It's hard to think of a more logical episode, really, wether Brandon or RJ planned the detail of the brid.

We've been hearing about Graendal's caged birds for quite some time. It's not like this came out of the blue.

We've know since EOTW the Shadow has a way to control ravens and rats, that they are "the DO's eyes". Moridin's the one using the True Power, the True Power is revealed to be Shai'tan, his very essence, and Ishamael-Moridin is the one around whom there's been tons of ravens and rats. He's the Forsaken who uses them. The TP/controls of animals connection should be rather obvious.

Then, we know Shai'tan was able to invest, or possess, a Myrddraal. There's also Rand and the male channelers and the Taint, which is the True Power or a concoction of the True Power. The taint shattered the barrier between Rand's mind and the memories of his previous life. And then there's the link created between him and Moridin, also created with the True Power. And there are mindtraps too. Again the True Power, at SG directly this time, but still the TP. And there are the grey men, puppets in Shai'tan's hands.

And how many times have we been reminded that Shai'tan is a control freak?

It's hardly surprising there's a TP weave to possess animals, and it's even less surprising that this the weave that the best Compeller allive would think of naturally, in a tight corner ... The uses of compulsion comes naturally to someone like Graendal. That's her best asset: even in tight spots she keeps her cool and can see the best ways to take control of the situation, which for her most often mean how she will take control of the minds around her.

I think if Brandon came up with this idea, he obviously went fishing for it in RJ's TP notes.

The weave was a good find, I think. I was more annoyed by the apparent contradiction introduced in the scene that Graendal can now sense Moridin's weaves. I don't know this is Brandon's error or a contradiction in the notes, but RJ flat out said in a Q&A years ago that only the DO and the person weaving the TP can see the weaves, that someone else with TP access would still not feel or see them. It makes me wonder if RJ truly planned to have Graendal get a trickle of the TP as a reward, of if Brandon invented this because he had seen the notes about the weave to control animals and thought it a cool idea to have Graendal use it on a bird. At the very least, it sure felt really odd that Graendal suddenly didn't fear the TP the way all but Moridin seem to fear using it. That Graendal used it to play games with Aran'gar, instead of solely in dire need with the bird sure felt a bit out of character. Even using this way to let Aran'gar know she was high in favour was a bit blunt and unsubtle for Graendal. You'd expect her to "accidentally" slip and let Aran'gar wonder if she was sending her a message that she was in favour, or was trying to keep this secret and truly revealed more than she intended - and to read in Aran'gar's reaction, acting as if nothing happened, or asking Graendal directly, just how committed she was as her ally...