20 hours ago, CallMeShmae said:

 

I think Barney Harris was a fine actor in the role, I just think they never developed the fun aspects of Mat as a character.  He was a bit of prick and then caught the dagger curse in the 2nd episode.  Not much time for fun in the show for my favorite character from the books.

That being said, I did enjoy the little time they did devote to him and Rand's journey.

At least in this instance a couple of the show's biggest mistakes work in their favor.  They wrote Mat to be significantly less fun and appealing than in the book, and then went on to spend very little time with him (and Rand) for most of the season.  If the new actor is introduced well, and hopefully written better, than I'm sure he'll be acceptable fairly quickly to most viewers.  Would be interesting to know if they cut some scenes of Mat and Rand's story in earlier episodes to soften the viewer investment in him.

As far as plot goes, Moraine already indicated that she isn't really thinking Mat is the Dragon, and she already knows she can't trust his judgement if he is, so him not going seems like something she would reasonably accept.