I defined this with a few key rules:

First, I wanted the list to be mostly punk. That's what play, it's what I mostly listen to. But, not restricted to only that - there's some metal, some rock, even a hip hop song or two. But where I could find one I liked, I've thrown in punk styled covers instead of the original.

Second, the song couldn't be the cliche song choice for them. For instance, no House of the Rising Sun for Mat. Also, no song that's actually about the Wheel of Time.

Third, the song should capture the ethos of the character in that identity.

The list started as: The Light and Shadow. The Two Rivers folks and their most critical allies and most significant relations - Verin but not Domon, for instance. All of the Forsaken.

Anyway, feel free to discuss or throw out suggestions. I've been enjoying it.

The playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5EFTsaMm08xMjkt7wuJwKr

I also tried to order the songs in order of appearance and keep it relatively free of spoilers

The below analysis was posted as a comment, now deleted, on another forum. Contextually, we were discussing the series and I had mentioned Verin's hunting Fain in the Two Rivers. We were discussing notes and theories and connecting dots. This is copy/pasted over from the old forum so if it seems like I'm responding to something you didn't read, I am. Feel free to ask for clarification.

Thanks! So sorry this took me a bit to get back to. I want to give you a good breakdown so I needed to find an opportunity where I had time and the right headspace to ramble about WOT. Good news, that's now! The secret ingredient is ADHD. I'm gonna ramble a little but partly cause I feel like you might appreciate the personal story I want to share.

For me I didn't get into the series until just before The Gathering Storm was released. My roommate at the time convinced me to read it by mentioning that a new author was going to ghostwrite the ending - I didn't want to start an unfinished series. So my f

I've been thinking heavily on this topic recently, and I thought I'd share my theory and see what others think. If you're interested in doing a thought experiment with this post, answer the following question before reading the rest of the post, and then see what you think of your answer after. I'd love to know, whether it influences your perspective or not.

Would Rand have been born on Dragonmount if Narg had killed him on Winternight?

Ok, on to the theorizing. I've seen a lot of lament recently regarding the assignment of ta'veren to Mat, Rand, and Perrin while the other critical characters like Egwene were not, despite being supremely important. This got me to thinking what the difference is between the two. I've also seen conjecture that Heroes of the Horn are always ta'veren or vice versa, and I don't think that's true.

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Wheel sp

The below was prompted by the question "When was Thom and Moiraine supposed to happen?" This was a comment I am migrating here and removing from the source forum.

It was there all along, but subtly. Ready for the full breakdown?

The start of their journey together was a meeting of mutual respect in which both prominently displayed their conspiratorial natures to the other. Her hinting that she recognized his name as the Court Bard of Caemlyn (addressing him as Master Bard), him acknowledging her omission of the Sedai honorific. With only a couple words each they told one another "I know your secret, but I'll play along for now."

And then along their journey to Baerlon - while Lan scouted ahead, the Emonds Fielders lagged behind. Which leaves Thom and Moiraine in the background together. I don't think there was anything romantic here, but rather this is where their friendship started to develop.

What changed was when they arrived in Baerlon and Min revealed to Moiraine a Viewing tha

Each of the Ta'veren have a counterpoint, a Ta'maral'indemela if you will. Meaning literally, "pattern destined enemy." A term I mostly made up for this concept.

Consider Rand, the Dragon Reborn. His counterpart is fairly obvious: Ishamael/Moridin. An equally devastating and powerful male channeler, one of the Forsaken, also wielding thousands of years of memories, who rises to the rank of Nae'blis, favored champion of the Dark One. He is tied intrinsically to Rand's fate.

Consider Perrin, the Wolf King. His counterpart is also fairly obvious: Slayer. Of two souls like Perrin, but both human, both princes who would never be king, where Perrin is the King that should have been a peasant. Like Rand and Ishamael, Perrin and Slayer share a domain: Tel'aran'rhiod. While Rand and Ishamael both take advantage of TAR, it isn't "theirs" the way Perrin and Slayer own it.

And then consider Mat, the Gambler. Who is his? Well, this is all conjecture, so maybe there isn't one. But it's fun to thi