The Aes Sedai are manipulative, sure...as are the Wise Ones. There are several discussions about the best ways to manipulate chiefs into doing what the Wise Ones want them to do. They spy on the chief's dreams, and if that isn't invasive, I don't know what is. Yes, they are doing this in an attempt to help their people, but so do the Aes Sedai, by and large. We have seen a lot of examples of stupid or outright evil aes sedai(though we have those from the Wise Ones too, in the form of the Shaido Wise Ones), but for the most part, they are doing their best to help the world.

Sometimes they make a mess of it, but each ajah is focused on doing what they believe is best to help the world (except for the White. I thought for a while that their role would be to reason out the critical peice of how to seal the DO up for good, but its looking like they are just useless. Harid Fel and Min are working out in a couple months answers that the White should have spent 3000 years working on, but apparently has not).



Yes, the Wise Ones are more obvious in working for their people. There are a lot more of them versus the number of people, so it is easier for them to stay directly involved in their people's lives. The Aes Sedai have also managed to make themselves feared, rather than respected, which came from what was a series of stupid moves on their part, as well as some things out of their control. Still, it makes it harder for the Aes Sedai to really be involved in the way the Wise Ones are.

Hopefully Egwene will be able to begin repairing this situation.