Decided to look at the books for comparison (been a while since I opened them) So the A'dam in the books: 1. Damane can't handle knives: 2. Similar to the TV (the pitcher scene in the book) - can't handle anything they even think of as a weapon: 3. Yet Damane can touch the collar and lesh other Marath'damane. Clearly they don't view the collar or the act of leashing as a weapon/use of a weapon The only issue left is if torture would trigger the A'dam's "weapon" limitation. And in the Books, Aes Sedai oaths against using the one power as a weapon isn't a limitation if they torture. And from point 2 above and TV - it is a perspective thing too. So I definitely don't find an issue with Egwene collaring Renna, following a similar logic with the books

Regardless, I do not think the A'dam is a weapon. From recollection the book also has the limitation that a Damane cannot pick up anything they think is a weapon, and they can collar other marath'damane just fine. The A'dam is really just a leash and at best it can torture. We know that Book Aes Sedai do not consider torture a "weapon" either from an oaths perspective. And the words TV Renna said in s2e06 are "Egwene, a damane cannot touch any object she believes to be a weapon." So, I personally never felt any issue with Egwene picking up the collar from that perspective.

I expressed myself poorly. I meant that the pain does not originate from a physical source (hence the reference to the pitcher).

Even if she had figured out, which seems like a huge leap of faith, it is still a tool to restrict rather than hurt. And the hurt was only of a mental form, not even physical. We only know she cannot phsyically hurt someone based on the water pitcher. I mean, single linking is already problematic. If the A'dam forms a link - Why does the Damane direct the flow when the Sul'dam heads the link? Everyone just choses to ignore that anyway because "magic" Interesting thought - if only 1 woman wears the Domination Band (Male A'dam), does this mean the man can wrest control of the flow (in a link with a man and a woman, the man can wrest control). Actually can't recall much about them now.

Top of my head: Book 2 - Siuan? or one of the Aes Sedai commented how they called the winds to speed up cuz they were in a rush and were so sad they flooded villages on the way, damaging crops and basically f up the weather. They were rushing to meet Moiraine and see to see Rand I think. Book 3? Elayne tried being smart with Verin by saying blowing up the ground near a whitecloak(?) does not constitute using the one power as a weapon. Now Verin did give her a earful. But at the same time, if Elayne had the oaths and genuinely believed she complied with the oaths, she would be to have done so. So I guess the interpretation of why certain events constitute the one power as a weapon is probably indoctrinated by the white tower.

I am probably in the minority, but I rather liked Egwene freed herself. It was a surprise when it happened, but it felt satisfying to me as a resolution. I don't really have issues with Egwene touching the collar. While she suspects that Sul'dam can channel, she doesn't actually know it would work. She only worked it out for sure once the collar formed. I feel that in that heat of the situation she is hoping that it works and snares Renna - the intent to hurt psychically probably formed once she knew for sure it worked. The thing that puzzled me more was - who was heading the link? But then the a'dam is always rather weird even in the novels because while the person wearing the braclet heads the link and therefore directs the flow, she can allow the collar-ed person to direct the flow in the books. It was always a strange rule.

Probably discussed elsewhere (haven't had the chance to read all the forums yet!) - I think they are a callback to slave mouth pieces used in real world history. Also pretty demeaning with the infantile association in modern day and the fact that the damane has to leave it on willingly showing how much control the sul'dam have over them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_iron_bit I thought it was a pretty effective prop as the collar visually did not bring the same sense of horror when Egwene had to wear it - at least it did for me.

I agree with you! I think 1 is the poorest, though 13 ties very close to poorest. I understand that BS is not RJ and he was trying to finish someone else's book and I don't hold it against him. I enjoy the books BS writes - they entertain me. But one thing that BS loves that bleeds through too much in WOT are characters wise-cracking (which I think is also common in a lot of American action shows than say British) - characters laughing in the face of danger cuz oh how cool and calm as a cucumber the heroes are. Now not all his characters does that in his books (before anyone brings out the scythe), but it is a trait he uses a lot - and I notice quite common in a lot of the English fantasy webnovels on Royal Road or Wattpad - possibly influenced by the action shows. It is fine in his series since you get use to the setting, but it was so jarring having a whole book of Matt wisecracking. Then i think next poorest was 14 and a close tie between 2/12. What i really enjoyed about 2 were the WT scenes and watching the dynamic of the AS unfold. I also love intro of the Seanchan (horrifying as they were). I didn't like most of the Portal Stones scenes. It was strange to introduce yet another travelling device, with a dream sequence alternate reality thing similar to the arches as well. It felt like RJ suddenly felt that all his characters need to live through VR to drive home how they are no longer farmers/blacksmit/wisdom. I must admit, I have not re-read WoT since AMoL (did tonnes of re-read at the release of each book from 7-14. This in itself is unusual - I do not like re-reading stuff. WoT will always hold a special place in my heart. I am still surprised after 10 years how much I remember from WoT compared to other books I've read. Really strange details linger including some minor charc scene. The TV series have been a fun way to re-live the series. It isn't perfect, but it is fun to recall events and watch how they try to adapt them to screen - and ponder why certain tweaks were made - some more obvious than others. Also, it has been fun going through WoT forum! - I have not done that in a long long time (especially since I use to lurk in a lot of those forums in my long lost younger years) I don't know if I can make myself wade through book 1 again - If I ever re-read, I'll probably jump to 2, but it feels like cheating!

If a 1:1 screen adaptation is to be made, I think it might be possible if it is done using 3D animation. 3D animation isn't the most pretty (you are not talking like the Cinema quality type - but pushing it out weekly quickly). The Chinese have been adapting chinese Webnovels into 3D animation for a while and those webnovels can be atrociously long and laborious to read. An example of one that was fully adapted is Douluo Dalu (Some translations call it Soul land) - they adapted the entire Webnovel into 3D animation over 5 years, screening about 15-18 mins per week (and while it made changes, it is surprisingly close to the source material compared). The first novel with the first MC has about 300ish chapters - thereabouts. So it isn't short. During COVID as everyone was working from home, the episodes were reduced by about 5 mins per episodes so they could churn it out weekly. They obviously try to end each episode at a cliff hanger, but sometimes they will end at unusual spots in the narrative cuz.... that's just where the story lands in the Webnovel. They have since moved on to Soul land 2 (the 2nd protaganist). That webnovel itself has like over a thousand chapters - but they have also reduced fights that last over 2 chapters to half an episode. However, not sure if it would work with WoT TBH as those books tend to focus on only 1 MC. With WOT having so many charc, I think it would be a challenge to remember all those faces of characters you might see maybe 2-4 times over all the books

haha! I hate the eotw so so much. I bought the series when RJ was up to book 6. And the ONLY reason went past book 1 was because I already bought more than 1 book (i think I bought the first 3 at least). I was around 14 or 15 at that time, and buying books from my pocket money wasn't cheap. So I gritted my teeth through book 1. I started to enjoyed book 2 onwards. I've done a few re-reads when new books were released but I usually either skip eotw or speed read through it. I've not re-read since amol though. Not sure if I will - I don't think i can stomach reading book 1 without jumping to book 2.

Me too! I am surprised I still had my Dragonmount account LOL - decided to login to see what people think after binging of S2 (i waited till all episodes are up before I sub to prime). S2 was a fun ride - I enjoyed more than S1. Though to be fair, I hated Eye of the World. I always thought eotw was an awful book. So the adaptation probably reasonated less with me. The ONLY reason i got through eye of the world was that I already bought the subsequent books and gritted my teeth through it. Enjoyed book 2 onwards (and actually love the dreaded 7-11 books - no accounting my awful taste in books!)

Well in tGS: Other posters have posted possible ways that Moiraine got round the oaths. While some of the proposed scenarios are possible due to TV Moiraine appearing more fanatical, I do wish it was cleaner or more straight forward. If exclusion for Shadow Spawn and Darkfriend were left in Oath 3 for the TV, I think it would have been a sufficient call back to tGS Elaida. Heck, the fact that Rand was last seen with Lanfear not long before, it wouldn't be far fetched for Moiraine to wrongly assume Rand was captured by Lanfear (therefore darkfriend exclusion can be applied) - and a great way to show how beliefs are what make the oaths work. Be interesting to see if they resolve this in S3 like they did with the Ferry in S1

I hope it have the time altering properties. It shouldn't be too expensive to include that as you only need a few scenes to establish what it does in the first instance then for future scenes to "skip" to the altered timeline. Though... I can see it dropped because it might be quite confusing to remember for pure TV viewers. (Unless every episode it features start with a "previously" snippet explaining the temporal effects again)

Very good point!! We have to wait and see if Balefire is in the TV medium - but I believe it should it. It is quite important

TBH I don't really see the difference narratively. Like I get plot-armor has to happen for drama, but it felt like they both overstepped on rules established so far in their respective medium. However, I had 10 years to get over that scene in the book. That's why it illicit a laugh out of me because it felt like a call back to the scene (or maybe it was just me - it was a scene that really really bothered me at that time. I only read AOML once and this scene is still quite burnt in my mind). That said, I do think that it is possible that TV Ishy is playing a long game. But if he were battling all out, definitely in the equally silly pile for me.

It reminded me of a scene in AMOL: It got a chuckle out of me.