#if you prepare and are clever with it then ppl with less power can totally get the advantage on those with more raw power!!

[highfantasy-soul]

I think what people are missing when they say "The girls took all the powerful moments from the guys!!" or "Egwene would never have been able to stand up to Ishy for even a moment!" is that...the women are never standing alone when they do their incredible acts.

I think even book readers forget the massive buff being near other ta'veren gives the characters in the books and the power of working in a team.

In the season 1 finale, unlike Rand in the books, Egwene doesn't demolish a whole army of trollocs alone, nor does Nynaeve, nor do any of the other women there. Egwene and Nynaeve don't even cast any of the attack weaves at all. They are linked and Amalisa - a Tower trained individual - uses the collective power of all the women standing there to demolish the battlefield.

in the season 2 finale, they set it up all the way back in episode 1: "Standing alone, a shield only covers part of you, the rest is exposed. But standing together, our shields cover each other and nothing can touch us."

When Egwene stands up to Ishamael, she's not attacking him. She's making a shield. And she's not doing it alone. Mat and Rand are there too, two more powerful ta'veren converging in the Pattern with her, with two more on the way.

It's amazing how quickly book readers forget the plot convenience power of ta'veren Robert Jordan very purposely wrote into the story!

In the final confrontations of both seasons, Rand IS the one who strikes the final blow - he's the one who has to mentally 'defeat' Ishamael. It's Rand's decisions that determine the outcome in both - not Egwene's opinions on the matter, not Nynaeve's. The idea that a random mass attack is a more impactful character moment than overcoming the temptation of Ishy's promise of a perfect world for Rand to live in, that Rand declaring firmly and to Ishy's face that he will never join the shadow never stop fighting for the Light, is just ridiculous.

None of Rand's actually impactful, story-defining moments are given to 'the girls'. The show is not 'pushing Rand down so the women can be made more powerful'. If that's what you think, I'd take a look at what you think is 'powerful' and then take a look at the actual story Robert Jordan wrote and what he had to say about what wins the battle in the end. Was it sheer, raw power that won the conflict or was it strength of self (internally knowing who you are and not caving on your morals for power or influence or glory), community, and compassion?

Yeah, Rand is the character with the most raw power - but that's not why he wins battles and I think his big power moments will mean so much more in the show now that we've seen WHO HE IS and WHY he's using that power.

This isn't to say the explosions of power that Nynaeve and Egwene get aren't meaningful - I think the way the show has altered them to be about community support makes that act so much more powerful than a single character floating above the battlefield and demolishing it all on their own.

So in conclusion, I don't think the criticisms that "Rafe hates men and is giving all Rand's important stuff to the women!!" are accurate in the slightest.