This board is dead in all kinds of ways. The only people actively discussing are those who have only discussed "WoT physics" and Egwene with each other, for the most part.

With regards to themes, I still think Jordan's strong suit was the power of knowledge, the mutability of knowledge, etc. A lot of that got scrapped off after the change in authors, of course, but I'm still holding off hope for this theme playing a major role in the endgame of the series. Certainly, if Verin's reveal was not meant to be a one off event, I expect more here.

Frankly, though, I'm fairly certain I'll be disappointed. Partly through the way he plotted the books, and partly through the sheer number of words he threw on page to overcome some egregious mis-plotting, Jodan left a very juicy scenario for the final book(s). We have any number of characters who know only part of the final answer, and I was very much looking forward to these pieces of the puzzle coming together, and the shifts in perspectives among the major characters we'd see. But with Sanderson's treatment of dialogue and character introspection so woefully inadequate to the task, any number of such perspective shifting reveals have simply flown under the radar, with the character's adjustments left to reader imagination.

Another major theme I hope gets a good resolution is the issue of gender imbalance. RJ made some major errors in his presentation of this theme, and ended up diluting it and even degrading it somewhat, as a result. But the underlying elements are still present, and still very interesting. In many ways, they set the series apart (for good or ill). I hope the resolution of this is satisfactory and at least redeems this aspect of the series at least somewhat.

As for wider impact, I think WoT did kind of end up "Finishing" the traditional epic fantasy genre. It served as a transition from the somewhat simpler stories that came before it to more complex narratives, though other series qualify for this, and WoT isn't entirely successful either. That said, I think WoT has a decent future as a series bridging this gap, and if someone figures out a way to make a good abridgment of the series, I can see it continuing to populate bookshelves for quite a while.

Of course, a good TV series can totally change all that, and if they play it right, and tone down the negative aspects of RJ's handling of gender issues and capitalize on the sheer number of female centric storylines, I can certainly see WoT being marketed as a somewhat distinct fantasy story. Not holding my breath for that, though.