Although I think you give her too much credit- I don't think she's smart enough to do much in the way of long term planning. She just likes being in charge, being important.

So she whines when people pay more attention to Rand than her, she makes Aes Sedai swear secret oaths. Her capture is the prime example- if she was a cunning planner, she would have at least been more stealthy in her approach to the harbor chain.

But all she could think of was "I can do it better, I can do it faster, I'm so special that I should bear the risk alone. Me, me, me."


And now she has her own little queendom of novices worshiping her. It's like an imprisoned swindler trying to recreate his empire in jail by playing Three Card Monte for cigarettes.