This is an interesting topic, how the Tower potentially failed in every way to actively perform the function of its creation, rather it just stumbled through.

In a way you could argue it was flawed from the begining by creating the Ajah's which relegated the overriding mandate to a single Ajah, and even then put no significant onus on that Ajah and by extention all the rest to aggressively prepare at all times for Tarmon Gaiden.

I think the problem was over the millenia the WT fell in with the general mindset of the world that the Dragon, his return, and the last batle were taboo, even evil subjects not to be openly discussed, investigated or kept in the public conscioussness.

This catastrophic narrowing of opinion led to probably the biggest failing the WT ever made - Rand's birth.

The WT was directly informed the moment the Dragon was reborn. Just read that again and let it sink in.

They knew the moment it happened, Tarmon Gaiden had begun, that day, right there.

So, did the WT rise up to the task at hand, set in motion the gears of industry and war to use the following 2 decades to prepare for the end of the world?. No.

They did practically nothing. Siuan and Moiraine, 2 women doing little more than trying to find him and research the last battle itself. The idea of marshalling the WT terrified them, they knew such a revelation would be met with fear, denial, rejection, disagreement, chaos.

By the time of the last century of the age the WT was an institution utterly alienated from its founding purpose.

Long thread so this may of been brought up.

How could they feed and supply such an enormous amount of mouths in these armies?. It may be fantasy but the rules are the same.

The books dealt with 100,000s, most in this thread feel it should of been the high millions.

I dont think the numbers expected are even remotely feasible for a pre industrial world. On top of the fact the preceeding 2 years had gutted the lands due to weather anomalies and warfare significantly reducing total food output.

There simply isnt enough food produced to feed that many concentrated mouths and even if there somehow was, the vast and complex logsitical and transportation structure to disseminate raw resource  > prepared food to the mouth, doesnt exist.

If you look at contemporary history, the super armies of anitquity like the Mongols, Persians and Romans numbered in the 100,000s two of which were backed up by established empires and infrastructure, the Mongols were more like locusts that consumed everything then moved to fresh ground.

The Trollocs in particular - how exactly did they breed 6-10 million of them in the blight - a land known for its limited resources. They planned to feed them in battle with dead but that doesnt help breeding them in the first place.

Trollocs probably eat twice the weight a day that a large man would and as far as I know they only eat meat not vegetables. How was the shadow feeding 8 million odd Trolloc mouths half a dozen pounds of meat a day each, before the war?.

Just finished.

Got that slightly overwhelmed/claustophobic feeling that often comes at the end of a good story.

For the most part I liked it.

I think Rand should of died completely though.

All in all it was a rather overly happy ending - All 3 main characters live and all of the most immediately special people to those 3 also live. Elayne, Aviendha, Min, Faile, Tuon, Tam, Abel Cauthon, Moiraine, Nyneave, Lan etc.

Only Egwene really stands out as a major character loss and stands out kind of like a 'I want to keep most everyone alive but I have to kill someone major or the ending will be too fairy tale - Egwene can die!'.

So like, Rand just locked the Dark One away as per the cycle?. He just carried on the status quo, the DO will come again with the age legends and a breaking etc?. That's kind of a crappy outcome for them. Regardless of all the existential hoi palloy Rands desire of a more permanent ending was superior.

Padan Fain - I thought his role was going to be significant. It was pretty confusing to get through over 90% of the book with no mention of him and wondering what was happening. Then he comes in, dies, and is forgotten in a handful of pages.

I really wish The Dark One had been fleshed out more. The why and the how of its existence. Alas it remains a faceless entity with little purpose than to be evil. Personally I had hoped for some huge revelation about him. I liked the possibility of it being the creator himself.

****Edit

Damn, now that the high of finishing is fading I just feel depressed that its over.