How does Mat's "luck" work?

[Kari he/him]

How does Mat's "luck" work? I've never been able to figure it out. does he weave the pattern around him or something?

[Agent34]

He's ta'veren. One result of that is probability getting altered.Similar things happen with Rand and Perrin.

[The Sovereign]

2 hours ago, Agent34 said:

He's ta'veren. One result of that is probability getting altered.Similar things happen with Rand and Perrin.

Mat's luck is likely not directly related to his Ta'Veren nature. At the end of AMoL it is noted that the three are no longer Ta'Veren. Prior to his death Robert Jordan had spoken of writing future series about Mat and Tuon's adventures reclaiming Seanchan. It was implied his luck would be intact. I suspect it is actually a Talent.

[The Allomantic Metalhead he/him]

He's a chromium compounder! But seriously, folks, read the comments of the guys above me.

[Anujun he/him]

The Wheel of Time books' magic systems aren't "hard magic" (as Sanderson defines it), like Sanderson's own magic systems are. They appear to have rules, but these rules and limits are never clearly defined for us. I don't think we ever learned what the source of Mat's luck is. I always thought it had something to do with his Manetherin multiple people in his head thing, but that was just an impression.

[Mulk he/him]

the multiple people in his head - the finns filled all the holes in his memory with the battle memories of pretty much every general who lived from...like the Trolloc Wars to after Hawkwing aside from Hawkwing himself. His battle sense has little to nothing to do with luck.

His luck appears to be a Talent, a gift of the Pattern if you will, so that far beyond the tugging of chance a tav'eren has he can usually alter chance in his favor just by being present.  Something about his trip through the redstone ter'angreal seems to have amplified and focused it, but beyond that, there's not much documentation on it.  He can win when he needs to and lose when he needs to. 

[Weltall]

His ridiculous luck started before his trip through either doorway, at the same time that he was healed from his connection to the Shadar Logoth dagger and became an interesting character. I'm not sure the 'finns did anything for him so much as it was Mat coming to realize over the course of a few books just how stupendous his luck was and that he could weaponize it. Brandon has gone both ways on this, but the most recent WoBs I could find say that it's probably separate from his Ta'veren-ness and that he probably retains it after AMoL, but the notes apparently don't say one way or the other.

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Loialson

Mat's dice in his head. Are they real? Do they come from Sindhol? Are they from his ta'veren nature, or is it just a plot device? (laughter)

Brandon Sanderson

Everything that I've read in the notes indicates that they are from his ta'veren nature, and that they are a manifestation of being ta'veren [?] related to his [?]

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Terez

Um, was there any connection between Mat's luck and the dagger?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, not that I know of. Good question, but we can MAFO that one, but you can give the, "not that I know of". I'm still kind of...you know, the Mat's luck being beyond him being ta'veren, is one that's very interesting to me, because everything that I know says that his luck does extend beyond his ta'verenness, but...

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Question

Perrin felt his ta'veren-ness melting away. If Mat lost it too, does he lose his luck?

Brandon Sanderson

I don't believe that he does. Being a ta'veren has a distinct effect on him, but I think there is an innate luckiness to Mat, partially drawn from the fact that the Heroes [of the Horn] call him Gambler. And so in other lives where he would not have been ta'veren he was still a gambler and still lucky. However, I do think being a ta'veren meant that the luck was greatly magnified, and I think it grew stronger and stronger through the series. That's my read on it from the notes, and I'm pretty sure on that one. I have to give the caveat that there could be something out there that contradicts me.

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iwasazombie

Awesome! So, I'm still unsure about Mat's luck. Would you say that's part of his "ta'veren-ness?"

Thanks for the great answers. I'm more at peace now with some of the previous answers you've given.

Brandon Sanderson

My gut tells me Mat still has his luck, but not to the extent he once had. But I have no foundation for this in the notes.

Oh, and this cracked me up:

On 12/26/2017 at 6:42 AM, The Allomantic Metalhead said:

He's a chromium compounder! But seriously, folks, read the comments of the guys above me.

I actually asked Brandon at a signing whether F-Chromium worked in any way like Mat's luck and if a compounder could pull off similar stunts. I got RAFO'd, naturally. xD

Edited January 5, 2018 by Weltall

[Leyrann]

On 26-12-2017 at 3:42 PM, The Allomantic Metalhead said:

He's a chromium compounder! But seriously, folks, read the comments of the guys above me.

That's not how Fortune works! Fortune is looking into the Spiritual Realm to understand what is likely to happen in the future.

Anyways, as for Mat's luck, I think it's just something that's in there because Mat likes gambling and it adds comical value. It also adheres to Brandon's First Law (which was actually established after almost all of WoT...), in that we may not understand it properly, but it does not really get used to solve plot points either, except to make money, but hey, no one is going to mind that there is no accounting in a fantasy book.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Leyrann

[CygnusTheSwan]

On 12/29/2017 at 10:53 PM, Mulk said:

the multiple people in his head - the finns filled all the holes in his memory with the battle memories of pretty much every general who lived from...like the Trolloc Wars to after Hawkwing aside from Hawkwing himself. His battle sense has little to nothing to do with luck.

His luck appears to be a Talent, a gift of the Pattern if you will, so that far beyond the tugging of chance a tav'eren has he can usually alter chance in his favor just by being present.  Something about his trip through the redstone ter'angreal seems to have amplified and focused it, but beyond that, there's not much documentation on it.  He can win when he needs to and lose when he needs to. 

 

On 11/20/2017 at 9:34 AM, The Sovereign said:

Mat's luck is likely not directly related to his Ta'Veren nature. At the end of AMoL it is noted that the three are no longer Ta'Veren. Prior to his death Robert Jordan had spoken of writing future series about Mat and Tuon's adventures reclaiming Seanchan. It was implied his luck would be intact. I suspect it is actually a Talent.

What they say about talents in the above comment by The Sovereign is more accurate to how the book describes talents. Perrin's wolf ability was a lost talent. Mat's luck likely is a talent. He has past life memories of Manetheren in book 3 when he is healed from the dagger, so this could have triggered the talent much like when Perrin's manifests. These things are separate from what he gets in Rhuidean for his eye. His Odin scene in the story. I would say RJ's magic is much harder as a system than people realize. His story comes through the limited perspectives of character's with partial information and sometimes the wrong information. RJ was a master at close, limited POVs. 

[Iron-Eyes he/him]

I do think that Mat's luck was seperate thing from him being Ta'veran. I think that it's a knack, Just like Hurin has a knack for smelling stuff, mat has a knack for luck. Although it is possible that his knack was strengthened by him being a Ta'veran.