Re: Elayne... best supporting actress? - Edit 1
Before modification by lyringlas at 19/02/2010 06:33:17 PM
It seems that Elayne's career will peak as the best supporting actress... true stardom is probably not on the cards for her. Since the beginning of the series, she hasn't been much more than a supporting character with no real depth. Next to Nynaeve, Egwene and Aviendha, she seems to be a distant second. Let's review some of her accolades...
1. She's the new Queen of Andor. So? That makes her about as important and useful as the rulers of Ilian or Mayene. When did we hear about them last, or even care? Elayne's quest to gain the throne has been a plot element for a long time, but it's rather irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things. The country has been ripped to pieces by Rahvin, and the Black Tower make no secret that they don't respect her authority. Even with Elayne as a good ruler behind the helm of a recovering nation, with Tarmon Gai'don around the corner, this country has as much to offer as any other - and as little. It's a flyspeck next to the Aiel, the White Tower, the Black Tower and the Seanchan.
2. She can make ter'angreal. Elayne is one of the less Talented individuals in the series. She's not really brilliant at anything as a channeler. Nynaeve, Egwene and Aviendha have rare or powerful Talents that are actually very useful to the Light, and Elayne has made the most basic ter'angreal, which are more like toys than really valuable objects. It's amazing that she's done so - but we know what the Talent can potentially offer, and what she's produced, and it's all been rather useless.
3. She's one of the DR's greatest allies. Not really. Elayne is having a relationship with Rand, but his other two wives are far more supportive. Aviendha and Min basically live with Rand, and physically aid him or the Light when he runs into trouble. Aviendha gives Rand a unique insight into the odd culture of the Aiel, and Min is a philosopher with the undoubted answer to sealing the DO away, who also happens to be his link to sanity and compassion. Elayne is rarely around Rand, and when she is, she is rather abrasive and only wants him for his body. Fair enough, but still second to his other wives. Aviendha makes it a point to defend Elayne's honour constantly - a sure sign that Elayne likes to be present by proxy rather than in the flesh.
4. She's done great things. Has she really, or is she merely the lesser of the pair with Nynaeve? It seems that Nynaeve is the one who actually contributes the most when they are together and directly obtains the goals. If anything, Elayne tells Nynaeve to cool it, and think it through. Without Nynaeve, Elayne would have achieved nothing, but the opposite is not true. Conider for instance, Nynaeve and Elayne's attempt to rescue Egwene from the Seanchan - Elayne did nothing. Nynaeve figured out how to undo the a'dam, and she captured the sul'dam. Nynaeve even had to teach her how to be frugal with money. Elayne hasn't fought alongside Rand once whereas Nynaeve, Egwene, Aviendha and Min have. Elayne has never rescued a dire situation, but has herself been rescued on several occasions - most notably due to her gross incompetence that led to the death of several Aes Sedai and Warders, and thousands of men in her army.
5. She's harmed the Shadow less than any other main character. Nynaeve takes the crown as the one who defeated Moghedien, cleansed saidin and supported Rand against various Forsaken such as Semirhage and Graendal. Egwene has purged the Black Ajah, and her intent was to help Rand fight Rahvin alongside Aviendha - before both of them were injured by Lanfear. Elayne has had minimal influence against the Shadow. The Black Ajah have been impeded minimally by her, whereas Nynaeve has captured several of them. Elayne even had to be rescued from the gholam, and the Black Ajah on two occasions. The Shadow barely notices her, with no Forsaken allocated to her supervision or demise, unlike Nynaeve and Egwene. She was even excluded from Liandrin's little party to be traded to the Seanchan, until she accidentally stumbled into it.
Sure, Elayne has done some good deeds and she definitely makes a good team with Nynaeve. When she's around the Light is stronger and she's a powerful and intelligent woman. But as an individual, she's a relative non-achiever who relies on stronger women to take the actual plunge. This makes her the best supporting actress, and not a really big shot like the other women who surround the Dragon Reborn.
1. She's the new Queen of Andor. So? That makes her about as important and useful as the rulers of Ilian or Mayene. When did we hear about them last, or even care? Elayne's quest to gain the throne has been a plot element for a long time, but it's rather irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things. The country has been ripped to pieces by Rahvin, and the Black Tower make no secret that they don't respect her authority. Even with Elayne as a good ruler behind the helm of a recovering nation, with Tarmon Gai'don around the corner, this country has as much to offer as any other - and as little. It's a flyspeck next to the Aiel, the White Tower, the Black Tower and the Seanchan.
2. She can make ter'angreal. Elayne is one of the less Talented individuals in the series. She's not really brilliant at anything as a channeler. Nynaeve, Egwene and Aviendha have rare or powerful Talents that are actually very useful to the Light, and Elayne has made the most basic ter'angreal, which are more like toys than really valuable objects. It's amazing that she's done so - but we know what the Talent can potentially offer, and what she's produced, and it's all been rather useless.
3. She's one of the DR's greatest allies. Not really. Elayne is having a relationship with Rand, but his other two wives are far more supportive. Aviendha and Min basically live with Rand, and physically aid him or the Light when he runs into trouble. Aviendha gives Rand a unique insight into the odd culture of the Aiel, and Min is a philosopher with the undoubted answer to sealing the DO away, who also happens to be his link to sanity and compassion. Elayne is rarely around Rand, and when she is, she is rather abrasive and only wants him for his body. Fair enough, but still second to his other wives. Aviendha makes it a point to defend Elayne's honour constantly - a sure sign that Elayne likes to be present by proxy rather than in the flesh.
4. She's done great things. Has she really, or is she merely the lesser of the pair with Nynaeve? It seems that Nynaeve is the one who actually contributes the most when they are together and directly obtains the goals. If anything, Elayne tells Nynaeve to cool it, and think it through. Without Nynaeve, Elayne would have achieved nothing, but the opposite is not true. Conider for instance, Nynaeve and Elayne's attempt to rescue Egwene from the Seanchan - Elayne did nothing. Nynaeve figured out how to undo the a'dam, and she captured the sul'dam. Nynaeve even had to teach her how to be frugal with money. Elayne hasn't fought alongside Rand once whereas Nynaeve, Egwene, Aviendha and Min have. Elayne has never rescued a dire situation, but has herself been rescued on several occasions - most notably due to her gross incompetence that led to the death of several Aes Sedai and Warders, and thousands of men in her army.
5. She's harmed the Shadow less than any other main character. Nynaeve takes the crown as the one who defeated Moghedien, cleansed saidin and supported Rand against various Forsaken such as Semirhage and Graendal. Egwene has purged the Black Ajah, and her intent was to help Rand fight Rahvin alongside Aviendha - before both of them were injured by Lanfear. Elayne has had minimal influence against the Shadow. The Black Ajah have been impeded minimally by her, whereas Nynaeve has captured several of them. Elayne even had to be rescued from the gholam, and the Black Ajah on two occasions. The Shadow barely notices her, with no Forsaken allocated to her supervision or demise, unlike Nynaeve and Egwene. She was even excluded from Liandrin's little party to be traded to the Seanchan, until she accidentally stumbled into it.
Sure, Elayne has done some good deeds and she definitely makes a good team with Nynaeve. When she's around the Light is stronger and she's a powerful and intelligent woman. But as an individual, she's a relative non-achiever who relies on stronger women to take the actual plunge. This makes her the best supporting actress, and not a really big shot like the other women who surround the Dragon Reborn.
I think of Elayne more along the lines of people like Moiraine. She is a new addition to the "older school" of Aes Sedai, in that she needs and would definitely benefit from the years of study to reach her full potential that the older generation Aes Sedai had. Why do I think this? Because she hasn't had the advantages (or disadvantages that turned out to have some positive points) that Egwene, Aviendha, and Nynaeve have had. Egwene was forced to her potential by the Seanchan; Nynaeve has enormous potential so she can rapidly learn anything and everything she sees, and she has been in situations that forced her to adapt accordingly (eg., fighting Moghedien, healing the stilled Siuan and Leane, her healing in general, participating in battles, etc).
Elayne, on the other hand, has always had others to help her out of situations, comes from a life of luxury, and has lived fairly sheltered until very recently. Given the fact that she hasn't had years to develop, has not been forced, and has not been trained by numerous groups of channelers, I think she has made great headway. Yes, she has only created little bauble ter'angreals right now, but she was working with what she had. She wanted to study the a'dam and she even said if she had some silver, she could recreate it; however, Nynaeve denied her this, so she only had the TAR ter'angreals to deal with. Why hasn't she done anything further, especially that she now has the whole stash of ter'angreal and angreal from Ebou Dar? Do you not remember that she was trying to win a throne, dealing with the Kin, the Windfinders, the Seafolk in general, the Black Tower, random Aes Sedai trying to refute her, the politicking in Egwene's regime, running an entire city that is in factions, and oh....the number one reason: she is pregnant and she can't channel half of the time. Even if she wasn't pregnant, and she could devote, say, 10 minutes out of the day (that she doesn't have) to studying the items, she knows the dangers of just tampering; RJ wrote in a perfect solution: Aviendha can read the magical items and knows what they're used for, and how to activate them...oh WAIT, Aviendha was taken away from Elayne, leaving her back where she started.
Sorry for the diatribe. The moral of my message: yes, she hasn't done very much, compared to the other powerful women in the series; however, she has the potential to drastically improve, provided she has the babies and everything returns to just a mild level of chaos.