First let me say that you have a gift for hyperbole ... the BWB says this about Channelers:
"The majority were fairly weak" ... nothing about the VAST majority being VERY weak ... the entire point in that quote is to show that Strong Channelers were not all that common, but that they did miraculous things, things like rediscover Traveling and Cuendillar, or make ter'angreal etc...
Another example of how strong Egwene is in relation to the Forsaken...
In tFoH she rows out to see the Sea Folk in Cairhien, where she ends up shielding a WF (or possibly 2), and lifting 3 people into the air before hitting some maximum height (and notes that she had the Strength to go higher, but it was not possible). When you estimate 125lb per person (being conservative) that's 375lbs PLUS a shield she's just woven... okay, what's the big deal...
Let's look at Nynaeve in WH, she tells Rand that she cannot lift both Rand and Lan at the same time, she notes that the Well she is using has enough of the OP to accomplish the task since it would be just over half to saidar to accomplish the feat. What can Rand and Lan weigh combined? 450lbs?
That seems to make Egwene in the ball park of 85% of Nynaeve's strength, so maybe about 80% of Lanfear. If you have an example in the text where Egwene cannot perform a task very closely to Nynaeve please share it with me, but thus far in the series I've seen no reason to believe that her level is in any way "average".
As for Lanfear vs. E/R/L, she wouldn't be as strong as the 3 of them! Semirhage can't be that far below Lanfear and she was held by 3 AS that are all far weaker than them! There is no way Lanfear is more than a match in Raw strength for the 3 strongest AS if Semirhage is not a match for 3 "average" ones.
Lanfear can certainly accomplish any OP related task that Rand could, but she would not have his Raw strength, only be as effective when you factor in dexterity. My system was devised to illustrate men and women on the same "effective" level do not have the same actual strength, nothing more.
"The majority were fairly weak" ... nothing about the VAST majority being VERY weak ... the entire point in that quote is to show that Strong Channelers were not all that common, but that they did miraculous things, things like rediscover Traveling and Cuendillar, or make ter'angreal etc...
Another example of how strong Egwene is in relation to the Forsaken...
In tFoH she rows out to see the Sea Folk in Cairhien, where she ends up shielding a WF (or possibly 2), and lifting 3 people into the air before hitting some maximum height (and notes that she had the Strength to go higher, but it was not possible). When you estimate 125lb per person (being conservative) that's 375lbs PLUS a shield she's just woven... okay, what's the big deal...
Let's look at Nynaeve in WH, she tells Rand that she cannot lift both Rand and Lan at the same time, she notes that the Well she is using has enough of the OP to accomplish the task since it would be just over half to saidar to accomplish the feat. What can Rand and Lan weigh combined? 450lbs?
That seems to make Egwene in the ball park of 85% of Nynaeve's strength, so maybe about 80% of Lanfear. If you have an example in the text where Egwene cannot perform a task very closely to Nynaeve please share it with me, but thus far in the series I've seen no reason to believe that her level is in any way "average".
As for Lanfear vs. E/R/L, she wouldn't be as strong as the 3 of them! Semirhage can't be that far below Lanfear and she was held by 3 AS that are all far weaker than them! There is no way Lanfear is more than a match in Raw strength for the 3 strongest AS if Semirhage is not a match for 3 "average" ones.
Lanfear can certainly accomplish any OP related task that Rand could, but she would not have his Raw strength, only be as effective when you factor in dexterity. My system was devised to illustrate men and women on the same "effective" level do not have the same actual strength, nothing more.
How can you use the dexterity advantage in Lanfear's case, but not in Egwene's circle's case. They are both examples of females matching males. Therefore, the Egwene, Romanda and Lelaine circle ALSO have the female dexterity advantage over a male Forsaken. So in other words, if Lanfear is able to match a male Forsaken thanks to the female dexterity advantage, and if Egwene, Lelaine and Romanda can match a male Forsaken thanks to the female dexterity advantage, then it means Lanfear must be able to match Egwene, Lelaine and Romanda. And since the female dexterity advantage plays no role when females face females, it means that in RAW STRENGTH, Lanfear must equal Egwene plus Lelaine plus Romanda.
It's like reading in the text that Mike Tyson is as strong as Arnold Swarzenegger, and reading somewhere else that Hulk Hogan is also as strong as Arnold Swarzenegger, and therefore, you can deduce that Mike Tyson and Hulk Hogan must be of similar strength.
Since Egwene's circle can match a male Forsaken, and Lanfear can match a male Forsaken, it means Egwene's circle and Lanfear must be of similar strength. The dexterity advantage is needed in both Lanfear and Egwene's circle's instances in order to match a male Forsaken. And therefore, when they face each other the dexterity advantage is neutralized and their raw comparative strength must be similar.
As for Semirhage's shield being held by 3 Aes Sedai, it is clearly stated in the books that you don't have to be as strong as someone to hold a shield on them once they are cut off from the source. You can in fact be much weaker and still hold a shield quite comfortably. So the fact that 3 Aes Sedai hold Semirhage means that she is probably as strong as 4 or 5 of them linked if she is already holding the source.
In the same way, the 2 Black Ajah sisters are able to hold a Shield over Nynaeve in CoS despite the fact that they are not close to her strength, even if they are linked. Remember they are two average strength Aes Sedai at best. And yet, Egwene is stronger than two very strong Aes Sedai. And in turn, Nynaeve is much stronger than Egwene. So there is no way that two Black sisters can match Nynaeve. Yet if they shield her before she holds the Power, they can maintain the shield despite being much weaker than her. In the same way, Rand can be held shielded by far fewer women than it takes to cut him off from the Source in the first place.
Lastly, the weight comparison is based on complete guesswork. Rand is 6 foot 6 inches tall according to RJ. And Lan isn't much smaller than him. How big is a Sea Folk Windfinder? We don't know. So that is certainly not good evidence of anything. Plus we don't know what the physical limits on lifting weight with Air is. It may well be limited in the same way that building a bridge of Air is limited.
In any case, I think the above makes it clear that Lanfear HAS to be as strong as Egwene plus Lelaine plus Romanda, if she can match a male Forsaken in the same way that Egwene's circle can.
This message last edited by Shannow on 22/12/2009 at 03:50:35 PM
I've been playing with some numbers since we've been having all of these OP strength debates
20/12/2009 06:34:05 PM
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Few glaring errors...
20/12/2009 09:04:55 PM
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Re: Few glaring errors...
21/12/2009 07:52:18 AM
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You don't get it, do you...
21/12/2009 08:19:00 AM
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Didn't you claim that Eggy+Rom+Lel cannot match a male forsaken? Now they can match Lanfear?
21/12/2009 04:14:32 PM
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What you are missing is that
21/12/2009 06:46:04 PM
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I'm not missing it at all..
21/12/2009 06:58:04 PM
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Let's try matching that with the actual text
22/12/2009 03:01:36 PM
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Not correct...
22/12/2009 03:29:24 PM
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Believe as you like, I'm not here to convince you to otherwise, I'm stating how I read the evidence
22/12/2009 06:01:24 PM
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You're reading the evidence wrong.
22/12/2009 06:27:17 PM
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RJ also pointed out that Alivia's skill set as a weapon came in handy
22/12/2009 07:40:35 PM
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I thought a power law distribution is much more likely, TBH
20/12/2009 09:39:21 PM
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Yes. It essentially refers to a skewed histogram - biased to the lower end of the range...
20/12/2009 09:53:18 PM
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Corrections
21/12/2009 01:48:43 AM
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No...
21/12/2009 07:47:58 AM
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True, the application of this model is inconsistent *NM*
21/12/2009 02:34:26 PM
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Not if you point out that the average AS is not as strong as the overall average channeler
25/12/2009 04:30:17 AM
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yet RJ has said flat out that OP strength is on an Bell Curve. Meaning the majority of channelers
21/12/2009 07:36:22 AM
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Perhaps...
21/12/2009 07:52:13 AM
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I've always hated bell curves
21/12/2009 03:56:26 PM
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The most logical answer is that the average AOL channeler was stronger than the current average...
21/12/2009 06:36:07 PM
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and that in no way maps to any kind of Bell Curve
22/12/2009 06:02:41 PM
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Why?
22/12/2009 06:34:25 PM
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Can you provide the quote where RJ tells us the
22/12/2009 07:45:04 PM
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Always go back to the evidence...
22/12/2009 09:03:42 PM
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I'll respond when you can actually provide a few actual quotes to support any of this
23/12/2009 03:20:44 PM
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I've been looking into this a bit... and you really do overstate things to suit your arguments
24/12/2009 06:15:44 PM
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And in looking for quotes for another thread I came across this gem
29/12/2009 09:54:34 PM
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I don't think we have a representative sample of the mode in this population
22/12/2009 08:35:23 PM
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Except that gateway size is used multiple times by characters to judge comparative strength...
22/12/2009 09:21:07 PM
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Re: Except that gateway size is used multiple times by characters to judge comparative strength...
22/12/2009 11:32:21 PM
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I agree that it's practically impossible to determine strength
23/12/2009 03:19:49 PM
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How convenient. And by the way, it is NOT tied to a Talent. Anyone who is strong enough, can Travel. *NM*
23/12/2009 04:36:24 PM
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Seriously go re-read the series, how can you have missed that Traveling is a Talent?
23/12/2009 04:54:51 PM
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It is a weave, the knowledge of which guarantees that you can use it, if you are strong enough...
23/12/2009 05:35:36 PM
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Yet every AS can Heal to a degree and Cloud Dancing involves weaves too
23/12/2009 05:41:42 PM
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Lews Therin can't Heal. Aginor can't Heal. If you don't have the Talent, you can't do it. *NM*
23/12/2009 05:52:02 PM
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LTT and Aginor have "Little Ability" with Healing
23/12/2009 06:02:13 PM
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Because the channelers THEMSELVES don't use Healing to judge each other's strength...
23/12/2009 06:06:58 PM
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The Channelers state that there is a minimum level of strength to make the Weave work
23/12/2009 06:11:55 PM
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No, it makes her 25% as strong as Rand! Thanks for proving my model to be virtually perfect!
23/12/2009 06:36:53 PM
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This is true, however...
23/12/2009 04:55:48 PM
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Aviendha's gateway size doesn't decrease. She is just less energy efficient in creating it...
23/12/2009 05:30:17 PM
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Aviendha is suffering from the second weave limitation
23/12/2009 05:37:45 PM
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Conceded. My faulty memory is to blame in this case. But it doesn't change the rule...
23/12/2009 06:01:33 PM
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I'll give you that there is a stength limitation to Traveling
23/12/2009 06:06:41 PM
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Why do the characters in the books judge each other's strength on gateway size then? *NM*
23/12/2009 06:08:17 PM
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Re: Why do the characters in the books judge each other's strength on gateway size then?
23/12/2009 06:20:18 PM
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And there you have it...Thank you.
23/12/2009 06:27:24 PM
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And linked with Romanda and Lelaine
23/12/2009 06:34:42 PM
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Sorry. That's pure speculation on your part. *NM*
23/12/2009 06:38:43 PM
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No more than yours is!
23/12/2009 06:49:57 PM
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Re: I don't think we have a representative sample of the mode in this population
26/12/2009 12:38:43 PM
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Re: I don't think we have a representative sample of the mode in this population *NM*
26/12/2009 12:41:01 PM
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Re: I don't think we have a representative sample of the mode in this population
26/12/2009 06:37:50 PM
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Goodness
31/12/2009 03:37:23 AM
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I'm working within the context of what we've been told by the author
31/12/2009 03:43:31 AM
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No you are not
31/12/2009 03:58:28 AM
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Back to school AS, and you will be able to do this
26/12/2009 12:34:39 PM
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The problem we're working with is that RJ says strength follows a Bell Curve distribution
26/12/2009 03:29:26 PM
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And RJ knew his maths (and you don't)
31/12/2009 03:22:09 AM
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I'm not the one who said OP strength followed a Bell Curve Distribution
31/12/2009 03:34:55 AM
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