The Sitters and Ajah heads for the most part are not presented as fools, no, but still you get people like Falene (iirc? the head of the White) taking advice from Egwene, long before the Seanchan strike. And most glaringly, the way Egwene barges in on the Black Ajah Hunters and somehow manages to gain the upper hand.

Acknowledging that she has sense and isn't a fool is still a very far cry from accepting her as a leader. Or should be, anyhow.

The debate of Elaida, along with the Black Ajah Hunters meeting, are the two most problematic scenes, I think. In Elaida's case, the stupidity or even temporary insanity that allows Egwene to make a big impression and become a martyr, and then the way Seaine and the others allow her to barge in on them and discuss what to do as if she were a full sister. Both are way too blatant and easy, and obviously aimed at making Egwene acceptable as Amyrlin so that the plot can move on, at the cost of credibility. I suppose RJ could've done it more subtly, and one might point out that if RJ/Sanderson had taken the time to do it more subtly and more believably, we would've been looking at several slow-moving books more before Egwene finally got where she needed to be, but all the same, it weakens the book (or at least Egwene's scenes) for me.

Incidentally, while we're on the topic: Rand may feel that his ta'veren-ness deserted him when negotiating with Tuon, and rightly so, but if you consider that Egwene got her final and decisive push for Amyrlin from the Seanchan attack, you could argue the Light benefited from the failure of those negotiations.

Certainly, but as far as I'm aware, that and the subsequent imprisonment were all on Elaida's orders, who we know is not Black. One might expect a little more intelligence and smarter moves from the Black Ajah than from Elaida. They could've killed or abducted her, thus not only removing the annoyance inside the Tower but also further diminishing the chances of the two factions reuniting. With the numbers the Black Ajah now turns out to have, you'd think they could've done more than just follow Elaida's orders.

Except that it's not very credible that said leadership *would* be required. And her "sense" may be impressive for an Accepted, but again, enormous step from there to letting her lead you.

Oh, a whole month? With the way the Power-based hierarchy among Aes Sedai is described, you'd almost start to doubt whether even a low-ranking sister like, say, Daigian could manage to get all those Sitters listening to her after just a month, no matter how sensible or brave she was. And Egwene isn't a sister.

There was division and strife between the Ajahs, yes, but then that meant that sisters mostly stuck together in their own Ajah quarters, which means they couldn't have been all that divided. Egwene rallied the novices to her and worked with circles; how come the various Ajahs seem to have done nothing of the kind?

An immensely convenient continuity error.