I just finished it this weekend, finally found the time to read the last 200 pages.
I also thought the 3 sword fights against demandred were awesome, but i still think that Galad is a better swordsmen than Lan. I still don't get why he didnt take at least one of the bloodknife rings from gawyn, cause if he had it would have been a done deal. Even in the reading lan only "won" becuase he sheathed the sword, galad held his own against demandred better throughout.
Yeah, the flame of tar valon was cool. But you could say that she discovered it, because throughout the series its been known that the stronger someone is in the power the more innate talen they will have, and more things they will just "discover". similar things had been done other times in the series. I think of the flame of tar valon as kind of like inverting a weave except that she did it to balefire to counteract the effects.
As for callandor. The entire reason that they drilled the bore in the first place was that they discovered there was a source of power that both men and women could use and they wanted to reach it. So it would follow that alot of people knew about the True Power in the age of legends. So it would also make sense that they would want a Sa'Angreal for the True Power, but i think that it was caused the issues in the weapon. The fact that you can force the user into a circle, and that it amplifies the taint, all becuase of its sort of link to the dark one.
anywho, thats my take on it :D i love discussing the wheel of time. I've been reading them since i was in 4th grade, so it was awesome getting to finish the story. I even got a little teary eyed in a couple parts of the book.
I also still cant believe how many freaking characters died, its like Robert Jordan decided to pull a GRRM at the end
