It is both, depending on if you are the human or the mosquito. But the analogy is invalid anyways. We know you slap a mosquito because over the course of human history the hundreds of billions of times humans have been bitten by mosquitos they have learned that you either slap the bug or suffer an itchy bite. It is an action with known consequences and a known solution. In this show, it is stated as a fact that if Lews Theron sealed away the Dark One, something that had never been done before, the result would be a tainting of the One Power, something that had never been done before and something with no direct causal relationship to the actions taken. It was a nonsensical line in the show and was only there to Paint LT as a fool who absolutely knew the consequences of his action. Edit: You added a M:TG analogy that does the same thing as your mosquito analogy. If I play against a blue control deck, I know the possible consequences, whether you call them counterattacks or side effects. But I've played thousands of Magic games. It isn't a valid analogy.

The heroes can also be done without revealing Birgitte this season.

I hate that they killed Uno, but I agree that as far as killing characters go, his is of lesser consequence other than being a fan-favorite. Would it have been fun to at some point see him teaching Elayne to curse? Sure, but major plot points are not altered by his absense.

I doubt you're going to see it. We will just have to use our imaginations. Likely, the story picks up when the girls wake up in the Ways.

Yes, in the books. In the show, Liandrin says that the One Power is made filthy every time a man channels (implying that men are the cause). THe female Aes Sedai in S1E8 warns Lews Therin that his plan will result in the OP being corrupted (implying that is isn't an intentional counterstroke but a foreseen side effect). My point is simply that we need consistency and we need much better-established worldbuilding.

I do not understand where your faith in the writers stems from. What have they already adequately explained? The dual, gendered nature of Saidar/Saidin has been butchererd/forgotten/miscommunicated/misunderstood, and it is fundamental to the story. Liandrin gets it wrong; the writers even created a prime opportunity for themselves to explain it when they had Rand and Moiraine talking and they couldn't even manage to explain it. The warder bond is clearly confusing as we don't understand fully what is going on with Lan and Moiraine. How about the Whitecloaks disdain for Aes Sedai, even though Bornhold (maybe?) sold MOiraine ot find an Aes Sedai for healing? All I'm saying is that the worldbuilding has been vague and inconsistent. If you want to test it, ask your non-reader friends what Saidar is. Ask them what the taint is and what causes it (because the show has implied multiple times now that men cause it when they channel). Again, I'm separating this from fidelity to the book, but I want consistency within the medium and I still haven't seen it, which has led to confusion for many.

It is interesting. I've watched and listened to a few different podcasts/reviews of the show, a number of which were done in a roundtable format. To a person, all of the non-book readers have gaping holes in their understanding of the world and had to have them explained by a fellow reviewer. Things like Ta'veren, the ajahs, etc. Some of this might be difficult to explain without massive exposition dumps, but they've shown through other scenes that they aren't afraid of that. Separating myself observations from fidelity to the book, they show still has a serious infestation of mediocre-at-best writers and very shaky internal consistency. I think consistent world building has been an issue from the start and I think it shows with some of the confusion from the non-book readers. There is a lot of information to take in, obviously, and those of us that are fans of the books sometimes take our understanding for granted and think that what isn't made obvious to the lay person should be obvious because we understand it so well. The writers, though, need to improve on this massively. I haven't watched any of the supplemental shorts and in this context, I don't think anyone should be required to watch additional media to understand concepts presented in a show; the show should stand on its own merits.

This is pure conjecture, obviously, but I've always thought that whatever is going on with Moiraine, I believe it is being used as a vehicle to get Nyn healing stilling earlier in the story. I also think that when this happens, Lan is going to act like he was just hit by lightning and realize that "she's back," or something like that.

There are a lot of ways it can go. I have some ideas. First, I just have a hunch that they are going to combine Falme and Tear and we will see a battle that culminates in the capture of the Stone. Piggybacking on that, I think that they will make the Rand/Ishy fight take place on the top of the Stone so that they are visible to all. I don't know how they will do the heroes but I hope they aren't a ghostly fog/mist like the Army of the Dead in the LotR movies.

Rafe was asked about that scene at some point and his answer was a little coy. I'd have to hunt the quote down but the question was essentially "how awesome is the scene going to be when Mat spars with Galad and Gawyn." Rafe's answer was something along the lines of "as awesome as you'd expect." This was a while ago and I feel like we've missed the opportunity to see the fight, plot-wise. We will see...

It is made pretty clear in the book but you are also correct that it is almost never revisited. I don't remember if Siuan comes clean when she gets to Salidar but it is not discussed much in the books.

I agree completely. In a general sense, I don't mind having a more fleshed out character and I understand that they are trying to give depth and motivation to one of the protagonists; on the other hand, the show has spent far more time and effort on Liandrin than they have on Rand, Mat, or Perrin (and possibly all three combined). This is especially puzzling considering that Elaida has been confirmed as an upcoming character - if they had been combining Liandrin and Elaida I can see the time being spent; as is, a shallow c-level character has consistently had the most screen time and writers' focus at the expense of the main characters.

Have they changed the animations for channeling this season? I remember there was a bit of concern over how it would be represented in the series and I vaguely remember that I found it acceptable in Season 1. I remember noticing that the flows seems to come from off screen and it looked like the channelers were grasping at threads that were already there and manipulating them into their service. Yet off the top of my head, this season it looks like threads just seem to form around a channeled and wrap around their arms or bodies a bit. I don’t know what it is and it could be subtle or it could also be me misremembering. Something seems off about some of the animations to me, though, this season. Obviously it is a subjective opinion on how it looks but I’m just wondering if anyone else has felt that the effects are somehow different from season to season with regards to channeling.

I have been, and continue to be, a huge critic of the show but this was one of the better episodes I’ve seen. That said, I cannot stand what they are doing with Moiraine and Lan and the way in which they are doing it.

You dive deep into the books to give corollary and reasons why she might not be stilled. The entire show began with Liandrin saying that every time a male channels he taints the One Power and then proceeded to play fast and loose with the rules governing it’s nature and it’s use. Until the writers surprise me and prove me wrong, I’m going to go with Occam’s Razor and assume she’s stilled and further assume it was done to set up Nynaeve’s abilities.

Ha. I just tried to edit my post a bit. Autocorrect absolutely destroyed me, there.

Aren’t they longer because there will be fewer episodes?

What a disingenuous take. You as a supposed writer should know that there is a lot more to a story than just the major plot points and Proper Nouns. Stories have themes and tones; characters likewise have tones as well as motivations and personalities. This series is not a retelling, it is a rewriting. This series isn’t thing the same story but with a different narrative voice: this series is reworking the story and altering tone, motivations, personalities all to suit the whims of the writers while leaving major plot points and Proper Nouns intact to piggyback off a a higher caliber work. That said, I do agree that this show doesn’t change cannon and doesn’t change my perceptions of the books. What is does is bastardize the books and, unfortunately, makes millions of viewers who haven’t read the books see Jordan’s world very differently than it was originally written by the original author.

How so? I’ve seen no hints she’s just shielded. I think they’ve given her the worst fate possible outside death so that later they can have Nynaeve heal her. That will resonate with viewers more that with a character like Siuan that viewers don’t know all that well.

The season seems better than season 1 but a nicer dumpster fire is still flaming garbage. This is clearly not a work of love; if you love something you don’t fundamentally change it. It is a work of hubris. If that works for you, so be it, but this is a complete bastardization of the source material, or maybe just an attempt to hijak an IP in order to make a show with Rafe’s own thought.s. Question: Did I miss something? How are Loial and Uno walking around with no problems at all? Forget for a minute that the ruby dagger should have been instant, agonizing death, Loial seems to a shrugged off a bog standard mortal wound fairly quickly and easily. Elias looks nothing like I imagined him, but that’s ok. I also think this is one of those instances where condensing some material for the screen works. I don’t mind him in replacement of Hurin. What I do mind, though, is the writers taking the most stupid and unnecessary element of the first season - Perrin’s wife - and beating that horse ad nauseum. Give him another motivation, please. I think the fact that Bayle has a mustache is indicative of so many of my issues with this show. It is a tiny thing? Sure. But how many times throughout the course of the books did they mention his bare upper lip? Why not give him that look for the show? This is, again, indicative that either someone doesn’t really care about the source material or that someone thinks they can craft a better story with better characters than Jordan. Did you know, by the way, that wanders can be bisexual? Rafe doesn’t care too much about crafting a consistent narrative around things like the One Power but he is certainly going to make sure you’re clear on Aes Sendai sexual preferences. We were reminded repeatedly, first with Egwene walking in on Alanna with her warders, much like that scene in the book, then with Nyneve training with the warders and having a conversation about love, much like that scene in the book, and then Alanna having a talk with Egwene about how to have a threesome, much like that scene in the book…. And while I’m on that topic, the warder saying “you always make me feel like the third wheel” was the whiniest, most passive beta male delivery of a line I’ve ever heard, so much so that it was hilarious. So Moiraine is stilled. That makes total sense. Don’t worry, though, she can still kill a Fade. Never mind that she’s about 5’ tall and 100lbs with little to no recent martial training and a recent loss of an ability she relied on for everything, she’s been carrying water so she can easily take out a creature that even warders don’t want to fight with just a dagger… Mat got about 5 seconds in the show but the new actor seems a decent replacement. If I had closed my eyes and listened to his speech pattern I might have thought it was the same actor. For a show that is supposedly cutting back on the number of episodes while simultaneously squeezing more books into each season, not much happened in this episode. Can we just skip to the part where “Ten Times Stronger” Nynaeve saves the planet? Edit: Good grief does autocorrect butcher anything I try to write about this series. Sorry if you slogged through all that…