Lemme continue to beat a dead horse…

On my second round through. It seems impossible but Egwene gets WORSE upon reread. Apologies if what follows is incoherent rambling.

I think she’s an EXCELLENT character who is perfectly placed to do what she needs to do when it is most needed, but wow I think she is, if not an outright bad person, getting perilously close. She is certainly a bad friend.

I’m on The Dragon Reborn again (Ch. 49) and Egwene’s beef with Nynaeve comes across as mostly one-sided. Nynaeve, at this point in the story, has been making the right calls and is frighteningly competent. She’s not competing with Egwene even if Egwene is competing with her. She hasn’t actually done anything wrong at all, at least not to Egwene?? Egwene comes across as petty and spiteful and jealous, which she undeniably is. She’s what, maybe 20? Somewhere around there, so it makes sense (though Elayne is around the same age and is nowhere near as selfish). She just doesn’t want Nynaeve to be right.

Her need to be the best and the most right are I suppose traits that the Amyrlin needs, but they don’t make her likable.

But what this post really is about (or at least what inspired it) is how much worse Egwene comes across in the reread when considering THAT scene later on where Egwene does what she does to Nynaeve in TAR.

Egwene has ALWAYS been looking for ways to best Nynaeve and takes her opportunity in TAR. It’s truly disgusting. And doing it to anyone, let alone to someone who has literally never tried to do anything more than protect you (even if done abrasively) should be unforgivable. She relishes in Nynaeve’s panic at that moment because she’s more powerful for once. She never considers the wrongfulness of her actions and never apologizes. She wants to tear Nynaeve down. Ew.

She’s a terrible friend and reminds me of some of the more toxic “friendships” I’ve had with other women that were purely competitive. But that Egwene (and, to a lesser extent, Nynaeve and Elayne) is allowed to be so flawed is what makes them so interesting. Egwene does not NEED to be likable to be effective.

But I think contrasting her with other female characters is fascinating. Egwene represents what Aes Sedai and the White Tower are at their essence, good and bad. All her character flaws can also apply to The White Tower as an institution. Nynaeve (yes she’s my favorite character so I acknowledge that I am biased) represents, I think, what Aes Sedai ought to be: servants to all. Both women are from the same village and are similar in many ways, but they serve very different purposes in the pattern and in the narrative. Egwene just happens to be insufferable and effective at the same time.