Issue with the borderlands

[solarz - Member]

Keep in mind that the length of the borderlands is about the length of continental US, so imagine from the Atlantic to the Pacific and that's how long of a border they need to cover.

 

The real world equivalent of Aes Sedai would be artillery pieces. Can you imagine trying to defend that much territory with only a few hundred pieces of artillery? 

[Faroresdragn - Member]

I kind of agree. The white tower isnt big enough to man the entire border if you consider the fact that the other things they do are actually important, especially since most of the time there really isnt a threat of the whole of Randland being swarmed by Shadowspawn. 

 

Things like that huge invasion at Tarwins Gap was a huge outlier, especially before Trolloc activity started to heat up with the approaching of Tarmon Gaidon. The borderlanders obviously have to deal with way more trollocs than the average countries, but it wasnt like they were fighting full on WWII Dday constantly. There wouldnt even be a way for the people to reproduce fast enough for the borderlands to exist if that were the case, seeing as theyve been there for more than a thousand years. 

 

I do agree that it is a legitimate plot hole, especially considering how much the borderlanders respect Aes Sedai, and how the white tower can spare a sister as an advisor for every royal family, and the fact they have an entire Ajah (one of the biggest), entirely dedicated to killing shadowspawn, that even after thousands of years they hadnt made it custom to have like two green sisters stationed at each main borderland city.

 

I mean really if they could spare Elaida just as a counsel to Morgase, I think they could spare a green sister as a warrior in Fal Dara. Plus why would you join the green Ajah if you werent willing to take a job where you spent your 200 year life blowing up evil monsters with your magic? yet we see many green sisters just sitting in the white tower all day "waiting for the last battle" as 1. they had any way of knowing if that would come in their lifetime, or 2. they couldnt do something productive with their battle skills while they were waiting.

 

I thought many times about how many green Aes Sedai just died of old age waiting for TG, when they could have spent centuries saving lives up north.

 

 

[Sabio - Member]

The Green Ajah holds themselves ready for the Last Battle, they don't go out seeking fights.  If they die in fights with shadow spawn then there wouldn't be any left for the last battle.  There was around 180 Green at the time of the LB.  180 total. Also many leaders didn't have an Aes Sedai advisor.  Seems like only Andor, the borderlands, and Mayene did.  if you look at the fight in the Gap in book one, a few Aes Sedai might give the defenders a morale boost, but they wouldn't of made a difference against that large of an army.

[solarz - Member]

The Tower does a lot of things that defy common sense, like restricting the age of novices even in the face of dwindling numbers. These things all have a reasonable basis, but they become unreasonable when circumstances change and the AS refuse to change the way they do things.

 

This is due to several factors:

 

1. Aes Sedai are long lived. Most AS are over 40 years old, many are over 80. As such, they are naturally resistant to change.

 

2. Aes Sedai are ruled by the Amyrlin and the Hall, and both have to fight each other to get anything done. Keeping the status quo is the easiest thing for the two to agree on, so that becomes the path of least resistance. Aes Sedai have always stayed in the Tower until they are called on to help, unless they are assigned as advisors, so that's what they keep doing regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

 

3. The Black Ajah actively works to undermine and corrupt the WT. Who knows how much they shaped the Tower's policies over the millenia?

[2RiversFan - Member]

On 10/15/2019 at 9:58 AM, solarz said:

The Tower does a lot of things that defy common sense, like restricting the age of novices even in the face of dwindling numbers. These things all have a reasonable basis, but they become unreasonable when circumstances change and the AS refuse to change the way they do things.

 

This is due to several factors:

 

1. Aes Sedai are long lived. Most AS are over 40 years old, many are over 80. As such, they are naturally resistant to change.

 

2. Aes Sedai are ruled by the Amyrlin and the Hall, and both have to fight each other to get anything done. Keeping the status quo is the easiest thing for the two to agree on, so that becomes the path of least resistance. Aes Sedai have always stayed in the Tower until they are called on to help, unless they are assigned as advisors, so that's what they keep doing regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

 

3. The Black Ajah actively works to undermine and corrupt the WT. Who knows how much they shaped the Tower's policies over the millenia?

I agree with these but I also think you missed the symbolic one.  The one you missed among your three is that RJ appears to have symbolically paralleled the White tower to the Catholic church.  They're both unbending, exclusively one gender for all important positions, and set on traditions even when flying in the face of common sense.