If we are getting the red door in tear then that may be where Moraine and Lanfer fight and go through the door?

Rafe said from day 1 that Rands 3 relationships where key to the story, but they would be more of a polycule then the more one man and his 3 brides.

they seem to have used the same set and lighting for the attack on the white cloaks as they did at Winterfell.

The books that people say drag are the ones I go back to over and over when I just want to dip in for a few books. For me I think if RJ was starting the series over knowing he had that many books to tell his story you would find books 1-4 written very differently and that may have led to some trimming as certain repetition would have probably been removed the final fights in books 1-3 are all very similar, as is a lot of the general narrative of travel to a place, get captured, go back to the white tower, travel to another place, get captured.

I see it more that the crystals make your ancestors look like you so it is clear they are your ancestors. You see yourself in there role, in reality you might be taller, shorter etc.

Intrigued what you think it impacted, in my mind I can’t think how it has so far but I am open to listening to other opinions.

I did feel the book carried this off much much better, with the Aiel and Ogier creating a lot more noise

Alanna took the waygate, Perrin mentions that.

The show needs to walk a fine line between foreshadowing Verin and making it a big reveal, in the books I know I for one was shocked when the reveal happened, which was good but many TV viewers want to feel they are in on it a little bit, want to be able to go back and see the moments that maybe gave it away. We know there will be more Verin moments that make her look decidedly innocent

We never saw the Blacks arrive, only the aftermath, which was pretty horrific (if you read between the Robert Jordan sanitised version). But, I am liking the fact that we are seeing a reason for why people turn to the dark lord which is more then just simply "they are evil". One of my issues in the books is that there is very little nuance in the bad guys. The forsaken where generally all either already cruel, or jealous very one dimensional in many ways. We are at least seeing Liandrin have more depth, a reason to be who she is while not taking away how she is still evil and cruel. The others seemed to revel in killing, being able to finally be who they are. I really did like this scene, especially given we know there excess and sense of superiority will soon be seriously curtailed by one even worse then them.

Thom in the books is periphery really until book 3/4 so I can see him being pulled back into the Tanchico arc. Meeting Elayne and trying to protect her alongside Matt. I do wonder if Matt will be transported from the red door to somewhere else in the world when that happens? Mat's dagger I am assuming is in Aes Sedai hands (they are not going to let him keep that), the fact that we saw him hanging in front of red doors suggests he may still get his spear, amulet, and then memories all put back possibly they merge the 2 doorways into 1. Finally, Matt with the Horn was comic relief, and fits in perfectly with his character. He is taking advantage of it while he has it, until the reality sets in and he hands it over. I had no issues with this.

I really hope Taim is not an existing dreadlord, mainly because I do like the idea of his arc being to become a new dreadlord it shows how petty jealousy can be turned on it's head to make someone as powerful as Taim turn to the Darklord and make a pact to become one of the Forsaken.

completely disagree. I have always thought the idea that souls had to be gendered, while Robert Jordans stated definition of his world, was just silly and wrong. Especially if you think of the turning of the wheel. Why couldn't there be a female dragon at some point in the future, why couldn't it be Saidar that is tainted? Souls being un gendered does not impact the telling of this turning of the wheel in any way shape or form. This isn't a political correctness thing, it is just a logic thing, that and there where some strong moral and real social issues that get raised if you insist people in the WOT are a fixed gender. I also wonder would Robert Jordan of 2025 be as fixed on that narrative or would he more likely say "The dragon will always be male, not because the souls are gendered, but because it will always be Saidin that gets tainted and thus always be a man that leads the battle to fix that wrong", but that does not indicate that all other souls are always resurrected the same gender.

I think we can say that 2 things are true. In the books you are reincarnated with the same gender and this was defined on multiple occasions. In the TV show you are simply reincarnated and could be any gender. I still don't see how this change for the TV show breaks anything in the books given that all the characters are the same gender as they are in the books. What it does do is solve some questionable morale and philosophical issues that the books have raised within the book audience and make them non issues.

This can easily be a flashback scene, either Rand seeing something similar from the POV of Lewis, or even just a straight up flashback scene to show the audience the breaking. This works in the TV medium in a way it probably wouldn't in a book.