so, considering all the complains whenever a girl saves a boy and it's not in the book, I was expecting this role reversal would be met more favorably

oh, please. bryne is a personal favourite. i have a soft spot for the quiet helper that keeps things together while the protagonists gobble the spotlight, AND for the badass normal guy that manages to stay relevant in a world of superpowered. but with the huge ensemble of characters, bryne is nowhere near important enough, and his story arc can be cut without any large change to the rest of the story. characters like him are the first to be cut in an adaptation. similarly, i expect morgase to die for real, because her later arc can also be cut. sure, she's instrumental for getting galad to listen to perrin, but really, do you think jordan couldn't have come up with another excuse for it if he wanted? this is the same book saga where a high sea folk dignitary agreed to mat's "bargain" of "do as i say, or I'll carry you by force" under ta'veren effect.

that's a possibility, but i don't find it very convincing. egwene punched her sul'dam, and while it was done in the heat of the action, it was deliberate, not an accident while flailing around. is it possible that the a'dam stops you if you are being thoughtful, not if you act in the heat of the moment? it certainly is, but since the original author died, we'll never know for sure one way or the other. for sure, egwene never thought to hit renna with her bare hands in the books, denying us useful information. but we are told damane have their food cut for them because they can't touch knives, it means the a'dam isn't as discriminating at reading your intent as you may assume. i'm not talking of the show. what the show did with the a'dam is bad and rafe should feel bad (the part with the reciprocal collaring, not the part with egwene blowing up her tower while renna was distracted; that's covered into scenario 2). i'm staying specifically into stuff that's confirmed by book canon. on ryma, they ended up accepting that she was unable to channel in battle. they stopped trying to get her to break the oaths long before. wait, this is scenario 5): have every aes sedai swear and oath that if captured and collared, they will never, ever cooperate with the seanchan. that will make them immune to being turned.

The books make it clear times and again that the a'dam is unescapable. and yet, just because you can't take it off, it doesn't mean you are completely helpless. premise: you are a prisoner. you will be tortured, abused and broken into killing your former friends. this is a fate worse than death. therefore, death counts as victory for you. if you die, it's a good outcome; you are not expecting to come out of this alive anyway. whatever damage you can deal to the seanchan before you die, that's just bonus. premise 2: an experienced channeler could just control your flows, like nynaeve did with moggy. however, the sul'dam are anything but experienced. they do not know they can do that, just like they don't know they can channel. you have that little advantage. with those premises, let's see a few things you could do to foil the empress 1) the martial artist You cannot use weapons while wearing an a'dam. egwene was unable to touch the brooch of water after she thought of hitting renna with it. But! Book canon establishes that you can still use your bare hands. when egwene was first collared, she punched her sul'dam, and nothing stopped the punch. sure, she was disabled by the pain afterwards, but she could deliver one good punch in the process. it's perfectly possible to kill a person with a single well-delivered punch, especially if they are helpless because they are not expecting it. i was thinking a solid blow on the occiput, it's the most frail part of the skull and a strong blow there often results in permanent damage. Sure, if you kill - or even seriously wound - your sul'dam you are going to die of feedback pain, but we established in the premise that's exactly what you wanted. you mercy-killed yourself, you denied the empire a powerful resource, and you managed to bring a hard-to-replace sul'dam with you. you can also try to kill other damane, they are very valuable resources - and whether they are tortured prisoners or willing soldiers, they are legitimate targets in both cases, if for different reasons. killing a damane should be easy, if you can still throw punches and you don't get pain feedback. main disadvantage is, for something like that they are likely to cut your hands, which would prevent you from further exploiting this technique and would make your life even more miserable than it already was. The main disadvantage is that killing someone with a single blow is hard, even if you can deliver a good surprise punch on the occiput, especially if you are a tiny woman. 2) friendly fire go along with enslavement. don't resist. play pretend. if the sul'dam sense that you are not truly tamed, just say "[name] doesn't want to be punished", which is pretty realistic anyway. try to get them with the guard down. eventually, you'll be used in combat. you are expected to channel letal blows in that case. when you form a deadly wave, instead of throwing, release it at your feet. the sul'dam can sense what you do, and can stop you. however, especially if you've been fighting normally for a while, they are extremely, extremely unlikely to be expecting something like that. people have limited concentration, and they tend to get distracted if involved in a monotonous routine. you only need your sul'dam to drop her guard for a second. the disadantage is that it's unreliable. it requires your sul'dam to not be expecting a suicide move, that she'll be too slow to react. and, if you try it first, it's more likely the sul'dam will be attentive; you will have to kill some of your former companions at first. But if it succeeds, you could take upwards to a dozen damane with you, dealing a major blow to the empire. 3) the stoic Just refuse to do anything. they will punish you; keep refusing. by tuon's accounting, ryma was about to die before she was broken by playing good cop. it means it's possible to just deny your captors, and ryma would most likely have died had she not found tuon. it requires a ludicrous amount of willpower, though, if even egwene couldn't manage it. 4) the least amount necessary to kill While it's normally accepted that you can't channel at all while wearing the a'dam, you actually can. during one of her chapters, egwene was doing just that. and she could channel only a tiny tiny trickle of power, and she was getting nauseated, and she could not open the a'dam. but she could still move small objects. and it doesn't really take all that much strenght to kill a person with a needle through the eye or ear canal. make a needle of air, you may just be able to kill a sul'dam that way. or at least to gouge out her eyes, which would still mark her a casualty for the empire. it's even possible you could puncture her eyes, then threaten to kill her if she doesn't release you. if she folds to your demands, you may even potentially survive and escape, but better to not get your hopes up. probably they will find you standing before a dead sul'dam. still, even if they mutilate you, they have no way to prevent you from doing the same again, so they will likely have to execute you anyway. and you may also manage to kill other damane, which are much more valuable resources than sul'dam. in the end, there are several ways to defeat the a'dam. sure, they all require a very strong willpower, and most are chancy. and they all will see you dead in the end. but really, you've been captured and collared, what do you have to lose at this point?

non sequitur. you are trying to bring some examples of bad changes as an argument that all changes are bad by principle. you are trying to bring some examples of unnecessary changes to argue that there is nothing whatsoever that needs changing. which would be like arguing that since a few blokes were hurt by wrong medicine prescribed mistakenly, then all medicine is bad and nobody would ever need any doctor under any circumstances. and you just keep bringing that up instead of bringing up actual arguments. "but if someone has a broken leg, he will need splinting" "then explain why joe was given talidomide". no, whether some changes were unnecessary and/or poorly done is completely irrelevant on whether some changes are necessary, and you are letting your frustration with some changes cloud your judgment on changes in general

I think it's because throwing stones uses air, and women are stronger with air than fire. In general, we see women fighting with air more often

fun fact, i agree on each of those likes and dislikes, but my overall opinion of the show is positive. it all comes down to the glass half full in the end

i wonder if they keep gawyn and galad or if they join them as a single character, as was speculated. the mat fight could work regardless - after all, gawyn went out cold immediately and it was just mat vs galad afterwards. and i wonder if thom merrilin has come back, or if they ended up cutting him from the story - hopefully not, but they could have been forced to do it for reasons outside of their control

so, you guys can't tell for sure if specific figures are male or female, but you can tell they are the main characters? i ask with genuine curiosity, because i have difficulties recognizing faces, and i'd like to understand the normal people perspective.

as a high school teacher, i met a lot of almost-20-years-old, and I can say that they have a lot of variety. some act like children all the time. some keep doing it even in their old age. some are basically adults already at 15. and of course you have all shades in between. so, the notion that a character is too immature or too mature for his age is moot. people are different. that said, people tend to mature faster in a society where they are expected to help their elders with work before age 10 and to marry before they are 20.

mat is not a scumbag, at least it's not his core. in S1E1, during the attack, he goes out of hiding to look for his sisters. the hero that complains a lot, swears he's no hero, then goes doing heroic things, is quintessential mat. rand being romantically innocent is not an important side of his character, and neither are perrin's issues with manhood - they are shadowed by his conflicts about leadership and his relation with the wolf inside.

i don't want to argue on the general merit, or lack thereof, of the tv show, nor on the general work of rafe &co, nor am i interested in whom to blame in the long list of people with power to write or dictate or in any way influence the plot. but i have to express disagreement on that paragraph. none of the things you mention is even remotely important in the large scale plot - except perhaps perrin having a wife that dies shortly after, which is mildly important at best. by "not important" i mean, if you were tasked to write a one-page summary of the wheel of time, it wouldn't mention any of that stuff.

i don't recognize any of the faces, i see them blurry even at top resolution. even knowing who they are supposed to be, i can't tell. i don't know how you guys manage. the guy crawling on the ground is rand then? yeah, in that case it's clearly a vision

moiraine mentions she has to die to save rand, so maybe they kept that part. perrin is kissing a girl, he finds faile? what's the scene in the ways? so far it looks goood, but teasers always do.

there have been several productive discussions. however, it's been over a year since the show premiered. we exhausted the meaningful discussions months ago.