She's not bringing everyone for a discussion, but for leverage to force him to change his mind. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 19/12/2010 10:00:03 PM
She is acting responsibly. Albeit not as we--with more knowledge than her and a more distant perspective--think she should act. As far as everyone knows, the Seals must maintain. That's the knowledge and probably only Rand really KNOWS-knows otherwise. Some might suspect, but are so ingrained against the DO and all related to him that they will shove that suspicion down.
With this in mind, when a man purportedly gone bat shit out of his mind in a bad way waltzes in and goes "In a month, I'm letting the Bore loose. Good Day!" There's some cause for alarm and a motivation to dissuade him. It's a logical reaction.
An illogical and irresponsible reaction would be for her to Travel straight to Rand and start to berate him. Or to gather an attack against him.
The decision to go "hey, let's get everyone together and have a bit of a CHAT about this" is totally. logical. And, despite what some say, Egwene isn't outright STUPID. Stupidity doesn't tend to be one of her flaws. If he actually takes the time to explain himself--likely with support from Min, Moraine, Perrin and Nynaeve--she'll at least listen. And to be fair, when was the last time we even saw them together, before this??? A LONG while ago. They've both changed. Their interaction may be entirely different.
With this in mind, when a man purportedly gone bat shit out of his mind in a bad way waltzes in and goes "In a month, I'm letting the Bore loose. Good Day!" There's some cause for alarm and a motivation to dissuade him. It's a logical reaction.
An illogical and irresponsible reaction would be for her to Travel straight to Rand and start to berate him. Or to gather an attack against him.
The decision to go "hey, let's get everyone together and have a bit of a CHAT about this" is totally. logical. And, despite what some say, Egwene isn't outright STUPID. Stupidity doesn't tend to be one of her flaws. If he actually takes the time to explain himself--likely with support from Min, Moraine, Perrin and Nynaeve--she'll at least listen. And to be fair, when was the last time we even saw them together, before this??? A LONG while ago. They've both changed. Their interaction may be entirely different.
She's the Decider and the Dragon must face the Amyrlin and know her wrath. After all, she's defeated ONE WHOLE FORSAKEN with only minimal aid from the rest of the Tower and Wise Ones; what could Lews Therin Telamon Reborn POSSIBLY be able to tell her about the DO, the Seals or battling the Shadow?
Fel figured it out long before Rand, and Min knew before him, too, so I don't think it's some kind of super secret genius insight. When Perrin has the temerity to suggest Rand just MIGHT know wtf he's doing without her guidance she practically goes into a sullen pout (now THAT'S mature leadership!) It's counter-intuitive and requires a great deal of thought but, once again, that's just one more argument that the Reborn man who CREATED the Seals knows more about them than the teenage Amyrlin. I could see your point if Egwene had shown any indication of actually wanting to discuss or negotiate anything with Rand instead of several times explicitly stating that she means to talk him out of it and is bringing the world leaders together toward that end (does that SOUND like someone trying to be reasonable, or someone who wants to hold him at the point of every lance on the planet until he sees what she considers reason?)
Meh, and again I say, meh. I could even deal with her talking down to Mesaana like a vice principal paddling a naughty school girl, despite the fact it basically boiled down to her borrowing all the Towers gravitas to make up for the fact she's a half trained teenager facing a living legend. However and once again, LTT was going GRAY when he forged the Seals, despite never having held the Oath Rod and being the most powerful channeler who's ever been. He was the most accomplished channeler in the age of the most accomplished channelers, and the day he created the Seals he'd probably already lived twice as long as Egwene will have the day she dies, assuming her arrogance doesn't cause a premature death. She's a long way from even being that nearly his equal considering she's not even 20 yet, but, on top of all that, he did, in fact, CREATE the Seals. The simple truth is he's literally forgotten more about the Seals than she'll ever know, but she still seems to think all her Tower training and huddling with old biddies, not to mention her leet Egweneness skillz make her more knowledgeable about the Seals, the Bore, the DO, Tarmon Gaidon and, well, everything, than LTT Reborn. Probably all those people who've been prophecying about his pivotal roles in the Last Battle for three millennium just got confused because of his proximity to the REAL Chosen One.
Rand is gonna steamroll over her at Mach 3 with Jordan driving, and I'm going to laugh. My only regret is that I so staunchly defended her until this book.