Not about everything I would have changed with the start, but just one thing that Rafe changed that could have been good, but was cut in favor of one of the worst things he added to Episode 1. This is a scene that we know was actually filmed, and was intended to be included, because a short clip of it was part of the first trailers, and we see the aftermath when Moiraine seeks out Nynaeve in the grotto. Originally, part of Egwene's rite of passage included her "baptism" in the grotto and coming up out of the water through streaks of the seven Aes Sedai colors. Visually very striking. I would have liked to see that actually fleshed out. But the only thing that remains from that scene is about two seconds in one of the early trailers, and a scene that actually made it on screen of Nynaeve cleaning the paint off of the rim of the pool when Moiraine finds her. It was replaced with the ridiculous sequence of Egwene being yeeted into the river , where she received an injury we only hear about once. It's actually available as a deleted scene on YouTube, where the CGI of the colors flowing toward her is kind of wonky. But it's still better that what was chosen instead. And makes infinitely more sense.

The problem with that scenario is that both Tigraine and Morgase outranked Taringail at the time of their marriages. Taringail was Laman's nephew, not his son. Though Laman had no children at the time, it was presumed that he eventually would. And those children would be in the direct line of succession to the Sun Throne - well ahead of Taringail. But Tigraine was the Daughter-Heir when she married Taringail, while Morgase was the actual Queen. It would have been impossible for either Mantear or Trakand to hold the Lion Throne after taking the name of a foreign house - especially through a husband they outranked. If Morgase had taken the name Damodred after winning the throne, she would have immediately lost it again. Prior to the War of Succession, Taringail certainly outranked anyone from House Trakand (which is why a Cairhienin lord would have gotten the idea) and any such marriage would have gone that way. But "Morgase Damodred" would never have won the throne. And once she won, she was his superior in every way. It was considered good politics in Andor for Morgase to marry Tigraine's widower. It would have been political suicide to take his name.

I suspect he was a Mantear when he was born, but took (or was given) his father's name when his mother disappeared. Or at least when his mother's family lost its claim to the Lion Throne. When he was two years old. He could easily have been adopted by Morgase and taken the Trakand name, but for some reason that never happened. Perhaps his father's wanted him to keep the Damodred name to keep his chances for the Sun Throne alive (Taringail certainly wanted to have his children on both thrones). Or perhaps Galad chose it himself (once he was old enough) to honor his father. Or to keep a continual reminder that he was no threat to the Daughter-Heir's ambitions. Whatever the reason, his name meant that his younger half brother (one of them) would be the First Prince of the Sword. And he would be able to follow a different path.

What is this "Emond's Field" people keep mentioning? Mat, et al lived in a town called "Two Rivers," not a village called "Emond's Field." 😕 Seriously, Rafe couldn't even keep the name of their home village the same. The words "Emond's Field" appear nowhere in the show. Which makes one of the good things in the show - the song "Sing of (or Weep for) Manetheren" mean a lot less than it should.

And yet AI-generated porn, even hard fetish porn, already exits. The limits are not inherent to AI. They are artificially applied by the entities that want people to pay them for offering AI solutions. There is no reason to believe that AI wouldn't be able to produce this kind of material if the entities using it don't artificially apply those limits.

But that is for TV that operates on an annual season model. Digital streaming series broke that model some time ago, and WOT has never followed it. A more meaningful comparison is to what Amazon has previously done with this series - or at least with its original series in general. I haven't dug into what they have done for their other shows, but for this series, Amazon announced the renewal for season 2 four months before season 1 premiered. They announced the renewal for season 3 FOURTEEN MONTHS before season 2 premiered. There has been a gap between seasons (so far) averaging nineteen months. The gap between green-light announcements and season premiers is even more problematic. Season 2 premiered 28 months after it was announced. Season 3 premiered 32 months after it was announced. At this rate, if Amazon announces tomorrow that the series is renewed for season 4, it won't premier until mid-2028. How much audience interest will still remain - now matter how popular it is this season?

It's true that unreliable narrators seem to have been one of Jordan's most popular tropes. But it's really difficult to reconcile the idea that Verin was lying about her motivations with the fact that she LITERALLY COMMITTED SUICIDE in order to be able to give Egwene her notes. I don't think there is any basis at all in disbelieving Verin's claims about herself and her actions. Particularly considering what Sheriam said when told about it.

I think you have misread Lan's reaction to the boys, as well as how much training he gave them on that trip. Considering how inexpressive Lan is, his reaction indicates astonishment at all three of their skills with the bow. He was even more surprised that they didn't consider themselves to be all that special. Mat didn't think about his amazing proficiency with the quarterstaff because he didn't realize he was amazingly proficient. Compared to his and Rand's fathers - and to at least a few other men from the village - he wasn't. He wasn't good enough to compete against the men yet. From what we hear from Verin and Alanna's warders later, Two Rivers folk in general and Emond's Fielders in particular have somehow maintained an ability through their long peaceful history that is only surpassed by Borderlanders. That doesn't mean they would have drilled as soldiers - something that would only make sense in people facing relatively frequent warfare - but that they retained and even reinforced the personal skills useful to individual warriors. We don't see them training, per se - until the Whitecloaks and trollocs show up. But we do hear of them "practicing." The point being that they didn't think of what they were doing as training for battle, even though it was. It was just practicing for the contests. Or for hunting. Or for protecting their flocks of sheep from predators. Throughout the books, we see people being surprised by the fighting ability of Two Rivers folk - particularly the "Two Rivers Longbow." Not just a few exceptional people, but many of them. I don't believe this is a rationalization - fantastic or otherwise. I believe Jordan intended it. It's part of what "the Old Blood runs strong in the Two Rivers" is talking about. As far as Lan training the boys - yes, it's true that he spent more time and energy on Rand. But that's because Lan was a swordsman, and knew it best. But he definitely trained Mat and Perrin as well. Not so much with their individual weapons, but with the things every warrior needs to learn - self control, focus, attention to your surroundings, etc. And we know this continued every night between Taren Ferry and Baerlon, at least. And that this resulted in them holding their own when finally attacked by shadowspawn between Berlon and Shadar Logoth. When Mat first starts shouting in the Old Tongue, and some of the others feel like they almost understand them. The point is that Emond's Fielders are surprisingly good at fighting from very early in the story, and the Boys are surprisingly good with their individual weapons before they received any high-level training. They then received actual training from Lan, and then the Shienarans. Rand drilled every day on the trip by himself or with Ingtar, who admired his skill enough to question his background. Remember that Rand had killed several grolm with his bow, and even gotten the wolf name Shadowkiller before even reaching Cairhien. It's true that Jordan wrote all three of them as unrealistically good with weapons given how short their training was. But he wrote them that way BEFORE living the "extra lives" through the Portal Stone. Rand didn't have to be any better to kill Turak than he did to take back the Horn of Valere from Fain's trollocs and darkfriends. The extra lives may have given him a kind of emotional certainty that he hadn't possessed, but they weren't need to explain his skill with the sword.

One thing people tend to forget about the battle skills of all three of them - or pretty much all of the Two Rivers - is what happened just after the group crossed the Taren, and Lan decided to start training the Boys as a way to kill time. They were all much better to begin with than Lan expected. Because without quite understanding it, the entire district trained for war for their entire lives. And had done for centuries. The boys' explanation to Lan about the contests of strength and skill they took part in for fun during festivals was to make the reader get a little chuckle. But in fact, it meant far more than that. Manetheren died, but its warrior traditions persisted in what the common folk viewed as just their local traditions. They were formidable without even knowing it. All three of them started out as surprisingly competent fighters. And then they started training in earnest - first with probably the most highly-skilled Warder alive, and then with the people who he grew up with, who nearly matched him in skill. Before the Portal Stone, they were all three almost as good as the best the Borderlands had to offer. And while neither Mat nor Perrin ever attained proficiency with the Flame and Void, they each had their own alternative to it. We don't really need thousands of lives to explain it. The lives we see do enough of it for the story.

They all seem to have been affected by what they experienced, based on nothing more than their immediate responses. But some of their arcs were probably inevitable. Verin didn't actually stray from the Light, so there was nothing to "return" to. She had essentially become a mole in the enemy's organization, not an actual Darkfriend. What she saw only seemed to reinforce her previous choices. Ingtar's redemption was more a matter of realizing there was real hope where he had previously been hopeless. But he was always the same honorable man inside. I believe that, if he had lived, he would have sought redemption before the end regardless. Masema was going to end up a madman no matter what happened. It's hard to say whether Mat and Perrin actually changed based on what they experience via the Portal Stone, or by what they experienced over the following days. Though Mat at least did seem disturbed by what he learned about himself.