SinisterDeath

Per the Books, the year at the start of the Eye of the world was 998 Rand, Mat, and Perrin were between 19 and 20. Rand officially turned 20 by sometime around Chapter ~49 of The Great Hunt. Rand was born in 2 Danu 978 NE (~19-20) Mat was born in 978 NE (~19-20) Perrin was born in 978 NE (~19-20) Egwene was born in 981 NE (~16-17) Elayne was born in 981 NE (~16-17) Nynaeve was born in 974 NE (~23-24) Min was born in 975 NE (~22-23) Since WoT is not a medieval time period, but something closer to renaissance... Think ~1300s-1600s, people in the cities did still marry young, but child brides were... probably far less common as they were a few centuries prior... But even in the two rivers, as per the books... Rand, Mat, and Perrin were all very much eligible bachelors, and the Women's council were on their ass about getting married and settling down... for good reason. 16/17 was about the age they were looking for them to enter into their tradition of "wait a "year and a day" before marriage. (betrothed at 16, get married at 17...) They didn't like having eligible bachelors like Tam sitting around, potentially causing a ruckus (Mat) with all the girls in town.

Season 3 - Episode 6: The Shadow in the Night Director: Marta Cunningham Writers: TBA Runtime: TBA Let's keep DM Tidy, and try to keep all discussions pertaining to S3E6: The Shadow in the Night to this topic for the next few weeks. When reading beyond this point, you should expect to encounter Full Spoilers Up to the ending of Episode 6 only, and full book spoilers in this topic.

Considering a lot of the complaints is that "Healing is Nynaeve's thing", and that they gave "Egwene super healing", so having her fall back on the wisdom skills Nynaeve taught her (cpr)... because she's been drained of the one power after going through that entire ordeal with the Circle where she was forced to use up all of her power... (Are you sensing a theme here for the following season?)

Egwene was going to use CPR to revive Nynaeve, but COVID changed that.

Something else to remember here is that Winter's Heart (Cleansing) was written in 2000. RJ Wrote Crossroads of Twilight between 2000 and 2003. What real world event happened between those years? I believe RJ was interested in writing a story about a huge event (Cleansing, 9/11), as viewed from multiple perspectives from across the world. He was highly interested in history, and he was no doubt well versed in modern politics, even if he wasn't vocal about them.

I believe the crux of it was the book following the cleansing, where we get an entire book that's just going over everyone's view point of that singular event. From a reader's POV, that book was grueling, annoying, slow, and it felt like nothing really happened. We all understood how big that event was... But you remember how the first 4 or 5 books had this annoying thing where RJ would give this mini-recap explaining what sorta happened in the last book, and then he'd re-explain basic concepts like, what the one power is, and what this or that thing was, even though we ALREADY knew what that was cause he's explained it 15 times already? Yeah, that was that entire book, 35+ times, talking about the cleansing. lol BUT from a writers perspective... The timelines were getting way out of sync. Perrin, Rand, Mat, and all the girls stories were starting to get to far ahead or behind each others. So by having that single annoying book we all hate, talking about that singular event, it refocuses everyone to acknowledge that "Hey, everyone's now caught up to the same point in time! yay!" Perrin's no longer 6 months behind, and Rand's no longer 3 months ahead!

How did Siuan know Rhuidean was in the Aiel Wastes? I didn't think anyone outside of the Aiel knew about that... Maybe this is some clever foreshadowing going on in the show...

Really? Did you not notice his conversation with Egwene in S3E1 where they're holding parallel discussions? And then his euphoric state trying to let go of the one Power? Or in the follow up episode where he talks to Moiraine about what the taint on Saidin is like? He's a little bit touched already at this point, and Lanfear isn't helping things.

Two parts to this. Well, there were two parts to this. Why were the Aiel and the Kid all laughing and gleeful despite knowing who rand was? See above. Why was Rand acting the way he was? The Madness.

Considering the Aiel's views on Death, I don't know that "sombre" is the correct attitude they'd approach even the Car'a'carn, who is prophesized to take them back and destroy them, so that he can save a remnant of a remanent... Remember this quote? "Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day." The Aiel hold duty above all. They know what lies ahead of them... They know he will destroy them, but they also know that it must be done, for that is their duty as Aiel. That doesn't mean they're going to mope their way to their graves like Moiraine was at the beginning of the episode. No, they're going to enjoy life while they have it, and fight to the last spear, for the last breath if that means a remnant of a remanent of their people can survive. That's why I said at the end of the post Because you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. You obviously can't just cast only white people as villains, but it's also shitty if you just cast only black people as Villains. It's also shitty when you have a mixed cast and the only ones getting killed, or doing the killing are people of color. During Season 1, there were non-white content creators that pointed out that the show has a colorism issue. So this isn't just me looking to take offense on behalf of people. The shit Valda does in the show is absolutely horrific, and his actor is absolutely nailing it. Perrin, when he gets a scene is doing a good job. And we've only seen Fain like twice. lol From a meta standpoint, we have Perrin, a Black Man. In an adrenaline fueled rage he accidently killed his White Wife while defending his home against a Trolloc Attack. Sarah Nakamura almost had an Aneurysm in the writers room because they wanted to make Perrin a Bear Brother. The Writers couldn't see how making a Black Man a Bear Brother could be problematic when the original character is a wolf brother. You have Valda, who commits Heinous acts of Torture and Violence against Women, and the first scene we see him in, is torturing a White Woman, before burning her at the Stake. You have Fain, who is shown to be a corrupting influence on Mat, promoting Stealing and Fencing of Stolen goods. He later goes on to Stab Perrin and "Brother Book", and steals the Horn. In Season3 , the first thing that comes to mind is the Leane Scene where she beats a black woman to death with her staff. Why did they choose to beat her to death with the staff? Why did they have Elaida brutally kill Amico (The large colored girl), over Joiya (the skinny white bald girl)? Like I said, it's tough. You can have a diverse cast and crew, and still face criticism for how the characters are killed off, the reasoning behind it, how the characters act, why the characters do what they do, and whether they're doing what they should be doing for what the stories trying to tell.... and sometimes Writers/Directors bias's do play into this, and sometimes it doesn't. And the "colorism" thing is a valid criticism that has been launched at the show in the past, and I honestly don't know if it's ever been evaluated by the writers/directors because they just look at their cast and crew and see how diverse it is and say "nah we good". It's definitely a trope in Media. The last movie I saw that had a "bald woman" in it was Dungeons and Dragons. Can you guess what role she played? lol Sailmistress demands it. You get rope burn! You get Rope burn! EVERYBODY GETS ROPE BURN! These two are not kissing like sisters. Except this is the one thing they do not bargain over. The one seeking passage offers a gift and they either offer the "gift of passage" or do not, there is no haggling. Technically this is a way to force the traveler to bid high as there is no opportunity to raise your bid but to refer to the gift of passage as a deal would offend them. Here's something to mull on. By not showing this haggling process, and the "deal", they can avoid fan discourse over the writers script on just how much Elayne/Nynaeve broke said deal with the Sailmistress... which allows them to hand wave the scenes they got away with on the show. E.g. Instead of showing us a conversation with Aes Sedai and their intricate wording to avoid a lie, they can just imply a conversation between two Aes Sedai happened and that there was some misdirection going on. E.g. It's like those TV Shows where they right Court Room Scenes, but the writers don't actually know how the court system works, so they watch a few episodes of Law and Order, and through out some technical jargon and hope it sticks.

Rand is being trained by Lan in S3. Nynaeve was just playing with Swords in S2, and was being actively chastised by Aes Sedai (Liandrin) about using a sword when she has the One Power. This is a foreshadow to the scene where Nynaeve decks a certain Foresaken...

Careful, Rafe's going to make it so when they're out to Sea, all the Seafolk sail bottomless! Dangly bits just flapping in the wind, as all the guys just stand around free balling it. They stand out on the Mast lookin' for land... Don't go lookin' up or you might see the Taint that winks back.

I can speak on this. Book to Show, this it's actually simple. Look at their Clothes, and Hairstyle. You can show culture through clothing and hair style rather than race and ethnicity. How does an Aiel dress compared to someone from Malkier (Lan), or someone from Andor (Elayne), or someone from the Two Rivers (Nynaeve). Then you have the absolute fashion show going on in the hall of the sitters in the White Tower, where everyone is wearing something completely different? Trying to cast only red headed gingers, that average 6.5 feet tall to play Aiel, was going to be about as easy as trying to cast 2-2.5 Meter Tall, extremely skinny (Anorexic skinny) to play Belters in the Expanse. At the end of the day, from a casting perspective, there's some avenues that it's just easier to pick your battles. The Wheel of Time TV Show has an excellent Wardrobe and Hairstyle department. The Casting department is great when it comes to picking talented actors, but maybe not so much when it comes to picking people who look the part of the cultures in the books. As for the Seafolk? At least the Primary Seafolk on that ship matched my expectations. The random deckhands? Not so much. One criticism the Fanbase of the Show has long ignored is the Colorism bias. E.g. Casting wise, they chose to cast Ishy (Fares Fares), who is a Lebanese/Syrian actor as the Bad Guy. They chose to Cast black actors to play Padan Fain and Valda. In season 3, they didn't have to have Leane (Asian Woman), brutally beat a Black Woman to death with her Staff in the Hall of the sitters... Hell they even decided to keep the "Bald = Evil" trope alive and well in the Black Ajah. Even though the show is "inclusive" and is "progressive" by actually having actors and characters from all across the world, of various ethnicities and sexual identities and preferences, it still fails in other areas that various people from other communities pointed out all the way back in Season 1 as issues they hoped would be addressed in future seasons.... and may not have actually been addressed... and it's definitely a hard thing to address.

It's worth remembering that RJ was a Vietnam Vet, so he undoubtedly knew Vets who have lost hands/arms. So it's likely that he would have had close 2nd hand knowledge from these people he served with, just how much losing a non-dominant (or dominant) hand/arm would impact their life, in ways you wouldn't expect. In Rand's case... His sword was meant to be wielded with Two Hands. So he was definitely always going to have a harder time with that. The aforementioned Thing about always eating your Food with one Hand, is generally tied with cleaning yourself with the opposite hand. So having to do everything with the same hand, is going to require relearning.