The taint cleansing method was teased briefly in a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment in ACoS. Basically, Rand discovers that the taint and Mashadar both repel each other, being two different kinds of evil. Using the choden kal, Rand then funnels the male half of the source into Mashadar, which causes the taint to slide off. Having nowhere else to go, the taint clings to Mashadar, and they destroy each other in that big black hole thing. Thank you, WoT wiki

I forgot how Mat was raped. Repeatedly. And everyone just kinda brushes it off. I wouldn't dismiss Far Madding like that, that entire sequence was fucked up and made me really feel for my bro Rand.

Would just like to point out that Far Madding had two Ter'angreal that blocked channeling in city limits(one for each half of the power). It wasn't built on a stedding.

good job. cleansing of saidin is one of my favorite moments of the series.

That book and a half of waiting is definitely the biggest problem I had with the Wheel of Time as a whole. I thought the ending of Winter's Heart redeemed the book a bit overall.

I did not really see what happened between Mat and Tylin as rape back when I first read it. They’ve hooked up before and Mat was also fond of her. But loooking over it now, it was clearly abusive use of power and Mat repeatedly made it clear he wasn’t interested in continuing the relationship like that. Rape doesn’t have to be violent and bloody to e considered as rape . Guess my younger self didn’t really recognize what actually happened with Mat at the time

RE the forsaken not already trying to kill Rand. In LoC the forsaken were told to let the lord of chaos rule so they were not really trying to kill him up to this point (except for those that Rand attempted to kill them). There is always scheming of the forsaken but as far as i remember the only orders were to kill Matt and Perrin.

No, the Dark One wanted to turn Rand; from what I understand, that is the only way he can truly win.

Shadar logoth, while still evil, hates the Dark one. As such, by connecting Saidin and Shadar logoth with a Saidar conduit, the two powers cancelled out. The alterantive would have been an enormous quantity of taint being poured into the world, driving anyone nearby insane.

I digest these books about 1 per year. Starting book 10 now and I really appreciate I can go back to Daniel's summary videos to remember wtf was happening.

The point of the Forsaken not killing Rand is pretty obvious. Moridin lays out the philosophy during his board game in the prior book, which Daniel forgot to mention. You see, it was only a thematically revealing incident, with the single best explanation we get of Moridin's character and motives until the very end of the series, and hints about the end game and the purpose of the Dragon. But it does NOT have battle or humor or melodrama, so it's pretty easy to see why Daniel would not think it worth mentioning. Ishamael/Ba'alzamon/Moridin sees Rand as the central figure in the game, and believes the game was inspired by memories of the Dragon from another age. The game is like stones or go or chess or checkers, where you manuever your pieces to eliminate your opponents, but the central figure, the Fisher, is a piece that both sides can use, and the game centers around fighting for control over the FIsher. Without the Fisher in the game there is only one way to win, and Moridin recalls that the last time he tried that, the game degenerated into a bloody mess. So the lesson is that Moridin does not want to kill Rand, he wants to use Rand to achieve the Dark One's victory. Part of it is selfish, in that if the Dark One has Rand, Moridin becomes unecessary and can be allowed to die for good, but part of it is because that is the best way for the Dark One to win. In Wheel of Time, the struggle between the Light and Shadow is not about power or feats of arms or tactics. It is about moral strength, and unity and belief. The Dark One affects the world through a reinforcing feedback of corruption. The more evil people behave, the more influence the Dark One gains, so he can encourge people to succumb to even greater depths of evil and so on. We see this at work in the Forsaken, how wherever a Forsaken is in control, the behavior of the people is affected. Rahvin turned the people of Caemlyn paranoid and scheming. Sammael filled the people of Illain with anger and violence. Bel'al drove the Tairens to dispair. Mesaana broke down peoples' sense of order until they were wallowing in their own filth and resisting all efforts to make them clean up the city. These things, long term, would drive people to commit and accept increasing degrees of evil. Now imagine those effects, only a powerful ta'veren is causing them, so they are exponentially greater! If the Dragon gives himself up the Dark One, the Shadow has the greatest possible tool for bending threads to the Shadow. If the Dragon dies, the Shadow probably has to destroy all of society to get the effect Shai'tan wants. And if there is no one left to torment, that's no fun.

Hey, a short criticism on my part here - as a first time reader of the series, I do feel a little bit spoiled for some things to come. What I'm referring to was the mentioning of what's about to happen with Taim, where the Perin v Shaido storyline is going and I've felt the same way during your Path of Daggers summary, where you went into events that took place in Winter's Heart. Obviously those are no major spoilers but I love finding out everything on my own in due time. Anyway, I hope you find this comment constructive - I really do enjoy the channel - I've read the first 6 books of the series 10 years ago(then life happened) and your summaries on them helped me get back into the series straight back into Crown of Swords. And apparently, as all the few youtubers I've watched make summaries for wheel of time, into the "slog" :D. I do still enjoy the world Jordan has built so much that I feel like I'm having an easier time going through it, however, which has me so hyped for the last 4 books, though I fear I might have to watch your summaries after I'm done with the entire series. Great channel, however - you've won me over and I'll definitely go with recommendations for fantasy book series from you once I'm done with the WoT.

I believe they label the reason for using Shadar Logoth to cleanse the taint (love the giggities ;) ) was because Rand needed a conduit to funnel the taint through. Similar to Oil and Water, the other type of Evil that killed Shadar Logoth was using to sluice off the evil of the Dark One, and thus Saidin emerged cleansed at last thanks to a nuclear funnel

Corrections: - No member of the Black Ajah renounces her allegiance or wants to return. Talene, who is the Sitter caught by her colleagues, is tortured into foreswearing all Oaths with the Oath Rod, and then confesses her allegiance and starts sharing her knowledge, because she is forced to, and made to swear obedience to the hunters who caught her out. She does not “convey a message” about Elaida, when she hears her captors discussing bringing news of their findings to Elaida, she blurts out that they are dead meat if they do, because she believes Elaida is Black. Her evidence is that the Black Ajah leadership knows everything that goes on in her study, even in secret meetings, not realizing Alviarin is the source, rather than Elaida. - That incident does not at all show how unstable and crazy the situation is. It simply highlights the miscommunication theme that has been present in the books since day one. - The Black sisters “have fear” because their organization murders people with little to no cause, and any mistake can get you horrible tortured to death. The Blacks’ situation is no more dysfunctional than at any other time we know of. - Taim is NOT present for Elayne & Aviendha’s adoption. Elayne is summoned from a meeting where Taim is present, but he is NOT present for the intimate revelations or discussions. - Taim is probably not going insane, since he has been recruited by the Forsaken and likely is protected from the Taint. He is also not an intrusive presence who makes a lot of people uncomfortable. The only times we see him from here through the end of Jordan’s books, is in the Black Tower, and he is at the meeting with Elayne, because she summoned him. People are afraid of him because he is a male channeler with a history of terrorism. - Each member of the Black Tower has NOT taken a side. Gabrelle and Toveine discuss the situation in this book, saying explicitly that there are many men who are unaware of any factions or differences between them. This book takes place shortly after Logain bonded Toveine, and one of Logain’s own followers was unaware of any division at the time. - The description of Perrin’s & Faile’s stories were so off-base, I addressed them in a separate comment. - Rand has only told Min about his plans to cleanse the Taint. - I don’t know if Daniel means most readers bought the fake assassination as being real or if he means most people in the books, but of the major characters in Elayne’s plotline, NO ONE was fooled. When Elayne wakes up, the evidence that the assassination was a fake is obvious that Elayne does not feel compelled to mention it out loud, since Nynaeve, Birgitte & Aviendha have all clearly come to the same conclusion, and we later on learn that Master Norry & Mistress Harfor are also aware of it as well. - Daved Hanlon, whom Elayne et al know as Doilan Mellar, does NOT start filling up her bodyguard with supporters and henchmen, for the very simple fact that he is not in charge of recruiting or personnel selection. That is Birgitte, who is not going to let anyone else make critical judgments concerning Elayne’s safety. And also, they don’t trust him, because it is blindingly obvious to the whole group that he is an infiltrator. He will later make some comments lobbying to be allowed to take charge of staffing the bodyguard and others disparaging his current subordinates, but they don’t go along with it, because they are not stupid. - Rand & Nynaeve’s discussion does not cause Nynaeve to “eventually agrees”. Nynaeve agrees from the first that she will help him cleanse the Taint. What they argue about is her coming with Rand. He intended to leave the access keys with her and come back when it was time for the Cleansing, but she argued that she should come with him. That ended when Elayne walked in on them and Rand said “It seems you win the argument, Nynaeve.” Before he goes off with his girlfriends, he even repeats himself that she won. - “Numb” and “in pain” mean the opposite to each other. - The Borderlander army is not within Elayne’s country. They deliberately stopped outside the country. - The Forsaken were specifically told not to kill Rand in prior books. It is mentioned a lot, although not in any of Daniel’s out of sequence, factually incorrect summaries. They do not decide that now he needs to die, they are ordered to stop him at all costs. If you are not a moron (so this explains Daniel), it should be obvious why their plans have abruptly changed, because now Rand is threatening to undo the greatest blow the Dark One ever struck at the world! So, yeah. No matter what subtle long term strategy you’re working on, a threat to your biggest weapon, which will remove a major handicap for the good guys and a major incentive to join the bad guys, is GOING to cause you to rethink stuff.

I like how you look different in every video. Like sometimes you look so polished, sometimes you look you just put on whatever clothes you found. It's adorable. But really, awesome summaries! Thanks!

I love that you made these! I’ve been working through wheel of time and I love looking for your videos once I’m done with a book so I can lock in the important bits. This book in particular has a TON of characters. It’s hard to keep them straight but this video helps. :)

I have so far enjoyed every Wheel of Time installment. One thing i noticed about Winter's Heart, though, which goes along with the slightly botched pacing and storytelling, is the amount of typos! I don't know why, but typos bug the hell out of me! And there is a mountain of typos in this one! Misplacements of "though" and "thought", for example, and prepositions left out, they just scream at me when I read. This leads me to believe that Winter's Heart was written a bit more hastily than the previous ones. I still love the series though. It has been a great companion for the last year. It's hard to believe I am nine books down and still have five more! What an undertaking! I can't imagine the amount of time required to write something so monumental. Thank you Daniel , I watch your vids after each and every book to cement the complex and gigantic storyline in my head for better continuity. Love your summaries!

I thought it was Cadsuane who uses the power to intimidate the Far Madding council, not Nyaneve.

I'm reading the series for the first time thanks to you! I just got done with this book and I have to say I was really disappointed with what he did with Elaine. She was one of my favorite female pov characters. But she's so stubborn and dumb about rand and caimlin. He literally heard your mom was executed fought and killed ravine. Took her city back and held it for her. And she just bitched at him for it. Dumb

I just finished reading this book. It was a bit of a slog trying to finish it. I had read a synopsis and knew of the cleansing, so that kept me reading. Glad I'm not the only one who felt the story was disjointed. I plan to save your future reviews so I can listen to them after finishing a book. Thanks for this

I feel like he did this summary from a two year old memory of the books 🤧

My biggest problem with the book is the pacing. Just when I start getting into one of the plots, it changes to another. Also, Mat was not really necessary in this book

Thanks for editing out the spoilers. You’re the man.

I appreciate your reviews, and thanks for doing them. I’m curious though if you re-read each one before doing these summaries. I just finished Winter’s Heart and there are a ton of inaccuracies with this summary, especially regarding character emotions and driving factors. Again, thanks for putting these out but perhaps state at the beginning (for any other series that you do) that it’s been X number of months and you may accidentally reveal spoilers or get important plot points wrong. One example, the Forsaken were not always trying to kill Rand, and the Dark One had in fact instructed them to not do so - he wanted the Dragon to convert and become one of his followers. Another: it was Cadsuane who got Rand out of prison (Nynaeve had a small part in this, and used the remaining power in her ter’angreal to heal Lan and Rand) and she was a major character in this book who influenced Rand - which you pretty much left out entirely.

Far Madding is not built on a steading, there are Ter'Angreal that achieve the similar method that are collectively called the Guardian.

the reason Rand goes to this city is because two of the Ashaman who tried to kil him and Min were there

Those noises scared me at first... thought one of my chat programs was going off, then looked at vid and saw the text appear. Again... another awesome vid.

I think this book was trying to emphasize the fact that Rand's battle was going to be much more an Avenger's kind of scenario, rather than "Just Rand" or "Just Rand, Perrin, and Mat". Cadsuane is much more cemented as vital to Rand and someone he can trust, a moraine figure, as opposed to someone he is never sure of. And Far Madding was a further development of the "relationship" between Moridin and Rand, and revealing of the Rot within the Black Tower.

One thing I never see about Rand cleaning the taint from the One Power is the fact that he had to channel all of Siadin(sp?) into Shadar Logoth, which means that he had to channel all of the taint through himself as well. This is why Rand went from being mostly sane to absolutely batshit crazy in a matter of weeks.

Also, thanks for the reviews, I just finished the series after 22 something years. Loved it and your reviews are helping put the entire context in my head so i can enjoy the ending even more.

after my 5th read-through, you didn't read this book closely. An objective 3 month look, RJ made plenty enough sense. The timeline jumped forward hard in book two, it caught up hard in 9-11

Up into this point in the story I have always thought that the forsaken were more concerned with turning him to the dark instead of killing him but once he decides that to cleanse the source they move to kill him

Sweet!!! Thank you SO much for doing this series, I absolutely love your summaries

I could get through the book thanks to my mate Mat. Currently reading Crossroad of Twilight and can't wait to get to the end of the slog, indeed. I know it'll be worth it.

Thank you so much for these videos man without them I probably would’ve failed some of my essays in school

Would also like to point out that it was Cadsuane that presented the use of the one power in the steading instead of Nynaeve. I don’t remember if you said before if you were going to talk about Cadsuane or not but I can’t remember hearing about her in the videos.

Love these summaries. I wanted to do a Re read but just don’t have the time. Love the intensity of your passion for this great series... can see it in your eyes and body language how much you love this series.

It's a weird back and forth with the "killing Rand" issue as both The Dark One and different forsaken want him to join them and have a murder-boner to kill him... I don't think it's a failure in the writing, but it could have been more clear

Only a couple of the forsaken have actually tried to kill him. if you recall, The Dark One specifically tells Demandred to "let chaos rule", and other of them have specifically been told to not kill ran, but to kill perrin and Matt.

Having the Dragon reborn arrested and placed in prison doesn't seem out of place at all, considering how polarizing every one feels towards him and how he's treated through out. Since he can't channel in the city, it doesn't matter how strong and powerful he is. He is the most valuable bargaining chip. If anything it develops his character further by making him and the audience revisit his most traumatic experience. I really don't understand why you see a problem with this. I think the last 30% of this book is nothing less than Jordan's peak writing.

Few things I think should have been added IMO: Osan'gar dying in the battle. Dont know if Aginor is reincarnated again, but I think a forsaken's death should not have been left out. Some of Cyndane's thoughts about her and Alivia's strength in the one power and how she was drained by the people in the doorframe. (I have already spoiled myself something down the line, but still think this is worthy enough, as before Lanfear was considered even as strong as Ishamael and opens for a bit of speculation what actually happendd to her and Moiraine). Berelaine kind of breaks the mask she has been wearing until now in front of Perin. Eleine is pregnant with Rand's child Disclaimer: reading the books in another language might have caused some errors in some of the names I wrote in this comment.

OMG 2 in the same month, at this rate you will be done by Christmas!

Daniel thx again great summary. On a side note you said you did not understand why the foresaken suddenly made it a priroity to kill Rand. Well i think this is for few reasons. One the foresaken are using Rand to kill each other off as whichever foresaken survies will be the right hand man/women of the dark one, lust for power this is the trait of evil. Two if Rand cleanses the power source then the foresaken will have more enemies, at least with it tainted there enemoes among the men who cam channel will go crazy and can be manipulated, therfore Rand has become more of an issue now.

thank you for making these videos.. I like to watch every time I finish a book I think the wot is a good series . A lot of extra detail fluff tho.. I quit reading years ago around book 7/8 now started over 😆

-They went to Far Madding I believe because Rand received a letter telling him the traitor Ash'aman are waiting for him there, so he has to eliminate that threat before he starts cleansing saidin. -Far Madding isn't built in a stedding, it has a huge ter'angreal that blocks channeling. -the Forsaken were not unified in the idea to kill Rand before their meeting in this book. Many of them had their own machinations which revolved around gaining more power by undermining other Forsaken, and also there was an idea and a goal to convert Rand throughout the series up to this point. -he was in fact saved from Far Madding by Cadsuane. She plays a big roll in the latter half of this book, both in the cleansing and in the negotiations to free Rand. -they chose Shadar Logoth because it is a different evil than the Dark One, and the two neutralise eachother, as hinted at previously by Rand's wound and by Padan Fain's being.

This is something I'm hoping they get right in the Amazon show. Make it FEEL as impactful as it did in the books, where some cultures start to just commit mass suicide because the amount of the One Power they're feeling is so INSANE. I have high hopes for the show and I think Rafe knows what he's doing, and has better experience after the chaos of 2021. Please. Make. This. Feel. Epic. Because when I was done reading this book I had to wipe my eyes a few times (even having expected the books to go in this way) it just felt so damn impactful. 🙏Please Amazon, do ya boys and gals a favor here.

At one point you say werent the forsaken trying to kill Rand anyway but werent they warned not to do that and to instead "let the lord of chaos reign" isnt that why Moroden helps against Samiel?They wanted to turn him to there side IIRC.

I love everything you do for the wheel of time community! But the forsaken before this book were not trying to kill him, at first ishamel was back in books 1 and 2 but after that it was their goal to convert him to the dark one for a short time after that more were trying to kill him again until the dark one told the forsaken they needed to focus on letting chaos loose on the world and to not focus on targeting rand, but again that changed when they realized what rand was trying to cleanse the male source and they were forced to try and kill him again

caudesuane took the tiara of the council womans head, nyneave put it back on. nyneave used her well previously to put rand and lan on top of the building to kill the rouge ashamen which is why they where in far madding. not much of a plot hole since the end of the previous book was the ashamen blowing up his apartment in the sun palace. it was also said that tiem is behind the assassination attempt

On my first read through, and if WH is largely considered the “worst one”, we gone be aight. Not remotely as agonizing a task as Feast For Crows was IMO. Excited to delve into the latter half!

Why would they "suddenly want to kill him"? Well it would have to do about their plans to do so prior. Knowing what someone else is planning, can give you an opportunity for a better/sooner plan than you thought possible. Or, it can make the threat more urgent (you thought you had a year but it turns out you have a week).

It was the Guardian ter'angreal in Far Madding that prevented channeling. Rand chose Shadar Logoth to cleanse Saidin because he got the idea from how the two wounds in his side reacted to eachother. So the SL evil could be used to skim off the taint.

Great progress on the videos. Do you plan on doing a summary of new spring?

This is now my third reading of the books so while I obviously enjoy it, there are indeed flaws to Jordan's writing style. One drawback that I will highlight is the way he presents dialog. His consistent format is for one character to say something to another, and then you have to read one or more paragraphs of dross before the second character reacts or responds. There just is no reading with a conversational flow. Luckily I am aware of this habit so that I skip to the next quote.

Up to this point, since book 6, The Forsaken have been given specific orders from the dark one NOT to KILL RAND.

I thought this was a good book and extremely important in the series... Rand gets bonded to Min, Elaine, and Avienda. He impregnates Elaine. She returns to Andor. Matt finds the daughter of the 9 moons. Taim is confirmed evil, Logane's redemption arch begins, (and much more) But most importantly, he cleanses Saidin... This could be the most important book so far. I'm listening for about 12-16 hours a day while working/commuting, so it doesn't feel like a slog whatsoever.

I liked the book apart from the Perrin storyline, which is sad as he is normally my favorite character. Hearing its going to take a book and a half to fix this mess is depressing. I'm guessing the various convoluted enemies don't streamline into a clear story soon either. If I could change something it would have been not having the Seanchan or dragonsworn. There is enough drama with Shaido, the white tower, the black tower, the Dark One, Forsaken, resurrected forsaken (why isn't liking them once enough?), the sea folk and several random national armies in the north and west.

Readers’ shallow need for cheap gratification does not constitute a mistake on the author’s part. For Perrin to take on a small army of Aiel and win would be a betrayal of the world-building and detail-oriented storytelling. In the Doylist sense, Faile was made a prisoner, to force Perrin to grow as a character. If he’s just going to win another easy conflict, what does he learn? He’s been a bit detached from his mission to date, because it’s not HIS mission, it’s just a favor he’s doing for Rand. Faile getting taken makes the mission his, and makes him fully invested. From another standpoint, Perrin has been Refusing the Call for far too long. He wants to be the sort of leader we see in shallow fantasy stories, the one who is a regular guy, who works with his hands and hangs with the common folk and steps up to take command in a crisis. Faile has been trying to teach him the proper method of leadership, and that it’s a 24/7 thing, not a hat you can take on and off when it suits you. But Perrin is so sure he knows his people better than some noble-born woman, and he won’t take her instruction, so the Pattern has her taken away from him to force him to take the reins properly. Leadership in the later books of Wheel of Time is shown to be a matter of attention to detail and preparation, not having the best ideas or being willing to do the crazy thing that the old farts claim is impossible. In Mat’s story, in Elayne’s and in Perrin’s, we see their achievements in Knife of Dreams occur because of preparations and skull sweat that happened much earlier in the story. The title of the book references a quote about the narrow margin between victory and defeat. It’s those preparations and unglamorous details that change defeat into victory. They may make immature or blind readers impatient and waiting for the next big action set piece to occur, but they are still part of the story. And Perrin’s story is about learning how to be the best leader he can, by piling on the leadership challenges. Telling people “See those bad guys over there? Hit them until they are all dead,” or “The object of our quest is being kept here, so we are going to take this route to get to it,” is low level stuff. In a real world army, that’s for sergeants and low-ranking officers. Perrin is supposed to be a general and they don’t really fight. Nowadays they sit in offices or command centers and discuss moving supplies and resources around and signing off on schedules. Because that’s what is REALLY important. There is a military aphorism “Amateurs study tactics, dilettantes study strategy, professionals study logistics.” Perrin had his day as an amateur in the Two Rivers and Cairhien. Now it’s time for him to step up and be a professional. He had his fun in the field in the early books. But now he is the equivalent of a general. As Gareth Bryne is quoted in the next book “An army is a general’s sword and a general who uses another blade has mistaken the job.” It’s not an accident that at the end of that book, Egwene picks up a blade and promptly gets captured, leaving her army in the lurch. But Daniel would rather read about a video game where advancment and growth merely means getting a greater capacity to perform stunts and score kills. That’s fine, but that’s not, and never has been, Wheel of Time.

The sudden need to kill Rand is because the Forsaken had been instructed to either turn Rand to their or kill him. But killing him was only if he seemed to not want to turn. Or so I was led to think

Daniel think he slick at 11:24

err just a question since to be honest ive never talked or heard anyone else talk about wheel of time but where are you getting your pronounciations? mainly the way you say saidin as said-en as i always thought it would be said-in (sorry really hard to talk prounciation through typing)

Can you guys help me here? The cleansing takes places in Shagar Logoth or in the places with the big statues with orbs? And Nyna and Rand are channeling from the same place or from different locations?

I know this video is 4 years old. But in Far Madding, Nynaeve was not showing that she could channel. Yes, she was the one channeling but they were pretending it was the Ashaman that was channeling. Thus implying Far Madding was not protected from male channelers anymore, and that they just imprisoned the Dragon, a male channeler, in their dungeons.

I kind of got the impression that although the forsaken wanted to kill Rand at some point. They all had their own motivations and some were more wrapped up in other intrests outside of killing Rand. The cleansing just added some urgency to it.

Killing rand or letting him live a lot of that has to do with which darkfriend is in the plot because some want him dead,some want to control him and some want to leave him alone or wven help him. Its confusing but their are a lot of forsaken,dark friends the dark ones or even groups that are bad for rand but not necessarily badbthey just have goals that dont mesh with him like the white cloaks or Seachan its just a large complicated and even frustrating story. Not saying its bad but thats what it is.

So how legal exactly would it be for Rand to marry all three of his lovers? The only society that seems okay with polygamy are the Aiel, yet Elayne never actually thinks about it in legal terms. Don't the Wetlands have some sort of laws that dictate what constitutes as marriage and what doesn't? Would she have to first legalize it in Andor in general? And wouldn't that be a possible cause of a riot or sth? I get why Rand and Avi don't put much thought into it (though, ironically, Avi's the only one of the three to question the logistics of the situation at some point), and maybe Min too to a certain extent... but Elayne? Ugh, this question bothered me so much when I was reading the series

Any spoilers in this summary for book 10? Or obvious foreshadowing of book 10?

For most of the book, the forsaken wanted to turn Rand to the dark one as much as kill him. Also, Rand knew fain was in far madding and wanted him dead. He realized the danger that fain was at this time.

9:18 Wasn't Far Madding centered round a ter'angreal that suppresses the Power and points to where the Power is being used?

Winter’s Heart was okay for me and Crossroad was..I’ll pretend the latter doesn’t exist but Daniel your review was excellent 💯

Book 9 has been my favorite book so far, it was the first one that felt like things actually happened before the last 2 hours. Oh well, guess my taste is off lol

11:25 random quagmire

The taint absolutely does not come from Shadar Logoth, at all. It's not related, at all. The whole history of the place is that it's a different evil, created when they choose, in the past, to fight evil with evil. (Which gave birth to Mordreth/Mashadar, and later infected/mixed with Padan Fain). But releasing the taint there will protect the outside world from it, that's the hope at least. Rand cleanse Saidin, but he needed Nynaeve to link with him to activate the male and female gigantic s'angreals through their keys, to unleash a thingy (considered as a kind of weapon), which exact name I forgot (it's named several times in the second part of the book, and the last chapters). Nuclear, not noculear, ffs!🤦🏼‍♀️

At one point, The Great Lord of the Dark forbade The Chosen to kill Lews Therin Telamond. With the cleansing of Saidin, it may have forced The Great Lord of the Dark to kill The Dragon Reborn.

Corrections from 7:20 to the end: - Tylin is still the Queen, her nobility among the Seanchan is an added reward for serving the Empire. And she does, in fact, rule her lands, and her control and power is increased, except now she has to answer to the Crystal Throne. - Tylin does not refuse to sell Mat because she does not want to part with him, she tells Tuon that she can’t sell him, because he is not a slave. - Daniel keeps saying Mat survives the gholam because of his amazing skill. He displays no such skills. His one advantage is the medallion, and he survives this time by the intervention of Noal, who makes the gholam think a crowd will be showing up, and it has orders to avoid being seen. - Mat does not take his large party to escape because of the gholam. He was negotiating his exit plan with Valan Luca before the gholam attacked, and he was already working on his escape, he just kept having to add more people to the escape plan. The gholam does not change Mat’s motives at all, it just elevates the tension. - Far Madding is not built on an Ogier stedding. It is protected by a ter’angreal. We know this because there is a whole chapter where the PoV character, along with Aes Sedai to explain stuff, visits the building where the ter’angreal is kept and observes it in action. - “I don’t understand this.” “It felt unnecessary.” If you don’t understand something, you are the last person in the world who should be determining whether or not something is unnecessary. The point of the Far Madding sojourn was to show Rand’s skewed priorities and what his limitations are. Daniel would rather focus on his “unbelievable power” and giggle over displays of that power. The whole point of Rand’s arc is that the Dragon Reborn is an ordinary man. He is not invincible or special, and he knows that he is taking incredible risks being in Far Madding, but he’s looking for revenge against people who tried to kill him and keeps wasting a lot of time in a vulnerable position because he won’t let it go. He even realizes this and tells Lan as much and gives in and asks Cadsuane for help and apologizes to her (nice job leaving their confrontation out of the last book summary, Danny boy), but then he gets a letter serving up his last two foes, and can’t resist going back to finish them off. THAT’S the point, that Rand is making mistakes and focusing on petty stuff, rather than what he should be doing. - The purpose of the Far Madding sojourn is for Rand to get captured and to suffer and to take the wrong lessons away from the whole bit. Rand has been hardening himself and dehumanizing himself in response to all the trauma he is suffering, and he does it a whole lot more to cope with the claustrophobia flashbacks to the Aes Sedai chest (and possibly embarrassment of his blunder), and comes away feeling grateful to Far Madding for pushing him even further down the path of spiritual incapacity. And at the same time, we get humanizing moments that make us care about him instead of writing him off, like his re-contextualizing his relationships in light of the Warder bonds and refusing to let Lan fall alone. The former gives a light at the end of the tunnel that will help him find his way back and the latter shows that his redemption is worth rooting for. But Daniel is only here to see him level up and kick ass, so the heck with all that nonsense. - Nynaeve does NOT get Rand out. Cadsuane does. Nynaeve makes it look like an Asha’man is channeling, so the leaders of Far Madding believe they have no protection against Rand’s followers. If Nynaeve had revealed herself as the channeler, they could have killed her and hushed it up. Also, she does not drain her Well. Caduane thinks she will if she is so careless with the Power, but Nynaeve never actually says she’s run out. - The people Rand and Nynaeve take with them to the cleansing do not, at any point, make shields to protect them. The only one who even tries is Verin, who makes a shield to capture Graendal, not protect anything. - What they are doing at Shadar Logoth is not a ceremony, it is a working of the One Power. If you don’t know why they did it there, you are too ignorant of The Wheel of Time to be making 800 videos on the topic. - Shadar Logoth is NOT the source of the taint on saidin. - Shadar Logoth is chosen, because the taint on saidin is in opposition to the taint of Shadar Logoth. It has been repeatedly mentioned in the books that Shadar Logoth is as hostile to the Shadow as it is to the Light, and we saw that with Rand’s wounds, how they were trying to destroy one another instead of him. And that’s what Rand does on a bigger scale. He forces the taint on the Power into contact with the taint on Shadar Logoth and they destroy each other, and the city ruins for good measure. - NO body ever puts two and two together and associates the vast amounts of Power being used with the taint being removed from the One Power. Logain actively denies any correlation between the two events and goes around telling people that the Creator intervened to cleanse the taint and refuses to accept that Rand did it. There is never any change in the Black Tower shown in the series proper. - What is the source that states Jordan was in poor health when he wrote this book? He was not diagnosed with amyloidosis until after Knife of Dreams (and Crossroads of Twilight) were published. Winter’s Heart was published in November 2000, which means Jordan was writing it in 1999 & 2000. He had a checkup in late 2005 or early 2006, when he learned of his illness. - “I could be completely wrong…” Daniel Greene’s thematic statement. - Daniel says that after the slog of WH & CoT you get the best bookS, plural in the series. There was only one readable book in the series after those two, and then a fan fiction pastiche trilogy that walked back most of the character arcs, when it did not jettison them all together.

I don’t like that I got the marriage ceremony spoiled for me. If all these videos have spoilers for later videos I’m gonna stop watching these summaries.

If I hear "cleanse the taint" one more time... I guess Mashadar is basically the bidet of the magical world.

Love these reviews. Thanks so much. If you can't get enough of Wheel of Time check out WoT Spoilers podcast. The do chapter by chapter reviews of the books with full spoiler discussions for those who've already read the series.

"She's muh waf"

How many Aes sedai do you need to cleanse the Saidin ?? Only one. Nynaeve :3

Didn't he go to Far Madding to specifically kill Fain and the guys who tried to kill him before?

Good dont spoil things

no slog for me, i liked it. looking forward to the rest. i'm just glad that the ies adia are finally starting not to be such biatches and are becoming more likable(a little). they have been static nags up to this point i believe. nice to see them finally kick some ass with rand.

Why the hell no one cared or believed that Rand cleansed saidin? This bothers me so much, the fact that the greatest taveren in the history of this universe (greatest even than hawkwing) doesn't receive the credits for his own achievements.

The plot line of doom starts

"Bunch of things that were not consentual". It's called rape.

Cadsune saved Rand from Far Madding nobles. And Rand killed 4 Dreadlord in there you missed it.

who is failes aiel love intrest?

The captured Faile story is painfully slow. I was almost tempted at this point to skip chunks. I didn't but it was close.

@7:02 This is part of the reason I say WoT is sort of like anime, or long form cartoons/comics. The forsaken aren't really a threat, because they aren't unified in their goal. At the outset you had Isha'mael who was insane, thus not a good leader. As more were released they fought among themselves, and when Isha'mael returned as Moridin he still stifles them. He even says to Rand that he could "throttle Semirhage for what she did" in attempting to kill him. It's this tired trope where the bad guys constantly have to fight and compete with themselves for petty reasons. There is the whole "you will serve the dark one!" theme that Isha'mael kept saying, but eh.. that's kinda lame. It's stuff like this that will make people turn their nose up if it appears in the TV series. See, Game of Thrones is too good for that sort of thing... /sarcasm

So do major fans of this series acknowledge how boring this book is?

Multiple folks point out that they were instructed to not kill Rand. But to me, this is got to be one of the dumbest plot holes in the entire series. Especially when multiple of them do try and fight him anyways. It reminds me of Jedi running into storm troopers and the whole audience knows they will never even be grazed by the guns they shoot with. It is DUMB and lackluster, and really takes away from the whole god damn story. And last I checked, these people swore oaths that they then broke. That's their whole biography. So WTF are u people talking about? AND you know what none of u mentioned? Lanfear. Because Lanfear directly contradicts what you are all saying. Lanfear has her own motives, just like all the forsaken. The idea that they would all obey and not try and take out their biggest rival for power, is implausible. It's plot armor, and it's bad plot armor. See any period of any society in history for examples. People do what they need to to acquire power. They aren't gonna just stop now. Now that I'm out of prison after what, thousands of years?! Yeah first thing I'm doing is dying so that I can take orders super specifically, sure, that's why they're called the forsaken right? That makes sense. Logical inconsistencies exist folks. Every author makes mistakes, and this is Jordan's biggest. You might as well soak up any real tension when Rand's life is in danger forever. Not one scene has you thinking he might not make it out of this, because of this really really really bad plot armor. Good luck defending it, I know you will. You shouldn't though. The great thing about history, and basing stories on history, is that the people you want to keep living, the people you think, NEED to keep on living, they often take a stray arrow, develop a fever, are poisoned, or some other thing, and that's how the cookie crumbles. Oh well. It feels so forced...ughhhh. Biggest turn off in fantasy, characters that are so central, that there's no danger of anything bad happening, until they aren't that central anymore. You know what happened with the mongols? The khan died, and so they turned around to vote for a new one. That's why they stopped at eastern europe. Reality. And guess what, they don't all need to die to serve some amazing higher purpose with their death. Most people, just die.

I really like your videos, but this time it's all mixed up. Logain and his Aes Sedai have a connection that forces them to do what he orders. Fabra and Adrol, much later, are the ones having special bond - anf that's because they have a double bond (they both bonded each other). Logain's bonds are normal warder bonds, with an addition of his Aes Sedai being forced to his will, and it's really ugly. and - why do you say a warder don't feel emotions from his Aes Sedai? so much in the books says otherwise, I can't even start to count...

guys this is not my favorite book so far, the hero is all stupid, rand can't trust no one even his wives, and keeps saying he going to be killed and get keeps going off alone, and at this point, I just wondering why in the hell is he not dead yet. the whole sister bonding with Elaine and his sis avavenda is just stupid and even my wife says so one of the worst things we have ever read in our lives and we own 1000 books. (still on Eliane ) ( and this hurts me as an army guy) she does one of the stupid things i ever seen, she leaves to confront an army and the lord who commands 200,000 men with just four people and refuses to take her queen guard) One of the worst bits of writing that ever. that was just dum and I having a hard time getting past that, she has no right to rule at all and she was nearly killed just days before, and like rand, both heroes come off as fools. mat story as well Perrin has lost me. Perrin wife has been taken by the shaddo -this point the book keeps repeating them selves, women are bad and need to be tortured this has no point in the plot other than filling space that is not needed. mat pot is also a waste of time in this book and sadly could have been a lot better. that said i think this so far is the worst book in the set.

This had spoilers passed book 9, not cool.

There are 14 though

How do you tell the end of the book but stop from telling about the Faile plot line because spoilers? Doesn't make sense. If you're not telling spoilers the why talk about things that happen in the book? Rand cleansing the Taint is a spoiler.

Almost there to the better books.XD

Nuclear. nuke LEE ur Great vid series!

To many spoilers bro.