Siuan, Gareth Bryne and the Blood Knife

[louigie15]

Ok, so I finally get to ask my question about this that has been buggin me since I finished the book the first time. During TGS Siuan and Gareth find out about assasins being left behind but not necessarily as blood knives. In ToM Egwene spends a lot of effort trying to get Messana because she thinks she is the one doing the killings. So my question is why didn't she know about the assasins until after Gawyn (sp) has his run in with the ones trying to kill her later in the book?

[randsc]

I don't think that anyone has every listed, "communication skills" among the strengths of the Aes Sedai. Or anyone else in the WOT, for that matter.

[David Selig]

Siuan and Bryne didn't know there were more of those assassins hiding around the Tower.

 

And of course this is WoT, and sharing info is considered really bad manners.

[Durinax]

I think that Suian and Bryne just thought he was just an elite soldier going out to kill and then rejoin with his unit.

 

as for Egwene she focussed too hard on mesaana, which is kinda irrational (especially for her since she has an intense hatred of the seanchan), and if anyone should have figured the seanchan would do something to try and further cripple and disrupt the normal proceedures it would be her.

[KefkaPalazzo]

I don't think that they knew just how bad the threat really was. The one that nearly killed Siuan and Gareth in TGS was pure luck, and I highly doubt that he was a Bloodknife. They don't know that the Seanchan essentially left several single-man armies in the Tower. They thought that the "assassins" were of the same quality as the guy that Gareth killed, and thus no threat to the AS/Warders. As soon as Gawyn found out that there was a serious problem, he did haul his sorry backside back to Egwene.

 

However, I do think that Egwene should have used her head on the whole White Tower Murder Mystery and wondered exactly why Mesaana would be killing so indiscriminately, with a knife. In order for Mesaana to have guaranteed a kill with a knife, she would have had to use the Power to hold her victim still and keep her quiet. If she did that, why not cut out the middle man and just kill with the power.

 

I don't buy the "someone would have sensed her channeling and raised an alarm" explanation, since we see over and over that the AS use the power for a lot of mundane things, and it could easily be handwaved by the others. Egwene shouldn't have accepted it, either. Her reasoning appeared to be "She's a Forsaken. It doesn't have to make any kind of sense. That's just what they do."

 

By the way, did Egwene know about the murder of Ispan and Adeleas in book 8? I know she wasn't there, but did Elayne and Nynaeve tell her about it? If so, then Egwene has absolutely no excuse, and lost quite a few of the awesome points she gained with me in KOD and TGS.

[moratcorlm]

The one that nearly killed Siuan and Gareth in TGS was pure luck, and I highly doubt that he was a Bloodknife.

Re-read the chapters. The black armor he was described as wearing matches the fuller description in TGS36, as does his shadowy appearance and speed. And it really would make little sense for the assassin not to be a Bloodknife.

By the way, did Egwene know about the murder of Ispan and Adeleas in book 8? I know she wasn't there, but did Elayne and Nynaeve tell her about it?

Yes. See, for instance:

Egwene appeared to be unruffled by the recital—she even cut Elayne short about Rand, saying she already knew—but she gave a dismissive shake of her head at hearing that Vandene had made no progress in learning who the Black sister was, and that was of the gravest concern to her.

[samataim]

I doubt they even mentioned in to Egwene. It happened during the battle, so it was part of the battle, and not someone left from the battle to cause havoc.

 

Even if they had told Egwene, she would not have put the events together to be related. It keeps getting hammered home that the men are the only ones that are stubborn from the TR, but Egwene is just as, if not more stubborn than the men. She had her heart set on it being a forsaken doing the killing, and even if the forsaken had come to her and told her she didn't do the killings while at the same time someone else was killed, she still would believe it was the forsaken that had done the killing.

 

It was her fault all the sisters were looking for a woman capable of channeling that was doing the deaths, and not considering anything else.

 

Heck, when Gawyn fended off the assassin from her doorway, she didn't trust his assessment, and just told him how stupid he was for doing what he did.

 

This has always been her character flaw, while she submits to her teachers, everybody else is just ignored (see Perrin in TaR battle at WT). The more she learns, the worse she becomes in this regard.