this high but no higher...

5. Galad like Lan singlemindedness in dueling gets him higher than others

6. Ryne controversial to put him this high but Lan judges him to be the better swordsman than him but fell into the same trap as Demandred. Only reason he's not higher is I judge Lan to have improved with the sword since then. Just remember he was already an awesome fighter then so that's why he ranks highly

7. Jearom supposedly the best ever but tell me he beats any of the above?!?

8. Sleete bested Lan 2 out of 7 gets him a top 10 spot

9. Sammael World Champion of a bloodless sword sport.

10. Eamon Valda another that should be higher had the capability to best Galad but arrogance was his failing.

Was going to just be a top 10 but there's too many not mentioned.

11. Gawyn the guy killed 2 blademasters in the tower coup so gets a pretty high position.

12. Tam to become 2nd captain as an outlander has to be pretty special along with the fact he earnt a power wrought sword. Plus he's pretty badass even when he's past his prime.

13. Be'lal pretty useless Forsaken but for a short space of time proved a decent swordsman

14. Perrin pretty low for him but he's never quite had the same impact for me as Mat and Rand his skills are more in the wolf dream

15. Toram Riatin ok Rand is better but he knows how to press an advantage and he's certainly not bad

16. Rodel Ituralde just another high quality blademasters

17. Ishamael yet another Forsaken blademaster but book 2 Rand bested him.

18. Turan needed a bit of Seanchan influence here.

19. Hammar swordmaster of the White Tower is going to be pretty good

20. Turak another Seanchan needs to be in the list but probably given he loses to book 2 Rand he isn't getting higher.

Honourable mentions...

All Aiel too tough to put them in they don't duel much.

Gareth Bryne is a blademaster but can't crack the list.

Coulin master of arms and a Warder

Laman had a Heron Marked blade.

Artur Hawkwing quite possibly higher but minimal references to fighting abilities .

Birgitte possibly not suited to curling

All other hero's of the horn.

Jain Charin

Ingtar....

Ok ok I'll stop there's too many to count reminds me how many badass fighters there are

With Relation to this a lot of the early death's in the vileness (admittedly when the BA was behind a lot of it) were paying thugs to take them out. NS Chapter 16:

Quote

Out of Shol Arbela. The luckiest trader in Arafel, they say. Said. Much good it did him. We arrived yesterday, and last night footpads slit his throat two streets over.

 If they were just dishing out money to hitmen then only getting involved in cases where channelling had developed the numbers killed could be very high.

That said with these sorts of things the numbers are probably somewhere in between what the official figure said and what the largest claim said it was.

1 hour ago, TheSociopath said:

First, at that point in time, nobody really knew who it was who Rand was fighting. Rand thought it was the DO, and most people still seemed to think that to some extent.

 

Second, look at what they knew about Lanfear: liked Lews, choose her own name, was powerful. No descriptions.

Bel'lal: netweaver, blademaster. beat Lews at stones, once. No descriptions. 

 

Those are the only two that I can remember the books giving us a full-blown description of everything that the light knew about them pre-rand.

Firstly I don't think Moiraine ever thought it was the DO. After the events of tEotW she goes to Adeleas and Vandene's retreat to do additional research. She doesn't divulge much to Rand at this stage but she's pretty confident it's Ishy at the end of tDR despite not studying any more.

2. Sammael though especially was known for the scar and his stature. So I would be surprised if that didn't survive through to the current time.

3. Moiraine has spent 20 years prepping for it I would suspect she knows more than basics if not much more she and Siuan had Tar Valon's libraries at their disposal. It would not take much additional information to general knowledge of the time to identify some of the Forsaken if you are actively looking for them.

4. Just because our main POV characters don't know much at this stage we haven't seen that many Moiraine POV's at this time to know what she knows about. What we do know is she had spent 20 years trusting just Lan and Siuan knowing what is coming and therefore does keep what she knows and plans to herself.

On 17/04/2018 at 3:56 PM, solarz said:

 

That's an interesting point!

 

What if instead of nuts and bolts, the cuendillar pieces are interlocked? Could we make a skyscraper frame out of cuendillar legos? 

I like your thinking.... off the top of my head I reckon so. If you made the design so that it's dependant on compression then yes that works....

If you're making an incredibly tall building you'd need cullendar nuts and bolts as you'd need to attach individual pieces of cullendar together. You can't make a infinitely tall piece of cullendar as first you need to make a piece of iron that big.

Then if I go super geeky. How do cullendar bolt threads strech when tightened? If they can't strech then you can't do them up so they wouldn't vibrate loose over time. Unless you get some sort of cullendar loctite...

2 hours ago, agreddon said:

So tingling fries are done?

Personally I've always preferred Saidin cooked fries to Saidar cooked ones. I think the tempestuous nature of Saidin just gives them a more even cooking without having to remember to flip them halfway. 

There's a few reasons I think dhe csn do this.

1. Moiraine is one of the few people in the world who knows the Forsaken are free, so one of tge few people who would even consider them in the whole who's this Lord Brend chap.

2. She also knows it's not Ishamael, Aginor or Balthamel after confronting two at the Eye of the World and the fight at Falme so knows it could only be Rahvin, Demandred, Asmodean, Be'lal or Sammael if it is a Forsaken.

3. Most of all I think given she knew the Dragon had been Reborn nearly 20 years ago and the plan was for her and Siuan to track him down and guide him. I think it is reasonable to think that she would have researched what she can about the Forsaken so she can prepare him once he is found. Sammael is very distinctive in looks. Sammael wouldn't have disguised himself as he wouldn't expect to be recognised. 

So with the fact a mysterious Lord Brend who fits Sammael's general description came out of nowhere to rule to someone who is actually looking out for the Forsaken is likely to be quite easy to discern. The fact there was a warded darkhound was probably just the cherry on top of the confirmation.

In all honesty I think Moiraine probably suspected before going there (likely what she went out to confirm) but probably was surprised by him setting Darkhounds on them so quickly.

I've not gone into Be'lal's identification but it's probably along similar lines.

I have started a reread of the series and decided for the first time to start with New Spring. Reading Chapter 3 I picked up on something odd.

Moiraine felt that small tingle again as the light of saidar briefly surrounded the other woman. Any woman who could channel could feel another wielding the Power if she was close enough, but the tingle was unusual. Women who spent a lot of time together in their training sometimes felt it, but the sensation was supposed to fade away over time. Hers and Siuan’s never had. Sometimes Moiraine thought it was a sign of how close their friendship was.

This tingling sensation for Moiraine and Siuan, it seems abnormal in the length of time it's lasted between them. I know Moiraine thinks it is due the closeness of two of them, but from past experience this kind of unexplained thing from RJ can often have deeper meaning or something else at play.

On 30/03/2018 at 10:31 PM, agreddon said:

I think I remember BS saying something along the lines of not what everything Min said was really that important.  Maybe she just badly glimpsed what Alvia's role was and badly interpreted.

Exactly what I think here. The whole vision had more to do with Min's distrust of her and Rand's initial trust. I think it shows the weakness of blindly trusting visions and prophecy to guide you through the last battle.

This whole debate is why balefire nearly unravels the pattern. It by definition creates a plot hole something that happened also didn't happen but indirect things still happened.

Here's two new scenarios.

Person A balefires person B burning his thread back by 1 minute. 30 seconds later person C balefires  person A also removing a minute of time. Is person B alive again?

Person A is dead before they balefire B but person B is dead at a point in time unaffected by the second balefire so does the death still stand (I'm going both dead)

What if person C is stronger and wipes 2 minutes from time. Is B dead now the affect of the 2nd balefire now goes back to a point in time which the 1st balefire does not affect. Does that mean person B is alive?

Just reading this thread for the first time. Got to say I'm loving your views as a first time reader it's making me very nostalgic. I think I was reading Dragon Reborn in 1999.

Got to say some of your comments made me laugh (not telling you which ones or even why...)

Wow, I've been reading these books over half my life, I honestly have no idea how I feel...

Bye Bye Love - Simon and Garfunkel

Brown Sugar - Pink Floyd

(probably one of the weirdest songs you may ever listen to)

The Show Must Go On - Pink Floyd

Satisfaction - Rolling Stones

Supertramp - Dreamer

The Wales vs. France rugby international

 

What, they are still going at it?

Its only just half time.

Les Boys - Dire Straits (could go through the whole collection as they are my favorite band)

Communique - Dire Straits

Six Blade Knife- Dire Straits

Red Red Wine UB40