On my first read-through, I dropped off halfway through Path of Daggers. I just lost interest. Once the Sanderson trilogy was properly announced, I decided I'd pick it back up, but since it had been years, I began at the start again, and subsequently read through the whole series from start to finish. When the TV show started, I picked up Eye of the World again, and I've been slowly working through my third read-through since, with some other books sprinkled in between, for a bit of variety. I've just recently started Winter's Heart. I'm deep in the "slog" now, but because I know where the story is heading, I'm pretty confident I can push through. Compared to the nothing-burger that was Path of Daggers, I've actually found the opening chapters of Winter's Heart pretty good so far. I think my favourite book in the series is The Great Hunt. I was just kept so engaged in every plot line in that book. I also really enjoy the first one, Eye of the World. Shadow Rising has some amazing stand-out moments, and definitely feels like the soft-launch of the series' Phase Two. Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos and Crown of Swords all have some big and important scenes, but a loooooot of filler as well. That's the point in the story where I start getting a bit bored. I seem to remember really enjoying Sanderson's first book, The Gathering Storm. I'm looking forward to reading that one again.

I'm there as well. I started a series re-read when Season 1 of the show first aired, and I'm now ALMOST finished with Path of Daggers. And yeah. It's rough. Like, it's so boring. Barely anything happens at all. It's almost entirely people just standing around either talking, or thinking about what the other characters are wearing or what expressions they have on their faces. If the TV show ever reached this part of the story, I feel like they could completely remove this book, and nothing of consequence would be lost. Which is a shame, because this is the book I got signed by Robert Jordan. So it's a bit special to me in that regard. 😉 But having Books 5, 6 and 7 get progressively slower, and then being hit with this one, where nothing really happens... It's a slog all right.

I had the same thoughts. In my imagination, the White Tower was floor-to-ceiling shiny white marble. In the show it's just dingy grey stone.

I've been in many different minds about this over the last few days. It is disappointing that the show has been unceremoniously abandoned when it was left without any kind of conclusion. I know money money, and all that, but it would have been nice if they'd said, "Okay. We'll give you three or four more episodes to wrap it up. Do what you must." No, that would not have been ideal, or even close to it. But even if there had been a "two years later..." leading into some kind of finale, at least it would have ENDED. At the end of the day, I can't say I'm heartbroken. The show has infuriated me over the past few years. But it is disappointing at the same time. At the end of the day, I think the licence was given to the wrong team to adapt, and they seemed to misunderstand so many fundamental aspects of what made the books so beloved. The rumours that came out of the writers never having read the books were not difficult to believe. When it came down to it, although the broad strokes of the story were heading generally in the same direction as the source material, there was barely a single scene or conversation that was actually in Jordan's version of the story. The writers felt like they just had to rebuild everything from scratch. Not only was this completely unnecessary, it made the story worse. And I'm not talking about trimming and cutting. Of course everybody expected there to be lots of cuts to a 14-book epic. But just CHANGING things for no apparent reason. As I said, infuriating for those of us who had been waiting decades to see this beloved story brought to life, only to realise, this isn't the same story I read. This is something written by someone else. Having said that, there were definitely some bright moments. On the whole, I quite liked the cast. Josha as Rand, Donal as Mat, Zoe as Nynaeve, Meera as Verin and Laia as Moghedien were probably my faves. Even though she's clearly a great actress, Rosamund Pike's Moiraine didn't feel anything like book-Moiraine to me, and that character should definitely not have been the lead. In season 2, Nynaeve's journey through the arches and Egwene's capture by the Seanchan felt legit to me. It finally felt like the show was beginning to channel (heh) the spirit of the books. But then everything was completely bungled with that stupid final episode. In season 3, there were moments that definitely felt like a step in the right direction. The episode of the Trakands in the White Tower, though technically off-book, felt like the characters were being who they were supposed to be. I LOVED the scene of Moghedien toying with Elayne and Nynaeve. And of course, the brilliant Rhuidean episode. When the writers TRUSTED the source material and just, y'know, told the story, it showed moments of the brilliance it could have been. But then there'd be more episodes of Alanna the pincushion getting impaled and healed again, or other such idiocy. Anyway, it's over now. To my mind, the show was an epic missed opportunity. I doubt I will watch it again. As others have mentioned, I'd love to see some kind of animated reimagining a few years in the future. (My mind goes to that comic-book version of Eye of the World that was made. I loved looking at that.) Whether it actually ever happens or not... Well, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills...

Well, here we are. I have many thoughts. 😅 First of all, easily the best season finale yet, but we all know that is a VERY low bar to clear... - Elaida went through the doorway and spoke to the Aelfinn? That didn't happen in the books, did it? Or did I just not remember that rather important plot point? At any rate, it adds a bit of extra drama to her take-over, so I didn't mind it. - What was the point of setting Sammael up to be the Asmodean stand-in, if they just throw it away and eh... string it up... in a single episode? "You will train Rand." "Oh, no you won't. Forget I said anything." - Melindhra approaching Lan from behind with a spear. Me: "Are we already at the token impaling for this episode??" - I'm glad they addressed Elayne's knowledge of Lord Gaebril, but I feel like it was rushed through very quickly. It should have had more moments of confusion on both sides. "What do you mean Lord Gaebril? There's no such person." "What are you talking about? He practically raised me." etc. etc. They both just came to their conclusions super fast. Probably because there was a LOT of plot to fit into this episode. - Balefire looked great. There was no discussion about its dangers or forbidden nature though. That might come later I suppose. - Mat and the Eelfinn was pretty cool. I couldn't decide whether the make-up was tacky or great. Maybe both. 😅 I'm glad we got the doorway and the fox-head medallion, even if it was moved to Tanchico. - Are... Are Min and Mat a thing...? I feel like the show-runners are determined not to give Rand any of his canonical girlfriends in this show. There's practically zero hints of it with Aviendha, and I'm not even sure if Elayne and Rand have been in a room together more than once or twice. - I laughed out loud when Nynaeve turned into Moses. - We didn't get her showdown with Moghedien though! I was really excited for that one! - Lan is still too emotional. - The whole ending sequence just kind of confused me. I'm not quite sure what was happening. Why was Moiraine just channeling randomly out in the desert? Was she trying to summon Lanfear to keep her away from Rand? Or was it a suicide mission? And surely with that amount of power, Lanfear would have immediately recognized the super glass ball and grabbed it for herself. In fact, this fight made Lanfear look very weak. She should have been able to snap her fingers and cut both of them into ribbons. - Ahhhh, Moiraine is this week's impalement with zero consequences. Gotta have one in every episode! (I'm sure in the Two Rivers somewhere, Alanna stood on a pine needle and needed Mat's sisters to heal her...) - I'm kind of in shock about Suian. There was still so much of her story to tell! The escape! The healing! The relationship with Bryne... Ahhhh, that's it, isn't it? They didn't want her to have any romantic relationships except with Moiraine, so off with her head. Very disappointing. I wanted to see her story continue to play out. (Then again, maybe beheading can be healed in this world? I wouldn't be surprised...) - I feel like Rand's big reveal moment to the Aiel didn't hit as hard as I was expecting it to. Perhaps it's just one of those things that works a lot better in the written word. It doesn't help that Couladin has only been in one or two scenes, so non-book-readers would probably have no idea who he even is at this point. - Overall, a good episode that hit a few big notes. Still some baffling decisions to drastically change the text for... I dunno, reasons? Three major players have been killed off this season, and yet made-up characters like Maksim continue to get extra running time. - I have no idea where they might go from here. I assume next season will be leading up to the taking of the Stone. Maybe we'll see Moiraine, Lanfear and the door in Tear? Would it be expecting too much to imagine Season 4 might get us to Dumai's Wells?

This thread gives me the LOLs. 😂 Scene 1 for next season: (Alanna and Maksim walking past a shop.) ALANNA: "Wait a moment. I want to get some needles to fix the holes in my clothes." MAKSIM: "No! Alanna, don't!!" (Alanna walks into the shop and is instantly impaled by a thousand needles.) MAKSIM, TO THE SHOPKEEPERS: "Excuse me, can any of you channel?" SHOPKEEPER: "Oh yeah. No problem. I'll fix her right up." (She channels. Alanna stands up again.) ALANNA: "Righto. On we go then."

Where's the Ep8 thread? I have so many thoughts! 😅

Hmmm. I have many thoughts. Overall, I thought the episode was pretty good. Still some really, really baffling decisions that are being made in the adaptation that I just cannot understand. But I'll try and put my thoughts together... * It might just be me, but the range of accents in the Two Rivers drives me crazy. I'd mentioned earlier how dumb it is having Rand, Mat and Perrin all speaking in different accents when they literally grew up in the same isolated society. Different Two Rivers characters in this latest episode were talking in all range of different styles. Did no one on production think this would come across as really fake...? * I dislike the use of modern real-world curses. (ie. "You b***h!" "F***ing wetlanders.") Randland has its own selection of swear words that different characters use. Hearing phrases like this in the Wheel of Time is just eye-rolling. * All of those Trollocs and Darkfriends, but not a single Myrddraal...? Did the show runners just forget that they existed? * I really like Faile. Loved how she grabbed Perrin by the beard at the end of the episode. * OMG, are they seriously impaling Alanna AGAIN?? And she's being healed by the Cauthon girls AGAIN?? Are they actually serious right now? I can't even. * It was good seeing Aram's journey through the episode. You could see he already had doubts, but once he picked up the sword, there was no turning back. * Valda was burnt to death by teenage girls...? Uhhhh, okay. I guess the rest of his story will go untold then. * I continue to feel like this show has really done the character of Padan Fain dirty. Out of all of his cool moments, I don't think any of them have made it into the show. This version of the character is so different, they might as well give him a different name. * This episode reminded me how cool the design is on The Ways. * Loial... I mean, they couldn't... Are they seriously...? Was the makeup too costly and time-consuming? Will they somehow find a way to bring him back later? I mean, it's not like he hasn't died on this show before.

You weren't put off by an entire season of Moiraine thinking she was stilled and arguing with Lan over nothing, then suddenly realising, LOL, wasn't stilled the whole time! Time to use the Power way outside of my capabilities and forsake my Tower oaths to just murder a bunch of people who don't even know I'm there? Or Elayne unable to walk because of an arrow in the leg, but somehow managing to climb a tall tower and get to the top before anyone else? There were so many things wrong with season 2. I think it was only marginally better than season 1. Nynaeve's trip through the arches and Egwene's capture by the Seanchan were the highlights for me. Really great acting all around in those scenes. Thankfully, on the whole, season 3 seems to have improved in quality quite a bit. Let's hope it continues.

Yeah, this is suggesting that he could touch the real world for like, 100 years. I also really miss the original Ishamael from the book, the tall imposing, scary man, whose eyes and mouth are furnaces of fire. The actor here plays it fine, I guess, but he's not scary. Rand's dreams in Book 1 are among the most impactful and memorable scenes in the whole series for me, and I was really sad they were 99% removed for the screen adaptation.

I saw that as Moghedien playing with Nynaeve, almost setting her a challenge to try and figure things out. If she is strong enough to break through the compulsion, she's a bigger threat than Moghedien first thought.

On the Amazon app, he's just listed as "Mat's Admirer." I'm gonna guess the answer is no. Juilin's hat was a fez.

A definite improvement over last week. (Phew!) - So great to have Thom back, even though he's still a bit too "grim" a gleeman IMO. That hat he's wearing... I feel like he might pass it on to someone else before too long... *wink* *wink* - OMG, they mentioned Saidar and Saidin! /collapses - I really liked the scene between Rand and Moiraine. Great acting from both. - Do you think the backstory that Faile gave Perrin is true, like it's her new show-canon? Or do you think she was just making up a story to throw him off the scent? If it's true, I'm gonna guess we won't see Davram in the show. Which is no enormous loss, but it's an interesting change nonetheless. - As Perrin and Faile were getting to know each other, I was thinking it would be good if they stretched the relationship out a bit. Maybe save their official "getting together" for another season or two. Since, y'know, he was just telling her about how he fridged his wife. Oh. Nope. They're making out. Okay then. Anyone else think that was kind of sudden? Especially since the subject they were discussing was Mat...? 🤨 - And yeah, totally agree with A Memory of Why. Two completely untrained wilder teenagers using complex healing spells by imagining themselves as a flower? So much eye-rolling. Hopefully Alanna's story is mostly finished for now. That story thread has been the weakest part of this season. - Moghedien is awesome. My favourite baddy in the show. The scene of compulsion with Nynaeve and Elayne was brilliant. Very similar to how I remember it happening in the book. And Nynaeve clutching the bracelet, and Moghedien's reaction. "You're... fighting me...?" SO good! I hope their animosity continues to grow. - Josha got to show some range towards the end. He's getting better and better I feel, as he gets more to do with the character. - Egwene: "Rand, death can't be healed!" ... ... "Oh, except that one time I did it. LOLz." Overall, while the story still took its fair share of liberties, it was more in line with the first few episodes, that feel like they're capturing the spirit of the books, much more than last weeks, which just felt like fan fiction.

A nitpicky lore inconsistency I noticed in the most recent episode... Earlier in the season, Lanfear told Moiraine that Moghedien was the only one who could create gray men. In other words, gray men hadn't existed for thousands of years. Then Siuan says, "Oh look, a gray man snuck into the White Tower." How does she know what a gray man even is? She hasn't been in contact with Moiraine. By logic, no one in this time should even have any idea what these soulless men are called.

Moiraine and Siuan? "Romantic relationship" is a stretch. It's suggested they may have played around a bit when they were studying in the tower together. It's like one paragraph. Both characters have romantic relationships with men in the main story. As for Aviendha and Elayne, could you provide a quote to back up that claim of "heavily implied" romance? Admittedly, I'm only in the middle of Book 7 in my third read-through, but I was NEVER given any impression that their relationship was any more than good friends / makeshift sisters. Having them be lesbian lovers in the show rings entirely untrue to the text, and just comes across as wild hand-waving, "Look at us! We're a modern, progressive show ticking all the boxes!"