The trouble that I have is that the Sea Folk thought it appropriate to require concessions from anyone in order to fight the Dark One on their own turf, control of the weather. It makes them seem ridiculously parochial and self-interested. The Third Age Aes Sedai are in many ways a hopeless bunch, but no one would ever need to bargain with them to fight the Dark One. When I read those sections I am always just waiting for Nynaeve or Elayne to humiliate them over the fact that they needed to be paid to prevent the Dark One from winning and frustrated that the wonder girls never do show them up for their idiocy and narrow horizons.

Rand is not a model for male sparkers. The reason he channels with such facility without a teacher -- killing Ishamael, for example -- is because unlike all other individuals his past life is seeping through. He is not learning how to channel, he is remembering how to channel.