No, Nyneave is not an evil taveren.

Tear, Tanchico and Ebou Dar all show what happens when the Forsaken succeed in manipulating those locations and in all but one case, Rand was not present to trigger a confrontation that exposed them, until much later. In fact, in all cases, Nyneave was always almost caught by them, especially Moghedien, which had heavy consequences for her later on.

I second The Last Battle chapter, myself. To great of a chapter to ignore, really.

Dumai's Wells and The Tower Of Midnight Prologues and Epilogues that have the Kandori Towers are up there.

Because the knowledge the White Tower had when Rand met Egwene would have had him break through any attempt to shield him. The interesting thing, is there was a way to shield Rand without him breaking free, but only the Age Of Legends Aes Sedai knew how. It died with them.

Nyneave could not have held Rand by shield alone, since she was not his equivalent strength, since her equals were Asmodean and Moghedien.. Lanfear and Alivia, however could shield Rand alone, because they were equivalent to his strength in specific ways. But only these two could.

I was surprised by Sheriam being Black Ajah myself. That was the bummer reveal for me.

But the most satisfying reveal is actually Verin's. I was suspicious from The Great Hunt that she was Black Ajah, but to find out her reason for being Black Ajah makes Verin one of the amazing characters. I also think that she is as cool as Ingtar, as both made a decision to fight for the Light when it counted, and in Verin's case, her fights always did make it count.

The fact that her research not only helped purge the Black Ajah, but also showed what the Brown represented and stood for was a brilliant development, and puts her on a level with Moraine going to face Lanfear at the docks, all the while knowing what would happen to her.

A Badass Aes Sedai living up to what that title means.

Well, to be fair, Rommel had a thorn in his side in North Africa, and it was the Maori Battalion. He even fought them personally, and always failed to stop them from coming back later on to fight.

It was the only Allied Command he could not wipe out, even at his strongest.

The Maori Battalion was also one of two Allied forces Rommel ever respected as honorable fighting units. He even said so in his journals. The other force he respected was the Australian Army that held Tobruk for 8 months, alone and without assistance, and all while under ferocious siege.

He said in one journal, that if Hitler wanted him to take Hell, he would use the Maori Battalion to take Hell, and the Australians at Tobruk to hold it. In another journal, he said that if he could command an army of the courage, skill, knowledge and sheer terror the Maori inspired in his men, he said he could win the war.

The 6 points indicate separate shields overlapping. We learn later that knotted weaves can easily be broken, while soft points cannot. The tradition of 6 separate shields after capturing a male channeller is because of how a man channels saidin. They do not submit to it like the Aes Sedai do with saidar, they must dominate it.

A man with Rand's strength requires 6, minimum to shield him safely, just as shielding Lanfear would. 

5 would mean they could stop him, but it would be difficult without the 6th. 4 would not hold him, as we all saw, and two of them are stilled as a result of the back blast of energy and effort to keep him shielded. The Aes Sedai have forgotten that the most powerful of channelers must be shielded with 6, minimum, and any less will see them either stilled or dead.

The exact same scenario plays out when you put Lanfear or Alivia in Rand's position.

But engaging a powerful channeler requires 13 women, and a technique that has been lost since the Age Of Legends.

All the Aes Sedai remember is that number. That is it. 

I just watched that video of his and it was hilarious!! It is so accurate to the character moments. 

The text would have said that there was only one soft or hard point in the shield itself if the Aes Sedai were in a circle, because  only one Aes Sedai would be making the shield, using the other Aes Sedai to boost the shield. The six points in the text represented six individual shields made by six Aes Sedai maintaining each shield separately.

This was because only the female Forsaken and Nyneave have the individual strength level strong enough to maintain a shield on Rand alone.

The Aiel call the Cairheinen Treekillers, precisely because Laman cut down the Tree and his people knowingly backed him, and called for aid from other nations when Cairhein's armies were not enough. 

That sentiment is why the Aiel believe wetlanders cannot be trusted; entirely because of Laman's actions and what the wetlanders did in response. They just consider Treekillers to be worse, and hold them responsible for what should have been for the Aiel a mission of justice against one specific man.

For showing disrespect for a Chora tree that was their symbol of their ancestors efforts across the Breaking and entire generations of Aiel to allow the Jenn Aiel to plant the parent tree before their extinction.

Mat is not Rommel, most definitely not.

To my mind, Mat is more Flavius Aetius, and Darius, since Demandred is shown with A Memory Of Light as Xerxes and also more Atilla The Hun. 

That is going by his brutal dispatch of the 50 captives, and the slaughterhouse he put up after The Last Battle started.

Only Flavius Aetius and Darius curved both brutal conquerors, historically, with mixed results since the Battle Of The Catalonian Fields went to Attila, while the Battle Of Marathon went to Darius, and these two battles were brutal clashes equal of the Last Battle in ferocity.

I have always felt the woman that Rand killed in Murandy is the same one that tried to stab Rand when he got the worst bout of channeling sickness after he escaped Four Kings in Book One.

Remember her? Mat let her go immediately afterwards when he got her by the throat with his dagger. 

Rand could have recognized her from that situation, since they both had a talk about the situation afterwards. She seemed to recognize him, as if she saw him before, and he definitively recognized her. That woman is the only one that makes sense, since she actually was a Darkfriend, and Rand would have remembered that situation.

The sword Aviendha gave him was Laman's sword, remember. It was taken at the Battle of The Shining Wall as a trophy, since his head would not survive the trip back to the Aiel Waste.

As for the sword Rand gave to Tam, I have always had a very strong feeling that it was, in fact used by both LTT and Artur at different times. 

Especially since Power wrought blades were very very old ones, and they were rare even in the Trolloc Wars.

It still works with the bootstrap paradox time theory. The fact that we saw a body swap occur backs up that even if LTT went evil in the past Ishy was still used to counter him. The only way this could happen is due to the balefire incident in book seven causing issues that linked them in the very beginning of the fighting. 

If LTT fought for the Shadow in the past, then Ishamael would oppose him, especially if it is like Batman and Joker's connection, but on a far greater scale. 

The Pattern could allow for LTT going evil, as long as the linked soul that is Ishy's faced him as a balance. If the bootstrap paradox affects only Rand and Ishamael/Moridin, and links them in conflict, as they are in the later books, then it does not matter how many times Rand switch sides, as long as Ishamael/Moridin chooses to oppose him.

Everything seems to hinge on choice. The bootstrap paradox in this case seems like it ensures that it is only these two that can make the decisions that directly affect the world around them, but only when it comes to situations related to the Dark One and the Creator. 

As for free will, some get more free will than others. Rand's soul would get the most choices, being the Creator' s Champion, while Ishamael's soul would get the lesser choices, and only in response to Rand's. The bootstrap would still exist. The Pattern gets its balance, by using the bootstrap paradox to ensure nothing interferes with the bigger moments, while ignoring the smaller moments. Only these two souls get to affect the bigger ones.

Rand is connected through his soul not just being a Hero of the Horn, but the Heroes commander, being the Creator's Champion. Ishamael, however was not a Hero; he was linked, because of the time paradox that happened when Moridin and Rand crossed their balefire streams in book seven. It linked them not just in the present, and the future until the Last Battle, but also the past, such as the Battle of Falme and the mirror merge dream in book one.

This ending to me, and the mirror merge scene are all giving an indication on how powerful their balefire streams actually were. Because everything from the first page of the story, with the trip Rand and Tam took to Emonds Field and on should never have happened, as in being completely erased, like Flashpoint, so because of that issue, the Pattern compensated, by merging their two souls and also foreshadowing it with the dream in book one and then preparing for it in book two with the battle. It also explains why the Dark One brought Ishamael back after book three, as much as Ishamael saying they were connected. He clearly thought it was due to their fighting since the moment of Creation. If there were other fights, then it could have been that the balefire crossing that happened, linked them through time. As a result, the paradox programmed the Pattern to force the Dark One, whom was touching the world to bring Ishamael back, and also linked them back to the very first fight due to the paradox. In Doctor Who, this would be a bootstrap paradox. Where even the Dark One has to follow what time, or the Pattern, wanted to happen.

A bootstrap paradox, by the way in time travel, is able to extend from the very Dawn Of Creation, to Creations very destruction, if a person or recurring event helps maintain history. Particularly if history says that Creation's death occurs at a specific moment and in a specific way, then that allows another Creation to be born to replace it. If it dies to soon, or too late, or occurs another way than intended, then everything ends, and no Creation appears to replace what was there. These threats were all present in the books, so the Pattern is operating and manifesting as a bootstrap with these two souls. With the Dark One and his champion fighting to break the paradox, and the Creator's Champion fighting to maintain it. Because this particular fight is unique, then Moridin and Rand crossing balefire streams made the ever recurring battles happen.

I mean the POV of the person using the TP. You are right that other TP users cannot sense its use, but they can see the weaves being woven by it, which is its own challenge.

Yeah, I got that as well, that Moiraine did not return to the White Tower after New Spring. This fact plays a part later on, when Galina believed that Moiraine was hiding as a Green Aes Sedai when Elaida's Embassy arrived in Cairhein. Why insist on this? Because the Black Ajah was manipulating the fact once Siuan was deposed, the danger to Moiraine increased. Particularly with the fact that Verin could have revealed what she discovered about Moiraine and Siuan's mission. That the Hall at one point wanted the angreal back and Moiraine was to be punished for leaving the White Tower without permission, plus the revelation that Moiraine was looking for the Dragon this entire twenty years.

The fact that Siuan was supposed to assist as well was what got her stripped of the Stole and stilled in the first place. Regardless whether Siuan removed those charges, Elaida resumed them, based on her knowledge and what Siuan told her when she was questioned by Elaida.

The fact that Moiraine was well aware of this risk to herself was why she did not return to the Tower in the intervening years between New Spring and The Eye Of The World.  Had she gone back to the Tower, she would have been punished by her Ajah Head, or the Hall for the charges that were then issued, even if Siuan objected or not. That would have meant further delays, which meant that the Trolloc attack in the Two Rivers would have gotten Rand, Mat and Perrin either captured or killed. The Shadow was close to getting them, going by the first book. It was just share dumb luck or ta'veren work that Moiraine and Lan were even there a mere one day before that attack happened. That was entirely due to Moiraine searching for twenty years, without a White Tower detour.

Rand's connection to the land as the Dragon Reborn is almost identical to the Child Like Empress in the Neverending Story. This is different from the ta'veren nature that Rand showed, since that effect is the chance that occurrences that could happen, will almost always do occur, like getting information, or specific people or chain of events exactly when he needed it. Mat and Perrin both showed these in various ways. Rand's Dragon Reborn is the same as Perrin's Young Bull, and Mat's battle skill. All of these are essential to winning.   The difference with the Neverending Story, is the Dark One breaks the world if he breaks Rand, by making him uncaring and cruel. Basically making Rand consciously chose to do what he got Lews Therin to do without his knowing by sickness. The Dark One also wins if Perrin rejects his wolf side totally, and Mat rejects his battle skill completely, even if Rand still fights him. Because both will ultimately not be there to stop the two key threats to him from ending the fight in the Dark One's favor, since Lanfear and Fain both died in the exact same moment that Rand first held the Dark One.

That is another massive reason Min must stay. She discovers that Callandor is a True Power sa'angreal. 

No one else discovered that secret. Cadsuaine would not have figured it out in time, since no records exist in the Tower that has that information, since no one could study it for three thousand years.

Aviendha would not work this out, and Elayne would not have either.

No one even knew that Callandor could inhance the taint's effects when chanelling saidin, still less that it lacks the buffer of other sa'angreal.

Lanfear is not second to Ishamael and Rand/Lews Therin. She is their equal, since Lanfear is the most powerful you can get as a woman chaneller, while ishamael and Rand/Lews Therin are the most powerful you can get as a man chaneller. They seem stronger, because saidin works differently to saidar. They both effect the world in similar ways, they require completely different weave construction to do the effects.

Plus, we see magic traditionally being extremely powerful when fire is shown, like with Gandalf, or stories of Merlin's feats, and equaled with water and wind, such as with Galadriel and stories of Morgana's feats. Women can do weaves that men struggle with (as in takes more strength to do the male equivalent weave) and vice versa.

I think the Flame Of Tar Valon was a weave that stopped balefire from destroying the threads of the Pattern past their deaths. Instead of zero summing history like balefire does, it generates a time lock. That locks everything those people did that were destroyed by balefire; it essentially shores up and anchors that history that balefire destroyed. The physical aspect of the weave was off putting entirely because the people it turned to crystal were all restored by balefire and M'hael was crystallized because he restored them. 

Maybe it is because Ilyena's mother or father, or both earned the third name by hard work, and their daughter was born and grew up with it due to the extent of the status they earned??

That is my feeling to, but with differences in whether it is saidin, saidar, or the True Power being sensed. Saidar should be more softer or musical. Saidin should be the Highlander Immortal sense. The True Power, however should be the drunk, stumbling, woozy feeling. Like the scientist first walking up to give his evidence in the Chernobyl trial episode, but to a far worse extent. 

Min's book relationship needs to be present, not just for all the big moments, like Dumais Wells, but also for what Semirhage does to Rand. He literally loses his hand for Min, and then the collaring that Semirhage does later. Those two things are immensely important to his character growth in the later story. It will not make sense with anyone if it is Elayne or Aviendha in those positions, because it would not make sense. They would expect Elayne or Aviendha to stop Semirhage each time using the One Power in each instance. Min is there in those moments to show the Shadow will do anything to get their way. And Rand in turn must prove that he is prepared to do anything to stop it.

By the way, if the show does not follow the story events, then Lord Of The Rings is still the most superior book adaptation we have ever gotten in a movie or tv show. This show becomes a project based on the books, not an adaptation, which is vastly different in approach.

It could have been Be'lal ordering the bandits to do that, or Rahvin ordering it. In fact, any Forsaken free at that point could have been involved.

Your welcome. It took a while for me to remember it!