But in the same chapter Egwene received a full report from Elayne that Rand was still in love with Elayne, mostly sane and had no problems remaining a friend of Nynaeve even after he learned she's a full Aes Sedai. This obviously makes the rumours of him leashing Aes Sedai extremely unlikely. Besides given that Elayne and Egwene share all info they have, Egwene must know at this point that Rand sent the captured damane and sul'dam to Caemlyn instead of keeping them with himself or in the Black tower, which also makes the rumours of Rand leashing Aes Sedai even more unlikely.

I think the ripples were just another sign of the weakening of the Pattern by this point, like the ghosts, Hinderstap, the layout of palaces changing overnight, etc.

I thought it was Lanfear who baited the Supergirls to go to Tear by disguising herself as Else Grinwell and leading them to the clues.

When Taringail became Morgase's husband, he married into House Trakand. Dobraine mentioned it in LoC:

She knows as well as any that the Lord Dragon means the Sun Throne for Elayne Trakand.” He grimaced. “Elayne Damodred, she should be. Taringail should have insisted Morgase marry into Damodred instead of marrying into Trakand himself

Thus all their children are Trakands. Maybe Tigraine married into House Damodred, though this seems unlikely given that she was the Daughter-Heir. More likely the marriage contract between Taringail and Tigraine has unique clauses because it was intended to bring long term peace between Andor and Cairhien - none of them really marrying into the other House, male children (or at least the elder of them) getting the family name Damodred (thus helping their claim for the Sun Throne), the female Mantear.

Faile herself felt guilty for running away from her responsibilities as a noble in Saldaea:

ToM, Ch. 16

 

Looking back at herself only a few years before, she was amazed to realize that she saw a spoiled, self-centered child. Leaving the Borderlands to become a Hunter for the Horn? She'd abandoned duties, home and family. What had she been thinking?

And the Borderlander nobles are not Tairen, they take their duties very seriously. That's part of the reason she works so hard in her new role as Perrin's wife and Lady of Two Rivers.

Anyway, apart from the jealousy, which though understandable given Berelain's behaviour, is quite annoying, I like Faile's personality. Not her fault that her captivity plotline took ages and her husband became a whiny emo after he met her. She's smart, brave and work hard to help Perrin, in fact she does most of the real work apart from the battles, while Perrin is busy brooding and whining.

I asked this earlier but didn't get an answer (or is it an unanswerable question?):

 

In NS, how did the black ajah figure that Tarna knew something important?

 

Do you mean Tamra Ospenya, the Amyrlin? Because there are no indication in NS that the Black Ajah suspected Tarna Feir (Accepted at the time) of anything, and she survived until the main series 20 years later.

Don't be too hard on yourself, Mat made the same mistake when he told Nynaeve immeaditely after he heard the promises “You just finished promising to do as I say." Of course, she was not amused. ;)

From the context it's apparent the promises were only about the stay in Ebou Dar, but I don't think that was said straight out. But later on Elayne hired the Band, so she'd have to give Mat some orders as its commander, and none of them thought the Ebou Dar promises would be a problem, so it's seems they considered them not binding any more.

Elayne and Nynaeve never swore to obey Mat. This is what they promised:

ACOS, Ch.22

 

To show the depth of our regret, we undertake the following promises.” Aviendha had said an apology was only a beginning. “We will not belittle or demean you in any way, nor shout at you for any reason, nor . . . nor attempt to give you orders.” Nynaeve winced. Elayne’s mouth tightened too, but she did not stop. “Recognizing your due concern for our safety, we will not leave the palace without telling you where we are going, and we will listen to your advice.” Light, she had no wish to be Aiel, no wish to do any of this, but she wanted Aviendha’s respect. “If you . . . if you decide that we are . . .” Not that she had any intention of becoming a sister-wife—the very idea was indecent!—but she did like her. “. . . are putting ourselves in needless danger . . .” It was not Aviendha’s fault that Rand had caught both their hearts. And Min’s as well. “. . . we will accept bodyguards of your choosing . . .” Fate or ta’veren or whatever, what was, was. She loved both women like sisters. “. . . and keep them with us as long as possible.”

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.

I believe the connotation of "Wilder" is not a definition of someone who channles before becoming Aes Sedai, but rather a definition of someone who has channeled long enough to train themselves how to channel the OP without killing themselves. Basically, a "Wilder" is of the level of Accepted (if not full Aes Sedai in potential and skill), which is why Nyneve was raised to Accepted right away. I don't recall anyone thinking it was particularly odd that this was done with her, which leads me to believe that it had been done in the past with other "Wilders."

It's been noted a few times that Nynaeve's raising into Accepted right away was really extraordinary and definitely not the usual procedure for wilders. Here for example:

ACOS, Ch. 17

 

Joline suspected that was why she was in such a fury about Elayne and Egwene and the wilder Nynaeve; because they were stronger than she, because they had spent far less time as novices, no matter that they had been pushed ahead too fast. Why, Nynaeve had never been a novice at all, and that was completely unheard of.

Nynaeve's case was unique due to her strength in the One Power. On the other hand, Tarna Feir for example was a wilder yet spend nine years as a novice.

When she told him she didn't love him - if I recall, very soon after his whole world was turned upside down- I disliked it very much. It was like your fiance discovers she's got this terrible sickness and you suddenly discover you don't love her any more, when you should have instead waited and helped her to get through the initial shock.

To be fair to Egwene, she told Rand she didn't love him in TSR, almost a year after Rand discovered he could channel and several months after Falme. There was really no reason to keep up the charade of a "relationship" between them, especially with Elayne waiting in the wings, so to speak.

Besides, at first Egwene was quite supportive of him even though she knew he could channel and didn't know he was the DR. Hiding him from the Amyrlin in Fal Dara, etc.

I think part of the problem is that RJ did a pretty poor job of establishing their friendship and "almost engaged" status in TEOTW. They barely interact throughout the novel.

Q. Although I can appreciate the fact that Matt is single-handedly inventing black powder firearms - why spend all the money and effort building dragons in a world full of channelers who can pretty much accomplish the same thing (hurling objects a long distance) without the time, effort, or resources? What would you rather have, a dozen heavy cannons that have to be loaded, reloaded, maneuvered into place, targeted, and fired...or a dozen Ashaman?

By Mat you mean Aludra, right? She was the one who invented all of this, Mat didn't do anything apart from helping to secure the funding for them.

Anyway, the most simple answer is that you can use both channellers and cannons, and the channellers are a limited number who also have their own organisations and aren't easy to get fighting for you. So building cannons makes sense, plus the channellers could use all the help they can get against the Trolloc hordes. The cannons will help the channellers gain time for rest.

Maybe Elayne and Nynaeve don't shield their dreams to allow Egwene a way to contact them easily with urgent messages.

Though given that Moghedien, who has a reputation of a master of using TAR and dreams, is really mad at them, that would be reckless even by WoT's standards. ;)

Lanfear mentioned to Rand "I have examined the Aielwomen’s dreams. These so-called Wise Ones. They do not know how to shield themselves very well.". So it seems that they use some kind of shielding, but it's not really effective, if we are to believe Lanfear. Maybe that's intentional to allow them to Dreamwalk.

Rand smashed Paitr's nose with his fist in EOTW. When Morgase met Paitr, she noted "He might have been good-looking except that his nose had been broken and not properly mended". Paitr in LoC also told Morgase he's from Market Sheran, which is the village in which Rand met Paitr in EOTW.

I didn't catch this myself either, I saw it mentioned on some WoT board ages ago.

Now isn't Trom one of Galad's friends who we meet in KoD (I think)? If so then I take it he's fairly trustworthy so does that mean these two really were Darkfriends? Also I seem to remember one of the Darkfriends Rand and Mat meet in EotW being called Paitr? Are they the same person?

Yes, that's the same guy and they were really Darkfriends. That's probably the only time in the whole series when the Whitecloacks caught real Darkfriends. :)

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.

His inability to kill Lanfear at the docks was by far the dumbest act in the whole series, and that's really saying something. "I'll let the whole world get taken over the Dark One because I can't kill a woman who's as evil as it gets and is trying to kill me". Rarely I have wanted to slap a fictional character upside his head so much as I did when I first read this scene.

The way I read it, the clouds started thinning before Rand arrived through the Gateway, due to Elayne's weaker cloud breaking ability. When Rand came, they broke instantly. Before that he was somewhere far away and couldn't have been the reason for the thinning If he was already near, Elayne would've sensed him instantly through the bond.

When Elayne went to Caihien,the sky was described as overcast at first, which supports the suggestion that her cloud breaking works more slowly.

But as for Faile - she's one of the few main female characters I like. For one thing, she seems to suffer from the same imperfection that all of the male characters suffer from. I get so sick of Egwene, Elaine, Avienda, and to a lesser extent Nynaeve presented as utterly righteous, completely wise, unbending, heroic figures whose every decision is unquestioningly the right one despite the fact that they are making decisions and moving forward events that would confound even the wisest of men and women. Faile seems to struggle with her position and with her new relationship and doesn't seem above making a brash decision or two.

You really think the main female characters in this way? They've managed to commit a whole bunch of blunders, get themselves captured a zillion times and made plenty of other mistakes.

As for Faile, I don't exactly hate her, but there are some things about her that I dislike a lot. Her extreme jealousy for example. Not so much towards Berelain, since at least there she had a good reason for it, and Perrin provoked her intentionally at the start, but towards other women. One particular incident that comes to mind was when Perrin met Min and Rand in Caemlyn in LoC. Faile immediately took Min aside and told her to stay away from Perrin, without either of Perrin or Min having given a reason to be jealous.

The way she tricked Loial to give his word and used his honesty to torment Perrin during the travel through the Ways from Tear to Two Rivers was another point against her. This whole sequence is one of the few I usually skip in the early books, it's cringeworthy due to the thickheadedness and petty pride of both Perrin and Faile.

The way she tried to distance Perrin from rand at a time when Rand needed a close friend who see him as a human, not as the Dragon and someone you can exploit for favours,just so Perrin may get his supposed due as Lord, also rubbed me the wrong way.

And of course, it doesn't help that Faile is involved in by far the most annoying major plotline in the series. Though for that I mostly blame her husband, his extreme emo and his "Only Faile mattered" mantra repeated 10 times per page.

Amathera spent few days working as a servant in the inn where Juilin and the rest were staying after the end of TSR, she was hiding from the street mobs. This is when he fell in love with her and probably the reason he was feeling down after that when he had to leave her.

Hello, not sure I should post this on the end of here, rather than make a new thread, but here goes anyway :)

 

*SPOLIERS FOR UP TO END OF tGS*

 

I have been wondering for the last few books (about 200 pages into ToM now, but won't mention any of that here) as to who knows about Rands bond to his 3 Women, I suppose only the 'main' characters. I have got a little confused by this overall. Nynaeve seems to know, but I don't ever recall this being discussed (I would assume the only real chance of this happening would be talking to Min). Cadusune has worked it out (as of CoT). Birgitte I assume also knows via the bond to Elayne. I guess she would keep this a secret, or perhaps tell the wise ones know also. The main point in this though is Nynaeve's knowing, I know she knows but don't recall her ever been told, and wonder if there was a missed announcment or similar. If anyone knows that would be a great help, saving my sanity and the endless web searches (and then I can get on with finishing ToM) :)

 

Cheers!

One of the Wise Ones, Monaelle, apparently knows:

CoT, ch. 14

“Men cause trouble even when they are elsewhere,” Aviendha said softly.

 

“They do,” Elayne agreed.

 

Monaelle smiled at the exchange. She was among the few who knew about the bonding of Rand, and who the father of Elayne’s baby was.

Apart from her, it's only Birgitte who knows about it IIRC.

Nynaeve spent 3 days trying to convince Min to use the bond to tell where Rand was after his Dragonmount epiphany and was refused repeatedly, which reallt frustrated her. If Nynaeve had suspected Elayne had bonded Rand, she would've gone to Caemlyn to ask her for help locating him.

3/4 of the way through KoD - honestly, it's starting to read a lot like CoT - a lot of scheming and talking and meeting and tea drinking but not much else.

I told you so. ;)

Though it gets better really soon. Or at least there are actual plots resolutions, though a lot of them were disappointing IMO, but most readers seem to like them a lot, so YMMV.

Has it also every been pointed out (I'm sure it has), that, well, RJ seems to have a real spanking fetish. Seriously. How old is Egwene, 20? And reading about Sylvania putting her over her knee and smacking her bare ass...okay, yeah, that's damn sexy. But seriously, is this the most appropriate punishment for a grown woman? Can't help but notice the male characters don't turn each other over their knees like that, nor to do they sit around naked with each other, and certainly there have been no male pillow friends mentioned.

RJ definitely had a thing for spanking and naked rituals for women. Wait, I mean "clad in the light" rituals. ;)

The Randland inches could be different in length from the inches in our world.

Not that I care much, as randsc said, it's all relative.

It is supposed to be Perrin on the KoD cover, IIRC. Not that you can really tell with Sweet's covers...

So if someone here happens to love CoT (there must'be some people like that), does that mean we should stop writing how terrible it is because he might get offended?

Oh, and KoD is terrible. In my opinion, in case someone gets offended. I don't care how high it ranks in other people's lists.