The Wheel of Time series

Of course there is a lot which you wanna know, but when I laid down the book I had a happy feeling

I've reread this series from the start with every new book released since I started reading them about 17 years ago, and if you really comb through it, you will find answers to everything. Every time I reread it I find new things, in fact, I would say this series isn't actually at its best until the second or even third reading. I also read the "World of" book going into the backstories of everything but, honestly, almost all of that information is found in subtexts and/or subtle references made, especially ones made by the Forsaken. A lot of times they are just talking out how they are used to things being and indirectly reference extremely important events during the War of Power or the Age of Legends. I'm an extremely detail-oriented person, to the extent that I found most of the chapters going into ridiculous detail on inane topics such as "looking through a pile of garbage" to be almost softcore erotica.

Aside from the information that is available, rereading the entire series over and over also reveals a LOT about the laws of physics and basic rules of nature in their world. On my first reading, I assumed the Forsaken were basically the Dark One's ta'vern, which is sort of true, but at the same time, not.

 Spoiler

the Dark One, by nature, is prone to discarding people. I would say that, out of all the Forsaken, only Elan/Ishamael is an original "thread" from when the wheel was first erected, and even that I'm sketchy on. Of the rest, only one or two will have lasted more than a turning as a ta'vern, and none for more than ten; none of the rest of them lack the sort of convictions that are unique to Elan that the Dark One is actually looking for, the rest wanted something because they haven't suffered through a near infinite repeat as Elan has. The Dark One's goal is to completely erase everything, and that would grant Elan salvation in a sense. This much is obvious by the end of the 14th book, but what isn't quite as obvious is the fact that he is the only one to reference his LONG past lives; this is due to the fact that Elan's "thread" always spawns as a person with two key factors, a LOT of power and a HEAVY interest in philosophy. He is the only one of the potential Forsaken that is in the unique position to not only be an constant thread, but also to KNOW that he is a constant thread. I would theorize that a few others made it through a lot of turns as well before being culled out, and a lot of others will continue to go through that same process, but none of the current Forsaken were of that breed. Demandred is my best bet on the one with the most incarnations after Ishamael; the rest are missing too much, and Lews Therin's rival will NEED to be a semi-constant thread, or at least more constant than a one-turn thread.

 Spoiler

The Light's ta'vern work much differently, they are never discarded and CANNOT be discarded, even forcibly, as was shown with Birgitte. She was only scared because it had never happened, but even in an infinite cycle some slight deviations may happen that are unique that even an eternal being can't entirely forsee. Due to this, they are woven in as key threads MUCH less frequently; Jaim Farstrider was not woven in on this cycle, by the way, no new ta'vern were. That takes a ton of connecting the dots to get at but I can try and explain if someone is really interested beyond just me stating it, I'm just not really sure how I could do it without writing something even longer than this post due to the sheer number of references I would have to go over in order for it to make sense ;_;.

Another point I would like to add is, Min's power as a Doomseer is probably the BIGGEST reason why people should be reading this series multiple times, it gives answers to the most questions by far. And, if you didn't already catch on, the fact that she can do that means that THE PATTERN IS ALREADY FULLY WOVEN BEFORE EVENTS HAPPEN; that is the absolute biggest thing to take from this universe, EVERYTHING in this world is completely, 100% set in stone, and can not be changed no matter how hard you try, either for better or for worse. Her vision with Siuan that was a what if scenario was a misinterpretation; she mentioned the signs involved with it, and, me with my almost autistic desire to know everything about the world of my favorite series, I wrote down descriptions of every sign and how it reacted with every other sign that she described, and possibly even figured out what some meant that even she didn't know of by the series' end, such as one or two of them she got out of the people in Tuon's court during the Field of Merrilor that she didn't understand (one of which, Tuon almost killed the person on the spot for having just because it was the sign of a rival House), and noticed that she incorrectly associated the signs as "stay close to him or you will die" when in reality it was simply "you will die closely to him". She probably did this subconsciously because she didn't want Siuan to die, I assume.

The women in these books are...pretty strong figures, to say the least, and for someone like me, you would think that would automatically mean I would hate them, but I actually don't. Nynaeve actually shapes up to be quite a nice young lady by the end of the series, just took a bit of humbling from Egwene, a bit from Moghedien, a bit from various people, until finally she got the stick out of her ass. Elayne was kind of bitchy in the final books but, damn, she's pregnant, cut her some slack. Post war of power is DEFINITELY a Matriarchic society, and there ARE quite a few real assholes among them, but most of the main females were not bad people to me, even Cadsuane, who I actually like the most of all the women in the series. She and Sorilea made such a considerable impact when they worked together that without them I don't think the War could have ended in victory, but then, the same could be said for most of the characters, it all goes back to what I stated earlier in one of the spoilers, everything is simply a cog working toward the end.

 Spoiler

One other tidbit that you definitely couldn't pick up on right off the bat; the turns are NOT heavily related to one another. They CAN be, but they don't necessarily HAVE to be. Just because the Bore was dug because it was seen as an alternative source of power in this turn doesn't mean the same happened last turn or will next turn. All that matters is the END end result of each Age, almost everything else is a floating point aside from ta'vern (and by the way, it doesn't necessarily have to be the SAME ta'vern for each turn either). The Wheel predetermines the full turn before it even begins weaving it, meaning that the Wheel is an omnipotent being, there is simply no other explanation for that. And, given that it is an omnipotent being, and that the Dark One is ALSO an omnipotent being that is made as an exact equal in all terms with the Wheel, it would be like reading an infinite-dimension chess board infinite moves ahead on both sides; there will never be a winner, ever.

The only questions that remain to me are about Shara; they never had a huge presence, but I just can't equate them into the grand picture of this turn, I can't get a full timeline on them without any breaks, something is just missing there and it has irked me for years.

 Spoiler

I basically have a sketchy view of where they were after the Breaking, and a pretty strong view of where and what they are now, but I have NO IDEA where they came from, they just kind of appeared some time after Breaking and weren't referenced at all before it during the Age of Legends or even the War of Power. If I remember correctly, they are referenced later in the ter'angrael arch's visions in Rhuidean as "hostile", and are the reason the Aiel were forced to stay in the Waste instead of continuing east, but before that point, nothing. The entire world before the Breaking was connected via circuited Traveling stations that even non-channelers could use, so where the hell did those people come from when they weren't mentioned at all before? My only guess is they have some form of world traveling like the Ogier's Book of Translation, which they use to travel from their homeworld to the story's world in the Second Age and from the story's world back to their own world sometime after the Fifth Age if I recall. Even the wiki has no idea, and that has had some information even I didn't catch before. One thing I do know is, their culture is creepy as hell for a lot of reasons, far moreso than the Seanchan or any other culture in the books.