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 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 15Towers of Midnight
From here on out, there are no excuses. Egwene is not constrained by politics or the needs of the rebellion against the Tower. At the outset of this book, she is in charge and in a position of almost unprecedented power and freedom to act. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for… when she is finally free to act, to fulfil the purpose of her whole quest for power. According to her apologists and defenders, her absorption in attempting to gain powerful for herself was justified because once she got that power, she would be in a position to help out. So let’s see how she does.

A critical aspect of Egwene’s actions in the Tower civil war has been her refusal to bring the conflict to a head, insisting that actual combat, that fighting or bloodshed among the Aes Sedai, would fracture the Tower irreparably and make reconciliation impossible. But the only way that could come to pass, would be because of the actions and attitudes of the sisters themselves, that they would refuse to reunite, to set aside grudges or forget the wrongs or harm done in the course of the fighting, even with Tarmon Gaidon looming. In the meantime, we see the Children of the Light go through the exact course of events that would have doomed the Tower to permanent estrangement! Only for some strange reason, this group of deranged bigots and zealots snap right back into action once the leaders of the “bad” faction have been killed. And where the Tower just shrugs and goes along with its members’ prejudices against men in general and male channelers in particular, the Children overcome their own distaste for that portion of humanity which is responsible for all the ills and torments unique to the world of WoT, such as the Dark One touching the world, the taint on the One Power, the Breaking of the World and the creation of Shadowspawn. Because the Children grasp the importance of fighting the Last Battle and opposing the Dark One, and the need to put other considerations behind that. They hear that the Asha’man are fighting the Seanchan, and decide “the enemy of my enemy…etc” But in the aftermath of the Seanchan inflicting the worst disaster on the White Tower in living memory, the newly promoted Keeper of the Chronicles insists that the gender which has done all the productive fighting against the Seanchan to do date is “…not to be trusted.”

With far less personal motivation to oppose the Seanchan (they were offered honored places in the regime, as opposed to collars and slavery) and far greater reasons for their enmities and prejudices (channelers ARE pretty much guilty of all the worst stuff to afflict the world, down to making the McGuffin that touched off the Aiel War) and have much more to fear from male channelers than Aes Sedai do (as the Children are unable to defend themselves against the Power), the Children do a much better job prioritizing which group they should trust and which one they should oppose, and take expeditious steps to get their organization on the proper path. And we’re supposed to be rooting for the other white-symbol group? That Egwene is in charge of one, in opposition to the other says nothing good about her. No Children of the Light could be charged with attempted manslaughter against Egwene, while the reverse is not remotely true. And they don’t pray for forgiveness when they execute Darkfriends.

1: The first mention of Egwene is Rand to Almen, telling him that “I doubt she will be pleased by what I tell her.” The Dragon Reborn has reached his apotheosis and overcome the critical obstacle to his being able to defeat the Dark One safely. He has a plan to defeat the Dark One and is ready to save the world from the Shadow. Why would Egwene be pleased about any of that? Rand has always been dead-on-balls accurate in his assessments and predictions of Egwene. There is no reason to think his ability in this regard has diminished since his heart just grew three sizes. But because he’s got to inform Egwene that he has just exponentially leveled up past her, he knows he’s going to have face the Amyrlin’s anger. She just ascended to the highest office in the land, and that inconsiderate bastard goes out and transcends the weavings of the Wheel and his own incarnation! He probably only did it to show her up!

2: All of Nynaeve’s accomplishments in the prior three or so books, Egwene dismisses as “dalliance” suggesting that she or someone doesn’t know what that word means. Whatever her (or someone’s ) lexiconic shortcomings, she is appallingly ignorant of what Nynaeve has been doing to threaten her if she does not drop whatever else is going on in her life to attend Egwene’s whims. Elayne and Aviendha had a much more personal and formal claim to account for Rand and his actions, but the simple fact that they did not know what he was doing or how their interference might affect things restrained them from going to him, even when certain he was in mortal danger. Egwene has already established that there are definite limits to the authority of the Amyrlin Seat over individual sisters, from her inability to curtail or even monitor the use of Traveling, a critical strategic advantage for their side, among her followers, to her endless complaints and accusations of Elaida overstepping the authority of the office. Egwene knows that Nynaeve is with Rand, the Dragon Reborn. She knows his significance and importance, so how can she handwave whatever Nynaeve is doing in his company? Even if she has no way of knowing how Nynaeve has learned to read Compulsion or helped cleanse saidin or contributed to the capture of yet another Forsaken, she is wrongfully and wrongly assuming that her own wishes take precedence over whatever reasons Nynaeve might have for avoiding contact. “There is work to be done,” according to Egwene, so let’s see what work she’ll have Nynaeve do that will be so critical.

3: She decides not to contact the Wise Ones, since her plans for them are “not yet firm” and she needs to have everything perfectly prepared to prevent them from realizing that she is manipulating them. Too bad for the Wise Ones, their time as her bestest friends in the world is done. Now she’s all about the White Tower, and she’s going to treat them in favor of the Tower, the way she once treated Rand and Aviendha in their favor. Where once she manipulated her old friends to help her new friends who could bring her power, she now…does the exact same thing, just changing the Wise Ones’ place in that equation. Even in the most benevolent interpretation of her attitude, she is still presuming to dictate how others live their lives, or to order their affairs, when no outsider knows better than Egwene how very well they have done without her guidance or the influence of the Tower to date.

Egwene decides that her sequence of dreams means that if Mesaana is not stopped, she will destroy the Tower or cause the victory of the Dark One. In fact, there is no projected consequence to her dream warning of Mesaana, that one is simply a description of what is going on. Just as it is separate from the dream illustrating the rise and fall of the Forsaken, many of whom (pretty much all but like, two) had no connection whatsoever to the Tower, so is it separate from the subsequent one showing Rand destroying a flawed structure. Either Egwene is inventing a self-aggrandizing extension of her dream, or she is equating Rand with the Dark One, somehow. In fact, there is no disastrous implication or direct consequence shown to any of her dreams. They are simply presentations of past, present and future events, respectively.

Bryne, while Rand is entering the Tower, is “finding quarters and food for fifty thousand troops”. Did they spring into existence just this moment? Where were they living yesterday? What were they planning to eat? Why do they need new quarters now that there isn’t going to be a fight? Did they plan on a lot of casualties taking the Tower, and only buy food for the projected survivors? If this guy is one of the most successful military leaders in the world, how inept at organization were the people he fought?

Siuan actually achieves amazing heights of self-delusion and hypocrisy even by comparison with the subject of this work in her stream of consciousness while heading to meet Rand. In one thought she is recalling how when she was Amyrlin, her priority was “to play the Ajahs off one another,” and slightly later, calls the wariness among sisters of different Ajahs as “another reason to curse Elaida.” She blames Elaida for letting Rand get away from the Tower, when she herself went along with Moiraine’s plan to keep him away. When talking about undoing Elaida’s damage to the Tower, she says “one couldn’t mend years of broken nets in one month.” At most, Elaida was Amyrlin for a single year.

She also, like so many people on one end or another of a warder bond, is inexplicably speculating about her bondmate’s feelings and attitude, having apparently lost the ability to sense those things directly through the bond, along with losing the ability to remember what she did a couple years ago, or thought mere seconds ago. She describes one change in Rand since their prior encounter, as having lost the “unconsciously slumped posture”. In fact, he was specifically described as walking and standing erect, with his spine straight, when heading to his ONLY meeting with her. She has never seen Rand "unconsciously slumped," only standing erect, reeling in shock, or consciously and deliberately trying to evade her notice.

Her memory is not much like an intelligent statesman recalling what she did a year ago, as a half-bright author recalling what he read a decade ago. I don’t know why that comparison springs to mind. In any event, someone with this level of brain malfunction cannot be trusted in her assessments of Egwene’s quality.

Of course, the same sort of thing is afflicting Rand, Why would he assume, however correctly, that Bryne has let Siuan bond him, and why on earth would Elayne be interested in that, or why would he feel the need to say that out loud? His verbal diarrhea (describing both rate and quality of output), of course, includes yet another flattering assessment of Egwene.

They say the best way to write a story is “show, not tell”. Wouldn't it be better, from an authorial perspective, to “show” how Egwene is a good Amyrlin, rather than having characters “tell” us that she is?

4: Although Rand’s comments about resisting Aes Sedai guidance are very strange, and completely at odds with the actual mindset he had at the time, an obvious explanation is that he is trying to reach Egwene by pretending to a mentality she can understand. He says “I worried that if I listened to you, you’d control me. It wasn’t a desire for independence that drove me, but a fear of irrelevance…that the acts I accomplished would be yours, and not my own.” Rand was never, ever concerned about credit or glory. He was concerned about Siuan and Moiraine first manipulating and using him for, well, what Siuan claims Elaida & the Reds did with Logain. In fact, Moiraine attributed his hostility to the influence of Tam al’Thor, whom a certain author chose to portray as the font of all wisdom and a walking saint. Later, Rand was frustrated by Moiraine holding him back from helping people who had sworn to him, and then that she might try to force him into a mistake or bad strategy. Once he had established his authority and gone public as the Dragon Reborn, he was willing to rely on Moiraine’s guidance, except that she kept trying to follow obsolete plans and would manipulate him for the Tower’s agenda. He had absolutely no qualms about taking her advice and guidance, or Cadsuane’s for that matter, once he had trustworthy assurances of their priorities and agenda. He had no worries about them hogging the credit and has never, from the very beginning, been concerned about winning glory.

So why would Rand say such a thing to Egwene and the sisters? Remember, he has always been able to predict Egwene’s thinking, from their first conversation in the series, when he anticipated her reaction to the account of the Myrdraal, through their last encounter, when she admitted he saw through her attempted manipulation and guessed her intentions regarding him and Elaida’s embassy. Just as Egwene spewed a load of crap about the Ajah composition of a Tower embassy mattering to Rand, and about his need to be free in order to make Elaida look bad, when she didn’t actually mean any of those things, so Rand is pretending that he cared about other people taking the credit or glory for his actions, in order to strike a chord with Egwene, and assuage her concerns about sublimating her role, which in normal times would be paramount, to that of Rand himself. Egwene has long ago demonstrated that straightforward appeals to friendship or necessity are futile in obtaining her cooperation. Rand’s plan in telling her about Merrilor is obviously reverse psychology to induce her to play the part she does in gathering the nations. This whole confrontation is a sort of long con on his part, hence the approach of misrepresenting his concerns about Aes Sedai-Dragon Reborn cooperation. Only Egwene would require these lengths and convoluted deceptions in order to get her to help.

5: During Rand’s whole audience with Egwene, she pays almost no attention to the content of his words. Instead, she is obsessing about his personality and demeanor, reflexively thinking of him in the most uncomplimentary terms, comparing him to a criminal or a madman, persistently trying to see him as the latter, even as she keeps noting evidence that he is perfectly sane, while thinking “to her credit, she met his eyes” about herself. Once again, however, while her brain is all but ignoring Rand’s words and assurances that he knows what he is doing, and all the supporting evidence, she offers nothing constructive, only insisting that the man whom she accepts as having the knowledge of Lews Therin not break the Seals that he himself forged, because of a dream with no foreshadowings, no negative connotations, that she is misinterpreting as representative of the Seals. Even her protests in that regard are minimal next to her reaction (leaping to her feet and yelling) when she thinks he is showing disrespect to her. She lets loosing the Dark One on the world pass with only mild objections, but loses her shit because he starts to leave without her permission?

Thus we have Egwene’s priorities. More important than listening to the Dragon Reborn, is finding excuses to denigrate him. More important than the course of action for Tarmon Gaidon, is Egwene receiving what she considers her due respect. Ironically, of course, Rand goes out of his way to be polite and give her every chance to save face, just as Mat did, when Egwene herself never accorded him the same courtesy or respect, ever.

6: Gawyn’s little game of CSI illustrates that Egwene is going down the wrong path with another of her dreams, just as she did in believing that the crystal globe dream meant the Seals, and adding her assumption that it indicates Rand is wrong. While the dream warns about the Forsaken in the Tower, Egwene locks onto that, and presumes that there is nothing else that could possibly be killing Aes Sedai. When she’s trying to impress someone, she lists all the myriad threats facing the world or the Tower, but now that one of them is manifesting, she locks out all other possibilities, when even Gawyn, firmly established as the stupidest of the major characters, finds the obvious flaws in Egwene’s Black Ajah public consumption scenario.

To make matters worse, she is deliberately obfuscating her assumptions that Mesaana is the killer. Remember in the middle of the series, when Rand criticized the Tower for trying to suppress knowledge of the Forsaken, and worked instead to spread the news, so that people would be able to make the mental adjustments, instead of being caught off guard? So much for Egwene fixing what's wrong with the Tower.

What’s more, Egwene is insistent that she is Mesaana’s target, that she is automatically the Forsaken’s priority, ignoring the point that she let a Forsaken sleep in her tent for weeks, and was helpless in the Tower where Mesaana could have killed her at any time. She also thought Mesaana was going to flee the Tower when she returned as Amyrlin.

Most amusing is Egwene’s assumption that she can defeat Mesaana, because the Forsaken is not a warrior, but “an administrator, a planner.” And what, exactly, about that makes her any different than Egwene? Egwene is not a warrior either. Her only significant fight was against the Seanchan, where she had so many advantages and accomplished so little, that it is an absurd measure of warrior qualities.

The Tower’s sources on the Forsaken have improved remarkably since the early days of the series, when Moiraine had almost no information available, for Egwene to have those data about Mesaana. A similar enhancement has occurred with the capabilities of the eyes and ears of the Tower and the Blue Ajah, having progressed to the point that detailed character assessments of Rand are now transmittable on tiny strips of paper tied to pigeon feet. The contents alluded to in such reports range from absurd details that no spy could have obtained, to broadly general things like a male channeler being suspicious and untrusting of Aes Sedai, that you wonder why the sisters feel the need to comment on such reports.

7: Egwene’s treatment of Gawyn is also a bit ridiculous, in the standards she claims are required for the Amyrlin’s warder, even contradicting what Gawyn’s own Warder teacher has told him. Gawyn’s assertions of a Warder’s role are pretty much in line with all the other Warder-Aes Sedai relationships we see in the series, but that’s not good enough for Egwene, she wants a sycophantic henchman. Her arguments and rebuttals don’t even make sense or have any relation to the points Gawyn makes. Where she had previously of him demanded unthinking obedience to commands she gave other people, and saying she could not bond him because he failed to demonstrate that quality, now when he points out that a Warder has to challenge and question his bondholder, her rebuttal is that he is not her Warder! Even though he's not her warder, she expects the blind obedience she claims a warder must give, but when he also presumes to offer the counsel a warder must give as well, oh, he can't do that, because he's not actually a warder!

"If I'm going to marry you, you must first prove your commitment to supporting our family by handing over your entire paycheck to me, like a good husband does."

"All right, I'll try. Can we have sex, then?"

"No, we're not married."

Finally, the woman who barged in on the Dragon Reborn snapping insults and making belittling comments and references to his childhood, denying the importance of his role or sneering at the symbols of his power, is now telling the love of her life that she acts like the Amyrlin even in private with him, that “I show you the Amyrlin because you refuse to accept her. Once you do so, perhaps we can move beyond that…your choice of words betrays you. The Amyrlin cannot be served by those who refuse to accept her authority.” Aside from taking elocution lessons from Darth Vader, Egwene has totally let her status go to her head.

Even if Gawyn did have a problem with taking her orders, is that a necessary quality in a spouse? Bear in mind, she has not given him a chance to obey or disobey – the only order he has disobeyed so far is one that she never gave to him, and which he had no reason to trust given the sources from which he heard about it, and ever since then, she has kept him at arm’s length.

The eyes and ears have succumbed to the derangement that has been afflicting various Aes Sedai. Plainly the Dark One’s influence grows. Where they have recently begun supplying in-depth reports about the Dragon Reborn’s innermost thoughts and personality traits, they find themselves completely unable to grasp the current state of Darlin’s relationship to the same Dragon Reborn. Or at least, they are unable to date their reports, leaving Egwene unable to tell the old ones when he was “one of Rand’s greatest detractors” from the new ones which describe him as one of Rand’s “greatest supporters.”

8: Egwene completely misses the points she is making when talking to Nynaeve. She claims Nynaeve prioritizing the Dragon Reborn over Tower politics is undermining her authority, because her ignoring Egwene's curiosity inspires other people to think it’s justified, or that they can get away with it too. But that’s only a problem if Egwene tries to give Nynaeve stupid orders, or drag her away from important work. No one has to know that Nynaeve is not with Rand on Egwene’s order. Any problems Nynaeve’s action cause Egwene, are entirely of Egwene’s making. She also wonders why Nynaeve won’t kneel to her or kiss her ring when she’d do it for another Amyrlin, directly comparing herself to the sort of person who would compel Nynaeve to make that kind of gesture! And so, Egwene takes advantage of a long-time friendship, yet again, to make someone who has done more for the cause of the Light than any woman alive since the Breaking start addressing her by her titles even in private!

She orders Nynaeve and Elayne to drop what they are doing, despite its exponentially greater importance than petty Tower politics, so they can be her personal trophies, demonstrate her pointless authority, and prevent anyone from getting ideas about the correlation between their successes and accomplishments, and their being unbound by the Oath Rod.

The whole point of Egwene being the Amyrlin Seat, narratively speaking, was, in addition to bringing Aes Sedai to help Rand, or at least prevent their interference, to free Nynaeve and Elayne from Tower politics bullshit so they could go about saving the world in lesser ways. Instead, they have to put those tasks on hold to accommodate Egwene’s political insecurities. Never mind that absolutely no one has given voice or any indication of thought to those notions Egwene requires Nynaeve’s public groveling to prevent. Never mind that their absence has created no political problems for her, and that great things have been accomplished by their being away from the stultifying influence of the Tower. Those details have no real relevance, because this is all about Egwene and her ego. She approaches the meeting patting herself on the back for all the people she has established her supremacy over, while fuming that Nynaeve still evades her leash! She was miffed at Nynaeve avoiding her intrusion way back when all sorts of people ignored her orders.

Now, some people might say that her thoughts are simply the kind of rueful reflection of her circumstances and relationships, much in like Rand’s frustration after the battle at Cairhien, when he contrasts his tangible manifestations of authority and power to the point that the women closest to him didn’t care about that, and were keeping him in bed because they thought they knew better than he did. And Egwene’s defenders would have a valid point in this argument, IF Rand had followed his thought by breaking Aviendha to his reins, or making her kneel and acknowledge him as the Car’a’carn! Rand did not do that, because he is not an insane megalomaniac. Egwene does do that because…well, duh.

That has always been the difference between them. Rand could make allowances for people who saw him as a man, he could accept criticism and private indignity, because he loved and trusted these people, and valued their connections, and how they were a link to his regular humanity. Egwene yearns to transcend her humanity. She is constantly trying to distance herself from her origins, gets mad about reminders of her old life experiences, and is uncomfortable around her pre-Moiraine friends, until or unless she can make them grovel. Rand grins in delight when Egwene tries to bring him down by citing childhood memories, while Egwene fumes when he reminisces, or when Mat shows her none of the respect due a real Aes Sedai, even though A. he knows she isn't, and B. doesn't respect the real ones anyway.

And that humanity, which Rand valued, and Egwene resents, is an important thing, because it is what Cadsuane identifies as the difference between his saving the world, or doing worse to it than the Dark One. In a sense, the problem with Rand going “Dark” was that he was becoming more and more like Egwene.

Nynaeve too is a victim of Dark One derangement. She actually says of Rand “he even talks the same way as before.” Either she is lying for no reason, or she has lost all memory of how Rand talked before losing his hand. That’s all you need to know of the mental state of someone who falls into Egwene’s simplistic verbal traps.

9: Egwene, with absolutely no knowledge or no experience on such matters, declares that it is possible to defeat the Dark One through the Seals on his prison. What? Explanations? Tactics? That’s mere details. There is no reason why Rand cannot simply work around something designed to prevent a deity from defeating people on the other side! What’s the matter with him! Egwene has declared such a thing possible, so everyone must oppose the plans of the man who made the damn things, because Egwene, on the basis of absolutely NOTHING, states he’s wrong, and that the Seals are necessary to survive. The Dark One touched the world for literal generations before Lews Therin Sealed him away, and somehow, humanity managed to survive the decades between the day an Aielman decides to marry, and the day his adult grandson finds his hanged corpse! Rand even knows that very datum. Egwene doesn’t, which is kind of the point – she lacks any knowledge whatsoever about the situation, but as is well established by now, that never stops her from thinking she has a right to interfere.

The NARRATION, not the stream of consciousness, or direct thoughts, indicated by italicized text, the NARRATION is using colloquialisms, like “My, but the woman had a tongue on her.” Just…just…shut up, Brandon. Please.

10: Egwene hilariously noting that the brief respite of finding good supplies is over, and the vermin and rot coming back, thinks The land is one with the Dragon. It has completely evaded her observation that the corruption subsided with Rand’s visit and returned with his departure. Meanwhile, she mentally attributes the corruption to him!

“How are the Kin?” is a phrase of deep and profound formality, that instantly alerts Sumeko & Alise that Elayne is up to something. She says nothing else, they sit down, get some tea, Elayne opens with that line, and kicks herself for being too formal. I…they…she…It’s not, okay! That phrase is not formal, it is not informal, it isn’t anything!

11: Elayne, when hashing out her plans with the Kin, aside from actually taking yet another unspecific decree of Egwene’s, and making it into something both viable and in this case, an extraordinary improvement, is concerned about convincing Egwene to allow it. Her plan involves giving the Kin a place to stay, allowing them to keep channeling while removing their unclean, Oathless selves from Tower politics, and giving them something useful to do. Not serving as ambulatory batteries for White Tower circles, or taking the scut work that full sisters don’t want to do, instead they are going to provide services to the world! They are going to allow goods to travel about the world rapidly, and Heal people for free. The latter of which readers have been wondering why the Tower has not been doing it all along.

But Elayne “wasn’t certain how she was going to convince Egwene to let her do that part of it.” WHY? Why does this need her to convince Egwene? It is so inherently right and useful and such an obvious win-win scenario, it is impossible to see the drawbacks, unless Egwene is the sort of person who is automatically opposed to such things…oh, wait. Bowl of the Winds, helping Rand, fighting the Shaido…yeah, you’re probably right, Elayne. Egwene’s not gonna like this. The One Power and channeling for profit are solely to make cuendillar decorations for the aggrandizement of the 1%, not for getting goods to people more quickly, or saving lives!

Egwene doesn’t get points for supporting Nynaeve even to the extent that she did. She put her friend through a wringer that Nynaeve did not deserve, all in order to make political points for herself and to show off for the Sitters. If she was concerned about being seen to favor Nynaeve, she could have simply refrained from participation, and allowed the sisters manning the device free rein. But Egwene has to show off, so she took part in the test, careless of how (or perhaps precisely because) she would be compelled to be even harder on Nynaeve than anyone else. Egwene coasts on all the perks of being associated with Rand or Nynaeve or Elayne or Mat, but somehow, for them, it means Egwene can never quite reciprocate. Any favors Egwene does are, as always, more to Egwene’s benefit than theirs. And that is the whole point with Nynaeve. She Healed severing and the madness of the taint, and she helped remove the taint from saidin. She captured a Forsaken, beating the mistress of Tel’Aran’Rhiod on her own turf, and has the trust beyond any other living Aes Sedai, of the indispensable man for Tarmon Gaidon. At this point, it should be the Tower that has to prove itself to Nynaeve, and her subsequent performance in the test only supports that. But in order to protect Egwene’s authority, Nynaeve has to run a gauntlet of murder attempts by the epitome of the very establishment that has led the Tower so far from the ideal she represents.

If this is Egwene’s idea of help, the love of her life should be grateful for the metaphorical stiff-arm she’s giving him!

It is also profoundly appropriate that Egwene’s support for Nynaeve in the discussion concerning her test has to do entirely with precedents and appearances, while absolutely devoid of the moral, aspirational and legal arguments in Nynaeve’s favor.

12: Egwene, who is constantly annoyed at Rand or anyone else using physical force in even the mildest or most beneficial way against her, much less taking it as a mortal offense should Rand do so with the One Power, has absolutely no qualms about doing the same thing to Gawyn, just because she’s annoyed at him. But Elaida was evil for doing essentially the same thing to her.

13: Egwene’s typical argument style comes into play when discussing Gawyn’s confrontation with the Seanchan assassin. Gawyn points out that the assassin showed a surprising lack of channeling capability for one of the Forsaken, and Egwene, rather than say “Oh, right, that’s a good point,” like any rational human being would, instead uses it to berate Gawyn for his stupidity because IF the assassin HAD been Mesaana (as Gawyn did not believe, based on previously discovered evidence), he’d have been surely killed.

On the one hand, this is Gawyn we are talking about, the man who is dumb enough that when you compare this conversation to his actual death, it’s kind of amazing that he lasted long enough to face Demandred, instead of forgetting how to breathe sometime prior to that. The one rational thing Egwene notes in the conversation is how stupid it would be for Gawyn to confront a Forsaken, and she says it when he brings up the certainty of a Forsaken easily killing him with the Power. Does Gawyn somehow think that adding blademaster skills to lethal channeling ability makes a Forsaken a less dangerous target, or does he need to start tattooing things he needs to remember on his torso? On the other hand, this is the person Egwene is losing an argument to, if she did not have the power to blow him off.

How dumb to you have to be to make Gawyn Trakand the smart one in the room, during an incident when he will kinda-sorta predict the circumstances of his own death, in such a way as to highlight that he of all people should have known better?

14: Also, Egwene’s sense of tactics and tradecraft is as abysmal as ever. She blames Gawyn for letting the assassin get away, because they could have found out Mesaana’s plans if they captured the minion she presumes it to be. And that has worked exactly how many times in the course of the series? Because the Forsaken share their plans, ever, with whom? Because the members of the Forsaken who excel at blending in for months or years undercover are dumb enough to leave clues with minions whom they can Compel?

And on top of it, she orders the guards to be extra vigilant tonight. Gawyn, still letting his lesser head do the thinking (in fairness, it probably has no fewer brain cells than the one atop his neck seems to), assumes she is doing that for show, since it is obvious there will not be a second attempt tonight. Given all the ways Egwene sucks at tactics, you can’t take that for granted, but let’s assume it’s true, and Egwene knows there won’t be a second attempt – she’s making the guards be extra-vigilant for no reason. Egwene's mad, so you poor guards can damn well stay up late watching for something she knows will not happen!

15: After receiving Darlin’s letter, Egwene is impressed that he was bold enough to put it down in writing, rather than have a messenger recite his reply. You recall all the times that rulers have relied exclusively on verbal messengers over letters, in the series, right? Like that’s a thing that happens. Anyway, her rationale is that by sending a letter, Darlin loses a decree of deniability, so he’s bold to set out on paper what he tells her.

-- If Rand is psycho enough to punish Darlin for going along with Egwene, he’s not going to feel bound by the quality of evidence against his minion king, or spare his life just because he can't find a hard copy of Darlin's malfeasance.

-- The claim that a letter has been forged is just as plausible as claiming that your messenger is lying, if he is made to testify against you. Messengers can’t be crumpled up and thrown away quite so easily either, unless Egwene has gotten to the point where she thinks of murdering messengers to keep their messages secret as a common practice, or acceptable for the forces of the Light.

-- Darlin isn’t saying anything bad about Rand! The letter expresses his loyalty and trust in Rand, even in spite of Egwene’s argument that Rand is crazy (amazing how her habit of defending Rand to southland kings has vanished now that she no longer needs to smear Elaida). The only action he agrees to take is to come to Merrilor, the place his liege lord picked out, to have a discussion, as Rand intends! There is really nothing to worry about Rand finding out, if he should learn the contents of Darlin’s letter! Unlike Egwene, most people are not ashamed of expressing confidence in Rand, or loyalty to him.

-- Even assuming Darlin was agreeing to something akin to treason, he agrees to show up at a place Rand publicly said he is going to be! When Darlin arrives with an ARMY, Rand is probably going to notice. I think at that point, a letter admitting his intentions is hardly going to be significant. What is Egwene’s scenario?
Rand: King Darlin! Do you now join the ranks of my betrayers who dare come here at Egwene’s summons?
Darlin: Whaaaat? Me? No! I was looking for …um, my keys? I just kind of stumbled by accident through the Mother’s gateway, with a bunch of High Lords and soldiers.
Rand: Oh, okay. That’s plausible and you seem to be innocent, so you can go…
Darlin: Thank you, my Lord Dragon
Rand: …just as soon as you explain this LETTER!!!
Darlin: Arrgh! Busted! I should have sent a messenger!

-- The only reason anyone would have to fear Rand’s displeasure at his followers’ attendance is if the person calling the meeting had inherently malicious motives where Rand is concerned. Egwene thinks of Darlin’s rather innocent agreement as a bold act of defiance or treason against Rand, because she knows deep in her heart that she is opposing Rand out of petty spite, and that agreeing with her must be a bad thing. Or why else would she assume Rand would be angry?
and I strongly suspect a case of

16: But it’s not enough for Egwene that Darlin is willing to come with some soldiers and the leadership of the nation. When he says he’s going to leave some soldiers behind to defend against their mutual enemies, Egwene isn’t satisfied. She wants ALL the troops at Merrilor for a debate on esoteric metaphysical courses of action, believing that somehow, having more soldiers will give greater weight to their argument. For Egwene, that is sort of true. She has in the past demonstrated some identification with power as inherently right, and it is certainly consistent with her past expressed notions that getting or keeping power is more desirable than achieving the end for which one might want power (i.e. Rand brings the Aiel into Cairhien to prevent death and destruction in Cairhien, so he forbids them to kill or destroy Cairhien; Egwene thinks he can be made to see "reason," and walk back his order because she’d rather refrain from upsetting followers who might decide not to listen – keeping minions under her thumb is worth writing off the occasional murdered peasant or burned home to placate them). But to think that Rand would change his mind because of the numbers of troops each man brings to the conference is an insane point of view, and completely unsubstantiated by any previously observed behavior of Rand.

The only really plausible explanation is for her own personal aggrandizement. That she can make rulers jump through her hoops, and risk the existence of their nations by bringing more of their armies than they believe to be prudent, is more important to her. It might be pointless, but it is still an exercise of power, which bolsters her ego. And that’s really why she’s doing it. Rand’s dismissal of her power in the heart of the White Tower has shaken her, and she wants everyone to make gestures of submission so she feels better about her baseless opposition to him.

17: In her subsequent letter to Gregorin after demanding that Darlin bring all his troops, she notes his concern with the Seanchan just over his border. Where she had assuaged Darlin’s fears by pointing out the distance between his nation and the Seanchan positions, and Illian’s position shielding Tear, she claims to be telling Gregorin something similar. Whom is she throwing under the bus as Illian’s non-existent buffer? How can she dismiss Tairen security concerns based on distance, while blowing those concerns off for a country without even Tear’s scant protection?

“Oh don’t worry Lord Gregorin, the Seanchan will probably leapfrog your country to hit Tear by sea!” or maybe “It’s okay, they’ll blow right through Illian without stopping, so they can head to Tear, and come back to conquer you later?” Setting aside the sheer nonsense of her being able to guarantee ANYthing to Illian, there is the tactical idiocy of what is Darlin going to think when he arrives at Merrilor with his whole army, because Egwene told him not to worry, Illian stands between Tear and the Seanchan…and meets Gregorin & the whole army of Illian?

Actually, Egwene offering guarantees of protection to Tear and Illian is completely absurd, considering how badly the White Tower got spanked by the Seanchan. It’s like a rape victim claiming that she can protect people from her rapist, because he didn’t kill or abduct her, and never mind that he wasn’t actually trying to do either one of those things, having gone home once he got what he came for. Tear and Illian both have much better track records against the Seanchan than anyone wearing a shawl.
and probably

18: Oh, and that good friend Rand should be so happy is holding the Amyrlin Seat, couches the loyalty of his followers in such terms as “Gregorin…seemed more intimidated by Rand than Darlin was.” No one could POSSIBLY support Rand or obey him for any reason other than fear, right? Just because that’s how you rule over your novices does not mean Rand does it the same way. She cannot even acknowledge that people might be loyal to Rand, equating their degrees of expressed support as the extent to which each man is terrorized by Rand.

She also comments on Illian being very loyal to Rand saying “What a mess.” Her childhood friend winning the loyalty of a nation is “a mess”? A powerful nation being loyal to the leader of the Light and the indispensable man against the Dark One is “a mess.”

19: Egwene persists in using words when she doesn’t know what they mean, for instance, believing that Silviana disapproves of her calling on Siuan to give her information because “ the Blue network was the Blue ajah’s, not to be preempted by the Amyrlin”, when what she probably should be saying is “coopted”. If Egwene were to preempt the Blue Ajah, that would mean something like sending information to the Blues before their spy network could report it. Instead, the sentence references Egwene making use of the Ajah’s resources as if they were her own. Coopting is the much better term. It’s a good thing she’s Amyrlin Seat, instead of a professional writer or something. I was going to say she’d starve to death if she tried to make a living writing, with her vocabulary, but that doesn’t seem to be how it works.

Her grammar is not much better, including the sentence, “How strange to see them here with so many sisters who they had been at odds with.”

Also, she seems to think that a network of spies is going to be able to tell her what is going on in Tarwin’s Gap, well away from anyplace people live, and now well behind the battle lines.
and

20: When noting that Nicola has been raised to Accepted, Egwene cites the urgency of Tarmon Gaidon (which is also her justification for copreoptempting the Blue Ajah spies), and wanting to raise them both to the shawl for the Last Battle. “They were young, but powerful, and every sister would be needed…” They will be no more or less powerful if their dresses are banded, or they are wearing rings or shawls! The only thing that could increase the power they could contribute, would be the one thing Egwene has refused Nicola – forcing! (Also, Nicola is hardly young on a normal human scale of maturity, and certainly does not deserve to be called young, especially not so condescendingly, by Egwene, who is significantly younger) The only way that being a novice or Accepted could make a difference come Tarmon Gaidon, would be if Egwene intends to keep those initiates out of the battle! Oh, no. The strength of the novices and Accepted is a personal resource for the exclusive benefit of Egwene al’Vere, not for the rest of the world!

Either she is a colossal hypocrite (well, we know that) or she should be stilled for her abuse of the novices during the Seanchan attack. If that was sufficiently serious to warrant her risking them and their strength in combat, Tarmon Gaidon is inherently more serious, on an exponential scale. But apparently Egwene is going to withhold those she cannot justify raising in rank from the Last Battle, over stupid petty bullshit regulations. People keep talking about her mistakes and misdemeanors as errors of youth, and learning experiences, but when is she supposed to get better? Tarmon Gaidon is a month away, and she is still pulling that “Tower rules over human lives” crap she tried at the battle near Cairhien.

What’s worse is that she’s raising women she believes have terrible judgment to high ranks, where other people will expected to defer to their judgment (given all she has said about the sacrosanctity of the status of an Aes Sedai, it is hardly a position she can walk back to prevent Nicola et al from abusing their rank in service to their mental shortcomings), because she’s too damn stupid to realize that they can be just as useful at Tarmon Gaidon as Accepted or novices. A woman who is strong in the Power but has bad judgement, can link with a trusted channeler, who can use her strength with better judgment! And later on, you don't have to worry about her giving people stupid orders, that the Tower must support to preserve the status and rank of all Aes Sedai.

Egwene, as she has since practically the beginning of the series, and as most of the readers who admire her do as well, conflates rank with ability. It would be as if on the eve of a war, the military started hastily promoting privates and sergeants to generals, claiming that they needed every top ranking leader they could get, in order to have sufficient armies and strategic or tactical insight to win the war.

Only Egwene could manage to be so completely, catastrophically wrong coming AND going, on the exact same issue!

21: Also, what’s so bad about Nicola’s judgment? Not that defending Nicola validates Egwene, because Egwene is still promoting a woman she thinks has horrible judgment, but Nicola has proven well-behaved and sensible under proper training conditions, sufficiently shrewd and insightful to get the upper hand on several sisters, and ambitious and eager to do her part in these end times. Was her bad judgment in attempting to blackmail Aes Sedai? Well, it worked, and she managed it in such a way that she could not even be punished for it. As for the act itself, maybe that indicates a person with bad judgement, but who else has tried such an act? Only Egwene. She wants to channel more than Aes Sedai think is healthy or safe, and wants to learn more, no matter how dishonestly she must pursue such knowledge…just like Egwene did. She abandoned the rebel cause and went to the White Tower, in hopes of furthering her development, but Egwene, once they raised her Amyrlin, basically did the exact same thing! Nicola never had a choice in which side she would be aligned with, while Egwene made her choice and then turned on them when she stood to gain more power by accepting the loyalist Hall’s authority and condemning her former comrades.

Any criticism of Nicola must reflect much worse on Egwene.

A split second before someone can, for once, point out the glaring flaw in an agreement into which Egwene is trying to trick someone, the following passage takes place.
Slim Doesine glanced at the women around her. “What motion are we standing for?”
“An important one,” Saerin said.
“Well, I suppose I’ll stand for it, then.”
“As will I, Yukiri said.

WHAT. THE. HELL?
Mr. Sanderson, I have nothing to say. This is beyond any adjectives in my lexicon. I will instead simply leave this…episode with the following quote regarding your abysmal treatment of a book series you claim to revere:

An uneducated, half-brained serving boy with a hangover could make mock of you. I am left with no need to exert myself, and your very nature makes mockery of my mockery. And so it is that through sheer stupidity, you make me look incompetent. - the Way of Kings

According to Kindle, this is roughly the halfway point of Towers of Midnight. Later.