1. Asmodean - more time to practice, and he probably knew how to play more instruments.

2. The REAL question here is, with the breakdown of long-distance communications after the breaking, why does everybody on the planet speak the same language?? Granted they speak with different accents, but that's normal for smaller geographic areas (e.g., Great Britain I know has TONS of different accents, let alone completely separate languages like Welsh).

3. Probably not. I'm not a huge fan, but then I get pretty frustrated with most of the characters at one point or another--usually when they're being completely close-minded.

4. Moiraine. She's the only one who figured out her own way wasn't necessarily the best/only way.

5. Jahar Narishma. I don't know why, but there you go.

6. Moridin, Fain, Perrin AND Fayle, maybe some more Forsaken. But not Demandred. He seems to be the only competent one of the lot, so I think his hard work (whatever it was) should pay off to some degree.

7. Been there, read that. Interesting magic system, somewhat interesting plots. Way too much detail in intimate encounters.

8. Moridin. Ishamael was just insane, and it got a bit old. Moridin seems much more capable and confident, now, though still just as arrogant.

9. I can't speak for everyone else, but I've been working on my masters thesis. That's pretty close to done, though, and I'll be defending next month.