3 minutes ago, DermidAjala said:

The same way he did in the books? Without really knowing what he was doing.

 

Also I never realised people thought Rand killing a blademaster 1v1 after less than a years training was something realistic to build up to in the first place haha. I'd not be sweating that one, he'll get some training in Fal Dara and a shot or two at the start of S2 if they want to go that route and that will be enough.

Part of this is also his relationship with Lan to build, Duty is heavier than a mountain,. no room for love but only duty, eventually sheathing the sword, etc.  Those are themes that play through the whole series.

Rand beating a blademaster was only believable if I thought about it in 2 possible ways:

1.  Rand was harnessing Lews Therins memories

2.  Rand started so inept, but the  reached for the void and became competent so quickly that it deceived Turok.  

1 minute ago, Deviations said:

How will he win the fight at the end of this season???

They better have a scene of practicing swords and learning the flame and the void real soon!

If they combine Elaida and Liandrin, that will also be a bit odd.  Wonder why they just wouldn't call her Elaida then...  Plus who's the black sisters going to be if Liandrin is not one of them?  

I'll still thinking we get an Elaida maybe next season when they bring in Elayne

Episode 5 is finished and we still haven't mentioned blademasters yet.  Lan still hasn't shown his prowess, Rand doesn't have any special relationship with Lan and hasn't practiced swords, we haven't had special mention of Tams sword, there was no Two Rivers quarterstaff competition to show some of the skills these men had growing up, no Garrth Bryne scene to point out Rands heron mark blade, no Lan killing a fade....

They really need to start building some of that stuff up soon.  Otherwise Rand it won't be believable for Rand to defeat a blademaster at the end of season2.  And if they delete that from the show then they have missed some of the best moments in the books

20 minutes ago, Harad the White said:

Looking at the ebb and flow of series, and I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast, I'm sure there were some slow, exposition-full episodes of GoT that were soon forgiven, when the breakneck speed picked up in episode, the next.

Game of Thrones had 10 episodes per season for most seasons and had a much slower pace for some of the episodes.  Lots of politics and little action in some of them.  A few boobs thrown in to spice it up.

Episode 5 of WoT may have been slower in relation to itself but it still had all the Goldeneyes/Whitcloaks scenes for action.  Other than Stepin, it was building the plot in pretty essential ways.  Plus Stepin is dead now so the breakneck pace will continue.

Just now, ManetherenTaveren said:

Does anyone wonder if Stepin was murdered by a gray man? Was his death really a suicide? Did Stepin save Lan at the cost of his own life?  Also, Padan Fain is wandering about... 

 

It's probably nothing, but just wondering... 

no.

stepin borrowed the tea from nyaneave and used it on Lan.  He then left so he could kill himself .  1 knife was missing in his knife wheel

Semen Valda, pretty sure he didn't die.  Still not sure if Galad will be in this show later to take care of the honors.  ?

Also wonder why Valda is so certain Egwene can channel, but that he let Moiraine off so easily 

Lots of cool stuff:

a.  personally I'm liking this Loial.  It still works and I'd rather see something like this than full CGI. They nailed the Ogier personality and it doesn't look too fake.

b.  Perrin didn't kill any whitecloaks.  that kind of changes the whole books later.  We may not even have a Galad to reunite the WCs later.  Definitely not a trial with Morgase.

c.  forsaken idols.  I'd have to look at them again.  Ishamael only one mentioned.  But I know who the busty woman is!  ?

d.  Lots of changes to scenes but it still feels like the Wheel of Time.  These whitecloaks sure are savage.  Like a Nazi SS from medieval times.

e.  Rand almost seems like the dragon by default because he's the only one they haven't laid any clues for other than Loials Aielman comment.  

f. Strong acting performances in the white tower and I will surely miss Stepin.  

g. Rand is very good looking man.  He looked very good in his hood with bow & arrow, like his blue shirt too

I.  slow pace this episode but I liked it.  Actually felt a little like GOT this episode.  like kings landing or something.  The world is building and I appreciate the slower moments before the sure to come erruption

13 minutes ago, Sabio said:

About half the Forsaken seemed to just show up to die to Rand shortly after.

Samuel seems likes a cut.  There is no point to waste valuable screen time on another fight in SL where he is eaten by Mashadar.  Plus what did Sammael really do?  we don't need another monarch forsaken, another blademaster forsaken, or someone to spread chaos with the Shaido.  the shaido need to be done after dumais wells.  

*gives final rites to this soon to be dead thread*  

May episode 5 give us this much to talk about as well!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/12/01/amazons-the-wheel-of-time-has-a-tiny-budget-compared-to-lord-of-the-rings-and-deserves-more/

Some calling for more budget already.  hopefully Amazon does provide a little more.  10 episodes per season!  better cgi! and hopefully they can make an extended edition 1st episode with all the cut footage.  

my only question is what does "blood calls blood" refer to in this episode?

4 hours ago, Daenelia said:

I am counting down the days till episode 5.

 

Also finally figured out how toget to the shorts on the Xray thingy, on a tablet, because our tv did not respond to showing it at all. I like how they did that, the little background info. I think I also like dthe art style, but I watched it mostly for the info. My guy did not watch it, but gained a bit more knowledge by just listening to it. So that's good ?

 

He still has theories and ideas. I am still not allowed to confirm or deny any of it.

hopefully they make those videos more accessible

  still can't find them lol and I'm a fan that actually knows about them.  I'd imagine viewership of these shorts is pretty small under this convoluted setup

4 hours ago, Jaysen Gore said:

Psssh. If you check the numbers, Vader's killing on screen all retail. Vader's son probably killed more than he ever did - just because the voices in his head told him to. Hmm. " In the 5th age, an age long past, and age yet to come, a wind rose on the salt flats of Tattooine..." 

 

As for Forsaken, there's at least 2 city level obliterations tied to Forsaken, so at least 2 of them have body counts in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in the Age of Legends

maybe star wars is the 4th age.  But until we get a death star in wheel of time I'm not sure the murder count can ever be on that planetary scale.

1 hour ago, Sabio said:

I would say it would be unlikely a forsaken could ever redeem themselves,  Even Asmo is responsible tens of thousands of deaths, it simply goes against the nature of the people picked to be chosen.

that's the darth vader question right there. except Vader killed more people than any forsaken could

Perrin is going to get his DR moment real soon as he goes all goldeneyes

1 minute ago, Morani said:

That guy is amazing. His cover of Wuthering Heights is fantastic.

 

That aside, I was also not best pleased with Thoms singing. I am hoping for some high chant or other when he returns. I was not a fan of the song either. It felt way too modern, without leaning in to being modern like Toss a coin does. It was just inbetween, and therefor felt odd. 

My main problem is that he didn't carry his pitch very well. maybe he was trying to sing too gravelly.  that I'm waiting for more because the lyrics were great 

toss a coin to your admins!

cant wait for them to bolster lan next

why would a darkfriend call a fade on 2 broke farmboys?  I mean just from that thom only has  a limited number of conclusions 

26 minutes ago, CaddySedai said:

Also "Toss a Coin to your Witcher" being a viral song does not mean that the bard singing it is the better bard.

 

They just get a better song.

 

Not an argument for Thom or anything - just that the BEST versions of TaCtyW have been youtube covers ? 

Well ya, this was just a way to plug a nice cover from the witcher.  Maybe there will be a cover for the WoT songs too, they have only been out for 2 days.  

I personally didn't like the way they had Thom sing, sounded pretty amateurish, but I think he can sing much better than what they showed.  Not sure why they sandbagged it. This show needs to build up hype as fast as possible.   One other example of Alexandre Willaume singing I could find singing was from the Danish version of Tangled... seen at the 2:00 minute mark.  He can clearly sing better than I originally thought originally.  Will be interesting to see how he sings in more grand settings.

Toss a coin to your witcher has much better covers.  When someone covers does a Thom cover better than this witcher cover, let me know.

1 hour ago, Beidomon said:

It’s hard to believe we’re FOUR HOURS into this series and we “only” have four hours left of Season 1.

 

Yes, they are making a lot of mostly little changes, but overall it seems to me that the writers are doing a pretty good job of checking the boxes of the broad strokes of TEOTW.

1. Introducing the EF5, Mo, Lan.

2. Tam, Sword, Winternight.

3. Eg learns to channel.

4. Nyn is angry and distrustful and stubborn.

5. Baz hauntin’ dreams.

6. Shadar Logoth (but damn they really messed it up).

7. Mat, Rand, Thom, Darkfriends, and the Dagger.

8. Perrin, Eg, and the Tinkers.

 

And of course they’ve added….

1. Pretty much a whole episode exploring Logain, the Reds, the Greens, and the Warder bond (worth it to me). 
2. More Whitecloaks, and making them more menacing to the Aes Sedai (that’s working for me).

 

I think I only have 4 major complaints so far….

1. No prologue, but it can still work later in the series.

2. Changing the lore to DR might be a “boy or girl” - Rafe’s latest excuse of “well, maybe Moraine just doesn’t trust the prophesy” is damage control to try to appease the fans, especially after he already said they made this change to adapt the story to modern sensibilities. But hopefully the ripples will be contained when the DR is revealed this season. 

3. Guys, they really did mess up Shadar Logoth in a major way. What a let down. Major set piece - huge disappointment.

4. The show looks a bit too clean, artificial, staged. A little YA/CW. Can’t tell you why - it’s just a look.

 

There's nothing here the show can’t recover from. It has a lot of promise. The main actors are all great.

 

Since they are cutting Caemlyn, I think they should be able to round out the final major pieces of TEOTW in the final four episodes: Perrin and Eg meet the WC, Loial, TV, Ways, FD, Blight, Eye, DR.

I agree that the Shadar Logoth scene was a let down so far.  That said, based on Rafe's AMA comment, I believe we are going to get a part 2 where Fain and possibly the trollocs went into Shadar Logoth.  Not sure if this will be season 1 or 2, but hopefully they have more in store with Fain this season.  

Strictly by musical chops, I much prefer Jaskier.  I really hope Thom can sing better than what they displayed so far.  Toss a coin to your witcher was also a viral song, so hard to beat.

1 minute ago, Harad the White said:

er...Rand was the Dragon Reborn. What other male channeler was chased by darkfriends in the book? Now in Amazon, the Forsaken whispered in Logain's ears.?

Matt did not throw a rock without his hands. Matt did not cut his own throat or exhibit other signs of madness. There is nothing he did that should make Thom suspect he was a channeler. However, it was cornvenient for the show writers to move the story in that way. It's just is a logical flaw.

The shadow will always be interested in male channelers.  We already mentioned Taim.  Also we saw the black tower channelers getting turned to the shadow by circles of 13 with a fade.  Darkfriends/the shadow is always interested in these male channelers whether they are newbie channelers or seasoned channelers.