I don’t think you are wrong, but I don’t think Egwene is either.

Rand is not a simple problem to solve.

I hope you keep posting your thoughts!

Oh I’m so sorry.

Rand’s group of Asha’man was bonded by Cadsuane’s group, probably because they had nowhere else to go.

Logain’s group bonded the Tower Aes Sedai sent to kill them.

Rand’s “deal” is to let the Salidar Aes Sedai even things out by bonding soldiers and dedicated, who are not allowed to refuse.

This one is so hard for me. I love that it gets women and men working together. I love Narishma sharing info.

I HATE that Rand is allowing Aes Sedai to bond Soldiers and Dedicated against their will.

It creeps me out that the fandom just glosses over that bit.

Reading the attack on the Tower I find it hard to believe that a Green Ajah would be described as a Queen of battles in any circumstance.

Reading the wells or any of the other battles Jordan wrote where Greens participated I can’t picture them embarrassing themselves.

Imagine how bad he was at writing female characters that he didn’t like very much.

I look at how Jordan wrote Aes Sedai in combat at Dumai’s Wells, and it is the complete polar opposite of the sniveling cowards Sanderson wrote during the Seanchan attack on the Tower.

I am curious to see how Ali feels about the whole theme of gender balance paying off in the end, because it’s my biggest disappointment in the end of the series and I’m anticipating some epic ranting.

I have a lot of trouble imagining how she could have done better. Certainly not when Jordan was writing her.

Rand’s relationship with Cadsuane is his only non-romantic relationship with a woman that actually becomes healthier over the series. At least until TGS and Sando ruining her.

It was a great episode. Ali is absolutely spot on about how Cadsuane is regarded compared to men.

The only thing I disagree with them about is that I don’t think Cadsuane could have done better.

I’ll give this a listen. I think Cadsuane is almost always right on the money, at least until Sanderson’s version replaces her.

You are the guy in the horror movie that the audience yells at.

It’s literally the central theme of the entire story.

We have been in “how could we have” territory for as long as I have been paying attention to politics. From what I’ve seen of history, that is roughly where we started.

Someone needs to familiarize themselves with an iconic TV family named The Simpsons and the shooting of one C Montgomery Burns.

No, he was not. Talmanes is my vote for most changed character after the author switch.

There’s minor glimmers of this behavior when Talmanes is drunk, but even then he never comes close to what you are seeing in TGS.

I’m interested to see what you think of Rand as the story continues.

He is an interesting case study, that is for sure. Both in book, and how people respond to him.