5 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Tar Valon looks to be a stand in for Camelyn. Group to reunify there after being separated at Shadar Logoth. I am curious as to the motivation that drives them to Fal Dara from there. Will it be knowledge that the Dark One intends to strike at the Eye? Will it be because Moiraine gets in trouble with the Tower? Will Siuan and Moiraine contrive a reason? 

I've been trying to figure it out just from episode titles but my guess (episode 5 is "blood calls blood", shadowspawn invasion of tar valon?) is somewhat undermined by episode 6 being "the flame of tar valon". So I have no clue!

"It's the wind that listens to you" ohhhh yeah, that's a good line.

Love the reunion between the two in what looks like Tar Valon, too.

With our illustrious thread host absent I'm going to post my pick for Day 9 anyway because I've been holding on to this one for a week now and I can no longer resist: the Nine Rods of Dominion! Mentioned in the Prologue and then not explained or even mentioned again in text! I'm pretty sure I started reading this at age 12 right after finishing Lord of the Rings and Dune but before I read the silmarillion for fun (I was a weird kid), so I was used to having things named and unexplained at that point, but these still stuck out to me.

The later explanation that they were just the titles for regional governors was very disappointing

51 minutes ago, Rose said:

The Pattern Did It is the best excuse for everything ?

I say this with complete sincerity and not sarcasm, but RJ creating an in-universe explanation for the Forest of Coincidences that invariably happen in any work of fiction was legitimately brilliant. "These events sure seem contrived." "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills."

I was also going to say the 8 Ajahs because it's funny. Also one of my favorite characters is a member of the 8th Ajah ("that dress you are wearing is green" and good lord I want this moment in the show so badly)

3 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

a frying pan is a pretty good blunt weapon. it's got the same overall shape and mass distribution of a mace or warhammer. a solid blow can easily kill.

Can confirm, my friends and I have beat Left4Dead 2 levels with only frying pans

Nynaeve did track the Lan-led group across the entire Two Rivers in the books. She's canonically a competent outdoorswoman!

I'm reaching here, but the Black sisters stole 6 dream ter'angreal when they fled Tar Valon

19 minutes ago, Arthellion said:

Bela is the true dragon reborn. That's my story and I'm sticking too it. 

That's ridiculous!

Everyone knows Bela is the Creator in mortal disguise

54 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

The Dragon must still be male. But the prophecies simply don’t speak to gender.

I've been thinking about all this for a few days, and I'm starting to wonder if the situation is that the Prophecies don't include gendered language, and the Aes Sedai started to delude themselves that hey, maybe the Dragon Reborn won't be a boy doomed to go mad and destroy everything, again. Maybe it'll be a woman, one of us, and together we can fix what men destroyed. A combination of arrogance and wishful thinking that, technically, fits the wording of the Prophecies, but is really just lying to yourself. They don't want the Dragon Reborn to be a man, so they're going to look at all the evidence through that lens until long after it becomes impossible to deny reality.

Because the Dragon Reborn does have to be a man. Not for reasons like "sticking closely to the source material" or "deep lore about how souls are always born the same sex", but an even better reason: Narrative power. A male Dragon, in his arrogance, broke the world and doomed all male channelers to decay and madness for thousands of years. So when the Dragon is Reborn, why should he get to avoid all the suffering that he caused in his past life? No: to fix what he broke, he must face the same trials and fates that his past actions caused countless others to go through. The Narrative demands it.

I started a "re-read" a few years ago, but went with the audiobooks (which are amazing, Kramer and Reading do a fantastic job) and listened to them on my commute to work. Only finished up around early 2020 and decided to listen to New Spring... right when I stopped having to commute to work. I only finished New Spring this summer.

I also followed along with Leigh Butler's Re-Read series on Tor, which was both fun and informative (all of it was done before AMoL and some before ToM, maybe before TGS as well, I forget). Definitely worth the time!

My three choices have already been named (great captains, "elements" of the One Power, revived Forsaken). Y'all are quick!

My joke answer is the 4 boys that leave the Two Rivers... on the book cover, and the original drafts of EotW. Thanks Dannil, I'm glad you got to do stuff later in the series!

More seriously: the four marks that Rand receives, as the Prophecies foretold:

Twice and twice shall he be marked

Twice to live, and twice to die

Once the heron to set his path

Twice the heron to name him true

Once the Dragon for remembrance lost

Twice the Dragon for the price he must pay

I don't want to get into a debate about The Last Jedi because, one, it'd be wildly off-topic, and two, I am so tired of having it, but I do want to ask: why do people feel like bad sequels, prequels, and adaptations "ruin" the original material? I absolutely loathe both Rise of Skywalker and the prequel trilogy, but that doesn't ruin the original movies. If anything I appreciate them more!

I do feel bad for WoT fans who will end up disliking the TV show (that could include me! I'm mildly optimistic but it, you know, hasn't aired yet). It stinks when media you like gets taken in a direction you don't want. But in the end... the community isn't a monolith. Your headcanons aren't universal. People like different things. And in a universe where the Third Age happens literally an infinite number of times, where the story of the Dark One being sealed, his retaliating strike, and the Creator's champion being reborn to face him once again is told and re-told endlessly... I don't know, but I find it so limiting to insist that it CAN'T happen this way or that. That's different from wanting to see/read it happen a particular way, which is completely fair! The Wheel may turn endlessly, but we're probably only getting one TV show!

But personally, what I always loved about Wheel of Time was those endless What If ideas of how the Pattern could have been spun. What IF it was the women in the Age of Legends who had struck at Shayol Ghul to seal up the Bore to the Dark One's prison, and saidar was tainted as a result? The whole history of the Third Age would be completely different! It'd be fascinating! Do I want the WoTTV show to do that? Absolutely not! But I find it fun to think about (and I would absolutely consume a Marvel-styled What If spin-off series like a thirsty man in the desert consumes water, come on Amazon do it). That's not true of everyone though. And that's ok. But no matter what, we'll always have the books.

ETA: New clip dropped, Moiraine VO says that men broke the world, the Dragon led them, and (explicitly) "we don't know if he was reborn as a girl or a boy". Obviously we know it's Rand but that does imply the prophecies are less clear on that aspect.

To connect this with the above: do I like this? Not really, no. Does this "ruin" the books or mean I won't like the show? Also no. I am interested to say how they implement it though.

A little late to this but I want to put my answers for the previous days as well!

1. The Horn of Valere

In the last, lorn fight

'gainst the fall of long night,
the mountains stand guard,
and the dead shall be ward,

for the grave is no bar to my call.

2. Yeah the Choedan Kal, especially for their use in the cleansing

3. The Defeats of Ba'alzamon

I really enjoy the way the first three books can somewhat work as a stand-alone trilogy, where each book ends with a climatic showdown with the Heart of the Dark.

• First, Rand channels pure, untainted saidin somewhat-intentionally for the first time and defeats him, also saving the Sheinaran army at Tarwin's Gap in the process
• Second, and my personally favorite encounter, when Rand unfurls the Dragon banner and battles Ba'alzamon in the skies of Falme ("I will never serve you, Father of Lies. In a thousand lives, I never have. I know that. I'm sure of it. Come. It is time to die.")
• Lastly, the confrontation in the Heart of the Stone of Tear, when Rand pulls the Sword That Cannot Be Touched and uses its unfathomable power to overcome Ba'alzamon, pursue him through the World of Dreams, and blast him into ash.

Solving the problem of the Dark One once and for all, I'm sure!

16 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

Maybe put her to a corner with a cone-shaped hat that has something very insulting written on it. ?

I must regretfully inform you that this is also a kink

Discussion on the Dusty Wheel livestream speculated it could maybe be Tigraine, before deciding there's no way a 9 month pregnant woman moves like that, then also suggested Sulin. Janduin was also suggested.

It was also pointed out that the soldier has 9 golden bees on his breastplate and so is probably an a member of Illian's military, possibly the Companions. Now who do we know who was a Companion during the Aiel War...