As always, the codes:

Arrogance or Pride

Selfish or Inconsiderate behavior

Tyranny / Abuse of power

Out of Touch mentality

Judgmental Attitude

Lust for Status / Envy

Lust for Power

Sycophantic behavior or cowardice

Betrayal of a personal nature

Dishonesty

Protagonist Syndrome {behavior that is absolutely contraindicated unless the character knows she is a main character in a fantasy novel and thus critical to the resolution of the crisis, or bound for greatness against all in-story expectations}

Hypocrisy

Foolhardiness / Reckless endangerment of herself or others

And some that are venial level sins, or not explicitly bad or evil:

Flat out incompetence or incorrect conclusions or assessments

Stupid or Clueless behavior

Sociopathic mentality or desire toward violence or to victimize others (as opposed to actual action)

Petty, nasty or spiteful words and attitude / General rudeness

Uncooperative, resisting doing her part.

Not a fault per se, but a noteworthy point of interest or milestone

Part 5The Fires of Heaven
This is Egwene’s last hurrah as a nasty little sidekick, as the next book is when she sets her feet on the path to full blown tyranny. So while, as always, the things she is doing are not necessarily significant transgressions or violations, they do establish her character and give the lie to the justification that she would be a tyrant who is on the heroes’ side. If she was not nice or helpful to them when she was their hanger-on, how can anyone think she would be so when she actually had something at stake. If someone won’t lend you a nickel to beat the Aiel, don’t count on her to loan you that hundred grand you need to beat the Dark One just because she has gotten rich.

And so I go on. To paraphrase Alteima from the prologue to this book, “Egwene al’Vere and the things she has done in tWoT are subjects for hours.”

1: Egwene accompanies Moiraine to see Rand in Rhuidean. Rand notes that she does not take his jokes about her pretending to be Aes Sedai very well. This is the woman who, despite Rand actually being a ruler, sets herself to the task of belittling him so that he will not assume the attitude of what he actually is. Rand is not pretending to be a ruler or leader, he is one in fact. But yet, she is not at all tolerant at reciprocal poking over her mendacious assumption of a status to which she is not entitled.

2: The first words she speaks to him are “Your head is swelled up like an overripe melon, Rand al’Thor.” Because…he did not accede to a request to be alone by two women who have just assaulted him with the One Power? It’s just an opportunity to be nasty to him, so Egwene launches a spiteful non sequitur. And for all her claims that she is trying to prevent his ruler status from going to his head, Rand ignores that, because “she had been in the habit of trying to take him down a rung even when they were children, usually whether he deserved it or not.” Even if we strip away the issues of differing perspectives, Rand claims to be observing a pattern of behavior that goes back years. Is there a single other person in the series who thinks he’s had an out-of-control ego since he has been a child?

What bothers Rand, accustomed as he is to her attacking his self-esteem, is that she is trying to manipulate him to help Moiraine. She is literally the only one of the five Two Rivers main characters who ever takes the side of another party against a fellow Two Rivers person (love interests aside, of which Moiraine is not)

3: She again accuses him of having a swollen head when he speaks of his desire to use the Aiel to quell resistance and enforce peace before Tarmon Gaidon.

I don’t…what…how…she...but...? She keeps using that word. I don’t think it means what she thinks it means.

What in the world is arrogant or prideful in making a rather accurate assessment of the probability of the united Aiel clans being able to defeat any and all opposition from the wetlands? When have two Aiel clans working together ever lost to wetlanders, let alone 11? What is arrogant and swollen-headed about wanting the people you have to lead to stop fighting one another? Is it even possible for the Dragon Reborn to be arrogant? He is the most important person in the history of the world, after all. But we have already established this has nothing to do with any actual faults or traits of Rand, and more about Egwene’s obsessive need to belittle him which predates any cause even her own rationalizations can conjure up.

4: She also asks how he can’t see that Moiraine is trying to help, as if Moiraine’s intentions equate to results. Neither she nor Moiraine ever do come up with an answer to the extremely basic issue of the Aiel forces already at Rand’s disposal completely outmatching any other military opposition south of the Blight, much less the other clans he intends to recruit. A force half the size of his current one was utterly successful against the combined might of the wetlands only a generation before. The wetlander nations have since universally regressed and deteriorated and one of the most powerful is already on Rand’s side. The only counters either of them have are the status of an Aes Sedai, which Rand has never acknowledged. Egwene tells him to show respect when he calls Moiraine and Siuan fools, and Moiraine’s only argument is that he’s going to make Siuan look bad and Siuan doesn’t need any help with that when he exercises his much better strategy. Not that he’s wrong, or they are right or they have a better plan, just “Aes Sedai are awesome, and you can’t tell us we’re not and you should not do anything to demonstrate that we are not.”

Egwene has no way of making any sort of informed commentary on this matter, she simply arbitrarily (or sycophantically) chose to believe in and support Moiraine unconditionally over a friend of eighteen years, as absolutely no one else has done, from all three of their mutual Two Rivers friends, to Moiraine’s future husband and even her current Warder. Even Moiraine's own childhood best friend doubts and questions her more than Egwene does. None of those aforementioned close personal relationships with Moiraine inspire ANY of the parties in question to be as nasty, spiteful and vicious as Egwene’s tongue gets speaking in her support.

Though as we shall later see, that lockstep support will vanish when Moiraine and Rand are in agreement, or Moiraine has ideas about helping him that are not controlling or manipulative.

5: She saves her worst vituperation for Rand not out of reaction to anything he did, but to cover her own chagrin over her shortcomings at Aes Sedai mystique & secrecy. Egwene makes a mistake, so other people get a caustic stream of insults.

6: The meeting in the Wise Ones’ sweat tent has this little exchange, as Moiraine tries to undercut Rand by going behind his back to the Wise Ones and trying to sow dissension among the Dragon Reborn’s best troops, with less than a year before the onset of Tarmon Gaidon. Her excuse?
“Years of planning are coming to fruition, and he means to ruin it all.”
Egwene’s view?
“This time, though, Moiraine was right.”
Oh really?

7: When not busy reflexively picking sides on policy issues on which she could not be more poorly informed if she worked at it, most of Egwene’s attention in Rhuidean is given to passing judgment on Rand’s sex life. When consulted about having Aviendha sleep with him, all she can do is sputter impotently without being able to give a coherent answer about wetlander propriety. She is still opposed to the idea after they make it clear that they are not talking about sex. Never mind that one book ago, she left her best friend alone in Rand’s bedroom with her chest hanging out. If you are going to get that hung up about sexual propriety, leaving them alone in a bedroom is tantamount to posting nude pictures of Elayne on the internet. Her expressed attitudes make it plain that she wants Rand and Elayne together for no other reason than she herself wants it, and while she might mouth the usual platitudes about his choice, she is explicit that she doesn’t really care what he thinks. Pretty amazing attitude, considering that the entire subject, as Nynaeve pointed out to her in Tear, is none of her damn business. That’s even leaving aside that she is just heaping massive unnecessary guilt on Aviendha’s head by misrepresenting Rand’s & Elayne’s relationship.

Egwene is right about one thing, in this part, however. That is when she disagrees with Aviendha about whether or not she lives by ji’e’toh. Aviendha is simply unable to comprehend what is going through Egwene’s head – that she wants power so badly she will put up with any inconvenience or unnecessary annoyances to obtain it. To Aviendha’s eyes, Ewgene is living up her commitment, with no discernible motivation other than fulfilling her word. But there is a motivation – power – that just does not occur to most Aiel (though Sevanna probably gets it, which might explain the motivation and character of her tweaking Egwene in the next book).

8: That night, Egwene masters a new power, finding dreams, and proceeds, upon passing Amys’ test, to violate the privacy of all her friends she can manage. She even knows this is wrong and unwelcome, and shows as much by taking pains not to enter the Wise Ones’ dreams, because they would recognize an intruder, and punish her severely. There is no guilt or qualms about privacy, only fear of punishment restraining her, and it never occurs to Egwene to wonder why she would be punished if the Wise Ones caught her! Obviously it is either a very bad thing she is doing, or it is something that people would not want done to them! But she only cares to the extent that such people have the power to discover what she is doing and cause her to suffer for it. Rand even wards his dreams, a clear signal that he considers them private, and access to them unacceptable. She not only completely misses the signal, but actively tries to circumvent his privacy measures. And it was not a case of holding herself to viewing dreams, as she does with the Wise Ones, because that is acceptable and entering them is crossing the line. No, she actually tries to enter Rand’s dreams, but his ward prevents her.

Not that we should expect much respect for privacy from Egwene, who also expresses indignation that the Maidens don’t let her barge in on Rand in his bedroom unless she states some sort of legitimate business.

Egwene also passes judgment on Kadere & Mat for their sexual dreams, which, in addition to being none of her business and not their fault, is rather hypocritical considering what Lanfear implies about her own.

And along with the usual criticism of Rand wearing nice clothes as a proof of his self-aggrandizement, she fumes because Mat does not cower in fear when she sniffs. Oh, yes. It is definitely Rand who has the high opinion of himself.

Finally, the girl who shouted at Rand because he was bothered by Moiraine using the Power to destroy a man’s livelihood, and at Perrin because he did not want an untrained ninny using the Power that Broke the World to light a fire on a grassy plain, is appalled by Rand using the Power to bring water to the fountains of Rhuidean. The dream that shows Aviendha fears being raped is a trifle, but maybe she is right to fear a man who would bring water to a desert city. But she’s going to solve Aviendha’s problem, because Egwene does not “give up on a problem once she had her teeth into it.” Like teaching Rand to channel?

When meeting Nynaeve in Tel’Aran’Rhiod, two things of note occur. First, we get the quote from Melaine in response to the expressed concept of fighting dirty, to the point that “in battle there is only winning and losing. Rules against hurting are for games.” Like so many other things Egwene hears, she will later act in complete contradiction or counter-indicated behavior with these words. When Melaine reprimands Nynaeve for her lack of caution, and demands a promise that Nynaeve will restrict her activities, Nynaeve refuses to give it, rather than lie as Egwene did. I’m still waiting for either of the other two women to defeat the most skilled Dreamer of the Forsaken on her own turf, capture her alive, penetrate the Spider’s deception and turn her knowledge to the service of the Light. Egwene & Melaine teaming up with a ton of other dreamers against a lesser foe, with the fortuitous intervention of a ta’veren which actually enables their win is not nearly so impressive.

9: In that meeting, of course, Egwene mocks Nynaeve to an outsider, over her refusal to make a promise that Egwene herself would not keep.
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10: Next, in their own private meeting, in order to cover for the fact that Egwene is doing the very thing she mocked Nynaeve for – using Tel’Aran’Rhiod without permission – she viciously attacks her supposed friend, threatening and literally assaulting and terrorizing her . This is the moral equivalent of a military recruit sneaking out of boot camp, and when a friend asks if she has permission to leave, changes the subject to lecture on firearms safety, and draws her gun on the friend to demonstrate the other party’s martial shortcomings. It is an inexcusable and indefensible assault, and with the contemptibly cowardly motivation of concealing her own transgressions and lies. It is not even as if this would be necessary. Nynaeve has never breached any confidences Egwene has asked her to keep, and is highly unlikely to tattle on her to Melaine, of all people. And of course, this is the exact same woman who, one book ago, told the teacher whom she had promised to obey, when caught in disobedience, “You have no right!”

When Nyanaeve later realizes she is being subconsciously affected by having lied to Egwene, she confesses her fault, only to be met with more mockery. Egwene (who is irate at not receiving the respect due her imaginary stature from men who know exactly how imaginary it is), actually criticizes Nynaeve for her long-standing habit of trying to maintain outward composure and the appearance of control. Never mind that Nynaeve actually held a position of authority and responsibility, that the safety and survival of their village had a lot to do with people being able to trust her competence. She and Egwene are totally equal in the latter’s eyes, and what is command necessity in Nynaeve, is justifiable in Egwene. What is due Nyneave’s office or position or experience or accomplishments, is also due Egwene, by virtue of geographic proximity. So to make her point, she terrorizes Nynaeve some more, acting as if she was the victim of Nynaeve’s white lie, when it was more to the point of maintaining the appearances of their status in front of outsiders than anything else. Nynaeve's lie was intended only to conceal weakness from Melaine, who was already unjustly questioning her competence, and is in the spirit of, and more justifiable than, Egwene's own standing explicit lie about her Aes Sedai status, to Melaine & her compatriots. Nynaeve is only "telling" that lie in the sense that she is upholding the lie that Egwene initially told Amys with no real justification, and which Egwene still tries to use to her advantage among the Aiel, even to the point where she is annoyed that her apprentice status leads various Aiel to deny her the respect or deference due a sister.

When we get Egwene's point of view after she wakes, there is no remorse or shame at having humiliated Nynaeve and violated her person (Nynaeve’s behavior toward Egwene on subsequent occasions is very like that of a sexual assault victim towards her attacker), not even simple relief that her reprehensible tactic succeeded in keeping her secrets. Instead, there is only giggling & glee that she has discovered an advantage over her “friend”.

11: It is also worth pointing out that it is Nynaeve who notices that the Amyrlin’s study has a different occupant, while Egwene is snarking about how Nynaeve doesn't know art terminology. It doesn't stop her from condescending to Nynaeve when her own drama-queen overreaction to discovering Elaida’s rise distracts Nynaeve and causes her to miss the location of the rebel gathering.

12: An amusing aside is that when Lan observes her sneaking up on Moiraine’s tent – nothing else, just opens his eyes when she passes by - is that she doesn’t understand Nynaeve’s attraction (shared by many, many women in WoT) to him. While other characters have had similar reactions, it is totally in character that Egwene conflates abilities that surpass her own with negative personal qualities. “He spotted me sneaking up on his boss. I can’t understand why Nynaeve likes him.” Just as she thought about Rand’s display of power justifying the fear of him she perceived in Aviendha.

13: When sharing the news of her Dreams with Moiraine, the woman who has just assaulted, tortured and terrorized her oldest friend is unsatisfied with Moiraine’s reaction to the loss of Siuan, demanding “can’t you shed a tear for her?”

14: During the Draghkar attack on Jangai Pass, Aviendha reverts to her old petulance after her attempt to buy her toh from Rand fails, and she pitches a tantrum when Rand saves her from a Draghkar and to right the scales, she irresponsibly shoots right past his ear, instead of, oh, I don’t know, saying something. He was not enthralled by a Draghkar as she was, and since they are physical cowards, as long as his will was intact, Rand was not yet in danger. But what Aviendha did is completely in opposition to any sensible tactical procedures. And when Egwene shows up, she leaps immediately to an incorrect conclusion, and takes Aviendha’s side. It’s the road to Cold Rocks all over again. No matter how badly anyone will treat Rand, whether an over-indulged teenager taking out her frustrations with her life on him, to Aes Sedai kidnapping and torturing him, Egwene is automatically on the other party’s side.

15: When Rand, in full view of a town that was unjustifiably sacked and butchered by Aiel, gives commands forbidding genocide and wanton property destruction, Egwene is appalled at his presumption. She reluctantly concedes that it would be a good thing if he can prevent any further atrocities, but she has to work to convince herself, as if at the use of a morally questionable tactic or weapon, because she finds his “arrogance” so off-putting. Two very different women (Sorilea & Elayne) of wildly disparate ages and cultures, with nothing in common except extensive training or experience in leadership, find nothing wrong with Rand’s behavior (even more amazing is that Elayne is only hearing Egwene’s negative and slanted version, though she is not prone to ignore Rand’s leadership blunders out of love). His words are given, and they are straightforward and fair. Egwene laments that he orders instead of asking, but almost all the chiefs dislike the policy, so what would their response have been to a request?

Because it is Rand’s policy, Egwene wants people to be given a choice about whether or not to commit murder or theft. And this from a woman, who, at the last town they encountered, was lecturing him on taking responsibility for things that are not his fault. Any death,theft or vandalism committed by an Aiel under Rand’s command is his fault.

When Sorilea’s questioning forces her to concede the justice of Rand’s proclamation, she still does not change her mind. She encourages making him see “reason” though she thinks him unlikely to bend because his order is just. She acknowledge that he is in the right, but she is still critical, because she believes it to be impolitic and that Rand should keep the approval of the Aiel, rather than insist on justice. Keeping the support of followers (i.e. retaining power) is superior to justice in Egwene's eyes, and "reason" is defined by Egwene to be "what the people I like better would prefer." Some people seek power to do good, but upon achieving it, get corrupted or led astray, and become enthralled with keeping or increasing that power, even to the detriment of the good they originally intended. Egwene, well before she achieves any power or status or rank, is already yearning to be corrupted and wishes to compromise her values for power!

Elayne even points out the incongruity of her complaint about Rand giving orders he has a right and duty to give, while issuing commands in a similar manner to Nynaeve, a woman Egwene has no right to command, and in fact, owes a more profound apology than she ever gives anyone to the day she dies.

16: Egwene is still determined to butt into Rand’s relationships with others, claiming in her omniscience, that Aviendha is not upset about Rand’s sword but how he spoke to her. From the woman who asserts her inability to understand Aiel thinking in every PoV chapter.

17: When Egwene is caught accidentally entering Tel’Aran’Rhiod by the Wise Ones, she doesn’t have a good lie prepared, so she tells them the truth. Apparently their morals are starting to rub off, because she feels shame that she had planned to lie, and is surprised that she is ashamed. Egwene actually thinks of herself as a natural liar, and is surprised at her tiny moral impulse!

She has similar honesty issues when meeting alone with Elayne, both quashing Elayne’s desire to tell the Wise Ones the truth, and becoming annoyed with Elayne’s quirky insistence on keeping a promise she made (to Birgitte to conceal her identity), noting it as if it is some personality trait peculiar to her friend, rather than the standard to which every decent person aspires.

18: When Elayne relates how Nynaeve had the audacity to win a fight when she suffers an unprovoked assault by another woman, Egwene, of course, comes down as critical of Nynaeve, and gives Elayne a lecture based on something Nynaeve has not done, and is highly unlikely to do (blow their cover with channeling), though Egwene herself is the most common & frequent offender of the three. She is forever exposing herself, and often her companions to the world with idiotic stunts, like randomly flinging fireballs in Falme, flying in the dreamworld Tanchico, manhandling Sea Folk with the Power in a city full of Aes Sedai, or forgetting to stealth herself and her channeling when sabotaging the harbor chains in yet another city full of Aes Sedai. Elayne might to push the boundaries more than Nynaeve is comfortable with, but at least she is smart enough not to get caught. But just to make herself feel good, and keep up her intimidation of Nynaeve at remote, Egwene scolds Nynaeve about being careful.

Interestingly enough, she mentally ridicules Nynaeve’s reluctance to touch Callandor in light of Rand warding it, when she herself can barely stand to be near flows of saidin being used for her direct benefit & protection, and while carrying on a discussion of the Seanchan, who are her own source of unreasoning fear and revulsion. She even tells the Wise Ones “We must know whatever we can learn, in case they ever return”, though she will write off many of her dreams that touch on the Seanchan, because she doesn’t want to think about them.

19: Preliminary to the battle at Cairhien, Egwene is asked to participate in the battle, to actually do something useful for the first time in, well, ever. She has been coasting along this whole time being protected, sheltered and fed by other people, and is asked to do nothing more than fight the enemy as just about everyone else is, except with less danger than 99% of those who will be participating in the fight. It takes her three days to finally agree. Well, of course there is her dedication to the White Tower and the Three Oaths, and the natural moral qualms against hurting people or using the One Power for that purpose in such an unsporting fashion, right?

For anyone but Egwene. This is the girl who spent almost all of Book 3 itching for the chance to let rip a lightning bolt or fireball, and aggressively confronting Nynaeve over the issue. No one to that point had caused more problems by a hasty and unilateral resorting to violence than Egwene, but she completely ignored everything Nynaeve had to say about non-lethal alternatives (and even demonstrated in catching the Gray Man – think about the fact that Nynaeve in a temper, as she always is when channeling, is less prone to lethal violence than Egwene is in relaxed contemplation of potential danger), and was still making snide remarks about Nynaeve objecting to self-defense.

As we will later see, Mat, who has no investment or stake in the fight, has much less affection for, or identification with, the Aiel than Egwene, much less the Tairens or Cairhienin, and has claimed no title with implicit responsibilities of service and protection (i.e. Servant of All), is unable to refrain from offering what assistance he can when he sees men threatened by the Shaido, and even undertakes to share the danger when that is made a condition of following his advice. Egwene, who, when last confronted with the evil and atrocities committed by the Shaido, contemplates her connections to and affection for the orthodox Aiel, is still unwilling to ignore a White Tower restriction in order to save more of their lives, though she was willing, even eager, enough to do so for her own comfort two books ago.

20: Both of two of the four people who have known her the longest, and one of the two who knew her best, come to the same conclusion, independently, that they cannot trust Egwene not to tattle on them to Moiraine or the Wise Ones. The obstructive Aes Sedai, who has been completely wrong in almost every disagreement with Rand, and who would have had him starting a war against one of the Forsaken with many fewer resources than he now possesses, and despite her eagerness for him to start wars, was adamantly opposed to him bringing large numbers of capable and proven soldiers to his next fight, in the last two major disagreements with him, and the racist barbarian witch doctors who are fairly indifferent to human suffering and mass murder, are the people Egwene tries to help keep track of her oldest friends, against those friends’ wishes.

Later, during the confrontation with the Maidens, Aviendha is there to stop Egwene from hurling unproductive insults at Rand. As mentioned before, he’s usually pretty spot on in his predictions of Egwene's behavior, and guesses that’s what she’s about to say. Aviendha has proven, and will continue to prove, far better at calling Rand’s behavior and, like her future sister, of actually getting through to him. This counter example will not change Egwene’s behavior in the least going forward.

21: When she meets with Nynaeve and Elayne after their discussion with the Wise Ones, Egwene actually has the nerve to shriek insults at them because in an unclear communication, which they had reason to question and doubt, she asked them to keep a secret. Egwene, who freely shares personal medical information, who thinks of Elayne’s keeping Birgitte's confidence as some sort of unique personal idiosyncrasy, who makes repeated attempts to breach dreamwards to invade others' personal privacy, and who sees absolutely no problem with her mentors tasking a spy to watch one of her oldest friends and their own leader, is irate that her associates might have innocently betrayed her misdeeds with questions about her own ineptitude in dreamwalking. Your secrets are the currency Egwene uses as tuition, but don’t you dare spill hers, even the ones you don’t realize she is illicitly keeping!

When Nynaeve encounters Siuan in Salidar, the cornerstone and foundation, even the sine qua non, of Egwene’s political achievements is laid. Egwene, of course, was not even present, which might have had a lot to do with things going so well. As will be shown when it comes up, nearly every successful tactic or maneuver of her rise to real power relied on the advice or counsel of Siuan. Siuan herself, in her last PoV chapter before meeting Nynaeve, was actually planning to use & control Egwene. How did she go from that mentality to honestly helping Egwene maintain her political independence? Nynaeve picked up on tiny clues from behavior to intuit the reality of the relationships between Siuan and Leane, and the Salidar council with their former leaders, and stared down the formidable Siuan Sanche, enabling her to forge a working relationship that will prevent Siuan from taking control of the situation.

Once again, Egwene will only succeed because of what her friends did. She is the inverse of Rand, who is the linchpin, without whom no one could succeed. Everyone else's accomplishments would mean nothing without Rand's success, while Egwene's success would not happen without everyone else's accomplishments.

22: After almost refusing to help prevent a bunch of genocidal savages from conquering one of the largest cities, because White Tower stuff, it is hardly surprising that for no particular reason, Egwene misleads Rand about the Tower rebels. She promises him the support of Salidar, which will be completely non-existent through the series, in large part through her own efforts, and yet characterizes them as loyal to him in particular. This in turn leads him to wonder if Alviarin’s effusive sycophancy in her letter makes her one of the followers Egwene has led him to believe he has. While it is completely impossible that Alviarin has any connection with Salidar, Egwene cannot admit this without revealing the reality of the situation, and that is White Tower business, so Rand can just go along making plans based on wrong assumptions, and then, when the Salidar sisters prove as hostile as any he had ever encountered, contribute to the disillusionment and paranoia that almost dooms the world. As insightful as Rand demonstrates himself to be, by Moiraine’s praises, maybe he might have been able to figure out the Black Ajah connections, had Egwene been as willing to trust him with Tower business as she is to trust the rest of the world with his. But Rand cannot offer Egwene worldly power and status, and the White Tower can. No contest.

And rather than contribute anything constructive to the discussion, all Egwene has to offer are insults about his supposedly excessive ego with which, again, absolutely no one else has a problem, or even notices.

23: When Rand declares his intention to kill Rahvin to obtain justice for his murder of the mother of Egwene’s best friend, Egwene disparages his intention as madness, claiming that he is militarily overstretched. She cites that he is sending troops to Tear and has the Shaido to the north. He has not only already defeated the Shaido, his numbers grew as a result, with four more clans and another wetlander nation coming over to his side. Hell, the dippy broad was present mere seconds before, when Moiraine was going on about all the success the smallest, newest organized, and most inconsequential of Rand’s forces (the nascent Band of the Red Hand - she even sniffed in reaction) was experiencing against those same Andoran troops that Rand is “mad” for planning to fight. A rag-tag bunch of mutually suspicious troops are smacking them silly. How tough could fighting Andor really be? And she cannot be thinking that it is Mat’s prowess, given how surprised she will be every time that attribute is mentioned in her presence from here to the end of Jordan’s run.

24: While many might cite Egwene volunteering to help Rand as proof of her loyalty and altruism, I think I have made a pretty good case for her lust for violence to make her real motivation apparent. When offered a fight that is within acceptable Tower parameters, she’s going to jump at the chance. Her subsequent performance against a Forsaken puts the notion of her actually being a help to rest.

25: Moiraine’s final words to Egwene are to the point of all but anointing Egwene as her successor in aiding and advising Rand. She tells Egwene He will need people who cannot be driven away or quelled by his rages, who will tell him what he must hear instead of what they think he wants to. Yes. Yes, he will. Luckily, Rand will meet Davram Bashere tomorrow, so he will have that, and later he will meet Cadsuane, and then be reunited with Nynaeve and Lan. It’s fortunate he will have all of them, because Egwene certainly will not give him what Moiraine says he needs. She will avoid him unless or until she wants something, and the only things she will "tell him" will be her habitual stream of belittlement and insults. Even with the best possible face put on her conduct towards Rand, note that Moiraine did NOT say he will need someone to deflate his “swollen head”. Egwene is constantly seeing his behavior as “on the brink” and is apparently deaf to Moiraine’s assertions that Rand "will do well." She notes earlier that Moiraine will not talk about Egwene's concerns regarding his sanity. Either Moiraine is seriously flawed in her approach, in which case, maybe Rand is right to be “ungrateful” to her, and maybe Egwene should not go around tattling and abetting Moiraine’s spying, or else the Aes Sedai's judgment is sufficiently impeccable to deserve those actions of support, and Egwene should accept and act on it.

Egwene's actions & attitude regarding Moiraine and Rand are not a case of finding a trustworthy colleague with whom she can share the burden of her concerns for a friend in a fraught position, it is that of a child looking for authority figures to support her position in petty bickering with a peer. She tattles to “Mommy” so that Rand will get punished, and criticizes his behavior towards that same authority not out of respect for the position, but as an excuse to find fault with him.

26: Also, Egwene continues her cluelessness with regard to Aviendha, completely misinterpreting the Aiel woman's attitude towards Rand’s would-be paramours. ”They’re in love, Moiraine. Can’t you recognize a simple human emotion?”

The one piece of advice Egwene does take is Aviendha’s admonition not to fight on a full stomach. Fighting with the One Power, against channelers, does not have the same anatomical repercussions as fighting Aiel (whose spears. known as “assegai” in the real world, work best as disemboweling weapons)! If you are facing assegai, yeah. You don’t want lots of food in your guts in case you get stabbed. I’m pretty sure it makes no difference to a Forsaken-cast lightning bolt or fire ball.

And so we end this book, with Rand having been blessedly freed of Egwene’s company for a considerable stretch of time. Lucky Rand. We still have to read this stuff. Ah, well. It keeps me sharp.

Thanks for reading, Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans, and Happy Perfectly Normal Weekend, to my friends among the lesser Anglophonic peoples. I expect the next volume to be a little more timely since my mother isn’t turning sixty next week.