It's pretty cruel of you to ask for favorites, but I'll give it a go. Favorite male would go to Perrin, despite the annoying "Mat and Rand always understood women" bit that ALL three of them did whenever there was a woman around, he was a solid character and watching him grow and accept the different parts if himself was a joy and his character was the one I most related to (sorry Mat I honestly thought this one was gonna be you) Favorite female is even harder. I think I have to go with Egwene, even with certain story arcs going on for far too long, she came into herself quite nicely and other than the famous Two River stubbornness, she had a decent head on her shoulders. (Shout-out to Faile she's an extremely close second for me here) Favorite side character is Hopper hands down. He always put a smile on my face whenever I got to see him and I STILL have feels.

Favorite book would be The Shadow Rising and The Gathering Storm. The former still had intriguing villains that were interesting to read about without seeming tired, there was a great momentum to the book and the world was still new. The latter was the FIRST time when they mentioned the Last Battle coming that I felt the tangible pressure throughout the pages.

The first scene that pops into my head whenever I talk about this series is when Perrin finds Faile in the Wolf Dream after she triggers a trap meant for Moiraine and says something along the lines of "My falcon" and accepts her chosen name, Faile, as her name rather than call her by her birth name