I found the theory fascinating. And while you're right that the truly devious twists that were possible in this series were not taken, I also feel Jordan was clever with these things. In one sense, when you think of the repeating Patterns and the fact that all this plays again and agin every turning of the Wheel, but never identically, you've got to ask yourself: was Jordan going for multiple possible endings, all of which have many similar midpoints? I think several people had very plausible sounding endings to this series, and while the one that happened was the least inventive, I also found it somewhat surprising because RJ mixed up his devious and straightforward plot endings enough to leave things unpredictable.

And, of course, all these hints gave us the ability to theorize. WoT really is more about that than the ending, to me.Its great to have the ending, but the mid-point of the series, where there were so many possibilities... that was the best part for me.

As for Sanderson's execution of the final book, I'm with everyone on that. I've just dialed down the level of my criticism because this book makes it even clearer to me that Brandon really had a tough task, and the project became doomed the moment the books were split in 3. RJ was perfectly right that there was only one book left in the series. aMoL as the 14th book works so badly because its the third act of a single novel stretched out way too thin, and the way it was stretched out was with even more mind-numbing battles, rather than character moments.

I'd have loved it if we got final meetings between Moiraine and Siuan, Rand and Egwene, Egwene and Elayne, and so on, in place of yet another badly written battle. But it seems clear Sanderson just couldn't match the depth of expectation the fans had built around these meetings. The greatest draw for me with the last books was a chance to see how these characters that have changed so much react to each other.

I was burning to see a scene between Egwene and Rand, for example, where they both acknowledge (maybe only to themselves) how similar their jobs are, and how amazing it is that they've come to this point. It would have been a wonderful cap to a parallel arc that split way back in LoC. We never really got that.

Siuan's death would have had so much more depth if we had a scene with Moiraine, where they talked about how they were both looking forward to the end of their self-appointed task, and their mutual surprise that they had found the princes they had imagined in their youth after all. How much more would Siuan's death have affected us with a scene like that.

All that was not there, and given the atrocious handling of Moiraine's arrival at Merrilor and her intervention between Egwene and Rand, I'm almost thankful. Brandon can never get these characters enough to manage the needed depth for their meetings. I'd rather just imagine these, now.