Lan and the tree. Alanna and her pomegranates. they have time for that, so show us all the other stuff....

Love the post; I almost agree completely. I'm not sure if Nyn / Elayne to Tanchico is a S3 thing, though; I think we get them in the tower doing not much, while we mainly get Rhuidean and Two Rivers. Another thing I would add to consideration is that Sea Folk - especially the kind doing Sail based sets and journeys - are nightmarish to film. You can't get the CGI textures of the boat right, you can't build complete physical sets and get cameras where you want to go, and you absolutely can't do anything that involves real water at scale on a tv show like this. So I've always thought - since this was announced - that of the 4 peripheral cultures, the Sea Folk were the ones we were sure to lose.

I don't pay attention to interviews during the season to avoid potential spoilers / hints, but this indeed makes me think that callandor is getting moved or replaced. So if they do that, and have them end this season on Domon's boat, you can open with in Tear as book 4 does, and cover the same ground. Or even Mayene, if the doorway doesn't get moved, and Perrin still meets Berelain.

or better, yet, it gets combined with the Male a'dam they find.

I think we get Tear in 2 episodes (Callandor, Doorway, Faile / Berelain, Invasion) , then they split up as you listed. Nyn and Elayne sneak take a certain something something back to the Tower, setting up their rat catching escapades in the Tower before heading to Tanchico. He failed her by letting her drive him away from his duty as a warder to protect her from any danger, and from herself. He also put personal pleasure ahead of protecting her at the end of season 1, and it cost her months of pain. So take your pick.

i bet this is only for newly captured damane, to ensure they don't take the opportunity of a big bucket of water and some time alone to free themselves from this turning of the wheel

Not that dark; it would be a basic twist over the plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, among others, and something someone steeped in the dark and aiming at the throne would be willing to do. After all, we just watched Liandrin sacrifice her child - the reason for swearing to the dark - almost without complaint, if not emotion.

Nope - Nynaeve now has her very own seanchan lady that I'm sure she can ask very politely how to take the collar off, who will be desperate to tell her. They'll take it off, and then put it right back on her, so that Nyn can dress as a suldam (see episode 8 preview) and go get Egwene..

BUT...it does lose something that we don't get to the see that the Tower has a history of using weak reeds to build boats if that's the only thing they have to hand. The old Amyrlin sent these two out with a switch to kill a bear. as Siuan does 25 years later. They lose the symetry.

I don't think of it as a temporary truce - I think it's a military man choosing battle at a time of his choosing. He just saw this woman cripple the Amyrlin seat inside 3 seconds, and was leaving with Rand. So go, protect Rand and Moiraine, and live to fight another day. It wasn't a truce. It was more "you can do nothing and come with us, or you can do something, get fed your own sword, die, and do nothing"

Nah, I'm good with this. I often think good guys don't do enough of this when getting information from bad guys. and it gets Logain sent back to the tower, where he'll possibly be needed for other more important developments.

Are you both sure she isn't a dark friend? One very clear way to hide her own status would be to sacrifice her son. But as a fellow darkfriend, he's also a competitor, and there's no way anyone would believe she didn't walk in the light if she was willing to reveal her own son. It would be a great move.

I think that was foreshadowing. I don't like the way it was handled either, but I do get that it will turn out very differently later on.

I thought this episode was just okay, an opportunity to catch their breath after the emotion of episode 6, and get everyone in place for the final showdown with HLT. I'm glad the Lan / Moiraine split and stilling / shielding things are over. My biggest complaint about this episode is aimed at Amazon - the absolute need to shove all this into one episode meant that the great moments were too obviously crammed in as fan service instead of given time to breathe. There were so many jump cuts, and the Forsaken Concussion travel agency continues to be overused instead of showing our heroes travelling and the passage of time (Does it really feel like Eqwene's been captured for months?) I want to hear someone in episode 8 realize the Forsaken have travelling and what it means. From the actress's still photo, I wasn't sure I bought Lanfear as the "most beautiful woman in the world", but in the context of the show, she has been. Mainly because she's the only obvious tramp. I was really upset with Mat and his tea, until I realized that that was the "flicker / flicker / flicker" scene, and not necessarily the missing memory scene. It's obvious that they're dropping portal stones / worlds of If, so that's an okay cover. Kind of dumb with a magic handwave, but I doubt it annoyed non-book fans too much. Oh, it's Maiden hand talk, not maiden cheerleading. But I figure they need to differentiate themselves from the subtley of Lady Jessica's sign language. Rand at least got a couple of forms recognized, making it more likely we get him / Lan training next season. so, now 1 episode left this year. speculations will be posted elsewhere.

Since I haven't seen anything really to the contrary, I have to think:

Or, as is often the case for TV, they are changing her name to avoid having something (Alivia) that is too close to another character (Alviarin). Same way I'm not sure Egeanin gets to keep her own name (ironic, I guess) because of the closeness to Egwene.

I agree with the sentiment, but I also think Scarloc is right - there is a different emotion evoked from seeing it than reading about it. And while the books show one Seanchan person go through the journey of seeing Aes Sedai as people (the ship captain whose name I can't remember), and not dogs, she is very much in the minority, and does nothing for the audience to prepare for the end of the Seanchan story. Nor is there any guarantee she makes it into the series. I will be curious - if we get there - if the audience ends up taking Aridhol's position

I'm also fine with it being covered under the Rule of Cool - it's epic fantasy, not grimdark, so some license is allowed

It might be useful against an offside lateral swing aimed at the neck, for right handed swordsmen who would have a hard time parrying a left side approach. Here's my No-Prize attempt though. More likely, it is intended to be decorative. Whitecloaks are bullies, and sneaks, and knives in the dark - not working soldiers - and overly concerned with appearances. Because they're not armored anywhere else, unless there is mail under their pretty white cloaks. So it really is possible that it is style over substance, but it's not a show issue, it's an actual in world issue. Don't think of Whitecloaks as the Knights Templar; think of them as the Moral Majority crossed with the Spanish Inquisition

I expect they're hoping for a later season budget boost for these. Plus, it has a whole...it's the Seanchan, but they're worse now..

This is a great idea; especially if Lanfear is the one who opens it; Egwene sees and learns the weaves, and can use it to bounce around the waste. without figuring it out herself. So. win

This thought had occurred to me as well; it has a possibility. Although she might be a little too subservient to the Sul'dam to be Alivia. BUT...the image that struck me full bore watching this episode is that at some point in episode 8, the cute little damane

I really enjoyed the episode; I thought everything in Falme was excellently done; unlike the Season 1 story with Steppin and turning a throwaway character into a story arc to show not tell, they were much more effective with Ryma (another throwawy line) I'm less happy about the whole thing with Mat - with only 2 episodes left, they need to get him on track. Lan still is the worst represented character on the show, and nothing they've tried with him has worked so far. They are going to need some kind of magic carpet to get Rand and Moiraine to Falme next episode. And they can't use the basement that was in the books. Some big mid-game set ups coming in the next episode before the end of the season. Time is ticking.

or, just to make it obvious that Siuan is in cahoots with Rand, she can link with Rand, so they both can see them in order to free Moiraine

Or, you know, Elayne hasn't been sworn as an Aes Sedai on the oath rod yet, and she can still lie like a domani fishwife?