So Rand’s black tower. I don’t quite remember if his motivation was to establish a organization of male channelers for after the last battle (as he had planned to cleanse Saidin for quite some time), or only planned for it to exist until the last battle was over. But the point is, he desperately needed trained channeling soldiers.

So he puts Taim in charge of it. Honestly, that makes enough sense to me. He’s busy doing so many things, he can’t stick around and manage the day to day of the tower. And at the time, Taim was much more skilled in the One Power than Rand was, and Rand needed soldiers.

And Rand even acknowledged that he didn’t trust Taim, but he needed his skill. So we knew from the start that he knew Taim was a shifty guy.

But did Rand ever once check in on the tower again after Dumai’s Wells? Ever notice that Taim was building himself a palace, and playing favorites, and was…oh yeah A MAJOR DARKFRIEND LATER NAMED CHOSEN OF THE DARK ONE!?!

Again I know he was busy, but since traveling was a thing you think he’d want to check in on his secret weapon every once and a while and notice that over half of his forces were being converted to the shadow. When Taim wasn’t being subtle anymore and just rounding people up and turning them, those still loyal said several times that they wished they could get in contact with Rand. Did Rand really just never check in on them again?