1. Rand is toast. Those of you who want him to die and stay dead will get your wish. Aviendha is on her way to get her share of the al'Thor seed so she can get knocked up before he's history, and that, more than anything else, convinced me that Rand will die and remain dead. Maybe whoever came up with that crap about him coming back when Mat blows the Horn (sorry, I think the idea is far more retarded than the body swap theory everyone likes to poo poo) is correct. Either way, Rand will die and won't be coming back. No happy endings for this poor sap, though how the hell could he have a happy ending with three freaking women bossing him around all the time, treating him like crap and two of them thinking he's too stupid and worthless to breathe?

2. Sigh. This one bothers me as much or more than the fact that Rand will never get to be happy and live a life that isn't a miserable sack of donkey crap, but Logain is going to die. His "glory" will either be something completely horrible (if he's already been 13x13'd, he may get to kill Taim or someone before he gets balefired by some weak assed AS bitch) or he's going to die just as he's doing something cool for the Light (maybe he manages to overcome being turned right before Egwene beheads him or something). Whatever the case, there appears to be no hope for him. It figures, though...the only man on the Light side with a pair of balls and a spine (who would actually stand up to AS instead of meekly agreeing to enslave himself to them) could never be allowed to survive, after all. It simply doesn't fit with the "women rule, men drool and are only good as obedient slaves who aren't allowed to make decisions unless a woman approves it" motto that RJ has rammed down our throats. Bah.

Other than that, the chapter seemed pointless. Aviendha kisses Elayne's ass more (really, how many times does she have to go on about what a great warrior Elayne is and how perfect she is?), Elayne manages to compliment Rand while sounding condescending toward him ("He has learned how to play the Game of Houses, how cute!", and another Aes Sedai who had some promise of not being a complete and utter bitch proves yet again that, despite any sign to the contrary, all AS are complete and utter bitches. The soul rape of Androl made me want him to rip her in half with a gateway. Instead, he bonds her back. While I have always thought reciprocal bonding would be a good start to attempting to alter the disgusting bond into something more "fair", I had hoped it would be done between two consenting parties rather than having another AS soul/mind rape yet another unsuspecting man. Again...bah.