What an ending for Winter's Heart

All of the spoilers are from book 9.

Well, [spoiler from the last chapter of WH Book 9] I couldn't have imagined how satisfying it would be to read about Saidin's Cleansing. Well, it had everything: action packed, we could see the strategies of the Forsaken on how to behave, the circles formed! At first I didn't like the idea of stronger female channelers from the 3rd Age other than Nynaeve, but Alivia fighting Cyndane/Lanfear by herself while Nyn was busy with the Choedan Kal was badass, couldn't ask for more. Of course some of the combatents weren't on their prime strenght and some had angreal at hands, but it was stated before in the series that strenght alone in the One Power is not enough to win a fight, if you more dextrous with the OP or know stronger weaves you have quite an advantage.

Now I'm curious if this is a RAFO topic: did Rand choose to cleanse Saidin in Shadar Logoth to take advantage of Mashadar? It seemed to be implied in my point of view, but maybe he said il explicitly I just didn't pick up due to distraction - so I would need to read it again to check. I connected the dots because he was thinking a lot about his double wound that doesn't heal properly.

At first I thought it was bad writing what happend to Aridhol, for what I know of the mythology and worldbuilding of Randland everything magical should be related to the One Power, so all the Mordeth and Mashadar plot not being related to Shai'tan bugged me out. If Robert Jordan was thinking to use it ahead as a means to destroy the Dark One's taint he is a hell of a great planner.

What were your favorite moments of this chapter? I felt very intrigued about how circles of men and women would work, since only one channeler gets control of the flows. I need read more about how the female characters will deal with Saidin's savage nature and how male channelers would deal with Saidar's sweetness and the fact you need to surrender to it instead of seize it to be able to make weaves.

It was worth afterall to stand those unbereable and Perrin chapters. 🤣