Maksim is going to fight Moridin while Rand fights the dark one and if Rand needs any help or guidance Maksim will be there instead of Tam.

I kind of wonder if the healing and people coming back is a bit of a joke about how often it happened in the books. Mat literally died and was brought back to life because Rand blew someone up so fkn hard that it reversed time. People not dying and coming back from crazy things is canon.

I can see this one being controversial but I was pretty impressed on my second rewatch. I always watch twice because otherwise I forget a lot but what I loved about this one is that Perrin figured out the blacksmith puzzle that was the battle of two rivers and I really love that because it was one of the things that RJ kept coming back to with Perrin is it took him a while but he had deep wisdom to figure out a situation and that's what happened here with Padan Fain and also with Dain Bornhald and I really like it. Perrin was in the middle of raging but he took a moment to ask why and his solution tied into the way of the leaf and the hammer axe thing and Perrin figured out the best way out of the situation to save the most lives and did it no matter what it cost him and that line about Fain being the only one there afraid to die was devastating and it tied into his wolf senses so I really liked it. Then I feel like Bornhald will take on the Galad arc as the judge for Perrin and it's strange to move the trial arc up but it does make sense to happen after the two rivers it condenses a lot of story which they need to do and it gives a good arc for Bornhald too and gives Perrin something to do while Mat and Rand are building what they need to build.. I agree Loial and Valda do have things they do but it's so sparse it probably doesn't warrant keeping an actor under contract and they do have to introduce new characters so it makes sense they have to make room. Really loved what both of them brought to the series but honestly the way they went out had good impact Loial accomplished something significant and the two rivers battle does have to have consequences so it was a good time and way to do it and Valda just served a really strong story beat and was a satisfying way to watch that dude go even though I thought he did an amazing job. The fight I thought they actually did a good job with it, the scale of it finally looked right. I also liked how they used the defensive structures and retreating I think it did get confusing with them holding the pass and then Alanna getting jumped and then all of the sudden everyone was in the square I feel like a scene or something got cut for time there and it almost worked but it did just seem really jumpy. I do think Slayer was the one that was drilling Alanna and the wisdom with arrows so I feel like this was just the start of the second part of that story. I did like Alanna's channeling in the pass though you always see fireballs and lightning but that was like a good old ice storm and it was devastating. I liked the two rivers bow got a shout out and I really liked Faile and Perrin fighting together and then Perrin going berserk. There was also a nice moment where Faile and Perrin fought together in I believe the same spot that he killed his wife and they just started rolling through trollocks so I felt like that was kind of like Perrin getting over a block. Lol that in that moment Perrin is like Hammer or Axe why not both? Overall the battle seemed good to me it went south pretty quick and was pretty brutal but it didn't seem too dark and I like that the moment you thought the white cloaks were coming to save the day Fain just stabs everyone in the back it was nice to have different beats play out in a battle and that was what happened at Fal Dara in the books. On that note I like that Perrin told Loial the same thing that Agelmar said which was even if we die we can tell the world and maybe they will live I thought that was a cool callback. Also liked when Loial said that Perrin's name will sing in the world's ears. And then as tough as it was to see Loial go that was another beautiful shot so I think the cinematographers have done an amazing job. I actually agree that the healing has gotten out of hand but I don't mind it with Alanna because she is green Aja and they are supposed to basically be warriors so Alanna and her Warder/s should be more formidible than say Moiraine and Lan even though Lan is who he is a green and her warders should be born to battle and just ready to fight. I also really liked her line about she should be out building an army because that was one of the biggest complaints with the Aes Sedai is the greens should have been leading armies and the yellows should have had hospitals etc so she should be a military bada$$ and I kind of like how she says she isn't going to the tower something more important is happening and she sees the army. Like if I see a yellow sister start tanking like Alanna I agree it starts to be too much but I don't mind seeing a green sister and her warders tank that is what they should be good at. I feel like maybe we need to stop looking at Alanna as an Aes Sedai and more like a straight up fighter like Lan or Bain/Chiad if they could channel. Some random things was I loved the Cauthon girls ripping on Mat that was perfect, I liked them and Alana and the drunk wisdom I thought all of that was funny just the Cauthon girls in general were amazing. Then part of me wonders that maybe the Cauthon girls talent is burning white cloaks. I liked how they explain ji'e'to with both Loial and Bain and Chiad and I thought it was funny how Loial was the one learning hand talk. Also the hand talk signals are kind of funny because you can understand them without the subtitles like they would bang Aram if he wasn't a coward lol. I can see how some of the changes bothered people but I feel like they really nailed this one.

I enjoyed the episode I was glad they brought Thom back I enjoyed the whole group that is there and I feel like we got a hint of the traveling menagerie with Elayne performing. Elayne's song was fun and covered a lot of the personality quirks that she has liking rowdy language but not really understanding it and I like the way they have brought songs from the book to life with this one and weep for menetheren I think they do a really great job with these songs and I'm glad they lean into them and highlight them. I thought Min was hilarious when she walked up on the party and I just really enjoyed her and Nynaeve's part overall. I like how different people are helping Nynaeve chip away at her block last episode it was the sea folk and now Min helping her relax. It was nice to see how proud Mat was that he knew Elayne. Mat was lucky AF in the books so him finding the bracelet isn't too surprising (it actually became their strategy to find the bowl of the winds) and I agree that is probably Julian I think it is. Also I just like the overall look and feel of Tanchico and I like that they are teasing Aludra a bit. Mogi is just inspired the way she just swings between moods is terrifying and that scene with Elayne and Nynaeve was perfect I think all 3 of them did an amazing job. I saw the scratch as marking her property and the foresaken acted like this in the books too they basically considered people of the current age to be little more than cavemen or savages and didn't see any of them outside of Rand as a threat (it's even debatable if some of them saw Rand as a threat) so I saw this as her taking an interest in Nynave because of her power and marking her almost like cattle as she was saying she was going to come back for her. She is absolutely amazing though I wasn't aware that I needed an evil Bjork in my life but I appreciate what she brings to Mogi it is amazing. I thought the Sammael attack came out of nowhere but Lanfear did egg Sammael on to go after Rand at this point in the books too he was just more careful about things and didn't show up personally but strategically it does make sense to go hard after Rand before he puts an army together, learns how to channel and before he gets Callendor. Honestly this probably makes more strategic sense than sitting in a castle antagonizing Rand and waiting for him to get powerful enough to come wipe you off the face of the planet. For the fight I kind of liked it, the fight wasn't between Rand and Sammael it was between Rand losing control of himself which makes it more insulting to Sammael. We didn't get a big magical duel but I feel like we are getting that with Rahvin which was one of the better magical duels in the book so I don't mind that too much and I feel like we aren't done with Sammael either so we could see him still do a defensive fight at Tear which I think is kind of cool I would totally see Sammael go for the biggest defensive fortress in the world for a lot of reasons. I also didn't catch him being Lanfears little surprise but that is absolutely perfect lol, she really does not miss a chance to jab people. Rand though was perfect and he's not an easy character to portray because he is all over the place but I thought Joshua nailed Rand's distrust without it getting too cartoony, he nailed Rand as a friend with Perrin, Mat and I thought they did a great job with Egwene and that scene between them in this episode and now the madness that smile while he is crying was perfect and even when he took out Sammael the absent blank look on his face while he tore the world apart was great for a lot of reasons. Then after that there is a shot where Rand just nods to himself like everything is right and it was a job well done while the building collapses was pretty haunting too. We didn't get a big fight but Rand losing himself in the power and absentmindedly dragging a building down on what is supposed to be one of the most frightening things in the world really drives home the point that Rand is actually one of the most frightening things in the world and they captured all of the reasons in a beautiful shot. We haven't seen a lot of Rand losing it so I thought this was all really effective ways to show it both the addictive part of the power and dissassociation with the world around him.

Man I hope they follow through on this, I think they have done a great job showing how Moiraine doesn't need power to stand up to Foresaken or be effective and then how manipulative and strategic she can be, it would be really cool for her to use the game of houses to get over on Lanfear and it would land harder because of how much Lanfear craves power to get beat by someone less powerful. Also I'd just add that I dig the Lanfrear/Moiraine dynamic in the shows when Moiraine asks if Lanfear really thinks she would hurt the kids to get them to do what they need and Lanfear said that's the only thing I like about you was just chefs kiss such a great line. I also think they are doing a great job with Rand/Moirane distrust in that scene I could understand both of their points of view and they both seemed reasonable and they are basically at 180 degrees to each other. I also liked how they just calmly had a conversation but there was no good common ground for agreement. This just struck me as a great and realistic way to cover this distrust and neither one of them is bad or wrong/right they are just coming at this situation from two different points of view and they fundamentally aren't able to come at it differently.

The scale hasn't been a big problem for me up to now but once the Aiel get involved it does start to bother me because that is a important point in the book is how vast those armies are in relation to the wetlands so if it's like 30 guys vs 20 guys that just isn't going to be as impressive as if you see a massive wave off Aiel come racing down a mountain or something like that. Like the end of this season I think they need grand scale for Rand being presented to the Aiel and when Randland armies start seeing Aiel they need to have that grand scale to drive home the WTF are we dealing with here moment. Not really sure what the problem is either people have been using CGI to duplicate extras to create massive armies for decades so it should be doable but the fact that they haven't demonstrated they are able to do it has me a bit worried. They are amazing on the visual effects though so I really can't understand why this would be an issue just I agree they have had really limited scope on everything they have done so far. The two Rivers stuff looked really good to me but again that is smaller scale than what I think they will need when stuff really starts popping off.

The columns are complex but I think they did a good job explaining it and while I would have liked to see the other visions they would have just added to this complexity without being necessary to the main story. We really don't have to see the maidens be created we can just see the fact that they exist and it really doesn't matter too much how it started where every step in the chain that they showed was needed and I like that approach because it's complex enough. I'd also say it seems like the thing that is confusing people isn't so much the Aiel story it's the last flashback with Mieren breaking the hole in the bore and they mention that earlier in this episode but I don't think they did a lot to set up the dark one's prison and the bore so I think this threw people for a loop and then Lanfear being there and mentioning LTT to Rand's ancestor. This is all directly from the book though so I don't think there is any way around this confusion I'm just glad they showed it and I thought they did a great job I was kind of shocked I was actually seeing it on screen it's such an iconic moment. I wish we got the full vision too with the shock lances and Ogier warriors but again that probably just makes things more confusing when there is enough going on. What I hope happens is if they film some of these scenes and even if they don't make it into Amazon's time constraints eventually we get an extended edition like LOTR where it has a lot of this extra stuff added back in. I'm not sure how realistic this would be but it would be cool if they did it like a directors cut.

One thing that really struck me after episode 4 is how much the audio added to the ring and bore scenes I think in both cases the visuals were amazing but the audio also added a lot. I think the casting and costume departments rightly get a lot of credit but I think the audio crew have also been amazing throughout the series. Some of my favorites have been in season 1 where Rand touches the seal and the music softly disappears, weep for menetheren I thought was amazing, the audio when they enter Shadar Logoth reminded me of the audio in the ring and bore scenes and really added to the otherworldly feel and I was surprised they tried to do the song and I thought they did a good job with it having a good and peaceful feeling to it.

Yeah I could see them having Mat do that in Tanchico to give him something while Nynaeve/Elayne deal with the black sisters. I hope they still do the doorway because I do like that part and then later in the books. I agree Mat didn't do too much but one part that always resonated with me was when stuff starts to go down and Mat just jumps on the rock and is ready to throw down against an insurmountable amount of Aiel, it was one of the cool Mat really is ride or die moments in the book. With Rhuidean you are right Rand came back in the books and the fog was up so they may still do that and the lake and I hope they do and I think that is the better water part. I was more thinking that part with Mat where he turns on the fountain but it wouldn't have worked as well with Avi unless you had her be insulted and they probably didn't want to go funny. I wonder if they are going to do the merchant caravan they still could and I liked it. I also liked how Rand kept making comments about not trusting them and everyone is like alright Rand sounds good. I ended up watching again and just some unrelated stuff was I loved that they gave Mat's knife scene to Moraine and I liked his incredulous look and then she pulls out another knife. I thought the speech about hiding his face and her Childs face being on a killer was really powerful scene. I didn't catch that the wagon was "futuristic" in the breaking but that was a cool touch. I feel like Latra's necklace may replace the wand as the big bad white tower sa'angreal and I like that as the wand may be a bit too Harry Potter. I don't mind a wand but I could see why they may rather go in a different direction. Looks like they have a gem for each Aja so that's why I was thinking it may be the Amerlyn sa'angreal or maybe that is the one that the wonder girls find but it seemed to have an Aja theme to it. One that I thought was cool was when the child asks his grandfather how they will get over the spine and he says together fits really nicely into some of the things Rand grapples with later. Also really liked Lan's comment about it taking a lot of practice to think about nothing and I liked how they did that whole flame and void part. Overall it is kind of shocking how much they packed into that episode but it felt well paced.

I thought they did a great job with it and I thought the way they showed the 3 rings was awesome and the visuals and sound combined to make things seem otherworldly. I thought they hit all of the important notes with both Rand and Moraine and I liked how they both shared that moment at the end. I liked how Rand played all of his ancestors and I like how there was a Mat and Perrin type when they went to take on the bandits I thought that was a nice touch. Also really enjoyed the Mieren part it was nice to see them talk, nice to just tie back to how long it's been and she's still the same person and then the dark one part was really great again I thought the audio they did here was really nice and added to the scene. Then seeing the breaking and start of the Aiel journey and the way they through in the modern shoes was cool. With Moraine I hope that some of those are actual scenes that we end up seeing, some should be choices that she shouldn't make but some should be the path that she has to take so it will be cool if they use some of those. Couladin was nice to see and Savanna as well. I kind of feel like maybe they chase the Shaido to Tear instead of Cairhen and if they do that it will be kind of funny if Mat kills Couladin without knowing who he is. Like what that dude was supposed to be a big deal or something? lol. Also looks like snakes and foxes isn't happening which I get that may be a bit too strange and also hard to do visually while eating up a ton of budget and not having that much to do with the main story. Makes me wonder how Mat is going to get his stuff. Maybe they do snakes and foxes just with Mat and he finds a door in Tanchico or maybe Mat just finds his stuff in Tanchico with the wonder girls. Too bad I really loved the scene in the books where everyone keeps stepping out of the red stone door lol like who didn't walk through this thing. One thing I missed was the buildings in Rhuidian being modern but then the shoe part was great so I thought maybe that was more powerful and they already kind of did the buildings with the season 1 flashback so overall it was fine but I thought that was cool how the Aiel live in them so maybe we still get that part. Also miss Rand pulling up water but there is a cooler scene with that later so again maybe we still get this part. I don't miss the Cheodan Kal too much it is kind of redundant with Callandor and this orb still gets the point across that the Aiel needed to carry that sphere to Rhuidian and I like how the tree grew around it I thought it was a cool touch. Overall I thought it was awesome and Rhuidian is not an easy thing to get across but I thought they did a great job and got the main points across well. The visuals of the 3 rings with Avi floating there were amazing that part really stands out to me and then the modern shoe for Rand's second to last vision was done really well also. I guess I'd add that the coming with the dawn looked beautiful as well great shots in general Rhuidian looked amazing.

I'm enjoying it so far and I think Rahvin is great, Morgase I thought they went a little too GOT with that whole thing but I like how they used that throughout the episode to set other things up. I think they did a good job making her ruthless but showing how much she cared for Elayne and she respected Elayne for standing up to her it was a nice moment. I also like how they are using that Cersi ness to make people wonder about Galad and Gawyn and the dynamic with Mat is hilarious and they paid it off well with the staff fight. I guess my one nit pick here is I think in the books Mat didn't whoop them because of his superior ancestral memories the joke was more that with extended range of the staff the sword skill didn't matter and a farmer that knew what they were doing could whoop any swordsman. I think he even put that in the history too where the best swordsman ever got beat by a farmer with a big stick lol. But still the entire arc of Mat vs the Princes was hilarious and this was a great payoff and I liked how Nynaeve started rooting for him. I also feel like they did a good job splitting and condensing the story lines I think they did a pretty efficient job of it. They have had some questionable changes in the past but I think everything here makes sense and each story has a lot going on. Rhuidian is just one of the best parts of the books, same with Perrin's return to the two rivers, Mat and the wonder girls and what happens in Tanchico should be good and I think each of these actors is also nailing it and then the white tower is set up well and I like Elaida and how they are setting all of that up. I think each of these stories is strong and will make good TV it should be a packed season. And interesting dynamic that the show has that the book doesn't is how much of what we see of Galad, Gawyn, Morgase and Elaida are what Rahvin set up with compulsion. That's a pretty interesting thing that didn't happen in the books but it's really interesting to me because all of them (and Elayne) could unwittingly be working for his benefit. It could make Rahvin more effective than he was in the books to have all of these people wandering around under his compulsion. I like that about all of the forsaken too how they are just sprinkling them in to the story organically and I hope there are some that are also already in the show that they haven't revealed. I think that helps drive home how insidious the shadow is. I also like how they are setting up Bornhald and Perrin where it isn't so cut and dry and there is a lot more grey area there. I think this is why they did the whole wife fridge is what was between Perrin and Bornhald in the books made the decisions too obvious and easy for Perrin, here there is a lot more grey area which makes things more interesting between them. Overall there some things I thought I would change but they don't bother me too much I think overall they are doing a lot right and it's shaping up to be a good season of TV. I don't know if they are going to pay off all of this in one year I think that may be a lot but it would explain why the pacing is quick they just have a lot to get through each of these.