I don't think Jordan ever tried to create a matriarchy (except in Far Madding of course). He is quoted as trying to make all his societies as balanced as possible, and was shocked that others saw something different. There is no reason to think that Jordan was trying to counter balance any sort of real world religion. He was writing a novel, not making a comment on religion or trying to push back in any way. So I'm afraid I would have to disagree that Jordan was making his books matriarchal or that they were in any way some kind of counter point to anything in the real world, much less religions.

As far as I remember from Verin's explanation, not only is TAR not like the portal stone realities, it is a constant in all these "trouser legs of time". Along with the imprisoned Dark One, the only constants. Which makes no sense really. Why does Egwene or Perrin ever meet their infinite portal stone doppelgangers? Why isn't it neck deep in wolves? What would happen if a Shadow-aligned ta'veren got into TAR? If each reality has its own TAR - how does Verin call that a constant? Very loose with their terminology, these Browns. You can tell she isn't a White.

Moggie also survives. She is a survivor that one.

I have to agree I'm amazed at how much has survived rather than how little. The only issue I have with the Brown Ajah is that their raison d'etre doesn't relate to channelers at all. Also the Whites. While the Gray Ajah can draw on the authority of the White Tower, their personal power and the Three Oaths, the only thing that I can think of that helps is their longevity, giving time to really become experts. While of course this doesn't stop Aes Sedai being the librarians and researchers of the world, where are the muggles that are helping them? Why is there not a whole infrastructure of scribes and researchers and investigators, etc., to support the Brown Ajah in their mission? Sadly I can think of only two answers, one, they are only interested in knowledge that will be bound to the Tower, not knowledge for it's own sake. Two, the whole concept of balance. The more they have their... er, stuff together, the worse things like Hawkwing's siege and the Trolloc Wars have to be to balance it out. The greater the order they preserve, the greater the damage wrought by the Lord of Chaos must be.

While you could argue that the sisters are too worried about leaving the Tower as that might affect their Ajah's influence, we never really see it that bad. There are no democratic votes or force of arms needed in general. In the early books we hear about "the Warders" scouting and keeping an eye on the Blight. But that doesn't really seem to be carried forward in any meaningful way. It seems strange that the Aes Sedai would not be more involved in the Blight border. Agelmar even says one Aes Sedai is worth a thousand troops. Indeed it is kind of weird that no one helps the Borderlanders at all to the extent that most of the people they are protecting don't even believe in the Blight or Shadowspawn.

The hour of my death thing is, how can I put it?, dumb. Yes, it gives an "aaaah" moment to the reader, but it doesn't really make sense. Especially where a Black Ajah member could realistically expect to be executed if caught, that the Oaths would stop working for the hour before their inevitable, inescapable and alloted execution makes no sense. It isn't a "no one could ever have thought of this" moment, it is only a "I bet a reader never thought of this" mechanic. But not terrible. One can assume no real darkfriend would try, and no one but darkfriends would be admitted to the Black. But still... Why even gave Oaths if it is so unimportant? But yeah, Verin is awesome. She is troubling from the start. How she pushes her way into Mother's secret confidence, how she destroys knowledge about the world of dreams and dreamers, and obviously isn't playing straight when she gives the Wonder Girls info that points straight to Ebou Dat as if it was random nonsense. She uses compulsion on those loyal to the Tower (or only darkfriends?), and she is on Rand's side all the time a way few are. She is great, but the denouement was a little lacking. Inescapable Oaths should not be so easy to get around, imho.

There is the point that his swelling form was an illusion. The details are slightly hazy to me at the moment, but I think the boys slash at him but hit nothing. He though is trapped there, losing his temper and killing them (even if that form can do so) does not help him at all. Mat escaping with the dagger was a way out, and even if Mat had for example dropped it, them surviving to tell tales of a crazy guy offering roomfulls of gold to travellers could easily entice more greedy less clever people there to infect. So it would be actually in his interest to protect them from Mashadar, not feed them to it. Though... How did the stupid and greedy Trollocs not free him? Why did he not trick them? I guess Mashadar could not resist attacking the evil it was created to combat. Or something...

Which video game is that?

I think they were more concerned with politics. And hopefully good politics. Like when Suian chewed up Byrne so that he would leave a Murundian noble alone who would hopefully unite the country, which would stop them all squabbling and wasting their resources fighting. And I can imagine they might work against "bad" rulers. But I would guess their focus would more be on unity and strength against the Shadow, rather than straight forward social justice. Though maybe they noticed that keeping populaces happy was a good way to stop people turning to the Shadow. But I don't remember any evidence they worked against the High Lords of Tear despite their abuses of their subjects, for example, though of course they were antagonistic to the Tower and were important to the Prophecies. But most of the Ajahs are a bit dodgy when you look too closely at them.

I think the Red are given an unfair press. I think given their obvious opposition and trepidation to Rand, Jordan plays them a bit heavily into the villain category. I get their distaste for Warders, as it plays so nicely into opposition with the Green, but it is a little strange as they would need someone watching their back. I guess you could say that Warders are protecting from mundane sources of danger, where the Reds need protection from the One Power more so need help from Sisters. They also are manipulated by the Black rather easily with Elaida and the illegal gentling of men around Rand's birth (the discontinued Thom's nephew story line). Which I suppose is both a criticism and a softening circumstance. They shouldn't have been that easy to manipulate and they were not really that bad of their own accord. Pevara was a welcome addition to the Reds. And Silvianna, to be fair, to make them more relatable. Though one of the worse criticisms of the Reds for me is that Cadsuanne was the most successful male channeler hunter. Why have an Ajah dedicated to that purpose if a bored and insufferable Green is going to be more successful singlehandedly?

It wasn't a list on merit 🙂 Mehmet is something of a hero to me. I was a huge fan of Alan Savage as a young man (a pseudonym of Christophe Nicole iirc) with such titles as Ottoman, the Eight Banners and Moghul, and while his books centre on English imports into the narrative I think they are fairly historically accurate. Don't think I have Ottoman in my collection (was a library kid) but have picked up a few since. And I'm sure there is a whole bunch of interesting historical figures I haven't touched on. My brain was obviously busy with Japan if you look at my examples. Not that there is anything wrong with that, the Sedoku Jidai is a fascinating period of history, but there are many many many such eras around the world. Sadly. When you think about it.

Hawking is one of the many many Arthur references. Based on a lot. Caesar still was instrumental in the creation of the Principet. So his legacy lived on, not least in the Kaiser, Tsar, etc. Alexander's empire collapsed, thanks a great deal to Alexander allegedly (to the strongest). So that rings true here. But there are many. Sun Tzu. Takeda Shingen. Oda Nobunaga. Charlemagne, Alphonso of Portugal, Mehmed II of the Ottomans, Tokugawa Ieyesu, the Zulu commanders Napoleon, etc.

I have never heard of him, the poor bloke.

There is also Perrin's guilt and horror at him killing the whitecloaks. He fears the violence that beckons, mirroring his struggle with being bigger and stronger than everyone else in Emond's Field and the ease with which he could accidently hurt people. Perrin is willing to make sacrifices to keep others safe from himself. (A theme we also see in his reasoning to travel to the Two Rivers). An aside, but wolf packs are not hierarchical, they are based on family ties to the breeding pair. They are large cooperative families. The thing about alpha wolves comes from studying unrelated wolves in captivity forced to share living space. The dude that coined the phrase in the seventies has literally spent the rest of his life trying to undo the impact of his mistake research (assuming that wolves in the wild act as those in captivity do) and he has had little effect on popular culture and the concept of the alpha wolf.

Because she didn't want to tell them she had given them a tracking device without telling them. But certainly it would have been useful to tell them later, but this could be seen as another example of Aes Sedai scheming bites them - she is so used to hiding her motivations and manipulations that hurts her own mission.