Even though I'm a spoiled non-book reader and therefore not entirely indicative of the general audience, there is absolutely no reason to think that the show won't go the simplest narrative route with Gaebril, which is to stick to him being Rahvin in disguise.

If Ishy comes back, it will likely just be in the same body and with the same identity. Resurrecting characters with completely new names and different physical appearances is a complexity that the show doesn't need to introduce, especially with the changes that they made to the Metaphysics of Reincarnation.

The known-to-audiences Forsaken heading into the premiere of Season 3: 1. Ishy (seen onscreen) 2. Lanfear (seen onscreen) 3. Moggy (seen onscreen) 4. Graendel (mentioned in dialogue) 5. Sammael (mentioned in dialogue) 6. Rahvin (alter-ego Lord Gaebril cast) Suspected Forsaken: 1. Asmodean (statue)

We've already got confirmation that Graendel is in the show. Heading into Season 3, we're only missing two confirmed Forsaken, one of which we can assume is definitely being included based on the statues that we saw in Season 1. There is an unidentified feminine-seeming statue that people were assuming meant that we were getting 4 male Forsaken and 4 female Forsaken, but Lanfear only naming 2 female Forsaken besides herself and using the catch-all term "the boys" kind of indicates a 5/3 male-to-female gender split so we kind of need to figure out if there's a male Forsaken that could realistically be rendered feminine in statuesque form.

Not true at all. They horizontally bisected a Brown Sitter and collapsed several sections of the Hall's support pillars and upper levels within seconds of Liandrin calling them to join her. Directly attacking Siuan was the third/fourth thing they did, and they only did that once they were in the center of the room.

Being able to turn one's usage of the One Power towards an offensive purpose is not the same thing as specifically training oneself to do so, and even the most well-trained person can have a slow reaction time depending on the circumstances they're facing. Under ordinary circumstances, it might strain credulity that 5-to-16 odds would favor the 5, but we don't know exactly how powerful that 5 were in terms of raw strength. Those 5 were also aided by the fact that 4 of them had the advantage of surprise.

Based on my own understanding of the ways that television storytelling differs - and has to differ - from literary storytelling, I do not foresee Verin being revealed to be a Dark Friend being positively received by general audiences based on the way she has been characterized to date, nor can I figure out how her actions to date can be squared with her being a Dark Friendand do not feel like general audiences will be able to do so either.

I don't know how to tag spoilers on these forums and so I was trying to comment my feelings without explicitly going into spoiler territory, but I'll just come right out and say it: I can't figure out how Verin's actions in the show thus far can continue to make any sense if she's revealed to be a Dark Friend, and I have a feeling that most of the general audience is going to retroactively feel similarly.

* Show!Verin's storyline deviating from that of her book counterpart (because I can't figure out how they can give her that storyline and have her actions thus far make sense) * Some kind of reconciliation between Moiraine and Siuan, especially if they're going to permanently remove Moiraine from the narrative

Some clarification about my concerns/confusion re: Verin: I'm struggling to comprehend/figure our how it's going to be possible to reveal her as a Darkfriend and still have her actions thus far in the show make sense.

If the reports from the Brazilian Comic-Con where this same Sneak Peek - or at least s version of it - was first screened are accurate, just under half of Episode 1 is going to be taken up by this one narrative sequence, which convinces me even more that, with only 8 episodes, they're actually not going to do the Tower Coup this season and instead save it for later. Regarding the Sneak Peek itself and the contents thereof, I'm struggling even more to figure out how they're going to make Show!Verin's story align with that of her book counterpart without breaking plausibility and creating a whole lot of cognitive dissonance.

We really don't actually need to know how/why the Two Rivers 5 and Co. went back to Tar Valon because it's not important to the story.

I'd forgotten just how vindicated I felt when Episode 2x07 explicitly confirmed everything that I had spent both the leadup to Season 2 and the six previous episodes of the season saying when it came to both the design and functionality of the A'dam and also explicitly confirmed everything that I continue to say about the show's interpretation of the metaphysics of reincarnation in the WoT world. I also find it kind of funny how dramatically opinions have shifted when it comes to what's to come for Mat because at the time 2x07 and 2x08 aired, the general consensus was that the 'tea visions' had replaced his experiences with the twisted redstone doorframe ter'angreal, but now everyone seems convinced that we're still getting said experiences.

Architecture.

Even though it was made clear that such was going to be the case long before the show even premiered, it's clear that some people are still super salty that Rand isn't the Series Lead.

It could also suggest that, despite the events in Caerihen, Siuan's trust in Moiraine has been mended and they're once again working in concert.

From the moment I started .my rewatch, I've been trying to remember/decide which episode(s) of Season 2 is/are my favorite(s), but after rewatching Episode 2x06, "Eyes Without Pity", I've settled (for now, anyway) on it as one of my favorite S2 episodes alongside the S2 Finale, "What Was Meant To Be". I also realized/remembered that there's some pretty fun, yet subtle, foreshadowing that happens in that episode vis a vis Rand using the One Power offensively, which happens in 2x08. It's also funny to hear everybody talk about how nice and kind Barthanes is knowing that he's a Darkfriend. Ryma folding up a Sul'dahm like an origami doll is still just as simultaneously awesome and freaky as it was the first time I saw it happen. I alluded to this in an earlier comment, but Renna is another villainous character that I can't help but find interesting and complex even though she is doing some pretty horrible things. I continue to love Nynaeve and Elayne, and the way they go from antagonistic to friends as a result of Ryma sacrificing herself still makes me happy and I'm hoping that there will be opportunities in Season 3 for them to build on that friendship.

Yes. My belief has heretofore always been that even though the show was most likely going to depict Moiraine 'dying', it was also likely going to keep Rosamund Pike as the Series Lead and protagonist of this particular Turning, but as we get closer to Season 3, I'm becoming less sure that the show isn't going to just kill Moiraine off permanently and shift to another actor as the Series Lead 'Game of Thrones'-style.

Death.

New observations/thoughts from my rewatch (Episodes 4 & 5): * I really love the Cairihen plotline that runs through slash dominates Episodes 3-7, mainly because I love the character of Anvaere Damodred * I love the interplay that we get between Ishy and Lanfear and Ishy and Suroth in Episode 5 * Even though I classify myself as a Show-Only WoT fan, I've chosen to not be unspoiled when it comes to details about the novels: one of the downsides to that, though, is that I'm still slightly confused about the overall end-goal of the writers including the White Tower subplot from Episode 5 of Verin playing Detective given that her actions don't seem to fit certain future novel-based revelations about her moral alignment * I've always been of the belief that while we are going to see Moiraine 'meet a sticky end', as it were, the TV series' focus on Rosamund Pike as the Series Lead won't change, but as we start to get closer to Season 3, I'm kind of starting to wonder if my assumptions are going to be proven wrong, which makes me sad given that Moiraine is my favorite character *I love how Episode 5 establishes that Moiraine and Anvaere are still 'best sisters' in spite of their decades of separation from one another and the clear resentment that said separation fostered on Anvaere's part

Yes, people in our world abuse animals. My point still stands, though: abuse is not training. The show pretty clearly wanted to make it obvious to audiences that the Damane are abused slaves (not trained and coddled pets), and the in-the-mouth gags do that super-effectively, as does the intense, in-your-face depiction of what happens to Egwene.

You don't train dogs or horses by abusing them.

Collars and leashes don't send exactly the same message as gags do, though, or at least not as effectively. Also, the Damane in the TV series aren't 'trained'; they're abused into submission and subservience, and putting them in gags in public is a symbol of that for both the Damane themselves and the wider world at large.

The point of the gags isn't that the Damane are rendered silent in Seanchan culture; the point is that they're subservient, enslaved, and subhuman. Anything other than literal in-the-mouth gags doesn't actually convey the intended message either culturally or in terms of why Sharon Gilham added them to the costuming in the first place.

Costume Designer Sharon Gilham added the gags to the Damane costumes as a visual representation of the Sul'dam (and the Seanchan in general) viewing the Damane as subhuman, which means that she obviously thought that having such an overt visual clue of how the Damane are viewed was in fact "necessary" or else she would not have bothered to incorporate gags into the costuming.