Reprinting an oldie:
Is Egwene impressive, or what?
Egwene is a truly amazing young woman. Now there are many people on wotmania who would dispute this. Even I, myself, have been known to cast a few stones in her direction from time to time. But when you really think about it, and compare her achievements to her circumstances, she might just be the most incredible character to grace the world of the WoT.

1. She has never murdered anyone.
Now don't laugh. This is actually very impressive, when you consider that she has a great deal of power, and cares for very little besides her own aggrandizement. Put those two characteristics together in most people, and you have makings of a ruthless S.O.B. who kills anyone who gets in his/her way. In spite of this, Egwene has managed not only to avoid murdering anyone, she has even denied her minions permission to do so in her stead! Sure, she regretted her moral impulse later, but hey, the would-be victims are still turning oxygen to CO2. It's results that matter!

2. She makes friends quickly.
This may not seem like much, but it means that when she betrays an old friend for a new one, at least she is always on the side of one of her friends. When she shared private information about Rand to the Wise Ones, it can be seen as helping her new pals, Amys and Bair and Melaine. When she took it upon herself to interfere in Rand's romantic life, she was not meddling in his affairs, she was helping out Elayne, whom she had known for about 1 whole year, next to a lifetime of Rand's friendship. When she bullies the sister who shows her the most respect, despite having the best reasons to treat her like a little girl she use to babysit, she is not being mean to Nynaeve, she is imitating her new buddy, Siuan. When she gets a lot more help from Mat than she ever gave him, she isn't using an old friend she has known all her life, she is being nice to...someone. It's too complicated to get into right now.

3. She has devoted herself to the White Tower and it's traditions and laws and methods.
Maybe she shrugs off her friends and the right or practical or expedient method, but at least she's loyal to a time-honored system, with its rules and established procedures. Except for her rebelling against a lawful Amyrlin, demanding oaths of fealty in exchange for concealing wrongdoing from the Hall, revealing the existence of secret records to make herself look good, instigating a public war between factions of the Tower and giving advice to novices that is completely counter-indicated by her own career path. But aside from that, she is the very embodiment of Tower tradition and law. When you consider all her other flaws and faults, they can be shrugged off with the argument that her destiny is to be Amyrlin, and she has to follow the Tower's ways, rather than the rules for ordinary people. As long as she is faithful to the Tower and its methods, she can be excused for various breakings of her word, betrayals of lifelong friends, and constant search for status and power from the first time she appears in the books.

4. She was willing to settle for Rand.
Now this is important from her perspective. She truly appears to believe that he would be better off in a relationship, than not. One of her primary concerns in orchestrating the transition of his love-interest from herself to Elayne is that he not be devastated by the loss of her hand in marriage. Regardless of whether or not one thinks they are a good couple, Egwene obviously sincerely believed Rand was better off with her than without her. Now you might call that the height of egomanical arrogance, but look at it this way. She was willing to marry Rand even though she has never given the slightest indication that she respected his opinions, feelings, judgment or character! Though she cares about him, caring for someone without respect is not a sound foundation for a relationship, and plainly her various ambitions were more important to her than Rand anyway, but she was still willing to do him the favor of improving his life by marrying him! How many characters in modern fantasy would ever DREAM of such a thing? In a genre rife with heroines fleeing palaces and comfortable lifestyles to avoid marrying a guy who is not her first choice, or making a big deal about sacrificing herself to marry someone she does not love in order to benefit her family or country, Egwene stands alone in her willingness to marry a man solely for his benefit.

5. Her accomplishments have to have come solely through sheer effort.
What else could it have been? It isn't as if she is possessed of an overabundance of brains or skills that let her coast on her natural abilities. Where her friends have their innate intelligence and insight and strength of character to pull them through crises, Egwene, lacking any of those attributes, somehow has managed to survive and rise high in the world! She lacks any sort of combat ability or natural instincts for a fight - the few times we have seen her in anything resembling a combat/danger situation, she dragged down the heroes, got captured by the Seanchan and bandits, freaked out and threw a fireball in the middle of an attempted stealth exfiltration from Falme, and lowered the Tower's profile with one of the few good Whitecloaks. Not to mention getting embarrassed on her last operation by a weakling who has never been seen outside the Tower or the Salidar group. That's right, Leane made better use of the skills learned from Moghedian, than one of the people who had direct control over the Forsaken! None of the other Wondergirls have knowingly approached a fight with a female channeler since leaving Salidar where they did NOT shield their abilities, but Egwene not only succeeded in her mission, but managed, while unconscious, to parlay her capture into a situation where she can win the admiration of people who chose to follow a megalomanical alcoholic! With anyone else, this would have been a unthinkable stroke of luck after an incredible episode of stupidity, but Egwene, WITHOUT any ta'veren twistings of chance, managed it. The general consensus among my fellow admirers of Egwene is that this is entirely to HER credit, so I will defer to their wisdom on this matter. When Rand screws up, he suffers for it. When Mat screws up, he gets embarrassed. When Elayne screws up, every woman within a fifty mile radius jumps to point it out. When Nynaeve screws up, someone with an E at each end of her name smirks knowingly. Only Egwene can manage to turn such a colossal screw-up into an accomplishment.

6. She's sensitive.
She cries every time she gets spanked. This is a useful technique that makes people like her afterwards. For Rand to get the support from people who beat him that Egwene gets, Verin has to secretly Compel them to swear fealty to him. Egwene has no need of such tawdry maneuvers. All she does is open the waterworks, and pow! Everyone likes her. She overcomes her serious violations of ji'e'toh and Tower Law in their eyes, whereas Rand had only committed the crime of being born with a Y-chromosome. Egwene's tears bridged a far greater mistrust, where Rand needed Compulsion. Clearly Egwene is by far the superior character.

7. She has managed to hold her place in the series despite being superfluous.
Her most unique Talent can be duplicated with a ter'angreal, and that ter'angreal seems to be the most easily reproduced. Despite her being in enemy hands, her faction is operating quite nicely without her. By contrast, Elayne's absence from Andor when it was time to take the throne led to a 3-book civil war. Rand's absence at the end of LoC led to all kinds of shakeups, with his enemies seizing control, and his minions paralyzed and helpless. Clearly they are far more necessary to their causes than Egwene is, but Egwene is still in charge. It takes a VERY skilled individual to maintain her existence when there is clearly no need for her.

So these are a few reasons I came up with off the top of my head. Feel free to add any further evidence of her greatness I have overlooked.



Original material to come when I am through recovering from the effort of saving all the stuff I could from wotmania + at the last minute.