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[John Novak, P. Korda]
Hopper says that Slayer is in TAR "in the flesh." Folks have taken this as evidence that Slayer can channel. There is no reason to suppose this. In fact, there are many reasons to think that he cannot channel.
Now, for the question of whether Slayer can channel at all. If Slayer could channel when he was in the Two Rivers, why didn't he? It would certainly have aided him in his missions to do away with Fain and Perrin. Even if we assume that he didn't because he would rather fail totally than chance anybody getting suspicious, why didn't he channel at Perrin in TAR? [TSR: 53, The Price of a Departure, 614] The only person to see would have been Perrin, and Perrin would have been dead. He used a bloody arrow to try to kill Perrin with. That was the best he could manage.
In the big battle at Emond's field, the AS, of course, were an advantage to Perrin's side, but if Isam could channel, he could have done something to counter that advantage. He clearly didn't (of course, he'd been shot at that point, but if he could channel, he could have left, gotten somebody to heal him, and returned for the fight).
Finally, this question was answered directly by RJ at a signing. From the post-ACOS signing at Vancouver, 24 August 1996, reported by Lara Beaton: "Slayer: Can't channel. ... He has certain 'gifts' granted to him by the DO, but can't channel either the OP or the TP."
If Slayer cannot channel, then what is up with that "in the flesh" business?
The time Perrin saw Isam in the flesh was when Perrin met Hopper and they discussed Slayer. There is another time when Slayer put himself into TAR the old-fashioned way, by dreaming-- the time Perrin shot him. How do we know this?
Well, the sequence of events goes like this: Perrin is sleeping. Perrin dreams the wolf dream, and sees Slayer (looking like Isam). He shoots Slayer with an arrow, producing a wound in the chest. I now quote: "Slayer faded, him and his cry together, growing misty, transparent, vanishing." (NOT like he opened a Gateway and walked out, like he woke up.) Perrin then wakes up, hears a commotion, asks what's going on, and finds out that Luc's just run off on his horse, hunched over like he's got a wound. He was NOT wounded earlier. Now, why would he have to escape from town if he was PHYSICALLY in TAR? He could just have run someplace else in TAR and exited there. Much easier, and safer. The whole scene is consistent with all the stuff we've heard before about people being wounded while dreaming in TAR, and having the wounds on their physical bodies.
Thus, we know that Slayer isn't always in TAR in the flesh.
We don't know enough about Slayer, or even about entering and leaving TAR in the flesh, to say that the only way to do it is via a gateway. I can think of at least one way to get into TAR in the flesh without channelling yourself there. Somebody else can open a gateway for you. There's just as much evidence for this as for him channelling himself in (that is, none), and it doesn't produce the contradiction that if Slayer could channel on his own, his Two Rivers strategy would have been very different.
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The Wheel of Time FAQ. Copyright 1999 by Pamela Korda and Erica Sadun. HTML implementation by Matthew Hunter. This site maintained by Matthew Hunter (mhunter@andrew.cmu.edu). Comments and questions regarding the content itself should be directed to Pam Korda (kor2 @ midway.uchicago.edu).