I am satisfied. Just finished a first read through, a bit quickly, I guess but It's the literary equivalent of wolfing down your food too quick. 

 

If I had to single out one aspect of the book that really struck me, or stood out to me it would have to be the casual manners in which a number of the main characters deaths were handled. To be brief: I loved that. It really helped hit home what I feel is the truth about war. No soldier, no matter how great or heroic, gets the valiant last stand, coveted in glory & drawn out before ending in an epic fall to the ground screaming defiance. The truth is that most men just take a shot to the neck or a blow to the gut, crumple, have maybe a split second of horror/shock & they fall in the mud. Dead.

 

It's going to sound strange but even though in my mind I knew 22 years we've been building up to The Last Battle and yet the deaths still caught me by surprise although a part of me was thinking, you're surprised that people are dying in an apocalypse? It would be like jumping into a pool then screaming 'Oh god, I'm wet!'. If I had to be even more specific & pick the moment that have so far affected me most, it's currently the death of Gawyn & the events surrounding & coming as a direct result of his death. For me that was a very powerful set of events. I still don't know how to feel about Gawyn. I feel like his character developed in so many admirable ways & yet remained stubbornly idiotic in the ways the count and for all that I think in his passing I've finally grown to love his character. Of all the characters, his death was surely the most meaningless. It was set in stone the moment he put on those rings and what I am still chuckling over is the fact that I still feel that was not ever necessary. Oh it was necessary to make a great story but from a decision making pov I am laughing at that dumb sob. In the way that you laugh at a dumb kid you just can't help but adore. My favourite part was the way he never even thought to simply tell Ewgene & see if there was anybody who could have healed him. Oh Gawyn.

 

I think an aspect of his death I absolutely loved was that even with his ter'angreal, Sanderson/RJ wanted to really drum home just how utterly outclassed Gawyn was by Demandred. It helped me put a perspective at the super human kind of level those guys from the Age of Legends were at. I was, however, baffled by the fact that Galad without a blurring shape still managed to put up, apparently, a better fight that Gawyn. I have no issue with them both falling, I felt it was the only appropriate outcome. My issue, a trifling one, was with character development & consistency. I felt that Gawyn's whole identity was tied into how he as grown both as a person by learning forgiveness & as a swordsman by slowly but surely stepping out of Gawyn's shadow to establish himself as maybe the 2nd best swordsman in the land. That he simply died without dignity or putting any real strain on Demandred was a plus to me, again helping to really drum home the kind of superiority they were dealing with. I just found it odd that after putting in so much effort to see Gawyn develop his identity as the Premier swordsman, especially considering he was a man with nothing to lose, to then end up putting on a 2nd class show compared to Galad? I didn't get that one, i liked it, it just felt inconsistent.

 

Gawyn's death & it's directly related happenings was, for me, the most powerful moment in the book. It just felt so personal & intimate & had such great bearing mostly because it got me emotionally involved with such a stupid son of a goat. Everything he did could have been avoided right up to & including his death. I didn't mind, I found it privately hilarious, it highlighted what has intrigued me most about his character. His development. I feel that no character in the books grows so much as a person & yet learns so little at the same time. His decision making flickered between baffling & mind numbingly asinine. He managed to forgive Rand, learn to love Ewgene without implying he felt she was inferior & needed protection, those were huge steps. At the same time he felt that his best option to scout a path & free him & his lover was to activate a suicidal ring? I'll admit that was one choice he may have been forced into but to not tell Ewgene or anybody about it? In an age where miracle seems to happen on the daily & twice on Tuesdays? There was surely a cure waiting just around a corner. However even if we forgive him all these terrible decisions I refuse to forgive him for wandering off during the the apocalypse to fight a man who is two steps away from being Satan's boss. There was simply no way he was ever even going to come close to winning & a blind monkey with Aspergers could've see that. That wasn't even the worst part, though. What's rule numero uno of being a body guard of any kind? Never leave your principle. I know diddly squat about security/warfare but even I know that. It's dumb, reckless & worst of all in his case, selfish. He felt that it was noble but no wife/husband, who genuinely loved their partner, has ever thought that their spouse going off to die was in their best interest.

 

All these decisions, I find it hard to believe a man who has grown up with a palace education & has lead men in battle could willingly make these. His character was just too unbelievably stupid. I think this is why I've sort of grown fond of him. I guess in hindsight he's become a sort of de facto favourite character. So much education & so much growth & so, so unfathomably selfish & stupid yet I love him because the whole time he thought he was doing what was best for Ewgene & everybody. As I wrap this up I really should mention Ewgene's death. Bizzare how despite knowing this was the Last Battle in both name & nature, I just kept getting surprised by who kept dying. Everybody else saw it coming but I just didn't expect her to die the way she did. i guess nobody expects a loved one to die & turn into a giant white pole. It just sort of snuck up on me. The way it was suddenly mentioned that she had draw too much of the power. It wasn't like other deaths where 'suddenly an arrows sprouted through his chest, his eyes galzed over' those deaths you know instantly & you can process the shock. This, for me, was more subtle. She was drawing in way more than she could handle, my first thought was oh this is building to something. Then I realised oh she'd *already* drawn in too much and my second reaction was, oh god she's burned herself out, how will she continue as Amyrilin, then finally as the paragraph had her keep drawing in energy, more & more & then the penny finally dropped along with my jaw. It took me three whole seperate thought process to wrap my mind around the fact that in that one sentence, one action of drawing in power, she was already dead  I just didn't know it yet. That was very moving for me.

 

Call me a hopeless romantic but I always thought/hoped/wanted Ewgene/ & Gawyn to make it. So that really hit home for me. Funnily enough I have loved Mierin right throughout the series & I also got very emotional that she was given such a beautiful, poetic ending. I am a living testament to how stupid men can be over women. Even with all the ample evidence of her character, to see her helping in the last book I still believed she wasn't truly evil right up until she tried to kill Rand at the very end. I'm a right sucker because in my heart if I was there I would still try to 'save' her. I maintain she wasn't like the other chosen. That tremor in her voice, she was the only one to show that somewhere buried deep she did, if not love, then believe in the union betwixt her & Lews Therin. I'm glad, though. She never lost her edge. Anything less than a fierce, vengeful, wrath driven fury would have just not suited her. I just always felt she was the most sane, least petty of all the forsaken & she was a villain with style that you could truly love. The others were just brutal savages but she always brought a smile out of me. A true villain. The kind you love to hate & strive to defeat but when they die you're filled with a sense of loss & regret that you just can't quite fill or ever shake off. She got under my skin & I will forever love her for that.

 

Thanks RJ. Thanks Sanderson.

Thx man, this is excatly what I think about this storyline. Very poor and unlogic :/ Gawyn didnt know, that rings are killing him resp. BS IGNORE his own warning about them !!!

Then we can say that most of characters are psycho ?? But must admit, Egwen in last book was a little weird :/

 

 

Anyway even if it effects the bad guys more,how come it is the opposite of balefire?.Balefire frys both the good and bad guys equally,not good guys more!

 

 

Balefire is about more than damaging people. It burns the pattern, and apparently her weave does the opposite, by fixing the pattern.

 

Ok,I get that but what about affecting bad guys more? Which part of tht is equivalent to balefire?

Dont know ...not in book - btw it is supposed to be anti-balefire no equivalent tj. no same abilities (stupid example but do you play warcraft 3 ???)

it is his ability to channel in Rand and all the Ashaman's case, because they can use the OP. So we know the rings are Ter'angreal which cast a particular weave of the power, we know this from Demandred, so maybe this interferes with her ability to compel Gawyn in the same way she wouldn't be able to compel an Ashaman

                              2. Gawyn logic - he put Egwen and all Aes Sedai into terrible danger

                              3. BS ignoring his own warning about rings from ToM as somebody wrote there already - only working with warning from aMoL

                              4. Why not use gateway ?? I know in book Egwen planned this and leave this plan  cuz it was too dangerous, but why they dont use one small in air for scouting and one large for rescue cca 20 minut max ??  

 

Egwene also has a "kinslaying" moment, killing Sharans and her own people in her rage (and mirroring Rand in tPoD against the Seanchan), as does Eldrene, when she burns down the most beautiful city in the world (with people in it?) as she kills the enemies who took her husband.

No, the city of Manetheren was empty, she had evacuated everybody. Eldrene's action was also a last ditch rearguard action aimed at gaining time for her surviving subjects to escape as well as deny the city to the Shadow. And it was targeted specifically at the Dreadlords, IIRC, so that even those who were outside the radius of the actual blast were killed. So, there is a precedent for only Sharans being affected and massive numbers of them at once.

Of course, one thing I never understood about Eldrene's story was why such a powerful AS with such a powerful sa'angreal wasn't with the army in the first place. Her presence, clearly, may have made a difference.

 

One has to wonder, though, if Warders are really more a liability than they are worth, if their death can incapacitate their AS in battle like that. I remember that earlier in the series some AS managed to keep themselves together after losing a warder, at least until the immediate danger had passed. Love between Egwene and Gawyn never struck me as something out of this world, like Eldrene and Aemon's was supposed to be... and even Eldrene's sacrifice was calculated.

 

Also, this very much suggests that Rand's 3 women really shouldn't have been anywhere near a battlefield, as effects are much worse for a warder.

 

I agree about LTT's parallels... with the cave-out that Egwene doesn't die in despair and she does something constructive on the way out - shores up the Pattern that it is about to unravel. Which also creates a "thinness" through which the next Bore will be drilled, but at least there is still a Pattern for Rand to save.

Can anyone tell me how the opposite to balefire is a weave which only kills bad guys, Huh? Sanderson I really expected better that this from you.

 

Balefire does not kill only good guys,it will wipe away bad guys as well,hell Rand used it to blast a no of forsaken away!!

There was nothing, like it kills only bad guys, if i remember. It was only stronger against them ?? AKA Holy Bolt ?? :-)

 

She didnt kill any Aes Sedai dint she ??

When Gawyn dies, she flies into a bit of a rage for a short moment before one of the Aes Sedai (I forget who, maybe Silviana), tells her that she's going to kill them, and makes her retreat through a gateway. I don't know if she did kill any but it's quite possible.

“Mother!” Silviana cried, seizing her arm. “You are out of control, Mother! You will kill our own people. Please!”

 

 

On the balance thing...no, I don't buy it either. Egwene is not the Dragon's equal. Her actions did not bring "balance" to the world. All she did was provide a temporary bandaid over the damage caused by the balefire. There's no way in hell she's as important, or as connected to the land, as Rand. In fact, I don't see her as being any more connected to the land than any other channeler. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time because she was too egocentric to let someone else take the sa'angreal and face Taim. In the end, her "I have to do it all because no one is as awesome as me!" attitude led her to her death, one which she embraced fully once she realized she had burned herself out from channeling too much (something that should've been obvious to everyone around her given how she was constantly channeling and doing it all herself).

 

 

My biggest issue with the idea of Egwene being the balancer of Rand, is that I've envisioned the 'balance' in the series as being more a see saw, with the forces of the Shadow on one side, the forces of the Light on the other, and the Dragon acting as the fulcrum in the middle.  It is after all his choice to agree or disagree with the Dark One that is the real heart of the Last Battle.   The shadow's force could defeat the Light armies everywhere and he could still decide to keep fighting.  The light's force could defeat the Shadow's armies everywhere and he could still decide to accept oblivion. 

You're making the assumption that only one kind of balance can exist. But lets be clear... Egwene mirrors Rand. She's his balance, the saidar to his saidin... All this may be true, but Egwene was neither ta'veren nor a major part of the Prophesies. Nor was Rand's other "balance", Nynaeve. There's a reason for that. While Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne contribute as much as Mat and Perrin, they're not destroyers of the old order. Women have had disproportional influence on the Pattern for 3000 years. The balance for that is an enormously powerful (I don't mean OP strength) man, Rand. The Pattern of Egwene's life closely matches Rand's, and they're tied together. As Egwene saw in her Accepted test, her past, present and future were all bound up with Rand. But neither she nor Nynaeve had the ultimate role because that doesn't fit with the Pattern's need for balance. 

 

>Even though, I'm not generally a fan of Egwene's character, I was still hoping to see her and Rand's relationship resolve in some meaningful way.  The lack of that resolution does bother me a little bit.  

We did get it. Their last scene together was touching, and Rand giving her a ribbon to braid her hair was fitting (since their first major on screen fight was over Egwene unbraiding her hair, all the way back in EotW). They hugged, they made up, and immediately discovered the Seals were fake. The weight of the world interfered with any more time they could have had in peace. And Rand and Egwene thinking of each other as brother and sister was good too. Its a surprisingly subtle hint to where the Asha'man and Aes Sedai are headed... brothers and sisters, as they were before. 

 

And then came their true farewell. Whether it was Egwene herself Rand spoke to, or merely her simulated voice in his head, she's the one who points out to him that he hasn't failed yet, and that he needs to accept her death too (her talking about embracing death makes me think its the real Egwene, since that's only something the Wise One's have said before, and they said it to her). That was certainly a fitting end, no?

But, at the same time, the lack of resolution is consistent with her general character throughout the series.   She is consistent and with RJ's original concept of inverting the 'battle of the sexes' and I wonder if her death in the Last Battle is part of that original concept.  An example, of what I mean by this, is before the meeting in the tent at Merrilor, while Rand is walking across the field with the grass greening up around him, she wonders how he does it, but doesn't think to ask him.  Instead, she sends Gawyn to ask the Ashaman how he does it. 

Yep. It would have been ridiculously out of character for them at that point to talk about these things. But later... I'm surprised we didn't get a scene where Egwene tries to get as much knowledge from "LTT" as possible. The eternally sponge doesn't try to soak up from the greatest source of knowledge available to her? Not convinced.

 

Suttree: Adctually it mirrored Eldrene's death much more closely.

 

Keep in mind that Eldrene's death already mirrors LTT's. There's elements of both here. Loss of Warder followed by overdrawing through sa'angreal to kill enemies and dying in the process is very Eldrene like. But at the same time, dying in a column of Light that eventually caused a hilly region to collapse very strongly mirrors LTT's end. Egwene also has a "kinslaying" moment, killing Sharans and her own people in her rage (and mirroring Rand in tPoD against the Seanchan), as does Eldrene, when she burns down the most beautiful city in the world (with people in it?) as she kills the enemies who took her husband. 

She didnt kill any Aes Sedai dint she ??

The core elements are the same. Powerful channeler loses loved one. Is devastated. Overdraws on the Power deliberately, causes massive destruction. And the mountain and fire motif. Lews Therin raises Dragonmount, which is home to fire. Eldrene, who brings down the Mountain Home with fire. And Egwene, who unleashes the cleansing fire of the Flame of Tar Valon upon Polov Heights. I just wish the name of the weave and the heights for Egwene's end had a better ring to it. Dragonmount, Manatheren and Polov Heights?

All others with cool name alredy taken ???

This will be long post sorry for that ...

 

 

 

 

The evidence in the books suggest that an AS can tell the direction that their warder is in and vice versa, but not a precise distance - obviously they can tell the difference between close and far away. To begin with Elaynes section is between Eg and Gawyn so she assumes he's gone to either check in on her or help her out, it's not until Eg moves somewhere else that she realises that he's on the Heights.

I have feeling it depend on distance ?? Close better. But you are right she use her bond to locate his position :

Egwene stood up with a start. She vaguely remembered him leaving her command tent for some air. How long ago had it been? She turned around slowly, sensing where he was. The bond let her tell his direction. She stopped when she was pointing toward him.

And this

Egwene hesitated. Her previous position had let her sense Gawyn in the direction of the river, but after moving through the gateway, she had a better sense of his position. He wasn’t at the river with Elayne’s armies.

Gawyn was on the Heights themselves, where the Shadow held the strongest.

Another things for this: From http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Warder -   Both parties are able to sense the other's general location, physical well-being and, to some extent, emotional state.

But in http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Bonding -  Both individuals are able to detect certain emotional and physical states about the other, and they have an unerring ability to locate the others' relative direction from their current location.

WTF ??

It's definitely more tragic if it's a combination of both; one of the best things about Egwene is that she absolutely refuses to give up, to use balefire, to submit to defeat. This trait is what helped her persevere through her captivity with the Seanchan, the BA in Tear, the Tower Aes Sedai, and her training with the Wise Ones. I just wish she didn't always have to contradict Rand just to contradict him.

 

Also, the Warder bond should have allowed her to easily locate Gawyn. Perhaps the rings dulled the sense? 

We cant say if rings dulled sense or not because we dont know :/

It's also kind of weird that she had NO IDEA that Gawyn was using a life-draining artifact of the One Power.

 

Just as weird as Siuan having NO IDEA that her Warder was being Compelled.

More weird when Egwen say in book that Gawyn look pale etc:

He was looking pale, though. As if at the start of a sickness. Had he been getting enough sleep?

She turned to Gawyn. He didn’t seem tired at all, though he was strangely pale.

Nothing in bond ??

After learning that the ter'angreal rings drained a person's life...I can't imagine what possessed Gawyn not to get rid of them.  Even Demandred was like "you dumbass...Night's Shade will end up killing you!" which basically told me that it's a weave that Demandred would never use himself.

 

I thought it was really irresponsible of Gawyn to put on the rings and just run off like that.  And it was really foolish of Egwene to just misplace her Warder like that, too.  "Oh, where's Gawyn...oh he's dying...why didn't I notice that before?"

Well there is problem. As somebody wrote before he was warned in ToM too, but in aMoL he is thinking only about this warning: 

“I’ll be fine,” he whispered, then slipped away before she could argue further. He did feel her spike of annoyance, and suspected he’d get an earful once they were out of this. Well, if they lived long enough for that to happen, he’d accept the reprimand happily.

Once he was a short distance from her, he slipped on one of the rings of the Bloodknives. He had activated it with his blood, as Leilwin had said was needed.

She’d also said it might kill him.

You’re a fool, Gawyn Trakand, he thought as a tingling sensation ran across his body. Though he’d used theter’angreal only once before, he knew that his figure had been blurred and darkened. If people glanced in his direction, their eyes would slide away from him. It worked particularly well in shadows. For once, he was pleased that those clouds blocked out any moonlight or starlight.

There I think BS ignore his own warning from ToM ...WTF??

Yeah, I understand that Egwene's exhausted with the war effort but you would think she would keep better tabs on the man she loved and bonded. I keep thinking of the scene in Shayol Ghul where Aviendha feels Rand's determination and reflects that he's grown into a true warrior. Where was that with Egwene?

 

Still, Egwene being so self-absorbed that she doesn't bother to think of anyone else isn't that surprising. In her defense, Gawyn is eminently forgettable.

:-)

I agree, Apostle. Egwene's death mirrored Lews Therin's, but instead of capping a failure and subsequent descent into internal and external destruction with Dragonmount and oblivion, she managed to find a way to create with the One Power.

 

It's a nice reflection. I just wished that weave could have been further used; Egwene's contribution to the sealing of the Bore.

Or it was combination of both in the end ???

Egwene' death made sense to me and she used it to take out Taim and a massive amount of channelers so it was very impactful. She also counseled Rand at a critical point and helped him make the needed change in his thinking about the DO.

I never understood what she saw in Gawyn. I always kind of felt sorry for him as he was always second best as he stated at the end and he allowed that to shape so many of his ill fated actions. What did she see in him, a pretty face, a man who had major problems accepting that he had to trust her to make the decisions? He kept trying to dominate her. He did save her life and he did love her but he was weak and he weakened her. I knew when he did not tell her about the rings that it would lead to something very painful for Egwene but I didn't think it would contribute to her death. I tend to believe that RJ slotted her for death in the end. There is too much foreshadowing and he drew her character so that many, many readers found her hard to like. I liked that BS made her more likeable. I think the white tower will do better because of her actions regardless of who leads.

Now I dont have problem with her death, but how BS got there. I think in this storyline are logical holes and these holes are way too big for my liking ...and ofc thx for your opinion :-)

 

Egwene is the absolute worst character they could have chosen to kill off. We spent so much time watching her train to become an Aes Sedai, a Wise One, rise to power as the youngest Amyrlin ever, settle the division in the White Tower, initiate a number of much-needed reforms, eradicate the Black Ajah, confront the Seanchan empress, was promised to be the longest-reigning and most powerful Amyrlin in history - and she's the only one who is first deprived of her loved one, and then of her life? Was this really a way of saying "even the most May Suish character can die in this series"? Even Rand got to remain alive, by predictably taking over Moridin's body. Nobody else out of the first and second-tier characters died, so what gives? I just don't see what Egwene's death was supposed to accomplish, especially considering that her replacement Cadsuane will likely die of old age very soon. It's the least of the problems that this awful, awful volume suffers from, but it is the most baffling one. Feels like it was picked completely at random, or based on fan hatred.

 

This is the truth. This is why I am such a strong supporter of Egwene but her death was pointless. I think that BS wanted to kill off some of the 2 Rivers crew for emphasis but this was stupid. Maybe Perrin and Faile dying together or Mat saving Olver death OR SOMETHING!  But although I thought the book was good, I just didn't want to see her go... At the least she should've been burnt out and then she comes back still Amyrlin or something .

Yeah that's my exactly opinion on this issue, but now at last I can accept her death.

But one of my last question (just kidding:-) Why Egwen didn't use warden bond to find Gawyn sooner ???? Why, until he was dying, she wasnt able to pin point his position ?? For now, this issue with warden bond is big WTF for me...

This: NS,Epilogue - An Aes Sedai can draw on her Warder's strength at need. She can find him however far away he is. (from http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/)

Some good points there clu7ch although I still like the Eldrene connection.

agree with you. After all, why mentioned this in books at all, if there isn't any connection ?,:-)

I think the best way to fulfill the dream about Leilwin was to include her with Gawyn and Galad in an all-out shadow attack on Demandred. 3 rings, 3 players. Gawyn dies, Galad is maimed, and Leilwhin drags him out and becomes Egwene's new Warder for an hour or so.

 

It also would have made Lan's one-on-one battle with Demandred at the end even MORE epic. Lan and the medallion vs. Demandred. No retread with Galad getting the medallion first. 

Ok Iam back :-D 

Does anyone think there is a chance Egwene doesn't stay dead? The FOTV is the counter-balance to Balefire. When someone is balefired their soul/thread is burned away from the pattern and there is a time-reversal effect.  We don't really know the extent to how much FOTV mirrors balefire, but maybe it burns a good person's soul/thread into the pattern (in reference to her cheesy thought of it affecting a DF differently) and would put her soul/body back into the pattern in the future.  I know the idea isn't thought out perfectly, but why is she able to talk to Rand and why does it reference her soul leaving her body?  If Rand's soul can find a new home, why not Egwene's?

Also, if she does stay dead, I FEEL SO BAD FOR SIUANE.  I forget if she was talking to herself, Gareth, or Egwene, but there was a passage in the book on Siuane's thoughts on no longer being Amyrlin.  She said although she was slightly upset about no longer being Amyrlin she was thrilled that her legacy lived on through Egwene.  She may not have been entirely responsible for the woman that she became, but Siuane saw herself in Egwene and was proud she played a role in shaping what she thought would be the world's greatest Amyrlin to come.  Then not too much later on Siuane dies off-screen, followed by Egwene....  =*(****

Ofc she doesnt stay after death , after all  this is Wheel.  It is turning  + Rand say something about people to be rebirth to have chance to do better next time (Egwen think something like that ...)

 

 

 

I agree, Gawyn knew he was dead the moment he put the ring on his finger. 

 

True, but he also knew he had days and probably weeks given how long the blood knives stalked the WT. If he dies after the LB, thats fine. If he dies at a critical moment during the LB, not so fine.

Well, then why didnt he  say something to Egwen. He was her warden,husban and as somebody say soulmate ?? Because I have feeling he used rings before. And when he went after Demandred that was second time  ??

 

She'd never have let him, and it would have caused her more distress to know that he had, distracting her, and causing conflict between them when there was no time.

 

I'm not saying he was right, but he had reasons.

Yeah, I think Gawyn knew exactly how pointless talking to Egwene would be. Just act instead and see if you get away with it. But Gawyn wasn't Mat, so he got caught.

Also, is anyone else frustrated that Siuan didn't know her Warder was being Compelled?

Gawyn was already dying, even before he put the rings on to stop Demandred.  I do think he should have warned Egwene beforehand, though.  (from what i understand taking the ring off won't save your life, just allows you to last longer.  it was why he had looked sunken since the book began).  It really is sad that Egwene waited so long to go completely overboard since she could have saved thousands of lives if she had taken out Taim and the other shadow channelers along with herself sooner.

I don't think that Gawyn is an utter idiot.  I think that there were some issues with how he was written and inserted into the story  and much of that results from there being little time to flesh him out.

 

Throughout the books, he's always suffered from a lack of information whether it be about the location of his sister and her friends, the Tower revolt, the reported death of his mother, etc.  He doesn't have the benefit of all the information that we as readers have.

 

There is a logic to him going after Demmy during the last battle.  He thought that he had the advantage because of the rings.  It turned out that he really didn't.

 

I can kind of see his internal logic in not telling Egwene about the rings once he decided to use them.  I doubt that she would have told him much about what her overall plans were as a result of her being the uber-Aes Sedai and he being just a warder.  Nor, I suspect would she have listened overly much to whatever he thought about her plans.  When they had a similar disagreement during the period after the reunification of the tower when he saved her life, he actually turned out to be correct.    His actions tend during the last battle tend to build on that.   If he had managed to take Demmy out at that point it could have turned the battle early.   I find it hard to fault him on that.

 

I also think it's funny that Egwene bonded Leilwin for all of 2 hours after losing Gawyn. Talk about a rebound!

 

Yeah Leilwin must have gone on a warder rage right?? So she should be dead too! We dont really find out what happens to her though... Egwenes death was like Lews Therin's death in a much smaller scale actually..

Well BS was trying to fulfill Egwen dream about helping seanchan women  ...

 

I agree, Gawyn knew he was dead the moment he put the ring on his finger. 

 

True, but he also knew he had days and probably weeks given how long the blood knives stalked the WT. If he dies after the LB, thats fine. If he dies at a critical moment during the LB, not so fine.

Well, then why didnt he  say something to Egwen. He was her warden,husban and as somebody say soulmate ?? Because I have feeling he used rings before. And when he went after Demandred that was second time  ??

 

 

 

 

 

GAWYN WAS ALREADY DYING, HE HAD USED THE BLOODKNIVE RINGS TO SAVE THEM WHEN OVERRUN BY THE SHARANS. His death was already assured, he was just trying to do what he could with the little time he had left.

That's not true. He didn't know what these rings can cause

Wrong, Leilwin told him that the rings kill their users with just one, and he was using 3 at once.

I dont think so. I think she never tell him ...will look in book

 

damn you are half right sorry :-) “The rings are dangerous,” Leilwin said. “I do not know much of them, but they are said to kill those who use them. Do not let your blood touch the ring, or you will activate it, and that could be deadly, Warder.”

Which of course is far different than her telling him the rings kill their user for sure.

Uús dont know it is ironic answer or ... :-)

 

Gawyn was already told that those rings kill those who use them in ToM.

 

“Bloodknives do not live long,” Kaisea said. “Once they are given a duty, they do not rest from it. They are granted abilities from the Empress, may she live forever, ter’angreal rings that make them into great warriors.”

 

“Those blur their forms,” Gawyn said. “When they are near shadow.”

 

“Yes,” Kaisea said, sounding surprised that he knew this. “They cannot be defeated. But eventually, their own blood will kill them.”

 

“Their own blood?”

 

“They are poisoned by their service. Once they are given a charge, they often will not last more than a few weeks. At most, they survive a month.”

Ups didn't remember this :-( but still in aMoL we got better explanation how these rings can kill their users as i wrote before

I agree, Gawyn knew he was dead the moment he put the ring on his finger. 

I disagree sorry :-) I can't seriously remember anything about only putting these rings on can kill their users ???

Ok now Iam confused :/ There (http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Bloodknife) is state that ring must be activate with drop of blood and after activation they will kill user . But in the book I dont remembert anything about  activation ????

 

sorry double post :/

 

 

Makes sense... I somehow believe that RJ also wanted Cadsuane to die... Brandon said he included only 1 POV in the epilogue and that was Cadsuane.. Brandon maybe just wanted to challenge the fans by saying "yeah i know you all thought she was going to die but she isnt.. so Boo-yah!"

:-) but still I am pretty angry how BS describe Gawyn as selfish brat in final book :-(

 The final book? Gawyn has been a selfish brat for many many books now. I was glad to see him go down.

I wasnt just mad that Egwene went down. If the annoying, pain in the butt, Elayne had gone down as well, it would have been perfect. Battlefield labor/delivery followed by beheading.

What a hate :-D

Hmm after while I think I found another hole in Egwen action . I mean situation with Siuan and Gareth ??

Makes sense... I somehow believe that RJ also wanted Cadsuane to die... Brandon said he included only 1 POV in the epilogue and that was Cadsuane.. Brandon maybe just wanted to challenge the fans by saying "yeah i know you all thought she was going to die but she isnt.. so Boo-yah!"

:-) but still I am pretty angry how BS describe Gawyn as selfish brat in final book :-(

One question.. Did RJ leave notes saying that Egwene was going to die or was it Brandon who decided it? Or was it the character Brandon said Harriet told him to kill???

From conversation with Tereza there on forum, I think it was RJ decision (I asked similar question. If Egwen know about her possible death)

Terez

 

 

 GAWYN WAS ALREADY DYING, HE HAD USED THE BLOODKNIVE RINGS TO SAVE THEM WHEN OVERRUN BY THE SHARANS. His death was already assured, he was just trying to do what he could with the little time he had left.

That's not true. He didn't know what these rings can cause

Wrong, Leilwin told him that the rings kill their users with just one, and he was using 3 at once.

I dont think so. I think she never tell him ...will look in book

damn you are half right sorry :-) “The rings are dangerous,” Leilwin said. “I do not know much of them, but they are said to kill those who use them. Do not let your blood touch the ring, or you will activate it, and that could be deadly, Warder.”

 GAWYN WAS ALREADY DYING, HE HAD USED THE BLOODKNIVE RINGS TO SAVE THEM WHEN OVERRUN BY THE SHARANS. His death was already assured, he was just trying to do what he could with the little time he had left.

That's not true. He didn't know what these rings can cause

Just curious, would people want to see sequels- such as the story of mat+tuon? or would they feel it wrong to write in jordans world?

 

Im personally sad the wot story is over so would welcome more stories.

 

I do get what people are saying about there being lots of fights and relatively little characterization ...however i think weve had 13 books of characterization and already 'know' these people well?

same here pretty plz ?,:-(

Btw.. never say never :-)