#the egwene one will definitely make more sense

[butterflydm]

wot spec based on the picture drop!

I'm so excited! As we ramp up to s3, we're gonna be getting more and more too. Yay!

Okay, @markantonys noticed that the pictures were named with the episodes they probably belong to, so I will fold that into my thoughts (her post with the pictures is here).

For the first episode, I'm going to guess that Siuan using the OP comes earliest in the episode, during the "shredding" that will come along with Liandrin being accused of being Black Ajah and then escaping from the White Tower with her comrades (and Alanna will catch up with her outside the Tower and we get that fight from the teaser trailer). Someone is standing next to her who isn't channeling. Another Aes Sedai? Siuan definitely looks like she's in her fancy Amyrlin gear.

Moiraine gets her exile revoked and warns the Aes Sedai about the Seanchan. Egwene has her Accepted test (the horses picture). Elayne's Accepted test might happen off-screen like in the books. The gold that Egwene is wearing here is making me wonder if this is the one where she's an Amyrlin (are they hunting down Rand?). Especially with Elayne and Nynaeve in their own future respective Ajah colors of green and yellow.

Then I think the other three ep1 pictures might happen relatively close to each other - Elayne and Aviendha having drinks, the ta'veren boys hanging out, and Lanfear creeping on Rand.

I am so excited about getting a scene between Elayne and Aviendha. <3 At least one and maybe more.

Rand and Mat beaming at each other while Perrin looks more serious. What a picture. Hmm, Is Mat wearing the same shirt that we saw him wearing during the neck injury picture? Because if it is, then that happens in ep1, and maybe it's the playing cards from his own bubble of evil moment? I went back and rewatched the teaser trailer and it looks like a different shirt, with more of a lower "Tanchico" kinda neckline but idk for sure. Hmm. I do appreciate the radiant smile that Rand sends in Mat's direction.

I think the end of this episode might have the bubble of evil moment that we caught a glimpse of in the teaser, with Rand destroying his mirror images, and maybe Lanfear taking the place of Berelain in being The Lady In His Room. I do think that Lanfear is creeping probably on him, though it looks like she's in daylight and not nighttime (or it could be TAR)

For the second episode, we're going to get Queen Morgase and Elaida making a pretty official and formal-looking visit to the White Tower; and we're going to get Rand and Lan training. I'm hoping that we aren't getting a split this early on and that we're going to get more time with our kiddos all together. With the Caemlyn Crew in Tar Valon, there are a lot of moments from the books that they could adapt into having happen here, like Elaida catching a glimpse of Rand and having a Foretelling, Mat's face-off with the two Princes, and maybe we could even get our Elayne & Rand feather moment if Egwene and Rand have officially ended things in ep1 and Egwene is meeting Gawyn here in ep2.

It does look like the crown that Elayne puts on in the teaser trailer is the same as the one that Morgase is wearing, so that might be an indicator that the moment in the teaser is part of Elayne's Accepted test?

Morgase will likely be going home at the end of the episode, while Elaida (and the two princes?) stay in the White Tower.

No hints of anything for ep3, but I think the notion of this being Perrin & co's return to the Two Rivers via the Ways would make a lot of sense. We could see Alanna's grief; meet Faile; have Verin. Loial will be in Perrin's plotline again, like he was in s2, so those two really have their own friendship thing going on at this point. Reintroduce the Tuatha'an so that there's more of an impact in ep4 when we find out that they're a split-off from the Aiel.

Ep4 - this is going to be Rhuidean and the glass columns. Very excited! We get the front-facing shot of the wide shot that we got in the trailer -- this is everyone staring at Rhuidean. Moiraine's hat is very cute.

No hints of anything for ep5! A Mystery! Might be more Two Rivers focused again?

Ep6, we get our definitive confirmation that Mat and Min are definitely in Nynaeve & Elayne's Tanchico plotline. @markantonys noted this when the pictures first dropped, but we don't see any sign of Mat's neck injuries in this picture or the one from ep1 and we're getting a nice view of his neck both times (no one else is showing off their neck like Mat is!). So that potentially means that the neck injury happens later than this point, which means the "Mat is yeeted through a Redstone Doorway to the Waste" theory has not yet been disproved by anything. New Theory: the Pattern is very annoyed at Mat staying behind at the Waygate in s1 and is taking no chances and is yeeting Mat at Rand whenever it gets the chance.

Min is wearing the same outfit as she was in the teaser, again confirming that was from Tanchico. Is the man in the hat Juilin Sander? I feel like a flat-brim hat was part of his character description in the books.

I love that we see Mat and Nynaeve holding onto each other. Friendship! They love each other, your honor!

Once again, nothing for ep 7. We know, due to the title, that we're going to have more of a Two Rivers focus here.

Ep8 -- Moiraine is gonna dress up all fancy and Use An Orb. Did she bring her fancy clothes along with her (I mean, I would believe it) or did she get them from somewhere? The chest piece is very intricate and intriguing. It does not look like she's wearing it when she first picks up the Orb in the teaser trailer, so she might acquire it in ep4 and then use it in e8?

[markantonys]

so! the siuan pic is definitely from the opening sequence when she fights liandrin. the pic of the wondergirls in their fierce outfits being from 3x01 makes it almost definite that this is a vision in an accepted test, and thereby makes it almost definite that the accepted test(s) will happen right off the bat, as i've been speculating. and we also have lanfear creeping around, maybe in TAR based on her hairstyle unless she's also gotten a trim in the waking world.

both pics of the gang drinking together are also from 3x01. no surprise on the wonderboys pic, but there was some rumbling about the show maybe changing it so that aviendha goes to tanchico since elayne's outfit in the avilayne pic looks tanchico-y. but since that pic is from 3x01, i think it's safe to say elayne's outfit is simply something she wears out of the tower to hang out in tar valon and aviendha will still go to the waste as expected (further supported by ayoola reacting to/interacting with the new aiel actors on instagram more than she did for any of the other new cast announcements; it feels like she's worked with them personally. also! she just mentioned being excited to bring us the waste in s3 in her post, so definitely seems like she's involved in that storyline). phew! i love avilayne as much as the next person, but it really would not make any sense for aviendha's story to send her to tanchico this season, so i'm glad we can put that momentary speculation to rest.

as was the case last season too (iirc), the lion's share of the first stills are from the first episode, which makes sense! don't want to give away too much! it seems like our main focus this episode will be the big tower battle (stated to be the first 15mins), egwene's accepted test (maybe also elayne's, but i won't be surprised if that one's offscreen), and everybody taking a breather and spending time together and figuring out their next moves.

then, morgase and elaida at the tower is in 3x02. this tracks with our previous speculation that 3x02 would be a good time to introduce the caemlyn crew. there was also a leak of these two actresses filming on a location shoot that's believed to be the caemlyn palace, so perhaps the cold open of 3x02 shows them in caemlyn and then the episode proper picks up with them arriving in tar valon. (i'm curious how big of a role morgase and gaebril might have this season. will they return to caemlyn after 3x02 and have their own storyline for the rest of the season, or stay in the tower with elaida and the boys for a while? i'd imagine morgase will be back home before the coup, at the very latest.)

also, rand and lan training already in 3x02 is interesting! do they reach the waste that soon? or this could be taking place en route to the waste, or outside tar valon; the landscape looks soooomewhat arid to me (and mountainous), but not Full Sandy Desert the way it is in the rhuidean shots we've seen.

the gang looking out at rhuidean is in 3x04, and the other gang is in tanchico by 3x06. no surprises there!

moiraine and the orb in 3x08 is veeeeery interesting. it's clearly a different outfit and lighting than all the trailer shots of her with the orb, so i would guess the trailer shots are of her first finding it in rhuidean in 3x04, and then she takes it with her and uses it in the finale showdown in 3x08. my one question is how she got such a fantastic outfit in the middle of the desert djkfjg maybe some of her and lanfear's showdown takes place in TAR?

[paging-possum]

hai ik u didn't ask but another big erlin song by ewao #to #me is sleepwalking. "i thought god was supposed to protect me... whatever happened to that." "i think i'm ready to go... they'll find another son to love when the morning comes" like am i making sense does this make sense. "she used us... she killed pelor" "it's the end of the world and i'm glad you're here" "i wish i wasn't" like. does this. do you feel me on this. - @kindleaf

OMG HIIII!!! first of all it is always okay to send me songs about characters, listening to songs about characters is my number one hobby EVER. anyways YOU'RE SO RIGHT ABOUT ALL OF THIS!!! obviously "I thought god was supposed to protect me," but also like. "It's setting now and I hope I've done enough" it is SOOOO important to me that Erlin has the Worlds Worst Inferiority Complex. For the obvious reason of 'being surrounded by people who are so much better at everything he's ever been told is important than he is.' Something about him hoping he's managed to do right by his family and friends before he dies, but also in that self-deprecating way of saying that you've done enough harm. Erlin being used as a pawn to kill Pelor and not wanting to do even more damage. Does this make sense does any of it make sense. ANYWAYS. "And all my friends follow me onto the balcony" does not have a big deep meaning to me but it is also literally him and Bev. In the mental animatic that's when it switches from the moment of the two of them together on the balcony during the Galaderon arc to Erlin alone on the airship after reuniting with Bev in episode 70.

I don't even know what to say about this one. It's making me lose a little and I don't fully know why. He should call his mom. He barely remembers his mom. The only way he could see his mom is if he was dead. Which he is, for a little bit. Maybe the mom is Red or maybe it's Gunther but it's not like either of them is there either. He should call his mom but he doesn't have a mom to worry about him in the first place :( everyone's worried about him and maybe they should be!! but maybe he wants to protect them first!! maybe he thinks this is all his fault and he doesn't deserve that worry!! i don't even know I think I need to relisten to every single kindleaf moment in naddpod. I'm going to go think about egwene and let this stew in my mind a little bit more.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 31: On the Scent

If you're on the scent for spoilers, keep reading! If you don't want to know everything about The Wheel of Time, including the books, show, comics, and card game all compressed into like, a couple thousand words inexplicably, definitely don't keep reading. The second you click that button everything will be psychically uploaded to your brain. I mean uh... something on theme... scentically uploaded to your nose.

We have a rising sun chapter as we're still in Cairhien and Thom's not around.

He gave one abrupt shudder and stopped laughing; she left him to crouch over Hurin.

Another not subtle thing to be doing. It's a good thing these Cairhienien are so politically suspicious that they miss the much greater threat right in front of them.

He said he didn’t know it, but he had a smile that shouted ‘lie’ a mile off.

Perrin could probably smell the lies on the dude before he opened his mouth.

I couldn’t hear what she said, but I didn’t know whether his eyes were going to pop out of his head or he was going to swallow his tongue first.

I'm sure that Verin just did the usual Aes Sedai thing and that the specifics aren't important, but it amuses me to imagine that she just told the dude the truth straight out.

He heard gasps from the Cairhienin listening, but he did not care. They could play their Great Game if they wanted, but Ingtar had come, and he was finished with it at last.

This is called dramatic irony and also counting your chickens before they hatch and whatnot.

Rand glanced at Perrin—He’s a sniffer?—and found Perrin studying him in return. He thought Perrin muttered something. Shadowkiller?

Have you boys tried talking to each other about your-

Nope. Can't even pretend to ask with a straight face.

Everyone was watching now—not even Cuale gave any attention to his own burning inn—and Rand thought a little caution might not be amiss after all.

Exactly Rand. You're surrounded by strangers in an immediate sense and surrounded by Darkfriends in a metaphorical sense. No point celebrating being free just yet.

Suddenly he noticed that the others were looking at him, Verin and Ingtar, Mat and Perrin. He realized what he had been doing, and his face colored. “I am sorry, Ingtar. It’s just that I’ve become used to being in charge, I suppose. I’m not trying to take your place.”

It's fascinating, how this boy has to be dragged kicking and screaming into everything, but once he accepts it he just takes to it instantly. A couple weeks' leadership and the boy completely forgets Ingtar's even there.

You can see why Demandred, Sammael, and Etcetera'al got so pissy.

She’s Moiraine’s eyes watching me, Moiraine’s hand trying to pull my strings. But I have cut the strings.

If only Rand had tried to learn about politics while he was here. He might have realized that Verin knowing things doesn't at all mean she's on Moiraine's side.

I guess that would probably have only made him more suspicious.

Also I forgot to mention her directly when taking these notes but Tiedra's plump so we know she's a good innkeeper.

It almost seemed to him that she was in the room with him, that he could smell her perfume, so much so that he looked around, and laughed to find himself alone.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had popped in invisibly somehow.

It was him, he thought. Rand is the Shadowkiller. Light, what’s happening to all of us? His hands tightened into fists, large and square. These hands were meant for a smith’s hammer, not an axe.

The duality that Perrin will be grappling with rears its ugly head. At last he already knows the answer. Though that really just makes his plot arc all the more frustrating.

Also, points to Perrin for pulling off having Rand in his POV instead of what usually happens (thus far in the series) and Rand hogging the spotlight. This isn't the first time this has happened (Egwene did it back in Fal Dara), but it does show the transition this series is slowly undergoing.

One of Mat’s eggs hit the floor and cracked. He did not look at it, though. He was looking at Rand, and Ingtar had turned around.

Mat, the so-called idiot, irresponsible fool: Has a tell about Rand's situation but volunteers nothing and doesn't cause any trouble.

Perrin realized he was staring, too. “Well, he did not fly,” he said. “I don’t see any wings. Maybe he has more important things to tell us.” Verin shifted her attention to him, just for a moment. He managed to meet her eyes, but he was the first to look away.

Perrin, the so-called quiet, responsible kid: Tries to get in a fight with a woman several decades his senior over his friend's honor.

“Interesting,” the Aes Sedai said, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I would very much like to meet this girl. If she can use a Portal Stone. . . . Even that name is not very widely known.”

Verin must suspect. How panicked does this make her?

Rand asked the innkeeper if there were any more books, and she brought him The Travels of Jain Farstrider. Perrin liked that one, too, with its stories of adventures among the Sea Folk and journeys to the lands beyond the Aiel Waste, where silk came from.

Is this our first real Shara reference? I think it might be.

The Shienaran played with a slashing, daring style. Perrin had always played doggedly, giving ground reluctantly, but he found himself placing the stones with as much recklessness as Ingtar. Most of the games ended in a draw, but he managed to win as many as Ingtar did.

Ignore the terrible pun and focus on how Perrin is being shifted by his experiences as well. Perhaps this is why he talked back to Verin earlier.

“There are Darkfriends among the high as well as the low,” Verin said smoothly. “The mighty give their souls to the Shadow as often as the weak.” Ingtar scowled as if he did not want to think of that.

Frankly Verin, if there weren't so few Aes Sedai I'd argue the Tower's horrible percentages make the mighty even more frequent donaters. And indeed note that Ingtar isn't "as if" anything. It's exactly the case that he doesn't want to think about noble Darkfriends.

“I know little of Cairhienin,” Ingtar told him, “but I’ve heard enough of Galldrian. He would feast us and thank us for the glory we had brought to Cairhien. He would stuff our pockets with gold and heap honors on our heads. And if we tried to leave with the Horn, he’d cut our honored heads off without pausing to take a breath.”

It's mind-boggling how actively detrimental to the cause of existence most of the modern day royalty proves to be. Like obviously they need to be toppled from their thrones and all that but damn.

There was a dignity to him that Perrin did not remember; Rand was looking at the Aes Sedai and the Shienaran lord as equals.

Well he's found the Horn of Valere twice now, so he's worthy of being a legendary hero even ignoring all the stuff he hasn't done yet. Selene's flirting sadly helped.

It will also help if you remember the way you behaved before the Amyrlin. If you are that arrogant, they will believe you are a lord if you wear rags.

Lan's training paying off in a dozen ways. He'd be so proud if he were here.

“A sa’angreal.” She sounded as if it were really not very important, but Perrin suddenly had the feeling the two of them had entered a private conversation, saying things no one else could hear.

For example, she's basically telling Rand what tools are available to him.

One by itself is powerful enough, but I can think of few women strong enough to survive the flow through the one on Tremalking. The Amyrlin, of course. Moiraine, and Elaida. Perhaps one or two others. And three still in training.

I guess Verin must think Cadsuane dead, since Lelaine and Romanda would make three if she were being counted. How terrifying that at this very point the White Tower has a total of eight, kind of nine women capable of using the Choedan Kal. It should be so much more.

As for Logain, it would have taken all his strength simply to keep from being burned to a cinder, with nothing left for doing anything.

Unless the male statue is quite different and only ever meant for Lews to use, Verin is very mistaken here. Logain is only a step below Rand, and there's sixteen tiers in between him and Moiraine.

She was talking to Rand. Perrin knew it, and from the queasy look in Mat’s eye, he did, too. Even Loial shifted nervously in his chair.

Thank goodness the empath is the POV to confirm that Loial is not blind or stupid but has in fact put two and two together.

Watching Verin’s smile, small and mysterious, Perrin felt a chill. He did not think Rand knew half what he thought he did. Not half.

Perrin you don't even know half of how right you are.

But we'll get to that next time, when our company visits The Huge Toad Crouching in the Night: Lord Barthanes's Manor! (Disclaimer: Toads may be metaphorical or even simileical)

[the-grimsqueaker]

I’m having a similar problem in that I’m enjoying a lot of the story and definitely the world building, but I’m getting annoyed with Jordan’s insistence that 1. All Women (evil and good) are conniving & don’t trust men with even the simplest tasks/barest of information, and 2. All (not evil) Men just want to protect the women regardless of whether or not the women want to be protected. At first, I loved that he seemed to be saying “no matter how different our clothing or customs, actually All Humans is the Same”, but the more and more that Sameness appears to be Conniving, Mistrustful women and Exasperatedly trying to Protect men, the harder it is to stay invested in the characters. :/

Yeah I feel you there. Like Matt is written in such a way that he's actually insufferable when it comes to women, and ok yeah Rand might be going mad but that doesn't mean he should suddenly be mistrusting the women in his life he's known since birth! And Perrin is Chauvinism disguised as Misogyny something fierce. I think the only male character who sees women as both equals and completely capable of taking care of themselves is Lan but even he has that weird (and problematic) blind spot for Nynaeve.

And then all the female characters are basically devolving into "ah, we gotta protect Rand from himself at all costs" which is insane. Like the convoluted love knot of Rand and his three potential love interests drives me feral because out of the three literally only one makes sense, the other two can't stand him (and honestly the way I've interpreted Aviendha is queer as hell, which probably wasn't Jordan's intention but it would have been cooler if it was, and Min being into Rand doesn't make any sense at ALL). Every female character in the series from the White Tower to The Forsaken and everyone in between are so awesome and cool and without Rand would still be absolutely amazing characters but they get put anywhere near him and they all suddenly lose their ability to be their own characters!

...I will say though the world and the magic and the themes and everything are super cool I love the series but sometimes I do just have to put the book down for a sec and go "ok really?"

I'm only on book 5 so I'm hoping the characters can pull their heads out of their butts in the next 8 books XD

(Egwene is my favourite because she seems to be the most self aware and self driven character so far and I love that about her)

[iliiuan]

I'm going to make a running list of things that make little to no sense in A Memory of Light. Things that unleash fury in my heart.

So far, I've got:

The Dragon's Peace

No really. This treaty is such nonsense I can't even articulate fully how bad it is. Add on top that Rand saved two thrones for his girlfriend and then turns around and says "No one get greedy now! Only one country per ruler!" Just gross.

Elayne running the Last Battle

Excuse me, what? She has zero experience. Again with the favoring your girlfriend nonsense. (From a character standpoint, she does make sense, being the skilled diplomat. But she's presented as war leader, which is not really her skill.) Anyways, it should have been Mat, obviously, but Sanderson couldn't manage that one simple plot point.

Ok, now she's in the Braem Wood being a pest because she can't believe the capabilities of the Two Rivers archers. WHY IS SHE EVEN THERE? She should be at the central command post, not running sorties on one of the battle fronts. What a complete disregard for chain of command.

Everyone deciding that Caemlyn absolutely must be rescued

I... don't get it. It's lost. It's far south, providing a magnificent distraction to the Shadow. Set up a kill net around the city, like whatever Rand had used on the Waygate in Shadar Logoth. Trollocs leave the city, trollocs get dead.

Perrin saying that there's no way to destroy the Waygate

Um, excuse me, were you not paying attention AT ALL to Loial's lectures? You remove both Avendesora leaves. Like what is even going on here.

Rhuarc and Amys insisting that the Aiel can do whatever the fuck they want at Shayol Ghul.

They just signed the Dragon's Peace and agreed that Elayne would lead. There is no way under ji'e'toh that they would immediately ignore their pledge.

Not inviting Seanchan and Shara to the party

Yes, I'm still bitter that not a single Aes Sedai thought to go check on Shara.

Also, Tuon definitely should have been there. My need for thoroughness and consistency demands it.

The numbers don't seem right

I haven't done the math, but there seem to be too many trollocs (where was there space for so many? And what did they eat?) and too many armies of the Dark, with a very small showing of forces for the Light. And then the small matter of so many channelers being turned. Like, I get that it would be a difficult war to win, but the numbers seem really skewed to me.

The Horn of Valere

Rand really didn't put together that Mat wasn't bound any longer? (Maybe not, ok ok, but still seems like he would have pondered it more.) Egwene really went to the Field of Merrilor to prepare for The Last Battle and didn't bother to bring the Horn of Valere with her? What level of unprepared bullshit is going on over here?

The Ogier

The world doesn't have enough food, so the most important thing the ogier can do is... fight? NO. Sure, send the warriors out, but have the rest sing food to life. I just. What a waste. (And a rather large lack of creativity.)

Pevara and Androl

An Aes Sedai (you know, the women who perfected the art of not responding to emotion) who's been alive over a hundred years (so she's definitely practiced) and is in the Red Ajah (you know, the Ajah that oddly doesn't have Warders), in a moment of panic, bonds a man who can channel.

I also was annoyed on my first read by having these randos all of a sudden occupying a rather large portion of the pov. After 14 books with a rather breathtaking cast, why are we exploring new people? I don't get it.

Cannon Misuse

They lined 100 cannons in four ranks across a road. That's 25 cannons across. That many cannons *might* fit across the monstrous 14 lane freeway behind my neighborhood. Maybe. That's *way* too many cannons for a forest road to nowhere.

Perrin Hesitating

You know, we finally have Rand being rational about female combatants, and now Perrin is hesitating over a fucking Forsaken? He didn't hesitate over the Shaido, so I'm calling bullshit. He would have taken Hessalam out immediately. Moonhunter maybe not, because he didn't put together who she was until it was obvious she was helping him. But going after Heartseeker is like starting a hunt, and my boy would NOT squirm just because she's a woman.

Dreamwalkers Abandon the Dream

The Aiel Wise Ones, for all their bluster, turn out to be neither particularly wise, nor particularly brave. "Ooh, the Dream is so scary now! We better stay away!" Meanwhile, the Forsaken continue to roam. Did they ever even consider hunting their enemy? Did they even notice the purple domes? Do they care at all about anything beyond the end of their noses?

And Egwene isn't any better. Instead of being on a battlefield pretending to be a warrior, she should have been in the Dream, hunting with Perrin.

The whole thing was really disappointing.

Gareth Bryne

How, exactly, is Graendal able to compel Gareth when he's Siuan's Warder and they're always together? She should have been noticed and rebuffed.

Plot Lag

Yes, it's a problem through the entire series, but The Last *Battle* ended up being a book and a half political mess plus lots of blood and gore. The whole Black Tower debacle? Should have been resolved already. Perrin hunting Slayer? Should have been resolved early, so that he's leading the Hunt as Rand *enters* Shayol Ghul. Mat getting fitted with Seanchan attire? Should have happened instead of sitting in Caemlyn for a month, because there's no way that letter doesn't just fall open after a few days, bellowing smoke and yelling that trollocs are about to invade.

Moiraine

She is constantly expressing emotions. This is not my Moiraine. What alien did the Finn return to us?

She's also back to giving really bad advice. I thought she had grown out of that? Le sigh

Story Imbalance

I sincerely thought that the war part would be maybe a third of the book, and then we'd get into the aftermath. I guess I was naive.

The Last Battle

Who the fuck approved a chapter over 150 pages long? WHO? Absolute insanity.

[alectology-archive]

and look it’s not that sanderson did anything wrong by introducing new character conflicts in the last three books because that *is* how you keep readers interested but 1. I don’t care about these conflicts 2. they overwrite and ignore character conflicts that rj *did* introduce 3. you can’t just introduce any sort of character conflict you want and walk away pretending it makes sense. I can see bullshit coming from very far away and I can recognise very generic struggles being framed as an important character point even when it isn’t 4. they hurt character development and are clearly skewed in favour of making the male characters look better etc.

case in point:

rand didn’t have an arc about learning to love and accepting his role as a hero (rather rj sympathised with him being put in the position) so the dragonmount epiphany rings hollow because it’s not the culmination of rand’s struggles in 11 books finding a resolution, it’s rand’s struggle from 1 book, a new struggle introduce by sanderson (TGS), finding a resolution (and in a very unsatisfying way that doesn’t actually tackle his mental health or the traumatic position of a hero).

rand is framed as a conquering ruler who should be worshipped because he’s a forcing bringing safety and the literal narrative warps around him post-dragonmount to present him as a figure who should have all of his whims met. the very natural world starts bowing to his will. definitely not a weird thing to introduce in a series discussing imperialism + big L especially for a series where rj eviscerates seanchan, cults and the children of the light for their saviorist attitudes.

egwene didn’t have to be beaten down and I-told-you-so-d by gawyn into learning to share responsibilities. gawyn had no place interfering in aes sedai matters, I’m sorry. it continues the trend of various men/asha’man offering elaborate critiques of aes sedai having exactly accomplished zero things themselves - including perrin, androl, rand, mat.

he walked back on character development introduced in *his own* instalments to end the series on a weirdly hostile note for elayne and galad. he also wrote out morgase and made more space for his blorbos and gave them narrative space that even some of the protagonists were never afforded.

making cadsuane amyrlin was his choice. he didn’t get the basic theme of the white tower needing reform! egwene is a survivor above all else. she would not fucking commit suicide, it’s not in-character for her to pick suicide over being burned out. also ‘healing’ the pattern enters ‘breaking worldbuilding rules’ territory and I hate the flame of tar valon weave. it has weird implications attached to it being capable of healing any sort of damage when the white tower is clearly discussed to be just as susceptible to corruption as any other institution.

perrin breaking basic TAR rules to fight in book 14 after training to be good at it in book 13 is definitely like. good writing, sure.

nynaeve and moiraine are very noticeably characterised to be mother figures/caring figures. it’s very uncomfortable! moiraine also saying that she would give up channeling for thom is very infuriating and not in character for her.

not to be weird about a romance I hate in the first place but even in the rj books moiraine/thom was about daes dae’maring, not thom acting as a warder. amol!thom is annoying. his monologue about how to describe a battle is one of the worst, most horrific pieces of writing I’ve ever read. besides mat’s boot monologue.

[mashithamel]

Full spoilery reactions to S2E1 below the cut

- The Xray says this is TAR. How does someone bring their child to TAR? Why would someone bring their child to TAR? Or maybe she just dreamed herself there somehow and it’s not actually her mom?

- A while back I saw a really cool theory that it was in Amadicia and it was her house. It was based on the house being star shaped, and the map of cultures inspiring costumes for the Westlands.

- I miss the opening credits so much.

- I do not think I could be adequately motivated to take a bath if I had to haul that much water that far. Sponge baths only for me! She doesn’t really do this every day, right? Like, how would she get anything else done?

- I love the bath scene from S1E1 so much; this is such a sad parallel to that relatively happy scene.

- Rafe knows what his audience wants. Daniel does such a nice job showing how Lan is handling this without a word.

- Adeleas is all of us.

- I like that Moiraine is getting her visitors from TDR. And we actually get to have an idea of just what information they are bringing.

- Bayle Doman! I saw someone was unhappy he didn’t have the book facial hair. I didn’t think anyone would be disappointed in much of RJ’s hairstyle ideas being avoided. At the very least the Cairheinin and Maidens of the Spear are upgraded.

- This is not subtle Egwene foreshadowing with the Amyrlin dress.

- “I have enough character.” Yes you do, girl!

- I’ve seen plenty of people comment that learning a weave to decontaminate water is so much more useful for girls who may never advance beyond novices than juggling balls of light, but it’s so true it deserves yet another mention.

- I love that Nynaeve has no ability to meditate on a flower bud opening. I don’t think I could either.

- Interesting Nynaeve hasn’t channeled at all. She’s never been mad enough? Find that hard to believe.

- Nynaeve is my QUEEN. Don’t let those Aes Sedai boss you around.

- I wonder if Liandrin was the one who beat Moiraine, instead of Elaida like I assumed? Is that how a Novice died under her?

- Sheriam’s hair swirl on her chignon is amazing.

- Perrin’s clothes are definitely a step up.

- I fully support swapping in Elayas for Hurin. It works with canon and is a great way to introduce him.

- Yes, make the audience love Uno. This definitely will not come back to bite us later.

- I don’t see the fuss about Masema being hot. But the religious undertones are spot on.

- I love how they are visually showing us Perrin’s wolf-sense with the ability to see recent events. Also how he has to learn to not react to them.

- Does this mean the girl is still alive? Will we see her again? Will we have a child Darkfriend???

- I love how Lan bites off “she’s afraid,” as if even admitting to another Warder that his Aes Sedai is ever afraid is a betrayal, and he regrets the words slipping out. Daniel and Rosamund just get their characters so well.

- Is that how you pronounce Adeleas?

- Is it cool to say you’re available to be Warder for another Warder’s Aes Sedai’s? It seems like that would be super rude.

- A moon dial outside Cairhein, you say???

- That was a cool/cold move, Moiraine! At least she follows up her bargaining with genuine concern and just passes him ten marks like it’s nothing.

- How many takes did Rosamund need to say “The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills” that fast?

- I like Nynaeve with the Warders. She actually has some friends of her own in the Tower, unlike in the books. I love that they seem to care about her too.

- This Alanna scene is hilarious. Maddie playing up Egwene’s awkwardness and discomfort so physically is terrific.

- Egwene is wearing her hair like the other Novice’s do. It makes Nynaeve stand out more with her braid that she’s refusing to adapt, rather than that Egwene so readily adapts to whatever culture she is in. Or both, I guess.

- Kate Fleetwood kills in this kitchen scene. A very nice change from Suiane doing this to Liandrin. Ups the intensity because Linadrin is the more threatening one currently. Her distain for Warders—what great line delivery. But insult/threaten Lan and you (finally) provoke Nynaeve enough to make her channel.

- She saw it once and copied it!

- Nynaeve shielded is reacting an awful lot like Moiraine last season. Further support for the inverted weave shield theory! (I think it’s going to unravel on it’s own, like Asmodean’s, instead of Rand or Nynaeve fixing it. But I’m terrible at predicting the show.)

- “I want to see you become so powerful that no man, no woman will ever be able to take that away from you.” Such a great motivation. Probably not the right one for Nynaeve, but I think Linadrin really wants Nynaeve to succeed.

- “Why are you doing this for him?” “All men deserve a proper burial…Does it bother you that I’ve bestowed this small mercy on him?…Anger won’t bring my men back.” Random other fandom thought: this makes me think of the end of The Black Cauldron—it’s easy to judge good and evil unmixed.

- More Perrin struggling with his rage and violence.

- “Perhaps Fain had a reason for doing what he did.” What’s that Intar? Taking this conversation a bit personally, perhaps?

- Dang, Moiraine is cold. Couldn’t she, like, make up a mission to send Lan away on? Instead of trying to be so mean he leaves on his own?

- “Make it yourself. And have it wherever you want.” That would be a really cool line to storm out on if you didn’t immediately follow it up by making her a plate.

- How is it Bel Tine already?

- Perrin may not talk much, but the man can write a good letter.

- Liandrin just straight up lied here, right?

- Oh, my poor Mat. It’ll get better!

- I’m glad Perrin keeps his ring. And that he has a lantern for Rand.

- What, is it pick on Lan night? I mean asking them to wait is annoying. And he has kept trying to throw himself pity parties. But Moiraine is making it really personal for him! He’s justified in being frustrated and angry.

- “I think that’s the first time in my life someone’s told me I need to be quiet.”

- I want some na’an bread.

- Can Lan not sense the Fades because he doesn’t have the bond? Or were they shielded like the Drakhar like in the book?

- I was annoyed that Lan couldn’t take on two Fades, but then a read a thread of Fade encounters and two at once is a lot even for Lan. One at a time is doable but not guaranteed in canon.

- “Wing flutter” in the captions made me think maybe we’d get a Drakhar anyway.

- “What aren’t you telling me?” is a pretty heartbreaking way to end this scene.

[amemoryofwot]

What would you change about the Last Battle?

Oh incredible question thank you. Overall I am a AMOL enjoyer as you could probably tell from my url but there were definitely some wasted opportunities etc.

Ok first of all … fucking Thom. Let’s just get rid of that Warder bond but also it makes no sense for HIM to guard the Bore, like old ass no magical powers man?? Nobody jumps his ass?? They all politely walk up to him with Mask of Mirrors on and he’s like hmm that’s not how Cadsuane walks. Like how???

Somebody else on here suggested Lan guard the Bore which fucks severely because the only three people he’s ever cared about are currently fighting for all our lives. Force him to stay alive for something rather than constantly trying to kill himself in his pointless one-man war.

As well I think Lan should have gotten to confront Isam. I know that would take some rearranging of Slayer but if we don’t know how he got put together anyways well shit let’s pull him apart. Then Perrin could have taken on Lord Luc as a Rand look alike which I also think would have been interesting for his character.

For Perrin though too just like an honest acceptance of his wolf powers and leading the wolf packs instead of his dream journey.

Siuan and Egwene to not die 😭 Gawyn not to be a stupid idiot who put on the blood rings after a literal Seanchan warned him not to. Not to sound pro Gawyn on main but he should have fulfilled his birthright of leading Andor into battle beside Elayne.

How Fain died was really jarring, like what a weird time to throw down that Randland knows about germ theory.

IF and only IF Egwene had to die then Cadsuane is the worst choice as Amyrlin, it SHOULD have been Seaine!!!

Moiraine and Siuan get married

Androl getting the seal by just like bumping into Taim like a cartoon is pretty cringe. The dude can manipulate Waygates like no one we’ve seen and you couldn’t even use those?

I will say though more characters should have died, it ends up being somewhat low stakes because there doesn’t really seem to be element of danger. Like some people should have been cut down mid PoV to give some tension. It’s hard for me not to just name characters I don’t like lmao but like, c’mon, if Egwene dies then one of the Two Rivers boys should too.

[writer-sedai]

Why the Wondergirls might be back in the Tower at the beginning of season 3

I've seen a lot of spec assuming that the girls won't return to the White Tower at all next season (with plenty of very sound reasoning!) However, I can't quite convince myself that this is the route the show's going to take, so I wanted to take a closer look at the White Tower's role in book 3 leading into book 4, and how some of these elements can or can't be handled in a different way.

(Major spoilers for The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising below!)

1. Missing character links

There are three characters originally introduced* at the White Tower who have not yet been seen on screen yet: Galad, Gawyn, and of course Elaida.

(*Rand meets both Gawyn and Elaida in Caemlyn but as neither interact with him again for a very long time, it doesn't really count for the moment.)

In the books, Galad, Gawyn, Elaida and Elayne all arrive at the Tower together; this is how Egwene and Nynaeve meet them. Additionally, Min being at the Tower is how she and Elayne meet.

Obviously, this impacts future relationships, most significantly Egwene's relationship with Gawyn (tbh, I think Elayne and Min could meet much later on after they've both fallen for Rand without it impacting their dynamic much).

But GAWYN - if he hasn't met Egwene yet and we haven't seen his relationship with Elayne, how are we supposed to understand the side he picks during the coup? Why should we care? His storyline would lose so much of its point - that he makes decisions that he thinks are best for Elayne/Egwene, but that actually put him in direct opposition to them.

2. Missing training

Less significantly, Galad being a Whitecloak next time he sees Elayne and Nynaeve near Salidar will have less effect on them - since Nynaeve wouldn't have met him at all yet. (Again I think Elayne could probably carry this on her own, but the difference doesn't hit as much if we never see their relationship before.)

Also important here is that the White Tower conflict will probably be a major plot point in season 3, and if the girls aren't at the Tower we wouldn't have any existing POV characters to introduce it to us (Verin and Alanna will be in the Two Rivers, Moiraine is banished, and neither Min nor Suian have had sufficient screen time so far). It's possible to introduce the conflict without the girls of course, especially if Siuan is elevated to a main character, but it might be harder to invest people in from the get go with only new characters and secondary characters holding it up.

It's frequently joked about how little time the Wondergirls spend at the Tower in the books - if they never go back there in the show, then this time would be even shorter (Elayne has only been there for a handful of weeks!). However, some of their knowledge gap could be filled in with training from Moiraine.

Obviously if they don't go back, then Elayne and Egwene won't be raised Accepted. This would mean that they spend the next 3 books pretending to be full sisters while barely being able to control their power - in the books the fact that this deception was successful was already a bit unbelievable and this would only make it moreso.

It would also mean that Egwene becomes Aes Sedai without ever becoming Accepted and then that she also raises Elayne straight to Aes Sedai without becoming Accepted, which stinks even more of favoritism.

And lastly, Egwene's Acceptance test is important - both to my Randgwene heart but also to foreshadow her future and show how tightly she and Rand are bound together. (I've seen spec that this scene could instead happen at Rhuidean, which is definitely possible if Egwene also goes through the silver rings with Aviendha and Moiraine).

I do think the show might run into issues from a visual medium perspective to repeat the Acceptance test the way Nynaeve undertook it, in which case it might make more sense to move the experience away from the tower.

3. Missing tools

This one is by far the easiest one to rectify, I think. Egwene is originally given the twisted ring by Verin at the White Tower, and it's how she and Elayne/Nynaeve meet in tel'aran'rhiod while separated so it will have to come into play eventually (along with a bigger introduction to angreal and ter'angreal).

I think @butterflydm was the first one I saw mention Turak's "room of curiosities" replacing the storeroom in Tear - in which case, it could also easily stand double for the Tower's store cache as well. The girls could easily find the ring in Falme (or be given it).

They could also be given the charge to hunt down the Black Ajah in Falme as well (this is where I'd love to see Ryma come back into play as a communication link to the Tower, potential teacher, etc), with Egwene only choosing not to participate in the hunt when Amys invites her to the Waste.

Problems with returning to the Tower

The biggest one here is time - I think there will probably be a time jump somewhere at the beginning of S3 since there was a jump between both TGH-TDR and TDR-TSR, but even with a jump of a month and quick travel via the ways it means sacrificing bonding/group time in Falme (Egwene and Elayne bonding with Aviendha, Egwene and Rand sorting out their relationship, Nynaeve and Lan being in the same place) in order to fit the Tower in.

Egwene could bond with Aviendha and break up with Rand while in the Waste , but I'll miss Aviendha constantly describing how beautiful Elayne is to Rand! (Although I've seen spec that Elayne and Rand won't be developed until later on - which would make sense - so that opportunity has probably already been lost, rip 😭)

The second major thing I can think of right now is getting Egwene to the Waste - if Rand, Mat, and Moiraine all leave from Falme it seems kinda silly for her to leave from the Tower to meet up with them there. (Though it could be explained as a ta'varen twist of chance! In the books, Rand, Mat, and Egwene all have very different reasons for going to the Waste.)

And finally - depending on the current state of instability in the Tower, it might not make sense for the girls to go back. We've already received several hints that Suian's grip is not as strong as she would like, and all three girls would have to be out of the Tower before the coup happens to avoid being swept up in it.

— In conclusion:

From a streamlining perspective it might make a lot of sense to skip returning to the White Tower, but I worry about how several important story beats and character arcs would be handled without the girls there to serve as an initial anchor.

[champion-of-thedas]

WoT Reread New Spring Chapter 4

I forgot how long this chapter is. It is so long.

Leaving the Tower

Siuan and Moiraine leave the Tower and travel to the camp where they are going to begin taking down names.

·Description of a room for no narrative reason. Look, if he was trying to set a tone, it would be one thing. If the characters were going to be in a room, it would be one thing, if it was an important way to characterize a location, it would be one thing! But Moiraine’s room is none of those things. In all honestly, I find this charming, but I am amused that this room is getting so much description when it meets none of the previous criteria. My dude.

·I have misophonia and it hates KR’s ‘sl-p’ words above all else. The sheer amount of ‘sleep’, ‘slip’, and ‘slippers’ I’ve been hearing is driving my nerves insane.

·Despite the fact that this is supposed to be an out of the ordinary event and the inciting incident of the series, it is giving us a lot more of what regular life for Accepted in the Tower is like.

·Strangely, knowing all of the stuff that Moiraine packed that will not be mentioned in this chapter is helpful to me. It is also a good way for us to get to know Moiraine by learning what she thinks is important.

·Siuan is not a horse girl, and I love that.

·There is a lot of description of the city, but not in the same way that made me so frustrated with it earlier. Here, it feels like it is contrasting the city of Tar Valon with the tragedy going on outside as well as showing off how so many people from all over the continent mix together here. Also it feels in character for Moiraine to notice what she does.

·There’s a brief non-scuffle with the white cloaks that I had forgotten about that ultimately just let’s us know that they are here and they are definitely taking the opportunity to heckle Tar Valon while so close.

·Moiraine and Siuan taking every opportunity that they can to use the power so they have excuses if anyone catches them.

·So here, Siuan tries to convince a guardsman to see her way and it doesn’t work, but she does seem to be considering him afterwards. I wonder if this is just us seeing how Siuan eventually becomes the Amyrlin that she does. Small little moments of her attempting persuasion, deception, and other forms of manipulation are done so she can see how different people interact with them and adjust her approach accordingly. Moiraine talks about how Siuan sees puzzles and patterns, so this would make sense. In essence, while this looks like Siuan utterly failing at browbeating a guard, it actually is Siuan making a mistake, realizing it, analyzing what happened and what went wrong, and filing it away for the future while observing her mark to guess what alternate approaches would work. I’m pretty sure I’m not just making this up either. Moiraine comments on Siuan liking puzzles once more and says she’s looking at the guard as if he was one of her puzzles, and then Moiraine makes a statement about how Siuan sees patterns. I just wish we got more of this in her POVs.

·I also think this could be a good comparison with Egwene. This book came out between Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams, so it was there after Egwene got captured by the White Tower, but before we got to see her begin manipulating people and events in the Tower. A lot of the next few books involve Egwene using the skills she learned (many of which were with the help of Siuan) to beat the White Tower from the inside. We get to see the origin of those skills here.

·There’s just some more back and forth with Moiraine being a disaster bisexual and thinking about pretty guards and pretty Accepted. Good for Moiraine. The chapter ends with them getting set up at the new spot.

One thing my Siuan rant reminded me about is when I first read this book, I was just thinking of it as a Moiraine and Siuan story, but on this readthrough, I’m also thinking of it as a Moiraine and Siuan and Rand and Egwene story. In the rest of the series, I kind of think of Moiraine as Rand’s mentor and Siuan as Egwene’s mentor and the two of them are reflected a lot in their students. I joked with a friend once that sometimes you can really tell that Rand’s leadership style came from a spy and it shows up in some not great ways. I love Moiraine, but she is a spy, not a leader. And no, I’m not saying she messed up Rand’s leadership, he did that on his own bless him. I’m just saying that sometimes he’ll do something, like make sure he is surrounded by people that he knows want to hurt him because he knows their intentions for sure and having people mess each other up so they don’t think about rebelling against him, and my brain says, “that’s a spy move”. I also know that Siuan was also a spymaster and then became a leader (and Moiraine received training as a leader before becoming a spy), but I’m pretty sure that she pushes back against some of those tendencies with Egwene and she had experience as a leader by then. Plus, she comments on how her spy tendencies screwed her. Egwene still has plenty of sneaky spy in her, but I think there is a subtle difference in their motives and actions that is hard to explain. I’ll probably get more into it when the two actually come up as characters.  

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x3

And here are my additional thoughts that contain spoilers through all the teasers and the books through book 13: A Memory of Light.

I was watching show-only reviews to try to figure out if it's safe to call Ishy 'Ishamael' yet but reaction seems mixed on whether or not Moiraine's words clued people in on the situation, so I'm going to stay ambiguous about him in my book spoiler-free posts for now.

I loved the changes that the show made to all Nynaeve's tests. They all make sense in context of the show and Nynaeve's character, they all tell us something about her, and there's also some great connective threads between them. We've known for a while (or guessed) that her first test would take place when she was a kid because her mom appeared in the casting lists... quite a few months ago. Ages ago. But I definitely prefer this one to the book version. It was so heartrending and touching.

2. The crimsonthorn strand throughout the tests is very interesting to me. I talked about this in the other post, but on a more spoilerly note, I like that the show is not defaulting to "all the Wondergirls feel a draw towards Green because They Like Men" and that Nynaeve is actually getting tugged between Yellow and Red in these last two episodes, as Liandrin tries to influence her. It makes me wonder if maybe they'll have Elayne incline towards maybe Brown ("I like to tinker with things") instead of Green. Though Nynaeve did put Egwene in the Green Ajah in her personal AU (which did such a good job in only using elements that Nynaeve was aware of when she went into the arches! No Elayne in Nynaeve's AU; and no Rand because she believes him to be dead).

4. Side note: thrilled that Nynaeve does not have to be naked for the test. The amount of times that women have to strip down for rituals in the books gets pretty ridiculous (especially when men doing the same kind of ritual -- ex. going to Rhuidean -- does not require them to strip). Stripping down to her shift makes the point well enough.

5. A thought I had about the people attacking the Two Rivers -- could this have been happening during the Andoran Succession Crisis that led to Morgase being Queen? And so the Queen's Guard, instead of keeping the roads clear of bandits, were busy with the civil war among the nobility, which let bandits get even as far as the Mountains of Mist. That could actually serve as a really good reason for the Two Rivers to basically nope out of being part of Andor -- "you were so busy squabbling amongst yourself that you let bandits rove the lands and kill innocent people". I'm not certain if the timeline matches up, but I will put it out there as a theory.

6. Her second test is based on the same worries that she had in the books -- that she's abandoned the Two Rivers and she won't be there when they need her and someone who isn't a good Wisdom will have taken over for her -- but shifted the details to hit harder in the show version, and to use characters that the show viewers are already familiar with. It really worked for me. I also liked them essentially using Perrin's lies about Rand to Tam in the books for Nynaeve here instead, where it makes a lot more sense -- she doesn't want to steal the only comfort that she can give a dying man by telling him that his son is dead.

7. Liandrin genuinely got herself invested in Nynaeve! I liked seeing that. I really like that the show is giving more emotional depth to our Darkfriends. Both Sheriam and Liandrin come across as very genuinely upset that Nynaeve hasn't returned through the arches. Because they both think of themselves as the good guys! Liandrin's motives in the show seems to be along the lines of "You need to have power so that others can't have power over you" while Sheriam's in the books were about being Black Ajah essentially to get ahead in the Tower but never expecting that she would actually need to do anything TOO terribly bad in exchange. Neither of them wanted Nynaeve to die or get hurt (they were both probably hoping to turn her to the Black Ajah). It's also really funny that it's entirely possible that they do not know that the other one is also Black Ajah.

8. Theory: being able to sense latent channelers may be a Talent rather than something either everyone or no one can do. Because it's one specific damane who comes out to point out the individual women to get dragged off to be damane, rather than it being the two women who were used to attack the village.

They are hitting the dehumanization angle hard. Egwene's 'training' is going to be so hard to watch.

9. Ishamael doesn't seem like he was expecting to find Perrin here, so I don't think Ingtar has been in regular contact with him. I really do wonder where exactly the Darkfriend social happened, timeline-wise, to the rest of the season thus far.

10. Ah, goodbye, Uno. I'll miss you, but you went out like a boss. Given the changes that were made to the plot, this does make a ton of sense -- Uno is not a man who backs down easily and he's also not a plot-relevant character really... ever, at any point. He's a fun character for flavor but someone who can be sacrificed to illustrate a narrative point without needing to change any of the story in the future.

11. Changing Logain to being able to see men who can channel as opposed to ta'veren makes a lot of sense on a practical level -- Mat was sitting right next to Rand, so if he saw ta'veren, then he would have seen both of them glowing; making it about Rand being a channeling focuses Logain's attention and memory in on Rand specifically.

12. Rand being kept out of the knowledge loop here kinda cracks me up because "Rand is on an information diet" is something that kept coming up in the books and it frustrated me so much because, in the books, it was consistently a result of his allies just never being willing to tell him a fucking thing ever unless he bullied them into it or spied on them. It makes a lot more sense here that he doesn't know what's going on with anyone else's plotlines! Taking something frustrating from the books and making it make sense is a really good habit that the show has been doing.

13. Lanfear continues to be the funniest girl in the world. She is just on cloud nine so far in s2, cruising along living her best life. Also, we see that her inn cheekily has her personal symbols as their sign.

14. Given how much Rand is experiencing the class divide in Cairhien and how much he's seen the poor get mistreated and looked down on by the rich and titled, I almost wonder if he isn't going to get a bit of Mat's arc from the books when he finds out that Elayne is a noble and needs to realize that she's not like the Cairhienin nobles.

15. Mat escaping from one abusive situation only to land right into another one definitely reminds me of the Tylin->Tuon pipeline in the books, of course. The main difference being is that we're dealing with mother figures in the show and not 'romances' (please take that word with a very large grain of salt). Possibly the biggest way that they can set Mat x Tuon up for success is actually showing us her relationship with her mother and how toxic and cruel the environment that she grew up in is. I feel like not killing off the old Empress at all and instead having Tuon take over a faction of the people and split off them off from the Empire would give us a sense that she really IS Not Like The Other Seanchan, instead of just wanting people to believe Mat when he says it despite there being no evidence in Tuon's actual behavior (I'm trying to remember who originally suggested that idea, but it was a while ago, so I have forgotten; I'm sorry!).

16. Liandrin grinding in to Mat how worthless and what an awful friend he is will, presumably, be some pretty good setup for him to show himself to be both loyal and vital in the final episode, though there will probably be more pain for him in the upcoming episodes (maybe involving what happens with Min's viewing about him stabbing Rand).

17. Lanfear is buzzing on such a high of getting show off of her Personal Dragon to a fancy group of lords and ladies at the start of this party.

18. Rand's conversation with Moiraine's sister is particularly fascinating! There's a queen of Cairhien but I suspect that it's not a Damodred (maybe I'll be wrong and Anvaere is the queen! We'll see!). That Anvaere reaches out to the mysterious ~outlander lord~ and shares so much with him is very intriguing, especially if we end up seeing her again later in the season (once Moiraine arrives in Cairhien?).

18. Here is where the cracks in Lanfear's illusion of perfect happiness with her New Lews Therin are beginning to show: he's keeping secrets from her, he's doubting her, and then he just leaves her behind. She is probably getting some very unhappy flashbacks right about now.

19. I wonder if Rand's bad experience with Logain here will inform his choices in the future. In the books, there isn't really a good reason for him to give Taim free rein over the school, but if it's more of a "Taim vs Logain" situation and he already doesn't trust Logain (and Taim appears less affected by the madness), then him trusting Taim might make more sense.

20. Mat being released from a prison cell and not knowing where to go and then (temporarily in this case) returning to his prison gives me echoes of "Mat inexplicably appears by magic in Ebou fucking Dar, a place that treated him like shit for months" from A Memory of Light, lol.

21. Perrin feeling wary about getting too wolfy because of his encounter with Ishamael feels like a much better reason that we got in the books... though I wonder if we'll follow it up by having him meet... shit, the guy who lost himself to the wolf; do not remember his name. But I'm thrilled to have him hanging out with Elyas and the wolves (Hopper?) for now.

22. Liandrin calling Mat Cauthon, agent of chaos, "nothing if not predictable" feels like it needs to bite her in the ass at some point.

23. Yeah, on rewatch, the sex dream is definitely Lanfear feeling like she can finally show her possessiveness and anger in Rand's dream. She is MAD at him for keeping secrets and leaving without her, but she can't show it when he's awake because it doesn't fit her carefully crafted persona. She does NOT like her men with an air of mystery -- she wants to know every tiny thing that he's thinking and feeling. I wonder if Rand actually did light the roof on fire or if Lanfear helped it along -- she's definitely taking advantage of his vulnerability in the aftermath of the fire. "If you ever leave me like that again, I will kill you." Yeah, that's absolutely Lanfear.

And, you know, her inn burning down does mean that she doesn't have to worry about dealing with it anymore. Now that she's had a taste of Rand in fancy coats, I think she probably wants to try to figure out a way to make it happen again.

24. Nynaeve's dream does have a couple of painful easter eggs in it -- Mat gets a wound over his eye; Perrin gets killed by an axe.

Nynaeve does forcibly bring back the arches in the books too, just without so much happening in the illusionary life. But I liked this a lot because of how much it gave us from the other characters who believed that Nynaeve was dead.

25. So, my theories about what we might get in episode four. Wow.

Rand's trajectory... I don't think he's done with Logain. But I feel like ep4 is going to be a big one for him, based on the title (Daughter of the Night). Rand may find out the truth about Selene in this episode, which would be a. be a pretty big betrayal but also b. might make him realize that it's not likely that the Dark One is actually dead.

Moiraine is presumably on her way to Cairhien right now, but it doesn't seem like she thinks Rand himself is there, but more that she's investigating the poem situation, so they may run across each other by accident.

Everyone is going to get to react to Nynaeve powering her way out of the arches (like a boss). I am very curious if Lan is going to spend an episode in the Tower before going after Moiraine... but if Actual Lan goes to the Tower... hard to imagine he wouldn't tell Nynaeve, at least, that Rand is still alive. He knows how deeply Nynaeve cares about the Two Rivers kids.

Unless Liandrin tricks Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene into leaving the Tower before Lan arrives there?

Where are Mat and Min going! Mat can't be going after Egwene & co to save them because... nothing to save them from at the moment. Where would Liandrin want him to be led? Falme? I mean, maybe, but he can't channel, so it's not a secure prison for Mat like it would be for the girls.

Perrin's storyline is going to teach us more about the Seanchan and wolfbrothering, I imagine. Maybe some scouting. He can truthfully tell any Seanchan soldiers (if he runs across any) that he's taken the oaths.

Will we follow right on from episode 3 or is there going to be a timeskip to give the characters some time to travel to new locations?

[markantonys]

s3 trailer mini-analysis

a LOT of this trailer seems to be either standard rand-in-the-waste stuff that's exactly what i expected to be happening this season or moiraine AU visions that don't tell us anything about the season's goings-on in Reality, so i'm just going to ponder a handful of shots that are currently intriguing me!

i've zoomed in on this wideshot of two people talking in the tower, and also added brightness and color enhancement. the seated figure appears to be wearing red and the other figure white. my current suspicion is that this is lanfear talking to liandrin, or, wild shot, elaida - i can't tell if the lighter blobs over the red figure's shoulders are blonde hair or just part of an outfit. but the white figure does seem like a lanfear-y silhouette to me! if true, this could maaaaybe point to lanfear getting involved with the white tower to set her up to absorb mesaana later; or it could just be her having a chat with her minion liandrin early in the season before liandrin heads off to tanchico and gets wrapped up with moggy.

closeup of the big room with 3 statues. the outfits of the group on the left make me wonder if this could be an age of legends scene in rand's glass columns sequence - they look similar to what LTT and other male aes sedai have worn in the flashbacks in the first 2 seasons. but i'm not sure what to make of the group of walkers on the right!

rand and egwene in a location that seems waste-y. they both look surprised, which makes me wonder if this is some kind of dreamworld fuckery; maybe they unexpectedly crossed paths in TAR, or maybe egwene unexpectedly managed to physically transport herself to the waste via dreamworld fuckery. it's giving:

next up!

elayne and min both sporting hair-wraps. could it be that they're in tanchico together and hair-wraps are the style there? or it could just be coincidence and not a sign of a shared location. i'm surprised by how long min's hair is, but i wonder if that indicates some version of her elmindreda disguise making it in? but also, how could so much time have passed between seasons for her hair to grow that much? rand and egwene's hair is both only a little longer than their s2 chops, i think. maybe min's hair actually ends just below her shoulders and it's only the angle here that gives it the illusion of being even longer.

mat in a frustratingly nondescript location (i brightened it up in hopes of revealing architectural details, but nah). his neck is definitely injured, and surely if mat has an injured neck in s3, it HAS to be from hanging. but i can't judge whether it looks like a fresh wound or a semi-healed, scarring wound. brightening the shot did reveal that he seems to have a nice pattern on his shirt/robe/coat, good for him!

presumably rand having a channeling explosion in what appears to be a reasonably nice bedroom at night. this one really intrigues me because i think it's just about the only shot of rand that isn't part of the waste or an AU vision (at least, i assume this is reality), and thus perhaps the only shot we have of the very start of the season when the gang is all still together, as they reportedly are. it would make sense to me for rand to have some channeling disaster early in the season to set up his storyline of needing a channeling teacher at any cost, even if it's a forsaken.

and now, what you've all been waiting for, window architectural style analysis!

first, elayne with the crown is definitely white tower windows with that almost floral pattern. why is elayne putting on a crown in the white tower while wearing her novice dress? i doubt she'd have one kicking around in her luggage. did her brothers and/or elaida bring it with them for some reason? is it actually a (ter')angreal? is this a dream sequence, or an AU within her or egwene's accepted test?

now more windows to try and figure out where people are in mysterious shots. left to right: the windows behind rand as he's having a channeling explosion; tiny fragment of the window behind mat; the window to elayne's right in the shot of her with the hair-wrap.

overall i can conclude [drumroll]..........nothing! none of them seem like white tower windows, at least, and rand's window and elayne's window are definitely different from each other (no surprise there, since my guesses for the two shots are 3x01 location & tanchico respectively). if i had to pick, i'd say mat's window looks more similar to elayne's and thus that shot might be him in tanchico, but it's impossible to say since we don't get a good look at his window.

although, if i compare to falme, could it potentially be a somewhat-similar style of ceiling beams with a semi-circle of holes for the top of a window underneath? haha probably not, at this point i'm just reaching to try and invent evidence for my "mat finds the doorway in 3x01 and rand is around to give him cpr" hopes. who knows if falme will even be their starting location anyway!

after all, rand's window, which i hazard a guess is in the starting location, doesn't match falme windows. nor does it match tar valon or cairhien windows. perhaps it's a new location - like caemlyn? maybe they all arrive there in 3x01 and meet elayne's fam, then perrin heads off to the two rivers, rand heads off to the waste, and elaida carts the girls back to the tower with the brothers (and maybe mat?) in tow (so potentially the girls going back against their will rather than choosing to go back - i do have somewhat of a hard time imagining them voluntarily going back now that there are more important things than school to worry about, unless perhaps they decide to go back in order to warn siuan about the black ajah. but i'm sure i'll have more wondergirls speculation later since them being at the tower was definitely my biggest surprise of the trailer and i need to mull it over some more!)

stray thoughts

where is gawyn? is he safe? is he all right? they are edging me BIG time with him, goddamn! we saw galad and faile in the trailer, but they were the ones we already had the castings for anyway! gawyn is the one whose existence we need evidence of!!!! my fears of a Brother Merge are returning even though i know it's absurd since they namedropped gawyn in s2 while the brother we saw in the trailer is clearly galad and was named galad on the actor's CV.

me: all the marketing materials will be geared towards show-onlys and thus rooted in relationships we know from the first 2 seasons rather than revealing too many new relationships also me: [panics over all the focus in the trailer & interview on rand's relationships with moiraine/egwene/lanfear with nary a hint of him meeting elayne and avi]

but of COURSE they wouldn't be giving away anything on the avirandlayne front already haha so this is only logical! we've only seen a tiny fraction of rand's season activities; plenty of time for him to be hanging out with avi and elayne (and his friends!) in scenes we haven't yet gotten glimpses of. rand-moiraine and rand-lanfear were his biggest dynamics in s2, which makes me impatient to see his other dynamics return (or get created) in s3, but it also means that those are the dynamics it's most sensible to focus on for early promo.

i am quite surprised there wasn't a single shot of avi in the trailer (bar a potential wideshot of her from behind) since she IS a returning character whom show-onlys would recognize, but then, even characters who've had a bigger role than her thus far (such as 3/5 emond's fielders) only got 1-2 shots; the focus was definitely on rand, moiraine, and lanfear in this trailer, with a touch of egwene as well.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 11 - Tar Valon

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Flame icon) In which oh yeah, that was definitely NOT the first time.

PERSPECTIVE: As they enter the village of Darein, near one of the bridges to the island on which the White Tower sits, there are so many soldiers about that Egwene thinks it's prepared for war. It's been burned down and rebuilt many times over the years, an easy target for those wanting to cut the island off. But, the townspeople seem to continue about their business unconcerned.(1)

As they cross a bridge to the island, Egwene is struck by the feeling of returning home. Emond's Field is her home, but in Tar Valon she'll learn what she needs to keep her free, and why her dreams bother her so. This is where her life is, now.

There are many paragraphs of Egg admiring the city anew, in case the reader is reading this book first in the series by accident of fate. Verin is being cagey, and says she expects trouble most of all in the Tower, and they need to never ever use the Power like they did earlier, again, in their lives. She also tells them that they must accept whatever happens to them upon their return. Hurin excuses himself before they enter the Tower grounds, saying he must find the next ship back toward Shienar, to tell them of the Dragon.

The women and Mat make their way into the Tower. They leave their horses in stables, and Nynaeve asks Verin why they're being so slow if Mat only has hours, but Verin simply raises a hand to command her to silence. Sheriam approaches, followed by three Accepted and two male labourers, and remarks that Verin has brought back the three runaways. Egg starts to protest that they didn't-- but Verin snaps an all-caps "BE SILENT!"(2)

Sheriam motions for the men to take Mat's litter, and Verin says she supposes the whole Tower knows they've returned. Sheriam says anyone who doesn't know will soon. Verin says she must speak to the Amyrlin, and the girls are to be held closely until the Amyrlin wishes to see them, if she does. Held closely, but in their own rooms. No need for cells, yet.

Nyn is angry, and Elayne is scared, and Egg is a little of both. Sheriam tells them if they speak a single word except to respond to an Aes Sedai, she'll make them wish their punishment was just a switching and extra chores. They say "Yes, Aes Sedai." and Sheriam goes into a rant about how few young women even come to the tower, and how many leave without ever sensing the True Source, much less touching it, or after only learning enough not to hurt themselves. They three, with more ability inborn than has been seen in generations, ran away not half trained, for months, and ride back as if nothing happened.(3)

Sheriam calls for one of the Accepted with her, Faolain, and says the wondergirls are to be escorted to their rooms, and given nothing but water, bread, and cold broth until the Amyrlin orders otherwise. Then Sheriam stalks away, even her walk communicating anger.

Faolain has a dislike for Nynaeve as a woman who ~earned~ her Accepted ring after years of practice, and baits the girls, saying that they'll probably be stilled when the Amyrlin calls for them.

Another of the Accepted, Theodrin, tells Faolain to leave off. Theodrin is a Wilder too, and will hold them to Sheriam's order but won't bait them. She stands next to Nynaeve, to escort her personally. Faolain glares at Egwene, and the third Accepted stands beside Elayne, with a no-nonsense look about her.

As they make their way, Egg hopes they're healing Mat already.

=====

(1) One can become accustomed to many things, including constant danger. Not always in a healthy way, but it can be accomplished. (2) You get the feeling that what we saw was only the tip of the iceberg with these three. We in the fandom affectionately call them the Wondergirls, because they're quite the wonder when they're all on the same side. Poor Verin's nerves. (3) Curious, though. We have seen that the White Tower's numbers are in decline. But, what happens to all those who leave? And further… if Egg and Nyn could go undiscovered in the Two Rivers, how many more are out there, just, not being found because the Aes Sedai have insulated themselves in the Tower, and journey only rarely through the real world? What happens to anyone out there who might have as much power, but never gets found, or is taught that it's something else the way the 2Rs Wisdoms don't associate their powers with the One Power? It's been hinted and touched on a few times now. Do you think we'll ever address that?

[cozcat]

I've seen a few different theories about what the show will do with Liandrin, given that you don't hire Kate Fleetwood for that plot. And the more I think about it, the more I think that Liandrin is going to die. Rafe promised us death, so about death shall I theorise. And I have thoughts on why, that I won't subject your dash to, as they got a bit long.

Liandrin does sod all after her subjugation. She's one of those stellar examples of Jordan being mostly unwilling to kill women, which the show has already proven with Amalisa that it will not be following in the fashion of. But she's pretty much done by The Fires of Heaven, and her later appearances do nothing but go "wow, yep, her life is still shit, no changes, moving on".

So, instead, kill her.

The two most popular theories I've seen are that they'll merge her with Alviarin or Galina. By merging her with Alviarin, the subjugation doesn't work - and that is something I feel is vital. (Plus, a few more prominent Black sisters who aren't Red is a very good thing.) And I wouldn't be surprised to see the plots Galina is involved in get so pared down that she's written out. (I'm expecting the Shaido plot on the whole to look ridiculously different.)

(A disclaimer: I can definitely see one of those merges happening anyway.)

With regards to plot, too, it makes sense. She's thus far the shadiest Aes Sedai we've met. She'll be the Big Bad of the White Tower, she'll sell Egwene into slavery, she'll flee with that little collection of Black Ajah and sow chaos. And then she meets her fate by Moghedien's hand.

A book can get away with loose ends in a way the show can't, and death is a clean and quick confirmation that that end is no longer loose. If they leave her alive, there is that thought of her coming back in some twisty way. (For this same reason, I don't think she will be the only person whose fate changes for that specific reason.)

She's also a reasonably well known face. If you've seen her in something, you remember her - you're never forgetting those cheekbones. Killing off someone recognisable always spices things up, and raises the stakes.

We need Moggy to be dangerous. And Moggy's subjugation of Liandrin already shows that - but as I said earlier, it leaves Liandrin as a loose end the show can't afford. Liandrin has been, until this point, broadly pretty successful in her nefarious doings. So Moggy killing her effortlessly drives home how dangerous she actually is.

And as a fun way of killing her, and flipping her fate in the books on its head - I can see Moghedien compelling Liandrin to kill herself, in some way that no person would even be able to kill themselves, in front of the rest of the Black Ajah. I'm picturing her forced to wring her own neck, all the while begging for her life. It makes Liandrin's arc nice and finished, it drives home how dangerous Moggy is (which is vital!), and it means we get to see Kate Fleetwood be fucking spectacular in her character's final moments. And honestly, seeing Kate Fleetwood be fucking spectacular is what I live for.

[rationalnerd62]

Survival predictions of WoT s1 characters

"I wanted people to be a little on their toes, because real deaths are coming for characters that don't die in the books. We have to, because we can't hold 2,000 series regulars through multiple seasons" - Rafe Judkins, EW

When Rafe confirmed that Loial was, in fact, not dead, he also warned viewers to be ready for real (and shocking) deaths, as a TV show is limited in cast size, an issue books do not have.

Since then, many (especially on Twitter) have made guesses on who are the most susceptible characters to get snapped in the show. Some of those guesses (cough cough Siuan and/or Moiraine cough cough) annoyed me quite a bit. As a result, I've been trying to put those death sentences in perspective by giving a "Risk Level" to the characters we have encountered so far in season 1.

Non-book readers, please run away. This post will be full of spoilers regarding the fate of some characters, and this will definitely spoil your fun of watching the show without some preconceived idea of what should happen.

For others, feel free to read below.

I've defined six different levels:

Safe: this character will make it to The Last Battle, and there is absolutely no doubt about it.

Risk Level 1: this character is significant to the plot up to The Last Battle. Something could still happen to them, but probably not during the first few seasons of the show, to limit butterfly/trickle-down effects.

Risk Level 2: this character is still significant, but tends to disappear for a while in the books, or has storylines that could be done by others. While I still think they will make it to the end, their risk level is higher than the previous one.

Risk Level 3: this character is alive for a long time in the books, but mostly not significant to the plot. Cutting them early or earlier would make sense. This can either mean death or being forgotten/not encountered anymore at some point.

Risk Level 4: this character isn't dead yet, but considering their fate in the books, they probably won't make it to The Last Battle.

Dead: this character has already been killed in the show.

The following characters are then ordered by their total screentime during season 1. In parenthesis, I have added their rank in terms of the number of times this character is mentioned in the book series. This rank was directly taken from the WoT Top 250 Quiz. For characters that did not make this list, a N/A is given to this rank.

Here we go.

Moiraine Damodred (#7): RL1. Her book storyline corresponds more to RL2, as Moiraine pretty much disappears for half of the books. However, the show has put this character as the lead of the first season (she’s the number one on the call sheet), and Rosamund Pike is invested in the Wheel of Time and involved in the production of the show. The show is already adding stories to Moiraine (who doesn’t do much in Book 2), with Rafe commenting that “we're not going to put Rosamund Pike on the bench”. IMO, as long as Rosamund Pike wants to be involved, she will be, which could result in an earlier rescue from the Tower of Ghenjei.

Rand al'Thor (#1): Safe. TDR/EF5 shield.

Egwene al'Vere (#2): Safe. EF5 shield.

Lan Mandragoran (#11): Safe. EF5’s husband shield.

Perrin Aybara (#4): Safe. EF5 shield.

Nynaeve al'Meara (#6): Safe. EF5 shield.

Mat Cauthon (#3): Safe. EF5 shield.

Liandrin Guirale (#62): RL4, with nuances. If I recall correctly (IIRC), Liandrin is an interesting antagonist up to Book 5, so her character could disappear when the show arrives around that time. However, some characters will be merged together in the show, so this will also depend on whether this is the case for Liandrin. There have been several hypotheses on which characters she could be merged with: Elaida (#14), Galina (#66), Alviarin (#70)… IMO, Elaida will be her own character (she’s too important as her own), but Galina or Alviarin would make sense, as their plot happens mostly in later books and they have a rank similar to Liandrin. If that’s the case, Liandrin could last a few more seasons, but it would still be a surprise for her to reach the Last Battle.

Siuan Sanche (#12): RL1. While not being a main character, she’s a primary protagonist in the books, with interesting stories up to the Last Battle. People have been guessing she will be killed off early, either in s1e6 or during the White Tower schism, but the butterfly effects of that change would be quite significant, considering the mentorship and help she gives Egwene in Salidar. Moiraine being shielded in s1e8 does not change the importance and relevance of Siuan’s future storylines. Moreover, the show decided to increase her importance with respect to the books, by having a cold-open about her childhood, by canonizing the romantic relationship between her and Moiraine (and giving it the time and attention they deserved), and by making Siuan the top secondary character of the first season in term of speaking time and second in term of screentime. Last but not least, Oscar-nominated actress Sophie Okonedo plays the part and was hand-picked by both Rafe Judkins and Rosamund Pike, the last one sending Sophie a passionate letter to ensure she would take the role. IMO, the only concern is whether the actress is okay with such a long-term project. If she is, and the show has the budget, I have no doubt she’ll stick around up to the Last Battle.

Alanna Mosvani (#56): RL2. She’s an important character who makes it to the last book, but she’s not as significant as Moiraine or Siuan, thus the different risk levels. She’s suspected to have been merged with Myrelle (#73), which makes me think she’ll stick around for a while.

Loial (#17): RL2. Look, I love our boy, but I actually don’t remember much of what he does in the books. I know he disappears a few times, which makes me lean toward RL2, but he’s still there by the end of it and he’s a great character. We need more of him, really.

Stepin (N/A): Dead.

Logain Ablar (#33): RL1. He’s absent for quite some time, but we’re talking about Alvaro Morte here. The show is already expanding on Logain’s story, and there’s the whole Black Tower plot during the last few books and we need it. Plus, he’s traveling with Siuan after the schism, and I need them to interact.

Maigan (N/A): RL4. Yo, she mentioned going to see what’s going on with the ships disappearing West, and then we got the ep8 ending. She won’t last long.

Dana (N/A): Dead.

Leane Sharif (#34): RL3. She’s around Siuan a lot but doesn’t really do as much, except for some nice cuendillar skills. If someone has to die during the schism, that would be her. It would be sad, though, as I like the chaotic energy of Siuan and Leane making everyone in Salidar believe they are enemies. If that ain’t a recurrent theme for Siuan, really!

Tam al'Thor (#25): RL1. The relationship between Rand and Tam is really sweet in the books. Moreover, WoT breaks this trope of the orphan hero, and I don’t really see the show falling back into it by killing Tam.

Kerene Nagashi (N/A): Dead.

Thom Merrilin (#13): RL2. Very important character during the books, however, his storyline in the last few books may significantly change if the show sticks to Moiraine x Siuan. Will he still save Moiraine from the Tower of Ghenjei? If not, what will he do instead? That last question is why I’m leaning toward RL2, but in any case, he should be safe for quite a few seasons.

Ihvon (N/A): RL3. It’ll depend a lot on Alanna’s storyline, but I’m not optimistic.

Maksim (N/A): RL4. Idem, but slightly worse as we know Alanna loses a warder in the books and it affects her a lot.

Eamon Valda (#130): RL4. Even if he’s indeed merged with Child Byar… menacing smile.

Lady Amalisa (N/A): Dead.

Ila (#204): RL3. She doesn’t die in the book, but she doesn’t stay around either.

Aram (#77): RL4. A bit more tragic than his grandparents, and I’m looking forward to his evolution.

Marin al'Vere (#141): RL3. She may not die, but we won’t see her anymore after a few seasons.

Bran al'Vere (#148): RL3. Similar to Marin.

Raen (#202): RL3. Similar to Ila.

Ishamael / The Man (#40): RL1. Do I need to say anything else?

Lord Agelmar (#81): Presumed dead. Overall, RL3. We may see him again at the Last Battle, but if the actor isn’t available when that happens I guess we’ll survive.

Lord Yakota (N/A): Dead. This is actually our first “dead before their time” from the show.

Uno Nomesta (#71): RL3. Either he dies in s2, or he’ll randomly show up in Salidar and/or at the Last Battle. In any case, this won’t affect the general plot too much.

Min Farshaw (#8): Safe. cough. EF5’s girlfriend shield.

Tigraine Mantear (N/A): Dead.

Laila Dearn (N/A): Dead.

Daise Congar (N/A): RL3. She won’t leave the Two Rivers anyway.

Berden Sanche (N/A): RL3. For all we know, he’s already dead.

Danya (N/A): RL3. May show up again when we’ll come back to the Two Rivers, but that’s it.

Padan Fain (#46): RL2. Fain has this tendency to disappear for several books and then show up. His last appearance at the Last Battle was very random. Either the show develops him more, or they’ll kill him off earlier.

King of Ghaeldan (N/A): Dead.

Master Hightower (N/A): Dead.

Geofram Bornhald (#201): RL4. I’m kinda excited to see him again, though.

Bode Cauthon (#229): RL3. She’s too young to become a novice in this turning of the Wheel. May not leave the Two Rivers.

Eldrin Cauthon (N/A): RL3. Same as Bode.

Natti Cauthon (N/A): RL3. Won’t leave the Two Rivers.

Lews Therin Telamon (#27): Dead (but still around). Corruption time hehehe.

Latra Posae Decume (N/A): Dead.

Mr. Grinwell (N/A): Dead.

Zahir (N/A): RL3. Rip his wife, will we ever see him again? Not sure.

Helga Grinwell (N/A): Dead.

Abell Cauthon (#187): RL3. He may or may not hang around Tam. While I’m sure many would love for him to do so, it won’t change the plot much if he doesn’t.

Mrs. Grinwell (N/A): Dead.

Grinwell Son (N/A): Dead.

Tom Thane (N/A): Dead.

Basel Gill (#109): RL3. I would love to see him again, but overall he’s a supportive character.

To summarize:

Safe: Rand, Egwene, Lan, Perrin, Nynaeve, Mat, Min

RL1: Moiraine, Siuan, Logain, Tam, Ishamael

RL2: Alanna, Loial, Thom, Fain

RL3: Leanne, Ihvon, Ila, Marin, Bran, Raen, Agelmar, Uno, Daise, Berden, Danya, Bode, Eldrin, Natti, Zahir, Abell, Basel Gill.

RL4: Liandrin, Maigan, Maksim, Valda, Aram, Bornhald

Dead: Stepin, Dana, Kerene, Amalisa, Yakota, Tigraine, Laila, King of Ghaeldan, Master Hightower, Lews Therin, Latra Posae, Mr Grinwell, Helga Grinwell, Mrs Grinwell, Grinwell Son, Tom Thane

When only keeping characters from the top 250:

Safe: Rand, Egwene, Lan, Perrin, Nynaeve, Mat, Min

RL1: Moiraine, Siuan, Logain, Tam, Ishamael

RL2: Alanna, Loial, Thom, Fain

RL3: Leanne, Ihvon, Ila, Marin, Bran, Raen, Agelmar, Uno, Bode, Abell, Basel Gill.

RL4: Liandrin, Valda, Aram, Bornhald

Dead: Lews Therin

Do you agree with those risk levels? For which characters would you change the risk level, and why?

In any case, I fully intend to link that post whenever someone leaves a comment on a tweet of mine about Siuan or Moiraine dying. The audacity.

Just kidding, you can think whatever you want, but stop saying that to queer folks loving Moiraine and Siuan, this is depressing, we want some nice happy ending too.

Side note: I actually have a sheet with those top 250 characters. Maybe someday I'll make more predictions on who will live, who will be merged, who will be skipped, who will die, etc.