I don't care how realistic and logical and deserved it was- it completely defanged one of the few sources of actual dread left in the series.



Right, so... the Aes Sedai are this monolithic group of mysterious superwomen, who may be benevolent, may be inscrutable, but are always ineffable.

Except then we actually get to know them, and find that they have some of the human flaws you'd expect from being treated as ultrapowerful, feared and mistrusted superwomen. And now they're not nearly as mysterious or powerful, and they mostly just bicker amongst themselves.

It's reasonable, and certainly a logical progression of the plot, but I can't help but be wistful for the Aes Sedai of the first half of the series, or of New Spring (especially New Spring, I'd say- I think they nicely balanced the humanity and menace of the White Tower there).



There isn't much scary left in Randland. Yes, yes, the Dark One is breaking free, the end of the world is coming, blah blah. An antagonist needs to be more than just a nameless evil, though. In LotR, however evil Sauron may be, we still need Saruman and Wormtongue and the Orcs and the Ghost King and all the rest.

The Forsaken are mostly jokes at this point. This was done deliberately- Moridin doesn't respect them, and they're more like petty schemers that enjoy using their superpowers than Evil Lords of Darkness. Trollocs are cannon fodder at this point. A Grey Man hasn't killed a single person of note in the entire series.

Fain's pretty dangerous, but he almost never shows up anymore. Ditto the gholam, and Slayer. In any case, those three aren't really schemers; they can't do much to inspire dread. Fain could have, once, but he's not at that level anymore.



So Semirhage, the black-robed Mistress of Pain, the woman who tortured whatshername-Sedai and her Warder, was turned into nothing more than a petulant child who demanded attention. It was reasonable, and a logical plot progression- but I don't have to like it, story wise.