tv show spoilers S1E7: The Dark Along the Ways

[Ralph]

1 minute ago, Spiritweaver1 said:

I am amazed that somebody would take what a person that has two imaginary friends whispering in his ears as spouting show canon.  Logain's speech was just his attempt to stand up to the Aes Sedai and get under their skin.  I liked it  very much but I certainly didn't believe it.  The defenders of the blight border don't have time for games because for them it is always go time.     I get the WAFO bit but the dialog that could have been done around them helping at Tarwin's gap vs gallivanting off chasing TEOTW would be much more powerful.  For me Anglemar's pride lessened him.  Perhaps since he is showing signs of moral weakness they plan to turn him into the dark friend instead of Lord Ingtar.  Pride makes many a dark friend.

 

We have no sign yet that Trollocs are massing at Tarwin's Gap. 

 

And please Agelmar not Anglemar. I know it's irrational and pernickety but it disturbs me

[Spiritweaver1]

1 minute ago, Ralph said:

 

We have no sign yet that Trollocs are massing at Tarwin's Gap. 

 

And please Agelmar not Anglemar. I know it's irrational and pernickety but it disturbs me

Thanks for the correction.  I am trying to do due diligence because my memory is a net with many holes?

[divica]

38 minutes ago, dwn said:

I agree they've given Egwene, Nynaeve, Moiraine and the Aes Sedai more focus than they had the (early) books--that sort of thing is necessary when you're condensing a story and hiring actors for an ensemble cast. What I don't agree with is that doing so diminishes Rand, Mat, Perrin, Thom or Lan in any way.

 

Rand spends most of TEotW sulking over Tam's fever dream and bumbling his way to Caemlyn--and he does much the same in the show, minus the sulking. Mat is immature and irresponsible then sticks his [hand] in SL funk. Perrin's most "badass" moment is an internal monologue where he resolves to kill Egwene to spare her a painful death by ravens.

 

Let's look at Lan. Is he different in the show? Certainly. They've elevated him to a main character, and in doing so given given him a personality beyond Samurai Batman. What, Nynaeve managed to sneak up on him in a scene shot to make it dramatic and obvious to TV viewers? Oh noes! He hasn't killed as many CG trollocs as he did in the books? Double oh noes!

 

And are you honestly that hung up on who had more speaking lines between Bran and Marin al'Vere? Seriously?

Seriously?

you are defending a show that transformed a perrin moment about accepting that he has powers and understanding them into a egwene moment. He didn't even get to tell moiraine that he had powers or have 1 scene trying to explain what his powers were. All that story as spent developing egwene's character. This is got s8 bad level of writing.

 

In regards to rand. why show us now the scene of tam revealing he isn't his biological son? why not do it on the first ep and have rand grow during the season by accepting it? 

This way they basically made the moment meaningless. After 1 entire season rand is completly bland because they don't care to give him a story besides giving him lines about how egwene is so great...

 

And mat after ep 3 basically disapeared from the show. 

[A Memory Of Why]

3 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXoJ5YIlNHy/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Stunt coordinator posted a "previs" of the blood snow fight with original stunt crew. Some stuff was changed/removed in the final scene. Awesome stuff!

 

 

 

Thanks DaddyF!! That was good fun.

 

Lol at the backflip! That's hilarious!!

 

Good call removing that, could you imagine the forums if there was a pregnant backflipper? Cause I don't want to.. 

 

I don't know if it's true but I read somewhere she was a stunt person for the new Dune movie as a Freeman!

 

That gives me some fun ironic giggles ? 

Everything is bloody derivative these days in'in'it? ?

 

I can't help myself, I need to say it one more time...

 

Spoiler

Pregnant Backflipper!!

 

[Spiritweaver1]

6 minutes ago, RhienneAgain said:

I'm a woman who has gone through childbirth twice, too. You've explained your opinion and where it comes from really clearly.

 

I just wanted to say that I see the Tigraine scene (I actually think it trivialises labour) and series very differently I don't think this is down to men wanting something different from the show than women do, or it being a gender issue. I think it comes down to personal preference.

I personally think it comes down to sloppy writing in a comic book age where hero's can do anything.  I think some fighting from her in the beginning  would have been great but as I have said before she needed a spear sister to die defending her and doing much of the spear dancing.  I do appreciate this is fantasy but as been pointed out before on this particular point whose fantasy? 

[MasterAblar]

28 minutes ago, VooDooNut said:

I'm so glad they cut the weird/creepy dagger belly rubs though. ?

 

 

Yeah good lord who's idea was that. That was some GOT level dark and disturbing ew right there that I would not care for.

[FanofKnotai]

12 minutes ago, dwn said:

I agree they've given Egwene, Nynaeve, Moiraine and the Aes Sedai more focus than they had the (early) books--that sort of thing is necessary when you're condensing a story and hiring actors for an ensemble cast. What I don't agree with is that doing so diminishes Rand, Mat, Perrin, Thom or Lan in any way.

 

Rand spends most of TEotW sulking over Tam's fever dream and bumbling his way to Caemlyn--and he does much the same in the show, minus the sulking. Mat is immature and irresponsible then sticks his [hand] in SL funk. Perrin's most "badass" moment is an internal monologue where he resolves to kill Egwene to spare her a painful death by ravens.

 

Let's look at Lan. Is he different in the show? Certainly. They've elevated him to a main character, and in doing so given given him a personality beyond Samurai Batman. What, Nynaeve managed to sneak up on him in a scene shot to make it dramatic and obvious to TV viewers? Oh noes! He hasn't killed as many CG trollocs as he did in the books? Double oh noes!

 

And are you honestly that hung up on who had more speaking lines between Bran and Marin al'Vere? Seriously?

The fact that they have considerably less screen time diminishes their importance to the story tremendously at this point. Maybe they will be more important in later episodes when they all finally get their separate story arcs. But what I don’t think you understand that I’m trying to say is not who had more speaking lines between Marin and Bran but the fact they changed that dynamic in the first place. WHY give Marin the lines that should’ve been Brans?! WHY give Ila the lines that should’ve been Raen’s?! WHY make Lan less of a badass?! WHY change Algemar’s personality?! The only reason I can see is to lessen the men of the WOT world and raise up the women. Marin/Bran/Raen/Ila/Algemar are basically extras in the overall story. So WHY change them from their characters in the books? WHY? Changing these things in the show makes no difference to the overall story. So why do it? The only male in the show that doesn’t seem less than his book counterpart is Thom.  But we’ve only had him for one episode. It seems to me as if they are trying to make the women seem more important in a story where there’s no need to do so. They were already super important! The men seem to be second fiddle to the women. Having Perrin secretly in love with Egwene settling for Layla takes away from his character. While having him kill Layla gives us a visual reason for his later hatred of the ax, him being only married to her because he couldn’t have Egwene makes him a douche. Samurai Batman?! Lan was smart, loyal, wise, and yes BADASS in the TEOTW. His character didn’t need to be softened. That came later when Nynaeve (and yes Rand too) broke through his shell and forced him to open up. Rand didn’t “bumble” through TEOTW. He was just as determined and defiant while trying to make it Caemlyn as they’ve shown Nynaeve to be in the show. But in the show he’s hardly had chance to show his determination.  But all of that is heroine away from the unnecessary small changes the show has made to the men in the books. In the books Egwene wasn’t defiant of the Whitecloaks. She was fearful and pleading. But in the show Perrin was simpering over the death of his wife saying he deserved the torture while Egwene practically spit in Valdas face telling him she was gonna rip him apart or something. As I said however either those things happen, the overall story for Perrin and Egwene is the same so WHY change it? If they would have not changed ALL of the men it would be ok for me. If my Spider sense wasn’t active because of the changes to Raen/Bran/Lan, then the badass Egwene may have not even registered. Then came Rand/Mat/Algemar   But when you take all the superfluous changes as a whole, it paints a pretty biased picture of the men in the WOT show. 

[FanofKnotai]

57 minutes ago, Els said:

here's a display of a strong male personality and fierceness coming from Agelmar here as the Lord/guardian of the city.

Who immediately gets put in his place by a woman he was supposed to revere. Again it’s just lessening his character for unnecessarily. I can see the logic of tying it to the Logain thing, but this doesn’t constitute a boon for those who think the male characters have been diminished for no (so far) visible reason as you seem to be implying. 

[divica]

14 minutes ago, FanofKnotai said:

The fact that they have considerably less screen time diminishes their importance to the story tremendously at this point. Maybe they will be more important in later episodes when they all finally get their separate story arcs. But what I don’t think you understand that I’m trying to say is not who had more speaking lines between Marin and Bran but the fact they changed that dynamic in the first place. WHY give Marin the lines that should’ve been Brans?! WHY give Ila the lines that should’ve been Raen’s?! WHY make Lan less of a badass?! WHY change Algemar’s personality?! The only reason I can see is to lessen the men of the WOT world and raise up the women. Marin/Bran/Raen/Ila/Algemar are basically extras in the overall story. So WHY change them from their characters in the books? WHY? Changing these things in the show makes no difference to the overall story. So why do it? The only male in the show that doesn’t seem less than his book counterpart is Thom.  But we’ve only had him for one episode. It seems to me as if they are trying to make the women seem more important in a story where there’s no need to do so. They were already super important! The men seem to be second fiddle to the women. Having Perrin secretly in love with Egwene settling for Layla takes away from his character. While having him kill Layla gives us a visual reason for his later hatred of the ax, him being only married to her because he couldn’t have Egwene makes him a douche. Samurai Batman?! Lan was smart, loyal, wise, and yes BADASS in the TEOTW. His character didn’t need to be softened. That came later when Nynaeve (and yes Rand too) broke through his shell and forced him to open up. Rand didn’t “bumble” through TEOTW. He was just as determined and defiant while trying to make it Caemlyn as they’ve shown Nynaeve to be in the show. But in the show he’s hardly had chance to show his determination.  But all of that is heroine away from the unnecessary small changes the show has made to the men in the books. In the books Egwene wasn’t defiant of the Whitecloaks. She was fearful and pleading. But in the show Perrin was simpering over the death of his wife saying he deserved the torture while Egwene practically spit in Valdas face telling him she was gonna rip him apart or something. As I said however either those things happen, the overall story for Perrin and Egwene is the same so WHY change it? If they would have not changed ALL of the men it would be ok for me. If my Spider sense wasn’t active because of the changes to Raen/Bran/Lan, then the badass Egwene may have not even registered. Then came Rand/Mat/Algemar   But when you take all the superfluous changes as a whole, it paints a pretty biased picture of the men in the WOT show. 

I don't understand why the show turned egwene into this badass mary sue hero that can do no wrong and everybody is in love with. I don't even get why rand had to apologize so much to her in this ep...

Some of her lines should have gone to rand in order to give him a personality that people could get interested in. Because until the last 10 mins of this ep he was eg's boyfriend that was mopping the entire season and then they decided to make a info dump and make him the dragon without spending any time developing his character.

 

I don't get this...

[Jaysen Gore]

26 minutes ago, FanofKnotai said:

The fact that they have considerably less screen time diminishes their importance to the story tremendously at this point. Maybe they will be more important in later episodes when they all finally get their separate story arcs. But what I don’t think you understand that I’m trying to say is not who had more speaking lines between Marin and Bran but the fact they changed that dynamic in the first place. WHY give Marin the lines that should’ve been Brans?! WHY give Ila the lines that should’ve been Raen’s?! WHY make Lan less of a badass?! WHY change Algemar’s personality?! The only reason I can see is to lessen the men of the WOT world and raise up the women. Marin/Bran/Raen/Ila/Algemar are basically extras in the overall story. So WHY change them from their characters in the books? WHY? Changing these things in the show makes no difference to the overall story. So why do it? The only male in the show that doesn’t seem less than his book counterpart is Thom.  But we’ve only had him for one episode. It seems to me as if they are trying to make the women seem more important in a story where there’s no need to do so. They were already super important! The men seem to be second fiddle to the women. Having Perrin secretly in love with Egwene settling for Layla takes away from his character. While having him kill Layla gives us a visual reason for his later hatred of the ax, him being only married to her because he couldn’t have Egwene makes him a douche. Samurai Batman?! Lan was smart, loyal, wise, and yes BADASS in the TEOTW. His character didn’t need to be softened. That came later when Nynaeve (and yes Rand too) broke through his shell and forced him to open up. Rand didn’t “bumble” through TEOTW. He was just as determined and defiant while trying to make it Caemlyn as they’ve shown Nynaeve to be in the show. But in the show he’s hardly had chance to show his determination.  But all of that is heroine away from the unnecessary small changes the show has made to the men in the books. In the books Egwene wasn’t defiant of the Whitecloaks. She was fearful and pleading. But in the show Perrin was simpering over the death of his wife saying he deserved the torture while Egwene practically spit in Valdas face telling him she was gonna rip him apart or something. As I said however either those things happen, the overall story for Perrin and Egwene is the same so WHY change it? If they would have not changed ALL of the men it would be ok for me. If my Spider sense wasn’t active because of the changes to Raen/Bran/Lan, then the badass Egwene may have not even registered. Then came Rand/Mat/Algemar   But when you take all the superfluous changes as a whole, it paints a pretty biased picture of the men in the WOT show. 

You bolded the Question Why? And then proceeded to answer your on question - They are making changes to paint a pretty biased picture of men.  And they are doing it intentionally to show that IT'S NOT FAIR! Now gender flip it, and type the exact same type of response for the MCU.

 

I'm not saying I agree with the approach they're taking, and they are being way less subtle than Jordan, but fundamentally:

Spoiler

Why can't Men let the women be the ones who sacrifice and die to save the day. To succeed, we have to let go, and respect their choices. You wooly headed lummox ?

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Jaysen Gore

[FanofKnotai]

4 hours ago, Jaysen Gore said:

5 hours ago, FanofKnotai said:

 

This is what I meant by less subtle than in the novels. In the novels, the AS are THE power in the land, and control all, even the Whitecloaks (If the Amyrlin summoned the Lord Captain Commander, he would come, and he would kneel, even if he spent the trip there plotting to assassinate her). Every power behind a throne is an AS. Even in the TR, the women's council is more powerful than the men's, making decisions the men don't know about, for their own good (Don't worry their bearded little heads, pat, pat, pat). Morgase complains she isn't going to kneel and get her crown back from the AS, and Elaida brings her up short.

In the books they don’t CONTROL ALL. Yes they have a huge influence because as stated most (not all) rulers have AS advisors. But having an advisors not the same as being controlled or having no power. The fact that Niall would come (Lan didn’t mention kneeling at all) doesn’t mean he has no power he just recognizes the Amyrlin’s power as well as she would his own. Also in the TR the men handled “men’s business” and women handled “womens business”. Never did it imply that the women were more powerful than the men. It only states that they were discussing who were gonna come after the EF4 when Nyn decided to go behind their backs and come on her own. If they were “more powerful” it would have been out in the open like the changes have been in the show. And I think you can portray the huge influence of the AS without diminishing the influence/personalities of the all men. 

[Els]

49 minutes ago, Spiritweaver1 said:

I am amazed that somebody would take what a person that has two imaginary friends whispering in his ears as spouting show canon.  Logain's speech was just his attempt to stand up to the Aes Sedai and get under their skin.  

Madness aside, Logain brought up a good point that they were weakening farther from Tar Valon though because he did have an "army" (seemed like a small rebellion) aligned with him against the White Tower. My point was the farther you go, it seems weaker the reach the Aes Sedai have. I agree the borderlanders do seem more no nonsense or time for you. 

 

@FanofKnotai I've posted in previous threads commenting on Bran/Marin and Ila/Raen so feel free to peruse if you care for other thoughts in an effort to keep this to 1x07 only. Why the change? Because the show isn't written by RJ and they're going in a different direction. As a book reader we're both biased and will never have the same experience/reaction to the changes as the non-book readers and wider audience they are trying to adapt to but I trust that the writers have a reason for some of these changes and the storyline they are setting up. You don't have to like it but it is what it is. Who knows what these changes might lead to later on. I mentioned earlier, everyone was up in arms about the waygate leaf change after episode 6 but in episode 7 we have teased that there may be another way in/out that we just don't know about yet. 

 

Small tidbit - Rand's comment in response to Loial about the guiding stone"If he's asking for patience then we're gonna die." That Rand/Loial relationship on point but also Rand buddy, that's just rude. 

[WhiskeyJim]

5 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXoJ5YIlNHy/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Stunt coordinator posted a "previs" of the blood snow fight with original stunt crew. Some stuff was changed/removed in the final scene. Awesome stuff!

 

 

 

 

[FanofKnotai]

27 minutes ago, Jaysen Gore said:

They are making changes to paint a pretty biased picture of men.  And they are doing it intentionally to show that IT'S NOT FAIR! Now gender flip it, and type the exact same type of response for the MCU.

1st how do you have any clue as to what their intentions are? If what you’re saying is true than the only reason they are doing is to say “nah nah how do you like it being done to you”….that’s silly and makes ruining the story even worse. 2nd I totally agree that superhero/comic stories in general are  biased and when a female lead comes along that’s kicking the guys butts, I cheer. LOUDLY. But, 3rd, that is in NO WAY the same as taking a story that was already balanced in its original format and unbalancing it only so you can use it for a childish tit for tat. (If your theory is indeed correct)

[WhiskeyJim]

Good Lord that stunt woman is good.

[Ralph]

Just a thought on the perceived men-degrading/downgrading that some are upset by:-

 

Since one of the main themes of the series is that both genders have to work together to achieve anything worthwhile, and that women without men works as badly as men without women, why would this bother you?

 

Surely it will make that point much more clearly? 

[Elder_Haman]

1 hour ago, divica said:

Seriously?

you are defending a show that transformed a perrin moment about accepting that he has powers and understanding them into a egwene moment. He didn't even get to tell moiraine that he had powers or have 1 scene trying to explain what his powers were. All that story as spent developing egwene's character. This is got s8 bad level of writing.

 

In regards to rand. why show us now the scene of tam revealing he isn't his biological son? why not do it on the first ep and have rand grow during the season by accepting it? 

This way they basically made the moment meaningless. After 1 entire season rand is completly bland because they don't care to give him a story besides giving him lines about how egwene is so great...

 

And mat after ep 3 basically disapeared from the show. 

So everything must happen all at once or at the same pace? Perrin’s character isn’t allowed to get more development in s2? 
 

There’s a kernel of truth to some of the things you talk about, but it’s making mountains out of molehills. This is a very solid show, every bit as good as the Witcher. To paraphrase Dominik Hasek, It’s just a show, why you gotta be so mad?

[dwn]

1 hour ago, divica said:

Seriously?

you are defending a show that transformed a perrin moment about accepting that he has powers and understanding them into a egwene moment. He didn't even get to tell moiraine that he had powers or have 1 scene trying to explain what his powers were. All that story as spent developing egwene's character. This is got s8 bad level of writing.

They're starting Egwene's character arc a bit early, and, without Elyas for exposition, drawing out Perrin's. I fail to see the tragedy.

 

1 hour ago, divica said:

In regards to rand. why show us now the scene of tam revealing he isn't his biological son? why not do it on the first ep and have rand grow during the season by accepting it? 

This way they basically made the moment meaningless. After 1 entire season rand is completly bland because they don't care to give him a story besides giving him lines about how egwene is so great...

Pairing the scene of Rand's birth with the flashback to Tam's fever dream is an effective way to link the two in an episodic, visual format, where viewers may have forgotten exactly who Tam is or what he looked like.

 

1 hour ago, divica said:

And mat after ep 3 basically disapeared from the show. 

Hyperbole aside, Mat had many memorable scenes through the season until (it seems likely) his actor left the series. I particularly liked the one between him and Helga Grinwald.

[FanofKnotai]

7 hours ago, Chivalry said:

The length of the scene establishes just how determined and incredibly competent these warriors can be without any exposition.

You don’t think we would have gotten the same feel without the extra minutes? I think we would have. I think the fact she was fighting in a war at all while in labor would show her determination to bring her baby into the world despite the odds. Just me I guess. 

[Yojimbo]

3 hours ago, ArrylT said:

 

You can find that on reddit - at least through E6 - but guess it will get updated for 7/8 soon enough - they have breakdowns for screen time per episode.   And I think someone posted on a different thread the word count & talkativity (amount of time talking screen I believe) per character.

 

 

I remember seeing those numbers, and that it says Rand had the second most screen time and word count besides Moiraine up to that point.   The fact that it feels (to me, and to others here) as if he has been on screen a lot less and said a lot less than others tells me that the actor just is not very compelling.   Not a good thing for someone who will need to carry large portions of the story going forward.   

[VooDooNut]

2 minutes ago, FanofKnotai said:

You don’t think we would have gotten the same feel without the extra minutes? I think we would have. I think the fact she was fighting in a war at all while in labor would show her determination to bring her baby into the world despite the odds. Just me I guess. 

I don't think we would have gotten the same feel without the extra minutes. *nods*

 

Every second of this fight scene was terrific. I wouldn't cut a single moment of it. Story be damned, that's some incredible fight choreography. You just don't trim down content that good. (and it fits the story perfectly of course)

[divica]

Just now, Elder_Haman said:

So everything must happen all at once or at the same pace? Perrin’s character isn’t allowed to get more development in s2? 
 

There’s a kernel of truth to some of the things you talk about, but it’s making mountains out of molehills. This is a very solid show, every bit as good as the Witcher. To paraphrase Dominik Hasek, It’s just a show, why you gotta be so mad?

Do you know who liked to say

" you guys are criticizing this now but in the future it will make sense. just enjoy the show." ?

GOT fans that ignored all that was wrong with the show for years and when season 8 happened were shocked.

 

Whatever happens in the future, the facts are that the show transformed a story arc that was about developing perrin as a character, introducing his powers and making him grow into a series of egweene's moments. 

 

The same problems can be said about rand. Instead of giving him his own story almost all his story is about being egwene's boyfriend and their relationship. Having tam reveal he wasn't his father had meaning in the first ep. Now? it was just fan service so that they could say that "hey we showed this scene so don't criticize us".

 

And it is also undeniable that this first season needed to make people care about rand or relate with him in some way. However they choose to only develop female characters and lan ( because as he is important to moiraine and nym's story arcs it was inevitable).

 

And I would also like to point out that egwene and nym were much less developed in the first book that perrin and rand. So while I could understand making the all the characters important in the show I am completly against the main heroes of the sho being moiraine, egwene and nym and making rand, perrin and mat side characters.

[Elder_Haman]

8 minutes ago, divica said:

I am completly against the main heroes of the sho being moiraine, egwene and nym and making rand, perrin and mat side characters.

Good thing that’s not what’s happening then. 

[JaimAybara]

45 minutes ago, FanofKnotai said:

1st how do you have any clue as to what their intentions are? If what you’re saying is true than the only reason they are doing is to say “nah nah how do you like it being done to you”….that’s silly and makes ruining the story even worse. 2nd I totally agree that superhero/comic stories in general are  biased and when a female lead comes along that’s kicking the guys butts, I cheer. LOUDLY. But, 3rd, that is in NO WAY the same as taking a story that was already balanced in its original format and unbalancing it only so you can use it for a childish tit for tat. (If your theory is indeed correct)

I think it is probably more along the lines of a perfect storm of unintended consequences. They are overcorrecting for women right now and that paired with the truly abysmal additions to the men’s story arcs, it is not a good look. It is making me raise my eyebrows at this point to be honest. The fact is none of the negative additions have been given to the women leads. If anything, changes they are given are cool factor/beneficial. All the negatives have been given to the men. This may not be done out of malevolence towards men, but the overprotection of female characters as if they are fragile and needed to be handled with care, leads to the only negative changes that are present are being given to men, because they are the only ones they are “allowed” to be made to look bad, because heaven forbid female leads have legitimate character flaws. This being said, there are a lot of bad changes, so this is why I think some have been questioning the intent of the showrunners. Although you are right, many are taking it a bit far. I don’t think it is intentional, but I can see where people might be coming from. 

Edited December 19, 2021 by JaimAybara
Spelling

[divica]

11 minutes ago, dwn said:

They're starting Egwene's character arc a bit early, and, without Elyas for exposition, drawing out Perrin's. I fail to see the tragedy.

 

Pairing the scene of Rand's birth with the flashback to Tam's fever dream is an effective way to link the two in an episodic, visual format, where viewers may have forgotten exactly who Tam is or what he looked like.

 

Hyperbole aside, Mat had many memorable scenes through the season until (it seems likely) his actor left the series. I particularly liked the one between him and Helga Grinwald.

What perrin arc? In the book this part of the story was all about him and it got translated into he had yellow eyes and knew the wolves weren't going to attack them in order to further develop egweene. 

 

And puting the flashback there and having rand ignore what tam said the entire season made sense? Basicaly he had a world shocking revelation and never cares about it? Is this good writing? I could agree with you if we had seen that scene in ep 1 and it had some effect on rand throughout the season. This way it had no meaning to the characters and it was just info dump.

 

And these are just 2 examples how the show ignored male devolpment in order to be able to spend more time developing female characters. I chalange you to find a situation where the reverse happens.