Something I really like about WoT: the mentor characters start flawed and have their own arcs, but are still fallible humans even at the end. Cadsuane is the #1 example of this, but she's far from alone.

Re: our ornery Green: For all the invective she gets, Cadsuane's much more human and fleshed-out than Gandalf or Dumbledore, despite having much less screen time.

She genuinely is incredibly wise and capable; yet she's quite believably handicapped by her prejudices. Those are products of her society, true, but they still impact her story, Rand's story, and the world around her.

At the same time, she correctly sees - even more than Moiraine - the conflict within our Protagonist - and we frequently see signs of small kindnesses she does and that it's clear she's always done. There's a *reason* why Algarin has the view of her he does.

Ironically, Cads' own Aes Sedai utilitarianism means she often reflects on these things through a cynical lens - something she shares with the hero she advises. Thus readers can easily miss that fact: that for *most people*, Cadsuane Melaidhrin was a Good Thing.

Over time, we see Cadsuane make a conscious decision to change and grow, and start to challenge her prejudices instead of defending them. It's inconsistent, and there is both backsliding and forward progress...it's a real story.

So many "wise mentor" types simply are perfect and then get offed, or seem perfect and then eventually are shown to be incredibly unethical (Dumbledore). Cadsuane's failings are much more believable and much less forced by the narrative.

I <3 Moiraine as much as anyone, but readers sometimes forget that early-book Moiraine was frequently and *catastrophically* wrong, and her and Siuan's prejudices and worldview shape Rand and Egwene's flaws down the road.

I could go on about Moiraine's mistakes, Lan's toxic teachings, Cadsuane's abusive tendencies, and Siuan's questionable academic safety policies at length, but I think I've made my point. They all still get to be heroes and still get to be mentors, even while they themselves grow

RJ had plenty of bad or awkward or just outdated notions in his writing, but the writing of older, mentoring characters to the core protagonists in his books is quite well done.