I'm glad that we understand one another on the changes regarding innocence and sex. I don't understand much of the rest of what you wrote in this last message other than as a reductio ad absurdum and it's not persuasive.

AoE heal = Nynaeve in the cave in S1? I thought that was a bit of stretch too, but it doesn't represent any change to the magic system, it's just showing how a super-powered but untrained channeler is able to do something impossible in a passionate moment, which happens throughout the series. Resurrection didn't happen, straight up. Bad makeup and covid restrictions allowed the scene to be done with any ambiguity at all, they had to use a mannequin on a same-day re-write. So, a flub by the show for sure, but not a change to the magic system at all. A'dam mechanics were inconsistent with the books, but again, not a change to anything fundamental. A'dam are just a tool that uses the power. Rand defeated Ishamael at the end of S1 by himself, with Moiraine literally helpless and on her knees. Just because we know it was a false victory doesn't diminish his heroism in that scene. Mat's literally a thief in the books, him stealing the dagger is the key thing he does in the first two books and makes him most first-time readers' least favorite character until he's healed and starts to turn around in book 3. Perrin killing his wife is a big change for sure, but it makes his behavior with women and especially Faile so much more believable - sucks that it's a trope. I also am one who thinks the show should have leaned into making Laila a Darkfriend, I still think that scene looks like she was about to take a swing at him, and there's the previous scene in their bed where she looks suspiciously thoughtful about him. Could have been interesting. Anyway, there's plenty of great story in the books for all of them and the show can only give us a fraction of it. Everything indicates that season 3 will be where Rand takes the reins from Moiraine as the obvious main character, with Perrin sure to shine in the Two Rivers arc. Mat will likely have to wait til season 4 to have his big moments, but there are some indications that they're going to do the snakes and foxes in some form, so I'm just crossing my fingers until we see what happens. Which I loved doing reading the books and waiting for the next one to come out, so this is a very WoT experience for me.

The books have a lot of sex and Jordan as an author has a lot of fun gently mocking the professed prudery of our Two Rivers heroes through other characters with more sex-positive cultures. It's clear that the polyamorous writer did not share the culturally conservative views of sex that a lot of his readers presumed. The show is de-emphasizing the "hayseeds get worldly" theme in the book, and angst about sexuality is one of the elements of that theme that they faded out. Totally ok not to like it if that was a theme you wanted to see more of, but I am one book reader that feels the show writers made a good choice here. The magic system has no major changes, the only confirmed one is that in the show circles can burn a channeler out, which helps the show by quickly explaining why Aes Sedai don't do it all the time. There's debate about whether the Three Oaths have been changed for the show, but I don't see anything definitive one way or the other. And of course we haven't had the big lore dumps about saidin vs saidar, but they seem to work just as they do in the books. The show certainly seems to have all the same main characters as the books playing the same roles in the story, not sure what you're on about here. We've seen less Rand than the books because the show adopted the ensemble POV of most of the books from the get-go. And the show is not overpowering Rand with massive end-of-book climactic battles doing things that he can't do again. Jordan spent a lot of time in Rand's head giving readers the feel that his internal battle was over control more than access, and that wrestling with the temptation and revulsion of saidin was important to the books for sure. But giving that struggle its due time would make the other characters' stories much paler in the given time for the show, so pulling back and making Rand's power growth more of an access and knowledge issue where we see him trying to connect with a mentor is a good adjustment in my view.

I don't think it's bad writing, but I fully agree with this point. The idyllic small-town feel might mesmerize those who are from there, especially the town gentry (mayor/innkeeper, prosperous farmer) who are fully invested in it, but a visitor might well take a sleazier impression of the place. I think there are lots of clues in the text of EOTW that all is not well in EF/The Shire, and I'm very glad the show found some shorthand ways to bring those forward. Mat's the most obvious character to do it with... why is the main character's best friend always pulling fairly serious pranks? Maybe things aren't all that great at home with his horse trader dad... in 20th century terms, that's a used car dealer. And sure, his friends all love to see him get one over on the out-of-towners, but they've likely all found themselves on the short end of the stick a few times too. Jordan never says any of this, of course, but his strongest suit as a writer is giving characters their own biased perspectives: the things they notice that others don't, as well as all the unwritten things they miss, things we only see later in cases where we have another perspective on the same event.

https://winteriscoming.net/the-wheel-of-time-season-3-teaser-breakdown-rhuidean-visions-and-a-blood-bath-in-tar-valon Some stuff that I think is obviously either wrong or uninformed, but I like to have these kind of things in text instead of video, maybe some of you do too.

I don't know if they can pull it off with either the actors or their stunt doubles, but it would be amazing to have that scene done with the same technical quality as the scene with Tigraine in S1.

Rand/Mat/Perrin's internal monologue of "Rand/Mat/Perrin would know what to do about women" is amusing enough the first few times in the books before it gets tiresome. It seems like a subset of readers think that's a core dynamic of the characters, and I could not disagree more.

Love this idea!

Cannot wait for the columns, looks like that will be episode 4. I've re-read those chapters alone dozens of times, probably my favorite scene in any book. I expect I'll be somewhat disappointed with it on first watch since there's no way it can match the text, but - like the books - I've found the show really rewards repeat viewings when I can set aside my initial comparison-based reactions and absorb the greater context.

Season 3 poster out today! Rafe said he will announce the release date at the event in Brazil this weekend. The poster shows Rand carrying Moiraine in the Aiel Waste, presumably outside Rhuidean, you can see her Aes Sedai ring and the dragons on his wrists. I'm stoked, finishing up Crossroads Of Twilight on a re-read right now.

Seems like spring 2025 release for Season 3 is looking more likely!