Wheel of Time TV series [Show spoilers, no book spoilers]

[alhoon]

Loial was the only one that could get them through the Ways and knew how to open them. There is no reason in the show to even have Loial around.
I remind you that there is a certain waygate in book 2 where no Aes Sedai is around.

I agree that Saidin being a big pool of clear Saidin is a bit meh, but still I would prefer to see the Eye of the World in some form.
What you mention, Rand smiting a Forsaken or setting part of the blight on fire as a huge army of Trollocs heading to Tarwin's Gap that was a day's walk away was retreating. Perhaps make a big curtain of Fire as the Shadowspawn run back.

An Accepted, 3 Wilders and Egwene and Nynaeve not at their strongest taking down a large army of Shadowspawn in an open field means that 5 Aes Sedai, even weak ones, could have lolololed the 100 soldiers or so that came for Logain. And it means that 7 Aes Sedai could repeat that without any of them dying and perhaps at more spectacular manner.
What I am trying to say is that suddenly an army of Trollocs becomes something 5 women can deal with - and yes 3 dying is good odds because it means that 8 women or 5 stronger women can do it too.

And again: OK, rule of cool. Or perhaps just 500 Shadow spawn out of 3000 or something passed the gap and the 10K was an exaggeration, perhaps by Darkfriends to break the moral of the people.
Why on open field? Why they waited from afternoon (when they gather) to night (when the battle happened) instead of going to the wall and helping them keep it?


Anyway, as far as Moraine goes:

VIEW CONTENT:

I believe she's sealed and tied off as:
- we didn't see the pooof thing as we did with Logain (in what was the best episode of the season IMO)
- The bond with Lan didn't break nor moved to My-something, the green that is supposed to get him
- Moraine can still feel the Source but cannot touch it. That's how Shielding is described, I think.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Maybe they'll handwave it away with these particular women coming from relatively unculled populations, and thus having greater strength than those born from peoples more familiar with the Red Ajah.

[alhoon]

Maybe they'll handwave it away with these particular women coming from relatively unculled populations, and thus having greater strength than those born from peoples more familiar with the Red Ajah.

Or simply handwave it and show 500 trollocs being a threat to 5 exposed Aes Sedai even if they have their warders, just like the False dragon forces were a threat. I.e. never talk about that again.
Rule of cool and all.
But what is a mistake even with the rule of cool is that the women weren't on the wall.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Loial was the only one that could get them through the Ways and knew how to open them. There is no reason in the show to even have Loial around.
I remind you that there is a certain waygate in book 2 where no Aes Sedai is around.

Indeed, changing the waygates to require channeling seems like a misstep. At least the had Loial act as guide within the Ways to make him seem useful in a similar way. But the butterfly effect rears its head here. Show viewers might think Fain can channel now. Assuming he can't, how did he get through to Fal Dara, and also bring the trollocs through the ways to Emond's Field? (darkfriend channeller of some kind helping him?)

[Rock of the Fraternity]

High ranks in Use magic device? ^_^;

Or the fact that some ter'angreal can cannonically be manipulated by people without the ability to channel?
For instance, Mat's ability to unlock a'dam by finding the right spots to press.

[alhoon]

High ranks in Use magic device? ^_^;

Or the fact that some ter'angreal can cannonically be manipulated by people without the ability to channel?
For instance, Mat's ability to unlock a'dam by finding the right spots to press.

The a'dam was not supposed to be able to open WITH the One Power, I think. They were all surprised when I don't remember who managed to open it by pressing with Air. And I think that was a physical manipulation, just the medium to apply pressure was not fingers but air flows.

As for the waygates they WERE such a magic item till the show changed it for no reason at all. Literally no reason. It would have taken as much time for Loial to do the trick with the leaves.


Question: Has the show mentioned clearly the world of dreams? Not some instance in the last episode of "dreams can kill" or something. That the dreams are significant and there is a world of dreams where you can die.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Question: Has the show mentioned clearly the world of dreams? Not some instance in the last episode of "dreams can kill" or something. That the dreams are significant and there is a world of dreams where you can die.

I don't think so, but I don't think the book did at this point either. I'm wondering if Moiraine and Siuan's hookup was supposed to be in there. Otherwise, what was the ter'angreal Moiraine used to visit her? Siuan's bedchambers there looked very different than the one where she met Egwene and Nynaeve, but maybe that was an inner private chamber.

[alhoon]

I'm wondering if Moiraine and Siuan's hookup was supposed to be in there. Otherwise, what was the ter'angreal Moiraine used to visit her? Siuan's bedchambers there looked very different than the one where she met Egwene and Nynaeve, but maybe that was an inner private chamber.

It was Tel'aran'rhiod, no doubt. We saw her apartment when Siuan tells Egwene Nynaeve that she's the strongest channeler she has seen. Do you think that beyond those doors there would be a humble wooden bedroom that was somehow very similar to Siuan's original home?


Now, some book spoilers from book ... 5+ I think?

VIEW CONTENT:

I don't think Siuan would be in a romance with Gareth Bryne, which is a shame. I don't think Moraine will be in a romance with Thom which is great. I much prefer Siuan-Moraine romance from Moraine-Thom romance. And Thom-Morgase romance over Moraine-Thom romance.
But I really liked the Siuan-Bryne romance. It was ... poetic.

But again, we hit the "21st century, large audience and we have to look for the bad reviews from SJWs..." barrier.
I really don't think the show can depict a black woman, enslaved to a white man, doing his laundry and all... and then showing these two as in love and this relationship as healthy.
I don't despise Gareth Bryne for being... well, sexist. But I can see why the show would have to steer clear from that to avoid STRONG controversy from militant feminists.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I thought the concept of 'pillow friends' among Accepted and Novices in the books was interesting.
Especially seeing as how different women treated it differently; one Red sister was clearly homosexual and continued pursuing sexual relations with women; another Red sister described 'pillow friends' as being a thing for young girls, suggesting it was accepted - and acceptable - behaviour for young women who were supposed not to be in any kind of romantic or sexual liaisons with men.
It appeared to be accepted to the point that any two Accepted / Novices who appeared to be close friends were suspected of being 'pillow friends', like Egwene and Nynaeve... who would probably have balked rather badly at the idea, seeing as Nynaeve spent a lot of time looking after the other Emondsfielders as children, and was originally Egwene's mentor figure.

[alhoon]

I thought the concept of 'pillow friends' among Accepted and Novices in the books was interesting.
Especially seeing as how different women treated it differently; one Red sister was clearly homosexual and continued pursuing sexual relations with women; another Red sister described 'pillow friends' as being a thing for young girls, suggesting it was accepted - and acceptable - behaviour for young women who were supposed not to be in any kind of romantic or sexual liaisons with men.
It appeared to be accepted to the point that any two Accepted / Novices who appeared to be close friends were suspected of being 'pillow friends', like Egwene and Nynaeve... who would probably have balked rather badly at the idea, seeing as Nynaeve spent a lot of time looking after the other Emondsfielders as children, and was originally Egwene's mentor figure.

It was accepted that Egwene and Elaine were pillow-friends and they spent a lot of nights in the same bed.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Oh, dear. I misremembered that.
Still, I wonder whether it was accurate or Tower culture bias.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I just remembered a mini-arc of a webcomic about a married couple that was transformed into centaurs when they accidentally transported into another world.
Eventually they ran into other centaurs, and one female soldier clearly took a shine to the wife. At one point, without asking, the soldier kissed the wife - and got her face slapped for it. The soldier was clearly deeply upset, but also very confused.
Later, they talked it out, and it turned out that a certain amount of lesbian intercourse was considered normal among centaurs. It was a cultural norm that one male would gather multiple females, and that these females should not have intercourse with any other male. Given that one male 'could not keep all his wives happy' all at once, situational homosexuality served as a way to relieve certain pressures.
The wife explained she did not find women attractive and that there were not going to be any other co-wives in her marriage. The soldier apologized for having made a move without finding out whether the wife was at all interested - but remarked on how unnatural a one-on-one marriage was from her cultural perspective.

[alhoon]

Oh, dear. I misremembered that.
Still, I wonder whether it was accurate or Tower culture bias.

Left to imagination. They were sleeping together often and they were hugging each other in bead while they were crying and scared. Whether it ever progressed more than moral support to something more intimate is never explored. When Elaine fell for Rand (around the same time Egwene turned to her brother) all that stopped.

[Pizza]

Jordan was never coy about any intimate relationships happening in the present during the books as best as I can remember. There was stuff that happened in the past such as Thom’s dalliances that is vague, but in the present it was always straightforward what had happened when two characters initiated a sexual relationship. I don’t see why he’d do that with a theoretical Elayne/Egwene relationship without doing it elsewhere.

Similarly, for some sort of proposed “gay for the stay” situation all our main female characters are in and out of the White Tower fairly often unlike other Novices and Accepted who will spend years there without leaving.

Further evidence against this proposed couple in specific is that Egwene spent the better part of a year as damane. We also know from one Mat’s chapters that he is visiting the damane kennels so often some are starting to think he is attracted to a damane which the Seanchan view as the worst sort of perversion. Yet we never hear anything about lonely damane “comforting” each other, and nothing is said about Egwene trying to form some sort of relationship beyond friendship with Min (been a long time since I read The Great Hunt so it may have been another woman) who was allowed to regularly see her.

[alhoon]

It is Min that is visiting Egwene as a Damane and it happens once per week for a few minutes. There are no mentions in the Great Hunt, which I finished a couple of weeks ago, that Min was considered attracted to a Daman.