Then she should trust him. I admire your guts taking up such an indefensible position, but Egwene has kind of boxed you in.


Yes, because of the huge loss of life that would entail, and based on how the nations previously reacted to an Aiel invasion.

The Aiel had already invaded. He would not be unduly exacerbating any negative reaction at that point. Also, massive loss of life was going to happen no matter what. But then, Egwene has taken for her mentor a woman whom St. Moiraine criticized for having the wrong attitude toward collateral damage "But the world will burn no matter what we do, Siuan. You could never see that."

Anyone who wants to gain anything cheaply will get exactly what she pays for. Rand & Bashere, in the final scene, discuss the fact that there will be a heavy price to pay. Egwene, with not much less experience of the world than Rand, is still in her childhood naivety stage...just as she still is in ToM. She wants Rand to make the world all right without suffering the cost of clearing the rubble so he can build something that will last - Egwene has chosen to wed herself to an obsolete institution, and this mindset carries over to her view of matters with Tarmon Gaidon approaching. She's so attached to the crumbling cliff, she won't take a step off to climb to safety. Honestly, it's like she missed the biggest lesson by example that she could have learned from the Wise Ones, who from the day she arrived in the Three-Fold Land, were running around trying to do exactly that. They accepted that they could not cling to their old familiar ways, and that they would have to embrace the otherwise unthinkable changes their savior brought in hopes of there being anything to save.

I wonder if that's going to be the significance of the Seanchan woman - getting her to "break her block" as it were, and embrace the unthinkable, abandon her old attachments, and save what she can. She's so proud of doing that with her friends and homeland, but she can't when it matters. She toss away important stuff to chase an illusory ideal of an institution, but she can't step away from a deteriorating situation to take the risk that is their only chance.

This is what she couldn't see in tFoH, either. Sure, the Light is risking their whole cause when Rand goes into danger, but that's the only way they are going to make any progress. The good guys only have a few chips, so in order to get any kind of substantial pot, they have keep going all in.

And if you know you have three ta'veren on your side, what better time to make a huge gamble? But this is Egwene, who sniffs at gambling, and calls just about every necessary risk "madness".

Madness? THIS! IS! WHEEL OF TIME!