One thing: In Two Rivers villages, the Wisdom is the political equal to the Mayor. She outranked literally everyone else on the Village Council. The reason she acted the way she did is because she felt - very acutely - every slight that came her way because she was considered "too young for her role." There was a very real basis for this, but she was also unreasonably sensitive to things a more emotionally-mature person would have shrugged off.

In the Old Tongue, Atha'an Shadar translates as "People of the Shadow." It is actually the Seanchan term for Darkfriends. The Seanchan continent's region corresponding to the Great Blight is simply called the Lesser Blight. I'm not aware of any reference in the books using "Atha'an" as a geographical term. It is an ethnonym, used as part of the names for the Sea Folk (Atha'an Miere) or the Travelling Folk (Tuatha'an).

But not with any freedom. Imagine the horror if she retained immortality wearing that yoke.

Ishamael cannot be a reference to Samael. That job is already taken - by Sammael. Ishamael is almost certainly a reference to Ishmael - someone who was promised to rule over men, with twelve sons chosen to be princes under him. The name he went by in the Trolloc Wars - Ba'alzamon - is a combination of Ba'al and Beelzebub. It's true that many of the names of the Forsaken appear to be direct references to characters from the Abrahamic religions, and others from pagan mythology, but some of those references are for their given names and some are for their assumed names as Forsaken. For example, it appears that Lilith is referenced in Moghedien's original name - Lillen Moiral.

Early on, I thought Jordan had made a mistake in The Great Hunt when he had Verin say flat out that Moiraine had sent her to join Rand and the hunters. Then shortly after, had Moiraine deny she had done anything of the kind, and wonder why Verin went. Turns out. it wasn't a mistake. It was just foreshadowing ten books ahead of time.

I always interpreted that as his reaction to sensing the coins Moiraine had given the boys. He recognized what that meant, and wanted nothing to do with an Aes Sedai.

Taim, not Tam. Demandred, not Damodred. And many readers (including myself) thought Mazrim Taim would turn out to be the disguise Demandred was using - until Jordan changed his mind near the end of the books. This potential plot point is referred to as "Taimandred."

I always wish someone good luck when starting back on this adventure. Happy reading.

I wish you well on your adventure. I was one of those who started reading at the very beginning, and re-read it every time I bought new books. So I never had the opportunity to experience the entire thing fresh without pause. It's interesting to think about how that would have changed things.

Actually, she mentioned a different specific viewing she had (without giving details) that referred directly to Moiraine and success or failure in the Last Battle. It was different from the sparks that she saw not as a single event, but as a visualization of a continuing struggle. "He would almost certainly fail without a woman who was dead and gone..." is how she puts it one of the times she talks about it. It's different from the times (like with Egwene and Gawyn) where she sees two courses of action leading to two different results. In this one, the viewing itself implies uncertainty.

And Min's only "if" viewing was about this. For every other viewing (that she understood) what she saw happened no matter what anyone did to try and prevent it. Only that one could go either way.

That's one of my favorites.

Actually, his first job after leaving was Executive Producer on a short horror film released in 2022. He may have left because he wanted to get behind the camera, rather than just act.

Prior to Taim's "resonance," they WEREN'T identified and recruited. Rand didn't know how to test potential male channelers. He invited people to join him, but unless they had already started to channel on their own, they were just "twiddling their thumbs." Also, Jordan's Aes Sedai were simply human. Even a group that had explicit knowledge that the Last Battle would eventually come would have a hard time maintaining focus if they didn't know WHEN it would come. So even the least selfish or power-hungry of them spent their time following the goals of their respective Ajahs and trying to guide the world as best they could, while arguing with each other about how to go about that. And they HOPED everything would gel in time to marshal the forces of the Light to fight that battle. All Aes Sedai knew the Dragon would be reborn, but only a tiny few even believed he had to have free rein to lead. Most thought he would need to be leashed to serve the Tower's purposes - or even eliminated. Even the rebels in Salidar weren't all on board with letting him act independently. If they couldn't even get that right, why would you expect them to do everything else correctly? Remember, the Prophecies didn't tell them what they would need to do, or when they would need to do it. And 3000 years is a loooong time to keep an organization primed to do something with that little information. For a very long time, the White Tower has been mostly guessing. Also, bear in mind that the Aes Sedai largely had no idea about the Wise Ones or the Windfinders. They didn't have a clue just how many channelers there were outside the Tower, so they had no reason to believe that there would be anything to gain in looking for new recruits outside of those who made their own way to Tar Valon. Should they have known better? Possibly. But they were only human. And it's hard for a human to change their ways when they think they're the smartest person around.

So, a part of it is showing the assembled nobles that one of the world's "great captains" backs Egwene and her claim to the Amyrlin Seat. And that she intended to act on that claim without stepping foot on Andoran soil. Pelivar and Bryne were both needed to get those nobles to assemble where they did. The bigger part was to manipulate the Hall to make a formal declaration of war - putting Egwene firmly and legally in command of the Salidar Aes Sedai. Without them seeing it coming or recognizing the manipulation. A much smaller part (so far as any of them knew at the time) was to start recruiting new Novices, building up the rebel side in sheer numbers beyond anything the Tower could imagine.

True, but well deserved. By any objective measure I can think of, the idea that ANY knowledgeable person within the world of the story would think the Dragon could be a woman fundamentally changes the source material. The idea that Rand could knowingly have a romantic relationship with one of the Forsaken fundamentally changes the source material. The idea that it required channeling to enter the Ways fundamentally changes the source material. And so on.

I didn't twist your words, I quoted them. And the words I quoted clearly stated that whether the show deviated from the source material or not was a matter of subjective opinion, rather than something objectively identifiable. Your clarification didn't address the part I quoted. It simply conceded that people have different opinions on whether this was successful or not. Too many times I have seen legitimate, honest criticism of the show fundamentally changing the source material being dismissed as simply opinion - not about whether the changes work, but about whether they even exist. It's belittling and dishonest, and it poisons any reasonable discussion.

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with this statement. At all. It's true that the question of whether any particular deviation is "good" or "bad," or whether too much deviation ruins the adaptation is a subjective measure. But to claim that noting that deviations exist or noting how much the adaptation deviates from the source material is "subjective opinion" is nonsensical. And this kind of dismissal of any and all honest criticism is a big part of what has gone wrong with discussions of the show on this forum and others like it. It is an objective fact that the show deviated from the source material - from the opening scene of the first episode. It is also an objective fact that these deviations from the source material continued in every episode of all three seasons. Some deviations were small, some were very large. But their existence is not "opinion."

It's pretty clear that "the Pattern needs more channelers" is part of it - but only part. Since the end of Breaking, the only known male channelers have been wilders. The "sudden abundance" is a direct result of the first testing, recruitment and training program in three thousand years. Also, it's pretty clear that the long-term steady decline of female channelers isn't actually real. The White Tower had pretty much given up active recruiting, and as a rule rejected potential Novices who were too old - but who were only "too old" because the Tower had missed them when they were young enough. When Egwene "opened the book," the Salidar Aes Sedai very quickly had more Novices than the Tower itself had seen at one time in generations. Even without counting all the Two Rivers girls collected by Verin and Alanna. Given the numbers of Wise Ones, Windfinders, Kin - and yes, even Damane - there's no real indication of this decline anywhere except within the Aes Sedai. It's just that because of their arrogance and ignorance, they had no clue just how many female channelers they had been missing for centuries.

I don't believe that vision was showing the end of channelers. It was showing the end of the AIEL. Because the Aiel had started a war with the Seanchan that they couldn't win, which resulted in their extermination. Even if the Seanchan had taken the White Tower, too much of their power structure was based on channeling to wipe it out. And since now male channelers were safe and could also be collared, they could be bred, rather than just enslaved. It wouldn't be a matter of "allowing" channelers to procreate, but of requiring it.

That's where the original event being referenced happens. Before anyone left Emond's Field. Or had a reason to think they needed to.

Re-read the beginning of Eye of the World. It's literally that long of a throw-back.

This. This hits the nail on the head of the biggest criticism of the show. Or many other poor adaptations. Don't take a loved story and change it just because you can. Write your own.

Nynaeve's discovery of the consequences of getting married in a Sea Folk ceremony.

It may have been possible that Tigraine and Taringail gave Galad the Damodred name, but it's unlikely. Considering that Gawyn - who was also Taringail's son - was a Trakand. But it would have been politically impossible for Tigraine to have taken the Damodred name. She was the heir to a throne that by law no man could take. She outranked her husband, who was a minor scion of a foreign royal house. Taking his name would have implied that as queen she would be subservient to him, his house, and his native country's king. Which was, of course, the reason that a Cairhienin lord would have wanted it to happen. And also the reason that NO house of Andor would have accepted it. That Cairhienin lord might have thought it was an option, but no one in Andor would have agreed.