We know Brandon added the scene with Cadsuane becoming Amyrlin in the epilogue. That kinda lends credence to  BS killing off Egwene, since the original epilogue script had no mention of a new Amyrlin being needed.

I agree with it, though, Egwene was a very black and white type of thinker, and would not have led well in a time of peace, when compromise is needed as opposed to her single minded "do whatever it takes to get things done" way of controlling the white tower.Almost reminiscent of Lincoln, now that I think of it. But yeah, Cadsuane is a much better choice for the 4th age. 

I kind of liked the idea of Gawyn killing him...I know he's not everyone's favorite character, but it seems to fit the Pattern- it makes the attack on the WT, and the Seanchan's role in the Last Battle more meaningful, and calls to mind a David and Goliath type scenario. Have Demandred take on a few powerful channelers first, and have Gawyn with his blood knife rings take him down from behind before Demandred knows what is happening. Gawyn would still have to die, the Sharans could kill him...But I didn't like how Gawyn died for nothing. Lan didnt need to be more hardcore. He was plenty bad-a enough before he killed Demandred.

 I don't believe Demandred should be stupid enough to risk everything by having a one on one swordfight with some random guy, when the Sharan army could have stopped it at any minute. Dying by stealth makes much more sense.

Never thought about this until today, while reading in The Shadow Rising when Asmodean tells Rand's crew and the Aiel a post-Breaking tale, and it got me wondering...

The Forsaken have only been free for a little while, and with the exception of Ishamael they have been unaware of the world. How do they know so much about the people and customs of Randland? They never show any knowledge gaps when interacting with people, and have no problem speaking the common tongue, and seem to have a better grasp than most about what's been going on for the past few thousand years. It seems like, in Asmodean's case, memorizing a ballad about Manetheren would be pretty low on the todo list after being free for the first time in over three thousand years

Can't wait for the next Stormlight Archive to come out now! :D

Noooooo!! NOT Bela!!! It's like losing Hedwig all over again :(

 I loved the book, I loved the ending. I have a few complaints and I'll get those out of the way quickly.

 1. Everything up to the Dragon's Peace (besides the Prologue which was amazing as always), felt extremely rushed, and...I dunno...fanfic-ish. Chapter 1 was horrible, It felt like Brandon was just trying to get things out of the way.

 2. Mat/Rand reunion...Seriously??? Did you just turn this into a Peter Jackson-esque Legolas and Gimli competition? I literally hid my face in my hands.

 3. Brandon still just can't write Mat. Towers of Midnight was an improvement, but in tGS and this book, he comes off like a buffon mostly.

 4. Nakomi? Not even a hint, guys?

 5. I would have liked to see Gawyn actually kill Demandred. I thought that would have been a great ending for him, and the blood knives are cool. Lan already contributed enough, him killing Demandred just didn't do anything for me..it was like "Oh look, there goes Lan being bad a again. Whatevs."

The good:

 Sharans!! Demandred being in Shara was my favorite theory, and I'm glad it was proved right. Their burst onto the scene was nothing short of heart stopping. I loved the  Black Tower arc.

 Androl/Pevara was really sweet. Pevara was always one of my favorite Aes Sedai, I like that she found a special someone.

 Cadsuane as Amyrlin? I literally laughed out loud, that was perfect.

 Lielwin as Egwene's warder?? Even more Lolz.

 Logain...poor Logain. I've always felt a strong attraction to his character, since the days when he was paraded through Camlyn, laughing. I felt for all the Ashaman, really. The fear these men lived with, the hatred they put up with, it makes Logain and co the most sympathetic anti-heroes I've read about. There were three times in this book that I felt tears in my eyes, the most powerful was when the mother who's son Logain rescues pledges to send her son to the Black Tower someday.

 Olver...I was always curious about what his role would be. It was perfect. That was one of the other two times I felt tears.

 Egwene was hands down my favorite character in this series, but I wasn't bothered by her death. She was the Amyrlin who unified and led the White Tower through the Last Battle...I don't think she had any more to offer the world. It was a fitting end.

 But the thing that really made me put the book down and stare blankly at the wall was near the end of the last chapter: "He understood, finally,that the Dark One was not the enemy. It never had been." The WHOLE series suddenly made so much more sense. It's not an epic struggle between the forces of creation and destruction, it's a human struggle. It's a story of good people vs bad people, the selfless vs the selfish, the champions of the light vs the Forsaken. The DO wasn't a He, it was an It, something exsisting on it's own for a reason. Its a subtle difference, but one I never would have guessed, and one that cast everything in the past 14 books in a different light. I had theories with Rand destroying the DO, or just locking him back up, but never in my wildest imaginations did I think he would be given a chance to destroy the DO, yet turn it down. It was a beautiful twist, and very satisfying to me. I don't think any other ending would have worked for me, without a little disappointment.

 You know what I also like? That the epilogue was short. I didn't need a detailed explanation of future events. I know these characters so well that I have a pretty good idea how things will turn out in the long run. I was expecting a large portion of this book to deal with the aftermath of the Last Battle, but it's more fun this way

 But at the end of the day, Bela's death was nothing more than meaningless slaughter. WTF, people.

 I'm going to really miss these characters.