I am not going to comment on why you should or should not hate Rand. That is a personal choice, and even though I think your reasons for doing so are stupid I won't argue with you. With that said I think you have to admit that Rand is an interesting character, and that makes the books interesting. He has his own inner problems to deal with and he feels that he has to use his friends. He realizes he should not but does not let that stop him.

I think that all of these factors cause him to be more interesting than many other characters. He is a person and therefore makes mistakes including some regarding his attitude towards others. In my opinion this is much better than a hero that is kind and never does anything that could cause his friends injury. Therefore I think that love him or hate him, Rand Al'Thor is a well done character. He is the reason that I am continually rereading this books and I would not be surprised if the same was true for you.

I am in complete agreement about your opinion on Morgase's story arch. I don't feel that her story is important at all. I have read the books a couple of times now and I don't even bother to read her storylines anymore. Of course that was after I read them the first time. I think it is important to read the first time but I agree they really were not fun to read.

However about the rest I don't really agree so much. First of all I would say that he is not putting up with her much. If you think that I would suggest rereading the passage where he first met here, I thought it was very much in character. With that said, I am a bit sketchy on what happens with Rand and Cadsuane after that first meeting so maybe he does roll over meekly as you put it, later on.

I would also disagree that nothing happened in this book, if anything the previous book Lords of Chaos I believe, had much less happen in it. As others have mentioned Sammael is a big deal. Also I think that meeting up with that guy in Shadar Logath is also going to play a part in later books.

This was a very interesting thread but the one thing that I wanted to reply to was the horses.

You have mentioned that the horsemen wore plate armor as an advantage, however this would in realty be a major disadvantage. Look at the battle of Agincourt, the French knights wore plate armor and while this protected them from the British arrows this also bogged them down. If they were knocked off thier horse, or their horse was killed they would have a very difficult time getting up.

Of course this is not really a direct comparison due to other factors such as the mud that also caused problems for the knights, but the point is that plate armor is heavy. If you fall down in battle at all you are not likely to get up again, but with plate armor this would be made worse. I just read the 5th book, (the name escapes me at the moment) and it specifically mentioned the Aiel went after the horses when fighting against the nobles who disobeyed Mat's orders to stay inside the pike. This would essentially take the calvalry out of the battle even if they were not killed.