Date: 2009-11-17
Type: Verbatim
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reporter: Robert Moreau
A friend of mine posted video of the Q&A on YouTube and on Facebook, and I transcribed the important bits. I have no idea why people ask the same lame questions at every Q&A!
Was the Warder bond originally created to control male channelers?
RAFO.
Do the Forsaken consider themselves Darkfriends?
Oooh, you are tricky! I know what you’re doing. I would say that, in general, yes they do consider themselves Darkfriends, though there are ways somebody would be able to get around that. I would say, yes, that that is not the sort of mental gymnastics that…it is very easy to convince yourself that you are not a Darkfriend.
Will we see Nynaeve Heal the darkness that is in some of the male channelers before the Cleansing?
Nynaeve has said before, and believes, that everything can and should be able to be Healed, except for maybe death, and she certainly believes that it is possible. I’m not going to say whether or not it will happen.
Nynaeve Healed Naeff’s madness in Towers of Midnight 15, and spoke of Healing other Asha’man as well. Since RJ said that the One Power can’t be used to Heal insanity, this has led to some heated discussion. Those inclined to give Brandon the benefit of the doubt have suggested that what Nynaeve did wasn’t technically Healing (she did specify that she didn’t use Healing weaves).
Rand is bonded to four people. If one of them was to die, what would be the effect on him?
We know that immediate bonding to someone else helps with the ‘Warder rage’—it doesn’t completely get rid of it. I would say that your instincts are right, that it would help. I don’t think that it would negate everything.
I got the impression from somewhere that the Aiel were a result of tampering, to some degree, with the One Power. Am I insane, or is that based in reality?
I have not heard that before.
I don’t know where I got that from.
Yeah. I certainly haven’t heard anything to do with the One Power. There was tampering going on, but we’re talking more like Aes Sedai, things like that. The pillars that were left behind were obviously intended to do something, and the charges that were given to them….but it’s not necessarily like they were trying to make anything specific.
Are the Aiel linked in some way to the Ogier, in that they both have that capability in making things grow, and that they and the Nym all worked together in the scene from the Age of Legends?
Well, everybody is connected in the Pattern, and certainly the Aiel would have threads connecting them to the Ogier. I can’t really say anything too specific about it.
EDIT: he finally put up the final two videos for this, so here’s the finished transcript:
If someone were to use balefire as a weapon, could they redirect it through a gateway, or would it destroy the weave and keep going?
Well, I happen to know that someone asked Robert Jordan this at a signing, and he gave a kind of glib answer that didn’t answer anything. So, I’m going to RAFO that, and we’ll see. There will be a lot of balefire in the future of these books. *much laughter*
There was some conversation here about that answer, and someone who claimed to be at that signing , and that RJ pretty much told the person ‘Go get laid.’
Can someone besides Rand be taught to see the black cords that are seen on other Forsaken?
Robert Jordan is kind of dodgy on the black cords. A lot of people tried to pin him down on those. I think that yes, others could be trained to see the black cords.
If the Forsaken were in a bubble all by themselves, who would win?
Ishamael. He’s got the True Power.
Does Mat’s medallion work against all types of Power, or just against saidar ? Because you know he said in the book, something to be free of Aes Sedai.
Yes, that is what he said specifically, but you know, Aes Sedai were both male and female once, and so we don’t know yet, and I will have to RAFO that.
But that was in book six.
Was it in book six?
Yeah, that’s where Aran’gar gets him with a weave.
Oh, that’s right; it did happen. You see, I know a lot of stuff….but I get in trouble if I say too much, because at one of the early signings….no, it wasn’t even one of the signings; it was JordanCon. I was talking about….someone asked me a question, and I started answering, talking about, ‘Do you remember that scene, where this happened, and this happened, and this happened….’ and everyone started staring at me blankly. And I’m like, ‘What? No…’ and I argued with them that this scene existed. I promised them. No one remembered it! And about a month later, I realized as I was looking through it, ‘Oh, it was a deleted scene from book seven.’ Which now, in my head, is in book seven! And so I’m very careful not saying things I know, but you’re right; that was proven in the books.
Aaaand that’s it.
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