There were a lot of moments that could considered emotional, but I can't really say the forging was on the same level as any of them. In fact, I'd be inclined to say Perrin has some more emotional moments than this one, and this could be considered less of an emotional one, and more of a minor event that fulfilled a prophecy.

In this same book we have Lan reaching the Borderlands, Elayne almost dying, Mat reuniting with Moiraine and getting one over the Finns, Nynaeve standing up to the Aes Sedai, Egwene brokering an agreement between the female channeling organizations, Egwene defeating Mesaana after a tense confrontation, Perrins' fight with Slayer and the death of Hopper, Perrin coming to terms with his wolf identity, Egwene confronting Rand, Rand having his messianic moment of revelation on Dragonmount with Perrin witnessing it, BuddhaRand destroying an immense army, Nynaeve Healing taint-induced madness, BuddhaRand seeing Lanfear in the Dream and BuddhaRand pardoning Cadsuane. IMHO, any one of these could be a more suitable cover picture than a bearded man at a forge. I'm not arguing that this isn't a pretty picture - but for the book before the final entry in the series, I'm not sure if this is as effective or attention-grabbing as it could have been.

Also, I'm disappointed that channeling wasn't rendered in any of these covers in more detail, considering how vibrant and colorful they could have been rendered, but ah well. I still think this series could have benefited from a format combining illustrations with the prose format.