The problem was making assumptions in the first place. You know what they say happens when you assume....


The former is a great example of the kind of thing that frustrates me about Egwene: Assuming she always knows best, and viewing others as assets (or, more often, liabilities) rather than partners. She was at her best seeking and then employing counsel from first the WOs and then Siuan, rather than sifting them for data (or planting her own) she can turn to her own predetermined plans. That in turn puts your latter example in perspective: Gawyn was incapable of being Egwenes mindless toady, which, due to her current attitude, made them incapable of working together, nearly killing both of them.


You think the other two bloodknives were on a coffee break or something? Not waiting nearby to back up their teammate (as in the second attack on Egwene)?


Actually, I was thinking of something like the cyanide tablet concealed in a false tooth that Hermann Göring used to commit suicide in his cell. Their entire military careers consist of training for and then executing suicide missions; do you not think they have some pretty effective contingcies against capture? Again, that is assuming one of his two fellow Bloodknives does not simply walk up and stick a knife in his heart, as (probably) Sheriam did with the Gray Man bound hand and foot and hanging from the air in the Tower.


Egwene is not exactly a master interrogator, even assuming the Chair or Remorse would be as effective against assassins so dedicated they eagerly devote their lives to training for suicide missions. Again: Their professional careers consist of training for and then executing suicide missions; they assuredly make multiple and extensive provisions for capture. Even common Seanchan foot soldiers imbibe from birth a kind of "death before dishonor" mentality the Hitler Youth could only envy; what do you think their elite assassin corps is like?


The facts at hand are that the Seanchan are planning a REAL occupation assault that will make the previous raid look like a parade ground maneuver, but Egwene is completely unaware of it (even though she should not be, given her previous Dreams involving the Seanchan.) She (mistakenly) believes the Seanchan ALREADY launched such an assault, but were bravely beaten off by the child Amyrlins heroic sa'angreal-aided stand amid Accepted and Novices. In the context of that mammoth misconception, Egwene would be naturally prone to another: That, during their sudden panicked rout, the Seanchan abandoned some of the shock troops entrusted with capturing Tar Valon, who simply failed to escape with the rest, and are reduced to desperate doomed guerilla tactics behind enemy lines until inevitably caught and executed.


Those were her initial thoughts, and her subsequent ones suggest she once more came to see it as an attack, due to the scale of force involved. However, even if she did not revise her first revised opinion, that only compounds her foolishness and false sense of security, because it means that, despite her realization that "Chances were good that the Seanchan had Traveling now. Nobody was safe from them, no matter how far or close they might be" she still anticipates NO full scale attack on the Tower.

Everything she knows of the Seanchan should tell her it is not only inevitable but, if they have Traveling (about which she was mistaken until, ironically, they captured Elaida during that raid,) imminent as soon a they know the Towers location. The White Tower is the locus of Aes Sedai the Seanchan consider more dangerous than rabid dogs, and a damane grab-bag. Yet the Egwene who repeatedly urged Elaida to prepare for a Seanchan assault has seemingly forgotten they exist since bloodying them and driving them from the riven Tower. She is occupied with other far more important plans, and apparently remains so even after no less than three Seanchan assassins repeatedly try to murder her in her bed.


Again, my starting point in this discussion was as someone who had consistently defended Egwenes behavior right up until ToM, but now finds it indefensible. I cannot imagine any more complete and clear statement of personal fallibility on this subject. Again, this is not about Gatorade vs. Haterade, but whether her behavior is justifiable. Despite whatever "bias" I may or may not have, I have often in the past argued her behavior is justifiable, but can do so no longer.