As someone who cannot handle gore and brutal violence, the scenes I actually have to close my eyes for on rewatches are Uno, Leane clubbing the White BA to death, the Brown sister getting cut in half, Natti's burned corpse, and Moghedien killing Ispan. If we had seen Muradin clawing his eyes out more closely, I'd have to close my eyes for that, too. Normally, I'd have to cover my ears when someone is screaming as they're being burned alive, but I guess his screams weren't convincing enough. Where Moghedien is concerned, she is bat shit crazy and also brutally tortured Jaichim into becoming a gray man. Not that this proves or disproves anything. I am just way more sensitive about violence and these are the scenes that especially affected me.

Who are the experts? One person claiming to be an expert can say one thing while another says the opposite and it all depends on their individual biases. The only ones who really know are the people involved in casting and writing the show.

I don't think there is a PoC issue with this show. Abdul Valis was brilliant as Valda, and I can't help believing that is why he was cast as Valda, period. I hated him in the show much more than I did in the books. He just made my skin crawl. We know we're not getting Morgase's side story, so there really wasn't any point in keeping him in the show, but his death was satisfying because it was at the hands of Mat's sisters. We know Ihvon being killed off had nothing to do with his skin color. Alanna does lose a warder, but they couldn't kill Maksim because he's Rafe's boyfriend. Something that they didn't have time to show that I really missed was Perrin leading the young men of the Two Rivers to hunt trollocs. I really loved that part of Perrin's leadership development.

Yeah, they really powered up her instinctive ability to heal. She at least is a wilder who survived channeling on her own in the books. I need to look up the explanation of the power ratings. It's been a long time and I don't remember the rating system at all. Not that it made a lot of sense years ago, but perhaps now after 9 or 10 reads I'll get it. I guess Perrin's t'averen nature could be an explanation for Daise and the girls being able to channel better than they should have. That's an interesting point, and I would actually prefer if the writers were astute enough to make that a factor. Logain was a "wilder" too. I think Taim was supposed to have been trained by Demandred, though.

Well, they did need to show Perrin being in charge of the battle. Perrin didn't have to instruct Tam because he was a trained soldier. I think the only time Tam asked Perrin anything was at the beginning of the battle when Tam asks Perrin "At x number of paces?" But I loved the inclusion of the TR long bow and that even Cenn Buie could still use one because had been doing so all of his life. And at least they showed Maksim being properly impressed ("Two Rivers long now indeed"), even though he would have already seen the men use them in a previous trollocs attack. The men on roofs with their bows was a good touch, too.

No, Egwene was born with the spark. Moiraine tells her that she would eventually have channeled on her own. What the show has left out is the danger of not being trained if you have the spark - that 3 out of 4 of such women die due to the lack of training. I don't think that's going to be canon for the show. If it was, they would have introduce it by now, and it's much more convenient to have channelers be able to do complex weaves without training.

Moiraine did start training Egwene in S1, and she channeled 3 times afterwards that I can remember. First, to start a fire, second to free Perrin when they are captured by Valda, and third, to heal Nyaneave in the finale. The first 2 times it did not happen immediately and she had to really concentrate. Some untrained channelers doing small things is acceptable, but having the power to create a shield like Daise did? No way.

Actually, what many people don't seem to recognize is that you don't die from arrow wounds immediately unless they hit a vital organ and penetrate deeply enough. Even a gun shot wound isn't immediately fatal depending where you get shot, and gut wounds are an especially slow, painful death. In the books, Perrin gets badly wounded by an arrow and the possibility of infection was the greater concern. I did like Maksim letting Alanna know it was time for her to do her thing through the warder bond. I know they can't communicate telepathically, but all she needed was to feel desperation from him. That's the only Alanna & Maksim scene I've liked.

I don't recall anyone saying that in the Ep 1 discussion. I only remember people saying they were too shocked at first to do anything, and that the BA was better trained in combat. That was really too much. As someone else said, why bother sending women to the Tower to be trained? The problem of girls with the spark dying if not properly trained is obviously not a thing in the show. It's never been mentioned, and it's much more convenient to have women channel whenever they want them to.

With the exception of the fact that Mat blew the horn, I think this battle was better. In spite of its problems, the stakes felt real. Perrin making a deal with Fain felt very off at first, but then I realized it was the only way he could save the people. They were gonna lose if the battle continued.

That is the only thing that makes Valda's early death a bummer. That was one of Galad's shining moments!

After my first watch I wasn't sure what I thought. I always watch without subtitles first, and then again with subtitles to catch the dialogue I missed. It usually takes 2 watches for an episode to really sink in for me anyway. I liked Perrin's conversation with Dain. A lot was said in that short conversation. But really, Dain needs to learn that Perrin has an actual name. I like that were seeing evidence of Perrin's wolf senses. First, he knows it's Faile trying to sneak up on him, then he hears the whoosh of the spear before it hits Alanna, and then he smells that Fain is afraid. Interesting conversation between Perrin and Mat's sisters, too. They let us know that the Cauthons are still not held in high esteem, and I loved the girls making fun of Mat. A very younger sibling kind of thing to do, and a brief moment of levity was nice. Maybe show Dain is going to be more honorable than book Dain. (In spite of taking a swig of brandy in every scene.) Good riddance to Valda! Although, it's a shame to kill of such a great actor so soon. I wonder how he would have done as Fain. Perrin lets Fain go, and Fain takes him up on the deal in direct disobedience to the Dark Ones wishes. Could his punishment for that be used to develop his character some more? Maksim - sigh. His inspiration speech was dreadful. I hope that wasn't supposed be an Aragorn at the gates of Mordor kind of speech. I hope the reason Tam wasn't in the show was because he wasn't available. If they chose to leave him out of this season, BAD choice. But at least we saw the villagers training and preparing, as well as Alanna training the girls to link with her, NOT try to fight themselves. Oh, but suddenly, Daise is a strong channeler. (Where was that power during previous trollocs attacks?) Faile just isn't doing it for me, and I know I'm very much in the minority I'm that. Sometimes it's her lines, like the Whitecloaks being called Children so they can't count (groan). Aram killing the trollocs and then looking at Ila with tears in his eyes was moving. And it's always good to see Maria Doyle Kennedy. Trollocs sure do die easily... RIP Loial! I got teary eyed at that, both times. Our favorite Ogier had a very heroic end. The excerpt from his book was great, especially because it included what Rand says about Perrin to the Dark One in his "they still fight" speech. The Sing of Manetheren song was a great touch! Overall, a pretty good episode. It had its problems as others have pointed out, but it had it's good points, too.

It was sloppy, but because it was Mat's sisters who did it, it did provide some satisfaction. Without Morgase's story, Valda doesn't serve any more purpose to the show.

Not just cursing in maiden hand language, but modern day cursing. Nyaneave tried to heal Elayne without first removing the arrow, and the them she pushed the arrow through, she didn't break off the fetchings. Someone seriously needs to speak to the writers about how to deal with arrow wounds.

Makes sense now!

Thanks. I'll have to pay more attention to that part next time. That's one of the parts I kind of gloss over because it doesn't interest me as much as it used to.

I've had to change my mind about the way they wrote some things in previous seasons because I've seen how they paid off this season. I'm thinking this will be the first of the many times we'll see Mat's luck play out. That's why I wish he had said something like "My luck is in today" so that viewers can start connecting the dots.

I don't remember where it says that. I'm not questioning you. I know he hates the DO because of the way the DO tortured him, but I just don't remember this specifically.

I think people mean they don't mind that random bit of luck with the bracelet because they know where it's headed based on the books.

I don't think they're making it quite clear enough that his t'averen nature is primarily his luck. Not that I expect some exposition about it, but if he would just start making references to it, like "Well, my luck is in today" when something random goes his way.

What about the ravens that had been keeping an eye on Emond's Field for years? And Fain. That trollocs attack on Winter's Night was not random.

I didn't think it's really different from him entering the boys' dreams earlier in the show. He did that in the books, too.

I was surprised Daniel liked it as much as he did, simply because I have always been right on par with Daniel, going all the way back to season one, but he rated this episode higher than I did. I am really enjoying the way he's doing reaction videos instead of reviews this season. It's a lot more fun. Especially when he kept getting hyped for Mat's duel with G&G and then he'd be bummed because he didn't get it. I just laughed and thought, "Just wait 😄"

I wasn't questioning the plausibility of such an action. I know enough of history to know this bind of things happened IRL. I was arguing that it paints Morgase as an amoral ruler.

He's not initially shown as doing anything evil, but he is going to murder Moiraine and even his mother if she gets in the way. I think most people consider that evil. His was just well disguised.