Verin is my second fav female other than Moiraine. For some reason I just like those manipulative, cool and know it all Aes Sedai, who turns out to be right all along!

Verin is also noble, as she would rather bear the name of a traitor/villain just to root out the real villains.

I reread the later parts of the books and just like u guys said, he was recruited early and was a DF all along.

So I was kinda disappointed that Taim wasn't more than just an average DF right from the start.

It would have been a lot more interesting to see him turning from a misunderstood good guy with anger and pride issues to the dark side. Make for a deeper and more sophisticated antagonist, and drawing parallels to when the Forsaken used to be good guys turned bad.

Taim was quiet old channeler for that time. Perhaps he survived with the protection of DO qed DF.

Taim was glad to be given some responsibility in tBT. Had he not helped, all male channelers might have been good.

Also at the end they turned some good guys too. Had things gone as they wished, they could have turned all of them. A risk, but with great risk...

As to all the helping Rand, concern, etc. it could have been self serving. Rand going mad too early and Taim loses tDT. Once in power, he knew he couldn't go against Rand with callendor or even fat man angreal, so create whatever trust he could until the right time.

DFs live undercover for their entire lives. Taim could have been turned before start of story, 10+ yrs ago.

Interesting thought there. Is there any indication to say that the male channellers were all going to turn out to be good?

Also, I find that approaching Rand and setting up a base and then turning Ashamans into dreadlords to not that effective.

Isn't it better to setup a base at Shayol Ghul and just test for Saidin wielders and just take them there to train them? If they r not DFs just use 13 Aes Sedai and convert them. Y went through all the trouble? Y do the other and in the process gave an army of Ashaman for Rand? Isn't that a bigger risk?

Most of the females in the series, except Moirainne and Aviendha and Min.

The top three on my hate list are Faile, Elayne and Egwene.

Faile is simply put the most irritating character in the book. And her husband aka Perrin is the most boring character.

Funny how many thought that Egwene got better later on, but I didn't feel that at all.

Elayne, I almost wish Rand could have just dumped her and went with just Aviendha and Min. If he really needed another girl, I almost wish it would be Berelain. At least she was straight forward and knew what she wanted.

Nynaeve I hated at first but she became more of a comic relief later on and I got used to her braid tugging.

I just generally think that most of the women in WOT were made of the same mold, RJ's wife.

If you strip away their actions and motives, there are really not much personality differences among Faile, Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne.

RJ must not had gone out much and interact with many women other than his wife. So my take is that those girls and women from the books are based on the same person - his wife.

I have been reading some of the past discussions on Mazrim Taim and found that a lot of readers tend to think that Taim was a dark friend, right from the beginning.

I personally would like to offer my thoughts, that Taim was not a darkfriend at all when he first appeared before Rand, and here are my reasons:

1. A darkfriend would not help Rand build an army of male channellers to further his power, whatever his reasons or the DO's. Unless the DO was truly stupid.

2. If Taim was a darkfriend right from the beginning, he would recruit only darkfriend channelers and solidify his BlackTower or recruit people who he could turn against Rand, instead of letting some of the good guys like Flinn or Narishma doing the recruiting. Because as we know later on, only a fraction of BT were personally henchmen of Taim, not everyone.

3. There was a line which strikes me as interesting and evidence that Taim was actually good at the beginning.

From pg 765 of Lord of Chaos -

... Shivering, he looked at Taim and was surprised to see concern on the man's face.

"You must hold on", Taim said softly."If sanity can be held, you must. The price is too high, if you fail."

Now, would a DF say something like that to Rand. And from Rand's POV, he really did see concern on Taim's face.

4. A darkfriend would have let Rand die at Dumai's Well. Taim actually cared enough to rescue Rand. Or unless the DO ordered it, which seemed pretty stupid to me why the DO would rescue Rand time and again.

So now that I'm done with the evidence, here is my take on what transpired to make Taim turn toward the Shadow.

1. Taim was just an arrogant prick who was too proud to be second to anyone, especially the true DR, who keeps putting him down and barked at him whenever necessary.

2. He was approached by one of the Forsaken, possibly Ishamael/Morridin or Demandred, and given an offer of greater rewards and glory, and immortality.

3. After some time, he felt that Rand could not possibly win against the DO and he was on the losing side. And Taim hated losing.

Now, the only thing that is still a mystery to me is when did Taim turn?