Re: Ouch... little harsh there - Edit 2
Before modification by DomA at 22/04/2010 08:19:34 PM
Then again, she can't really. Lanfear and Semirhage are both more skilled and powerful. She wouldn't stand a chance. Even if she wasn't a coward, she is the weakest of the 13.
But then, she revels in how much she can strike from the shadows, so in the end she just didn't have the guts to strike at these two even from the shadows....
Well this isn't quite fair. Moghedien managed to humble all the black sisters which was quite a feat.
That has a lot to do with her name and status. She certainly didn't impress Liandrin much.
It's possible that the a'dam short-circuits TAR as much as it does with channelers in the real world, meaning that Moghedien couldn't escape.
She should have been able to fight the reality of the a'dam, though, it's only a matter of denial and strong will. The a'dam didn't impair her will... I'm pretty sure Amys, Egwene or Lanfear would have escaped. It sounds like Moghedien was shocked by her capture and gave in to panic. She lost all her means and once she gave in to the reality of the a'dam, there was no way out as not denying its reality made it even stronger.. like happens with nightmares.
There's no conclusive proof that the a'dam stops a Dreamer (it didn't throw Moghedien out of TAR, we can tell as much, so it appears one can dreamwalk while wearing an a'dam...), but we don't know Moghedien is a Dreamer (she never showed any sign of oracular skills). She looks to be a trained dreamwalker, and it may be that she uses a weave of spirit to dream herself into TAR instead of the non-OP method used by the real dreamers like Egwene and the WO. Perhaps all the Forsaken must do this (that they know how to do with a spirit weave what other non-Dreamers need a ter'angreal to do. It seems that part of the reason for this is that you need some skills to modulate your weave properly, while the trainign ter'angreal does it for you and doesn't let you be there too strongly). If that's the case, she couldn't use TAR while a prisoner not because the a'dam impaired her but because she couldn't touch the source without the sul'dam letting her.
There's not much doubt - Moghedien has been a disgrace in the 3rd Age. However, I think she was deadly in the War of Power.
And yet, despite her excellent position she apparently didn't dare take out Lews Therin. She remained hidden until she was chased away.
Even Birgitte warns against underestimating her.
She can strike from the shadows and then she's very dangerous - but it seems most time she fancies she is in the shadow waiting for opportunities to attack when in fact she's there to hide and won't strike unless provoked.
Since so much with TAR revolves around sheer force of will (which is why the strong-willed Nynaeve and Siuan were remotely better than the rest even without much training or raw skills) it's really hard to believe Moghedien has the confidence and strength of will to make the most of her skills unless she's on her own in TAR, even if in theory she knows more and can do more than Lanfear or Moridin. It sounds like these two, the WO and above all Egwene would outclass Moghedien in an open TAR fight just because of their much strong will. In TAR like elsewhere, Moghedien most likely would have to strike from the Shadow to hope defeating them. In an open contest, she's probably go down because her will and confidence aren't strong enough. Sooner or later her cowardice or weak personality would make her doubt, panic and falter, and she'd be done with. It's interesting incidentally that when Lanfear faced Rand at the docks, she approached it quite a bit as a duel of wills as if she was fighting in TAR. I really wouldn't want to challenge Lanfear to a duel of wills in TAR... If Egwene or the WO need to face Cyndane there during TG, it will be nasty, a lot more so than if they have to fight Moghedien.