WoT Season 2 Episode 3: What Might Be

[Scarloc99]

On 9/1/2023 at 9:24 AM, Pandemonium said:

This episode was a 9.5 for me.  Probably the best episode for yet in the show.  Nynaeve was definitely the star.  

 

Rand and Selene's party was fun, and I loved seeing him burn the letter. I wouldn't have minded seeing a little more debauchery at that party, kid of like a Roman party.  The Ghealdean bottle of red was a very apt metaphor for male channeling so I really liked that addition.  Seeing Rand lose control of the flames and lose himself to lust with Selene didn't feel out of character.  Rand is always going to test the limits of his power along with his conscious before he find his way back to the light.

 

Matt's scenes are still pretty meh, but that might be the only main character falling a little flat so far.  I'm kind of bummed if he never gets his scene with Gawyn and Galad.  maybe season 3

Matt’s story is pretty meh in books 1 and 2, it really doesn’t get going properly until he gets out of Tar Valon although like you I want to see him school the brothers with a quarterstaff, 

[Scarloc99]

On 9/1/2023 at 3:01 PM, king of nowhere said:

that accepted test was brutal.

and it conveied the perfect feeling of the one in the books. i'd say it surpasses its book equivalent. in the books we only see her with lan for a few lines. here we actually see them getting a life together.

it's great that she also finds her motivation to leave. while she hates the tower, deep down she knows she must use her power to protect people from the shadow.

also, trying to carry back her daughter. earlier she said that the tower wants her to abandon all the people she loves, and she won't do it. and through all the books, she becomes an aes sedai but she does not abandon the people. just like in her last weave in the aes sedai test later in the books

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she carries lan with her

so here she's bringing her baby back. yes, she's not real, but it's the point that matters.

 

also regarding revelations that those who didn't read the books will probably get in a few weeks, BIG SPOILER HERE if you didn't read the books,

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liandrin is clearly trying to get nynaeve killed as per black ajah orders. and it's an absolutely fantastic way to go about it. she almost succeeded, with absolutely zero suspicion involved

 

so sad for uno, he was a great character. good way to go, though. we could always have used more uno.

 

elayne is perfect. I was unsure at first. but when she reasoned egwene out of doing something stupid, she got me. I always loved elayne because she was more rational. in a saga full of people doing dumb stuff out of pride or mule-headedness, elayne was one of the few who could solve things by talking.

 

i'm definitely liking it a lot more than S1

 

Ok controversial I know, but in the books Uno is a one trick pony character who really doesn’t develop much at all and makes up some comic relief, here we got the full essence of who he is and he got to go out on his feet refusing to bow to a lord. My only regret is we don’t get to see any interaction between him and Elayne but I don’t think Elaynes story is going to track the same anyway. 

[Scarloc99]

On 9/1/2023 at 8:01 PM, Samt said:

Do you really dislike him that much?  

I mean I have pointed out in much the same way that RJ’s villains are generally far less fleshed out in the books than his hero’s. Liandrin is an example of this in the books she is evil because she does bad things and she does bad things because she is evil. We see very little motivation, especially with darkfriends. 

[Scarloc99]

20 hours ago, DigificWriter said:

 

All of the scenes in the Ways were shot before the COVID shutdown (thanks go to WoTTuber LezbiNerdy for figuring this out), and that fact alone is enough to cast doubt on the certainty of the prevailing point of view that Mat not entering the Ways was a 'patch' to cover for Barney not coming back, at least for me.

They may have shot those scenes, they may have shot lots of scenes during those days of shooting that they could use or tweak to remove Barney from, they might have reshot stuff and put a wig on Perrin to keep the continuity up for those reshoots. I am still not convinced by that YouTubers work because we have not had anyone from the show confirm or deny it and saying, he had dreads here but not here, proves nothing, especially when those dreads where probably a wig anyway. 

[Scarloc99]

18 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

My $0.02 on E3:

 

The Rand/Selene thing is working. She's insidious. And part of Rand recognizes that. The party was great. "Leave me again and I'll kill you" was great. 

 

Alvaro Morte is a treasure. Looks like Asmo and Logain are going to be merged, which is smart I think.

 

Ishy trying the okie-doke with Perrin is also great. 

 

Elayne is very Elayne and the relationship with Egwene feels very authentic.

 

Not sure what Liandrin is up to with Mat and Min. 

 

Nynaeve's journey through the rings was powerful storytelling. They did a great job with it and really seemed to break Nynaeve. I'm wondering where they'll go with her from here.

 

Despite all of the changes, most of the characters feel like their book counterparts. My biggest exceptions are Lan and Mat. Lan is just a completely different character - I enjoy the character and what Henney is doing as an actor, but it's definitely the biggest change. 

 

Mat has yet to come into his own. But they've inverted his personality I think. Whereas book Mat always wanted to let his friends down by running off, he never found himself able to do it. This Mat actually let his friends down and thinks that is his defining feature. Curious to see how they pay this off.

 

Great episode. Best of the series.

 

9.5/10

Lan for me underwent the biggest change in the books and I think the Lan on screen is probably closer to how RJ pictured him as he developed his character. In book 1 he is Aragorn, right down to the lost crown etc, that is his role and that is why RJ had him, Aragorn to Moraines Gandalf. Book 2 and 3 RJ tried to move him away from that characterisation but for me it isn’t until the bond is broken that we get to see the proper Lan, not because of in world stuff but more because I think RJ finally realised who the character was. I really feel the Lan arc in the books is largely RJ wanting to write a different character and needing the character to have a reason to be different. 

[Scarloc99]

10 hours ago, PhilMegrim said:

Welcome to our version of the Red Wedding.  I guarantee now that no character is safe. RIP uno

I mean Uno was a fan favorite but was also a very minor character who has very little of any bearing on the story other than a bit of comic relief in the books. He is a handy character that RJ and BS can pull out if they need a soldier to appear in a scene to at the reader knows. He doesn’t really have much of any kind of an arc (unless you count him becoming a bloody commander at the last bloody battle). He has had his moment in the show and I am pleased that he got to go out refusing to bend the knee to any foreign bloody noble. 

[Scarloc99]

Something no one seems to have picked up on, from what I can tell, our first American accent, is Seanchan. So I guess the invading horde from across the sea will be the Yanks then :). (I am a Brit lol) 

[Sabio]

1 hour ago, Scarloc99 said:

I mean I have pointed out in much the same way that RJ’s villains are generally far less fleshed out in the books than his hero’s. Liandrin is an example of this in the books she is evil because she does bad things and she does bad things because she is evil. We see very little motivation, especially with darkfriends. 

The series would of ran another three books had RJ tried to flesh out and give reasons/histories to most of the bad people.  The companion has histories/motives for many of the bad people, but you simply can't devote a lot of time in a series to why many of the bad people are doing things.  It also comes down to why spend a lot of time explaining why lesser characters are doing what they're doing?

[Scarloc99]

1 minute ago, Sabio said:

The series would of ran another three books had RJ tried to flesh out and give reasons/histories to most of the bad people.  The companion has histories/motives for many of the bad people, but you simply can't devote a lot of time in a series to why many of the bad people are doing things.  It also comes down to why spend a lot of time explaining why lesser characters are doing what they're doing?

I mean if he had removed all of the “last time in WOT” call back and reminders then he could have used that space for more backstory, I also would have had no issue with 3 more books, one of the issue with Brandon’s books (and for me there are many many issues), is just how much he rushed through storylines to just get to the end. 
 

But on a serious note you can give more of a hint of motivation in just a couple of lines, I genuinely think that RJ just chose not to bother because for him it was good enough that darkfriends are evil and they do evil things I don’t think he would ever have written out fully fleshed bad guys because that wasn’t his style of writing. The closest we get probably is Elaida, but we never really see truly why she is the way she is, and it is hinted at that she is actually “evil” because Fain made her that way (evil man doing an evil thing because he is evil”). 

[Jaysen Gore]

okay. there's some big issues to discuss in this episode. I was ready to praise this as the best episode to date for about 45 minutes, and then, well...

 

As much as I like Uno as a character in the books, I think what they did to him here served too many purposes to pass up, from a story telling perspective. It took out a beloved character - meaning book fans have to now question everything involving secondary characters. It sets the Seanchan up as a serious freaking threat from day 1, and it helps sever Masema from one of his touchstones, which could be important later. BUT...I have a real issue with Ishamael being on the palaquin with Suroth.  In the books, we go a long, long time before knowing that there are DF's in Seanchan. Here - 8 o'clock, day 1. They aren't just villains, or even evil. They are DARK. 

 

On Nynaeve's Accepted testing, (sorry to my international friends) the showrunners treated it like a Dallas Cowboys drive - great execution, perfect movement into the red zone, and then they threw a pick 6 when driving into opposing team's end zone.  HOW DID THE ARCH COME BACK?! something that hasn't happened in 3,000 years of recorded history just happens to happen for our hero. There's no Nynaeve channels it back (in the book) and no Egwene of Nazareth brings her back from the dead (the TV show). Just bang - they way back will come but twice. Because, reasons.

 

Rand and Logain was good; Rand and Selene were better. Verin and Moiraine felt a little rushed this early, but I get it - time's a wasting. 

 

a good episode, but not a great one. 

[DaddyFinn]

38 minutes ago, Jaysen Gore said:

On Nynaeve's Accepted testing, (sorry to my international friends) the showrunners treated it like a Dallas Cowboys drive - great execution, perfect movement into the red zone, and then they threw a pick 6 when driving into opposing team's end zone.  HOW DID THE ARCH COME BACK?! something that hasn't happened in 3,000 years of recorded history just happens to happen for our hero. There's no Nynaeve channels it back (in the book) and no Egwene of Nazareth brings her back from the dead (the TV show). Just bang - they way back will come but twice. Because, reasons.

https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/The_Great_Hunt/Chapter_23

 

Nynaeve steels herself and runs through the third arch.

 

Nynaeve finds herself in a beautiful meadow in a restored Malkier. Lan is there, and they kiss, but she doesn't want it. Lan tells her she is the queen of the Malkieri, and they have children. Nynaeve desperately wants to get out of the "dream," but begins to get caught up as if it was real. She misses the arch, but then she remembers everything - Egwene alone in the Tower, Rand likely to go mad, Matt and Perrin in trouble, and all of it is Moiraine's fault. She imagines blackthorns piercing her flesh which allows her to embrace saidar. Despite Sheriam's warning, she channels to force the arch to reappear and flees from Lan begging her to stay.

 

 

 

Okay.

Edited September 3, 2023 by DaddyFinn

[bringbackthomsmoustache]

5 hours ago, Scarloc99 said:

The closest we get probably is Elaida, but we never really see truly why she is the way she is, and it is hinted at that she is actually “evil” because Fain made her that way (evil man doing an evil thing because he is evil”). 

She was already harsh, arbitrary, willing to bend or break laws, smugly certain of her own reasoning (particularly of her for-telling) and ambitious.  Fain just added making her paranoid.  

[Jaysen Gore]

9 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/The_Great_Hunt/Chapter_23

 

Nynaeve steels herself and runs through the third arch.

 

Nynaeve finds herself in a beautiful meadow in a restored Malkier. Lan is there, and they kiss, but she doesn't want it. Lan tells her she is the queen of the Malkieri, and they have children. Nynaeve desperately wants to get out of the "dream," but begins to get caught up as if it was real. She misses the arch, but then she remembers everything - Egwene alone in the Tower, Rand likely to go mad, Matt and Perrin in trouble, and all of it is Moiraine's fault. She imagines blackthorns piercing her flesh which allows her to embrace saidar. Despite Sheriam's warning, she channels to force the arch to reappear and flees from Lan begging her to stay.

 

 

 

Okay.

I reference this scene from the book in my post. This did not happen in the episode. Nyn's daughter saw the arch before she did, so Nyn didn't channel it. Egwene and Elyane tried to restart it, and it didn't work. so how did the arch get reopened in the TV show?

[Agitel]

8 minutes ago, Jaysen Gore said:

I reference this scene from the book in my post. This did not happen in the episode. Nyn's daughter saw the arch before she did, so Nyn didn't channel it. Egwene and Elyane tried to restart it, and it didn't work. so how did the arch get reopened in the TV show?

 

My interpretation is that Nynaeve's channeling and burst of power within the arch reactivated it, even if it took a few moments to wind up.

[SinisterDeath]

2 minutes ago, Agitel said:

 

My interpretation is that Nynaeve's channeling and burst of power within the arch reactivated it, even if it took a few moments to wind up.

That's how I saw that scene to.

[Elder_Haman]

10 minutes ago, Jaysen Gore said:

I reference this scene from the book in my post. This did not happen in the episode. Nyn's daughter saw the arch before she did, so Nyn didn't channel it. Egwene and Elyane tried to restart it, and it didn't work. so how did the arch get reopened in the TV show?

But Nyn doesn’t have a daughter. The entire reality is an extension of her own subconscious mind. So she perceived the arches somehow and then channeled to bring the exit back into existence, just like in the books. 

[Pandemonium]

19 minutes ago, Jaysen Gore said:

I reference this scene from the book in my post. This did not happen in the episode. Nyn's daughter saw the arch before she did, so Nyn didn't channel it. Egwene and Elyane tried to restart it, and it didn't work. so how did the arch get reopened in the TV show?

We may get a quick line about it from Aes Sedai in the next episode.  Surely they will be surprised to see Nynaeve alive.  I don't think we will get much explanation though, maybe just something to the extent of the pattern having its own plans.  

[Jaysen Gore]

45 minutes ago, Agitel said:

 

My interpretation is that Nynaeve's channeling and burst of power within the arch reactivated it, even if it took a few moments to wind up.

Okay, this is at least a semi-plausible out... we'll see if there's any discussion of it at all

[Samt]

In regards to Nynaeve's accepted test, I think there is quite a bit to unpack.  

 

1.  I'd agree that we don't get a good explanation as to why the arch comes back.  And it's clear in the books that the accepted test is not strictly speaking a construction of the imagination of the testee.  It is more an alternate reality that the pattern (or some other similar power) is constructing in order to entice and test.  This is evidenced by the fact that Sharina Melloy appears in Nynaeve's accepted test in the books even though Nynaeve has not met her yet.  I hope we get a better explanation, because as it stands it feels like a cheap fake out death to build tension in the episode without really building the story.  

 

2.  Is the implication of the third arch test that Nynaeve experienced years of an alternate reality?  Her child appears to be 5 or more and we know that she didn't just get dropped at that point.  She started by leaving the tower.  Alternate realities may have time pass much faster or slower compared to each other, but they always seem to be passing at normal speed to those in them.  Therefore, it seems that we are to understand that she lived an entire 5 years in that reality, day by day, and remembers and experienced all of it.  That's a bit wild.

 

3.  What is the show trying to imply is the nature and point of the tests?  In the books, the point is that the testee is presented with a compelling reason why she should stay in the alternate reality and do something.  This is seen in all three of the tests and also explicitly explained by Sheriam.  But this doesn't really seem to be the case in the show.  In the first test, her parents are already dead (or at least beyond her help) and Nynaeve is stuck with no way out from the cellar until the portal appears.  Unless the show is suggesting that little girl Nynaeve wanted to stay and fight a hopeless battle armed with nothing by a cleaver, the portal seems to be just offering her a way out of an otherwise intractable situation. It isn't presented as an alternative to staying and doing something that might also be important.  Similarly, in the third test, the portal appears after Lan, Matt, and Perrin are already clearly dead. An overwhelming force is approaching.  And the test even allows her to take her daughter to the portal.  Once again, the portal isn't some type of test presenting two compelling options.  It's just literally the only way out.  Asking her to abandon her portal family and friends to an uncertain fate because she has a path she must follow at the tower would have been an interesting choice.  But gruesomely killing them means she isn't asked to make any real choice.  I was predicting that she would be forced to leave her daughter in order to make it to the portal which would have been a horrifying scene that would have made you think (especially considering that the portal family might actually be real in another dimension/reality).  But the actual ending in the show feels pretty flat and pointless.  

[Scarloc99]

5 hours ago, Jaysen Gore said:

Okay, this is at least a semi-plausible out... we'll see if there's any discussion of it at all

I mean I don’t really care, sometimes it is good to leave stuff unexplained, especially when it comes to “magic” and “magic items” the Aes Sedai don’t have any clue what the arches are, how they work or what they are really for so it makes sense that they will have absolutely no clue what happened and by extension, because WOT is a POV story neither then should the reader/viewer have any idea. 

[Scarloc99]

2 hours ago, Samt said:

In regards to Nynaeve's accepted test, I think there is quite a bit to unpack.  

 

1.  I'd agree that we don't get a good explanation as to why the arch comes back.  And it's clear in the books that the accepted test is not strictly speaking a construction of the imagination of the testee.  It is more an alternate reality that the pattern (or some other similar power) is constructing in order to entice and test.  This is evidenced by the fact that Sharina Melloy appears in Nynaeve's accepted test in the books even though Nynaeve has not met her yet.  I hope we get a better explanation, because as it stands it feels like a cheap fake out death to build tension in the episode without really building the story.  

 

2.  Is the implication of the third arch test that Nynaeve experienced years of an alternate reality?  Her child appears to be 5 or more and we know that she didn't just get dropped at that point.  She started by leaving the tower.  Alternate realities may have time pass much faster or slower compared to each other, but they always seem to be passing at normal speed to those in them.  Therefore, it seems that we are to understand that she lived an entire 5 years in that reality, day by day, and remembers and experienced all of it.  That's a bit wild.

 

3.  What is the show trying to imply is the nature and point of the tests?  In the books, the point is that the testee is presented with a compelling reason why she should stay in the alternate reality and do something.  This is seen in all three of the tests and also explicitly explained by Sheriam.  But this doesn't really seem to be the case in the show.  In the first test, her parents are already dead (or at least beyond her help) and Nynaeve is stuck with no way out from the cellar until the portal appears.  Unless the show is suggesting that little girl Nynaeve wanted to stay and fight a hopeless battle armed with nothing by a cleaver, the portal seems to be just offering her a way out of an otherwise intractable situation. It isn't presented as an alternative to staying and doing something that might also be important.  Similarly, in the third test, the portal appears after Lan, Matt, and Perrin are already clearly dead. An overwhelming force is approaching.  And the test even allows her to take her daughter to the portal.  Once again, the portal isn't some type of test presenting two compelling options.  It's just literally the only way out.  Asking her to abandon her portal family and friends to an uncertain fate because she has a path she must follow at the tower would have been an interesting choice.  But gruesomely killing them means she isn't asked to make any real choice.  I was predicting that she would be forced to leave her daughter in order to make it to the portal which would have been a horrifying scene that would have made you think (especially considering that the portal family might actually be real in another dimension/reality).  But the actual ending in the show feels pretty flat and pointless.  

I think we sometimes miss the point behind these wonderful magical artifacts which is that we don’t know the point of them, or how they have behaved for anyone else mainly because Novices are almost prompted not to tell anyone anything about it. 
 

We look at it through the eyes of the Aes Sedai who see these works of wonder and try and determine what amazing purpose did they have when, the truth is, in the age of legends the one power and items using it where so prevalent that 99.9% of one power items where created Simply to make life a little easier, automatic toothbrushes, shavers, mobile phones, watches, tv’s anything you think of right now that uses electricity in the age of legends it existed but was powered instead by the one power. 
 

So when we look at the arches the instinct is to think there is some deeper meaning to them, when, it is far more likely that these were trinkets used to amuse and titillate. Think of it a bit like in the minority report he goes to an underground VR place where people pay to live out there darkest fantasies, I think it is far more likely that, in the age of legends, people paid money to go into the arches and live out some fantasy of life, the Aes Sedai think it shows you your fears, who knows there might be alternate weaves that let it show you your desires, pleasures or anything else. Maybe even programme it to give whatever experience the person entering it wants. 
 

To understand the deeper meaning behind how the arches work means we have to understand what there original purpose was and that “peak behind the curtain might actually disappoint more then it will excite as you come to realise, wait a minute there where arches in every city and people used them for the most mundane of reasons. 

[Samt]

15 minutes ago, Scarloc99 said:

I think we sometimes miss the point behind these wonderful magical artifacts which is that we don’t know the point of them, or how they have behaved for anyone else mainly because Novices are almost prompted not to tell anyone anything about it. 
 

We look at it through the eyes of the Aes Sedai who see these works of wonder and try and determine what amazing purpose did they have when, the truth is, in the age of legends the one power and items using it where so prevalent that 99.9% of one power items where created Simply to make life a little easier, automatic toothbrushes, shavers, mobile phones, watches, tv’s anything you think of right now that uses electricity in the age of legends it existed but was powered instead by the one power. 
 

So when we look at the arches the instinct is to think there is some deeper meaning to them, when, it is far more likely that these were trinkets used to amuse and titillate. Think of it a bit like in the minority report he goes to an underground VR place where people pay to live out there darkest fantasies, I think it is far more likely that, in the age of legends, people paid money to go into the arches and live out some fantasy of life, the Aes Sedai think it shows you your fears, who knows there might be alternate weaves that let it show you your desires, pleasures or anything else. Maybe even programme it to give whatever experience the person entering it wants. 
 

To understand the deeper meaning behind how the arches work means we have to understand what there original purpose was and that “peak behind the curtain might actually disappoint more then it will excite as you come to realise, wait a minute there where arches in every city and people used them for the most mundane of reasons. 

While it's true that the Aes Sedai don't understand the origin or intended purpose of the arches, it's a stretch that they don't know anything about what they do or have no idea what the test consists of.  For one, all of them have been through them and can at least intuit something about them based on the images that they saw.  To believe that the Aes Sedai send novices in simply due to a blind adherence to tradition would be to suggest that the Aes Sedai are practically crazy, even for the generally rigid and traditional white tower. Why would they force their own initiates to risk death in order to put them through some test that (for all the Aes Sedai know) might not test anything useful at all and might consist of the age of legends equivalent of a haunted house or computer game?

 

In the books, it is made fairly clear that the arches present scenarios in which the initiate might be tempted to stay due to some sense of duty, desire to fulfill a task, achieve some desired goal, take care of loved ones, or otherwise find a good reason to participate in this alternate reality.  This is explicitly stated by Sheriam during Nynaeve's test as well as this being consistent with all of the accepted test scenarios that we see in the books (both for Nynaeve and Egwene).  Every time the initiate enters the way back, she is forced to leave behind something that seems to require her attention or is attractive to her as an alternative.  

 

In the show, we don't really get that.  It just feels like an episode of Lost that tries to be interesting by being nonsensically weird.  The viewer assumes there is some deeper meaning and the creators are just hoping that you forget that they never explained that deeper meaning because there wasn't one.  

[Agitel]

I had a similar thought on what Scarloc99 wrote about the arches. It's entirely possible that they can be activated in different ways to do different things depending on how they're touched with the One Power, but the Aes Sedai only have one weave that's been handed down, which creates this type of scenario which they use for tests. One thing the scene in the show does emphasize, which is true to the books even if the scene isn't, is that the Aes Sedai don't know as much as they think they do, they're very conservative with experimentation, and there's a lot of hubris about what can and cannot be done.

 

On an entirely separate note, I've seen a lot of disappointment that we didn't get the Lan and Rand training and bonding. I figured we wouldn't see that given how last season ended with Rand going his own way. I will say, however, that it is possible we do see that fan favorite dynamic at some point. I can't really know how they'll end S2, but I think it is realistically possible they all end up together again at the end of this season, at least Moiraine, Lan, and Rand... and there's still a chance we could see something similar at the beginning of next season, particularly if Moiraine and Lan accompany Rand during his arc next season. Which is possible if they'll be working on Book 4 arcs.

[Samt]

5 minutes ago, Agitel said:

I had a similar thought on what Scarloc99 wrote about the arches. It's entirely possible that they can be activated in different ways to do different things depending on how they're touched with the One Power, but the Aes Sedai only have one weave that's been handed down, which creates this type of scenario which they use for tests. One thing the scene in the show does emphasize, which is true to the books even if the scene isn't, is that the Aes Sedai don't know as much as they think they do, they're very conservative with experimentation, and there's a lot of hubris about what can and cannot be done.

 

On an entirely separate note, I've seen a lot of disappointment that we didn't get the Lan and Rand training and bonding. I figured we wouldn't see that given how last season ended with Rand going his own way. I will say, however, that it is possible we do see that fan favorite dynamic at some point. I can't really know how they'll end S2, but I think it is realistically possible they all end up together again at the end of this season, at least Moiraine, Lan, and Rand... and there's still a chance we could see something similar at the beginning of next season, particularly if Moiraine and Lan accompany Rand during his arc next season. Which is possible if they'll be working on Book 4 arcs.

Of course we don’t know, but it seems that season 2 is leading to a fight in the sky at Falme. At that point, Rand is supposed to already know how to sheath the sword. 

[Graeme_UK]

A couple of questions I had coming out of this,

 

Do people have thoughts as to where Liandrin has told Min to take Matt? I can't really think of any obvious places that fit everyone's objectives, side note if Liandrin knows what Min can do and is also Black Ajah, then why would she let Min anywhere near her, surely a huge unneccessary risk.

 

Do you think it likely we aren't going to get Gawyn and Galad, as surely the arrival of Ellayne to Tar Valon would have been the natural introduction point? Admittedly if I was streamlining the story getting rid of Galad doesn't really present any issues, but I'd still like to see Gawyn, obviously plenty of time left.

 

Also I still can't fathom why they stilled/shielded Moraine, what does it add now? and surely this just presents more problems in the future.