Yeah, they touch on it being its own dimension in-between place in The Dragon Reborn.

Just finished TDR! I love, love, LOVE the Aiel. Curious as to why I never RP'd as one...maybe because there's a lot of shade and water tags I can't keep track of? I don't know, but it's definitely something to think about for the future. Was pleasantly surprised to see Perrin and Faile fall in love. I didn't remember their courtship at all. I knew who she was when she showed up, but I guess for some reason I thought she and Berelain showed up at the same time, and it was more of a choice on Perrin's part instead of him being already in love with Faile? I'm happy with these misremeberings, though, and at this point I just need to accept this is not a reread. My brain is stubborn, though, and continues to insist I have read ten of these books before in spite of the evidence showing otherwise.

Halfway through The Dragon Reborn, and this one I remember more of. Although I have to admit I thought Tear and Callandor happened a book or two later, so not only have I forgotten a bunch of stuff, I also jumbled up the order of events. I am surprisingly missing Rand's POV. Mat is fun, and I am down for anything WT related, but Perrin...idk, the wolves have so much fun potential that I feel is being wasted, but already his POV is starting to seem like filler to me. I mean, I get why we are getting his perspective, and I'm not saying it doesn't have valuable plot stuff, but his POV feels more like observation as opposed to direct action. Maybe that's why I forgot the first few chapters of this, but I can remember Mat's POV and Egwene getting the ring ter'angreal and all of that pretty clearly. I didn't remember the Accepted going off to Tear, which it looks like they are about to do (I thought they met up with the Sea Folk and did the Aiel stuff first), so this is going to be a fun ride.

Congratulations!

I remember relating to Verin my first time around, like, here is a "real" Aes Sedai. I did catch on that she was a darkfriend around book 7 or 8 iirc. I distinctly remember that there was an inconsistency in something she said, and I was like, "Hold up, did she just lie? OH SHIT SHE DID WTF!" I don't remember the book or the details, just my reaction. That was one of the spoilers I searched online to see if I was right about, because I stopped reading before the big reveal. Yes, that seems like a stupid, crazy loophole the Dark One would leave for someone to get out of their oaths with. I like to think that it's the Creator's hand at work to combat the Dark One. They do say that no one is too far gone in the Shadow that they cannot be redeemed after all. By the way, you can start to pick up her mini lies and inconsistencies in The Great Hunt. Since I knew she was Black Ajah, I was on the lookout. Very slight and subtle, but they're there.

That's something Robert Jordan did very well...no one was purely good or purely evil (except the Creator and the Dark One), everyone had their good points and their flaws. He made you fall in love with characters in spite of their imperfections.

Just finished The Great Hunt. Holy crap, Egwene and the Seanchan. Once Liandrian showed up in her room at the Tower, I remembered Egwene got captured, but man, my preteen mind protected itself by not remembering ANY of it. That's some dark twisted stuff. What's fascinating is how none of the sul'dam are darkfriends. It is a very telling lesson about evil and how good people are convinced that evil actions are right. Robert Jordan explores this theme in many ways, like the Whitecloaks, but I think the Seanchan are the most poignant example of it. It's a weird feeling reading these books, almost like deja vu, but not. It's hard falling back in love with WoT again, because I know that, at some point, my writer's heart will break, and it will only be duty that carries me onward through the books.

I agree that the Reds are unfairly represented since Jordan has them as antagonists to Rand. I think it would be slightly more realistic for them to be one of the most beloved Ajahs (after the Yellow) since they are the ones taking care of the mad male channeler threat.

It has always fascinated me that the Dark One is a very visible 'character', but that the Creator is almost absent. However, even in book 1, you can see the Creator directly communicate with Rand (please don't make me pull up the passage/page number, I'm a little intoxicated). I think the very visibility of at least the Dark One does, as Asthereal points out, negates the 'faith' aspect of religion. If religion is built on faith in the unseen, then knowing the unseen to be true beyond any doubt would negate the necessity of religion. Now, there are many philosophies in WOT, and I suppose those take the place of religious faith, but given how the Dark One and, to a lesser extent, the Creator do actually show up personally and talk/influence things, faith-based religions are, as a consequence, nonexistent.

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!!!

Yep, that’s The Great Hunt. Except it was just Rand who had the instruments.

My husband is Turkish, and my oldest's middle name is Mehmet, so thank you, Heavy Sedai, for that mention. He should be higher on the list for conquering Constantinople and renaming it Istanbul, but we here in the West don't like to remember that.

Marrying an editor certainly helped things. About a third of the way through The Great Hunt and...like I don't remember this book AT. ALL. I mean, I know at the end Mat blows the horn, but everything before that is like a blank slate. So I guess my reading recommendation is to wait over twenty years to give things a shot again, because you will be pleasantly surprised.

Idk man, this is going deeper than I ever thought about while reading the books. I guess I accepted that a staff could beat a sword because the staff has more range compared to a sword.

I think it is simpler than all of that. A man not sharpening his sword would garner unnatural and unwanted attention. By sharpening his sword, he blends in AND builds camaraderie with others who are doing the same thing. It is kind of like the smoker's circle, how socializing and sharing in the act of smoking builds a bond that nonsmokers can't really understand. By 'sharpening' his power-wrought sword, Lan presents himself as a 'regular' guy you can trust.