by ripples, do you just mean bubbles of evil, dead walking, and ancient towns? 

It's been a while since I sat down and read that arc.

First, at that point in time, nobody really knew who it was who Rand was fighting. Rand thought it was the DO, and most people still seemed to think that to some extent.

Second, look at what they knew about Lanfear: liked Lews, choose her own name, was powerful. No descriptions.

Bel'lal: netweaver, blademaster. beat Lews at stones, once. No descriptions. 

Those are the only two that I can remember the books giving us a full-blown description of everything that the light knew about them pre-rand.

Yeah, same. they all either refuse because of the covers, because they've seen my read it so often, or because its "too dirty". I can't wait to get out of Utah.

I know the feeling, thats about how old I am

10?

as long as its alcohol.

I'm pretty sure that it was actually Vandene and Adeleas who discovered Mats loophole.

5 hours ago, Dagon Thyne said:

I always felt that Rand's new power was literally the power of the creator, just like Moridin literally uses the power of the Dark One.

The one power is literally the power of the creator.

Taim was simply a powerful, influential, and selfish enough person to for the DO to trust that him to the same extent as Graendal and Demandred.

I suppose

yeah, but at that point in the series, the seanchan controlled Altara, Amadicia, Tarabon, most of Arad Doman, and everything in between. 

Further, more, there would be a bunch of damane in random army camps that are unknown to the ones doing the traveling. In fact, a large amount of the damane in Ebou Dar probably haven't been to many of the other main cities they control.

And in addition to all of that, it would take even longer for the Seanchan heads to figure out which damane have been where, and are strong enough to travel. 

Also, if they just open a gateway in the middle of some palace somewhere, it is very likely that there could be some casualities before everything gets straightened out.

while one of the damane probably does have the talent, does the damane with the talent know the weave? They have a lot knowadays, and they only had one or two AS that knew the weave. They very likely only had time to get that knowledge to a portion of their forces

thats easy enough to skip over without losing any of the story.

I think its in Rand's fight with the DO where they create various futures. I think its in the first one Rand creates, where he's in the Two Rivers, in the fancy new world city.

It was probably referring to the turmoil that was caused by Androl and the others overthrowing Taim, just like Elaidia's foretelling. It would have to be either that or something that happens well after the series ends.

scenario 2 I think the person is dead. As evidence, I would put forward how in aMoL, when Taim balefires a bunch of AS, there are suddenly more Sharans, and even less AS.

Scenario 3, I would think the man is also dead, for much the same reason.

Scenario 4, I don't think so. I would draw this from the brief explanation we get of cities being destroyed. it says "ripples" that implies that the chain of events would continue beyond the first person.

yeah, but he still kept them as commanders, and seemed to like them personally

8 hours ago, Dagon Thyne said:

No, he hates plenty of nobles, especially the ones in Tear, who literally see common folk as sub-human.

Well, some of the nobles that he gambled with in Tear joined the band, and Mat doesn't seem to have a problem with either Estean or Edorion.

hear, hear

I might not serve the strongest you've ever had, but I make up for it in quantity.

is lots of rum an appropiate response?

I would think that trollocs have animal souls, but myrdraal could have human ones. 

Afterall, darkhounds have wolf souls. 

7:35 and entering Fiddlesticks for the first time. Its scary.

3 hours ago, agreddon said:

I would suggest that the fact that the Dragon Reborn's death didn't occur until several, several years after the initial diagnosis the foretelling of the Dragonborn's death was no more important than the foretelling of Joe Schmoe's death who may die today or die 15 years down the road.  Also, in as far as the death sentence for channelling, I think he moved to acceptance rather quickly on that one and was more concerned with keeping the damage solely to himself and not to other people.

Whether or not it is of particular importance, Rand believes it is important. He is told by the finns that "to live, he must die", he gets in plenty of arguements about how he expects to die, with the various women around him. In Rand's perspective, he has been given an end date to his life.

Furthermore, while Rand did accept that he could channel and probably was more concerned with keeping the damage to himself, he was still forced into the realization that he most likely wouldn't live for another five years.

Which are...?

7 hours ago, agreddon said:

Finally, I must say that the Kübler-Ross  model is specifically aimed at a terminal illness.  Unless you want to call living a terminal illness and then you've abstracted it to the point of useless.

While I agree with the rest of your points, I would like to point out that Rand's death has literally been fortold for centuries. In fact, even if he wasn't the Dragon Reborn, he could still channel, which would also be a death sentence. I don't think its been abstracted that far.