The way Moiraine described what shielding feels like...

Tea?

Still watching.

This conceit unsettles me. We'll see if that's all it is, but I feel like there are better ways to do this type of thing with T'A'R that don't involve something "new" like this.

20 minutes ago, Ralph said:

loads of information there

 

very curious about Anvaere now

Might merge with Colavaere.

Flicker.

Lanfear doesn't like to share.

I thought it annoying in the last topic, but now I'm just laughing at how every topic takes multiple detours into sex education.

6 hours ago, Windigo said:

RJ was influenced by his experiences and the times he lived in, the subjugation and breaking of the Damane came in part from his experiences in Vietnam.
Until more recently switching, spankings and and other corporal punishment, was common in most home and school situations, as was the use of physical labor especially in a boarding school situation like the White Tower. 

 

This is a really key point. I keep hearing about it as if it's sexual or a fetish, but this type of punishment was intended to be seen as treating the receiver as a child getting discipline in many situations. And in others just an adult getting disciplined. The only one that kind of stuck to me as somewhat weird was Mat spanking that Aes Sedai.

Sigh... remember when streaming was liberating in getting away from cable?

We're not getting portal stones in this season. They're going to have Rand travel by T'A'R. This was set up when Lanfear showed him Egwene in the Dream. She mentioned you could travel through it. On the one hand there's the impression it was just while in the dream, but we know from the books that it is possible to go into T'A'R at one physical location and come out in another. Doing it this way makes more sense than pulling portal stones into it now, and portal stones kind of completely fall by the wayside in the books, too, in favor of T'A'R instead.

Okay. Some good stuff in the episode. Some great performances. I'm still parsing it.

And anyone watch the preview for 7? We're going to get at least one little thing people were very disappointed about not seeing earlier.

I'm still in the middle of the episode but this Lan plotline just defies belief. Come on.

I talked briefly with my dad yesterday about the show. He introduced me to WOT over 20 years ago. But he's a more casual reader. He's only read the series once. Last season he was pretty happy talking about how it was just like the books. And on top of that he's really not very critical at all (something I noticed well before the WOT show). It's not just that at all). He liked pretty much everything. He's not a turbo-dork like me reading the series multiple times and joining forums to discuss it. I think he's more of the demographic the show is aiming for (in addition to bringing in new people).

He was not happy with episode five. In particular, he is really put off by the whole Rand/Selene arc. I think the showrunners need to be wary about losing that read-thr-series-once crowd. Last season it sounded like they were aiming to please them and not us dorks, but to be frank, being the dork I am means I've been discussing this for a few years now, rationalizing the changes, digging into the bigger picture of it all, etc... The casual fans are going to be okay with a ton, but huge deviations like that could shake them.

And this is not me finding a way to pseudo gripe about Rand and Selene. Just an observation and reflection on that.

I suspect the Rand/Selene arc for this season will be pretty much wrapped up in the next episode.

16 minutes ago, Mirefox said:

If that’s the case, then it just demonstrates how shallow the writers are.  Moira one was a complex character in the books who was certainly a master manipulator but did not put her cause above the lives of the innocent.  The trolley problem is borderline pseudo-psychology as a defining character trait.

As a book reader, I never took Moiraine's threats as hyperbole. I believed her gravely serious in that.

12 hours ago, Scarloc99 said:

1) LTT was always known as the Dragon so calling him the Dragon Reborn is not changing anything 

2) We Dont know that the Dragon has not been a women in the books and more importantly 

  Hide contents

The wheel does not turn the way you seem to think it does, the next turning of the wheel is not the same in any way shape or form as this one, and by that i mean there may not be a one power, humanity might all live under the sea, the dark one might be released by a war, or because someone left the gas on, they might be sealed up by a dog. There was a dragon LTT, his soul was reborn in Rand Al Thor, and, once Rand does his thing thats it, possibly no more dragon ever again in this form at all. 

 

The below shouldn't be taken as a complaint about the show doing things differently. Some of it may just be for simplification. But just to drill down on how it works in the books (and again, it's fine if the show is doing things differently):

(1) This isn't consistent with the understanding the people of the Age of Legends had. In the prologue of FOH, Granedal states that the idea of a man being born for a specific purpose or prophecy is unknown to them. In the prologue of TGS Graendel states that Demandred could have been on the other side and even been the Dragon. The idea that LTT was specifically born to fight the Dark One, or that his same soul had done so in a previous turning of the Wheel, was foreign to them. They had no memory of the Dark One. Ishy seems to have developed this idea himself as the war went on, and after absorbing all the Third Age prophecies of the Dragon Reborn, but to the people of the Age of Legends it was just a title anyone could have earned that was not linked to any greater theology or role as a recurring Champion designated by the pattern.

(2) Jordan confirmed in interviews that souls are gendered and that LTT/Rand's is always incarnated as a male, but that there are other heroes (women heroes too) who can be brought forth to play hugely significant roles when needed. Sanderson has also confirmed that this is how Jordan defined his world.

I'll chime into that discussion and say I notice those types of gaps in shows and laugh about it. Some of it's fine, but I can accept it. Writers who stretch it too far (GOT S7-8) start ruining the quality of their show.

My dad, however, wouldn't even notice or ask about it at all, I imagine many viewers are like this.

But there are times to skip over it and times to cover it. For example, there's a sequence in the Witcher where Geralt leaves his horse, does things, then he has the horse later. We didn't need to be shown him deliberately going back to get his horse. Readers are smart enough to make the leap.

Liandrin in the ways? I might crack a joke about it but I don't think it's an egregious case at all, and that's time that would have had to have been taken from elsewhere.

I laughed when we caught up with Linadrin and the girls in the Ways because I know people were looking for an explanation, but do we need one when the answer is pretty obvious? She can carry them with magic. Maybe she folded light around them, or hid them in the back of a covered cart to get them out of a city. 

We really only need to see an explanation if there's some big mystery on it, which, to me, there isn't. Though I will sympathize more with people who haven't read the books.

I don't really see any particular lean into the notion she's stilled. Feels like it's just status quo without new evidence in support of either theory.

My thoughts are that Liandrin could be merged with Alviarin, not Elaida. Possibly do some of Galina's role, too. Either or both.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we saw a portal stone! At this point I feel like they'll have to use it, but it feels like now it'll be coming in clutch at the end without any setup.

Why didn't Lanfear use a gateway or skimming? She was probably hoping to catch them in the road and didn't want to miss them.

Was the fight scene too dark? I didn't think so, but I've a fairly nice OLED and a plasma to watch the show on. Those TVs cannot make the Battle of Winterfell in S8 of GOT watchable at all, that was truly just too dark, but I personally felt like my viewing experience of this battle in WOT was pretty good and that they nailed the balance in lighting for a nighttime scene.

It is hard for me to really distance myself from the books on my watch and appreciate the show for itself. I maintain the production is definitely higher quality and more consistent than season one. I think this episode especially made it feel like we need at least two more episodes a season to develop characters and relationships more, as some things felt rushed.

I enjoyed the choreography of the fight with the Children of the Light. There was plenty of references to book Aiel culture, which was interesting. I overall enjoyed Perrin 's arc this episode. And I am interested in seeing more of Aviendha on screen and what will go down at Falme.

We have a double down on calling LTT the Dragon Reborn.  Perhaps they think it'll make the cyclical nature of things and the special duties of Rand's soul clearer. Admittedly, Jordan did drop a lot of our common lore in interviews that wasn't always made absolutely clear in the books, and they're just simplifying that. But still!

And one more nitpick on terms... please call it the SHADOW. We're probably too late now, but it just sounds so much better than "the Dark". The sound and connotations of words hit differently. Do they think viewers will be confused by having the "Dark One" and the "Shadow" and think they're referring to different forces?

Not really how I pictured Falme at all, architecturally or climate-wise, but okay.

We could see some great Egwene scenes next week. Crossing my fingers they really do this right. I want the see sul'dam treating damane like livestock/pets. Not as some fetish, lol, but it's just disturbing and I think will really drive it home.

I did, admittedly, really like Verin. I'm pretty sold on her character and actress now, that was good, but oh my a lot of it just feels rushed.

I'm glad Ishy said the line (paraphrasing) "and how do you think the Dragon will feel when all his friends are taken?" Because for half a moment I was wondering what the point of all this focus on the rest of the EF5 was for.

Honestly the weakest part of it all was the Rand/Moiraine/Lanfear arc for me, and maybe I'm just too hyper focused on this being a large deviation from the book. And, I'm going to get stoned for this, but I'm not 100% sold on Josha as Rand. His voice is very pouty. This isn't a commentary on his acting skills, exactly. You know, I can see some of Rand in the way he's being written. I can. I just finished Book 8 again in my sixth or seventh reread, and there are aspects to all of this where I do see Rand. But I don't feel like I see either the sheepherder or king yet. (Obviously we shouldn't be seeing the king yet, but still). He feels a bit in no man's land.

Or maybe Josha just needs hair.

I'm came away from the episode feeling mixed about it, and I suppose I still am a little bit in some respects, but writing all my thoughts down has helped me process it and I'm feeling better about it now. My character overall feelings will be retroactively affected by how all of this pays off at the end of the season.

The Taint was a counterstroke by the Dark One, an intentional action, and not just a passive effect that happened. It was only possible because of the sealing.

I admit it'd work well as a later surprise but there's a lot of content to cover. It would not surprise me if they brought it in this early.

Quote

 

INTERVIEW: Sep 4th, 2005

DragonCon Report - Matt Hatch (Paraphrased)

 

QUESTION

I was wondering, can you talk about how your lead character would have not one but three true loves, and how does your wife feel about that?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

Um, when I was much younger, before I met Harriet, I had two girlfriends simultaneously, who arranged my dating schedule between them, who was going to date me on which night. They chipped in together to buy me birthday presents and Christmas presents. You know, they just sort of shared me between them, you know. And they had been friends before, and I am not quite sure whether or not they made the decision they were both going to date me or not, on their own, before they first met me, it just came about. But I figured if I could manage two, surely Rand could manage three. Besides there are mythological reasons to have these three women involved with him.

 

 

Quote

 

INTERVIEW: Jul 14th, 2005

ComicCon Reports (Paraphrased)

 

QUESTION

Why does Rand get three girlfriends?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

When RJ was young, for a while he had two girlfriends who shared him and even managed who got to date him when. He figures if he can have two, then the savior of the world can have three!

 

Quote

 

INTERVIEW: Jul 22nd, 2004

ComicCon Wrap-Up - Jason Denzel (Verbatim)

 

JASON DENZEL

Later on, Melissa made a joking comment about Rand and his three girlfriends.

 

ROBERT JORDAN

Robert Jordan's reply was not what we expected. He explained that at one point in his younger life he had two girlfriends at once. They knew about each other, and they arranged dates for him so they could both be there. They were fine with it, and young Jim Rigney just went along with it. (Wouldn't you?) He figured that if he could have two girlfriends at once, then a guy like Rand could definitely do three.

 

https://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kw=girlfriends

RJ was in a poly relationship with two women for part of his life, and thought if he could manage two the Dragon Reborn could handle three, or at least he said as much as a bit of a joke.

But what even is the rest of this conversation? 

I'd give it some time to be relocated to a little later in the show as we haven't been introduced to Gawyn/Galad yet and may not meet him/them until season three, but I'd be disappointed if it ultimately didn't make the cut.