#oh to be at gawyn's birthday party in caemlyn

[markantonys]

WOT 2x05 aired 1 year ago today, so you know what that means: happy birthday gawyn

[highladyluck]

Season 2, Episode 6 Liveblog

Elayne is getting a puzzle! :D this is such good enrichment for Elaynes

Rand’s secret little smile at ‘you can fight anyone’

“It needs to be healed” creepy but I kinda love it in a fucked up way

Not the pitcher :(

“That’s almost nice” WTF that’s so dehumanizing and so Seanchan

Well that’s almost entirely by the book

Compare/contrast these two chained up figures

Importance of chosen names

This is a much more effective mindfuck then whatever TGH Selene was attempting

Psssst Rand it’s bad when your new girlfriend separates you from your support network

Min you are harshing the vibe

“She broke the 3 oaths?” “Every single one” (Elayne took notes)

Names are a theme

I don’t think I want Lanfear doing me favors

“Many paths through the dark” I do appreciate leaning into the Lanbiguity

Suroth, if the Empress saw how you were toying with her Gardener she’d be very upset, those are Imperial property

Loial, have you considered: Stab them with the plant

We are about to have pitcher problems

The way the a’dam prevents a damane from using things they think of as weapons is a weird twisted echo of the 2nd oath. I’ve wondered if the Oaths would prevent Aes Sedai from making a’dam and I think it would depend on what the Aes Sedai termed a weapon that someone could kill another with.

Yeah this is pure book although the ‘you’re not a person’ line is an extra ouch

“Pour a glass of water” echoing horribly the water-cleaning from the tower

When you deal with the devil, that is actually how it works, I’m afraid

Temple of the Forsaken??? Y’all I need some fic set here. I need Dark Raves honoring Asmodean. I need therapy sessions that make you worse sponsored by the Acolytes of Graendal. I need Moghedonists whispering the sacred crypto wallet keys to each other.

Siuan is probs putting out diplomatic fires in Caemlyn now that they lost Elayne? Or attending Gawyn’s birthday party I guess

Oooh is it the trippy ~TGH dream sequence?

Lmao she calls him Ishy

“See the world as it really is in the World of Dreams” what a fascinating take

Do not ask about Egg!!! this is Lanfear she will make Egg into a flesh balloon for touching you

Smart Rand would be like ‘oh now I know you’re lying [about Egwene being Ishy’s]’ but Idk how smart he is

Oh this is heartbreaking she found the lost sister

Ooooooh are we going to see Bayle again so soon?

Nyneave like ‘I’ll allow it” but only because Elayne is saying what she would have

Elayne is getting a puzzle! :D this is such good enrichment for Elaynes

Awwww what a nice nosy boy who will repeat the contents of the letter

Watch she doesn’t stab you when you look away

Mommy issuessssss

I like the air knives

Because you want a legacy!

Ooooh lesson time. Everyone is barfing in this ep

Rand’s secret little smile at ‘you can fight anyone’

Oh god [MY BOYS!!!]

KISS!!! -ok moment’s gone

Mat and his lil grabby hand on Rand’s shoulder, my tactile boy

‘Some of the damane can sense people channeling’ guess we def changed the lore about how channelers sense each other, mildly annoyed about that, but it’s consistent within the show

That’s smart, trying to see the catch in the water like a mirror

Exercising power

Oooof that’s a new twist “I hope they told you at your White Tower how special you are”

Renna are you going to make her set it on fire??? The thing that comforts her? [post-ep I was thinking about the contrast in how the Seanchan command Loial and his tree powers- they are uncomfortable with it and have to ruin the moment. They don’t have the same power over him without tools.]

Well that was an uncomfortably sexually charged moment of excited panting [please tell me it wasn’t just me]

Proud of you, Egwene <3 Hah you made Renna mad good for you

Elayne: “I need a bestie real bad”

Mat gets it because Mat also has The Depression

RESCUE TIME

Min is like I am here to give you bad news, as is my fate

Mat’s good at bullshit detecting & does not handle betrayal well

This is very sweet but I feel like the subtext is “You will be eaten alive as king”

Pope hat

Oh my boys they are so sad

It’s time for… [Alanna and her posse corner Rand] OH SHIT IS IT HAPPENING?

I don’t think Nyneave does modulation

“It needs to be healed” creepy but I kinda love it in a fucked up way

Ooooof next time we see Ryma she’ll be with my Most Problematic Of Faves I guess 🫣😬☹️

This series loves to hang characters and if it can’t get Mat than anyone else will do

[Renna pours out the cup Egwene just filled] Oh fuuuuuuuck you Renna

You still won. You’re still alive

Our lost Blue Sitter coming in at the clutch

[markantonys]

episode 5 thoughts!

heartbroken by no mat, but i was expecting it since min wasn't credited for this episode on imdb, and there was so much other amazing stuff going on, so i can cope. i do think they must be gearing up for a mat-heavy episode soon because his content has been so sparse thus far! we also didn't have lan this episode, which i'm good with since he got so much last week.

(minor imdb casting spoiler: ayoola isn't listed for ep6, so i'm guessing we may have no perrin next week. they definitely do have a lot of different groups to juggle! but IF mat & lan soon join the cairhien crew, we could condense things)

also sad at not much elayne, but again, the remaining episodes will probably be pretty big for her! same with egwene, that storyline didn't progress as fast as i'd thought it would in this episode, but OOF the preview for next week looks like A Lot!!

back to the beginning! falme looks SO COOL!!! and the opening scene with the seanchan was fantastic, it showed off so many different aspects of their culture in just a few minutes (namely their various Ceremonial Things and ideas of who's allowed to speak to whom)

lanfear just whispering "bitch" the second she revives killed me djkfjg what an icon. and we get confirmation that it is indeed the True Power that she used to revive herself.

Lanfear Unleashed is SO much fun oh my god, i love seeing her in full forsaken mode

moiraine telling rand that he can't sleep because lanfear will get him, girl don't tell him that he's going to internalize it and not sleep for the next 6 seasons. this season is really Wheel Of Time Origins: Rand's Various Emotional, Mental, and Physical Health Problems

elyas saying the ef5 aren't perrin's pack HOW DARE!!! i feel like they're making elyas even more standoffish/human-averse than he was in the books, which makes for an interesting dynamic and contributes to perrin's sense that his human & wolf sides can't coexist.

but hopper follows perrin!!!! the goodest boy!!!!!

AVIENDHA IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE'S EVERYTHING!!!!! although ngl her fake accent does sound a bit Fake to me lmao but i'm sure i'll get used to it after a few more scenes

hot dain bornhald is also here! he kinda compels me and i'm furious about it. if whitecloak why hot? in all seriousness, i can see already from his intro episode + the basics of his book story that he has the potential to be quite an interesting character if fleshed out more and given more screentime compared to what he had in the books, sort of a liandrin-and-alanna-like Main Secondary Whitecloak for us to follow

also he totally wants to fuck perrin you can't change my mind. buying him drinks and giving him a Cute Nickname, boy you ain't subtle! and then aviendha briefly hits on perrin later and also perrin stops her from killing dain. wake up babe, insane new WOT polycule just dropped djkfjfg

OB!!!! FREAKING!!!! SESSED!!!!!!!! with verin's detective subplot!!!! it is SO much fun, it delivers a ton of great exposition (namely about the black ajah), and it gives us a bigger peek into the brown ajah than the books ever did. i love this squad!! also katie leung was probably my first Girl Crush (not that i was aware of it) when i was like 8 so i was thrilled to see her show up here, god bless

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT GAVE US CONFIRMATION THAT GAWYN EXISTS IN SHOWVERSE!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH when i tell you i came extremely close both to screaming and to falling off my bed!!!! i'd been hoping for a gawyn namedrop all season but having it here was SO unexpected! my current theory is that he'll be introduced in caemlyn next season along with elaida and galad, and all 3 of them will head to tar valon to look for elayne because they're worried after not hearing from her for a long time.

also now i want a fic where the wondergirls actually do get special permission from mommy morgase to leave the tower just so that they can attend gawyn's birthday party

anyway, someday gawyn and egwene are going to kiss with tongue onscreen and haters can die mad about it <3 oooh now i have a brand-new meetcute for them to look forward to since they didn't meet at the tower!

liandrin & nynaeve's convo in the ways was so good! they continue to do amazing work with that relationship and liandrin's character. AND WHEN SHE SUBTLY FREED THE GIRLS RIGHT BEFORE LEAVING HOLY SHIT i gasped!!!!! the LAYERS they have given this character!!! because yes she serves the dark BUT she still feels loyalty to her sisters (as seen in s1 too when she appeared genuinely upset over kerene's death) and can't stomach the thought of any of them, even the light-serving ones, being collared!

suroth saying with her whole chest "oh sure you're a forsaken but you're not even of the blood soooooo" god grant me her confidence. also another great illustration of the insane heights to which seanchan high blood take their superiority complexes. good god, what's tuon gonna be like?!

avi's fight scene was just as amazing as i'd been hoping and expecting!! 10/10 no notes. can't wait to see what she can do when she has weapons at her disposal!

and later avi tells us that she is out in the wetlands Looking For Her Man (that she doesn't yet know is Her Man) <33

moiraine saying "get rand some nice new clothes" and barthanes immediately offering to dress him, Sugar Baby Rand lives on! also, anvaere and barthanes definitely thought rand was moiraine's sugar baby after they cleared the warder possibility, you can't change my mind

also also, barthanes is so surprisingly sweet! i wonder if he'll still be a darkfriend, or if anvaere will be instead

lanfear making ishy dream about caressing rand's face in bed is something i will go insane thinking about every day until i die. like oh my god i don't even know where to START with unpacking that, so i won't even try djfkjg

like for real, they ALL BUT made it explicitly canon that ishy had/has a crush on LTT/rand LMAO it's what we deserve

and we get forsaken namedrops! moghedien, graendal, and "the boys." it could be that semirhage did still make it and lanfear just chose not to go on and on listing every single one (slash the writers wanted to give themselves some leeway in specifically naming forsaken in case they don't get enough seasons to deal with all of them), or it could be that one of the statues from last season was actually a man and/or stepin's statues aren't accurate, and we've got 5 men instead of 4 (in which case i'd imagine ishy, asmodean, sammael, demandred, and rahvin)

i'm gonna have to watch this ishy & lanfear scene again to pick up more because i was FAR too distracted by the initial homoeroticism to keep focusing lmao

aww i'm kinda sad not to get elayne & nynaeve hiding out in falme completely on their own, but for their sakes it's nice they've found (been found by) some Real Adults to help!

LANFEAR'S OUTFIT IN THE END SCENE LMAO this season really just went off the WALLS with horniness and kinkiness, and i am here for it. it's what rj would've wanted

now that moiraine and rand are indeed staying in cairhien after all, i really think we might get a cauthor reunion next episode!!!! fingers crossed!!!!