Season 3 Trailer - Thoughts

[Elder_Haman]

 

Here we go!! Please keep the discussion civil.

[Kaleb]

"Bend the knee..."

[Elder_Haman]

  On 2/12/2025 at 4:31 PM, Kaleb said:

"Bend the knee..."

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What about it? 

[Kaleb]

It was just one of many phrases and scenes in the trailer that foreshadow book moments I'm excited for. That one - "If the White Tower does not bend the knee to Rand al'Thor..." is clearly part of the buildup to Dumai's Wells: "Kneel and swear to the Lord Dragon," he said softly, "or you will be knelt." Maybe next season?

[fearbrog]

  On 2/12/2025 at 5:34 PM, Kaleb said:

is clearly part of the buildup to Dumai's Wells

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Or maybe it's not foreshadowing, but once again taking cool scenes and lines from some characters and giving to another, who doesn't really need even more runtime and storylines

[Kaleb]

  On 2/12/2025 at 6:13 PM, fearbrog said:

Or maybe it's not foreshadowing, but once again taking cool scenes and lines from some characters and giving to another, who doesn't really need even more runtime and storylines

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Yeah, maybe this delicious pizza is actually a handful of sand and it's all a simulation, man.

[DaddyFinn]

S3 looks amazing visually

[fearbrog]

  On 2/12/2025 at 6:40 PM, Kaleb said:

Yeah, maybe this delicious pizza is actually a handful of sand and it's all a simulation, man.

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Yeah because show never took scenes from one character gave to another to make latter cooler or stronger or more important. Wait...

[Elder_Haman]

  On 2/12/2025 at 6:13 PM, fearbrog said:

Or maybe it's not foreshadowing, but once again taking cool scenes and lines from some characters and giving to another, who doesn't really need even more runtime and storylines

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How is this doing that? Is "the Tower must bend the knee to the Dragon" some kind of iconic line that is being taken from one character and given to another? I mean, I understand and agree with many of the criticisms of the show's writing, but this is not a good example to choose.

[fearbrog]

  On 2/12/2025 at 6:50 PM, Elder_Haman said:

How is this doing that? Is "the Tower must bend the knee to the Dragon" some kind of iconic line that is being taken from one character and given to another? I mean, I understand and agree with many of the criticisms of the show's writing, but this is not a good example to choose.

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It's just giving Moiraine more screentime and even more new storylines and she doesn't need anymore. And it's literally mirroring Wells one, like remember Taim's iconic ultimatum, well Moiraine was first to threaten Aes Sedai about submission. And it's not like show 100% would even have Wells

[Kaleb]

  On 2/12/2025 at 6:50 PM, fearbrog said:

Yeah because show never took scenes from one character gave to another to make latter cooler or stronger or more important. Wait...

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The dedication to assuming ill intent is just exhausting. Maybe the show will actually follow through on everything they've been saying for literal years about season 3 being where they are able to align with book 4 and give us a more direct adaptation? You don't have to believe them, but it's just annoying to inject the little black raincloud at every turn. The bees are not fooled.

[Elder_Haman]

  On 2/12/2025 at 7:04 PM, fearbrog said:

It's just giving Moiraine more screentime and even more new storylines and she doesn't need anymore. And it's literally mirroring Wells one, like remember Taim's iconic ultimatum, well Moiraine was first to threaten Aes Sedai about submission. And it's not like show 100% would even have Wells

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So Moiraine should have no more screentime? And it doesn't at all mirror the line at Dumai's Wells. It is prophetic in delivery, not a command. We have no idea what the context is. 

[DigificWriter]

  On 2/12/2025 at 7:10 PM, Elder_Haman said:

So Moiraine should have no more screentime?

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Even though it was made clear that such was going to be the case long before the show even premiered, it's clear that some people are still super salty that Rand isn't the Series Lead.

[DreadLord31]

I'm back. What do I think about the trailer? Very hopeful that S3 is going to really turn things around! Most of it looked really, really good. Couple shots made me super nervous though that it'll more of the same and I found S1 to be bad, and S2 to be improving, but not great. But I'm super excited for S3 and think ... no more excuses Rafe and Amazon - this season has to be a home run!

 

Here's what concerned me:

#1) I'm 95% sure, from what I've seen elsewhere and heard and saw in the trailer, that in Ep1 we're going to have ... 

  Reveal hidden contents

Liandrin and the Black Ajah rooted out and a 1-power battle in the White Tower and in Tar Valon

and in that battle some (some not all) of the special effects were concerning - it looked cheesy - seconds 10-18 in the trailer - where Liandrin is floating in a bubble? I mean - we've had some baaaad special effects moments in S1 and 2. The Trollocs at the end of S1. Moiraine's ... dragon at the end of S2. 

 

#2) It seems like they're trying to cover A LOT of ground, which makes sense, but also worries me that we won't have character development. From the scenes in the trailer, it looks like we're definitely getting ... 

 

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Black Ajah hunt, Bubbles of Evil, World of Dreams, Rand becoming Car'a'carn, Battle for the Two Rivers, Intro to Andoran Royalty, development of Rand and Egwene/Elayne/Aviendha/Lanfear romantic tensions, Forsaken tensions, Moiraine choosing to sacrifice herself to save Rand

 

as a book fan, that we're getting all that excites me ... as one who thinks they need to give more screen time already and have longer episodes, all that worries me too! 

 

BUT. Most of the trailer is SUPER exciting and I'll rank it in terms of what makes me most hopeful!

#1] "You do not belong here." And then a head melting away. Confirmation of World of Dreams, and it looks good. This can be a big win for the show if they do it right. 

#2] "Archers! Loose!" Battle of Two Rivers scenes looked really good. 

#3] "What did you see in the rings?" If they do what I think they're going to do with Moiraine and Lanfear at the end of this season (book readers know what I'm talking about) ... I think there is hope for a S7! If not ... then not. 

#4] "Make them believe you, and they will follow you to the ends of the earth." Rand and the Aiel, lean into that baby. 

#5] Costume department is still killing it. They are the heroes of this show thus far. Every costume (except maybe Loial - we'll give you a pass there) is superb.

#6] "They won't just come for Rand. They'll come for all of us." And Moghedien touching Nynaeve's face and laughing. #teamForsaken

#7] "Do you love her?" I think they can do some interesting things with the Elayne/Egwene/Aviendha ... well, whatever you want to call that ... dynamic. 

#8] Time stamp 1:39 and 1:40 - Lion Throne with Pregnant Morgase? Bringing Camelyn into things. Good.

#9] Time stamp 1:59 - Nynaeve gets through her block and shreds! 

#10] Time stamp 2:07 - Faile & Perrin. Let's move past and forget about all the Laila stuff. 

[A Memory Of Why]

That was fun, I'm going to be hopeful and say I'm excited 😇

 

Glass columns looking fantastic, same for the 3 rings. They're really leaning into Moraines death, bit of a shame as I liked how shocking it is in the books, though they're probably moving away from it being to Gandalfy.

 

Galad looking like he needs a good humbling 😉

 

Lanfear in white.. Could that be Meiren opening the bore?

 

Suian lifting Liandrin with the power.. maybe to show how weak she gets?

 

Battle of the two rivers, yeah! Bubbles of evil 😈 

 

I'll have to pick it apart later, only one month guys.

 

The unstained tower, broken, bends knee to the forgotten sign. And the world was changed forever..

[king of nowhere]

the first three books were hardest to adapt. with them out of the way and the main plot elements established, the show has great potential to come back on track.

i am somewhat worried for the white tower battle, it can be great, or it can come off lame as the wizard battle in the witcher, with the giant ring of fire slowly falling from the sky; at least i didn't see anything like that, the ball of fire around liandrin looks like first she was alone and shielded and was being interrogated, and then her colleagues burst in to rescue her.

all the scenery is amazing, except for the aiel spearheads, they look made of rubber. which is most likely the case

we didn't see much of the age of legends, will have to wait one month for that.

 

all in all, looks very promising

[Mailman]

It's a little hard to distinguish which things in the trailer are actually going to be real world as opposed to Dreams or visions within the pillars or rings which is a little frustrating from an information point of view.

 

Thought the look of the glass pillars was awesome not so sure of the visual of Moiraine floating in the rings.

 

The battle scenes again look terrible. Really despair the thought of what the truly massive battles from the books are going to look like.

 

Like that we may be getting some of the set up between Moggy and Nyn and that we may also see Rand learning from Elayne.

 

[Elder_Haman]

  On 2/12/2025 at 11:12 PM, Mailman said:

The battle scenes again look terrible. Really despair the thought of what the truly massive battles from the books are going to look like.

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I feel like it is hard to get a sense of battle scenes from trailers because they are almost never presented in any kind of context or with any kind of flow - just jump cuts. I haven't gone frame by frame, but I thought the Red Tower battle looked a little cluttered but otherwise pretty nice. The Two Rivers battle looked good for the little time we got to see it.

 

What didn't you like?

[Asmasur]

Likes

1)It looks like there will be a well flushed Two Rivers plot and Perrin will finally have his chance to shine.

2)Nynaeve and Moggy.

3)The entire group together at the inn. Rand having his initial connection with Elayne and Aviendha. 

4)The cold open for the season: Black Ajah escape. Will this be a flash forward unlike other cold opens?

5)Dream world.

6)Mat vs Gawyn and Galad.

Concern

1)No Asmodean and Logain. I was hoping that one of them would level up Rand’s channeling, as hasn’t had any significant growth as a channeler till now. 
 

[DaddyFinn]

Book-accurate-long-red-curly-hair-Rand 😄

 

[A Memory Of Why]

  On 2/13/2025 at 5:17 AM, DaddyFinn said:

Book-accurate-long-red-curly-hair-Rand 😄

 

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He looks a but manic, I'm thinking it might be during Eggy's test?

[Mailman]

  On 2/12/2025 at 11:59 PM, Elder_Haman said:

I feel like it is hard to get a sense of battle scenes from trailers because they are almost never presented in any kind of context or with any kind of flow - just jump cuts. I haven't gone frame by frame, but I thought the Red Tower battle looked a little cluttered but otherwise pretty nice. The Two Rivers battle looked good for the little time we got to see it.

 

What didn't you like?

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The amount of people and trollocs look tiny. The trollocs themselves do not appear to be large Loial is just too small.

The barricade looks terrible and appears to have gaps at both ends. Why are the trollocs so spread out when charging a concentrated defence just seems to be an insane tactic to run in that widely spaced out.

Archers seeming to be holding bows at about half drawn while the arrows are pointing directly towards the front ranks of their own soldiers. The fact that trollocs when shot with arrows are thrown backwards by the force of the arrows. 

The standard of the weapons throughout the early release stuff has been questionable at best often looking fake.

At 1.46 there is the scene of I think village women holding shields and spears those look truly terrible.

 

I share your distrust of trailers (going back to the original suicide squad movie which I thought looked great from the trailer) what worries me mainly is that the trailers tend now to show the very best footage they possibly have even going so far as to include scenes not actually in the movie/show. If that was the best of the fight scenes that they have I am not hopeful.

Edited February 13 by Mailman

[A Memory Of Why]

  On 2/13/2025 at 6:39 AM, Mailman said:

The amount of people and trollocs look tiny. The trollocs themselves do not appear to be large Loial is just too small.

The barricade looks terrible and appears to have gaps at both ends. Why are the trollocs so spread out when charging a concentrated defence just seems to be an insane tactic to run in that widely spaced out.

Archers seeming to be holding bows at about half drawn while the arrows are pointing directly towards the front ranks of their own soldiers. The fact that trollocs when shot with arrows are thrown backwards by the force of the arrows. 

The standard of the weapons throughout the early release stuff has been questionable at best often looking fake.

At 1.46 there is the scene of I think village women holding shields and spears those look truly terrible.

 

I share your distrust of trailers (going back to the original suicide squad movie which I thought looked great from the trailer) what worries me mainly is that the trailers tend now to show the very best footage they possibly have even going so far as to include scenes not actually in the movie/show. If that was the best of the fight scenes that they have I am not hopeful.

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I was thinking something similar, but trailers rarely show late game stuff so we're most likely mostly seeing the first 3 episodes.

 

Perrins stuff I think is beyond that, but it could be before the big Isam battle.. the hunt or pre-big battle, considering Faile is there that's most likely..

 

Though than again.. 🥲

Edited February 13 by A Memory Of Why

[Mailman]

I think that the 2 rivers battle will be in the last 2 episodes. Simply not enough time to set it up otherwise cannot see how they could get Perrin out of Tar Valon before the end of the 2nd episode at the earliest.

 

Not sure how much Isam stuff we will get again purely based off time. Even if Perrin simply just arrives in the 2 rivers in episode 3 we still have little knowledge of his wolf abilities and dreaming let alone seeing them in action.

 

The time and the movement for this season worries me we have the characters moving over such large distances with so little time to get them all there and flesh out all the stories around those locations, I fear the world is going to feel smaller again during this season. Only 8 approx 1hr episodes to cover so much feels like its going to be a stretch.

Edited February 13 by Mailman

[DojoToad]

I liked the trailer overall.  The one power battle in the White Tower looked good to me.  But as has been pointed out, the archers against trollocs didn't make much sense.  Three or four hundred pound beasts with forward momentum being thrown back by arrows...  That aside the scene didn't look great.

 

Perrin swinging whatever looked cool.  Aiel spears - 🤮

 

Costuming looked good.