RJ needed to stick to his guns. If you set up Taim as Demandred, you need to follow through, not back down cuz it was obvious.

 

Even outside of Taimandred and all that unfortunate nonsense, Demandred has huge problems. His intro in LoC was okay, but at Shadar Logoth . . . yes, he was facing a circle of three, but thats a terrible narrative aspect, you can't just have a Forsaken, one of the greatest men of the Age of Legends, beaten in his intro. Give him something threatening to do, like killing an Asha'man or two before being scared away. Just running away was poorly done.

 

I wish parallels between Lan and Demandred had been set up, even if it had something to do with their backstories. Have them meet at some point, or have Demandred be the heir to a destroyed kingdom, or have Lan be second to some sort of Tower Warder. Those two don't work well together with no connections. Establish SOMETHING, even if it's minor. Maybe even have Rand draw a parallel between the two at some point.

I don't quite see why Demandred as swordsman became such a theme at the end. Demandred was already set up as the tactical genius that it needed Mat's unparalleled ability to defeat. But Mat didn't, Demandred was dead before Mat started any of his questionable maneuvers and three duels in the middle of the battle makes no sense to me. 

 

He was also set up as a parallel to Rand in Shara, something that was interesting but hardly explored as it was a bit late by the time it was introduced. I think this is something that was missed. If we knew more about Dark Prophecy, it could have made a lot more sense in the story as the you could see that both sets of Prophecy were pushing everyone to the same conclusion - it doesn't make sense in world that Shadow aligned foretelling, etc., would be wrong and Light aligned right. 

 

It would explain some of the more difficult to understand parts where the Shadow did not seem to go for an easy early victory, but were actually trying to set up the same victory conditions that Rand and Co. were. 

 

But certainly I was not a big fan of Demandred and his Sharans being both a major game changing plot twist, and actually having no effect on the story. 

There is nothing saying why RJ changed his mind, it might've been because so many guessed it but it could also be RJ saw this would cause issues later.  If Demandred is Taim who is going to be in Shara?

 

I have nothing useful or constructive to add to this discussion. I just want to say I am thankful for my ignorance because I largely enjoyed Demandred. I'm not following the arguments because my memory of the course of events sucks. Will be keeping an eye out for these points as I make my way through on my second read. 

16 hours ago, Sabio said:

There is nothing saying why RJ changed his mind, it might've been because so many guessed it but it could also be RJ saw this would cause issues later.  If Demandred is Taim who is going to be in Shara?

 

I would have preferred Sammael to make a comeback in Shara, not only as a game-changing plot twist, but also cuz his death was unsatisfactory and it could've given new motivation to his character.

Edited April 1Apr 1 by TwinStorm

The funny thing is so many people hate how Samm died, and RJ responded with Samm was horrible person and didn't deserve a better death, which I find rather interesting,

On 4/1/2025 at 6:21 AM, Sabio said:

The funny thing is so many people hate how Samm died, and RJ responded with Samm was horrible person and didn't deserve a better death, which I find rather interesting,

 

That is really interesting. I wonder if it had anything to do with Zara boards or whatever they're called. Any other ideas on why RJ would have said this about Sammuel?-

I'm trying to find an exact quote but it basically I think it came down to Samm was responsible of the deaths of tens of thousands of people, countless atrocities, and such so it's fitting that such a vile person who sought greatness dies in such a blahh un not very heroic death. 

 

From what I could find the quote was something along the lines of:

Yes, I know it wasn't with trumpets and fanfare [referring to Sammael's death]; but he deserved it. He was a louse, and he got a louse's death. He was killed by an enemy he wasn't paying attention to. He lived like a louse, and he died like a louse."

Edited April 2Apr 2 by Sabio