In the books, people decide how to meet their own toh. Anyway, I enjoyed the episode more than not. I have a few specific quibbles with a couple of writing points, but I'm not going to dive into it now.

Doesn't matter and it was cute enough, but couldn't Rand have set his own toh? lol

Regarding the anachronism, Rand uses CPR on Mat at Rhuidean in the books. It could also plausibly be something Nynaeve knows, and Egwene as her apprentice could know.

I disagree this is the necessary way to approach it. Outlander season seven (parts one and two) cut so much yet also remained so faithful on the main plot beats. I think much of the "slog" could be approached this way. I doubt it will. But I think it would work fine.

No, my read is he's lucid during these dreams. He's discussing everything and history and the current state of things with way too much awareness.

I'm not sure if that was an intentional choice on Rafe's part. The book lore is that there was no immediate, noticeable impact of the Bore, at least on society at a large scale. But what followed was 80-90 years of social decay, and cults presumably popping up around the Dark One. Then it broke into all put war, which lasted a decade with massive devastation. The Light was losing the war, and two desperate gambits were devised by different factions. LTT and his "hundred companions" sealing the Bore was one of them. Now it's possible there were some pockets of paradise left at this point, but the scene in Season One suggests a very different history for the show. Anyway, in the books, the sealing was followed by the Breaking, which lasted centuries before things calmed down. Perhaps in the show there was no great war, maybe everything was very mild until the Breaking.

My biggest concern from the last episode is Rand's and Lanfear's discussion on the Pattern and the Wheel. And this may seem odd. Rand is rejecting the notion that the Pattern dictates his fate as a naive superstition. Lanfear states they weave their own fates. Now this is Lanfear, a Forsaken. This messaging would be on point for her. But I don't know that I trust the writers to stick to the series' themes here and not just embrace what Lanfear is saying. So I hope I see a reversal on this point later. Whether or not you believe in fate or higher forces in real life, it is essential to the basics of the Wheel of Time. Many character arcs, Rand's especially, are a sort of struggle and/or reliance on ta'veren nature and fate. While most people are not woven so, Rand and the others struggle with the Wheel railroading them where they need to be, literally shaping reality around him. Whatever else they do character or plotwise, this is like a fundamental, core motif of The Wheel of Time. If they were to abandon it, then what are they even doing choosing to adapt the property? This might seem the most minor thing to some, but again, this is one of the core motifs of the entire series and the character arcs, the interplay of human freedom and fate. It's the very name of the series. The wheel isn't just the cycle of ages, it's what spins out the pattern. "The wheel weaves as the wheel wills." If the writers actually endorse Lanfear's sentiment here, which seems naive of me to believe, but again I don't have full faith in these writers, then I feel like that would be the most significant rejection of the source material, above anything else. Even if you still adapt most of the character and plot beats without it, it feels like missing the point.

Perrin sneaking into the White Cloak camp this season was basically revisiting a missed plot beat from season one. Granted somewhat different circumstances, involved characters, and results. I didn't mind this at all.

I'm 50/50 on the show. But I can certainly understand why they changed certain plot beats. I've argued in favor of some of the changes, I've acknolwedged what they were going for with others. I don't always agree that the change is for the better even knowing what they're trying to do with it. I also sometimes think they made a change for the right reason but they executed it sloppily. Just because the motivation and beat is right doesn't suddenly make it done well. I rankle at the idea that detractors are just too stupid to understand, as if there's no room for opinion on what would be best.

I think they're also pulling back on his (stress and madness driven) unwillingness to kill women that develops. They're going to give him a different reason for not striking Lanfear down later, if it still goes down remotely similarly.

There could also be some minor compulsion at work, but we'll see.

Book Rand does come to a sort of uneasy truce with Lanfear. But he's not taken in by her the way he is in the show. I'm not really opposed to the relationship in the show. I think it's a little sloppily done, but the idea underscores a later plot point that will come up and why Moiraine feels she needs to do as she does. I think that plot point could have been better served by some of Moiraine's visions in the rings without showing everything. Maybe we'll get a flashback to a vision we didn't see before later. I'm not a fan of the Rand - Egwene - Lanfear triangle, though, or Rand actually being unfaithful. Rand had dreams in the book which he felt terrible about, but he wasn't lucid or in control during them. I just wish Egwene and Rand had broken up before this and Rand wasn't suddenly a cheater.

If I learned that my wife was a brutal torturer and genocidal-level maniac who had led terrible mass-atrocity-commiting armies trying to conquer the world for a cosmic entity she'd willingly sworn herself to that is looking to bring misery and suffering and pain and despair to all... that would damage our relationship a mite. Might even feel lied to and betrayed.

Yeah, I'm going to say NO, I don't agree with this. I get so much being cut for the show, don't get me wrong. But I don't feel this statement. Edit: Sorry with the multiposts. I'm all caught up now.

Moiraine and Siuane yes. Elayne and Avi no. I don't mind the change. I think it's a good change. But, looking at the text, we don't need to see every intimate friendship as romantic. We can have an example of a close, intimate female friendship that isn't romantic. We can have close, intimate male friendships that aren't romantic (I'm looking at the "Sam and Frodo are romantic crowd here.) That's not to say don't have queer relationships in media, or even say it's wrong to change things across mediums. But when interpreting texts, I'd just caution against seeing every close, intimate same sex friendship as a romantic relationship. Avi and Elayne were not romantic in the books. They are in the show. And that's fine.