I know Demandred commented on a single and specific ter'angreal among the collection, but my impression from Rand's comment (as he knows about the saidin/saidar detectors) was that ter'angreal detecting inverted weaves of saidin and saidar were likely part of a "paralis net", and that the gizmos Rand didn't recognize were more likely the same ones Cadsuane has no idea what they're supposed to do.



It sounds doubtful that the WOS paralis nets were solely a weavebreaker and a well, as the detection of reversed weaves are such a major component of the apparatus. That doesn't sound right somehow. It would, if Rand implied a paralis net was actually the name of a "weavebreaker", but he really implied it was an assortement of various defensive ter'angreal, including a well.

There's Aran'gar's utter surprise in Salidar at the fact Mat had a weavebreaker too - since they existed in his time - but I guess this falls under the same scathing remark Osan'gar made about her comment re: the AK having been destroyed.



I agree. I don't find many of the early OP battles "realistic". The only way I could find to rationalize the way Moghedien handled Nynaeve is that:

- She was really surprised by her strength, when all the rumours she would have heard placed the current Age's AS way, way below that. That was apparently wrong, so in the heat of the moment she may have decided not to trust anymore her information about their skills either.

- Then, Moghedien may not have wanted to be the one to start using lethal weaves and reversed webs (the way any sensible Forsaken would have done in her place) in fear Nynaeve would immediately react by switching to those too.

But that's still weak... Even if she was completely inept in a face-off, Moghedien should have dealt with Nynaeve with ease. We know she can be fast when she wants. A few feint attacks then nasty reversed surprises or balefire should have done the deal easily.

I'm no more impressed with the performance of Asmodean against Rand, and what are we to believe about Aran'gar's skills after her absence of performance at the Eye of the World? The nasty fighter who could face a mixed gender circle and kill Eben is hardly recognizable in early Balthamel.

Be'lal was also incredibly idiotic, and no amount of AOL culture can really make it "realistic". Starting a blade duel, what was the idiot thinking of, really? Anyone even remotely sensible would have knocked Rand down then compelled him to take and give him Callandor, or put the hand of the inconscious Rand on Callandor.

Ishamael's mixed TP/TAR duel against Rand with Callandor was the first somewhat believable one (and I still believe Callandor cannot stop balefire and that's what caught the more and more exhausted Ishamael by surprise when it did... it did defeat his balefire because Rand was in TAR, and used the sword to splice the balefire... which by the force of his will it did. The way Perrin has done the same in TOM somewhat reinforced my old opinion. Balefire was a last ditch solution for Ishamael when he seemed clearly on the verge of defeat, as it would have reduced or eliminated the DO's opportunity for seizing Rand's soul).

The duel with Rahvin was OK, more or less. The one with Sammael was fairly poor, boring the minute they left Illian. On the whole I think the Cleansing was fine, and in part I think it's because Jordan opted for leaving most of the fighting to the readers' own imagination.

I sort of like the confrontations with Semirhage, especially now it's confirmed ordered her to make this attempt, and she was under death-threat style strict orders not to harm him, and accounting for the fact she had sul'dam she didn't control with her. Her plan always made perfect sense to me. She invited Rand to bring female channellers, because she wanted them to confirm the puny little girlish couldn't-harm-a-fly-even-if-she-wished-to Tuon could not channel. Clearly, she expected Rand to believe the sole threat were the damane, and agreed to let his people and the damane watch each other and the woodhouse in which Semirhage and Rand would "negotiate". She wanted to take Rand by surprise in the woodhouse and Skim or Travel (if she had secretely come to the place before to learn the grounds) with him right away. For the rest, her lack of information is typical of the Chosen. If she didn't face the weavebreakers at the Cleansing, it's not Demandred nor Cyndane who would have told her (nor Moridin) Rand's inner circle had some, nor of course would Semirhage have piped a word to Demandred about her mission.

Her capture of Rand was cool.

I didn't like Mesaana's demise too much, because I think the dialogue between Egwene and Mesaana destroyed its realism. That Egwene would explain to Mesaana about the a'dam etc. just didn't work for me, and felt almost comedic, where the villain or hero start talking to his foe and gets foiled. It would have worked much better had Egwene simply realized this in her head and struck without warning. The whole episode left me a bit cold. I didn't really liked how in Brandon's hands Egwene seemed to regress in her TAR skills, though I start to get the feeling that in Jordan's mind she and the WO were not meant to be TAR super-fighters, that the lethal TAR killers he had in mind are to be Perrin and the wolves (and that dead wolves are in TAR as guardians/hunters). Egwene and the WO's real skills are in other areas. I also get more and more the feeling that some revelation is coming about the real speculated purpose of TAR in the cosmologt. I think it's more and more obvious a dreamwalker or Dreamer is meant to be onobstrusive, and that there are several things which are "unethical" to do in TAR, in the sense that it interferes with the Wheel or the real purpose of TAR. Entering in the flesh as if it were the real world seems to be one of those, and tampering with people's dreams in harmful ways, creating mass nightmares, killing people or animals in TAR etc. are all "evil". The wolves seem to think this way: they could hunt, but they should not kill in TAR. Egwene's skills (and the WO) seems to come from passivity/receptivity/contemplation/introspection, and more and more I wonder if holding to a non-obstrusive/ethical attitude in their interaction with TAR doesn't play a big role in a Dreamer's skills, a kind of sine qua non condition to increasing your oracular skills.

Oh well... the door is wide open for some exposition regarding TAR soon. Not only there's the dreamspike's working to explain at some point down the line (and how exactly does TAR relate to the Pattern and to Gateways) and Rand knows Egwene is a dreamwalker, and she's bound to make a big deal of her Dream about the Seals soon, likely it's the big ace in her sleeve she intends to bring up in public at the meeting. It will be interesting to see if any of the WO Dreamer has had corroborating or contradicting Dream since, and if Min will or won't have related Viewings during the reunion. LTT is bound to have opinions about TAR, and Dreaming that might challenge what Third Agers and by extension us believe about TAR.... but well... LTT is bound to have opinions and knowledge about a whole load of things we would wish to know but there won't be place or time to fit in the last book. But TAR? I wouldn't bet on it. We know the Da'shain Aiel women's ties to Dreaming go all the way back to the AOL (as the Da'shain leader asks his wife about the Dream in one of the flashback scenes, or she comments to him about the Dream, I don't recall) and the issue of the Da'shain Aiel and LTT is one certain to surface before the end. His real relationship to the Da'shain, and why they were the CoD and all that if one of the big remaining back story mysteries. Rhuidean didn't reveal to the Aiel this part of their past - merely that they were once bound to LTT somehow, but LTT knows what it's really all about. Rand is also bound to do something about the Tinkers around Ebou Dar. He wasn't brought to shelter among them, and receive a cloak as a gift before his epiphany from Leafers for no reason. Symbolically, the Tinkers have dressed up Rand in his "true colours", and he's decided to keep wearing that cloak, and now things grow around him where he walks and he keeps saying he will guide but the LB isn't his battle. It's rather obvious LTT has been reminded of something by the Leafers, something he understood after his epiphany. Behind all this hide the reasons why the Da'shain were called the Children of the Dragon, and why Rand chose to keep the cloak they gave him. Rand's not done with the Tinkers, but this is probably waiting for Aviendha's return and her devastating vision of the future of the Aiel (which may take some time before it reaches Rand's ears... I expect her and the WO to keep this secret a while) to surface.