Before modification by Joel at 08/09/2013 01:10:01 PM
I may be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure you said her death would be redemptive, after she is completely humiliated and cut down to size. What happened was pretty far from that.
Same with the Seals. As far as Merrilor goes, she did prevent Rand from breaking the Seals. She was given complete responsibility for them, and the decision on when to break them was hers to make. And as she stated quite clearly, she would only break them if she decided they needed to be broken at all. As such, Rand entered Shayol Ghul without the Seals broken, which was quite contrary to his plan.
Now, I'd be the first the agree that Sanderson botched the execution of Egwene realizing that the Seals had to be broken and connecting the dots between her dream and her research from the Tower's archives. We got a stupid throwaway line that was easy to miss in the midst of all the battle-porn we were subjected to. That doesn't change the fact that your prediction that Egwene would be forced to give on the Seals issue was spectacularly wrong.
Her dispute with Rand was always whether the Seals should be broken at all, not when; until AMoL she never admitted he MIGHT be right except as a last resort and for the sake of argument, so she could create a delay to later make diversion. Yet that diversion was itself diverted when she accepted he was actually about the Breaking itself, if not the timing. That made her sacrificial death, with the knowledge it prevented defeat without ensuring victory, quite redemptive. In that respect I would say (at the risk of sending Cannoli into a blind rage
) she was a better Christ figure than Rand, because not only was her death sacrificial but she herself was "obedient unto death," to the Pattern if only tacitly to Rand as Dragon Reborn.
When and why she admits Rand was right and she wrong is irrelevant to whether she DID. No, she was not humiliated, but I only said she would be completely broken if she defiantly and stubbornly refused to accept and admit the inevitable: That Rand was right the Seals must be broken sooner or later. She made that acceptance and admission, itself somewhat humbling just as her "supporting sacrifice," thus averting the need to treat her to Elaidas fate.