#Sword watches wot

[luxolin]

Elaida really thinks she's That Bitch. She has no idea she's supporting cast, an antagonist almost always overshadowed by other antagonists. She's convinced she's the Chosen One in a narrative with several actual chosen ones. She relied on the least trustworthy members of the Tower and now has the nerve to be surprised they aren't bowing to her every whim. She's literally building a palace for herself and grows roses and pulls dusty artifacts from old Amyrlins out of storage because she thinks if everything looks the part, then she'll be respected. I am captivated by her cringefail girlbossery.

[butterflydm]

wot 2x4: daughter of the night

A couple more thoughts to add this morning. A minor spoiler for A Crown of Swords.

First, an ad of sorts, lol -- if you liked Rand being tied up for sex but you wish it hadn't been with Lanfear, I do have a 90k Cauthor fic that features Mat tying Rand up for sex and generally follows a "what if we did a show-verse version of The Great Hunt but with Cauthor" (stars fading). Written before we got any teasers that Rand would be involved in bondage scenes, so I am feeling very prophetic! (I mean, he just kinda has 'tie me up' energy even in s1 imo)

I am 100% planning on writing a little sequel to my Rand/'Selene' fic that is set during 2x4 (pre-reveal).

Seeing the saa in Lanfear's eyes at the end was an 'oh shit' moment; can't believe I forgot to mention it. I like the change they've made to have the Great Lord actually keeping his promise (at least to the Chosen themselves) about life everlasting.

Also! She was gonna tell him who she was! That's what this whole set up was about! "Oh, I still loved you after you revealed your big scary secret so you owe me still loving me" (but tying him up first in the likelihood of him freaking out) (kinda a shame because he was INTO being tied up but now she might have traumatized him out of it)

[alexagirlie]

Sasnak City The Kingdom - Day 2

So day 2 at Sasnak City was the bussiest day and had some of the super fun events which made the convention worth the pricetag.

This post be long heh heh heh

(Link to Day 1)

So saturday was jammed packed, here just see the schedule

My day started with announcements, then the photos that came with my ticket, Amelia Clarkson and Harry Gilby. Both are super super sweet by the way.

Then came the Sasnak Community Photo. This was meant for attendees to get an official photo together, we grabbed some of the staff as well since they are amazing, but the cast had other ideas...

Arnas had a meet and greet about to start so he couldn't stay (he tried) so Eliza is holding up a photo with him in it. (She is so sweet)

Then 2 of my group went to go have their meet and greet with Arnas while I went and hung out. Then we all had lunch together before the next round of events.

Lunch was scheduled and provided by the convention which I thought was a nice touch from the organizers.

Following lunch my group had a meet and geeet with Harry. Poor lad had food poisoning right before flying out so was still recovering but it was a really interesting meet and greet. He talked about what it was like working with the rest of the cast and a little bit on the short film he was in with Cavan Clerkin (which we got to watch on Sunday).

After the meet and greet my group and I parted ways, they had a meet and greet with Ryan while I went to grab some autographs before my meet and greet with Arnas.

They had the cast split between two rooms, Mark, Arnas and Eliza in one room, while the rest of the cast (minus Ryan) in another room.

I got my autograph from Arnas first (I did ask if his handwriting had improved since Paris. He laughed and said no). My group and I had made up gift bags for all the cast and I got to give Arnas his. The cast weren't allowed to open them during autographs but I heard after the fact he was showing his off.

He also took a picture of my print immediately after I set it down 😁 I think he liked it? Hah.

Next I got my autograph from Eliza and she was so very sweet. She remembered attendees from previous years and their names!

She also took a pic of my print but she asked first 🤣. I also got to give Eliza her gift bag and she was so surpirsed and elated to be getting one!

Afterwards I had to get back in line and wait to get Marks autograph. Mark being the Special Guest had a longer line then most and some people a head of me were pretty chatty (poor man cannot chat and write at the same time) but we got there.

After I got Marks I had to boogey up to the next room where I had 15 minutes to squeeze in autographs from other cast before my meet and greet with Arnas!

They all loved the print and were super nice and I was able to get everyone I needed before my Arnas meet and greet.

Doing the meet and greet with Arnas was an experience! He is so vibrant and passionate and I learned things I didn't know about him! He talked about his time on set with WOT and about his time in Thailand filming for White Lotus.

He talked about philosophy and his religious views and how they affect his career and personal life. His passion for learning and growing.

I also got to ask a question from my list!

I asked him what was more fun, swords or axes.

The answer, axes 100%.

He then told a very fun story. He has a tick where he fidgits with his hands and anything he is holding so he used the weapons as a way to help control that (would explain a lot of how he grabs his weapons in scenes) so during the filming of season 4 and season 5 he used to practice tossing and catching the axe in between scenes.

He would annoy the heck out of the sound crew because he kept dropping the axe and the sound would get picked up. So he spent 2 years practicing this toss and catch until he could do it no problem and during the filming of SKMD he finally had a chance to do it in a battle scene.... and he fumbled it. Twice 🤣 he couldn't remember if the catch ever made it into the movie but I know I will be watching for it next time I rewatch.

The session finished with some selfies, I hate taking selfies and Arnas was happy to oblige my request to do silly faces 🤣

After the meet and greets I headed back to the main hall and met back up with my group and we joined the rest of the attendees as we got to have a special screening of Eliza new short film, Little Brown Bird.

It was filmed on the Isle of Man and was made with John Ryes-Davies (Gimli from LotRs) and it was so, so beautiful. It was about a woman taking care of her father who had alzheimer and takes on a supernatural turn!

After the film we were released to go have dinner before going back for a special event later in the evening.

We made the mistake of walking to the nearby shopping centre for dinner and it. Was. So. Fucking. Hot. We about died on the way back.

The evening ended with an event called Lords of the North. This event alone was worth the cost of the tickets. This was essentially a meet and greet with every cast member with drinking involved 🤣

Each table had 6 attendees and the cast had 10 minutes with each group before moving on. It was so much fun!

Learned a bunch fun things!

1. Amelia Clarkson agrees that Sihtric would make the best husband.

2. Rod Hallet loves Vancouver (my friend lives here and I live close by).

3. Magnus Samuelsson participated in the Swedish Dancing with the Stars back in like 2011 and won! (They played a video at the end of the event, he is a really good dancer).

4. Ryan had to study and learn the mannerism of an otter in drama school. Had to go to the zoo and observe them, then at the end of the semester had to pretend to be one in front of the class.

5. According to Mark, we lost the sleeveless Finan in season 4 because Arnas was jealous that he couldn't show off his own arms. (Arnas later denied this when we asked, he said he covered up to allow Marks arms time to shine, he knew if he had his guns out they would steal the show).

6. I asked Mark who's idea it was to have the bead and braid in Finan's hair and he said it was his. He had wanted it longer but the powers that be thought it would be "too dane" looking and he had to argue that Finan wasn't a saxon and that the celt did braids as part of their own culture.

7. Mark and Arnas filmed a bunch more of those little videos (The adventures of Sihtric and Finan) then what they shared on instagram, including a really good one themed on Bebbanburg BnB. We asked Arnas to post them, he seemed to think the time had past but we told him no, and that we would take the blame for "bullying" him to post them. We will see if he remembers 🤣 should I DM him? Would that be weird?

8. Eliza is the cutest human being. She also has some super funny videos of the cast we hope she shares one day.

The evening concluded with an after party! There was a DJ and more alcohol and about 10 minutes after it started they announced for all phones to go away and that the cast was coming over to dance with us!

Highlights from the dance party;

Cast, well dancing and being goofy.

Mark and Arnas trying to sneak off to explore the venue and getting in trouble. (They did this a few times over the weekend).

A congo line.

A dance off between Mark and Arnas (Arnas took his jacket off, took his hat off to run his hands through his hair and put it back on. It did things to my insides).

A dance off between Harry and Ryan.

It was a ton of fun! Very long day, but a ton of fun!

Stay tuned for day 3 adventures!

(Link tk Day 3)

[moghedien]

Okay so to be clear I have no stake in this since I haven't seen any of the shows you mentioned in your post and I'm not asking you to defend your point. That being said, because Legend of the Seeker has been on my "to watch" list since I was like 16, I have to ask - is there an extra bad reason why it shouldn't be compared to Wheel of Time or is it just general "just because it's middle fantasy doesn't mean it's similar" vibes?

Gonna answer both your asks separately just to avoid going too long on either

but yeah, there's reasons not to compare Wheel of Time to Legend of the Seeker, and its because the guy who created Legend of the Seeker is a piece of shit

basically Legend of the Seeker is based on a book series called the Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. Terry Goodkind was a libertarian shitbag who definitely seemed to plagiarize a whole lot of other fantasy series of the time period, including of Wheel of Time (which was published first), but at best just happened to write a lot of things that were very, very, very, very, very, very similar

Now you can argue that both series have inspiration from Dune, and sure, they do. But there's a difference from being inspired by stuff (which Wheel of Time upfront is) and outright stealing plot points and worldbuilding aspects and pretending like they're wholly original and groundbreaking (which Terry Goodkind tried to do). And its not just that Goodkind didn't acknowledge that he was inspired by things like Wheel of Time. He outright talked shit about fantasy as a genre and hated his books being called fantasy because he thought they were elevated literature that should be held above fantasy. He didn't just deny that he was inspired by other fantasy works, he was outright offended at the suggestion and called people stupid for pointing it out. Also if you asked him who his favorite author was, he'd always say Ayn Rand and basically no one else.

But the absolute worst thing with Wheel of Time specifically is that when Robert Jordan (the author of Wheel of Time) was literally publicly known to be dying and unable to make convention appearances he was scheduled for, because he was literally dying, Terry Goodkind decided that the best thing he should do as an author was show up at those conventions and make fun of Robert Jordan's health and talk about how he personally as so healthy and his heart was great (Robert Jordan died from a heart disease)

He was also just like massively disrespectful to everyone, including his fans who he thought were all idiots if they did things like had simple questions about his work or categorized his fantasy books as fantasy. And one of the last things he got attention for before he died was mocking the art work for the covers of one of his books publicly online for being poorly done (it was literally fine) only for the artist to come out and point out that they did the cover exactly as they were directed by him and his representatives.

So yeah, fuck Terry Goodkind and Legend of the Seeker and Sword of Truth. There's a bad history between WoT and SoT and its all because of Terry Goodkind being a shitty excuse for an author

[girlymatsu]

Wot If. osoeri in tha dungeon... what classes would they be, what kinda clothes do u think theyd wear :o? i Know everyone in the dungeons is falling head over heels for eri!! hdvkvjhvcs imagining osomatsu having a cursed artifact he stole from a dead adventurer but its something he ignores completely so its fine. it gives him extra resistance against undead monsters but hes seeing ghosts and shit around him constantly, begging him to release them but hes just thinking about erina being soooo cutes and lovely as always, he cant even hear their anguished cries as he goes lovey dovey mode w big ol heart eyes watching her absolutely destroy some creatures w some fucked up magics hehe :D shes extra cute covered in blood and viscera!!

AUGHH THIS IS SO CUTEEE!!! Sorry for the late answer I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO THINK ABOUT FANTASY OSOERI SO MUCHHH SINCE GETTING THIS ASK… LIKE obviously Osomatsu is a fighter like the standard Main character hero type, the damematsu set has him wearing this

:) I also really love the idea of Osomatsu having cursed item like a sword or something that he uses to scratch his back or pick at his toes LMAO

Erina I think she would be a rogue of some kind… because she has a history of shyly watching and stalking from the shadows ❤️❤️❤️ and then osoeri are kissing in the dungeon and wins because their love is invincible!!!!!!!!!!

[liesmyth]

What is wheel of time and should I start it tomorrow?

you SHOULD.

Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series by the late Robert Jordan. It's epic in scope, in length, and in its insanely large cast of characters. It's fascinating. The worldbuilding is insane, but also familiar (partly because it relies on widespread fantasy tropes, partly because it made many of those tropes popular for many books published later). The characters are exasperating but deeply human; I love SO many of them and appreciate so many others. It's very Of Its Time in some regards, especially re: its handling of gender roles and sexuality, but it's also surprisingly progressive and queer in intent even when the execution falters, and I really appreciate a lot that it even tried to Go There, because it was Very formative for me as a young teen. It's also one of those books where you can see the author's kinks all over the place (both narrative and otherwise) and tbh? it's a bit cringe but lots of fun. Also it’s very well written; the plot is as Epic as epic fantasy gets but it’s really the character moments that make the reader invested in the story. I just love it a lot, ngl.

Fun fact: I am now today on tumblr dot com, blogging in english, because sometimes around age 15 even though I fucking hated english class in school I just couldn’t wait for the latest books to come out in my country so I had to become fluent enough to read a 700-pages novel by myself. THAT is the grip this series had on me.

Some things I am now into because of reading WoT starting at age eleven.

codependent magical bonds with loyalty kink thrown in (if you’re familiar with TLT, think necro/cav but usually f/m. Not always though :) )

femdom. both F/f and F/m varieties

Propesized Savior trying to kill their humanity to become a figure larger than history (before realizing that's bullshit)

what if monastic(ish) order of sole women but also we had sex about it

unfortunately. a lot of weird kinks. I will elaborate on request but it’s better if I don’t right off the bat.

no, I lied. It wasn’t unfortunate. I appreciate it when authors are brave enough to let the banner of their id fly high

ruined civilizations and newer, less advanced civilizations rising from the wreckage. the collective understanding that you live in a post-apocalypse world. old scientific principles becoming magic

confronting your alternate dimension self, as a treat

dream sex

devil-may-care rogues who actually care a lot

alien morality, or cultural differences so big that they fundamentally are the same thing

people who are SO Wrong about everything but are 100% committed to their own personal moral code

whatever the fuck Mat’s luck had going on

“I know what my destiny is but I say: fuck you”

I can’t stress enough how many of my kinks (narrative; sexy in fiction only; sexy in RL) came directly from this series. Like, I know I’ve already said that but putting together this list made me think and. Oh my god.

SWORD MAIDENS

More practical information: there are 14 books. Yes, I know. The first book is The Eye of the World - it's fun and probably not exceptional even though you can feel the hints of how grand and insane the greater worldbuilding will be, and some characters really shine (Nynaeve!). The second book is where it really gets original, the third book is where I went from "books I like" to "series OF ALL TIME". If you don’t like it by book 4 then give up. If you like book 4 as much as I did you will never ever want to give up.

There's also an Amazon Prime show, currently S1 has been released! I haven't watched it beyond the first ep, but plan to do it soon; it's a lot more f/f than the books and the back half had some pacing issues (partly due to COVID fucking with the production) but definitely very iddy from what I've heard, and I’m very excited to check it out in time for S2.

tldr PLEASE read wheel of time!

[uri59]

If you haven't been watching the reviews from The Sword and the Pen Reflections about the wot show season 1 you truly are missing 🤭

[fate-wheelsoftime]

a boy named sieg

So, another storyline I have in WoT is the entire character arc regarding Sieg.

In canon, at least to Fate/Apocrypha, Sieg is a homunculus that later gets Siegfrieds power and becomes Astolfos master and takes part in the HGW. Now, take all that you know about him and throw it away because WoT Sieg is nothing like canon.

The first major difference is AU!Sieg is 100% human. He has an albeit small family that he knew of until he was about 4-5 years old. But, he was born during wartime [The Grails existing]. His mother grew ill and passed shortly after and the same fate happened to his grandmother. He had no other known family and his father was out of the picture altogether. Homelessness was a huge issue in the town he lived in so he simply adapted to the streets. He was often targeted by other homeless children due to being smaller and frail.

The town, having endured wartime attacks by the Grails demonic beasts, was saved when a patrol of Servants arrived. Sent from Chaldea, this group were there to protect the town from danger and help rebuild.

[Normal society is aware of Heroic Spirits existence. Servants are seen as guardians, summoned and sent out across the world to protect different places. During the Grails dormant years, it still had magical energy strong enough to create demonic beasts. Those creatures would then attack people in any place of the world. This is why Chaldea appointed Servant Patrols across the world where they were needed most. More on Chaldea's summoning system in a later post.]

Back to Sieg, who, at the time, didn't have a name and never knew the name his mother called him, watched from afar as these servants arrived. He was fascinated by them, and how strong they were. He wanted to be strong...

He would watch these servants from the shadows because he knew he was too weak to actually approach a hero. This went on for a few weeks. One day though, he was targeted by some older rich kids because he had stolen some food from the bakery. They bullied him and beat him until he gave up his rations. However, this was all seen by one of the Heroic Spirits serving the patrol. The servant shooed off the older kids and then aided the young boy. This servant would be Siegfried, a warrior and the dragonslayer that took down Fafnir in German legends.

This turned into Siegfried essentially adopting the young boy, becoming the boy's father. In turn, the boy decided to take on part of his name, becoming Sieg. But that wasn't all. The group of servants in the town? Well they're what essentially made up the Apocrypha servant cast [excluding Astolfo]. So while Siegfried became the boy's father figure, everyone else became his guardians and mentors.

Meanwhile, Siegfried would have to go on and fight the Mage Association to allow Sieg into Chaldea. Afterall, he was just a normal child. So, to appease everyone, Siegfried would go on to train Sieg into becoming a warrior and Master [something the Mage Association desperately needed in a war against the Grail]. It was discovered early on that Sieg had powerful magical circuits, but just never knew how to use them because he was just a child and never got proper training or knowledge.

So Sieg would grow up in Chaldea, learning how to fight and become a sword-weilding warrior.

When Sieg reached the age of 18, Siegfried felt he was ready to take the next step to his training. This was where Sieg got fafnirs power, baring a smaller scar on his chest similar to his father. With this power, he was able to draw upon the magical energy of the dragon. Even to the point of being able to transform into a smaller version of fafnir with slight differences. This also was the time that Sieg could root himself as a Master. So, using the summoning system within Chaldea, Sieg called upon the throne and would summon Rider Class, Astolfo. This Master/Servant bond would grow close as Sieg would grow to become romantically interested in Astolfo and visa versa.

Sieg is 3 years older than Mash and the Guda twins, but was never allowed to be in the initial rayshifting experiments that Team A would take part of. It was ordered per Marisbury himself.

Sieg would become apart of the main group because of similar age. He felt indifferent to the Gudas and was nice to Mash due to her upbringing in Chaldea. With Mordred, another half-dragon, he saw Sieg as a threat but Sieg never gave him a chance to fight because of Mordred's immaturity and inexperience.

Sieg would play a major roll in Agartha, one of the Epic of Remnant chapters as well as being apart of the lostbelt squad. I will go into further detail regarding those arcs in different posts.

[mashithamel]

How to manage when your Friday night group aren’t WoT fans, but the show will be airing on Friday nights (and waiting to watch on Saturday simply isn’t an option)?

Bribe them to watch with you.

And, of course, they have to watch Season 1 first.

After three episodes I think they may actually be enjoying it, even.

Comments from episodes 2&3

- Is he going to be Lord of the Wolves? You’re not going to tell me, are you.

- I’m not saying he is, but that guy (Mat) would be a really interesting choice for Dragon.

- Do they (the Whitecloaks) have special bleach-magic to keep their clothes white?

- (after explaining the Arthurian origin of their names) Does that mean hero girl (Egwene) and sword guy (Lan) are going to date?

- (referring to Rand and Mat) Are they supposed to be Sam and Frodo? No, he has a bow and arrow, so they are Legolas and Gimli. Oh, yeah, that works better.

- He kept the cursed blade??? He’s not the sharpest crayon in the box.

I think we might have at least one Mat fan, even post dagger, and we have at least one guess for Rand as the Dragon.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x2

Additional thoughts that had too many spoilers to go into my earlier post will be found here. Spoilers for all the teasers and trailers, plus through book 13: A Memory of Light.

So one of the big questions that I have is: how much is Lanfear acting with Ishamael's knowledge and how much is she going her own way? Ishamael said in the Darkfriend social scene that he is still looking for Rand. If he's being truthful there (and he's talking to his minions, so there's really no point in lying), then Lanfear has not told him that she located Lews Therin.

2. I hadn't thought about this on my first watch, but @ladyofpembroke noted that Lanfear is probably in Rand's final dream in the next episode, so it seems possible that she actually has a hand in all his dreams. Constantly reminding him that he could kill his friends if he sees them again is a good way to make him want to stay where he is (with her) and not try to reconnect with his past life. Like any effective manipulator, she's keeping him isolated from his friends and family as much as she can.

3. otoh, we know from the books that being able to locate someone's dreams doesn't mean that you know where they are in the physical world, so this might be an Ishamael-influenced dream (I note that while Rand's visions of his friends has them wearing their S1 outfits, Ishamael is wearing his s2 outfit, which Rand hasn't seen), so this might be an Ishamael-influenced dream since he figures he might as well torment Rand in the dream if he can't find him irl.

4. Given that Rand is already hearing whispers, I wonder when the show plans to re-introduce Lews Therin to us in his own form. It might even be this season, if they wanted to make sure to keep a lock on the actor (or we might get another Age of Legends cold open -- though I note that we only had one cold open in this set of three episodes, though that might be because Rafe & co were aware that they would likely all air the same night so that might have affected their choices there - I'd love an AoL cold open where we get to see Lanfear and Lews Therin together).

5. So, did Rand find his way to Cairhien first and then Lanfear set up an inn in the Foregate to entice him to her, or did she set up her inn before he arrived and she figured out a way to lure him in? Either way, she's doing a much better job than the Lanfear in the books. She's much less suspicious than "random noblewoman who managed to appear in an unpopulated parallel world so that Rand could save her" and she's more subtle too. While the cringefail Forsaken in the books can be amusing, the threat level of the villains also helps tell you how seriously to take your protagonists, so I'm glad that they beefed up her threat level by actually making her effective. Right now, Lanfear is #winning on every possible level.

6. I love Errol because he serves several story purposes -- he's reminding us that Rand looks "like an Aiel"; he's serving Hurin's purpose in the story of giving Rand someone to look after and be protective of; he's teaching Rand sword forms because he was a blademaster; and he's giving us a bit of history about "the Aiel war". And the actor is quite charming. Plus he's used to show us both Rand's compassion and his need/desire to find mentors to help teach him the skills he needs. At this point in time, Rand does believe that he's defeated the Dark One and his nightmares are just nightmares but he does still want to learn how to protect himself and how to control himself.

7. We mostly hear indistinct whispers until Rand is walking down the hallway (it's the shot from the trailer) and it resolves into "Do you hear me? You are mine, Rand al'Thor." Which is very interesting. Our first inkling of Lews Therin? If so, it shows a greater awareness of Rand as a person than LTT's voice showed in the earlier books when it appeared in his head. I've speculated that this might happen, so I wonder if we're going to get more genuine back-and-forth between Rand and LTT than we really got in the books as a way of letting us into Rand's internal narration without him needing to pour out his heart to any of the characters around him.

8. I am actually loving Perrin getting Rand's plotline here -- it's working really well for him, being used to show us how Perrin can smell what happened in places so vividly that he's re-experiencing the past. I feel like if I didn't know this was Rand's original plotline, I wouldn't have guessed. It suits how they're exploring Perrin's character so well. I do wonder... Elyas speaks of Perrin experiencing a 'vision' -- I wonder if they're going to make the mystical side of being a Wolfbrother more distinct from what Dreamers do in this show version. Because it really was kinda... weird in the books how Perrin and Egwene are doing all this training in the same dreamworld but Perrin never runs across her or any of the Aiel Dreamwalkers, even once they're spending more time in the wetlands side of things.

9. The nailed-up Fade is used in the books to mark when Fain 'takes control' of the Darkfriends & Trollocs. I wonder here if it's meant to mark the moment when the dagger owns him more strongly than the Dark One does. Because the people of Shadar Logoth were not darkfriends -- and they focused on this in s1, too, because dagger!Mat is not a fan of the Fade that he meets in the farmhouse.

10. Love foreshadowing of Errol talking about "Aielman among us and no one bats an eyelash in the entire place" -- Rand is going to be bringing a lot of Aiel to the wetlands. I bet we're going to get to see some of these sword forms in the finale!

11. Liandrin does seem like she's becoming genuinely invested in Nynaeve. I like that (almost) everyone gets their own personal Darkfriend -- Nynaeve has Liandrin, Mat also has Liandrin (she's a hard worker!), Rand has Lanfear, Perrin has (remorseful) Ingtar, Moiraine has (double agent) Verin, Lan has (repentant) Tomas, and even Egwene gets a scene with Sheriam (who will get to be Her Darkfriend Among Us later on, if we're able to follow the books that closely when we get there), though she's not really the focus of Sheriam's attention. Everyone gets a little personal attention from the Shadow!

I like that Nynaeve gets rushed forward to the test for Accepted due to Liandrin wanting to teach her so badly. It seems more realistic reasoning than we get in the books.

12. Another big lie from Liandrin here about how Mat is here because they are "only observing" that the effects of the dagger are out of his system, which Mat immediately calls bullshit on. He's locked in a cell and only Liandrin is around -- that is not an official observation by any means. That's a prison. It's been six months. So I would put Liandrin's official lie count at two. Notably, she's only lying to Mat so far, who is both kept well away from other people and also doesn't really know as much about Aes Sedai (we know from Egwene and Moiraine's conversation in the woods in s1 that the people of the Two Rivers do not have the Aes Sedai oaths memorized).

13. My dearest, my darling, my deepest love is finally here! At the end of my reread, when I was ranking my favorite characters, Elayne was my number one favorite. Ceara is doing such a good job with her and the writing is also excellent. I love how many different sides of her we get to see in just these two episodes -- sheltered noble, awkward girl who grew up with no friends, someone familiar with the Tower but not familiar being a novice in the Tower, but a tinkerer (!!! so excited that they put this in so early) at heart and incredibly loyal and compassionate. I just adored her so much in these two episodes and I am looking forward to seeing more of her. I do really hope that, in the midst of all the chaos, that the show does manage to give her something of a meet-cute with Rand, even if it's less obviously romantic than the one in the books. But I'm really looking forward to more of her interacting with Egwene and Nynaeve, and hopefully meeting Aviendha and/or Min and/or Mat in the finale or before it.

14. I have zero issue with Sheriam not being a redhead. I think it's a good idea for the show to cut down on the number of redheads, given that Jordan says it's rare but then keeps giving us random redheads. Limiting the on-screen ones to the Aiel and the royal house of Andor seems like a good idea to me.

15. So first we got Perrin's letters last episode. Now, in this episode, Elyas tells Perrin that the soldiers he's with right now "are not your pack". While he could be talking about the wolves, of course, I feel like, as a viewer, that makes me think of the EF5 and how that's who Perrin belongs with right now. Especially after Perrin's letter talking about how he feels 'exposed' without the others around. Again, it gives me the hope that we'll get more moments of reconnection between the EF5 over the course of the show.

16. This moment with Verin is such a great one to look at knowing the truth of her situation. "Even oaths have loopholes one can exploit". She's the expert at it. Oaths are a bit of a minor theme in this episode and the next -- the loopholes and also, next episode, we're introduced to the Seanchan oaths where Perrin is, I assume, going to take the very reasonable position that a forced oath is not binding (which is the same position that Mat had in Winter's Heart but inexplicably abandoned in Crossroads of Twilight when he decided his accidental wedding vows were binding).

Oh! I knew I remembered hearing the words "Toman Head" in these three episodes but hadn't remembered it was Verin mentioning it! I thought it was noted as part of the Dark Prophecies but it's mentioned here as mainline prophecy. But the name is out there now. And this conversation also confirms "sword of flame" and "battle in the sky" for the finale, most likely, and a mention of a "branded hand" which feels like it confirms the herons. I wonder if Rand is going to use the same weave on his dad's sword that we saw Verin using at the end of the last episode for Tomas's sword. This may also mean that it's using that weave that burns the herons into Rand's palms?

17. The Rand and Lanfear scenes. Wow! But, yeah, I wonder how much her non-reaction to his bloody knuckles struck show-onlys. She doesn't ask him what happened, who he beat up. She just kisses his bloody knuckles and sweet-talks him into bed.

18. So far, we've heard/seen three separate form of violent teaching in the White Tower -- the unnamed woman who beat Moiraine to make her channel (likely Elaida); Liandrin's behavior with Nynaeve; and Sheriam telling Elayne that she'll be switched. Both Liandrin and Sheriam, of course, are Black Ajah. But from Egwene's reaction here, it doesn't seem like being ordered to be switched is anything close to the common punishment that it seemed to be in the books. But we'll see!

19. It does occur to me that Gawyn (maybe Galad too) might already have been in training with the Warders even if Elayne wasn't a novice yet -- Elayne has been spending her summers in the Tower and it's entirely possible that Gawyn's training to protect her meant he was sent off early to start learning from the best. We don't get any hints in this episode or the next about her brothers, but we're pretty focused on her developing friendship with Egwene.

20. "Min is in Tar Valon" and "Min and Mat share a plotline" were my two most hoped-for options for Min's storyline for this season, so I'm happy about that. I do wish that Min had been given a chance to bond with Elayne or Egwene but, hopefully, there will be time for that later. But I really love the set-up we've been given where we are going to explore Elayne with Egwene and Nynaeve; Min being more fully-explored with Mat; and then Aviendha when she enters Perrin's storyline. All of them are getting fleshed out as individual characters before any of them get romantically involved with Rand. I am feeling pretty hopeful that we're going to get our polycule (and a genuine polycule, not a harem) in the upcoming seasons. They've been putting in a lot of "poly relationships are valid and complex" groundwork in and it looks like they are going to be making sure that all of the characters involved get to be full characters who have their own agendas and their own arcs.

Some people on reddit are still pretty disappointed that Min isn't the male-gaze fantasy that she is in the later books but I have been thrilled with the changes that the show has done so far with her. We also maybe get a hint here that Min is going to be canonically bisexual by the way she jokes about Liandrin, so I will cross my fingers on that.

20. Min's viewing! I do love that they're massively cutting down on the number of Min's viewings to focus on ones that are interesting and relevant. This one is particularly interesting because there's nothing like it in the books. Mat stabbing Rand, then cradling him as he falls.

Theory #1: this is a flicker-flicker world (maybe we only get one big one?) and it's not Our Mat stabbing Our Rand but an alternate one.

Theory #2: Rand asks Mat to fulfill his promise to keep Rand from going mad and that's why Mat stabs him.

Theory #3: Rand loses control of himself (like Lady Amalisa in 1x8) and Mat stabs him to try to get him to lose his hold on the One Power.

Theory #4: Mat gets placed under compulsion (which would be another reason for him to want protection from Aes Sedai and channeling).

Theory #5: Mat gets The Dagger again and he's the one who gives Rand the wound in his side, while under its influence.

Theory #6: It's metaphorical and Mat takes the place of Alivia and helps Rand 'die' at the end of the series (seems unlikely but I'll throw it out there).

And probably lots of other things I haven't thought of. But it definitely shakes Min to see it.

I wonder if she only agreed to help Liandrin after this moment or if she'd already agreed and this is just additional incentive. I don't think she's told Liandrin anything about Rand. She was able to keep that secret from Moiraine even under blackmail so I think she kept it from Liandrin too.

But I do love that we get a viewing that connects Mat and Rand together, even if it's through a traumatic encounter. I am a simple soul who finds messiness intriguing.

21. Lanfear! Talking about her broken heart to the man who broke it and who she is, even now, doing her best to groom back into the man that she wants. The layers in this conversation are exquisite. When she tells him that he can't hurt her, she also can say that because she has a strong grasp of what she can do with the Power while he's still stumbling in the dark. Ooof, but Rand was (unknowingly) on risky ground when he confirmed that he does sometimes think of his past when he's with her.

Also, talking about how "no one else" could ever have power over her heart now that her previous lover is gone... when she's literally talking to his reincarnation. The conversation is just so rich and so sharp and there's so much of it that is going over Rand's head because he doesn't have the necessary information to even begin to put the pieces together. "What's left to hurt if he still has my whole heart?" she says, to the guy in question. "When I'm with you, I can pretend you're him." YEAH. I BET YOU CAN.

22. So I wonder if Moiraine's threat here to Lan, that she would let Alanna take his bond if he didn't let her leave on her own, is going to be the extent of the "Myrelle" plot point that Alanna absorbs and it won't actually happen in fact. But now it's out there as an idea that Warders can be forcibly bonded so that when Alanna forcibly bonds someone else down the road, the idea isn't coming out of nowhere.

23. I was so shocked when the Seanchan attacked in episode two. I was thinking this would happen in episode five. But once I sat down and thought about it, I realizes that Perrin has already hit all the main points of the Hunt for the Horn storyline on his side of things (and even partly on what Rand would have been doing). We've found the traitor and had Ingtar reveal his sympathy towards said traitor; we've found the Fade and the moment when Fain started playing by his own rules; and we've even been exploring Perrin and his senses. This does mean that we're going to have a lot of potential time to explore the Seanchan invasion and culture.

24. I don't have any issues with Ishamael openly being Suroth's advisor vs someone covertly giving Suroth her marching orders. High Lady Suroth is a Darkfriend and always was. We're just taking it out of the shadows and showing it openly to the viewers (and Perrin).

I do wonder if Perrin specifically seeing the Shadow and the Seanchan so entwined will have an impact on his later storylines. That I wonder about. But the later books were, tbh, really weird about how low-impact the Falme encounter ended up being in the long run for pretty much everyone except Egwene. Min basically forgets she knows anything about the Seanchan even when that information could help Rand, everyone forgets about the environment of paranoia and fear that the Seanchan created in Falme, etc. There's a lot of weird forgetfulness going around, especially in CoT & KoD, when Jordan wanted to sell us on his slaver romance.

(the way that the show has been improving characters like Min and relationships like Rand/Lanfear does give me a lot of hope in how they will handle Tuon and the Mat & Tuon 'romance' and that they'll make it better than the poorly-written dumpster fire that it is in CoT & KoD)

[ladyofpembroke]

❁ nine people tag ❁

Thanks to @bisexualchrissycunningham for tagging me :)

↪️ last song: Raining Romance by HOLYCHILD (ugh i'm still sad they broke up)

↪️ last movie: Bottoms, I saw it last weekend with my friend in theaters!

↪️ currently watching: WHEEL OF TIME! Please everybody watch wheel of time!! I keep most of my WoT insanity confined to my sideblog but please watch wheel of time!!! Also, now that i'm back in my netflix 'household' I've started rewatching ugly betty but I'm only a few episodes in and I'm always bad with second hand embarrassment so I don't know how long my rewatch will last (I always pause if something embarrassing is going to happen and then hardly ever come back)

↪️ currently reading: I've been having trouble reading books this last month with my move and the stress of that and starting my internship but hopefully this weekend will be better, and I can read before my books get returned to the library. I'm partially through The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow and only just started The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

↪️ currently craving: I'm getting indian food tomorrow night so maybe the really big samosas from our local restaurant

↪️ last thing you researched: touch typing/typing practice lol. My internship gave me a work laptop but the key board spacing is so different from my surface pro's and I've definitely been making a lot of mistakes so I'm going to practice a bit so I get used to the format (the worst is that the home button is where the backspace should be so I keep accidentally hitting it).

I'm tagging @tigraine-mantear @daughter-heir @gracekelli @kittytudor @lewyn-martell @amemoryofwot @ourgraciousqueens @chiennedereglisse @clytenmestra

[wheresmulder]

get to know me(me)

tagged by @amemoryofwot and tag 9 people to get to know better

three ships: only 3 huh 🥲 fine. Xena/Gabrielle. Gelphie. Gretson. I like bitches with G names

first ever ship: when I was a kid I'd always like self-insert (as the man) when watching Disney movies so I was shipping ariel/jasmine/esmeralda with myself as a 5yo 😅 if that doesn't count Christian/Satine moulin rouge

last song:

last movie: evil dead rise IT WAS SO GOOD FUCK

currently reading: a crown of swords (wot book 7) and I'm halfway thru new spring (wot) and I just started the oracle of maracoor lmao but I'm not actively reading any of them bc my brain doesn't work

currently consuming: lays sour cream and cheddar chips

currently craving: Chinese food I want an egroll so bad idk why

9 people do the thing: @iscariotmilf @unjust-dust @not-quitenormal @masterpieceofunderstatement @ray-vnn @morewinepls @elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey @bipandasworld @billiedeanspearls

[panic-at-the-waffle-house]

A CROSSOVER NOBODY ASKED FOR BUT I WILL DUMP IT ANYWAY :D

Okay so like think about Demon Slayer. Cool swords, attacks, and overall some interesting characters.

Now think about Fire Emblem. Cool swords, attacks, and interesting characters.

BOOM.

Just imagine the shock on Felix’s face when he sees tiny Shinobu tear someone to pieces and she watches them with a smile on her face.

Shinobu: Oh my! You don’t seem to well, I guess you are poisoned after all. Did you know that I have over 200 toxins in my body? 😊

Felix and Claude who are standing there: Wot????

Imagine Dimitri and Mitsuri bonding over having supernatural strength and how it’s affected them over the years. JUST IMAGINE THE FRIENDSHIP AND SHE WOULD BE SUCH A SWEETIE TO HIM NO MATTER WHAT. Whatever he can’t eat she would finish for him.

Inosuke and Casper? Let them go, Lindhart, don’t go after them. I’m just saying that Muichiro and Lindhart are total nap buds.

Tengen would be taking Sylvain under his wing like the good role model he is. And totally brag about the three wives he managed to snatch that love him dearly.

I think Rengoku, Giyu, and Gyomei would all have a good time in the Blue Lions idk

But most importantly. Think of the group therapy sessions.

Edelgard: so all of my siblings were tortured and killed by an underground group that basically had a weird obsession with crests and weird stuff so now I hate the church and crests.

Sanemi: my mom killed all of my siblings except one and now he eats demons.

Claude: I’ve been ostracized from both countries and have been hunted for my head along with having to poison myself for years to survive assassinations.

Kanao: my dad abused me while in poverty and when I found a good family my older sister figure died tragically and now I can’t make decisions for myself

Dimitri: long story short. My life is kinda shit and nobody understands the depths of my trauma

Tanjiro: bro same. Anyway meet my sister who’s a demon

[strawberryshortcake1495]

Hexes and Bones - Luz and William Reunite (for the first time)

William held the flare high up in the air, watching as the smoke faded away and died out. He frowned and lowered the flare. “At this rate, those scouts are ne'er going to find me.” He said. “William?” A voice suddenly piped from behind him. The boy froze, and then slowly but surely turned around to face the woman behind him. She had short brown hair and was wearing a purple jacket over a white and pink striped shirt, as well as beige pants that she seemed to have sewn herself with white shoes (basically Luz’s timeskip design). His eyes softened. “Pardon me?”

“Oh, William!” Luz rushed towards her little brother and embraced him, making sure not to hug him too tightly. William dropped the flare in surprise, and a bird cawed in the distance. “I’m so sorry, William.” She said, caressing his cheek. “I came back. I promise, I did. But…you weren’t there and I-I searched the entirety of Bonesborough for you.” She said. “What?” William mumbled. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I just…I never thought I’d see you again.” Luz embraced him again. “Who art thou?” William said, drifting out of his sudden trance. Luz slowly pulled away. “What do you mean? It’s me, Luz, your sister. I’m here, I’m right here.” She said softly. “I don’t have a sister.” William said, looking at her in disgust. “What? William, come on…if you’re still mad about what happened when Caleb died, I-I can make things right. I promise.” Luz said. “Stop acting like thee wot me!” William said, pushing this strange woman away. “William, you seriously don’t remember me?” Luz asked, her eyes widening in horror. “Nay! leave me alone, strange woman!” William said, backing up. “Hey hey hey, careful!” She grabbed his arms and gently pulled him closer to her, away from the edge of the roof.

Eda ran up to the roof with King buried in her hair. “Luz!” She shouted. William immediately bared his sword. “Bird of Night Lady!” He shouted. “Ugh, not this brat again…” Eda sighed. “Hey, watch your mouth when you talk about my brother!” Luz said fiercely. “YOUR WHAT?!” King yelped. “Methinks I understand now…you tried pretending thou wert someone I wot so thee could trick me into betraying Emperor Belos!” William sneered. “No, that’s not true at all!” Luz said, her breathing quickening. “Belos’ son is your brother? Where’s the logic in that?” Eda asked. Luz’s pupils dilated. “Belos’…what?”

[cannoli-reader]

My Notes from Watching the Wheel of Time Show, season 1, episode 7

Originally posted on 12/18/2021.  Possible spoilers for any or all WoT novels.

Almost to the end. By the standards of the show, now is the time to stop at an inn.

00:35 Fain in the recaps. I wonder if he’s going to put in an appearance? I wonder if it will catch them totally by surprise, with Rand or Perrin scoffing that he’s dead shortly before that?

01:18 Shaiel flashback! Why now, I wonder?

02:10 Pretty sure this is why you don’t actually wear a cape in battle. Also, why did that guy climb on the rock to strike down at her? They’re on a mountainside. Why would he randomly jump up on the rock and be surprised to see a Maiden sitting in the lee? And how did she miss him given that the rock is the only apparent cover in this open area?

02:22 Okay, these are Illianers based on the bees. I am really hoping Tam isn’t going to be beaten up by Shaiel and only saved by a contraction. Let’s try to remember, he’s a blademaster of sufficient experience to take the number two spot in the army despite being a foreigner. She’s pregnant with less than seven years of experience in hand-to-hand combat.

02:31 They’ve had four instances that I can recall of thrown knives so far, and only one was effective. Considering it’s a key weapon in many characters’ arsenal, plus a favorite of Hollywood, let’s not make it into a joke, where a pregnant woman is able to leverage a man’s body to intercept a knife in flight.

03:24 I cannot watch a dual-wielding fight, especially with a woman in a turban, without thinking of the laughably bad Sand Snakes on GoT. Just when I was thinking this one is better, and they are not clearly showing the multiple armed men failing to take advantage of their numbers and angles, we see a guy standing behind the kneeling Shaiel just weaving his sword around in the air waiting until she’s ready to parry. This is ridiculous and unnecessary! If you need to establish Aiel badassery, show a native Aiel taking on multiple enemies. Or have Shaiel defeating a reasonable number (one, maybe), despite being pregnant. This is so over the top, and on a show that already is flirting with invented girl-power, it’s highly suspect

04:00 Also, it’s really frustrating every time I have to watch Hollywood’s idea of a battle, which is actually more like “multiple simultaneous duels.” Even some of my favorite quasi-historical epics, like "Braveheart" or "The Patriot" or "300" despite paying lip service to the value of formations, have their battles deteriorate into a bunch of guys fighting one-on-one (or more, to show they are badass).

But at least they didn’t do Tam dirty

06:06 I wonder if it’s a Hollywood ego thing or bullshit guild rules that “Skip Intro” takes you to the name of the showrunner, writers and director.

07:05 So you need to channel to enter the Ways, but you can’t channel inside, and also channeling to open the Waygate should not be done. How do people get out then? I hope it’s because the key or controls or whatever are on the inside, Edit from the future: It is not. but I am betting, based on their track record and the general intellectual level of the medium, they just didn’t think of it. Edit from the future: Probably

07:15 Of course, the answer to a simple question ( "What's Machin Shin" ) has to wait until it’s a more dramatic moment to reveal, even if it’s very pertinent, given Loial’s immediately prior warning.

08:44 For the record, they are correct, and more clear than the books, on the point that the Dragon represents danger not just in collateral damage or unfortunate necessity, like an amputation, but I feel like it’s just being done to give Moiraine more of a leg to stand on when arguing with the Indispensable Man. Because it was a moral question in the books, and that was one area in which Rand always was better informed than Moiraine.

09:33 How is a wrong step supposed to make you fall over those man-high columns along the sides of the paths? Also, they look like the tops of the piles holding up a pier, so you don't realize the bridges are supposed to be over nothing.

10:15 I don’t recall Perrin seeing any better in the Ways than anyone else. His vision maximizes the available light, and there is none in the Ways.

11:16 That’s the sort of thing Rand generally thinks, but Mat says. But we yeeted Mat out of the group for no reason, so we have to have Rand being uncharacteristically mocking of his friend.

12:17 Soooo…want to do some dishes?

12:22 Nosewart by firelight.

12:36 Imma assume Perrin’s just missing his own snuggle-buddy-turned axe-scabbard, and that look was not the start of Evangeline Lilly’s least favorite trope. Edit from the future: Nope, that's what it is.

12:49 First Shadar Logoth and now the Ways, both proving visually & atmospherically inferior to an old CD-ROM PC game. As ill-suited to the Wheel of Time experience as a first-person shooter might have been, it really conveyed the pants-shitting terror of both settings.

13:02 Lan looks more like a Myrddraal than the ones seen so far on screen. And I think it would have been scarier than the sandworm-mouth. Hilariously, I am intermittently plowing through Heretics of Dune right now, in which Sheeana refers to the sandworms as "Shaitan".

13:21 I know Egwene’s earrings are probably supposed to look Indian or something, but to me, they look like a rosary chaplet. Or a buzzsaw.

13:36 Either Machin Shin is not going to come, and Loial’s warning was bullshit to force the plot or they are actually going to have something be Egwene’s fault! Extremely innocently, but it’s still surprising given the leanings so far. Edit from the future: I'll give them this. It's almost good. Except for how saidar actually works as opposed to saidin.

13:53 “Machin Shin” translates to “journey of destruction” in the Old Tongue, not “black wind”! Black is “zoon”, which I know from the Aiel societies. This is in a book that was published six years ago, and easily ascertained! Especially by so-called fans striving for a faithful adaptation.

14:03 Wait, where were they going originally if they are only going to Fal Dara because of Journey of Destruction? Is there a Waygate at the Eye of the World? Edit from the future: Since those stick up higher than the trees in the Blight, probably not.

Also, Moiraine makes it sound like Journey of Destruction is going to try to tempt you instead of simply making you insane and/or (ha!) sucking out your soul. That it can somehow be resisted.

15:03 Journey of Destruction looks like a swam of locusts. And Journey of Destruction would be a better name for a magical locust swarm than “Black Wind.” Just saying. By the way, dibs on Journey of Destruction as a band name.

15:24 Lamest. Horror wind voices. Ever.

15:44 Wait, “loved another woman more than your wife”. No. Do not. Just don’t. Edit from the future: They do.

Maybe the point is that the Wind is lying (I refuse to attribute this crap to Journey of Destruction), given what it says about Rand and Egwene, whose relationship is going nowhere.

15:51 It sounds like they are attributing Nynaeve’s protectiveness to a need for attachment and a sop to her own loneliness and feelings of isolation. That’s bullshit. She protects her people because they are her people, not because she’s sad and pathetic!

16:00 Okay, so channeling stops Machin Shin now. Fine, whatever.

16:14 Dramatic backward bend, Moiraine. Dodging bullets in the Matrix, are we?

17:03 On the one hand, the backhanded compliment of congratulating the Emond’s Fielders on walking through a door is very much a Moiraine type thing (even more so a Lan thing), she isn’t going to address Egwene channeling when she should not? So they are either going nerf away the dangers of channeling or it’s going to seem really stupid and arbitrary when they bring those out again in time for them to be plot-relevant. At the least, it’s a good chance to drop in a line people will remember when Egwene dies. Edit from the future: It's even worse, because she never felt the channeling that knocked the Trolloc off.

17:21 If the Eye is only a day’s walk beyond the city in the real world, why is there a significant difference in the Ways between the Fal Dara gate and their intended destination? Why would they spend even five minutes more in the Ways than they needed to, to save a day’s walk in the real world, especially if they have time enough for the rest Moiraine just mentioned?

17:35 Either Rand is taking the evil Wind's words seriously for no reason, or they are thoughtlessly transcribing his ITB regret at the inevitable dissolution of his relationship with Egwene despite omitting Min and her viewings which foretold it to him.

18:03 I like the look of Fal Dara, even if there is no sign of the town from the books, let alone the “city” someone just called it. Like, you can see the people for scale. There isn’t room in there for my small hometown to live and be a town, even if you can cram the population into barracks.

18:26 All the black hawks are giving me a "Harpy of Meereen" vibe. The place looking like an exotic desert city doesn't help.

18:48 I suppose I should be glad that Uno is using an actual WoT curse, but after several episodes of "shite" and "arse," plus yet another “bastard” it completely erases his characteristic foul mouth.

19:14 I don’t know how I feel about this set design. On the one hand, it emphasizes the purpose of keeping a watch on the Blight and I presume that’s Tarwin’s Gap seen through the aperture to the balcony. On the other, it’s a huge opening pointed at the Blight and the Shadow, which is what they are there to guard against! If artillery is a thing to the degree that it was used in the Aiel War, where one side consists entirely of light infantry (i.e. no good targets) that’s not a vulnerability Fal Dara should have. And the Shadow is too dangerous for pointless gestures of bravado. Edit from the future: You think that is bravado? Wait until Shogun Agelmar opens his mouth.

19:36 I don’t like how they are using "Dai Shan". It’s not just Lan’s title, it’s like a knighthood, maybe more elite, like Warden in historical England. But more importantly, it’s also Agelmar’s title. The very first time anyone addresses him in the books, it is to call him Agelmar Dai Shan. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it was an annoyance with Sanderson that has me worried. Edit from the future: You were right to be.

20:00 Agelmar interrupts an Aes Sedai, to downplay concerns about his ability to hold the line. Agelmar, nor any Borderland ruler with an ounce of sense, would never turn away any legit help, no matter the quarter, against the Blight. The closest he comes to cockiness is when he is dismissing Fain’s grandiose offers of aid which the peddler does not look capable of delivering.

20:07 Fucker does it again! ITB the closest he came to discourtesy was when he insulted the TR boys, guests beneath his roof, for asking impertinent questions of Moiraine. Interrupting Moiraine would be right out.

20:18 ITB, Agelmar begs Moiraine for help, saying she would be worth a thousand lances against the Trollocs. Here, he boasts of fighting off armies of Trollocs that would make even an Aes Sedai blanch.

20:30 Even if Moiraine intends that remark as a rebuke, that’s not how an Aes Sedai would do it. Rather she would affirm that the Tower has every confidence in Agelmar’s ability to fulfil his duties and finds not fault in his performance nor any reason to chastise or rebuke him, leaving unspoken the implication that the Tower COULD do these things and has the right to judge him, that its authority is supreme and the Tower, not the Borderland lords, is the ultimate defense against the Shadow to whom Agelmar and the others answer. Show!Moiraine’s reply is an assertion of his autonomy, however backhanded, and despite the implication that he had better not fail because that would make him a shitty lord.

This is not special book knowledge, this is basic knowledge of “use of English language” and “interpersonal dynamics”. Two areas in which one would assume a screenwriter should be an expert. Edit from the future: I'm pretty sure there are over-long posts confirming you have watched all six episodes before this one. So why are you bringing this up?

21:40 I’m sort of curious what the point of Fain even is at this point. I’ll just assume he entered and left the Ways with some bullshit power the writers make up for him. Edit from the future: Shit! He's going to replace Aginor and Balthamel, isn't he?

21:51 Amalisa channels.

22:02 And Min is in Fal Dara and her ability is known, at least by the local authorities. Also, implicit in the title “Seer” is the answer to the question of why anyone would wish to speak to her.

22:07 I hope that’s not her way of announcing she’s a White sister.

22:14 Agelmar is just a know-it-all guy, never mind that he’s one of the greatest living generals in the world, whom Cadsuane characterizes as someone who is open to learning and making improvements.

22:33 Ah, she has a Great Serpent ring with no gem, so she was put out as an Accepted. Or given the ring as a courtesy of her rank, like Morgase. I guess that's a little better. But it should come with some exposition as to why this is not a perfectly valid alternative career path. Again, this Worfs the White Tower.

22:46 No one tells Aes Sedai that their first allegiance lies elsewhere, even if they think it. The White Tower presents as a superior institution that trumps all other claims. Furthermore, in the Borderlands, they see the White Tower as indispensable to their struggle with the Shadow. What an Aes Sedai wants, an Aes Sedai gets. It’s a measure of the extremity of the times ITB that the rulers start to balk at Elaida’s actions or start to give the whole split a side-eye.

23:12 Once again, the Red Ajah are not the men-with-power division of the White Tower. They are a political entity. If you send the Red Ajah a message, it is not in regard to their “function” as man-hunters, but as a political body in the context of Tower politics. Dangerous people and preternatural threats are the province of the whole Tower. One might want to keep a problem quiet and only run it by one’s close allies or friends, but a sister would only be sending a message to the Reds of a dangerous man if they had some political agenda behind it.

23:17 Oh, spears are a thing soldiers carry in this world. That fight with Shaiel was the equivalent of a woman with a rifle fighting a bunch of guys with pistols. Swords are sidearms and have always only ever been the secondary weapon of soldiers or a civilian weapon in day-to-day life. A soldier’s primary weapon is a spear or polearm or bow.

23:42 I kind of feel like this is out of character for Egwene. She’s not very insightful about other people’s feelings. Like, she, in her way, cares about them and stuff, but beyond that, she generally doesn’t have a good read on people outside of their immediate agendas, usually pertaining to something to which she can relate, like political advantage. More than a few times people who know her well run cons on Egwene or mislead her by the simple fact that she is oblivious to their issues or concerns and takes their presentation at face value.

It seems more like they just need a way to articulate Rand’s conflict and have the closest person to him talk about it, regardless of whether or not it’s in character for her.

24:09 Um, Nynaeve, you “were there on Bel Tine when the Trollocs came” and people actually saw you physically dragged off by one of them. Assuming Fain is dead when no one would have mentioned seeing a body is a mistake you especially should not be making.

And while it might be a reasonable assumption if Fain’s wagon was just left there unattended in the village square, given his canonical cheapness, that he must be dead, Nynaeve was not there in the aftermath. Nynaeve, even aside from the fact of her survival, was not there the next morning, so she has no idea who lived or died, beyond what the others might have told her. Is the show already forgetting details like this? Or is it like Rand and Egwene, where the most convenient person says the thing regardless of whether it makes sense? Edit from the future: Probably that.

25:07 Egwene’s mother is the best cook in the Two Rivers and women in general have contempt for men’s competence in female-coded activities. Why would Egwene expect Rand to make her dinner, especially if this world has the patriarchy, per Liandrin a couple episodes ago?

And why does every conversation still have to include put-downs?

26:02 My brother contends this is a legitimate viewing of Rand symbolizing his rebirth (but he’s also not super good on the details of things like RJ insisting that Min’s viewings always concern the future), but I doubt it. It also doesn’t make much sense ITB, because Rand’s red hair was incinerated with the rest of his corpse before any of his children were born (my headcanon is that his pipe-lighting power eventually changes him back to his normal appearance so that by the time his red hair has grown back out and his facial features realigned, everyone but those closest to him have forgotten what Rand al’Thor looks like).

27:12 I’m kind of interested to see how the Amyrlin is going to be Moiraine’s downfall, considering how little she has to do with any other Aes Sedai after leaving Fal Dara. I also wonder if it means Siuan, because Min specified the regalia but has she ever seen Siuan in person?

28:37 The firelight makes the nosewart visible even when it’s not a closeup!

28:43 Also, this prophecy feels like bullshit just made up to inflate the stakes. What was wrong with them going to the Eye to stop some plan of the Dark One with no clue what they were in for? I mean, that would have required some buildup and groundwork, so we might have had to cut back on Stepin’s mourning process or getting to know Dana the Darkfriend, or maybe pare down discussions of the Way of the Leaf to the number of such conversations they had on the topic ITB (it was one, for the record), but it could have been done.

28:47 “It’s easy to use doubt as a crutch, but doubt is the first step toward surrender to the Dark” What is this supposed to be? It honestly sounds like an aphorism from the Space Marines Children of the Light, or something Sevanna or Elaida would tell people who balked at her power grabs. Or something Egwene would say in ToM or aMoL, come to think of it.

It might be cool if Rand remembers this phrase to throw back in Moiraine’s face when she is doubting and questioning his plans or methods.

29:00 “I know what’s right” is exactly what zealots and lunatics say in such situations. Or what writers have characters say because they can’t think up a good explanation and want the audience to accept what they believe is right, and move on.

29:32 Moiraine’s current outfit makes her look particularly casual-sloppy, like she’s tromping around the house in a bathrobe she couldn’t be bothered to belt closed.

29:43 “Nothing an Aes Sedai says is optional” is more stupid phrasing. What does optional even mean in this case?

30:30 Rand and Nynaeve are making very good points, and they are even bringing up an actual character beat, that they mistrust Moiraine because she keeps so many things to herself. But the way this is being played out makes it seem like Egwene is the one who is supposed to be right. Because she is the one arguing in favor of the way the writers want the conflict to go. They want this prophecy accepted as a foregone conclusion, because the certainty of death is the crux of the debate.

30:46 Nosewart

30:55 My super-uncharitable-where-Egwene-is-concerned mindset (that I make an effort to turn off for these reviews, for the record) is suggesting that Egwene, who believes herself to be the main character in the story, is leaning hard on going along with Moiraine, because she honestly believes she is the Dragon and will not be killed and is looking forward to proving her heroism and power.

31:03 For the record, the period in the books when Egwene would say something like this to Nynaeve is, more or less, book 3, when she is still acting out her PTSD from her enslavement under the Seanchan. What concerns me is that the writers really think Nynaeve is just being spiteful with regard to Moiraine, given how they have her saying something negative or suspicious at every turn, and are, in turn, having Egwene voice this as a fact.

31:15 It wasn’t Nynaeve’s pride in the books, it was her protectiveness over the four young people. She was hostile to Moiraine because she didn’t like what she saw and didn’t want her harming or abandoning the kids like she seems capable of doing for everyone else. That was the gist of all of Nynaeve’s questioning of Moiraine, why isn’t she helping or why is she putting them in the current danger.

31:18 Nosewart

31:35 Yeah, see? It’s like Egwene cannot even encompass the idea that it could be Mat. Or she thinks Perrin is making excuses to wuss out.

31:48 Okay, not just me seeing that. Also, nosewart

32:05 ITB Emond’s Field is a community where no one is ignorant of these sorts of details about their neighbors. Also, if the Cauthons were as dissolute and degenerate as the show wants us to see them, it’s the sort of place where people would be making efforts to help Mat is they could see he was legit trying to step up and do right by the girls, if they were not performing interventions on Abel and Natti. For all the discussion of the Women’s Circle seems to center on them being busybodies and controlling like the church elders of a New England colonial community, they would absolutely be taking a hand with the situation we are shown on screen, and Tam and a few guys would have given Abell a presentation on the right way a man cares for his family, with Master Luhan’s fists making the most salient points if necessary.

But then again, small towns and close-knit communities and family values will never ever get a fair shake in Hollywood.

32:37 What the hell is this!? Perrin and Rand are rivals for Egwene? Rand embarks on a rivalry for a woman’s attentions? ITB he couldn’t even maintain the moral high ground of his girlfriend’s double standard on what counts as cheating.

Also, notice how Nynaeve keeps saying ‘stop it’ to no avail in the background? Because the Two Rivers folk always just ignore Nynaeve in book 1, right? Setting aside the playing with her contrarian nature and temper to get those traits wrong, the show is completely destroying Nynaeve’s presence and authority.

32:43 Maybe Egwene liked it?

32:20 If Perrin was proposing to Laila, he had to have been dating her, right? So he was dating Laila while carrying a torch for Egwene? How does this make any sense? And how does it make sense for Rand to be saying this? Edit from the future: This could actually be taint paranoia. We'll have to see if that symptom ever comes up.

33:48 Nosewart

35:29 This remorse is weirdly out of character for Moiraine. Even when she is contemplating their partnership in the context of doing right by Lan, during her PoV chapter at Vandene & Adealas’ place in Book 2, it’s about taking horribly invasive and unethical means to protect and save him. She knows that bonding Lan gave him a reason to stay alive and keep going, rather than die fighting the Blight to prevent being used for futile crusades or political gambits.

Of course, that might not be the case in this world, where people talk smack to Aes Sedai and treat them like political equals, rather than an institution that can more or less veto a political action with taking the Uncrowned King of Malkier off the board by making him a warder.

35:40 Moiraine was very aware ITB and concerned by the fact that she is Lan’s whole life and purpose, and she wants to make sure he doesn’t lose those things without her. She perceives this singular focus as a useful asset given the importance of her goals, but is also aware of the human cost.

See this is why I watch the show. Because by being so fricking stupid about the characterization, it’s forcing me to think about it to get it right and thereby realize the perspective of a character even when I think they’re being 100% wrong.

37:42 This is flat out bad filmmaking. He was there when she turns away and he’s in a totally different place when she looks up, despite having to pass through a wall.

37:50 I feel like “tracking” is going to become a memetic euphemism, either in-show or in the fandom, for Lanaeve romantic interaction.

38:07 Again with the negging. “Are you just going to stand there?” instead of “why don’t you join us?”

39:14 That child looks weird. Like it doesn’t fit with the family.

39:54 “You didn’t give me much of a choice” Again, with the snark. It’s not much of a joke, and he himself noted that she was just standing there, so it’s not like she was pushing in on him. Why can’t he just say he was glad to have her or make a more on-point comment about her pushing into his business?

People actually claim to have cried at their first and only intimate conversation in the books. What was wrong with that version, on a show with so many pacing issues, that is already wasting so much time on superfluous things? Lan and Nynaeve get to the point, they don’t make awkward small talk while keeping their feelings to themselves. They are absolutely clear when they talk to one another about their feelings and relationship. Ending a date on “um, well, good night” is more of a Rand and Elayne pattern or for Perrin and Faile, in some ways.

41:47 Okay, sure, Nynaeve’s a ho-bag. Why not.

42:37 I always wonder about the value of Hollywood archery practice, which seems to take place at point-blank range. For all I know, that’s how they do it, but it seems kind of odd, given how windage and elevation would effect an arrow so much more than a bullet, and thus long-range practice would be different from close-range.

42:44 It would be cool if Rand’s difficulty aiming was because his concentration technique was established and he was starting to feel freaky stuff when he used it, so he’s afraid to turn to it again. Otherwise, why even is he an archer? That’s the point of that character trait, and the reason he never once touches a bow again after he starts to use the Power consciously and deliberately. Edit from the future: This might actually be the case. It would be really nice to see some indication that the writers are consciously doing this, because at this point, without some evidence, I am perfectly willing to accept this was sheer coincidence, that a screenwriting trope happens to overlap with an aspect of WoT.

42:47 Egwene would absolutely sulk off and wait for someone to come apologize, but there’s no way she gives up on her own after only an hour.

42:59 That tracks, Rand.

43:35 Nosewart. Also, I feel like this is a sort of “we’re all going to die tomorrow” kind of scenario, that’s going to end with them ‘doing the dishes’ if you get my drift. I kind of hope not, though.

43:57 On-character. Egwene absolutely believes the rules don’t apply to her, and by extension, her friends. She was totally going to teach Rand to channel, any day now! The White Tower doesn’t know what it’s talking about. It’s totally a smart, safe and sensible thing to hide Rand from the only people who can prevent him from turning Fal Dara into a volcano, and hiding him among the highest-priority protected people in the keep without their knowledge or consent, no less! The rules don’t apply to them and they will be fine!

44:12 Like, I think the writers are trying to do right by Rand, by having him be supportive, but it’s also a conversation that would have more meaning if he was actually starting to channel and aware of it. Except Egwene is one of the first to find out, so it wouldn’t make sense. Okay, fine.

44:24 How did Egwene make the mistake once before, that is the equivalent of going to the Tower without Rand? Why are they working so hard to sell us on the devotion of this couple at a point when Rand, ITB is already feeling a sense of doom about them? Of course, he has yet to hear Min’s viewing that made him aware of it…

44:39 Dun duh dunnnnn! Gawyn Foreshadowing. He is coming. But seriously, this was Egwene’s idea ITB, and it felt like a case of denial when she articulated it, like she herself is trying to overcompensate for either the forebodings about their quest or even the inevitable estrangement of a couple with very different goals. Again, a thing better said if Rand is aware of his channeling and is trying to cover to his friends. Hmph.

45:04 Nosewart. Not going to get into the issues with Egwene’s statement until that scenario comes up for real.

46:02 “Why did he call you Dai Shan?” You know, Nynaeve? I really don’t want to hear the butchered explanation. Why has the show not set up Lan’s backstory reveal with a more pertinent and specific-to-Lan reference, like Last Lord of the Seven Towers or the Golden Crane or even the slightest mention of Malkier? Edit from the future: You're back on track.

46:25 So after misstating other Old Tongue terms like "Machin Shin", or "Ishamael", now they are ignoring the meaning of "Dai Shan", which is obvious to even the most Old-Tongue-oblivious reader as having the word for ‘battle’ in there. No, Dai Shan is just the Malkieri equivalent of Crown Prince.

46:40 Does a WoTNovice grasp the significance of a whole nation being overrun by the Blight? Have we made it clear what the Blight is?

46:58 Malkier was overrun by Trollocs, at least if we are talking about the one particular night when al’Akir and el’Leanna died.

47:58 Lan’s problem is not that he didn’t have anyone, it was that he had too many people with impossible expectations. That is why he accepted Moiraine bonding him (I’ll forgive Nynaeve’s mix up of active and passive voice in that regard due to Liandrin). But the show is making up this interpretation for Tragedy. And to force a conflict in their romance. I mean, they jumped right into bed, what’s to stop these two kids from making a go of it?

48:29 Lan would absolutely accept or even present the fact of his bond as an obstacle to a relationship with Nynaeve. And he’d do it before sleeping with her.

49:13 Is why they had the Shaiel flashback at the beginning? To draw the viewers’ attention to Tam being the one holding a sword on her at the end?

49:24 Ohhhh. They’re saving the baby reveal for now. This better be good. I’ve acknowledged and tried to take into account the difficulty of adapting Rand’s largely interior conflicts and arc to the screen, but hearing Tam say he’s adopted is something that could naturally be shown to the viewers to help them understand context for issues Rand deals with.

The only thing I can think is that by keeping Rand’s hidden parentage a secret, they were preserving the mystery of who was the actual Dragon. Which is stupid. More sacrificing characterization in order to play games with the audience.

50:07 Kind of sneaky, hiding the channeling all this time.

50:10 Okay, if it was Rand who channeled at the Trolloc, why didn’t Moiraine try to follow up on the fact that she absolutely did not feel saidar? Are they just not going to have the rules for channeling or are they hoping no one will ask that question when they reveal the rules?

50:36 Min is not very attractive.

50:45 Haha. Funny joke. But A. that’s not how her powers work and B. if it is, why doesn’t she know what he wants?

51:30 I’ve always sort of felt Rand’s actual, potential and former love interests represented his origins. Min was the common ordinary type from the ass end of nowhere. Egwene was the home he had to leave behind. Elayne and Aviendha represented his parents and his destiny as a leader for both peoples. Lanfear was for the possibility of him going bad. Else was how he never had a chance at a mundane adventurous life and Berelain and the various Cairhien women were about the kind of involvement with the politics and social games he needed to remain above. But now Min is from Tar Valon or the Borderlands, and nothing to do with him.

51:38 De-aged Tam is barely recognizable. He looks more like Eddie Marsan, with those weird-looking eyes. I doubt I’d have known who that was supposed to be, even with the heron-mark imagery, if I didn’t know it from the books and the flashback with him talking to Rand.

52:03 Min’s viewing is, I believe, the first mention of the Dragon being Reborn on the slopes of Dragonmount. So how is the significance supposed to register here? Also, it makes no sense, for the record, that Rand would have any memory of the mountain, since LTT died before it was formed (and his role in creating it being another datum elided from the show thus far) and Baby Rand would probably not have been able to visually comprehend something that remote at that age.

52:48 By the way, that viewing does jack all to prove anything, aside from the bit about the sword (but that could have been any blademaster, hence the subsequent details) since Nynaeve, Mat, Perrin and Egwene were also raised in a wooden house surrounded by fields of sheep in a land between two rivers.

53:11 I’m going to assume “rainbows and carnivals and three beautiful women” is Min being sarcastic and at the same time, slipping in the truth to avoid mentioning their future. So let’s please not get into a debate about what carnivals and rainbows refers to. Back on wotmania, the FAQ would already have started a page listing which sister of each Ajah is a candidate for Rand’s rainbow, because clearly it means the colors of the Ajahs, so there is going to be one sister of each who will be needed and is the Green Alanna or Elayne? And carnival means either his adventures in the Foregate or his dream of going to the White Tower or clearly a reference to book 6 and we’d all be calling each other stupid.

I miss wotmania. Even if all the best people from there are clearly all here, still active on the RAFOMB, of course.

And the casting department is 0 for 1 so far on the “three beautiful women” department.

Unless they’re making Min look dull now so that when she starts dressing up it’s more striking?

54:23 Wow, really nosewart, there.

54:40 Egwene, who just slept with a guy, prodding at Nynaeve’s walk of shame, is totally in character.

55:02 As is not letting Nynaeve off the hook despite, given their last interaction, things being good with her and Rand again.

55:41 You had Rand last, Egwene. What did you do with him? Although, again, boyfriends being something of an afterthought is also an Egwene trait.

55:42 It would have been really funny if Perrin & Moiraine hooked up because they were the only ones not getting laid before half the group dies.

I just realized Mat is the only one of the main seven characters not to have had sex this season. I’m counting Perrin because he was married when the show started and touched Laila in a creepy familiar manner. When this show wants to get the characters wrong, it doesn’t do it halfway.

56:18 I don’t think that’s why Rand knocked on Moiraine’s door, but the way the show is going…

56:20 No shit, Lan. Even if she likes Nynaeve, maybe especially if she likes Nynaeve, she doesn’t want to feel what you were doing last night. This is really the only cited ITB reason for the masking, except when Aes Sedai and Warder find themselves at odds over something like him being a wolfbrother or her being a Darkfriend and she’s trying to hide from him.

56:43 I don’t know why this is necessary. The show is trying to make a bigger issue of this being a group effort and not make Rand the front-and-center lead character. Why then have him and Moiraine sneak off alone to go to the Eye of the World, whatever that is? Either they are missing their own point (not surprising, since it was also explicitly the point in the books, and not an element that needed strengthening, so they seem to have missed it on adaptation), or they are being particularly ham-fisted about it.

And they have set it up so a potential group venture is just stupid, because of the prophecy which as far as we know, suggests the others will be dead weight, not a necessary sacrifice. The whole point from the moment Siuan brought it up was that if they know which one the Dragon is, of course, the others would be left behind to save their lives, but we’re going to take all of them to learn by elimination, in the most brutal sense of the word, which one is the Dragon Reborn. So, it would make no sense for them to all show up and provide critical help to Rand and Moiraine to rebuke their notion of going alone to save their lives. Like, I feel that if, ITB, Verin had revealed to the group the “five ride forth and four return” prophecy, Rand, Mat, Perrin, Hurin and Ingtar would all still have volunteered to go into Falme, because someone has to. This prophecy is framed in a way to suggest that no one who is not the Dragon has any business going to the Eye for this showdown. Like if Callandor killed those who tried to touch it without being the Dragon Reborn. Once Rand is convinced it’s him, you don’t let Perrin and Egwene try to grab it unless he fails.

56:55 The Blight looks like a planted hedge or something. The gross plant noises are good, but they look like the same tree. Like this is an old video game background with recurring images. It seems like an obstacle, not a hostile environment.

Bleh. A lot of how I think about this episode will depend on how everything is wrapped up next week. I am trying to be fair, but I don’t have high hopes. But at least there’s “The Expanse” for the next few Thursdays. Another highly successful adaptation that, would you believe it, hews closely to the story in the books! Even if they had to spread book 1 over seasons 1 and 2, which necessitated splitting book 2 into seasons 2 & 3 and compressing book 3 into the back half of season 3. You can do that stuff if you stick with the plot and characters as the proven-successful authors did. Does anyone really care that Naomi is clearly black while Ade is Scandinavian and not African? No, because she’s close enough to book Naomi (actually, come to think of it, she isn’t; she’s a huge whiner and annoyingly PC and self-righteous) and the conflicts and dynamics are just about identical to the books. As was the case with LotR and early GoT. When they began making changes in The Hobbit and later GoT, everything went to shit. Just like “The Expanse” would if they decided to make up TV adventures for the survivors of Season 6/Babylon’s Ashes, that are not covered by the books, and still might because they killed off a core character for off-screen issues. Seriously, recast. If nothing else, that sends a message about bad behavior, that the actor is replaceable, rather than saying “This actor is the only one who can play this character, so we will kill the character if we can’t use the actor.” Like WoT might be doing, assuming there is an actual plan motivating Mat being left behind and it was not forced by whatever caused them to recast Harris.

[grimoireemil]

Watching the season finale of WoT show finally and I'm trying to remember. Didn't Rand kill Turak without using the one power, but instead with his sword? Wonder why they changed that