Again, 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.

The Pattern at work, sometimes against Egwene, sometimes her going against it

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

Part 5The Fires of Heaven

This is a bit of a transition, as Egwene goes from being a spiteful & useless hanger-on, to a person unfortunately given actual power and authority. At the time, I and others, had high expectations that now all this stupid Aes Sedai stuff would get settled and Egwene would finally have something to do and she would start being cool or contribute, or something. Well, it was 20 years ago, we were younger and stupider back then. First, we have her swan song as the petty, unpleasant female channeler groupie.

The first related issue is Gawyn’s appearance in the Prologue. Not a particular fault of Egwene, but establishing the character of her love interest sheds light on both the kind of person she is attracted to, and what sort of individual could fall for her, in spite of her appalling treatment of her friends as detailed in prior installments. One of his first thoughts about the conflict with his Aes Sedai mistresses is disgruntlement that Elaida wants to get him out of town, coming right on the heels of his recollections about how he picked fights with the Children of the Light in near Tar Valon, and his contrasting the behavior of his armed fraternity with the Tower’s official troops. So we have a point of congruence with Egwene, in their starting fights with the Children for no good reason other than believing ill of them, in contradistinction to the policies of the White Tower they are supposedly aligned with.

Next, Gawyn encounters a man whose every pronouncement is greeted with skepticism or derision in Gawyn’s mind, until he announces rumors that Rand killed Elayne and Morgase. He notes the b.s. in the man’s boasts and the contradiction in his expressed actions and preferences, but when the peddler announces the deaths of Gawyn’s family, he locks onto that, rather than wonder if this is not as false as Old Mil’s ability to spot Aiel or desire for their trade or low, low prices. Old Mil, so definitive about so much horseshit, nonetheless makes a noncommittal statement of the rumors about their deaths, qualifying it with “(I) don’t know for sure.” Too late. This genius is locked in, and Rand al’Thor stands convicted! On this basis will he make his decisions henceforth! Marrying Egwene is really not that stupid on Gawyn’s curve.

Another note of contrast is how when Davram Bashere, who has known Rand for a good bit of time by now, starts prying into Mat’s secrets, Rand deflects his inquiries. Egwene freely spills personal and private details about her fellow Two Rivers folk to people she has known less than a week, from a far more alien and inimical culture.

1: Egwene’s first appearance in Lord of Chaos, the book of which she is closest to being the title character, has her fleeing from contact with Nynaeve and Elayne in Tel’Aran’Rhiod, due to a Dream forewarning that approaching them would be disastrous. The Pattern has gone so far as to warn Egwene to leave the competent people alone, so she does not screw things up for them. In the early part of this book, they save the Aes Sedai from dreamwalking ineptitude and a bubble of evil, they discover the Bowl of the Winds and how to Heal severing. Egwene accomplishes absolutely nothing. There can be no other interpretation of that Dream – her estrangement from them is necessary for them to achieve the accomplishments they rack up in this book.

2: When she encounters Rand’s warded dreams, she passes them by, because “Another night of futility held no attraction.” (emphasis mine). In spite of those wards being nothing less than a clear sign that he does not want anyone in his dreams, Egwene has spent time and effort trying to break it! The futility of the effort is all that dissuades her from trying again. The sheer immorality of the violation of a person’s privacy doesn’t remotely occur to her. She herself recalls encountering Berelain’s dreams of apparently having sex with Perrin and/or Rand and/or Rhuarc. She avoids Berelain’s dreams because that’s not her kink, but she sees no problem with invading the privacy of a person’s dreams, even with that graphic illustration of just how personal and private dreams are!

3: Speaking of Berelain, Egwene is exasperated by the high regard absolutely every mutual acquaintance holds her in. Berelain is a horrible person, who flirts and, Egwene is certain, does “more than flirt” (by which if she means, accepts getting raped, for her country’s wellbeing, I guess Egwene is sort of right). We will later find out that at this point in the story, Berelain’s sexual experience is rather negligible, but even if it were not, what has that to do with her intelligence, sense or judgment? The idea that Berelain might possess those qualities, that there is something there for the Wise Ones to accept or admire… this is well beyond Egwene’s ability to comprehend. As we see with her unsubstantiated and unshared diagnosis of Rand’s ego problems, the sheer lack of anyone sharing her opinions or actually rejecting her perspective has not the slightest effect on her assessments. She knows what she knows and that is that.

4: While waiting for her first encounter with Rand, possibly since he saved her life from Lanfear, Egwene spends the time pondering approaches, rather than simply behaving naturally with a friend. When he does arrive, she has been unable to determine the most advantageous approach and settles for blurting out her demand that he intercede in her training. In the midst of asking him to involve himself in her dream training, she restrains herself from using the name Tel’Aran’Rhiod, because she has no right to give away the Wise Ones’ secrets. But she has every right to assist them in spying on Rand, and revealing personal medical information, apparently. She uses the same excuse to refuse him the location of Salidar.

Rand’s ta’veren nature almost induces Egwene to tell him, but she holds out. This is not a power, however. That aspect of ta’veren is the Pattern making necessary changes to the weave. When a ta’veren gets you to change your mind, it’s not his will or power, it is the Pattern using him to move you to the appropriate destiny. Egwene, of course, violates the will of the Pattern, which will explain why it, and Rand, will instead resort to using reverse psychology on her in the future.

And of course, when Rand, after offering a very plausible projected scenario in which his intervention on her behalf would be futile, declines to waste his time that way for a woman who places the secrets of the Wise Ones and the White Tower above helping a friend keep the peace in two nations, who embraces the Power for no reason other than his asking her twice, and refuses reciprocal aid, she exits spitting insults at him. Ah. Friendship.

5: Little Miss Aiel Heart, during her wanderings through the streets of Cairhien is full of catty observations about the women she encounters in the street, as well as Berelain. She basically assumes Berelain did not show any expression when reporting on Mangin’s execution, because she’s only interested in men who are alive. She herself does not understand Rand, because he hangs murderers, even if they were people he liked. Personal preferences ALWAYS trump justice! What is wrong with him? She also proves she does not understand ji’e’toh when she remonstrates with a bunch of men who were sticking up for Rand against public slander, demanding that they fight the slanderer fairly, taking turns. Did she remember in the last book, when Melaine told Nynaeve that in a fight, rules are for children? Yet, Egwene seems to be under the impression that she is lecturing them on ji’e’toh. More likely, she is rationalizing her reflexive enmity to people who support Rand.

6: When she tells the Wise Ones about the Aes Sedai coming to Cairhien, she cannot bring herself to ask Berelain to keep her presence a secret, thinking she’d rather have her tongue torn out than ask a favor. What the hell did this woman ever do to her? The only possible thing that could have stuck out for Egwene is a trait that, like, 75% of her closest friends share with Berelain – sexual attraction to Rand al’Thor. It should be obvious that there is nothing going on between them, and she certainly never makes an issue of Rand appointing Berelain as governor of Cairhien if she really believes there is something there. Later, Faile, whose marriage is actually under attack by Berelain, will admit that if not for that one detail, she would like the First. Everyone who has to deal with this woman in person likes her and is impressed by her. Egwene, at remove, with no romantic threat posed, has an almost pathological detestation.

Of course, she is an active and capable supporter of Rand’s rule and authority, so there is that. Helping Rand instead of ridiculing him and chipping away at his self-esteem could only be the work of a monster.

7: Interestingly, Egwene will cite Elaida sending Red sisters in the embassy as arrogance or stupidity. As quick on the draw as she is with the former term, even the stupidity note is peculiar, since Rand doesn't actually ever seem to hold a grudge against the Red Ajah, aside from asking Egwene to please not join the Ajah that would have her hunt him down, when he thought he was an ordinary male channeler. And that’s more of a point against Egwene, that her friends find it necessary to ask her not to sign up with their arch nemeses. We will later see Rand tell Egwene that he is open to the possibility of working with even the Reds, a fact she will later ignore when bad-mouthing Elaida in the Tower.

8: During the discussion of the Aes Sedai, Egwene even mentally equates viewing people’s dreams with spying and cannot understand the disconnect in the Aiel perspective of the two practices. Of course they are the same thing, Egwene simply does not see anything wrong with spying. It’s just one of those weird nonsensical quirks Aiel have, and never mind that spies are so universally reviled that even the Geneva Conventions, dedicated to ensuring humane and decent treatment for people involved in a war, basically says, “Oh, hell no. Fuck spies. Go right ahead and shoot them.”

But spying is right up Egwene’s alley. After all, relationships are a means to an end, and destined to be supplanted by newer and more interesting or profitable ones down the road, so betrayal is simply moving up the timetable. Spying is perfectly acceptable to do to your boyfriend, so what is the Wise Ones’ problem?

For the Wise Ones, as with all the Aiel, of course, it is a matter of honor and obligations. Spying, especially with employing spies and subverting people in place to your agenda involve the breaking of trust and betrayal of bonds of employment or national loyalty. A spy violates his obligations by sharing secrets. The Aiel hate spies because they betray allegiances and abuse others’ trust. The Aiel are focused on living up to who or what you present yourself to be. Amys will refuse to teach Egwene after Egwene’s duplicity is exposed, even though she understands or forgives Egwene, because she said she would not teach if Egwene disobeyed, and what she said she would do, she must do. A spy is someone who either betrays his affiliations or else forms relationships under false pretenses in order to exploit the other party. It is the exact opposite of the Aiel ideal.

It will also be telling that Egwene will accuse Sevanna of spying when she visits the Wise Ones’ camp, to no effect, because Sevanna is coming openly, and making no secret of it, nor pretending to change allegiances. For Egwene, having knowledge, however openly obtained, that she does not want you to have makes you guilty of spying, and she completely misses the point of the Aiel distaste for the practice. Amy’s described expressionless gaze is probably what Rand described as the attempt to avoid embarrassing the speaker by pointing out how stupid she sounds.

9: Egwene also notes that she told the Wise Ones the contents of Elaida’s letter to Rand. Why? Rand cannot know Tower secrets or Wise One secrets , but they are allowed to know what passes between Rand and the Tower?

10: When she meets Gawyn, she says her first words to him. She’s asking for favors, of course. Then she professes her love to him, and of course, there are strings attached to that. Aside from what she asks of him, she plans to make use of whatever he lets slip about the Aes Sedai. In other words, she’s going to violate his trust and confidence. She has to do this of course, because Salidar is so important…but if it is that important, why is she shortchanging her bosses by NOT prying and getting Gawyn to spy for her? At least that would be less of a violation, to let him know what she really wants, rather than making use of things he says because he lets his guard down around the woman he loves. Either Salidar is important enough to compromise Gawyn’s loyalties, or Gawyn is important enough to her to keep his confidences. Egwene is like a kept woman who decides she will not ask her man for money, but if he leaves his wallet lying around where she can get it, she’ll help herself.

Leave it to Egwene to find the compromise that serves no moral principle, while betraying both claims on her loyalty.

11: Regarding Rand’s dealings with the Aes Sedai, Egwene mistakenly assumes he believes Alviarin’s letter and worries that he will go to the Tower, on the basis of absolutely nothing other than her propensity for thinking the worst about him. The closest he comes to believing Alviarin is that he thinks she is part of the faction Egwene has been promoting to him, but on which she leaves him so short of details, that he lacks the information to know how impossible it is that Alviarin has anything to do with the rebels.

She also tries to manipulate him into driving away Elaida’s embassy, and never mind how idiotic that approach would be toward Aes Sedai on a mission from the Tower. Seriously, can anyone imagine an Tower embassy being sent out to bring someone to heel, only to leave in a huff when he acts arrogant and insulting to them?

All of Rand’s assurances that he won’t go along with the Tower, and does not trust Elaida, and Egwene still tries to manipulate him into antagonizing them. Friendship and trust, what are these strange words you speak?

And when she realizes that Rand isn’t actually kissing Aes Sedai butt, she’s furious at him for toying with her! How DARE he not be straightforward and honest with a woman trying to manipulate him?!

The appalling thing is that even after witnessing his superior insight into Aes Sedai and Egwene herself, she actually has the audacity to believe that he needs her help or guidance in dealing with them. Of course, part of that mindset comes from being too blind or stupid to realize just how good Rand was during that audience or how right he was in his assessments of every woman present.

12: Also, during the interview, her total squick reaction to weaves of saidin being present and in near-proximity to her is kind of ironic given how freely she flings the One Power around her male friends who have a more justified mistrust of it, and how little concern or even notice she has of that attitude.

13: After the audience, rather than express any sort of gratitude for his hiding Egwene from the sisters, and letting her witness that audience, despite her own inability to lower herself even so much as to ask a friend for help, she lets loose a string of curses and insults.
“You’d lose your coin and stick yourself in the foot with a pitchfork, too.”
“Burn you,”
“The Light burn you!”
After Rand points out that she was trying to manipulate him, and he still did what she wanted, her view is “throwing it in her face was just rude.” She curses him out, and offers gratuitous insults about his intelligence (although he WAS right. Galina and Alviarin ARE part of the same faction, he simply does not know the details), but he’s rude for pointing out that A. she has no reason to be irate and B. she had been trying to trick him into something.

But this is Egwene’s mentality. Her wrongdoing or mistakes are in the past, and should be forgotten. Even if only two minutes in the past. That stuff all becomes irrelevant whenever Egwene wants. But her wildly inaccurate insults are stipulated facts, whether accusing Perrin of being addicted to violence or Rand of being arrogant and full of himself even when she’s annoyed at Mat not showing respect for her fictive status. Whatever the wrong position is in an argument, that’s what YOUR position is, and never mind that she was the one espousing it two minutes ago.

14: On her way out the door, still unable to bring herself to ask a friend for anything, even consultation about Traveling, she flings a passive-aggressively spiteful about her inability to Travel. Because Rand is acting very strangely for an arrogant, over-proud, swollen-headed moron, he actually describes the process and explains the mechanism to her.

She also obliquely mentions the Sea Folk to him, but deliberately undersells his importance to them and withholds her knowledge via Elayne of their prophecies, just because she doesn’t want him to know how important he is.

Once she’s safely out the door, she sees him acting odd, and basically writes off her diagnosis of insanity as if it’s no big deal. If Egwene doesn’t have to share a room with a madman, she could not give less of a shit about his condition.

15: When she finds herself bored and uncomfortable among the Wise Ones tents, Egwene decides she will go out to the Sea Folk ship to get free lessons, because “learning about the weather would certainly be better than twiddling her thumbs…” Yes. That is everyone’s purpose for existence. To be there in case Egwene wants something or to amuse her when she is bored. It’s isn’t even like she really expects to learn anything, because she writes off Elayne’s account as hyperbolic enthusiasm when her friend has the temerity to claim that someone is better at something than the White Tower.

16: Once refused and denied by the Sea Folk, apparently not having registered Elayne’s mention of their paranoia concerning Aes Sedai (and despite her disgust over the Sea Folk reverence for Rand, Egwene misses the connection that they were so nice to Elayne, because they believed she served him – she just assumes they have kept their secret for three thousand years by teaching anything to any idiot who rides out to their boat and asks). Because they got her wet (and not in a “handsome idiot who will slavishly obey her requests” kind of wet, either) when she did the equivalent of walking up to an NAACP office in a KKK hood & robe, Egwene uses the Power to retaliate and dunk them for spite, and has to stop herself from actually torturing them because they kept their heads better than she did when dropped in the river.

Oh, and she’s doing this in broad daylight, on an open boat in the middle of a river, in full view of a city containing half a dozen channelers she is trying to hide from. Remember last book when she sternly enjoined Nynaeve not to blow their cover with channeling? Remember the time Nynaeve did that, oh, exactly NEVER? As opposed to Egwene, who has been doing it since Falme and will continue doing it right up through the siege of Tar Valon?

With Egwene’s summons to the Hall coming shortly after that, and this entry so long as it is, I’m going to cut this book in half and end this entry here.