On 5/7/2022 at 7:28 AM, Stedding Tofu said:

 

I think she was given a hugely impactful in the last few and that her sacrifice was a poignant but a tremendously inspiring and effective one, of heroism and leading by example.  So it's sad - it bothered me for about a week when I read AMoL - but too inspiring to be tragic.

 

We do see Nynaeve being upset (in a Perrin pov) but then there is so much to process after Merrilor that BS can't really begin to encompass it all (Elayne's grief over Gawyn*, Faile's over her parents are absent).  * We're shown Elayne being sad over Birgitte leaving to be reborn but not over Gawyn dying IIRC.

 

The of sacrifice was key to Rand finally accepting that he had to imprison The Dark One rather than end him and create a perfect world where people would be shorn of free will because he had made that fundamental choice re good vs evil for them.  I think it's Egwene's death and her spirit's insistence to him that she get to choose to sacrifice herself, that the Last Battle is not about him protecting everyone, that finally gets through to him.

 

RJ has set up Rand's death since the very so to switch on us takes a while to process but I think it fits thematically without diminishing Egwene's importance.

Egwene's sacrifice influencing Rand is a very good point

If Moiraine didn't die when the door ter'angreal was broke, how come Lan went through the death rage and the warder bond was broken?

YES. I just finished the series for the first time and her death is the only one that caught me off guard. I had no doubt she was gonna survive out of sheer grit and stubbornness and her death just really seems out of place in the story. I feel like she only died bc one of the main Emond’s fielder’s had to go and they didn’t want it to be on of the three ta’veren. She had so many big plans for the white tower that I doubt Cadsuane will follow through on, definitely the most tragic story and it was the one that kept me up at night once I finished the series. (And we don’t see any reaction from Nyneave, Elayne, or Aviendha????? Ridiculous and upsetting)