The Seanchan

[Lethira the second]

Come on guys, you have it completely wrong!  This is what happened.

 

The look out spotted the little girl on the beach and relayed it to his superior.  There was a debate as to how to greet this sweet little thing and not frighten her.  The Seanchan are at heart a friendly bunch.  They went back and forth for a while, smoke signals, maybe a display of lights in the sky.  It all got very complicated. Someone suggested 'wave'.  One of the Sul'dam completely misunderstood the gesture!!!

[TheSmurf]

I think one of the writers said 'wave' and Rafe was like, "well, a bit extreme but it'll sure look cooll!" 

[DaddyFinn]

On 12/29/2021 at 1:44 PM, notpropaganda73 said:

My issue with this scene really sums up the whole first series - it's a gaping missed opportunity. They had already set up Maigan going west in episode 6 to investigate the rumours. Why not use her viewpoint to then introduce the Seanchan? Maigan being captured by the Seanchan, or even just witnessing the (completely random) display of the One Power, would have added much more to the scene.

 

My preference would have been to show the Seanchan taking a town, capturing a female channeler/chaining them with an a'dam (preferably Maigan), and the camera panning out to show the ships in the harbour. 

 

As it is, everyone is left going "what?" There isn't even any real suspense or dread from the scene, they just look sort of exotic and used the OP to create a tsunami for some reason. So what? 

 

 

So Maigan would have used the Ways to get to Falme so quickly? Since there was no "Two months later" or similar time frame we can assume the landing happened roughly at the same time as the Eye. I hope we'll see Maigan briefly in season 2.

[ForsakenPotato]

On second watch of that scene, what struck me wasn't about the Seanchan at all -- it was why is there a little girl by herself building a sand castle with no visible signs of people anywhere nearby, on a beach that does not look easily accessible?

 

But for all the nitpicking I'm capable of, I'm pretty excited for the Seanchan and I reaaaaallly liked their theme music!

[Skipp]

1 hour ago, ForsakenPotato said:

On second watch of that scene, what struck me wasn't about the Seanchan at all -- it was why is there a little girl by herself building a sand castle with no visible signs of people anywhere nearby, on a beach that does not look easily accessible?

 

But for all the nitpicking I'm capable of, I'm pretty excited for the Seanchan and I reaaaaallly liked their theme music!

 

I am so excited to see what they do with the Seanchan.  They are a fascinating culture in the books but also a very problematic one.

 

Some people keep bring up that it is out of character for the Seanchan to bring such devastation when they arrive.  But we know from when they arrive in Ebou Dar they don't care about collateral damage when invading. But they do heavily focus on rebuilding the infrastructure the moment they have control of an area.

[bringbackthomsmoustache]

2 hours ago, ForsakenPotato said:

On second watch of that scene, what struck me wasn't about the Seanchan at all -- it was why is there a little girl by herself building a sand castle with no visible signs of people anywhere nearby, on a beach that does not look easily accessible?

I am hoping that was sarcasm as she is clearly digging for some kind of shellfish.?

[ForsakenPotato]

5 minutes ago, bringbackthomsmoustache said:

I am hoping that was sarcasm as she is clearly digging for some kind of shellfish.?

 Oh ha ha I did not think of that actually! It's more weird that she's completely alone and there's no sign of others -- usually shellfish digging (in my limited experience) is timed with the tides, so there's a window when everyone would be collecting them. I guess they could be in a super remote location and that girl's family are the only ones nearby? Anyway, long way to say I was not being sarcastic and digging for shellfish makes sense but doesn't make that part of the scene less weird to me. But as I previously said, these are little details that don't diminish my excitement for the Seanchan at all!

[TheSmurf]

So basically they gender and universe-swapped Pug from Magician... 

[notpropaganda73]

On 1/1/2022 at 8:33 PM, DaddyFinn said:

So Maigan would have used the Ways to get to Falme so quickly? Since there was no "Two months later" or similar time frame we can assume the landing happened roughly at the same time as the Eye. I hope we'll see Maigan briefly in season 2.

 

I don't really see any issue with a bit of a time jump for the tease at the end being honest. It doesn't even have to be Maigan. I just think it would've worked better if viewers had *some* connection to what was being shown. 

[WhiteVeils]

I liked the thought I saw on one response that the little girl dressed in white on the beach is meant to stand as an allegory for the White Tower in the face of the invasion. 

[Katherine]

The stupid mouth patches are way worse than the wave. 

 

 

Like.... if that is going to replace the collar... how would that even work?

 

How will teh damane be controlled while eating or drinking? 

 

So so so dumb and unnecessary. 

[AdamA]

The ball gags aren't replacing the collar. The collar and bracelet is still there on each sul'dam/damane pair. They're purely additive. It does appear the leash is gone, but that was always impractical and Elayne proved they weren't needed.

[Skipp]

2 minutes ago, AdamA said:

The ball gags aren't replacing the collar. The collar and bracelet is still there on each sul'dam/damane pair. They're purely additive. It does appear the leash is gone, but that was always impractical and Elayne proved they weren't needed.

Agreed, i believe they will show the gags to be simply a dehumanizing aspect added to the Damane.  both the bracelet and the shoulder/neck pieces seem to be engraved with similar designs.

[Deviations]

18 hours ago, AdamA said:

Elayne proved they weren't needed

True but now they've taken away another moment from one of our loved characters.

[Guest Testeria]

On 12/29/2021 at 4:51 PM, TheDreadReader said:

 

MCU does a teaser scene.  The MCU fandom then does a bunch of videos talking about the teaser scene.   It becomes part of the hype cycle.   It a basic part marketing series/films these days.

 

But they said they are not doing this series for the Jordan's fandom?

 

On 12/29/2021 at 4:51 PM, TheDreadReader said:

I've already said that to me it looks to be a magical equivalent of doing a naval bombardment before conducting a landing.  It takes only a few minutes to think about the effects of that wave would be on the shoreline 

 

The effect on the shoreline would be the tsunami bouncing off of the cliff and destroying the incoming fleet. Maybe they thought that the girl is the dragon reborn and that fleet destruction is worth it?

Edited January 5, 2022 by Testeria
grammar

[SingleMort]

Is it too soon to talk about Tuon? I know it should really be years before she shows up but given that they seem to condensing so much I wonder if they will introduce her early and merge her role with other Seanchan characters? 

[Jaysen Gore]

2 hours ago, SingleMort said:

Is it too soon to talk about Tuon? I know it should really be years before she shows up but given that they seem to condensing so much I wonder if they will introduce her early and merge her role with other Seanchan characters? 

I can't see it, unless they really alter the Seanchan plotline. Ebou Dar would probably fall in seasons 5-6, so the Seanchan ships are off screen for 3+ years. Which is too much to do a cameo type set up for an actor.

[ForsakenPotato]

I do wonder if she might at least be mentioned earlier in the show than in the books. I know they don't want to spoil Mat's prophecy, but I do feel like their relationship would be more engaging if she wasn't introduced so late. It sort of makes it seem like she conveniently appears just to fulfill his prophecy, but isn't given a full character arc of her own.

[fra85uk]

11 hours ago, ForsakenPotato said:

I do wonder if she might at least be mentioned earlier in the show than in the books. I know they don't want to spoil Mat's prophecy, but I do feel like their relationship would be more engaging if she wasn't introduced so late. It sort of makes it seem like she conveniently appears just to fulfill his prophecy, but isn't given a full character arc of her own.

In TGH she is already mentioned when Turak explains to Fain why he will not use the horn.

They could just expand on that and make it clear that the heir is arriving too.

[Raal Gurniss]

On 1/3/2022 at 4:06 PM, WhiteVeils said:

I liked the thought I saw on one response that the little girl dressed in white on the beach is meant to stand as an allegory for the White Tower in the face of the invasion. 

Could just mean the showrunners don’t  like children…100% of those shown so far have been neglected, sent away, traumatised or just killed.

[SingleMort]

41 minutes ago, Raal Gurniss said:

Could just mean the showrunners don’t  like children…100% of those shown so far have been neglected, sent away, traumatised or just killed.

Anyone worried about Olver? ?

[wastingtime]

It was visually arresting, and given my non-book reading Inlaws said basically "Who are they? they don't look like they are going to be friendly..." it seems like from my limited sample size it did work to tease a new mystery.

I liked the costumes BUT with one disclaimer - they do seem a bit too much like a stock standard darkly 'savage' barbarian horde rather than an alien but in some ways quite advanced civilisation. I don't think they pulled off the insectoid/semi-futuristic armour all that well which added to this feeling for me.

The wave looked good but confused me the more I thought about it.

1) seems like a lot of work to kill a single pre teen child digging cockles up on the beach in the middle of nowhere.

2) sending a 50 foot closeout directly into a 200 foot cliffline from close range will result in an equally sudden volume of water rebounding out to sea. Obviously in fantasy settings we have to suspend our disbelief over all kinds of things, but I'm pretty sure IRL they just would have sunk a high number of their own boats... 

[Andra]

39 minutes ago, wastingtime said:

It was visually arresting, and given my non-book reading Inlaws said basically "Who are they? they don't look like they are going to be friendly..." it seems like from my limited sample size it did work to tease a new mystery.

I liked the costumes BUT with one disclaimer - they do seem a bit too much like a stock standard darkly 'savage' barbarian horde rather than an alien but in some ways quite advanced civilisation. I don't think they pulled off the insectoid/semi-futuristic armour all that well which added to this feeling for me.

The wave looked good but confused me the more I thought about it.

1) seems like a lot of work to kill a single pre teen child digging cockles up on the beach in the middle of nowhere.

2) sending a 50 foot closeout directly into a 200 foot cliffline from close range will result in an equally sudden volume of water rebounding out to sea. Obviously in fantasy settings we have to suspend our disbelief over all kinds of things, but I'm pretty sure IRL they just would have sunk a high number of their own boats... 

 

Another question regarding the costume choices and how (or if) they're going to do something from the books.

How do you put a sul'dam in a damane's dress and a'dam and expect no one to notice the face tattoos?

[AdamA]

I wouldn't have expected to see the insect helmets yet. Not confident we will at all, really, but it's usually not a great idea to wear armor on a ship.

[Jaysen Gore]

10 hours ago, Andra said:

 

Another question regarding the costume choices and how (or if) they're going to do something from the books.

How do you put a sul'dam in a damane's dress and a'dam and expect no one to notice the face tattoos?

We don't know if they are going to give all the Damane the tattoos, or it's possible these ones were taken from Shara. I dunno