I read the book relatively quickly... one of those situations where I almost couldn't turn the pages fast enough, and upon finishing it I was most disappointed with the way that they just killed off Padan Fain off-screen somewhere...

 

...that is, until I was talking to a friend, went back, and realized I had accidentally turned past the page where he and Mat had their little exchange.  /facepalm

 

 

All in all not a perfect book, but I'm grateful for what we have.  Thanks to Brandon Sanderson, Team Jordan, and Tor for doing their best (I know some would disagree, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they did do the best they could) to bring us the conclusion to the Wheel of Time.  I don't know that it was the ending I wanted for a lot of the character's (although I did like Rand's ending), but it was an ending.

Yeah, that Padan Fain exchange was like the most anticlimactic end to any character every written in the history of language. It was almost like BS finished the book, sent it in, and got a reply from Harriet that he forgot him. So he scribbled a few things down on a post-it note and handed it off to Team Jordan.

TheVitaleMob is completely right that there are a huge majority of people on this forum that were going to hate the book regardless of how it ended. You have no idea what was actually written by BS or RJ, but because BS had a hand in it, you complain. If RJ was still here and wrote the exact same book, you would praise it as a masterpiece.

Has anything been said about the encyclopedia containing things that weren't in the books? I imagine it will be mostly just that which you could glean from reading the series, unless otherwise stated.

If RJ was still writing them we would still be waiting. We may have a "more complete" ending, or we may not, but either way it would still be years, if not decades, off. I assumed he would write until his death regardless if that was soon or another twenty years, and then have someone come in and finish it.

Oh and someone asked earlier about Birgitte being reborn as Elayne's daughter.. I believe the timing fits better with Melaine's birth. Considering the Dragon's Peace, I think both Gaidal and Birgitte would have to be reborn Aiel this turning, if they are to live up to their usual heroic deeds.

I would think it is meant to make you ponder, but if RJ had a plan for that (which I don't think he did) we are probably not supposed to be able to guess, just some random people we don't know. I do agree that they probably have to be Aiel, or maybe Seanchan, so possibly Melaine, but probably nobody of note.

Agreed. One of the more emotional parts for me was when Rand held Elayne's belly and thought about his kids. Would not have had much of an impact on me two years ago. 

Other big moment for me, Bela's death. WTF? Really?!?! You let that obnoxious w***e Faile live but not the horse that carried the Dragon Reborn before anyone even knew who he was. Hopefully she is a Hero in The Horse Dream.

I literally just made an account for the purpose of replying to the original post. I love your theory, and though there may be a couple of things not quite right, I think it is generally very accurate. What is great/terrible about WoT are the countless situations like these where we will probably never actually know the answer. 25 days!!!