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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But at least they didn’t do Tam dirty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12:17 Soooo…want to do some dishes?

12:22 Nosewart by firelight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15:24 Lamest. Horror wind voices. Ever.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

21:51 Amalisa channels.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

30:46 Nosewart

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

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

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

31:18 Nosewart

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

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

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

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

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

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

32:43 Maybe Egwene liked it?

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

33:48 Nosewart

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

42:59 That tracks, Rand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

50:36 Min is not very attractive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

54:23 Wow, really nosewart, there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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