With all the fuss and attention made over the reuinification of the White Tower, and the scandal of its division on the brink of Tarmon Gaidon, I am forced to ask "Are they really so bad for dividing themselves and diverting their attention from the critical events in the world?" When you get right down to it, the division of the White Tower has only kept a handful of channelers out of action. Roughly 600-700 of the least useful channelers were preoccupied with an internal political matter, while those who were not present for the split stayed out of the matter. The best non-hypocritical stance on the issue was expressed by Merise when she said she would have nothing to do with any sisters who fought against other sisters with the problems the world was facing. Though initially there was apparently something of a rush of sisters to initially rejoin the White Tower or cast their lot in with the rebels, it can be attributed to women who just happened to be away from the Tower when the split went down. We can assume that they would have participated had they been around for it.

But what sort of sister hangs around Tar Valon (as the loyalists, rebels and the latecomers to both factions were comprised of)? She is someone who reveres the Tower for its own sake and prefers it to other places. She is someone who thinks the doings of the sisters in the Tower and the extended non-physical catfight they call their society are the most important things in the world. If you truly have a vocation for Healing, why hang around in a city full of Aes Sedai? If you are intent on protecting the world from evil channelers, the official position of the Tower is that there are none in Tar Valon, so why stick around the island they will most likely be avoiding? If you have a cause to serve, unless it is a useless cause on behalf of a few hundred of the wealthiest and most powerful women in the world, how are you serving it in Tar Valon? What knowledge is in Tar Valon to be gathered that is not already in their library? The Whites and Browns, at best, have legitimate reasons for serving their Aes Sedai vocations in the Tower, and those are often scorned by the others for their non-participation in and ignoring of the machinations and maneuverings of the Tower. This would suggest that the best of the sisters were out in the world attempting to live up to their reasons for becoming Aes Sedai, while the split occurred in a fight between the politicians and the bureaucrats over which group of wealthy and powerful women would be allowed to wield slightly more power, and whether or not it is right to take away a tiny political privilege from some of the most privileged women in the world.

With that in mind, what is the need of the Dragon Reborn for this useless group of paper pushers who would rather squabble over obscure interpretations of a glorified club's social rules? Many arguments are offered.

1. The prestige of the Aes Sedai are such that ordinary people will not support Rand in great numbers without the approval and acknowledgement of Aes Sedai. But Rand HAS the support, approval and acknowledgment of Aes Sedai. He has over two dozen Aes Sedai sworn fealty to him, and has gained the support of the best of the sisters independantly, through Cadsuane, the most accomplished pre-Dragon sister alive, and her group of sisters most of whom have apparently above-average competance. All of whom acknowledge Rand to be the Dragon Reborn and work with him and his followers and fight beside him in battle. If not all of them obey him promptly, well, no one expects any different of Aes Sedai, and such normal behavior will reassure those inclined to worship them or be offended by Aes Sedai submitting to a man.

2. The political influence of the White Tower will be needed to rally the rulers of the nations and their nobility - the people who hold the power and might be too sophisticated to be swayed by individual sisters who do not explicitly claim to speak for the Tower - around Rand. This is sheer arrant nonsense. All the nations of the wetlands, which is the extent of the White Tower's political influence, are under the hand of Rand, or his supporters, such as Darlin and Elayne, or are useless and beyond the redemption and recruitment of the Tower, such as Arad Domon, or else are held by his enemies, the Seanchan, who are completely beyond the sway of the Tower, and from whom the Tower will be far more likely to need Rand's support and influence for protection than the other way around.

3. The White Tower is the predominant channeling body in the world, and to lose the White Tower is effectively to cut yourself off from the majority of the One Power available in the world. Two years ago (WoT time), this might have been a reasonable argument. Back then, Tower groupies were reassuring Rand that all was good because he had an effective supporter in the Amyrlin Seat, and all he had to do was whatever her representative said. How'd that work out? Since then, the Aiel have been discovered to have a thriving and arguably more useful channeling population. As a sister noted in CoT, the channelers of a single Aiel clan match half the Tower. With 11 clans, Rand has five and a half times the channelers of the White Tower and they are not bound by the Three Oaths to refrain from combat either, nor are they ever shown as addicted to their daily luxuries and squabbling about the amount of work their servants have to do. They are tougher-minded, physically hardier, more practical and given to useful occupations, and less constrained in the ways they are permitted to use the Power to help or serve him. He is also the acknowledged Coramoor of the Sea Folk and has access to their considerable channeling resources and areas of expertise in which they surpass the White Tower. In addition, any knowledge the White Tower has that the Sea Folk or Aiel do not, will soon pass to the Sea Folk, courtesy of their Bargain. Leaving aside those numbers, there are also the Kin, who, while somewhat useless, are still twice the numbers of the White Tower. While they are loyal to the Tower, their own limited knowledge of Aes Sedai leave them vulnerable to outside influence, so long as the Tower was split. Without any clear claimant to the authority of the White Tower, the Kin's leadership could be subverted, and where are they? Guests of the mother of Rand's children. The thought of her children being orphaned in utero would be enough to push her decision on whether or not the Kin should help Rand. With the prestige and influence of women like Cadsuane or Nynaeve on his side, Rand could bring the Kin around to serve him as well. Then there are the damane - the less Rand has to do with the Tower, and the more hostile he is toward the Tower, the greater his chances of getting the best combat-trained saidar weilders in the world on his side. Close relations with a powerful and united Tower makes these women his enemy!

Finally, even putting aside the fact that the overwhelming majority of female channelers had absolutely nothing to do with the face-off across the bridges of Tar Valon, Rand has the Asha'man, whose numbers long ago matched those of the White Tower and have almost certainly surpassed it by now.

Even the increased numbers of novices brought in by Egwene's policies do not mean much given the Aes Sedai practices regarding their slow training and reluctance to risk them in battle, or hasten the development of their strength by forcing. As it is, the Aes Sedai have little or no influence over the far greater numbers of channelers available, in the world, and a strong case could be made that the greater the use of a channeler when Tarmon Gaidon comes around, the less control or influence the Tower leadership has over him or her!
Order of seperation from the White Tower:
1. Asha'man
2. damane
3. Wise Ones
4. Sea Folk
5. neutral sisters
6. participant sisters
7. Kin
8. lower initiates
The Kin are ranked lower, because they are far more submissive to the Tower than Aes Sedai are. Aes Sedai know their rights and the limits of an Amyrlin or Ajah Head or Sitters' power. The Kin are unaware of the existance of such limits.

Now let us rank them in order of utility for Tarmon Gaidon:
1. Asha'man - stronger & specifically trained as weapons
2. damane - trained as weapons, but under dubious control
3. Wise Ones - warrior race, with no restrictions
4. Sea Folk - no restrictions, great ability in specialized areas
5. neutral sisters - established above as the ones who DO stuff
6. participant sisters - established above as rear-echelon desk jockeys
7. Kin - at least have reached their full strength & safe control
8. lower initiates - most lack their full strength and all lack the Kin's real world experience.

Though arguments could be made for one group being raised slightly or lowered slightly on either scale, for the most part, there is a definite correlation between the utility of a channeler and his or her degree of seperation from the White Tower! So much for Rand needing the Tower to get channelers!

4. Better to have the White Tower, than not. Even if they are only a drop in the bucket, every little bit counts, right? Unless it doesn't. There is a net gain issue as well. This position is predicated on an absolutely unsupported assumption of the support and obediance of the White Tower. An ally who drags their feet and spends as much time opposing the tactics you use to seek the mutual end, or trying to promulgate its own inexpert opinions on what should be done to achieve those ends - such an ally is worse than useless. One could argue that Nazi Germany, triumphant in battle across the breadth of Europe, was doomed by its own allies, from the waste of men & materiel cleaning up allies' failures in Africa & the Balkans, to being brought to war against the most powerful country in the world by an ally's actions, to allied troops failing to protect their flanks and allowing the Germans to be encircled at Stalingrad. Does Rand need a White Tower on his side if that White Tower is going to be whispering with his unruly underlings and making deals and promises behind his back? Subverting relations among his channelers with their insistence that all channeling falls under their jurisdiction or asserting their supremacy with their arrogant overestimations of their own ability and underestimation of that of other groups? We saw at the Cleansing that this attitude prevailed even among the best of the Aes Sedai. Two of Cadsuane's designated circle leaders turned over control of their circles to potentially insane or dangerous channelers - and these were the two BEST performing circles! Two Aes Sedai chosen for their intellectual qualities made stupid blunders, failed to score any kills, and got their own people killed. One of them, Verin, considered by readers to be the best of the old order of Aes Sedai still active, disparaged the judgment and ability of Shalon, because she was a mere wilder, who by that definition was inferior to a sister. Is THIS what the unified Tower will bring to the fold? Mat actually has higher hopes for Aludra's dragons than for channelers, because the inanimate weapons won't cause the problems for the military authorities that channelers do.

4a. But the Tower under a friend and loyalist of Rand will surely not cause those problems, right? Except of all the friends and loyalists of Rand, it is the least loyal and least friendly who has taken charge. Her campaign theme was based on the limits of the power of the Amyrlin Seat and the few times she ever expressed an opinion dealing with the outside world, it was in favor of the old tired positions of Tower supremacy, even over Rand. Not only that, but it is the least experienced and least skilled or practically trained of his friends who has been give the greatest amount of power. Mat has his military expertise, Perrin has loyal advisors with no agendas and few blindspots beyond his own advancement to support him, and is keenly aware of his limitations, Nynaeve doesn't bother trying to weild power, but has been trained since childhood to be a Wisdom and was responsible for many years for the administration and physical and moral welfare of a decent-sized group of people. Others who rise to power under Rand have trained for it from birth or have long experience in the arena of political power. Egwene, on the other hand, has less than zero knowledge of the rest of the world, her closest and only trusted advisor is similarly insular & parochial and her training to date has been exclusively concerned with the culture of the Tower and the machinations and principles of political manuevering. All of which is fine if she limits herself to getting what Rand needs from the Tower, but of all the people closely associated with him, she is far and away the least supportive, most prone to challenge him over her own limited perception of his situation, and most prone to putting other agendas over him. Mat, Perrin and Elayne all temper their control and influence-building of their groups with an eye on supporting Rand. Egwene does no such thing, and the thoughts that are presented as evidence of her good-will are her REGRETS over how she intends to punish or otherwise oppose him for the good of the TOWER. She rejects out of hand the notion of Aes Sedai swearing fealty to him in a conversation where that rejection would not gain her any political support even second-hand, and so cannot be dismissed as a cover, like Perrin picking a fight, or Elayne tearing down his banners.

Any notion of the Tower being a useful ally or an intellectual resource is completely undone by its unification under an inexperienced woman with an old habit of picking fights with him, and refusing to recognize any authority on principle.

4b. The legitimacy of a true and unified Amyrlin means that the Aes Sedai have a renewed moral authority that may undercut a lot of their bad habits or suspicious behavior. That might be true, if they had a legal Amyrlin yet. As things stand, Egwene is no more legal than Elaida ever was, and not even her second election changes that - aside from being elected by legitimate Sitters this time, she still lacked a Red to stand for her. Any questions of Elaida's legitimacy engendered by her lack of a Blue STILL apply equally to Egwene. As it is, Rand could assemble his sworn Aes Sedai, have them select a Hall of the Tower from their number and name Alivia or Nynaeve the Amyrlin, and her selection would be of equal validity as Egwene's first election, and the presence of single Blue (Rafela would have to do quadruple duty as Ajah head and all three Sitters) would make his candidate superior to Egwene OR Elaida in adherence to Tower law, by having all seven Ajah represented.

The unified Tower fails the tests of legality, loyalty, utility and numbers and expertise. Barring an unforseeable change in the situation in one of the next two books, I'd have to say the Tower is STILL more of a liability than an asset.