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I think you may be giving RJ more credit than his due here darius_sedai Send a noteboard - 24/04/2012 10:35:28 PM
I enjoy the OP debate as much as anyone here, but I have never believed RJ mapped OP strength or angreal in absolute terms. He left that to his characters and seems to have deliberately avoided speaking in absolutes. He rather seemed to judge things on a couple of loose scales.

1. The 21 level list which determines deference and little else ... From what I can tell he may have had to retrofit the scale to go beyond just AS as he began incorporating new Stronger/weaker women into the series. Meaning at one point there were 21 levels between Moiraine and Daigian and later that list got shifted around to incorporate the wider spread of Lanfear and Morgase. The more I consider this list the less useful it seems outside of Aes Sedai. There is absolutely no way we can apply a scale to each level with any accuracy ... I believe RJ did that deliberately as well ... It left him enough room to let Verin perform an OP task he needed her to do, but still be weaker enough than Moiraine that she clearly needed to defer.

2. RJ seems to have decided how strong individuals are in a basics manner such as "are they strong enough to do X task" and used Talent and Flow Affinity to mitigate any variance ... The Kins woman who can shield Nynaeve, Androl and his Gateways and Naeff with his affinity for Air etc ... Thus we have women like Aviendha who can create a massive water spout that "only Cadsuane could have matched" or the strength assessment from early on regarding the necessary strength to use the Choedan Kal.

In this way RJ would never have made a mistake that couldn't easily have been explained and he could easily speak to a channelers basic abilities with ease. When he did say something that seemed contradictory to a scene in the books all he had to say was "Talents or Flow affinity" and we have a viable answer rooted in his system. Unfortunately for Bsand he isn't the creator of the system and must rely much more heavily on the text and notes which we all now is impossible to memorize. Where Bsand goes wrong is that he is trying to directly answer questions that RJ would have put an Aes Sedai like spin on.

RJ even let the books subtlety show us where the main characters where in their growth by showing them perform tasks of increasing complexity and strength as we progressed. At one stage Elayne and Egwene are awed by Nynaeve's Healing weaves, but later in the series they are whipping up even more complex weaves without a second thought. There is a point when we can see that Egwene is significantly ahead of Elayne as she can lift and shield several women several paces into the air without massive strain, but at a similar time Elayne is surprised that she can even lift a single woman (Amathera) and comments that she has grown in Strength. Later still we see Elayne lifting cauldrons and such with ease demonstrating further Strength development. However, we see little growth from Nynaeve in these times, showing how close she already was to her Potential ... While clearly still growing she has not shown a significant increase since she faced down Moghedien in TSR ... She could have been 90% to potential by then for all we know and thus would not have noticed the relatively small gains in Strength she was having.

All that said, Brandon seems to be making some effort to conform to fan questions rather than stick to the vague answers RJ handed out which allowed him freedom to alter things without creating huge problems in the series.
Domani Drag Queen in the White Tower ... Aran'gar watch out!
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Very interesting QA with Brandon - 20/04/2012 11:19:02 PM 2890 Views
I'm sad - 21/04/2012 12:00:33 AM 1245 Views
Ha! Not even RJ could keep up with the world he created! *NM* - 21/04/2012 01:01:29 AM 494 Views
I found it painful to read - 21/04/2012 09:53:31 AM 1110 Views
Do you find that surprising? - 21/04/2012 02:52:47 PM 962 Views
I find it disappointing - 22/04/2012 08:09:10 AM 878 Views
How would obscure crap screw up the story? - 21/04/2012 06:51:27 PM 1025 Views
He apparently amended himself the next day... - 21/04/2012 08:00:01 PM 1387 Views
"Brandon: Umm, when did Perrin meet Masema?" ughhh facepalm *NM* - 22/04/2012 02:45:45 AM 562 Views
Re: He apparently amended himself the next day... - 22/04/2012 08:34:39 AM 1075 Views
I find your pain highly amusing. *NM* - 23/04/2012 04:50:09 AM 603 Views
I'll make my pain yours *NM* - 23/04/2012 02:34:31 PM 511 Views
Sid.. Sid... Sid... *sigh*... *facepalm* *NM* - 24/04/2012 11:09:22 PM 578 Views
Re: Very interesting QA with Brandon - 22/04/2012 02:53:38 AM 1032 Views
Re: Very interesting QA with Brandon - 22/04/2012 03:10:21 PM 1094 Views
Re: Very interesting QA with Brandon - 23/04/2012 05:48:18 AM 932 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 1279 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 1043 Views
Agreed.. - 23/04/2012 03:22:05 PM 1000 Views
Re: Agreed.. - 24/04/2012 05:47:22 AM 949 Views
It's just their pet subject. - 24/04/2012 06:01:24 PM 1027 Views
I think you may be giving RJ more credit than his due here - 24/04/2012 10:35:28 PM 1042 Views
Re: I think you may be giving RJ more credit than his due here - 25/04/2012 05:02:04 AM 911 Views
We are in very close alignment - 25/04/2012 01:27:37 PM 866 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 968 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 1038 Views
You replied far more diplomatically than I would have... - 24/04/2012 10:10:57 AM 942 Views
It's got little to do with obsession... - 25/04/2012 01:20:48 AM 958 Views
Re: It's got little to do with obsession... - 25/04/2012 05:05:40 PM 973 Views
Re: It's got little to do with obsession... - 27/04/2012 12:58:36 AM 900 Views
Question about TGS and ToM: - 27/04/2012 02:20:34 AM 878 Views
Very similar to you - 27/04/2012 09:50:52 PM 982 Views
Are there plans for rewrites / reordering of the books? - 29/04/2012 01:17:48 PM 940 Views
of course there's no plan - 30/04/2012 06:15:49 AM 1303 Views
I didn't know Harriet had such a big role in this - 30/04/2012 10:57:14 PM 839 Views
She does - 01/05/2012 03:52:40 PM 942 Views
Egwene... - 27/04/2012 05:41:13 AM 909 Views
Re: Egwene... - 27/04/2012 09:30:32 PM 898 Views
Re: Egwene... - 28/04/2012 09:44:43 AM 880 Views
I don't find it all that surprising - 28/04/2012 03:56:41 PM 821 Views
Re: I don't find it all that surprising - 29/04/2012 08:07:55 AM 838 Views
Agreed - 29/04/2012 01:52:06 PM 828 Views
Re: I don't find it all that surprising - 30/04/2012 07:54:14 AM 752 Views
I suspect Cadsuane will die before that happens - 30/04/2012 07:06:04 PM 911 Views
Re: I suspect Cadsuane will die before that happens - 30/04/2012 08:36:44 PM 798 Views
Cadsuane shouldn't reswear the oaths - 30/04/2012 10:43:32 PM 923 Views
Apparenly not - 01/05/2012 04:26:08 PM 754 Views
Not sure Cadsuane will ever be reigned in by anyone - 01/05/2012 01:18:44 AM 795 Views
Re: Not sure Cadsuane will ever be reigned in by anyone - 01/05/2012 08:17:49 PM 1138 Views
As usual we are in pretty close alignment - 02/05/2012 04:29:20 AM 985 Views
Re: Egwene... - 30/04/2012 07:41:11 AM 754 Views
Re: Egwene... - 01/05/2012 07:10:35 PM 868 Views
Re: Egwene... - 01/05/2012 10:51:09 PM 1080 Views
I think there is a lot of TAR coming up - 05/05/2012 05:13:18 AM 751 Views
Probably - 05/05/2012 06:52:57 PM 867 Views
Thanks! This fits nicely with my thoughts... - 28/04/2012 10:05:27 PM 940 Views
Re: Thanks! This fits nicely with my thoughts... - 30/04/2012 03:08:57 PM 886 Views
the angreal part bothered me way more - 28/04/2012 10:51:46 AM 858 Views
what's MAFO? *NM* - 28/04/2012 07:01:52 PM 521 Views
Maria (Simmons) And Find Out - 29/04/2012 02:07:19 AM 803 Views

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