I think the same ... but am not holding my breath.

Oh and sorry to see Siuan go out early (what has happened to Leane , I wonder ?) Maybe means no Gareth Bryne either. Or just less complications for him when he arrives. Not as sad as I was to see Loial exit last week though ! ☹️

I actually enjoyed the episode. Partly relief that it wasn't a trainwreck like the first two finales but also because I have by now settled for overlooking the silly stuff at least to an extent (though this regular business of main cast characters being impaled by swords/arrows/spears and basically shrugging it off is getting a bit tired). Lots of changes ; but mostly not unreasonable. We haven't been to Tear yet so no Juilin (we may not get him at all , I suppose) ; so Mat assisting the girls in Tanchico is a decent idea - enables meeting Thom again ; and the museum setting supplying a doorway a convenient way to replace his Rhuidean scenes. Min on hand to do Rand's CPR , fine. She is perhaps the character most changed from her book version , so if she is going to be Mat's sidekick on a regular basis I am OK with it. Would have liked Nynaeve v Moggy but guess that is for the future. Of course Liandrin really should have killed her out of hand instead of that Dumb Villain trope of leaving the hero to die eventually while merrily skipping away but that is just one of the logical holes that one has to accept in this sort of story : I can live with it ; and it did get Nyn a spectacular Block Break ! Since the BA now have the a'dam , I wonder if they are thinking of having Rand collared at some future point ? Perhaps instead of being boxed in the leadup to Dumai's Wells ? WAFO I guess. Alcair Dal was fine. Maybe having the clan chiefs and wise ones anointing him as the Real Car'a'carn to swing the Aiel masses to acceptance as in the books would have been more convincing than Rand calling "Oathbreakers !" and making it rain ... but , spectacle , eh ? Moiraine and Lanfear punch up after the prophesy of her death a sort of postponement of the inevitable ? We tricked you , audience : but wait for next season... Poor old Lan still doesn't get to do anything useful...maybe next year. Liked Elayne/Thom. Bit heavy with the balefire perhaps but good to get the Gaebril ain't the real thing reveal. Sammael went from probably dead to prisoner and potential Rand teacher to dead again...so maybe the actor who thought his future appearance as Asmodean had been cancelled can get back to practising his harp playing ? All good fun. Loads to nitpick if you want but generally this season was lightyears ahead of the first two. Will keep watching assuming the fourth takes place...

Have to contradict you a little there , Jaysen : in fact all of those answers/warnings were given by the Aelfinn on his first trip through the doorway in Tear. It was on his second trip (in Rhuidean) when he encountered the Eelfinn , who do not answer questions but grant wishes. And gained medallion , memory fix etc... just as he has done in the show. He has already had the die and live again moment - and he isn't going to Rhuidean ; but still two (important) things to be told - unless they are removing two very significant factors from the story altogether. And Tear is the logical place for them. My uncertainty about Tuon though is that her interaction with Mat takes up a lot of pages - and they seem to be (understandably) cutting a lot of complications . Certainly hope they do include her but I'd stop short of a guarantee.

The main thing I am happy about with this episode is that we do get the Finn... Leads me to suspect that Moiraine and Lanfear will probably still end up falling into that doorway - possibly in Tear ? Mat has his medallion - and the ashrandei too perhaps ? He presumably still needs another trip through to meet the snakes and receive the stuff about giving up half the light of the world etc , and The Daughter of the Nine Moons (although if he instead of Rand is being paired up with Min , are we even getting Tuon ? ) Bit late for him to be warned to go to Rhuidean or die and he has already been hanged but I reckon the other bits are still needed. The Fox did look a bit cartoonish but was menacing enough so no problem there. Tower of Ghengei looking more likely than not as long as the show makes it that far...

So have I but am happy to wait a while as some time zones may not have seen it yet. Will say I was happier than I expected to be with it - especially after the way the two previous finales mangled everything !

Each to his own but you fellows do seem to be going round in circles on this. In the books , it was very clear the scene from S2E8 simply could not happen : in the show it was seemingly rather made clear (with a good deal of emphasis) that such action was likewise impossible : until it wasn't... No reason why the book resolution could not have been followed. Except that Show Egwene apparently has to have virtual super powers and get out of any predicament unaided. We can like this or hate it but that is the way the show is going so I see no point in trying to argue whether the events are technically possible or not . The rules are whatever the writers decide to make them and I don't think they expect their viewers to analyse every detail anyway so we might as well just accept it and move on , no ?

Yeah. Well a lot of that episode was fun , but still gives a feel of middling average fan fiction replacing a really good story... Not condemning it all out ; but after a few signs things had lifted in this season - and they generally have - this one leaves me fearing another train wreck final episode to rival the previous 2 seasons. Hope I'm being too pessimistic... Points of note : Alanna the Human Pincushion bounces up again whole and hearty. What will it ever take to stop this woman ? Why bother sending prospective channelers to the White Tower ? Just tell them to imagine a rosebud etc and ten minutes later they can heal life threatening injuries & fry enemies where they stand...and don't have to worry about Three Oaths. Poor old Loial : gone so early and his book not really finished. Or will he somehow be found to have survived through some mysterious workings of Ogier in The Ways ? But maybe the wardrobe department is budget strapped and couldn't afford to keep up his make-up . Daise got a rough deal. Where is a healer when you need one ? Where the devil is Tam ??? Good riddance to Valda . Pity Perrin couldn't have finished Padan Fain as quickly : I was screaming "Kill !" at the screen but once he hesitated basically knew there was a loophole for another villain to escape. Like what they did with Aram. Not sure he will settle as a blacksmith now ; but what Jordan ended up doing with him in the books was one thing I really didn't like so hope he gets a better final arc in this show. Faile is great ! Excellent casting and her interactions with Perrin (so far) are arguably better than the book characters <See : I am not just here to mindlessly disparage everything about the show. Honest > 🙂 Some Whitecloak nuances in evidence which is a good thing. And with Perrin's surrender some mechanism will be needed to free him ... can't see the judgement of Morgase factoring in. Battle scenes messy but battles often tend to be even in real life. A lot of untrained defenders against a mixed bag of human and non human antagonists was never going to look scenes from Zulu... Would have liked some wolves. Could do without Myrdral and anyway Fain had probably killed any that were around so he could control the whole trolloc army so no big miss. All up I am giving it a five - maybe five and a half. OK , make it a six...but they better get next week's right !

I didn't much like the Avi/Elayne thing the show introduced (chiefly because it has presumably replaced the "sister" ceremony and consequent link from the books - something I would have thought the show writers , with their obvious interest in the whole warder bond workings , should have been happy to feature ?) But I agree it was probably done to set up a threesome rather than the Rand Three Wives business. Though will Rand actually have "3 (more) women " ? I mean he has already been heavily involved with Egwene and Lanfear so that would make five 🙂 And what does Min's vision mean : if we include those two maybe he just marries Elayne ? (Probably need her pregnancy for the Last Battle twist). Doesn't look like Rand/Min is happening so could all work out... Guess we will find out eventually.

Sorry but I just cannot take seriously that people are defending that scene in any manner. It was pure "shock horror " , Red Wedding imitation , that added nothing remotely useful to the story. Totally undermined the character of Morgase ; and as HHMB has posted above , makes zero sense in terms of the political customs of the world and cultures of Randland. Just Bad Writing , pure and simple. And the standout blot on what has otherwise been a hugely improved third season. Hope whoever thought that one up doesn't have much more say on what goes on from here...

Anyway we will see over the next two weeks just what they can fit in to the time remaining. I do expect the 2 Rivers battle to take up rather a lot of the running time so doing full justice to the Tanchico confrontation and the hugely important scenes at Alcair Dal feels to me in a bit of danger . Hopefully they can nail both ; but fitting anything else (like Red Door action) in strikes me as highly improbable. WAFO , eh ?

Time zones , eh ? I had already watched ep 6 when I posted...

Not really the issue , though... The question was whether Ishy should have been free to touch the world at all in that time frame. He wouldn't have been in the books ; but a lot of the detail as to his ability to partially escape his captivity isn't made altogether clear so I will give them a pass - more or less. As they are clearly intent on continuing to expand the Liandrin arc I don't mind the scene. The other thing about it is that seeing the actor back - even briefly - gives me hope that we may yet see Ishy back (even as "Moridin" , though having the same appearance may be a problem !)

Except with only two episodes left adapting those three events is going to be awfully compressed even if we don't have any other "additions" taking up precious time. Hoping they don't make a mess of the finale but not betting my house on them nailing it.

OK I enjoyed some parts of that one , with the proviso that the whole healing thing has got out of hand. (And I agree the Alanna stuff continues to be pretty ropey) . As expected , the Aiel girl stood in for the unfortunate casualty in Tear so that important scene for Rand has been executed. Moggy was fun , as was the "music" scene in Tanchico ... and glad to see Thom back at last. Not so happy with what they have done with Faile's backstory (unless that was indeed her giving out more BS ?) . And I have never liked the Egwene/Rand/Lanfear "triangle" stuff so hopefully this episode has ended that altogether. Still reckon most of the changes they've made are far from being improvements to the story , and in many cases render it a lot weaker. But on the other hand at least it gives those of us hardened book fans a bit of a bonus in that we never quite know what is going to happen next so an element of surprise has been added to the viewing experience 🙂 Two episodes to go. 2 Rivers battle to take up most of one , I guess . Going to be a bit crowded fitting the rest of book 4 in ...

Just on my third full reread and currently approaching the "slog" so I will wait until I have fresher recall before commenting in detail . But I think I remember generally enjoying all the books , even if one or two plot lines seemed to drag on a bit further than would have been ideal. Don't think I was too bothered about different characters' timelines getting out of synch ? They were all operating fairly detached anyway for a lot of the time and they didn't have smart phones so I guess what happened in one country wasn't going to be known elsewhere overnight 🙂 At least we got to view the whole picture by the time we finished each volume...

Can't see them getting all that done in three episodes. 2 rivers battle certainly ; Rand will surely have to set the Aiel off in all directions (and subdue Asmodean ?) ; and the characters in Tanchico will have to do something... Will that be any kind of resolution or could that be left as something of a cliff hanger ? But I reckon the Tower split - and whatever they do with Moiraine/Lanfear - will indeed have to wait for next season. Which makes sense anyway. And yes : the limited screen time for each season has been a problem from the start. Apparently not something that is going to change...

Corum Jhaelen Irsei from Michael Moorcock's "Swords" trilogy . He has a few things in common with Rand , (apart from losing a hand quite early in the story - he also loses an eye , but gets "magical" replacements for both) being something of a reluctant hero. And I have perhaps an even greater affection for his companion in much of his saga , Jhary a Conel - who also appears accompanying other heroes in Moorcock's multiverse. An always cheerful and self deprecating "companion to heroes" who wears a hat similar to Mat's but disdains any armour or military garb...oh and always carries a small cat (with flying abilities) on his shoulder 🙂 A fun pair to follow.

My wife has not read the books , and she appreciated a little explanation from me as to what exactly was going on . Devilishly difficult to depict all the stuff about the columns and rings on screen (hence the need to introduce a brief instruction from the Wise One before they entered). But I reckon they did a splendid job on this pivotal part of the story 👏 Overall , best episode in the whole series so far. And vital that they did in fact nail it as a "fail" here would have just about finally turned off a lot of us. Can't stress too much the importance of getting some of these key details right as they are far more essential than a lot of the minor irritations over more "disposable" changes. Feeling a lot more confident now looking forward 👍

And looking back to that incident in series one (since it seems to have rather taken over this thread 🙂) I had more or less forgotten about it (the FFH) - like a lot of the stuff in those underwhelming early episodes. Didn't seem to lead anywhere : but of course it does raise questions about the availability of "magical" means of travel - all of which had more or less been lost to the world at this point in time. Which is probably why it was subsequently " forgotten about" in the show too : the writers realised themselves that it hadn't really been properly thought out in the first place and was best ignored going forward. Just put it down to bad writing and move on , eh ?

Bit of a low bar to clear 🙂 But yes , I do reckon it is picking up a lot - despite , as DreadLord31 said above , having plenty of details we book purists can nit pick if we wish. So the only things I would really nit pick about the first three episodes are : the Morgase out-of-character brutality on her ascension to the throne (I presume that was intended to be actual history and not Gaebril messing with our memories !) ; and the rather unnecessarily violent arrival of the Blacks into Tanchico : both strike me as "shock spectacles" which make little sense and add nothing to the plot... For all they are shuffling the order of events about , they do seem to be moving closer to the main book themes. The dark characters are all good (getting more prominence than they did on the page , which is fine). It has meant Liandrin and Lanfear have arguably taken a lot of the focus off our heroes so far but again that is OK as long as they handle all the main arcs properly over succeeding episodes. And liking Faile's arrival (Mandarb joke and all ) But I am still missing Thom !

I get the cruelty and Semirhage connection : but I think the sneaky "effectively invisible" aspect of the grey men rather screams Made by Moggy , does it not ?

Probably best not to over analyse the fight scenes : they are intended to be spectacular but obviously not too bothered about being realistic. Can live with that in context of a "magic" tale. Though I must admit I do have a little trouble with seeing someone getting two swords stuck right through them , presumably collecting vital organs on the way , but emerging intact with a little magical help from her friends 🙂 That plot armour is powerful stuff...

Generally a quite entertaining episode...the show is getting better as it goes on (though it is pretty clear they are keeping only the bones of RJ's story and basically writing their own narrative ; probably going to wind up in the same place , more or less) Not that this is awful in itself : as long as it results in a compelling TV show that is fine - even if a lot of it disappoints many of us who were hoping for something a bit closer to the original. But I really didn't like the Morgase as brutal killer queen opening : unnecessary at best and surely undermines the whole business of a once much loved queen with a reputation for benevolent rule over a happy populace ... until suddenly this is overturned when she falls under the malign influence of Rahvin and acts in a manner that swiftly alienates supportive houses and general population alike . As others have said , looks like a cheap shock scene to inject a bit of GOT into the show. Gaebril messing with everyone's heads so he's seen as being around for ten years also seems a bit of an unnecessary complication but it is quite a cool idea so I don't have a problem with it. Expected to see a bit more of Egwene's trip through the Arches ? Maybe will do so later in flashbacks ? Or not... I didn't much care for her rudeness to the Amyrlin on the way out either ; but since she was my least-favourite major book character and hasn't won me any more in the TV show I won't lose any sleep over that 🙂 I am still in the category of only about... oh , 45% happy with the show (up from 40) but if they continue to improve will keep watching with renewed hopes...