It is as out of place as him wondering whether it might be Aginor or Balthamel hiding in Lan's body.

To me it seems obvious that Brandon decided at some point (or assumed) that every male Forsaken was a swordsman. What's more, for Demandred to think that it would be impossible for anyone from the Third Age to be able to be as good as Lan, and that it therefore HAD to be someone from the Age of Legends is illogical.

At the Cleansing scene Demandred showed his perceptiveness. He knows that for the last 3000 years these folks have had no other way of fighting BUT with swords.

He knows that their elite fighters train practically from birth to be warriors. He would have seen the best warriors in Shara in his extensive time there as well.

The fact is, it is clear that a lot of the Forsaken had no skill with physical weapons whatsoever. Asmodean being a prime example.

For Demandred's first thought to be that Lan's ability signified that he could possibly be Asmodean of all people, rather than a highly skilled Third Age warrior, is ludicrous.

Demandred viewed the technogology, culture, One Power knowledge and intellectual achievements of the Age of Legends as superior to the barbarric Third Age practices. There is nothing to suggest - and in fact it is ILLOGICAL to suggest - that he viewed their hand to hand fighting skills in similar manner.

His very attitude at the Cleansing showed that if anything, he preferred to AVOID getting his hands dirty.

This was in my view a prime example of Brandon's utter lack of grasp of the finer intricacies of the Wheel of Time world.

In fact, I am prepared to state categorically that any of the longstanding Wotmania boardmembers - such as yourself and a number of others - would have been able to do a far better job with the characterisation of key roleplayers than Brandon did.

And that is surely a sad indictment of what this series has come to. In fact, I am prepared to state categorically that many of the old Wotmania members understood the charcterisation of the key roleplayers better than both Maria and Harriet as well.

Because the fact that they did not pick up on these things is just as big a travesty. Not to mention their understanding of the whole One Power system.

The entire final book read like a very bad case of fanfiction.

Even the wording used. When Demandred says:" Lews Therin will know me by a name I have SCORNED, Barid Bel" I mean, how utterly embarrassing is that?

That's a direct duplication of the very wording used in the Big White Book "Scorned". Wording used by scholars to describe the Forsaken actions. Brandon couldn't even add the subtlety of having Demandred use a different word, like "a name I have transcended, or a name I was once known by, or a name I have left behind"

The same with his description of Demandred having almost as much strength as Lews Therin, but matching him as a general.

That is as unsubtle a slap in the face as you can imagine. No effort went into adding some subtlety or nuance to it. It is simply replicating what's in the Big White Book.

I am too tired to keep on listing examples, but the point is I am deeply disappointed by the poor effort - both by the author and by the supposed custodians of Jordan's work - to stay true to his world, his characters and his legacy.