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BTW, I am the god of Irony. Bow to me. *NM* Cannoli Send a noteboard - 06/02/2010 09:47:20 AM
I thought, initially, after reading tGS that Egwene had turned a corner or come to some realizations or developed in some way, since she seems to have acknowledged mistakes that were made earlier and changed her position to reflect her new perspective. But I appear to have fallen into the PoV trap like everyone else. In a minor way she changes her course, but it is not really change if it is simply holding to the same course in the grand scheme of things.

The "change" in question, of course, is when she changes her mind on the Tower rebellion and harshly criticizes the rebels, all but forcing them to pass beneath the yoke upon their re-entrance to the Tower. To those of us who looked at the rebellion objectively and recognized it for what it was at the time it was ongoing, it appeared that Egwene had finally come around to our point of view, and we rejoiced. But it was not so. She is, as the Eagles would say, "Still the same old girl [she] used to be..." and she can no longer hide her lying eyes.

Think back, fellow Aegwenists, and recall what is the on-going and constant fault of Egwene from the very very beginning? Her constant inconstancy. Egwene is constantly betraying her old friends in favor of her new ones who offer her more or newer advantages! She turns on her friends to side with the Wisdom, because the Wisdom can teach her what she needs to get an authority position. She casts aside the trappings of status in the Two Rivers to which she has aspired since childhood, when offered the chance to be an Aes Sedai. From then on, she NEVER sides with ANYONE against Moiraine, aside from a few token verbal protests back when she was still aware that starting a war to assert your authority over recalcitrant followers was immoral. Her loyalty to Moiraine is not all-consuming, however, as she soon finds herself getting reminded by Moiraine to be careful about getting buried in her Aiel role, after Egwene want to know why Moiraine isn't reporting all her knowledge of Rand to the Wise Ones. The Cairhienin Aes Sedai who bows to no scruples when it comes to handling Rand has to tell Egwene, "Whoa, Nelly! Let's give the man a LITTLE privacy."
From there she goes completely over to Siuan, who dangles political power and advantages over the Hall to make herself a more influential Amyrlin. As Amyrlin, she's flipped from expecting Aes Sedai to provide information to the Wise Ones, to expecting the Wise Ones to look out for Aes Sedai interests concerning Rand, and trying to guilt Amys into helping that cause.

With this track record in mind, her reprimand of her erstwhile followers in Tar Valon can hardly be surprising. They are old friends. She rode them about as far as she could, using them to get her name in people's minds as Amyrlin Seat. They have given her their loyalty, which is all they have. They can't make her Amyrlin over the whole Tower - that gift is only available from the real Hall in Tar Valon. The loyalist Hall and Tower are Egwene's newest friends, and the newest group to offer her a new level of power! By the typical rules of Egwene's Code of Friendship Priority, the Tower sisters are It, and the Rebel sisters are Spit. Oh, and the castigation of the Tar Valon Hall moments before? Well that was in defense of Silviana, who, as her Keeper, might reconcile the Red Ajah to follow her. By being nice to Silviana, she gets control over the last Ajah. The split Ajahs had each come under her sway in each of their elections - now they were under her thumb and she had no need to be nice to them. But getting those Reds, so previously rejected as unpleasant and troublemakers? Yeah, more followers, more power to gain! So she yells at the Hall for their punishment of a prominent Red sister, and never mind that their acts are in keeping with the spirit of her first declaration upon assumption of her war powers in the rebel Hall! She threatens to birch the leaders of the Hall for pointing out her inexperience and suggesting she might not have the best idea as to their course of action! How is this any different from Silviana barging in on a Sitting of the Hall (and let us not forget that there are strict rules & procedures surrounding & protecting the Hall) to attack the Amyrlin Seat for her treatment of an admitted capital criminal! Whatever Elaida did to Egwene is lenient by Tower Law, because Egwene is guilty of a crime for which the prescribed penalty is death. All the usual rules for coddling initiates (does Egwene ever recall her dear Aiel friends' opinions of those rules protecting novices and Accepted - of course not! She can gain power by playing up Elaida's violations of the rules, so the rules are good, and the people who scoff at them as "coddling" are long forgotten) should not apply in Egwene's case, since the typical initiate is not a capital criminal under a suspended death sentence. Silviana is every bit as, if not more guilty than Romanda, but being nice to her makes the Reds more likely to follow Egwene (rather than follow the example of the people who first thought Egwene could be Amyrlin, and run off to rebel over their Ajah losing the Amyrlin Seat). This gives Silviana the magical status of Egwene's New Friend, and the hell with the rest of you! What have YOU ever done for Egwene, oh loyalist Hall of the Tower? What's that? You raised her to the Amyrlin Seat and removed all questions of her legitimacy? But what have you done for her recently? I mean in the last five minutes? Yeah, I thought not! That's why the Tar Valon Hall is reduced to the position of cast-off Old Friend.

With Egwene al'Vere, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
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I was wrong about Egwene. - 06/02/2010 09:46:43 AM 1981 Views
BTW, I am the god of Irony. Bow to me. *NM* - 06/02/2010 09:47:20 AM 421 Views
I think that if there's a real message to take out of this - 06/02/2010 02:55:47 PM 843 Views
yes she's politically shrewd if completely amoral - 06/02/2010 05:03:19 PM 753 Views
Re: yes she's politically shrewd if completely amoral - 06/02/2010 06:08:40 PM 782 Views
In her defense, she has no way of getting in contact with him - 06/02/2010 11:28:37 PM 832 Views
Re: In her defense, she has no way of getting in contact with him - 06/02/2010 11:47:04 PM 626 Views
Re: In her defense, she has no way of getting in contact with him - 07/02/2010 02:43:13 AM 686 Views
Re: In her defense, she has no way of getting in contact with him - 07/02/2010 11:13:39 PM 805 Views
I might agree with her on your projected Verin scenario - 06/02/2010 11:35:47 PM 939 Views
It really is her most defining quality - 06/02/2010 06:27:17 PM 644 Views
That was nothing. - 06/02/2010 08:48:39 PM 622 Views
The only mitigating factor was that she had already dumped Rand at that time - 06/02/2010 11:34:45 PM 754 Views
Re: The only mitigating factor was that she had already dumped Rand at that time - 06/02/2010 11:51:48 PM 650 Views
Hah! - 07/02/2010 02:22:30 PM 617 Views
There was a nice beginning - "Cannoli: I was wrong about Egwene"... - 06/02/2010 06:42:18 PM 682 Views
I think the title summarizes years of debate *NM* - 07/02/2010 09:26:35 AM 513 Views
I like Egwene. - 08/02/2010 10:22:14 AM 652 Views
And the greater good always conveniently requires her being in charge or getting more power *NM* - 12/02/2010 12:19:05 AM 301 Views
Yes, just like for Rand. *NM* - 12/02/2010 12:24:57 AM 260 Views
And the rest of the Randland Justice League. *NM* - 12/02/2010 05:25:38 PM 265 Views
Re: Rand goes out of his way to discarge authority to others; Egwene, well hopefully in the future *NM* - 13/02/2010 04:20:31 AM 306 Views
Ummm... what? When? *NM* - 13/02/2010 04:53:50 AM 254 Views
Like his Stewards & supporting loyal rulers. *NM* - 15/02/2010 02:30:32 PM 294 Views
Darlin, Caroline, Elayne, Ituralde, Bashere, Logain, Rhuarc, etc. - 15/02/2010 05:57:05 PM 758 Views
Oh you mean all those guys he treats like his personal b*tches? *NM* - 15/02/2010 06:10:17 PM 380 Views
Re: Oh you mean all those guys he treats like his personal b*tches? - 16/02/2010 08:10:02 PM 657 Views
Agreed, that's what I've been saying. - 16/02/2010 08:23:14 PM 648 Views
Well, Egwene has lackeys too! - 15/02/2010 08:12:17 PM 566 Views
Re: Well, Egwene has lackeys too! - 15/02/2010 10:37:50 PM 545 Views
Yup, hopefully she'll be killed, then stilled. - 13/02/2010 11:03:51 PM 543 Views

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