Interesting idea Mash but...

You seem to be glossing over the fact that Moiraine ensured the Dragon's Peace. Rand was about to walk away before she made her grand entrance.

That would have meant that the armies of the light would not have been cohesive and fared much worse than they did fighting together. I think they would have eventually given up when they thought that "all hope was gone, all light was gone" which would have meant that Rand couldn't keep resisting the DO on his own.

I do agree that without Thom guarding the cave, it would have been total disaster with Nynaeve and Moiraine trapped by their link with Rand and being unable to defend themselves or him.

I suppose Perrin could have been there earlier if he hadn't pushed himself so hard and done the job from TAR but there were quite a few enemies that Thom laid to rest so maybe not. I don't think Lanfear's compulsion would have affected Perrin against them (killing women I mean), she was having a hard enough time controlling him anyway and didn't order him to let Slayer live so...

I got it- If Aviendha had been in the Pit of Doom, she certainly would have tried to do something stupid like stab the Dark One with a spear, which surely would have ended the world. Moraine's presence prevented one of Rand's girlfriends from being there and getting him killed. They were able to be off getting other people killed because of Moraine.

youve completely forgotten about Knotai(mat). if he hadnt taken the raken and flown it like a madman after the pilot morat'raken died he wouldnt have been able to kill fain, and mat was the only one who could have stopped him since he survived the poison of shadar logoth and was able to take a hit from mashadar. he was also the general of the army of light and without his knowledge of battle they would have lost because like bao the wyld(demandred) said he was the best battlefield commander and only someone with the mind of an ancient could have out manuevered Bao. and finaly the shadow itself helped win the last battle. by compelling the four great captains the shadow cleared the way for mat to come in and win the last battle then kill fain. mat was also the one who found olver who blew the horn, would the horn have been blown by the light if olver hadnt done so. would faile have given it to anyone else to get it out of the trolloc camp. i realy find it hard to believe that the forsaken and darkfriends are so inept. how were the aes sedai in the AOL not able to defeat them. i understand that they previously had no knowledge of battle except what they read about, and the female aes sedai wouldnt help because they thought it to risky, but eith being trapped in the DO's hidey hole made them all stupid or the AOL aes sedai were equaly inept. we also have to look at vanin and harnan as saviors of the world because without them faile would never have been able to get the horn back from darkfriend hands and olver would never have been able to blow the horn. then there is Fortuona. without the seanchan army and fortuona being the new empress(thanks to the complete destruction of the seanchan imperial family, except one, by semirahge(sorry i cant remember how to spell her name) more lack of forsight) the seanchan army wouldnt have been able to counter the sharan army with there own troops.theres also Gawyn, without his attempt to kill demandred he wouldnt have died which would mean the egwene wouldnt have sacrificed herself and taking with her m'hael and the rest of the sharan channelers, and she wouldnt have been able to convince rand to let go of his pain at the deaths of his friends and his people. theres also lan who killed demandred " I didn't come here to win, i came here to kill you" great line by the way, without him the army of the shadow would still have had its general. so all in all it was a team effort that won the last battle and let rand seal the DO back in his hole, which was what rand said was needed.

You seem to have missed something important.

Yes, Moiraine didn't have a big impact on Rand's mood when she turned up - he had already had his light epiphany. But simply by reappearing, Moiraine did something that nobody else did, nobody else in the world could possibly have done - be removed from Rand's list of people that died because of him.

As YouMayCallMeElci points out, she also was vital in establishing the Dragon's Peace, which not only unified the nations, but also brought in the support of the Seanchan. Without that, infighting would have left Rand with a very different view of events from within the Dark One's void. And it was Rand's final epiphany, due to seeing 'his people' fighting on when all seemed lost, that allowed him to do what he needed to do.

Oh, and who else would have made more sense as the third person in Shayol Ghul? Aviendha? She needed to take out Graendal. Elayne? Other than being the only one who could be the leader at Merrilor, she was also pregnant, which made that a foolhardy option. Alivia? Rand needed people he could trust. Egwene? She needed to die to show Rand how to fight, so she couldn't be there. Which other channeller would Rand have trusted enough? The closest is Cadsuane... but in as much as Rand had forgiven her, it never seemed like he truly trusted her the way he did Moiraine, Nynaeve, Aviendha, Egwene, and Elayne.

So who would have been the second woman if not for Moiraine? Probably Aviendha... which would probably have resulted in an army of compelled Aiel and soldiers on the foothills of Shayol Ghul marching in to defeat the three.

But then, it's worth noting that all of the major (and many minor) characters had their parts to play. If not for Gawyn, Egwene wouldn't have been so foolhardy as to put herself in a balefirefight with M'Hael, which resulted in the Flame of Tar Valon weave discovery and Egwene's death, two events that were essential to victory. And if not for him, Galad wouldn't have risked his life to take on Demandred, which ultimately resulted in Lan defeating Demandred. That's just one example of a character's important role to play in events. So saying that Moiraine is the saviour is a little bit of a stretch - it's that her presence was one that was necessary for the world to survive. Just one of many threads that were necessary.

How do we know "To Save The World" is in reference to fighting the DO?  Maybe that is actually in reference to the Dragon's Peace, which comes after the last battle?  Maybe without Matt giving up half the light of the world, the world would have fallen to chaos after the Last Battle killing itself off even after Rand's victory.

I fully believe Moraine's duty was to help establish the Dragon's Peace, saving the world after the DO was defeated.

In this case, no one other than Moraine could have effectively done it.  She was her own "savior model" by dying and being reborn.  She held a special place in Randland because of her connection to Rand, and she was an expert on the prophicies.  She was the best person availible to secure Peace between the nations.

[Also, one of the images Rand uses to remind himself of the strength of the people is of a woman who gave up everything to find a boy in the Two Rivers.  He starts naming off people that have defied the DO: the woman who ran away and had a child on dragonmount, the man who raised him as his son, etc.  With Moraine coming back, those sacrifices were not in vain and actually were positive images for Rand to regain his strength.  I don't think this fulfils the prophecy Matt got, though, as I just don't see it strong enough.  I honestly believe Moraine was needed for the Dragon's Peace.]

While I certainly won't argue that Thom had a major influence on keeping things whole, Brandon Sanderson actually stated (in a tweet that I can't find right now) that the thing that Moiraine had to do to save the world was to make sure that Rand and Egwene arrived at the last battle together and not seperately.

In addition, while Egwene wasn't actually the one to break the seals, it's entirely possible (probably likely) that if Rand hadn't given them to Egwene they never would have been stolen by Taim's lackies (they were taken from Egwene; Rand would have known immediately if he'd still had them) and Logain wouldn't have ended up with them.  Hard to say what would have happened at that point.

Perhaps it hasn't happened yet...  Highly unlikely, though if the speculative outrigger novels happen(Matt's adventures in Seanchan and Shara, ascended Rand and whatever he gets up to, etc), perhaps the bits of prophecy that haven't been tied up with be addressed then...  

I think we are all forgetting the most important part of the book, in my humble opinion. Chapter 39, pg. 812, "YOU CANNOT WIN UNLESS WE GIVE UP." His list of all the people who still fought, allof those threads to the pattern were essential to the fight. Lose almost any of them, and the war could have been lost. Every person had a role, Thom, Moraine, Egwene, Mat, Perrin, Nynaeve, Min, Elayne, Aviendha, Lan, Gawyn, Androl, Pevara. Notice how my list gradually went to "lesser" characters? Who would deny, that if any did differently the result would have been drastically worse?

@mashiara the only thing i have against rand being able to win without mat or perrin, i dont have the reference, but we do hear several neverborn/darkfriends/etc saying "cut off one leg, and the tripod falls" or somesuch... whether that is true or not is another question :)

Brandon's already addressed this: https://twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/294199653153509376

(Sorry I know someone mentioned it above, but thought it might be helpful to link to the tweet in question)

@mashiara completely agree... pity my theory on that got disproven, it woulda been funny... :( that because of mat's one eye, he has no depth preception, and therefore would have killed demandred "by accident", thus saving the world... moraine would have been an irrelevant byproduct xD pity.

"  For Rand to win (ie: go into Shayol Ghul and defeat the Dark One and Moridin), Mat help was unnecessary.  His aid saved a ton of Aiel, and his maneuvering of the battle cause many to live who would have died, but Rand could have completed his tasks without Mat (at least in my opinion)."   

except that without mat being at the bore no one would have been able to stop Fain/Mordeth/Shiasm from entering the the cave and killing rand which would have stopped him from re-sealing the D.O.. then Fain/Mordeth/Shiasm would have essentially freed the D.O. and the world would end.