Well yeah. Jordan was still writing for a teen audience in books 1 and 2. Selene was this older woman that was SOOOoooo obviously playing with the younger Rand’s emotions. But younger readers missed it like the Pianist joke in Animaniacs (if you missed it, our lovely Animaniacs were calling him an organist and he would scream in a heavy German accent “I AM A PIANIST!” and they would act offended because it sounded like something else).

Similarly, younger readers tend to “HATE HATE HATE” Nynaeve, where she is incredibly popular among 30- and 40-something readers. That was my experience, when I first read Eye of the World in 1994 vs rereading yet again today.