Mirefox

Is there a reason Loial was blonde for two seasons and suddenly has dark hair in season 3?

And every time you shut down a critique you act like the infallible god of storytelling. Even in a vacuum removed from the source material this plot has more holes than Swiss cheese, horrible pacing issues, logical inconsistencies, and an entire armories of Chekhov’s guns that are either forgotten or lazily used and then forgotten. But you are right to the extent that every change has purpose insomuch as every change was presumably written by a human. Other reasons that you conveniently left out are 1) style over substance, 2) disconnect between multiple writers and multiple directors, 3) immaturity/incompetence, 4) an explicitly stated desire to “modernize” the story, 5) shifting tones to piggyback off the popularity of other shows, 6) pissant writers who truly think their ideas are better than the source material that they don’t respect. I’ve liked schlock before. There is nothing wrong with being entertained by mediocrity. Yet to die on the hill of defending mediocrity from any valid criticism says far more about the apologist than the product.

I wrote a post about how the sea folk dress and it felt icky and decided to just edit this all out. Can we delete posts?

Oh my goodness, I meant Rhuarc. This is why I should drink my coffee before posting anything online…

Hey, I was giving the show one of my very rare benefits of the doubt, but if you tell me there were actually no excuses for it looking half-baked, I’m fine running with that…

if I remember correctly, there were budget and/or COVID issues in season 1, and for all the stuff I am happy to nitpick, I understood the issues where it related to that scene…the fact that the trend continues, though, is troubling. I haven’t felt yet that I’ve seen an “army” anywhere, and even Falme felt like a small skirmish. There have got to be some cinematic tricks that they could start using to make it feel larger in scope.

The causal use of stabbing needs to stop now. It is ridiculous how often people are getting stabbed multiple times in this show and not only being healed instantly but acting like it barely happened. And then we are supposed to simultaneously believe that a wound is debilitating or deadly? Peering just took an axe to a chest earlier this season and shrugged it off but a knife to the side this week should be concerning?

This episode was a bit bland after last week. I liked seeing Mat bicker with Nyn and Elayne. Gaul is barely used but he’s great. I also liked that Mat’s mom was burned at the stake. I’ve complained that this show is inconsistent (like having Natti care less about the girls in S1E1 but sacrifice herself here - that’s out of character for the show), but having Valda treat her mercilessly fits his behavior throughout the show. Was this the first time we see the sea folk? Why aren’t Bain and Chiad veiled in the Whitecloak camp? This is such a frustrating thing as it is such a defining characteristic in the books and was at least explained in the show. Are we supposed to pretend at this point that Mat’s dagger/lightsaber/ashinarai never existed?

Thus a 100% unnecessary change that didn’t further the narrative in any way or help in changing the medium of the story.

Rafe degendered souls because gender ideology is more important to Rafe than fidelity to the source and this is a perfect case in point. The Wheel of Time wouldn’t exist without the dragon being male; a massive part of the story revolves around the taint and the inevitability of the Dragon going insane (again).

Did they use the “he will take you back and destroy you” language?

Her tone alone was defiant. That can matter.

It was a nonsensical comment. If my kids ever talk to myself or my wife like that, there is at the very least a reprimand. Acting respectful and acting reverent isn’t merely about following the letter of the law or finding loopholes. At the very least, everyone should at least be able to agree that she didn’t respect or revere the position of Amyrlin in that moment; whether or not that was within character or their should have been repressions can be debated, I suppose.

It’s weird that I remembered him as being there. Either way, do we know if he’s going to be in the show?

Do we know if Bryne is going to be in this show? They dropped his name but we haven’t seen him. I missed his presence in the Matt/Trakand fight.

Does she, though? Maybe eventually, but she’s a pawn at first. Either way, it can maybe make sense in the show vacuum but as you can see, it rubbed a lot of us the wrong way because it just wasn’t fitting with the way the Amyrlin’s power has been ingrained in our memories for decades. It also screams of one of those “style over substance” moments where they wanted to show Eggy as a bit of a badass so they did it at the expense of the Amyrlin. Ah well.

I forget, have we been given the words of the Aiel prophecy in this show?

Sure, I’ll grant that it does those things. That said, in the books it is clear that you respect and revere the Amyrlin, and when it doesn’t happen, it is noticeable and a shock. Further,

I think it is important to also consider that what you are seeing is a history of the Aiel. While Rand is tied to that, this pertains to the Aiel more than it does the Dragon.

Deference and respect to the role of Amyrlin was a big deal in the books and it went far beyond following the rules. How the Amyrlin is perceived and how her authority is treated is a huge theme through the book for various reason. This scene neutered that.

This is what I was asking about earlier and it seems that many viewers were a bit confused, so don’t worry, you’re not alone. As I mentioned, it was confusing for the the first time through the books, too, and I’m not alone, there. I think they summed it up for you nicely here, but it is essentially a reverse history lesson.

We have seen the AoL once before. I think it was a cold open, but I don’t remember.

That was a good episode. I am curious, though, how it is received by non-book readers. Even in the book the time jumps took a little effort to follow at first. I still wish they’d clean up some of the unforced errors. For example, why was Janduin fighting and killing without a veil? They then make the point of explaining veils later in the episode. Why explain lore and worldbuild but then break your own rules?

I hope we get to see Leanne 2.0 because it will be such a stark character shift.

I was thinking the same when Avi faced off with Lan. There was some whooping in the background (I sounded like from one Aiel), but the camp felt empty.