20 years before, the Aiel swept through kingdoms unchecked to Dragonmount and turned back only because they accomplished what they set out to do. Many people should still be alive from that war. They would all be mostly terrified of Aiel. In season 1, a town saw one Aiel, killed him, and put his body up in a cage out of fear. So, how can two Aiel walk around TV and EF without anyone commenting or freaking out?

I missed the comment that Gaebril had been around for ten years. I was under the impression that the AS would have heard about the Queen's new consort. I thought Leane not remembering his name was because he was a bit new to their knowledge. I assumed Siuan gave a more than cordial greeting to him because of some type of compulsion being directed at her. However, I am a bit put off by how Siuan is being portrayed in the show, not that I think the actress is doing a poor job. She just does not come across as such a strong, imposing personality as she is in the books. I feel like she is a bit more demure than I expect. Her exchange with Matt regarding the horn is manipulative enough. But, I felt like is was not as heavy handed as I feel she is in the books when handling others. She is the most powerful woman in the world and is oft treated with minimal respect, questioned, or challenged by many.

In the fight scene in the Hall of the Tower, what is Leane doing with the staff? She channeled from the top of the staff with an effect that looks like wind blowing against the BA. She then starts spinning it around with weaves of the OP flowing along the staff. She seemed pretty adept at wielding it as a weapon. Not something I would have thought would be a skill she would have. Oh, she also watches the one BA member cut up the columns that fall on Nyn. She doesn't do anything to help Nyn. She just turns away to keep spinning her staff.

I have only watched S3E1 so far. I appreciate all of the varying views on this episode expressed in this thread. The comment about Bollywood for the Alanna flip was an interesting perspective I had not considered. I just wanted to make a quick post about the Matt and Nyn portion of the show. Nyn seems a bit out of place and out of sorts. She is a lost person with nothing anchoring her. Her finding a purpose in being Matt's Wisdom and trying to heal him in her own way brings her character back to focus. It gives her a reason to learn and push herself in the Tower. I hope this was intentional. I hope Matt having the issues with the mixed up voices and memories in his head will lead him through the redstone doorframe. It seems like a good motivation for him to do that. Nyn's offer to help also conveniently keeps him in TV.

Just question on the side about the forsaken. Do you think they will give some type of explanation for non-book readers as to why the forsaken go their separate ways and do their own things instead of just going gang busters after Rand? Trying to figure out which ones are in the show has a lot of conjecture about what they would be doing to determine who it will be. But, will the average viewer understand the whys?

They were heading towards the docks, but may have had a designated rendezvous point for the brown sister. They may have been trying to draw as little attention as possible while going through the city. I know, it would be hard not to draw attention given their appearances after the fighting. The AS in the tower would be rushing toward the explosion to see what happened not imagining it was a fight or attack. There should be some berserk warders running amok up there. I can just imagine Alanna running through the city trying to get to the docks as fast as she can. She was faster than her warders!

I hope they have 4 and 4, simply because the whole thing is about balance, right?

One item really stood out to me for nitpicking is the entrance to the 13th Depository. What would be the weave that would open the wall like that? At this time, I don't think they AS knew how to invert weaves to hide them from others. So, just hiding the entrance with illusion would not have worked. Also, someone could have possibly gone through the illusion by accident. I do not recall anyone being able to manipulate matter in such a way as to change the wall to a perfectly round entrance which has a smooth surface. It looks like the hole was just made into the wall by Verin because the entrance looks like it was made that way by the brick layers. It just seems like a weave that looks great in the show but does not have a fitting explanation for me.

The AS knew almost nothing about the Aiel. To Moiraine, Manetheren was the "old blood"; and it was strong in the Two Rivers. A lot of people in Randland probably didn't even consider the Aiel as being connected to them in any way because of the Spine of the World separating the Waste from their land and the Aiel being so foreign of a culture. The Aiel were very secretive with outsiders and especially weary of AS because they had failed the AS in the past. Think about how some of the common Aiel react to AS. One Aiel says something along the lines of bring your lightning. I will dance with them. So, researching them was difficult at best. I think the Aiel were also out of sight, out of mind for the AS. Many did not leave the tower. Most that did were not gone for long and did not travel far afield. That is why the Aiel were a mystery to them even after the Aiel war.

The sitters were generally selected based on strength in the power, were they not. AS created a culture where you were automatically obsequious to those who were stronger in the power regardless of any ability or skill you had otherwise. The sitters were most likely in their position to some political skill and sheer strength with the OP. Age may have been a factor as well. Even though they all had to pass the same challenges to earn the shawl, that would have been decades in the past for most. They would most likely have a lifetime of focus on other skills/talents and not been prepared to face what they faced. There are also examples of AS in the books who seemed to be broken or cowed far easier than one would expect based on the types of trials they had to pass to earn the shawl.

Season 3 interview with Rafe Questions address various story lines in the season as well as The Waste, Tanchico, EF, etc.

Lots of views since the release. Lots of videos released by content creators to keep/build up hype. Production looks like the best of the three seasons. Looks like it is trending up. I actually liked what I saw the first time I watched it as opposed to usually being mad as a book reader and having to rewatch to like it. Hopefully this is how I get to view all of S3.

The point with the Damane on the ships should also be noted they would only do what they were instructed to do. If they were not instructed to defend the ships but only to shield Rand, they would not sway from that task. They were focused on their assigned task and may have been pressed hard to do it (my speculation). Also, to the point of power and competence being bent for the story, we need look no further than the battle on the tower top in S2E8. Compare what Ishy was doing to the attacks Rand had to deflect (instinctively at that) during his initial encounters with the Forsaken. There were giant walls of fire thrown at him, the air around him turned to water, excruciating pain felt throughout his body, lightning called down upon him, etc. Ishy just throws some small fire balls or something. He had to lose and they had not put Rand in a position to fight back.

From the interviews that just dropped, it sounds like S3E4 will have a lot to do with Rand and his identity. The cast says this episode should be a banger. Just going from memory, I only recall one non-forsaken to use the True Power. This was shown in Lanfear's eyes after Moiraine slit her throat as she recovered. Which makes me wonder if Ishy will recover in a similar way only take longer because he disintegrated? He wasn't removed from the pattern and shows up in the poster.

Is thom merrilin in this season? Is Fain going to show up in EF? Will the White Cloaks look intimidating or weak? We need more cowbell! I would like to hear season 4 was approved.