#wot prime worldbuilding notes

[markantonys]

i've got to put out an attempt to spread the good word of wheel of time to some of my new rings of power followers!

are you hankering for a new fantasy show to fill the void of ROP? look no further than wheel of time! it's also on amazon prime and is something of a sister-show to ROP. there are 2 seasons out currently, and season 3 is in post-production and slated to release sometime in 2025.

here's what WOT is about:

in a world that has reincarnation, rosamund pike's character who has been described as lesbian gandalf learns that an apocalyptic figure called "the dragon" who broke the world 3000 years ago has been reborn as a new person. accompanied by her platonic work-husband to whom she's psychically bonded, she narrows her search down to 5 potential candidates, a group of 20-somethings from the same little village. the group embarks on a quest to figure out which one of them is the dragon reborn, but even the ones who are not the dragon have nevertheless been chosen out by fate to have their own remarkable powers and key roles in deciding the fate of the world.

here's what makes WOT similar to ROP:

multiple-storyline ensemble show with a variety of personalities among the main characters, so you'll be sure to find Your Blorbo in somebody (and there's a pretty big variety among the fandom of who everyone's faves are, which goes to show how good ALL the characters are!)

epic fantasy that earnestly and wholeheartedly embraces its genre and the inherent whimsy and fantasticalness therein, without acting like it's embarrassed about having fantasy elements or like it considers itself too good and too prestige for the genre

it has some truly dark and harrowing stuff, but it never feels like it's gratuitous/just for shock value and never descends into cynical grimdark territory. it centers on the importance of hope and togetherness to fight against evil (tolkien was a primary inspiration for the WOT books' author robert jordan, so some of the vibes and themes are similar)

incredibly in-depth worldbuilding and world history

gorgeous costumes, sets, scenery, soundtrack, and production value. i could wax poetic about the soundtrack all day but will restrain myself and just say that it's a similar approach as ROP of specific character themes rearranged ad infinitum to suit the tone of different scenes and that it has a very unique soundscape that stands out from traditional orchestral fantasy. the costumes, especially in the second season, are some of the most unique and distinctive i've ever seen in a fantasy show, using lots of sharp/modern silhouettes to evoke a different feel from your standard medieval-inspired fantasy costumes. and vibrant colors!!!

absolutely Perfect casting across the board, with every actor from the most seasoned veterans to the newest-comers delivering wonderful performances, embodying their characters perfectly, and clearly having the time of their life making this show.

major character recast between s1 and s2 haha but like with adar, both mat actors are wonderful and it's impossible to wish one was the other while watching their respective performances.

Wholesome Boy Besties, and overall a lack of toxic masculinity and a total comfort with letting men be tender and kind and emotional (in fact, i'd say WOT does even better at this than ROP)

mesmerizing villains who run the gamut from tragic to Sexy Fun Evil to straight-up bonechilling (oftentimes multiple categories all rolled into the same villain). what if sauron was a sexy sexy lady whose top hobbies were serving cunt and gaslighting her boytoy? watch wheel of time to find out.

on that note, what would you get if you took the toxic hero/villain/villain polyeroticism of galadriel/sauron/adar, dialed it up to 11, and made it borderline canon that they used to be in a throuple that ended badly? one of the major dynamics of WOT s2, that's what.

a slower, establishing first season followed by a bombastic second season that raises the stakes, lets the villains out to play big time, and generally knocks it out of the park. so if you're on the fence while watching s1, keep going to get to the glowup!

and here's what makes WOT better than ROP:

while they both improve in their second season, imo the first season of WOT is quite a bit better than the first season of ROP (anecdotal evidence: i started both shows as a complete show-only with no prior familiarity with the source material (bar having watched the LOTR movies), and WOT had me hooked by the end of 1x01 whereas ROP i watched 2 episodes and abandoned it for 2 years before coming back for another try and successfully getting hooked)

i'd say the main reason for this is that the story of WOT s1 is fairly simple and small scale and laser-focused on just our 7 main characters who all share a single storyline together (breaking up into 3 sub-storylines for the middle portion of the season, then coming back together again), and it holds off on expanding the scale of the world & story until s2. this was much more effective at getting a newcomer like me assimilated in the world, hooked on the story, and invested in the characters than ROP starting out with a massive sprawling cast and story right off the bat and kind of overwhelming me with too much going on. WOT s1 was also very clear in establishing Here Are The Stakes And Here's Why You Should Care immediately in the pilot episode, whereas i struggled for a while with seeing what the Point of ROP was or why i should care about these characters (because there are too many of them and not enough time spent on any).

WOT is better at character depth and development, in large part because its main cast is about half the size of ROP's so there's just a lot more breathing room. like with ROP, some characters/storylines are naturally more important than others in a given season and thus everyone's prominence ebbs and flows, but unlike ROP, the characters who are in their "off-season" still get proper season-long arcs and never feel like they're getting neglected. no primary WOT character has ever been wholly absent for more than 1 episode per season (except for mat absent from 2 eps in s1 for recasting-related reasons).

following off of that, i'd say WOT is better at handling multiple storylines, because of the above point of fewer characters and also the earlier point that all the characters start together, then separate. this ensures that all the different storylines feel connected to each other, unlike ROP where there are some groups of characters that have never even met anyone else. the Found Family and Power Of Friendship themes are extremely strong in WOT, and the bonds between the core characters are unbreakable! and this makes all the storylines feel connected and cohesive even when they're taking place across the continent.

another similar point: WOT strikes a better balance between epic scale and narrative intimacy. i can't describe this any better or think of specific examples, it's just a Vibe i feel that ROP sometimes gets lost in its own scale whereas WOT always keeps us very firmly anchored in the characters and the personal stakes no matter how vast the world or conflict becomes. i might exemplify this by saying that if you enjoyed the sauron-celebrimbor scenes in s2, you'll love WOT because it is a huge proponent of "2 characters in a room talking to each other" scenes that further the larger plot while also keeping things intimate and personal and fleshing out the characters.

oh also, focal episodes! every season, WOT does 1 or 2 episodes that focus in deeply on one particular main character (different one every time) at a key point in their journey and deliver some amazing in-depth characterwork (while still furthering the story and allotting time to the other characters & storylines too). characters truly are one of the strongest aspects of WOT, both books and show, and i love that the show takes the time to give us episodes like this. it is so so good at balancing character & plot, and understanding that we won't care about the plot unless we care about the characters.

there is a HUGE cast of female characters, and a very varied cast too. the main cast is 50/50 men and women, and the supporting cast is at least 50/50 too if not majority women. in both the source material and the adaptation, women are integral to the story and so many of them are huge players that drive the narrative, rather than feeling like afterthoughts the 2020s adaptation is fruitlessly trying to cram into source material that was not designed for them as is often the case with ROP imo.

branching off of that: one of the major institutions in WOTworld is an all-woman wizard faction, complete with a lady wizard pope. this gives us things like battle scenes and political scheming that's mostly or exclusively between women. it's awesome!

edited to add: might be obvious from the point about there being a lot of women, but WOT also has lots of female friendships! and female mentorships and rivalries and romances too. just so many relationships between women, quite a contrast to nori and poppy struggling to singlehandedly make ROP pass the bechdel test.

canon queer characters and relationships. and queerness is not only present in WOTworld, it's normalized!

and finally, you'll have to wait til s2 to get her, but WOT is better because it has elayne trakand and thus is better than every show that does not have elayne trakand (can you tell who my blorbo is)

[butterflydm]

wot s1e3: a place of safety; worldbuilding notes

Now that the paths are split, we begin to see that these groups are not all dealing with the same issues.

Book spoilers below...

Moiraine, Lan, & Nynaeve

The first worldbuilding element we see in this section of the storyline is that Trollocs aren’t just brutal to humans, but to each other as well. And Nynaeve is able to use that -- evil feeding upon itself -- in order to escape, which is something that is thematically relevant for the future. Because the lure of the Dark One tends to draw in people who are selfish as well as those who are desperate, there’s a lot of in-fighting among the servants of the Dark, and that’s something that proves useful to our heroes as time goes on.

Moiraine mentioned briefly in the previous episode that Aes Sedai can’t heal their own wounds, but it’s really hammered in here, because she is completely helpless throughout this episode. We also see how driven Lan is by the bond he has with Moiraine -- he knows that she didn’t want him to abandon the Two Rivers’ kids, but his priority is and must be Moiraine’s own safety.

All the Aes Sedai and False Dragon stuff, I’ll get to in episode four.

Perrin & Egwene

We have Egwene channelling to light the fire, which we are primed to associate with her potentially being TDR. The Perrin-wolves connection and Egwene being a channeler are both things from the books, but the perspective is shifted slightly to make them feel more mysterious to the viewer. Part of this comes simply from changing the perspective of the story from mostly one character to a much more truly ensemble piece right from the start, but part of it is definitely a deliberate re-framing to add a sense of mystery.

We had a bit of the Perrin-wolf connection in the last episode, but it really settles in here, with his dream and with them being herded. Much like they did with the dagger’s corruption more closely resembling the taint than it does in the books, they put in an implication that the wolves might be connected to the Dark One by having the wolves and Ishamael in the same dream.

The dream itself is very interesting (if gruesome) -- Perrin wakes up alone in his bed and head towards to forge to look for his wife. There’s a shot where it’s Ishamael walking in Perrin’s place for a moment (or just behind him, I think, and Perrin momentarily disappears so we can see him stalking Perrin), and then when his wife is revealed, she’s being eaten by a wolf, looks dead but then looks at him and says/thinks, “I know”.

Given what we know about the relationship between wolves and the Shadow in the books (that the wolves hate the Dark One) and that being a wolfbrother gives Perrin access to Tel'aran'rhiod (the dream world), my theory is this: Ishamael was planning on using Laila’s appearance in his dreams to try to influence Perrin, and the wolves are circumventing that plan. ‘Eating’ Laila here is symbolic of them cutting off Ishamael’s access to Perrin’s mind and his thoughts.

There is no indication that Egwene has any bad dreams in this episode.

The last bit of lore we get in this section is the mentions of ‘the Song’ from the Tuatha'an, but they go into a lot more detail about that in the next episode, so I’m going to hold off and share my thoughts there.

Rand & Mat

First bit of lore in their section, of course, is the dead Aiel in a cage. For book readers, this lets us know that the Aiel are already crossing over from the Wastes in their search for HWCWTD, setting up a bunch of stuff for the future. For now, the dead Aiel is mostly important because he’s got red hair, which Thom tells us is one of the few ways to tell where someone is from in the world. We get a few other little tidbits -- honor-bound fighters, the importance of the veil, the little Stone Dog that Mat finds when he’s, uh, looting the corpse.

Speaking of Thom! Our second musical number in the show. It says a lot about Thom that he’s out here singing sympathetic songs about the Dragon -- we’ll learn about his nephew in the next episode -- and, much like the last time we got a song, this one gives us some foreshadowing with who the camera focuses on while Thom is singing.

Between Thom’s song (and his story in the next episode) and what we see with Logain in episode four, I do see a lot of indications that we are going to lean heavily into the tragic aspects of being the Dragon Reborn, which is very true to the books. After all, gaining LTT’s memories is so traumatizing for TDR that he has to section them off into another personality just to cope with them.

Rand notes that Mat is acting kinda like an asshole and while there are certainly non-mystical reasons for it (he doesn’t want to be here, he just got robbed, etc), he’s definitely also starting to feel the paranoia from the dagger. It’s more subtle here but will become much more pronounced as time passes.

Also of note, Rand defends Egwene here when Mat makes a sharp remark about her, much like he will later defend Mat when Egwene makes it clear she doesn’t believe Mat could be the Dragon. The complicated group dynamics of the Emond’s Fielders is very interesting to me, not gonna lie. Rand metaphorically standing between Egwene and Mat is also interesting when thinking about the future, when Egwene is the most all-in on the Aes Sedai mystique that you can get, while Mat is basically the opposite and really only likes them when the mystique is completely torn away. Rand exists in this uneasy tension of symbolizing so many complicated things and standing at the nexus of so much.

Philosophy hour with Darkfriends! But, no, actually, I love so much that Dana is the first known Darkfriend on-screen. They did amazing with her. I didn’t notice the four statues outside the inn, so I didn’t go into those scenes knowing we were at Four Kings, so the reveal was a genuine surprise to me, which was great! Dana is an original character, so her name didn’t twig anything either. Getting Ishamael’s philosophy out in front early is a good choice, I think. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of selfish Darkfriends in the future, so it’s good to get a nihilistic one so soon. And she genuinely likes Rand which, tbh, certain Darkfriends/Forsaken liking Rand(/LTT) against their will and better judgement is also a minor theme, so I’m happy to see it showing up early as well.

So, now I’m going to bring up that thing that Tam said to Rand in episode one. Because Tam and Dana present opposing philosophical viewpoints on the central reincarnation mythology of the show. We know that Rand, per what he says here, hadn’t given much thought to the Wheel or reincarnation when he was growing up. Now, he’s been thrust into a situation where he has to consider it, because he’s been told that he’s one of four/five possible people who could be the reincarnation of this incredibly important person from the past. So now he has to think about the actual consequences and the morality of the Wheel and what he believes about it rather than just living day by day.

Okay, so here is Tam’s view on the Wheel, episode one: “All we can do is the best we can with the life that’s given to us. And take comfort from it. That no matter what happens, what... pain we face... what heartbreak... even death... the Wheel keeps turning. Always. And we try again. Maybe do a little better than the last time.”

And now Dana: “He doesn’t want to kill you. That’s what the Aes Sedai want. He wants you to save us. Can’t you see that? The Wheel keeps turning and people keep hurting. Every man who comes to this shite down has a story. Flood, drought, war, sisters murdering their brothers, children killing their parents. But the Dragon... the Dragon has a chance to change all that. Break the Wheel. Make it stop.”

Also: Dana mentions she’s been having dreams of the five of them, which could tell us that Ishamael doesn’t know who the Dragon is and has less information than Moiraine does at this point. However, it’s possible that the events of this episode changed that -- Dana sees Rand do something impossible and then she dies (and, you know, Lord of the Grave, etc), which means that Ishamael might have figured out that Rand can channel. We will potentially find out in the season finale!

Another question I have is how much of that conversation did Thom hear? Just the bit about calling one of the Eyeless or did he hear about the Dragon too? He doesn’t mention it in episode four, but there are valid reasons why he wouldn’t bring that part of it up even if he’d heard it. We’ll probably find out in S2, I imagine, once he runs into either Mat or Rand.

The Dragon Reborn

Rand and Perrin are the only two characters not ruled out by the show’s own logic at this point -- right age, we don’t have their parentage info (Rand doesn’t look like Tam & we didn’t see Perrin’s parents at all), and they are being chased by the Dark One (Perrin in dreams and Rand in the physical world) -- though the show is doing its best not to have the viewers notice this and will obscure it more in future episodes.

If we discount the parentage question (which is implied by Moiraine in E1 but not stated outright), then the three boys are all still in the hotseat, with Egwene being ruled out.

Do any of them believe that they, specifically, are the Dragon Reborn? Egwene is likely wondering if it’s her because she’s learned that she can channel. Perrin is still having dreams from Ishamael, so he’s got reason to worry as well. And Rand and Mat have a direct encounter with a Darkfriend who is actively trying to capture them, plus they are both being affected by things that will increase their levels of paranoia (Mat with the dagger and Rand with channeling). I think the four of them are likely equally considering the possibility at this point. Especially with Moiraine holding information back, so none of them realize there’s the additional factor of parentage having an impact on their personal odds of being TDR.

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

Ugggh so I woke up this morning to a long comment on AO3 pointing out plot holes in one of my stories.

They weren’t too mean about it, but one of my big writing hang ups is I have trouble posting until I’ve quadruple checked for possible inconsistencies.

And, like, I know I’m usually good at it. I can track a random object across the background of three chapters so I know exactly where it is when the reveal comes. I can juggle complex story lines while barely even keeping notes, and I can set up a reference for an important line of dialogue 20,000 words before I get to it.

But it’s really easy when I have that many plates in the air to overlook some obvious stuff, and that’s why I can be such a perfectionist and do fifty million drafts for every story.

(This comes a week after one of the curators at my job commented that someone should be fact checking the social media posts. I research and write all those posts myself, because our curatorial and education staff are too busy, and I’ve been doing it for a year with no complaints.)

I’m fine. I’m going to be ok. But looks like my morning will be spent recovering; I think I’m going to spend a few hours reading the next “Wheel of Time” book (I’m up to number 6 or 7).

Why WoT? Aren’t there better series out there? Don’t I have like 30 fics on my TBR list?

Yeah, but here’s the thing. Robert Jordan has many of the same flaws in his writing as I do.

He’s wordy. He gets distracted by tiny details and goes off forever describing things that don’t matter. His plots are so complicated you’re not sure if they’re ever going to reach an end point, yet at the same time, a little cliche and derivative. He’s quite possibly run out of character models and there’s still like 10 books to go. His worldbuilding has so much going on you need a second book just to explain the book you’re reading, and both of them are going to have twice as many words as they need to get to the point.

Like, if I ever finish an original novel, that’s exactly the kind of book it’s going to be.

So there’s really something thrilling about reading something by a published author that could be my very own style, and it’s actually this much-loved classic of the genre, with a legion of fans despite (or even because of) its flaws, and a Prime adaptation in the works. It gives me hope, in a weird way.

Anyway, I’ll be returning to my bullshit this afternoon. See you all then! 🙂

[butterflydm]

wot s1e2: shadow’s waiting; worldbuilding notes

This is Moiraine’s last exposure to the Two Rivers’ kids before the reunions start happening, though her thoughts do continue to develop even after the separations.

Book spoilers below!

Starting with the Whitecloaks - there are a couple of different ways that Valda might be capturing Aes Sedai. I do think he prefers to prey on Aes Sedai who are alone and without Warders, which is why we don’t see him challenge Moiraine too heavily when the two groups collide, so surprise is probably a large part of it, but it is also possible that forkroot (a plant-based tea that prevents channelling) is already known and Valda is taking advantage of it. I suspect it’s mostly just taking people by surprise, though.

The Whitecloaks are definitely more of a danger in the show than they were at this point in the books, which makes me wonder about some storylines further down the road. We also see some divisions in the ranks, which means that the Whitecloaks are poised to become even more dangerous in the near future if the extreme faction get more power.

The scene at Taren Ferry tells a lot about Trollocs, Aes Sedai, and Moiraine in particular. Moiraine’s ruthless determination shows here (which Rand notes very clearly) but it’s also not the conclusion she wanted -- she does her best to talk the ferryman out of his decision. I really am hoping for mentoring from Moiraine and Lan in the future for Rand because this was a great example of the kind of moral conflict that Rand has to run up against in the series and he needs to learn the wrong lessons before he learns the right ones.

In the next scene, Rand is the only one who wants to work on a plan, rather than just letting themselves be spirited along by Moiraine wherever she happens to take them (in fairness, all the kids are pretty obviously traumatized; I understand their reactions, because Moiraine exudes confidence). This scene also drops the info that it’s well known that TDR will be “the most powerful channeler who ever lived”, which we can slot away with the other info from last episode (Lan also briefly mentions that TDR will be a channeler in the scene with the Reds chasing down the nameless male channeler). Egwene also notes that Moiraine was right when she said the Trollocs would ignore the Two Rivers in order to chase after them.

After the group has settled down for the night, Moiraine takes Egwene off for a lesson in channeling, which Rand is awake to notice. This knowledge vs Egwene not knowing he has this knowledge definitely informs their later scenes in this episode, where Egwene doesn’t understand why Rand is still acting like she’s made a life choice that excludes him, because she doesn’t know that he knows that Moiraine has plucked her out as someone with potential, just like Nynaeve did.

Moiraine is, I would say, likely hoping really hard at this point that Egwene is the Dragon Reborn, and the fact that Egwene can channel probably encouraged this train of thought. How many problems that would solve! Not only because Egwene wouldn’t be vulnerable to the taint on the source, but also because Moiraine would understand how to teach Egwene in a way that she couldn’t do if it were one of the guys. Moiraine hopes that it’s Egwene... but does she believe that it’s Egwene? I think she still feels like it’s much too soon to know, especially after the shared dream the kids all have.

Speaking of the dream! Rand dreams of pulling a bat out from inside his mouth, and Mat says he saw bats flying and getting their necks snapped in mid-air. We don’t have details on what Perrin or Egwene saw. All four saw Ishamael aka Flame Eyes aka Dark One Pretender. At this point, Ishamael knows roughly as much as Moiraine did when she was entering the Two Rivers -- he figured out the place and approximately the correct age, but hasn’t narrowed it down further.

Rand challenges Moiraine and she can’t give him an answer -- there isn’t a good answer to “what does a man do at the White Tower?” (other than become a Warder) and she knows it. The characterization in this scene is perfect in so many ways -- Rand’s frustration at being told to go without being given reasons and how Egwene has bought all-in to the Aes Sedai already (a pattern which will repeat pretty much every time Egwene is exposed to a new culture or society). And Rand isn’t wrong, as Mat says here -- as Moiraine says to Siuan in episode 6 -- she isn’t doing this for them, she’s doing it for the world, and if their deaths would prevent the Dark One from winning, she would kill them herself. (and Rand’s right that Moiraine wouldn’t just let them leave, either, as we can see from how Lan was hiding and waiting to watch and make sure they follow).

This clash here makes me look forward to some of the other clashes Rand is going to have with Moiraine and with Egwene in the future, because they have... a lot of disagreements in the books about the best way to proceed. And, right now, the balance of power is heavily on Moiraine’s side but that will... not always be the case.

Pretty sure at this point in the story that Moiraine was definitely in the group of people who desperately wanted Anyone But Rand to be the Dragon Reborn, because at this point he has been, by far, the biggest challenge out of the Two Rivers’ foursome and the one who seems like he would be the least willing to let her guide his choices.

The story of Manetheren always gets to me. There’s some foreshadowing here for Mat and Egwene’s futures, as well. Love, love the song that they put here. I love that the vague memory of Manetheren has survived in its songs, even if no one really knows what it really means -- it makes me think back again to the women’s circle initiation ritual and how it resembles surrendering to saidar and what that implies about their traditions and how they live out pieces of their past even as they’ve forgotten it as a people.

In this episode, both Perrin and Mat get the beginning of their EotW storylines -- Perrin with the wolves and Mat with the dagger. This episode is really the beginning of the red herrings -- if you only pay attention to the information about the Dragon Reborn that was given in episode one, then the answer is fairly clear, but here they start throwing in options -- Egwene can channel, Perrin is connected to wolves, Mat is drawn by a mysterious dagger. All things that are in the book, but slightly re-framed to make them into things that could potentially indicate that these characters might be TDR.

We only get the barest hint of the lore behind Shadar Logoth, but the hints of Fain that we see later on in the season (plus the manner in which Moiraine healed Mat) gives me hope that we’ll delve into that with more depth later on. Aridhol becomes very important later on in the series, which is one of the things that makes me glad that Rafe is doing a whole series style of adaptation rather than book-by-book, because it means he’s taking those things into account. It’s not just an independently creepy series of moments; it matters down the road.

So, end of this episode, we get split up and I think, at this point in the series, that Moiraine is hoping very much that Egwene is the Dragon.

[butterflydm]

wot s1e4: the dragon reborn; worldbuilding notes

In which the meta-narrative tips its hand on who the Dragon Reborn is, as the themes of the different groups continue to diverge.

Book spoilers below; also show spoilers through episode seven.

Logain

We learn so much here! Because Logain does firmly believe he’s the Dragon throughout most of the episode, his behavior tells us a lot about what people believe the Dragon needs to accomplish. We also get our first visuals of the taint’s corruption on the One Power and I love how it looks, the white threads getting slicked over with the black overlay as the weaves are created.

Everything we get with Logain is a small-scale preview of what we’ll get with the true Dragon Reborn -- what he does to one small nation, TDR will do to the continent. Tear it apart and rebind it to new ties.

And, of course, the madness. I love that they decided to have Logain’s present itself as ‘former Dragons’ talking to him and advising him, because that will make TDR’s experiences with LTT’s memories hit harder, especially for non-readers who may be under the impression that the real Dragon will be immune or resistant to the taint. And we see Logain fighting against it, asserting his own choices against what is being whispered in his ear. Just, the way this is shown here builds so much trust up for how they’re going to handle TDR’s arc in the future.

They are also setting up Logain as a potentially sympathetic character in the future, which is good and important. The actor brought a lot of depth to the role and we can see what a complex man he is.

With his coming are the dread fires born again. The hills burn, and the land turns sere. The tides of men run out, and the hours dwindle. The wall is pierced, and the veil of parting raised. Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.

(The Karaethon Cycle)

I’m also interested that they’ve set up this false dichotomy with the Dragon Reborn -- that people believe he will either save or destroy, while in the books, it’s more commonly known that he will save by destroying. But this misinterpretation of the prophecies leaves room for people to make assumptions about Rand for him to prove wrong in either direction, which I like. They’ve provided an excellent and sharp knife’s edge for Rand to walk. They’ve interjected this uncertainty in all the different readings of the prophecy and I’m enjoying it so far.

Logain also implies a reference to another part of the prophecy when he says the Aes Sedai should follow him and not fight him: “The unstained tower, broken, bends knee to the forgotten sign.” This part of the prophecy is why he’s creating an army to march on the White Tower in the show, I would guess -- he’s trying to break the unstained tower. And, in a way, he is going to help break it, just not like how he thought he would, because his upcoming capture and unlawful gentling, and the Amyrlin Seat’s reaction to it, definitely leads to heightened tensions in the Tower.

We learn about shielding here, what it means and that if someone is powerful in the One Power, then shielding them becomes a lot more difficult. And then we see that in action at the end of the episode. We also get confirmation that women cannot see saidin being used.

The show essentially giving us a small-scale foreshadowing of Dumai’s Wells is a good choice here, I think, because it sets up some expectations for Rand to exceed in the future -- the Dragon captured by the Aes Sedai, a rescue by his followers, him violently breaking out of captivity. It will set up a strong contrast between the difference between caging a false Dragon and the real Dragon. Tons of juicy foreshadowing for our true Dragon Reborn in this episode.

(I hope we get all the way to the ending with this show, but I also really really hope that we at least get to Dumai’s Wells. Because then we’ll be on the other side of the battle, with the people rallying to the Dragon’s side.)

Also, here’s a question I have about Moiraine: does she think that the Dragon Reborn might be immune to the taint? The show has had Moiraine consider many of the other possibilities that I’ve also seen show-only viewers mention (like the many-headed dragon theory), which tells me that Rafe is very aware of which implications he’s been sending out. She asks the Sisters about the progression of his madness, specifically. And it was Logain telling her that ‘past Dragons’ were giving him advice that seemed to make her certain that he wasn’t the Dragon, that makes me wonder if him hearing voices is what made her rule him out. And yet, as we book readers know...

Something for me to think about, I suppose!

Moiraine, Lan & Nynaeve

This episode begins a subplot of Aes Sedai culture and politics that takes us through the ending of episode six and I, personally, loved it. Aes Sedai politics are both an important thread of their own in the series, but they also reflect that political maneuvering is a vital part of what the story (and especially the Dragon Reborn) needs to negotiate to try to get the world into a place where it can survive the Last Battle.

There are a few different vital things we begin to explore:

The Aes Sedai and Warder bond

The different Ajahs and their focuses

Moiraine’s secrecy even with other Aes Sedai

Liandrin and the Reds

Alanna and the Greens

Aes Sedai and the Warder bond - now, we already know from previous scenes with Moiraine and Lan that this is a very strong bond, but this is the first time we see multiple Warders and the first time there’s a sexual element to a bonding that’s implied. Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon also show us that a bond can involve more than just two people and we see that polyamory is not shocking in, at least, Green Ajah culture and among Warders.

We also see Nynaeve trying to figure out exactly what this bond means in relation to her feelings for Lan, and how it affects the possibilities that are starting appear there for her.

The different Ajahs -- we see the Reds again, in the first time since the episode one cold open, and we get introduced to the Greens. We learn here that Moiraine’s secrecy may be less of a general Aes Sedai thing and more of a Blue Ajah one, from the way Liandrin characterizes the Blues as spies. Greens, Reds, and Blues are the three types of Aes Sedai that we see the most of in the series, so it makes sense to introduce them the earliest.

Personally, I would be in the Brown Ajah, probably.

I was not expecting to be introduced to Alanna this early but it makes sense to me that they decided to make her the main ‘face’ of the Greens here in season one. Expanding her character from That One Thing That She Did and turning her into a sympathetic and fully-rounded character is going to make That One Thing That She Did hurt a lot more down the road when it happens, so I majorly approve of this introduction and the expansion of her character. Great actress, too. Pretty much all of the casting in this show has been amazing.

She’s the one who tells us what Greens stand for -- protecting the world against the foretold Last Battle at the end of the Age -- and her worries that the need for their purpose is fast approaching. Her concern here, her worry over Logain’s power, and her wondering if gentling is the right approach when it means they could accidentally gentle the real Dragon and yet being afraid of the Dragon breaking the world again... I feel like all of those elements could easily help lead into That One Thing That She Did. We can see that she has opinions about how the Dragon should be handled and the opinion we see expressed here seems like it could lead to her thinking that Moiraine’s approach, once she learns it, is too much of a light hand on such a potentially dangerous person.

The visual of how the two groups of Aes Sedai are together but separate works really well, I think -- we see the big tents of different colors, we see the Greens walking in and casually chatting with their Warders while the Red sisters stand as a group without any Warders at all.

We also see the tensions being set up in the Kerene vs Liandrin talk, where Liandrin is arguing for gentling Logain right now, without the need for him to go back to Tar Valon for trial, while Kerene stands for following the rule of their law. Moiraine hears Liandrin make this argument, which makes me even more nervous that she set the Reds on Mat as of episode seven. She’s seen first-hand that Liandrin doesn’t care much for procedure and she certainly should know, since Liandrin doesn’t keep it a secret, that Liandrin dislikes men in general, not just men who can channel.

It is... convenient for Liandrin that a strong pro-Amyrlin Aes Sedai ends up dead, given the arguments that Liandrin makes the whole episode and how we see her behave in the next two episodes. Did Liandrin drop or deliberately weaken her part of Logain’s shielding in the hopes that he would give her an excuse to gentle him? I don’t think I can discount the possibility, especially since I feel like the context clues we get through episode six imply that she is still secretly Black Ajah in the show, like she was in the books.

We also get some solid character notes for Moiraine and Lan here, as they are quite friendly with the Greens but not really friends. Stepin and Kerene talk about how difficult it is to get any information out of them, and Alanna is very chatty with Moiraine but notes that no one has any idea what exactly Moiraine has been doing for all these years outside the White Tower. This is where we first learn in the show that Moiraine and Lan’s quest is a secret from other Aes Sedai, and though we don’t yet know why, the implication is there with Logain. They can’t trust that some/most Aes Sedai wouldn’t treat the Dragon the same way that Logain is being treated now.

Stepin mentions the rumors that the Reds have been gentling men without giving them trials first (something that show viewers have confirmation of) and it makes me wonder... is that why the Greens are with them? Is this a show of distrust from the Amyrlin Seat, sending the Greens with the Reds to make sure men who can channel are actually making it to trial (or to find some evidence that the Reds are circumventing the laws)? If it is, then she didn’t tell the Greens about it, but that would not be out of character from what we see later, for her to set up the pieces without informing them of their intended purpose.

The show also develops Lan and Nynaeve’s growing feelings by having them experience pieces of each other’s pasts and cultures. We get to learn a prayer from Lan’s culture and we learn more about Nynaeve being an orphan in this show, whose parents told her a saying in the Old Tongue before they left her and they died. So, the show gave them this point of commonality -- losing their family to tragedy, to make it easier to have them bond and have their romance grow and I think it works really well. They also have Lan translate her bit of Old Tongue for her, giving her a piece of her family back to her.

Nynaeve spends time both with a new-to-her Aes Sedai and with Warders in this episode and comes out of it vastly preferring the Warders, and trying to figure out exactly why these people that she finds interesting and admirable have themselves all tangled up with this other group of people that she doesn’t respect. I really like that this episode and the next one give us a glimpse into Warders as their own subculture group within the Tower. They have their own traditions and their own understanding about their relationships and their roles inside that relationship.

And it means that when Nynaeve gives us that big show of power at the end, we have some more emotional context to it, because we’ve seen them creating some emotional inroads. Her healing scene is pretty epic and while they don’t mention her block either of the times we’ve seen her channel, here or in episode seven, it does feel implied to me. We’ll probably find out for sure a little further down the road, but both times so far, she’s needed to transmute fear into anger in order to channel.

Perrin & Egwene

Literally nothing bad happens to them this episode. No Trollocs. No Fades. No Ishamael dreams. The entire reason that they couldn’t go home doesn’t show up at all this episode, strongly implying that they are not being chased anymore because they are no longer the ones being sought.

The main thing explored in their plotline was the Way of the Leaf and the show really expands here on how it’s connected to the Tuatha'an’s belief in the Wheel and the reincarnation of souls. I really like this. I feel like it’s actually explained better here than it ever was in the books. The show has done a good job of connecting these pieces together to make the philosophy hold together and feel like something real people could believe even in the face of Trollocs and other monstrous things.

We also find out more about the Song that brings peace to the world. I’m looking forward to that getting explored in the show, because I really love how this group diverged into two separate cultures who went down completely different paths, yet started from the same lifestyle and belief set. Rhuidean is one of my favorite parts in the books and I am already anticipating it so much. The connection between the Aes Sedai, the Aiel, the Tuatha'an, and the Breaking of the World is such a heartbreaking story. Obviously, I never thought they would skip this part of the story, since it has such a huge impact, but I like that we’re already seeing hints of it appear.

Again, not too much lore beyond that in this section.

We get some character notes for both Egwene and Perrin -- Egwene shows that she’s very good at embracing whatever culture she has happened to land herself into (as she had previously done with Moiraine and the Aes Sedai) while Perrin struggles with the ideas behind the Way of the Leaf.

Mat, Rand, & Thom

Ishamael doesn’t know who TDR is, per Dana last episode -- and I believe the book canon reason that he tracks Mat & Rand and not Perrin & Egwene is because Perrin gets some protection from the wolves in his dreams while Mat & Rand are basically lighting signal fires by carrying around the dagger -- but I love on a meta level that we see that Rand & Mat are the only ones still being chased by agents of the Dark One. It’s also entirely possible that Ishamael has narrowed the possibilities down to Mat & Rand and may even have realized that it’s definitely Rand as of last episode.

Thom may or may not know that he’s traveling with a potential Dragon Reborn, depending on how much he heard last episode, but he definitely believes that Mat can channel. Rand gets to hear, in detail, about what happens when a man learns he can channel and also what happens when the ability is ripped away again. In the short term, this makes him very protective of Mat, but in the long term, it’ll make him wary of Aes Sedai for his own sake.

The interesting thing to me here, that viewers see and may notice but that Thom doesn’t, is that Rand is actually showing signs of paranoia as well -- Rand just hides it better. He only reveals his fears to Mat, doesn’t show them around Thom or Mr. Grinwell. So, some of the hints that Thom points out as leading to Mat are things that the viewers are watching Mat and Rand share.

Rand again emerges as the leader of the group in this episode, taking charge and defusing the situation when both Thom and Mat seem like they might get too aggressive with Mr Grinwell. I found this interesting because it does show us both Mat’s paranoia and also Thom’s reflexive protectiveness of Mat that will show up again at the end of the episode, but also that they’re willing to let Rand take the lead from them. We also see Rand being very perceptive about Mr. Grinwell, noticing small details and using that to his advantage when trying to persuade him and lower tensions.

We get a brief mention of Birgitte, but enough to make me feel very excited about getting to see her later on -- she brings such a different energy when she come into the story and we learn so much about the way that the Wheel and the Pattern works because of her. So, super thrilling to hear her name -- they also connected to her ‘protecting in dreams’ and then ‘seeing the world’. And it’s all wrapped up in a conversation that fits perfectly into the arc that is playing out for Mat.

I am very curious if any show-only viewers will go back, listen to Thom’s speech about his nephew going ‘sour’ and connect that backwards through the season now that they know Rand can channel. Again, Rand tends to get things under control relatively quickly, so it doesn’t stand out as much as Mat getting more and more paranoid under the influence of the dagger, but there are hints there. And rewatching this conversation with Thom and Rand makes me even more tense about Moiraine sending the Red Ajah after Mat in episode seven, and Rand’s probable reaction to learning that bit of info. “Whatever we do, we have to keep Mat away from those women,” is a line that really sticks out to me on rewatch.

Given that they had Rand accept his identity in episode seven... they could backtrack on that if Rand feels like he failed when we get to episode eight, but if they don’t, then they need another reason for Rand to break away from Moiraine. In books, if I recall correctly, he leaves in part to prove to himself that he’s the real Dragon Reborn and not Moiraine’s false Dragon puppet, but I’m not sure he has a reason to feel that way about her in the show, given that he was able to come to the realization himself. But the show has now provided a different reason for him to have negative feelings towards Moiraine.

In book two... he���s chasing the dagger after Fain steals it (and incidentally the horn), so that does match up with his motivation being Mat, but with a different angle as they’ve set up this fear over the Red Ajah hunting Mat and then the show following through and a. having Liandrin know Mat’s name and b. having Moiraine actually set the Red Ajah on Mat, plus Mat and Rand’s promise to each other... it could very much lead to a ‘different journey, same destination’ type of adaptation change when it comes to Rand proclaiming himself as TDR and Mat blowing the Horn of Valere. There are just some very intriguing puzzle pieces in play here that didn’t exist in the books. tbh, if the show doesn’t give this to me, I may need to write fanfic of it, because I am fascinated by the idea.

Then we have Rand’s dream. And it’s very intriguing and it does make me think that Ishamael maybe has figured out who his target is -- because, again, the dream is from Rand’s perspective. Rand is the only one that Ishamael still appears to be hunting, at least from what we can see.

We get some foreshadowing in the dream --  Mat wandering by with his bloody (red) hand -- but we also see Perrin trying to ‘fix’ his mistake of killing his wife but it’s too late, and Egwene... intrigued by Egwene. I don’t think that was really her in the dream; we don’t have any indication in her part of the storyline that she’s sharing the dream, so it feels like a threat that Ishy is directing towards Rand. The show has definitely made Rand and Egwene more of an actual relationship and less of a teen crush small-town ‘everyone assumes we’ll marry so we probably will’ thing. And yet we’ve also seen that even if Moiraine and the Trollocs hadn’t come, Egwene and Rand were already set up  in the show to take diverging paths.

Very curious about how they’re going to play the ending of that relationship.

Something I really noted this time: Thom was still willing to help the boys even thinking that Mat had killed that family. Because before they see the Fade, just after they’ve seen the bodies, Thom is already telling Rand to grab Mat and get him out. Thom is just ride-or-die for these boys, especially Mat. That memory of his nephew really haunts him all the time, I think. That he wasn’t there when Oywn needed him and then he couldn’t help save him from his own depression and sense of loss afterwards. But the lore-related thing here is that the Fade seems like it might be hiding from Mat, maybe scared of the dagger and what the evil of Shadar Logoth could potentially do to it. I don’t think Rand particularly noticed the dagger at this time -- he knows that Mat has daggers, probably, and doesn’t know Mat gave his old dagger to Perrin, so I don’t think the dagger itself stood out to Rand.

The Dragon Reborn

There is only one character remaining who still fits the requirements given (or implied) by Moiraine in episode one: a. the right age; b. of uncertain parentage, and c. being chased by agents of the Dark One. We just have to wait for him to channel on-screen at this point.

For Moiraine, though, this episode gives her some real doubts about what she thinks she knows about the Dragon Reborn. First, she’s concerned because of how powerful Logain is, though she’s able to dismiss him by the end of the episode, but then Nynaeve’s show of power has thrown everything up into the air for her again.

The tent scene very much implies to me that she had been running with the assumption that Egwene was their most likely candidate for TDR, but then Logain’s power makes her wonder if Egwene’s potential strength is enough. And then I don’t think she can convince herself that it’s Egwene at all anymore after seeing what Nynaeve can do at the end of the episode.

Which means that it’s either Nynaeve (and the foretelling was wrong, plus Nynaeve doesn’t trust her) or it’s one of the boys (none of whom trust her as much as Egwene does). But it’s up in the air for her now until she gets reunited with the kids and gets a chance to reassess the situation.

If Egwene thinks about it during this episode, I think she probably believes she’s the Dragon, specifically because of the channelling. I think Perrin is more consumed with other thoughts and hasn’t focused on the Dragon Reborn stuff as much, because he has more immediate worries and concerns about his quality as a person because of Laila’s death, so TDR stuff is almost a side note for him. Both of them essentially are getting to have a break from the worries about being TDR -- they’re heading in the right direction, so it’s in the back of their minds, but they don’t have to deal with it every moment of the day like Rand & Mat are forced to.

Rand, I think, starts clinging to the idea that Mat is the Dragon Reborn once Thom brings up the notion that he believes Mat can channel. It means any weirdness that happens is something that Rand can explain away as happening because he’s traveling with Mat. And Rand can more easily picture himself as someone’s supportive partner than as the person who needs the support -- his emotional offer here to Mat comes across to me in much in the same way as his offer to be Egwene’s Warder in episode 7 does (note that I do absolutely believe in the emotional sincerity of Rand’s offers!). Part of him knows that it isn’t his role, but he wants it to be. So he convinces himself that it’s true. Part of him knows it isn’t -- he recognizes the mountain when they get to Tar Valon, and he seeks out the prophecies in the inn’s reading room -- but he’s able to push his fears about himself into his concern over Mat instead.

Mat definitely is starting to believe that he’s the Dragon Reborn, and I think that’s partly because of everything happening around them, like what Dana told them in episode three, but also because it would be The Worst Thing and Mat is very much starting to believe that all the worst things are always going to happen.

[butterflydm]

wot s1e1: leavetaking; worldbuilding notes

Definitely contains book spoilers! I just want to go over all the things we already know (or ‘know’) from the series already. And, because I think it’s funny, what Moiraine knows and doesn’t know, and who she believed or hoped was the Dragon Reborn at various points along the season.

Major book spoilers! I am not assuming that everything I write about will come to pass in the show, but I am using my book knowledge to speculate on what elements of worldbuilding and lore are the same. There are also spoilers through the most recent episode of the show (1x07).

If Liandrin is still Black Ajah, I wonder if part of the pitch to her can be traced back to what Moiraine says about the arrogance of the Dragon. Liandrin talks about how men make the Source ‘filthy’ when they touch it. While she can lie (if BA), I don’t think she’s lying here. I think she really believes it. And while someone like Moiraine or Siuan might come to the conclusion that the Dragon Reborn needs to be an exception to ‘men must be gentled’, Liandrin may double down on the idea that especially the TDR must be gentled, because of his past.

We see this male channeler’s manifestation of ‘the madness’ as a full-bodied person, while Logain’s madness is much more abstract, like ghosts made out of the corruption on the power. Illustration of how it effects different people in different ways or are they showing us that this channeler is more affected than Logain?

Moiraine dismisses the idea that this man was TDR -- the first manifestation of the determined wishful thinking that also makes her doubt the words of the prophecy (like trying to completely skip the prophecies of the Dragon by killing the Dark One at the Eye of the World). If that man was TDR, they are screwed, so he had better not be.

She also drops two phrases here and doesn’t explain them, and both are incredibly relevant: she says there are four ta’veren in the Two Rivers and she says the old blood is strong there.

The Dragon Reborn would almost have to be ta’veren -- TDR is going to affect the fates of pretty much everyone in the world, they’re ta’veren pretty much by definition. They will shape the threads of people’s lives around them, like it or not.

And the mention of the old blood goes back to The Karaethon Cycle: even if she is using it more as a set of guideline than as rules, she’s certainly familiar with it:

He will be of the ancient blood, and raised by the old blood.

Any place where ‘the old blood runs deep’ is going to be a prime candidate for being the location where TDR was raised.

Skyscrapers! The Age of Legends was both a technological and a magical utopia and I love so much that this is already subtly seeded into the show. We are not in magical medieval times, my darlings! We are post-apocalyptic and Doing Our Best. More Horizon: Zero Dawn, not so much Game of Thrones.

I do admit that the symbol of the serpent in the title is more how I pictured the Aes Sedai rings, but probably harder for the viewer to spot on camera, so I get why they made it bigger and more bulky.

The ceremony for Egwene is a clear nod to how women access saidar, and the suggestion to me is that this ceremony has been passed down through time as part of what was originally a ritual to help women access the source once they were ready to begin training, but that those reasons have been lost to time. It’s a lovely ceremony.

Rand mentions the wolves, and the sound of wolves is a frequent background noise in many of the episodes leading up to Perrin going Goldeneyes on us. Arguments about Rand being placed on the backburner to the side, I would say that it’s Perrin’s story that gets pulled back the most from its pace in the books. Rand is not actually a big driver of action in the first book; it just feels like he does a lot because we’re in his head most of the time. Perrin, though, actually goes through a lot more in the book than he has in the show so far. This does make sense to me, because Perrin’s story also essentially ends a lot sooner than all our other main characters and then he’s basically in a holding pattern until the Last Battle. And that’s boring. So, if they give us his story more slowly, then it’ll keep pace with the other main characters.

Egwene and Rand... I’m trying to remember if it was confirmed in the books that Egwene was Latra reborn or if that was just a theory. I mean, as theories go, I always liked it; it makes sense that they’re connected in this life and come to odds in it, like they did in their last lives, but I don’t remember if it actually was a real thing or just something that sounded legit to fans.

I love the nod here to Rand doing small, thoughtful gestures for the people that he loves. Reminds me of some things from the books. <3

During the conversation with the three boys, the war in Ghealdan is mentioned. We’ll see the results of that war in episode four, but the way the news is delivered here -- some people heard down the mountain when they were trading the wool -- makes it clear how isolated the Two Rivers is from the cares of the rest of the world.

The growing distance between Rand and Egwene is seeded early on -- she’s already gotten that offer from Nynaeve and isn’t sure how to tell Rand, so she avoids him for most of the night. And Rand can sense that she has bad news to tell him, from the way she’s behaving. But, in a similar moment to one from the most recent episode, when Rand is in denial about big changes, he goes in big on his relationship with Egwene. Both times we see them sleep together, Rand is trying to fend off a big change about to happen in his life.

With Moiraine, they don’t have her try to hide that she’s Aes Sedai here, but they do have her use her entrance as a way to get everyone’s eyes on her so that she can scan the crowd and mark out the faces that she thinks are around the right age -- she notices Nynaeve first, then Mat, then Egwene, and finally Rand and Perrin.

Even in this first scene with the group, they show us that Rand and Nynaeve are the ones openly questioning Moiraine’s presence the most and being the most concerned about it. We also see where Rand’s doubts come from in the next scene, when Tam says, “Aes Sedai don’t fight wars. They pull the strings of the world from their White Tower.”

Love the transition from hearing the whistling while seeing the Fade do recon in the village and then Padan whistling the same tune as he drives his cart into the village. I haven’t said a lot about Padan, because I’m not sure exactly how far they’re going with his storyline, except that it obviously is continuing and it’s important enough that I assume we’ll get all the main beats at some point, but the actor was great in the small bits that we’ve gotten so far.

While Perrin’s storyline was slowed down, I’d say that Mat’s has been greatly accelerated. Again, makes sense for the similar but opposing reason that Perrin’s does -- most of Mat’s development happens after the first couple of books, so while Perrin’s storyline gets the brakes placed on it, Mat’s story gets a jumpstart, that way all the characters are more in sync.

As others have pointed out already: when Rand needs to think, he goes and sits on a mountain. Perfection. Flawless foreshadowing.

The show-only audience probably thinks of Rand/Egwene as The Official Couple of the show, destined to always get back together, so that’s... gonna be interesting to watch the show pull apart. The basic incompatibility of their life paths is only going to grow, not shrink, as time passes. I hope their eventual final break is as funny as it was in the books, tbh, because that scene was high-key hilarious. (it’ll probably be more dramatic instead, but I’ll Always Have The Books, lol)

The scene with Nynaeve and Moiraine, where Moiraine goes fishing for Nynaeve’s age and whether or not she was born in the Two Rivers, is where Nynaeve officially gets disqualified as TDR. Moiraine realizes that while she may meet one potential criteria, she doesn’t meet the second (which she trusts a lot more because it was a recent foretelling and not an ancient prophecy that needed translating). Nynaeve establishes her own personal bias and her reasons behind it to Moiraine as well, with her story about the old Wisdom (who I’m guessing could barely channel, if the Tower turned her away, but she was too embarrassed/prideful to admit that to her apprentice) who went to the White Tower at thirteen but was sent home again.

Nynaeve and Egwene hear something in the wind, though they don’t understand exactly what it means. Just an omen? Or maybe it was the sound of the Waygate opening up and letting the Trollocs into the Two Rivers? Lan finds the dead sheep in the next scene afterwards, so we know they’ve already arrived.

Heavy foreshadowing for Rand gets laid down in the next scene with Tam -- about the wheel, and remembering past lives, and the need for the wheel to keep turning so that people can try again and do a better job. We also get more hints that there’s something odd about Rand’s background -- the very thing that Moiraine was trying to figure out with Nynaeve -- when Tam has a hidden sword and recognizes Trollocs and is desperate for Rand to get the fuck out of dodge as fast as possible.

Related note: we see Egwene and Mat with their respective parents and there is a notable resemblance, unlike with Rand and Tam. Given Moiraine’s fishing expedition earlier, that weighs heavily against them as the potential Dragon Reborn, if Moiraine noticed it. (And in the walk between Tam’s house and the village, Rand learned he was... adopted is the polite term for it, I suppose... which he doesn’t share with anyone, of course, because that’s personal. I do think that learning this info later on should have an impact on show-only watchers if they do a rewatch of the show)

We get a third Dragon Reborn clue at the end of the episode -- the Dark One is chasing TDR. So, whoever is twenty, born to non-Two Rivers folk but raised in Two Rivers, and is being chased by the Dark One, that person is TDR. It’s impressive to me that I saw even book readers doubting if TDR would be the same person as from the books, because that’s everything you need to know to know exactly who it is by episode four. Even here in episode one, by what we know from process of elimination, Rand and Perrin are the last ones standing. And then Rand and Perrin split up at Shadar Logoth... and the Fade chases Rand. But the show does a good job of putting you inside Moiraine’s head -- and because she doubts her information, so does the audience.

Moiraine has officially told Lan that she doesn’t know who the Dragon is at this point, though we know she’s ruled out Nynaeve, so it’s down to the four who are the correct age.

[butterflydm]

more wot s2 speculation

I am planning on doing on re-reading, as well as re-watching, so I should get a better handle on the whole ‘doing Mat & Rand’s book 3 plots in S2’ thing that Rafe said (my brain just inserts ‘ah, Stone of Tear!’ but I’m sure there’s more than that, lol).

Looking at a map of ~Randland~, with Rand starting north of Fal Dara (...I don’t believe he and Moiraine were actually in Shayol Ghul, but it does seem like they were nearish to Malkier), if he mostly heads in the direction of Tear for the S2 finale, then he could easily pass through Cairhien for any shenanigans there.

Cairhien is sorta on the way to Tar Valon from Caemlyn, depending on how you go, so there is a possibility there for a Daughter-Heir meeting. They might want to set Elayne up as a fully independent character unrelated to Rand at first, because her introduction in the books is the most obvious ‘hark, a love interest’ meet-cute intro of all three of the women, so there’s an obvious Egwene compare-and-contrast to be had that they might want to put some narrative space between, but I have a yearning in my heart for a meeting between them before even more book events happen. otoh, Rafe talks in an interview (at cbr dot com; not including link bc tumblr hates them) about wanting to make sure that Min and Rand had a scene alone together because of the future importance of their relationship, so the same logic would apply to Elayne. They could go either way on that, I think. In the books, Elayne has a large number of PoVs (more than Nynaeve, I believe) and even people who don’t like her generally admit that she’s pretty much on par with most of the EF5 as far as main characters go, so I’m hoping to see a lot of her in S2, whichever route they take with her.

Looking again at the map, I’m thinking that maybe Rand doesn’t make it out to Falme at all, and the Battle of Falme becomes a Perrin and Mat bonding event while Rand deals with Tear. And I feel like this could still work for Fain’s motivation, because they had him call out all five ta’veren as potential people that the Dark One wants to turn to the Shadow, not just Rand, and he may want to ‘pick on’ Perrin and maybe Mat as the two he sees as the most vulnerable, since Egwene and Nynaeve are kinda the Black Ajah’s responsibility to deal with and Rand has the Forsaken more focused on him for the moment (because they are all still obsessed with LTT lol; at least the early ones are). And, also, I really do want to reiterate how much I love that Nynaeve and Egwene are officially ta’veren in this version of the story. Never made sense that the boys were but they weren’t.

otoh, does that mean we lose Mat in Tear entirely; if the Wondergirls don’t go there, it doesn’t seem like he would be there? And blowing the Horn seems more important to Mat’s plotline than Tear and the Seanchan are a vital part of his future plot, so maybe he goes only to Falme (not sure how well that tracks with what Rafe said though -- but I can’t find the interview where he talked about Mat specifically doing his S3 plotline, does anyone have it?).

Josha mentions in an interview (at thewrap dot com) that Rand needs to ‘go his own way’ to figure out what being the Dragon Reborn means for him, so I wonder if that means he will mostly be interacting with new (to the show-viewer) characters next season and not with any of the EF5.

Or everyone might end up reunited in Tear at the very end, after Rand gets the sword, because people kind of end up redistributed into different sets at that point.

Rafe mentions in the same interview getting to do ‘deep dives’ into the characters because they’re split up into different groups now, so I suspect Perrin and Mat’s journeys will be largely separate for most of the season as well. Perrin will be meeting Faile and chasing the Horn & dagger, while Mat will be getting ‘dealt with’ by the Red Ajah, maybe, and then trying to find his own path. I do think Mat’s storyline got really thrown off by losing Barney, in a way that affected S2 stories as well, but I was impressed by how well they recovered from it in E7, especially, so I have high hopes. I still suspect that Mat and Thom will team up in S2.

I feel like Lanfear could be a major part of Rand’s potential journey about ‘what it means’ to be the Dragon Reborn. In TGH, she kinda represents the temptation to glory. Rand’s already been tempted by peace and rejected it, so maybe now he gets tempted by glory, since he knows peace is off the table? Offered by a woman who whole-heartedly wants him to grasp that glory for the both of them? Hmm, except that I’m not sure if that lure will work at all in the show; show!Rand is a little older and more mature, especially when it comes to women. Maybe, instead of temptation to glory, Lanfear offers temptation to knowledge? I mean, she actually does deliver on that offer in the books, giving him a teacher. Maybe that gets moved up and we meet someone else a little early? If Rand isn’t involved in the Horn storyline at all, then the main ‘temptation to glory’ object is off the table anyway (though maybe Lanfear gives him the Dragon banner?). I’d love an AoL flashback with Mierin and Lews Therin ngl.

I do think it’s very unlikely that Egwene will get kidnapped twice. It was excessive even in the books. So, is it more important for her to go to Falme or to go to Tear? I’m inclined to say Falme. tbh, Falme is kinda more important for pretty much everyone else than it is for Rand. IIRC, Rand spends most of the books not involved in the Seanchan arc at all, since he’s consolidating himself as the main ruling power on the other side of the continent instead.

Egwene and Nynaeve are the only two of the EF5 who are guaranteed to spend a relatively large quantity of time together next season, but their relationship is pretty well-established already. Nynaeve’s storyline after Tear is with Elayne and not Egwene, iirc, so they may work on building up that relationship in s2. Egwene is definitely going to meet and possibly start having feeling for Gawyn in S2, at least that’s the implication that I get from Rafe’s cbr interview where he talks about the importance of her relationship with Gawyn and Perrin’s with Faile. This might be helped along if she believes at first that Rand is dead? We’ll see if that proposed deception sticks (I kinda hope it does for a while at least, because it seems like it could have an interesting but not plot-breaking impact on people’s storylines). Egwene was already wondering at the end of the episode if Rand had failed, because of the Trollocs coming through the Gap, so it wouldn’t be a large leap for her to assume that Rand is dead.

Moiraine’s potential storyline is very interesting to me, as it isn’t anything we really got to explore in the books for her. I feel like she would end up in Tear with Rand by the end of the season because I feel like she definitely needs to go to the Aiel with him, but I think like she has a different journey of self-knowledge ahead of her than Rand does -- she has to interrogate her own arrogance now. I suspect she may realize that she walked Rand right into a no-win scenario; and she may connect that back to Siuan’s dream and realize that the dream was likely sent by ‘the Dark One’ that Rand faced and that her own desire to do a speed-run through the end of times actually released dangerous forces instead of sealing anything away. I would love it if the way we learned more about the prophecies is Moiraine going back and doing research, now that her certainty in herself has been shaken.

[butterflydm]

Wheel of Time fic & meta

Series:

voice in the back of my head: Rand/Mat; Rand/Mat/Elayne/Aviendha+. Splits off from canon in the middle of S1E6: The Flame of Tar Valon. Spoilers through book 12: The Gathering Storm. Show and book mix. In progress.

One-Shots:

pull my pin (trip my wire): Rand/Mat; Rand/Mat/Elayne/Aviendha. Canon divergence during Lord of Chaos, with spoilers through A Memory of Light. Book-based.

after the fires die out: Rand/Mat; hints of Rand/Elayne/Mat potentially in the future. Set directly after the s2 finale; show-based.

AU Roulette ficlets: A little bit of Rand/Elayne; all AUs so no extensive spoilers for actual canon. Dystopia (ch1); Secret Agent (ch2); Museum/Archives (ch3).

wishing on the same bright star: Rand/Mat; Mat/Elayne; canon polycule. Post-canon fix-it fic that picks up directly from the epilogue.

bootleg gin: post s2 Mat/Elayne; with spoilers through The Shadow Rising and with some unverified spoilers for s3. Mommy kink. Show-based.

feels something like summertime: pre-series Rand/Mat, kissing practice.

(more fic and meta links under the 'read more')

the shadow of history: post-canon Rand-focused ficlet with spoilers through A Memory of Light. Book-based.

not in the stars, but in ourselves: Rand/Mat; Rand/Mat/Elayne/Aviendha. Splits off during The Path of Daggers, with spoilers through A Memory of Light. Book-based.

Randfear Trilogy: Rand/Selene; show canon with spoilers through 2x5.

past is prologue: Rand/Mat; Rand/Mat/Lanfear. Show canon with spoilers through 2x8; uses the Randfear trilogy as optional backstory.

give me your trust (said the love of your life): Rand/Mat/Elayne; book canon. Spoilers through AMoL (including the epilogue).

Seia Ascar: Rand/Mat; book canon. Spoilers through AMoL (including the epilogue)

stars fading (but I linger on): Rand/Mat. Splits off after S1E8 of the show. Show and book mix.

maybe this time (i’ll be lucky): Rand/Mat/Elayne/Aviendha. Splits off from chapter 42 of TFoH. Book-based. I am eventually planning to write a sequel for this, but it’s been on the backburner a while.

Skipping Stones: Rand/Mat. Pre-canon. Show-based.

share one more drink (with me): Egwene/Rand/Mat. Pre-canon. Show-based.

like roses and clover: Rand/Mat/Elayne. Splits off from Chapter 49 in The Dragon Reborn. Book-based.

negotiating with the truth: Rand/Mat. Splits off in between The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising. Book-based.

lean on me: Rand/Mat/Elayne. This fic is based on one way that negotiating with the truth could have gone; written for polyship week 2023.

soul of fire, heart of stone: Rand/Mat/Talmanes. Set roughly in the early parts of LoC, but with an alternate Rand/Mat backstory. Book canon.

where the lightning splits the sea: Rand/Mat; fix-it fic for Winter’s Heart. Written for WoT 2022 Big Bang. Book canon.

trackless domain: Mat/Elayne; Rand/Mat/Elayne/Aviendha. AU for ACoS. Book canon.

Meta & Reread posts:

General meta posts sadly under two different tags

WoT!Prime speculation and specifically WoT s3 speculation (obviously wrong a lot but speculating is fun)

Series Reread in chronological order (COMPLETED)

reverse order

Initial Show Reactions/Meta

reverse order

Initial thoughts on the Dark Along the Ways (post refuses to be retagged for some reason)

Show Rewatch

reverse order

Worldbuilding notes (all of these have spoilers from the books):

Leavetaking ~ Shadow’s Waiting ~ A Place of Safety ~ The Dragon Reborn