u/BigNorseWolf

tldr we indirectly measured a bat at about 20 inches in winter in upstate ny and have no idea htf thats possible.

back in 2000 or so, I was living in the forestry frathouse for ESF in syracuse NY and someone comes and tells me there's a giant bat flying around their room (Even in that company, I'm the critter person) . I go upstairs expecting a little brown bat or maybe a big brown bat how big could it be.... and.. no. Freaking rodan is in fact flying around the room. Its actually hard to stand anywhere without his wings whapping you.

Turn off the lights. Put out a box. Cut a little slit in the bottom/side of the box. Turn on the light, batty flies to the box, climbs in the slit, slide box under slit. perfect. Gently take a look at him, get out some guide books.. nothing.

Its winter. If we keep him awake too long he won't have enough energy to sleep through the year. If we let him go he might freeze. Or he might just go back to where ever he came from, which given the state of the forestry frat house at that point, was likely our attic. If we try to report him ... he might get his brain dissected for being in a room wit a human.

We tried to let him go, he flopped onto the back deck. each board is 3 inches he's lying across damn near 7 of them. I can't remember if he took off from the deck or if I had to pick him up and hold him to to let him warm up and try again, but on the second trip he made it. But the point is we had a really good visual reference for his size and a tape measure and he was outside the stats for a hoary (who were out of season)

Did we just find the andre the giant of big brown bats, or when they flop flat on a surface do they expand their normal wingspan somehow, possibly pulling up the uropatagia when they're flopped a way they can't while in flight?

is there a good low maintenence way to provide water that won't run the risk of these guys getting distemper or worse? My back goes in and out, so I can't pick up a water dish daily and autoclave it for disease prevention. A pond is a lot of work. A sprinkler with a timer or motion sensor?

If you are going to feed some of the local starter pokemon , would the best way to do it be to spread it out so they're not congregating in the same spot or does keeping it up off the ground in a bowl wind up working out better for being cleaner?

If you're still reading and have not read the books, or better yet at least twice, shoo.

The author reveal in question is from Brandon Sanderson stating that he wrote the fight with Perrin as if Lanfear was somehow tricking him to fake her death, traipse off and evil happily ever after. It's canon! muahahaha

As far as the clues for this goes, I am far, far from convinced and think the author forgot about something that changes her strategy significantly: Lanfear's cour'souvra is in that room. Not only can she not fireball the room for fear of destroying it, in Moggy's own dialog we see her think that channeling near your own mind trap HURTS.

Channeling in the presence of the cour'souvra in which you are trapped is very painful; the nearer, the greater the pain

What were supposed to be the clues?

The clues were incredibly weak and IMHO, more based on a perception that was not earned.

Lanfear was turning against the Dark One

Well.. yes. She's been doing that since book 2 helping Rand. She plays all sides, someone wins, she says I was with you and only you the entire time. Perrin is cautious, not dumb, he knows she's playing him and has a fair idea of how.

Lanfear was acting out of character

There is a real meta problem of using tropes like someone acting out of character to show something up when a new author has people act out of character all the time. Are we supposed to believe that Mat was hit on the head and or had a Compulsion the first time Brandon took over? Because he was really really off. Not going to blame a new author for that, but you don't make that load bearing.

Lanfear was acting too IN character so it was out of character. She's flirting with Perrin the way she did with Rand

She's Lanfear. This is how she talked to Rand. She very briefly DID do this in book 2? 3? With a dream Perrin had about being in a golden lion helm. We don't know how she talks to anyone else. She's trying to get Perrin on her side or pretend to let her join his. If she has a different method of flirting...... we wouldn't recognize her because we've only seen her flirt once. She's flirting consistently! ... isn't a clue of anything.

Lanfear was buttering Perrin up and lying about how strong he was.

Perrin was learning from the wolves. The wolves snuck Perrin into a meeting with all of the Forsaken, including Lanfear herself. There are things the wolves can't match for human creativity, but there are also areas where they have more power or sneakiness than all the Forsaken combined.

Wise Ones to Egwene: "this is a nightmare. It will shred your soul Avoid it"

Wolves to Perrin: "This is a nightmare. It will shred your soul. Alright in you go.."

Perrin is NOT buying this either. He notes how freaking hard it would be to hide your smell and it's a trick he doesn't think he could do.

Perrin was overconfident in his TAR abilities..

The idea that Perrin "I'm not a lord" "I'm just an apprentice blacksmith", by far the humblest of the heroes if not characters, was fooled by their own arrogance rather than Lanfear.. LANFEAR... the woman who casually dropped the plan of "lets kill satan and then take out god..." THAT Lanfear, it is PERRIN who is blinded by arrogance?!?!? That is some abysmal story telling and character assassination. I do not say that lightly but come on.

If we're not supposed to believe that a mud-footed villager could POSSIBLY take out one of the Forsaken... The anime of this series would be called "Mud-footed villagers destroy quirky miniboss squad of ancient super mages with their own arrogance."

Nynaeve literally dogwalked Moghedien in TAR, 6 books ago, despite having zero formal training and way less experience there than Perrin. Moggy states she's even better than Lanfear in TAR. She lies but she doesn't tend to brag THAT much. If we can accept THAT as having happened, we're supposed to disbelieve our own/Perrin's eyes when someone clearly better than Nynaeve at dreamwalking does the same thing...? No. That doesn't make any sense.

Lanfear planted false evidence that Perrin could not be compelled in TAR. Seeing things that aren't there at every point.

Where? Linky. Brandon says this in the interview but.. where? I've looked all over the internet, asked AI, read the books again, nothing remotely comes up with Perrin and Compulsion. Perrin believes he can mess with weaves because he actually messed with weaves. He did this in the tower fight in front of Egwene and with half the Black Ajah as witnesses. Unless Lanfear was supposed to be the ficus in the hall all along deflecting weaves for him this didn't happen. The only time he was fooled was when he snapped the illusion's neck. Which... circular logic there.

Lanfear's alleged plan makes Zero sense.

First off, yes, Forsaken plans tend not to. The other Forsaken has the magical equivalent of an orbital death ray, leading a circle of 72 channelers he SHOULD be leveling the continents and leaving a trail of fire that could be seen from space. And not that crappy space billionaires fly to; REAL space. He's up there trying to call Rand out for a fight with pointy metal sticks.

Edit: Secondly, it does. Perrin walks in, Axes Moraine in the face. Lanfear Gets as far as she can from Moridins body , compells Nynaeve to either "pass me control of the circle" or "quick lets grab him in a circle" depending on the timing. Semhierge did the exact same thing with Rand under the dominion band.

Moridin or whatever you're calling yourself.. seal up the bore i can tell you what it used to look like. Blacksmith, GENTLY grab those two necklaces of his, Healer, tend to Rand there I have.. plans.. for him later tonight. Boom. Dark ones sealed, she has calandor under her control, a pocket healer and wolf king as bonuses. Set something to explode and warp out.

-Lanfear doesn't need Perrin she can just flyswat 2 mud-footed savages

First off, those are not just any two mud-footed savages. That's Moiraine Aes Sedai Damodred and Nynaeve Fucking al'Meara. Between the two of them they have 4+ Forsaken defeats: Moiraine took out Balthamel at the Eye of the World, tackled Lanfear through the gate. Nynaeve defeated Moghedien twice, once in the world of dreams at that, and THEN got a lay-up level assist to Rand in taking out Rahvin. (who was probably dead by BBQ unless he popped right out of the dream on Semirhage's operating table) Oh right. And Nynaeve has gotten STRONGER since then.

They're also decked out in ter'angreal, angreal, and sa'angreal. Nynaeve looks like she smashed and grabbed a jewelry store with zero foxes given about what matched. The last time Lanfear tried to flyswat a mud-footed villager she ran into Alivia... who had an angreal and a paralis-net that stopped channeling. Lanfear left that fight running away with her dress on fire. Why risk ANYTHING when you can send in a disposable ally to check for wards and other nasty surprises? That's what pawns are for.

Just Fireball the room

She can't. Moridin's in there, which means that her mind cage is in there too. If she blasts that, she becomes a mindless corpse at best. In fact... Lanfear cannot channel in that room AT ALL. "Channeling in the presence of the cour'souvra in which you are trapped is very painful; the nearer, the greater the pain" That room is what.. 20 feet across? An all-out channeler fight against THOSE two is going to use enough of the One Power to make Semirhage hurt. But having a dominated thrall walk in with an axe and start hacking people? No channeling next to your own mind trap required.

And someone with an axe can do something she can't: pick up the mind trap. She CANNOT touch her own. A compelled mind slave though? Easy as murder.

The 123 was Bond-level stupid

Well, you either need to coordinate with a mud-foot villager... or you were going to go 123 send them in and then stand back and see if they exploded on a ward or triggered a trap and exploded into meat sausage, just like when your big brother said let's both jump into the frozen lake 1 2 3 ...

Lanfear is too smart for this

What convoluted plan did Lanfear ever manage to fully pull off? Seduce a barely legal farmboy just out of his village? Try to get Asmodean on her side? Keep playing everyone and then picking a side? She didn't have much. Most of it is very basic once you know what her minor tricks are: inverted weaves especially the mask of mirrors, gateways and yes, a WHOLE lot of raw power. Which is completely on brand for the series. Memories become legend. Legend fades to myth. Lanfear's legendary subterfuge is just that.. a legend. ALL of the Forsaken's reputations are shockingly exaggerated over the years.

nothing lanfear ever did was devious enough for us to think this is what must have happened.

I don't think its a coincidence that the other person to pick this up was a beta reader who was also a.. uhm.. fan of Lanfear. You need a LOT of blind faith in her and her reputation to reach this one.

Arguments for the surface level events being right

Narrative

If the argument for the trick is mostly narrative cobwebs the thematic arguments he could throw off compulsion are thick enough to hold up whitebridge.

Perrin really. Really. Loves his wife. This was hammered home during the sloggiest arc of the slog: The Malden Arc. After four books, SEVEN YEARS for the readers, waiting for Perrin to FINALLY getting his wife back, Throwing aside advances from the most beautiful woman in the world... if the payoff for that is the ability to, as other characters have done, break compulsion and snap her neck like a twig THAT is some payoff. For that to all be a trick? Disservice to the readers. Doubly so when the entirety of the argument FOR the deception is itself narrative.

Perrin was level grinding in tar like it was his job. He was getting stronger, better, faster. Doing something "impossible" at the end of that makes narrative sense, especially with his precedent of "its just a weave"

Mechanical

Other characters have thrown off compulsion before. Nynaeve, Morgase, Possibly Rand. There are levels. Lanfear might not know HOW to fully lobotomize someone the way Graendal does , she may not prefer that, or she might need Perrin to be more useful to her some point if he's still kind of him say she wants him to GENTLY pick her mind trap off of Morridin's corpse.

Perrin has messed with weaves in tar before (its only a weave)

And lastly, in the real world (fantasy.. real world?) You have a brain and compulsion can override that and there's nothing you can do. The physics make the perceptions. But in TAR its the reverse: your perceptions make the physics. For all we know perrin doesn't even HAVE a brain here. So if he THINKS he can break free.. he can. In fact, if you compelled someone to think they were free of compulsion in TAR you would accidentally make them free for real because they now believe it with inhuman conviction. (Horrific thought. Compell someone to think they are in hell being attacked by demons. Open a gate and drop them in in the flesh)

A note on themes...

How many times in this series has rock beat laser? Nynaeve and Moghedien get into a One Power fight, Nynaeve tips the scales bonking her in the head with the very thing they were all looking for. Cairhienin nobles playing intricate games of houses? Rand's just sitting in an inn praying someone shows up. People trying to play Daes Dae'mar with Perrin? He genuinely doesn't see what they're doing, walks on and lets people trip themselves up.

The all-powerful Forsaken all have HUGE blind spots and arrogances against non-channelers and non-channeling solutions. Being on the lookout for a TAR-based attack and the One Power while COMPLETELY overlooking that you're within arm's reach of a blacksmith's powerful arms is not only completely in theme for Lanfear... it's how she lost to Moiraine the first time. She thought she had so much power and lightning ripping people's skin off their bones she lost to a football tackle.

Again, the manga name for this series would be Mud-footed farmboys defeat a quirky miniboss squad of superwizards because of their own arrogance.

Lanfear being RIGHT... that she actually is smarter and more clever and more devious and unbeatable, and that you the reader should have known that .... is in direct contradiction to everything we see in the book, every lesson, the very soul of the books screams against this idea.