Criticizing the author for stating something that seems inconsistent with the way Forsaken treat the term Chosen isn't fan ficiton, it is criticism. Now I don't know if Forsaken was meant to imply the top 13 or 13 and change bad guys or the ones who specifically turned traitor, but the latter would also be weird since several weren't mid-war traitors, some didn't have honorary third names, and Semihirage and IIRC Aginor were already in bad odor. I'm saying RJ seems to have been a bit inconsistent, that's not much of criticism considering how consistent and coherent his world is compared to even most good SF/F authors. But also, as I said, it doesn't really matter as the specific definition for chosen isn't relevant. There was clearly an elite core, of which the Forsaken qualified as members, and that needn't mean it was an official ranking, the US cabinet makes up slots 4-18 on presidential succession but that hardly translates as the 5th-19th most powerful, scary, etc persons and it happens to include no generals or governors except occasionally ex-generals. Again it doesn't matter because we're not disputing (I assume) that the 13 Forsaken were very high ranking and that TP users were generally very high-ranking and that the overlap between the two is very high, if not necessarily 100%. People with access to the TP were out of the top tiers and while there could and probably would be exceptions if the DO felt it advantageous I feel like a lone buried agent getting access to the TP to taint Callandor is counter-indicated, especially considering that the guy would still likely need to go to Shayol Ghul to get the orders (and maybe even initial TP access) or would have to get those directions passed to him which, odds are, would be done by one of the DO's trusted aids who is also able to use the TP to bypass conventional OP security. The weight of evidence, admittedly conjecture, would seems to favor a high-ranking TP-wielding person being involved, or multiple, and it isn't that absurd to think that person or one of those persons was one of the 13 Forsaken or that they found out about it in whole or part.



It can be canon, like I said I'm not saying it wasn't said or that RJ cna't make canon but George Lucas makes canon too and it is often more than a bit inconsistent, well I feel RJ was inconsistent with his usage here, and again, I don't think it is pertinent, there can be a hundred thousand Chosen, there weren't a hundred thousand TP wielders. Accoridng to Moghedien it was 29, and I think that number stands as probably true, but even if it weren't 29, it's would have been near that, way less than 290, certainly not 29,000 or 290,000.