You can try and find reasons for the plot holes, but the clear fact is that Robert Jordan was still very much writing book to book when he started writing the dragon reborn, he was still finding his voice and the voice of his characters and was unsure how many books he would have to finish the story in. If you look across the first 3 books there are some big inconsistencies, many of these come from the fact he didn’t know how big a series he was writing and so didn’t know how to pace his characters development to have them reach the peak of powers by the end.

At the end of the day it is all conjecture but when I say controlling his powers of Taveran I mean something new and different, maybe the next step of evolution of the power. Although I will be honest this thought does change year to year and with no answer we can never really know so I am more then happy to read your reasons why this can’t be the case. The one thing I will say we don’t know that the pattern is fully done, RJ had follow up stories on planned who knows what part the 3 boys would play in them. What part Rand has on leading humanity into the next age, we know he will live a long long long life (assuming he isn’t killed).

Rafe has addressed the Egwene thing, he has apologised and stated it was a mistake, it is what it is. The Nyn thing how did she pull galaxies together lol, she healed an entire room because she was scared and angry and yes she can';t do it again nor because of the block and not understanding what she did. Rand has shown power, but if you have him massively OP like he is at the end of EOTW you have to have a whole exposition to explain that, His arc mirrors the girls, learning, developing and slowly gettig to be the man who ends up saving the world.

Season 2 he becomes the one in charge, when he decides to enter the world of dreams it is his choice and everything from there is his decision. That is the entirety of season 2 Rand taking charge of his destiny, but also understanding the independence of others (egwene didn’t need saving which is a really neat way of setting there relationship in the books).

Robert Jordan struggled to de power Rand once he realised he had more books to develop him in, it is one of the weak points of the first 3 books. He did it by having Rand lose control of the world around him politically and by constantly finding new power levels for the bad guys and things they could do. Oh and having Rand “forget” how he did things. The TV show is doing his build the right way, the way RJ would have done it if he knew in book 1 he had a 14 book arc to tell this story. People really need to remember that.

I mean you are making an assumption and offering opinion here, first is that it is struggling we have no evidence of that anywhere. We don’t know what Amazon counts as a success here so we dint know if execs are popping Champaign at these numbers or feeling glum. then your opinion is that it is badly made, when I know many many people who love it and think it is well made. In my own sphere of people I know is about 30-40 people who have watched it and all love it, that’s among work, family and friends. Then they know people who have watched it and enjoy it. In fact the only place I see any negativity about it is online. So that is 40+ people who would disagree with you.

My feel is Amazon won’t fall for that, they will know the same users are watching multiple times. we don’t know what Amazon’s aims are and what drives them to continue a series, might be wrong but wasn’t the expanse cancelled for to lack of viewers and Amazon took it up to finish it off. At the moment in terms of value for money Apple TV is producing by far the best original content, if Amazon and Netflix want to win the streaming war they need to be willing to commit to seeing through a long tv series like WOT or they might lose out on rights for future IP

What do you mean no new seasons?

I mean I read into it as being akin to Pillow Sisters in the tower, that and the fact that Aiel have a far more relaxed attitude to sex and physical activities then other cultures in the world it is just the next logical step. It all pretty much made sense to me. Now I will accept RJ does not explicitly state it one way or another so end of the day whatever any reader takes to be fact, is indeed fact here.

I mean if we are fantasy casting sorry Dame Judi Dench can't be beaten for me, can project that power and authority but also has that age and experience oozing from her naturally and I can see her chewing scenes with rand up, saying nothing with just a gaze and then a raise of an eyebrow.

I think it is because Cadusane has a far smaller role then Elaida in the books, and I can see, if he carries on his trend of writing deep villains for the show, Elaida in the show having some really meaty scenes to get her teeth into which is probably something that as an actor she will prefer. Yes, headcanon a lot of fans put her in a role I think she is far better suited for this role and it is actually better casting. I imagine he might have sat down with her and given her a choice behind the scenes, casting like this usually involves a lot of conversation and Rafe will have had some input but no where near as much as you might expect. I also think she might well have seen what he sketched out for Elaida and said, yes, I will have that instead please. I get the feeling that unlike the books her steps into madness will not be influenced by Fain at all and, much like Liandrin, will come from her past meaning that as an actor she can really get into that character plus, bad guys are always more fun to play then good. As for anyone can play Elaida and combining her with Liandrin, peolpe complain about Rafe ignoring the books but then want to make monumental changes such as this, a darkfriend on the seat makes no sense when it comes to the showdown with Egwene, the whole point of Elaida is to show that bad choices does not always = Bad people, and being so convinced you are right can make you blinkered to what is right and true in front of you. Elaida is one of the Key characters of the story and needs to exist pretty much as is in the books, just with the removal of the Daggers influence on her hopefully. One of my issues with that was RJ seemed to want a world where everyone is inherently good, except when they are darkfriends or touched by Shadar Logath, and all bad people are either darfriends or have been corrupted by said dagger. Rafe is showing much more shades of grey which I love. Liandrins arc should now continue away from the tower, possibly ending with her in stedding at the last battle, although following her path in the books would also be really interesting.

But they are not, the essence of the wheel of time is there, the story threads are all there, we can debate what has been removed, added, changed around, but all the bits that make up WOT are present. But as I have said, following the source material as closely as some want, would make for an awful viewing experience for non book readers, and probably for most book readers as well. Especially the character shifts across books 1-3, and having key characters not realy make any appearance until later on in the books meaning TV audiences barely get any screen time to care or emote with those characters. But we are going round and round in circles. You don't like it, many of us accept and understand the flaws but still love it and see it as the WOT.

I mean homosexuality has been prevelant in every age of human culture, it’s just that people didn’t know how to see it, but I also think it is a side effect of WOT being a sexy fantasy novel, it has far more sexual references then any other fantasy I had read as a teenage boy, in fact that may explain why I keep coming back? And it makes sense RJ wrote steamy bodice tearing novels. I do wonder would a post 50 shades WOT have seen RJ double down on certain things a lot more lol? But yes up until that point the only fantasy book I can think of that I had read that had sex in it was Thomas covenant, and that is a very different type of scene

I mean is this what people mean when they say they love Lan because he “gets sh#t done” 🙂

This as well, something I hadn’t thought about.