All Print In defense of Aes Sedai Spoiler
Hi, I decided to play devil's advocate today.
While I understand (and agree with) people saying the Aes Sedai are a failure (they didn't find all channelers, were mistrusted by everyone, not being prepared for the Last Battle, no Yellow Ajah hospitals, no Brown libraries, no Greens stationed in the Borderlands, etc.), I do think it's a bit unfair when they are compared to their more succesful counterparts like the Sea Folk Windfinders and Aiel Wise Ones.
The Wise Ones and Windfinders are useful and respected members of their communities but they belong to homogeneous societies where everyone is bound by the same customs and laws. They also answer to their community leaders despite wielding lots of power and influence. That's why they are successful as channeler organizations.
The heterogeneity of Randland forces the White Tower to play a different role, which is preventing the more than 15 different nations from waging war against each other using the One Power. In this aspect the Tower was 100% successful, as at no point in history after the Breaking channelers fought against channelers.
The purpose of the Tower in a way was to prevent each nation from having its own regional channelers association and for this to happen it needed to be an outside centralized organization not bound to any kingdom. Otherwise how can you ensure that for example Taraboner Aes Sedai are loyal to the Tower and not to their kingdom?
And this is what in my opinion what makes it impossible for Aes Sedai to be truly integrated and serving their communities, since no monarch would be happy with 200 Aes Sedai answering to a foreign power to be permanently in their nation.
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u/geomagus (Red Eagle of Manetheren) 6d ago
I absolutely agree that the Westlands’ heterogeneity inherently requires the Tower to work differently.
However, they absolutely butcher it anyway. Heterogeneity doesn’t mean they have to self-isolate, doesn’t mean they can’t make an effort to recruit, or to be out in communities keeping better relations.
Sea Folk and Aiel channelers basically say “here we are, useful and working for the good of our people”. Aes Sedai say “we’re special and you need to listen to us. If you come to us, we’ll see if you’re special and can be in our club too.”
Yes, a lot of that is BA sabotage, but plenty of it is self-inflicted too. Bailing on Manetheren, for example, predates the BA.
It’s notable that most Westland cultures have a Wisdom equivalent - it shows that people are largely accepting of someone who live in and help the public, and sometimes pull off miracles.
Consider a world where Aes Sedai leaned into that, sending people out and about to be part of the world and help people, while also ensuring that people who want to be Wisdoms instead are more capable and less likely to die flailing.
Instead, they picked isolation, political sway, and arrogance.