I think Rand was inexperienced enough at the time to do all sorts of stuff unconsciously. For example, he might have opened a gateway back to the real world. But more likely, RJ wasn't yet sure of exactly how he wanted those things to work. A lot of stuff that happened during books 1-3 feels to me like RJ was still working out the exact details, so the magic system isn't completely consistent.

Perhaps you're right. There is mention of Rand entering TAR via a gateway to hunt Ishamael, and then when he returns to reality he just sort of... returns to reality without any identified mechanics. It just kind of bugs me that Ishamael's body followed Rand back out of TAR. Rand smokes Ishy in TAR with Callandor, as the above quote shows. Both Rand and Ishy have entered TAR in the flesh at that point. After Rand kills Ishy he, by unknown means, exits TAR and finds Ishy's body has followed him into reality. It seemed like more of a "blink" type of teleportation rather than the usual "pass through a wormhole" teleportation. Unless, Rand unconsciously took himself and Ishy out of TAR right before he makes the kill then looks up to realize that he has returned to reality.

I hope this question is simple enough. The answer may be somewhere on the forum already and I just haven't seen it before, if so please link the thread for me.

At the end of TDR, when Rand takes Callandor and uses it to kill Ishamael, the flaw that is noticed later in the series doesn't seem to deter Rand when hunting Ishy. I suspect that this has something to do with the fact that he is using Callandor in TAR, but for some reason Ishy's corpse ends up in the REAL heart of the Stone. Did I miss something in the book that would help piece this broken string of events together for me?

Ch. 55, TDR, "What is written in Prophecy"

"Rand pulled Callandor's blade free as Ba'alzamon's body sagged and began to fall, the shadow around him vanishing.

And suddenly Rand was in another Heart of the Stone, surrounded by columns still whole, and fighting men screaming and dying, veiled men and men in breastplates and helmets. Moiraine still lay crumpled at the base of a redstone column. And at Rand's feet lay the body of a man, sprawled on its back with a hole burned through the chest."

I'm also fairly sure that this isn't the corpse of Be'lal, because Moiraine balefired him before rand took Callandor.

What's Galad's exact relation to Moiraine by blood? Just wondering if he has a solid claim to the Sun Throne. If Min's vision is right then Galad and Berelain are getting married. She spent a lot of time managing affairs in Cairhien, so...

 

 

Galad, Gawyn, and Elayne as Moiraine's nephews and neice. There father, Taringail, was Moiraine's half brother.

So does Galad have a different mother then? I thought for sure that Galad was only half brother to Gawyn and Elayne.