I think she's not a Blue because there's already an Ajah for her particular "cause. " - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 01/10/2010 05:15:08 AM
So I've been thinking a lot about Elaida recently, among other Reds, and have come to the conclusion that she doesn't make sense as a Red.
She doesn't have much in the way of motivation, but what little she has would, in my opinion, push a young woman to become a Gray or a Blue. She has the Foretelling, like a strong, famous Blue (Gitara Moroso) and she likely would have studied with the older Aes Sedai as an Accepted to better understand her Talent. During that training, Gitara likely would have set hooks into Elaida's mind and thoughts about joining the Blue ajah.
Elaida herself fortold that the Royal House of Andor would be the key to winning Tarmon Gaidon, and we know that Blues and Grays are the most commonly politically oriented Aes Sedai.
She doesn't have much in the way of motivation, but what little she has would, in my opinion, push a young woman to become a Gray or a Blue. She has the Foretelling, like a strong, famous Blue (Gitara Moroso) and she likely would have studied with the older Aes Sedai as an Accepted to better understand her Talent. During that training, Gitara likely would have set hooks into Elaida's mind and thoughts about joining the Blue ajah.
Elaida herself fortold that the Royal House of Andor would be the key to winning Tarmon Gaidon, and we know that Blues and Grays are the most commonly politically oriented Aes Sedai.
Right, but the politics is a means to end here rather than a goal in itself, though Elaida does seem to have a penchant for politics in HERself.
Now, if one took her foretelling as her reason for joining an Ajah, the Green would make more sense because the Greens are actively looking toward the Last Battle. Their purpose is to be ready to fight the LB, and someone who had a foretelling regarding the LB could be an incredible asset to the Greens, especially if she had more foretellings.
That actually WOULD make a lot more sense. A LOT more. Perhaps Randland would be a very different place had Elaida recognized that her cause was properly theirs, not the Reds. She couldn't see that, took the conventional (especially among Aes Sedai) view that all male channelers were a blight on the world and the only thing that makes the Dragon Reborn different is he's a USEFUL blight so long as he's needed to win the Last Battle. She explains her rationale for us, far better than I could, because it's kinda twisted in the first place. It's hard to see how to get from "the Dragon Reborn must save the world at Tarmon Gaidon" to "all male channelers must die" but she made the trip, somehow, and it broke her.
The Red Ajah's purpose is to preserve the World, protecting it from the destruction mad channelers would wreak. But Elaida hasn't done that, at all as far as we can see. As a young sister, she might have been part of the vileness, when roving bands of Reds Gentled men on sight, but for the last 20 years of plot time, she's been the advisor to Morgase.
Which is another connection to Gitara Moroso who went from being the Blue Keeper to being Aes Sedai advisor to the Queen of Andor before Morgase.
Which is another connection to Gitara Moroso who went from being the Blue Keeper to being Aes Sedai advisor to the Queen of Andor before Morgase.
Right, but it's coincidental one; Elaida went to Andor because of her Foretelling, which she long kept to herself in typical Elaida fashion, indicated that was more critical to the worlds salvation than just joining the already large (among Ajahs) ranks of those roving the world gentling men.
Is there some conversation I'm forgetting? Did Elaida think about why she chose to be a Red and I have just buried it out of sight and mind? Was it a machination of Galina's that pulled Elaida into the Red camp?
Or, was Elaida as a Red just a plot contrivance? Was she set up to be a foil to the Blue Ajah as a whole, but Gitara and Moiraine in particular? She really is a foolish version of Gitara, while she also mirrors Moiraine in many ways.
Thoughts?
Or, was Elaida as a Red just a plot contrivance? Was she set up to be a foil to the Blue Ajah as a whole, but Gitara and Moiraine in particular? She really is a foolish version of Gitara, while she also mirrors Moiraine in many ways.
Thoughts?
She's both. She definitely serves the invaluable literary purposes you describe (though since we've known Elaida longer it might be more accurate to say Gitara is the flip side of HER. ) But if her actions and personality aren't plausible then whatever other literary purposes she serves are moot. I think she's credible, but I also think she serves a much greater literary purpose. It's true of a lot of characters, but more than any of the others she and Pedron Niall have always illustrated the folly of otherwise wise, strong and very capable characters, dedicated to the cause of right, who become tools of evil because they think they're SO capable and everyone else SO stupid and/or evil that they have to single-handedly save the world. THEY see everything perfectly, but everyone else is a deluded fool who'll screw up even the simplest tasks they're given, and can thus be given none. THEY are bastions of moral purity, but everyone else is a selfish SOB who'll betray them the moment they have any power, and thus can be allowed none. Of course, that very attitude is the Achilles heel of what would otherwise be the Lights greatest champions (and that's certainly how they see themselves. ) Elaida joining the Red rather than the Green is just another illustration of that, albeit the one that's continuous throughout her presence in the series. And in the end, she must've envied Pedron Nialls fate.
Stuff like this is what makes TWoT more than escapist fantasy.
