https://www.reddit.com/r/whitecloaks/comments/rgewm2/this_means_that_wot_has_made_herstory_tvs_heir/

I really need to stop browsing WoT subs, I've been feeling liquified bits of my brain leaking out through my nose and ears for the past few days, it's like staring directly into highly-radioactive material and just feeling your body start falling apart on the molecular level.

  • barrbaric [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Yes, the people from Emond's Field all benefited from magic eugenics, but it's also confirmed in the books that the Aes Sedai have been gradually getting weaker, and there are two main theories given for this:

    1. Killing all male channelers has fucked the magic genepool
    2. The Aes Sedai becoming more insular and elitist over time meant they skipped over many potentially talented recruits because they didn't think they'd find anything of use in tiny villages, and refused to train women over a certain age

    Having finished the series,

    spoiler

    Theory 2 is correct

    ShowRand so far seems quite a bit less emotional than in the books, but he's also been aged up like 5 years and we don't get any internal monologues. ShowPerrin is more emotional but that's because they changed it so he accidentally axes his wife, which, yeah.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Even in that context weren't Egwene, Nynaeve, and the other girl whose name escapes me among the most powerful channelers in history, with Nynaeve in particular being on par with the likes of Lanfear and so probably being in the top single or low double digits of all channelers ever? Or am I misremembering the vague, unitless relative power rankings?

      ShowPerrin is more emotional but that’s because they changed it so he accidentally axes his wife, which, yeah.

      That sounds vaguely familiar, was that a recurring nightmare from the books/some prophetic vision that haunted him throughout them?

      • barrbaric [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Egwene, Nynaeve, etc

        Nynaeve was the most powerful of the protagonists, though IIRC weaker than Lanfear. I think Nynaeve doesn't rank in the top 10 channellers, just because there were so many more Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends that statistically there would be many more at her strength or higher. In the book time period, there are at least 2 other woman stronger than Nynaeve IIRC: some 70-year-old woman who got recruited in Salidar and a former damane. I think some of the sea people were supposed to be similarly strong as well. As you point out, the power rankings are mostly irrelevant; I think there's a number system on the wiki but it's never mentioned in-universe.

        The other girl you're thinking of might be Elayne, who was pretty strong and shown to be able to develop new weaves better than almost anyone.

        spoiler

        Note also a lot of the "new weaves" that Nynaeve and Egwene took credit for were actually extracted from Moghedian via torture.

        Perrin killing his wife

        Nah, it's a replacement of when he axes the Whitecloaks in the first book and then vows to never pick up the axe again.

        • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          As you point out, the power rankings are mostly irrelevant

          It's kind of like power levels in Dragonball, except instead of just like standing there screaming for a hundred pages straight to power up they're just like "aha, this random cowbell I found is actually a ten thousand year old magical crazy straw that allows me to triple my raw power when I drink magic through it!" (ok so it's usually a ring or statuette or something, but the point stands).

          The other girl you’re thinking of might be Elayne,

          That sounds right. It's been like oh fuck 18 years or so since I read any of the books, so the names are all a bit foggy even though I remember a lot of the worldbuilding and the broad strokes of the plot.