The Wheel of Time Episode 4 gave us insight into power levels. Let’s recap what we know
so far in terms of the show. Logain was very powerful. Alanna Mosvani said
that his strength was more than she had ever seen. For the sake of this video and only
this video, I am going to oversimply the power scale and refer to Logain as power level 2.
And you will see why. The purpose of this video is to make a couple points related to
specifically to Logain, Egwene, and Nynaeve. Okay. So it took 2 Aes Sedai at a time to
shield Logain from the One Power. And not just any Aes Sedai. The only three who were
powerful enough to shield him were Kerene Nagashi, Alanna Mosvani, and Liandrin Guirale.
When Moiraine got there, she was also powerful enough.
These four women most likely are not all equal to one another in the power. They certainly
are not the same in the books. So for what it’s worth, in the books, Kerene is more
powerful than Moiraine who is more powerful than Liandrin, who is more powerful than Alanna
Mosvani. But for the sake of this video and this video alone, let’s group these four
Aes Sedai into power level 3. When they paired up, they each focused on shielding half of
his power. So we can estimate that Logain was about twice as powerful as each of them
individually. Liandrin wanted to gentle Logain. But Kerene
insisted that they bring him back to the White Tower per the order of the Amyrlin seat.
Logain eventually broke free of the shields. So some fans are suggesting that Liandrin
let her shield down so that he could break free, and in turn, they would be forced to
gentle him. “If he was to break out, the three oaths
would allow us to gentle him.” I am not sold on that, but it is food for
thought. Other fans are suggesting that Logain was
actually stronger than he led them to believe. These fans argue that Logain was simply waiting
for his supporters to arrive before breaking free of the shields. But I will push back
on that. When Moiraine and Alanna were shielding him, he did try to break free, and they prevented
him from doing so. So how did he break free?
Earlier in the episode, Kerene Nagashi was tired after healing Moiraine. And that surprised
Moiraine since Kerene Sedai is very powerful. Kerene has held back armies by herself. Kerene
told Moiraine that the healing didn’t exhaust her. Shielding Logain had exhausted her. And
there’s more. Liandrin told Kerene that it is far harder to shield somebody than to
break out of a shield. Liandrin also told Kerene that Logain was just chilling while
they were ragged. Liandrin did not believe that they could keep shielding him for the
hundreds more miles left to get to the White Tower. So basically, my interpretation, is
that Logain was not holding back. He is about twice as strong as these four Aes Sedai individually.
But since shielding someone is harder than breaking out of a shield, they got tired more
quickly than he got tired, and as a result, he was eventually able to break free.
Now, let’s look at Egwene. Lan asked Moiraine if Logain was stronger
than Egwene. Moiraine said she didn’t know, but she didn’t think so. That implies that
Egwene has the potential to be around the same power as Logain. So for now, let’s
classify Egwene as power level 2. Of course, Egwene has a lot of innate ability, but she
barely knows how to use the One Power. So Egwene has a lot to learn before she can become
a force of her own. But just to be clear, Moiraine and Lan’s conversation was a way
of telling show watchers that Egwene has the potential to be more powerful than Alanna,
Liandrin, Moiraine, and Kerene. Now, let’s look at Nynaeve.
First off, Liandrin pronounced Nynaeve’s name Nynaeve. That was a fun shout out to
book readers. Because Nynaeve’s name is spelled in such a way that one would think
he name is pronounced Nynaeve. But it’s actually pronounced Nynaeve. But I drift.
At the end of the episode, Nynaeve exploded with the One Power. It shocked everyone, including
herself. The most insightful reaction though, was that of Logain.
Earlier in the scene, Moiraine had told Logain that his power was but a trickle. A pinprick
of candlelight against the raging sun that will be the Dragon Reborn. After Nynaeve exploded
with the One Power, Logain was shocked. As he walked forward, he mumbled to himself quote:
“like a raging sun.” Those were the words that Moiraine used in reference to the Dragon
Reborn. So Logain’s response suggests that he began to wonder if Nynaeve was actually
the Dragon Reborn and not himself. In other words, Logain’s response suggests that Nynaeve
is more powerful than him. We don’t know that that is true. But for the time being,
let’s classify Nynaeve as power level 1. We will continue to reassess power levels
as we get new information. But next up, a deep dive into Logain.