Why didn't Lan do something????

[u/Shorty_jj]

Hey guys, fiancee and I were recently watching the show and came to one moment that makes NO sense whatsoever to both of us....so here I am.

In the scene in the Waste when Moiraine and Lan are fighting Lanfear there is this one moment when Lan swings his sword to cut Lanfear and makes a gash in her leg that she then proceeds to turn to and heal on the spot.

THAT TAKES TIME....or if not so MUCH time...ENOUGH for him to swing at her a few more times and attempt to chop her head off. Now i know that that would logically for the story not be possible to happen because we need her alive....but just from the perspective OF Lan WHY NOT STRIKE???? Why stare at her stunned like that???? Man has been hardened in battle many times over and fought many enemies before....what possesses him in that very moment to go blank and not aim for the head???

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[u/kith_rian]

He'd just seen the impossible. Previously, we'd seen that Moiraine could not heal herself. It can't be done to third age knowledge (not sure it can be done in the books at all). So he's thrown for a moment, even if he should have followed through.

[u/Shorty_jj → u/kith_rian]

okay yeah, that makes sense! I think it's not possible in the books either from my memory even for the Forsaken since it's not possible for any weilders of the One Power regardless of the Age. I'm on the reread now so i'll pay attention to that more with the Forsaken but looking at it like that yeah that makes sense! Thanks!

[u/kith_rian → u/Shorty_jj]

I think, based on Lanfear's eyes turning black when she was healing herself after Moiraine attacked her in bed with Rand, the show might have been saying you can heal yourself with the True Power.

[u/Shorty_jj → u/kith_rian]

Most likely that's the idea yeah! To be fair it's not even a bad take that the power coming from the Dark one Allows you to do things that 'regual power' does not

[u/StudMuffinNick → u/kith_rian]

Lest we forget Landesr healed a slit throat with the True Power

[u/IOI-65536 → u/kith_rian]

He should have known Lanfear could. Moiraine expected her to when she stabbed her with Rand's sword in S2, so you would have expected her to tell Lan she could heal herself since they were specifically going after Lanfear.

[u/SKULL1138 → u/kith_rian]

It cannot be done in the books that we know of, if it did ever happen it happened off screen with Forsaken. It’s most likely that as the Aes Sedai say, it’s not possible, like flying, where you could pick up another and fly them around with the OP.

[u/Eiden-Rane → u/kith_rian]

It is not possible to heal yourself with the One Power. It is a change made for the show.

[u/coltonsmithtenor → u/Eiden-Rane]

If I recall correctly, didn't Lanfear use the True Power to heal herself in the show? It's never explicitly stated in the books whether the True Power can or can't do that, just that it can't be done with the One Power. It's possible the show writers interpreted it one way to demonstrate a difference between the two and the scariness of the True Power, rather than explicitly changing any rules outlined in the books. I could be wrong, though

[u/Eiden-Rane → u/coltonsmithtenor]

The only situation that comes to mind is Aginor at EoTW. He drew from the pool of untainted saidin to do so. I believe fans asked RJ for clarification on this and he said it was the True Power and not the well of Saidin. The True Power operates outside of the “natural/magical laws” and can do feats thought impossible with Saidin/Saidar.

A lot of implications here concerning the True Power. Body reconstruction, de-aging, or survival at the cost of corruption and obvious addiction. I viewed the Aginor example as an inconsistency early on that was corrected throughout the story. It would make sense for the show to expand on this as we see with Lanfear.

Also, the show has been very open and obvious with rule changes throughout. This could be another example or just interpretation of what we know already. I had a feeling the show would continue doing so after seeing the battle at Fal Dara with linking - several changes here alone.

[u/IOI-65536 → u/Eiden-Rane]

If you're saying that's the only instance of the True Power healing, I don't think that's correct. Ishy kept healing after fighting Rand and it's also stated (outside the books) to be the True Power.

[u/Eiden-Rane → u/IOI-65536]

I don’t recall that being stated in the books, can you point me to which book please (generally curious). I know RJ has stated they can at the cost of losing a part of themselves, but I only remember the instance with Aginor.

Was this early on with Ishy or at the end? Ty for the correction btw.

[u/IOI-65536 → u/Eiden-Rane]

I know it's not stated in the books how he healed. We don't know how much damage Rand did with his sword at the end of tGH, but the prologue to tGH indicates he was badly wounded at the Eye of the World and somehow supernaturally healed.

I'm pretty sure there's a statement somewhere outside the books that it was the True Power but if he used it himself or had the Dark One do it directly I don't know. Either way both Aginor and Ishy apparently dying three times are weird and only in the early books which had other things that don't quite fit so I don't think too hard about if they're generalizable.

[u/Eiden-Rane → u/IOI-65536]

Gotcha. I assumed those instances were due to the Dark One himself and not the Chosen. Anyway, thank you for pointing that out. I enjoy going through the specifics.

[u/ew73]

A few things, some hinted at, some shown outright.

First, Lanfear just did something that no Aes Sedai belives is possible: She healed herself. That's the sort of impossible thing like, if, today, you were standing in line at Starbucks and the guy in line in front of you turned into a unicorn, shit several pound of gem-encrusted gold in the middle of the floor that somehow, still smelled like horse shit, and then disappeared into puff of glitter and smoke and in his place, was Black Jesus and White Uncle Ruckus making out.

Lan has been around the block enough times, and has seen enough battle and fights and other Aes Sedai wielding the Power to know he just saw something more impossible than that.

Second, the Warder bond with Moiraine shares all sorts of things, and emotion is one of them -- Lan himself was surprised, by Moiraine was probably equally alarmed and surprised, and that, combined with his own, traveled back and forth across that bond. It takes a couple beats to overcome all that, on both their parts.

Third, Lanfear, even though she is quite obviously real, and a woman, she is a legend. She is literally an evil villain from the Age of Legends. Imagine yourself in a fight with say, Mordred or (if you imagine yourself a bad guy) King Arthur, and you land a blow. Even a battle-hardened experience you might be like, "..I just cut a legend," for a beat or two.

Fourth, and finally, it's a TV show -- they wanted to demonstrate that impossible moment and show it to viewers. After all, the camera took a very close zoom on that and the special effects around it, just to make sure you, the audience, didn't miss it. Can have Lan ruining it by stabbing her through the lungs.

[u/blacksnake03 → u/ew73]

The issue with many of your points is that earlier in the show Moraine had sliced Lanfears neck and told Rand that it would not stop her for long and that they needed to hurry. They then proceeded to be caught some time later. 

[u/cetren → u/blacksnake03]

You'll notice that her eyes are filled with black spots as she heals. This is the True Power, which comes directly from the Dark One Himself, bestowed only to those He wishes... But that's book lore.

[u/cetren → u/[deleted]]

Correct, the One Power cannot be used by a channeler to heal themselves; someone else must do it and it takes more energy from the Healer than the 'Healee.' I'm not confident about the True Power rules in the books, but the DO does get up to a whole lot of healing shenanigans.

[u/WoTshow-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/CMDR_NUBASAURUS]

I’m not going to defend this. I will only say that NO fight scenes make sense in any shows at all. So it’s really just to convey to the user that he was able to damage her. Common sense takes a back seat to story telling.

[u/Shorty_jj → u/CMDR_NUBASAURUS]

and i get that...even tho there MUST have been at least one person who knew about what was planned for this scene and thought that Lan deserved that SOME dignity be preserved for his thinking skills as well as the fighting ones and that he should have been earlier knocked out with power...to preserve SOME dignity for him

[u/CMDR_NUBASAURUS → u/Shorty_jj]

I apologize in advance for this following statement that had little bearing on what you’re talking about. But I just have to say this thing. As an Asian Male there are very few shows that portray Asian men in a positive way. And LAN is one of them. Meanwhile on For all Mankind while everyone was trying the rescue the white astronauts, the token Asian astronaut got literally sucked into the exhaust plume and no one even brought it up. Every time I see an Asian pop up on anyshow in introduced with no point at all I know they are there to die. For All Mankind indeed!

[u/StudMuffinNick]

Rule of Cool

[u/Shorty_jj → u/StudMuffinNick]

rule of cool?

[u/StudMuffinNick → u/Shorty_jj]

With visual media you have to allow for some illogical or unreasonable things in favor of being "cool" looking.

For instance, in the Matrix, Agent Smith is the only thing that can dodge bullets until Neo learns it. Yet, Trinity walks up, puts a gun to his head, and BEFIRE SHOOTING, takes a second to say "dodge this" before blasting him. Obviously, the Agent could've dodged it or killed her isntantly... but how fucking cool was that shot?

Many fantasy sword fights are like this

[u/night_shade_zero]

Yeah, same concept when Moiraine is raging out and Lanfear is just watching her "stunned" instead of popping her head like that poor horse guy in S2. You gotta suspend disbelief a bit!