Galad and Gawyn confusion...

[DaughterOfNight]

@DaughterofNight

 

It's Nynaeve in Somara. Not Egwene. You switch them too? Next time you'll make a thred "Rand and Mat confusion" ;D

 

Heh... I realized this just after I posted it and didn't go back to edit.  Please just ignore me... I post late night, brain dead and it's not like I remember the books correctly in the first place.  Obviously.  =)

[ronsil]

I haven't posted before and normally just read because I like hearing new ideas to see how they fit in with mine. But this thread has really made me want to post.

 

 

I really don't understand why people say that Gawyn is such a bad leader.  He led the younglings to beat the way more experienced warders who took Siuan's side in the initial battle of tar valon.  And then ran them as a quality military force in the next several books until he left in tGS.

 

While I do agree his anger towards Rand is extreme, you can't judge him based on everything we know from reading. He can only make his decisions based on what he knows and while he came to the wrong conclusion, if you put yourself in his position it is not nearly as bad as some people seem to think it is.  It's not like any of the wonder girls ever really told him anything and then he was upholding his oath to the white tower, which to me shows good character.  Once he realized that Elaida wasn't straight with him and they were just using the younglings, he tried to make amends.  Ya he's not perfect, but none of the characters in WoT are.

 

 

As to Galad being great, I don't quite understand that one either.  He couldn't realize what the actual Whitecloaks are and was not able to differentiate the them from the ideas in Mantelar's books.  He joined the Whitecloaks not an outstanding organization.  He rose to leadership by killing it's leader in a duel over his mom, not really great ideals.  He was willing to follow the whitecloak orders until then.

 

It's been made clear that he does has a great sense of what is "good", but is unable to realize that not everything is black and white and decisions need to be made in grey situations.

 

I guess in conclusion I think that both characters have good and bad qualities.  I think the difference in those qualities causes some of us to like one and not the other, but they don't take them to some of the extremes I'm reading.

 

 

Also in the original cause of this thread, I feel like I remember the transition from Galad and to Gawyn for Egwene.  I just finished tSR and I think remember Elayne telling Egwene that Gawyn liked her too, and it seemed that Egwene thought about it, but did not come to conclusion so far.

[farthammer]

I think he's a bad leader because after it became clear they were being disowned and thrown away, he just turned the Younglings into a band of outlaws and made more enemies for no good reason.  Then he randomly abandons them.  He is skilled but otherwise awful at everything else, seems like he'd be better off being a Warder.  Egwene should go ahead and do it, and make him take up the teaching positions of the warders he's killed.  Then he can look trainees in the eyes and see what it may have been like from the other side, to then turn around and possibly kill them.  How hard would he fight from that position, maybe he's not such a bad ass?

[Demiandre]

We have no proof that Gawyn is a good tactician. He beated Brynes raiding parties because hebknows how Bryne works and was so easy to counter. He is gifted with a sword, but used it from the start till the reunification of the tower without purpose.

 

Galad helped Nynaeve in Somara. Just this shows tgat he followed Mantelar's word and wasn't just following the Whitecloaks orders. He should have killed them if so. And now that he lead them, he prepare them for Tarmon Gai don and is looking for allies among the Aes Sedai for that Battle, one more time following the precepts and not the custom of the Whitecloaks.