Yeah, this is very strange. As you say, Mesaana did not appear to have one herself, and even if she did, would she really be willing to give up such a huge advantage over the other forsaken? I seriously doubt that.



Yes. With this knowledge, it is surprising that Rand was able to stand up to her even to the extent that he did. I wonder if he would really have been able to take her down anyway, despite this massive advantage, if he had embraced LTT's memories? If so, this would be a pretty big clue about LTT's skill.




Whats worse is that Grady and Neald actually HAVE done that before. We see this in Knife of Dreams.




So it is not just a case of Grady and Neald being incompetent, and being unable to do a simple thing with gateways. It is a fullblown retcon where they mysteriously lose an ability that they had before.




I agree that ther are probably other ways of messing with gateways. The dreamspike, being a ter'angreal might just be one of the most effective, since being a device it has none of the weaknesses (such as growing tired, etc) of humans.

I do wonder if Rand now has the ability to create wards against gateways, and replicate the dreamspikes effect with just OP alone. I would think so, given that he has LTT's memories, and LTT has been implied to be pretty good with gateways.

I still wonder if that will come into play with the Seanchan. Even if there are ways to break through LTT's gateway wards, the seanchan damane would not know them. I wonder if Rand could use that against them when they attack the White Tower. He could let their armies through, then create a ward trapping them in Tar Valon or something, and perhaps then lead his own armies to the greatly weakened Ebou Dar, while the Seanchan could not follow.

That would mean abandoning Tar Valon to the Seanchan though, I doubt Rand would do that. But it might work in other places. It might also work if Rand manages to capture Tuon and the rest of the Seanchan nobility and use them as hostages to force the Seanchan in TV to surrender.