Did the notes squash/support any of your theories/ideas of where the books were going? Are you able to tell us what or how?
Yes. It did both. Some things were supported, some things were squashed, and some things I just didn’t have any personal theories on. I can’t speak of many of them. I’m trying to remember which ones were in The Gathering Storm that I can talk about. I did think that there was a good chance—or at least I hoped and theorized—that Elaida would end up as a damane . And I was very happy to see that. I was taken completely by surprise by the Verin revelation. Most of the things that were squashed happen in the next two books, so I can’t really talk about them. And it’s very hard to look back and say, “What were my theories, and what did I think about things?” because it’s been three years now since I first looked at the notes and I already have all of that in my head.
Oh, I can tell you one thing that was squashed. To be perfectly honest, I’d always secretly suspected that Asmodean was still around, and that was totally squashed. So there you go. Part of me always thought, “Oh, Robert Jordan isn’t telling us because Asmodean is around; he’s doing something,” but no, he’s just dead. He’s totally dead. But you know, I think Robert Jordan had even confirmed that and I hadn’t seen the interviews until after I started working on the series. I’m pretty sure that somewhere out there is a Robert Jordan confirmation, a “He’s toast” comment.
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