Kvothe's Binding (Wise Man's Fear spoilers)

[megablargh]

I have a question about when Kvothe is fighting the encampment of bandits.

How was it possible for him to use the dead sentry to kill the other bandits?
There was no sympathetic link for Kvothe to link one to the other. If it's saying that just because they were both human bodies, and thus a compatible link, then isn't it possible to just grab any corpse/random person and use their body to stab any OTHER random person at will? Is it saying that Kvothe could've just as easily stabbed Marten,Tempi, or himself instead of the dead sentry and killed all those bandits as well?

I was thinking over how the sympathy works, and I thought you needed to have something of the person you were trying to hurt (blood, hair) or if you were binding a sympathetic link between two things (coins), you needed to touch both coins at the same time and mutter a binding. But Kvothe didn't have anything of the bandits still alive, and he also didn't touch the dead sentry and a bandit at the same time to create a sympathetic link.

Kvothe was worried because Ambrose got his blood, but he was never worried that Ambrose would just hire some experienced arcanist to stab a corpse while linking it to Kvothe with his Alar, right?

 

[Lioness]

It's the principle of "once together; always together"...two coins are bindable because you believe they come from the same piece of metal originally.
Using two bodies would have the same general theory...Both bodies are the same as each other.

So yeah, he could've used his own body, or Marten, or Tempi...but where's the fun in that

The touching, from what I can see, along with sympathy wax etc. is just an aide for beginners. With a strong enough Alar you don't need a physical link.

 

[Jibmonk]

There's that. Also remember that a huge part of it is not only what you're able to do, but the strength of the binding. Thus similarity adds to that, but is not necessarily needed.

When the binding is weaker in requires more strength and energy to have the same effect. Notice how he get the chills from his actions. Additionally, I believe that the binding between someone who lives and are connected to each other is stronger, tho still weak.

Symphathy has throughout the series been done without touch or link etc. It's a question about effectivity and the strength of your Alar. No link will weaken your binding etc

 

[jonath]

Kvothe was worried because Ambrose got his blood, but he was never worried that Ambrose would just hire some experienced arcanist to stab a corpse while linking it to Kvothe with his Alar, right?

He was worried because making a momet out of clay or wax containing blood is much less obvious than robbing a grave to perform malfeasance. Also, Pat doesn't mention any graveyards being around the town where the university is so being that the university is the most medically advanced place in the world they could be in the habbit of cremation which would make the extremely obvious act of grave robbing much more difficult. As far as the binding, which was the original topic, he didnt need to touch the two objects as was previously stated that and the "sympathy wax" is an aide/joke on the younger students.

 

[Young stormlord]

It's not hard to understand, really. Sympathetic binding was the important thing for the connection to be stronger. One bandit had connection to all the other bandits and that connection was much stronger than to other human beings. He lived with those other bandits, he had the same money as them, he ate the same food, he got the clothes and water from the same place. He followed the orders from the same leader, he had similar dreams to them. Alar itself is ability to convince yourself that two things share a link because they came from the same source. If you're sent to kill bandits and you don't know any of them personally, how hard would have been to convince yourself that "Yes, that bandit shares the link with the others".