Good points I think, Max and Mors. Could some of the paragraphs that seemed to drown in small descriptive details have been better utilized describing the internal struggles of non-forsaken hazers and hazees? Most definitely. We may have seen some regret in one short-lived forsaken and they all were psychologically affected adversely from their evil ways. Maybe Brandon supplied some of that, I don't remember. But the consequences of near-torture on the "good guys" is never satisfactorily shown, I agree. This may have somewhat salvaged the content of some of the worst books. RJ's military career must have played a part in this. Did he feel strengthened by the treatment he must have received at The Citadel? Did he haze others himself? I'm not sure we'll ever know. This is not something I think I'd ask his surviving relatives.
Jordan not only missed a few consequences, he also missed one major motivation. He never properly showed why the Two Rivers folk are basically good and moral, with a few exceptions, while the rest of Randland suffered from all the problems and evils that we are familiar with in our world. I never bought the "isolated, homogenous societies are naturally more pure and uncomplicated than more worldly ones," which Mr. Jordan seemed to have assumed. We were eventually shown that there was something special about Manetheren, but in my mind, this did not fully explain the particular mores of the Three Rivers natives, upon which many of the books' delightful social contrasts hinge. They are often very delightful.
I think pockets of human goodness exist, but there is always a reason, a belief system or an example set by an unusually special leader, whose motivation is also remarkable. Unfortunately, these societies do not often survive too many generations. That "power corrupts" idiom takes hold, eventually. In almost every case.
Speaking of consequences, does anyone really believe that three women sharing one man ever really works as well as RJ imagined? I think this was a projection of his own personal fantasy. It never rang true for me. Despite all that, I am a fan. If only all of WoT was as well-explained as the Aiel and the Ogier. Those were fully-fleshed societies with clear motivations and consequences; for me, anyway.
