Alright, I'm giving you a challenge, the Christmas "Carol" Contest.

So the contest is to write a WoT themed Carol, with emoticons encouraged ?

It can be substituting some lyrics for another--(Well Tarmon Gaidin's frightful/but our soldiers are so delightful. ?/As long as the battle flows/ Let it go let it go let it go.?)  Or you can write something original.

So let's get started.   ?

People do that.  You will come back.  Everything you're describing sounds very similar to Katrina's aftermath--just about everything was destroyed and scattered unless you were lucky enough to live close enough to the river, my cellphone couldn't connect for several weeks afterward, shops closed early long after a curfew was lifted, and so on.  It was hard going and the future seemed very dark in the months immediately after it, but we came back far more quickly than anyone thought we would.

Daruya--I know you'll get through this.  It's difficult, but you'll make it through.  

Instead of a misspelled letter,

"Elayne was surprised at Mat's elegant script."

I'd think the scenes I'd look forward to the most would be those between Rand and Tam, especially later.  Those would be so touching.  Tam's got to be one of the most significant people in the WoT--he might even be the second to Rand--even if we very rarely see him.  I would have loved to have his PoV occasionally--I can't imagine how worried he must have been seeing what his son was going through.  He is so incredibly (if indirectly) pivotal to the ending.    

I know things can look very dark right now, but you've got this.  And it might recover quicker than you think--just about everyone during Katrina thought New Orleans would be a shadow of itself for years, decades, to come. But a few years later, we were back.

So hang in there and good luck! 

Hang in there.  You've got this!

Yup.  Welcome aboard!  

Mat's memory was patchy during his time on the river and at Rhuidean, they fill his memories with the memories of others.  Where did they get those memories?  I assume from those who bargained with the and then became great generals.  Mat thinks a lot about how the snakes and foxes are in his head.  

One of Mat's few distinct memories of the river journey was seeing the Tower.  I think that might be a more significant memory for him because A) it's one of the very few he has and B) he bargained twice with them.  Thom was busy entertaining the sailors.  Sure, Thom might have seen it, but they pass many remains from the Age of Legends on their way to Whitebridge and so for Thom this is just another relic. 

Now, Mat is also a very experienced general by the time he visits the Tower.  One of the many things he focuses on a LOT as a general is on mapping.  

With the combination of that memory, mapping, and Birgitte, he's better at locating it than Thom.

Quite a few made sense to me--I could see Siuan/Gareth coming once he started chasing her (and it made complete sense to me that a former general, now exiled and so just a country lord, would feel useless now that he's returned to a town already expertly run and decide to chase miscreants).  I thought Mat/Tuon was somewhat comic.  It did make sense, though.  They both knew they were fated in a way, and Tuon was VERY playful.  

I still don't get how Lan/Nynaeve happened.  It was a sweet relationship, though, develops, and both were very complex people.  Berelain/Galad was a completely shallow relationship--love at first sight--but I didn't find either insufferable and it happened fairly late, so never has time to develop.  When Galad took over the Whitecloaks--that was joyous.  Egwene/Gawyn--we only had a few words from Elayne to signify that there might be something when Elayne told Egwene to stop looking at Galad.  It never develops beyond "I like you," even though it had plenty of time to grow.  And both of them were insufferable--especially Gawyn.  You could see Egwene grow, even if all she grew into was an Aes Sedai spider.  Gawyn, though?  He was lost, bitter, and jealous throughout it.  He started out with potential--but I found it funny how Elayne and Gawyn constantly criticise Galad as too pure, but Galad moves on from the White Tower coup and becomes a fairly significant leader.  Gawyn never does.  

I didn't like Rand's three--Aviendha, Min, and Elayne--but that was primarily because Min/Rand made sense, the other two didn't.  You can see the reasons why they fell in love--Elayne's walks with him in Tear and Aviendha's advice--but their relationships never developed from that.  Min's reasons are less obvious, but you can see how Rand/Min grows--she's always there for Rand, even when the Dark One nearly turns him.

So yes.  I'd say my top three are Egwene/Gawyn, Rand/Aviendha, and Rand/Elayne.

@SabioI agree that they were overmatched and had no chance of victory.  Yes, Perrin and the Seanchan had channellers and the Shaido did not. That's indeed, one of the contributing factors to their demise.  But that's not everything to it.

The main part of the battle we see was their attack on Two Rivers archers.  And they couldn't charge the archers.  They had lost mobility and had been trapped on an anvil--when Perrin and Tylee were carrying a mighty hammer.  You'd think that, even though they had no chance of victory and were overmatched, since all the Shaido were veteran soldiers, they would do some damage.  But once they were trapped, the Shaido couldn't fight Perrin or Tylee's trained soldiers in any effective way.  Their losses were minimal.

They instead decided to try to escape the trap by fighting UNTRAINED soldiers and made a fairly good attempt by destroying Masema's army.  But they didn't succeed in any meaningful way.  There was no Shaido retreat.  Some escaped, but most of the Shaido ended up dead or da'covale.    

Hammer and anvil--just on a much larger scale than Lan's skirmishes with the Aiel in the Aiel War.

THAT'S why I say I don't think the Aiel are particularly good at sieges. The Shaido really didn't know what to do when they faced Perrin and Tylee.  If they had concentrated on Masema from the start and tried to remain mobile by fighting through him, I'm fairly sure they would have been able to fight a retreat, even if it was a difficult one.  But instead they were a disorganised mess that couldn't charge Perrin's archers.  

@solarzI see your points--maybe the best comparison to the Aiel AND the Seanchan is WW2's Japan.  

I disagree about defense, though.  Their defense during the Aiel War was simply to keep on offense.  The way the different nations fought the Aiel during the Aiel War was by bringing them to a head--and then attacking their flank, hammer and anvil tactics.  That cost quite a few lives and I'm not sure the nations could have stopped the Aiel in a full war, but it worked. 

Rodel Ituralde had a conversation with Rhuarc about all of this. I think they were discussing siege tactics. Although the Aiel conducted many raids against each other on offense and defense, I never got the idea that they knew how to handle being under siege. 

The one time we see an Aiel clan under siege is when Perrin fought the Shaido in Malden.  Perrin locked the Shaido in and then took them out VERY easily.  Once the Shaido couldn't move and Perrin had taken care of their Wise Ones with forkroot, they didn't have the advantages given from mobility and speed.  They were abysmal.

Similarly, the Aiel clans could take Shayol Ghul and the pass to it--but Ituralde didn't think they were the best at holding it.  

I think after the battle became in effect a siege--holding the pass to Shayol Ghul and then just Shayol Ghul--the Aiel just became a regular army among many.  Darlin had raised a considerable army on Rand's orders and I don't think we're ever told how large that army is.  And there were plenty of others.  There were hundreds of thousands of Aiel, but there were many others.

One friend a few years ago knew every card game there was.  Unfortunately, he left us quite suddenly. Quite a few of his friends--including me--were left trying to remember all the games he had got us playing and couldn't remember them.    

@solarzWell, the Power can kill you if you don't learn how to use it.  So if twenty girls were in danger, it would be irresponsible for Verin and Alanna to leave them behind.  That and the twenty were willing, after Moraine had saved them.  The two AS were quite effective manipulators--but, although I did consider Alanna somewhat irresponsibly, I did not think Verin was that.

On the Aiel--I always saw them as like many warrior cultures--eg in Afghanistan right now or our war with Japan.  It's very difficult to fight an extremely mobile and fast army, especially if they employ guerrilla tactics.  I think even Alexander the Great failed to get Afghanistan.  Guerrilla tactics involve infiltrating places and being extremely fast--and so guerrilla forces are extremely hard to isolate and to be "forced" into a battle. They can come and go on a whim.  The Aiel can infiltrate everywhere and go anywhere to surprise enemies kind of like that.  That's also one of the reasons the Aiel can only attack, though, not defend (as Rodel Ituralde points out to Rhuarc at some point)--just as the Taliban is extremely mobile and fast and so it can run circles around regular American forces, but whenever we pin them down, we win.  Imagine fighting the Taliban if they had the same tools we did--that's what we're talking about with the Aiel.

(I hate making a comparison with terrorists, but the point still stands).

I think RJ was probably thinking of Japan when he described the Seanchan, but again, Japan was extremely fast and relied on surprise--just with a traditionally organised army, unlike what America's facing now.  They conquered much of the British Empire in Asia before the Brits could respond.  And one of the main reasons America could fight back and win is simply distance.  It was too far away from Japan for Japan to make an effective attack. They tried to when attacking Pearl Harbor, but by luck all of America's Pacific navy wasn't in the harbor and America had the resources to come back from the attack.  

But this, again, is part of the Aiel.  They can hide in the middle of everywhere, are extremely fast, but also (like Japan) have an organised army.

So, yup.  I just wrote quite a lot, didn't I?

I'm reading a Memory of Light right now.  I find it somewhat tragic, now I'm so close to the end.

Thanks everyone! And welcome Lessa--I'll consider it.

Thanks!  I won the fight!

Tomorrow, I'm having my own little dance with a Jak of the Shadows--one I have once every year.  Tomorrow I need to prove that it's worth allowing me to go forward to finish my flaming PhD.

When this song gets in my head I can never get it out.

Ever.

Hmm....I'd have to say children, maybe?  

Really, I have no idea.  I'm not a foodie and don't pay much attention to it.

I haven't replied, yet, my apologies!  The past few days have been tumultuous. 

@Daruya I've half expected to see roaches scurrying around here recently.  It's actually warm up here in Scotland and so people are going insane.  People are unfamiliar with clothing like shorts and there is no air conditioning up here.  Roaches would love it--unless they came near me. If they come near me--they're suddenly dancing with Jak o' the Shadows!

@dicetosser1 Thank you.  We'll see.  I've been away from here a few days so I've got to catch up with everything.

Thanks!

Yup.

And I've gotten to your post on me.

Thanks for the drink!

I remember one night in April 2012 very well because I was rereading LoC at the time.  We're used to gigantic roaches in New Orleans and periodically have to clean them out.  That night I was home alone, had finished dinner, and had opened LoC, when I heard a sound in the kitchen near our trash can.  I went there, found a gigantic roach there, and smashed it.  But that was just the beginning.  I ended up killing about twenty that I saw and I heard quite a lot of rustling in places I poisoned--so I think many more died.  Why do I remember the night so well?  Because I was the Lord of Chaos!

Mat is still my favorite character.   He's so dynamic! I've always liked Lan as well though--he's always seemed so tragic.

My favorite musical genre--I really don't have one.  I've picked up songs from many different musical genres.  My favorite living musician has to be Jimmy Buffett, though.  

What are you looking into for your PhD?

I forgot to give my name--I'm Dan.

And happy to meet you, Kat.  I haven't been assigned yet.  I just joined the band after hearing "If You Go to be a Soldier" from troops marching along.  I had to join up to see if the song was accurate!  

I'll ask questions as I come up with them, but right now all I can say is thank you!  

Well, I'm an American from New Orleans, LA, currently on a pilgrimage to Edinburgh, Scotland.  I'm going for a PhD on medieval history--Vikings took advantage of natural disasters to raid targets.  A PhD can be a lonely degree--and so one of the many things I've gotten involved in heavily is golf, although I'm not good at it.  Sports--I'm a New Orleans Saints fanatic.  

I got into the Wheel of Time when I was fourteen--when it was still just up to Winter's Heart--and I reread them often during high school.  The  WoT was EVERYTHING to me back then!  NOTHING  could match it.  And my favorite character was Mat.  Then came my undergraduate years, when Brandon Sanderson took over, and I kept up with it, although I couldn't reread everything before his novels anymore.  A Memory of Light came out in January 2013, I devoured it, and then things were done.  I felt I had to put it away and find something else.  And I didn't find anything else.  The only (modern) series that has come close to Jordan's has been Brandon Sanderson's other works. (I'm not counting Tolkien--he's almost a different genre these days).

I stayed away from the WoT for nearly 5 years--I stopped reading at all for a good while--but even the smallest reference could cascade me into memories of it and what I was doing while I was reading it.  

I forgot a lot of things were WoT and just took things for life.  I once had to look up Jak o' the Shadows to remember it was a poem in the WoT, not an old-fashioned song. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills--I forgot that was WoT saying.  Eventually I decided to listen to the WoT again in early December. 

Travelling this summer--yes and no.  I'm in Edinburgh right now, but in late July I'm flying back to New Orleans for a month, so flying back home.  I hate tedious flights across the Atlantic--I wouldn't mind Travelling or Skimming there--but I sure am looking forward to home.