Known Contradictions and Unclear parts

The aim of this page is to collect known contradictions and logical conflicts from the Books. The structure and the content is continuously reshaped during the process. All help is welcomed. Please follow the section structure and always reference your statements.
== Knowledge of the Cyclic Lives of Lews Therin and Ishamael ==
Ishamael knows it from at least the Age of Legends that both his soul and the soul of the Dragon are bound to the Wheel and cursed to repeatedly live the same lives, walking the same path, fighting the same fights as the Wheel turns. That realization makes him join to the Shadow. He believes if he helps the Dark One win, he could have his final rest. Why doesn't Lews Therin Telamon seem to know that? He was told by Ishamael at the moment when Elan gave him a short period of sanity, but most probably before that too when Elan publicly shared his reasons several times. 
Despite how much time Rand has spent reading the Prophecies he never understood the repetition of events until he fought with the Shadow atop Dragonmount and the Light won. There he has gained half of the knowledge; he understood the reason why he has to fight instead of let the Shadow win. Only at Shayol Ghul in the final fight with the Dark One did he comprehend that his role is binding him to continuous repetition of these fights for eternity, and neither the Shadow nor the Light can win this eternal fight, and even if the Shadow could somehow win, what Ishamael claims about their souls "being freed from the Wheel" would never happen. The possibility of the choice of people is the meaning of the Wheel and the Pattern. So that during the repetition of lives all soul has the possibility to improve in a certain way. Make their new and always individual decisions.
One Interpretation: Ishamael is wrong. His soul is not bound to the Wheel at all: He's deluded himself into thinking he's the equal of the Dark One (or perhaps, as some have said, he thinks he's the Dark One in truth). The true never-ending struggle, the war bound into the turning of the Wheel of Time, is between the Dark One and the Dragon, as champion of the Light. Only they persist throughout all the Ages of the Wheel as it spins towards eternity --- perhaps immortal and unchanging (as the Dark One seems to be... though who can say what happens to even him in unnamed ages on the far side of the Wheel?); perhaps as literal reincarnations of eternally-bound souls; perhaps as reflections of archetypes, spun out in new forms with each turning of the Wheel: Who can really say? So it isn't that Lews Therin Telamon doesn't "know" about Ishamael's convictions --- rather, after hearing the madman's nonsense for so long, he simply pays it no mind.
"The Dark One and all of the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul, beyond the Great Blight, bound by the Creator at the moment of Creation, bound until the end of time. The hand of the Creator shelters the world, and the Light shines on us all." 
"Fool, I have never been bound!" – Ishamael/Ba'alzamon to Rand
== The Nature of the Forsaken ==
Are their souls also bound to the Wheel? How was Mazrim Taim added to the existing ones as a new member? If Balefire burns the thread of Forsaken out of the Pattern that not even the Dark One can bring them back, what happens with the Forsaken when the Wheel turns back to the First Age and their souls are needed? Moghedien, Graendal and Demandred were not destroyed by Balefire so they could actually be part of the next round. Although the repetition of Ages would indicate that a period should come with prosperity and all knowledge lost about the Dark One, as was the case in the Age of Legends.
Word of God on balefire: Balefire removes a person's thread out of the pattern so the Dark One cannot resurrect them, but that person's soul can still be threaded back into the pattern naturally. I believe this is in The Wheel of Time Companion, but I don't have a copy with me for reference.
One Interpretation: The souls of the Forsaken are not bound to the Wheel at all. Ishamael's belief that he and Lews Therin Telamon are engaged in an eternal struggle is unreliable, given Ishamael's questionable sanity and the lack of support for this belief elsewhere in the story. Ishamael is not the Dark One, he is merely one of the Forsaken: Powerful channelers of the Age of Legends who turned to the Shadow, languished in prison during the Third Age, and broke free for Tarmon Gai'don just in time to be killed, neutralized or otherwise rendered irrelevant to the Wheel as it continued on into the Fourth Age without them. When the Wheel completes a full turn and the Age of Legends inevitably comes again, any who might be called the "Forsaken" of that Age would not be reincarnations of the Forsaken as we know them: They would simply be powerful channelers of that far-future time who, following in the Pattern-woven footsteps of long-forgotten Lanfear and Ishamael before them. Perhaps they too would find themselves imprisoned with the Dark One for an Age. Or, they may not exist at all: It is impossible to know how closely one Age of Legends will resemble another after a full turn of the Wheel.
== Could the Dragon Ever Submit to the Dark One? ==
Ba'alzamon told to Rand that Lews Therin submitted to the Dark One several times in the past. This has to be a Lie. Had he been done that, would have ended the Time with the victory of the Shadow. The fact, that Shai'tan is not ruling the world is the proof that he never ever won before and he most probably never could win, although Ishamael thinks that logically the Shadow only need one chance and statistically that will happen eventually. 
The Time (the Creator) must be more powerful than the Dark One, since the Creator bounded Shai'tan already into its prison at the moment of creation. The Balance directs the Wheel so none can ever destroy the other entirely. So that Rand's idea to kill Shai'tan was doomed to failure from the beginning (which Moiraine knew somehow and told him but he did not listen), and most probably Ishamael's logic also has a flaw.
Ba'alzamon also keeps telling to Rand how many thousands of times they have fought and that this particular one will be the last one; this time the Wheel will be broken and the world remade to the image of the Shadow. Ishamael remembers all occasions when the Shadow DID NOT win. Does he remember that most probably every time he told to Lews Therin that that one will be the last one, but it never was?
Alternative Interpretation: Leaving aside the very possible explanation that the Father of Lies is lying, the Wheel of Time cosmology does allow for the possibility that (almost) every word he speaks is true. The Wheel of Time is said to comprise seven Ages, of which barely two are known to us (perhaps three, if our modern world is the First Age as some theorize). Beyond a few scant snippets, we know next to nothing of the Fourth Age, and absolutely nothing of the three full Ages that come after, nor of the world-changing cataclysms that likely herald their arrival --- every one on the scale of the Breaking of the World or Tarmon Gai'don. There is nothing to exclude the possibility that, in Third Ages past, Shai'tan did succeed in defeating or subjugating the Dragon, extending the Shadow over the Fourth Age and perhaps beyond. Our only guarantee is that, when the Wheel of Time turns back to those Ages we do know something about, circumstances are restored to where they should be for that Age to "come again". Perhaps, if the Dark One wins in the Third Age, it is a mighty battle in the Seventh Age that finally exiles him to his prison. He may even be telling the truth about breaking the Wheel --- it may well be possible, and it would represent an end to the Wheel. Perhaps the Creator would issue in a new Creation, and a new Wheel... or, perhaps the Dark One would rule over ashes for eternity. (Of course, his frequent insistence that this struggle has repeated "thousands" of times without him ever succeeding at this ultimate victory suggests that such a victory is very unlikely, if not outright impossible.)
== The Dragon-sword "Justice" confusion ==
The "Justice-confusion"
== The Use of Swords Instead of Advanced Weaponry/the One Power ==
Somehow major characters chose a swordfight when they have more advanced weaponry in parallel e.g. shocklances in AoL or the One Power in case of channelers. More information need to be dug out here.
The use of more medieval weaponry by the people of the AoL were likely started in or after the Collapse, where we know that Swords was rediscovered and implemented as a "sport" for the people to enjoy. The Collapse was a full breakdown of societal order and likely the creation of advanced weaponry was one of the first things to be lost as a more primal desire was stoked by the Dark One.
Building on the above: I doubt soldiers armed with shocklances in the Age of Legends opted to swing swords around instead. The technological collapse following the Breaking of the World left Third Age soldiers with few options other than the sword. Rand al'Thor is really the only character who wields a sword despite having objectively superior weaponry available to him, and he explains why to Lan in The Fires of Heaven: It's his strange sense of honor, believing it unfair to wield the Power against people who cannot.
== The Portal Stone Contradiction ==
Example: to'raken 
"To'raken are one of the Seanchan exotics, taken from worlds accessed via the Portal Stones to fight Shadowspawn. " stated by RJ in the TWORJTWOF. 
When Luthair arrived to Seanchan he has found Aes Sedai groups fighting with each other. It seems some of them were able to use the Portal Stones to bring the animals to fight, but then the use of it somehow got forgotten or died out with them, because no damane could bring them back to the Westland later. 
Also it is stated somewhere that they did not have Shadowspawn in Seanchan since they managed to hunt them down completely. This topic also needs some further research.)
Likely the events that happened in the Americas or Seanchan of the Age of Legends was less devastating as it was in the Westlands, similarly to how the Blight is known as the Lesser Blight in Seanchan. With the vast majority of the Aes Sedai both male and female being in the Westlands and the chaos of the large numbers of male channellers reshaping the world around them, knowledge and skills of using Portal Stones were lost quickly in that chaos.
The loss of knowledge in Seanchan is likely due to the invention of the a'dam and the enslavement of the Aes Sedai there into demane, the knowledge they had was linked to their heretical nature and shunned until it was lost to all.
== Testing of Sul'dam and Damane ==
In Seanchan they test every girl by putting an a'dam on their neck or letting them wearing the bracelet of a leashed damane's adam to test whether it works on them or whether they feel anything through the a'dam.
If an a'dam effects on a girl, she becomes a damane. If a girl feels something through the a'dam she becomes a sul'dam. Although recently it is discovered that sul'dams wearing the necklace are also effected by the a'dam. So how on earth could happen that they never discovered that during those testings?
Interjection: Does the testing of damane actually involve placing an a'dam around the neck? I don't recall that being said explicitly, just that women were "tested". Indeed, it must be true that this isn't how damane are tested, or the fact that the a'dam work just as well on sul'dam would not be a secret in Seanchan. Seanchan culture likely considers collaring women who are not marath'damane to be dishonorable or otherwise forbidden.
Additionally: It is stated that in order to be collared, you need to have the ability to touch the Source and have the knowledge of how to actually do so. Sul'dam can be collared because they learn how to channel through the damane, but all sul'dam are women who can learn to channel, not born with the spark. Due to damane being those who are born with the spark, and thus will learn to channel regardless, testing could likely be having damane sense the ability in the girl, which they would not feel in sul'dam.
The affinity channellers have for one another when they are able to touch the True Source can be felt by those who are skilled in the use of the One Power. With the revelation of Else Grinwell being able to be taught to use the One Power - though not particularly skilled or powerful in it - it is likely that the Seanchan developed a system where they search for those who are already touching the One Power unconsciously and being vastly unaware now due to their shunning of all Aes Sedai knowledge that there are those who can be taught to channel as well as those who can do it without needing to be taught. The sul'dam having developed a rudimentary level of unconscious detection through the link of the damane and a'dam for those who are touching the True Source in the same way Aes Sedai are able to doing it knowingly.
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