Does anyone know why Min never tried to take the A’dam off of Egwene? During my first read I assumed that opening requires a channeler, but that is not true. Matt was able to figure out the mechanism and Min is an intelligent woman. Why did she never try? Especially in the very early days when Egwene was fighting with all her heart and would have accepted any potential risk to her.
Posted Jan 17, 2020, 1:35 AM UTC
Mat could figure it out but I'm pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) he had a spare a'dam that he practiced on before freeing anyone.
Egwene is sequestered in a heavily guarded area with sul'dam, damane, and regular seanchan soldiers. Even the inn Min is at is full of seanchan I believe.
So first, Min does not have an a'dam to practice on and is pretty much broke at this point, so can't afford to bribe anyone into giving her one, she couldn't even pay the ship captain she was talking to, she was just keeping him talking without any idea of how to pay if he finally made up his mind.
And even if she could practice and figure out the mechanism and sneak Egwene out of the damane building, she would have nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. She can't exactly take her back to seanchan filled inn. And if Egwene gets too close to any damane they would investigate and find her. They have no money for ship passage and I'm presuming all the gates are guarded with a sul'dam and damane. Plus they would deal with the alarm after someone discovers Egwene is gone.
SPOILERS for beyond Great Hunt BELOW:
!Mat's plan worked because he released one person who then released all of her sisters to fight, and a many them still ended up dying rather than escaping.!<
!Edit: and because Mat was also able to get sul'dam to escape with his aes sedai. So they could walk out without seeming suspicious.!<
!But (again correct me if wrong) most of the damane around Min are not recently caught channelers, they are seanchan damane who have been leashed for many years. And even some of the captured aes sedai already had broken wills.!<
!Min also doesn't have Mat's luck that kept a sul'dam from popping in on him unexpectedly while he worked his magic.!<
Your right, mat practiced for a week (and had both his memories and luck to draw on) before he figured out the trick.
Adam are like the lock box around the horn of valare. They are puzzle boxes that need special knowledge to manipulate
Thank you! I forgot how long Matt practiced and about his luck. I wish there would’ve been one scene where Min either tried and failed or a discussion between them why they don’t try it. After all, Egwene tried opening it herself manually (and got cramps) and with Saidar (and got caught and tortured by Renna).
I just finished reading The Great Hunt. Did I miss something? When does Mat free all the Damane*?
...My advice to you is to avoid posts that include the word "reread" even if the flair is for an early book. The OP has read the books and referenced a later event that I used as my comparison.....I will try to modify my comment but what's done is done, the wheel weaves as the wheel wills.
Haha that’s A-okay when I read it I’ll think of this post. On to book 3!
Simply put, she didn't know how.
There is no obvious mechanism, the location isn't safe and Egwene has already established that the Sul'dam can essentially "Sense" escape attempts based on feedback when they grab the lease.
She lacks the luxuries of time, accessibility and luck.
There was probably an assumption (like your own) that removal couldn't be that simple, especially as Egwene had directly experienced how terrible trying to take it off herself was. As far as both of them were aware, it would have hurt her the same way if Min attempted it, or maybe even hurt Min as well.
Add in the fact that a sul'dam could pop in at any moment, most likely resulting in Min's death at attempting to steal Imperial Property, and maybe both were just too scared of losing what little comfort they had in that scenario when the cost was that potentially high.