This is not a hate thread though it may sound like one at first. I don't often post, especially stuff like this, but after reading TGS I needed to. I hope it doesn't sound too corny.

I have been in the "can't stand her" category since tFOH and before that my opinion of her was in sharp decline since after the battle of Falme in TGH. I LOVED it when Elayne slapped her in TDR! After tFoH I couldn't stand her. She has only gotten worse through the next 5 books until finally after KOD she was rock bottom and Aiel Waste barren. Then I read TGS and I think there may be hope for her after all.

I think most of my animosity toward her came from the way she treated Rand, since he is my favorite character from the beginning of the story right down to the end. I was disgusted at the way she treated him. After the battle at Falme in TGH, she treats him like he has the cooties (that was how it came across to me) when she tells Min "he isn't safe" . In TSR she is always second guessing him. She said she loves him like a brother but I have never seen her show any "love" to him; treating him like an idiot child if not a lower life form yes, yelling at him yes, TRYING to manipulate him yes, other rude acts yes, but "love" haven't seen it.

What REALLY "broke the camels back" was in TFOH when she tried to get into Rand's dreams even being determined to keep trying. Any respect I had left for her vanished. Dreams are very private things and she had no right to his dreams. I wish the Wise Ones didn't have that ability either but at least they are mature about it. What would Egwene have done if she saw Rand was dreaming about Min and Aviendah in erotic ways? Would she had blabbed it to Elayne?

She couldn't even let Rand bathe in private! She mentions the embarrassment but she doesn't say she left so he could finish. Can't the man have ANY privacy? How would she like it if he did the same to her?

Anything that has come out of her mouth about Rand (or lack of such as not defending his innocence of Morgases "death" to Gawyn) through KOD has only added more against her, like in CoT (I think) she says something like "what else has he done that I'll have to fix", or thinking Rand did something bad when there was no proof. I know some will say maybe she had cause to think so but the fact is she had no proof, just rummer to go by, and in that way she was as bad as Gawyn.

And then I read TGS. I find I was able to read her parts without wanting to hit her! I really liked how she took charge of the fight against the Seanchan(sp) even though she had an "I won't be collared" moment. Her determination not to break was awesome. However much of what she did for political reasons I don't know but she FINALLY says something nice about Rand! Even condemning the AS for allowing his treatment. Although her comment about "guiding" Rand made me , I think the lack of ranting about him (except when it came to the bonding issue) is what made her parts readable.

So, perhaps there is hope for her. I don't know if I will ever "like" her but maybe she can go back to being barely tolerable. She now knows something of Rand's pain and has said she has a kinda kinship with him. Perhaps the kinship will grow if she learns he was also collared and remembers that now they both have had a Darkfriend as a friend (or at least close companion) and was there when that friend died a honorable death (that is if she knows about Ingtar).