It's a flawed and incorrect given all the examples we've seen in the books. - Edit 3
Before modification by RugbyPlayingAshaman at 08/02/2011 08:48:30 PM
Most channeling groups don't use gestures. Its almost considered to be a disability in channelers, or an inferior way of doing things.
Which is my point.
That said, darius is right ... it's not consistent at all times, and he cited Lews Therin's need to use his hands. It's not a lone example : Semirhage used her hand to flick a fireball in Rand's direction.
The issue with this argument is that you can't infer from one or two members of a population, that a general characteristic applies to all members of that population. Just because Semirhage used her hand to flick a fireball in Rand's direction doesn't mean she needed to, and once again, there is a big difference between using a motion as an aid to channeling and whether or not that motion necessary. Lews Therin specifically said he needed to use his hands for this weave. None of the other Forsaken have ever stated that they needed a particular gesture to do any of their channeling feats. Lews Therin could very well have learned to channel that particular weave with the gesture, which would mean he is affected by the need to do the same. Further damaging this argument is the fact that Aiel Wise Ones don't gesture to channel fireballs, which is proof that a gesture isn't needed. The best explanation is that Semirhage gestured that one time, but doesn't need to do it. After all, Lanfear flicked a small ball of Fire at Alivia with no gesture; Alivia was only alerted after her ter'angreal undid the weave.
This argument would be like saying, because the Aes Sedai use hand gestures in some of their weaves, they do so with all of their weaves.
So, no, just because Lews Therin needs to use a specific hand gesture for a specific weave doesn't prove he needs to use hand gestures for every weave. As I stated, it seems important that we only know of two weaves that require hand gestures for Rand/Lews Therin to use: the one destructive weave used during the manor battle and possibly balefire. I would say given the evidence, that for some weaves or in some situations, a well-trained channeler might use a gesture as an aid to concentrate on the technique but most of the time, these gestures aren't necessary.
Darius' argument was specifically: "It's possible Lanfear is just noticing that when Rand is making a certain gesture that he's begun a weave ... not that hard to guess where the origination point is going to be from there, especially if he's making specific gestures (the was we see LTT need his hands in KOD to make some weaves). She would have also had the added benefit of knowing LTTs ways very intimately and may have been seeing a very familiar foe."
Darius is suggesting that Lanfear noticed Rand making a gesture or hand movement in one of their scenes together, and this could be how she could slice his weave. The problem is that he doesn't use gestures to do the majority of the weaves in his repertoire, so we can't assume he always does that.
As for Graendal, Verin assumed she was channeling because the shield rebounded and there's only one way that can happen. Graendal's weaves were reversed from the start. Verin could see nothing. She might as well have been fighting a man.
After Verin tried to Shield her, the Shield rebounded, and Verin's POV reads that from this, the woman must be very strong. Then we are told that Graendal turns towards them and starts attacking them. Verin is obviously noticing/sensing weaves, perhaps they are hitting a wall of Air she starts channeling, even if the flows themselves were reversed. Even if the flows were reversed, the effects might not be, so if Graendal reversed a weave to generate a fireball, the flows would be invisible, but the resulting blast of fire might be visible.