So I posted a while back that I was going to try to make a bookshelf with WoT stuff on it with a shelf I bought, but that went preeeeetty bad.

Luckily my wife is awesome and had this custom made for me for Christmas:

@Sabio actually just finished my reread and yeah I remembered that scene a little differently

I think based on how the battle went though, with Lan holding his own despite being clearly exhausted, I think he would have won if the footing was even.

I mean just in general we know there are different ways to do the same thing even among AS, and we've seen that other groups of Channelers differ as well.

@Niniel Sounds like this one might be a Lightie ;)

Heal The Office (US version, right?) 

Hurt Big Bang Theory

I will heal Arrested Development (with a caveat of the original, not Netflix reboot lol)

Annnnd kill 30 rock

@Niniel Not yet, going to do that some time next year

Heal Brooklyn Nine-Nine (watching this now, pretty darn good show).

Hurt Veep

@idiotsavant where you at? Lol

Thanks! It's super nice not to have to worry about having everything in order for a wedding anymore lol

Still busy at work, but so much less busy otherwise now

I don't know several either...

I will heal The Office and hurt Transparent since I don't know what that one is lol

I agree Gawyn should definitely be higher as he is shown to be exceptional and beat others like Sleeve as mentioned.

We also know that Galad is objectively better than Gawyn (stated many times) and also that Valda is objectively better than Galad (Galad admits this and really only wins because he feigns sluggishness and Valda was over confident). Even though Galad kills him, Valda is the objectively better fighter, but that doesn't always mean surviving (aka the story of Jearom looked at as the best ever killed by a farmer).

I also honestly think Demandred should be a bit lower, and since he's the best of the Forsaken, them by extension. In his fight he has to use the OP to distract his foes before he even gets to the best, and then Lan pretty much annihilates him instantly. We've also seen Lan get beat, but several of those who beat him are dead, so that makes it hard (plus he's probably better than he was in New Spring).

I mean I think the bigger thing is Mat has to go, he's the whole reason they survive and find Moirane, with his luck, and also he's the one that makes the bargain to get her back, as was prophesied.

The other details come from her visions of the possible future in Rhuidean where she saw other combinations fail.

I'm still annoyed years later about the lack of explantation here, and will not concede to the explanation that this has nothing to do with the Sharan prophecy if someone who can Channel without weaves.

The official answer that Demandred using the TP was what it is about does not make any sense to me, and I maintain he purposely faked fulfilling the prophecy to get a huge army, and was not who the prophecy was meant for. Why would the Sharan's be the only people with no prophecies of Rand? 

Anyway to get a bit more back on topic, I agree that it is essentially Rand having become something more and no longer needing to weave, but have an unprecedented control of the Power.

So I'd been meaning to reply to this one but have been away a bit.

There's no question that Mat's POVs are written differently, but most things are not as different as people seem to think.

The illiteracy is a big thing I didn't like, and that was definitely not something written correctly, but a lot of the 'rogue' stuff is fair, just different.

Mat is absolutely a 'rogueish character' and we are told that all throughout the series, the difference is Mat does not seem to realize he is this way. We hear from characters throughout that talk about this, and hell there's the big reoccurring joke about him 'not understanding where Olver get's it from' when it's obviously from Mat.

RJ always wrote Mat with a lot more subtlety and left it to other characters to point out what he was actually doing, whereas BS stated it a lot more bluntly, and sometimes overstated it.

We know how Mat was acting all throughout Ebou Dar, and it's not that different from how he acts in the last three books. It also makes sense for his character to regress a little, because he's coming to grips with being married (last thing he ever thought would happen) and he's determined to not let it change him, which in turn has him regressing to a but of a more immature state.

While I do concede it's overstated at points, and his POVs are definitely written differently, it's not like the character just up and changed drastically, we just actually see it happening a lot clearer.

So the switch is what was led up to by their minds being linked, which was a side effect of them 'crossing streams' of Balefire.

Basically Elan's soul 'dies' and Rand's body 'dies' and Rand's soul is moved to Elan's body.

The channeling without touching the weaves I think is kind of him becoming something more, but tbh I'm still mad about that because to me that fulfills the prophecy of the Wyld, but it's canon that Demandred is the Wyld (which I still don't agree with).

@Panchi I would send you some books, but I'm guessing the shipping would probably be a tad expensive lol

Hello!

I've been very busy with work, and also got married like a week and a half ago, so it's been a crazy busy time. 

Welcome! Hopefully you stop by soon or you will be overwhelmed with questions lol

And @Songstress sounds like someone placed a Dream Spike...

Here even though I missed last month!

That's really hard, but I'd say for specific scenes, a lot of the battles toward later in the series with Mat and Rodel, I think would be super cool.

I'm also really excited to see the early books in general, as it really hits the nostalgia the hardest for me, and the early stuff I think is the least likely to have a lot of changes.

Heal Louie, hurt Will and Grace (on mobile not trying to copy past per the OP)

I definitely agree Fain seemed wasted at the end, and to be honest I feel like he was originally intended for a larger role, but RJ changed his mind.

Early on in the series Fain was like the baddest of the bad, and only continued seeming to get stronger, his whole amalgam with Mordeth especially seemed like it was designed for some big act, but we started hearing from him less and less. I wonder if maybe RJ didn't leave a lot of notes on him and so BS had to just throw something together so he wasn't left out.

Once the Forsaken became more prominent I feel like Fain was talked about less, but especially considering the multiple major plot points that took place at Shadar Logoth, you'd think something would have happened.

So I'm toward the end of KoD in my reread and recently finished the whole Shaido plot, and I can't for the life of me figure out why Galina did what she did.

The whole time she is there she is trying to get the Oath Rod 2.0 so she can be released from her Oath to one the Wise Ones, she even mentions that since Morgase can Channel she'll be able to use that.

Then she finally gets it, and just decides to leave Faile and Co. for dead and just head for the Tower? Why? What on Earth is the point? It could be speculated that you have to have the same Oath Rod to remove an oath you took on it (though I don't think that was ever confirmed that I recall), but Galina wouldn't really have much reason to think that.

The whole plot of her trying to get it only makes sense if her end game is getting the oath removed so she can escape. If she was just going to make for the WT anyway, why even bother getting the rod? She'd have been a lot more likely to escape without stealing it and putting the Wise Ones on high alert.

Even if she was convinced that she needed that rod to remove the oath, is not being able to Channel worse than being a horribly treated slave the rest of your life? She could have always left and then got reinforcements to try to take it later too.

I get that she's a villain and being stuck with Therava is supposed to be her comeuppance, but the whole plot of her wanting the rod makes no sense if she didn't intend to use it before escaping in my opinion.

Am I missing something here? Anybody have different thoughts?

For the most part in mainland Randland the power of nobles is based on the history of the House and past successes or failures. Powerful Houses can lose that Power (though it's likely much harder for a non powerful House to gain power).

Carhien does the stripes I think mostly because the Game of Houses is so big there that everyone wants to express their power and know the power of everyone else at all times.

Usually other nobles just know how powerful their House is compared to other Houses in most other places. Clothes play a high part though in it too. Extremely often clothes are expressed as showing how powerful you are and it goes all the way from the lowest peasant to the Kings and Queens.

Every character seems to have the ingrained idea of what your station is in life based on what you're wearing. We see this when Rand wants to inpress, vs. be under the radar, but countless times we hear things like 'his clothes were those of a well to do merchant' by characters evalutsting others.

I think that looking at the Forsaken we can see not everything was really perfect, and I think Solarz really hit the nail on the head with why it was a Utopia.

Most of the Forsaken (barring Ishy) followed the Dark One because of selfish reasons, or because they wanted more power. Human nature still existed and with human nature there's a dark side.

One thing that sticks out to me about the 'failing' is it's an Aiel who says it, I don't recall AS ever telling the Aiel they failed. It could have just been because they were so dedicated (literally) to serving the AS that they equated the AS failing as them somehow failing the AS. The world was falling apart and they could do nothing, their whole purpose was pretty much gone, so they felt they had failed.

I have to patently disagree with the 'no free will' in WoT, as that's not the case at all. Ta'veren are stated to have less free will than others many times, as they are needed to do something specific that the Pattern needs (and in turn can decrease the free will of people around them) but we never see/hear anything about people not having free will.

I'd contend we actually see the opposite for the most part in a variety of ways. False Dragons for one, there are many in history, and they rose and fall despite the Pattern not needing a Dragon (and the only time they could be argued to have the Pattern push them is when Rand was in Falme and Taim random falls off his horse and is captured).

Plus the Portal Stone world's, which imply that a basically limitless amount of paralell world's exist, which in my mind follows the idea that when you make a decision, in a way to alternate realities move forward.

If no one had free will, wouldn't everyone instantly follow Rand? Why would anyone fight against him when the Pattern needs him to fight the Last Battle? Because people still have free will.

Plus (last point I swear) the fact that Balefire exists, and literally erases strings from the Pattern tells us there is free will. Why would the Pattern allow itself to be destroyed if it was controlling everything?