1 hour ago, WoTwasThat said:

Each one of these seasons is the equivalent of 3-4 feature length movies. And they can’t faithfully adapt 1-2 books a season in that run? 

One book a season is too slow, even for just 1-6. And you brought up a GOT comparison later. Do you think they could have adapted two books a season of ASoIaF in 10 episodes? Let alone 8?

Granted,

One thing they could do, if they want to keep that plot point while

Quote

Spoiler

keeping Pike on, is do her rescue far sooner than it is in the books, dive through at the end of one season, be rescued before the end of the next.

 

Ugh stuck with another quote box I can't remove on mobile, lol. I don't have the Source button I was shown to remove it.

5 hours ago, DigificWriter said:

 

I'm having trouble deleting the quote on mobile.

Non-toxic theorizing is fun. It's what drives active forums and fanbases and generates buzz. Having an unreleased, unfinished book series is part of why these boards used to be so active, because people would guess and theorize. We get to have that again because of the show. This type of speculation is great to have again.

As for the theory itself, I like it. There are neat setup opportunities it allows for.

The Finn live in a realm that the human characters can't even perceive correctly and doesn't obey standard three dimensional spatial rules. I believe they are from an alternate reality, similar to what Verin explains to Egwene and Rand early on.

They've glossed over Perrin, Loial, and the Shienarans getting stabbed with the knife, and glossed over Egwene healing Nynaeve. They haven't retconned them, but neither did they feel the need to show Perrin and the others recovering, or people commenting on what happened with Eggy and Nyn. They've just not dwelled on the after effects of some of those unpopular choices, or feeling the need to explain them in the show.

I will say I don't view the book Seanchan attacking a tiny town that has no army. If it was a fortified city or military base, yes. It's less dramatic, but I imagine them literally just marching into a tiny town like this, declaring the town is now part of the Seanchan Empire, then demanding oaths. Maybe there's some door to door and violence in forcing paths, but just raiding such a small hamlet in the night seems a bit much. Just marching in uncontested almost displays power more.

This isn't a significant criticism, or maybe even much of a criticism at all. I get why they did it for TV, and the Seanchan can be a bit different for the show. Just something that crossed my book-brained mind.

Nothing's certain, of course, but what I'm saying is that I wouldn't place a friendly bet on Liandrin and Sheriam. I would on Verin.

(Mods: I'm not actually propositioning and online bet, just illustrating where I'm at.)

Oops, I meant to write season three and not two, but you're right her appearance date hasn't been confirmed. Season 3 would make the most sense if I was plotting it out in alignment with the books (it would still be a delayed intro as she was in Book 1), but it could be later if they put off a major multi-book arc for the whole setting and multiple characters.

Anyway, back to what I was saying about Verin... As a character and as a plot point, that is certainly a more "sacred" point to the book's plot and to fans than imo either Liandrin and Sheriam are. Some things are going to carry over from the books, and I think it incredibly likely Verin's plot point will not be changed. Of course, nothing is impossible. I consider myself open to pretty liberal changes to squeeze this into 6-8 seasons, understanding of the changes they make while trying to hit major climaxes without being redundant, and just putting myself into the heads of the showrunner and fans, I think it's fine to be on the confident side regarding Verin.

I agree that who is and isn't a darkfriend in the show may be different. We already got confirmation, apparently, that Elaida is in season three, but I could have seen Liandrin's role being changed.

Verin... That isn't a minor thing. I'm not sure I'd even call it a secondary thing like Liandrin is. I could even say them changing Sheriam (though I think I did see suggestive shifty eyes on her at some point, but that could be turned into misdirection). Of course Rafe could change it. He "could" have made Egwene the Dragon Reborn, too. I don't see Verin being changed. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but I find it very, very unlikely.

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.

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.

39 minutes ago, Samt said:

I was trying to figure out if they are confirming that they are biological sisters or if it's just the fact that the Aes Sedai all call each other sister.  

I'm pretty sure they replaced/merged Vandene with Verin, so Adeleas and Verin are now biological sisters.

I'm almost assuming that the show-Forsaken know more complex weaves that go beyond a "basic" shielding, mask the spiritual bond, etc... That this shield goes beyond anything Moiraine's ever experienced or heard about. Or maybe it's as simple as the bond being disrupted in the show system when shielded.

This deviates a little from how things work in book canon, but I anticipate that

All I'm getting about writer's intent is what she believes to be the case and an intent at misdirection which people in the know can figure out based on clues and knowledge of the show. People aren't just speculating on things that aren't there.

4 minutes ago, DigificWriter said:

 

Not to everyone.

 

Because the writers approached Moiraine's Season 2 story as of she's been Stilled, the visuals used don't really matter right now.

 

If we later learn that the writers treating Moiraine's situation as a Stilling was an intentional misdirection, then we can go back and analyze the visuals, but for now, it doesn't matter.

I disagree with this. Your comment makes sense in the situation where there's no foreshadowing or reasons to assume the more complicated answer. I've said what you just wrote to others on those types of plot points.

That she is only shielded but it's written that she believes she's stilled seems to many the most obvious arc, and the visual choices support that. So yes, if we're talking about actual foreshadowing and speculating on character arcs, it certainly is relevant.

44 minutes ago, SinisterDeath said:

It works.

But I also should mention Worf from Picard season 3.

lol

I have not watched it yet. I gave up on Picard mid-way through season one... But people seem to like S3.

If I'm going to bring up a criticism of Lan, he has "Worf-syndrome" from Star Trek. You tell everyone he's an amazing warrior, so when he gets beat up you know things are bad. Only... you just keep seeing Worf get beat up over and over again.

Now, to take the opposite view, I feel like this particular instance was better done than last season. There were four or five Fades in the dark with no light? Book Lan is a bit of a comic book superhero, in my view, and it would be nice to see him have the opportunity to just quickly dispatch enemies in seemingly insane odds, but I do think it was understandable that he took injuries in this fight.

19 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Also it wasn't clear that he was stabbing Rand. Because of the angle, he could have been stabbing something just behind Rand.

True. And it would be fitting if that was his redeeming moment. Him being there for his friend(s), probably after a moment where he has the chance to run away.

I just had a thought to put it in perspective about how Rafe needs to tell this story in a shorter run time than would be required for a high fidelity adaptation of the books.

Adapting WoT in 6-8 seasons is like adapting ASoIaF in 3-4 seasons. Imagine the amount of interpretation and adaptation that would be required to have made that work.

14 hours ago, Pandemonium said:

Nobody has talked about Min's vision of Matt stabbing Rand yet.  That is definitely odd.  Is Matt going to get the dagger back and take the place of Fain leaving an evil wound on Rand?

Her visions might not always be so literal or complete. I'm betting it's metaphor, at the least.

I've seen the term beta move into common lexicon for unassertive people. It's not just believers in the whole alpha science thing. But I think this conversations going off rails.

I disagree with Samt on things said in this topic, not just about the show... I do think it's weird we segued into talk about port fetishes and incels, though.

They did reshoot the scene at the end of S1E6 due to Harris leaving, and the shot of him standing there doing nothing was basically reconstructed from existing footage. I agree that it's entirely possible they'd have done something similar, but Mat was intended to enter the Ways with them.

I referenced some things that occur in later books, and I wasn't quite sure to what extent we can discuss book spoilers. Just book spoilers of what's been adapted so far? Or just full books with no qualifiers? So I used tags to be safe.

But thanks!