WoT season 2 episode 8 - High/Lows that made you gasp or scream!

[Claudia Romay]

Such a GOOD episode!
 

HIGHS that made me gasp, squeal and scream a little bit! (As I hadn’t yet on this series…) 

- Mat got his ashanderei!!! So cool they kept this in! (even if the eelfin/aelfinn storyline didn’t make it). This is finally our Mat!! 
- Uno!! With the heroes of the horn! Hell yeah!! Sooooo deserved….! 

- Egwene kicked ass saving herself. Such a good way of resolving this!
- Hopper!! Oh, Hopper!!! I actually cried!!  😭 so.well.done! (except for Valda leaving without attacking Perrin)

- Bornhald’s scene with Perrin killing his father… SO powerful! 

Definitely some amazing ways to make 1000+ pages fit into 8 hours…

 

And if you’re interested in LOWS…

- Ingtar’s storyline could have been stronger (many probably missed it) 

- Falme without Min laying next to Rand feels… sad 

- The Seanchan not reacting to Moiraine channeling so strongly (they were shielding Rand but could have reacted a bit)

- Elayne and Nynaeve just sitting there with the arrow for sooooo long in the open plaza… 🤔 

 

WHAT MADE **YOU** GASP??

[Mirefox]

The episode was horrible trash.  I guess a high on that it is better trash than the last finale.

 

I’ll give credit where credit is due, though - Hopper’s death was rough and watching his spirit leave and try to fly was moving.

 

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, though trying to point to any specific detail is troublesome.

 

Egwene, how she got out of the a'dam was a bit dumb, but her determination is great, the actress really sells it well. The "chest bump" as some other forum user terms it is awesome, and I am not referring to her mammary glands. Love show Egwene much more than book Egwene, so far.

 

Perrin's Whitecloak killing, well now that is a can of worms ethically, much more interesting possibilities, as long as they don't take the same kind of route as they did with the a'dam.

 

Loial suddenly appearing with the Horn and saying a lady from Cairhien helped us, oh great deus ex machina, then we have Bayle Domon saying Lady Selene from Cairhien, what are you doing here? D'oh, suddenly that seems a justifiable plot point. Nicely done for someone of my intellect anyway. 

 

Lots of points I did not like, but somehow they did not detract from the enjoyment of the episode. Except Ingtar, that seemed already set-up, just needed one or two lines of dialogue, even if it was only "I'll hold them off!" "The last embrace of the mother welcome you home." The rest could be implied, but the line is totally necessary.

 

And Uno, you weak minded fools, so easily manipulated. Poor Uno, uproar at his death, now everything is ok. Uno was a character that was explained in one line from Ingtar, don't be put off by his rough mannerisms, under that he is a great soldier. That is his character arc. Aside from that, he could be called "Generic Henchman No.2" and it would make no difference. Apart from him using made up swear words? And Nynaeve not liking it? Grow the eff up. If that makes a character for you, I hope all your favourite characters are introduced to a spike.

 

But aside from that, really liked it 😁

[Elder_Haman]

CHEERS:

Rand's Indiana Jones moment.

Mat blowing the horn.

Egwene's final moments with Renna.

The Dragon bannered in flame in the skies of Falme.

Moghedien!!!

Mat's crafty crafting.

Loial's speech

 

JEERS:

Nyn pushing the fletching through Elayne's leg.

Mo playing Battleship

Seanchan battle training. 

[LightHelpMe]

Highs:

Mat telling Fain he wasn't gonna touch the dagger, and he didn't. Loved his ingenuity in making it a weapon he could use without touching it. Such a Mat thinking to do! 

Mat and Perrin reunion. Very convenient to just run into each other on the street, but, still nice. And telling Perrin Rand's alive but has shit hair. 😆

Moiraine telling Lan he was always her better, and then rebonding him or whatever she did.

And of course when Mat blows the Horn and yells his trademark battle cry.

Rand Indiana Jonesing Turak and his guards.

 

Lows:

Nyaneave and Elayne develop this great plan to rescue Egwene but don't get to execute it.

Egwene should not have been able to collar Renna because she had every intent on using it to hurt Renna. 

It seemed like Moiraine broke the Oaths, but a simple change in her wording could have made it clear why she didn't believe she was.

Egwene shouldn't have been able to hold up against Ishamael for as long as she did, it at all. Having Elayne link with her would have been more believable, and would have better demonstrated Ishamael's strength.

Magic Captain America shield *face palm*

Rand's 'battle with Ishamael was so anti-climactic.

RIP Hopper I knew it had to happen, but it didn't stop me from yelling NO!

 

[grayavatar]

So far most of the highs listed here are like a dog in a kitchen glad that it's master left it some scraps to eat.

 

Speaking of dogs anything with Hopper was the best thing in season 2

[Elder_Haman]

Just now, grayavatar said:

So far most of the highs listed here are like a dog in a kitchen glad that it's master left it some scraps to eat.

 

Speaking of dogs anything with Hopper was the best thing in season 2

Can you please stop insulting people who enjoy the show? Thanks!

[grayavatar]

Not trying to insult people. Just pointing out that the highs are not what you would expect from such an expensive production. The highs are what little scraps of good bits are left over after butchering and rearranging the story in to an aberration .

[Elder_Haman]

3 minutes ago, grayavatar said:

Not trying to insult people. Just pointing out that the highs are not what you would expect from such an expensive production. The highs are what little scraps of good bits are left over after butchering and rearranging the story in to an aberration .

I understand your point of view. But it feels you’re comparing people who liked the show to dogs. It’s just dehumanizing rhetoric that can be toned down without lessening the impact of your analysis. 

[Scarloc99]

On 10/6/2023 at 6:28 PM, Elder_Haman said:

CHEERS:

Rand's Indiana Jones moment.

Mat blowing the horn.

Egwene's final moments with Renna.

The Dragon bannered in flame in the skies of Falme.

Moghedien!!!

Mat's crafty crafting.

Loial's speech

 

JEERS:

Nyn pushing the fletching through Elayne's leg.

Mo playing Battleship

Seanchan battle training. 

Intrigued why the fletching bothered you, I didn't think it looked particularly realistic, but my wife is an ex nurse and was agreeing that pushing it through rather then pulling was the best option, she did think that Elayne then was able to move a little to well afterwards though. 

[Elder_Haman]

23 minutes ago, Scarloc99 said:

Intrigued why the fletching bothered you, I didn't think it looked particularly realistic, but my wife is an ex nurse and was agreeing that pushing it through rather then pulling was the best option, she did think that Elayne then was able to move a little to well afterwards though. 

Wouldn’t you want to break the fletching off?! 

[Mirefox]

17 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Wouldn’t you want to break the fletching off?! 

This!

 

Yes, you push the arrow through, but after breaking off the fletching.

[Scarloc99]

8 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

Wouldn’t you want to break the fletching off?! 

Yeah, actually you push through enough so the pointy but is through. Then break off the sticky out bit and then push the rest through, although are they wooden or metal bolts? Can’t remember 

[Mirefox]

4 hours ago, Scarloc99 said:

Yeah, actually you push through enough so the pointy but is through. Then break off the sticky out bit and then push the rest through, although are they wooden or metal bolts? Can’t remember 

They looked wooden to me.  I remember watching the scene and expecting the break off so I was paying attention to the bolts.

[Skipp]

I am not as familiar with crossbow bolts or first aid in general.  Wouldn't breaking off the end make it difficult to push through?  As you may have a splintered end?  Wouldn't the splinters be bad for the wound? Is the bolt long enough to be able to break off the fletchings and be able to pull from the other side?

[Guire]

2 hours ago, Skipp said:

I am not as familiar with crossbow bolts or first aid in general.  Wouldn't breaking off the end make it difficult to push through?  As you may have a splintered end?  Wouldn't the splinters be bad for the wound? Is the bolt long enough to be able to break off the fletchings and be able to pull from the other side?

Those fletchings and extra shaft are going to do more damage and potentially introduce more infection.  There is more here to hash out. Type of head, location of wound and what anatomy is beyond bolt. If it is wooden bolt and in muscle with clear path out, push shaft til head pops out, break or cut fletching end of shaft as short as posiible , then pull bolt through.  Now reason why show may have done what they did.  Crossbow bolts are shortrr and thicker than arrow shafts.  If nyn didnt have saw available and couldn't cleanly break bolt without causing more damage then shove it through like show did.  In show healing seems to be almost universal among channelers so quick and dirty becomes valid option if there may be channeler to clean up after.

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

No idea from a medical point of view, but fantasy books in general have taught me that you first make sure the head is all way through (assuming any kind of barb, otherwise you could just pull it out), then you break off the head, and pull it out. You would only push it through if there was some reason you could not remove the barbed head. I'd imagine the chance of infection from the organic material from dirty goose-feather fletching would be high. 

 

So have a bunch of authors who probably know little about battle-field medicine taught me, and I am standing by it. 

[SinisterDeath]

On 10/14/2023 at 7:22 PM, Elder_Haman said:

Wouldn’t you want to break the fletching off?! 

Sorta. The shaft size, and how far it's protruding might be physically difficult to actually "break off", specially with a patient who's in pain, squirming, and screaming in your ear every time you touch it.

 

Tell you what. Go buy a 1" x 3' long dowel ^{(cause that looks to be what they used in the show)} and stick it in a vice with 4 inches sticking out the top, and try to break off that top 4 inches with only one hand.

Want to bet it's not as easy as it sounds? 

 

I'd rather pull out a knife and try to cut those fletching's off as cleanly as possible.
 

On 10/15/2023 at 12:18 PM, Skipp said:

I am not as familiar with crossbow bolts or first aid in general.  Wouldn't breaking off the end make it difficult to push through?  As you may have a splintered end?  Wouldn't the splinters be bad for the wound? Is the bolt long enough to be able to break off the fletchings and be able to pull from the other side?

See above. Breaking the bolt could indeed cause the the wood to splinter. You can never guarantee how the wood will break. It could break nicely where pulling through won't be an issue. Or it could break badly and you'll want to take a knife and cut whittle the end down to not cause more problems.

 

On 10/15/2023 at 3:45 AM, Scarloc99 said:

Yeah, actually you push through enough so the pointy but is through. Then break off the sticky out bit and then push the rest through, although are they wooden or metal bolts? Can’t remember 

See above. The "Bolts" were wooden. I checked a few weeks ago to confirm this line of thought, which is when I found out that they used what had to have been wooden dowels for their crossbow bolts. I'm about 99% sure that's what they used for their "props", and I'm also about 99% sure those aren't anywhere near "historically accurate" when it comes to the type of wood used in "bolts". The wood grains all wrong, and how they cut the wood is just wrong.

 

As for "Metal Bolts" e.g. the shaft being metal, I don't know if that's actually a thing historically, or just a video game thing. I know Crossbow Bolts can have Wooden Tips, Iron Tips, Steel Tips. I just don't know if they actually had full metal cross bow bolt shafts historically. My googlefu has failed me on this task.

 

 

 

[Elder_Haman]

55 minutes ago, SinisterDeath said:

specially with a patient who's in pain, squirming, and screaming in your ear every time you touch it.

Elayne seemed pretty calm and composed throughout. 

[SinisterDeath]

7 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Elayne seemed pretty calm and composed throughout. 

Watch Elayne every time Nynaeve touched the bolt, and when she actually pushed it through.

 

Had she actually tried to break it, it would have been similar to pushing it through.

 

There's a reason Nynaeve wasn't touching the bolt most of the time she was near Elayne...