Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
Sidious Send a noteboard - 23/04/2012 02:39:30 PM
I just find that the custodians of RJ's legacy don't approach it with the required respect for the detail that he spent so much painstaking effort on.
I share Sidous's unease with the casual disregard he displays to something like channeler strength, the identificaiton of individual angreal etc.
If he isn't even sure which angreal is being used by a central character, then there is no chance that he knows the exact multiplication ability of ANY specific angreal in the books.
RJ was able to say that Elayne's woman wrapped in hair angreal almost doubled her strength, whereas the turtle angreal would allow Aviendha to channel twice as much as Nynaeve, for example.
I quote this example from memory, as I haven't read the books for some time and I may be off with some of the specific angreal strengths.
But the point is, in order to do that, RJ would have known how much stronger Nynaeve is than Aviendha - in absolute terms - and also by how much each angreal multiplied a users strength.
Sanderson doesn't seem to have a clue about either of these issues. Heck, he didn't even seem to be aware that some of the key channelers might still not be at their full potential.
Where RJ would have known how far both Aviendha and Nynaeve were from their respective full potentials at the time when the angreal comparison to Nynaeve's strength was made in Crown of Swords, and factored this into his description of the amount of saidar that Aviendha could draw through the angreal, these subtleties apparently would go totally over Sandersons' head.
Very, very disappointing, is all that I can say.
I share Sidous's unease with the casual disregard he displays to something like channeler strength, the identificaiton of individual angreal etc.
If he isn't even sure which angreal is being used by a central character, then there is no chance that he knows the exact multiplication ability of ANY specific angreal in the books.
RJ was able to say that Elayne's woman wrapped in hair angreal almost doubled her strength, whereas the turtle angreal would allow Aviendha to channel twice as much as Nynaeve, for example.
I quote this example from memory, as I haven't read the books for some time and I may be off with some of the specific angreal strengths.
But the point is, in order to do that, RJ would have known how much stronger Nynaeve is than Aviendha - in absolute terms - and also by how much each angreal multiplied a users strength.
Sanderson doesn't seem to have a clue about either of these issues. Heck, he didn't even seem to be aware that some of the key channelers might still not be at their full potential.
Where RJ would have known how far both Aviendha and Nynaeve were from their respective full potentials at the time when the angreal comparison to Nynaeve's strength was made in Crown of Swords, and factored this into his description of the amount of saidar that Aviendha could draw through the angreal, these subtleties apparently would go totally over Sandersons' head.
Very, very disappointing, is all that I can say.
It's important that we don't get into any OP debates about anything he says. Under other circumstances we might have debated the nature of the angreal Moiraine possesses, or perhaps the strength of the main characters.
He's completely unreliable as a source of WoT knowledge, and this is the hundredth time. Unfortunately for us, the ignorance surrounds the OP mostly. I'm a fan of "I don't know" rather than "Nynaeve is definitely stronger than Semirhage" and it turns out later it was all a giant blunder.
Perhaps I am too harsh on him, as DomA suggests, but RJ did set a high standard. Then again, I became a fan of a fantastic author who created a magical system of extreme precision... not binky the clown who managed to get hold of the notes!
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Very interesting QA with Brandon
20/04/2012 11:19:02 PM
- 2878 Views
I found it painful to read
21/04/2012 09:53:31 AM
- 1097 Views
Agreed ... He got some softball questions here and couldn't answer them ... But there is a lot
22/04/2012 04:26:27 AM
- 935 Views
Re: Agreed ... He got some softball questions here and couldn't answer them ... But there is a lot
22/04/2012 08:06:38 AM
- 1010 Views
Re: Agreed ... He got some softball questions here and couldn't answer them ... But there is a lot
22/04/2012 02:39:41 PM
- 942 Views
Re: Very interesting QA with Brandon
22/04/2012 02:53:38 AM
- 1021 Views
This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
23/04/2012 09:50:51 AM
- 1269 Views
Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
23/04/2012 02:39:30 PM
- 1034 Views
I think you may be giving RJ more credit than his due here
24/04/2012 10:35:28 PM
- 1030 Views
Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
24/04/2012 05:46:03 AM
- 955 Views
Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
24/04/2012 08:10:15 AM
- 1024 Views
It's got little to do with obsession...
25/04/2012 01:20:48 AM
- 943 Views
Re: It's got little to do with obsession...
25/04/2012 05:05:40 PM
- 958 Views
Re: It's got little to do with obsession...
27/04/2012 12:58:36 AM
- 884 Views
Question about TGS and ToM:
27/04/2012 02:20:34 AM
- 864 Views
Very similar to you
27/04/2012 09:50:52 PM
- 967 Views
Are there plans for rewrites / reordering of the books?
29/04/2012 01:17:48 PM
- 931 Views
of course there's no plan
30/04/2012 06:15:49 AM
- 1292 Views
Egwene...
27/04/2012 05:41:13 AM
- 892 Views
Re: Egwene...
27/04/2012 09:30:32 PM
- 886 Views
Re: Egwene...
28/04/2012 09:44:43 AM
- 864 Views
I don't find it all that surprising
28/04/2012 03:56:41 PM
- 811 Views
Re: I don't find it all that surprising
29/04/2012 08:07:55 AM
- 825 Views
Re: I don't find it all that surprising
30/04/2012 07:54:14 AM
- 741 Views
I suspect Cadsuane will die before that happens
30/04/2012 07:06:04 PM
- 900 Views
Re: I suspect Cadsuane will die before that happens
30/04/2012 08:36:44 PM
- 787 Views
Not sure Cadsuane will ever be reigned in by anyone
01/05/2012 01:18:44 AM
- 783 Views
Re: Egwene...
30/04/2012 07:41:11 AM
- 745 Views
Re: Egwene...
01/05/2012 07:10:35 PM
- 851 Views
Re: Egwene...
01/05/2012 10:51:09 PM
- 1072 Views
Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
01/05/2012 12:08:33 AM
- 985 Views
Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
24/04/2012 10:49:54 PM
- 950 Views
For me it's interesting simply because it is not all that well defined
24/04/2012 11:16:14 PM
- 964 Views
Elminster vs Karsus, Darth Vader vs Darth Revan, Demandred vs Sammael - who has more midichloriants.
25/04/2012 03:13:17 PM
- 1235 Views