I know im late to the dance here but you have got to be kidding.

Lets recap a little bit.

Two short years ago Rand was a happy neive kid of roughly 20 living in the same small village (just outside it) that he had for his whole life.

He was going to be a farmer like his father, marry Egwene and have a family.

In the two years that follow Rand has learned that he is the most powerful weapon for the forces of light. He is the Dragon Reborn which strikes fear in the hearts of everyone, Hated and needed at the same time.

He has had to fight against forces that were used to scare him and other children at night so they would go to sleep.

He has to unite an entire continent of people who really dont like each other and the only thing they can agree on is that they like him even less.

Even though they know that they need him at the end they fight him every step of the way.

And he knows that he must have this all worked out in the next year or two because the Blight is about to empty out all over them.

Oh, and by they way, after you save the world you are pretty much a dead man.

So you hate him because he isnt being nice to these idiots and ingrates.

P.S. Arthur Hawkwing didnt have to save the entire world from the DO, he had the luxury of being nice.

Plus if you listen to Mat and some of the lives he remembers many though Hawkwing was an ass.

I agree with Dreadlady. Those scenes were troubling at best. Mat was forced--both physically and emotionally--into a sexual relationship. And then was laughed at by Elayne when she finally came to understand the reality of what was occuring.

 

Had that occured in reverse people would be crying out in rage at the abuse--both in the books and as readers--even were it followed out exactly with the 'female Mat' coming to feel some degree of warmth for the 'male Tylin'.

 

Now, from a literary sense i can understand RJ having it play out, but it was not in anyway an amusing scene.

You guys make good points, and it may not matter, but i really think Mat didnt mind his relationship with Tylin too much. I think what really bothered him is he was now in the role of being chased and not the chaser. I think it was more of an image hit to him, he didnt seem to mind the time they spent together in the bedroom.

Another good question today.

Im not sure if a adam would work or not. A T'angreal that actually uses the one power would not work im sure (such as the balefire rod) but an adam does not actually use the power does it, it just established a link between the suldan and damane, but perhaps the link is done with the power.

Another question to ponder.

I read the first 3 or 4 books of The Sword of Truth, and while i liked them i quickly realized that these books were The Wheel of Time, just not nearly as good. I stopped reading them soon after.

I think that if i would have read TSoT prior to WOT i would have liked them fine but after then were no comparison.