Weaving takes too long

[grayavatar]

I feel that any time someone weaves there's a lot of hand gestures and dancing about. I haven't read the books in a while but I am sure that part of the testing to be Aes Sedai requires a woman to not only cast complex weaves but also to do so quickly and under pressure.

 

We have seen Aes Sedai casting quickly in the forest fight and even the unschooled Egwene casts rather fast in the tent but anytime weaves are shown (usually Moiraine) it seems to take forever.

 

They say a chaneller can turn the tide of battle and can replace 100 men but I think an archer can shoot 5+ arrows in the time it takes Moiraine to pick up a rock and throw it. I really hope chanelling in future episodes is done much faster. As it is now chanelling seems to slow the pace of fight scenes.

 

A fireball should be a very basic weave for someone who has passed the tests. I would like to see fireballs flying like machine gun fire in future fights with trollocs.

Fighting with the one power should be like any other fighting. It is a tool or a weapon. It should be treated as matter of fact not a spectacle to awe onlookers. Weaves should snap together almost instantly.

 

I don't know maybe they could even stretch their CGI budget if they spend less time showing off weaves and more time putting the Saidar to work ?

 

What do you guys think.

[MasterAblar]

Tough question to be honest.

 

I think partly they’re trying to show off the one power and making it elaborate at times. Moiraine in the 1st episode and Alanna when she was stopping the arrows are exemples of that. Some was better like Kerene knocking back Logain, and just about everything Logain does as well.
 

I think they’re also trying to get across that the Aes Sedai often rely on hand movements and as such are more limited. I expect that much like Logain,   non Aes Sedai channelers will showcase distinct channeling.

[DaddyFinn]

Logain and Egwene are much quicker already because they have not been taught the Aes Sedai way. In the books Wise Ones, Seafolk and who else mocked the Aes Sedai because of their handwaving. Rand rarely used his hands (balefire from pointed fingertip?). It's pretty much canon so far even though maybe a bit too slow.

[Daenelia]

Time to be ignored ?

 

I think it shows that, as time has progressed, much knowledge and skill around channeling has been lost. The Aes Sedai we see now, no matter how effective and strong the seem, are not as powerful as the ones that could turn a battle around. For one, they have not needed to battle other channelers for a long time.

 

Do I think it takes too long? How can I tell? I have no comparisson in the show of other channelers. Yet.

[Agitel]

I don't mind the additional movements to help the show tell the story, but I agree weaving is too slow and I hope it'll be sped up next season.

 

I will say regarding fireball speed, that depends on method. In the books, Moiraine casts one fireball at a time using her hand to lob them. It's how she learned. Aviendha does fireballs the Aiel way at the end of ACoS and fires them off rapid-fire without needing to use her hands to aim.

[ArrylT]

Interesting question indeed, and like many things it comes down to each of our subjective perspectives.

 

Moiraine is on record as having said that Earth & Fire are her weakest elements.  So, and since they wanted to showcase all the elements of the One Power in the Winternight fight, some weaves could take longer depending on your strength with that element.

 

IE if you're weak in fire, then you need more time to draw a Fireball.  I would also assume that the more powerful the weave, the longer it needs to build up.  

 

Also perspective can shift if we're focused on one character vs. many.   So in the Winternight fight the only Aes Sedai is Moiraine the focus is on her mostly.   But in the battle against the remnants of Logains army, there are multiple Aes Sedai - so while we're watching one AS release their weave, another AS off-camera could easily be building their weave.

 

I am curious how much time (on screen) Nynaeves healing burst took - I would not be surprised if it was longer than any of the other uses of One power shown so far - but because of how it was edited & the amount of people involved, the time felt faster?

Edited December 7, 2021 by ArrylT

[ForsakenPotato]

Some of the channeling may be slowed down so viewers can see what's going on. For example the arrows in episode 4 -- Alanna is able to stop them mid-air which she must have done quite quickly but we see around 10 seconds of her stopping them. If it actually took her 10 seconds in the battle I think the arrows would have reached them. Similarly maybe some of Winternight is slower so we can see the weaves more clearly and see Moiraine and Lan's fancy fight choreography.

 

Once we have bigger fights where both sides channel I expect it will be shown a lot faster. But I won't be surprised if they still slow it down for key moments. There's so much nuance and complexity to channeling and if they want to show even a fraction of it onscreen I'm not sure what other option they have.

[grayavatar]

I really hope the Forsaken aren't shown dancing around and doing hand movements. They should be scary fast and menacing. They should be blocking and deflecting with little thought and retaliating just as fast. The attacks should seem vicious and dangerous the way a snake attacks.

 

Also with any channelers, in some situations, I would like to see some preparation of weaves for later use.

 

I think Nynaeve's should be instant because she doesn't think about the weaves, she just goes for the end result. I wonder if they will keep the block in the tv show and she only channels when angry?

 

Moiraine might be weakest in Earth and Fire but she is also one of the strongest in the white tower. Her low could be another's high. Also she has an angreal... I think

[ArrylT]

1 hour ago, grayavatar said:

Moiraine might be weakest in Earth and Fire but she is also one of the strongest in the white tower. Her low could be another's high. Also she has an angreal... I think

 

What looked to be an angreal described in the books was in the prologue.  

[grayavatar]

Yeah I thought I saw her wrapping something in cloth.

[fra85uk]

Weaving is not a big issue, I think that they will speed up it after Having shown It slowly for the first time.

[AdamA]

If you're talking about the winternight attack, they're playing with alternating slow-mo for backswings to make the actual strikes look faster. You can see it more clearly watching Lan. When he pulls his sword back, it's much slower than when he actually strikes. That's not slow weaving. It's just special effects. It's also really obvious when they show Moiraine spinning from overhead that she isn't actually spinning that slowly. The natural wind movement also slowed.

[Skipp]

Sorry for the thread resurrection but I thought it was worth the discussion considering how we have seen "The MAN" channel.

 

I personally believe they made the Aes Sedai weaves seem so slow for 2 reasons.  The first was to allow non readers to see what is happening and to be able to comprehend it. 

 

The 2nd being that we will see our heroes begin to weave even faster as they gain prominence and to be able to match the DO and his forces.