@DigificWriter didn’t read the books, right? I want to hear more about what he thought of the Finn. That scene must have been absolutely bonkers for some people.

I’ve tried to never attack anyone’s feeling about the show. I’ve never said anyone can’t like it, or shouldn’t. I would love to have straight objective discussions but from my background I could probably write a treatise on literary and rational missteps this show has taken from the opening scenes and when I bring them up I am summarily dismissed by a handful who don’t differentiate between opinion and concern about rational, logical story structuring. Wanting the show to demonstrate a level of craftsmanship that I would hope for with such a compelling source should be a desire absolutely everyone here has but some are as unwilling to check their positive feelings at the door as those who have a vehement dislike.

Regarding the Finn, I know opinions are all over the place. As I’ve said, I totally agree that he looked like a Seuss character or a reject from the Cats adaptation, but I also always thought they would look weird. That said, you know how we sometimes get images stuck in our head in spite of how they are written? I always pictured the Finn more human-like, but with some uncanny resemblances to the creatures they represent. Now, in spite of having read multiple times, I can’t remember their exact descriptions. I know the foxes were “fox-like,” but did they have muzzles in the book? Were they covered in hair? I don’t remember at all. I assumed they were more human, just with certain features that gave them an uncanny look. It was easier to picture with the snakes because I kind of thought of them as Voldemort-esque, maybe with rougher or scalier skin, but still human. I could be way off and I don’t know how I would have done it differently. It was always going to be wild.

I don’t believe I ever said that, and if I did I was wrong. I want this show to be incredible, which is why I’m so highly critical of it. This show wallows in mediocrity and so much objectively poorly-structured writing that could be fixed but that hasn’t been. If you want to call it irrational or dismiss it as my opinion, fine, but it is equally irrational and dismissible as opinion to champion the show and to dismiss the myriad writing issues in lieu of entertainment. That, of course, brings us full circle to everyone being irrational and everyone having their own opinion, but I and a couple of others were singled out as being irrational and had to defend our position. Perhaps I missed the post where you called out @DigificWriter for basing his posts on his own opinions. Or is it just one-sided, here?

So when there is a beloved work that is being mishandled and bastardized it is not rational to want the mistreatment to end as a demonstration that the source deserved better care?

Amen and hallelujah. The complete irony is that way back in S1E5 we were told ad nauseum how important is was to spend half of an episode on the death of a warder that didn’t matter because of how integral that was to building the lore and setting up later arcs. Sanderson claimed that production started on one of these seasons without a full roadmap as that different writers were working on different episodes without much consultation between them. I think what you describe is the end result, where we have a ton of scenes that they wanted to show without the connective tissue and the consistency between them.

“That’s a neat trick Lanfear showed me.” There. That takes a fraction of a second more and clears up inconsistencies. It isn’t a matter of time, it is a matter of care. This show simultaneously spends way too much time on exposition dumps and also fails to keep information consistent in the simplest of ways.

I think I may have been the original “Avi channeling” swords complainer and I will go to the grave saying she wielded them like swords and did things you cannot do with spears…but they very clearly looked like short spears to me this episode. There are clear shafts behind her hands. Part of the issue is that the spear heads are long, javelin heads rather than spade points. It helps that she didn’t actually use them this episode to dispel the illusion.

I agree that the sooner this is canned and forgotten the better, but I’m the pessimist that assumes this was the one shot this novel got. There are few examples that come to mind of an adaptation failing but then a second reviving the series. Dune, maybe. And then there’s the whole inexplicably weird Harry Potter thing going on, but I guess only time may or may not tell.

Then explain it that way! A single line of dialogue clears that up. “Look what I’ve discovered/Ive been practicing/I realized what was done to me could be done to others.” Or if Lanfear did it, “That’s a neat trick Lanfear used.” Seriously. One line. But the writers care less about telling the story coherently than setting up scenes they want to show whether or not they fit. I really don’t have a problem with the fact that he was shielded and tied off, just that it doesn’t work against other examples we’ve seen in the show without even a tiny bit of explanation. I do think it was dumb that they had a captured Forsaken and just left him alone. Shielded or not, you keep an eye on him and certainly bring him with when you travel…

Yes! You nailed it with Seuss. I give it a pass because it was going to be weird no matter what. I wonder what non-readers thought.

Did Lanfear heal herself this episode? That’s a no-no.

While I agree, that’s always something that can be done later. It should have happened but ah well.

This is seriously the second time in two seasons Lanfear has had her throat slit. It really is unreal…

Going in to this, I’m sure many of us heard that it was going to be “controversial.” Of the three season finales, this one was by far the least controversial and if that statement was about Siuan, good riddance. She wasn’t all that likable; she wasn’t all that impressive a leader; she didn’t seem to have much use going forward.

Book Elaida was a villain, but not evil, per se. She was harsh, and very misguided, but I was fine with her leaving Siuan alive.

A show shouldn’t ask you to make up your own wild assumptions like this, though.

I really wish they had given Rand vs. Couladin more time and had gotten into the visions. They certainly played it up as if they were going to, and Rhuarc especially acted like Rand was going to go too far, and then they essentially just went right to the rain. One-upping Couladin was a great moment in the books and it also showed how Rand fulfills the prophecy of “breaking” the Aiel. Yelling “oathbreakers” didn’t have that same impact.

The fact that they showed the oath rod scene probably means you are correct, even though it doesn’t make a ton of sense. It’s a trope you see in shows and movies where a loved one just somehow “knows.”

Moiraine to Lan: “Today is possibly the day I die.” Lan: Disappears to meditate so far away from anyone that nobody notices a possible assassination attempt and then some death-via-broken oath all while his Aes Sedai is alone in a tent with the man who she says might kill her. Also Lan: Go ahead and channel, Moiraine, while I guard you from half a mile away so I can get to you just in time after I see a Forsaken appear in this featureless desert and slowly strangle you while I do my best to finally get in a position to protect you.

They had to have someone use the doorway so they could have some exposition to explain a little of what we were going to see later in the episode. Like I’ve mentioned elsewhere, subtlety is not a strength of this show. There was zero other point to that cold open.

Well, I guess we can add to the “‘Tis merely a flesh wound,” list.

I felt like I was watching a Cliff. It’s version of the show. They tried to cram way too much in here and combined events happening offscreen with exposition, and really rushed through some major stuff. The pacing was not good.

The writing here is so damn stupid all for the sake of creating the scenes that the writers want. Lanfear wanted to kill Moiraine, so when she catches her unaware and vulnerable she…knocks her over with air then tries to strangle her?!?

- Why is Lanfear’s TAR weaving black? Did Sony just need to save money and use the effects from the Venom movies? - Wow, Egwene sure learned how to master TAR and beat a Forsaken pretty quickly, huh? - Did Thom really have a free shot at the black sister and yell “Hey” before he through the knife? Good grief. - The Finn was fine, I guess. Maybe looked a little cartoony but I don’t j own what else they could have done. Weird creatures in the book, weird here, too. -Liandrin points her fingers and people die. I think she killed 6 of the panarch’s guards with one quick weave. But then her plan with Nyn is to wrap her in chains and throw her in the water? Dr. Evil-level stupidity, there. But hey, the writers needed Nyn in the water, so stupid ideas know no bounds.