Good point about the wards, though wards directly in her palace is a little different than around her palace.

Ramshalan is the problem here, though. He just met with Rand and went through a gateway with him there. She would have questioned him and asked him what exactly the Dragon and he talked about. Rand's riddle would be very present on his mind. Not a lot of time has gone by since that talk and I believe (though I don't have the books in front of me) that Rand even notes that R is being especially chosen for this new assignment.

I do not think that she could at all have expected the balefire, though the massive amount of saidin building up before Rand released it is important if Aran'gar was present or if she did have wards; nor do I have an answer about the net of Compulsion (though I must admit that one post about dissipating weaves after delving intrigues me), BUT, I think what I (and others) are responding to is that Jordan wrote her far, far more intelligently than how the events leading up to her death add up.


Yes, the Forsaken are selfish and the ironies of their demises are a part of the story; but there is a marked difference in their voices between KoD and TGS and for something so long in the ending, having satisfying arcs and plots that are not character based is a let down.

I am actually a little worried about how he will characterize Lanfear/Cyndane. What makes the Forsaken such great villains is that they had dimension. In TGS Graendal was just a decadent, Moridin a bully, Demandred a sulker with bravado, Mesanna not even a researcher and Semirhage...well, that is a separate post.