o oops haha.  I always thought it was balefire since there was no body

But did she use balefire and if not why not bring him back

what!?! killing someone with balefire does not bring them back to life, what would the point of that be.  If person "A" kills person "B", then person "A" gets killed by balefire then "B" might come back to life, well i sould say "B" was never killed.

ok, so  whenthe tinkers when they left the Aiel, they heard stories of a different time; a time when there was no war, a time when the Aiel would sing these amazing songs and plants would grow. The tinkers who left equated the song to the peace time. This thing they searched or was unattainable. Not because the song of growing was lost but their perversion of what the song was. They are chasing a dream of a time gone by, of a song that would bring about the AoL again and it is not going to happen. The Ogier sang the song of growing to the  tinkers and they said it was not the right one. Of course it was not, the song of growing or any song can fill what they are looking for.

Okso this is my last time posting in here. I realized my problem with the plot [holes]. I understand Harry Potter is not everyone's cup of tea but if you like it hope this analogy works.

To me the ending of AMoL, better yet the Wheel of Time, is like if in Harry Potter the deathly hallows were never talked about. They are still there and still serve the same plot importance but nothing is explained about them. Harry just somehow kills Voldemort at the end and we are left wondering, how did that horcrux stone bring his parents back as ghosts...why could Voldemort not kill Harry. These would have made for good discussion but it does not make for a complete story. I did not care that there was not a 19 years later scene or that that we did not really see what happens after the LB but i would have like to have a better understanding of the end.

I remember when people asked Tolkien, who is Tom Bombadil, he said that there should always be something in a story which is a mystery to even the author, Maybe that is what Nakomi is too

Tom Bombadil was at the begining of the story, Nakomi is part of the ending plot, who could play a huge role in what we did not see...  these are not the same.

its just cheap writing, instead of being able to drop hints and leave clues BS put in things for us to wonder about (verin's letter, nakomi) that he knew were not going to be answerd.

 

i see the whoe why the horn link was not recreated when tahvin was balefired just like the bruses on mins neck.  the link to the horn had nothing to do with rahvin his actions were taken back not effects of mats death

 

Somewhat correct. However, the balefire causes a cascading effect, essentially reweaving any effected segment of the pattern withing the "blast radius." However, the link didn't break because Mat was dead. He never was dead. It broke because he died. The transition of the existence of his thread to an area outside of the weaving of the pattern broke it. Balefire effects the pattern. This can have an effect on threads , whether currently woven in or not, but it cannot effect whether those threads have transitioned. The border is more important than either side in this instance.

i think this is why team jordan said they thought about the bruises for so long.  Rand Balefireing Siem did not take the bruises from min neck even though he would have never actually done it.  This set the precedent and i have no probs with

and your mat was never dead he died is going in a big circle.  1 he was dead, Rand saw it, Mat says other people tell him they saw him dead it did happen but it was "undone"

i see the whoe why the horn link was not recreated when tahvin was balefired just like the bruses on mins neck.  the link to the horn had nothing to do with rahvin his actions were taken back not effects of mats death

I was under the impression Gaidal's rebirth, and Brigitte's for that matter, where not to be a major or even minor part of the story.  Fans kept insisting, but it really wasn't to be.  Brigitte's role was to be Elayne's warder. Gaidal Cain was more of a character building accessory for Brigitte.

 

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Olver could be Gaidal, or anyone over the age of 1 year lol. We see Gaidal Cain during the series (TSR 47), the series only spans ~2 years in the, so there is absolutely NO WAY he could be ANY of the children we have seen.

In TGH how long did it take them to get to falme a few months right?  what i am getting at is the books at the begining cover much more time than the later books when they have gateways, so in TSR like a year has passed.  so yea Gaidal would be under 1 depending on who you want to quote about when the soul goes in the body.  AMoL or RJ.

 

 

I am also disappointed we never learn more about Mat's memories.  I don't mean the ones the Finns gave him, I mean the ones he had before them (e.g., when he screams "Carai an Caldazar" as he throws himself into battle in tEotW). 

It's a pretty good bet that Mat is Aemon reborn, but I don't like hearing "No, you're not a hero of the horn" and getting no follow-up on this. 

 

i have never thought that it could be different memories ... for me , the Finns just gave him access to his old memories ( from previous lifes ) , they didn't create anything ...

 

that's why his memories are always those of a Manetheren's soldier and that's why one hero of the horn thinks that Mat is the oldest one on the battlefield ...

Wrong and wrong. http://wotfaq.dragonmount.com/node/77

what that FAQ does not adress is what mat is screaming when they are breaking the bond of the dagger.  I also thought Mat was a Horn Hero, because he is a "character" like how Hawkwing calls him gambler, it seems like a role being played IE hero of the Horn.  But what do i know

^The FoM sequence is terrible, with Rand contradicting himself from Towers, and Eg flip-flopping so often between GS and FoM...  But given that (no matter how contrived) Rand and Eg were in conflict, Moiraine is the only person that could have solved the dispute.  When Moiraine entered I hoped it was going to improve, alas it took a few more chapters...

 

Although I'm going to have t reread the 3 books together, to be sure of her stance from time-to-time and also try to work out a rough timeline for her conversations with Nyn and Elayne about the seals as I think some are out of order :(

see it seems that way you could of had tam and master al'vere come in and tell their brat kids to grow up, you could have lots of other people.  the problem is she does nothing that only she can do.  its weak

@Sutt - regardless of personal feelings of Cads (or at least as impartially as I can manage).  Cads didn't have the trust of Eg, so couldn't have taken the role of Moiraine at the FoM.  I agree that the entire scene was a mess, but her role in it made perfect sense.

it is so dumb that someone needs that role.  Egwene just got done doing the exact same thing to elida that is being done to her.  Her arc makes no sense

 

 

Btw, its 600 miles between Caemlyn and Cairhein, and it looks about the same between Tarwin's Gap and TV (the next big population center after Shienar). Lets say the trollocs can march 50 miles a day (which is ridiculous but seems to be about what they were doing in TGH being driven hard by Fain, although a much smaller group). Thats still 12 days of brutal marching.

dreadlord gates?

shadowspawn cannot go through gateways.  they just come out dead

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) He's spun out, yes. But he is NOT Olver. Gaidal is 1-2 years old.

 

Gaidal is reincarnated as Jur Grady's son. The timing works out (baby in LoC) and Jur said that he was unusually ugly. 

 

I'm pretty sure Grady's son is also too old by a couple of years. It gives their ages at some point.

grady son was like 5 in LoC

 

Thanks, and Gaidal would be two at most by the end of the series.

now that is a little trickier,  because we see him in TAR in, what shadow rising?  i think he is 1 at most, because the last few books really dont take up that much time at all.

galad did not die, they got him out...right?

 

 

 

 

2) He's spun out, yes. But he is NOT Olver. Gaidal is 1-2 years old.

 

Gaidal is reincarnated as Jur Grady's son. The timing works out (baby in LoC) and Jur said that he was unusually ugly. 

 

I'm pretty sure Grady's son is also too old by a couple of years. It gives their ages at some point.

grady son was like 5 in LoC

Sanderson told me to RAFO when I asked him if Loail's book gets finished.

but we knew in ToM that he finished his book since it was quoted at the begining.

I don;t understand why Rand is so happy towards the end.Well he gets to live his life but what is a life without family and friends?. Is such a life even worth it?. And Rand was always emotionally attached to others.He just did not want to live in a farm,he wanted to live in the farm with his family.

i dont understand this either, if a big theme of the wheel is being able to love again.  How does that work now, i mean he cannot be the father of his kids he cannot openly live with the women he loves i just dont get it.

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, the battle plans and descriptions ruined the book for me early on. The whole strategy for the Caemlyn trollocs was absurd. Convince them to attack and then let them chase you 250 miles north to Braem Wood? Of course, there is no detail given whatsoever about how this chase was pulled off or why it was even necessary. In one POV the trollocs are charging Perrin's harrying force, in the next POV they are 250 miles north outside Braem Wood. This would take 1-2 weeks in traveling time for an army. How did Perrin's army prevent from being overrun during this time? It was so poorly written I had to put the book down for a bit at this point.

 

Also, it's noted that the trollocs in Caemlyn number in the "tens of the thousands." In KoD's Rand and a few friends destroy 100,000 trollocs at the manor house, yet in aMoL they decide to kite the trollocs halfway across the continent (which would have taken a good month). Really? They fought the same group of "tens of thousands" of trollocs for a month and traveled over 500 miles despite having dragons and channelers? This whole tactic/battle was so sloppily written it was hard for me to engage myself in the book from that point on. What a massive disappointment. I'm glad we get an ending, but the execution of this book was awful. 

it was 150 miles but still WAY to far.  for any force to travel 150 miles to get some archers.

 

it is like an army attcking London for the people in london to chase them 30 miles north of Nottingham.  go look at google maps it is crazy

 

No it's not. The French let the English march over 350 miles from Harfleur before forcing them to fight at Agincourt. 

Henry V (as i am sure you know) landed in France on 13 August 1415 and fought the battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 with lots of stops on the way. It took the trollocs and the forces of the light what...and hour to make that trip. The French did not attack London and drive them out of a fortified position on a 150 mile chase. Henry was the aggressor making these very different. I know you will say that the trollocs are the aggressor but i say they took and held Caemlyn as a staging ground to bring in troops.

150 miles is way to far

Per: http://www.amazon.com/Agincourt-Henry-Battle-That-England/dp/0316015040/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1358482481&sr=8-3&keywords=agincourt

A word about Verin's letter to Rand...

 

It could have been about the White Tower holding Matin Stepaneos and a possible correlation to Alsalam's whereabouts.

that is what i thought

hahaha

It seems this community is blessed with numerous battle-hardened desktop generals, all with a better understanding of how (imaginative) large scale battles are being fought than the author of the book.

o and i am awesone at medieval total war 2 and Age of Empire so..............................................

I have a problem when things dont make sense...if you can detach yourself from thinking about if what is happening is even plausible in the world that have been created than more power to you, i cant do it

dp

Personally, the battle plans and descriptions ruined the book for me early on. The whole strategy for the Caemlyn trollocs was absurd. Convince them to attack and then let them chase you 250 miles north to Braem Wood? Of course, there is no detail given whatsoever about how this chase was pulled off or why it was even necessary. In one POV the trollocs are charging Perrin's harrying force, in the next POV they are 250 miles north outside Braem Wood. This would take 1-2 weeks in traveling time for an army. How did Perrin's army prevent from being overrun during this time? It was so poorly written I had to put the book down for a bit at this point.

 

Also, it's noted that the trollocs in Caemlyn number in the "tens of the thousands." In KoD's Rand and a few friends destroy 100,000 trollocs at the manor house, yet in aMoL they decide to kite the trollocs halfway across the continent (which would have taken a good month). Really? They fought the same group of "tens of thousands" of trollocs for a month and traveled over 500 miles despite having dragons and channelers? This whole tactic/battle was so sloppily written it was hard for me to engage myself in the book from that point on. What a massive disappointment. I'm glad we get an ending, but the execution of this book was awful. 

it was 150 miles but still WAY to far.  for any force to travel 150 miles to get some archers.

it is like an army attcking London for the people in london to chase them 30 miles north of Nottingham.  go look at google maps it is crazy

 

 

 

i have a problem with how long the batle lasted.  I mean really, how long did open field battles last?  Not counting the facts that there are people doing magic everywhere.

 

Not long. Culloden (1745), lasted an hour or two. Agincourt (1415), lasted something like four hours before it was all over. Crecy (1346) also lasted just a few hours. The Battle of Barnet (1471), lasted around 3-4 hours and was fought almost entirely in a thick fog. 

 

Medieval battles didn't last long. The armies weren't that big, fighting in armor is tiring, and generally speaking one army or another would break after a few hours and start running, and that's when the real killing would begin. 

 

A long battle like those described in the books just wouldn't happen. The battle in FoH at least made partial sense because Mat moved around, and presumably had time to rest. In AMoL there's a scene describing rest periods for the men at Tarwin's Gap, only they don't happen nearly as much.

is a good clip from the series Rome, which shows how a Roman Legion fought so as to not tire out the men. Other Medieval armies would have had something similar. Either men fighting in pairs and switching off, or ranks fighting for a bit and then moving back. 

yea the rest scence kinda threw me off, i understand in a war sending people to the front lines and pulling squads out for rest.  But this is kinda like everywhere was the front lines right?

You have to rest them. Otherwise they'll drop from exhaustion inside an hour and then where are you? You do it by having them work in shifts, which works when you've got a battle like Tarwin's Gap where you can block the bulk of the enemy forces with a portion of your own.

haha no i get it why you need to rest.  But i just cannot picture this battle where there is time to rest.  I picture it like a giant Braveheart battle with all these forces crashing into each other at different parts of the field.  And with Gateways why would you not just go to where people are eating/sleeping and attack.

If this was like a campaign in germania where all of your forces are not engaged in battle. but these are.  I just got the feeling everyone was fighting.

and we have not seen any of the nations using the shild formation like in that rome clip which is key to the rotation.