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.

Did Fain know that Perrin was in Emond’s Field? I forget if he observed him directly. Because if he knew that someone was there that could identify him as a darkfriend, why lead the double cross?!?

Lipstick on a pig. But hey, girl power.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up the sad state of this show. We will see what happens next week - we’ve all been warned that it’s “controversial.” That last two season finales have been nonsensical dumpster fires that were like a greatest hits of the writers’ bad ideas so get ready for a reassessment.

I think part of the reason we didn’t like him as much in the book was his pursuit of Egwene and that’s just a non-factor here.

Yes, I got a little chill for that whole sequence where Faile convinces him to rally his people and he goes out and grabs the hammer. That was fun.

The books offer an answer. There isn’t a problem with the black ajah seemingly breaking the oath. My issue is someone making up some excuse that because they are darkfriends, or because they really, really want to, they can just override the oath rod. That would be a dumb as them saying is a Damane really really wanted to she could get herself out of bondage…*crickets*

I simply felt like there needed to be a little more to the scene. It ended up being a little bit like Rand slowly standby Ishy in that Valda ran into the channelers and then just kind of stood there doing nothing. He wasn’t in the main battle precisely because he was hunting down Alanna, so what as his plan? He certainly didn’t seem to have one. On top of his complete impotence, the acting from Alanna was terrible where she was struggling to live then immediately got her act together and propped herself up, and the girls channeling with ease continues to be ridiculous. It was a lazy scene and could have been executed better to the same end.

The misuse of wolves and Luc is pretty bad. I’m guessing next season there will be something there, but who knows.

It’s got to be Aviendha next week, right? She’s the only one who hasn’t been mortally wounded yet, I think. Well, maybe Moiraine, I don’t remember, but she should have another arc. Lan already died in S1, so probably not him. Avi it is.

But the oath still bind her. “I will not be a darkfriend” is not an oath. That’s just completely made up lore pulled from the ether to justify the show’s writing.

Why not?

I don’t mind him dying, I just thought the scene was sloppy.

It’s also appropriate comeuppance considering his burning to death was as the hands of the girls whose mother he burned to death. I thought the scene was really sloppy but sure, I guess there’s some meaning there.

If you even get knicked by the SL dagger, you die a horrific death. They established it in the show. Then Loial got stabbed by it. How is that a debunked myth? Just because the writers are so bat they can’t keep their own story straight doesn’t mean we have to pretend like the show has no rules.

At this point, don’t discount the writers making her a Force ghost or something…

You don’t need to let it go. The writing in this show is amateur at best and this whole playing fast and loose with injuries and healing is asinine and just one of hundreds of examples that this team doesn’t deserve this story.

I agree completely that it is both eye-rolling and a complete fumble where it comes to using the phrases already created for this world, but it also comes across as juvenile immature. It couldn’t be more clear that someone in the chain of production really wanted to tap in to the GoT vibes with its violence, sex, and language, but at the same time they seem to want to keep their TV-14 rating to draw in as many viewers as possible by veiling their nudity and cursing in subtitles and stuff like that. It’s like seeing a 12-year-old acting touch on the playground but then looking around for the adults and whispering a curse.