Good point. I guess I just assumed that it was possible. I do remember that Rand controlled the intensity during the dark hound incident but it is true that there he did it by reducing the power. I believed that Rand could control the balefire to use the added strength to make it wide. Ofcourse the way balefire works in TGS is weird.

Still, I looked and I found these quotes from BS. Some are interesting and/or suggestive but none truly confirm the idea.





I dont know if Maria ever did find out.



Apparently Rand could have balefired Graendal&co back a year and the pattern would have survived (if just barely).

And while BS varies in his estimates, most are in 1-2 week estimates. I admit thats a lot more than the 15 minutes I first came up with. Though I should say that BS does not totally crush the idea that Rand has control over Balefire, those just say how much Rand could have balefired Graendal back if he really used every scap of power available.



The problem here is that it was explicitly explained in TGS that Moridin does want the pattern to end. It was also implied that Rand planning to blow up the pattern at the end might have been partly due to the link.

Anyway there is no suggestion here that Moridin is lying to Rand so until we get proof otherwise, I will assume that Moridin truly does want the pattern to end. It is certainly implied elsewhere aswell. I mean during the AoL, the guy wrote books like "the Absence of Meaning"

I do not believe that balefire is harmless to the pattern. There is no question that it is. I agree with this fully.

So the question then is, why is it that Moridin is not unraveling the pattern with balefire. Why is he not running around everywhere balefiring everyone as I suggested. I see three obvious potential explanations.

It could be as you say and Moridin's plans cannot be accomplished via balefire. But this begs the question, why not. I mean if Moridin wants the pattern to end. And balefire can end the pattern. Then what? Huh!? I mean am I to believe that Moridin is so picky that pattern unraveling via balefire wont work and that he wants the _exact same thing_ to happen via DO instead. I mean unraveling is unraveling is it not?

But even if that is the case which is tough to accept, why not use balefire just enough to almost unravel the pattern, and then let the DO do the rest. Help him along so to speak. Instead Moridin uses no balefire at all.

The second reason is that Moridin is an idiot and in all those years it never occurred to him "Hey! I want to end the pattern. Balefire would do that. I don't even need the DO!"

The third reason is that the pattern is more durable than we think and Moridin alone and without angreal/sa'angreal cannot weave enough balefire to unmake reality, he needs the help of the DO.

Which of those reasons is the most likely?



I would say that unless there is some proof otherwise, the obvious and logical assumption would be that balefire has a cumulative effect.

We know how it works, it burns a thread backwards in the pattern. Burn more threads and you get a bigger hole. Burn lots of threads and the pattern is so filled with holes that it comes apart. That seems reasonable assumption to me?

It also seems reasonable to me that the pattern is capable of repairing balefire damage to some extent. If this were not the case, if each balefire use brought the pattern a bit closer to unraveling, then does not the fact that the wheel has been turning for such a long time suggest that the pattern would have had to unravel a long time ago. Unless you suggest that for some reason, this turning is the ONLY time balefire has been used?


I did do a quick check at the end here and I did find this:



That certainly seems suggestive to me that it is the NUMBER of the threads that causes the damage.