I’m not gonna read this again

Wow, that’s truly fascinating and I appreciate the education you provided! Thank you 😊 Now I’m curious how far it must have gone to require government intervention…imagine living in that time when the amount of people who had taken or given names that were extreme enough necessitated legislation. How colorful it would be to wave at people and say “hello Mr pisspot!” “Good day dick head!” Fantastic!

Whaaa??!?? The Netherlands government has to approve of the naming of children? Fascinating. I’m imagining some government employee with a red stamp that says”approved” or “denied” having a bad day or in a silly mood just having a field day

I think you just described perfectly how I feel pretty much constantly when reading the books 😂 I’m always certain it’s just me and I’m slow and/or entirely blind in terms of picking up on the intricacies and intrigue and pieces of the puzzle and how they fit together but I’m captivated by the series and reread it anyway even though I feel like everyone else is in on the intuitively obvious scenarios that I have yet to grasp

Excellent forsights and observations of the build up and foreshadowing! I still didn’t catch it on my first read

I appreciate your open minded response to my reaction to that aspect of the writing. as for all the focus on bosom…that always threw me off too! For just one example, why do we need to know the are females folding their arms beneath their breasts? We know how people fold their arms! The amount of bosom exposed in the way women dressed is frequently described. Don’t even get me started on the rampant spanking going on all over the damn place 😂

I’m definitely trying to figure some stuff out regarding the bond as well. Admittedly I may be operating on a flawed assumption from the start, but I had the impression that the bond and the emphasis on its affects established a deep and intrinsic connection that once in place it was essentially like the bonded parties were completely and mutually transparent for the most part. Like when lan tells Tomas they didn’t need to verbally communicate thanks to the bond. So the idea that moiraine and lan have been together and cultivated their bond for 20+ years yet in all that time he wasn’t aware of her main purpose and motives has me baffled. I’m referring to Alanna’s statement that he didn’t know her “before” and other indicators that he’s not aware of her intentions and still in the dark about her and who she is in many ways. I will admit though that I am aware that I may be seriously misunderstanding what is actually going on between them on screen.

Absolutely! You have beautifully illustrated the significance of incorporating sword craft in such a meaningful way and the exquisite artistry involved in order to embed it so authentically into the story and world building. I completely get it…which is why I was so hesitant to admit that it didn’t appeal to me 😂 it’s kinda like when people want to talk to me about sports and I’m like…meh

Following along the topic of Mat’s supernatural luck ability…I always felt there were moments where he had extraordinary lucky breaks that he was clearly certain had nothing to do with his “luck” but just happened to go his way. The main example I can remember is when he bets a significant amount of his money on the horse race with olver, but beyond this there are numerous times where he manages to come out of encounters where the odds were stacked against him and the circumstances should have not worked in his favor. The overall point or observation I’m attempting to convey is that Mat seems to attribute his luck as only activated in certain ways, but in my opinion it seems to permeate his life and outcomes much more than he realizes. On the other hand, maybe those other things are due to his being teveren and not intrinsically connected to the luck gift?

Haha, nope, you’re not the only one! I always had that same thought until I joined this forum not all that long ago. One example for me personally that I’m hesitant to admit because I don’t think anyone would agree, but what the hell…the points in the books that were saturated with descriptors of the sword forms during training but especially in battle are always distracting and irritating to me when I read them. I’m sure for most readers it enhances their immersion into the story, but for me it served the opposite purpose. I personally don’t need to know every minute detail of how each sword form could be described metaphorically! Ok, with that off my chest, I feel the need to clarify that I say this out of love and I love this series and the world of WOT, so it only adds to my enjoyment and devotion when I have gripes or annoyances.

Really?? In all seriousness. Is this a proven fact? That’s fascinating if it’s been somehow scientifically studied and proven. Especially considering the subjective nature of classifying marriages in this way narrowing the subject down to “devoted married people”. A lot of devoted married people have open relationships. A lot of devoted married people don’t have sex, at least after some time has passed.

I’m curious about this too. For some unknown reason I figured the sky battle from the books wasn’t gonna happen as a sky battle on screen. The eventual gathering of key characters culminating in some climactic event was still something I expected or at least anticipated including the incorporation of horn stuff. As mentioned by @Kaleb verin mentioned the prophecy about a battle in the sky so now I’m wondering how that will look and really interested to see what the show does with it and how it handles everything for the 4 episodes that are left in remainder of the season. Also wondering if/how the capture in TGH by the suldam of one of the main characters might play out. A lot of ground to cover in 4 episodes!

I absolutely agree with your observations. I felt compelled to add some of my additional thoughts. The dark forces are exceptionally skilled at knowing and zeroing in on the fears and internal struggles and triggers of each individual. For example, machin chin was directed in a very personal and specific way to each character. This is how the dark ones hook people and gain control by planting seeds of doubt and what gives them such power and influence over people. They focus in on and then exploit and magnify the deepest fears specific to the individual. Every character is affected in a unique and personal way based on their already existing, deep and troubling internal conflicts. For example Perrin feels conflicted with the wolf connection and struggles with fear of violence and ishy reinforces this by saying that his wolf nature is in fact dark and by acknowledging that therefore Perrin himself must accept that his true nature is also dark. Min and her inherent ability of having visions is presented by ishy as a curse implying that this natural expression from her basic nature is wrong. Liandrin honing in on mats struggle with his actions that appears to be abandoning his friends and subsequently magnifying his fear that they’ve abandoned him. Rands fear of not being able to control his power and hurting those around him has also been exploited by ishy and lanfear. The list of examples goes on and on, but my basic point is that the representatives of the dark forces have a masterfully strategic and intricately well thought out and implemented design for exposing and amplifying the deepest and most troubling aspects buried within each individual, thereby ensuring at the least significant influence over the “target’s” psyche and at the highest level complete control.

Yes, agreed! Thanks for articulating it better than I did. Some of my confusion comes from the plot development focused on how significant and powerful the warder bond is, and the impact of its loss. So initially the sense of distance between lan and moiraine since the bond was no longer intact (which is also reflected in the books) made more sense to me. Now we see show moiraine has been periodically masking the bond and keeping many secrets from lan from the start, implying that he never knew her as much as he thought and wasn’t truly bonded to her the way he believed and described to Tomas in terms of the bond eliminating the need for communicating verbally. I’m curious to see if this is lan committing to protecting moiraine or if he actually is in the dark.

Interesting insights. So in your view, is liandrins narcissism/self interest entirely complete or when you say that you think she does have feelings for moiraine and nyn in show that you think she’s capable of experiencing genuine feelings for others, at least on some level? And what do you make of her emotional reactions in other scenarios such as her son? Do you buy it or do you suspect that she has no capacity for authentic displays of emotion and rather is putting on a performance based on her own personal motivations? I’ve heard convincing opinions on both sides but I’m not certain yet of the current intent of her character

Is that action by liandrin a concrete reveal of her book nature in show or is it still supposed to be uncertain what her motives are?

Could the party crash scene be partially explained by Lanfear using some form of compulsion or mind control to manufacture and manipulate the people’s acceptance of their presence with the OP somehow? Or is that too much of a stretch?

A scene I wondered about was when Alanna tells lan, regarding moiraine, something along the lines of he didn’t know her “before” and that something “happened to her” about 20 years earlier that changed her. Side note, he asks if she was happy before and Alanna says she doesn’t know if moiraine was ever happy. Anyway, I can only think of one event that happened 20 years ago that I assumed lan knew about. Was there something else that happened at the same time that lan had no awareness of or was my assumption that lan was more informed of moiraines motives and their basis than I thought?

Regarding the liandrin face caress, if I was on the receiving end of such a thing from anyone besides my SO or a beloved family member, I’d be too shocked, confused and uncomfortable to respond. But I’m an introvert and not sophisticated in the ways of manipulation and scheming and power moves.

I’m so baffled by the thought that liandrin ever engaged in the necessary act to result in procreation I acknowledge that I’m on my own island here but I’m ok with the forsaken being imprisoned at different locations in the show. Admittedly due to my limited imagination of how that could look on screen. Just gradual awakenings in one location might be harder to pull off on screen than each forsaken being somewhat simultaneously awakened in a unique way and location drawing more emphasis to the specific character. I recognize that the majority of fans have envisioned a well thought out way to focus on the awakenings in a superior way, and I’m here for it, just giving voice to my minority of one. ps…I’m also ok with the efficient visual portrayal of the nature of the forsaken and their immortality. Ok, I’ve said too much. I’m clearly on board with going along for the ride that the show has been taking us on…but I do have confusion about how the AS know things so currently and how the mail system is so efficient. How did Alanna know moiraine needed them etc

And experimenting with the effects of terangreal…especially a red rod shaped one 😂

I got the sense that it was similar to portal stones in the books or the ways, where time passes differently depending on which world you’re experiencing. Meaning that the experiencer feels the passage of time in a real way but it’s all relative and individual perspective doesn’t influence the fabric of the whole timeline. Just my take on it, and like you said it may not be expounded upon. As with certain elements of book lore, we can speculate but not always know everything. My main observation was that Nyneave experienced it as absolutely real and lasting for years of her experience.

Not on current topic but regarding the episode, I have to just say….when nyneave says regarding her experience in the arches “I was in there for years” and clearing up the possibility that it was more of a dream like experience, it really struck me. Holy eff! She has lived years in her awareness of a life that actually happened and suddenly has to adjust to returning to a reality and world that she had probably lost all memory of. That’s mind blowing.

I also caught a glimpse of something in one of the promos that made me think it was the heroes of the horn

I’m curious as well. Verin and co seem to believe that moiraine is stilled, using that assumption to explain her state of mind to lan, but imo Alanna and co isn’t clear how they perceive the situation. At first when ep4 began I thought they had bonded lan. Moiraine herself has a deep understanding of the impact of the loss of access to the op in the way she relates to logain. It seems like as far as she’s aware/concerned, she doesn’t consider it a likely possibility that she isn’t cut off permanently. She does seem to know the difference between being stilled and being apparently cut off beyond the ability to currently know how to reverse it….as I see it based on her continual attempts to channel and her continued identification as aes sedai