i hadn't really thought about it, but since this thread is about how I would have started it - and I wouldn't have had Rafe's agenda - I would open it with the Blood Snow with Tam, then cut to the Foretelling intro'ing Moiraine / Siuan, then roll the opening credits. No mystery for the audience, a dead seer showing why the Dragon being reborn is so terrifying, and then cut to black. Out of the credits, have a moving camera track over the terrain in a breezy sort of fashion until it comes across Rand and Tam heading to the Two Rivers and seeing the Fade. If you wanted to play a mystery up, have the wind stop when the boys are sitting at a table outside the Winespring, instead of the walk in, and have them each talk about seeing a stranger in a cloak - it avoids the Nazgul in the Shire visual. I then would probably move Liandrin's gentling intro to episode 3 after Egwene / Moiraine / Rand talk about who Aes Sedai are going into Shadar Logoth, and saves the first major One Power display for Moraine on Winter's Night. it also needs to happen before Logain gets intro'ed TV isn't like books and movies; audience's need linear because of the time gap between the first and last episode isn't measured in hours, it's measured in months. This isn't about "fixing" what I don't agree with Rafe on - fixing Mat, Perrin, and Maxsim - just moving stuff around to create a more linear story to hook the audience in the characters first, and deal with the world building later