Shemerin, the only Aes Sedai to be demoted. She more or less excepts the fact and eventually runs away to become a washerwoman. when found out and pressed about it, she acts like a runaway Accepted and asked to be punished.
in my mind it all seems quite odd. in a short ammount of time she seems to totally accept the demotion to the total bafflement of her sisters.
i know she is supposed to be fluttery and weak willed but even the weakest willed person would be pissed at an incredibly unethical and uncalled for demotion. So i call shenanigans. we know that Messana was heavily involved in the breaking of the tower so she was probably involved with Shemerin's demotion. although Shemerin was just a bit player in the breaking of the tower, but broken Accepted Shemerin serves as a powerful example to the Aes Sedai.
Compelled into acceptance Shemerin shows to the neutral Sedai that the situation is not just the new boss on a power trip. the tower Sedai that the new boss has a strong grip on the tower. to the Rebels, that she's gone too far and must be put down. Finaly to the Black sisters it provides them with a morale boost.
so, who compelled Shemerin? possibly a random Black sister but my finger points at Messana. in the same book we are shown that the Forsaken can Compel people so powerfuly they will continue living even if they want to die (Liandrin) so why not Compel the demoted Aes Sedai into accepting her new position and into running away?
sure Messana never mentions doing so but she probably did it on the spur of the moment and probably forgot about it in her glee of breaking the tower and screwing the light over.
thoughts, suggestions?
Even including Alviarin who thought she had a very tight grip on her. In a normal time when there was no break in the WT I think that Elaida would simply have been deposed by the Sitters, but because of the break, the Dragon Reborn, the Black Tower and Messaana spreading internal discord none of them could agree enough to depose her, plus they were probably too frightened with the affairs of the world at the moment to risk it, even if almost everyone wanted to depose her.
I think because of this Elaida could and did cow almost everyone, even to the point of what was done to Shemerin. We've seen Aes Sedai get flustered before, even scared or frightened of other AS. The calmmess an AS has only really shows against non AS, not against other AS who stand far above them both in the Power and politically...
Shemerin -Compelled to Acceptance?
- 16/08/2010 12:12:09 PM
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Elaida cowed a lot of Aes Sedai
- 17/08/2010 08:03:02 AM
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