Rand drove me nuts with his behavior though most of the books. I was especially irritated by Rand's negligence with Mazrim Taim. He gets many warnings about Taim and does nothing. Early on, I actually thought Taim was going to turn out to be a Forsaken in disguise, so I was wrong about that. But Taim ascending to Forsaken status is even worse. Rand allowed him to train the next generation of Dread Lords. The minute Logain came to Rand with essentially a final warning about Taim, Rand should have done something. Replacing Taim and company with a loyal Logain would have saved so many lives. I think if the author's intent was solely to create Dread Lords, it could have been executed better.