You have preceptive friends. None of the non-book readers that I know knew that there were two halves of the power. They saw the weaves and there are suggestions in the show that women can see men weave.

Callandor doesn't need to be a light sabre. Matt already has a light sabre by tying a knife to a stick that can burn through anything. (that's some strong cloth there)

Maybe not, but the TV script for episode 8 sucked with a lot of inconsistencies that should have been caught. It seemed they were so outcome based in their thought process that it didn't matter how they got there. I want this to happen so let it be. It doesn't make sense, but do it anyway. Let the public make up stuff to explain it. I loved season 2, even without the changes. But the last episode for me killed it. Egwene need help, no way. Nynaeve healer, save Egwene? Nope. Perrin. His name begins with P. Let's give him an unexplained Perseus-type shield. Rand, doesn't even need to be in Falme. Proclaim himself the dragon? Reveal himself to be the dragon? Both are no's. He stabbed a man just standing there and Moiraine actually created the flaming dragon. One could say that's Aes Sedai manipulation and they would be correct. This was not a new show. It's an 8 season telling of an already written story. Story boards should have been written out for all-8 seasons and I don't think they've done that

you are totally missing the rule set up in the show. Of course, damane can use weapons. They are taught to be a weapon. The rule in the show is that they can't use anything that they think of as a weapon against their suldam. That would include the collar of course being used as a weapon against her suldam, especially since she had worked out that her suldam had to be able to channel. There is no way that Egwene wouldn't have thought of the collar as a weapon as it was used as a weapon to torture her.

Which supports that the moment she thinks to use the a'dam as a weapon, she will "slam" to the ground thus preventing her from placing it on the suldam.

It's not about Murder. It's about the thought of using an item as a weapon against your Suldam. Yes, they can use the a'dam against another woman. But not against your Suldam. That's the rule. You can't use anything you perceive as a weapon against your suldam. Egwene was clearly trying to use an a'dam as a weapon against her suldam. It's frustrating. And prime, give them more time for character development. Mat's change was very quick. Why the dagger became a light saber and how Mat knew that it would act that way? Also, how did Loial survive the light saber (admittedly, most of season 1 stunk and maybe we need to conveniently just forget 80% of the first season)

I've tried to look at the TV show without comparing it to the books. To that end, I hated the first year as being incoherent while the second year (until the last episode), was exponentially better. The problem overall is my impression that Rafe doesn't believe that Egwene and Nynaeve are strong characters in the book. And he has an issue with the primary character. Rand is the weakest character in the TV show, not the strongest channeller that has trouble coming to terms with his future role. But in the TV show, they show us that Logain is so strong that he can't be held by no less than 3 women at a time. Rand has already been shielded so much, that they should do a shield of the episode meme (I believe he has shielded 6 times all by an individual). He has no training or proficiency in the sword. It's frustrating that he has no arc. At the same time, Egwene was not just a strong woman in the book, I suggest that she is the strongest woman in the book. She faces everything and moves forward and becomes a supreme leader. I'm not sure Rafe believes she or Nynaeve were sufficiently strong, so they intentionally gave them things that Rand did in the book.

I just have a fundmental problem with the world of TV writers WOT. When you write fantasy, you establish rules. The rule was, if you think of something as a weapon, you can't touch it, even if it is for a different use. As a result, as soon as Egwene thought of using it as a weapon, she shouldn't be able to use it. It's a TV trope that the victim gets to kill the oppressor, but it doesn't make sense here. Let alone the fact that even if Egwene could have placed the collar, as soon as she gives pain to other, it would create a constantly increasing feedback loop until both would clearly die as each adam increases the pain exponentially to their damane.

My biggest fear is the Ishamael statement that Mat was basically born to the dark. Mat, who was my favorite character, is more the reluctant rogue who supports Rand. I worry that they are going to change that to just make Mat evil. Will Rand make it to Falme this season, or will Nynaeve fight the blademaster. She's had more training with the sword than Rand

so I am trying to get around the fact of the needless changes that were made from the books, not because they were necessary because of the medium but because Rafe thinks he's a better story-teller than Robert Jordan. This leads to a lot of wasted time about things that don''t carry the story along. That being said, and with some of the wasted time still present, I like Season 2 a lot more than season 1 for many of the reasons that have been stated. But one significant problem that I see. My daughter-in-law has not read the books at all and likes the show but there are basic things that the show hasn't informed the non-reader that all the readers pretty much knew about early. What do the different color Ajah's stand for? One lesson and it would drive the story and understanding of the watcher. I asked her what is a foresaken and it really has never been explained. They could have put Tom in the Two-Rivers to give the story of the Dragon prophecy at the beginning and to explain the foresaken. There are several things likke this