That was even more pointless than permanently killing Hopper (i.e. denying him even later rebirth.) She saved the lives of countless major characters since the opening chapters of the series, while being constantly maligned and taking it with loyal good humor. So Olver gives her one last dig about being too slow and tiny, then she outpaces a racehorse but gets cut down by a bunch of Trollocs anyway. Meanwhile the fierce and fearsome bigoted brat who was demeaning her right up until she saved his life like so many others before him sneaks off to hide in a hole until HE gets rescued by a Hero of the Horn. Frankly, I would trade Olver for Bela every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Fains conclusion was certainly anticlimactic and brief, but the only thing really bothersome about that is that he was strongly suggested throughout to be this huge new wildcard in the previously dualistic conflict but dismissed practically in passing. It felt a little misleading/disappointing, but I was not heavily invested in Fain, just curious about how it would unfold.

Killing Bela was just gratuitous slaughter for no reason except provoking a negative emotional response from readers. As noted in my thread on the subject, between that and Hoppers second death (which at least served some narrative purpose) I expected to be incidentally informed a runaway wagon in Emonds Field ran over Scratch, then backed up for another pass when the driver heard the screech. Faile keeps getting miraculously saved from certain death at the expense of brutally slaughtering characters I LIKE (i.e. Rolan, Hopper, Bela.) Guess Jordan ran out of flies with wings to remove.

Oh, and the Sharans role was MAJOR shenanigans after telling us in a Q&A that Shara would play no major role in the last book. Yeah, they were just the place Demandred was hiding and the sole reason Mats combined Westlands, Waste and Seanchan army did not just roll over the Shadowspawn instead of nearly being annihilated. Virtually ALL Lightside channelers were completely occupied with the Sharans for most of the book, but other than THAT their role was trivial.