I agree - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 11/05/2012 03:02:55 PM
Not quite sure I'd qualify her as "ideal leader", but she's made massive bounds in her leadership and political approach since KOD.
Egwene has learned all she needed from Siuan about craftiness and "wedge politics" - enough to realize it would be highly damageable for the Tower if she were to continue to lead this way (which wasn't all different from the way Rand lead, just involving less verbal violence and tantrums). In TGS, she realized how little different she was from Elaida, and if she went on dividing the Tower as she had done the rebel factions to manage to stay on top and increase her power as Amyrlin, she's become a tyrant like Elaida, and would destroy the Tower. Being cut off from Siuan and her influence has done wonders for Egwene's progress to a more mature and balanced leader.
The last major crucibles for Egwene's leadership will be the meeting at Merrilor then the LB itself, but she's a much wiser leader already since COT/KOD.
Someone has obviously missed the signs. Just one small e.g.: Egwene by COT glorified herself that she had built this image of a really fearsome leader among the novices - the new Sereille Bagand no less. At 18 y.o. she had already created this chasm between women of her generation and herself.
RJ "reminded her" through KOD/TGS she wasn't so far from a novice herself that in the right dress she couldn't easily pass for one and be treated like one, and gave her a hefty dose of what it meant to be a mere pawn under a tyrant, and one who hated her and wished to break her. One of the things that "saved" Egwene, or made her predicament more bearable, came from one of Egwene's early gestures of leniency/empathy as Amyrlin for someone who like her strived to move fast and learn everything (not to mention Egwene putting her foot down when Siuan suggested to kill the woman!): Nicola always remembered how Egwene had treated her, with authority certainly but with fairness and respect. Nicola made the novices understand who Egwene really was beneath the stern Amyrlin mask, and she became their idol, and "one of us" - which advantage she solidified during the Seanchan attack, becoming their "hero" the novices won't soon forget. That reputation will continue to be be spread, now from the Tower Novices who worship Egwene and saw her as "novice" to the Rebel Novices who feared her. The base is starting to admire and respect Egwene, which will sooner or later greatly solidify her leadership.
Egwene has filled the chasm she had dug between her and the novices, and on the way bridged the ones she was digging between her and the Sisters, her and the Sitters. She is very likely to reap the same reward from having acted much the same way she did with Nicola with Logain. Those were seeds Egwene planted before Siuan transformed her into a fearsome and devious political bulldozer in order to control a bunch of wolves that would have eaten her up for breakfast without a second thought.
In TGS, Egwene finally learned how far she could pursue this "the end justifies the means" principle Siuan had drilled into her (to an extent, as other things in Egwene's path since chilhood, from home to the WO, made her resist the worse extremes Siuan considered coolly, like assassination), and what this philosophy of leadership had done to the Tower. And it's not only Siuan, Egwene also got inspired from watching the early times of Rand's rise, watching how the Aiel (but the Shaido) simply all fell behind him. She never saw how Rand's style became tyranny and a dead end, with even the Aiel becoming more and more averse to his leadership. Elaida's Tower was nothing but this kind of politics and values pushed to the breaking point (Mesaana was so succesful because Elaida herself wished so much to divide to rule. The Shadow just pushed and pulled a bit, deepening the divisions), and Egwene saw that. Siuan is far from as corrupted with power as Elaida was, but her political philosophy had the same taint she initially passed to Egwene. Egwene needed it to survive as Amyrlin initially, now she's learned there are other, preferable ways to be a strong leader.
For everything concerning the Tower and its affairs, Egwene has pretty much become the sort of leader they need. They need a strong hand able to steer - the fact Aes Sedai are so independant and used to take matters in their own hands force them to have a strong leader able to focus them - but the strong hand of a first among equals, not that of a tyrant looking for every available wedge to divide the women under her to stay on top. One of Egwene's wisest decisions was to prevent any triumphalism from the Rebellion. She didn't need to proclaim aloud she made the same mistakes, the sisters all knew that by condemning the rebellion and divisions in general publicly she included her role as its leader, and meant the Tower to put all that behind it and move on.
The next thing for Egwene to work on is her too traditional vision of the Tower's political role. She has brought the Tower more prestige and power already, and the sisters see this and will push hard for her to take this advantage and run with it. But the same as she distanced herself from Siuan's views to rule AS, Egwene will have to adopt a whole new approach for AS to deal with the nations and rulers. She needs to build their trust and their respect for Aes Sedai, reject the temptation to place AS a bit above other humans. The very same things she's learned about the traps of bullying, wedge politics, dictatorship to deal with AS internal politics, Egwene now has to apply to how the WT deal with the nations and other channelling groups. Her first instincts preparing for Merrilor was again to pit one group against Rand. She'll need to change her plans and perception of her role before the end of that meeting.
It won't be that difficult after all she's learned in TGS/TOM (it will be much harder for the sisters to accept that than for Egwene), she just needs to remember Emond's Field and how much troubles Nynaeve who worked through bullying and "terror" had, that her mother, father, Tam etc. didn't have. Perrin proved that EF was not quite as averse to young leaders as their reactions to Nynaeve could have let believe. It may well be that watching Perrin lead will be a final turning point for Egwene.
That's clearly the path RJ intended for Egwene... her late story arc was full of allusions to Egwene merging all she's learned, all she's become, with a rediscovery of the "real" Egwene within the Amyrlin. It was marked with a return to her roots: it all started with a wild ride in the night to "do things her own way" but forgetting the responsabilities she had as leader. This was a clear allusion to the flight from EF in EOTW - RJ even made it more obvious by including the detail of a bat in the moonlight, to allude to the draghkar. Then Egwene became a novice. She fell back on being a Dreamer, fell back on her training with the WO. Then it went even further, with her treated as badly by Elaida has she was by the Seanchan, with even her channeling heavily constrained by forkroot as an allusion to the a'dam. Then it symbolically went the furthest, when Egwene was merely a serving maid, the Innskeeper's daughter again and that lead her to her "epiphany" for which Jordan returned to her experience with the Tinkers in EOTW where she was everything at once (a variation of Rand briefly gaining all his dragon memories and merging for good with LTT): Amyrlin, Aes Sedai, Novice, Dreamer all merged into the life loving innskeeper's daughter again. Then in the Seanchan attack, she became like the embodiement of saidar itself.
Egwene's got a path in many ways similar to Moiraine's. It just took her much longer than Moiraine to understand that to use saidar you can't force it, you must first surrender to it then gently guide it, and even then it will have a mind of its own, there are limits to guidance, saidar has its own rules and you can't make it do whatever you wish, you need to follow its rules.
Those who think RJ was setting up Egwene for the political fall will be disappointed, I think (that doesn't mean it's impossible Egwene dies during the LB, of course, but I think there's zero chance she dies a shameful death caused by collapse of her character as "her mistakes" suddenly all pile up and fall on her heads. By this point in the finale, Egwene has surmounted/atoned for most of her mistakes - just like it happened with Rand, they've shaped her into what she is now rather than destroyed her as they would have if Egwene had pursued to the end her plan to divide the Tower from the inside instead of working to heal it and make it strong again. She understood in the end the Aes Sedai's had been their own worst enemy. She will realize the Light has also been its worst enemy as well, the part the WT played in that and how it must take an unexpected turn now, to make the Light strong just as she made the Tower strong. That won't be her sole achievement, it's something she won't do without Rand).
Egwene has learned all she needed from Siuan about craftiness and "wedge politics" - enough to realize it would be highly damageable for the Tower if she were to continue to lead this way (which wasn't all different from the way Rand lead, just involving less verbal violence and tantrums). In TGS, she realized how little different she was from Elaida, and if she went on dividing the Tower as she had done the rebel factions to manage to stay on top and increase her power as Amyrlin, she's become a tyrant like Elaida, and would destroy the Tower. Being cut off from Siuan and her influence has done wonders for Egwene's progress to a more mature and balanced leader.
The last major crucibles for Egwene's leadership will be the meeting at Merrilor then the LB itself, but she's a much wiser leader already since COT/KOD.
Someone has obviously missed the signs. Just one small e.g.: Egwene by COT glorified herself that she had built this image of a really fearsome leader among the novices - the new Sereille Bagand no less. At 18 y.o. she had already created this chasm between women of her generation and herself.
RJ "reminded her" through KOD/TGS she wasn't so far from a novice herself that in the right dress she couldn't easily pass for one and be treated like one, and gave her a hefty dose of what it meant to be a mere pawn under a tyrant, and one who hated her and wished to break her. One of the things that "saved" Egwene, or made her predicament more bearable, came from one of Egwene's early gestures of leniency/empathy as Amyrlin for someone who like her strived to move fast and learn everything (not to mention Egwene putting her foot down when Siuan suggested to kill the woman!): Nicola always remembered how Egwene had treated her, with authority certainly but with fairness and respect. Nicola made the novices understand who Egwene really was beneath the stern Amyrlin mask, and she became their idol, and "one of us" - which advantage she solidified during the Seanchan attack, becoming their "hero" the novices won't soon forget. That reputation will continue to be be spread, now from the Tower Novices who worship Egwene and saw her as "novice" to the Rebel Novices who feared her. The base is starting to admire and respect Egwene, which will sooner or later greatly solidify her leadership.
Egwene has filled the chasm she had dug between her and the novices, and on the way bridged the ones she was digging between her and the Sisters, her and the Sitters. She is very likely to reap the same reward from having acted much the same way she did with Nicola with Logain. Those were seeds Egwene planted before Siuan transformed her into a fearsome and devious political bulldozer in order to control a bunch of wolves that would have eaten her up for breakfast without a second thought.
In TGS, Egwene finally learned how far she could pursue this "the end justifies the means" principle Siuan had drilled into her (to an extent, as other things in Egwene's path since chilhood, from home to the WO, made her resist the worse extremes Siuan considered coolly, like assassination), and what this philosophy of leadership had done to the Tower. And it's not only Siuan, Egwene also got inspired from watching the early times of Rand's rise, watching how the Aiel (but the Shaido) simply all fell behind him. She never saw how Rand's style became tyranny and a dead end, with even the Aiel becoming more and more averse to his leadership. Elaida's Tower was nothing but this kind of politics and values pushed to the breaking point (Mesaana was so succesful because Elaida herself wished so much to divide to rule. The Shadow just pushed and pulled a bit, deepening the divisions), and Egwene saw that. Siuan is far from as corrupted with power as Elaida was, but her political philosophy had the same taint she initially passed to Egwene. Egwene needed it to survive as Amyrlin initially, now she's learned there are other, preferable ways to be a strong leader.
For everything concerning the Tower and its affairs, Egwene has pretty much become the sort of leader they need. They need a strong hand able to steer - the fact Aes Sedai are so independant and used to take matters in their own hands force them to have a strong leader able to focus them - but the strong hand of a first among equals, not that of a tyrant looking for every available wedge to divide the women under her to stay on top. One of Egwene's wisest decisions was to prevent any triumphalism from the Rebellion. She didn't need to proclaim aloud she made the same mistakes, the sisters all knew that by condemning the rebellion and divisions in general publicly she included her role as its leader, and meant the Tower to put all that behind it and move on.
The next thing for Egwene to work on is her too traditional vision of the Tower's political role. She has brought the Tower more prestige and power already, and the sisters see this and will push hard for her to take this advantage and run with it. But the same as she distanced herself from Siuan's views to rule AS, Egwene will have to adopt a whole new approach for AS to deal with the nations and rulers. She needs to build their trust and their respect for Aes Sedai, reject the temptation to place AS a bit above other humans. The very same things she's learned about the traps of bullying, wedge politics, dictatorship to deal with AS internal politics, Egwene now has to apply to how the WT deal with the nations and other channelling groups. Her first instincts preparing for Merrilor was again to pit one group against Rand. She'll need to change her plans and perception of her role before the end of that meeting.
It won't be that difficult after all she's learned in TGS/TOM (it will be much harder for the sisters to accept that than for Egwene), she just needs to remember Emond's Field and how much troubles Nynaeve who worked through bullying and "terror" had, that her mother, father, Tam etc. didn't have. Perrin proved that EF was not quite as averse to young leaders as their reactions to Nynaeve could have let believe. It may well be that watching Perrin lead will be a final turning point for Egwene.
That's clearly the path RJ intended for Egwene... her late story arc was full of allusions to Egwene merging all she's learned, all she's become, with a rediscovery of the "real" Egwene within the Amyrlin. It was marked with a return to her roots: it all started with a wild ride in the night to "do things her own way" but forgetting the responsabilities she had as leader. This was a clear allusion to the flight from EF in EOTW - RJ even made it more obvious by including the detail of a bat in the moonlight, to allude to the draghkar. Then Egwene became a novice. She fell back on being a Dreamer, fell back on her training with the WO. Then it went even further, with her treated as badly by Elaida has she was by the Seanchan, with even her channeling heavily constrained by forkroot as an allusion to the a'dam. Then it symbolically went the furthest, when Egwene was merely a serving maid, the Innskeeper's daughter again and that lead her to her "epiphany" for which Jordan returned to her experience with the Tinkers in EOTW where she was everything at once (a variation of Rand briefly gaining all his dragon memories and merging for good with LTT): Amyrlin, Aes Sedai, Novice, Dreamer all merged into the life loving innskeeper's daughter again. Then in the Seanchan attack, she became like the embodiement of saidar itself.
Egwene's got a path in many ways similar to Moiraine's. It just took her much longer than Moiraine to understand that to use saidar you can't force it, you must first surrender to it then gently guide it, and even then it will have a mind of its own, there are limits to guidance, saidar has its own rules and you can't make it do whatever you wish, you need to follow its rules.
Those who think RJ was setting up Egwene for the political fall will be disappointed, I think (that doesn't mean it's impossible Egwene dies during the LB, of course, but I think there's zero chance she dies a shameful death caused by collapse of her character as "her mistakes" suddenly all pile up and fall on her heads. By this point in the finale, Egwene has surmounted/atoned for most of her mistakes - just like it happened with Rand, they've shaped her into what she is now rather than destroyed her as they would have if Egwene had pursued to the end her plan to divide the Tower from the inside instead of working to heal it and make it strong again. She understood in the end the Aes Sedai's had been their own worst enemy. She will realize the Light has also been its worst enemy as well, the part the WT played in that and how it must take an unexpected turn now, to make the Light strong just as she made the Tower strong. That won't be her sole achievement, it's something she won't do without Rand).