IWW: A look at WoT's women

[jack of shadows]

@ea'v_fotv_fan,

"elayne was potentially a great queen.she was for certain a terrible aes sedai".

so? why do you consider being a good queen/terrible aes sedai such a bad thing?

the white tower run unchecked for three thousand years,don't you think it's high time

to redress the balance of power by creating a counter force?

elayne made it clear where her priorities lay (probably) from day one,i.e. queen of andor

first,rand's lover second and (arguably) the white tower third(personally,i don't think the

white tower was even third on her list),not to mention the highly problematic issue of 

serving two masters andor/white tower.

oh,one other thing,we cannot ignore the elephant in the room,unfortunately for the white

tower,the elephant in the room was a dragon and he was the one who started the power 

shift in randland not elayne,she just followed his footsteps(when it suited her of course),

founding the black tower was just the beginning,rand didn't send the captured damane

from the damona campaign to salidar, he sent them to elayne,rand also appointed her

as supreme commander of all forces of light during the last battle including white tower

forces.

on a personal note,the father of elayne's children is the dragon reborn,the successor to

elayne's throne would be one of her children,a dragon child,trust me,she is not going to

let the white tower forget this anytime soon.

post last battle,nynaeve is in a similar situation,i.e. queen and aes sedai,and like elayne

she is going to put malkier needs before the white tower,she freely admitted it to egwene.

[Sabio]

Ebou Dar, is another example of while there she and Nyn assumed they were the only one who could do things and needed no help.  I don't blame her for going, she really had no choice since the Aes Sedai banned her from going to Andor.  So her options were going to Ebou dar or staying in Salidar.  But while in Ebou Dar they fell into the Aes Sedai, we know better mindset.  They had Mat and his men there and refused to see their use until they were nearly kidnapped.  For me again it comes to many of the females in WOT took the only I can do this approach to stuff. I do think the ones who died trying to rescue her is on her hands, she took the risk and people died because of it.  She took the risk and they died because of it.  I can see that she was probably one of the few who could go to the jail and try to trick the BA, But we have seen many times her leaving her warder behind, she always seemed to downplay the hazards. Maybe I could understand some of her actions more if it seemed she thought the plans out a bit more.  She is going into a house with BA in it, maybe dark friends, and you are pretty sure one of the people with you is also a BA.  She just seemed to go into the default I have to take charge and do this.  With the amount of times she had been captured or nearly captured, she never really seemed to learn.

 

Elayne thinking of Andor before the WT is understandable.  She was never going to be a full member of the WT, her destiny was always going to be ruling Andor.  She would of been the first openly Aes Sedai queen in a long time, but the white tower was never going to be her first concern.  I understand some of her plans as preparing Andor for after the last battle.  Do I think she went a bit overboard, sure.  Cairhien for one seemed simply rushed just to make Andor stronger.  Now again her first concern was her nation. its just she seemed less concerned with thee upcoming battle and more concerned with after the fight.  When Rand was talking about not wanting nations attacking each other after the last battle, if I remember right Elayne's behavior showed she had thought about maybe enlarging her nation after it as all done.  I could see her and the WT having a lot of arguments as the WT will probably think her being Aes Sedai means she should follow and support what the WT does, Elayne will think of Andor first which probably won't sit well with the tower at times.

[Egwene's_Warder]

While IWW may be over I thought I'd chime in on some of my favorite female character's from this series, and there is a lot of them! If I could only choose one it would definetly be Egwene as I'm sure you can guess due to my username. I really like Egwene because she has a very strong character, is a great leader and does not back down no matter the problem. Also other honorary mentions include Moraine, Elayne, Nyn, Aviendha, and Siuan. I also really like some of the female forsaken, though for other reasons, out of those my favorites are Lanfear and Graendal.

[Randlander123]

The most admirable woman to me is Verin. She has her quota of AS arrogance but it's the lowest by far. Her infiltration of and exposure of the BA is epic in it's scope and dedication. Second is Moraine but only after she swears to obey Rand. Up to that point, all her pleas for him to let her guide him were really just hissy fits because he wouldn't take her orders and do as he was told. Once she realized she couldn't make him her good little puppy and gave the oath to placate him, she really did start to try to help and not control him. Even though that was very hard for her. Third was Birgitta because, again, though she had her share of female chauvinism, it was much less that most and she didn't indulge in nearly as much drama and pettiness as most of the other major female characters did. Fourth, Nynaeve after she broke her block and could finally stop being such a 24 carat gold plated harridan 24/7. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of residual bitchiness left but it dialed back considerably. And even at her worst, it was made plain in her POV's that she did genuinely care for her friends and the world at large - unlike some others (cough*egwene*cough). Fifth is Min - mostly because of her wholehearted, selfless love for Rand which neither Elayne or Avi share to anywhere near the same extent. She also has one of my favorite scenes when she tells Cadsuane and the others - Hey, how about trying to help Rand instead of controlling and manipulating him? Sixth - and this will surprise some considering my comment above and especially if you've read some of my other posts - is Egwene. But only when she is a damane and a prisoner in the tower - under duress she is quite simply magnificent and no one anywhere in the books come close to matching her courage. The rest of the time she's mostly utterly vile- a lying, cheating, power hungry megalomaniac willing to do almost anything to get what she wants - YMMV, of course