But maybe RJ is wrong, and before the whole internet implodes remember that it is his philosophy, probably on life in general. Do you believe that your Talents in life have driven you? I'm a medical doctor and I can tell you that "I want to help people" is not the majority reason for doing medicine. If a woman has a Healing Talent then apparently she will want to Heal, but Moiraine's ability is pretty good and she never felt the desire to join the Yellows. Don't you think it's more likely that people come across what they are good at and decide for themselves if they want to invest in it? I like to travel the world... would I have a Talent like Androl that is secretly driving me? This is a serious claim against the free will, which RJ also cherishes.
I'm saying it's all relative. She said she was an indifferent Tcheran player, and we know that Ishamael was a master. It depends who is saying what. If I wanted the weather manipulated I would not ask Semirhage out of the Forsaken, but she still might be better than the whole White Tower.
Because Healing is helpful and she is not. From her own PoV she says that she could Heal anything and was whisked around the globe for such purposes. It was all about greatness and glory, and not the patient who was suddenly healthy. She's similar to Aginor in some ways. Surprise surprise...but Semirhage was evil long before the Bore was drilled.
Asmodean
Sammael
Mesaana
Be'lal
30% of the Forsaken had no major or minor Talent and Lanfear shows only 1 as does Moghedien and Graendal. Maybe, Rhavin and Demandred might have a single Talent each, Compulsion and Traveling respectively, and Semihage might have had a second Talent with Traveling, but it's never 100% confirmed.
We don't know that, and yes I realise that since I made the claim I must prove positively that strong channelers have more Talents, but it's also about exposure. Sammael doesn't channel much around us, and neither did Be'lal, for instance. Lanfear on the other hand could have multiple Talents including Healing, Travelling and shields - we've seen her use all three, and she goes for shields first in combat against channelers of significant power.
Semirhage is a Healer and can block gateways. Demandred is probably strong in all the flows and has multiple powers like Egwene but he wasn't fleshed out. I always found Asmodean's ability to place Dragons on Couladin to be amazing, but perhaps it was a simple weave.
True, but he used every flow against Rand in the Stone. He's not weak in anything.
Maybe, but maybe they're all more interlinked than you care to admit. According to you, someone can either be a ninja or a body builder - but the idea of having traits of both is unacceptable.
I don't think having an inate ability that helps shape who you are as a person is against free will. I'm gay, and that trait certainly shapes who I am and how I see and react to the world around me. I see Talents and such as similar. I think RJ was pointing this out to some degree. Clearly it wasn't a major theme in his writing, but it WAS there.
not sure why you think being strong in multiple flows relates to Talents, in fact it almost proves the point that they are different things. Egwene, assuming she does possess great strength in all flows, would by this logic possess every Talent related to the OP. Clearly she does not. Just as clearly there are Channelers weak or average in flows that still can perform certain flows via Talent. I think that's the whole idea behind Talent, it's supposed to be rather inexplicable that an individual as weak as Berowyn can shield Nynaeve and Elayne
The rest of what you wrote here is all conjecture ... Not dismissing it as it could very well be the case, but I see no point in going in further circles when we don't have more than opinions to debate 
- 02/12/2015 06:00:01 PM
1299 Views
- 03/12/2015 03:47:55 PM
1066 Views
- 03/12/2015 04:14:38 PM
1067 Views