Elayne's Arc (Full Spoilers)

[nikios2099]

 

I think it was in the book ,the shadow couldn't just sit and wait just like the light forces couldn't just hold up in a city for a protracted war.  FOOD, the trollocs needed to eat so Dem couldn't just chill and take his time.  Besides why care about attacking your enemy when your forces vastly outnumber the Light side.  You think Dem cared about losses?  Only once in a POV was it said the trollocs numbers weren't endless.  Thinking he was going up against LTT made him use brillant tatics but it was still a strategy of brute force.  To me he would be like Zhukiov in WWII, if he lost 100,000 in a fight he didn't care as long as he won.

 

another thing is that the main battle was probably not between the shadow and mat's army , it was at SG between Rand and the DO  ... the DO had 2 means to win at SG : one was killing Rand ( by Moridin , Slayer , Lanfear or the false cadsuane ) , the other was to convince Rand to give up  ... for this , the DO needed a very large victory at FoM with all Rand's friends killed ...

 

it's particulary clear for me at the beginning of chapter 39 when Rand makes the list of those who "still fought" ...

[Agitel]

Why shadown even fight at all ??  They didnt need ....

 

Rand had a revelation about this. The DO didn't desire to beat men, he desired to break them. The Dark One isn't just a being who has evil morals. The Dark One's nature drives him and drives his choices and strategy. And it wasn't just that he wanted to wipe out mankind and win the war. Rather than destroy cities, he wanted to destroy that army at Merrilor because it represented everything he stood against. A united humanity, working together for a greater purpose, driven to act by morals and conscience. The Dark One's not a general, nor interested in the type of victory you'd expect men to desire.

[jack of shadows]

my personal journey with elayne is a strange one.

i liked her a lot up until the path of daggers,she mostly travelled with nynaeve and together

they established a wonderful partnership.

elayne with her diplomatic skills was the perfect counterbalance to nynaeve more fiery tempers.

things started to fall apart in caemlyn when elayne became queen,i still remember my disappointment

when she removed the dragon banners from the palace towers,shouting her independence to the world.

it went from bad to worse when robert jordan broke the elayne-nynaeve axis sending the later to rand

(one of the better story arcs in the later books,the once wisdom of emond's field is now rand's friend

and protector)

unfortunately for elayne,it was one bad decision after another ad nauseam.

for the last battle,brandon sanderson needed an overall commander,and elayne fit the bill perfectly.

as the queen of andor and ruler of cairhien she has enough political clout,she is also an aes sedai,

so she is not going to be easily intimidated by egwene,and most importantly her direct connections

to the dragon reborn.

in my opinion,her story arc in a memory of light is the best one since the bowl of the winds scene.

i was happy with her role and contributions as a warleader,and some of her lines had me laughing out loud:

"i'm not the one who just refused to stay dead.together?"

"together",birgitte said ,nodding."

[Suttree]

Some awesome Elayne timeline hijinks. Oh that wacky Brandon trying to keep us on our toes.

 

missbee

 

From Egwene's PoV in ch 31, Galad's PoV in ch 32 and Elayne's PoV in ch 26, we can deduce that Elayne, in the 2 hours before sunset, manages to : ride out to survey the battle, ride to the command tent, mediate an argument, figure out Bashere is under compulsion, finish off one horde of trollocs, get rescued by Androl's geothermal extravaganza , re-order the troops, heal wounded with the help of Mayenne, re-supply the dragons (and archers?), deal with the second (much bigger) horde of trollocs, send help to the Borderlanders, attend a meeting with Mat and Egwene and get back in time to explain the new battle plan to her commanders - impressive, no?

[nitavonne]

Elayne has been prepared all her life to lead, and she did that. I liked her as a leader, I expected a more of her at the end. She had lost so much!!!She was always loving to Egwene and towards her family. I think she was underwritten, as most of our beloved characters.

[Dunedain Fal]

I always liked Elayne.  Who I could not stand was Tuon and Egwene.  Tuon is so f***ing arrogant that she needs to be taken down several pegs, I mean several and I am getting annoyed with Mat now.  I always liked Mat but his constant deferments to Tuon and unwillingness to stick up for Min after she was manhandled by Deathwatch especially knowing that Min was Rand's girlfriend was sickening and so hypocritical of him.