I’m on board with that! Would you be willing to expand on that with some examples?

Although your question was directed at the person who posted, I thought I’d comment on it. In my personal experience, the reason I gain so much enjoyment out of rereading is because even though as you said “words are the same on first read or fifth”, the meaning behind the words or the way they affect me changes with every read. The words haven’t changed yet the way I interpret them does. Otherwise I don’t see any purpose for myself to read them again and again. I can definitely understand why maybe some people reread them simply because they love becoming absorbed in the story, but for me it’s more because I get more and more out of the same words every time I read them. For me every time I reread them it feels like I’m experiencing reading a new book in some ways. To use the nyneave example, even though I see all of the same repellent qualities as I did in my first read, I also see them through the perspective of the entire story including observing her psyche and it provides some context. Not that it excuses her behavior, I just see it differently (more layered/nuanced rather than one dimensional) on reread than I did on first impression. But that’s just me 😊🤷‍♀️

I’m going to try to be as discreet as possible so as to avoid spoilers, but I wonder if moiraine being cut off from the source will take the place of a certain book story line and maybe she will be the one who experiences the situation and it’s progression instead of the book character(s). I hope this isn’t too cryptic! Just referring to the loss of the power and the way that plays out for certain book characters. I only bring it up because a lot of adaptations condense the narrative by transferring or consolidating certain plot points to more notable characters or just to avoid casting a thousand actors. It’s a practical way to salvage content even though it can seem jarring to the viewer who has a long standing firm interpretation of the story and characters as they know it.

How do you spell chode? That’s the word that comes to my mind 😂😬

Interesting… I appreciate you applying your knowledge of the magic system to these specific situations. I couldn’t find an answer to the second scenario within my own internal analysis, but the way you deduce the answer from what information is available makes sense. Likewise in the first scenario. It stands to reason that while the suldam are controlling the damane, they still have to work within the existing parameters in terms of the abilities and limits of each individual damane. On the other hand, the person who is leading a circle seems to be drawing on and amplifying the power through the participants, but once the participants surrender control to the leader they no longer have any influence or ability to affect how the leader uses it. Thank you for breaking it down for me, I hate it when I can’t make sense of something!

I’ll just add a few of my thoughts that came to mind while reading this thread. First off, regarding the overall impact that making an adaptation can have, the announcement that WOT was being adapted for the screen directly led to my decision to finish reading the books. I loved the first 5 and then stopped early on in book 6 due to various reasons (mostly life circumstances leaving little time for reading, not necessarily because I didn’t enjoy the books). It renewed my interest and instantly revived my passion for the world and characters. The next thought I had regarding adaptations, is that it seems no matter how they are presented, there will always be book purists who reject any alternative portrayal on screen. Even when in hindsight something is generally accepted as a success, it’s often criticized at the time. For example, I remember when season 5 of GOT came out, many book readers stopped watching the show and had very intense reactions to the changes that were made, particularly in regards to Sansa. Understandably, when viewed from the perspective of a book super fan, some will take these changes to their beloved source material personally. It’s probably akin to watching your own life story adapted so that every change feels wrong. This hasn’t been my personal experience of adaptations, I tend to enjoy them, but I can see why some people can’t. One more thought, and this may be partly why I’m able to enjoy them. It’s not easy to get a show made, and whether or not it pleases everyone (not possible) I appreciate that someone managed to do it. Would I have done things differently? Sure. But I’m not the one who put in the work to make it happen, and I’m sure if I had, I would’ve had plenty of people who disagreed with my portrayal.

Ok thank you for clarifying! It seems like the seanchan utilize the damane largely as weapons, so I wonder how that issue is handled when they capture and collar oath bound aes sedai. They can’t be nearly as valuable and I wonder to what use they are put to. I don’t recall if we see it addressed or not. In terms of linking into a circle, I was curious about that scenario in general, not necessarily specifically suldam. For example when the sea folk led the circle to use the bowl of the winds, since the circle included aes Sedai bound by the oaths but the person controlling it is not bound by any oaths, does the inclusion of aes Sedai in the circle now bind the leader as well, for as long as they are drawing on oath altered OP?

I respect your viewpoint and thank you for sharing it! Let me be clear that I genuinely enjoy hearing what people think and sincerely appreciate and honor the opportunity to learn from every perspective and have no personal opinion/investment in terms of believing in one thing being more true or superior to another. That being said. Just curious, did you ever get into Star Wars and I suppose even the marvel universe? If so. How did you feel about those worlds being reimagined, handed over, and/or redefined/expanded upon in ways that weren’t originally intended?

Good points! I just had a sudden memory of hearing something that I’m not sure whether it’s actually true or if I was dream walking in TAR and reading dissolving documents in elaidas study. Was it stated somewhere by the show runners that there were going to be entire episodes devoted to specific characters and their arcs and excluding others? If I’m remembering correctly, and I admit I might have this wrong, S2 is going to at some points focus on one thing(or limited)/person per episode, at least for some episodes.

I particularly liked the casting and portrayal of lan and tam

I can think of a lot of institutions and individuals who have this belief even in today’s world. Too many, unfortunately…

I’m currently in the middle of WH in my reread and one of the questions that came to mind that I can’t recall the details is in regards to the damane. More specifically how much control the suldam has through the link to override the damane. Normally they have total obedience and control, but what about aes sedai who are bound by the 3 oaths? Can they force them to use the one power as a weapon since they control the link, or do the oaths take precedence and prevent this from happening? To take this even further, what about a circle being led by a channeler who is not aes sedai, can they link with an aes sedai to use the power as a weapon?

Thank you, very helpful and informative! I don’t know where I got the idea that book 3 was being incorporated in season two, but if it’s not, looks like the future seasons will have to consolidate the events in the books even more!

I don’t necessarily have any predictions, more like curiosity about how major plot points in the book may or may not be translated to the screen. For example: Will we see the aes sedai show up en mass lead by siuan early on? The time spent with ingtar tracking the horn, and the progression of his arc, and also hurans character. I wonder if we’ll see on screen what we didn’t see on page regarding tam and Abel (based on the show portrayal of Abel I’m not sure if he would be the one accompanying tam) traveling to the tower, not only because it’s good storytelling but also because I don’t know if they want entire seasons without at least some time spent on each important character. Eg and nyn. Will they incorporate the portal stones and flicker sequence? Lanfear/Selene. How will falme be handled, from the girls being lured there to Egwenes capture to the battle and the blowing of the horn, not to mention reuniting all of the key players. It’s a lot of content but there isn’t enough time for everything considering book 3 needs to be covered as well, and so do things that happened in the show that weren’t in the books but will need to be addressed (moiraine losing her connection to the OP, Rand wanting to be presumed dead, mat not entering the ways with the others, and we haven’t even been introduced to Elayne in the show yet, lan and nyneaves relationship has been accelerated. So many extra “not exactly source material” plot points that were introduced in season one will need to take time to be expanded upon. Between that and the (IMO essential) content from book 2, I’m just extremely curious to see what kind of story will be told in season 2, especially considering that (if I understand correctly) book 3 is also going to be covered in season 2. I don’t feel qualified to formulate any predictions regarding how the massive amount of content will be adapted, condensed and portrayed in 8 episodes, but I am very interested to find out.

I love your answers. I thought of a few more. I would love to see bela acknowledged in some way. Also it’s a minor and quickly resolved scene in the book, but for some reason I loved when Thom apparently kills (Cadsuane is it?) while guarding Rand and crew during last battle and we then learn that he knows it was an imposter. The rape bonding of Rand by Alanna if done correctly. A scene in a stedding. Somehow working lini and her sayings in. Meeting birgitte and everything about her. Mat and olver. Black tower from inception to the full evolution. Elayne testing a certain terangreal 😂

Thank you for reviving this post! I’m relatively new here and would unlikely have seen it otherwise. I like your take on it and the way you pointed out the symbolic representations of each relationship. The only thing I would add (my 2 cents, irrelevant and unwanted as they may be) is this: I get why people have their various gripes and criticisms of all sides of the situation. I personally don’t have any negative reactions to the situation (aside from maybe insufficient information in story to explain why the connection is so intense and all consuming for some of the involved characters), considering it is consensual. I actually have something positive as my main take away. IMO, what I appreciated most was the bond built between the three women. Sure they all loved the same man, and it seems Rand is so desirable and their feelings for him so powerful that they’re willing to share him. What I appreciated was the love and respect the women genuinely worked on and ultimately had for each other. Women can typically be portrayed as selfish, manipulative and deceitful. In this case we see a love story between 3 women that may actually surpass the Rand stuff in some ways. Or that’s how I experienced it anyway.

I always took it for granted that RJ used a vast amount of “real world” inspiration to tell his story and build his world, battles included

Agreed. I don’t think pure book nyneave would translate well with tv audiences. I think she does have some redeeming qualities in the books but they are only obvious if you read between the lines. Tv nyneave will probably have to be more the “between the lines” book stuff and less the violent, condescending, arrogant hypocrite we get so much of from the books.

Just a few: Tormund from GOT as rhuarc billy Connelly as Thom Helen miren as caddy lupita nyong’o as tuon

I completely agree with your assessment of what defines a weapon. Clearly, as with the oath to speak no word that is not true, there is a tremendous amount of wiggle room. It seems to come down to the belief of the individual. I would personally define a weapon as anything that could cause harm of any sort, and similarly I would consider the “truth” oath to mean total transparency. But that’s just me…obviously the sisters under the binding of the oath rod view it differently.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of this topic. I’ve read the series only once and am currently rereading, but a lot of things escape my memory. I also wonder if the sisters who “undid” their oaths and then retook oaths (whether they were BA or the ones hunting them) interfered even further in terms of their lifespan. One other thought I’ve entertained (which I admit is neither here nor there) is how male channelers might be affected. We will never know, but it would have been interesting IMO if there would have been a male character or two who didn’t succumb to the taint and provided an alternative (albeit unlikely) frame of reference for male channelers post breaking.

We WOT book readers have already had to accept that many of the things we wanted to see translated from book to screen are not going to happen, be it budget issues or limited episodes or simply that the vision of the show creator(s) and what they consider important differ in various ways from our own. That being said, in an ideal world, what are some of your top moments from the books that you would especially like to see portrayed on the show? Or were looking forward to seeing that didn’t pan out in season one? I’ll start with a few of my own. I really hope to see the flicker scene and unlike many of you, I actually would like to see the portal stone dimension(s) in one way or another. The world of the Finns, and TAR. The testing terangreal for the AS and in Rhuidean. I’m not sure if these are easily translated to the screen, so I’m not holding my breath, but hopefully the essential content will be worked into it somehow. In terms of scenes that for me profoundly impacted my experience of the books and hopefully are doable…I gotta see dumais wells (as traumatic as it is), nyn healing stilling/gentling, cleansing saidin, Rand coming from rhuidean at dawn to fulfill the aiel prophecy, Cadsuane and her depth of character and nuances, the battle of the people of the two rivers against all odds, mat blowing the horn of valere, the forsaken visits to each other and the pit of doom (thakandar?) and really so many more but I’ll leave it here (for now). Anyone else, especially upon learning that the books were being adapted into a show, who envisioned certain scenes cinematically and if so, which ones? And/or characters that you hope make the cut from books to show?

It’s clear that channeling the OP increases the life span significantly. It’s also clear that the current system followed by the Aes Sedai has decreased their lifespan, in many cases by hundreds of years, compared to channelers who are not AS. The only obvious difference appears to be that the Aes Sedai of “today” are bound by the 3 oaths and/or the oath rod. Is this phenomenon ever explained or are there any theories out there that might explain it? Also, when an AS such as Cadsuane retires, are they released from the oaths?

I appreciate your post and the points you made. I think the oath writers clearly left loopholes in the way the oaths are worded, and I have to suspect this was no accident. Speaking no word that is not true is not the same as total transparency. And as you mentioned there is also the exception of being able to lie if the person believes it to be true. I also have always been confused about the oath forbidding use of the power as a weapon and I think it again comes down to the individual interpretation. For example, if I took an oath not to use the power as a weapon, then for me that would include not using it to cause pain or harm in any way. Yet clearly the power is used to inflict pain and force against people all the time. The interpretation of what a weapon is, and the obvious fact that the aes sedai defines weapon differently must be what allows them to beat, bind, or otherwise cause pain or trauma without breaking this oath. The basic method of punishment in the tower is using the power to whip or spank or beat or whatever. Not everyone who participated in kidnapping Rand was a Darkfriend yet look how he was treated. They must interpret a weapon as something that is used with the intent to kill, and aside from that it’s pretty flexible. I agree with your assessment that the oath is in the eye of the beholder, and the oath rod itself is merely a way to bind people to their own views of what the oaths mean.

I really appreciate your input! Thanks for sharing your perspective, it is definitely helpful