I tried giving this episode a shot. Episode one was a huge let down for me. I stopped when they crossed on the ferry. To me it seems she already violated one of the three oaths as she used her power to kill the ferry guy. 

On 11/18/2021 at 10:20 PM, TheAngryDruid said:

Color me incredibly underwhelmed. 2 or 3 on a scale of 10. 

 

I mean, I knew it would be rushed, and there would be changes, but lordy, that was poor. 

 

Minor gripes: 

1) Perrin is married. And kills his wife. 

2) No Thom. 

3) Nynaeve gets kidnapped. 

4) Moiraine is recognized as Aes Sedai right away.   

5) Moirane knowing there were 4 ta'veren from the start. 

 

 

Major gripes: 

1) Losing the drama of Rand taking Tam to Emond's Field. And therefore Tam's rambling about finding a child in the snow. This is what drives Rand for most of the series, who am I? 

 

2) Rand seeing the Fade is also gone. Trollocs are the main threat here, and it should be the Fade instead. 

 

3) The Tower turning away Nynaeve's mentor. The Tower wants girls who can channel badly. Siuan is a fisherman's daughter, FFS. This is awful. Attempting to build elitist tropes. 

 

4) Moiraine's character is awful. Blurting about the Dragon Reborn? Preposterous. Destroying the Inn to throw rocks at Trollocs? Awful. She is Aes Sedai & from Cairhein. Totally out of character. As is a bath with Lan. Ugh. 

 

5) Having Rand accuse Moiraine of bringing the Trollocs, not the townspeople. Again, this totally misrepresents how rural communities feel about AS. The fear. The distrust. The ignorance.    

 

6) Losing Moiraine's tale of Emond's Field. 

 

7) The ease at which they go with Moiraine. So much for stubborn Two Rivers folk. Yeah, I have never talked to you before, but sure, I will leave everything I know to go with you. Sure. 

 

? 8. Lots of extraneous stuff was added (Perrin's wife, Matt's mom, the Reds, and Egwene at the river, even the battle), at the cost of better stuff.

 

They should have opened with Rand & Tam. Fade on the road. Arrived to a quiet, not yet boisterous Inn (Marin was bad). Done some world building with the adults at the Inn. Meet Egwene, Nynaeve, Perrin, Mat, and Fain.  Strangers. Gleeman. Moiraine with the coin. Return to al'Thor farm. Winternight. Rand arrives to Emond's Fielsld in ashes. Nynaeve cannot help his dad. Thom/Bran Dragon's Fang talk. Moiraine heals Tam. Then the whole convincing them to go, finding out that the al'Thor & Cauthon places & the forge were all that were attacked. Rand/Tam talk. They sneak out. End episode.  

 

 

I had to recreate my account from ages ago as I don't have access to my old email. Anyways I will have to mainly agree with this and state I am deeply disappointed in it so far. The Red Ajah in the beginning? Stilling the guy (I'm assuming that's why there were trying to show) instead of parading them around before stilling them? Egwene in the river? WTF was that? That was something I would have expected Moraine to tell them. For me major gripe #6 was huge. Sigh, no tale about Manetheren (not even a mention of it). Another major gripe I have to add is that they did away with Lan explaining about expecting to see Trollocs at the Borderlands, not in the Two Rivers. Minor gripe #5 is a major gripe for me. That's Loial's job. Major gripe #4 - so what, it's ok for men to channel? I assumed based on the beginning (again the beginning was already bad) that it was still taboo for men to channel. At this point I'd rather re-read the series then watch episode 2. World building at a bar could have been done better (ala LoTR).