I was hearing that Sony wanted to focus more on their own IP's, God of War, Horizon; Zero Dawn etc... And because of that they want Amazon to contribute a larger share to the budget. But all of this is hearsay of course.

Aragorn is very different from the books. The Aragorn-Arwen romance is brought to the forfront. It trashes the lore because it wasn't a barrow-wight dagger that hurt the Witch King etc...I saw so so so many of the same complaints WoT is receiving now back in 2000. It just wasn't nearly as wide spread because the internet was young. Had "Woke" been a word then Peter Jackson would have had that thrown in his face for increasing Arwen's plot relevance and cutting Glorfindel.

True power

And I completely forgot to mention Elaida's chat with Siuan. My god that was tense and showed just the duality between the two. Elaida's dialogue absolutely dripped with venom and resentment

Agreed, I absolutely loved this episode. Might be my favourite of the season. Episode 4 is clearly the best of the season but I loved just about everything about episode 5. I got stupidly emotional during the ending "dream" sequences, seeing Perrin, Faile and Hopper all together. Seeing Mat happy with his family, his mother telling him how proud she was, really triggered a gut punch from earlier in the episode. I did not anticipate Nati Cauthon's fate. I did not expect to see the Seafolk in the show. I thought of all things in the books they could be easily cut with little repercussion but colour me surprised on what we did get. The look of the Windfinders weaves reminded me of the Northern lights. Seeing Elayne's dream of wishing she was a Windfinder was just cathartic. Aviendha's entire MOOD towards Rand is just so spot on from the books. Seeing Rand kinda relax about the whole Dragon/Car'a'carn thing for a moment with Rhuarc's granddaughter. was great..... until I saw someone theorize that the granddaughter is gonna be the trigger for the scene from Tear in tSR...... another gut punch if true. I am just pleased as punch this season.

The idea that we, as fans of Robert Jordan, will take a character voicing their opinion as gospel is hilarious. Even more so when considering the character is in fact Liandrin. Even if the Dragon was a woman she would still be feared. The prophecies state that the Dragon will break all chains and potentially destroy the world. But once again we are taking characters opinions as gospel. Just because a character believes something to be fact does not mean that it is. The only major change to the OP the show runner has made, aside from some Power scaling nonsense, is that you can be burnt out while linked. I do think there is a 2nd major change to the OP but I cannot remember it this morning. And they made some minor changes like the Aes Sedai of this age do not have knowledge of tying off weaves.

Apparently the scene was written but cut from the script before filming. They clearly wanted it but couldn't find a way to work it in to their satisfaction with the time restraints and such, unfortunately.

Wise ones go to Rhuidean twice, the first for the Rings to become apprentices and then to the columns to become full Wise Ones

I don't believe I have seen anyone bring this up yet concerning Elaida. We have all focused on her tremors in episode 3 but we didn't pay attention to the bracelet she is wearing. The same bracelet that is awkwardly brought up by Min later in the episode. Particularly what is engraved on the bracelet. A few days ago Shohreh Aghdashloo posted this BTS clip on Twitter. Well some eagle eyed viewer found this prop sheet and took a screenshot. Potential spoilers for the rest of the season.

Lanfear also mentions that Rahvin "is an artist with compulsion ". So it OP effects of it may be limited to him. I think that is also canon to the books with Ravhin not only being among the strongest forsaken but that he was also quite good with that weave.

Alanna apparently fights best with her warders by her side. But she was also removed from half the fight as she is one of 3 sisters to defend the Amyrlin when she goes down.

A few things about the episode that stood out to me; What a glorious casting Nuno Lopes is as Gaebril. He just oozes charisma in every line and every action. The performance just embodies the idea of fun step dad in front of Elayne. He is not quite how I pictured the character from the book but he really really sells it. Ceara Coveney continues to be one of my favourite actors in the show. She seems to have chemistry with everyone. The backbone she displayed when confronting Morgase, near the end, was just wonderful. Josha as Rand just continues to get better. His scene with Moiraine discussing Saidin was just top notch. I must admit the cold open with Morgase shocked me for a solid minute. While different that my preconceived notions of book Morgase I hadn't really thought on her barely mentioned past. We hear and see she is a very popular Queen with the people but that is about it. There is passage or two in the books where it mentions she was ruthless during the succession war but we really get no elaboration on it. So if you are filming this show and you have just one scene to show that then I think the show succeeded. Morgase, in the show, comes off as a caring, if over-protective, parent. She listens to her daughter when she decides to stay but because of the cold open we know how ruthless she is to protect her one and only Daughter. I am very interested to see how this event ripples into the later story lines. IE Elayne leaving the tower without notice and potential "slog" book events.

I think what A Memory of Why meant was that Gaebril could deal with the rest of the hall while Suian and Morgase verbally duked it out in front of everyone. He only had to quickly compulse Suian and Leane at the start of the introduction.

I'd vote Asmodhean as well. Aside from the guitar statue I think it is him because I don't think I can make any of the others work in the story well. Not that I have a great track record of guessing plot points beforehand. I don't think it will be Aginor as I think they may be combining him with Moggy. Not Bel'al because we don't need a cardboard cutout Not Balthamel as I don't think he really brings anything interesting to the table that isn't just a SA lawsuit waiting to happen. His 2 defining things in the books are been a lech and the male soul in a female body thing. I just don't see them willing to tackle those subjects. Mesaana is a possibility aside from the balance of a 4/4 split. But I think she could be easily combined with another character. Possibly just leave the tower forsaken free and have the Towers downfall be entirely Elaida's incompetence and the BA's influence. Then again with Shoreh cast maybe Elaida won't be AS incompetent. I could see Demandred but I feel they would have to create story for him to bring in in earlier. Then again everything he does could be done by Sammael. They both are similar, not exact, but similar characters.

Especially considering how deeply the Aes Sedai believe the Black Ajah doesn't exist, just Whitecloak propaganda. The reaction of the one Yellow sitter when Suian actually accuses Liandrin of being a Dark Friend should be enough to explain that.

Yeah the cold open with Morgase SHOCKED me. But I realize what they are trying to do and speed up to Elayne's arc. The interesting thing about the scene wasn't that Morgase had the female family heads killed but that she had their own family kill them. Very GoT and not super WoT but like I said I appreciate how they are condensing the arcs for TV. Also loved Olivia Williams as Morgase she was excellent. Yeah, the tower is much more relaxed in this turning of the wheel. Keeping the Novices away from men because of the scare of pregnancy never made full sense since we know that the contraceptive tea exists in the world. Although keeping them away from men just simply as a sign of control did make sense. I thought it was implied that Alanna and Maksim did take the Waygate, those were the tracks that Perrin saw. As for their reason for being in the Two Rivers we'll just have to see.

From the VFX Team

I plan on rewatching episode 1 simply because there was so much stuff into it. I am sure I missed a bunch of little things. But I also took the day off work to just bask in the community so I have the time.

Short clip featuring Elaida trying to re-establish her dominance with the Red Ajah. https://ew.com/wheel-of-time-season-3-sneak-peek-trouble-white-tower-exclusive-11693359

This Reddit Megathread from WotShow has compiled all of the early season reviews. The reactions seem to be very positive for the most part. Opinions seem to say season 3 is a vast improvement on season 2. A lot of scenes seem lifted straight from the book. Episodes 4 and 7 are the clear standouts. The Finale seems very divisive once again but interestingly someone of the people who were very critical of Season 1 and 2's finale(WotUp and Nae'blis) seem very positive about this finale.

I also think that killing them is counter intuitive to their plan of sowing discord. You wipe out the entire power structure of the tower, Sitters and Amrylin, you force the remaining Aes Sedai to band together and fix the issue. You leave the power structure alive and wounded and the remaining Aes Sedai will argue where to place the blame and nothing gets done. Yes, it is reasonable that the BA has more combat weave experience in general. We saw at least 2 weaves that no other Aes Sedai used. But you cannot discount the advantage of surprise that they had during that fight. Between those 2 factors they were able to defeat a larger force before they had time to counter, there is no denying that. But that doesn't mean they can't make mistakes themselves. They successfully fought off the Hall and were escaping. A single Aes Sedai and her 2 warders blocks their exit. Do you think they are taking her seriously or do you think that just maybe they think there is no way 1 channeler is going to stop all 6 of them...... The arrogance. Keep in mind, the one BA they manage to kill in the Hall fight is the one they got into melee range of. Liandrin even talked about it in season 2 about how they could make swords of air but that it was beneath them(my exaggeration) because of everything else they could do. So yes, I think the surprise of Alanna charging them caught them off guard.

I thought the entire "Bubble of Evil" scene in the show to be incredibly well shot. The fact that it was just Lanfear manipulating the events is a neutral thing to me. Bubbles of Evil in the book were always neat in the books but never really made sense. It seems RJ wanted some more fantastical events to take place and so he did and it worked.. But despite being introduced early they rarely come up and is not something that really needs to be explained in the show. I am completely fine with the Bubbles of Evil being True power shenanigans if they continue to be just as well shot.

The Hall attack was about surprise. The majority of the sitters were not prepared and didn't have time to comprehend what was happening before it was over. Alanna was one of the few who was not caught off guard, possibly because she was aware of Suian's plan. The stand off in the street is entirely different.

Because they are arrogant. They just bested higher numbers in the Hall of Sitters. They don't think a single Aes Sedai and 2 warders are a threat. They give it a stand off and either allow Alanna the first attack or Alanna was just faster. Oh no, Aes Sedai being over confidant, how can this be. Same could be said of Alanna, she could of tracked them, sent her signal and wait for backup. Agreed on the Jump cuts.

They are certainly playing loose with the rules for Healing. But even in season 1 with Moiraine on deaths door she was healed and immediately decided to spend the day maintaining a shield on Logain. So they are keeping consistency. But also it works well for TV if you have the ability to Heal you want to "abuse" for the fight scenes. But I will also say that both times Liandrin got really injured and bounced right back she was healed by a Yellow. Actually it might be interesting to track whom healed who and what there recovery times were like. Moiraine was healed by Kerene but it could stand to reason that Greens learn more healing than most. Moiraine and Lan were healed in season 2 by Verin or Adelalas but both are browns, possibly both are poor healers. Moiraine herself always seemed to know healing than other non-yellow sisters. As for Ihvon not getting healed he was dead before Alanna came to, simple as that.