First of all, 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. This applies to her acceptance of or requiring such behavior, as well as acting that way herself.
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
Taking the side of the White Tower, or a position of inherent Aes Sedai supremacy

To cope with the…issues…in the writing style of this book, I will be using a new smiley code, to indicate points where I believe her problem or issue result from mistakes by the production team.

Also will be used to indicate an act that, while not bad or wrong, is also not nearly as heroic as many people make it out to be.

Part 15The Gathering Storm, vol. 3
1: During the Seanchan attack, little Miss-Obey-the-Three-Oaths-or-else, uses the One Power to murder non-channelers who pose no threat to her life or that of a sister, specifically, Gregana, who was not only not trying to kill anyone, as anybody familiar with the Seanchan and the functions of sul’dam would know, but was incapable of doing so, being both unarmed and not complete. Egwene absolutely knew the latter fact for sure, because she herself opened Adelorna’s a’dam. It is very likely that she did as much to Gregana’s fellow sul’dam in identical circumstances, as the subsequent behavior of their freed damane strongly indicates they were not the ones to set their mistresses on fire.

Killing sul’dam who might be a threat is one thing. Killing unarmed and defenseless women, when you can channel and they have no access to the Power, as well as no intention of killing you, whom you could just as easily bind and gag with flows of Air … that is a whole other thing.

By Egwene’s own description of the battle, she is not using particularly brilliant tactics, and her success is due mainly to the Seanchan’s own tactics, as they keep trying to shield her, ineffectually, because of the large quantity of the Power she is using. Their subsequent attacks also fail for the same reason. Her entire strategy and the entire explanation for her survival or success is that she happens to have a sa’angreal, which she obtained because her friends captured Moghedian, who enabled Egwene to learn to Travel. They captured Moghedian, because Nynaeve persisted in spying on the Forsaken in spite of the Wise Ones’ attempts to stop her, while Egwene made derisive comments about her.

2: Afterwards, Egwene characterizes her actions thus: She’d been glorious and destructive, the Amyrlin of judgment and fury, Green Ajah to the core. Later, her actual thoughts about the Seanchan threat are ”I destroyed them…I was a burning warrior, a hero called by the Horn. They won’t dare face me again.” This is her perspective of her killing a whole bunch of people, of “driving off” people who had no intention of staying, and whose raid was successful in their numbers. Egwene herself believes “the White Tower would not come out ahead in this battle”, presumably speaking of the casualties. Every other character after a battle is just glad to be alive and glad it’s over, and mostly sad at the destruction they have caused. Absolutely no one is as self-congratulatory or self-aggrandizing in his or her perspective as Egwene is in the aftermath. Much less proud of their individual performance in an overall defeat.

While Egwene refrained, for once, from active cowardice, ineptitude or incompetence in a dangerous situation, her accomplishment was fairly insignificant, in the grand scheme of things, and all she really did was reduce the numbers of channelers available for the ever-closer Last Battle. The Seanchan were only performing a hit and run raid, the damage they inflicted was one of the worst disasters in the Tower’s history, and the Seanchan’s acquisitions made it a smashing success by the objectives they determined ahead of time. Her “glorious” achievement in this episode was simply racking up a kill count, which is a fairly despicable measurement of a warrior or leader. And even that metric is diminished by the overwhelming advantages she enjoyed over her adversaries.

She didn’t formulate the winning strategy or strike the decisive blow – she just made a bigger mess, and they left according to their plans, carrying off exactly what they came to get. As always, Egwene’s successes must be measured by a different scale, against enemies playing under handicaps.

3: As she’s being extricated from the Tower, on yet another rescue where her saviors find her asleep, she doesn’t want to go, because it is her chance to seize power over the real Tower. This is her explicit thought. Not charity, not concern for their well-being, or worry that they won’t cope well without her, but that this is a prime opportunity to campaign for power! Assuming of course that they will be impressed by her dozing in the hallway cuddled up with a sa’angreal.

4: The critical disaster of the Seanchan attack, or crowning success from the Seanchan point of view, is their capture of Elaida. Elaida knows the weave for Travelling. She knows it, because Beonin showed her. Beonin showed her, because Egwene spontaneously and unilaterally decided to take over the harbor chain mission, and performed so ineptly she was captured. Had Egwene had the sense to stay off the front lines, as she once presumed to make Rand do in the company of the Maidens, the Seanchan could have carried off the entire population of the Tower without achieving the secret of Traveling! This loss is entirely on Egwene’s head.

5: In the aftermath, Egwene explicitly rationalizes exactly how she should have handled Siuan, how her coming to rescue Egwene was entirely in character, and how Egwene’s withholding information contributed to Siuan’s decision. She specifically says that she can’t blame Siuan, Gawyn & Bryne. And yet…
… she reams out Gawyn, because he disobeyed orders she never gave him. Her most recent behavior in his company was furtive and focused on avoiding Aes Sedai, and getting away from Aes Sedai, particularly sisters of the faction who were holding her in the Tower. By everything he has seen, she would want to be rescued. He has had no direct communication from her (and her inability to do so in his dreams is because she can’t control her feelings for him) and only second hand information from people who are notoriously untrustworthy and opaque in their motivations. Further, he had the encouragement of Siuan, whom he long ago allowed to leave the Tower because a mutual friend assured him that she had Egwene’s trust.

In a completely unprecedented and mind-boggling demand, she has the temerity to hold her love interest to the standard of an oath-sworn soldier or other minion! Rand and Lan are the actual Warders of their love interests and would never dream of adhering to the sort of blind obedience Egwene demands of a man she had not seen in months. Nor would Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha or Min dream of imposing or requesting such.

And speaking of Rand, she criticizes Gawyn for his inability to accept her new status on the spur of the moment, when she was in constant denial about Rand’s status, most of which he achieved in front of her eyes! People who haven’t had her sitting in their laps have trouble dealing with her status, but Gawyn is supposed to in the blink of an eye?

… she publicly mocks Siuan sneering about preferring obedience to initiative, and pompously telling her most loyal servant and sole comfort in her captivity, “…my anger has been kindled. And my trust has been lost.” Siuan must soothe Egwene’s anger if she ever wants to regain her confidence. Who the hell talks like that, especially to the one person whose assistance and counsel have been the sine qua non of their success? At least Rand, of the swollen head and monstrous pride, listens when his Aes Sedai followers tell him they did the best they could.

…and finds excuses for Gareth Bryne, without whom, Siuan and Gawyn would never have effected her removal and caused her to miss her chance to seize power in the confusion. See, no one follows Siuan or Gawyn. They don’t bring any armies or international reputation to her cause, so even though Bryne’s disobedience was the biggest factor in obtaining the result Egwene dislikes, she’s going to let him slide and even flatter him to grind Siuan’s nose further into the dirt. Bryne, of course, rolls with it, because he’s kind of a shitty person. Let’s recall that Egewne’s New Best Friend among the rebels wanted to imprison Rand for no good reason beyond paranoia and treated the closest thing he had to a daughter like crap because her mother stopped having sex with him.

As far as his forgiven transgression, compared to Gawyn’s & Siuan’s, Bryne went on a mission he believed to be wrong, without the reasons or personal knowledge that justified Gawyn’s & Siuan’s decisions, just because of his romantic interest, and used his position to blackmail Siuan into bonding him as a Warder. Remember, on more than one occasion, bonding is put on a level with sex, including by Siuan in that very incident, citing the displeasure of the soldiers’ wives if they were to be bonded. So Bryne performed the moral equivalent of extorting sex from Siuan in exchange for bringing guards on her otherwise-suicidal mission to save the life of a woman who will treat her like crap until the day they all die. And he’s her favorite. That won’t stop the jerk from cursing when he learns she is raised to the Amyrlin Seat for real.

The purging of the Black Ajah from the rebel camp, while good and necessary, is also not an act of extraordinary virtue, fortitude or determination. There is no profit or gain for letting them walk free, and the sentence of death for serving the Dark One dates back to the Age of Legends. And because Verin handed Egwene a complete list and playbook, it took no special intelligence or insight to order or to carry out their arrests and executions. Egwene manages a coup like this, because she is the only person to have such an opportunity dropped in her lap, and she gets that opportunity because Verin lacked the imagination to free herself of the Oaths to the Dark One in other ways (stilling, for example – she was traveling for weeks with the man and woman who had each discovered how to Heal severing), and as she herself said, Egwene was her last resort.

Egwene got the Black Ajah handed to her on a silver platter, and for once, managed not to totally screw it up, only letting more than a quarter of them get away.

But she agrees, thinking My thoughts exactly when Lelaine says “Light preserve us and forgive us for what we are about to do.” WHY? Executing Darkfriends is a good and righteous action! If you need God’s or the Light’s forgiveness for an action, you should not, under any circumstances, do it! Asking forgiveness for a mistake is one thing, but not willfully committing an act for which you need divine mercy! And this is what Egwene thinks of testing and executing absolutely evil women. She feels sick to think of their deaths (all those potential minions & servants, out of her grasp for good).

Even her insistence on not repeating the blunder of allowing Moghedian to escape, by refusing to interrogate the sisters is not that extraordinary. There really is nothing to gain from the Blacks. They lack Moghedian’s superior knowledge of the Power, and thanks to Verin’s book, there is no need for their knowledge of their true Ajah or heart members.

6: Egwene is still keeping the secret of Mesaana’s presence in the White Tower, thus embracing the Tower practice of unnecessary secrets, although when speaking of Sheriam’s final testimony claiming that she gave the sleepweavers to a Forsaken, she is dismissive of the reality, saying “I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” and predicting that this Forsaken will flee in terror of Egwene’s attack (using only ordinary soldiers, with no Aes Sedai even being present). Since she has now sworn the Three Oaths, Egwene actually believes a Forsaken will abandon the Tower because she is coming.

Egwene orders that no “shots” will be “fired” until she gives permission. What shots? How will they be fired? Guns are not even invented yet! Those terms don’t apply to arrows or swords! Reality is so worn by the Dark One’s touch that the Pattern is mixing the Ages of the Wheel, with knowledge seeping forwards and back!

There also seem to be negative effects on people’s vision, since Egwene needs a spyglass to see people over a relatively short distance, while holding the Power.

7: Egwene makes a number of admissions upon being raised by the real Hall of the Tower, including the idea that the rebels were wrong to rebel, the Hall in Tar Valon is legitimate and she is only “really and truly, at long last” the Amyrlin Seat when they raise her and the Hall is supposed to keep the Amyrlin Seat in check (even if she throws inkwells at them when they do so). In complete distinction to the way she has reacted to attempts by the Hall of Salidar to keep her in check, when she schemed to publically commit them to a course of action on the words of an uneducated, inexperienced teenager.

So what does that say about her behavior from the day she was first raised in Salidar, until her capture?

8: When she is raised by the Hall, Egwene, rather than display an iota of humility, takes advantage of the fact that she is the leader of a military coup in all but the existence of any resistance, and berates them with an…interesting…array of accusations:

--Everything is their fault, because they did not stop Elaida before making any mistakes. Never mind that after the Hall acted to stop Siuan from making the exact same sort of mistakes, they expressed concern about the effect on Tower unity of deposing a second Amyrlin so soon, and others who wanted her gone felt that the presence of a rebellion (which Egwene has just stated was in the wrong) prevented them from deposing Elaida, lest they give even the appearance of legitimacy to the rebels. Furthermore, Alviarin at one point states that the scandals of her administration would not be “sufficient to see Elaida disgraced and deposed with (the) rebels practically on the bridges.” It was the arrival of the rebels at Tar Valon that all but closed the door on removing Elaida!

It was Egwene, and ONLY Egwene, who gave the orders to Travel directly to Tar Valon. It was Egwene’s action, in defiance of her general’s plans for recruiting and equipping his army, which brought the rebels to Tar Valon in time to keep the Hall from deposing Elaida, as changing leaders in the midst of a war is near-suicidal in politics.

--She states the Sitters bear responsibility for Silviana’s punishment, and yet, Silviana berated the Amyrlin Seat in the midst of a Sitting of the Hall, in clear and explicit defiance of the rules of conduct! Egwene threatened to have a senior Sitter birched for a sarcastic reference to her lack of experience, and another for smiling at that threat! Are we supposed to believe that she would have behaved differently if Tiana, after weeks of failing to contain Nicola’s repeated transgressions stormed into the Hall and shrieked insults at Egwene for not allowing Nicola to learn as fast as she wanted to, and for not paying attention to Nicola’s Foretellings?

--She says they should have removed Elaida “when she refused to do what was needed to bring the Tower together again” but, what, exactly, was that? When was that? Egwene herself changed her own opinion more than once about what was needed to bring the Tower together again. She changed her opinions on what her own proper course of action was. At what point was the Hall supposed to divine was the proper place for action? How did they even know what was need to bring the Tower together again? The rebellion was largely a Blue issue, and there were no Blues in the Tower, because they ALL abandoned it, so how was any loyalist sister supposed to have an informed opinion on what would bring the Blues back into the fold? Were they supposed to have deposed Elaida when she cravenly offered a blanket amnesty to those horrid rebels, whom Egwene is about to berate for their rebellion?

--She goes on to assert that Elaida was insane and always was insane, and they should have known this and refrained from choosing her as the Amyrlin! In fact, Elaida’s behavior was radically different until very recently ( ), and in fact, we know this characterization of her to be untrue. Was it the act of a madwoman to offer an unconditional amnesty to any sister who returned to the Tower? Was it insane to keep that offer on the table, even after the rebels elected a rival Hall and started publicizing lies about the Red Ajah & Logain? Was it insane when she protested the actions imposed on her by Alviarin, anticipating the damage they would do to the Tower unity, or when she made efforts to mend that disunity after deposing the Keeper who foisted it on her? Egwene does not have any way of knowing this, true, but that’s the point. She’s mouthing off about things of which she has no knowledge, one way or another! It would be one thing if she was correctly describing the Elaida we have followed for several books now, and we could write it off as Dark One inspired knowledge, like her use of firearms terminology ( ), but it’s not true at all. She’s just running her mouth, and as ever, no one speaks up to correct her. Probably because they are interested in reconciliation and are trying to move past the issues of division, and yet Egwene keeps probing the wounds to make the Hall squirm so she can claim the moral high ground.

--She criticizes the Hall saying the Silviana was the only one who acted properly, “and you think I brought this woman here to exact vengeance on her?” Well, that’s kind of on you, Egwene. They didn’t want vengeance, they didn’t want to punish her, they just thought Egwene was going to do it. Right before she launches her tirade, Yukiri tries to dissuade her from taking vengeance, saying “Mother, is this the best time to be dispensing judgment?” They were not calling for Siliviana to be punished. Egwene’s snit is completely misdirected. She gives the appearance of being indignant on Silviana’s behalf, but in reality, she is pitching a fit because their observations have led them to believe Egwene is going to kick off her reign grinding her former disciplinarian into the dirt. She can't have it both ways. If she wants to credit their acceptance of her as Amyrlin on her behavior making a good impression on them, she also has to own whatever made them think she was looking for payback.

--Part of Egwene’s criticism of the Hall is that they did all this stuff, or failed to do this stuff, “when the Dragon Reborn himself walks the land…”, and yet, she chooses a Keeper who practically the moment she accept the office, states “men are not to be trusted.” Talk about the wrong woman in the wrong role at the wrong time! But she’s the only Red available who might help reconcile a plurality of sisters to Egwene’s rule, so despite her manifest unfitness to be holding authority “when the Dragon Reborn himself walks the land” Egwene will keep her and think regarding her attitude, “it is true enough to stand.” Yay, reconciliation. But not with the men who are no longer susceptible to madness, and have been holding the line against the Seanchan all this time.

9: Shortly after lambasting the Hall of the legitimate Tower, Egwene goes out to treat the rebels to more of the same. But first, she orders the all the objects of the Power to moved to a secret location and warded, lest a sister…do what Egwene did last night? Look what has been done with such objects out of the control of the Hall, or against the Hall’s wishes:

--Tam was Healed and much else of what Moiraine achieved was done with an angreal of which she was told “the Hall wants (it) back.” Had that been locked away in a hidden room, the Dragon Reborn might never have recovered in time to save the world. Even assuming Moiraine would have been able to do all the rest of what she did.
--the stolen sleepweavers, once recovered, were used for important communications, without which Egwene would never have been raised to the Amyrlin Seat.
--the future military commander for the Light at Tarmon Gaidon survived at the very least, grappling with a gholam, and saved the future political commander’s life, thanks to an unauthorized ter’angreal that Aes Sedai repeatedly tried to obtain from him. Copying that ter’angreal proved crucial to eliminating the gholam and preventing Rand from having to deal with his new-“born” children being the Dark One’s hostages, or the loss of a bondholder in the midst of Tarmon Gaidon.
--the Seanchan would have made off with the leader of the Green Ajah and maybe Egwene too. A responsible sul’dam would not have let her overextend herself to counteract the balefire effects.

So, so much good occurring through -greal being disseminated across the land. Egwene can’t have that, she wants every bit of Power under her control, so that stuff is all going to be stashed away so only her pets and sycophants can be given access.

10: Egwene’s first order regarding the assemblage of the rebels is that they group by Ajah…after she spent the last two books complaining and berating the Tower sisters for dividing by Ajahs! Her speech, as with her rant in the Hall, has numerous errors and hypocrisies:

--She states “You rebels before me have done something terrible,” criticizing them for raising up a rival Amyrlin. Except they intended she only be a figurehead, and that figurehead was proposed as a cover, to keep the rest of the world from knowing how the Tower was divided. It was Egwene who acted to make that Amyrlin a true rival to the lawfully elected one, and everything Egwene did prior to her captivity was in service to that very deed she claims is so “terrible”. She states “you…before me” clearly distinguishing them from herself in their sin, when no one was as committed to that sin and wrongdoing than Egwene herself! No single woman contributed so much to the erection and maintenance of a rival Amyrlin as Egwene herself. She completely and fully shares in their guilt for this transgression, but takes care to use words placing the entirety of the blame for it on them!

--“Troops have been marshaled against Aes Sedai, by Aes Sedai…” Yes, an army was raised, which is only sensible, with Tarmon Gaidon in the offing. Elayne notes as much during her fight for her throne, saying that the support she is raising won’t affect the current struggle, but will be needed once Andor is unified, for Tarmon Gaidon. Raising the army is defensible, like buying a gun during a time of civil unrest. The real wrong doing is pointing it at the wrong people, or discharging it. And who did that, with Gareth Bryne & the rebel army? Gareth Bryne, her pet, and the one she forgives and speaks kindly to that very morning, demanded that they fight to the end, and made the destruction of Elaida a condition of his service, claiming it was necessary because Elaida would kill him and his men for revenge (Elaida herself does not reciprocate his malice, and was hoping to join him and his army to the Tower Guard, and make him the overall leader! ) From that point on, it was Egwene who manipulated the army into marching in the first place. It was Egwene who schemed ways to terrorize the locals into swelling their numbers, and it was Egwene who engineered a confrontation with the Andorans in order to stampede the Hall into a declaration of war.

At every point prior to that declaration, Egwene fumed at the reluctance of the rebel sisters to march against Tar Valon, was incredulous that Lelaine & Romanda both wanted to cut military spending, and disgusted over Sheriam and the rest taking any excuse to delay their attack on Tar Valon. Once she had dictatorial powers, she ordered an immediate advance by gateway to Tar Valon, commanding they initiate a siege well before anyone even floated the idea of trying a diplomatic resolution. She prefaced that order with the gratuitous comment, “There’s an end to delays, daughter. No more dragging our feet.”

This horrible thing she is rebuking the rebels for doing, is something they did not want to do, balked at every turn, and tried to put off as long as possible. It is a thing they did at her manipulations, cajoling, deceptions and finally at her commands! And she has the nerve to say “I will force you to serve with those you saw as enemies just hours ago.” But who was that who saw the loyalists as enemies? Did anyone else speak of vengeance or punishment? Did anyone else even WANT to fight them? That was all Egwene. Egwene ordered the army to march, and refused to let it stop. Egwene crossed the Rubicon by Traveling to besiege the city, and Egwene ordered the final assault on the city that was only stopped by the true Hall’s surrender. No one else had so much as an unkind thought about anyone still in the Tower other than Elaida. The leadership committee even sent in the “ferrets” to share their point of view with their sisters who adhered to the Tower…for which Egwene blackmailed them.

--She orders them to take responsibility for their crimes, and make public acts of shame, while paying no more than lip service to her own guilt, when she was far more committed and dedicated in those guilty actions than any of them.

--Where the few times the protagonists, in their capacity as leaders have to give speeches, they talk about duty and accomplishing the task at hand. They don’t brag about what they will lead their followers to, they don’t speak about glory and fame, because they are all only doing this stuff because it is necessary. They don’t care about glory, and they think of their followers as similarly humble & decent people who are motivated by necessity and right. Egwene, on the other hand, bellows out idiocy claiming she will forge the Tower into a group they will tell stories about, that she will make them worthy of being legends, and how they will win glory and fame in the days to come. The Aes Sedai, up until this point, have not given the slightest shit about glory, fame or pride. They care about status solely as a tool that can affect their positions and agenda within the Tower. Common soldiers might be swayed by thoughts of glory, but Rand or Perrin or Mat or Lan don’t bother promising it, because none of them care about glory, they care about saving the world. Even most Aes Sedai do, on a certain level, however captured by the system they have become. The sisters are educated, sophisticated women, operating at the highest levels of geopolitical intrigue! Amateurish appeals to pride and glory should have them all rolling their eyes and snickering. They don’t CARE what anyone else thinks of them, and while that has its drawbacks, it does mean they are not swayed by such venal motivations either.

Remember the Seanchan officer during the battle with Rand in Altara, where he tells a bunch of soldiers to rally, saying “You fight for the Empress, may she live forever!” and them immediately kicking himself, because speeches like that are ineffective on veteran troops? That’s what Egwene did. Long ago, Egwene realized that Siuan was right, that making speeches appealing to the emotions of the sisters was a bad approach. But she does it here anyway, and like just about every interaction she has with Aes Sedai after the first week of her captivity, it works because of reasons. reasons.

11: Egwene plans to hold an inquisition of the Aes Sedai to pry out trivia from Elaida’s life, claiming that they need to learn about any secret actions she took that might come back to bite them in the rear. Even assuming that is a real problem, aren’t there better things to be wasting time on? Wasn’t Elaida insane, deranged and incompetent? How could any of her schemes succeed, and how could sane people divine her intentions from the books she kept in her rooms? Immediately before noting this intention in her stream of consciousness, Egwene is musing over the myriad contradictory meanings of the design of her lamps, which to a reasonably contemplative or insightful person, should serve to illustrate the futility of the investigation she plans.

But wasting time with futile investigations is a genuine Egwene trait, as we saw following Moghedian’s escape.

Overalls are a thing now, apparently. Worn by workmen. I suppose it is only a matter of time before the Yellow Ajah trades in their fringed shawls for lab coats and scrubs, and the Brown all start affecting eyeglasses.

The great deed of purging the Black Ajah really didn’t amount to much in the end. Eighty escaped, and only fifty were executed, along with the few weaklings from the Tower who didn’t get away in time. Not to mention the Black portion of the neutral third, all of whom are running free. Verin missed some, and she accounted for 203. If we are being generous, that’s at most 1/3 of the Blacks killed. While they are unable to do as much harm passing for good Aes Sedai, this is the eve of Tarmon Gaidon, when that sort of thing is less of an issue anyway, and they’d have to unmask to fight.

While any good Darkfriend is a step in the right direction, the identification was all on Verin. Egwene is praised to the skies for her part in the purging, but all she did was act on what Verin gave her. And did not get all that many. While not her fault, she didn’t do anything even remotely approaching great.

I am actively starting to hate Brandon Sanderson. Dark days are ahead for me. I have two more books of this to get through, and IIRC, worse than this one. Though I have hopes that the relevant portion of ToM will be much shorter.