So would be sorely lacking. Setting aside largely irrelevant types like Morgase/Sorilea who can barely even briefly rarely GRASP the Source, much less DO anything with it, many people too weak to be AS still have sufficient strength to actually USE the One Power. And any One Power strength scale omitting people who demonstrably HAVE such strength is incomplete and thus inadequate.
WoT is about how people behave and react to things. We didn't get a whole of specifics about insane male channelers, because the important thing in the story is how 3,000 years of insane or trouble-making male channelers, plus an apocalyptic cataclysm, have made people view men like the main character. The relative strengths of the channelers is only important for the way it affects characters' interactions. When it is not going to affect those interactions, there is really no need to apply the scale.
It is a fair point though that the PRECISION of a comprehensive scale was generally superfluous to both the narrative and the fictional reality of its characters. Especially since (as is so often the case in ACTUAL reality) great skill and knowledge disparity more than offset small strength disparity. Talent is a great thing, precisely because it CANNOT be developed: People are either born with it, or not. But even those born with NO talent can develop skill with disciplined time and effort, and those who do almost always surpass even the most talented people who do not. Sometimes exceptional talent encourages people to take things for granted and not work to improve their already elite ability.
As an aside, that is why so many college phenoms flame out in the NFL: As rare athletic freaks they could and did dominate the mostly average and equally unskilled kids in their grade school town, or even large cities or whole states, and excelled against the slightly above average thousands of teens who get college scholarships. But the NFLs two hundred odd annual draftees are ALL athletic freaks, even Mr. Irrelevant, which dramatically raises the level of competition. The most innately gifted athletes are (ironically) the very ones LEAST likely to raise their game to that level, not only because they have never had incentive to do so, but because many CANNOT because they never LEARNED how.
Most people cite the wealth of examples like Vince Young (or, worse, Ryan Leaf) but Tim Tebow is actually a better case study: He HAS the work ethic but LACKS the technique, and has no idea how to ACQUIRE that very acquirable thing. Not that Leafs far more common failing is a poor example; heading into the '99 draft most scouts agreed Leaf has a far stronger arm than Peyton Manning, but Leaf was a party boy while Manning remains notorious for relentlessly tortuously driving himself as well as teammates both on the practice field and in the film room. So flash forward 15 years and Manning has played three SBs and won one, while Leaf is a drug-addicted prison inmate with anger management issues. They are kind of like the NFLs Moiraine and Lanfear, though you and I may be the only people on earth who can appreciate that analogy.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
