i don't work here or anything, but this pattern/taveeren debate of yours seems to past "simple" question/answer.  you might find better answers starting your own thread about it?  

Give it time.

And there are plenty of threads dedicated to Egwene bashing, so you're not alone in your annoyance.

you see that in the real world too.  there's a certain area in NY that consistently put out good basketball players.  ohio and texas consistently have some of the best football players in the country.  so in randland, the two rivers puts an emphasis on archery.  and it makes sense genetically, since there's such isolation, that the natural abilities needed for archery would continue to carry on down the bloodlines.

but she is a coward.  thats one of her traits.

yeah that makes sense.  i think @agitel and others are suggesting that the series and the characters will probably be more entertaining when looked at as a whole after reading, instead of trying to dissect each individual scene one at a time trying to figure out exactly what each forsaken is doing and means.  many of the plans take several books to understand.  we think you'll enjoy it more if you analyze it all after experiencing it, instead of asking for each evil character to be fully explained to you while its happening.  its more fun to watch a football game as it happens from beginning to end than it is to have someone tell you what the final score was and what the important plays will be halfway through the game.

even if you don't yet buy that all the villains are "competent," the fact that the good guys all think they are and set their plans around worrying about the forsaken should at least get through til you have something concrete to analyze.  even if at the end of one book it looks like one of the forsaken's plan failed, it might be just a step in their larger plan.  keep reading and find out.

continually asking us about a bad guy's future plans is like a little kid asking what he's getting for christmas when its not even december yet.  give it time.

i think he means that it appears that you look for reasons to dislike the main characters and desperately look for flaws in the storytelling.  i have no issue with critical reading, in fact i encourage it, but it comes across in your posts that you don't want to enjoy any aspects of the series that most people like.  if your friend told you that the villains are stronger characters than the heroes, then your friend is mistaken.  i do think the villains have much much more characterization than the average fiction story though.  but this isn't silence of the lambs.

is tuon's horse a zebra?  or is it just a cool black and white horse?

@emperor, it seems that you understand the taverenness pretty well.  i don't think you're going to get an explanation that you like, because it doesn't exist.  it seems to be akin to complaining that Harry Potter solves all of his problems by using magic and his friends, when its a story about a boy who uses magic and has helpful friends.  i personally think the taveren thing is a cool plot device, and its perfectly fine that you disagree, but i think its something you need to just accept or move on.

interesting.  that fits with how i visualize Rand and Perrin, but i never thought of Mat as that tall.

how tall is Rand?  are we ever given an actual measurement? RJ has weird measurements for things, so do we know how tall he is by our standards?

is there a verified map that shows the whole world in relation to each other?  its hard for me to visualize where Shara and Seanchan are in relationship to the main continent.

Why do the Seanchan prophecies say that Rand will have to bow to the Crystal Throne but the others give no indication of this?

sorry if this has been asked before, there's a bit to go through on this thread.