Gawyn sneak attack succeeding (very realistic given he had on 3 RINGS) or Lan gets near him via stealth...Demandred attacks with the Power and is shocked and gets stabbed through the heart by Lan.

 

Not realistic that he would have one-on-one fights with 3 bladeamasters, like some anime movie or that he would be an insanely great bladeamaster. Blademastery in AoL was merely a sport, Demandred may have killed a few dozen with a Power wrought blade during the 10 year War of Power.  

 

One Power fight would have been futile, unless it was Rand+Callandor.  With the 2nd most powerful sa'angreal+72 channeler, almost LTT, even Fain with Mashadar would have lost. Mashadar was nowhere near as vast as Shadar Logoth. 

 

 

"Realistically" of course, given Demandred's sa'angreal+72 channelers and abilites/almost LTT, he would have wrecked the Light armies, gone to SG and finish the Light armies there, kill the distracted Rand et al, finish off Fain. The series ends. The series ends like a horror movie, that would have been cool.  Only thing that could stop Demandred was Rand+Callandor (no buffer)...but such a struggle would have depleted Rand or burned him out...

 

The entire problem boils down to this: Demandred was build up for so long and given his tools, even RJ would have trouble imo.

 

agreed - the obvious solution is don't write yourself into a corner by giving him a hugely powerful sa'angreal and a huge circle - neither of those things existed before amol

Agree completely. Although to be fair while both of these were mentioned. Without Demandred having a decent advantage the Last Battle would have been a bit meh. Seanchan and white tower combine channelers and destroy the trolloc armies. Possibly my biggest gripe with the whole last battle is that even rough numbers are never given. How large are each of the trolloc armies (apart from the one in Andor?) 500,000? 1,000,000? 5,000,000? It's really hard to tell how effective the strategies, channelers and nations were. I guess we do get told the light side is outnumbered 4-1 at FOM (or maybe that the seanchan made up 1/4 of the forces, or both these, I can't actually recall).

That was slightly off topic, but I think giving Demandred either one of these is fine. SK Light side forms a huge circle to fight him, or forms a huge circle to fight his huge circle. Or assassinates his circles members. Giving him both an unstoppable weapon and more channelers than the light and having him waste them was kinda a let down when I thought about it, but built tension quite well up until his death. I suppose it also gave Egwene's death an actual purpose, rather than dying as one of the many casualties of war. Although I am fine with the reasons given; doesn't understand that LTT is not Rand, conserving his strength, TP has made him a bit bonkers, blinded by arrogance to give the forsaken a unified theme (the last two make the most sense to me).

Just finished.

I actually spread my reading out over a few days, so while I didn't exactly go slow a lot of what happened had time to sink in. I had a full day or day and a half break before I started reading the Last Battle chapter. I loved it, I loved it so much. I know some people won't like the action-y feel to this book, and the way things seem glossed over, but I quite enjoyed it (although, honestly, I wouldn't have complained if we had another 50 pages or so of minor plot point resolution and on screen character deaths). I have looked a bit at the forums and it's really unfortunate that some people haven't been able to enjoy this book a lot for a variety of reasons, but I guess everyone looks for different things in a novel.

I liked Mat more in this book than the previous 2, although whether that is because he was written better or I just got used to him I don't know, I should mention I never really disliked BS's version of him. I was extremely glad when Faile was found alive, not for her sake, although I don't dislike her like I used to, but poor Perrin damn well deserves all the happiness he can find. Rand was excellent, especially that he lived and was going to go exploring the world (although I honestly thought that Mat would have that kind of ending).

Things that I liked specifically:

-Compulsion on the great captains, Sharan's appearing, the battles were getting a bit 'Light side has probably got this one'.

-Lan proving himself an amazing bladesmaster, showing what risking everything can achieve. If Demandred had wised up that Rand wasn't there or stuck with his conviction and just gated to the centre of the camp with his Sa'angreal and massive circle... I am assuming light side would have taken even more of a beating then he dished out from the heights.

-Androl and Pevara

-Thom killing all the disguised BA as they tried to walk past and piling their bodies in a ditch

-Cadsuane becoming the next Amyrlin

-Roedran "So you really aren't him"

-A lot of the green stuff growing was just Rand's theatrics singing the song :D

-Callandor used as a trap for the Light

-Use of Gateways on both sides

-Mat winning the battle (although I was quite annoyed not to have numbers throughout it other than thousands, 400 ayyad in total, outnumbered 4 to 1 and so on)

-Brandons' pacing was, I felt, excellent and I quite enjoyed the quick tempo it after the long slow build up and character introduction of the previous books.

-Most of the characters deaths.

-Egwene and Gawyn dying. This is not a hate thing, and only partially a shock factor thing. There was no lead up and she had so much time of character build up which has now been "wasted", but while I expected the LB to be impressive I felt no sense of risk, at least not for main characters, I was leaning more towards Rand surviving then dying. I was even surprised someone as major as Siuan died, becuase before this the series has barely killed anyone who is not relatively minor or a darkfriend. I knew that some majorish characters were going to die, but this let it sink in that it was not just a max level hero party killing everything with their epic gear they collected on the quest. I was quite sad when Egwene died, even Gawyn, but it served the purpose of introducing Damendred as like WTF this guy is ridonkulous.

-Conversely Lan surviving was honestly a shock. Which beings me to my next point.

-Demandred. Man he really came through for the darkside as a capable villain. "But wait, he let himself be killed by Lan, thats stupid". I really preferred that he died like this, I mean he destroyed 2 bladesmasters personally (one of them with increased strength and speed) and trashed the forces of light on the field, so its not like he didn't do anything, but he had character. The hints of the crazy rage that he had throughout the series came back, the ridiculous pride, his belief that he would be a better Dragon then Lews Therin, he felt love for a woman but continuosly let his hate overule it, statements that he would save the people under his command, all the stuff that made him something other than a regular darkfriend ie. I want power no matter the consequences to other people and will always be as underhanded and efficient as possible and all things serve that end. Bringing in that he actually was the Dragon that was rumoured to have appeared in Shara, can't remember which book that was mentioned in, he had the second greatest sa'angreal. No doubt many threads discussing him.

-while it was kind of contrived the poetic justice for Moghedian and Graendel.

-Moridin still remaining interesting and seeking oblivion. The fact that HE was actually the foolish one and the DO would have granted power to Darkfriends rather than obliterating everything. I really thought that Ishmael was the smart one and the rest were fools, but the DO's nature was the oppsite. I mean I guess oblivion was the compromise suggested by the DO, but it wasn't really his NATURE.

-Lanfear not finding redemption and proving once and for all that she is a coldhearted, calculating so and so that only cared for personal power. Which is in direct conflict with my above statement that lauds Demandred as awesome precisely because he wasn't, but I don't care.

-Fain was actually a vessel for Mordeth, and Mat killed him.

-Ending of everyones POV.

-The buildup and misdirection of certain themes from previous times in the series that put one idea forward (ie, Ishmael is correct about oblivion, Rand will finally kill the DO etc.)

-Pretty much everything

Things I didn't like:

-That nobody thought to check the great captains for compulsion or ward their dreams.

-Could have probably spread this to a book and a half to resolve everything, but then I wouldn't have enjoyed the pacing as much.

-Rand and Egwene arguing. I believed that they would, but it was just not handled with the finesse of RJ.

-BS not being a student of military history. I liked the character focus, and I got a clear enough picture of what was happening on the FoM, but it never really seemed that either general was being genius. Solid, and the asides in the book about the flow of battle and how about it was about timing were great, and everyones contribution with the gateways and cannons and other such things overall made it good. The Sharans made such an entry becuase they used the Gateway surprise attack well. Mat just never seemed to have that brilliant unexpected streak (maybe I'm jut annoyed that we didn't get definite numbers).

-Fain only appearing for a few pages then dying, makes all his mystery just seem random. Killed a lot yeah, but had little impact except on nameless characters.

-The last hunt also only killed some nameless people, was introduced too late. Like when the mydraal battalion attacked it was awesome, but the darkhounds just didn't have the same effect for me personally.

-That Mat didn't kill Demandred. Since he beat Galad and Gawyn at once then demandred beat them and Mat was immune to channeling and the quarterstaff is presented as being superior to the sword and SO MUCH BUILDUP FOR AWESOMENESS THAT NEVER HAPPENDED DAMN IT MAT IS SO AMAZING HE SHOULD HAVE KILLED ALL THE TROLLOCS AND DEMANDRED BY HIMSLEF AND AND AND *deep breaths*. Still, Lan was cool.

-Bella died :(

I really just wanted to get that off my chest, I am so excited and happy to have finished the book. If you have read through my post, then I salute you. If not then I don't blame you.

Edited numerous times to add stuff in or take it out as I thought about it or saw mistakes