Rand was beginning to get sick when he would channel if I remember correctly and did not want to use the void because it was tied to use of the power for him. But as another said the void was definitely not cheating. When I read that scene last time I looked for any hint of OP use and I didn’t notice any.

I feel we are going to get portal stone flicker-flicker for him to get sword skills. Feels cheap, but also in TGH no way should have Rand succeeded vs Turak without cheating. I did not get a hint of him even subconsciously using the power to win that fight. IMO there is no other way to do it at this point. May be someone else will step in and fight Turak and Ishy. At this point Lan isn’t even a big deal. Both Moiraine and Thom can kill fades with daggers—it ain’t no thing to use a sword vs fades. (I realize Thom used 2 daggers in book to at least fend off a fade. Did he kill it?) So far the biggest deals in the show are Nynaeve, Tigraine, and Aviendha.

I don’t think the writers have ever been around a 7-9 months pregnant woman.

Rand is Ta’Veran, the Dragon Reborn, and he did it when the AS holding him got attacked. No excuses for those bad writers…..take your contrived gruel and like it.

Nah. Bad writing. Don’t know why people make excuses for it. Way easier for multiple AS to keep one shield on Logain than 1 AS to keep 3 on the wonder girls. No reason to have stupid sequence of Liandrin knocking them out.

Logain have any practice at it?

Mostly a good episode. The good: -Making Lanfear sinister and scary. -Moiraine and her family interactions brings depth to her character we lacked in the books. -Sherlock Verin -Using Jordan’s template to introduce Aviendha worked great. Take more from Jordan less from trendy cultural issues. -Dancing the spears -Having Bornhald as a formidable fighter is good, but bad judgement? If he fights with his men like a pack they should win. -Nynaeve having help to rescue Egwene is good. She was a ninja in the books in Falme. -Ending scene is interesting. The Bad: Agree with the points made by @Mirefox -Liandrin and the girls: Where is the waygate? Maybe Liandrin can make them invisible. I guess Liandrin is now strong enough to hold 3 shields simultaneously on 3 of the most powerful saidar channelers in hundreds of years. When multiple Aes Sedai couldn’t hold one shield on Logain. -Aviendha offering herself sexually to Perrin…..no, just no. I swear babies must grow in the cabbage patch in Wheel of Rafe. -The warder hitting Elayne and Nynaeve against a brick wall to knock them out and then carry them somewhere. Don’t worry girls it is only a minor concussion. Seanchan are hard core law keepers no way they just let a dude carry incapacitated young women through town. -Rand is a green adenturer who isn’t good at anything and not been trained in anything. We don’t even know if he is godly with the bow. “Rand isn’t the hero.”

When I re-read the books Verin as BA seems tacked on at the end of the story. There were so many times she could have killed the Emond’s Fielders or thwarted their plans, but is actually helping them. I look for anything (through book 11 right now) and I see nothing of her being evil or working for the Dark. In my mind I see her as a double agent—was evil, but then decided it was wrong and used it to help the Light. Edit: I will look up threads in Book forum. And start one if nothing addresses. Ignore my response unless you can tie it to OP topic.

Cool. Sad that he doesn’t have a bigger role. I fear another near 2 year wait for S3, because of the strikes. As a critic of the show I enjoyed re-watching S1E1-E3 and S2 has been interesting if not what I really hoped for in WoT on screen.

Avienda is gonna be given Mat’s victory over the bros.

No agelessness probably means no de-aging, but they may Ned Stark Siuan. Elaine wasn’t really “hitting” on Thom in my mind. She had an affection for him and it was misread.

Honestly I would be half surprised if Thom comes back in any form.

Said the same thing. Jinks!

Ya, but I see changes else where and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see it here too. Actually I half expect a bit of hand waving and the next time we see these 4 will be in the Ways with the girls waking up. How you get there? Don’t ask too many questions. One small change I dislike is the necklace part of the a’dam, no way can you covertly snap one of those on a person.

May be she has some forkroot.

This does not excuse Rafe under developing Rand and focusing on side stories not crucial to the main story.

Sorry Edit: This isn’t the best thread for my tangent, but is why I find Rafe’s changes to Two Rivers ethics objectionable. I admired the moral fiber of 4 of the Emond Fielders and I firmly believe in the value of the ethics.

Don’t bite by all means. “Very wrong statement in so many ways”? Do tell. See my above post for data on married vs unmarried sex frequency. Here is an article on sexual satisfaction. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-sex/202103/sexual-satisfaction-does-marriage-help-or-hurt-it "These studies generally agree that compared with people who are single, cohabiting, or separated/divorced, those who are married generally report greater happiness, more emotional contentment, more spiritual fulfillment — and improved sexual satisfaction.” Individuals will have varying experiences. There are anti-marriage messages, subtle and overt, coming from media through out modern culture. I think healthy, devoted families are the cure for most of society’s dis functions.

This data is from 2017. 56x per year for marrieds and 51x for non-marrieds. Marrieds use to be 67x per year. So societal changes seems to influence these numbers. There use to be a bigger disparity. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/06/numbers ”A lot of devoted married people have ‘open’ relationship.” I would argue being devoted is mutually exclusive to having an open relationship. I would like to see the data on how long a marriage that is “open” tends to last.

Does the oath rod work on male channelers? Too many unanswered questions.

Ya, Petulant Rand is hard to tolerate. He treated his girls better than everyone else though. Cadsuane is unbelievable in her character in some ways, but trying to make Rand civil was a good cause.

A powerful tool, but also if you catch one in a deliberate lie than you should know something is very wrong.

I like show Liandrin especially in S2. She was over the top in S1 and griefing too much, but I absolutely love S1E1 where the reds chase down poor mad man channeler. Who is this mustache twirling evil woman?—She is actually working to save the world from being destroyed by mad men. Oh wait she is evil.

Make it like Outlander? *in Darth Vader’s voice* Noooooooooooo I turned that show off on the 4th scene where the protagonist was yet again going to be raped. I guess everyone in England/Scotland was a rapist in the past. Rape can be a cheap plot device. When I read Homer’s Odyssey it has no rape plot. In the Bible after a woman gets raped her brothers go massacre the rapist’s town. A more evil act than the actual rape—but obviously the rape was a serious crime.

Puritans and Quakers eh? So abstinence then into lifelong monogamy is sex negative. I would say nope. Devoted married people have more sex and better sexual satisfaction than single people.