White Tower stupidity?

[balefire]

I was just wondering how illogical the white tower decisions have been regarding male channelers over the course of 3000 years.The thing that bugs me the most, is the way in which the white tower has dealt with the false dragons over the course of 3000 years.

 

Consider all the false dragons, from the time of Guaire Amalsalan (sp?), Yurian stonebow etc to the modern false dragons, Logain and Mazrim Taim. It seems that every time a false dragon comes up, the tower's default strategy is to send a circle of 13 (minimum) to deal with him. Now here's the part that bugs me, every time a circle goes, usually a couple aes sedai are killed/stilled in the process of subduing the dragon. Now i know that modern aes sedai know nothing about Saidin, especially the fact that usually, the average male channeler is stronger than the average female channeler. While this was common knowledge in the AOL, and probably the basis of Lanfear's research for a unisex power source, it still doesnt make sense that the tower couldn't figure out that the false dragons are usually sparkers and channel very strongly.

 

So after 3000 years of aes sedai being stilled/killed, don't you think that the tower should have learnt some sort of lesson and equipped the appointed aes sedai with angreal/s'angreal before they set off to face a dragon. I mean look at Cadsuane, she is battle ajah and has probably dealt with more male channelers then any other aes sedai, why is she so successful? because she has an angreal and a saidin detector ter'angreal with her. That is why she is has lived almost 300 years.

 

I'm pretty sure the tower has 10-20 angreal and 2-3 s'angreal at its disposal, and while it may consider s'angreal too precious to give out during a battle, the least they could have done was to equip atleast 6 aes sedai with angreals and let them handle the direct attack on the dragons. This could have reduced the chance for a killing/stilling to a bare minimum. Even weak angreals are pretty strong, i remember a line from Egwene after the ebou Dari cache goodies are divided among the wonder girls, she was commenting an angreal that was weak, saying that it only allowed her to channel twice as much as Nynaeve. ONLY TWICE as much as Nynaeve, who we all know is probably stronger/equal to all female forsaken except Lanfear and can probably handle 1-2 male forsaken as well (asmodean, balthamel).

 

So the point is, you don't have to be a scholar to figure this out, this is probably the white towers most stupid decision.

 

[Bob T Dwarf]

The Tower is a very conservative and traditional organization.

 

It seems, that in all things, if "it was good enough for Granny, it's good enough for us."

 

They don't really conduct any magical research either.  Weaves are cast in ( as nearly ) exactly the same way they always have been.  Nobody has been trying to find better, different, or more efficient ways to Weave OP.  Nobody has been trying to recover lost arts or emulate lost Talents.

 

They're stultified in all things.

 

Just one of the reasons that TG has to be fought and that the Dragon Reborn must remake the world.

[Majsju]

No matter how strong angreal an Aes Sedai is carrying, an arrow in the back will still kill her. And considering that most false dragons had armies with them, I doubt it was the channelers themselves that usually caused the most damage to the Aes Sedai.

[Dragon21]

I think the white tower is consistent in making dumb decisions. ;D

[Guest Dreadlord]

I cant believe Elaida apprehended Rand, AFTER he started gathering men who can channel. That could have destroyed the White Tower for good, if Rand was in the state of mind for revenge. Sending his "loose canons" against the White Tower could only have had bad results. Its a good job the Ashaman arent as personally protective of Rand as the Aiel are. The Ashaman would have killed every Aes Sedai at Dumais Wells, and waged serious war against all Aes Sedai, if they were.

[balefire]

Actually, if rand ever gets in the mood to wipe out the white tower, he doesn't need the ashaman at all. It would be a six step process for him and should at most take half an hour.

 

Step 1: Gather Male Half of Cheoden Kal and Callandor

 

Step 2: Travel to some hill near the white tower.

 

Step 3: Spend 5 minutes deciding whether to use Callandor or the Cheoden Kal. Consider the fact that Callanor has no buffer and has only 1/10 of the power of the cheoden Kal, choose the cheoden Kal.

 

Step 4: Spend another 5 minutues deciding the mode of attack. Massive lightning all over the place ala Seachchan, wrap the entire city in a huge ball of flame, massive earthquake, one massive weave of balefire etc etc.

 

Step 5: Execute Attack

 

Step 6: Travel back home and get it on with Min.

 

 

[Corbett]

You forgot step 5.5: Laugh at the infidels who dare question his power.

[Jehaine]

Another one:

 

7. If someone asks, blame it on the Forsaken

[42Bonzo88]

    Pride is one of the biggest downfalls of the WT. The answers above are all correct about not doing anything different, etc. Most likely, because the world in general knows that it takes 13 Aes Sedai to gentle a male channeler, and because the Aes Sedai are the "above and beyond" anything a male can do, that 13 would be more than sufficient.

 

    Even though they have seen thier losses (and so have the world) they would look at them as insignificant because the channeler was caught and that is the important thing. "The arrow to the back is unavoidable you see, but we still captured the monster and we 11 will see that justice is carried out. And, by the way, the rumours of our numbers dwindling, Pure Nonsense." Then a pat on the head and send them off to go their merry way.