Hopper! I was surprised how much that hit me but I thought they did a great job with the wolf power and actually made a beautiful moment to introduce Hopper and for all the grief they get for not following the book that just felt like a moment where the book description was brought to life. Also glad that they didn't go the CGI route with the wolves just because dogs can naturally be so expressive like the dog looked legitimately sad when Elyas said he lost his mate and you lose all of that with CGI or it's done in an over the top cheesy way. Also I like how they are doing Elyas because he is acting like a wolf more than a human so he just doesn't really do small talk, he isn't too concerned about making Perrin comfortable either physically or emotionally but he's there to help and support a member of the pack. Doesn't even really care about anyone that came with Perrin because they aren't part of the pack. He's really growing on me as they go and I liked how he smiled when Hopper told Perrin his name it isn't that he's emotionless he just legitimately doesn't really GAF about any of the things that everyone else does. Also like how he's just kind of instantly ride or die with Perrin taking on the Seanchan and tearing someone's throat. That's kind of how the wolves are too in the books so I like that it doesn't take time to develop they are just there for him. We come. Lanfear has absolutely nailed it and this is a role I didn't see anyone doing well, I would have been happy if we got a decent Lanfear but she is knocking it out of the park and like all of it. That whole scene with her making Rand jealous of himself and him just destroying her heart with a single comment cut so deep to the books it just worked in a lot of ways and she just nailed that as an actress. RJ had a lot of book moments where women wanted to just straight up strangle a man or thump them with a stick and she nailed it. Really liked the ending too, maybe the most epic cock block of all time and just the throat slit and then Rand is just covered in blood lol. Poor Rand is going to have trauma from this, he's going to be more worried about Moiraine jumping out of the shadows than a fade (that scene was beautiful how the fade stepped out). I also think the change to forsaken dying makes a lot of sense and I think is an improvement over book mechanics for a show, I don't want them having to recast people when they did such an amazing job casting them in the first place. Have to take a moment to say how big of a moment this is from Moiraine she just goes out there knowing that one of the most powerful people that has ever walked the planet will absolutely hate her with the hate of a thousand suns and is effectively immortal and Moiraine can't channel: Moiraine tells Lan to stay at home and goes slits that b!tches throat lmfao. Also it's cool that it looks like Moiraine is just struggling with things but she finds the perfect inflection point and way to change the arc of what is happening which is a total Moiraine thing to do because she is 100% about the mission. I also really like seeing her as part of the Cairhen plot and her sister has been amazing too. Her knowing exactly how to get to Logain was a nice touch and when she was talking about it you realize that she's going through the same thing is powerful. My guess is the nephew is Barthames who is going to be similar to the book character but go on to become king and then I think the Thom plot would probably be on in a later season but we'll see. Liandrin's connection with Nynaeve is great I really liked the scene with her and Nynaeve, I liked the comment about Aes Sedai never setting foot in that room and liked how they had that moment of genuine connection. It adds so much to both of their stories and both of these actresses are doing a great job with their characters so it works well. Lan is taking time to go through things but I think it's fine his book character went through his whole death phase which I think the show is doing but I like how they are all trying to help get him through this. I think this is building up to a moment where everyone thinks she considers herself more important than Lan when she feels the opposite is true so I think this was important and I liked the meditation moment. Alanna interrupting Lan was setting things up well how she doesn't respect boundaries. While there wasn't a lot of payoff with what Lan was doing I think it was more setting things up. Excited to see Avi next week and I loved the line but man I do wish they kept the cage scene for Gaul. I get that they may cast him later so they don't keep actors around for limited roles but the cage part was always why I thought Gaul was so ride or die for Perrin so if they weren't going to introduce Gaul I wish they held off on the cage part. Avi also had a great introduction in the books with the maidens surrounding the fade and banging on their shields so I would just do that scene but with Perrin instead of the wonder girls. Also the cage scene led to some of my favorite lines from Faile when she was teasing Perrin about it so I would just save the cage scene until next season but oh well hopefully they do a great job with it.

Yep I totally agree they get to the point where any channeler can take out a fair number of them easily and then regular characters seem to have no problem with them. They just become kind of mundane they almost become the measuring stick for how capable a character is. Also really loved that series with Talamanes it was great for his character but it was also a great callback to how fades were written at the beginning of the series but I agree the effect is lessened by how common killing fades became. I'd also just say that I do the audio books and Michael Kramers reading of that whole Talamanes part is great he really makes it all come to life. One thing I'm thinking is they could just get rid of grey men in the show because that effect may be hard to come across in visual medium and replace all of the grey man attacks with fades stepping out of shadows. To me that is more terrifying anyway that fades can just step out at any time and then it keeps them as consistent threats through the series and then it also keeps the Gholam as more unique and surprising when it appears because it has a similar purpose to the grey men even if it had a much different capability.

Really enjoying the season I was sad about Uno but that was an amazing way to introduce the Seanchan and he doesn't do all that much more in the books. I do like him trying not to swear around Nynaeve and the scene with him and Galad later in the books but I get the feeling a lot of that stuff is going to get cut so it was probably worth it. What I didn't like about it is the actor himself seemed like a big fan so that part kind of sucked but it was an epic way to go and it seemed fitting for Uno to go out cursing the Seanchan and refusing to bend to them. Someone had to not go along so you could see why people did go along and this really drove the point home. I really liked the change with Rand helping out at that home it was just a beautiful way to show his character and it totally makes sense that he would want to understand what insanity is and looks like and it makes his choices later have more weight because he knows exactly what he faces. Loved that the guy that he's helping is an actual blade master and knows the moves I really enjoyed that part. I'm hoping we get a cat crossing the courtyard training with those two where Rand has to wonder if the guy is just screwing with him lol and it would be even funnier if Lan later shows him the same thing before meeting the Amerlyn and he realizes the guy from the insane asylum is a legit blade master. Also liked the Logain thing but the payoff for the wine was pretty bad but it seemed like he was trolling Rand by spilling it so I wonder if he's trying to get a sense of Rand's temperament before deciding if he wants to help him kind of like Cadsuane did in the books. Nynaeve's test was great I was actually wondering if they would just have her leave and what that would do for the story so they kind of got me with that one. Nynaeve just slamming that glass of dirty water was absolutely perfect too. It's kind of similar to Egwene and Nynaeve later in the books but this was just cool and pure Nynaeve. I kind of liked the direction they were taking things with Liandrin too it makes more sense than Siuan and I kind of liked that she was the one willing to tick off Nynaeve to get her to channel it makes sense that she would be willing to bend the rules and push harder to get the result which was what Nynaeve needed. Siuan works but I feel like Liandrin fits this great and it added more depth to both Nynaeve and Liandrin and just makes things more interesting between them. Elayne was absolutely perfect and I agree she wasn't how I imagined visually but her attitude is just perfect I loved her basically calling Egwene's belongings trash in the nicest possible way. Also really liked the prison hooch because it fit Elayne having interest in common things like swearing so brewing hooch was great and I just liked her line about Egwene living at an inn should be able to hold her liquor lol. The books had that really awkward start "Are we friends now?" so I thought this worked so much better and I thought the line about I barely know you was a clever call back to how easily they became friends in the book but then the fact that Elayne just showed up and was there for Egwene was perfect. Whoever is doing casting for this show deserves an award because they are just consistently doing amazing work. I was worried about Donal's Mat but he is doing a great job and he seems to have great range as well being able to get mischievous Mat as well as serious Mat. Barney did a really great job with this too so I'm just glad to see that Donal is keeping it up. Barney's line about 'That's not the way roads work' is still probably the funniest line I've heard in WOT so I'll always appreciate his contribution. With the scene where it looks like he's stabbing Rand the books did a lot of great foreshadowing and they did a lot of great false foreshadowing where you thought that a vision or prophecy meant one thing and it was fulfilled in a completely different way. I'd imagine that is how this vision will play out but we'll see. I loved that he came back for Min and I liked how they were playing off of each other they actually fit really well as characters but we didn't see them interact until so late in the books. Also really loved the scene with Egwene and the out of focus Mat in the background it was a really nice image and felt like Mat. Also enjoying Perrin and the hunt for the horn, I really like that Ishy adds doubt about the wolf because it makes Perrin's reluctance there make sense and Fain laid the groundwork with making Perrin think he was going to the shadow using his axe. I think they did a really nice job setting up his struggles with the way of the leaf and the wolf brother. Also like how they are showing the wolf power I think it works well and I think as he gains power we will see full blown Tel'aron'rhiod. I'm actually really digging Elyas and I loved that when he rescued Perrin he fairly obviously tore someone's throat out with his teeth. That is very normal for a wolf but shocking for a human so it sets up Perrin's fear and struggle with the wildness nicely. Also really liked Ingtar's conversation with Perrin because you understand it from Ingtars perspective but it's the perfect amount of shocking from Perrin's perspective. The Moiraine Lan thing is I think basically taken from the book they are just doing it earlier in the series but when she was passing his bond in the books she was purposefully trying to anger Lan to start to break their bond so he was willing to move on because I think she felt if she didn't anger him he would never move on. I think they were able to be more subtle in the books because they had more time but there was a good period there where she starts to lay down who is boss and making the bond chafe and I think she even says that at some point if the bond chafes you need to move on or something to that effect. They are basically doing mid books Moraine and Lan now and it just fit into Nynaeve's test perfectly they got me with it I thought Nynaeve was going to walk right out of the tower and the timing with Lan riding up kind of made sense because of what we saw previously so it paid off to me. I thought the fade fight was great because their shadow walking ability brings something new to the fades compared to the other shadowy bad guys we see in fantasy. They are going to be compared pretty hard to ring wraiths so it's nice that they have some things to distinguish themselves and this was done well. They had this in the books they just never really used it. I also wish Lan would have had a better showing here but taking out 2 fades and fighting 3 at the same time in the dark is pretty crazy. I think they were showing how much he was missing the bond but when you add it to how people were feeling he hasn't had many moments to shine yet this kind of compounds that. I'm ok with him not being over the top competent though right now as the threats they are facing need to seem significant and if Lan is just always crushing everything his character becomes kind of cartoonish which doesn't play as well in a show. Also I feel like for good parts of the books the shadow doesn't seem all that threatening I think at the beginning it is and then at the end the shadow shows up for the last battle ready to rumble but in the middle I think RJ struggled to show them as capable threats which is where I think people talk about how ineffective a lot of the chosen seem to be is that middle part of the books. This fight and the shadow walking of the Fades sets them up to be more capable threats as we get to the middle of the series so it's hopefully part of making a more consistent threat level throughout the series.

I'm getting excited it's been a long wait but I really like the clip of the dark friend social and I like the clues similar to the books it's going to be interesting to see people try and guess that didn't read the books as I thought they did a good job with these. Also something that I think RJ did a great job with in the books is using people's perspective to show things in an interesting way like the seanchan general that assumed Thom was leading the band, the tinker messenger for Moraine that sees the camp in the mountains, Tuon watching Mat reunite with the band. I feel like this scene was a well done nod to that as it was a great perspective to see the meeting through and then just the tension wondering if Ishy is actually going to feed a child to a trolloc was great and then it's kind of sinister and impressive the control he has over the trollocs I thought it was really well done. Also feel like Ishy is a high point of the show I think he wasn't really effectively used in the books and kind of cartoonish at the beginning but I really like how this guy is playing him. Across the board I've been really impressed with the acting, I think Ishy, Valda, Logain, Siuan, Liandrin, Fain and Thom are all exceptional and whoever is doing casting is consistently knocking it out of the park.

Just finished my rewatch and they had a nice teaser for season 2 with the dark friend social and I thought it was good. I hadn't seen it anywhere (but I haven't been keeping up with everything) but it's pretty great Ishy and this rewatch made me realize how much I liked him. I like how just casually dismissive he is and I think the peak of it is the part where he goes ooh a heron mark blade I wonder where you found that and just pinches the blade and pushed it away. Just dismissed it completely as a threat, dismissed Rand's right to carry it and then to top it off dismissed his connection to his father and delivered it like he was proud of a picture a kid made. Also really liked his line about the 100 companions and the lack of a real plan but the line about the sword and the way he says it is just pretty great on the rewatch. I could actually see that line being what pushes Rand to learn how to use the sword. Another thing I noticed on the rewatch was that it always bothered people that the Aes Sedai and specifically the Green Aja were not really involved with the borderlands and it never really made sense that they wouldn't be involved with protecting the blight but the show had I think a good explanation for this in that the borderlands were too proud to ask for help and if you tie in the whole Malkier/Aes Sedai story that can make a compelling reason why and why all of the borderlands may feel the similarly. This makes sense to me and I don't feel like we got a good explanation for this in the books. There is also a lot of foreshadowing in the books that is done well and I liked how well Agelmar basically pegged the entire situation and how quickly he came to it. I missed it the first time because it is similar to some things that Ingar says in the books but I liked that they used this here with Agelmar because I thought it was a good nod to him as a general that once he saw the attack he saw basically the whole progression of events. Like Fain said at this point it's really only Moiraine and the Dark One that really see what is going on (another line I really liked on rewatch) and Agelmar kind of picked up on it instantly and where things were going. If they follow the books it's a pretty accurate picture of what's coming and I don't think many people in the world realize this at this point so I thought it spoke well to Agelmar's ability as a general how quick and thoroughly he picked up on what was happening and his place in it. Something else that I thought was interesting in the books was the similarity between Rands experience with the portal stones and the Accepted test so I thought it was kind of cool that the last episode mirrored the novice test. I like the idea of Rand unintentionally taking his versions of the Aes Sedai tests as he progresses and mirroring that path I think there was some of this in the book so I thought this was a nice touch. Also I never realized it reading but on the rewatch I just realized that Joiya is just a cool name for a girl in the real world. It doesn't sound like any name out there but it doesn't sound really strange either and has a nice ring to it. If there is any name in the book I would actually name a child I think it would be Joiya, or I guess Mat lol.

I always thought the strangeness in the power had more to do with Elayne's unraveled gateway since that was more of an uncontrolled explosive blast of the power rather than the bowl of the winds which seemed fairly under control and was actually kind of anticlimactic in the immediate aftermath in that it didn't really change anything at first. It just always made more sense to me that it was the gateway that caused it.

One thing I would suggest is to give the audio books a try I am really enjoying them. It's like having someone read you a bedtime story and they are amazing at doing all of the voices. Sometimes they miss with some of the voices but I kind of like that as well. They are great for going to bed and I just rewind to the last part I remember or long car rides or doing dishes or things like that.

I guess the way I would imagine it is Perrin would vocalize his question and you would get the response from the wolves as a series of images. I really don't want them to do voice overs because I can't see a way that doesn't just remind me of all of the animal with voice movies like Dr. Dolittle so I personally don't think that would work well. If they just stare at each other I like that marginally better than a voice over but that's going to get pretty old and redundant quickly. As to the sequence of images following each other they are already doing this with some of the dream sequences and there is a strong tie between the wolves and the dream world in the book so if there is a similarity to the dreams and the way the wolves communicate I think that actually works well.

I'm excited for season 2 looks like we start to get fancy jacket Rand and flaming sword Rand. That's going to be an interesting role because Rand can be a pretty intense guy but I like the actor and I think he can pull it off. When he snapped at Moraine in season one it was a nice flash of the intensity and here too. I dig how he just walked up on the Seanchan, raggedy Rand with his beat up cloak of hiding. This could also be a bit of a reach but hopefully Moiraine's quote about guiding Rand being the most important thing and him using the flaming sword means we will see some Lan lessons. I also think that may make sense if they go with Lan being a teacher for Rand, Thom being a teacher for Mat and Elyas being a teacher for Perrin rather than having Lan and Thom train everyone each character has a distinct mentor, I feel like it ended up this way in the books so may as well just start it out this way. It's going to be tough to do Perrin and the wolves but I don't mind the way they are approaching it. I think it would be cool if instead of words they show images and sounds kind of how they described it in the book. Like the wolf didn't say their name was dapple it was the way sunlight shined through the leaves in a quiet forest, just show that as a series of images and the sound of a peaceful forest as they communicate. You can't get complex ideas across this way but I think that was what Perrin was dealing with in the books too. I think I would like this type of approach more than a voice over and they have been doing some similar things with the flashes in the dreams so this would be pretty similar to how they are showing dreams. Ishy and the Seanchan is interesting but in the books he did have a lot to do with Seanchan becoming what they were so I think this is a good way to show it without a lot of time to get into all of the backstory. I really like the actor for Ishy and I just liked how when he was channeling it looked like he was meditating it kind of reminded me of the void or oneness. They mention in the books that Aes Sedai did a lot of hand waving that wasn't needed so it would be cool if the forsaken are a lot more efficient in their channeling because they are more experienced. Also looked like an Aiel kicking a Fade in the face which is pretty cool I wonder if that is the scene with Avi and Aiel surrounding the fade hitting their shields, that was one of my favorite scenes in the book. Mat I'm kind of nervous about just because I think the first guy did about a perfect job and I think Mat is hard to get right but we'll see I do think they have done a great job with casting so I'm optimistic. Overall I thought it looked good and I'm definitely getting excited, started rewatching season 1.

I dig it, I just wish there was a way to get a clear sword in there for Callandor and would be cool to get a shaggy mare. Also really like that the base is a wheel I thought that was a nice touch. Would be cool to get some kind of forsaken set maybe in LTT's home with the scary fireplace.

This is a hard one I think there are some real standouts Thom was great (his line about nothing being more dangerous than a man that knows the past is one of my favorites of the show and that song was great), Siuan because she seemed to play 3 different characters but still keep the same common thread through all of them, Valda was amazing, Logain was great and I really liked Ishamael I thought he was also a really effective change from the books. People also really hate on Steppin but I thought the actor did a great job going from jovial to suicidal and keeping a common believable thread throughout similar to Siuan. I think I have to go with Siuan just for the range she played I really appreciated seeing that and the subtle differences and similarities in each role she played and you really do have to have range to play that character so I thought they really knocked that casting out of the park. Honorable mention to Valda for his chilling matter of fact speech to Egwene while carving up Perrin, kind of like the dark friend he gave a more coherent ethos of the whitecloaks in a few minutes than I felt like I really got from the books and every scene he was in he just radiated casual menace he was stunning in the role. More I think about this it’s really hard for me to chose between Valda and Siuan I think Siuan showed more range but Valda had such a dominating performance they were both perfect really. I think his speech here, Illa’s speech about the way of the leaf and Dana the dark friends speech were also great highlights, extremely well done effective and focused sharing their points of view. Here’s hoping we get an epic Ingtar speech because he had a really interesting point of view as well.