First of all, the codes:

Arrogance or Pride

Selfish or Inconsiderate behavior

Tyranny / Abuse of power

Out of Touch mentality

Judgmental Attitude

Lust for Status / Envy

Lust for Power

Sycophantic behavior or cowardice. This applies to her acceptance of or requiring such behavior, as well as acting that way herself.

Betrayal of a personal nature

Dishonesty

Protagonist Syndrome {behavior that is absolutely contraindicated unless the character knows she is a main character in a fantasy novel and thus critical to the resolution of the crisis, or bound for greatness against all in-story expectations}

Hypocrisy

Foolhardiness / Reckless endangerment of herself or others

And some that are venial level sins, or not explicitly bad or evil:

Flat out incompetence or incorrect conclusions or assessments

Stupid or Clueless behavior

Sociopathic mentality or desire toward violence or to victimize others (as opposed to actual action)

Petty, nasty or spiteful words and attitude / General rudeness

Uncooperative, resisting doing her part.

The Pattern at work, sometimes against Egwene, sometimes her going against it

Not a fault per se, but a noteworthy point of interest or milestone

Taking the side of the White Tower, or a position of inherent Aes Sedai supremacy

Part 10Winter’s Heart

1: After pitching a fit at Nynaeve and Elayne for trading Aes Sedai knowledge to the Sea Folk in order to get them to save the world from the Dark One’s touch, it is revealed that Egwene has been sharing that same knowledge to the Wise Ones to repay them for teaching her and “to meet a debt, she claimed”. In other words, recompense for the personal transgressions of Egwene is being bought with top secret Aes Sedai knowledge that may be not otherwise be shared, even to save the world.

An alternative theory of Egwene’s ire towards the Bowl bargain is the imprudence of the deal, but then how much more imprudent is her own? Nynaeve and Elayne had the excuse that the Sea Folk would not have given anything without the promise of teaching, but Egwene had already been taught, without the promise of reciprocity.

It’s okay to share secrets because Egwene lied to outsiders, and hopes to bring them under her rule, and in return for unasked payment for knowledge that Nynaeve and Elayne could have taught her for free. Me, I’d rather learn from the woman who defeated the Forsaken who was mistress of Tel’Aran’Rhiod on her own turf, who impressed a Hero of the Horn and discovered the Bowl of Winds, than a bunch of racist witch doctors. Especially if the price for the latter was classified information that could not even be disseminated to the people who used their unique skills to save the world, and the price for the former was being nice to Nynaeve al’Meara, the greatest and most accomplished initiate in the history of the White Tower. But I can see how Egwene would find that last one unthinkable.

Speaking of that superiority in the dream world, Egwene’s friends persist in viewing her as superior to them. They merely captured a Forsaken, helped the Dragon Reborn fight another and found the means to save the world from two distinct threats. Egwene, on the other hand, can keep her clothing from changing! How Does She Keep Them On This Hook ?

Especially when her own mental commentary on their abilities is a running tally of their shortcomings and errant beliefs (some of which later turn out to be correct, but whatever).

It’s stuff like this that is largely responsible for the PoV trap that snares so many fans for Egwene.

2: When discussing the Kin, and their return to the White Tower, Egwene mentions the lack of sufficient personnel to supervise the large influx of novices. Almost as if spontaneously announcing a change in policy without checking to see if it was practicable was not a good idea!

She quickly changes the subject to a woman who is stronger than Nynaeve, to put her friend on the defensive, assuming this is going to be a devastating bit of news that will unnerve Nynaeve, because it would be to her. Yet Nynaeve has had to deal all her life with people doubting her abilities because of her youth, and being physically stronger or better able to channel. She herself has scoffed at the importance of strength. She does not spend all her time obsessing about people who can do things she can’t or having more power than she. Egwene’s distraction gambit takes attention away from her bad idea, though not in the way she expected, but this is an all-too-typical tactic of hers, to evade attention to her shortcomings by trying to put others undeservedly on the defensive.

3: When Nynaeve & Elayne bring up the practical problems of swearing the Three Oaths, in addition to the myriad of moral shortcomings discussed previously, Egwene refuses to listen to any arguments, and then threatens Nynaeve and Elayne with “the full weight of Tower justice” if they persist in the situation in which Egwene herself placed them, for her own public relations convenience! She says that she will punish anyone who refuses to swear the Oaths, but calls herself Aes Sedai. No one called Nynaeve and Elayne Aes Sedai until Egwene did. Either she has no lawful authority, in which case, why is she still a thing, or she legitimately made them Aes Sedai. There were no conditions placed on their raising. She was insistent that they were full sisters and equal to all others, in addition to, at the time, intending to do away with the Oaths. There is no way they can be morally held to this standard or demand, unless Egwene received some sort of appropriate punishment for the much more grievous heresy of abusing her authority and falsely raising Aes Sedai! On the other hand, if Egwene has the right to set conditions for retaining the shawl, so does any other Amyrlin. Especially a validly elected one, like Elaida.

Furthermore, she has the utter and unmitigated nerve to threaten two people who have done a much better job of living up to the Oaths than she. Nynaeve and Elayne stopped claiming to be Aes Sedai shortly after leaving Egwene in Tear, while Egwene persisted on pretending to that status, and even rebuffing Elayne’s suggestion that they come clean. Nynaeve had to drag Egwene kicking and screaming into compliance with the Second Oath, and aside from maintaining cover, or pushing the Aes Sedai to get off their asses and save the world and help the Dragon Reborn, didn’t actually lie. Even the supposed lie for which Egwene assaults and abuses Nynaeve in Tel’Aran’Rhiod would have passed muster under the First Oath.

On this issue, Egwene shuts the door on yet another opportunity to reform the moribund, corrupt or even immoral practices of the White Tower, choosing instead to embrace even so morally bankrupt a symbol of unity as the Three Oaths, once Siuan made it clear that they are the key to keeping sisters tied to the Tower, and by extension, her.

4: Egwene compounds her appalling stance with yet another idiotic compromise. At least we will see people like Romanda, who, however wrongheaded she might be in her embrace of the Three Oaths, intends to stick to her guns and adhere to them. Egwene, to get around the fact that the Oath Rod was made as a means of capital punishment, and thus has unpleasantly fatal consequences for the users, and knowing that even friends as blindly devoted as Nynaeve and Elayne might balk at what amounts to a suicide cult, rather than develop a real program of reform, or work at a new way of doing things that will best fit the circumstances, instead decrees that all women who remove the Oaths must join the Kin. We will later see that the Kin are as inflexible to the point of stupidity as their Aes Sedai idols, quibbling about authority over such sticking points as Ebou Dar being the base of their leadership council, and their leaders’ authority being invalid outside of Ebou Dar!

So let’s say that Rand’s lifespan matches Elayne, and they decide to tie the knot. Does that mean in three hundred years, when Elayne removes the Oaths and joins the Kin, she’ll have to get a divorce, because Kinswomen are not allowed to marry? Will she have to abdicate the thrones of Andor & Cairhien to join the rotation of professions all Kinswomen undertake? One can say that these are only practical adjustments to their pre-Tower circumstances, but so is basing their authority around residence in Ebou Dar, yet they have shown no inclination to give that up, even when Kinswomen are dying because no one can assert authority on them.

Nynaeve objects – towards which Egwene makes no answer, only begging the question with a semantic digression – that the Kin use age the way Aes Sedai use strength in the Power: as an idiotic determiner of authority and standing. Nynaeve points out that women who have spent centuries in one of the highest-pressure, high-performance jobs in the world, will be expected to defer to the judgment of the Tower’s equivalent of a high school dropout. This concept is frequently defended by comparison to retirees in the real world no longer retaining the authority of their former professions, but this is not a retirement plan, it is a further stage of professional development. The whole point of making Aes Sedai join the Kin, and keeping the Kin close to the Tower is make use of them, and to enable those sisters to keep functioning and serving. Except they are now going to be curtailed in that service, by their quantifiably inferior elders in the Kin!

Egwene knows nothing about the Kin, and has never even met a Kinswoman. But because thinking of actual solutions would require effort that does not bring her power, she instead decides, arbitrarily and with less than a month’s consideration, that their Rule & lifestyles will be imposed under a literal penalty of death on all Tower initiates!

5: On the topic of Egwene’s low opinion of her male compatriots, she is first one to be able to put a finger on the resemblance of Luc to Rand. Elayne qualifies her agreement with the assessment that he looks like a “mean” version of Rand. Undoubtedly that is what threw Nynaeve and Elayne, holding, as they do, a generally positive and supportive view of him. They are slow to note the similarities, while Egwene always believes the worst, so she is better able to equate a man with a mean cast to his features as looking like Rand al’Thor.

Egwene also laughably assumes that Slayer doesn’t “know Tel’Aran’Rhiod as well as we do.” Later on, Perrin will casually demonstrate how much better he knows it than Egwene, and Slayer matched up against him much better. As always, Egwene’s estimates of her ability and prowess are well beyond reality.

6: In her second dream meeting with Elayne, Egwene tacitly admits she is avoiding any contact with Emond’s Field and her family, because Two Rivers people don’t grovel before the Amyrlin Seat. While there are reasons why this could be a legitimate problem with initiates, why should people who have nothing to do with the White Tower treat Egwene with homage and deference? Why should they have to accept her elevated station, instead of as the friend and neighbor they once knew? It’s like the Pope refusing to meet with Jews from the neighborhood where he grew up, because they won’t kiss his ring or ask for his blessing. Why should they? That status has absolutely nothing to do with them.

Remember the pleasure Rand took in those people among the Two Rivers having the exact same attitude towards him that Egwene fears being applied to her? And remember how according to her, he is arrogant and swollen-headed? What then, does that make Egwene?

7: Egwene also appears to have thoroughly embraced the idea, on mere rumor and gossip, that Rand is chaining Aes Sedai like damane. This from the girl who stalked away in furious disgust at rumors of the Red Ajah setting up false dragons. She won’t listen to slurs against enemy Aes Sedai, originated by a credible source, but she accepts the most extreme and absurd slanders about Rand, in spite of all her personal sources connected to the man giving absolutely no hints of such behavior.

For Rand to enslave Aes Sedai, the Wise Ones would have to be aware of it, and sufficiently willing to countenance it that they will not only allow him, but conceal his crimes from others. If they are that evil, what does that say about their friendship with Egwene? What does it say about her, that she took their side so often, and shared others’ secrets or private affairs with them? Of course, the personal ramifications of such rumors never cross her brain, instead she demands that Elayne spy on her lover for Egwene, and reveal personal confidences.

Part 11Crossroads of Twilight
1: While watching a boat approach the besieged Tar Valon, Egwene is annoyed that they move faster at the apparent sighting of an Aes Sedai watching them. She is so annoyed that they don’t take the benevolence of a sister for granted, that she considers terrorizing them to demonstrate how safe they are, and that they live on at her forbearance! How DARE people go about their lives believing they can sail a boat fast enough to avoid being killed by Egwene al’Vere if she so wishes! NONE can evade her power, and all should know this. She refrains from doing it because, for one of the first times in her life, she realizes before acting that enemies might see her lashing out pointlessly with the Power. So, for any Egwene fans still bothering, you can at least point to this as some sort of minimal progress.

2: Also, while contemplating the aggravating point that people are willing to fight for her enemies, in defiance of her wishes, Egwene asks a rhetorically accusatory question, wondering why men are so stupid as to join armies, despite her certain knowledge of the opportunities for advancement & remuneration that would otherwise not be available to them. And this is a woman who spread disinformation to get her army in motion, manufactured a phantom menace to frighten recruits into her army, engineered a crisis to provoke a declaration of war, fumed at every person not eager to rush into battle, and finally escalated the war by moving directly into a siege without the men or equipment her general planned to have when he began. But she’s condemning otherwise powerless men for rushing to war.

3: Immediately after all her laudatory praise of Gareth Bryne, Egwne has to use mental exercises to calm herself when he lays out a military rationale that is contrary to Egwene’s wishes. And overrides him of course. Bryne’s argument is that the longer Egwene holds him back from making an assault, the more people will die. Unfortunately for him, those people he is talking about are not Aes Sedai. Egwene is willing to fight this war to the death of every single one of her soldiers, just so long as she does not kill any of the Aes Sedai she intends to collect as future minions.

She proceeds to give a nonsensical rationale about the necessity of the White Tower, and how hope will die if the White Tower does. No one, anywhere, outside of brainwashed initiates, gives the slightest inclination that they count on the White Tower for anything, or that their willingness to fight depends on the presence of the organization. People might count on Aes Sedai, but they don’t need them to be in the Tower, and we repeatedly see that despite general knowledge of the split, normal people, and even rulers have not changed their treatment of, or attitudes toward Aes Sedai. Furthermore, outside the stifling influences of a White Tower dedicated to preserving the status quo and Aes Sedai jealous of their supremacy, we see remarkable strides being made in both technology, and advancing the use of the One Power.

Aes Sedai existed before the Tower. They don’t need to belong to the White Tower to fight Tarmon Gaidon. Without the Tower, anyone could call herself Aes Sedai, and no one would know the difference. Without the Tower refusing to recruit, and obstructing any alternative paths to training or organizing channelers, the world might have gone into Tarmon Gaidon with a lot more channelers on the Light side.

And speaking of channeling numbers, Rand has made a Bargain with the Sea Folk, who have numerous Windfinders. Egwene knows he has been negotiating with them, and that he is important to the Sea Folk, and knows the truth about the Windfinders. The Aiel have six times the number of female channelers as the White Tower has. Egwene knows this better than anyone. All of those women are unobstructed by Oaths, and many have experience with combat, or understand the need for decisive action and stealth and other such concepts you learn when you are not shut up in a literal ivory tower all your life. Egwene affected to believe in the prior book that Rand has been enslaving Aes Sedai as well, so she has to be very aware of exactly how many women who can channel are running around unaffected by the Tower’s civil war.

Egwene is being extremely disingenuous for someone who is so strictly compelling her friends to adhere to the First Oath that they mention it in every book, or appallingly self-deceiving for someone who hopes to command one of the most powerful organizations in the world.

A further point is that Egwene believes that if Aes Sedai end up fighting each other, it will be impossible to reconcile the factions. Andorans are expected to fall into line and cooperate once their war of succession is settled. Cairhienin are supposed to be putting aside the ill feelings engendered by their recent civil war to cooperate in the service of the Dragon Reborn and the fight against the Shadow, and do so as well with the Aiel who have twice savaged their nation. Tairens and Illianers are supposed to put aside centuries of enmity to work together. But Aes Sedai are privileged characters who cannot be prevented from nursing grudges to the point of irreconcilability in the face of Tarmon Gaidon! Egwene and others literally expect their sisters/daughters to pout and sulk and refuse to cooperate because the winners in the conflict killed some of their friends and allies, against the return of the Dark One himself. In later books we will see the Children of the Light overcome this exact problem with little to no dissent. Taraboners and Domani cooperate to fight the Seanchan. The Red freaking Ajah makes unilateral overtures to the Black Tower, and the Asha’man are receptive. But the Aes Sedai will so absolutely refuse to work with their alleged sisters, that people are making plans based on preventing the situation from reaching that point, even if it means delaying a resolution of the crisis to the very eve of Tarmon Gaidon itself.

4: While some might claim it is a noble service Egwene is doing in attempting to prevent the permanent fracturing of the White Tower, even if she does not realize how much better off the world might be in such a case, as always when Egwene is doing something for the possible greater good, there is direct benefit to herself – she gets to rule a united Tower, rather than only one collection of Aes Seai.

And so Egwene can retain the maximum number of followers and the greatest amount of power to her eventual position, the world must wait on all the supposed benefits of the White Tower, until she has a chance to win her best possible outcome. Maybe a shrunken and bloodied Tower available to help tomorrow might make a more significant contribution to preparing for Tarmon Gaidon, than a totally united Tower with a few dozen more sisters, that is only available right before the battle kicks off. But that would not serve Egwene as well, so it sucks to be the rest of the world.

5: Also, Egwene is continuing her pattern of contradicting, ignoring or criticizing people with superior military knowledge and acumen to hers. Which pretty much boils down to every fricking character in the series, except maybe Nynaeve, who still has a far better track record in fights than Egwene. Even after her little speech about hope depending on the White Tower, the literal military genius, with far more worldly experience and political sophistication believes the military delays will be a greater error than precipitous action. Egwene refuses to address his point and makes her departure.

The notion crosses Egwene’s mind that “Few things would please Elaida more than getting her hands on Egwene al’Vere”. So it’s not like the issue of personal security is one she had simply not considered out of some heretofore undiscovered species of modesty or humility in her soul.

6: During her rant about the importance of the White Tower, Egwene lets it slip that she considers the Asha’man as much a threat as the Shadow, or she pretends to consider them a threat to magnify the importance of the White Tower as a safeguard against them. So much for the notion that she freed Logain out of respect for Rand’s amnesty or recognition of the necessity of the Black Tower. So much for the notion that she is a breath of fresh air who will reform the policies and practices of a moribund institution.

What makes her claim more likely to be a lie (actually either claim: that Aes Sedai are important or necessary or that she intends to protect people from the Black Tower) is her actions prior to coming to Tar Valon, when she told the Andorans that she wasn’t going to bother with the Black Tower and that prosecuting her own claim to power was more important than protecting Andor from male channelers.

At every turn, Egwene keeps putting politics ahead of ideals or practical operations, even those she invents for her self-glorification. Aes Sedai should not go thwarting the Dark One’s control over the weather, if it is going to create political difficulties for Egwene. Dealing with male channelers must wait on Egwene’s political needs. Expeditiously ending the conflict to move on to providing Service to All is not practicable for political reasons.

7: The current Newspeak description of Egwene’s blackmail victims is “They and Sheriam had all sworn fealty to her, for various reasons…” For one reason. Egwene blackmailed them, using the threat of the Hall’s rather unreasonable anger to goad them into those oaths. But she swans about pretending this situation is entirely of their own free will and she is merely the rightful or at least passive beneficiary of their variously-reasoned choices.

As evidence of why Delana is held in disrepute, so that her support of Egwene is sometimes unwelcome, she is cited as being so whacky as to actually bring up topics like providing sufficient clothing for their dependents, whom they punish for not wearing the right clothing or dirtying it. Or speculating about Elaida having secret supporters among the rebels. The Hall has MUCH more important matters on their minds, than internal security, or supplying basic necessities to women they keep too busy to provide for themselves. They don’t appear to be conducting any foreign policy, they want as little to do as possible with the army, they balk at teaching their novices and there are, we shall soon see, strict limitations on their authority over the individual sisters. If they are unwilling to make provision for basic supplies or consider issues of internal security, what on earth do they do?

As far as those specific matters go, they can Travel, as they seem to forget every two minutes, so the whole world is available as a source of white cloth, and oh, yeah. Delana is RIGHT about infiltrators! But it creeps them out, so they get pissed at her for bringing it up. Don’t worry common scum, the Aes Sedai are in charge of the world! So long as the Tower stands, hope lives! What was the world like without a White Tower? Oh, right. There was a utopia known as “The Age of Legends”.

8: Egwene believes the Hall has better uses for its time than “gossiping like village women.” No, Egwene. No, they don’t. But it’s interesting to see what Egwene uses as a point of invidious comparison, sophisticated urbanite that she has been from birth. She also twice refers to herself as an innkeeper’s daughter in her stream of consciousness. The innkeeper’s daughter, in fact. Whether as part of her reflexive denigration of male loved ones or to emphasize her rise from humble origins, as if an accident of birth that allowed her to channel was not responsible for the entirety of that rise, she persistently uses that description of her parentage, as if she doesn’t want to admit that she is the mayor’s daughter, and thus slightly more privileged than most from similar origins, or that her father had some accomplishments in his own right. Having so little accomplishments legitimately her own, and mostly drafting off of others, it is understandable, if reprehensible that she does so.

9: When the absurd and outrageous suggestion of maybe actually talking to the opposition is brought up for the first time ever, and appallingly late, considering all the overtures Elaida has made, from broadcasting a general offer of amnesty, to sending her future Keeper to offer the same, even after they publically slandered her and the Red Ajah, and that it only occurs to them as they stand deployed for open battle, Egwene, of course, sets almost impossible terms, refusing any other outcome than her own ascension, and that the lawfully elected Amyrlin, whom Egwene knows to be personally innocent of the crime that decided many sisters on the course of deposing her, must resign and go into exile as the sine qua non of any non-violent resolution.

Egwene rationalizes this, and her own refusal to do likewise in the name of unity, by citing Elaida’s hypothetical recalcitrance in the face of any compromise. Her stream of consciousness claims that Egwene would have surrendered if it would have saved the Tower, right before she sets completely opposite terms for her negotiators.

Her subsequent rationale of Elaida’s unpardonable sin (skipping hastily past the issue of her legality) is that Elaida wants the rebels who have violated the unity of the Tower to face consequences. The unity of the White Tower is the most important thing in Egwene’s mind, but how dare Elaida act on that principle!

But remember the Wondergirls’ initial chagrin over Elaida’s rise? How they were full of horror at how hostile she would be to the Dragon Reborn, and how ineptly she would handle that prime issue of the day? That is apparently less important than Tower unity.

And Tower unity is less important than the Blue Ajah being allowed to evade any institutional punishment for unanimously deserting the Tower during the time of the greatest peril the world has faced since its founding, publically slandering the lawful Amyrlin and the largest Ajah in the Tower, and spitting on the aforementioned attempts at peaceful resolution. The rebellion was held in a place with special meaning to the Blue Ajah, and insulting connotations to the Red Ajah. It would be like an Israeli political party losing an election and fleeing en masse to hold a rebellion against the Prime Minister, who nonetheless sent an emissary to meet with them and offer an amnesty in their gathering …at Adolf Hitler’s birthplace. And after all that, Elaida is to anathemized for refusing to clasp this serpent back to her bosom?

This is the priority of issues in Egwene’s mind:
3 The Dragon Reborn being respected or at least not persecuted by the White Tower and its leader. Which is not as important as …
2 Unity of the White Tower, for which all sorts of other issues can be tossed on the fire, and forgotten about, except for…
1 The sacrosanctity of Aes Sedai, who must never ever suffer any consequences for their actions, even sins against the aforementioned unity. Remember how the first thing Moiraine told her about being Aes Sedai was that they were regular women like everyone else, and that joining the White Tower did not change that about them? All those hours ignoring the potential Dragon Reborn to chat with Egwene seem like such a wise investment of Moiraine’s time, don’t they?

Anyway, even if we stipulate the validity of Egwene’s position, it’s an amazing coincidence how once again, the Only Possible Course of Action just so happens to be the one that will give her absolute power.

Egwene observes a couple of sisters coming out the designated Traveling area, and in the course of wondering where they went, claims an inability to find out or check on how the sisters use Traveling. The authority of the Tower over individual sisters, is such that they cannot even restrict how a critically secret weave is used, in the middle of a war. Even the most free societies have special exceptions for war-time or crisis scenarios that allow the curtailment of individual liberties in the name of effective action, and maintaining secrecy from enemies. That the Tower lacks even this ability says a lot about the limitations of the power of the Amyrlin, and the dubious efficacy of their utility and unity in an actual crisis. If they cannot be persuaded to forego their privileges during a formally declared state of war, while present in the actual theater of said war, how can they be trusted to sublimate themselves for the greater good?

10: Egwene characterizes her rediscovery of cuendillar as something all her own, that she has none of the qualms about accepting praise for it that she does with the discoveries she passed on from Moghedian…before revealing that Moghedian, in spite of a lack of talent, learned enough of the principles to get Egwene started. So the notion that her channeling discoveries rank Egwene with Nynaeve;s innovations & inventions and Elayne’s rediscovery of ter’agreal falls short by a long shot.

11: And having rediscovered the method of making cuendillar, an indestructible substance, which it is revealed can be made into any form for which there is sufficient iron available, Egwene and the rebel Aes Sedai are focusing on profit, rather than utility. Instead of making weapons and armor for the men who will fight and die in their names, or against the Shadow, they commission blacksmiths to make things ornate and fancy, reducing the available manpower to do the myriad other chores for which blacksmiths are a vital part of an army’s support forces (and a reason why they are sacrosanct among the Aiel, who don’t even need horseshoes), because those things can be sold to bring in more money for their rebellion! With all the good they could be doing for the world, Egwene and the sisters instead go with the most self-serving, personally profitable route, that diverts the maximum amount of work, time and resources away from useful activity.

Heck, if they are so hard up for cash, they could sell weapons and armor! That way, the good guy would get indestructible gear, the cause gets money, and everyone profits. But, instead, in order to get MORE money for themselves, they go with useless decorative objects to adorn the palaces of the wealthy. Egwene consistently finds the worst possible ways to apply wonderful new things.

It is mentioned too, that the sisters who have the ability to make cuendillar seems to be universally opposed to doing so, and prone to complaining about the effort and time they are required to put in at the project. That time is one hour, or less, if they get good enough at it, and yet, despite the obvious rewards for their group and cause, as well as what one would think would be professional interest in mastering a weave of the Power, they seem to be universally balking. It’s not like this is a particular group of sisters that might be expected to behave in a similar manner, it is a random sampling of women based on a specific, previously unknown skill. When a random sample turns out to exhibit the same characteristics, it is safe to assume that those characteristics are prevalent throughout the group as well.

Either the Aes Sedai in general have very bad attitudes, or the rebels in particular somehow self-selected for the laziest, most petulant and least cooperative sisters in the Tower.

12: During a discussion of Nicola’s shortcomings (which might be better characterized as a failure on the part of her teachers), Egwene casually regrets stopping Siuan from murdering Nicola & Areina, for the crime of being too much like Egwene. Using deceit to further her education? Blackmailing rebel leaders? Unorthodox friendships with non-initiates of the Tower? Such behavior is totally worthy of murder!

Now Egwene is properly shocked at this thought of hers, and the most probable source of the notion is Siuan’s recommendation two books ago, sticking it into her brain. But this is why you don’t keep morally-deficient people around. Egwene is Siuan’s greatest champion, supporter, source of empowerment and apologist. Not even Siuan’s friends of two decades, Leane and Moiraine produce as mental praise for Siuan as Egwene does. And yet, this woman is perverting Egwene into someone who accepts in the abstract, the notion of murder for convenience. How can Egwene lavish such fulsome praise on the woman who is responsible for this bent in her thinking? Delegation is a key aspect of leadership, and one at which Egwene is appalling.

13: After spending two books annoyed to furious that people don’t recognize her at a distance, Egwene is now gritting her teeth over people reacting to her approach, by getting out of her way fast. Even more, she is miffed despite thinking that her draconian punishments meted out to her own fellow Two Rivers people for treating her the way she routinely treated the much more important Rand are a part of it. When you terrorize people, you sort of have to expect them to act like that! While much is made of their supposed, heretofore unseen disrespect, the one specific instance we are told of, is Bode Cauthon’s failure to understand why they can’t just chat like they used to. Nothing about Bode barging into her study ordering her to wash her ears or shrieking insults at her for not supporting Rand or Mat more actively. Instead, we see Bode behaving with a cowed demeanor and afraid to look at Egwene, and the only reference given is that Bode tried to behave as if Egwene is a person, rather than a job title. How many smacks on the butt or hours of extra chores did that transgression earn her, I wonder? Certainly far more than Egwene herself earned for more egregious disrespect of the most important person in the world.

14: Egwene encounters Halima in her study, and runs through the same characterization as tPoD, where she dismissed everyone else in the universe’s dislike of Halima, and instinctive mistrust or revulsion. In particular, she writes off the suspicions of promiscuity or licentious showing off as people envying her looks. A contributing factor in Egwene’s mind is Halima’s favoring of clothing that exposes excess flesh, in the winter. And she’s an unsophisticated countrywoman, as opposed to a noble or well-to-do woman who might have become accustomed to wearing clothing for display, rather than practical covering. The few facts related to her reputation don’t even add up, and yet Egwene refuses to examine her favorite sycophant any more closely.

Aran’gar is certainly not using Compulsion on Egwene, as there are instances of her clear displeasure in Egwene’s acting against her wishes, so there is no excuse for Egwene persisting in ignoring the opinions of literally every other person to have an opinion on the woman. What’s more, she is annoyed at that universality of opinion, because it interferes with her enjoyment of Halima’s company, not out of female solidarity or indignation at slut shaming. Egwene’s opinion is not backed by a principle or standard of decent treatment, it is solely about her and what she likes.

She claims that she likes Halima making pointed insinuations about everyone else because her directness means that she can let down her hair, and enjoy her company on a person-to-person level, rather than Amyrlin-to-abused-subject. Except she has beaten down every such attempt by anyone else to do that! The reason why only Halima can be her friend? Egwene cannot bear to have anyone’s opinion of her reduced in the slightest. Never mind that Delana’s friendship with a universally reviled woman seems not to have diminished her standing a whit, much less Egwene’s quasi-favoritism of Nynaeve and Elayne, or speculation that she is somehow involved with Gareth Bryne. Egwene simply refuses to let the slightest shred of authority slip out of her fingers, while claiming to long for regular friendly companionship.

If she really wanted the latter, she’d behave that way with Nynaeve and Elayne in private in Tel’Aran’Rhiod, instead of subjecting them to tirades because a long string of genuine, inherently desirable objectives might require her to exert some political capital, or imperiously cutting off their dissenting opinions and making them all tense and wary and super-conscious of her authority.

And speaking of that simple human connection and company, when did she ever offer it to Rand? There was no acknowledgment of his superior standing when she wanted to vent her spleen or demand a favor, but why did she never step up and be a friend when she didn’t want something? She was even vaguely aware that such companionship might be good for him, but the one time she seeks to do anything about it, she encourages Aviendha to provide it! Instead of trying to be a friend to Rand, she encourages the woman she knows to have an unreasoning, borderline psychotic hatred of him to offer him company, so she can go have secret midnight conferences with Moiraine. Nearly every thought Egwene has about being an authority figure is in complete contradiction to her expressed positions when Rand was the one in charge. What’s more, there is no recognition or rueful recollections of that difference, or acknowledgement that the shoe feels different on the other foot.

In their discussion about relations with other channeling groups, the point comes out of the general reluctance of the White Tower and the orthodox sisters to allow the Sea Folk sisters to quit being Aes Sedai and return to the homes they never wanted to leave. To most readers, enmeshed in the perspective of the women who have to actually deal with the Sea Folk, the most onerous parts of the bargain made by Nynaeve & Elayne would seem to be the rights of the Sea Folk to access the knowledge of the Tower or the burdens of having to deal with the Sea Folk from a position of weakness. Yet those aspects are “small turnips” next to the provision that a handful of weak sisters be allowed to live their lives as they choose!

15: Egwene freaks out when she reads a report identifying Merana as a sister involved in negotiations with the rebels in Tear, claiming it is proof that Rand is using Compulsion on Aes Sedai. This is patently absurd, although, ironically, if there is any Compulsion at work, it is the Oath Rod, whose use Egwene refuses to even discuss, compelling Merana to keep an oath she swore to Rand.

Egwene knows Rand is ta’veren. She herself has experienced that effect inducing her to change her mind in his favor. She has absolutely never seen anything remotely suggestive of the behavior she attributes to Rand in him personally. She has even seen an Aes Sedai coming to obey him of her own free will. Egwene herself knows better than anyone that Aes Sedai can be induced to serve someone they normally would not. As previously mentioned, the Wise Ones would have to countenance such an appalling abuse for Rand to get away with it.

Egwene’s leap to assume the use of Compulsion is telling in two ways. First of all, it is yet another case of her wrongly assuming the worst of Rand, with no history of such behavior or concrete evidence on which to make such an assessment, and secondly, what does it say about Aes Sedai in general, and the rebels in particular, that the only way she can possibly imagine Merana and company providing assistance to Rand is through the use of Compulsion?! Egwene not only takes it as a given that no sister would help him, she finds the notion that he circumvented this incredible recalcitrance to be more disturbing than the fact that her followers would balk at helping to end a division within a nation on the eve of Tarmon Gaidon if it was something Rand wanted.

With an ally like this…

16: Setting aside her calumnious assumptions about Rand’s use of Compulsion, Egwene actually thinks it worse that he uses it against Aes Sedai. The very first thing she was told about Aes Sedai by a member of the Tower is that they are no different from any other woman. They are not superior, and not an exalted flesh. Yet, Egwene honestly believes they deserve superior protection and rights. It never occurs to her that people might take measures against Aes Sedai precisely because Aes Sedai can harm them in ways no other people could. She plans to punish him for transgressing against Aes Sedai sacrosanctity, claiming that the Seanchan could not do as much damage as the Dragon Reborn. In other words, his greater power requires that he be held to more strict standards.

Aes Sedai deserve looser standards, and less punishment, because they are more powerful than other people, and anything done against Aes Sedai will obviously be done to other people, who do not frighten enemies the way sisters do. But Rand needs tighter standards, and must be punished, because he is more powerful than other people! For the exact same reason it is worse to act against an Aes Sedai, Egwene thinks Rand needs to be acted against! And even while using the Seanchan as a point of comparison in her mental diatribe, it never occurs to Egwene to look at their example, and note that they ONLY act against female channelers in particular ways, explicitly citing the greater danger those women can pose and the greater harm and damage they can do.

For all her hatred of the Seanchan for their attitude towards female channelers (even while reading “depressing” reports of their good qualities in this very chapter), Egwene has that exact same attitude towards Rand, while expecting that she and hers be held to a diametrically opposite standard. “You are powerful, and must be constrained lest you do great harm! We are powerful, and must not be constrained, because what is done to powerful people like us will be done much worse to the less powerful.”

You need new words to describe the extent to which Egwene will abandon logic or reason to condemn Rand.

During the sitting of the Hall, reference is made to the plans in case of a Forsaken attack. These were first revealed - as largely inadequate - when a bubble of evil occurred in Salidar, and from the descriptions, remain unaltered in spite of their poor performance against nuisance phenomena, let alone deliberate attempts at harm by a rogue channeler. Furthermore, “form circles” appears to have been the complete extent of their plans.

And later, Moria has the temerity to assert that when they go begging for help from the Asha’man, they shall insist on being in charge of any circles they form. Their idea of a battle plan begins and ends with “Circles!” and they are going to force trained One Power warriors to act as ambulatory magazines and put their lives in the hands of these amateurs.

Absolutely nothing is said about what the sisters intend to offer the Asha’man as inducement to participate in this plan. Apparently the privilege of association with Aes Sedai is such that they assume the Black Tower will just leap to give them whatever they want, even while the woman who proposes the agreement specifically repudiates any sort of terminology that might indicate any degree of equality or even legitimacy afforded these men whom they suppose will give the Aes Sedai their only assistance possible against this threat they fear that destroyed Shadar Logoth.

And the woman in charge of this cluster flame spent the middle of the series condemning Rand for arrogance and asserting he had a swelled head. Ironically, one such accusation came when Rand did NOT take others’ acquiescence or cooperation for granted.

17: Throughout the discussion on the agreement with the Black Tower, Egwene makes no contribution one way or another, beyond the functional service of running the proceedings. It’s an unprecedented step that has ramifications for all their future dealings with male channelers, and it touches on dealings with the Dragon Reborn. And Egwene has absolutely nothing to say, and no interest in the proposal one way or another, because she cannot see any way it affects her power and position.

Supposedly the whole point of Egwene becoming Amyrlin is to help bring the Aes Sedai into cooperation with Rand. This is the first real chance to have something to do with forging a bond between Rand and the sisters, and she doesn’t even need to do the work on it. But she can’t even be bothered to have an opinion, or even speculate what the best thing to do would be. A major undertaking by her own organization, and since it does not directly affect her power or status, it might as well be happening in another country.

18: An interesting note is that Egwene “hated seeing what had become of the Two Rivers since she left.” The Two Rivers has become more self-sufficient, more capable of standing up to threats and much more prosperous. It is very apparent that this is by the general choice or acceptance of the inhabitants, since no outside power is doing it to them. Considering something like 90% of her musings regarding herself compared to the Two Rivers over the last seven books has been on the topic of how much she has grown and changed, and how far beyond the Two Rivers she has come. But that’s a prerogative reserved exclusively for Egwene. Everyone else should stay right where she left them so as to provide a measure for her advancement. How dare Mat go out and develop a military reputation! How dare Rand think he is actually some sort of ruler, much less attempt to discharge the duties of one! He’s a shepherd, not a king! And how dare the Two Rivers move on and improve without Egwene’s permission!

It would be one thing to regret not witnessing, or being a part of the changes, or to wonder what is going on with the people she left back home, most of whose names never pass through her stream of consciousness. But this is flat out condemning her community for doing exactly what Egwene has repeatedly claimed she is doing. It’s like getting mad that your ex is dating again, long after you’ve begun having relationships.

19: For all that Egwene is insistent that she has moved beyond the Two Rivers, she nonetheless has no qualms about applying Two Rivers morality to Elayne, who has never set foot in the place, thinking of her as a “fool woman” who “had let herself get with child and showed no signs of marrying”. Elayne has only made a lifetime commitment to the father of her children, in a much more tangible form than a merely verbal ceremony with the local pharmacist. She is a monarch, or aspires to be one, making reproduction not only permissible, but an absolute obligation. Sure, Egwene does not know about the Warder bond, but that's the point. She does not know everything, she lacks Elayne's or Rand's perception of their relationship, so she should refrain from passing judgment on that relationship, particularly given all the obstacles that prevent them from jumping through the standard hoops of societal approval.

As far as sexual permissiveness goes, she left Elayne alone in Rand’s bedroom at one point, with her chest all but hanging out. You don’t do that if you disapprove of the couple having sex. Later on, she will revel in dreams of having sex herself, in similarly illicit circumstances as Elayne’s “transgression.”

After her dream adventures, she wakes to observe Halima coming into the tent late. On the basis of one sentence “Well, I wouldn’t mind a good night’s sleep myself,” Egwene does a complete 180 and all but condemns her of fornication. After all her sneering at people making assumptions based on her clothing and looks, Egwene assumes that there is absolutely nothing else that could have been keeping Halima awake late at night. She then gives the cold shoulder to the woman about whose friendship she had rhapsodizing the night before, not even having the common courtesy to mention her concerns to her erstwhile friend, and offer Halima a chance to explain or alleviate them.

You’d think she could print up a pamphlet or something about Two Rivers sexual customs that she could issue to her friends so they don’t tragically disappoint her by accident.

20: Being relatively close friends with both Aviendha and Elayne, Egwene is probably aware of their adoption, and thus the degree of friendship to which the two women have moved, and yet is surprised that Aviendha is happy for Elayne in her pregnancy. Even factoring in Aviendha’s feelings towards Rand, on which Egwene has finally clued in, all of Egwene’s closest Aiel friends who are not senior citizens, are now engaged in polygamous relationships. Why would she be surprised to see it from the woman whom she first heard describe the institution in terms of prioritizing female friendships? Why would she be surprised at Elayne cooperating, when the Daughter-Heir spent the time prior to Egwene breaking up with Rand making jokes about a similar relationship? Oh, right. Egwene, power, all else irrelevant ..same ol’, same ol’.

21: The very night after she notes the limits of her authority when it comes to ordering or even knowing about the comings and goings of sisters, she is asking Aviendha about Nynaeve, saying she “has words for her” for going off to help Rand. She wants to reprimand Nynaeve for actually giving Rand the only help he has received from the Salidar Aes Sedai, and closest anyone comes to fulfilling the promises Egwene herself made or implied of their support, and has apparently been harassing Nynaeve’s dreams to that end.

I’m going to give Egwene the benefit of the doubt regarding Rand’s comments about her to Logain on her probable reaction to the bonding. He’s not in his best head space at this point, and since we never see her have any Jordan-given thoughts on the bonding deal, Rand’s impressions or assessments are not really relevant to her character arc. Although Rand has generally been good at calling her reactions, going back to her first appearance in EotW. Maybe it’s just his deteriorating personality and increasing paranoia slanting his perception of Egwene. Or maybe her giving him so many reasons to mistrust her reactions is a contributing factor to his growing harder and more paranoid…

22: Lacking Nynaeve’s or Elayne’s accomplishments, and not having taken the tests that every Aes Sedai has endured to reach the shawl, it is hardly surprising that Theodrin & Faolain are not accepted as real sisters. Yet Egwene is furious that people are not taking the decree of a teenage nonentity over 3000 years of tradition and practice. When Siuan points out the obvious eventual resolution, Egwene doesn’t care, because it is a rejection of her authority. Even the point that her political accomplishments have earned her similar forbearance and acceptance as her friends has no effect on her. Because it’s not really about the practical reality for Egwene, or how long Theodrin and Faolain have to suffer. Someone, somewhere, does not hold Egwene’s commands or authority as absolute and akin to those of the Creator, so something must be done!

23: Upon learning that Nicola has run away, Egwene’s reaction is as follows. Nicola was conniving and unscrupulous, willing to try blackmail or whatever else she thought would advance her. She also casually assumes Areina committed grand theft to help her run away (when in fact they were just going to Tar Valon), because Egwene has to think the absolute worst of anyone whose lips are not currently in contact with her bottom. But this is how she condemns Nicola, as someone who uses unscrupulous means to get ahead, including blackmail. While reading a report handed to her by a woman Egwene herself blackmailed! When Egwene was willing to lie like a rug to get access to status or training, and used her friendships and connections to get ahead herself!

24: The reception of Egwene’s Dream of the Seanchan attack on the Tower is another thing that rouses a fury in her, because people are not believing, absent any sort of proof. No other character in WoT actually expects to be believed on something like this. Rand did not expect the Aiel to accept him completely even with everyone else known to have shared his experience vouching for him. Perrin did not expect his neighbors to take his advice about collective security, and Mat doesn’t go around making assertions based on his Eelfinn memories, and does not expect people to tolerate his command if they find out those memories are the source of his acumen. Egwene herself used circuitous descriptions to pass on supernaturally obtained knowledge to people who know and trust her (as contradictory as those two factors would seem to be, relating to Egwene). Nynaeve and Elayne have to endure constant second-guessing of their judgment, regardless of their track record on practical matters.

But Egwene expects people to just shake out of their grief and fear over a pair of murders, and react in a positive and affirming way to her out-of-nowhere announcement about the Seanchan, which flies in the face of their knowledge about the Seanchans’ location and limitations. All else aside, at this point, the sisters have had a considerable fill of Nicola’s suspiciously convenient and self-serving Foretellings, that perhaps being aware on some level of the points of congruence between her and Egwene, are reflexively mistrusting the woman whose main achievements have come about through invented crises.

After all, what would acceptance and response to Egwene’s Dream entail? Why, increased security and stepping up the war footing, which just so happens to move more of the operations of the camp into her direct command. Just about anything she might want to order or forbid could be claimed as necessary precautions against the Seanchan attack.

And as in the case of Theodrin & Faolain not receiving sufficient respect, the real aggravation for Egwene seems to be that people are not falling all over her every word. She herself gives no indication of a concrete plan or anything she wants the sisters to actually do, aside from maybe spend their days in fear. She wants to make people jump when she speaks, and is miffed that she has not given them sufficient reason beyond her own say-so.

25: One of the arguments in favor of Egwene’s candidacy and campaign for power, advanced by readers at least, is how she’ll be able to change and reform the Tower’s ways and find ways to cooperate with other channeling groups, given her experiences outside the Tower (that other channeling groups all seem to react to Egwene with corporal punishment tends to be glossed over). And yet she is incredulous and outright dismissive when Maigan suggests the Warder bond as a method of union with the Asha’man. Which, as it turns out, seems to be the primary medium of connection between the initiates of the Two Towers, and one in which all parties involved appear to come to amicable and satisfactory arrangements. Let’s hear it for innovation and insight.

26: As the cap to her misadventures, Egwene talks herself into taking Bode Cauthon’s place changing the Northharbor chain with a maundering, incoherent stream of consciousness about the Tower and its ability to change women and the price initiates have to pay. She seems to think that as the Amyrlin, as leader of the “Tower”, it falls on her to be the one on point in the operation. To those who contend that my interpretation is at odds with Jordan’s portrayal, I have to say I find it difficult to believe that a character who so thoroughly praises and trusts Gareth Bryne would act in contradiction to a maxim of the man quoted in the same book. “An army is a general’s sword …a general who uses another blade is mistaking the job.”. Egwene definitely mistook the job here.

Even if we ignore the fact that Bode might not have made Egwene’s mistakes (and the evidence that she would not will be addressed when it comes up in KoD) and been captured, there is still the point that as the one in charge, Egwene is supposed to be there to lead. She cites to herself the exception in Tower Law about the Amyrlin not being able to place herself at risk by noting that they are currently in a state of declared war, all the while ignoring the spirit of the law, which is that a leader should not be exposing herself needlessly. The exception is in place because Tower Law explicitly states the need for swift and decisive action during a time of war and since the Hall has to approve the Amyrlin’s war-related decrees, there is no point in wasting time by consulting the Hall on a matter where their acquiescence is required anyway. Haste is not the issue in Egwene's case. The exception to the Law is not so the Amyrlin can place herself at risk when danger is even greater, it was almost certainly written in to protect the Amyrlin’s command authority in wartime by eliminating in such a circumstance the one legal restriction on the power of the office, lest the Hall claim that law forcing her to answer to them for her safety is a loophole that lets them buck the chain of command in other ways. All the reasons why a leader should not risk herself on the front lines, especially in war time, apply very much to Egwene’s circumstance. That restriction could also have been lifted, because the authors assumed that any Amyrlin with enough brains to blow her nose would not NEED to be restrained and lawfully compelled to caution during a formally declared war

About the best spin one could put on her choice, was that rather than sending a “child” (by Tower status, if not in fact) to take such a risk, it should be one of the people who benefit the most by the operation. Except by taking Bode’s place, Egwene increases the risk. Had Bode been captured (which she would have been less likely to be; see the next part in this series), she would not have been liable to stilling and execution, because she never claimed to be anything other than a novice. Since she was following orders given by Aes Sedai, she very likely would not have even been punished. Instead, her capture would have resulted in her receiving lessons and training, under a much more competent Mistress of Novices, and much better student-teacher ratio, while indoors, under sisters with plenty of wealth, who are not always scrounging for money and supplies. The horror. And all the subsequent political issues that arose as a result of Egwene’s capture would not have occurred.

Thanks to this singular blunder, Egwene forfeits any further claim to success. In the game of baseball, when a single baserunner is incapable of altering the final score at the very end of the game, the opposing team will sometimes ignore him in order to concentrate on getting the batter(s) out. Any subsequent bases the runner gets to are not credited to him as stolen bases or to his total bases statistics, rather he is said to have advanced through "defensive indifference." A situation analogous to Egwene’s from here on out. Everything she achieves politically, she gets not because she won or earned it, but because she was permitted to by the opposition, after her own ineptitude, arrogance and stupidity placed the outcome entirely in the enemy’s control.

27: And once again, Egwene wields the Power, without caution, restraint or basic safety measures, in known close proximity to large numbers of hostile channelers. Cadsuane has defensive ter'angreal out the wazoo and despite a lifetime of confronting male channelers, is still here to talk about it. Elayne has a prophetic guarantee of life safety for several months to come. And readers routinely lambaste both women (actual Green sisters, no less, rather than pretend wannabes looking for an Ajah to blindly support her reign) for being reckless and foolhardy. I guess we need a new word for what Egwene is then. At least the other two actually win on a physical battlefield sometimes.

Sorry about the delay. No excuses, just stuff. Suddenly I turned around and it had been a month with this thing sitting half-done in my files, while I was distracted by a relatively busy month, WoT-wise.