#WoT Meta

[lakeofsilverpike]

I love that the show is flirting with the idea that actually the female and male aspects of the power do not need to be handled differently at all. It’s a hold over of some First Age misogyny that now everyone takes as gospel. I like the ways the show works in that misogyny still exists deeply in the world. It’s corrosive and exists as such deeply held truths that it isn’t even recognized as existing. Truly such a great commentary on the books and their claim to have flipped gendered power on its head while being so deeply misogynistic themselves.

[asha-mage]

The costuming of each of Rand's ancestors is ALSO insane, each iteration of the cadin'sor a step forward towards the one we recognize on Janduin and the modern Aiel, and each reflecting the moment that ancestor lived in:

Charn has simple but well made work clothes that reflect his upbringing as someone form a culture that still practices agrarian farming in a sci fi utopia. It's simple brown that looks more rough and rustic standing in contrast to Miren's sleek white lab outfit, but still contains the hints of modern amenity: his over the shoulder cape, the buttons on his coat and shirt. This is someone who lives in a society where he could be wearing something more clearly modern, but deliberately choose something humble and simple.

Then you have Rhodric in a much sleeker and darker version: the rustic agrarian element has been traded for a straight lines. Everything is imminently practical, from the thick soled work boots, to the leather vest with it's own clip and zippers, to the trousers that allow for range of motion. Rhodric was living through a time of war and now apocalypse. Even his people, sworn to peace, have been altered by the realities of the world they live in, and what their role as servants to Aes Sedai, leaders in that war, demanded.

Centuries later, the cadin'sor has been entirely lost, and Jonai is in what we can recognize now as Tuatha'an style clothing, which makes sense since this is where the two cultures split. Gone are the sleek uniform lines Rhodric was wearing but the deliberate rustic vibe Charn had has not returned. Instead everything is clearly (and messily) hand made. Threads are hanging off a poncho that is clearly hard used. Everything is ill fitting- on Jonai and every one else in this scene. Adan's shirt hangs askew because it's to large while Sulwin's skirt drags in the skirt because it's to long. Their are all these efforts at bright colors and patterning- but their irregular and imperfect. The breaking is taking it's hold and exacting it's price.

Two generations later, Jonai's great grandson, Lewin and his fellows have something that that is first step towards modern Aiel cadin'sor. Everyone has adopted browns and grey, brighter color has been dramatically scaled back, and while stuff still isn't fitting great, it's fitting better. Practicality is back as the main focus, and we see sharp lines return as well. Lewin is the ancestor that most resembles Rhodric, because like with Rhodric he has had to make concessions in himself for the realities of a violent world. The veil appears for the first time, and the colors are now locked in: brown and grey, to match their desert environment.

Jumping forward centuries again to the pre-Clan Aiel, we get Mandein, a sept chief from right before the Aiel cultural identity starts to codify. He is wearing a leather cuirass over a simple linen shirt- the colors are consistent now. and everything is well fitted. The biggest difference is how his rank as a chief is conveyed: he is slathered status symbols, from his cloak, to his sea shell necklace, to his spear with special inlay- all things that demonstrate his singular importance in a society grappling with scarcity. Their is also no uniformity when we see the other sept chiefs during the meeting- everyone is styled differently, draped in different kinds of status symbols. The modern Aiel as a culture now exists, but a common cultural identity is still in the process of forming and getting locked in.

And then finally Janduin- post that cultural identity being codified for two thousand years. He and all the other Aiel warriors are uniform with a clear vision- and being influenced by aesthetic sensibilities that incorporate every step backwards through time. A curiass that seems heavily based on the vest of Rhodric and the others during the war period but with the clear underpinning of being real armor like what Mandein wore, a metal buckler strapped to his back right where the Aiel work hats used to hang during Charn's day, and of course, Lewin's veil but also his same basic silhouette and linens. The only one not represented here is Jonai- which makes sense since that is the lowest point in the Aiel's history, reduced to refugees being preyed upon without anything but their oath and each other to sustain them. Most strikingly to me is the complete absence of any status symbol- Janduin leads many many more people then Mandein but his spears are the same as his soldiers, and nothing marks him out as their leader even in the thick of combat...because such symbols are unnecessary. His right to lead, we know, is carved into his arm.

[graysedai]

Since I'm seeing angry show-onlies claiming queerbaiting and bad writing, I'm putting on my truthsayer's hat for a moment

Let's Talk About Siuan: This Is Better Than The Books' Endgame For Siuan

Siuan still died in the books. She died fighting for the future of the Tower after fighting for nothing but the Light and the Tower for her entire life as an Aes Sedai. She and Moiraine were always a tragedy; they were always a doomed romance.

But Robert Jordan was a deeply flawed person and writer, and he wrote them as having broken up at the end of New Spring, the prequel, set the year Rand was born. You see, in RJ's world women dated each other as youthful, college flings and then went on to marry men, or were man-hating lesbians. In the books, Siuan died in a shoe-horned in romance with a man that most of the book readers absolutely fucking hated as a plotline. She died having never reunited with Moiraine, having never been openly together as Aes Sedai, dating a man who spanked her when she had a bad attitude. I am not kidding.

Siuan's story is of tragedy, of strength, of a woman who gave everything to create a better future for humanity. That hasn't changed between the books and show. I'm personally glad that the show gave us a beautiful, loving, queer relationship that, yes, was doomed. But it was always, always doomed.

I see the shape the showrunners are crafting for the future plot. I already see and believe that Siuan's death will pay off, the way the S01 song of Manetheren paid off in 03x07's Battle of the Two Rivers. The Wheel weaves on, and now you show-onlies have joined us book readers where we have been for years: dreaming of the someday when Siuan and Moiraine are reunited in a better life.

[onaperduamedee]

I am so in love with the type of fantasy the Wheel of time chooses to be.

Perrin wins by sparing the bad guy's life; Loial sacrifices himself not by fighting but by destroying his people's work; those not fighting are essential for saving lives and preserving the Two Rivers' legacy (in a stunning parallel to the Fall of Manetheren where the past lived on because some people didn't fight but fled to carry on life in the Two Rivers.)

Warriors and armies are important but those who made the difference here are the ones who pointedly didn't fight.

This gives me so much hope for the boys' and Lan's later arcs because it seems the show is leaning more into strength not being raw power and existing in different shapes.

[jaqobis]

man so i've been rereading tdr and i've been really noticing here that the reason egwene has such a hard time with nynaeve is because she keeps being reminded of renna

and egwene doesn't even fully realize this! nynaeve doesn't even know she's doing it!

but egwene spends this whole book on HIGH ALERT, because the last time she trusted anyone, she got carried off to the seanchan!! siuan's directive about the black ajah only feeds into her own paranoia after being deceived by liandrin...who, you know, was black ajah. it's not undeserved fear!! but egwene has a hard time looking at anyone she doesn't know (or doesn't know well) as anything but a potential threat. she spends the whole first meeting with aviendha and bain and chiad thinking about ways to protect herself or defuse the situation, when in actuality everyone's wondering why she seems so on edge and ready to attack. aviendha literally catches her embracing the source and hastily goes I WOULD NEVER HURT AN AES SEDAI BTW, FOR NO REASON, JUST FYI,

but coming back to nynaeve...the thing is, renna — and this is really emphasized in the book, where most of the torment is off-screened and told to us later in absolutely horrifying anecdotes — really abused egwene in the way of alternating punishment with "kind" and "humane" treatment. she acted like the owner of a recalcitrant animal she really cares about, or...wait for it...a particularly abusive older sister. renna is the one with the knowledge, the right answers, and egwene was her foolish damane who was learning the ropes. who, when she was punished, was hurt because she'd brought it on herself.

nynaeve, village wisdom, also acts like the older sister with the knowledge, and with the right answers. she also favors egwene with the affections of an authority figure. it's totally different, of course, because nynaeve actually loves egwene and respects her deeply. nynaeve would never hurt her. but we see moments like nynaeve giving egwene's hair a playful tug after egwene compliments her...which completely sours egwene's mood....and is also reminiscent of renna patting her hair when she "does well." both nynaeve and renna position themselves as teachers who have taught egwene lessons, which they ask her to recall! and though their behavior and treatment of her are wildly different, egwene is unable to separate her reactions to nynaeve and feelings about nynaeve with her visceral disgust at her time as a damane.

egwene doesn't WANT to be a "good girl," because with the seanchan she was forced to be a "good girl," a pliable damane, or she'd be hurt until she became compliant. but she is free now, and she's determined to keep her freedom forever, so she CANNOT be the foolish girl who trusted an adult and got captured and tortured. she CANNOT be the valuable damane who had no recourse but to learn her lessons and attempt the smallest resistances allowed to her. she won't agree with an authority figure just because they're an authority, and she won't enjoy their kindness when they agree with her!! all of these experiences have been completely poisoned for her. and, importantly, nynaeve is safe to act out with. egwene couldn't react this way at the white tower, because they have the power to withhold her education, her future as an aes sedai (which she conflates with safety because she will have power), and because they too are willing to apply physical punishment. nynaeve, at worst, will get frustrated or say something sour, but she would never meaningfully hurt egwene. and there's the part of egwene that knows that, even with all of the trauma informing every choice she makes.

tl;dr as usual rj wrote some really compelling trauma material in the wake of egwene's horrific experiences with the seanchan. i love his commitment to depicting the messier, uglier trauma responses people can have and the sympathy with which he does it

[shutupineedtothink]

You know I was thinking last episode (3x05) had such a bittersweet quality to it, especially for Rand making friends with this little Aiel girl. We got a look once again at the young man who wanted nothing more than to live a quiet life and raise a family. Who loves children and is easy and free around them in a way he can’t be around other adults. At the time, I thought it was a reminder that that part of Rand is still in there, and he is more than just the Dragon Reborn.

Now at the end of 3x06, when he has accidentally killed this little girl, this symbol of light and innocence and everything he will never have in this life again, and he cannot bring her back — we see now that her death is the death of his old self too, and a sign that there is no turning back for him. He is not and cannot ever be that past version of himself, not in this turn of the wheel. There is only the life of the Dragon Reborn now, whether Rand wants it or not.

And to bring Moiraine into it (because I will always bring Moiraine into it if at all possible) — no one knows that feeling better than her. This was his Gitara’s study moment, or something close to it. You go in thinking your life or even your identity is one way, you come out forever changed and knowing your path is set in a completely different direction. (Actually, someone should gif this side by side please and thank you.)

That’s part of the reason we get Moiraine and Rand together at the end of the scene while the others hang back. She recognized that irrevocable turning point and the grief that comes with it. No one was there to guide her through it, but she can be there for Rand. She can offer her understanding and presence. Once again, they recognized something in each other in that moment that no one else could see.

[sophthebof]

I am 7 books into the wheel of time, so I am aware that there is a lot of time for things to change. However one of the dynamics that I find most fascinating, most funny, most real, and so often makes me want to tear my hair out in this series so far is how the people consistently putting in the MOST work against the Light are never actually Darkfriends - it’s always the people who think they’re doing things for the forces of the Light themselves.

My man Jaichim Carridin has been at the scene of the crime for like, 4 separate books now (??) and has YET to get a single W against Rand and homies. Meanwhile Pedron Niall sending hordes of fake “Dragonsworn” to terrorize the southwest has done as much to destabilize things as arguably any Forsaken! And this is the guy who is ostensibly leading the defense against the Shadow! It’s just great commentary on how intentions are not always what matters at the end of the day - just because we think we are doing good doesn’t mean that we are, as human beings with all our flaws.

[wheelwheelwheel]

I'm SO intrigued by the new costumes we got in season 3. Mat finally got some new clothes and he's wearing paisley like Siuan!!! Moiraine is now wearing purple! (Maybe to show that she's thinking more like a red in regard to feeling like she needs to take a strong hand with Rand?) Nynaeve's clothes are obviously in a similar style (high necklines and skirts with belts and a lot of yellow and green) but she's also started wearing coats and wraps that are cut in a similar style to Lan's clothes. And Egwene is wearing the short coat and breeches combo that Brigitte is described as wearing! Also I'm so interested that though Egwene is traumatized by the Seanchan she is still wearing clothes that call back to them (her pajamas are a similar gray) especially her leather harness outfit that goes up to her neck and also looks like Lanfear's outfit

[big-dumb-himbo]

Tens of thousands of True Aiel died so that one single chora tree could survive.

Tens of thousands of True Aiel died and the ones that remained broke their oath to follow the Way of the Leaf so they could survive and that tree could be planted in Rhuidean.

Only one tree out of ten thousand survived and the Aiel gave a sapling to Cairhien to thank and honor them, only asking them to protect it.

So now two out of ten thousand survive. Until Laman cuts it down to serve his own foolish Pride.

In doing so, he spit on the sacrifice of the tens of thousands of True Aiel who died to see that tree to safety, because he wanted a cool chair to sit on.

No wonder the Aiel crossed the Spine of the World, in numbers never before seen in the Westlands, just to kill him.

[catcauthon]

Thinking about the way Jordan gave Mat his skills as a general again.

Because, like...Hypothetically, he could've just given Mat the literal knowledge and been done with it. It might not make sense, but it doesn't actually make that much sense for him to be given other people's memories either. But it coming from memories means he knows war, not tactics.

Yes, he remembers being a general, he remembers making the calls and why and how they resulted in wins or losses, and this gives him a scope of detailed strategic knowledge impossible to get through mundane means.

But he also remembers being a soldier (and probably a civilian). He remembers fighting, killing, taking people prisoner and being captured himself. He remembers dying many times over.

His impossible level of experience applies just as much to the pain, fear, revulsion, and general trauma of war. It haunts him. He does his best to bury it, and he tries to run from battle so he won't have to go through it again. But as much as he doesn't want to be involved, he can't let it happen to others.

And the Band knows it. Every single one of them knows he will not send them into battle if it's not called for (though a few don't seem to fully understand what that means). They also know that when they do battle he will do everything possible to get them out alive. Not because he needs soldiers, but because he cares.

And that's just as important as his technical knowledge.

[butterflydm]

Wheel of Time 3x06 Deep Dive (show spoilers)

Spoilers through 3x06 of the show -- show spoilers only.

Liandrin's cold open; 95 years ago, so now we know how old Aludran was when he died. He did look pretty old.

I am torn. I honestly do feel like (given how limited our time is during a season) that some of this Liandrin backstory expansion could have been cut to give time to other characters and plotlines. I like that we got some of this but I'm not sure we needed all of it.

Of the various Liandrin backstory expansions, this cold open does seem like one of the most useful, as it shows us Ishamael's recruiting process and we get to see young Liandrin being so vulnerable, and reminding us of how dangerous deals in dreams can be, and showing us the statue of the Shackled Man.

And it is telling to see how young she was when Ishamael found her, especially since we've had some conversations about how unbreakable the Dark Oaths are -- so Ishy gets them young and then traps them in it for life.

Moghedien (3x01): "You know what happens if we break our Dark Oaths, right?" ... "We lose our souls. A true death."

Now... is it true that a darkfriend who breaks their oaths loses their soul? We don't actually know. It might be a lie, told either by the Forsaken to the more minor darkfriends, or told by the Dark One to the Forsaken.

Lanfear implies that it would take the destruction of the Dark One in order for her to be able to break her own Dark Oaths, but I am relatively sure that entire conversation with Rand was her manipulating him, so I don't trust anything she was saying there.

Ishy is so comforting in this scene with Liandrin. Ishamael coming across as thoughtful and gentle is exactly what makes him so dangerous and what made him so good at recruiting for the Dark One -- he sympathizes with your troubles and offers you a hand out of "the dirt you were born in", as Dana put it. And the price-tag doesn't show up until later, after he's had a chance to walk with you into the darkness. And so Ishamael takes Liandrin's very understandable pain and rage and he channels it into a weapon that he can use.

Another benefit of this cold open is us seeing Liandrin spontaneously channel, and fairly powerfully, because it backs up us seeing the strength of Mat's sisters and their instinctive ability to heal Alanna later in this episode. We have seen that when people are originally sparking, they will sometimes have these spurts of strong bits of channeling that doesn't need to be carefully trained into a weave but comes out more instinctively -- Rand breaking down the door to escape Dana, Rand protecting Egwene & Co in the Ways, Nynaeve's story about Egwene 'getting better' from the fever that should have killed her (after Nynaeve sat with her all night) seems like another example (and is confirmed as one in the books).

Strong channelers often have these early instinctive bursts of the ability, and how it comes out is based on what they need. Liandrin needed to escape a dangerous situation, so she gave herself a weapon, without needing to think about the details of creating the weapon.

So this cold open in particular is doing a lot of work in a relatively short amount of time, so this isn't what I would have cut from Liandrin's screentime (if I were the one making the choices). It probably would have been something in 3x03, because I think that Egwene needed something more in that episode. I'll talk about it when we get to Egwene.

It also leads directly into Liandrin's scene with Lanfear, where we learn a lot about both of them and where they're at -- Liandrin misses the White Tower (I mean, she did go back to the place she probably hates the most in the world) and her ambitions in the Tower.

We learn that Lanfear has lost control of Liandrin and her cabal. Maybe because she's been too focused on Rand & Egwene. She doesn't know why Liandrin is in Tanchico -- now, before we got all this Shackled Man backstory and etc. in Tanchico, I did assume that Lanfear was behind the plan with Rand. It makes Liandrin more interesting that it's something that she came up with on her own, and it shows us that Lanfear's manipulation has failed already when it comes to Liandrin -- in retrospect, Lanfear did kill the only man that Liandrin ever cared about and then expected Liandrin's loyalty afterwards.

Miscalculations due to her 'casual cruelty' slipping out and ruining her plans -- Lanfear's mistakes with Liandrin echo the mistake that she's been making with Egwene and Rand.

"I stayed in the Tower as long as I could," is a very interesting line from Liandrin, because it puts a different on her "I tried" from 3x01. It was Lanfear who wanted Liandrin to stay put in the White Tower, and the cold open was actually Lanfear's plan failing as Team Light made a move that made it impossible for the Black Ajah to stay as hidden as they'd always been when Ishy was in charge.

So what 3x06 is revealing to us are all the ways that Lanfear has ruined her own plans -- first, by believing that she'd successfully snagged Liandrin from Ishamael by 'mercy-killing' Aludran in s2. Ishamael, presumably, protected Liandrin and her son until they could get to a place of safety in Tar Valon, so that Liandrin could become an Aes Sedai. I'm assuming he did this via getting other darkfriends to help her along the way, through talking to them in their dreams. He invested in Liandrin because he could tell she was powerful and that she was vulnerable to his pitch.

Liandrin could have tried harder not to blow her own cover in the White Tower. She wanted that fight. She wanted to leave (so that she could do the appropriate funeral rites for her son). She was not content to obey Lanfear. After working for Ishamael for 95 years, it takes her roughly a month to break free from Lanfear's orders.

(this also implies to me that Liandrin was probably acting outside of Lanfear's orders when she tried to have Moiraine killed in s2, as Lanfear has found Moiraine to be a very useful ally/tool, and probably saw her as more valuable as leverage against Rand than if she were dead)

Lanfear says to Liandrin - "[You] miss feeling like you're important?"

We learn later in the episode that Liandrin's plans here are about making herself one of the new Chosen (again, I have to wonder if this is a bug that Ishy planted in her ear, because Dana also talked up the idea that being the one to deliver the Dragon to the Dark One would lead to her being raised up above everyone else), so she definitely does want to feel important, though Lanfear doesn't catch on to how Liandrin plans to do that.

"Are you working for him? ... Rahvin?"

Lanfear leaps to the assumption that Liandrin must be working for another one of the Chosen now that Ishamael is dead. We see a lot of Lanfear guessing incorrectly about people's plans and motivations in this episode.

"All of us were loyal to Ishamael. But he's dead now, I hear." Because Ishy invested the time into building up relationships with each one of the BA sisters, I bet. From what we saw, Ishy didn't issue threats -- he solved problems and he made promises. And now Ishamael is dead, and while Lanfear might assume that loyalty should automatically transfer over either to herself or another one of the Chosen, Liandrin makes it clear during her actions over the rest of the episode that her loyalty is now only to herself (just like the Forsaken are all only loyal to themselves!). It was Ishamael who was holding everyone tightly together and, without Ishy, everyone has fallen into selfishness and chaos. Instead of one vision of how to be a darkfriend, we have a fractured multitude of visions.

(I'm thinking of how Jaichaim protested to Moghedien in 3x01 that he had been loyal and hadn't broken his oaths -- I suspect that's the truth; it's just that he was still trying to follow Ishamael's game plan, which is not Moghedien's)

So all this scene does is give Liandrin suspicions that some of her colleagues might not be loyal to her, which leads directly to Nyomi's death. "My cabal is loyal to me, and I am loyal to you," except that Liandrin is not loyal to Lanfear, and Lanfear's threats don't scare her the way that Lanfear believes that they do. They do motivate her and give her a deadline on rooting out her potential spy.

We get a quick glimpse of servant!Moggy, spitting into the cabal's food before she delivers it.

When Liandrin is awake, we can see that the first person she casts a suspicious glance at is Nyomi, and then towards Jeaine. She reveals to them all that she knows more about what they're searching for -- that she's connected the dots of the old Tanchico folktale about the Shackled Man with the way that the Seanchan a'dam works, and that the rest of the pieces that they need to capture the Dragon are almost certainly somewhere here in Tanchico. And she couches it as "something the Chosen would prefer you didn't see".

I'm also guessing that Moghedien placed a subtle Compulsion on the group so that they wouldn't note that a servant is being awfully nosy about listening in on their conversation.

So... one part of three: one bracer in Liandrin & co's possession (but Moghedien could claim it whenever), one bracer found via Mat (but now in Moghedien's possession), and the collar (which we discover later in the episode is in the Panarch's Palace).

"I need the collar and the second bracelet tomorrow, or our master will be displeased." So... has Liandrin not told any of the rest of the Black Ajah that Ishamael is dead? Or is she alluding to the Dark One here? If she is talking about Ishy, then this might have been bait to see if any of the other sisters gave away that they know he's dead and that they're talking to another one of the Chosen.

And, once again, it's Nyomi that she looks over to after she says this. Liandrin has already decided who she thinks the spy is.

As Nynaeve and Elayne get dressed for their investigations, we learn that Elayne knows who all the Black Ajah Sisters are, but Nynaeve doesn't think any of them are important except Liandrin. Another bit of emphasis on the relationship between Liandrin and Nynaeve, which I definitely feel like will be coming into play in 3x08.

Elayne has prepped so hard for her undercover investigation, I'm so proud of her. <3

It is hilarious how Mat snags the "I'm highly-priced" veil away from Nynaeve so that he can wear it himself. Oh, Mat. We actually see the process of him taking it away, then playing with it throughout the rest of the scene, before emerging wearing it.

It is a very fun scene, especially since it sets up some neat reversals -- Mat does talk to people, Min does use her visions, but Elayne and Nynaeve are anything but subtle.

For the record -- Mat's veil is the biggest, then Elayne's, then Min's, and finally Nynaeve's.

We shift over to Egwene's situation now -- instead of going to Rand and talking to him about what she saw in the dream and telling him that she's being stalked by one of the Forsaken, she went to the Wise Ones for more lessons. This was the first point in the episode where I got frustrated, because the way the promo was cut made me expect/hope that we would be getting the Randgwene confrontation right off the bat, so that we could move forward past their break-up, but instead the show edged me with it until the end of the episode, which was very frustrating for me. I just... I honestly think that choosing to drag out the Randgwene break-up only damaged Rand's character in viewers' eyes and we didn't get much of value out of it, so I wish they'd just cut the cord early on in the season. Maybe we'll get something in 3x08 that will make the prolonged Randgwene feel like the only choice they could have made but right now... I wish they'd broken up in 3x01.

In technical terms, Egwene only holds back from talking to Rand for a single day, but in narrative terms, it felt like forever (plus it meant that she heard Lanfear's side of the story before she heard Rand's, which did not help matters).

The Wise Ones seem... frustrated by Egwene, but agree that her situation is dangerous enough that they will continue to teach her, despite her revealing that she's been lying to them, and they tell her that though she likely can't defeat Lanfear in TAR proper, she is the one who has the power in her own dreams.

From one dream to another -- after checking in on Liandrin, Lanfear goes to check in on Moiraine (who is curled up like a little spoon missing her big spoon, so I can guess how her dream with Siuan potentially ended).

Given that the rest of Lanfear's plans are failing in this episode due to her own missteps, I feel like Moiraine's apparent submission to her must be a plan-within-a-plan, some narrow way that she is trying to walk due to what she saw in her visions in the rings. I can't figure out precisely what it might be.

I suppose Moiraine's plan will come to light in 3x08. It definitely involves the sa'angreal but, yeah... idk. Sneaky sucker-punch of some kind, because Lanfear won't expect it of her?

I do wish that Moiraine's time in Rhuidean had led to her being honest with Rand about her deal with Lanfear, but maybe she saw that revealing it would be a disaster. Still, it makes me sad that the one thing that Rand most wishes he could get from Moiraine is the one thing that it feels like she's unwilling or unable to give. He wants to trust her so much and she's hiding so much from him!

But Moiraine's behavior is firmly rooted in what we know about her as a person, and the places she grew up, and the twenty years she spent on the road. Moiraine keeps secrets and keeps her own council. It's what she does.

Half-truths and lies of omission... Moiraine has used them her whole life. She spent twenty years only able to trust two people, and even those two people she cut out of the information loop in s2 when she was worried that her non-channeling state might make them try to take her mission away from her. Not telling people things is Moiraine's default way of life.

Given that we learn later this episode how wildly Lanfear was misreading Liandrin, I will take that same approach to her scene with Moiraine -- is she reading Moiraine correctly?

Because, on rewatch (and I noticed this in a gifset that I saw last night), Moiraine doesn't look scared to me, like Lanfear says. She looks angry (and yeah, there's some fear in there, but I think there's more anger, a fury that is being tightly suppressed so that Lanfear doesn't catch on).

"You've been hiding from me. You're afraid of me now." This is Lanfear's deduction of Moiraine's emotional state but... yeah, look at Moiraine's face. Girlfriend is angry. Lanfear is making an assumption based on Moiraine's behavior. It also sounds like Moiraine may have been keeping herself awake with the One Power since Rhuidean, until she went to Egwene last episode and asked for a dreamwalking session.

Much like Rand keeps not answering Lanfear's questions, Moiraine avoids answering them as well. Lanfear demands to know what Moiraine saw in Rhuidean and Moiraine responds with a question.

It sounds like Lanfear has been harassing Moiraine in her dreams, much like she's been harassing Rand & Egwene -- Moiraine was 'supposed' to keep Egwene away from Rand, but Moiraine says that trying to force Egwene away will only make her cling more tightly out of stubbornness (we had so much this season of other people saying what Egwene was doing while Egwene maintained that she was doing something else, and I don't think we got enough hints that the other people were the correct ones and Egwene was in denial all season -- I think she came across as being sincere for the most part, which is going to influence people when it comes to the big Randgwene blow-out later this episode).

So Lanfear gives her warning to Moiraine about a "surprise" for Rand, and Moiraine does not warn Rand about it, as requested by Lanfear. Moiraine looks very frustrated at the end of this scene.

"I was looking for Egwene" - something else that I feel like was potentially easily missed is that Rand tries to find and talk to Egwene this episode but they are kept separated because Egwene is spending time with the Wise Ones instead. Rand knows that he needs to talk to Egwene after what happened last night, even without knowing that Egwene already found out about Lanfear, and then he's kept from doing it by other people.

But we do get this adorable scene with Rand and Alsera, where we see Rand genuinely engaging with Aiel culture and the Aiel people, and we see that Aviendha is continuing to warm up to him, despite her own desire to keep being annoyed at him. Her assumptions about Rand -- that he doesn't care about the Aiel people or culture -- keep being upended by his behavior.

Obviously, it's building up to Alsera's death at the end of the episode, but it does so much more as well, in terms of embedding Rand more deeply with the Aiel, and giving Aviendha more reason to soften towards him.

"She's studying with the Wise Ones, learning about our people, as you should be," is something of a fascinating assumption from Aviendha, because that has absolutely not been the actual content of the Egwene & Wise Ones scenes. But Aviendha is definitely NOT a neutral observer and there's no sign that she knows what the Wise Ones are teaching Egwene, so she's just going off her assumptions about why the Wise Ones would have taken Egwene under their wings. But this also ties into Rand's assumptions about what Egwene has been doing when we get to the end of the episode -- for Rand, Egwene's time with the Wise Ones is being framed as a learning experience that Egwene is choosing to undertake, not as something that she's doing specifically to fight off someone real and alive in her dreams who is hurting her. If Egwene had mentioned that to Rand, then he might have been able to deduce that she was being hunted by one of the Forsaken aka Lanfear.

So, yeah, it's lack of communication that killed Randgwene, but I feel like the way it was contextualized in the season really put the weight/blame of that lack of communication on Rand, as opposed to on both of them, because the viewers know that Egwene is doing this for life and death reasons, not just because she wants to learn from the Wise Ones.

Rand incurs toh to Alsera here, and is not able to meet it before he accidentally causes her death at the end of the episode. Will we see Rand trying to meet his toh to Alsera in 3x08?

We also see Rand taking Alsera's upset at him seriously in this scene (when he accidentally does something that dishonors her in the eyes of Aiel culture), which is something that impresses Aviendha. He doesn't brush Alsera off or make any excuses, he just tells her that he has toh towards her and agrees to meet it the way that she requests.

Catching up on Perrin and Faile after what happened to them last episode! Perrin is hurt real bad and Faile is worried and concerned over him. Their relationship is a very sweet thread throughout this episode. We see that Bain & Chiad made it back safely, and learn that Alanna is also very hurt and we see Maksim fretting over her sickbed. I really liked them in this episode too.

"My father... he always said a leader can either take care of the living or weep for the dead. Not both."

And us getting into Faile's background and the way that she was raised was also very smooth and well-done by the show. It felt like her naturally wanting to share with Perrin, not like exposition.

We get the reveal here that Padan Fain is leading Trollocs and darkfriends into the Two Rivers, and we'll see him at the end in a bloody Whitecloak uniform, so I feel like the implication is that he and his followers killed off the Whitecloak reinforcements and stole their shit. And a whole army of Trollocs & darkfriends arrives at the end of the episode through the Ways. No sign of the dagger -- I do wonder if we'll get a single line at some point saying that it got punted off the side of the boat on the way to Tar Valon. We know the show still has the prop, because evil!Mat was wearing it during Moiraine's vision that all the kids had become the new Forsaken.

Undercover in Tanchico time! We can see how well Elayne's prep work has paid off! Technically, Elayne gets absolutely zero information out of all the chatting with men that she does here (it's Mat and his ta'veren pull on the threads of the Pattern -- which Thom mentions later when he shows up -- that ends up netting them the second bracelet) but I'm so proud of how into her undercover work that she is. <3

We don't see Mat playing any card games, but he is ~shopping~ and planting the seeds that he wants a pretty collar necklace for himself, and we see that one gentleman in particular is very taken with him, which pays off when that same fellow gives the second bracer to Mat later in the episode. Mat seems perfectly willing to do a little light flirtatious bargaining here, which is fun to see.

Then Mat hears Thom's voice and goes chasing after him! Again, I would call this a reflection of Mat being ta'veren -- he's pulling on Thom's thread, and Thom will probably end up being useful in some way in 3x08, I would expect.

I like how this kinda reflects the Cauthor reunion that we got back in 2x06 -- hearing the voice of someone that you'd thought you'd never see again. Haha, Thom's reaction isn't exactly as overwhelmed with tearful happiness as Mat and Rand were at seeing each other, but it's a fun reunion.

But from Thom's perspective, it must be so wild! He gets away from the Fade, and then basically goes as far away from where he met those boys as he possibly can, and runs into one of them again!

Aww, but I love how Thom is all "I don't want to be involved" but obviously still cares (that hand on Mat's neck) and ends up being very easily talked into coming back to the hall to hang out with Mat and hear the story.

We shift over to Min and Nynaeve, and those two had a fun little bonding session in this episode, with Min trying to get Nynaeve to trust her and to loosen up a bit, and succeeding in both. We also get Min lying about her visions as a way to get information out of someone, and later on Nynaeve accidentally using being ta'veren as a way to just happen to mention Liandrin in front of someone who recognizes the name.

I'm interested in where the show is going with the Min-Nynaeve bonding -- will it end up mostly being about the two of them potentially working together to help Mat in 3x08? Or does it have another purpose? I have some thoughts about it that I will expand on in my other post.

We get a closer look at Moghedien's behavior, which is definitely effective in filling out her characterization, as we learn that spitting into the cabal's food is the least of what she's been doing.

Egwene has spent all day with the Wise Ones, trying to teach herself how to force people out of her dreams. We saw her with the Wise Ones early in the morning (when Rand was looking for her), and now it's implied to be nighttime (Liandrin with the candles in the previous scene) and she's still with the Wise Ones.

After practicing all day, Egwene is finally able to push the Wise Ones out... only to get snagged by Lanfear (I'm guessing Lanfear just went to sleep for the night and noticed Egwene's dreams pop up in her alert window. Girl, please get a hobby that isn't centered around stalking your ex-boyfriend from three thousand years ago).

And it was at this point (Lanfear snatching Egwene into a nightmare), that I said out loud during my original viewing, "Wow, Egwene will do literally anything to avoid having a real conversation with Rand." Luckily, even Egwene, master avoider of uncomfortable conversations, realizes by the end of the episode that she needs to actually have a conversation with Rand. Probably would have gone better if she'd talked to him before letting Lanfear poison her mind with lies! But, you know, we take what we can get when it comes to Egwene and Rand and their terrible communication skills with each other.

Anyway, to the actual scene -- Lanfear fucks up so much in this scene. She does manage to plant seeds of poison into Egwene's mind about Rand potentially having already known about the nightly tortures but she really misjudged Egwene's character, because Egwene believing this about Rand means that she's willing to override her "cannot have awkward conversations with Rand" factory setting and instead leap into confrontation mode (because now she's worried that the corruption has taken him), which means that Lanfear's house of cards is able to tumble down (of course, Lanfear's real mistake was letting Egwene see her face in 3x05 -- we know that Lanfear can do fake faces in TAR. She could have made it so that Egwene thought Ishamael or Moghedien or anyone else was torturing her. But she wants to twist the knife, and so her own pettiness just lost her the campaign that she's been waging since Ishamael first released her in s2).

Lanfear confirms a bunch of things for Egwene -- firstly, that Lanfear is very aware of who she is. We get some signature Creepy Face Touching from one of the Forsaken. Lanfear mixes lies with the truth -- yes, Rand is aware that she's one of the Forsaken (though the implication that Lanfear gives is that he's been aware the entire time, which is definitely not true); yes, Rand is aware that Lanfear has been tormenting Egwene and doesn't care (this was a big mistake of a lie on Lanfear's part, because Egwene does know Rand well enough to know that he would never approve of that if he were in his right mind, so if he does know about Lanfear's torments of Egwene, it means he's gone mad and that she needs to confront him, so this lie may be what triggered Egwene to finally decide she needed to talk to Rand instead of trying to handle it all herself).

"Oh, he knows everything."

The funny thing is that... Lanfear should know better, you would think. Except she doesn't. Lews Therin saw the darkness that she'd been hiding from him and ran the fuck away and married someone else. But she has convinced herself that she can successfully get her do-over LTT to care about her so much that he doesn't care if she hurts the people he loves but, much like Ishamael said about Rand last season, "He's not ready. He won't choose us."

Lanfear has been able to do a lot to manipulate Rand this season but the final piece -- the thing that actually worked to get him to kiss her -- wasn't her manipulations at all (though they primed him for it) but him seeing Mierin in the columns of Rhuidean. Everything else, he could tell himself was a lie or a manipulation from Lanfear. But seeing Mierin made Rand hope that maybe Selene hadn't been a lie after all. Weeks of Lanfear working on him wasn't able to get him there. It was that moment of honesty that she had no control over that did it.

If she'd done things in a less petty way this season -- no torture of Egwene, for example, and no attack in 3x01 -- Lanfear might have gotten everything that she wanted. With Egwene's PTSD not being tripped every night, maybe she would have been more willing to talk to Rand about their relationship, and they would have broken things off naturally early in s3. Then, when Rand saw Mierin in Rhuidean, and kissed Lanfear in 3x05, there would be no big lie that she was hiding from him about how she was torturing Egwene in her sleep.

But that's not her. She's not that girl.

This is who Lanfear is -- petty and cruel.

That's why Lews Therin stopped loving her. We already know that from what Selene told Rand back in s2. It was because he caught a glimpse of who she really was and went, "um, no thanks, bye!"

And now Rand also has the chance to see who she really is, what's been hiding underneath the Soft Selene Illusion that she's been showing him all season. And it isn't pretty.

But even now, Egwene wants to get back to work on learning to consistently kick the Wise Ones out of her dreams before she goes to talk to Rand. I think I sighed in frustration here, in my original viewing, because all she's doing is letting her feelings and the lies that Lanfear told her stew in her brain.

Rand hasn't been able to talk to Egwene all day (they haven't talked since Rhuidean, Rand said in the last episode) and we learn here that Moiraine has also been avoiding him since Rhuidean (which we saw happening in the previous episode).

Moiraine and Rand's conversation... I wish she could be honest with him. It is so clear that Rand wants to connect with Moiraine here, and she is all vague one-word answers. They do manage to connect here to a certain extent, despite Moiraine being as transparent as a brick wall -- she tells Rand that she's been listening (instead of issuing orders), which makes him smile.

But whatever she saw in the rings, she doesn't want to share too much of it with anyone. Even Lan only got a small fraction of her fear and worry.

I do think Moiraine's "Sometimes" in response to Rand asking if he kills Egwene probably informs some of Rand's behavior in the break-up scene with Egwene later. Much as it frustrates me that I feel like the show set up Rand to look like "the bad guy" in the break-up, I don't think that Rand (the character) cares about being seen as "the bad guy" in the break-up and is much more invested in Egwene wanting to stop protecting him so that there's less of a chance that he'll kill her if he goes mad. If she hates him, that's fine. He can live with that more than if he killed her, or if she got killed because of her proximity to him.

Once again, it is Rand who reaches out to connect with Moiraine -- he tells her that he knows she has the Sakarnen (which I can only spell right because of the caption on the screen, lol). Which tells us several important things!

As much as he is coming to hope that Lanfear really does still have Selene | Mierin in her, he didn't tell her about Moiraine having the Sakarnen. He knew that Moiraine has this object that Lanfear desperately wants, but he didn't tell her about it.

He doesn't try to get the Sakarnen away from Moiraine. He doesn't want Moiraine to force his choices, but he's not going to try to force hers either. And he actually does know that it was placed into the tree for the Aes Sedai to reclaim later, so he might even feel that it's Moiraine's by rights, if she wants it. He may see her as Latra's rightful successor, much as his journey through the rings also transformed his view of Mierin | Lanfear.

Moiraine only asks Rand for help on using the Sakarnen after he's revealed that he already knows about it. She wasn't going to tell him.

She also doesn't tell him about the deals that she made with Lanfear. To stand aside while Lanfear allows him and the people that he cares about to be attacked. That she made that deal partly because she agreed with Lanfear's goals and motives -- isolate the Dragon Reborn from the people he cares about, and push him towards embracing his destiny and his power.

I really do worry about Rand finding out about that deal from Lanfear, and that potentially having a negative effect on events, but given how understanding Rand is about Moiraine's closed-mouthed nature here vs how he felt about it before Rhuidean... maybe it won't be so bad if he does find out from Lanfear. Is that one of the thousand-thousand futures that Moiraine saw?

We get a foreshadowing of Rand's power (and his lack of control over it) during this scene. Rand's issue isn't struggling to find the One Power or even in fearing it the way that Nynaeve fears hers, it's in resisting the urge to use it all the time and in trying to turn it off again once he's allowed it in.

But I do like that we do see Moiraine asking Rand's advice here, even if he basically had to set up the easiest goal in the world for her to be willing to go for it. And it's a good moment between them. But, yeah. I wish that Moiraine was more willing to be open with Rand. I will probably always feel that way.

I find Rand's perspective here really interesting -- that, in essence, the One Power has some base similarities and it doesn't matter if you're accessing saidin (the male half) or saidar (the female half).

"If the Aiel and the Forsaken have taught me anything, it's that the Aes Sedai don't know everything about it."

I am really curious if this is a change to how the One Power works on a fundamental level, or if Rand is mistaken here in what he believes. I saw some speculation that it may be a matter of power levels -- that once you reach a certain level of power, then you can't submit, regardless of if it's saidin or saidar, and that we may see that at play with Nynaeve in the future, which was a very interesting theory (was that @ace-and-ranty who said that? apologies if it was someone else!). That would be an interesting way to approach Nynaeve's block.

There are definitely whispers while Rand is getting lost in the Power, and if you close your eyes and listen hard... I do think you can hear a specific name that has not been said on the show before. I almost don't want to mention it here. I think I'll take my thoughts to the other post.

We get an interesting reveal at the end that Lan was listening in on all of that. How will that come into play in 3x08, I wonder.

Faile's backstory -- I like it! It makes her reasons for running away from Saldaea get a lot of pathos and depth. Let me try to get the exact timeline down:

Mom sits her down and confesses to being a Darkfriend and urges Faile to make her oaths too

Faile says something to buy herself some time

Tells her brother about it and then books it, signing up to be a Hunter for the Horn

Her brother confronts her mom and is killed

Faile finds out about it at some point

Did her dad find out the truth about his wife? We are not told that here.

As for the timing... I wonder if it was triggered by Ishamael trying to get all hands on deck while he was figuring out to reach Rand. She says it happened "last year". The timeline is a bit fuzzy in the show, I'm not certain where that would fall with the events of the previous seasons.

But overall, yeah, Faile having this background, one that goes this dark, helps Perrin to able to talk to her about what happened with Laila, which is incredibly important for the development of their relationship. Faile and Perrin, out here showing what can happen when you have honesty and connection in a relationship!

And Faile can bring Perrin a different way of thinking about Laila's death -- instead of focusing on her death, focus on her decision to stand up and fight against the Trollocs.

"There is so much darkness in this world, Faile, but when I look at you, all I see is light."

That's a great line. Very smooth and romantic. <3

Padan Fain and his fake reinforcements arrive in the Two Rivers. Dain is drunk and sitting near the body of the woman that he handed over to be tortured to death by Valda. I'm sure this will all go great.

Thom continues to protest that he doesn't want to get involved -- but he perks up when he hears Liandrin's name (a new member of the Liandrin Grudge Squad?) and when Elayne gets into trouble and needs back-up, he swings into action, giving her an alibi (he also recognizes her as the Daughter-Heir of Andor and mentions that he was once in Morgase's court).

And so we get the very delightful "Hills of Tanchico" scene, where Elayne realizes part of the way through the song that it's a bawdy tavern song about breasts, and not actually about the literal three hills of Tanchico City.

from wafflelovingbatgirl:

I wonder if the song is about the bracelet and collar actually. Ones not enough (to hold a man), three’s too many (he isnt an equal partner), two bring a man to his knees (and make him submit to their control)

I also think this makes a lot of sense as the origins of the song that then later became about breasts. I do think there's potentially another, meta-textual reason, but it has additional spoilers so I won't get into it here.

We didn't get any kind of personal chat between Mat and Elayne the way that we did between Min and Nynaeve, but it's really lovely to see the way that he reacts to her embracing doing this tavern song -- if he was thinking about her as a snobby princess who didn't want to get in the dirt with peasants (as he sniped last episode), this night out with her has shown him that he was wrong and Elayne is actually a lot of fun.

(I do think a lot of the sniping on the ship was meant to convey cabin fever more than actual dislike between Mat & Elayne, though, and I feel like that bears out in their interactions in this episode)

I don't have too much analysis for this scene -- it's a lot of fun and Ceara really throws herself into it, and I love how relieved and supportive Mat gets once he sees that Elayne can pull it off. And Thom's expressions first when Elayne offers up this song and then when he sees her realize what the song is actually about -- great fun. These three already have an enjoyable dynamic and I hope we get a bit more of it in 3x08.

Mat actually figures out what the song is about before Elayne does, and his reaction to that is also hilarious. I'm guessing that this song was in the guidebook that Elayne was pouring over on the boat. "Famous Tavern Song of Tanchico" or something like that, lol.

Meanwhile, Min and Nynaeve seem a bit drunk, so we can excuse how loudly Nynaeve mentions Liandrin's name. Though they do get information out of the man here, it looks this is also when Ispan spots them and then goes to inform Liandrin (and then Rahvin, presumably, who wants to find the girls so that he can discreetly kill Elayne).

Liandrin gets the information out of Nyomi that the collar is in the Panarch's Palace, and though Nyomi swears that she was planning to tell Liandrin, she gets a bullet-to-the-head weave. Was Nyomi going to tell Liandrin? Hard to say! But there were probably better ways of dealing with that than instant murder. Nyomi also says she has "powerful allies" and Liandrin assumes that it's the 'Chosen' but... that plural. None of the Forsaken are really working together, from what we've seen, so I'm not sure Nyomi was talking about them. There might be something more there.

This is also when we get the tidbit that Liandrin aspires to be one of the Chosen herself.

Back to Alanna and Maksim, and she must be feeling really bad, because she offers to either block or release the bond here, which Maksim refuses, and this whole scene made me very emotional, thank you! There have been a couple of times when it's felt like we've gotten maybe a tiny bit too much Alanna & co, but most of the time I feel like she's brought a lot of value to the show and she's basically been a combination of several different Aes Sedai concepts and she's shown us a lot.

I love all the little pieces that come together on an emotional level in this scene -- in the cold open, we saw young!Liandrin invent the bullet-to-the-head weave, but here we have the contrast of the Cauthor twins, who work together to heal Alanna (and who were able to push Dain away in the last episode without hurting him, not that he appreciated it). The girls being able to pay back Alanna for helping to save them, and then Alanna is able to pay it forward by healing Perrin. It's lovely. I'm worried that some of them may die next episode, but this is a lovely moment for all four characters. We get to see Alanna's patience as a teacher and her choice to come to the Two Rivers is rewarded on a grand scale when she is able to help talk them through healing her.

I also find it very interesting the way that Bode & Eldrin seem to channel together, without needing to do a formal link. A twin thing?

Perrin telling Faile about being a wolfbrother! And Faile's reaction is so darling and precious. Back during s2, 'Selene' gave some great advice about letting someone love all of you, and we're seeing that in action here between Perrin and Faile.

And then we have the charming note of Perrin telling Faile about Mat blowing the Horn! Lovely! <3 <3 <3 <3

Perrin being the first one to make a move and kiss Faile also feels really perfect. It really does feel like a breath of fresh air, romance-wise. Would I have liked a little more build-up? I mean, sure, but they went through a pretty intense experience. Much like Lan & Nynaeve hooking up in 1x07, it feels like it makes sense.

Then we get our little reunion of the two investigating pairs in Tanchico, with Mat helping Elayne off her table, very cute. I can definitely see them being drinking buddies in the future, as long as it isn't in a cabin in the middle of the ocean, lol. Nynaeve and Min meet Thom! They do not get the s1 lore on Thom, just the recent events of him helping out Elayne.

Something really nice here is that Mat introduced Thom as a friend and everyone is straight-up willing to trust him and let him hear their secret plans. Min is also in the group based on Mat saying "yeah, you can trust her", so this is a continuation of that, but it's neat! Nynaeve and Elayne value Mat's opinion about who can be trusted! <3

Oh, hey, I do hear the Seanchan score while Mat's admirer is handing over the second bracelet to Mat. That's neat! Thom also knows about the Shackled Man lore of Tanchico, so all of this group is very aware of how dangerous all of this is to Rand.

Ispan goes to report in to her Forsaken phone-a-friend, but Moghedien is already there. Moggy gives us a bit of foreshadowing about Sammael's upcoming move, calling him "impatient." We don't actually find out here exactly who Ispan was going to report to, but I feel like Rahvin is probably more invested in the Wondergirls plotline, so I think it's probably him.

Ah, Nyomi WAS also working for Rahvin or Sammael, so Liandrin did guess correctly there, so it sounds like Nyomi and Ispan were in it together. Ispan also tells Moghedien about Liandrin's aspirations to become one of Forsaken. Hmm, saying that word in front of one of them might not have been the best move, as Moghedien kills Ispan, and we've lost another member of the Black Ajah. She also spills the beans about "two of the five" that the Dark One wants being in Tanchico. So that's a lot of information that Moghedien just got!

Then we get a very effectively done rendition of one of the creepiest scenes in the books, when Moghedien does her Compulsion-based interrogation of Elayne and Nynaeve. I was so creeped out when I originally watched and it's still creepy on the rewatch. The fake giggly smiles that Elayne and Nynaeve have when they answer Moghedien's questions! And the delicate precision of Moghedien's weaves.

And the way that Moghedien takes a particular interest in Nynaeve, first when she senses her power, and then when Nynaeve is able to almost resist her Compulsion and try not to give her the bracelet.

We also get some insight on Nynaeve's feelings about her relationship with the Power -- it frightens her and she even hates it. And we get the very very creepy hug.

The note about "beating it out of you" is very interesting because Moiraine actually told a story about that back in 1x08 -- she was having troubles, and an Aes Sedai came and beat her with the Power until she was able to channel to fight her off.

Luckily, since Rand didn't announce his plans to go to the Aiel Waste until after he'd separated from the group, they can't tell her where Rand is.

But she does get the bracelet from them.

This is also where we learn that she's lent Rahvin two Gray Men to kill Elayne but they've failed both times. And it is also really clear in this scene that Moghedien finds Nynaeve more interesting than Elayne. But she found them both useful, and tells them that she might come back for another visit, and she touched Nynaeve's face, calls her a 'good girl' and scratches her cheek. Which, given that she wants them to remember nothing of the conversation, seems like her letting her impulses get the better of her.

Elayne and Nynaeve's fogginess after the Compulsion is released is also very well-done and creepy. And they immediately go to check on the bracelet and find it missing.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Randgwene breakup scene.

a. I'm so relieved that it finally happened, after being needlessly dragged out all season. We can move on with our lives! And hopefully get a s4 and fun new dynamics for the characters! Fingers crossed for renewal!

b. I feel like the tone of the break-up was... not what the show actually wanted to deliver, based on the interview that Rafe & co give on the "inside the episode" extra on prime, where they barely even mention the Lanfear issue.

c. the actual break-up argument itself doesn't paint Rand as 'the bad guy', I don't think, but all of the context around the break-up does, which is unfortunate, because it sounds like that was not the intention. But the scene isn't by itself in a bubble, and the outside context colors how people read the scene.

d. I think a big key to this is that I don't feel like Egwene's season-long emotional conflict successfully came across on screen -- Maddy talked in a couple of interviews released after 3x05 about how Egwene is torn between wanting to protect Rand vs worrying that she'll have to stop him and that is... that is just not on the screen in the actual episodes. All we got in the actual episodes was Protective Egwene. Which means that when Rand 'calls Egwene out' on leaving him behind, it can come across as disingenuous and him trying to deflect the argument away from his own bad behavior rather than him accurately stating something that Egwene has been in denial about (which is what it seems like we were supposed to take from his part of the argument, based on what I've seen Rafe, Maddy, & Josha say in a couple of interviews). So I don't think that landed the way it was meant to.

So, overall, I'm still feeling like Randgwene should have officially broken up in 3x01, and this fight should have been purely about Lanfear, and Egwene worrying that Rand has fallen under Lanfear's sway. The two issues being separated from each other would have made each of them land better, imo.

At the very latest, I think they should have officially ended things before the show had Rand give in and kiss Lanfear. If their goal was to have a mutual breakup with "no bad guys".

Because the Randgwene relationship has been incredibly fragmented and lacking in emotional intimacy, but it was still lingering and the contrast between Egwene being fiercely protective about Rand while Rand is drifting away from her is going to contribute to the feeling that Rand is Doing Her Wrong, because Egwene is Doing The Work of the relationship and he's not. Rand mentions in 3x01 that he and Egwene haven't talked about their relationship, but they both act like they're in a relationship and that's how viewers will see them, and so Rand's statement about how they haven't talked is likely to just get dismissed. People will believe what they see over what they've been told.

We -- in the Faile & Perrin love story -- have also gotten such a striking contrast to Egwene & Rand, and I do believe it's intentional. In an episode where Egwene avoids Rand for most of the episode and then when they finally do talk, they talk past each other for most of the conversation... we contrast it against the sincerity and honesty of the Faile & Perrin conversations, and how it leads into them wanting physical intimacy after they've just shared so much emotional intimacy.

Even just the contrast between Faile insisting on being by Perrin's side going into the camp in the last episode vs Egwene wanting to handle everything on her own in this episode, only involving Rand when it becomes impossible to avoid the conversation.

And there's nothing wrong with Egwene wanting to handle things on her own, it simply illustrates that she doesn't think of herself and Rand as a team. Faile wants to be partners with Perrin -- not only lovers (she definitely wants that too) but equal partners.

Egwene wants to be strong to protect Rand, but not so that she can act as his partner. Instead, she seems to see herself as something more like his watchdog. She leapt to "he's gone mad" really quickly in this argument -- too quickly for it not to be something that's been on her mind for a while.

That is a place where I feel like we suffered by Egwene not having anyone to confide in emotionally, because it meant that she was basically locking all of this inside her own mind until it came out in 3x06. On the surface, Egwene was 100% Protective Girlfriend 24/7, but according to an interview of Maddy's that I saw, she's been thinking about the dangers of Rand going mad in the back of her mind during this period and... yeah, I don't feel like that came across on-screen. I think we needed a specific scene about it, somewhere around 3x03. The worry was introduced on-screen in 3x01 (the Accepted Test) but Egwene never reflects on it. She never talks to anyone about it, and then we don't get any kind of reinforcing scene in-between 3x01 and 3x06.

I was talking this over with @markantonys and she pointed out the perfect example of the kind of moment that I'm talking about -- when Mat tells Min that he's not worried about the drawing of him being hanged, but then the audience follows him to the hammock and we see the weight of it on his face and in his body language. We desperately needed a moment like that for Egwene before 3x06, imo. A moment where we see her lose her mask of being the Protective Girlfriend.

I've gone into the details of why I think Rand hasn't talked to Egwene about Lanfear in a previous deep dive -- essentially, he hasn't told her about Lanfear because he didn't know how to tell her about Selene. Caring about Selene was one of the things that helped Rand genuinely move on from his relationship with Egwene, and then he found out that she was a lie. And then he found out that while he was with Selene, Egwene was being kidnapped and was put into a horrible situation.

Now, between Lanfear's nightly manipulations and Rand seeing Mierin in the visions of Rhuidean, Rand has finally come to a place where he believed that it's possible that Selene had really existed -- that Selene was Lanfear showing him the Mierin side of herself, as opposed to Selene being an act.

And, like, I love the drama of that. I think it's great, because of how painful it is and how much it makes sense based on how Lanfear has been manipulating him. But I also think it would have played better if Rand and Egwene were already broken up when it happened. So much of the genuine tragedy of Rand coming to believe that Selene could have been a real person and not a lie that Lanfear made up, right before the rug gets pulled out from under him... I think that a lot of that tragedy gets lost because it gets lumped under Rand "being a cheater".

Young men being preyed on by older women is not taken anywhere near as seriously by general viewers as it should be, imo, and we also see the effects of that in some of the responses I've seen to the argument -- I think that Egwene "reads" as having been traumatized more easily than Rand does, because viewers easily understand that what happened to her in s2 was traumatizing, while a lot of Rand's trauma is dismissed by people going "oh, wow, a hot woman wanted to have sex with him? poor boy lol!" without her lies and manipulation being taken into account. And given that this is also an issue that comes up in the books (I won't go into the details here), I'm sad that it feels like Rafe & co didn't realize they would need to compensate more for the audience's potential lack of understanding on the issue.

I think the show is aware of how Rand has been manipulated by Lanfear and traumatized by her, but didn't fully take into account potential audience disconnect, and how doing this story while the audience still sees Randgwene as "together" also harms the Randfear storyline and makes people dismiss how traumatizing it's been to Rand, because Egwene's trauma is so much more 'in your face', especially with Lanfear spending most of the season triggering Egwene's PTSD over and over.

Because in a lot of ways, Rand is finally having the conversation with Egwene that he desperately needed to have directly after his emotional realization in 1x08 that allowed him to let go of his dream with Egwene and embrace reality (a lot of his arguments here tie directly back to s1 and his epiphany in 1x08).

But then he thought he'd succeeded against the Dark One and he left Egwene & all his friends behind to protect them from himself. And once he and Egwene did finally reunite, his guilt over abandoning everyone (but especially Egwene) meant that he felt like he couldn't have this conversation with Egwene, despite how much it is clearly the very first thing on the tip of his tongue.

If Rand has been both wanting and yet avoiding the "I know you don't actually want me as your partner" conversation with Egwene (because he doesn't think he has the right to be the one to start it), she's apparently been avoiding the "I think you're going mad and I'm worried I'll have to kill you to stop you from doing horrible things" conversation with Rand. But Egwene has had zero people to confide in, so she's basically been a closed box on this subject.

Which has been... unfortunate, imo. I think we needed insight into Egwene's emotional conflict. We caught a tiny glimpse of that conflict back in 3x01, but then she spends the entire season claiming that her only intentions are to Protect Rand and pushing back hard against any suggestion that she might fear him or the madness. And we haven't gotten any breaks in her mask to suggest that her emotional conflict is still going on underneath her brave front.

So, yeah, I really wish that the show had done more to bring out Egwene's emotional conflict this season, rather than the entirety of that weight being on Rand's shoulders, because I do think that Rand is the one who paid the price for it (in the eyes of viewers).

I'm thinking the show could have some minor incident around 3x03 or 3x04 that brings up a hint of fear/worry from Egwene that another character calls her out on? (Aviendha, maybe? You don't have to make them besties to give them a brief convo where Aviendha tries to figure out why Egwene has issues with the "destruction" part of the savior/destroyer figure that is Rand, or notes that Egwene is clearly afraid of Rand but trying to hide her fear and Egwene can brashly deny it but then we get a moment where she turns away from Aviendha and her face drops and it's clear to the audience that Aviendha was correct).

The most important part is that it's something that's directly shown in the episodes and not merely subtext that's meant to be gleaned from the acting. It doesn't need to be said, per se -- Mat didn't need to tell us he was more worried about the drawing than he was letting on -- but it needed to be focused on either via dialogue or camera work. I think the show maybe tried to do this via Egwene's incredibly firm denials and push-backs against Moiraine & Siuan early in the season (that she's protesting because she's in denial), but we didn't get the 'mask-dropping' moment and so she just comes across as being sincere in telling them that she has no interest in helping them 'control' Rand.

Even Lan has gotten more chances to be open about his emotional state and to be vulnerable than Egwene has in s3 (due to the presence of Melindhra and his moments with Nynaeve, Moiraine, & Rand).

I kinda feel like the show could have taken some of the backstory expansion time that we've spent on Liandrin this season and given it to letting Egwene have a moment where she lets the audience into her emotional conflict that is haunting her this entire season but that we only barely catch a glimpse of in 3x01.

I could look at this as the show reversing and foiling Rand's emotional conflict from s1 -- Rand spends all of season 1 dealing with a conflict that the audience doesn't learn about until 1x07, when we find out about his father's confession to him that he was a baby found in the snow during a battle. Now it's Egwene who has spent all season dealing with a conflict that the audience isn't let into until the last couple of episodes. And maybe when I go back and rewatch the season as a whole, I will see the moments where it feels like Egwene's mask is breaking and we're seeing her worry about Rand going mad.

The difference between the two for me, I guess, is that (as a book reader), I had already assumed, as I was watching s1, that Rand had gone through that conversation with Tam, and so getting that scene in 1x07 wasn't a surprise to me. I was glad to get it, but I wasn't surprised that the conflict existed for Rand, and I felt like I could see it in how Josha played Rand in the previous episodes. While with s3, I wasn't already in on Egwene's secret emotional conflict.

And, counterintuitively, I think the fact that we were let into Rand's emotional conflict this season but not into Egwene's led to the break-up feeling much more like it was 'about' Lanfear than it was supposed to be for either of the characters*, because after initially showing us Egwene's secret fears about Rand's madness in her Accepted Test in 3x01, we have had nothing from Egwene except the constant refrain of wanting to Protect Rand, with her not showing a hint of the "or stop him" that Siuan and Moiraine have both openly worried over - we only got strident push-back from her when Siuan and Moiraine brought it up as a possibility and... maybe it'll feel different on rewatch but, at the time, I didn't see any hint in Maddy's acting that some part of Egwene agreed with Siuan or Moiraine but was trying not to let it show (and I don't think I saw anyone else speculating on that idea either). We needed an actual Event somewhere in mid-season to bring that out of her.

(*basing this on the roundtable "inside episode six" extra that's on Prime, where the talk about the break-up wasn't really about Lanfear at all, but about nostalgia and clinging to your old life even though you know you can't really go back)

Egwene's emotional struggle this season (in retrospect) seems like it's supposed to mirror Moiraine's, but we've gotten Moiraine's struggle highlighted while Egwene's was hidden and all the on-screen focus was on her ptsd and on Lanfear torturing her.

So, that's my critique about the argument scene -- I feel like we needed more set-up on it from Egwene's side, to make it feel more naturally coming from Rand & Egwene's differing paths and less like it was about Lanfear. We couldn't just have other characters telling Egwene about herself -- it needed to be a moment that actually came from Egwene.

So, the emotional states of the characters going into the break-up talk:

Egwene -- already upset by what she saw in Rand's dream; has been primed by Lanfear to view Rand with even more suspicion, as Lanfear planted the thought in her that Rand may have known all about the nightly torture and was chill with it.

Rand -- has been putting on a brave face during the day but letting his exhaustion show when he's alone. Has been trying to find time to talk to Egwene but keeps being told she's off with the Wise Ones.

So, Egwene's opening remark is - "She's a Forsaken, Rand."

I'm guessing she was hoping for a response like "What are you talking about? Who is a Forsaken?"

Instead, she gets Rand nodded in acknowledgement and saying, "I should've told you." He apologizes, and she gets more upset, asking if he's apologizing for lying to her or for betraying her trust.

And then things get ugly. Egwene calls Rand a fool for "sleeping with a Forsaken", which seems like the quickest way to put someone on the defensive. But from Egwene's perspective, Rand has just validated one of the things that Lanfear told her, which is going to make her worry that the other thing Lanfear told her (that Rand knew about the torture) was also true.

But Rand was pretty apologetic and quiet up to this point, and it's only after Egwene calls him a fool for sleeping with Lanfear (which, yeah, I'm sure Rand has called his s2 self a fool in his head so many times for not seeing the truth about Selene) that Rand pulls away from being apologetic and leans a bit on the excuses that Lanfear keeps giving him (Egwene will never understand you, only I will understand you).

Rand doesn't ask her how she knows about Lanfear. At this point, I think he's decided that it doesn't matter how she knows -- this is an end-of-the-relationship conversation, and that's what he's forging ahead with.

Egwene throws another claim at Rand that he could dispute -- "this whole time, every night, you're with her" -- Lanfear enters his dreams without needing his permission. He did not tell Lanfear about his plans to go to the Waste.

He does not try to tell Egwene this and I think it's because he's decided to take the hits so that he can end this between them and if it ends with Egwene hating him, then that's fine. At least he won't kill her when/if he goes mad. Rand doesn't defend himself against any of Egwene's accusations against him here -- because he doesn't want to sound like he's making excuses, or because he doesn't want to open the door up to a potential reconciliation?

The first thing that Rand actually disputes is when Egwene says, "I came here for you." And I think that's because it hits on his s1 insecurities about his relationship with Egwene.

He knows that she doesn't want him like that, so why does she keep pretending that she does? But much like how Egwene had incorrect information from Lanfear, Rand has incorrect information from Aviendha. But it's really kinda unfair to Rand that the show did this, I think. Because the audience knows better. The audience knows that Aviendha was talking out of her ass when she said that Egwene was hanging out with the Wise Ones to learn Aiel culture, and that it was actually about protecting her dreams from Lanfear.

Both Rand and Egwene have some true information and some false information, but 'true information' about Rand (that he kissed Lanfear knowing that she was a Forsaken) is much more recent than the 'true information' about Egwene (that she doesn't want Rand if she has an option that she views as superior). That's season one information, and it's unfair to expect a casual viewer to remember it off the top of their heads. But for Rand, it feels much more present because it feels like she's doing the same thing with the Wise Ones.

But, yeah, when the audience has been watching Protective Girlfriend Egwene all season, it can be difficult for them to believe Rand when he says that Egwene doesn't actually want him. So it feels like the show weighted the deck against Rand in this break-up, and that's somewhat frustrating.

But notice that Egwene doesn't argue this point. She doesn't try to say that's not what she does. She just transitions to asking Rand if he loves Lanfear.

Rand doesn't answer, which Egwene assumes is a 'yes'. I... do not. Because Rand also didn't answer when 'Selene' back in s2 asked him to confirm that she loved him. Because Rand didn't say it back when Lanfear said it to him only last episode.

But Egwene does assume that silence means 'yes', because she assumes if the answer were 'no', then Rand would just tell her that.

But I also think this is Rand trying to retreat back to stoicly taking the hits and letting Egwene break up with him the way that she wants -- he only lashed out with that one line because it hit on his specific insecurities, I think.

And then we get Egwene assuming that Rand has gone mad already and Rand is... I mean, I think he's given up on the conversation at this point, honestly? He basically just tells her to believe whatever she wants to believe, and tells her that he knows he isn't enough for her, and that he respects for that, and I think that was the end of it for him, and it's okay with him if Egwene hates him for it.

"We both know the truth, Egwene. You don't want me. Even back in the Two Rivers, there was always something you wanted more."

And this is where I really think we needed some earlier hints that Egwene was in denial in the season. Because this isn't an attack (and Egwene doesn't take it that way). It's supposed to actually be the truth about their relationship this season, but I think it does not play that way to a lot of people because Egwene's Protective Girlfriend Mask never falters thoroughout s3. We got that tiny glimpse of her fears in 3x01 and then nothing but Protect Rand afterwards.

"I'm not enough for you. And I'll always respect that about you."

Because, again, Egwene doesn't deny what Rand says here. But because she has been so fiercely protective of Rand over the course of the season, I think it makes it harder for people to believe that Rand is calling her out on a truth here, as opposed to him making up excuses so that he can hook up with another girl.

Egwene honestly seems genuinely touched at this part of Rand's speech to her, tbh, until she remembers the other thing that Lanfear told her, and she hits Rand with that now, to find out whether or not he knew that Lanfear was the person hurting her.

And Rand gets to have his 2x04 realization all over again but he's learned since last time -- note that he doesn't ever deny what Egwene tells him about Lanfear.

"I didn't know" is what he says. Not "She wouldn't do that." Not "I don't believe you." Back in 2x04, he denies what Moiraine tries to tell him about 'Selene', until Moiraine reminds him that she can't lie.

Rand does believe Egwene, which is part of what makes this so devastating for him, because he had only (the night before) begun to believe that maybe he could reach Lanfear. Maybe he could save her. Maybe he could make something good happen. Maybe he isn't only destruction.

So, overall, I do think this conversation itself is fairly nuanced and honest to the characters, but I feel like the context around the conversation weights it against Rand really heavily, and that part sucks.

And the ground starts to shake as Rand tries to process this information from Egwene, even before Sammael & co show up.

But then we get a Sammael interruption! He's been itching to attack Rand - he's found out where Rand is, and he's going in for the kill.

From what we see here, it looks like Sammael is working with the Shaido (and I have to admit that I assumed that the reason no one else has rushed to help Rand is here is because more Shaido also had attacked, outside the building, and so the rest of the Taardad were busy. and probably some budget constraints).

It seems likely that this is the "surprise" that Lanfear told Moiraine about.

Egwene uses weaves that she learned during her time as a damane to fend off the Shaido, while Aviendha bursts in and creates spears of fire and attacks Sammael when he's going in for a hammer blow on Rand, probably saving his life.

Rand yells at everyone to get out of the building as the attack continues and then, when Sammael comes for him again, we get Rand blocking with an effortless, enormous shield, and then taking Sammael down with lightning strikes (I have to admit, I assumed during my original viewing that Sammael wasn't 'for real' dead and I'm a bit surprised that some people assumed that he was, though I guess we'll find out for sure in 3x08).

We do get to see a really nice taste of how overwhelming Rand's potential power can be, and then we see the tragedy that using that kind of power without fine control can be afterwards, when we learn that Alsera didn't make it out of the building, and got crushed by the crumbling stone.

This scene is pretty powerful, and we see Rand's strength as well as his desperation, and his grief over Alsera, and... and how helpless he can be sometimes. Being the Dragon Reborn isn't always enough.

I like what Aviendha tells Rand here -- sharing the Aiel philosophy about death, "Life is a dream from which we all must wake". Though Rand is not ready to hear it.

Moiraine shows up after the fight but before Rand tries reviving Alsera and she reaches out to Rand to get him to stop trying to bring her back.

Another nice moment that would be nicer if I didn't have to worry about Rand's potential reaction to learning that Moiraine knew something would happen this night, and she let it happen without warning him. Same as she did in 3x01. But she does reach out to stop him and bring him back to himself, which perhaps Lanfear would not have wanted her to do. I'm torn.

I definitely continue to have my issues about the decision to drag out the Randgwene relationship for so long -- I feel like it's a choice that made Rand look worse while not bringing any great advantages to the table, but I do feel like the conversation that they had has nuance (some of which is likely to be lost on anyone who didn't rewatch s1 before they started watching s3, unfortunately), and the scene afterwards with Rand defeating Sammael and trying to bring back Alsera is very powerful.

One of the themes of this episode is how Team Shadow is screwing up their own and each other's plans because of their character flaws and lack of trust. Team Light is also having issues because of their character flaws and lack of trust but... not as bad as Team Shadow.

Let's break down the Known Plans, starting with Moghedien, who got a pretty big win this episode:

Moghedien -- she snuck off to try to figure out what Lanfear's plans were. Discovered Liandrin's cabal (likely through TAR), discovered the Wondergirls, got one of the bracers that can be used to control Rand. So presumably her next plan is to get the second bracer and the collar. Out of all of the Forsaken & darkfriends, she's probably making out the best currently, and we will likely see her making a move for the second bracer (with Liandrin) and the collar (in the Panarch's Palace) in 3x08. otoh, we've seen that Moghedien has some impulse-control issues, and she left evidence behind when she scratched Nynaeve's face, so that may come back to bite her. And Elayne & Nynaeve did realize right away that the bracer was missing.

Sammael -- wanted to make a strike against Lews Therin and was impatient by Lanfear's affection for 'Rand al'Thor'. It looks like he may have gone in with some Shaido warriors, so there are darkfriends among the Shaido that he's working with. We saw that Rand was able to fight against him pretty easily, and he is currently unconscious or 'dead' (in the same way that Lanfear was briefly dead at the end of 2x04). He was brash and rushed in, and paid the price.

Since Rand potentially knows how to create a shield (in 2x07, he saw the one that Ishamael put on Moiraine but he didn't see it being made), Sammael may end up shielded by Rand in 3x08. We will see! Given Lanfear's 'warning' to Moiraine (which I think was mostly a test to see if Moiraine would still obey her post-Rhuidean, to which the answer appears to be 'yes'), Lanfear likely helped set up this attack, trusting that Rand had enough instinctive control to protect himself, and fine with any collateral damage that might happen as a result (in fact, she probably figured any collateral damage would create yet more guilt in Rand that she could ~soothe~).

Rahvin -- apparently has been borrowing Moghedien's Gray Man to try to kill Elayne (I thought it looked like Elayne was the target of that Gray Man in the White Tower!) and they keep whiffing on him, which Moghedien mostly seems to find amusing. Mostly set-up for future plotlines, I expect (which I very much hope we will get to see). So, Moghedien says that Elayne was the target of "two" of her Gray Men. We've seen three. Obviously the one in the middle was sent after Elayne, but I wonder if Jaichaim was also supposed to kill Elayne but got foiled because of her disappearance from the Tower, and then hung around to kill the Black Ajah Sisters, or if the Gray Man from 3x01 was meant to try to go for Elayne but got the wrong woman because Elayne was up on the roof with Aviendha?

Lanfear -- looks ascendant right now, but her pettiness has screwed her over when it comes to her actual goal ("forever isolated happiness with do-over LTT"). Her pettiness has, perhaps, been screwing her over the entire season - it seems possible that part of what has been making Egwene cling so hard to Rand was finding his familiarity comforting in the wake of her Lanfear-induced nightmares. Is it possible that Egwene would have been willing to break up with Rand sooner if Lanfear hadn't been constantly tripping her PTSD?

And then we have Lanfear needing to have Egwene see her face and see that Lanfear has 'won' Rand. Petty, petty. And that all leads to Egwene being able to tell Rand about the situation, and now Rand gets to re-live the moment of realization that Lanfear implied Lews Therin also had back in the day. That he looked too long and saw the darkness that she was carefully hiding away from him (2x04).

Lanfear was banking on being able to hide all her cruelty away from Rand and that worked for most of the season (since Moiraine was willing to conspire with her), but she let the mask slip just far enough with Egwene that it led to Egwene revealing the truth to Rand.

(I have to admit, it kinda feels like the continued Randgwene relationship was serving Lanfear's story more than it served either Rand's or Egwene's but I will try to stop rehashing all that at some point!)

Lanfear's fallibility comes across in another place too -- we learn that she's lost control of Liandrin & her cabal and doesn't know why they're in Tanchico.

I also suspect that Moiraine will turn the tables on Lanfear in 3x08, because she looked more angry than afraid in that scene early on in the episode.

Semirhage & Graendal -- they exist. Theoretically, they have an alliance with Rahvin but given what we've seen so far, I'm sure that they are making their own plans behind his back.

Eighth Forsaken -- ????

Ishamael -- okay, yes, he's dead, but I want to point out that he had his plans on lock-down. Even our brief glimpse of him here in the cold open shows that he was an expert at finding vulnerable and powerful people to recruit to his cause, and he's likely the reason that the Black Ajah are organized into hearts for secrecy, and the reason they remained undiscovered for so long because, wow, the second he's dead, everyone starts falling into chaos and in-fighting. You understand why the Dark One might still be moping over his death (as Lanfear implies in 3x03) and doesn't want to talk to any of the rest of his Chosen. Ishamael was the organized and thoughtful one.

Back in s2, Ishamael was the one who had the long-game plan (that got ruined when Lanfear fast-traveled Rand to Falme), and tbh his only mistake was waking up Lanfear. Likely out of loneliness, from what we saw in 2x08. I suspect that it was talking to Rand at the end of s1 that made Ishamael crack enough that he wanted to wake up Lanfear, because LTT was the thing that he and Lanfear had in common and he wanted to share the emotional weight.

Liandrin -- oh, Liandrin. Wanting to be one of the Chosen. I... do you have the power to back that up, Liandrin? She might be assuming that the Dark One can boost her power (or assumes she'll get access to the power that let Lanfear resurrect herself after Moiraine slit her throat and stabbed her in 2x04). It does seem like Ishy made some pretty big promises to the darkfriends working under him -- Dana also thought that she would be richly rewarded for capturing the Dragon for Ishamael back in s1. In fact, now that we know that Lanfear isn't involved in Liandrin's plan, I wonder if Ishamael is where Liandrin got her inspiration from -- though, of course, hailing from Tanchico is definitely part of it (the story about the Shackled Man is a show-only thing, I believe, so we couldn't really know that Liandrin had ways to know about the collar and bracers on her own until that was revealed in this episode).

So there were 12 total Black Ajah Sisters that were working together in 3x01 (per what Verin, Siuan, & Leane have figured out). One of them is unknown and suspected to still be in the Tower and, as of this episode, three of them are alive in Falme (Liandrin, Chesmal, and Jeaine). Over half of them have managed to get killed in less than a season (and three of them were killed by their own side).

Will any of them make it out of the season alive?

[lakeofsilverpike]

The ongoing squabbling about whether Siuan's death falls into a bury your gays trope or is racist ignores the fact that ultimately there were stories the writers decided they were not interested in telling.

The story of an older queer couple who survives, changed and traumatized, but together and devoted to each other. What it would be like to feel changed by stilling or lifetimes of trauma in another universe, but to look at your partner of decades and see that she still accepts you. To feel changed, different, but still so loved. The story of a long life together. A story we almost never see for queer people. The story that is the reality of so many queer people's lives but is almost never depicted on screen.

The story of people who experience profound trauma and what it means to survive and rediscover who you are with a partner who loves you and supports you. Older people who survive trauma. Who have experienced it again and again and are exhausted and hurt, but who in the end still are able to be happy. Traumatized people who are still happy. That is important to see.

An interracial, intercultural couple who navigates making a life together in one of their homelands. The complex relationship of that woman to a home that rejected her for who she is, and what it means to love a culture that also hates something fundamental about you. A story that surely speaks to many queer people's experiences.

The way that Siuan as a character so deeply connected to her culture resonates in a particular way to audiences because the show cast a Black Jewish actor. The way seeing her feel so proud of her identity in the face of obvious prejudice simply does resonate differently because of the casting.

I think the posts that argue for how narratively right Siuan's death felt, continue to miss that the audience who are really sad about that choice are largely people who watched for Siuan's story. Audience members who watched because we wanted to see Siuan survive, who were excited about the potential mentorship arc between two women of color, to see Siuan find a new purpose in helping Egwene find her power after her own story of trauma. To see a story about stilling as disability, and seeing the story of someone who survives and lives a whole fulfilling life after being stilled, who finds a purpose and a new way to do good in the world.

We were excited for Siuan's story. And for Siuan and Moiraine's story together. There are stories to be told about trauma and disability and culture and class. Stories about older queer people in a long-term loving relationship with all the complexity that a marriage of decades holds. There are audiences who liked seeing stories that resonated with us.

And I think it fundamentally misses the point to argue about whether it makes narrative sense to kill Siuan. A good writer can make any death make narrative sense. I wish the writers had spent the time though thinking about how to write Siuan a compelling story of living rather than dying. I wish the writers had felt that these were stories worth telling.

[asha-mage]

Because I am coping with current world events in a completely normal manner I've been thinking a lot about how one of the tensions that underpins the whole of Wheel of Time is Robert Jordan as 'person who likes history' vs Robert Jordan as 'person who had to live through the Cold War.'

Something that can be really hard for people born after the Cold War (like myself) to grasp is that for a long time history was the ultimate reassurance against existential dread. Civilizations could rise and fall, empires could crumble, disasters could wipe out a hell of a lot of people, but human beings as a species, where never in any real danger of dying out. New countries would eventually rise out of the ashes of old ones, societies would change to be unrecognizable but they would still be there, religions, cultures ideologies etc might all die out but the people would still be around. History provided the ultimate comfort: whatever happened in our brief finite lives human beings as an group would eventually be fine.

But that changed after World War 2 and the invention of a little something called the atomic bomb. Suddenly human beings had the potential to destroy not just ourselves but all life on earth if things went wrong enough. For the first time in history their was no real guarantee that human beings as a species would make it, and in fact their was a whole lot of reason to believe based on the patterns of history that eventually that power would get used and human kind would destroy itself. That was the Cold War- two nuclear states who really really wanted to start blasting each other to pieces but couldn't without risking the end of life as we know it.

The tension between these two realities- the assurance of history that life will go on and the reality that human beings could in theory actually end the fucking world, is built into the core of Wheel of Time. The first lines assure us: time is cyclical. It's all happened before. It's all going to happen again. Human being will live out the same stories in endless variation, the same patterns will always reemerge. And the world has already survived one apocalyptic event: the Breaking, and come out the other side not doing fantastically, but still around. The world has been reshaped forever and whole eras of progress have been undone, but humanity remains.

But at the same time doomsday weapons with the potential to wipe out the species are everywhere. The Choden Kal can crack the planet open like an egg. Balefire burns apart time itself. A plague of madness is waiting for any old schmo to wander into it's den and carry it back outside so it can infect and destroy everyone. Their are all kinds of different big glowing red 'destroy humanity' buttons laying around in WoT just begging to get pressed. And in a way the Dark One is the ultimate version of that because that button has already been pressed. The Bore has been opened. Left alone humanity is fucked and everyone knows it. It can be delayed and pushed back, but never truly stopped, except by the intervention of destiny- the intervention of the Dragon. That's the core conflict of the series. Rand is struggling to stop a missile that's already been launched, prevent an end everyone can see coming. It's not just 'I need to defeat the big bad evil overlord or everything will be bad forever', it's 'I need to stop the Dark One or that's the end of human beings as an idea'.

What's especially interesting is that Jordan isn't even framing the Wheel/Pattern as uniformly good, because it's history and history is messy and complicated and full of contradictions and no easy answers. The Wheel, the Pattern, is not some force for righteousness. It's a neutral fact of existence. Not what's best or what's ideal- those are subjective and grounded in human understanding of the world- but what's necessary and what's true. To want to break free from history, to break the Wheel, is to want to break free of being human. That's what the Forsaken all truly want (as I have talked about before): to leave behind their humanity, and their willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to do it. What that looks like and what motivates that desire is different for each of them but their united in that common goal, and they all either disregard the consequences of what it will mean or don't understand them.

The story of history is one of incredible suffering and amazing triumph: it's full of heartache and joy in equal measure. It's not fair or just or simple to understand, but it is a reflection of who we all are collectively. The fight to preserve the Wheel isn't a fight to preserve what is good or ideal, it is a fight to preserve what is human. Because as long as the story can keep going, we can have hope for tomorrow.

And Jordan promises right from the offing that their will always be a tomorrow. No beginnings. No endings. Just whatever comes next.

As we enter a period of history that is the most uncertain it's ever been in my lifetime, I can't help but I think of the incredible courage and strength it must have taken be staring down the barrel of nuclear armageddon and stubbornly insist that there would be a tomorrow. The man wrote eleven of the best books ever made exploring this exact struggle- about never giving in to despair or pain, never buying into the belief that things are hopeless, that humanity sucks and we're all doomed.

And remembering that...I don't know. It makes a little easier to breath and keep walking towards tomorrow myself.

[onaperduamedee]

I have the Rand and Moiraine conversation seared onto my mind: the way the roles are reversed and Moiraine asks advice to Rand, the way Rand seeks her out when she is unraveling in a corner, the way she starts to grasp what the power feels like on his end, the way he just knows what she saw because he may contain it but he feels deep down what the madness is doing to him and the likely outcome.

I talked about it before in regards to Egwene and Moiraine watching Rand train in 302 but it is a reality than women, be it partners or mothers, can end up the victims of the man they take care of, especially when they are ill, and it's very much hovering over their conversation here. Yes, she will follow him despite knowing it might take her life.

It's not easy though, because dying during the Last Battle as she stood beside Rand as she believed when she guided him to the Eye of the World is not the same heroic death as this new fate of hers.

Her reaction to his questions about Rhuidean guts me because Moiraine probably saw Rand killing her as often as she saw Lanfear killing her, and we know she is terrified of Lanfear. She must be terrified of him as well.

But the trick is that Rand doesn't ask once if Moiraine saw Rand dying at her hands because he knows what is happening already inside him. He knows that killing him to save the world is a reasonable option.

Moiraine answers "sometimes" to all his questions knowing very well she kills him just as many times, trying to prevent the madness, Eggy's death, hers.

Knowing this is the worst outcome still for the world.

There is so much that passes between them behind the words.

I will be haunted by Moiraine's little almost smile after she tells him he sometimes kills her, as if saying "it's okay, really" and the way he looks at her afterwards because he starts to understand what she's willing to give to protect him: a form of unwavering trust that isn't about trusting his decisions and actions but about informed acceptance of who he is.

They are the best mentor/student relationship I have seen in a while.

[jaqobis]

thinking about how egwene had arcs about letting go of rand at this point in both the books and the show

in the books, rand was always a might-have-been. they cared deeply for one another and were motivated by one another; and in another life (in so many other lives) they would have gotten married and settled down together in emond's field.

when egwene has to go through the arches and deny rand in multiple permutations, it's about rejecting that quiet, normal life. it is about letting go of her feelings for him in some ways, but it's more about accepting (heh) that she is a channeler of the white tower now. she is an aes sedai in training. that possible life with the boy next door is over. egwene in the books is not ta'veren. she is choosing her future rather than being pulled around by the pattern. the spark meant she always had to leave and be properly trained, but it didn't strictly mean she had to commit to full aes sedai training and leaving emond's field for good. she chose that for herself, and for the greater good.

in the show, however, rand is her first love. they were together for a long time. he was probably getting ready to propose! marrying rand was a very salient possible future, one she really had to decide she was ready to let go of when nynaeve offered to train her as a wisdom. she had to leave two rivers under duress, however, and lost that future. importantly, she had to live with the uncertainty of being a potential dragon and then going through the trauma of finding out it was the boy she loves. she went through a very long time of grieving him and regretting not being there for him. when he reappeared in her life, it became critically important that she not "fail" in that way again. she needs to PROTECT HIM so she doesn't LOSE HIM again. she's gonna fight ishamael for him, she's gonna go into the aiel waste for him, she's gonna be STRONGER this time!

only...she is ta'veren. rand is the dragon. and their paths are not the same. she has her own power, she has her own talents, and she is meant for so much more than protecting her first love. she has to let go of this trauma response and accept that he will be in danger, he may even die, and there is nothing she can do about that. that would not be her fault. after being ripped from two rivers, after her horrifying captivity with the seanchan, she understandably wants more control in her life. rand is feeling exactly the same way, with his pushback against moiraine. but egwene cannot control the pattern so that she never feels helpless or never loses rand again. she can't even control his choices, because no one can really decide what their loved ones do.

being there for him and prioritizing him is not enough. because she does want more. because he is making decisions without her input, some of which she really hates (and for good reason). they're growing apart. and the harm egwene is doing herself by trying to deal with her trauma this way is literalized through lanfear's physical and psychological torture in her dreams. egwene is going to have to forgive herself for not going to the eye of the world — or at the very least, she is going to have to make peace with that. she will have to figure out a way forward with her traumas that is not "trying to prevent a specific scenario from ever happening again."

for egwene in the show, letting go of rand is tantamount to accepting that her current coping mechanisms are not working. it's going to free her to make decisions that are more focused on herself and less focused on not feeling a particular way ever again.

[made-in-manetheren]

Guys

Guys.

Loial surviving is genuinely not a pipe dream. Look at this.

So we knew already that his humming was Treesinging. The tune continues, with the same echoey resonance we heard when he did it in Falme, after he stops singing and roars before swinging at the floor.

Now, it's not clear if this is something he does to gather his strength or even simply honor the Two Rivers or more. But Treesinging is a power that bends earth and stone and trees to ogiers' will, and it's how Waygates operate, and the Ways are alive--grown, not built. We don't know a lot about how Treesinging can affect the Ways beyond activating and locking Waygates, but not much else can affect the Ways at all.

Then he falls, and the camera angle does not move as it shows that. In the lightning flashes, we get 3 consecutive looks at what Loial is falling toward.

I have maxed the brightness on my screenshots but made no other edits.

Flash #1: you can see Loial bottom-center-ish (feet pointing at the bottom of the screen). Way down below, directly below, there is another pathway.

Flash #2: this is where the Treesinging becomes interesting to me. Look at the curved path right below him.

It's moved.

And Flash #3: again, it's more dramatically curved, right below Loial.

I've flipped through these 3 photos several times to mark the movement (and prove to myself that I wasn't imagining it). Maybe I'm off-base here or maybe the Ways just move like ripples and this changes nothing. But.

I can't stop thinking that it looks like he called another path of the Ways to him. That it's rising to catch him.

🧐

What if?