View original post3:58 So she’s not actually getting naked. What is the point of taking off the dress in the first place? There was symbolism about being naked, which is lost when you strip her down to her undergarments. If she does not need to be bare ass naked, why bother taking off the dress in the first place? Just have her change into an Accepted dress when she comes out of the third one, you can work the symbolic cleansing into the undressing part.
View original postThis feels entirely like they did not understand the work they are adapting at all.
Or they did understand it but realized that they'd get a lot more criticism for gratuitous nudity if they made her get naked, than if they did it this way. Her taking off her novice dress before the test still makes some sense - and the thing with the cleaning her inbetween arches by dumping the water on her would be rather more inconvenient if she was fully dressed.
View original post15:54 I’ve actually wondered what would happen if a candidate came out of the last arch and refused to complete the ceremony. Would they actually be put out of the Tower or is it just that you can’t refuse until you have gone through the third arch?
Odds are, it's not something they've ever contemplated... as it wouldn't really make sense for any 'normal' novice who's spent years as a novice. I'm not sure it makes sense for Nynaeve here either, for that matter.
View original post25:53 If Suroth is going to finally speak, it should be for something important or significant, not to reiterate what has already been said, and what has just been graphically emphasized by a brutal execution. This is only fitting from a Doylist standpoint, as the end of a scene. It does not make sense from a Watsonian perspective, because the characters are not leaving the scene, they are going to still be here as the Seanchan go on with the ceremony.
Right?!
View original postSee, the problem here is, unlike in the books, where Logain retained the ability to channel and was being guarded and visibly watched for precisely that reason, at the time when he spotted Rand, on the show he was already gentled! By the implied rules of the Power, his ta’veren spotting ability should not have been functioning, but his ability to sense a channeler should absolutely not exist at all. Setalle Anan, for instance, could not sense the ability in Nynaeve and Elayne.
I missed that, but yes, good point. But then, you know, after Nynaeve's mass heal last season and then the various travesties in the final episode, them not respecting lore on this particular point seems like a minor detail.
View original post31:45 She’s actually a business owner? She has been awfully busy since she got free. She actually set up and operated a shop in Cairhien on the off-chance Rand would go there, of all places?
Yes, quite different approach to Selene/Lanfear - seems like she must have been freed already longer than in the book, and obviously she'll be rather more subtle and less egocentric than the book version. Not too sure on the Cairhien shop, but then, book Lanfear would also have been perfectly capable of setting up such an alternate identity with her own business in no time at all, with just a few murders and Compulsions.
But I also wouldn't be surprised if they went for a much more radical departure from the books with her. Perhaps even to the extent of making Selene a reincarnation of Lanfear instead, like Rand is of LTT - though even by their standards, it might stretch credulity to have her be that powerful without any training at all, while Rand in a similar situation does require training.
On a side note, Logain claiming to have heard LTT's voice in his head, I don't think that was in the books, was it? He might be lying about it of course, but I'm not quite sure why he would bother to lie about that anymore, at this point - or it could just be actual madness in his case. Still, it's kind of intriguing, since based on some hints in the books and the World of WoT book, it seems plausible that some of the historical 'False Dragons' just might have had some kind of link to the real Dragon, even if they weren't his full reincarnation.
View original post34:05 Okay, fine! I tried to be your friend, but if that’s how you want to play, I’ll just go steal your boyfriend, get knocked up with twins and leave you to take responsibility for my retarded brother!
Ugh, don't remind me of Gawyn.
View original post34:58 I honestly think I like this performance better than Barney Harris’.
He's not bad... pity he's not given anything good to work with.
View original post37:16 Are they NOT going to ever reveal that Liandrin is a Darkfriend, and thus, regardless of her Red Ajah issues, knows Mat is somewhat important for entirely different reasons, namely, that her homicidal bosses have an interest in him and she really shouldn’t be letting him run loose…
I've really no idea what they're planning to do with Liandrin, but one thing that's clear already is that she's nothing like book Liandrin - which, let's face it, is a good thing as book Liandrin was not only petulant, vicious and cruel but just immensely annoying. In fact, the Black Ajah in general (with a few notable exceptions) could use a serious rework to make them more competent and less petty. But she might not even be Black at all here...
View original post39:21 I suppose it’s futile to point out just how amazingly tolerant this iteration of Liandrin is, and how Egwene should be envying hemorrhoid patients their ease in sitting after the consequences of her words and attitude toward an Aes Sedai in this scene alone. That being said, I kind of like her more than any other Aes Sedai I’ve seen so far. I’d say she’s a closer match to Tarna than any of Book!Liandrin’s traits.
Agreed.
View original post40:25 Is that Lindsey Duncan!? First Ray Stevenson in the latest Star Wars crap show and now Servilia, from “Rome”!
Oh, that's where I recognized her from! By the way, according to iMDB, her character is from house Damodred - though who knows how important that will be in the show. Cairhien in the show has a queen rather than a king like in the books at this point, which again may or may not be relevant to what will happen later on.
View original post42:20 It’s always hilarious when socialistic propaganda demonstrates the ignorance of the writers when it comes to economic and social matters. A disproportionate number of the Hunters for the Horn in the books were noble or claimed to be, because you need money to fund your search, to outfit yourself for the quest and to live off of while you are not doing anything productive. The cost of sponsoring a significant number of poor people on an undertaking like this would be comparable to the cost of a war, which was one of the financial disasters that afflicted kings in the medieval and subsequent periods. Furthermore, the sort of people who would embark on something like the Hunt would be fit and healthy folk in their prime. These were the type of people that kings and nobles did not want to get rid of, and in history, actually passed laws prohibiting them from leaving their lands, because they wanted to keep the labor market low. Nobles had rents and taxes that were set by charters and contracts and holy oaths. They could not raise their taxes and rents to cover their expenses, such as the rising cost of labor due to thousands of healthy young people heading off to foreign parts on legendary quests. If a real life queen was looking to relieve herself of the burden of feeding and supporting a mass of migrant poor, she’d be foisting the expense onto the nobles somehow.
Interesting analysis, hadn't thought of that.
View original post47:02 Min’s sitting there with an expression on her face like “I could hear everything through that dresser. Took you long enough to let me out.” With that in mind, however, why could she not push it aside and escape herself once she could hear Mat leaving? Also, if they are leaving the hole open, A. what did they do with the blocks they took out and B. now someone in one room can clearly hear noises from the other room, and you might not be able to keep silent when someone is coming in to talk to Mat or Min. What if she was sleeping and unaware of a need for caution and woke up noisily while Liandrin was just standing in Mat’s room?
I was wondering all the same things, yes.
View original postAlso, what exactly is the status of Mat with regard to the Tower? Is Liandrin allowed to just keep someone in a cell with no oversight? If the Tower authorities agree he should be locked up, how can Liandrin allow him to escape and arrange for him not to meet anyone in the corridors, all in aid of concealing whatever Moiraine can blackmail her with? What is the interest of the Tower as a whole here, either in letting sisters use the place as a private prison, or in letting them pull these shenanigans?
This Tower is rather a mess, isn't it? But then it's interesting that the Amyrlin hasn't been seen or even referred to at any point in these episodes - the Hall got a mention once, I think, but indeed one does get the impression of Liandrin and Alanna being able of doing whatever they want without any higher oversight. Then again, considering that Moiraine could run off to what she supposed would be the Last Battle in the previous season without the slightest clue of what she'd be doing there, who she'd be facing or indeed even which of her young charges was in fact the Dragon Reborn, Liandrin's private prisons suddenly seem like a minor thing to overlook.
View original postIn her first test, Nynaeve’s choices had deteriorated to staying to face the bandits in a world where her parents were dead. Even the second, where they did a better job of emphasizing the personal betrayal of abandoning Tam in his suffering, it was still an awful situation, where an epidemic was hurting the village and there was nothing she could do. She came out demanding the Tower go to the aid of the Two Rivers, so the implication is that there was no temptation to stay at all, and Nynaeve felt in the moment that returning through the arch was her best chance of helping her people. And now she is in a world where her friends & husband are dead, Egwene is facing a serious threat, and as with the second scenario, believes she can help by going through the arch and taking her daughter to safety!
Agreed - in the first two she does at least have to tear herself away from people she cares about, even if objectively speaking she can't actually help them, but in the third, the arch offers the only possibility of escaping an instant gruesome death and if she can actually bring her daughter along to it, it's a no-brainer that this is her best option. Makes no sense by the standards of the test as it is in the book.
Then again, thinking about it further, the Tower in the show obviously doesn't have the same overall approach to its novices and Accepted that the Tower in the books does, as you've already pointed out repeatedly. Also in other ways, it's not nearly as strict about making Aes Sedai cut their existing ties as much as possible and put the Tower ahead of all else. Their focus may be more on making the novices face their worst fears, than on giving them impossible dilemmas of a vague duty vs the immediate need of their loved ones, as in the book.
View original post1:03:09 At least they did not have Egwene save Nynaeve from yet another certain death, three episodes after the last time she did so with a feat of channeling beyond her capabilities.
Ugh, yeah, I was worried for a moment there when she started channeling at the arches.
View original postAnd can we just marvel at the fact of the Aes Sedai prematurely calling off the Accepted test with no way of knowing what is actually going on, and whoops, the arches simply had not opened for their candidate yet? Clearly they did not know this was possible, but is the show ever going to address why Nynaeve’s test had such aberrant timing? This is not even like her book test, where she missed the arch the first time, but somehow channeled herself another way out. The arch just aborted before it ever formed and came back after several years. Also, in the normal course of events, all the Aes Sedai are going to assume Egwene and Elayne activated the Arches.
I don't know but I'd think most likely no, we won't ever find out.
View original post1:03:22 Also, this is really fucked up. These are not some fake memories implanted of a life with a family, this was a whole alternate reality she lived through for years with a kid. She was not tantalized with a convincing lie, she was actually made to live through it and honestly, never really given a choice about accepting or rejecting it, it was just yanked away from her.
Do we actually know that though? We don't see anything between the moment she meets Lan outside TV and the scene with her daughter. The way these arches or similar ter'angreal like the Rhuidean one work in the book, it's entirely possible that the one thing happened immediately after the other. She'd still have at least implicit memories during the latter scene of how she'd gotten there, but then that's no different from the 'fake memories implanted' you're talking about.
View original postThis is a hilarious introduction of Nynaeve and Elayne, and it would be equally hilariously in character for Elayne to dot the I’s and cross the T’s by dumping a bucket on her and reciting the words.
True, that'd have been a nice touch.
View original postNow, recalling that the Amyrlin is supposed to show up when the new Accepted comes out of the third arch, I wonder if they did it this way because Sophie Okonedo was unavailable?
She is very conspicuously missing from the show so far, yes...
View original postSo, what actually happened in that episode that matters? One extended and elongated Accepted test. A fake jailbreak from the Tower and a real one via wolves, and now I am thinking they might have cast a black guy as Elyas and focused on Perrin while ignoring the Shienaran captives, in order to have the so-satisfying imagery of a black guy freeing another one from chains. Rand, after spending all of last episode getting in to see Logain, spent this one getting a bottle of wine to bribe him, for no real return that I can see. And Lanfear probably tricked him into burning down her home as part of her genius plan to get him on her side. We are three eighths of the way through the season, and I have no idea what the arcs are for it.
Me neither. Once again, considering how much ground they're planning to cover in the full season, they've wasted a lot of time on stuff that doesn't matter so far.
Season 2 Episode 3
- 03/09/2023 04:50:09 AM
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Many good points again.
- 03/09/2023 10:42:05 AM
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Holy fuck, that's supposed to be Moiraine's sister
- 03/09/2023 07:53:59 PM
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Interesting... though yeah, they're unlikely to do much good with it.
- 03/09/2023 09:47:10 PM
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Re: Interesting... though yeah, they're unlikely to do much good with it.
- 04/09/2023 01:56:59 PM
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I had been wondering the same thing, about the show making them lovers.
- 04/09/2023 09:19:52 PM
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