HeavyHalfMoonBlade

While that could definitely play a role, the book makes clear that age at least doesn't determine how they treat him. I think it explicitly uses examples of young who treat him like a son and old who treat him like a brother. But yes it definitely makes sense that those that gave a baby up for adoption would be more inclined to see him a representative of all those children given up.

I mean no matter what you think of the changes made to the story, I don't see how any adaptation would be possible of the books with only 8 short episodes per season. Sadly I'd say that decision is the part that is too different from the books and nothing, particularly from a purist's point of view for the plot could be done to save the original story, or any embellishments.

I tell you, Mother, he is the most disobedient dog I've ever had. It's like he doesn't even understand English! And telling him to say cheese was disaster. Hasn't stopped miaowing since.

In the early Lan scenes I think he is quite specific about why he won't raise the Golden Crane and won't lead anyone into the Blight. It is quite clearly framed I think through Moiraine's pov that he has a war with the blight and the shadow, one that he knows he cannot win and he cannot quit. He is just pausing it to help Moiraine as it is something that would hurt the shadow more than anything else. So for me the ending is that he can finally see past that paradox of being in a war he cannot win, cannot get out of, cannot ask for help. Though it is not much of an arc in the end as what else would he think the Final Battle was? Surely he could see the end coming even if he did not expect to survive it. I always thought the visions were about his past, though now you point it out, that doesn't make a lot of sense compared to all her other visions. *Shrugs*

I'd say it is more that his role as leader of his people had always been to lead them to their deaths, for them to die for his battle. Now he gets to protect them and nourish them, admitting his birth right and flying the Golden Crane no longer means that people will die and he does not have to refuse the duty to live his life. Now his duty is to love and love and be with his family and countrymen. I don't think he ever wanted free, not like Mat did, he just wanted more to offer those around him. And now he is a King, that is a pretty big change.

I think it is a bit of the uncrowned King cliche, he cannot really walk away from that, he doesn't have anyone to pass it onto. Outside of the over-used trope, I think it was that he had his battle with the Blight that he couldn't win, one that he swore to fight alone. Then he met Moiraine and realized her fight was even more important. Then he has has something similar to Rand where he accepts he cannot make decisions for others and raises the Golden Crane because it needs to be done. And he wins his war that cannot be won. He finally has something more than a widow's mourning clothes to offer. His country is back, the Blight defeated, Moiraine's battle won and her need for him over. He can finally live the life his parents wanted for him. I mean yeah, it's a bit twee but I think the arc works more or less. One of the few bits of the end that did not irritate the goat's left stone out of me 😄

I made the kaf! I ground the beans and everything, Mother. I'm just having a few issues at this end with things in the cup.

I know, what a catchy title, took me a while to come up with it. Anyway, recipes, you have them, I want them. And anyone with recipes involving white chocolate will have amnesty from the Cocoacloaks that throng around these parts. All chocolate is worthy of devouring, we will not have discrimination here. As I am sure everyone is aware of, chocolate originated in South America. The cocoa tree was first domesticated 5,300 years ago in present-day Ecuador. The seeds of the fruit of the cocoa tree are very bitter and need to be fermented before being processed. The fruits of the three types of cocoa tree are shown above. After fermentation, the seeds are roasted and the husks of the seeds are harvested as cocoa nibs. The nibs can be ground into cocoa mass, and then liquefied by heat into chocolate liquor. The liquor can then be cooled and processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The solids are then often further treated with an alkalizing agent such as potassium or sodium carbonate to remove the acidity of the solids, which gives it a much less bitter taste. This is often called Dutch cocoa, after the pioneering chocolate maker Coenraad Johannes van Houten, who developed the technique. You can see the relative degree of Dutching by the colour of the solids. The darker powder on the left are Dutched solids, on the right, natural cocoa solids. Dutching also has an effect on the level of caffeine (reducing it to a third) and the anti-oxidants (reducing them by 60%) in the cocoa solids. It is interesting to note that cocoa is so high in anti-oxidants that even Dutch cocoa is considered a high anti-oxidant food. Dutch cocoa forms the basis for most modern chocolate applications. I was not going to include how chocolate is made as I thought everyone would already know, but actually after reading briefly up on it I realised that there a lot of detail there that I was completely ignorant about, so I have included the basics anyway. Everyone loves chocolate, but of course, people being people, there has to be a dark side to it as well. While the plant was first domesticated in South America, currently most chocolate is grown in West Africa. It is estimated that more than two million children are involved in the farming of cocoa in Africa, with two major concerns being human trafficking and slavery. In a Dutch program about slavery involved in chocolate a spokesperson for Nestle appeared to downplay the importance of slavery as your normal chocolate farmer was so poor, it really did not make a lot difference. Here in the Netherlands, a reporter called Teun van de Keuken, made headlines when he reported himself to the police for being an accomplice to slavery. His argument was that he knew that chocolate was produced using slavery yet still financially contributed to the process by buying chocolate. Legal experts advised that there was definitely a case to be answered under Dutch law, and Teun collected tens of thousands of signatures urging for him to be jailed. In the end, the court decided the motion was inadmissible and without denying the horrors involved in cocoa production, prosecuting Teun and the more than two thousand other chocolate consumers that came forward, was not the correct way to deal with the issue. The publicity, and a cynic might point to research that people would pay many times more for chocolate that was guaranteed to be slave free, lead to Teun's own brand of chocolate - "Tony's Chocolonely", a name thought up for a new Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream that Teun tried to pitch to that company as part of his awareness raising about the issue - has become the market leader in the Netherlands, and costs at least three times as much as Verkade, the previous market leader. So that is a bit depressing. Even outside of the exploitation of the farmers, as part of Teun's programming, he traveled to Africa where the chocolate was farmed with a suitcase full of chocolate. In a village, with the Headman's permission, he distributed the various chocolate bars and sweeties out (after the Headsman had had first pick) to the villagers, none of whom had never tasted chocolate before in their lives, despite spending their entire lives farming the cocoa plant. Truly upsetting and humbling as an indication of the privilege that we have in the First World. Anyway on that point, I'll open the floor to anyone else that would like to discuss anything about chocolate or share a recipe, and go look up some good recipes to share. Where is Maw Broon's cookbook now?