I just rewatched it again and I thought they did a good job. One of my favorite things is the strength of casting and I liked what they did with the main characters but what they did with Ishamael, Valda, Fain, Logain were all great too. Valda and Ishamael in particular are perfect. I was a little iffy of Loial at first but I think the actor there is doing an amazing job there and the way he’s delivering his lines seem perfect. Siuan as well I thought was particularly great in that she basically played 3 different versions of the same character and none of them seemed out of place. Moiraine too I think she’s shown multiple sides of the character that have been interesting, calm confident and effective like episode 1, back against the wall against Liandrin, booty call Moiraine and then just bringing it to the streets and pulling a knife on Rand once Ishamael shields her was a nice touch. She’s just all about getting the mission done at all costs which is so Moiraine. Lan too I get that there is this whole thing about how awesome he should be at tracking but I like the actor and what he is doing with it, I liked the scene with the family etc. I get he’s moving faster than the books but everyone is going to need to. Loved his nice to see you too line to Rand and then I guess while we are at it loved Min’s lines and Rand’s joke about Loial in the ways if he is asking for patients we are all going to die.

I always knew that anyone was going to have to basically take a hacksaw to this story to get it to work on any other kind of medium someone mentioned the audio books are 400+ hours (10 work weeks) and they only have 64 hours to tell the story in this show so I’m not really upset about that aspect and I like the changes they made to Ishy and Fain, Mat I was disappointed with too but they didn’t really have a choice and I loved the actor (he did sick Mat perfectly), I think you did have to get more about Aes Sedai and men channeling in earlier so I liked those two episodes I thought Siuan and Logain were both great episodes and are both important enough to the larger story to deserve being introduced now. Stepin I get that it seemed superfluous but it did explain the bond really well, brought some background on the forsaken and fleshed out Lan more. I also think the actor just showed a good amount of range effectively of going from cheerful and happy to just trying to hold it together until he could kill himself.

I was bummed we didn’t get a cavalry charge but I liked how they set up the hopelessness of what the borderlanders were facing and relentless advance of the blight, how the borderlanders were just getting pushed to the brink and just darkly thought it was the end. That didn’t come out till some of the later books but I like how they tied it in. The end I thought was great Ishy was perfect and the book was I think originally written as this huge victory because it was supposed to be a one book series but then when RJ decided to do 3,6,9,12 books he retconned the first book as them all getting manipulated and freeing the forsaken and more of a sinister manipulation to set up the later stories rather than a decisive victory so I like that they took the later approach to that battle because they also are telling a bigger story.

Overall though I think the main thing I would do is just stop with the death fakeout scenes they get cheaper the more they do it and on rereading things there is a fair amount of this in the books already so there isn’t a lot of room to do more of this without it starting to get really old. I wish we got a cavalry charge but with the 6’ rule and having to change the ending I thought they did a good job with what they were able to show and I think they are setting up to have a nice battle at Falme we know the horn is coming, Seanchan and Ishamael is great so I’m excited to see where they go with it.

I really appreciate the tiny pauses in between Loial’s words as he patiently paces things out. Your lines sing in my ears builder!

5 hours ago, Yojimbo said:

In the books the Shienarans are considered the best heavy calvary in the world.  Their strategy had always been to use the advantage of terrain and maneuverability, which would amplify their numbers, so that even if outnumbered they would mitigate that factor to some extent.  It had always worked in the past.  In the book, word came of Trollocs massing at Tarwin's Gap in numbers larger than had ever been seen too late for them to call for help from he other Borderland nations, so they rode there hoping that their deaths would provide time for the women and children to be evacuated.   

In the book, word came of Trollocs massing at Tarwin's Gap in numbers larger than had ever been seen too late for them to call for help from he other Borderland nations, so they rode there hoping that their deaths would provide time

I think this is basically what we saw except I think every time borderlander women were mentioned they would say they would fight as hard as the men to defend their homes so I don’t know about the whole thing about women evacuating I thought this was pretty consistently mentioned in the books when they talked about borderlander women.

I guess the first thing I would say is I do wish we would have gotten a Calvary charge for the reason you mention they were viewed as having the best Calvary in the world but they couldn’t film that with covid restrictions so they had to adapt. Everything outside of the calvary aspect is similar to what I said though it was a surprise offensive of more shadowspawn than they had seen and he wasn’t prepared, couldn’t get help and this wasn’t a battle he strategy wasn’t really a focus of the battle and I don’t think they even really described any strategy in depth basically they weren’t ready for that kind of force, it was considered a suicide mission they went out there as a last ditch effort, in the book it wasn’t effective either. I don’t think Agelmar comes up until book 14, I don’t think Fal Dara ever comes up again, I don’t remember hearing a lot about Uno’s skill on a horse from here on out the Shienaran’s are basically described and used as tough looking swordsmen so the amount that this changes the overall story just seems minuscule and I don’t think they really had a choice.

The real truth is just sending Calvary out to defend a gap is pretty horrible strategy and just having archers defend a wall is pretty horrible strategy too so neither made much sense but if you gave me a choice in how to defend a gap and I could only take one of those I take the fortification. Good strategy would be they should have fortifications with Archers and Infantry to hold those fortifications and defend archers and Calvary that could quickly strike and retreat into fortifications if needed.

In the books Agelmar just sent his men into the gap as a last ditch defense and basically knew he wasn’t going to succeed. They didn’t have any defensive structures, were massacred and at the last second were saved by Rand. Agelmar didn’t have some brilliant strategy in the book either, he wasn’t prepared for a random massive onslaught by the shadow.

I don’t think the point of this scene in the book was to show that Agelmar was a brilliant strategic mind it was more meant to show the constant onslaught of the blight and how it was steadily pushing back humanity. In the book I thought it was also meant to show a current day version or Malkier of humanity steadily being on the brink of being wiped out and the sacrifice of the borderlanders for people that didn’t even believe this was happening in the show they took the opportunity to show a version of Manetheren and I think still drive home a lot of the same borderlander theme of sacrifice for the world.

I agree it would have been smart to put the channelers on the wall but they were pretty clear that the men defend the gap and the women defend the town so I think they set this up as just the SOP if they get attacked men do one thing women do the other so in a way maybe they did do a little women circle business and town council business lol.

I didn’t really get the white cloak part until the last episode but it seems like Perrin has been full on way of the leaf since the tinkers and that was the conversation with Loial he found a non violent way to help but now Fain brought up the hammer/axe thing and it seems like Perrin has been pushed to the axe and Fain is trying to make him believe that = shadow and that some of them may fall. Seemed pretty interesting to me and they are setting up the groundwork to the whole hammer/axe dilemma.

The fact that Perrin was tortured and still kept to the way of the leaf is pretty impressive and then I thought him abandoning it to save/protect/avenge a friend also speaks pretty highly to his character, he values other people’s pain more than his own. It seems like he was fully willing to take to the way of the leaf, die and let Egwene be freed rather than abandon the way of the leaf and be violent again so I thought it really spoke to how seriously he took the way of the leaf but then how much more seriously he took his friends. Or I guess to put it another way if Valda had simply said he would kill them both we may have seen Perrin attack him instead.

Also IDK I do think it would be kind of cool to have the white cloaks hate Perrin for no good reason at all like if he never even raised a hand against them in violence but they still just absolutely hate him because they don’t understand him and just assume he’s a dark friend. I feel like they did something similar with a Bornhald that had irrational hate toward Perrin for no real reason so to just have that complete lack of justification from the beginning would be kind of cool.

I think Moiraine gave a pretty good warning because basically the course of her life was changed by standing in the room with those two so she wasn’t killed but it wasn’t because Ishamael couldn’t kill her and I thought this was the interesting part is he thought what he did was worse and I kind of agree with him he took the one power from her but if she was stilled she wouldn’t feel it anymore now she feels it always just outside her reach but can’t touch it. Like always being thirsty but never being able to drink water. So I think that was the comment about almost being able to touch it, he could have killed her, stilled her or shielded her and he felt this was worse and went with it and told her why he chose it.

The reason I agree with him is Ishamael is commonly looked at as the second most powerful channeler in all of history to the dragon except he also has the full understanding of the AOL and thousands of years of experience so it may actually be easier to heal a stilled person that trying to undo a tied off weave of the second most powerful channeler of all time at the peak of their powers. Basically it may take an end game Rand to get rid of this if she is lucky because of who did it. So I think that was a pretty good warning because everyone that went there except from Rand had their life changed in pretty horrible ways and IMO the only reason Ishy didn’t kill her was that he considered this was worse because she could always feel what she lost.

I really liked Ishamael and I liked the way they handled the eye of the world it was pretty confusing in the books but I thought this was focused and I liked the aspect with Fain too that you really got the sense that the protagonists were herded and manipulated to do exactly what the DO wanted. Just thought this whole thing landed really well in the show and the book was pretty muddled at the end there as much as I enjoyed it. I also just really loved the way they did those interactions and the actor that played Ishamael was he was absolutely perfect (also just Valda, Fain, Ishamael, Logain they have done an amazing job getting actors for these roles I really like all of them and it is a real strong point so far). I really liked how he was calm, persuasive and just ruthlessly competent in how quick he handled Moirane (but then how she was just willing to do whatever she needed bringing a knife to a magic fight was also a good touch). Also just really dug the idea that Ishamael taught Rand to channel and loved him taunting Moirane about it.

I didn’t mind the changes to the eye of the world and I don’t know a great way to show a pool of magic in a way that isn’t going to look cheesy and then to have the dragon reborn starter kit at the bottom is something I personally can do without and to have the horn be something they have at the border in case things really get out of hand actually makes sense. I think the story is shaping up to be Rand just goes to Ruidean (looked like an out of focus city with golden domes in the distance of the blight), Matt goes to TV and goes through the doorway and that probably explains why he looks different and then he starts chasing the dagger, Eggy and Nyn go to the tower for training and get dragged to Falme maybe with Matt, Perrin and Loial start the hunt for the horn and then they all meet in Falme which isn’t the worst way to go.

I totally get that the strategy used by Agelmar was pretty bad and he is supposed to be one of the best tacticians in the world but I liked that we got the speech about the Trollocs taking over the world I liked how it shows that aspect that again came out later in the books but the feeling that the borderlands gave up everything to protect people that didn’t even believe in Trollocs. He didn’t feel there was a strategy that would work and it was just more of a last stand which is what the book was too he didn’t really have a great plan there either it was basically desperation and a last stand. It kind of fit with this steady retreat of humanity just being pushed back as the dark ones hold strengthens Malkier, Tarwin’s gap just keep getting pushed back. The second thing is I just really liked this visually and there are a couple times this season visual parts almost look like book cover art and the scene with the fade holding up it’s sword, the look of the wall and the Trollocks climbing and the shots of the defenders lined up all visually looked great.

The circle of wilders I think someone mentioned that almost everything they show has to do almost double duty because of how little time they have so I thought this was a great way to show the addictiveness of the power, the risks of going too far, the power of Nyn and Egg and why they need training in the first place. Yeah we didn’t get Rand in Tarwin’s gap going nuclear but there are a lot of opportunities for that and Rand flying around solving every problem like he did in the book just wouldn’t work here so it does kind of suck that we missed it but I get how him just showing up to save the day may not work that well here either. I also did think the fight with Ishy here and then a second fight at Toman Head is a bit redundant and if you have to cut things do it once and do it well so I don’t mind there not being a fight here and Ishy trying to convince Rand first and when he can’t be convinced try to take him out makes sense so have this a persuasive conversation and end of next season have the fight.

One other area I’d say I really like the series and this episode in general is the sound. I like the music and the themes they bring in for channeling, the EF song (liked the sound of the Manetheren song), I liked the sound of the blight and then when Rand touched the seal there was a really nice transition to the dream by how the audio faded out. I mentioned before there were a lot of scenes visually that were just stunning and reminded me of book art and I think audio wise they have done a really great job in the series as well.

Now to the stuff I didn’t like and I am not going to dwell on this stuff because it’s been covered but the death fakeouts really, really, really need to stop and they just get cheaper the more they try and pull it off. They do have to reign in the power of Nyn just because it starts to kill the drama, I hope they show ramifications of the circle like that solidifies Nyneve’s block and I’d even have Egwene have repercussions like maybe they get nervous about pushing themselves because they are afraid of what they felt so they have to mentally get over that to channel at high power again (maybe seanchan ironically help get Egwene over this). Calling LTT the dragon reborn bugged me but the more I read about RJ’s quotes that’s actually what he intended the dragon is a soul that just keeps getting spun out of the wheel over and over again so both Rand, LTT and any other versions are all the same dragon soul reborn so the more I thought about that it actually made some sense. Just because they didn’t show the war of Power doesn’t mean it’s not going on and I think they didn’t want to do the main prologue because then you would know this is Ishy and not the DO so they can’t show that yet. I’d agree if LTT just randomly decided to try and cage the dark one because he thought he could that would be pretty lame but I’m going to wait and see where they are going with this. The part where looking out the window matched what we saw overgrown in the first episode was what I think they were trying to drive home here and I think we will get more of these scenes to flesh out the why. I’m sad we missed out on Fain getting captured, corrupting the guards and leaving the massacre behind, I did like his speech and thought that was effective but this scene in the book was really set up how depraved Fain was so I did miss it.

Then finally at first I thought the complaints about men being minimized were over the top but I do think there is a bad pattern here. One of I think the main points of the book was that men and women had different strengths, points of views and goals but anything of real power had to be done with both working together. I loved how they had women circle business and the town council business, one didn’t rule the other but both were important and worked together even if they bickered about it, with the power too how much more powerful when man and woman linked than when one tried to go it alone. At the time in fantasy it was really advanced POV I thought but now in the show it has become unbalanced going too far the other way which I do think does a disservice to how well balanced the story was. I hope they are going to bring it to a place of balance but the books started from a place of balance here it wasn’t something that changed or built up and I do think it’s a shame that the TV show is going so strongly favoring women. I do have a theory that GOT did tick off a lot of women so they could be making a strong play for that fanbase early but I don’t think they should twist the story to do that I think the story itself is balanced enough to bring in those fans without unbalancing the story to achieve it.