Egwene/the Aes Sedai

[Suttree]

By the way the Tower Greens flap about during the Seanchan raid, they clearly have no experience working as a team. The odd woman every now and again wandering around to satisfy her own ends/curiosity isn't going to make them TG-ready. I probable should have made my point better in the first place. Discipline, command structure - they seem more or less to be things AS set aside once they attain the shawl. And TG won't be won without both, I'd imagine.

 

The circumstances around the raid have been mentioned many times in this thread. Yes they had a miserable showing but considering the WT was split, BA riddled, had a Byrne led army camped on their door, was led by Elaida and her BA forced conflicting orders, with a in house Forsaken pulling strings, a full third of the Tower gone and Fain influenced to the point of sisters assaulting one another I don't think we can really use that as a true gauge for their skills. That was a once in a lifetime situation. How could they possibly succeed with all that going on?

 

We will have to see at TG how they do. If as you say they have zero discipline, no practical fighting experience in the blight or command structure they will not be able to succeed. It would be impossible.

[Mats Spare Hat]

I realize I may be hammered for a less than optimal parallel...But, the US got pretty dicked over by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, and the Americans weren't exactly an unorganized non-cohesive bunch.

 

Just saying, being surprised can screw anyone over no matter how prepared, organized or equipped you may be... Whether it's by a fleets worth of aircraft in the Pacific bombarding your port on a sunday morning, or by flying lizard riders assaulting your home in the middle of the night.

 

...

 

And that's even leaving out all the considerations Suttree touches on previously.

[baalsmistress]

 

We will have to see at TG how they do. If as you say they have zero discipline, no practical fighting experience in the blight or command structure they will not be able to succeed. It would be impossible.

 

I think we'll see well before then, with the seanchan raid.

 

I'll put money on Egwene taking on the direct leadership and ad-hoc forging the Aes Sedai into a coherent fighting force on the fly when they do. And that experience will do more to prepare them for TG than the past 3000 years.

[Suttree]

 

We will have to see at TG how they do. If as you say they have zero discipline, no practical fighting experience in the blight or command structure they will not be able to succeed. It would be impossible.

 

I think we'll see well before then, with the seanchan raid.

 

I'll put money on Egwene taking on the direct leadership and ad-hoc forging the Aes Sedai into a coherent fighting force on the fly when they do. And that experience will do more to prepare them for TG than the past 3000 years.

 

Would say the Trolloc Wars holds the ticket. Greens acting as Generals and Military Startegy at it's peak. I'm sure it is standard for all Greens to study tactics/integration int military banners from that time.

[Guest PiotrekS]

37 pages - Egwene and Aes Sedai threads never fail to deliver...

[baalsmistress]

 

We will have to see at TG how they do. If as you say they have zero discipline, no practical fighting experience in the blight or command structure they will not be able to succeed. It would be impossible.

 

I think we'll see well before then, with the seanchan raid.

 

I'll put money on Egwene taking on the direct leadership and ad-hoc forging the Aes Sedai into a coherent fighting force on the fly when they do. And that experience will do more to prepare them for TG than the past 3000 years.

 

Would say the Trolloc Wars holds the ticket. Greens acting as Generals and Military Startegy at it's peak. I'm sure it is standard for all Greens to study tactics/integration int military banners from that time.

 

 

True the Trolloc wars would have been a good opportunity for the green to shine. Whether they would have been generals is another matter. I suspect tehy would do better concentrating on their channelling tasks and letting dedicated military personnel be the generals - In the present day, none of the AS would be a patch on the great captains in terms of generalling. And most of those captains are committed to the fight by Rand.

[Suttree]

True the Trolloc wars would have been a good opportunity for the green to shine. Whether they would have been generals is another matter. I suspect tehy would do better concentrating on their channelling tasks and letting dedicated military personnel be the generals

 

At least some were Generals, read up on Rashima Kerenmosa, she led the lights forces.

[Skeeve the Great]

Except they wouldn't be facing hordes of Trollocs on a regular basis. They might go years between any significant sized force. Most days they would face nothing at all. Most raids would sneak past them or attack nowhere near them, so they wouldn't be helping much. If they want practice, they can just go to the Blight, track down Shadowspawn and fight them. Then go home. Sitting and waiting isn't practice. That's what they would spend most of their time on the Blightborder doing. Which part of that was unclear in my last post?

 

The argument is flawed because it means any Borderland armies are just sitting and waiting. Which they clearly are not. If regular army can go and fight and train and polish skills, I don't see why Greens can't do it the same way. Yes there would be some periods of inactivities, but this is true for any army in the world. It doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

[Suttree]

Except they wouldn't be facing hordes of Trollocs on a regular basis. They might go years between any significant sized force. Most days they would face nothing at all. Most raids would sneak past them or attack nowhere near them, so they wouldn't be helping much. If they want practice, they can just go to the Blight, track down Shadowspawn and fight them. Then go home. Sitting and waiting isn't practice. That's what they would spend most of their time on the Blightborder doing. Which part of that was unclear in my last post?

 

The argument is flawed because it means any Borderland armies are just sitting and waiting. Which they clearly are not. If regular army can go and fight and train and polish skills, I don't see why Greens can't do it the same way. Yes there would be some periods of inactivities, but this is true for any army in the world. It doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

 

The argument isn't flawed at all. As has been mentioned numerous times in this thread, you can not compare a massive full time military presence designed to guard against infrequent raids spread out across 4 countries, to a very small number of elite fighters. Pre travelling it would have been impossible to have them in the correct location with any frequency. Any raid would be long over by the time they arrived.

[Eht Slat Meit]

Personally, I think the Greens are (intentionally) not getting their due screen-time. It would not surprise me in the least to discover that most, if not all, of the Aes Sedai lurking in Team Borderlander are Greens. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that at least some of the Ajah regularly train alongside the Borderland armies but must remain low-key and on the move or whatever city they reside in would be targeted and overrun. Due to a lack of Traveling and sporadic Blight activity, this might limit their effectiveness, but given that every other Ajah (except maybe White) has been shown to be very much active in their chosen field, it only seems logical to me that the Greens have their own forms. However, due to the general failure that is the WT, I suspect the majority of their Ajah is prone to the same shortcomings and insular thinking, and knows only rote weaving of basic attack forms.

 

I believe the only reason it hasn't come up before now is because the White Tower has been a complete failure in prioritizing politics and posturing ahead of anything else. It wouldn't even occur to them that the Blight matters when a few sisters and the Borderlanders have the situation under control.

[baalsmistress]

And, of course, during those centuries since the end of the Trolloc wars, the trolloc raids across the border have not featured hostile channellers. So the ordinary military have been able to handle it reasonably enough. The Aes Sedai's biggest force multiplier under those conditions is likely to have been healing support - something that they can and did practice and hone.

[Suttree]

Just to follow up on people disputing whether there are active AS working in the borderlands & the blight I found this Q&A...so yes as should have been plain they are helping the Borderlands and do have practical combat experience.

 

Terez on Twitter - 11 August 2010 12:25 pm

Are there actually Warders and Aes Sedai guarding the Blight at all times? Or is that another TEOTWism?

Brandon - 4:34 pm

Well, there are Aes Sedai and Warders staying with most Borderlander monarchs.

4:34 pm

I would say that yes, they are up there guarding. There are a disproportionate number, it seems, at times.

4:35

Morgase had one Aes Sedai, as did Berelain, to give advice. Borderlanders often have more.

 

Does anyone remember what the tEoTW reference was?

[David Selig]

Maybe this one:

 

EOTW, Ch.2

 

“Don’t be a fool.” Mat laughed, but it was a shaky laugh. “Warders are just in stories. Anyway, Warders have swords and armor covered in gold and jewels, and spend all their time up north, in the Great Blight, fighting evil and Trollocs and such.”