Additional ones that may be good. Moirines staff that she used in the Two Rivers Moiraines Angreal that she got from the snakes and foxes if you are looking for something a bit darker. Dice and or dice cup or Playing cards from the books for Mat. If you are going down towards the hand you could also maybe incorporate Nynaeves rings and bracelet angreal. Perrins axehead would be good for the shoulder with Rands sword and Mats ashanderi for the top and bottom of the forearm could be a good foundation for the rest. Feel free to ignore any of that as I am no expert of tats though.

Totally not my take on it at all. The attack on the farm is like 60 pages into the main part of the book and from there you move into the incredibly tense trip carrying Taim to EF after the farm attack. Followed again by what I thought was a fairly intense sequence as they raced out of the two rivers. I also think of the book as being without the Ravens chapter as I only ever had the original version for 30 odd years and never new it existed till well after I had read the final book. Warmed to Matt and Rand quickly. Moved into action far quicker that lord of the rings I felt, and from what I remember since it's a long time since I read LOTR, thought that LOTR was very heavy on name dropping and such early doors and very lacking in action.

Multi year waits between seasons is a major negative IMO people drift away and forget about the story or characters they like. Almost no one is going to be maintain as high as level attachment to the show with significant gaps. Sure the hardcore fans are going to get super hyped close to launch but how many do you lose. And it's not like there are 20 episodes in the season like shows used to have. Stargate for example used to have 20 odd episodes a season released weekly and had a midseason break of 4 to 6 weeks at least which meant the show actually ran for over 6months from start of season to end of season, here we have just 8 episodes all released in a row so it's less than a third of the total season run time then 22 months before the next dribble.

It may not have struck with you but to me it is all fairly obvious. You dont need to know what the titles are to know that they are important Ilyena is shown in the prologue to be the golden haired woman that he loves and is dead and we find out by his hand. Betrayer of Hope we find out is Ishmael and that title is clearly a dark one. It was clear to me that LTT killed his wife because of the madness and he realises this after Ishmael heals him. Yes they use magical powers. The prophecies immediately post provide a clue as to how this will impact the story moving forward and again the entire book is not going to be laid bare in the first 7 pages. Nothing about any of that seems confusing to me.

Regardless of tying it into future lore it is a great self-contained start and is not in any way confusing. Things are built upon later in the series but I cannot see any confusion inducing things. You are never going to understand the entire world in the opening half dozen pages of a book. You introduce the champion of the light and the dark, and Shai'tan You introduce the madness and the taint. You show a broken AoL. You then conclude that with a cutdown of the 2 prophecies that follow that reinforce that the dragon will come again. Starting with the Gitara prophecy could work but I feel that it does not give you anywhere near the world building the other option does.

The original start with LTT and Ishmael should have been used. Sets up the world and the stakes beautifully.

So you are saying a valid criticism of a scene or episode is invalid unless it is accompanied by a fix for said product. LOL

Rubbish. I am not the showrunner. I am not a professional writer. So unless I can personally come up with a better alternative I am not allowed to criticize the delivered product as being poor.

I don't know if RJ would have personally liked the show or not. The only metric I have to support my opinion that he would not have liked it is in comparison to the books, as in my opinion the show is barely recognizable to it's source material, and I feel that a creator would enjoy something closer to their creation rather the mess we have been delivered. It is however possible that he would have liked the show more than the books as has been the case for some creators who have had their works adapted. You are free to disagree with me. It is however disingenuous to claim that there have not been cogent arguments made that solely rest on the faithfulness to the books. It is also not our job to come up with solutions on how to better adapt the show. I am judging the series on the delivered goods. Also there have been numerous suggestions made in the episode breakdowns of people critical to the show about suggestions on how the show could have better handled the adaption so again a false assertion from you. Against your factors the show has one of the highest budgets for a TV show in history and has failed across the board maybe with the exception of the costumes and the blood snow fight. The battles have felt small the world feels tiny and the sets are poor. And before you come in and place the blame on covid I understand it had an impact, but I can only judge on the presented final product and that was very poor. At some point you have to be accountable for the product you deliver. The last 2 factors seem to be basically the writing of the show. Which again I would argue has been poor with the exception of Egwenes parts in the Eyes without Pity episode being an exception while not perfectly in line with the books as an episode of TV I though it was good. And here we must mention some of the things that truly decimate it as an adaption and that does relate to differences between the source and the adaption which I would also argue it is the most important part of the rating how good the adaption is, and which you seem to have not included. Rand makes a deal with the Forsaken that directly leads to numerous deaths of innocents. Rand sleeps with Lanfear repeatedly. Mat is turned into a coward and a thief. Perrin is a wife killer. Lan is a shadow of the character not the best fighter and outdone by Nynaeve as a tracker including in regard to tracking Moiraine someone he has accompanied for nearly 2 decades, and also now basically an emotional mess. Moiraine is robbed of her drive and intelligence. Also setting Moiraine up as basically the main character with the highest star in the cast was a terrible decision. There are lots of other things that have been talked about ad nauseum in various posts but to suggest that you have invited commentators to offer opinions and been left wanting is wrong.

Yes, but convincing themselves that the person is a darkfriend is already a fairly high bar. Just being a murderer, rapist or thief would not be enough you would require knowledge that they had committed themselves to the Dark One in order to circumvent the oaths. Just trying to make oneself think that someone is a Darkfriend because you don't like them is not going to make it true to yourself.

We might also be limiting the definition of shadowspawn too narrowly. Seems highly unlikely that Aes Sedai would limit themselves against human agents in this way.

It may be correct but I don't feel there is any evidence to back up your theory. There is nothing that I have seen that says an official declaration of war is enough to bypass the oaths. At Dumai Wells the Aes Sedai had committed to an assault upon armed forces alongside channelers and could still not use abilities offensively till they were in danger. But you claim that something as simple as a declaration of war would have bypassed the oaths. It makes a mockery of that oath entirely as the Amrilyn could simply declare War on anyone and then the oath is simply worthless. Hardly the safety net that they discuss during the books in regard to the safety of the world around the Aes Sedai.

Dumai Wells would disagree with that. Kira and the other tower Aes Sedai had to actually feel threatened before they could bring the One Power to bear in the combat.

Incorrect. "I thought you were neatly out of the way," referencing an attack already made by Be'lal towards Moiraine could be enough to allow an attack. and then more importantly "he finished with a contemptuous laugh, and raised his free hand. Moiraine had not stopped or slowed while he spoke. She was no more than thirty paces from him when he moved his hand," Be"lal makes an offensive movement towards Moiraine first. I would also argue that an unshielded forsaken being in sight or range of an Aes Sedai is enough to trigger any self-defence use of the oaths.

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