Agitel

Regarding the anachronism, Rand uses CPR on Mat at Rhuidean in the books. It could also plausibly be something Nynaeve knows, and Egwene as her apprentice could know.

I disagree this is the necessary way to approach it. Outlander season seven (parts one and two) cut so much yet also remained so faithful on the main plot beats. I think much of the "slog" could be approached this way. I doubt it will. But I think it would work fine.

No, my read is he's lucid during these dreams. He's discussing everything and history and the current state of things with way too much awareness.

I'm not sure if that was an intentional choice on Rafe's part. The book lore is that there was no immediate, noticeable impact of the Bore, at least on society at a large scale. But what followed was 80-90 years of social decay, and cults presumably popping up around the Dark One. Then it broke into all put war, which lasted a decade with massive devastation. The Light was losing the war, and two desperate gambits were devised by different factions. LTT and his "hundred companions" sealing the Bore was one of them. Now it's possible there were some pockets of paradise left at this point, but the scene in Season One suggests a very different history for the show. Anyway, in the books, the sealing was followed by the Breaking, which lasted centuries before things calmed down. Perhaps in the show there was no great war, maybe everything was very mild until the Breaking.

My biggest concern from the last episode is Rand's and Lanfear's discussion on the Pattern and the Wheel. And this may seem odd. Rand is rejecting the notion that the Pattern dictates his fate as a naive superstition. Lanfear states they weave their own fates. Now this is Lanfear, a Forsaken. This messaging would be on point for her. But I don't know that I trust the writers to stick to the series' themes here and not just embrace what Lanfear is saying. So I hope I see a reversal on this point later. Whether or not you believe in fate or higher forces in real life, it is essential to the basics of the Wheel of Time. Many character arcs, Rand's especially, are a sort of struggle and/or reliance on ta'veren nature and fate. While most people are not woven so, Rand and the others struggle with the Wheel railroading them where they need to be, literally shaping reality around him. Whatever else they do character or plotwise, this is like a fundamental, core motif of The Wheel of Time. If they were to abandon it, then what are they even doing choosing to adapt the property? This might seem the most minor thing to some, but again, this is one of the core motifs of the entire series and the character arcs, the interplay of human freedom and fate. It's the very name of the series. The wheel isn't just the cycle of ages, it's what spins out the pattern. "The wheel weaves as the wheel wills." If the writers actually endorse Lanfear's sentiment here, which seems naive of me to believe, but again I don't have full faith in these writers, then I feel like that would be the most significant rejection of the source material, above anything else. Even if you still adapt most of the character and plot beats without it, it feels like missing the point.

Perrin sneaking into the White Cloak camp this season was basically revisiting a missed plot beat from season one. Granted somewhat different circumstances, involved characters, and results. I didn't mind this at all.

I'm 50/50 on the show. But I can certainly understand why they changed certain plot beats. I've argued in favor of some of the changes, I've acknolwedged what they were going for with others. I don't always agree that the change is for the better even knowing what they're trying to do with it. I also sometimes think they made a change for the right reason but they executed it sloppily. Just because the motivation and beat is right doesn't suddenly make it done well. I rankle at the idea that detractors are just too stupid to understand, as if there's no room for opinion on what would be best.

I think they're also pulling back on his (stress and madness driven) unwillingness to kill women that develops. They're going to give him a different reason for not striking Lanfear down later, if it still goes down remotely similarly.

There could also be some minor compulsion at work, but we'll see.

Book Rand does come to a sort of uneasy truce with Lanfear. But he's not taken in by her the way he is in the show. I'm not really opposed to the relationship in the show. I think it's a little sloppily done, but the idea underscores a later plot point that will come up and why Moiraine feels she needs to do as she does. I think that plot point could have been better served by some of Moiraine's visions in the rings without showing everything. Maybe we'll get a flashback to a vision we didn't see before later. I'm not a fan of the Rand - Egwene - Lanfear triangle, though, or Rand actually being unfaithful. Rand had dreams in the book which he felt terrible about, but he wasn't lucid or in control during them. I just wish Egwene and Rand had broken up before this and Rand wasn't suddenly a cheater.

If I learned that my wife was a brutal torturer and genocidal-level maniac who had led terrible mass-atrocity-commiting armies trying to conquer the world for a cosmic entity she'd willingly sworn herself to that is looking to bring misery and suffering and pain and despair to all... that would damage our relationship a mite. Might even feel lied to and betrayed.

Yeah, I'm going to say NO, I don't agree with this. I get so much being cut for the show, don't get me wrong. But I don't feel this statement. Edit: Sorry with the multiposts. I'm all caught up now.

Moiraine and Siuane yes. Elayne and Avi no. I don't mind the change. I think it's a good change. But, looking at the text, we don't need to see every intimate friendship as romantic. We can have an example of a close, intimate female friendship that isn't romantic. We can have close, intimate male friendships that aren't romantic (I'm looking at the "Sam and Frodo are romantic crowd here.) That's not to say don't have queer relationships in media, or even say it's wrong to change things across mediums. But when interpreting texts, I'd just caution against seeing every close, intimate same sex friendship as a romantic relationship. Avi and Elayne were not romantic in the books. They are in the show. And that's fine.

Okay, this is one of the things I'll forgive for the sake of expediency, but no, people don't expect 30 minutes in one episode of training. They don't even expect 30 minutes across an entire season of training. They might expect a quick scene like that and a few comments and some indicators that time had passed so one could infer she's had more time. Maybe a couple other snippets showing she's improving. But this kind of comes down to the writing. Don't write yourself into corners where you just do things for expediency. Maybe don't (thinking of GOT S7) have a man run many miles in a blizzard so they can send a raven 1500 miles so a dragon can fly 1500 miles in order to save the day all within <24 hours because you just want to connect dots without any respect towards the world or character arcs or proper development. I'll give the Egwene T'A'R thing a pass, but this is the difference between C and B tier writing and A tier writing.

I have a nice TV, but I didn't think it crossed the line of being too dark, which is something I've complained about with other shows.

The Tower must bend da knee. Rand cheats on Egwene (with a Forsaken!). The explanation of Rand's belief in the Pattern when he was younger being naive and he has now realized he's free to shape his own destiny while in the books Rand feels less and less free to make his own decisions as he pushed along by forces using him to shape reality. (What did I say in another thread about the eschewing the idea of any higher powers/forces/supernatural in favor of in-world natural explanations? There's a recurring pattern here.) Gonna need some time on this one.

I'd make the Forsaken come across as a bit more threatening on a global scale. I feel like all the info on how big of a threat they are is there, but it doesn't always feel like they have the momentum they should. That is really it, and even withiut that change, I feel like I understand what RJ was going for.

I had everything but the final three in MMP. In the last few years I've takne to buying hardcovers for my shelf, but haven't gotten around to WoT yet. This series will be perfect for me. Like DanielMarkPeter said, the plan is to do all 14 (maybe 15, not sure if New Spring is included) like this, releasing roughly one a year.

Still think it'd be a mistake on Amazon's part. The show finally seems to be getting its quality/critical momentum. If any of the issue is due to lack of viewer trust after seasons one and two, I think this could bring it back given some time to run on its legs and really build momentum.

Adding in some more book perspective on Lanfear... I'll put this in spoilers. It's no plot spoilers, but it will be about book character motivations and backstory which the show may or may not use: The point about the Tuatha'an and the Song, your musings are confirmed by both Jordan and Sanderson in interviews where fans are asking questions, with the caveat the show is the show and the books are the books, but I think on this point it is pretty safe to assume they won't diverge.

This is a good catch. Book readers were expecting as much since that beat parallels something from the books, and I think those of us who still post on Dragonmount have talked about it a lot already when discussing the books. That's not to minimize your point, just probably why you haven't seen a lot of new discussion on it. But yes, the Song they're looking for has been mythologized and has become more of an ideal than a literal song. If they came across the old song(s) they wouldn't recognize it as what they're looking for anymore. It's a cool plot beat.

The way around the confusion would have been to better lay the basics over the course of season one and two, and really it wouldn't even be a lot of exposition all things considered. Then in the preview before this episode they could have done their whole "remember this?" thing and boom it's explained. But also they may just choose to tackle the whole sealing and thinness in the Pattern after this reveal rather than before.

It does tie into something later in the same book.

One thing about the wedding that threw me, and yes books and show are different, is I don't think any culture shown in books WoT has that level of gender dichotomy where a man basically owns a woman and child marriage is legal or a norm. Even the cultures mentioned as practicing horrible slavery don't have that particular dichotomy. Though I think we already had this discussion when it was presented as part of Liandrin's backstory. That's very (dare I say it) Games of Thronesy and touching on some contemporary issues.

Should recent discussion be in spoilers tags?