The Wheel of Time/Fridge

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Fridge Brilliance

  • When the story comes to that massive climax on top of Dragonmount, something interesting is actually happening. Rand is creating the physical equivalent of The Void. In this Void, he is able to finally look at things in a way that he could never do when in the mental void he uses. As such, the final dispelling of the physical Void allows him to also dispell the mental Void that he has practically been living in, perhaps for years on end. What's more, in order to restore his sanity, he must grasp the concept of saidar, with the whole "guiding, but not forcing" concept. Until that point, Rand represented only half of the One Power, and thus was highly unbalanced. It is this balance that he has finally achieved, coming with the knowledge that both sides of the One Power are necessary at times, in symmetry with the balance necessary to seal away the Dark One. It was the asymmetry, after all, from Lews Therin that led to the sequence of events from the Breaking onwards.
  • Rand initially has problems learning to channel because the only trained channelers are female, and use completely incompatible ways to do so. Moiraine in particular brings up the "bird teaching a fish to fly, and fish teaching a bird to swim" metaphor, though Verin objects to it, noting that there are birds that swim and fish that fly, while men and women can't use the same methods of channeling...but then Winter's Heart rolls around and gives us a circumstance where men and women must know how to weave like the other side: mixed-gender circles, where a man or woman leading must use both powers at the same time. If you think about it, then, the metaphor of birds and fishes with its built-in caveat was a perfectly sensible one for the Age of Legends. If Rand had been born then, a woman likely could have taught him to use saidin reliably, to at least a basic level, because the basics for doing so would have been standard training for her.
    • Not only that, but flying and swimming require very similar musculature, on account of them requiring similar movements due to both being in fluids. This is partly what makes flying fish and swimming birds possible. The same can be said of saidin and saidar. They have similar movements - both are woven. They work in the same way - both use the Five Powers.
  • Min's viewings have a failing - they are utterly unable to actually see the Dark One's influence itself. The closest she comes to seeing something connected to the Dark One is when the main characters are together, and she sees the joint aura of fireflies trying to fill a vast darkness. But you'll notice that all she sees is a darkness, an absence. When she's in the White Tower in The Great Hunt, trying to help Siuan, she never sees a single hint that any of the sisters might be of the Black Ajah, despite Aes Sedai constantly having auras and images around them. She also is never able to identify any of the Darkfriends that Rand has had extensive dealings with (such as those revealed after Rand has his climax on Dragonmount).
    • The Fridge Brilliance here isn't that her viewings have that failing, it's what it tells us about Min's ability, and connects it with something else. The Aelfinn have the ability to answer any three questions, so long as they don't touch upon the Dark One. It can therefore be surmised that this is because, as with Min's ability, they cannot actually see anything to do with the Dark One, and thus cannot answer questions that do so, and it also suggests that Min's ability is the same as that of the Aelfinn.

Fridge Horror

  • In The Wheel of Time, the Seanchan view women who can channel as dangerous animals that must be leashed and made a damane or they will harm everyone around them. The main setting of the westlands shows this is utterly unnessecary. Then Leilwin Shipless makes a remark about how Aes Sedai must be leashed otherwise they will enslave everyone else and turn them into their property. And in Shara this is heavily implied to actually have happened. The only reason this hasn't happened in the westlands or other neighbouring regions is because the Aes Sedai have prevented any other group of channelers from doing this by making them stay hidden or be recruited by the white tower. The Seanchan actually have a very realistic point.
    • That's kind of the whole point of the Three Oaths the Aes Sedai take, and the White Tower as a whole. Siuan even states it outright: the point of the Three Oaths is to make sure that no queen thinks that sisters will lay waste to her cities, that people can hear an Aes Sedai say "This is so" and know it to be true.
      • Also, the Aes Sedai aren't the only channeling group, and the other two major ones hide only from Aes Sedai. Everyone in the Aiel and Sea Folk knows that a lot of their Wise Ones and Windfinders can channel. Neither have enslaved their cultures like Shara has; in fact, channeling doesn't even count much among Wise One hierarchy, and even Windfinders are only thirds--in-command on their ships, at best (behind Sailmistresses and Cargomasters). It seems half the world has problems with channelers (Seanchan, Shara, and the Isle of Madness), while the other half does fine with them.
    • The Seanchan are introduced torturing female channelers into submission. They systematically break down channelers to the mental state of a obedient child, to spend the rest of their lives viewed as little more than a well trained, but rabid pet. The average Aes Sedai lifespan is about 200 years. We later find out that Aes Sedai lives are cut unnaturally short by use of the Oath Rod. The exact life span of channelers is unknown, but we meet a 400 year old ex-damane who doesn't find her age noteworthy.
  • For me, Alanna bonding Rand against his will has always seemed like a bad thing, but it got pushed into this territory when you realise that it is more or less an equivalent of rape.
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