38 minutes ago, MasterAblar said:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO ELYAS *THROWS CAT AT WALL*

Elyas was not cast. Put the cat down. 

I harp on the mythological references because that’s one of the things that sets Wheel of Time apart from other fantasy stories. It digs deep into archetypes, legends and myths to create something different but still deeply resonate. The show has demonstrated in other ways that Rafe understands this, so I’m not going to complain too much about this choice. 

This conversation seems to be taking place in multiple threads. Let’s put it here so it’s easier to track. 
 

So, this is a disagreement at my house. My husband likes that Egwene is elevated because as the novels progress she becomes the co-lead of the series. He thinks that having her be Taveren makes sense because events seem to turn around her as much as the three boys. 
 

I disagree. Three Taveren has a deep mythological significance and the three boys are developed in specific ways that reflect their relationship to the Pattern that Egwene is not. It’s not a dealbreaker for me but I just don’t think this was a necessary change. 

This conversation seems to be in multiple threads. Let’s put it here so it’s easier to find. 
 

Anyways, I’m not a fan of killing women just to give someone more manpain. 

Canonically, the Seanchan have Texan accents. Y’all bow down to the Empress, ya hear? 

This thread just seems to attract trolls and weirdoes. I’m going to lock it for a few days and we can try again after episode 4 airs. Thanks. 

1 hour ago, WheelofJuke said:

 

 WHAT WILL ELAYNE TUG ON?! 

Thank you for giving me and my husband and new thing to yell at each other when one of us is being ridiculous. 

If your skin isn’t red and sloughing off, are you even clean bro? 

I’d buy the art as a print. Get on that Amazon. 

The bath scene is the show saying “this is not Game of Thrones”. Two attractive people in a hot tub together and someone says “could be hotter”. On GOT sexy times would immediately follow. Instead Moiraine just heats up the water and they talk shop. 

Honestly, I’m fine with Thom’s singing voice. There’s many different kinds of “good” when it comes to vocal performances and not every professional singer has a “smooth” voice. Lin Manuel Miranda is probably one of the most famous Broadway performers right now and his voice is more similar to this than what you normally think of with Broadway. 

Getting back to the show, I was reading this fun little review at Ars Technica and they pointed out something that I haven’t seen brought up anywhere else. 
 

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/two-book-readers-recap-the-first-three-episodes-of-amazons-the-wheel-of-time/

Quote

Andrew: If there's one "well actually" moment I will entertain as a book reader, it's the revelation that Egwene or Nynaeve could be the Dragon Reborn. On the one hand, I really appreciate a lot of what the show is doing to add nuance to the books' dated and rigid gender roles. Two Rivers women in the books are intelligent and resilient, but they're also a bunch of arm-crossing, braid-tugging, foot-tapping scolds. Two Rivers women in the show, from the glimpse we see, maintain that same sense of community but also get to drink and party and have sex. Rand and Egwene are doing sex to each other. And explicitly putting Egwene and Nynaeve on even narrative footing with Rand, Mat, and Perrin serves to emphasize how central they will be to the rest of the story moving forward.

I think this is a good change. Many of the women are portrayed as humorless scolds and slut shamers. The women in the show seem a lot more fun. In Romantic literature women usually represent civilization and order, so Jordan’s approach was in line with that. But it’s an unfortunate stereotype and it’s nice that the show is discarding it. 

Paternity leave is not standard in the United States. A few companies offer it, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. The reason, of course, is that women are supposed to be the “better” person for taking care of an infant and the man doesn’t need to be home to help. Parental leave isn’t a fun vacation. It’s for parents to focus on bonding with the new baby and dealing with its needs, along with helping the parent who gave birth physically recover. It’s wonderful that so many of you value paternity leave like this and I hope you are advocating for it in your workplace and with your elected officials to become standard. 

12 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Yeah, I never really got why people tolerated the Whitecloaks. But evidently they command some degree of respect from the general populace. It was a bit of a gap in RJ's worldbuilding, tbh.

Its a check on the power of the Aes Sedai and White Tower. Outside of Andor and the Borderlands, it seems like rulers don’t really like the Aes Sedai and distrust their meddling. And since they basically control Amadicia, it sets a bad precedent for other nations to invade and change the power structures of another country. Your average person has heard plenty of stories about Aes Sedai witches and how they caused the breaking, so they aren’t really motivated to do anything about the Children either. They probably think both sides aren’t anything they want to mess with and just stay away. 

Yes, the Aes Sedai disobey orders to stay out of the fight because they can’t help unless they are in danger. Also, in The Gathering Storm, Elaida starts psyching herself up to kill Egwene by telling herself that Egwene is a Darkfriend and therefore a threat she’s allowed to use the Power on. 

I’ve spun off the Mat discussion into its own thread. Enjoy. 

Beidomon, you’ve been told not to participate in this thread anymore. Please enjoy any of the other fine threads this forum offers. Thanks. 

Patriarchal assumptions about gender roles also harm men. The example of parental leave is an excellent example of that. But again, we don’t need to rehash real world examples of sexism when a simple Google search will give you all the information you need. Let’s keep the focus on how the show does or does not live up to its feminist ideals. 

Rosamund Pike is speaking with her natural accent. It’s not American. I don’t recall any American accents at all. But you aren’t wrong that the accents as described by Jordan aren’t being used. Accents are notoriously difficult for actors to achieve and if the production wants to get it right, you need to hire vocal coaches who specialize in helping actors create believable accents. It’s even harder when you aren’t copying an existing accent. I believe there’s a featurette from Marvel talking about how they created the accents for Wakanda in Black Panther. It’s very interesting. 

Yeah, I’m curious how far they’ve thought this through. It’s a pretty big change to the rules and as many have pointed out, it has big implications later on. 

Let’s just agree that Beidomon has no idea what he’s talking about so this thread doesn’t degenerate into all of us describing all the different ways he’s wrong. I think every woman reading this has a personal example of how sexism has affected our lives. 

If you honestly believe that being a woman gives you an advantage… No, I promised SD I’d be polite. But you should probably stop hanging out in a thread about feminism. It’s not going to go well for you. 

1 minute ago, Agitel said:

I hope the blu ray release includes deleted scenes. I want to see what was on the chopping block.

Streaming services don’t do physical media releases. The whole point is to get you to subscribe after all. 

Okay, but just because we, the audience, know he doesn’t go home doesn’t mean Mat isn’t thinking about it. And we know he’s incapable of giving up the dagger. If the change doesn’t work for you, then it doesn’t work for you. But it’s not a plot hole. 

1 minute ago, AusLeviathan said:

Gitara wasn't blind.

 

I don't remember any reference to a blind Aes Sedai. I guess it could be possible though I struggle to imagine how they'd learn to use the One Power when actually seeing the weaves to learn them is shown to be pretty important.

This is definitely a change from how channeling works in the books. It’s explicitly stated that you need to be able to see in order to weave. There’s someone who used to have a block who says she could only embrace saidar with her eyes closed until one of the Aes Sedai literally beat it out of her. I am assuming they made the change because blind seers are a powerful archetype in mythology and it also sounds metal as hell.