tv show spoilers S1E7: The Dark Along the Ways

[DigificWriter]

^ I think you're severely underestimating the level of Amazon and Sony's commitment to this property.

[Vartija]

I think it's safe to say show Perrin at some point had a crush on Egwene. I don't think Machin Shin would have bothered Perrin with it if he wasn't feeling guilty about it. This also explains the shot in the first episode where Perrin, when being informed by Nynaeve that Laila was alone at the forge, looks kind of longingly at Egwene and says "give Egwene my best". Then a kind of awkward scene with Laila where they look like they're having marriage problems. There were weird undercurrents in that relationship and I'm actually sort of impressed they didn't just ditch that storyline after the first episode. 

 

I'm not even that opposed to the concept - there were some moments in The Eye of the World during Perrin & Egwene's travels where I felt like Perrin might feel more than just casual friendship with her. I vaguely remember noting this because this was after Min's viewings when my dreams of Rand & Egwene living happily ever after were crushed (lol). In comes Perrin and has a pretty good thing going on with Egwene and I definitely thought it possible they might end up together. 

 

My issue with it is mostly that the way the show pushes it to the forefront screws up the friendship dynamic of the EF5. Since we can't look into the minds of the characters, scenes like that (or the choice of not making a scene like that) are important in establishing their nature. And frankly they don't make them look good and create all kind of tensions that have to be addressed later on. I don't see why they have to challenge the friendship of the EF5 with these arguments. Is conflict the only way to tell a story?   

[Meskell]

1 hour ago, WhiteVeils said:

How does this lower Perrin's character at all? To me, this makes him even more magnificent.  He knows Egwene loves Rand. He knows Rand loves Egwene.  Rather than get between them, imposing on them with his own personal feelings, feelings they don't share, he maturely gets himself over himself and moves on with his life, finding another love and setting up a family with her.
 

The only person whose character is lowered is Nynaeve, who dredges it all up at the worst moment because she's feeling angry.

The getting engaged on the day you find out the girl you really like has got a boyfriend is definitely a dick move. 
 

It was implied that his wife knew Egwene was first choice, which is why she had no time for Egwene and wouldn’t go to her initiation. 

[DigificWriter]

5 minutes ago, Meskell said:

The getting engaged on the day you find out the girl you really like has got a boyfriend is definitely a dick move. 
 

It was implied that his wife knew Egwene was first choice, which is why she had no time for Egwene and wouldn’t go to her initiation. 

 

None of this is what was happening at all.

[WhiteVeils]

26 minutes ago, Meskell said:

The getting engaged on the day you find out the girl you really like has got a boyfriend is definitely a dick move. 
 

It was implied that his wife knew Egwene was first choice, which is why she had no time for Egwene and wouldn’t go to her initiation. 

He knew she liked Rand before Rand knew he knew she liked Rand.  Yes, Laila was jealous of Egwene a bit.
Humans be human. They have feelings. What matters is what you actually do about them.

[bringbackthomsmoustache]

8 minutes ago, WhiteVeils said:

36 minutes ago, Meskell said:

The getting engaged on the day you find out the girl you really like has got a boyfriend is definitely a dick move. 
 

It was implied that his wife knew Egwene was first choice, which is why she had no time for Egwene and wouldn’t go to her initiation. 

He knew she liked Rand before Rand knew he knew she liked Rand.  Yes, Laila was jealous of Egwene a bit.
Humans be human. They have feelings. What matters is what you actually do about them.

After all Laila gave Mat a really nice knife she made - perhaps Laila had a crush on Mat which he totally failed to recognise (due to preferring older women as mentioned in the wood chopping scene in E3).... etc, etc, etc and so the great cycle of life continues.

[nsmallw]

2 hours ago, Whittle said:

What’s up with all the chest tattoos? First Suian and now Min. Not attractive in my opinion. 

Prepare to  be attacked for your judgmental opinion. ?

[EmreY]

1 hour ago, orbops said:

General question - my wife and I read each of the books when they were initially published starting in 1990 and read the entire series just one time. We can barely remember anything from the books other than the names and characteristics of the main characters - so would you consider us to be non-readers? As we watch the show, we are often saying, " Oh yeah, I kinda remember this from the novels..."

 

Absolutely.  Anyone who cannot recite the precise number of times Nynaeve twiddles her hair can hardly be considered to know the canon.  In fact, I have been told that to access the "secret" forums on dragonmount.com, you have to be able to recit all 114 books by heart, and take an oral exam before the Mods while high on mushrooms.  (It is whispered that an even more secret forum is for darkfriends, who have to recite them backwards, ending at the Prologue to the first book.)

[DaddyFinn]

7 minutes ago, nsmallw said:

Prepare to  be attacked for your judgmental opinion. ?

Tattoos divide people. There's not much to argue about

[Arie]

19 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

Tattoos divide people. There's not much to argue about

 

MOD WARNING

 

Tattoo's are very much a cultural thing in addition to being a type of art. Whether in agreement or not, please be mindful that a cultural argument on it's value will borderline our CoC in terms of accepting cultural differences.

[ArrylT]

2 hours ago, orbops said:

General question - my wife and I read each of the books when they were initially published starting in 1990 and read the entire series just one time. We can barely remember anything from the books other than the names and characteristics of the main characters - so would you consider us to be non-readers? As we watch the show, we are often saying, " Oh yeah, I kinda remember this from the novels..."

As long as you are WoT fans that is all that matters.  Hopefully you are enjoying the show and may even feel a desire to reread them at your leisure.  ?

[EmreY]

A raging sun, 5 minutes from the end of the episode.  Egwene scurrying away.  Everyone shocked.  A voice saying Yes! Yes! Kill them all! ?

[CaddySedai]

2 hours ago, JeffTheWoodlandElf said:

In a vacuum, the TV relationship progresses just fine.

 

Thats the rub though, isn’t it? That statement I think defines the two groups of watchers from the readership group. 

 

Why is it fine only if it is not The Wheel of Time? So if it was a new series called Magicians in R-world it is ok? But because it is The Wheel of Time it is suddenly not ok?

 

So that right there and how you view it I think defines if you will like the show or not. If its always ok, then the show is good. If one can’t abide the modification - then it is not. 

 

I am personally of group A. 

[Gothic Flame]

Just now, CaddySedai said:

Thats the rub though, isn’t it? That statement I think defines the two groups of watchers from the readership group. 

Going from the last page of comments, I'd say one group seems more concerned about cw material than the book material.

All things considered that's understandable.

[Therese Sedai]

4 hours ago, TheDreadReader said:

 

One of the values of doing a montage reveal like that is the audience will easily make the connection between the reveal and the acting on the reveal.  Just like they will make the connection between Lan's statement of masking the bond and Rand and Moiraine leaving without telling anyone because Rand "can't lose anyone else in this room".

 

 

 

I totally understand the reveal. I’m just wondering if I missed a moment where Moraine became certain beyond taking Rand’s word for it. 

[CaddySedai]

2 minutes ago, Gothic Flame said:

Going from the last page of comments, I'd say one group seems more concerned about cw material than the book material.

All things considered that's understandable.

 

This is more of a general commentary stretching back to even the trailers. Distilled the argument is “This is not The Wheel of Time”.

[Yojimbo]

I haven't read every page of this thread, so I may have missed it.  But is nobody even a little miffed at how accepting Rand is that he is the DR?  I mean, he only fought against that idea for the next two books until the Stone fell and he held Callandor.    Having him be this accepting basically nullifies his entire motivations for what he does for the next two books.  But whatever I guess.   

[Skipp]

2 minutes ago, Yojimbo said:

I haven't read every page of this thread, so I may have missed it.  But is nobody even a little miffed at how accepting Rand is that he is the DR?  I mean, he only fought against that idea for the next two books until the Stone fell and he held Callandor.    Having him be this accepting basically nullifies his entire motivations for what he does for the next two books.  But whatever I guess.   

I don't think he is as accepting of it rather than resigned that this is the best way to keep his friends out of danger.

[MasterAblar]

2 minutes ago, Yojimbo said:

I haven't read every page of this thread, so I may have missed it.  But is nobody even a little miffed at how accepting Rand is that he is the DR?  I mean, he only fought against that idea for the next two books until the Stone fell and he held Callandor.    Having him be this accepting basically nullifies his entire motivations for what he does for the next two books.  But whatever I guess.   

 

Normally I would be a little offput but realistically if Rand even somewhat thought that he was the Dragon Reborn (and even he can't deny the signs in the book) and that his friends would therefore die if they ended up between him and the Dark One, then he would 100% go full martyr to save his friends and loved ones.

[dwn]

3 minutes ago, Yojimbo said:

I haven't read every page of this thread, so I may have missed it.  But is nobody even a little miffed at how accepting Rand is that he is the DR?  I mean, he only fought against that idea for the next two books until the Stone fell and he held Callandor.    Having him be this accepting basically nullifies his entire motivations for what he does for the next two books.  But whatever I guess.   

Not really? I think streamlining Rand's early identity crisis is just going to be necessary so the show can focus on saidin, LTT, and his myriad of other guilts and hang-ups.

 

As someone (CaddySedai?) said above, Rand going off with Moiraine to protect the others is definitely something I can see him doing.

[Yojimbo]

3 minutes ago, dwn said:

Not really? I think streamlining Rand's early identity crisis is just going to be necessary so the show can focus on saidin, LTT, and his myriad of other guilts and hang-ups.

 

As someone (CaddySedai?) said above, Rand going off with Moiraine to protect the others is definitely something I can see him doing.

There's streamlining and there's gutting.  This feels more like gutting to me.   But I guess I'm in the minority here, so whatever.  

[Therese Sedai]

5 hours ago, Ralph said:

 

She knew from the Ways that a man channelled

I completely missed this. How did she know it was a man? 

[Elder_Haman]

6 minutes ago, Yojimbo said:

I haven't read every page of this thread, so I may have missed it.  But is nobody even a little miffed at how accepting Rand is that he is the DR?  I mean, he only fought against that idea for the next two books until the Stone fell and he held Callandor.    Having him be this accepting basically nullifies his entire motivations for what he does for the next two books.  But whatever I guess.   

I don't know that he's necessarily accepted it. He can't possibly have considered all the ramifications. I think he's resigned to it and believes that he has to sacrifice himself to keep his friends safe - which is on brand for Rand.

 

As to the next two books - you do make a good point. The next two books are basically Rand coming to terms with his Dragonness. It will be interesting to see what they do in this regard. I think they'll lean more into Rand finding out (and coming to terms with) exactly what being the Dragon means. He'll probably refuse to take up the banner and decide that since he 'won' at the Eye, he's going to run off into obscurity. And then be manipulated to Falme or Tear where he will be forced to declare himself the Dragon in public. 

[JeffTheWoodlandElf]

2 hours ago, Mnemosyne said:

Totally fair point. I love a slow burn story myself. But I felt the implication in the original post was that sex does necessarily cheapen relationships, without a 'waiting' period.

Also don't forget that any sex before marriage means a guaranteed case of AIDS, so Nynaeve and Lan have that to look forward to now. Egwene and Rand have been doomed from the start. By the time this show hits season 3 it's just gonna be a fantasy world version of Rent without the music. 

[JeffTheWoodlandElf]

Sorry for the blank post. I'd delete it if I could. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by JeffTheWoodlandElf