That is utterly incorrect. Rand's case is an evolutionary next step which doesn't apply in general.. - Edit 1
Before modification by Shannow at 31/01/2013 01:42:50 PM
I'm not sure I agree. I think that strength in the Power being a hard limit for each channeler might be something that exists merely because they think it does. But then, that fits my theory posted earlier about weaving saidin or saidar really being an intuitive conceptual interface over the real One Power, which is the power of the Creator, a power based on Will and Thought.
So, in the hour of the apocalypse, arguably the greatest threat any of them have ever or could ever face in their entire lives, perhaps their desperation and will power IS enough to bend reality and cause them to exceed the limits they believed they had.
Rand's lighting of the pipe at the end, written by RJ, fits neatly into the theory that the One Power really is just Will.
I don't think Sanderson's use is necessarily disruptive at all, maybe more instructive. He had the notes, we don't.
So, in the hour of the apocalypse, arguably the greatest threat any of them have ever or could ever face in their entire lives, perhaps their desperation and will power IS enough to bend reality and cause them to exceed the limits they believed they had.
Rand's lighting of the pipe at the end, written by RJ, fits neatly into the theory that the One Power really is just Will.
I don't think Sanderson's use is necessarily disruptive at all, maybe more instructive. He had the notes, we don't.
There are clear, set physical limits to One Power strength. That is clearly established in the series.
There is no "If my willpower is strong enough, I can exceed my maximum limit." You can exceed you maximum, sure. It's called burning out.
Aginor was as stressed at the Eye of the World as Egwene or anyone else was at Tarmon Gaidon. When facing death, you are at your maximum level of desperation.
Simply overriding that limit through sheer willpower is not an option. Sanderson incorporated stuff from various other environments, it would seem, from comic book Incredible Hulk similarities, where if the Hulk is emotionally stressed enough he just grows stronger and stronger, to Star Wars stuff where if a Force user just concentrates hard enough the "size of the X wing is irrelevant to the Force user's ability to levitate it", to pretty much every established cliche of "a desperate mom being able to lift a car off a trapped child with sheer adrenalin fuelled power" etc.
It doesn't work that way with the One Power. A single channeler cannot face a circle of 13 women, nevermind a mixed circle. Nor can a single channeler resist being shielded by a sa'angreal.
It is simply impossible. Sanderson just changed the rules as he went along. Probably because he didn't understand the rules in the first place.