Restrepo was awesome, but it was an actual documentary with real soldiers, not some slapped together Hollywood piece of crap.

Take just the first few minutes of Hurt Locker:

Says it's in '03, but soldiers are wearing ACUs, which weren't issued until '05- Minor, but there it is.

EOD tech is shown disarming a bomb by hand with just his bomb suit. That's a last resort. In reality they most likely would've just cordoned off the area and blown it in place.

Which brings up point number three. Apparently this is the only EOD team in Iraq that doesn't use a security team. In reality the area for about 500m-1km around would've been completely cleared and a perimeter set up to keep people away. There certainly wouldn't have been some Iraqi dude standing right there talking on his cell phone. For all the knew he could've been the trigger man. Cell phones are one of the most common detonators for IEDs.

Related to the security team point, there is NO WAY a three man team in one HUMVEE would be driving around Baghdad alone- even in the Green Zone, especially not in '03. They would've been traveling in at least a two or three vehicle convoy with someone manning the gun on all vehicles.

Privates do not speak to officers, much less Field Grade (Maj and above) officers like they're talking to Joe Blow from down on the block. For that matter neither do NCOs except maybe Sergeant Majors.

When Jeremy Renner's character is disarming the bomb in the middle of the street, again, no security. There's Iraqi civilians everywhere, any one of which could've been the trigger man. And when that dude pulls up in the car like he's going to run him over, he wouldn't just pull out his pistol and engage in a staring match, the security element would've either stopped him or just blasted him into the next life. He certainly wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the bomb site.

There was a lot more, those are just the ones I remembered; there are more but I don't plan on re-watching it so I can remember what they are. Like I said, I turned it off after about twenty minutes because I couldn't take it any more.

Don't get me wrong, I love action movies. The problem I have is when they try and portray something as being ultra-realistic and accurate and then don't even come close. Just close enough to fool people who have no idea what the reality is like.

Worst ever would be a toss up between Manos: Hands of Fate, or Santa Clause Conquers the Martians. I saw both on MST3K and I know Manos in particular was so bad, if I'd actually paid money to watch it in a theater without the snarky MST3K crew I probably would've gone on a cross country shooting rampage or something.

My most hated movie would be Starship Troopers. I originally thought it was OK and even had it on DVD.... then I read the book and smashed the DVD in rage at what they did to one of the best sci-fi books of all time. There is no excuse for it. It was an atrocity. They didn't just change a few things from the book, they basically wrote a completely different story with similarly named characters and one or two similar plot points. It was a total travesty since if they made a movie like the book it would be amazing, and it wouldn't even have been that hard. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Paul Verhoeven didn't even read the book. WTF??? We're talking about the only sci-fi novel that's actually on the reading list at the US military's service academies. It's that good and the director couldn't even be bothered to read it...

Most over-rated piece of crap award goes to Hurt Locker. I'm an Iraq vet and I could fill a book with the inaccuracies in that movie and I only had the stomach to watch for like the first half hour before I turned it off in disgust (it was borrowed from a friend on DVD). Supposedly the guy that wrote it was embedded with an EOD team over there, but if that's the case he must've spent the entire time asleep in his rack or watching movies in the MWR tent. Trust me I could go on and on. The scene where I finally had to turn it off was when he defuses the cluster of artillery shells in the middle of some neighborhood (without a cordon team securing the area, and without wearing his body armor) by pulling them out by the det-cord. Yeah, cause that wouldn't make em go boom or anything...That was the straw that broke the camel's back and from what I've heard it only got stupider, but I wouldn't waste my time.

On ACoS in my re-read and came across this one from Mat's POV that always made me laugh:

Now he knew why rabbits ran so fast. He stumped across Mol Hara Square not seeing anything. Had Nynaeve and Elayne been cavorting with Jaichim Carridin and Elaida in the fountain beneath that statue of some long-dead queen, two spans or more tall and pointing out to see, he would have passed by without a second look.

Ah Asmodean. I miss that guy too. Here's a good one: "When a woman says she will obey you, of her own will, it is time to sleep lightly and watch your back."

Yes, Arangar/Balthamel was balefired by Rand at Natrin's Barrow. Lanfear/Cyndane/Mierin is being tortured because she is not fully loyal to the Dark One, as evidenced by the times she tries to get Rand to use the CK to destroy the Dark One and the Creator both. She's just one messed up chick. She essentially turned to the Shadow because Lews Therin dumped her for Elyena and she's obsessed with getting him back. My guess is she's being tortured by Moridin for simply being an abject failure since her resurrection. She's essentially accomplished nothing of significance since she became Cyndane. She may have finally hit rock bottom and is now desperate enough to call out to Rand to save her. That's my guess anyway. Given her knowledge of how the Bore was made in the first place, she may be essential to re-sealing it.

Oh, and the reason the Aes Sedai arranged for the Aiel to be saved was because it was from Aiel blood that the Dragon would be reborn. The objects of power, Avendesora, all of that was secondary to saving the Aiel themselves. It can be surmised that the glittering columns were made by the last Aes Sedai in Rhuidean before they died since clearly they wouldn't have been able to transport them on wagons. What was their purpose? Obviously to let the Aiel know that the Car'a'carn had been born and to give him a way to prove himself to them, but also consider that because of his visions in the glass columns, Rand knows that Mierin was responsible for the Bore and may know how to re-seal it.

"She's channeling saidin." - In response to Aran'gar seizing saidin during the Cleansing of Saidin

I also like the follow up to that one where the AM goes to the rebel AS hall and tells them to remember that guys name and his sacrafice

The original quote is from Ebon Hopwil and the one that appears in front of the Rebel Hall of the Tower is Jahar Narishma.

“Once he had a grove of oaks chopped down because they were looking at him. And then insisted that they would be given decent funerals; he gave the orations. Do you have any idea how longs it takes to dig graves for twenty-three oak trees?”

- Davram Bashere about one of his former commanders. That one always makes me laugh.

“A man who trusts everyone is a fool, and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools, if we live long enough.”

-Lews Therin speaking in Rand's head.

“We are going to tickle some Aes Sedai under the chin, rescue a mule, and put a snip-nosed girl on the Lion Throne. Oh, yes. That's Aviendha. Don't look at her cross-wise or she'll try to cut your throat and probably slit her own by mistake.”

-Mat One of my favorites.

“Horrible woman. If we had turned her loose on the trollocs, she'd have had them all sweeping and mopping.”

-Thom. I just reread TSR and that one always makes me laugh.

The fact it's so hard to decide which scene/chapter is best is a statement for just how awesome The Wheel of Time is. You guys have already mentioned most of my favorite scenes (Dumai's Wells, The Cleansing, Nynaeve summoning the Malkieri to help Lan, EotW Prologue and so many others).

So I'll mention one nobody has mentioned yet- Egwene and the White Tower Aes Sedai defending the Tower from the Seanchan attack, coupled with the Siuan/Galad/Bryne rescue attempt. Yes, Egwene needs a serious dose of humility and I think she'll get it in spades at the Fields of Merrilor, but that whole scene was just awesome and was, for me, the high point for her character.

Another I'd mention would be the rescue from Malden. Yes, the story arc was drug out a bit, but it was amazing the lengths Perrin had to go to to accomplish his task and the final scene where they finally assault Malden with the Seanchan was pretty awesome.

Just to show a little Mat love, I'd add in the scenes in TDR when Mat escapes from the White Tower and discovers his luck. Mat is my favorite character by far. I'd also add in the scene where Mat first faces the Gholam in the storeroom. I just love that scene.