DojoToad
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Posts posted by DojoToad
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3 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:
Perhaps they had been instructed not to. Remember, the Dark One has plots within plots within plots. Often, he likes to break things, wait for them to heal a bit, then break them again. The attack is meant to sow panic and discord and suspicion. That will leave the Aes Sedai brittle and easily led into becoming pawns in the Dark One's later designs.
If Siuan is dead, for example, there's no need for her to be deposed. The Tower might unite behind their martyred Amyrlin or their martyred Keeper.
(Incidentally, this may also be the reason for the slow walk to the center - perhaps they were ordered to make sure everyone knew exactly who they were. The remaining Sisters are meant to believe that they know the identities of all of the Black sisters when, in fact, there are more still hiding among them.)
Granted if this is the explanation, it would help to make that explicit at some point.
I can accept this explanation - if, as you say, it is made explicit at some point.
It would be just like the DO.
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16 hours ago, Turin Turambar said:
If I ain't playing mafia, I might as well "discuss" the show here.
I think the BA not killing anyone while they were stunned was just because their priority was escape. I also don't think they were really out very long. Granted killing with the power should be quick and easy and they didn't exactly run out.
I'm gonna go with...
The only reasonable explanation so far...
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19 hours ago, expat said:
One final point before I shut up. Why are we analyzing this scene so intensely? Is our enjoyment of action/adventure movies/series tied up with the accuracy of the fight scenes? If we spent this much time nitpicking the car chases in F&F, or the fight scenes in MI, or the daredevil scenes in James Bond movies we would find all kinds of silly inconsistencies and physically impossible events. If we enjoy these types of movies/series, we suspend belief and go with the flow as long as the scenes are interesting and visually exciting. If we don't enjoy this type of entertainment, the nitpicking is a good excuse to use as to why we don't enjoy it, but generally not the underlying reason. When was the last time you saw an action/adventure movie/series and thought, I would like it if only that fight scene was more realistic?
Lets use our logic on other parts of these movies/series or on movies/series that invite serious logical analysis.
I think some of us are analyzing this so much because the battles were our favorite parts of the books. It is what got me through the slog of Faile's Shaido arc, Elayne's throne chasing, Aes Sedai Tower/Salidar machinations, and Perrin's brooding (all the matters is Faile!). I knew there was another fight coming - Jordan did that so well.
As I said previously, I thought this scene was very well done regarding the One Power fight - though I still don't understand the Black Sisters walking away without killing the defeated Sisters. For my money, they have nailed the One Power between the tower battle and Rand taking out Turak and his entourage - S3 might be the turning point for this specific area.
Though I still worry about melee fighting. With the exception of 'The Blood Snow' there is still a lot to be desired for the mundane weapons - from their appearance to how (un)skillfully they are wielded. But I did like that little blip of Perrin in the trailer though I never pictured him in plate armor.
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20 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:
@Mailman you entirely dismiss how shocking this attack would be. Most of the sitters would be in shock trying to process how and why women they knew for decades are suddenly using the power to attack.
Responses would be incredibly slow as they try to work out what is going on. Think about it. This starts as a trial for a rogue Red. Only Siuan knows she will reveal Liandrin as Black. The revelation of her as Black alone would be a huge shock. The Mother admitting such a thing exists would be a massive revelation by itself.
Then Liandrin holds the power. The reckless act of a woman caught? What is happening? “Join me?” In what? Why are those sisters getting up? What are they doing? Are they going to help Siuan? Did they really just do that? Why? Was it a mistake? All of these questions would be banging around in their head - about people they know, like, and trust.
These types of things can freeze even highly trained people (see the Uvalde shooting). Why is it so surprising to you that a room full of women who never imagined such thing (the Black Ajah) was possible and believed themselves to be the world’s greatest power - absolutely untouchable in the heart of the Tower - would struggle for a minute to react appropriately?
The Aes Sedai were trained and weeded out so that those who attained the ring would not pause or falter when surprised/attacked - but would react appropriately on the instant.
That said - I agree with you. They train for perfection but are only human. The slow start and shock are both reasonable.
- Kaleb, Skipp, DreadLord31 and 2 others
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I think that the CGI used for the magic battle was very good.
What I can't understand is the end of the battle. Whether the Black should have won the battle given the numbers is debatable. But they are the Black. They had defeated the most powerful women in the Tower and they were all laying on the ground defeated and helpless. Finish them off quickly with a quick slice of the power? Nah, let's retreat to the docks so we can fight them again another day.
Retreat was prudent after the battle but at least clean up the low hanging fruit that will only take a millisecond to destroy.
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I liked the trailer overall. The one power battle in the White Tower looked good to me. But as has been pointed out, the archers against trollocs didn't make much sense. Three or four hundred pound beasts with forward momentum being thrown back by arrows... That aside the scene didn't look great.
Perrin swinging whatever looked cool. Aiel spears - 🤮
Costuming looked good.
- DreadLord31, Vambram and Mailman
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20 minutes ago, DigificWriter said:
* I've always been of the belief that while we are going to see Moiraine 'meet a sticky end', as it were, the TV series' focus on Rosamund Pike as the Series Lead won't change, but as we start to get closer to Season 3, I'm kind of starting to wonder if my assumptions are going to be proven wrong, which makes me sad given that Moiraine is my favorite character
I'm sorry, but what do you mean by 'sticky end'?
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49 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:
The aiel spears look a bit "fake" to my eyes. Hopefully they look better in motion.
Yes. The length of the spearheads looks right, but does not look like a steel weapon from this shot.
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11 hours ago, Mailman said:
The only thing that really stood out to me from those pictures was I really hate the look of the sword that Rand is using.
That is really nothing like the impression I got of his swords in the books. It's very short not curved looks like it is very blunt. It also looks kind of a bit like plastic.
Looks more like a ninjato than a katana. Very blunt, thick, and plastic looking - as you said. Perhaps a trainer so they can whack each without leaving more than bruises. But those are usually wood to keep the weight down.
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4 hours ago, DigificWriter said:
Yes, people in our world abuse animals. My point still stands, though: abuse is not training.
The show pretty clearly wanted to make it obvious to audiences that the Damane are abused slaves (not trained and coddled pets), and the in-the-mouth gags do that super-effectively, as does the intense, in-your-face depiction of what happens to Egwene.
You might not think so, but abuse can be used for training.
Take the animals out of it. Spouses abuse each other. Karens scream. Parents abuse children and vice versa. Bosses abuse subordinates and coworkers abuse each other. There may be an element of sadism involved, but I think this type of abuse (even unconsciously) is used to train the victim to a certain type of behavior or response. Because they don't know how to train the right way. They don't want to take the time to teach/train using words and examples. They resort to the iron fist, screaming, passive-aggressiveness - or whatever has worked for them in the past for quick results.
Just because it is abuse doesn't mean that the animal or damane is not being trained.
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15 hours ago, Kaleb said:
I did not like the battle with Logain's army at the Aes Sedai camp. They did an ok job of conveying scale with very few people when they introduced Logain capturing the king of Ghealdan in the cold open, but it was a swing and a miss when it came to actual combat. If they were going to have a character say "no army can stand against seven full sisters" then they needed to show some real strength, and Alanna's Air weaves to catch the arrows and then throw up some kind of shield later absolutely did not cut it. The tiny number of people in the "army" was laughable, but they used the forest setting to try and suggest more, I get it and will happily cut some slack. But this was a real missed opportunity to show off the One Power, and they blew it. Thus far, the weakness of combat scenes has been my biggest complaint about the show, none of the battle scenes have been satisfying at all.
Jordan did this so well in the books. Probably what he did best in the books. Everything from one-on-one combat to skirmishes to full-scale battles...
His descriptions on the use of the one power were a close second.
Combat both with and without the power was what I was most looking forward to seeing in the show. Mundane combat was a huge disappointment with the exception of the Blood Snow. I've watched bad action movies repeatedly if the fight choreography was good. But I couldn't stay with a series I was so looking forward to because this was executed so poorly.
Use of the power was a little better. All the arm waving looked kind of goofy, but how the weaves were presented on screen worked fine for me.
- Vambram, Kaleb, A Memory Of Why and 3 others
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5 hours ago, egil said:
Dragonmount is officially dead. One month after announcement of the largest news of the WOT book-series in years, and no update on dragonmount. Finally its announced a special edition of the WOT series which will actually be available for the mases (orignially TOR version was not). But dragonmount let it pass over. While you post reviews of obscure books. why?
You've been a member of this forum for almost 4 years - why did you let a month pass before letting the rest of us know?
As for the book itself - it looks nice. But if all they are doing is Eye of the World, I'll have to pass. If the whole set is coming out leatherbound, then I might consider upgrading.
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Edited by DojoToad
On 12/21/2024 at 12:00 PM, DigificWriter said:How?
It's a one-off OTT use of the One Power that is fueled entirely by emotion and isn't a conscious choice any more than Nynaeve's two 'Power explosions' were. There is also an argument to be made that Egwene was possibly in possession of an Angreal at the time in the form of the jewel Moiraine gave her in the episode Shadow's Waiting.
How is it one-off when you mention Egwene's (1) and Nynaeve's (2) in the same sentence? That is at least three OTT uses of the power in one season by untrained (or little trained) channelers.
Maybe that is the point - Aes Sedai have lost/forgotten so much since the AOL. That was a theme in the book series, but it came much later than how it was introduced in the show. Still poorly done imo, but maybe that's the direction they're going.
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On 12/19/2024 at 10:50 AM, Skipp said:
Also Rand broke a cuendillar seal on his own without training, you want to talk about power? He also got to merc Lord Turak and his retinue. I know book fans were hoping for the duel but all of my friends absolutely loved that moment.
Looked that scene up on youtube. I like it, an awesome display of the Power by Rand. Everyone looking tough and posing - and then splat.
Plus they were able to avoid a badly choreographed fight scene. Duel would have been nice for sure though.
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1 hour ago, Skipp said:
Also Rand broke a cuendillar seal on his own without training, you want to talk about power? He also got to merc Lord Turak and his retinue. I know book fans were hoping for the duel but all of my friends absolutely loved that moment.
Sorry, I'm ignorant on this point. Are the seals failing in the show like in the books? In the book, they could be easily be broken without the power.
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16 hours ago, driftnet said:
"AI" knows English words and the order in which they are likely to appear. That's it. I don't care about the show one way or another, and this may be correct. But you can get completely confident and 100% wrong answers from AI all day long. It's not even interesting as a curiosity.
Not interesting to you. I find it fascinating: is it right, wrong, irrelevant? Just like coming here and reading comments/opinions/insights from fellow Dragonmounters. Someday it might not be as exciting, but for me it's still new, shiny, and interesting.
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10 minutes ago, Wassup said:
Rand didn't carry Moiraine out of Rhuidean. Rand and Matt climbed the cliffs of Chaendaer back to the camp. They were trying to get there before the sun finished rising to avoid the heat. They were confronted by Couladin at the edge of the camp. They arrived at the camp at dawn but left the city before dawn.
So, I am not sure why you are expecting them to show Rand carrying Moiraine out of the city. Non-book readers would have no clue why he is walking out of a fog and book readers would exclaim that it doesn't fit the book. The poster at least gives a reference to the teaser opening and vice versa.
We probably won't get the poster or some of the scenes from the teaser in the show. Look at the eye catching pool scene with Eggy from season 1 trailer. In the show? Nope.
They change stuff. Get used to it.
- expat, Vambram and king of nowhere
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10 hours ago, expat said:
WTF man. I was addressing a specific scene you asked me about. So without discussing the points I tried to raise, you jumped to another scene you didn't like.
To make it easier, the point I raised was that there are two ways to view the series, one from a more holistic viewpoint where the overriding concepts are more important than the exact actions taken to get there and the second to value the actions as discrete points in their own right. Neither is objectively correct and is based on individual interpretations of what an adaptation should be. Based on the discussion, it seems I am more interested in the big picture and willing to give the showrunners the benefit of the doubt on the small details and you are the opposite. You are more interested in the small details and really want to see them on screen.
Given the difficulties of the adaptation, you will likely be continually disappointed.
True that. There will be many small details missed. The 14-book series was long and rich (and often repetitive). There is no way everyone's favorite details are making it to the screen no matter how many episodes and seasons they get. Adaptations are tough, and people have different scenes they consider important or their favorite.
Rafe is a professional in the entertainment industry and I assume he wants to continue down that path. If that is the case, he is doing the best job he can. I think he is making many mistakes, but I'm only an entertainment consumer. Someone else might have been more capable and made a better show from my perspective, but Rafe is who we have and his vision (influenced by execs) is the product. S3 is soon...
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Edited by DojoToad
12 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:We do. It gives them plot armor and plays into fantasy tropes. It’s far better writing to play into the which way will he go, save the world or destroy it aspect of the Dragon. It allows you to build tension between Rand and his friends and his friends between one another - something Rand often plays to his advantage throughout the books.
How do we know which way he will go when he isn't getting the screen time? Framing the protagonist through the eyes of other characters works for a couple chapters/episodes, but I'd think you'd want it from the horse's mouth at some point.
12 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:He’s had some cool moments. He will get more. Keeping him nerfed for a bit also helps with power creep.
But not nerfing Nynaeve and Egwene accomplishes what?
12 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:Yes. In service of better storytelling in a visual medium.
I can understand the protagonist not being the focus for an episode or three, but for two entire seasons? Unless the Dragon is not the protagonist and is just another tool for Moiraine (the true protagonist) to use... If Rand is the protagonist (and not 'just' the Dragon) it's a pretty risky move to wait until S3 for him to get his season. Especially with the drop off in viewership between S1 and S2 - according to our AI Overlords. 😁
- A Memory Of Why, Vambram and fearbrog
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Did Amazon greenlight S4?
in Wheel of Time TV Show
Hmm, I wonder why the change especially with the more positive reviews this season.