Everyone else is shown to be a bit small minded. Egwene is implied to be Strong And Wise - Edit 1
Before modification by beetnemesis at 15/02/2010 09:24:47 PM
Which would make her as bad as everyone. Even the wretched Aiel only care about their remnant of a remnant, and every nation cares only about themselves with TG around the corner. Egwene is right to care only about the White Tower. When TG comes, she will fight behind Rand, but there is no reason for her to mobilize everyone to kneel before Rand at this stage.
The Wise Ones care about their remnant, but they're also thrown the support of all of the tribes to do whatever Rand commands.
It's perfectly fine to care about your own interests, as long as the interests of the Whole Wide World are put first! That's why the noblemen who constantly work behind Rand's back are scum, but why I don't loathe Cadsuane*
"Kneeling before Rand" is such a loaded comment, by the way. Rand is not trying to rule the world- he's trying to unite it before the Last Battle. A better analogy would be the Roman dictator Cincinatus, who became dictator for two years, fought off Rome's enemies, and then resigned the post.
Egwene SHOULD give the Tower's loyalty to Rand. All of this maneuvering, posturing, "Bargaining"- it pisses me off. He's the only one who can save the world. He needs every resource he can to do it. If everyone just shut the hell up for a year or two and fell in line, the world would be united, and he'd be a LOT less darker (No Elaida abduction to start the crazy, no wars filled with dead women to progress it, no failures against the Seancean to increase his frustration, no noblemen rebelling against him to make him even harder...)
I'm not saying they should be slaves, or worship him. Just freaking LISTEN to him. The Aiel clan chiefs are the best model of this- they do what he says, but they also meet with Rand, argue with him, offer advice, and say flat out there are some things they won't do. But they (mostly) obey him. He's their savior.
*Cadsuane is extremely irritating, and would love it if she had total control over Rand, but in the end she wants Rand to save the world and recognizes this is the most important thing. Note how she doesn't give a damn about the Tower civil war.
She's second only to Rand as a progressive character. She's the Amyrlin Seat and she reunited the warring White Tower, and purged the Black Ajah. Those are legendary feats. What more do you want?
I've gotten a bit off-topic. What do I want? I WANT Egwene- the character who is never wrong, the girl who can Do Anything, the one who has the respect of nearly every character in the series- to freaking live up to her reputation! I want her to go, "Great, I have the Tower. That's what the point of this was. Now I can work WITH Rand to save the world."
Instead, all I can picture when I think of likely meetings in the future will be statements like "You WILL respect the Amyrlin Seat" "How DARE you allow [women who attacked the Black Tower] to be taken captive"