#wot season 3 spoilers

[mushimallo]

Lord Gabril / Rahvin

[kenzovitasinelibris]

Rosamund’s favorite flicker was the one where she’s with Siuan. 😭 “The only glimpse of happiness..” Now we can confirm that was a happy future.

[rogue-rook]

since I’ve seen some show-onlys confused about rhuidean, my thoughts about the effectiveness of the glass columns as a memory preservation technique is that there has to be a very high likelihood that every clan chief who goes through them sees the same memories of the drilling of the bore, the split of the aiel, the first killing, and the first clan chiefs in rhuidean. its believed that every person alive in the 9th century who had descendants is the ancestor of every european alive today; the farther back you go, the higher the likelihood is that you are descended from a particular individual who had other descendants survive into the modern day, and in a highly enclosed society like the aiel, its just almost a dead certainty that they all are descended from the same set of people countless generations ago, bc the family trees keep overlapping; 3000 years is a very long time. so maybe not everyone who goes through the columns sees the same tardaad clan chief who first went to rhuidean that rand did, especially if they are mostly descended from the members of a different clan from rand, but they have to have seen a clan chief from that time, or else they wouldn't exist; the clan chiefs that didn't go to rhuidean for the first time didn't have descendants and their clans died out. that memory is probably 500-1000 years ago (pure guessing); 800 years ago is genghis khan and 1200 years ago is charlemagne and we know studies estimate huge numbers of the world population are descended from one or both of those. the other memories are even farther back: the bore was opened 3000 years ago and the breaking lasted I think three centuries; to me it seems that the split of the aiel and the first killing couldn't have been more recent than 1000-2000 years ago (again pure guessing). so 1500 years ago is far enough back for lewin, the first aiel to kill, his friend, and the first maiden of the spear (wish that had been included in the show memory!), to be ancestors of all the aiel alive in the waste today. the memories in the columns shatter so many of the aiel who see it, and that just wouldn't happen unless they are all seeing the exact same earthshattering revelations

[nervouspearl]

"Just a bunch of women in their 40s and 50s shredding each other, and it is wonderful to behold." - showrunner Rafe Judkins on the opening of The Wheel of Time season 3

[pillowfriends]

THAT FUCKING. THAT FUCKING EPISODE.

[glow-wine]

I love the Forsaken meeting because it's like

Rahvin: Hey, maybe we should stop infighting because this is what got us defeated the last time! Anyway, what's this meeting about? Lanfear: I was thinking that we should gang up on Moghedien.

And it turns out Rahvin is already conspiring with Moghedien.

[trollocks-in-my-bollocks]

Moiraine had Tairen tattoos on her arms in that first alternate reality segment, I can't.

[unreasonablereasoner]

Wheel of Time 3x04 spoilers.

I need to rewatch all the possible futures Moiraine saw. I’m glad they kept the implication from the books that she would be willing to forsake her own desires in order to keep influence over Rand via a sexual relationship. It shows how intensely devoted to the Light she is, and how desperate she is to retain her influence at this point. And it hits harder in the show since it’s implied she’s a lesbian. Her dynamic with Lanfear remains interesting. The show is really setting them up as a fucked up little trifecta. If I had to make predictions based on her visions, I think we’re going to see her release Lan’s bond this season and then the finale will be Moiraine doing her best to ensure that when Lanfear takes her out of the game it’s mutually assured destruction instead of Lanfear’s win.

[deeplyridiculouslyinlove]

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THAT SCENE IN THE HALL. The eye roll between Siuan and Leane! The composition of the shot when they open the door and show Siuan seated there!! The snark towards Elaida and her own smirk!! The lighting!!!

Making Morgase less of a ~perfect saintly queen~ even pre-rahvin is going to upset some people but it adds so much depth to an otherwise sort of one-note character and I am so here for it. Especially because they definitely couldn’t have her corruption arc just be “becomes slutty.”

I *love* that she is already under Rahvin compulsion when we meet her.

[mushimallo]

Avilayne WIP below the cut (so Amazon doesn’t come for my throat)

[kenzovitasinelibris]

Okay… but can we talk about the duck candle lamp in the fuck hut? And the books on the shelf (in my head, I want to think they’re all the volumes of Hearts of Flame)?

[tedwinisconfused]

anyway moiraine and lanfear this ep?? 👀

[nervouspearl]

The Flame of Tar Valon

[differentluminaryllama]

I love it so much? Like, all those gorgeous shots of the ‘Spine of the World’ (that mountain area was stunning!) and the orchard/burial grounds in the Two Rivers? All those wide sweeping shots? Those are so pretty!

also: love the sweat tent scene! (and Lan and Moiraine musing on Moiraine’s happiness and how it might just come with a sapphic one-night stand. Or not.) and other insights into Aiel culture.

(on that note: Lan not being used to sweat tents and Moiraine explaining to him that pouring more water on the hot stones produces steam/making it hotter? That was kinda funny and cute?)

one of my other favorite moments besides Moiraine helping Siuan in 3x1 must probably be the bit where Siuan takes the Horn of Valere for safekeeping and tells Mat about her uncle Huan? I just loved that bit in the book too?

It’s just all so good? Can’t wait for the next episode next week! 🙃✨

on another note: did anyone else not expect to see Sammael that early? 🤣

[glow-wine]

I don't really like to speculate too much or too seriously because going with the flow is best, but it is also fun to come up with theories, especially when you don't take them seriously but just try to come up with wild ideas. So this post is in that vein: not something I actually believe or consider likely, but something that's remotely possible and would be kinda interesting.

All the spoilers for the books. Beware.

Is it possible that wouldn't it be funny if we were doing Melindhra=Isam? Slayer=Luc/Melindhra?

In the books, Melindhra is just a regular darkfriend, and she is also Mat's first steady girlfriend until she tries to kill him on orders of one of the Forsaken. I forgot which. Sammy I think? Maybe they are just doing this with Lan in Mat's place, and without the girlfriend angle. Making her a Malkieri survivor may just be a way to have her form a meaningful connection with Lan without making it romantic. They will form a friendship, then she will try to murder him and he has to kill her in self-defence, and it will be sad and tragic, and there's nothing more to it.

But what if it's crazier than that and she is not just a darkfriend, but Slayer?

In the books, Slayer was one of the strangest and most intriguing ideas for an enemy, and never really explored to its full potential. He was a darkfriend created by merging two different people, Luc and Isam, able to travel via tel'aran'rhiod and switch between his two bodies as he exits and enters. Luc being Rand's maternal uncle who got lost in the Blight, Isam being Lan's cousin who was also lost in the Blight and raised as a darkfriend from babyhood - neither of which is used for character drama in the books, much to my chagrin! RJ had such neat ideas and then didn't know what to do with them sometimes ... :(

I generally expect the show to just leave out characters or storylines that RJ never gave their proper due - but Luc is in the show. He hasn't been given any focus, so at this point it's impossible to say what angle they are taking with him. But he is there, and there is no Isam but there is another Malkieri character, who was not Malkieri in the books but was a darkfriend, and we will also be getting more tel'aran'rhiod this season ...

Maybe (likely!) the concept of Slayer is too ambitious for too little payoff and has been scrapped, and Luc will be a regular darkfriend, or not even that but just some guy, or maybe Luc is the final missing Forsaken, although I don't know if this would make any sense and I'm actually very anxious about Asmodean and should not even be thinking about this. Maybe Luc is a red hering for book fans.

But iffffff Slayer is in this, and if Luc is one half of him, then my insane opinion is that it would make some sense for Melindhra to be the other half.

The more I think about it, the more I realize it's a terrible idea with absolutely no basis in established canon, but the more I am also in love with it, lol.

(BTW: Ever since Daniel Henney was cast as Lan, my ideal Isam fancast has been Ian Anthony Dale. That would have been the dream.)

[onaperduamedee]

Some reflections regarding 301 and foreshadowing for the entire book series:

- I am still reeling from Moiraine saving Siuan from getting crushed while in the last book Siuan dies by getting crushed by a building. These writers' mind is a thing of beauty

- I've said in the non-book post that I don't like the direction they are taking with Siuan. I understand what they are going for narratively: in order for the coup to work on-screen Siuan has to be painted as somewhat unfit for the Seat so that people will be on-board Elaida's reign until they see how dangerous and incompetent she is. I just wish it didn't come at the expense of such an incredibly smart character, also a black woman 

- Mirror Rand choking Egwene has to be foreshadowing Rand choking Min under Semirhage's influence, as does Eggy recoiling at his touch and seeing Renna

- more of a remark on the Waste preview clip but it looks like we're getting Rand's war crimes this season already and this is exciting. I have a good feeling too about the show handling Rand's mental degradation and increased threat to the safety of others. The Dragon Reborn isn't humanity's savior, at least not only. He will kill and hurt countless in his fight against the Shadow

- I am really invested in Nynaeve trying to help with Mat's mental health because this is going to be The Foreshadowing of all times when she cures madness. If they do this well this will be the healing of her arc I was talking about the other day

- on one hand Mat isn't going at all where he's supposed to go; on the other, his arc has always been about getting sent to wherever he is needed so I am not mad about a Mat-less Waste. Like Min, he's more of a skeleton key character they jingle around

- The axe splitting Perrin's ring has to be the most on the nose sign he will get a love interest this season. I love it and cannot wait for Faile