Re: I don't think the trait is that simple as the four box diagram with the peas in a bio textbook
Sidious Send a noteboard - 26/04/2012 01:30:54 PM
So, does anybody else find it weird that neither Rand's patrilineal ancestors (nor his mother, as Andor's requisite training in the White Tower would have undoubtedly detected even the potential to learn) nor his descendants through Aviendha after the first über-channeler generation could channel? None of them have the inevitable ability, and in some cases (Coumin, Ladalin) it is specifically mentioned that they could not even have been trained.
Only 3% at the best of times have the ability at all. It cannot be as simple as "both parents can channel, therefore the kids can" like blonde hair or blue eyes on those grade-school level explanations of heredity. Even for two channelers, the odds of a channeling child have to be slim. The uberchannelers would be unique, so who can explain what their rules were? Maybe the circumstances of their conception imparted the ability, rather than any hereditary factor. After all, if it was heredity, then Elayne's kids should have been even more likely than Aviendha's to get it, since their parents were equally as strong, and their maternal grandmother could channel too. We also know that twins who can channel are very rare, which sinks the simple genetic theory completely. Vandene and Adeleas were identical twins with the same genetic code and yet Moiraine says that the occurence is rare. They both obviously have the genes and the appropriate souls.
The soul question implies that Rand and his wives might not have children who all have the ability to channel, even though they are both carrying the relevant recessives.
Besides that, even if the laws did follow simple genetics there are issues like non-penetration whereby the genes just dont express despite the parents having all the necessary genes. That's the most likely explanation for a squib in the harry potter universe.
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Genetic channeling and the Rhuidean columns
- 24/04/2012 08:48:40 PM
1500 Views
Re: Genetic channeling and the Rhuidean columns
- 24/04/2012 11:43:53 PM
923 Views
Re: Genetic channeling and the Rhuidean columns
- 25/04/2012 05:29:45 AM
1037 Views
The hair...
- 25/04/2012 05:14:52 PM
1039 Views
Yeah, that was bothering me too.
- 25/04/2012 07:12:31 PM
810 Views
Yup ... Suppose the Moridin body switch theory would explain the dark hair
- 26/04/2012 12:28:42 AM
848 Views
- 26/04/2012 12:28:42 AM
848 Views
Re: Genetic channeling and the Rhuidean columns
- 25/04/2012 05:57:02 AM
999 Views
Yes, I wasn't claiming this was a plot hole or anything...
- 25/04/2012 06:06:53 AM
936 Views
Agreed that it is a rather strange twist and seems very sudden to happen within a generation
- 25/04/2012 11:15:09 AM
972 Views
Re: Agreed that it is a rather strange twist and seems very sudden to happen within a generation
- 25/04/2012 04:11:55 PM
921 Views
Well the Sharans seem to know as they breed channelers and kill the male offspring
- 26/04/2012 12:26:39 AM
798 Views
Re: Well the Sharans seem to know as they breed channelers and kill the male offspring
- 26/04/2012 01:42:19 AM
1029 Views
I don't think the trait is that simple as the four box diagram with the peas in a bio textbook
- 26/04/2012 01:38:32 AM
1047 Views
I don't think the trait is that simple as the four box diagram with the peas in a bio textbook
- 26/04/2012 01:39:05 AM
1159 Views
Re: I don't think the trait is that simple as the four box diagram with the peas in a bio textbook
- 26/04/2012 02:17:17 AM
819 Views
True, but the odds of Channelers having children with the ability are vastly higher
- 26/04/2012 10:48:00 AM
891 Views
But in that very revelation, Nynaeve claims that "mother following daughter was rare"
- 27/04/2012 03:24:21 AM
947 Views
Re: I don't think the trait is that simple as the four box diagram with the peas in a bio textbook
- 26/04/2012 01:30:54 PM
821 Views
I believe there is a quote that the soul is only part of what determines the Channelers strength
- 27/04/2012 10:31:22 AM
837 Views
