Yeah, 'cause spending 2 years knowing that you'll turn into a human wolf and then losing your wife to a bunch of savages for months is easy.

So is having your eye pulled out for someone you never really cared for. Or knowing that your doomed a lover to one of the most grisly deaths possible.

And of course, knowing that you're doomed to more or less break the world again (even in the case of a victory) is easy to handle. Just like spending weeks traveling alone, hunted by darkfriends and shadowspawn, using a barely-controllable force that you know is turning you insane. Then causing the deaths of tens, then hundreds, then thousands, then tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people by your actions. And spending weeks inside a box which is smaller than a coffin, let out only to be beaten while you watch the woman you love being beaten even harder. Then having your hand BURNT OFF and not having the time to even consider it. Then seeing the woman who did that to you take control of your mind and almost cause you to kill the woman you love.

That's just a few moments. Please, which of the wondergirls have experienced anything worse than ANY of those moments? Nynaeve is the only one who has a legitimate fear of loss (Lan). Elayne makes me sick (walking in to danger while pregnant). Egwene has been spanked a few times, then put in prison. The a'dam was bad, yes, but she clearly hasn't moved past that the way the other characters have moved past their fears (Rand accepts who he is, Perrin has balance with the wolf, Mat freely gave up his eye. Even Nynaeve let Lan go).

Writing this has made me realize what I dislike the most about Egwene and Elayne - I've never felt that they've actually sacrificed anything for other people. If Egwene can forgive the Seanchan (from a position of humility, rather than being holier-than-thou, the latter of which wouldn't be a sacrifice of opinion at all), I might actually gain some respect for her.