However, I think it likely didn't have any effect (or, at most, an extremely small one).

Two reasons: First, both sa'angreal and the nature of linking "buffer" the users against drawing too much power.

Second: The impression I got was that "forcing" meant constant, grueling use of the One Power. The Black Tower "forces" all of its initiates. Normally, novices in the White Tower are brought along slowly, supposedly not even allowed to channel in their rooms by themselves to practice*.

That is, months of strenuous training, not simply a few hours as a passive Power battery.


Still, it's a neat idea.




*I wonder... Egwene mentions that she HAD to break this rule, just to keep up with the grueling pace her instructors set for her. At the time in tGH, it just seemed like the WT was a tough place to be a novice, but I wonder if this was a subtle example of the "forcing?" God knows there was never an explicit scene of the WT forcing Egwene as far as I can remember.