Things you liked, or didn't [WHOLE BOOK SPOILERS]

[Toral Delvar]

They did seem a little harder to deal with than at Shadar Logoth

 

[Kerna Shedrian]

To be fair it was the cream of the Forsaken left.

 

[Murasaki al'Aevon]

I really liked that Lan lived.

Because he WANTED to die. He had prepared his whole life to die.

The time was right, and he sheathed the sword. And what do you know? He survived.

I thought it was AWESOME that the Blademaster Lan learned something new about fighting just then.

 

[Braydon Roque]

Was Bela a hero of the horn? Wasn't she Noals horse?

I'll just pretend she was because if not, shame on you Sanderson.

 

[Murasaki al'Aevon]

Hinderstap.

Hinderstap.

And Hinderstap one more time.

Best idea EVER, Mat. Well done.

 

[Ealandrelle Melyma]

Was Bela a hero of the horn? Wasn't she Noals horse?

I'll just pretend she was because if not, shame on you Sanderson.

Noal's horse is described as white Not Bela. Which sucks; I love the idea that Bela could be bound to the Horn

 

[Murasaki al'Aevon]

I was hoping that Egwene would be bound to it... Alas.

 

[Braydon Roque]

Noal's horse is described as white Not Bela. Which sucks; I love the idea that Bela could be bound to the Horn

All heros of the horn glow white. It was Bela I say!

 

[Morrighan Daghdera]

There's so much that I did and didn't like that's already been mentioned. To me, the lamest thing was Alivia's so-called fulfillment of Min's viewing. :tug Honestly, she laid out his clothes & found some coins & THAT helped him die!?! I get it. I just think it's lame.

 

[Toral Delvar]

Especially as Min was so upset with her, so, apparently she had some sort of viewing, knew the interpretation was "help Rand die", but didn't realise this was metaphorical

 

[Cair Al'Car]

While i will need to re-read before i can comment happily on this post two things that annoyed me throughout AMoL;
Firstly; the scale of the Last Battle, ok so we had the Borderlands being reduced to rubble, was this really unexpected? with their Armies spending most of the series in Andor it was inevitable that the Shadow would steam roller these nations with no real preparations for a concerted defence being made. Lans fight at Tarwins Gap while sufficient for a while was always destined to fail without any concentrated aid from the Aes Sedai or the Asha'man, 'Of which there were none to spare'.
With the corruption of Agelmar the Borderlanders were almost wiped out during their retreat through Shienar, the human Nations most Battle hardened warriors were reduced almost to irrelavancy early in the Battle.
The Aes Sedai failed at the Saldean/Kandori border and were greatly reduced in number by the Sharan assault and without Mats intervention would probably have been annhilated due to bad tactics caused by Brynes compulsion, eventually they had to retreated to Merrilor.
We can assume then that Kandor and Arafel were also reduced to rubble by the Shadows Armies as they advanced to Merrilor. All in all the Borderland Nations ultimately failed and were crushed.

Elayne fought from the ruins of Caemlym to Cairhein where she was eventually victorious regardless of Bashere but also severely weakened and of course we have Rands assault on Shayol Gul where his troops and those of the Shadow engaged in a battle of mutual destruction and at the end had almost wiped each other out until the Last Hunt began in all its awesomeness.

But what about the rest of the world, what about this Second Breaking that was supposed to happen? Tear, Illian, Amadicia, Altara, Murandy etc were virtually untouched during the Battle. The Battle of Merrilor while momentus could have and probably should have happened in 3,4,5,6 locations around he world with human civilisation facing complete obliteration, and while there were plenty of casters in action somehow there just didnt seem to be enough. Rand destroyed an entire Trolloc Horde at Maradon, while Demandred only slightly less powerful and using the 2nd most powerful sa'angreal was hardly causing catastrophic damage to the forces of the light. All in all i had expected nations to lie in ruins, with much more devastation considering this was supposedly Mankinds 'Last Battle' against the DO.

Secondly; the Aiel "He shall spill out the blood of those who call themselves Aiel as water on sand, and he shall break them as dried twigs, yet the remnant of a remnant shall he save, and they shall live". Where were they? Yes the Aiel are mentioned, as a group. The Aiel fought at so and so location. Against who? Which Aiel? What societys? were they victorious or where they annhilated. With 11 clans numbering hundreds of thousands of elite warriors the part played by them seems pretty irrelevant with the exception of a few characters.

So, anyway, these are my two biggest gripes, and in answer what 'did' i like. Pretty much everything else. WoT has been a friend and companion for almost two decades and im sorry it has ended, but i hear there are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time...

 

[Sorcha Al'Verdan]

Many things were started at the end of the book (the Wheel keeps turning, after all). Here are my hopes for after the book ended.

I hope that Hawkwing sets the Seanchan straight like Mat told him to. I would hate to see them take over the world the way they are, but after they get over the whole damane thing their rule wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, especially if they go and kick Sharan butt afterward.

I also hope that one of the first things Rand does in his new body is find the Tuatha'an and give them their damned song. And then I hope the Tuatha'an find a way to use it to free the Ogier from the Longing and regrow the Ways.

Other than that, I think I'm ok with how things ended... Might take a reread or two to be sure about that though, there is just so much!

 

[Snowdog]

Likes.
- Gay characters in the series. Finally.

Gay characters have been in the series for many years. What do you think "pillow friends" are?

 

[Tazren Talamar]

Gay characters have been in the series for many years. What do you think "pillow friends" are?

It has never been mentioned about men.

And not every Aes Sedai who had a pillow-friend as a novice is gay. Siuan and Moiraine, for instance.

 

[Megana Vallentin]

I also hope that one of the first things Rand does in his new body is find the Tuatha'an and give them their damned song. And then I hope the Tuatha'an find a way to use it to free the Ogier from the Longing and regrow the Ways.

Someone in another thread mentioned that RJ specifically said in his notes that the Tuatha'an would never find their song. Sad. But that doesn't mean Rand can't give the song to the Ogier directly! And Loial seemed to be doing some pretty impressive things with songs on his own.

 

[Ealandrelle Melyma]

All heros of the horn glow white. It was Bela I say!

There's a difference between a white glow, and being white. The Heroes of the Horn still have colour (the reins on the horse are described as golden, Birgitte's clothes are described with reference to her yellow trousers etc), it's only the glow/aura which is white.

Sorry, I loved Bela and was gutted at her death, but I really don't think that she was Noal's horse. Nothing to say she couldn't be the horse of one of the other Heroes.

 

[Deiria Sha'Veer]

I liked about everything in the book, however it did suffer some complications because the story was cut in three books. That is inevitable suppose and probably would have been so had RJ written the books.

It was a bit rushed but that could be because I was rushed to listen (audiobook) and read the story myself have to do re-read from the begining...

Hightlights for me:
* actually read the final word
* Egg's death
* the moment Rand understood what to do with the DO and actual resealing
* Min detecting Moggy
* And the moment I realised what Graendal was doing in TAR (the fall of the great generals)

Dissappointed with:
* Fains lame death
* Tuon never channeling
* Androl-Pevara over-using
* Gawyn's stupidity (which was unavoidable)

EDIT: have to add to dissappointments that Moiraine didn't have extra knowledge from the Tower of Ghenjei or didn't say or do anything at all. Even talking to Lan was offscreen

 

[Jeffan Caliarthan]

Gay characters have been in the series for many years. What do you think "pillow friends" are?

I was actually referring to gay male characters.

 

[Dart Marouvin]

Liked:

-Perrin's epic dreamscape
-The Last Battle chapter
-Egwene's cool death
-Pevara and Androl
-Gay characters!
-Tuon
-Leilwyn
-Lanfear
-Gaul
-Loial
-Talmanes
-Thom
-Bela


Hated:

-Moiraine did nothing
-Nynaeve did nothing
-Gawyn (worse than usual)
-Elayne (just my opinion)
-Mat's lame death
-Siuan's lame death
-Fain's lame death
-Logain was a crybaby
-Alanna...wtf?

 

[Aulrick Vendour]

OH!
I remembered what else I liked!
The steam wagons!
This has always been one of my favorite parts in the books:

In the stableyard, the capless man had pulled a lever on the wagon, and one end of a long horizontal beam suddenly rose, then sank, driving a shorter beam down through a hole in the wagon bed. And, vibrating till it seemed ready to shake apart, trailing smoke from the chimney, the wagon lurched ahead, the beam rising and falling, slowly at first, then faster. It moved, without horses!He did not realize he had spoken aloud until the headmistress answered him.
"Oh, that! That's Mervin Poel's steamwagon, as he calls it, my Lord Dragon." Disapproval freighted her high, startking youthful voice. "Claims he can pull a hundred wagons with the contraption. Not unless he can make it go further than fifty paces without bits breaking or freezing up. It has only done that far once, that I know."
Indeed, the - steamwagon? - shuddered to a halt not twenty paces from where it first stood. Shuddered indeed; it seemed to be shaking harder by the heartbeat. Most of the men swarmed over it again, one of them frantically twisting at something with a cloth wrapped around his hand. Abruptly steam shot into the air from a pipe, and the shuddering slowed, stopped.
'Rand shook his head. He remembered seeing this fellow Mervin, with a device that quivered on a tabletop and did nothing. And this marvel had come from that? He had thought it was meant to make music.

I always liked Rand's vision, his understanding of leaving something behind that can be used... And now we've seen it in the last battle, helping the survivle of mankind...
I loved seeing the steamwagon proove itself in the last battle. Rand is probably very proud (seeing as he wanted schools opened EVERYWHERE!).