Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
Sidious Send a noteboard - 23/04/2012 02:39:30 PM
I just find that the custodians of RJ's legacy don't approach it with the required respect for the detail that he spent so much painstaking effort on.
I share Sidous's unease with the casual disregard he displays to something like channeler strength, the identificaiton of individual angreal etc.
If he isn't even sure which angreal is being used by a central character, then there is no chance that he knows the exact multiplication ability of ANY specific angreal in the books.
RJ was able to say that Elayne's woman wrapped in hair angreal almost doubled her strength, whereas the turtle angreal would allow Aviendha to channel twice as much as Nynaeve, for example.
I quote this example from memory, as I haven't read the books for some time and I may be off with some of the specific angreal strengths.
But the point is, in order to do that, RJ would have known how much stronger Nynaeve is than Aviendha - in absolute terms - and also by how much each angreal multiplied a users strength.
Sanderson doesn't seem to have a clue about either of these issues. Heck, he didn't even seem to be aware that some of the key channelers might still not be at their full potential.
Where RJ would have known how far both Aviendha and Nynaeve were from their respective full potentials at the time when the angreal comparison to Nynaeve's strength was made in Crown of Swords, and factored this into his description of the amount of saidar that Aviendha could draw through the angreal, these subtleties apparently would go totally over Sandersons' head.
Very, very disappointing, is all that I can say.
I share Sidous's unease with the casual disregard he displays to something like channeler strength, the identificaiton of individual angreal etc.
If he isn't even sure which angreal is being used by a central character, then there is no chance that he knows the exact multiplication ability of ANY specific angreal in the books.
RJ was able to say that Elayne's woman wrapped in hair angreal almost doubled her strength, whereas the turtle angreal would allow Aviendha to channel twice as much as Nynaeve, for example.
I quote this example from memory, as I haven't read the books for some time and I may be off with some of the specific angreal strengths.
But the point is, in order to do that, RJ would have known how much stronger Nynaeve is than Aviendha - in absolute terms - and also by how much each angreal multiplied a users strength.
Sanderson doesn't seem to have a clue about either of these issues. Heck, he didn't even seem to be aware that some of the key channelers might still not be at their full potential.
Where RJ would have known how far both Aviendha and Nynaeve were from their respective full potentials at the time when the angreal comparison to Nynaeve's strength was made in Crown of Swords, and factored this into his description of the amount of saidar that Aviendha could draw through the angreal, these subtleties apparently would go totally over Sandersons' head.
Very, very disappointing, is all that I can say.
It's important that we don't get into any OP debates about anything he says. Under other circumstances we might have debated the nature of the angreal Moiraine possesses, or perhaps the strength of the main characters.
He's completely unreliable as a source of WoT knowledge, and this is the hundredth time. Unfortunately for us, the ignorance surrounds the OP mostly. I'm a fan of "I don't know" rather than "Nynaeve is definitely stronger than Semirhage" and it turns out later it was all a giant blunder.
Perhaps I am too harsh on him, as DomA suggests, but RJ did set a high standard. Then again, I became a fan of a fantastic author who created a magical system of extreme precision... not binky the clown who managed to get hold of the notes!
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Very interesting QA with Brandon
- 20/04/2012 11:19:02 PM
3100 Views
I found it painful to read
- 21/04/2012 09:53:31 AM
1307 Views
Agreed ... He got some softball questions here and couldn't answer them ... But there is a lot
- 22/04/2012 04:26:27 AM
1138 Views
Re: Agreed ... He got some softball questions here and couldn't answer them ... But there is a lot
- 22/04/2012 08:06:38 AM
1222 Views
Re: Agreed ... He got some softball questions here and couldn't answer them ... But there is a lot
- 22/04/2012 02:39:41 PM
1153 Views
Re: Very interesting QA with Brandon
- 22/04/2012 02:53:38 AM
1240 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
1497 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
1278 Views
I think you may be giving RJ more credit than his due here
- 24/04/2012 10:35:28 PM
1258 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
1166 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
1247 Views
It's got little to do with obsession...
- 25/04/2012 01:20:48 AM
1177 Views
Re: It's got little to do with obsession...
- 25/04/2012 05:05:40 PM
1184 Views
Re: It's got little to do with obsession...
- 27/04/2012 12:58:36 AM
1104 Views
Question about TGS and ToM:
- 27/04/2012 02:20:34 AM
1073 Views
Very similar to you
- 27/04/2012 09:50:52 PM
1190 Views
Are there plans for rewrites / reordering of the books?
- 29/04/2012 01:17:48 PM
1141 Views
of course there's no plan
- 30/04/2012 06:15:49 AM
1527 Views
Egwene...
- 27/04/2012 05:41:13 AM
1110 Views
Re: Egwene...
- 27/04/2012 09:30:32 PM
1133 Views
Re: Egwene...
- 28/04/2012 09:44:43 AM
1093 Views
I don't find it all that surprising
- 28/04/2012 03:56:41 PM
1018 Views
Re: I don't find it all that surprising
- 29/04/2012 08:07:55 AM
1041 Views
Re: I don't find it all that surprising
- 30/04/2012 07:54:14 AM
959 Views
I suspect Cadsuane will die before that happens
- 30/04/2012 07:06:04 PM
1113 Views
Re: I suspect Cadsuane will die before that happens
- 30/04/2012 08:36:44 PM
1036 Views
Not sure Cadsuane will ever be reigned in by anyone
- 01/05/2012 01:18:44 AM
982 Views
Re: Egwene...
- 30/04/2012 07:41:11 AM
973 Views
Re: Egwene...
- 01/05/2012 07:10:35 PM
1066 Views
Re: Egwene...
- 01/05/2012 10:51:09 PM
1296 Views
Re: This certainly makes a mockery of a lot that us 20-year long readers of Wot used to hold dear...
- 01/05/2012 12:08:33 AM
1181 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 10:49:54 PM
1171 Views
For me it's interesting simply because it is not all that well defined
- 24/04/2012 11:16:14 PM
1161 Views
Elminster vs Karsus, Darth Vader vs Darth Revan, Demandred vs Sammael - who has more midichloriants.
- 25/04/2012 03:13:17 PM
1454 Views

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