Just finished the last volume and I am a long time Egwene hater (bring on the rotten tomatoes). While this new Egwene was vastly more enjoyable to read about than Egwene 1.0, in my opinion she didn't feel like a natural progression of the character, she was all but perfect in all respects, everybody ended up adoring her, it felt like a fanfic. I am not dissing Sanderson, mind you, I loved the book overall and I do believe RJ never wanted us to hate Egwene in the first place but that's my honest impression. The Tower could have been united without Egwene becoming Mary Sue Egwene. The contrast with Rand making mistake after mistake and wondering if he was right all the time was especially telling, Rand felt much more human to me for all his ramblings about how he is steel or cuendillar. Thank goodness that Egwene was pissed off at Siuan for the resuce and still felt she had to control Rand, so we got some gliumpses that Egghead is not entirely perfect, after all.