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I forgot how much Egwene bothers me

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About halfway through my reread of FoH and I kind of forgot just how much of an awful person Egwene is. Most of what was memorable about her to me is from the latter books, but after reading Ch14 again it somehow bothered me much more than it did as a kid. I think I gave her more of a pass after getting captured by the Seanchan, but at this point in the story she has no excuse for being so cruel beyond her jealousy, arrogance, and hypocrisy.

After this reread (so far), to me her treatment of Nynaeve is unforgivable. Of all the people she should be fiercely loyal to Nynaeve is close to the top of that list, and she borderline SAs and majorly traumatizes her for doing the exact same thing she has done repeatedly.

To comment on the writing, however, I think this scene does a masterful job of showing Egwene's worst qualities that build up over the series:

  1. Lust for power: This scene is really the first moment we see how drastically Egwene changes when she holds authority, and how she is massively possessive of TAR because it is the only place where she can feel dominant. While she justifies it as "disciplining" Nynaeve, she revels in the power she is able to exert over her, something she has been unable to do since arriving at the white tower... going to my next point.
  2. Jealousy: She's constantly measuring herself against Nynaeve from the start of the book, having wanted to take over as Wisdom and lead the EFers. She even mocks Rand for wanting a simple life. When its discovered that Nynaeve is much more powerful than her, her treatment towards Nynaeve changes rapidly. And because of Nynaeve's distaste towards the AS and white tower and her fear of her own power, Egwene is even more infuriated - and finds other ways to assert herself above Nynaeve (to paraphrase, "well she can't even use the power, so i'm better than her). Leading to my next...
  3. Inferiority Complex: It's pretty clear that Egwene doesn't want to admit anyone from EF can be "better" than her - whether that be Rand or Nynaeve. I mean at the beginning of TSR she seriously thought she was on equal footing with Rand in terms of power, and in some cases iirc she even refuses to admit Rand is truly the Dragon Reborn. And finally...
  4. Hypocrisy: Egwene is a massive hypocrite. Not much else needs to be said here, but she is literally punishing Nynaeve for something she has consistently done. She preaches about how dangerous TAR is repeatedly, yet neither Elayne nor Nynaeve at this point could've had any experience with it because of how possessive she was. Textbook "rules for thee and not for me".

There's my rant for the day. Curious if others had a similar experience.

Posted Aug 4, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC

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