Finished less then an hour ago after three exhausting- but some of the most wonderful in my life- days of reading (unfortunately i do not live in the U.S. and so had to order the book online and wait through more the two excruciating weeks as the book got delayed)  and thank god it was weekend!. I'm still a bit in shock of reading the end of this beautiful and amazing series and i actually shake a little as i right this words.  

Let me first how i envy you all. I've begun this series less than a year ago (around last April). About a month after I finished TOM (around July) I found out AMOL was coming out in January and started a re-reading and finished just in time. I'm jealous of you beacuse you had years to read this book, you\ve grown up with the world of the wheel of time and its characters. You had time to do numerous re-reads and come up with great and crazy theories. I didn't have to wait years between the books- and though i'm sure it was hard it had also strengthen your connection to the series,  your passion. With that in thought i'm still glad i read this series and overcome it's daunting length (which made me gave up a few years ago when i bought the first volumes)

Now about the book- unfortunately i did'nt finished it with the sense of elevation i thought i would feel. i'm not i even realized yet that this is the end. Truth is, i couldn't ignore it flaws: from Sanderson's writing which felt a little sloppy to me and seemed to actually change the characters- i was often annoyed by Jordan's tendency of lengthening but his style- and his unique vocabulary were greatly missed in this book- which i guess i can't blame Sanderson for cause in order to right like Jordan he would need to be Jordan

and there flaws with the story- tiny ones like one character offering another sugar (which did not exist in the whole series!!) and bits of information that felt forced by Sanderson to close loose ends, and great ones like the ending which i'm not sure I liked. I was quite disappointed withe the way Rand disappeared- he shed behind his body, his channeling ability and most important his family and friend and the way he joked about which woman will follow him- truth be told I felt it was quite selfish of him. You could say he had done his share and more and should be cut a slack but I didn't like the way he left his father behind to mourn on him, his friends believing him gone and never forget Galad who had already lost one brother, one he knew and loved. (This part also greatly disappointed me since I was really expecting for Rand to reveal that to Galad himself in a "i am your father" style)

and last but not least- the pipe!!!

I'm going to stop since i've already written too much. There is much I didn't say and I still have to digest this book, order my thoughts... All in all this has been an incredible ride, this books captured me in a way no other book managed and i suspect no other book would- and this is the hard part; like letting go of the true source, after this series ended any other book would look pale and lifless compared to this. We all owe a great toh to Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson for giving us this amazing world.

I hope i doesn't sound like an idiot but I couldn't find explanation anywhere: my question is, why did the eelfinns took Mat's eye? i mean why the eye of all things? it's said in the book:

they fed on something rising from mat. an almost invisible vapor of red and white

and then one of the eelfinn said "i can taste fate itself" which led me to think they are feeding on something that has to do with his tavereness or even his soul and they had to rip his eye to gain excess to that (eye is the mirror to the soul and all of that) but I'm not sure.

Does anyone has a real answer or a quote from sanderson that explains it?

I never liked Perrin and I downright hated faile. what made Perrin so annoying to me was his unrelenting desire to do the right thing- that's unnatural! and the worse thing is that he usually managed to do so or he whined about not knowing what to do or how to do it. Mat and Rand on the other hand feel much more realistic on that aspect: Mat is a good man and he usually does the right thing but on the way he drinks gambles and curses a lot- that makes him human. Rand makes the bad choise half the time and when he does the right thing its hardly recognized by others and his guilt and frustration aloow us to identify with him0 and the most important thing is that they don't think things as much as Perrin, they ACT, even if it sometimes leads to disaster- that's what makes them human. Besides, no 20 years old think about things as much as Perrin, young people have a tendency to act recklessly.

the only time I felt I understood Perrin and his motives was when Faile was kidnapped- yes he was insufferable and yes it was one of the most boring sagas in the series but I could relate to perrin because he did all the bad choices he didn't try to be noble and a saint all the time- in fact, he stopped carrying about what's going on around him all together- AND IT MADE SENSE: the woman he loved (god knows why) was kidnapped, he doesn't know when will be the next time he sees her- if ever- and nothing else seems important compare to this.

i always felt that Halima was a bomb that was about to explode. I think that everything she did was just to further divide the AS or was the starting of a plan that meant to do major damage later on. it actually made the rebelling AS saga much more interesting because I was always nervous that any second Halima is going to make her move and it felt like Egwene was in real danger. I think RJ just didn't have time to further develop this line of plot which is why it seemed Halima failed at her job.

anyway, i don't think that Egwene's anti- Rand position has anything to do with compulsion. I think she's just became too full of herself and she thinks she knows better than Rand

When elayne, nyneave and aviendha leaves aviendha reveals she has the talent to see residue of weaves- a very rare talent

"This leaves no

residue," she said patiently. Too patiently. "The residues of a weave this large might be read two days from

now,"

Merilille snorted, a very strong sound to come from that slight body. "That is a rare Talent, girl. Neither

Teslyn nor Joline has it. Or do you Aiel wilders all learn that as well?"

"Few can do it," Aviendha admitted calmly. "But I can."

but in the fight against sammael rand follows him to shadar logoth by the residue of his gateway

"It was another hallway, lined with wall hangings showing ships at sea. At the far end, the last crimson

sliver of the sun shone through a colonnaded walk. The residue of Sammael's gateway hung in the air, the

dissipating flows like faintly glowing ghosts. Not so faint Rand could not make them out, though"

and during the siege on the WT the rebelling army encounters riders which egwene claims are aided by AS because there are residues of weaving (COT chapter 16)

and if i'm not mistaken one of the kins investigated the body of the kins woman that was murdered by the BA in ebou dar and she said there was residue of saidar which proves the woman was killed by the OP, and the same happened during the investigation of the AS who were murdered by Halima.

The first book takes place at 998 NE- which means rand, perrin and mat are about 20 years old but in TOM thom says mat is barely 20 years old- even though its been more than two years since the beginning of the series- doesn't make sense does it?