Bela

[Sakaea]

This made me cry. Bela came through the whole epic...to die to a Trolloc arrow

[Feral]

I couldn't believe it when Bela died. Seriously...WHY! Would have been so nice if she'd survived. I blame Sanderson. I get the idea from his Mistborn books that he doesn't really like horses, whereas RJ named pretty much every single mount and mentioned that his characters felt sorry for horses involved in battles. 

[Rhienne]

I couldn't believe it when Bela died. Seriously...WHY! Would have been so nice if she'd survived. I blame Sanderson. I get the idea from his Mistborn books that he doesn't really like horses, whereas RJ named pretty much every single mount and mentioned that his characters felt sorry for horses involved in battles. 

Actually, Brandon initially wrote Bela surviving.  Harriet overruled him and said she wanted Bela to die.

[Feral]

Well thanks. Now I'm even more depressed about it!

[Sakaea]

Harriet, why did you want Bela to die? Would love an answer, if anyone knows!

[Thrasymachus]

Actually, she said Brandon was "cheating" in trying to keep her alive.  And given the situation Brandon set her in, he probably was.  Personally, I don't think RJ would have killed Bela, and that she would indeed have been the horse Rand rode off on in the end.  It would have nicely bookended the story.  I also don't think she would have ended up in some supply caravan for Olver to ride.  Egwene was fond of her, and knew she was in the Tower stables, and she was pretty much the only horse Suian trusted even a little bit.  She would have been with the Aes Sedai camp.  The "cheating" bit was making her a "hero" in Olver's story.  She didn't need to be there, and the only reason she was was to give her a heroic part to play during the Last Battle, which ended up being her heroic death.  In the end, she's just another character Brandon ruined.

[Rhienne]

I would have been happy with Faile fleeing on her and her being found wounded by Faile.  I think a lot of Bela's 'importance' was fan-made, and feel that perhaps RJ would have had her appearing in a more minor way in the LB, e.g. as Thrasymachus suggests, some brief mention of her in connection with the AS, and her appearing at the end as Rand's horse.

[Leopoled Boothe]

I was disappointed with her death.  My prediction had been that at some point near the end of the Last Battle she would find her way back to Tam and he would end up riding her back to the Two Rivers and to his farm.  She would be the one and only character who would return to her former life at the conclusion of the series.

 

Then again, perhaps her death was symbolic of the fact that none of the two rivers folks would ever return to their former lives.

[jack of shadows]

to the best of my knowledge,rand did not ride bela even once throughout the wheel of time saga.

[Vambram]

I think that you are right about that, jack of shadows.

[Tyler Glembo]

to the best of my knowledge,rand did not ride bela even once throughout the wheel of time saga.

 

Surely it is because two such amazingly strong ta'veren touching like that would rip apart the Lace of Ages and the world would end

[Eleazer]

I personally thought both bela and hopper were going to be attached to the horn of valere as hero. ** disappointed they didn't 

 

As as a side note, after seeing the suggestion that Rand should have ridden off on bela at the end is amazing. I think if he would have been riding bela and then Matt and Perrin then joined him would have been an epic closing. 

[Feral]

I don't think Rand ever rode Bela "on screen", but it is mentioned that he rode her now and then on the farm, I believe.

 

And yes, I was really hoping Hopper would appear with the spirit wolves or whatever they were! 

[Tyler Glembo]

On a serious note, the fact that a horse can engender such feelings in the readership really speaks volumes about how amazing this series is.

[Hybrid]

She would have been with the Aes Sedai camp.

 

So she should have been turned into horse hamburger by the Sharans, is what you are saying.

[bigdoug1971]

Noal should have been riding her when he came back

 

 

YES!!!  I thought it was terrible for Bela to make it through all the books, to the end of the final book, then go out that way. 

 

Noal riding her when he came back would have been a real high-moment in the book for me!!!