So many things happened in the last book that I overlooked and forgot about many of them. Logain’s story arc was one of them.

No idea what kept this beautiful man in my blind spot on my first read. Ah, well — for the gratification I feel now, I forgive myself.

I'm not unhappy that Logain wasn't the one to take down Taim. That wasn't his main fight. His fight was with himself and his fears.

Releasing the One Power today was one of the most difficult things he’d ever done. More difficult than the decision to name himself Dragon, more difficult than keeping himself from strangling Taim during their early days together in the Black Tower.

After being betrayed and gentled by the Aes Sedai, Logain was intent on vengeance. He helped the rebel Aes Sedai after the attack on Tar Valon, when Siuan promised him “I am the only one in the entire world who will give you your chance of revenge.”

The Power drained out of him, as if his veins had been opened and he was bleeding out across the ground. [...] Letting go reminded him of his gentling, when the Power had been stolen from him. When every breath had encouraged him to find a knife and slit his own throat.

Once Nynaeve Healed him, the Aes Sedai wanted to gentle him again, betraying him yet again. He went back to hating Aes Sedai. Then he escaped and went to join the Black Tower.

A place where men were accepted for their ability to channel, the very thing that terrified and ostracized them, must have seemed unbelievable. It must have been a comfort at first. Yet even the Black Tower turned on Logain.

Taim had done it, during Logain’s imprisonment. Held him captive, shielded, unable to touch the One Power.

Logain was strong, but in channeling, not as strong as Taim. In a battle against Taim, I have no doubt that Logain would have lost.

Logain’s determination, though, or however one should characterize what stopped him from being Turned, is greater than anyone’s.

The attempts to Turn him had been painful, crushing. But being without saidin...

Strength, he thought [...]. The lust to be so strong almost drowned out his hatred of Taim.

Logain wants power, but not for the sake of his ego. He wants to protect himself. He doesn’t want to risk being overpowered by anyone, ever again.

So, when he fixates on the sa’angreal carried by Demandred and then Taim, it isn’t arbitrary or petty. This is what Logain thinks will keep him safe from other channelers, Aes Sedai or Asha’man or Forsaken:

With such a tool, his thoughts whispered, no man or woman could ever take the Power from you again.

I think this is why he bonded the two Aes Sedai. They were a threat, and he wasn’t going to be under their control, so he seized control away from them.

And that too ended up being a betrayal.

He had thought that she was beginning to enjoy, or at least suffer, their place together.

But, of course, it was all an act so that she could try to manipulate him. That was the Aes Sedai way. Yes, he had felt lust from her before, perhaps even affection. He wasn’t certain he could trust what he thought he’d felt from her. It seemed that for all he had tried to be strong and free, his strings had been pulled since he’d been a youngling.

The sense of betrayal runs deep and poisons him.

“Logain!” Mat said. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re fighting a bloody war here.”

“It is not my war.”

“This is our war,” Mat snapped. “Every one of us.”

“I stood forth to fight,” Logain said. “And what was my reward? Ask the Red Ajah. They will tell you the reward of a man abused of the Pattern.” He barked a laugh. “The Pattern demanded a Dragon! And so I came! Too soon. Just a little too soon.”

“Listen here,” Mat said, stepping up to Logain. “You’re angry because you didn’t get to be the Dragon?”

“Nothing so petty,” Logain said.

He isn’t on anyone’s side but his own because he doesn’t want to let his guard down or be taken advantage of by anyone. Even how he handles the Power reflects this.

Logain seized the Source, subjecting it, dominating it.

When he begins to hunt for the scepter in earnest, he pretends it’s for the good of the Asha’man:

“I need to look to the future of the Black Tower,” Logain said.

“You aren’t looking to its future,” she said, soft, almost threatening. “You’re looking to make certain you are a power in these lands, Logain. You cannot hide your emotions from me.”

Logain shoved down his anger. He would not be subject to their power again. He would not. First the White Tower, then M’Hael and his men.

Days of torture. Weeks.

I will be stronger than any other, he thought. That was the only way out, wasn’t it? I will be feared.

“You don’t intend to do it,” Gabrelle said. “You fool. Those seals belong to - ”

“To me,” Logain said.

“Logain,” Gabrelle said softly. “I know you have been hurt. But this is not a time for games.”

“Why not? Has the White Tower’s treatment of me been anything other than a great long game?”

And then the moment he is faced with the decision that determines the future of the Black Tower, when he has to choose between retrieving the scepter and rescuing the refugees of Caemlyn from the Trollocs.

How events play out so that Androl is right next to Logain at this moment might be a little stilted, but honestly I am so glad for this setup; it forces Logain to choose directly between these two things.

One, the scepter, in his reach, promising power and dominance. This is what Logain wants, representing everything he thinks he needs. This is safety from anyone else who might ever be a threat to him (which, so far, has been everyone).

(The thing is, he has strong reasons to want to protect himself! Of all people, he has cause for wanting this. He has been mistreated and mistrusted with every step, and it’s been unfair, and he is completely justified in wanting to retaliate.)

And the other, a group of people. Just people. But they’re helpless and being slaughtered, and Logain is one of the few who could make a difference to them.

The choice between serving himself and serving others.

“Please,” Androl whispered. so soft. “Children, Logain. They’re slaughtering the children...”

Logain closed his eyes.

This is his crossroads. 

This is where he will earn his crown of glory.

He couldn’t see the consequences of saving those refugees. But the benefits of retrieving that scepter were clear to him.

Logain stepped from the ruins, holding a toddler - maybe two years of age - in his arms. The child’s weeping mother took her son from his hands. “Thank you. Bless you, Asha’man. Light bless you.”

Logain sighed. The prize...was it lost, then? Would he ever be able to dig it out?

I am a fool, he thought. He had abandoned that power for what? To save these refugees? People who would spurn him and hate him for what he was. People who...

...who looked at him with awe.

Nearby a youth looked at Logain with admiration. A dozen youths. Light, a hundred. Not a hint of fear in their eyes.

“Thank you,” the young mother said again. “Thank you.”

“The Black Tower protects,” Logain heard himself say. “Always.”

“I will send him to you to be tested when he is of age,” the woman promised, holding her son. “I would have him join you, if he has the talent.”

The talent. Not the curse. The talent.

This is real cultural change, from curse to talent. This is how the Asha’man will be known. 

As guardians.

This is so beautiful. The crown of glory comes to him, not through obtaining power, not through conquering enemies, but through a much more personal sacrifice. His own desire for security versus taking up a cause that seems lesser than the first. 

And it shapes the future of the Black Tower. 

Blue and gold, the same colors of the dragons on Taim’s black coat. And Logain nearly took the same path as Taim, the “Kneel or you will be knelt” way of handling any threats to him, overcoming through force and mistrust. 

Logain, though, gives up the scepter. He protects other people rather than himself.

"You could not call a man who defended an unjust cause asha’man, and never one that was evil. An asha'man was a man who defended truth and justice and right for everyone. A guardian who would not yield even when hope was gone."

Ohh, Galad. I didn’t like him at all in the beginning. And then by the end he was one of my favorites, nearly for the same reasons I initially detested him.

Let’s think about some of the things that define Galad:

His unparalleled good looks

His unparalleled (though very dichotomous) sense of right and wrong

Sword-fighting skills that placed him just behind Lan and Rand

And then AMOL happened and he had everything taken from him.

He is a hard person to love. Berelain took to him quickly, but most other people keep their distance.

He had the love of his half-brother, who was cut down fairly easily by Demandred in the stupidest challenge of all time. 

Galad found himself in a very cold place. He had seen men die, he had lost friends. This hurt more. Light, but it did. He had loved his brother, loved him deeply - and Gawyn, unlike Elayne, had returned the sentiment.

I am still a little shocked at how sympathetic Galad has become. It’s in his POVs that you see how good he is and make sense out of what he does. He does what is right, but he has deep feelings that he conveys through his actions, though it looks to others like incomprehensible stoicism, nothing but indifferent logic. Yet under all that righteous decision-making there is a current of emotion that drives him.

He doesn’t decide anything lightly. He doesn’t settle on “doing what’s right” because it is easy or simple. He is severe and brave and doesn’t expect or desire any credit for what he does.

“Demandred!” Galad yelled. “Demandred, you call for the Dragon Reborn! You demand to fight him! He is not here, but his brother is! Will you stand against me?”

Ohh, Galad, so forthright and stouthearted! He probably knew he wouldn’t succeed, but Galad commits himself completely to his decisions.

If he won, he would still die. But Light, let him take one of the Forsaken with him. It would be a fitting end.

At first I didn’t understand why he went against Demandred. Was it vengeance? Was it to help get rid of the largest threat to Elayne’s armies? To fight against the Shadow? To do what is right?

“I will do what needs to be done,” Galad said, cold inside. Cold as winter steel. “I will bring Light to the Shadow. I will bring justice to the Forsaken.”

The thunder of Demandred’s shout shook the ground from up ahead. He had taken Galad’s brother. Now the monster hunted Galad’s sister.

The right thing had always seemed so clear to Galad before, but never had it felt as right as this.

“Come now,” Demandred said. “I’m waiting.”

Galad remained silent. Each moment he stalled was a moment Demandred was not sending destruction upon Elayne or her armies.

Yes, all of these reasons. He was right: this was the right thing to do, no matter the cost.

What does Galad gain from his actions? What is the cost?

He loses the duel.

He gets his sword arm cut off. Unlike Rand, who lost a hand but not his dominant one.

And he gets a “vicious wound to his face.” His good looks, one of his defining characteristics, are marred.

Now, it is mentioned that he had the stump of his arm cauterized to stop the bleeding, but he wasn’t at this point Healed. That means that he had the end of his arm burned severely enough to close the blood vessels. Without. Healing.

And how does he respond when Berelain says they can have Healers come to help him?

“No,” he whispered. “It is only…a little cut. Save the Healing for those who would die without it.”

Galad is…This guy is made of bricks. I can’t imagine having a finger cut off, much less an entire limb, and it’s got to hurt like I can’t even imagine. 

And after all that he had just enough wherewithal left to get the foxhead medallion sent back…

“The battle fares poorly, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“So now…we simply hope?”

He slipped his hand from hers and reached under his shirt. […] Galad sighed, then trembled, his hand slipping away from his shirt. Had he been intending to remove it?

“Hope…” he whispered, then fell unconscious.

Berelain reached under his shirt, taking out a medallion. It was in the shape of a fox’s head. She rubbed her finger across it.

“…back to Cauthon…” Galad whispered, eyes closed. “…Hope…”

…where it could be picked up by Lan and the rest is a different arc.

Galad, the beautiful and great swordfighter, has his amazing face scarred and his sword arm severed. He loses one of the few people he knew loved him. He sees the battle worsen. The Light seems to be losing.

But we never see him give up. Like the others, Galad keeps fighting, as much as he is able. He keeps hoping. And his small act of getting the medallion to cross paths with Lan ends up helping to turn the tide of the battle. 

He doesn’t do this for approval. He doesn’t do it for his ego. He does it because it is right. While that makes him unbearable early on, here it makes him unspeakably heroic.