honestly she’s been one of my favorite characters through the entire story which makes this even better 🫣

I don’t mean this in a rude way at all, but there are a lot of posts about how awful of a character Egwene is, so maybe your comment would be a better fit there!

That makes total sense - I’m sorry, I worded myself poorly. I didn’t mean to say that it wasn’t sexual assault but more that when I read it, I did not read it as a sexual assault scene. In hindsight I definitely see that side of it.

It was also difficult in the moment because neither of the characters really reacted to the sexual aspect, even though it 100% existed. That’s not to say that characters need to always recognize it in-universe (when I read Mat & Tylin I immediately thought it was sexual assault even though Mat never explicitly says it), and more to say that maybe RJ could have handled the TAR scene much better.

That’s a totally fair take! As far as I can remember, the use of sexual violence to get her way is not a major part of Egwene’s character, but if I’m wrong please correct me.

(speaking as someone who has personal experience with sexual assault) I read the TAR scene as Egwene trying to teach Nynaeve about the dangers of TAR, not as sexual assault. Reasonable people could have different interpretations.

I understand what you’re saying and I think that’s a fair take! I do think first that a lot of the male characters also have Mary Sue moments, so I don’t know if that’s a cricitism of Egwene’s character specifically. You could say the same thing about Perrin - sure he’s sad about Faile missing but at the end of the day the battle with the Shaido goes perfectly and he gets her back - or about Mat, who literally has luck that gets him out of most situations. That’s not a criticism of either (I love Perrin & Mat!) but more to say that if you don’t give a lot of weight to the struggles that each character goes through, then it’s easy to think that they have plot armor.

I also really read Egwene’s arc in the White Tower as a culmination of all the things she’s experienced before. Maybe the reason she doesn’t react strongly to being beaten (and thus the reason she seems to have plot armor) is because she was already leashed and tortured by the Seanchan, and then strapped for an entire night by all of the Aiel women who she lied to about being Aes Sedai, not to mention all of the other punishments she endured while being an apprentice to the Wise Ones.

I guess I’d compare the parts about her advising Aes Sedai to the battles where Mat wins without taking almost any casualties. (queue another discussion about whether Egwene is really ta’veren lmao)

also disclaimer for this whole thing is that I’m biased because I like Egwene (and sometimes I love a good Mary Sue moment). There’s valid reasons to dislike all of the characters except for like, Lini and Loial, and it’s cool to see other opinions!

100%, I am really enjoying the Sanderson books but RJ definitely handled the characters better. It’s really unfortunate that Egwene’s arc happened during these books because I think some readers are predisposed to dislike the female characters, and it’s harder for people to like her given that her “redemption” arc isn’t written as artfully as some of the other subplots (like Nynaeve’s, for example)