I would say that "one go" is closer to what I think. But whatever. I don't think we are going to agree, and sadly there is no way to ask RJ what he meant exactly.

I would ask BS but there are no signings or opportunities for that where I live.



It creates a logical flaw to me if it cannot be done.

We know that Rand had lots of LTT knowledge and would know about balefire and how much damage the pattern can take. He even says it to Cadsuane.

We know that Rand did not want to destroy the pattern yet, he was still gunning for victory.

So why would he have balefired Graendal with a blast sufficient to destroy the world.



Ofcourse he was not holding back. I never argued that. What I suggest that there is a way to widen the beam. No reason for that here though since Rand knew exactly where Rahvin was. He could see him illuminated in Nynaeves fire. I don't understand what Rahvin scene has to do with anything?

Mentioned like all the other things Rand got from LTT? There are constant mentions of Rand suddenly knowing advanced stuff as memories pass to him from LTT. When did he learn the traveling trick for instance. Or when did he know how to unweave compulsion. None of those are mentioned, and yet Rand learned them somewhere. Learning a technique to better control balefire from LTT could be no different.




Umm. Clarify? Both sides were using it. Both sides wiped out cities. The damage became too much and the pattern began to unravel. People realised what was going on and stopped. Thats how I think it might have happened.



Ok. I admit in all likelyhood, the city annihilation was done mostly by the shadow. Unless the light knew that the city was composed entirely of trollocs with no civilians for instance. I could see them annihilating a city then.

Maybe there was an empty city with millions of trollocs eating dead bodies, and the light took the opportunity to take em out in a single blow.



Well, First of all, have we ever seen a balefire stream kilometers long. No.

Second. Why would they wave around these balefire bars rather than just blowing up the city in an easier, faster and more traditional way.

Do you agree that a circle of 72 channelers armed with the angreal and sa'angrel that AoLers had available, could have destroyed a city by, for example, creating a massive explosion at the center.

Why would they have ever used balefire if it was all slow and cumbersome like you suggest, rather than even quicker and deadlier than the huge megaton explosion, which is what I suggest.





Not exactly.

While the balefire argument has taken a life of its own, my original idea was that Rand, not wanting to destroy the pattern, was carefull with his balefire, creating a wider stream to take out the entire palace yes, but keeping the burning back time weak to miminize the damage as much as he could. And that the damage to the pattern was not catastrophic.

If the width of the beam is solely dependent on the power behind the beam, then to create a city-destroying beam of balefire would require more power than AoLers had available, even with links of 72. We can figure this from the fact that even Rand&Angreal could only create a 1 meter thick beam at his most powerfull.

So, if it is possible to create a wide but weak beam to destroy a city, then thats probably also what Rand did Graendals palace since he did not want to destroy the world. And 300 people being burned back only a little, while obviously damaging, would be nothing compared to a HUNDRED THOUSAND being burned.

So essentially. If it is not possible to control the beam(your view), in order to wipe out the entire palace in one go, Rand pumped a huge amound of power into the balefire, burning Graendal and the zombies back days or weeks, causing really serious damage. This would make this a rather evil and psychotic act. My original argument would be incorrect then. Rand should have let Graendal go, even knowing what harm she would continue to do, rather than cause that much damage.

If on the other hand it is possible to control the beam, then Rand was probably carefull, and the damage was not all the significant. In this case the price of removing Graendal from the playing field was probably worth it in the long run and Rand was right.