Your second paragraph is true, but Netflix does it constantly. I honestly don’t know Amazon’s track record with actually concluding series

I’ve heard repeatedly that their own internal metric is whether or not this performs at the level of season 1. I don’t particularly care about Nielson or any other stats in particular, other than that it seems very clear that the show is not at that level. So yeah, I agree that this number isn’t the be all, end all, but I think it is a harbinger off the end.

Yeah, with the subtlety and finesse of a jackhammer.

One Great Captain was already killed, so General Maksim stepping into that role completely makes sense in this show…

Put a fork in it. Enjoy the series finale in 2 days.

I don’t have enough faith in these writers to foreshadow the next scene, let alone the end of the series. I’d say time will tell but also don’t have much faith in this show going another season, so we will probably never know.

That is something Lanfear should be aware of, though, so anything that happens there shouldn’t come as a surprise to her at all.

It depends on Rafe’s real life relationship with the guy because that’s the only reason the role even exists.

I’d put money on

I had to pick and choose what to talk about but I almost mentioned that the trollocs, especially the one chasing Aram, were about on par with the trolls from Willow. So don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

Gotcha. I thought it was inky by steddings.

Yeah, I agree completely. I also felt like they elevated Maksim way too much, which kind of lessened Perrin’s importance to a degree. /shrug

It’s a moot point now, but the entire point of the waygates is that they were built on the edge of stedding so that male channeled could travel around without the taint. Every one of them was build on the border of a stedding.

Loial was underused in the show and his demise was heavily telegraphed. The “I can only destroy it from the inside” nonsense was so contrived and idiot that of course we knew he was dead. They may have wanted it to be the emotional punch, but the only emotions it elicited were probably not those intended by the writers.

I also honestly don’t remember - was there a scene in season 1 where Moiraine first teaches Egwene to channel and the latter really struggles to do a very basic thing? That does not jive well with any untrained channeler, including children and elderly drunks, suddenly having abilities to rival all the trained channelers.

Part of the problem here is that is isn’t even just an overuse of “temporary peril,” but it is virtually the exact same thing - grievous penetrating wounds that are seemingly shrugged off. It’s the exact same “temporary peril.”

I’m fine with Perrin’s story being done for the season. We had the climax of the arc and then an uncertain transition /cliffhanger that can be left until next season. Structurally it makes sense.

Amen. The show absolutely neutered the horror of the collars when we learned that force of will is the newly-created trick to get out. I wonder why other channeled haven’t gotten out yet. Oh wait, that yellow sister in Falme did - we just saw her trying to heal Mat. I guess that collar they are looking for for Rand isn’t all that scary since if he just wants it bad enough, he can get right on out of it…

If that is the case, what a lazy, immature writing contrivance to use grievous injuries to remove someone from a situation. “We have a problem, guys. We wrote a powerful channeled into this story arc but now we need her to not be able to do what we’ve written her to do. Any ideas? Kill her? Well, we can’t to that yet. Maybe we ‘almost kill’ her. Again. Great, problem solved.” It’s even worse that you have the built-in reason that channeling is physically draining. Why not use that? They showed it briefly in season 1 where thy couldn’t use Moiraine as a means of destroying their pursuit ad nauseum. Then they seemed to forget about it.

The only reason Nyn survived being stabbed 11 times was because of her warden bind. The only reason Loial was immune to the Shadar Logoth dagger was his warden bond. Landon shrugged off a sword through the chest because of her warden bond…

She’s been absolutely useless for three seasons. If they don’t remove her block it is pointless to have her around for future seasons.

This kind of writing also makes the miraculous mundane. They’ve already neutered future plot points by showing that nearly anyone can do anything though the power of their feelings…

First, yum. Just imagine you’re at the Winespring. Second, we’ve been talking for three seasons now about pacing donor shouldn’t come as a surprise that suddenly there’s a lot to do with little time. For a show that has a ton of book to adapt into a much condensed form, they’ve spent way, way too much time on things that don’t matter and aren’t actually part of the original story. I’ll grant that this season has been more on point, but even then, get rid of the chaff like the Alanna/Maksim nonsense, Liandrin’s wedding massacre, etc. one huge complaint is that this show uses a lot of forced exposition and doesn’t give the story time to breathe, but they keep putting in extraneous fluff. If they do everything that they are expected to do, the next episode is going to feel very rushed, but that’s also par for the course.

They could make her a hero of the horn. They already did it with Uno. She could have something like Birgitte’s arc where she’s brought into this world and continues to “mentor” Rand.

They try to create dramatic moments out of injuries, though, and it doesn’t work when you’re in the Boy Who Cried Wolf territory. Take this episode, for example - when Alanna gets impaled, Maksim doubles over as if he’s also been impaled, right at a moment of battle. Were we supposed to be worried about him? I shrugged it off and knew he’d be back on his feet in a mere moment, which he was. They’ve sapped all gravitas, all stakes from this show. How are we even supposed to know Loial is dead? He’s already come back from being stabbed by the ruby dagger. I felt absolutely nothing at seeing his sacrifice. For all I know, when Rand discovers skimming they’ll just bump into him floating in that void. There is also a fairly significant death in the books very likely coming up and it was a huge revelation that perhaps said character could be brought back. The questions surrounding that, and the impact of that discovery, are neutered for us since we more or less expect it at this point.