True. Though the Aes Sedai do have a huge advantage in that they have inherited a huge amount of knowledge about channeling from the more advanced AoLers where the WW had to apparently start more or less from scratch.

We do know that it can be done. Lanfear/Cyndane slices some guys head off with ease in book 9. We have also seen channelers use weaves of air to capture people and prevent them from moving by binding their arms&legs with a weave of air. People like that never manage to avoid the weave or even see it coming. If such a weave had been sharp instead of blunt, the target would have died.

I suppose one could argue that to make a weave into sufficient sharpness to kill requires skill that the average person lacks, but that begs the question of why not use use it as a bludgeon the way Rand did try with Lanfear.

In truth the real reason its not constantly used is probably because RJ knew that having his channelers constantly use such weaves would be boring and poor storytelling. Though that explanation sucks because its an out-of-book one. A good story should not need that.

 

You are forgetting that a channeler has to embrace the source, before he can do anything. While the channeler does this, the wizard will just Apparate behind and shoot Cruciatus Curse at his defenceles back, which will cause the channeler to lose control and self-destruct.

 

Embracing the source in WoT takes only a fraction of a second. For instance, in one of the books some guy totally surprises Rand by throwing a knife at him from a relatively short distance. In the time the knife took to fly half the distance (certainly 1 second at most and probably far less) Rand not only reached the source but wove a weave of air to stop the knife midair.

This is actually the primary advantage channelers have and the reason I think they would win. Everything happens so quickly to the channeler. In Rands situation above, most wizards would have died. The time necessary to pull out a wand and cast protego or whatever to block the knife would have taken too long. But Rand did it all in a split-second.

 

True. However we have seen such weaves (albeit blunt ones used to bind) used at greater distance. I don't really see why there would be an arbitrary limit that prevents sharp weaves of air from travelling long distances. We know that other weaves can, such as the insta-exploding weave the Asha'man used. That would work just as well as a weave of air anyway.

 

Interesting. You might be right.

Still, when it comes to a duel with a wizard, even a blunt weave of air would be sufficient. It might lack the "delicate" nature of a razor sharp weave, but it could still be used to bludgeon someones head in.

Infact it just occurred to me that this actually happened did it not? In Dumais wells, after Rand breaks free he starts knocking the sisters out from behind with "clubs of air". And interestingly, unlike Lanfear they dont even know whats happening. They dont see anything implying that such an attack is invisible, and unlike Lanfear they lack the mysterious ability to know where to direct their slicing weaves to protect themselves. And so Rand stealthily, one by one, knocks em out.

 

That is how it happened.

Infact something just occurred to me. A channeler could, using weaves of air, pick things up, hit people, and generally use them as sortof "extra hands". We have seen this happen actually! In Nonjons black comedy! Have you read it?

In that story Harry can create these "magical tentaclehands" purely mentally and manipulate them wandlessly and wordlessly. He uses them to hit people, pick things and use them to block spells and such. And they totally help him own normal wizards.

Thats actually kind of how I would imagine a channeler would/could use weaves of air. Except ofcourse that a wizard probably could not perceive them in any way since they were not magic.

And ofcourse a channeler could use more potent weaves too, such as the insta-explode weave which would cause the wizards entire body to blow up. Read the scene where the asha'man annihilate the Shaido. Nothing in HP even comes close.

 

Except even Pettigrew was able to blow up a street and eleven people with one curse. And what about Fiendfyre?

Obviously channelers have more explosive power, but it would be stupid to say they would easily walk over wizards.

 

I think that nothing in canon HP comes close to the way magical power can be amplified in the WoT universe. Channelers can use angreal, sa'angreal and ter'angreal to amplify the amount of the one power they can use to the point of being able to destroy entire cities, countries, etc. I doubt that there's an equivalent in HP.

But of course, without angreal both magic systems have their advantages and disadvantages, and it can't really be said that one is better than the other.

 

I skimmed most of this, so forgive me if I'm bringing up an idea someone has already put forward, but the best way I can see to do a HP/WoT crossover would be to have Rand die during the attack on Emond's Field, causing the Pattern to shift itself and chose a new hero to take his place.

In comes Harry, somehow (I have an idea how, but it's not worth going into here) getting transported to the slopes of Dragonmount, at least partially fulfilling the Prophecies of the Dragon (some of the others might take some creative re-imagining).

In any version I would write, Harry would have WoT powers, not HP powers, the idea being that it's just a different method of accessing the same power. The idea is intriguing to me, and I think I might be willing to adapt the WoT story I already started to fit it, but I'd have to think on it for a while.

 

Just pointing out the possible pitfalls.

 

That's all well and good, but you're forgetting one thing. I fucking kick ass, so I can make it work. It's the fuckers who don't care what kind of story they're telling that screw it up for the rest of us.

Besides, in the immortal words of Captain Barbosa: "The Potter Law is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules."

 

Hate to say it but I agree with the others. A story where Harry Potter goes to WoT and essentially becomes Rand(or a surrogate anyway) does not exactly sound like an exciting read.

If you wand a channeling hero you should just keep Rand instead of forcing Harry Potter into becoming one. A proper crossover should have Harry using magic and the reactions and conflicts that come from people seeing magic used for the first time and such.

 

*shrugs* I can see that we're approaching this thing from different angles. For me, a magic-wielding Harry in a WoT world would be a round peg in a square hole, and bound for failure. A Harry who's faced with the loss of his magic as he knows it, stuck in an unfamiliar world with dubious allies and numerous deadly enemies strikes me as much more interesting.

 

I hate to stick my head into the argument, but are we forgetting about (I'm terrible at spell HP magic) legimency? Assuming both combatants knew the other was going to attack them, wouldn't any wizard of "above average skill" (this seems to be the generic level for this argument) be able to watch a channeler weave, then dodge or move in some way to affect it's creation?

 

Anything other than no cross over at all would suck more than a gay vampire. You either have to way over power HP magic or way under power channelers. Sree might somehow think that channelers who can blow up/cut up/utterly annihilate a wizard without prior warning could lose but thats bullshit. Unless you make it Super Harry, he can't disapperate in battle. He also happens to not have the same insanely heightened reflexes a channeler has. If you can't cast half as fast as them/block most of there attack/teleport without spinning in place slowing your dodging down it doesn't matter whether you can read there mind. Even Avada Kadavra can be blocked by anything physically solid like say a wall of air.

PS There is no way a man could see a woman's channeling or a woman see a man's(except that special new female weave).