The narrative shortcut of 'temporary peril' is not in and of itself, 'lazy writing', but if it does start to be overused, it becomes a symptom of what could be construed/seen as 'lazy writing'. I do want to clearly specify that WoT is not the first (or last) series to rely a little bit too heavily on 'temporary peril', but it's more common in Episodic/Procedural TV, and the pitfalls of it becoming a crutch can be more easily exposed in Serialized TV, as is becoming the case here.

After this episode, I'm going to agree that the show is starting to rely a little too much on 'temporary peril' (characters being put in mortal danger that gets quickly resolved) as a writing crutch.

@Kaleb The show explicitly cut the 'Wolf Dream' aspect of Perrin's Two Rivers story (per Marcus Rutherford himself), so the Hopper in Perrin's dream wasn't the real Hopper.

Opinions about the decision to do so notwithstanding, the show established that the main signifier of an Aes Sedai Sister being a Darkfriend/Black Ajah is being able to break the Three Oaths, which is something that Liandrin - having come to the White Tower already Sworn to the Shadow - would've been able - and likely incentivized - to do almost immediately upon being 'raised to the Shawl'. So even if Liandrin swearing the Three Oaths of the Aes Sedai did override her Dark Oaths, she would've been almost immediately incentivized - likely by Ishy himself in her dreams or by anyone in the Tower who was likewise Sworn to the Shadow already - to break or otherwise find a way to subvert the former, thus rendering her unbound by them.

Because she was already a sworn Darkfriend when she came to the Tower.

I was listening to some podcasts yesterday and realized something that is kind of significant but that nobody has really yet commented on: Liandrin was never actually bound by the Three Oaths of the Aes Sedai despite swearing them.

Rafe made this statement at the end of Season 1. You can criticize the show for not being consistent in its depiction of the deadly nature of the Shadar Logoth dagger, but claiming that Loial died in the Season 1 finale isn't a valid critique of anything because it's a blatant and demonstrably false statement.

Nobody died at the end of Season 1. When are people going to give up that debunked 'criticism'? Thoughts on Episode 7: * I spent most of the episode trying to figure out what the Eucatastrophe was going to be, and was disappointed that it turned out to be Perrin talking Fain into calling a 'truce'. * Dain apparently temporarily switching sides really needed an explanation * I was,100% convinced after Season 1 Episode 5 that Aram was,dead, and was just a tiny bit disappointed that he turned back up in this episode just because it kind of retroactively lowered the stakes of Episode 1x05; I was glad to see Ila again, though * Given that this episode only resolved one of the four storylines that got the lion's share of the focus this season, I'm a bit worried that we won't get a resolution to the plot point of Perrin turning himself in, which is disappointing because the stakes aren't high enough to have that be a 'cliffhanger' * I think we can pretty safely say at this point that a certain thing that happens with Alanna in the books isn't going to happen in the show, which is good * Valda dying by fire was an incredibly appropriate outcome given that the very first time we saw him, he was burning a woman to death * This is more of a comment about the season as a whole, but I still haven't found an episode that I would be willing to describe as an absolute favorite, which makes me think that the show is going to end up going 3 for 3 in terms of the Season Finales being my favorites

I'll put even money down (figuratively) that Rosamund's involvement in this show as an actor comes to an end next week.

The term Polyamory is defined, specifically, as "the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved." Therefore, if Rafe is going to be true to his word that the show is turning what was a Harem situation in the novels into true Polyamory and a true Polycule, all four participants involved must have mutual romantic interest in each other, which is why I firmly believe that, when whatever negotiational impasse between Amazon and Sony Pictures Television that is currently holding up a renewal gets resolved and we get future seasons, we will see romantic and sexual connections forged between Rand and Min, Rand and Avi, Rand and Elayne, Elayne and Min, Min and Avi, and Min and Elayne in some permutation of pairings (I didn't bother to mention the establishment of a romantic and sexual connection between Avi because we've already seen it happen).

We already know that the plan is for Min to be romantically involved with Rand as per her own Season 1 comment to him about seeing "rainbows, carnivals, and three beautiful women", but where we will likely see a difference if things go as planned is in her also having romantic relationships with Aviendha and Elayne.

I was trying to do some research on licensing agreements, and based on what I could find, I'm almost 100% sure that Sony Pictures Television's licensing agreement with iWoT/Red Eagle is non-exclusive (since there have been other WoT-related projects announced as being in development that have nothing to do with the live-action show), which means that SPT cannot just bow out of producing the live-action show and let Amazon assume the licensing rights to it. Thus, it would be incumbent upon Amazon to negotiate their own licensing agreement with iWoT/Red Eagle in order to unilaterally move forward with producing the live-action series on their own. They would also likely have to negotiate their own contracts with the cast and crew of the series.

@Elder_Haman I should have specified that there's not much Amazon can do under the current rights licensing structure. Amazon could negotiate with iWoT/Red Eagle to secure their own licensing agreement independently of Sony Pictures Television, but that's an expansive process that would result in the production of any future seasons being delayed (possibly significantly). Also, I do not believe that it is legally possible for one third-party entity to sell the licensing rights of a thing to a different third-party entity, which is why Amazon would have to negotiate its own licensing agreement with iWoT.

This is going here because,there's really nowhere else to put it. As the end of the season gets closer, it feels like worry and anxiety about the future of the show are on the rise, but with that comes well-intentioned pleas for fandom activism and action that, if earlier reports are accurate, are focusing on the wrong thing and ultimately may have zero relevance to or impact on any decisions about a renewal or cancellation that get made. Making sure that Amazon's viewership numbers are high is good, but it only matters in a scenario where Amazon is the entity who is holding up a renewal, which is not, reportedly, what is going on here. Sony Pictures Television, as the primary licensing entity for the WoT filmic rights from iWoT/Red Eagle, holds all the cards if reports are accurate and they are the entity holding up a renewal, because they do not directly benefit from high viewership numbers the way that Amazon, as the distributor, does, and if their purported reluctance is driven, as was suggested by Jon from WoT Up, by a desire to focus on the adaptational development of their own IPs, there really isn't much that Amazon can do because they can't unilaterally move forward with WoT by themselves due to the way that the licensing rights are structured. I do want it to be clearly stated that I'm not telling the fandom to not take the actions that they're taking to demonstrate support for the show and their desire to see it continue, but I do feel like it's important for people to be aware that it might not end up mattering due to the scenario that we are reportedly in in terms of what may be holding up a renewal.

I noticed her expression and the pause, but they don't 'read' as surprise or hesitation to me; they 'read' as a needed pause in the song to catch a brief breath and to watch for performance cues.

I'm apparently the only person who doesn't understand the notion that Elayne was ignorant of what The Hills of Tanchico song was about and/or who didn't 'read' surprise or hesitation into any part of her performance.

That's not how age works.

17-to 19-year-olds aren't 'kids' in any jurisdiction anywhere on this planet.

Season 1 already established that Ishy was repeatedly touching people's dreams whilst still Sealed, so why is it suddenly an issue in this episode when nobody objected to it earlier?

Isn't wasn't physically in Tanchico. Liandrin fell asleep, and he touched her dreams.

Alanna was made as hurt as she was precisely to raise the stakes, and to heighten the drama. If she wasn't riddled with arrows, the Whitecloaks' threat level would be diminished and they wouldn't be seen as credible or competent foes. At the same time, though, Alanna still has to be involved in the upcoming story... hence the utilization of Mat's sisters being able to Heal her It's not inconsistent writing or inconsistent depiction of the limitations of the magic; it's adapting the utilization of the magic to fit specific plot requirements.

Did you likewise find Leanne beating people to death with her Keeper's Staff or Alanna almost stabbing Liandrin with a dagger made of Air Weaves 'silly'?

Episode 6 pretty much just broke everybody's speculation about the identities of the 8 Forsaken because the presumption had been that we were getting both Sammael and Asmodean, but the statue that everybody thought represented Asmodean actually represented Sammael and the statue that everybody thought represented Sammael actually represented somebody else, which throws the floodgates of speculation wide open again. Edit: Never mind. Asmodean is still very much 'in play' as a possibility.

From Fantasy Literature, I love Nest Freemark and John Ross from Terry Brooks' Word/Void series (the Prequels to his Shannara Universe) and Merriman Lyon and Jane Drew from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence. In the Fantasy Television sphere, I'm a huge fan of Matthew De Claremont and Diana Bishop from A Discovery of Witches and Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online.

There was absolutely no chance that Rafe and Co. were going to go that far. Any magic system in Fantasy - even a 'hard' one - is going to be utilized ('function', wasnt the right term to use) at the 'requirement of plot'. It's just a fact of the genre. Alanna needed to be Healed, so Mat's sisters were able to instinctively Channel the required Weaves to do so. It doesn't 'break' the magic system in any way because the narrative explanation can be the same one used for Egwene and Nynaeve: that they're incredibly strong due to the Blood of Manetherin running deep in The Two Rivers (both the village and the region).