Welcome, Samarah! A third read-through is serious dedication, especially if you’re in Crossroads of Twilight again. I always find that WoT rewards rereads because there are so many little details and bits of foreshadowing that are easy to miss the first time. Your Arafell/Yellow Ajah character idea fits the setting really well too. Growing up that close to the Blight would certainly give someone a strong reason to value Healing. And I’m with you on wishing the show had spent a little more time letting Emond’s Field be the audience’s doorway into the world. That slower introduction is part of what made the beginning of the books feel so effective.

Welcome! That sounds like a really interesting angle for discussion. Wheel of Time has such a huge cast and so many close relationships that there are definitely places where different kinds of representation could have been explored more explicitly. Some of it feels like a product of when the books were written, while other parts leave enough subtext that readers can interpret things in very different ways. I’d be curious to hear which characters or relationships stood out to you the most as missed opportunities