Egwene was a major character and therefore if she survived that last battle she surely would have been present in the epilogue.

You're assuming that what RJ actually left behind is the entirety of what he would have wanted to include in the epilogue. Personally, I think he would have added a few more scenes before the last scene with Rand, considering that Brandon ended up writing some.

Cadsuane as Amyrlin is referenced in other POVs.  I also think the fact that Egwene doesn't have an epilogue POV is pretty suggestive that RJ intended her to die - otherwise why give the other major characters one and not write one for her?  I think (but I'm not 100% sure) that Egwene's death is referenced in Tam's POV and Perrin's POV as well.

Yes, but Brandon wrote Perrin's POV, and modified some of the others. The epilogue was not all RJ.

Brandon: It was the last few scenes I was working on, Perrin after the Last Battle and a few of the Loial sequences in the epilogue, which were parts I had a hand in writing as opposed to putting in what RJ had written.

Brandon: In here [RJ's notes], there were some completed scenes that Robert Jordan had written before he passed away. This included much of what is now the epilogue in the last book. That was the last scene, that he talked about. There are some parts of the epilogue that are mine. You can bring out the book and I can point them out to you. But the last scene and various... The bulk of the epilogue was his.

Personally, I don't like that. He thought it was fine to tell the fans who Harriet had killed of and subject her to the subsequent criticism or praise it would bring, but won't reveal what he did.

It seems like it was Harriet who revealed that at a signing; only then did Brandon start mentioning it to fans. At the Phoenix ComicCon (at the 44:40 mark), Brandon also talked a bit about the two major characters who were killed off by him and Harriet and added: "I haven't announced mine. [Harriet] announced hers, and it was Siuan."

It also seems like RJ hadn't said specifically what the fate of that character should be. I think it would be strange for RJ not to have said anything about Egwene's fate; on the other hand, I also found it surprising that RJ had apparently left no notes about Siuan after TGS. So who knows.

As Suttree said, a lot of this points at Egwene.  (For what its worth I have no problem with Egwene death, RJ's decision or BS's.)  Basic theory is that RJ's notes specify Cadsuane is Amyrlin in the end but BS had to decide between her dying or being burned out in her fight against Taim and the Sharans.

At first I thought Egwene's death had to have been RJ's decision, as there are many things in the books that could be interpreted as foreshadowing of that, but I'm not so sure anymore. I do think it's strange that Brandon is so reluctant to tell us anything. It's certainly possible that it was one of RJ's "either I will do this, or I might do this" type of scenarios that Brandon's mentioned before. Also, keep in mind that Brandon and Team Jordan are very good at Aes Sedai speak—Brandon told someone "I was instructed to make Cadsuane Amyrlin," but he never said by whom. It could just as easily have been Harriet who told him to do that.

In any event, I hope they'll settle the issue at some point, because I'd really like to know what RJ's vision was, and Egwene's ultimate fate is IMO a very important part of that. Some people are already convinced that Brandon killed her off out of personal dislike or to please the haters, but I find that unlikely. If Egwene's death was decided by anyone other than RJ, my guess would be that it was actually Harriet's decision. I also think it's worth remembering that Siuan was reportedly one of Harriet's favorite characters, so a character being killed off isn't necessarily a sign that someone wanted to see the character punished. Egwene dying and moving on to the afterlife/being reborn is arguably a kinder fate than being left widowed and burned out.

He didn't decide to kill Siuan if that's what you mean.  Harriet made that call.  There is one character BS was responsible for killing but he hasn't said who yet. 

Brandon did say he was the one who killed off Hurin.

Harriet also decided Siuan's death.

Brandon: Siuan's fate wasn't mentioned in the notes, save for the rescue of Egwene from the White Tower.  Harriet made the decision on how her story was to play out.

As your Moiraine quote showed, she did, in fact, show aptitude with politics. For comparison, it took Rand two weeks of training from Elayne (mixed with kissing sessions) to come up with a plan to play the Tairen factions against each other. Why is it okay for Rand to pick up politics from his girlfriend in two weeks, but not okay for Egwene to pick up politics after months of lessons from Moiraine?

Rand didn't "pick up politics from two weeks with Elayne"; It was Thom who had sent him secret notes about the Tairen nobles.

Rand's POV in TSR: Carleon and Tedosian, false self-effacement in every line of their thick bodies, surely never realized there was anything suspicious in never looking at one another. But then, Rand might never have noticed if not for Thom’s note, found in the pocket of a coat just back from being brushed.

[...]

Moiraine's POV in TSR after Rand outmaneuvers the Tairen nobles: Thom Merrilin had given him good advice; obviously her spies had missed some of the notes he had had slipped into Rand’s pockets.

I am pretty sure RJ decided on Egwene's death. I believe RJ wrote all the epilogue POVs apart from Cadsuane's, and in Perrin's POV he and Nynaeve discuss Egwene's death.

I know they made statements suggesting RJ wrote everything but the Cadsuane POV, but Brandon later admitted to writing other parts as well. As I said before...they're very good at giving Aes Sedai answers.

Q: Hey Brandon once upon a time you posted Final Fantasy X song "To Zarkanad" on your facebook page and said it was perfect for the scene you were writing in A Memory of Light, so tell me if you remember which scene was that ?

 

Brandon: It was the last few scenes I was working on, Perrin after the Last Battle and a few of the Loial sequences in the epilogue, which were parts I had a hand in writing as opposed to putting in what RJ had written.

I think there's a good chance it was RJ who decided her death a long time ago, maybe even as far back as TEotW. Egwene suffered a similar fate as Eldrene, had a similar name, and was the only one in the Two Rivers group to recognize Eldrene's husband's warcry when Mat used it.

“When you shouted, I thought—just for a minute—I thought I understood you. But it’s all gone, now.” [Egwene] sighed and shook her head. “Perhaps you’re right. Strange what you can imagine at a time like that, isn’t it?”

 

“Carai an Caldazar,” Moiraine said. They all twisted to stare at her. “Carai an Ellisande. Al Ellisande. For the honor of the Red Eagle. For the honor of the Rose of the Sun. The Rose of the Sun. The ancient warcry of Manetheren, and the warcry of its last king. Eldrene was called the Rose of the Sun.” Moiraine’s smile took in Egwene and Mat both, though her gaze may have rested a moment longer on him than on her.

In the earlier books, there are a number of possible foreshadowings of Egwene's death, most notably "the Year of Four Amyrlins" quote from TPoD.
 

“Is the Hall always this bad, Siuan?”

 

Siuan nodded, shifting slightly to try to find a better balance. No two of her stool’s legs were the same length. “But it could be worse. Remind me to tell you about the Year of the Four Amyrlins; that was about a hundred and fifty years after the founding of Tar Valon. In those days, the normal workings of the Tower nearly rivaled what’s happening today. Every hand tried to snatch the tiller, if they could. There were actually two rival Halls of the Tower in Tar Valon for part of that year. Almost like now. Just about everyone came to grief in the end, including a few who thought they were going to save the Tower. Some of them might have, if they hadn’t stepped in quicksand. The Tower survived anyway, of course. It always does.”

Two rival Halls, four Amyrlins in one year, and "just about everyone came to grief in the end." Sound familiar?

Gawyn's death was also more than likely, since Egwene dreamed of it in ACoS:

In the way of dreams she floated above a long, straight road across a grassy plain, looking down upon a man riding a black stallion. Gawyn. Then she was standing in the road in front of him, and he reined in. Not because he saw her, this time, but the road that had been straight now forked right where she stood, running over tall hills so no one could see what lay beyond. She knew, though. Down one fork was his violent death, down the other, a long life and a death in bed. On one path, he would marry her, on the other, not. She knew what lay ahead, but not which way led to which. Suddenly he did see her, or seemed to, and smiled, and turned his horse along one of the forks...

There were other uncertain viewings involving Gawyn and Egwene. In LoC, she dreamed of Gawyn "swinging a door closed on her, and she knew if that narrowing gap of light vanished, she was dead." In ACoS, Egwene dreamed that "straps at waist and shoulder held her tightly to the block, and the headsman's axe descended, but she knew that somewhere someone was running, and if they ran fast enough, the axe would stop."

It doesn't seem like RJ's style to add so many ominous viewings about Gawyn and Egwene unless he meant for at least one to end badly. As it turned out, Gawyn married her AND got a violent death. If Egwene had survived AMoL, it still wouldn't have been a very happy ending for her. I think Egwene dying in a blaze of glory was in many ways a kinder fate than Egwene surviving.

It's also worth noting that Brandon and Team Jordan have given us many Aes Sedai answers over the years. Brandon saying he was instructed to make Cadsuane Amyrlin doesn't necessarily mean it was RJ who decided it. It was Harriet who decided Siuan's death (RJ left no notes on Siuan after TGS), and Bela's. So it could have been Harriet who made the call on Egwene as well. If that's the case, I wish they would tell us, but they clearly have no intention of giving us any further details at this point.

I really like Cirin's literary interpretation of Egwene / Gawyn as Juliette and Romeo. It explains the inevitability of their fate. But if you start thinking along this line Lan would have had to die aswell.

I was a little bit taken aback when he decided to rush at Demandred knowing full well that he would have to die while his wife was at Shayol Ghul fighting the most important battle and him dying could cause her to break.

This was selfish beyond understanding. It did not sit well with me. Lan should have learned humility aswell in order to earn the right to survive.

The same could be said of Elayne and Aviendha; they also put themselves at risk. Lan entered the battle long before he knew Nynaeve would go to SG with Rand. He wouldn't have learned any lesson from dying, and it was always clear that he wouldn't die as people in WoT usually have their wishes/expectations thwarted. Those who dislike nobles or Aes Sedai (Mat, Thom, Juilin, Logain) end up marrying them. Those who set out to sacrifice themselves (Rand, Lan, Faile) survive against all odds. Those who declare they'll live centuries (as Egwene did to Tuon), don't.

Keep in mind that Eldrene's death already mirrors LTT's. There's elements of both here. Loss of Warder followed by overdrawing through sa'angreal to kill enemies and dying in the process is very Eldrene like. But at the same time, dying in a column of Light that eventually caused a hilly region to collapse very strongly mirrors LTT's end. Egwene also has a "kinslaying" moment, killing Sharans and her own people in her rage (and mirroring Rand in tPoD against the Seanchan), as does Eldrene, when she burns down the most beautiful city in the world (with people in it?) as she kills the enemies who took her husband.

Eldrene didn't kill any people; the city was empty when she destroyed it.

"In the Mountains of Mist, alone in the emptied city of Manetheren, Eldrene felt Aemon die, and her heart died with him."

Someone over at the Penny Arcade forums mentioned this scene from John Ringo's "Princess of Wands" where the villain reveals why he became evil:

"Demons can give earthly power..." Krake said, then smiled thinly. "Even over book sales."

 

"It's that damned Robert Nile, isn't it?" Duncan said, amazed. "You did all this just to...what? Get better sales? Corner the fantasy market?"

 

"I've been in this business for thirty years!" Krake shouted, his mouth practically frothing. "And the man writes tripe! What's the justice in that? I've worked so hard. And he comes out of nowhere and sells a gazillion copies of complete crap! What's wrong with my books? What's wrong with people these days that they want unending series that never go anywhere? Nineteen pages on a harvest? Two hundred pages of every single step of every single character detailed? Are people insane?"

*Logain´s Pet rips out her hair* This is a You know you spent too much time on WoT thread... discussions about I want to kiss Egwene´s feet/I want to thrust a blade in Egwene can be taken there.

You know you've spent too much time on WoT when you tug your hair in times of frustration, especially if it's a braid.

So? She is the one who works most to save the world. Except maybe Rand Sedai.

If by "the world," you mean "the Tower." Moiraine, Verin, Nynaeve, and a bunch of others have done much more to save the world than Egwene.

Egwene tries to comfort Illian and Tear saying they will get gates back to their cities if there are any signs of an invasion. At the same time though she thinks to herself that the Seanchan most likely knows traveling by now and in that case a gateway back home wont help them.

The other problem with this is that it'll take a lot (maybe even hundreds) of Aes Sedai to supply gateways for entire armies if more than one country is attacked. Caemlyn's already under attack, Tar Valon probably will be... What will Egwene do if Illian or Tear is attacked and starts asking for those gateways she promised?

Keep in mind that only the stronger Aes Sedai can make gateways on their own, so in most cases, it'll require two linked Aes Sedai to make just one gateway. And the Aes Sedai making the gateways will tire themselves out doing that instead of saving their strength for the actual fighting.

^

You're just looking for an excuse to look up and post women models.

I'm a girl, so I was actually looking up bathing suits, not models.

Probably not an intentional reference, but the H&M 2009 summer campaign did make me wonder. The model even managed to combine the braid tugging with the hands-on-hips stance favored by Two Rivers women...

Came across this quote earlier...

 

Q: Why couldn't Moghedien escape the leash with the True Power?

RJ: The a'dam would perceive any Power use and treat it accordingly.

 

Been a while since I've read TGS but didn't Rand do just that to escape the bands?

 

Yes it is. Which means that either RJ misspoke (or, more likely, was mis-quoted) or Brandon and Team Jordan missed that quote. Or I guess they could say that the Domination Band was slightly different than the female a'dam.

It's a verbatim quote from a letter sent to a fan, so I think RJ either changed his mind later or the Domination Band works differently.

Though it's understandable that Rand would avoid the WT, because lets not forget, Rand assumed Egwene was a puppet Amyrlin (you could say he assumed the worst of her).

How is that assuming the worst of Egwene? She was raised to be a puppet Amyrlin, as anyone even remotely familiar with Aes Sedai could have guessed. It's also more than unlikely than an 18-year-old girl, no matter how intelligent and strong-willed, would have been able to turn the tables on the other Aes Sedai within a month or two after having been raised.

Again, you skip over the important parts.

Bolding important lines in the text is hardly "skipping over" the rest; I included all relevant sections so people could read everything within context and make up their own minds. One thing I did exclude from the quote for the sake of brevity was Egwene having a headache at the same time, which may or may not be relevant depending on whether you believe Halima Compelled Egwene to think badly of Rand. Which would be nicely ironic; Egwene thinking about Rand possibly Compelling Aes Sedai while in reality she is the Compelled Aes Sedai...

She's just arguing with her friendly thoughts of Rand that he could be more of a threat than the Seanchan. Remember, all this is pre-enlightenment too, so she was very much correct. He almost destroyed the entire borderlander army for light sake!

Friendly thoughts? Keep in mind that Egwene hates and fears the Seanchan more than anyone else, and in CoT she's well aware that they've invaded Altara and are collaring any channelers they can find. So for Egwene of all people to think they couldn't do as much damage as Rand is pretty telling. And no one, not Egwene or Rand himself, could have anticipated that Rand would end up losing it completely later on as a result of extreme circumstances (like the incident with Semirhage and Min), so I don't buy that as an excuse.

Most people would likely say Moir is at least more of a friend to Rand than Egwene. But Moir explicitly says she would destroy Rand herself before she let the DO take him. And I doubt that is any less true now than in TEotW. Duty is heavier than a mountain.

I wouldn't exactly call Moiraine a friend to Rand, any more than Cadsuane is his friend. An ally and advisor, yes, but he was only important to her because he was the Dragon Reborn, the most important tool to use against the Shadow. Which is not to say Moiraine wouldn't have been pleased to see him survive the Last Battle, but that was never her focus. A friend, IMO, is someone who cares about Rand as a person whether or not he's the Dragon Reborn/Car'a'carn/Coramoor.

"You're troubled by him, Egwene. More than usual, I mean. I can tell. Why?"

"I have reason to be, Elayne. The eyes-and-ears report very troubling rumors. Only rumors, I hope, but if they aren't..." She was very much the Amyrlin Seat now, a short slender young woman who seemed strong as steel and tall as a mountain. Determination filled her dark eyes and set her jaw. "I know you love him. I love him, too. But I am not trying to Heal the White Tower just so he can chain Aes Sedai like damane. Sleep well and have pleasant dreams, Elayne. Pleasant dreams are more valuable than people realize." And with that, she was gone, back to the waking world.

I think Egwene meant what she said—she still cares about Rand in her own way—but her tendency to assume the worst of him (like Rand having used Compulsion on the sworn Aes Sedai) excludes the possibility of any real friendship.

 

Another Egwene trashing thread? "They're not friends cause Egwene is selfish and broke his heart QQ." Everyone knew they wern't getting married, including Rand. And you skipped over the KEY part in this quote:

 

"I have reason to be, Elayne. The eyes-and-ears report very troubling rumors. Only rumors, I hope, but if they aren't..." She was very much the Amyrlin Seat now

 

People complain about Perrin ditching his duties and admitting that he'd let the pattern fall to shreds in his fight to save Faile, but Egwene focusing on her significantly more important duties is somehow a bad thing. She didn't say Rand would leash Aes Sedai, she said she wasn't going to allow him to, based on the rumors she was hearing. If her eyes-and-ears were telling her things and she just ignored them she would be a terrible leader.

All right, let's look at another quote from CoT, shall we?

There were Aes Sedai in Cairhien, and they seemed to be following the orders of the Dragon Reborn. Worse were the names that trickled out. Some were women who had been in Salidar, among the first to resist Elaida, while others were women known to be loyal to Elaida. No one had mentioned Compulsion aloud that Egwene knew of, but they had to be thinking it. [...]

 

"Siuan, if you see a way to make use of this, I wish you'd tell me. I don't even want to think about using the fact that Rand may have Compelled sisters. I don't want to think about the possibility that he could have." Neither about the possibility that he knew such a repulsive weave, or that he could lay that weave on anyone. [...]

 

Maybe Rand was in company with a Black sister [Cadsuane], or had been. Maybe he had used Compulsion on Aes Sedai. Bad enough on anyone, but somehow worse used on Aes Sedai, more ominous. What was dared against Aes Sedai was ten times, a hundred times, as likely to be used against those who could not defend themselves. Eventually they would have to deal with him, somehow. She had grown up with Rand, yet she could not allow that to influence her. He was the Dragon Reborn, now, the hope of the world and at the same time maybe the single greatest threat the world faced. Maybe? The Seanchan could not do as much damage as the Dragon Reborn. And she was going to use the possibility that he had Compelled sisters. The Amyrlin Seat really was a different woman from that innkeeper's daughter.

Egwene knows Rand is an incredibly strong ta'veren, but this possibility does not even cross her mind. Instead she only thinks about the possibility that Rand might have used Compulsion on the Aes Sedai. So I stand by my previous statement: Egwene's tendency to assume the worst of him excludes the possibility of any real friendship.

A small, clear blue stone dangled from the chain, in the middle of her [Moiraine's] forehead. Many in the White Tower knew of the tricks she could do using that stone as a focus. It was only a polished bit of blue crystal, just something a young girl had used in her first learning, with no one to guide her. That girl had remembered tales of angreal and even more powerful sa’angreal—those fabled remnants of the Age of Legends that allowed Aes Sedai to channel more of the One Power than any could safely handle unaided—remembered and thought some such focus was required to channel at all. Her sisters in the White Tower knew a few of her tricks, and suspected others, including some that did not exist, some that had shocked her when she learned of them. The things she did with the stone were simple and small, if occasionally useful; the kind a child would imagine. But if the wrong women had accompanied the Amyrlin, the crystal might put them off balance, because of the tales.

If Moiraine was channeling on her own before she went to the Tower, why was she never referred to as a wilder by the other Aes Sedai? It seems like something that should have come up at least in NS when she and Siuan learn about the AS hierarchy, which places wilders a little lower than their actual strength in the Power. Yet Moiraine was never called a wilder or given any indication in her thoughts that it was something she'd kept secret from the other Aes Sedai.

So does anyone else thinks that Rand does not consider Egwene as a friend anymore?

I think it's pretty clear there's a growing distance between them that started long before Egwene became Amyrlin. Until TSR, she was very devoted to him, which showed in her Accepted test: every single scenario involved her being forced to betray or abandon him.

However, once Egwene became an apprentice to the Wise Ones, she immediately sided with them—and Moiraine—against Rand. She was aware of, but didn't object to the Wise Ones spying on his dreams and Moiraine eavesdropping on Rand with the Power. She even attempted to spy on his dreams herself. When Moiraine lost her temper and struck Rand with a flow of Air, Egwene attempted to cover up whom it had been. When Nynaeve told Egwene about seeing Forsaken in T'A'R, Egwene went to Moiraine with the information, not Rand. And so on.

Rand even comments on this when Mat was getting ready to leave before the battle in FoH:

Rand's nod could have been understanding. Maybe it was. "I'd forget saying goodbye to Egwene, were I you. I am no longer certain how much of what I tell her I might as well be telling Moiraine, or the Wise Ones, or both."

"I reached that conclusion a long time ago. She's left Emond's Field further behind than either of us. And regrets it less."

"Maybe," Rand said sadly. "The Light shine on you, Mat," he added, sticking out his hand, "and send you smooth roads, fair weather and pleasant company until we meet again."

That said, I think she's still someone he cares about. They grew up together, and at one point—no more than two or three years ago in the story—Egwene was the second most important person in his life after Tam.

He turned toward the door to the Hall of the Tower. "What kind of Amyrlin is she?"

Why ask me? He couldn't know of the closeness between Siuan and Egwene. "She's an incredible one," Siuan said. "One of the greatest we've had, for all the fact that she's only held the Seat a short time."

He smiled again. "I should have expected nothing less. Strange, but I feel that seeing her again will hurt, though that is one wound that has well and truly healed. I can still remember the pain of it, I suppose."

His comment to Siuan in ToM could be interpreted in more than one way: is he referring to breaking up with Egwene or the deterioration of their friendship? This is a scene I really wish we could have gotten Rand's POV of.

When he meets Egwene, Rand treats her with a great deal of respect (far more than he gave the Borderland rulers), taking care not to damage her standing with the Hall. Still, I can't help but wonder if Rand's comment to Nynaeve later—"don't let them ruin you"—was because he thought that's what becoming Aes Sedai had done to Egwene. Her omission from the aforementioned list of people important to him was also quite telling, as was the fact that he chose to manipulate her rather than simply ask her to gather the world's armies for him.

As for Egwene:

"You're troubled by him, Egwene. More than usual, I mean. I can tell. Why?"

"I have reason to be, Elayne. The eyes-and-ears report very troubling rumors. Only rumors, I hope, but if they aren't..." She was very much the Amyrlin Seat now, a short slender young woman who seemed strong as steel and tall as a mountain. Determination filled her dark eyes and set her jaw. "I know you love him. I love him, too. But I am not trying to Heal the White Tower just so he can chain Aes Sedai like damane. Sleep well and have pleasant dreams, Elayne. Pleasant dreams are more valuable than people realize." And with that, she was gone, back to the waking world.

I think Egwene meant what she said—she still cares about Rand in her own way—but her tendency to assume the worst of him (like Rand having used Compulsion on the sworn Aes Sedai) excludes the possibility of any real friendship.

I found it surprising that none of the Sea Folk mentioned Talaan and Merilille during their meeting with Egwene in ToM. The last time we saw them, they were enraged over Talaan's disappearance and held the Tower responsible. The Sea Folk/White Tower conflict wrapped up a bit too quickly and easily.

Old Siuan would never crack that way. She was Amyrlin and faced all kinds of pressure in her life. we've never seen her loose her cool like that.

On that note, I also found it strange that Siuan's appearance changed so much after being stilled:

She had schooled herself not to see her old friend in this woman's face—not hard, since she looked nothing at all like the Siuan Sanche Delana remembered, not at any age—yet seeing Siuan again, a Siuan young and pretty, was only the first shock.

It should have restored Siuan to the way she looked as a novice or Accepted, yet Siuan herself says not even Moiraine would recognize her now. The ageless look shouldn't make that much of a difference—Moiraine is still similar enough to Caraline that Min almost thought they were the same woman. So it makes no sense for Siuan to be virtually unrecognizable, and go from being "plain-faced" in TGH to a pretty woman. It felt like an excuse for RJ to make Siuan more attractive before pairing her up with Bryne.

See, the cultural reasoning is logical, but I hate accepting it. Seems like poor world building to me. I mean, in Randland, women are in general the ones in power. There is absolutely nothing to hint at any percieved weakness. Hence the protect women/don't harm them, a la the real world is misplaced. I think it was introduced to make the three farm boys more appealing to readers, by giving them values that are not uncommon in the real world.

That was probably part of it, but I don't think it's unrealistic for those attitudes to exist even in a world like WoT's. No matter who holds the power, women are still physically smaller and weaker, so there's always going to be an element of "pick on someone your own size." It's also a matter of ensuring your people's survival: 10 men and 100 women would be able to have more children than 100 men and 10 women.

See, the cultural reasoning is logical, but I hate accepting it. Seems like poor world building to me. I mean, in

I would have been able to ignore it, what really got me hating it was when in KoD, if I am not mistaken, Tuon thinks about Mat's qualms about harming a woman trying to kill him. She finds it weird, but she says something about it being oddly charming/appealing (dont have the book on me, so I am loosely paraphrasing). I mean, a Seanchan has absolutely no cultural excuse at all to see anything even remotely positive in it. When I read this but, my initial reaction was *gag* fan-service.

Tuon grew up in an environment where even siblings kill each other for power, so maybe it's not surprising that she would find it charming when Mat refuses to kill certain people, even if she doesn't understand his reasons. She reacted in much the same way when Mat set a snake free instead of killing it.

"A strange man, who lets poisonous serpents go," Tuon said. "From the fellow's reaction, I assume a blacklance is poisonous?"

"Very," he told her. "But snakes don't bite anything they can't eat unless they're threatened." He put a foot in the stirrup.

"You may kiss me, Toy."

I wonder whether Rand would be able to kill women after VoG. I hope so, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's back to being a complete idiot in this respect.

He has to know that whoever he asks to link with him might end up dead too, but he still mentioned Aviendha and Elayne as candidates, which suggests he's mostly gotten over the trauma of having killed Ilyena. On the other hand, he felt concern for Cyndane despite knowing who she was, so it wouldn't surprise me if he'll still have a hard time killing her.