#lanfear and moiraine parallelisms are so important to me

[sugarcube-stillabookworm]

Wot 3x08 musings

alright apart from The Thing which i'm still... thinking through let's say, i need to write down my thoughts about the finale. spoilers for the entirety of season 3! (i thinks i avoided any later book spoilers but if i accidentally put something in pls let me know!)

It had really high highs and a few lows for me. Firstly, everything that happens in the Waste plotline was amazing. With maybe the exception of the very first scene where Rand tries to meet his toh to Alsera, which I felt could have used more time to breathe (and also Aviendha instead of Egwene), it was all very charged and also spectacular from a visual pov. Rand finally confronting Lanfear with the full understaning of what she is, that she is jealous and petty and cruel, and that's why he leaves her (she never had him as much as she thought, but she loses any connection with him) in this time just like LTT did back then. Rand and Moiraine's conversation... damn. She is ruthless and he comes to appreciate it, because he's also starting to distance himself from Rand al'Thor to immerse himself in what he thinks he is and needs to be as the Dragon Reborn. He lives to win the Last Battle for the Light, and finally feels on the same page as Moiraine, even about her willingness to kill him. This conversation almost had me fully convinced she was going to die/[redacted] in this episode, despite having spoiled myself that she wouldn't, because she and Rand cement their relationship and Rand recognises her importance to his journey, right before she goes off to protect him. Instead, I guess it will have even more emotional impact if it happens a few episodes down the line in S4 (hopefully) when this new stage of their bond has been established for longer... I do hope if the conflict continues to be mainly with Lanfear that it won't feel repetitive.

mostly on a side note: so, Sammael was indeed alive just to die. lmao. it continued to show just how far the forsaken are willing to in-fight and, well, brutally murder each other, and also that means Rand still needs a teacher for saidin. i did like how disturbing his death and later state was, reinforcing how creepy moghedien is and how horrifying and powerful these people are compared to the protagonists. and visually: horrible in a satisfying (?? not the right word but i cant rn) way. it does feel maybe a bit underwhelming for a Forsaken to be introduced and killed so fast, but the fact that it's from another forsaken makes it more interesting

plus Lanfear's outfit for her little meeting with Rhavin... damn

On everything Alcair Dal: chilling showstopping spectacular. it's clear when they're walking there that Rand has grown willing to do extreme things to make the Aiel follow him, and Rhuarc's warning doesnt have any effect. when it comes to it and he needs to counter Couladin's claims, he doesn't hesitate to reveal a truth that was carefully guarded for thousands of years. him screaming "oathbreakers" was gur-punching. he did actually put in effort to connect with the aiel and understand their ways, he was emotionally affected by rhuidean, and then he used it to bend these people and claim his prophesised role. to do what he believes he "was born to do", no matter the cost for others even if means some will break, and certainly no matter the cost for himself. i thought it was a very powerful and (good) chilling moment, and then him channeling to make it rain in the desert was both visually stunning (there is so much taint in his power! and the more he channels the more there is!!) and an incredible OP Dragon Reborn scene. even more so when storms gathered across the continent too. and connecting it with ending the season on moiraine reciting that the dragon is one with the land and viceversa is fascinating. will they lean on that a lot?

and the heart of stone having to remember tears (which is also a nice wordplay) and the soul of fire having to remember love, oh. a parallel and foil of sorts to nynaeve's "remember who you are, rand al'thor" from ep1, an ominous warning in the moment when rand is starting to descend more and more into being only the Dragon, of stone and fire. he needs to be both!

on a small side note, egwene being the only one standing under the rain with rand while the aiel kneel: great for narrative foils and future roles, maybe a bit too reminiscent of the last scene of dune 2?

moiraine vs lanfear. again, visually stunning, i really like how the true power looks and that it's distinguished from the taint on saidin. lanfear at her full unhinged is very scary and enjoyable, and i don't have much more to say. i did genuinely think this would be their final confrontation, but i guess not. for most of this season they were sort of hateful allies, will they spend a few episodes of s4 fully against each other before a final showdown? they already had their big battle though, so i'm not sure what's planned there

right, lan and melindhra. eh. cool to remind lan of his duty to malkier and set him up for future plotlines, but it felt a bit disconnected to me. maybe it won't on a rewatch. and "death is lighter than a feather, duty is heavier than a mountain" coming from melindhra was... a choice. it's true that she says it as she accepts death for breaking her oaths to the dark in order not to betray what she feels is her true duty to malkier, but i don't know. especially with the whole question of moiraine and death this season, maybe there could have been a way to bring it up that felt more organic?

another thing i might appreciate more on a rewatch is the entirety of the tanchico plotline. it had its great moments and the shenanigans in ep6 were great, but overall... i don't know, at the end of the day it didnt feel like they accomplished a lot to me. one thing at a time.

Mat got hanged!! i was very very hyped for this moment and overall it was good, although maybe a bit abrupt even after all that foreshadowing. he just walks in there?? accurate mat i guess. right now i feel like after ep3 there weren't a lot of reminders of the struggles mat is facing with the memories in his head and thus why he's here in the first place, so in a perfect world i would have liked to spend a bit more time on both that and the question of the power - because i think the first time he refers to having an issue with the one power is right before going into the doorway? i might misremember. he did have a good setup with the imprisonment from last season, but it was a bit underdeveloped imo. but overall it works.

the Aelfinn. I... might have laughed a bit. rare wot show make-up fail, perhaps? i suppose they were going for otherwordly alien and disturbing, but to me it was mostly disturbing. and reminiscent of shark boy and lava girl cgi. i did like the costume! especially the back, where it looked like a skeleton spine.

donal was really good in the scene, imo. confused and scared, and finally allowed to say fuck. then mat was hanged and min cut him down and gave him cpr. again, works overall. i was crossing my fingers for nynaeve to actually have a role in helping him. i am a bit confused as to where they're going with mat *not* remembering things after he wakes up? does he actually make another trip to have his memories back?? or did the aelfinn steal his present self memories, which he didnt lose from the dagger in the show, and leave only the battle ones? that's an interesting way to bring show!mat to a similar position with book!mat

as for nyn, she finally broke her block. in this case too, i know that in-show she's been struggling with it for a very long time, so it makes sense to solve the issue here. it felt a bit... underdeserved? to me, like she didn't really have any build up to getting over it beyond the conversation on the sea folk ship. it didnt feel as big of a moment as it was supposed to, to me, but again, maybe on a rewatch. and the parting of the sea was certainly impressive.

Re: the plotline in general, they go into the palace, nynaeve hides behind a bed and finds the collar and then immediately loses it to liandrin. although it was interesting to see nynaeve have hope for liandrin (and does liandrin wait for a moment after throwing her in the water to see if she would emerge?), hopefully all the time of this plotline will pay off in later seasons. yay for elayne and balefire, and thom exposing gaebril. Jeaine insults Morgase and gets balefired about it, which, nice

and that's it i think. apart from the Tower plotline, which i will ponder for some time more i think. it's A Choice for sure, but a confusing one. i do have to say that, everything else set aside for a moment, on first watch i thought that the final sequence's interweaving of the scenes from Rand at alcair dal, moiraine, and siuan's last stand with her speech was beautifully constructed and powerful. and the last prophecy spoken by moiraine to end the season with the last scenes playing was a rather epic sending off into the core of the story.