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markantonys · 3 months ago

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3x05 thoughts! (book spoilers)

i loved all the character & relationship moments in this episode! it was nice to take a breather and just spend time with the characters and get to see how much they mean to each other. wotshow continuing its trend of doing a great job balancing character work vs. action across the 8 episodes!

against all odds, randgwene clung on by a thread for yet another week lmao but the breakup is 100% coming next week, and surely it has to be just about the first thing to happen in the episode given the cliffhanger. i'm reaaaaally curious (and anxious) about how they'll frame it, because right from day 1 after the first trailer etc i said "i really hope they make it clear that randgwene's breakup is mutual because they just aren't right for each other, and don't frame it as the only reason they broke up is because rand is ~cheating~ with lanfear and egwene feels betrayed". it was my biggest point of worry with the whole rand-egwene-lanfear situation, and it seems like it might be coming true! but we haven't actually gotten to hear rand talk about the whole lanfear situation and his feelings on it, so hashing it out with egwene might give him a good opportunity to do that and maybe whatever he says will make it clear to the audience and egwene that he's been manipulated and it will help ease things a bit. i just really hope rand and egwene will be able to end everything on decent footing with each other; i know there has to be big tension between them at the end of the series, but imo that would be cheaper and more emotionally shallow if it's leftover tension from a bad breakup rather than the more platonic tension between two conflicting world leaders who used to have a close personal relationship and grew up together but now must both put their greater duties first. not to mention that we HAVE to get egwene's signoff on avirandlayne if we want the audience to accept that relationship, so she has to end the season in a decent place with rand!

as of now, we're obviously on the verge of high drama, but i have faith that maybe rand & egwene's conversation will end up going in a good direction that allows them to go "look, lanfear might be the catalyst for forcing us to talk about it, but we've both known for a long time that we just aren't right for each other and THAT is the real reason we need to end things" (plus, surely egwene will tell rand that lanfear's been behind her dream torture and rand will be horrified and take her side and turn firmly against lanfear, right? right??). it's also interesting to consider how much control rand had over his dream; in the past rand-lanfear dream convos, he's always seemed "conscious" (though asleep of course) and fully in control and aware of what he's doing, but in this sequence, egwene is entering the other friends' dreams and it's clear that it's just their subconscious minds coming up with scenarios and they aren't doing anything on purpose. is rand fully in control of himself in this dream? or is it a somewhat subconscious dream on his part with lanfear consciously influencing the direction? it IS interesting that the new location could, maybe, imply that this is rand's own natural dream, at least to start, vs. past randfear scenes that seemed like lanfear pulling rand somewhere to talk to him. but we really can't judge anything for sure until we've heard what rand has to say about it next week.

sticking to the waste plot, the avirand scene!! 10/10 no notes! rand learns about polyamory, avi tries to feel out whether wetlanders are down for it, and they bicker <3 and rand playing with the little girl, my HEART let him be a stay-at-home dad!!!!

as i suspected, rhuarc-bair-lian is yet another balanced triad where everybody is equally married to each other with no mention of any sibling-spouses. alanna-maksim-ihvon was the same, so it does really feel like they're setting up for the Main Character Polyship to be a balanced triad where everybody is equally romantically involved and there are no metamours, aka avirandlayne only and min not involved at all. further to this point, there was no particular min-elayne interaction in this episode beyond sharing a group conversation and they didn't react in a noteworthy way to each other, but i'll keep an eye on further developments there in the remaining episodes! if no focus is given to the min-elayne individual dynamic in tanchico, i'd say that's the final nail in the coffin for min being involved in the polycule because at that point they would have blown past MULTIPLE opportunities to tie her together with elayne or rand.

continuing on with polycule thoughts, i was glad to see an acknowledgment of avilayne in elayne's dream! one of my problems with the way it was done so far is that it was so extremely casual as to have no impact on either character outside of 3x01 itself, but i'd suspected that might change later in the season with some kind of Reminder That This Happened, and sure enough, we did get that here. this kind of small but notable acknowledgement is striking just the right balance for me: it's making sure to keep avilayne in the audience's thoughts and signaling to them that there's more to come here, but without emphasizing it as a monogamous romance so much that people will be blindsided or upset when rand joins in the future. we can see that elayne is still thinking about avi, but she's not pining and yearning for her every waking moment of the day (if she was doing that and then if avi started falling for rand more clearly before elayne rejoins them, the audience would feel indignant on elayne's behalf, so it's good that they're not going TOO hard on elayne's feelings for avi just yet; especially with avi's line this episode derisively saying "that's too much to ask of one person" implying that she doesn't have monogamous expectations with elayne, it's good that elayne doesn't strongly have those expectations either, so they're both more or less on the same page as of now).

my wishful thinking was that it would've been nice to have rand crop up in elayne's dream too sort of the way faile did in perrin's, nothing overtly romantic but a sign that he's lingering in her thoughts just like aviendha is. but of course, that couldn't happen in this context because egwene might feel weird or betrayed about seeing rand pop up in her BFF's dream because randgwene are still together. man, i don't want to be a hater but the extended randgwene is 100% to blame for the dynamics i DO want to see getting repeatedly punted off and put on the backburner! gawene didn't get to even meet, and the avirand stuff we've gotten has been perfect but it still kinda feels like they're being shafted in THEIR OWN ARC; this is the biggest time they spend alone together in the whole series but we can't even treat it as a notable focus of the season because we have to keep the focus on randgwene (and randfear) and don't want to risk tainting avirand with cheating implications by drawing the audience's attention to them too much before randgwene has broken up. and i don't know how likely it'll be for avirand to get a little moment during the cold rocks hold attack next week as i'd hoped they might, because the breakup has been dragged out yet another week so they'll be too busy giving the emotional focus to the randgwene fallout and it might STILL be too soon to let rand share any kind of little moment with avi (and in that BTS shot of sammael, he was alone with rand and egwene in a potential cold rocks hold-y set, so i wonder if rand will be sticking with egwene during the battle and avi will just have separate fight scenes).

but all i can do is wait and see how it goes down! it's obvious that avirandlayne IS coming, so i have to trust that rafe has a plan even if i can't quite see it yet haha my fear is that randgwene lasting so long in s3 will mean avirand & randlayne couldn't get as strong setup as they might have otherwise will mean them coming together in s4 will end up feeling rushed (and then gawene too which i've been looking forward to almost as much as avirandlayne, god knows what might even happen there since they are now so SO far past the date of their book meeting). why the show is choosing to fastburn the getting-togethers of endgame romances but slowburn the breakups of non-endgame ones is beyond me, but i will trust that rafe has a plan and that it will all make sense once i'm able to see the forest instead of just the trees!

returning to the dreams, i loved this sequence of egwene visiting her friends' dreams SO MUCH probably one of my favorites of the season so far!! she got so much joy out of seeing her friends happy 🥺🥺🥺 and it was such a beautiful way to show us a little bit of each friend's inner life; nynaeve's lost daughter is still weighing on her and she still dreams about a happy life with her, elayne takes such joy and wonder in learning new things and dreams of a carefree life following her heart outside the confines of duty, perrin's happy place is being at home with his forge and hopper (my heart!!) and he's starting to take faile into his heart too, and MAT!!!! mat's dream killed me dead!!! he has often been played for comic relief this season, so i was really thrilled to get this beautiful reminder of his layers and depth and the good, selfless heart he has underneath the bravado, and particularly glad to get this scene for donal!mat who hasn't had much chance to get the family stuff that barney!mat had so much of in s1 - it really helps keep up the consistency between the two versions and connect our present mat back to s1 mat. all he wants is to give his sisters a good life and hear his mom tell him she's proud of him!! which is such a gutpunch after her death in this episode!

can somebody PLEASE tell mat he's a good boy and they're proud of him!!! my Show!Mat Has A Praise Kink agenda grows stronger every day. man, between mat's dream and rand being so happy playing with the child, my s1 show-only observation that rand and mat would be each other's ideal partner in domestic family life remains spot-on. let them be dads!!

anyway, mat's mom! i was SO not expecting her to die, what a shock! and a good decision, it adds some stakes to the two rivers plotline and gives perrin even more of a reason to want to fight back instead of giving himself up and giving into the whitecloaks. and it seems we're getting the book arc of bode being able to channel! since the girls are twins in the show, i wonder if they can both channel or only one. and i also wonder how big or small of a plot point this might end up being; it's pretty small in the books, but the show has placed more emphasis on mat's family, so maybe they might do a little bit more with it? his sisters are still definitely tertiary characters, though, so i don't know. my biggest wish would be for a full wonderboy reunion in s4 so that perrin can tell mat about his mom and we can see mat react to her death (and i can get a cauthor hurt/comfort fic scenario out of it, priorities priorities haha), and ideally bode & eldrin traveled with perrin and mat can reunite with them at least for a moment. because we know that, if the books are followed, perrin and the cauthon girls will cross paths with rand soon after the two rivers arc (so likely s4), so if they can just get mat back in rand's plotline for s4 to do his TFOH dragon's general plotline, then we could get mat coming into contact with perrin and the girls as well. but as i've speculated before, this might depend on how many total seasons they anticipate getting and whether they have time to send mat back across the continent for a season or whether they need to jump into his west coast seanchan plotline immediately in s4.

good stuff in the two rivers plotline this episode! i loved perrin and faile's battle couple moment <3 and the perrin-dain face-to-face reunion was just as messy and delicious as i'd hoped! "i thought you were a good man" "i was, before you" okay okay

my one complaint about this plotline is, i have to embarrassedly put on my bookcloak hat, but i am really feeling the "alanna and her warders are getting too much time" complaints this season haha i didn't mind in the first 2 seasons, but now they're overstaying their welcome for me. it might not actually be true, but it feels like we've spent more time on alanna and maksim's relationship than perrin and faile's this season! however, i am almost certain that maksim will die in the two rivers battle, especially now that he and alanna had a mini arc of working out their problems and realizing that they're stronger when they stick together - surely that's GOT to mean maksim has to die in order for alanna to lose it enough that she does what she does in LOC next season. and if that happens, then i'll be fine with them getting so much time this season to build up to that death and make us understand why alanna loses it so badly. another thing where i'll have to reserve final judgment until i've seen the forest instead of only the trees!

speaking of people who may or may not be on Death Watch, moiraine and siuan! i really loved their scene together and thought it was so beautiful. as for predictions, i'm split 50/50 on whether them getting to mend fences and share a happy moment and a bittersweet goodbye means this is the final curtain call for their relationship and one or both of them will be dead-dead by the end of the season, or whether the "i'll find you in every lifetime" "and i'll wait for you every time" is foreshadowing of siuan going to find moiraine in finnworld at the end of the show. i just don't know!

i loved the lan and moiraine scene of them sharing a drink. perfect!

tower plotline: it was fine, got the job done

tanchico crew: bringing the comedy as always! i loved the opening scene with bickering matlayne and seasick nynaeve, absolutely impeccable vibes, and then min officially joins the gang (i loved the "raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by liandrin" moment between the four of them lmao). as somebody who's been starting to feel oversaturated with the mat-min dynamic, i was disappointed that he left elayne and nynaeve's scene so quickly to wind up hanging out alone with min yet again, but we did get some great stuff between the trio and the quartet nonetheless! still, at this point it's kinda feeling like mat was lifted out of the waste storyline purely to hang out with min for the second season in a row (and arguably to act as a support piece in HER storyline about learning how to find agency in her visions, more so than having his own storyline get focused on), but i'm sure in ep6 that will change and mat will get more time to shine and more chances to interact with non-min characters since tanchico is slated to be the A plot. i'm very excited to see this plotline lead an episode, it's been a long time coming!

we did finally get a reference to the s2 rand viewing and we learn that mat's takeaway is that min's viewings aren't even accurate because she said he would kill rand and he didn't. and then in the ep6 preview it showed mat trying to pump some tanchico citizens for info about the male a'dam collar, so i just might get a little cauthor crumb next week with mat being worried about rand getting collared and wanting to help protect him!

i think that's everything off the top of my head for this episode!

#wot #wot show spoilers #wot book spoilers

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love-byers · 10 months ago

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stancy + mlvn music coding

this is probably gonna be messy but i will try my hardest to keep it comprehensible

okay so recently i was rewatching the robin/vickie/vickie's bf scene in the gun store (4x08) because i felt like i'd heard the song that plays there before. it reminded me of the song that plays during this scene in 2x01

the song that plays in the s4 scene is actually 2 songs back to back, the first called 'Kids Two' (a variation of 'Kids" from the s1 sound track) and the second called 'Choices', originally from the s2 soundtrack. 'Choices' plays in the scene in 2x08 where dustin apologizes to lucas for lying about dart and suggests max take his place in the party and also says he felt the electricity between lucas and max-- and it leads into the scene where max and mike talk about el, and mike reminds max that she's still not in their party. i find that interesting because no one in that scene says choice, and no one in either scene is making a choice. that name does make sense for the s4 scene, because vickie is torn between her boyfriend and robin, clearly implying she must make a choice. 'Choices' is the song that sounded familiar to me.

the songs aren't exactly the same, but they are definitely similar and the one in s4 is likely an edited version of the one from the stancy scene.

those scenes are obviously parallels, steve sneaks up behind nancy and scares her and they kiss, just like vickie and her bf. then nancy/vickie look at jonathan/robin in a seemingly yearning way. love triangle stuff.

i always figured the song in the stancy scene was an original track from season 2. but turns out it isn't from s2, its from s1. its called 'First Kiss', and, you guessed it, it plays during mike and el's first kiss in 1x08.

i am not lying, go and watch the scenes.

after discovering this, i watched some more stancy scenes to listen for more similarities in the music. and i came across this scene from 1x05, where nancy almost hits steve with her bat and he apologizes to her over dismissing her concern over barb, and nancy gives him a kiss.

i went through the s1 tracklist and even tried shazam-ing the scene, but nothing turned up. i thought it sounded like 'First Kiss', but i wasn't sure if it was my own bias feeding into that. so i went to reddit, where all the people with way too much time on their hands hang out, and asked if anyone knew which ost was playing in that scene. this is what i got back

the reddit gurus agree with me.

as they said, first kiss also plays when mike and el make up in the hospital in 3x05. makes sense, since it's supposed to be their song.

i will also add that the stancy scene in 1x05 is immediately followed by the scene of joyce kicking lonnie out. that speaks for itself. AND, the mlvn scene in 3x05 cuts directly from el smiling at mike to a dead body. take that as you will

so lets recap

'First Kiss', or a section/version of it, has played during

1x05 steve apologizes to nancy 1x08 mike and el kiss 2x01 steve scares nancy and stancy kiss, nancy yearns over jonathan 3x05 mike and el make up via m&ms

2 stancy scenes and 2 mlvn scenes.

hm.

and 'Choices', which i strongly believe is derived from 'First Kiss', plays during

2x08 dustin apologizes to lucas and points out the electricity between lucas and max 2x08 mike and max talk about el 4x08 robin watches vickie and her boyfriend kiss

2 references to a love triangle (dustin,lucas,max & robin,vickie,dan)

and a nod towards mlvn involving max, who in the next season will come between mike and el's relationship.

HM.

im not sure if any of these besides 'Choices' play in s4, but once i do a rewatch i will let you guys know. im pretty sure they don't because i have a weirdly good memory when it comes to my hyperfixations so i think i'd remember it. like i knew the music from the stancy scene in 2x01 just from watching it like four different times since 2017.

all of this coupled with the countless times byler has had music parallels with jancy and lumax, i'm pretty sure this means byler endgame.

if anyone tries to say that it doesn't matter that they reused mike and el's first kiss song for a loveless relationship, i wholeheartedly disagree with you. they make songs that are specifically for one scene and are never played again. for example 'The First Lie', the song that played during jonathan and nancy's first kiss has only played during that scene. never again.

so if mlvn is what the fans say it is, the main couple, the epic love story of stranger things, why can't they just have a song to themselves? jonathan and nancy do. im sure they could've found another song that fit for the stancy/jancy scene in 2x01, knowing the implications it would give if they used it. but nope, they had to use 'First Kiss', which takes place an episode before the stancy scene. 1x08 -> 2x01

one more example, 'On The Bus' is from the s2 soundtrack. it plays once during s2, when lucas and max talk on top of the bus. it doesn't play at all in s3, and then randomly in 4x04, it plays during a byler scene. THAT. HAS. IMPLICATIONS.

take this however you'd like

#stranger things #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #byler endgame #byler analysis #mike wheeler i know what you are #milkvan is bones #anti milkvan #anti mileven #anti stancy #jancy #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #jancy endgame #stranger things music coding #byler music coding #stranger things analysis #byler theory

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butterflydm · 3 months ago

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Wheel of Time 3x05 Deep Dive (show spoilers)

Spoilers through 3x05 of the show, plus spoilers for the trailer for 3x06 and some light speculation.

One thing that came to me that this episode is actually about a classic issue from the novels as well -- it's about the dangers of not communicating important information.

Something that I didn't realize during my original watch is that Moiraine seems to really be avoiding Rand this entire episode. She's basically doing anything except talking with Rand, maybe because she needs to settle things in her mind first? It is unfortunate, because if she'd talked to him, and been open and honest with him about things relating to Lanfear, maybe she could have spared Egwene the pain that she walked into at the end.

And that gets echoed in several other threads as well -- Rand and Egwene are both holding important pieces of the puzzle that, if they combined them, would untangle them both from their emotional mess -- Rand would be able to explain why Lanfear might be stalking Egwene and Egwene could show Rand that Lanfear isn't the sweet damsel that she's pretending to be when she's with him. But they aren't talking to each other, because they are an extremely conflict-averse couple and always have been, from the very beginning, when Egwene avoided talking to Rand about her ceremony and Nynaeve's offer to teach her to become a Wisdom and then Rand used sex to try to deflect from Egwene starting that uncomfortable conversation later on. If they think a conversation might cause conflict, they both work to try to avoid it as long as possible.

We know from 3x01 that Rand and Egwene spent a month sleeping in the same bed on the ship to Tar Valon without ever talking about the status of their relationship or any related issues, and they have continued that trend with a vengeance so far, all the way up until everything cracks open (I'm assuming that it'll all crack open in 3x06, anyway).

We learn in 1x07 that the pattern of their fights is -- Rand goes to Egwene afterwards, he apologizes* and they engage in make-up sex. It doesn't sound like they've ever had a habit of actually talking out their differences. But because their previous lives were low-stress and low-tension, they were able to rub along just fine. But the second a major bump appeared in the road (Nynaeve's apprenticeship offer), Egwene avoids the uncomfortable conversation as long as possible and then Rand deflects with sex to try to keep it at bay as well. They have never had good conflict-resolution skills in their relationship; it's all avoidance and sex.

(*if one party is ALWAYS the one who apologizes, then you are not resolving your differences, you're just delaying them by pretending that there's no conflict)

We see a similar issue happening with Moiraine and Siuan, in that both Moiraine and Siuan avoid explaining just how badly things are going, because (after their semi-breakup) they are both needing to present the image of being able to handle their side of the agreement -- Moiraine is in charge of the Dragon; Siuan is in charge of the Tower. When the truth is that both of them have had events spiral wildly out of their control. But they can't admit it to each other.

And on Rand's side of things, in addition to not being able to tell Egwene about Selene/Lanfear; it doesn't look like he's talked to Moiraine about Mierin Sedai and his emotional reactions to Lanfear as a result of 'meeting' Mierin. If he had, then perhaps Moiraine would have revealed to him the 3x01 deal, and let him know that Lanfear actively attacked him and his friends fairly recently.

So, yeah. Lack of communication. I'll see if the other plot threads touch on that as well or if it's mainly an Egwene-Rand-Moiraine-Siuan thing.

The scene with Moiraine struggling to control the sa'angreal is very beautiful. It's clear that it's letting her draw too much of the One Power and is overwhelming her. She does seem to feel a need to master it -- maybe because of something that she experienced in the rings. We only got to see a small fraction of what she witnessed, after all.

I am curious about what narrow path she is going to be trying to take in the near future.

Lan saves her from burning out, pretty sure, and we see the destruction that she has (inadvertently?) caused as a result of her uncontrolled channeling. And we're reminded that channeling more of the One Power than you can handle causes a sort of euphoric hunger to draw more (like how Amalisa felt when she was linked to Nynaeve and Egwene and drew too much, killing herself and the other women). Lan tries to get Moiraine to open up to him about what happened in the rings, but she's not ready.

"I cannot teach someone unwilling to learn."

Aviendha drawing the negative attention of her Wise Ones by first echoing the Shaido's rejection of Rand - he's not one of us; and then trying to escape from any blame when they point out to her that she had the opportunity to teach Rand more about their culture and failed to make an impact, so is it really his fault that he doesn't know enough?

(which reminds me of Rand telling the Maidens, and especially Aviendha, that all they do is glare at him and roll their eyes. Aviendha had a month on a ship with Rand but spent all her time teaching Aiel culture to Elayne instead of to her potential Car'a'carn - she did not lack opportunity to teach Rand, she chose not to do it... because she was running away from her duty)

And from the PoV of the Wise Ones -- Rand has shown himself to be willing to follow their customs and laws as soon as he is made aware of what is expected of him, contrary to what Aviendha claims here. He presents himself the way that Aviendha presented herself, he respected their ways and made it through the columns and has the appropriate marks. He knows more about Aiel history than Aviendha currently does. He is the Car'a'carn and Aviendha is showing foolish stubbornness by trying to pretend that it matters that Rand doesn't 'act Aiel enough' when it is literally part of the prophecy that he will not be raised "by the blood".

And so, in order for her to learn wisdom, they instruct her to teach Rand from the moment he wakes up until he goes to his blankets at night (she is going to do this in the brattiest way possible, which is probably not going to be earning her any 'wisdom' points in the Wise Ones' eyes).

Cold Rocks Hold is pretty. <3

We learn some more about Aiel culture -- Rhuarc must ask permission to come under Lian's roof, even though she's his wife. We get properly introduced to an Aiel polyamorous marriage here, with Lian kissing both Rhuarc and Bair in greeting (and we've seen Rhuarc call Bair "shade of my heart" previously), and Rhuarc introducing them both as his wives.

And we learn that some Aiel familial terms are not the same as wetlander terms, as Rhuarc introduces us to his "greatdaughter" Alsera. Who immediately goes to Rand, and the two of them have such an adorable introduction, where she asks him if he's the Car'a'carn, he confirms it by showing her his tattoos, and he playfully chases her into the Hold (with more children joining after).

And we can see how everyone waits for the ceremony to be complete, even though Alsera is clearly itching to give Rhuarc a hug.

I really love that Rand seems willing to embrace the Aiel as a potential source of family here. And I think that Rand really needed those endearing moments with Rhuarc's greatdaughter to place on the balancing scale against the mess with Lanfear.

Bair continuing her campaign to separate Rand and Egwene by directly telling Egwene, "The time for watching [Rand] is through, Egwene Sedai." Third episode in a row where she's been trying to gently pull them apart, bless her.

So! Bair's motives in trying to separate Rand and Egwene. I talked after the last episode about how I think part of it is that she didn't see Egwene when she and the others dreamed about Rand coming to Rhuidean. I think she also is inclined to try to separate them simply because (she thinks) Egwene is an Aes Sedai. Rand spending time with the children of the Hold, or learning about Aiel culture from Aviendha, is greatly preferable to him staying bound to an Aes Sedai, who may not share the Aiel's priorities.

Hmm, yeah, it sounds like Moiraine overheard Bair telling Egwene "We're going to walk the Dream. Will you join us?" but that happened after Rand had already left with Alsera. So I am not certain if Rand knows about the dreamwalking stuff. I guess we'll find out for sure in 3x06.

Over into Siuan's plotline. I think that she's reading one of Moiraine's old letters (we know that Moiraine was writing regularly, back when she was pretending that the Dragon Reborn was learning how to channel from Logain, and there are probably many older letters as well, from before she found Rand).

Elaida is actually a very clear communicator here. Maybe, uh, too clear. She definitely doesn't suffer from the communication breakdown that Siuan-Moiraine-Rand-Egwene are going through in this episode.

What we get with Elaida and Siuan here is political intrigue, with the fate of the world on the table as stakes. Let us, for the moment, assume that Elaida is absolutely on the level (the end of the episode does imply she's probably not a Darkfriend) - she is doing everything that she does because she genuinely believes that her way of handling the Dragon Reborn, that Tower Law, is the correct way. That Siuan has corrupted the Amyrlin Seat because [insert class-based claims here], etc.

Siuan, on the other hand, has to play her cards very carefully, because if her full hand were revealed -- that she has been conspiring with Moiraine for years, that she became Amyrlin for the express purpose of subverting Tower Law -- the people that she leads would turn on her.

Siuan's purpose... has failed.

Alanna also attests to this later in the episode -- she believes that the Green Ajah has failed as well. The Black Ajah is ready for the Last Battle. The White Tower is not. The Green Ajah is not. They are already running behind. Siuan doesn't know how many Black Ajah might remain in the Tower. She doesn't know who she can trust. She knows that there are so many more members of the Black Ajah than she had guessed -- but how many? Who?

She doesn't know. Her hounds have been loosed. Does she know where they've gone?

Siuan's exact words: where is Elayne? "She's on a journey of my choosing. Well protected. I've already let Queen Morgase know."

...yeah, none of that actually says that Siuan knows where Elayne is -- Mat has gone with them, which Siuan may count as adequate protection, given that she's taken the measure of him, plus Elayne can channel and Nynaeve... well, maybe she can channel too if the right circumstances come up.

It actually seems more likely to me that Min gave Siuan the head's up vs Nynaeve or Elayne doing it (and Min didn't know what their destination was going to be, so she couldn't have informed Siuan about that).

"People don't change. Mother, you may have fooled many but I know what you are. River trash."

To touch on Elaida and classism -- it does imply that it's possible that Nynaeve's old Wisdom wasn't trying to save face but was telling the truth about being turned away from the White Tower for being a poor country kid, because it seems clear that if Elaida had been in charge when Siuan had arrived, she would have turned Siuan away as a novice. She has a deep disrespect for Siuan as a person that all the 'Mother's in the world can't hide.

So Elaida lays bare that it's not communication that's at issue between our heroes and their antagonists -- there's also the issue of the antagonists holding genuinely bigoted views, and that knowing the truth about what our heroes are doing would not help in fixing the problems between them.

We come back to this with the Dain Bornhold storyline. The fact that Perrin is willing to work with "witches" means that he and Dain could never come to terms as long as Dain holds to his current views even if Dain is able to understand why Perrin killed his father, because Dain has been prejudiced against Aes Sedai since he was a child (presumably, he was once one of those young boys in the Whitecloak camps, as his father was a big league Whitecloak). Communication cannot save you against genuine bigotry and/or hatred, and we see that at play in all four major storylines:

Elaida vs 'lower-class' Siuan

Dain vs 'witches' and anyone who supports them

Liandrin, who has taken her (understandable) trauma over what was done to her and extended her feelings towards all men

Couladin & the Shiado, who reject Rand as the Car'a'carn because he wasn't raised Aiel (relatively minor note in this storyline so far, but it has been shown and mentioned)

So diving into Siuan's suspicions about Elaida being a Darkfriend, and the plot that the group schemes to work out the truth. We learn a lot here -- it does seem like Adelas is perhaps slowly recovering herself, with a lot of help from her sister, and that she is very much herself at heart, just trapped and hurt by whatever damage Nyomi did to her mind.

It also illustrates to us something of the condition that the poor child-bride in Tanchico is potentially in -- she was taken out of one horror and placed into a different horror. Is Liandrin taking care of that girl or did she abandon the girl once her conscience was salved by having Nyomi wipe her memories?

Verin has figured out that Liandrin was able to connect four "hearts" of the Black Ajah -- their groups of three sisters who work together. So, twelve sisters total, only eleven of which actually attacked, which means that one of Liandrin's Black Ajah sisters is still unknown to them.

Now, my personal suspicion is that Liandrin was able to do this because she's acting on Lanfear's behalf, and that Lanfear is the one who wants the collar-and-bracelet... you know, just as a little extra insurance in case her do-over LTT doesn't fall into line the way that she wants him to. This has not been confirmed in the show and it's possible that when we see Liandrin and Lanfear meet up next episode we'll learn that Lanfear had nothing to do with Liandrin's plans to cage the Dragon... but my current theory is that Lanfear is the mastermind behind that plan.

"We cannot mistake suspicion for certainty," Verin warns Leane and Siuan, when it seems like they're becoming way too sure that Elaida definitely has to be a Darkfriend. And so they make plans to lay bait in front of Elaida -- let her know about the Black Ajah Sisters being held in the 13th Depository and then see if she goes to either rescue them or silence them on behalf of the Shadow.

Maksim and Alanna are at odds over the course of this episode, culminating in their big blow-out and then him coming back at the end. Their two different ways of grieving Ihvon and dealing with what happened in 3x01 coming to a head.

This is another example of miscommunication and assumptions hurting people who care about each other, I think. They needed to have that blow-out fight towards the end of the episode so that they could understand where the other person was coming from, but they took the hard way of getting there.

Maksim's grief is... personal. He wants revenge for Ihvon's death. He doesn't understand why Alanna isn't drowning in grief the same way that he is.

Alanna's grief, otoh, is also wrapped up in her sense of failure. She was so incredibly smug in 3x01, before the fight went down. She was proud of herself. They were going to reveal and capture a Black Ajah Sister, still her, and then use her to root out all the rest of the Black Ajah, who Alanna was probably assuming were mostly Red Sisters.

And then... four SITTERS of varying Ajahs all broke ranks and joined Liandrin.

A Green Sister that she knew and trusted (by how Maksim reacted to seeing Jeaine) almost killed her Warders.

Ihvon died.

Because she wasn't ready.

Because she isn't enough and Maksim isn't enough and Ihvon wasn't enough.

There's a line that Alanna says in s2 about how people don't know what they'll be willing to do until they're pushed. And the world is pushing Alanna right now. It's pushing her hard.

What Maksim and Alanna go through in this episode gets us to that place where she admits where her head is at (that she came to the Two Rivers to try to create an army to fight the Shadow, because she feels like the White Tower and the Green Ajah have failed - so you might say that Alanna booking it out of town after the 3x01 cold open was her vote of 'no confidence' in Siuan's leadership) and to get Maksim to move out of his personal grief enough to understand the bigger picture at stake and re-dedicate himself to Alanna and her cause.

Alanna is another of those characters like Liandrin or Lanfear, where it feels like the show has really given her depth that she didn't get in the books.

Alanna and Maksim trying an approximation of their old banter but not being able to actually get any true joy out of it really breaks my heart.

Faile arrives with news that Whitecloak reinforcements are closing in -- Perrin needs to move now if he wants to save the Cauthons before they arrive.

Back when Perrin first talked about rescuing the Cauthons (in 3x03), he mentioned that he wanted to do it with no one getting hurt. And then we got the flashbacks in Rhuidean, where we saw Lewin and his friends express that same hope just before they went off and changed the course of the Aiel's culture forever.

And much like with Lewin and his friends, Perrin & co saved the girls, but they did engage in violence and also had a casualty on their own side (Charlin in the flashback, and Natti Cauthon here) and, additionally, the promise of more violence to come in the future, because violence is a cycle. Engaging in the cycle of violence creates more violence and yet... refusing to engage in the cycle means allowing innocent victims to be hurt.

That's the trap that the Aiel were caught in during their cultural slide from "true" Aiel to the present-day Aiel. And it's the trap that Perrin is caught in now. Lewin decided that he was willing to pay the price of violence in order to protect himself and the people that he cares about; this was not something that his family could accept. And now, the present-day Aiel consider refusing to defend yourself to be one of the highest forms of dishonor ("the only thing less honorable than defending yourself is killing those who refuse to defend themselves").

Aviendha and Rand's (somewhat unwilling) cultural exchange here is a lot of fun to watch. <3

We get more information on the Aiel here (and on Aviendha's viewpoint on the night she shared with Elayne, just as we will get Elayne's viewpoint on it later in the episode) -- Aviendha feels like having only two people in a relationship is "a lot to ask of one person" and says that she pities Egwene for being Rand's solo lover (probably assuming that Rand is high-maintenance because Aviendha is really good at making assumptions up about Rand). We also learn that Aiel eat with their right hands and sit on cushions during meals.

It is a change from the books for Rhuarc, Lian, and Bair to be so openly affectionate with each other in public, but this is a change that has really already been shown to us in having Aviendha be more open to flirting and then sleeping with someone within the span of a month, and how Chiad and Bain are constantly trolling for new participants in Maidens' Kiss. In general, all of the reserved characters in the books are a bit more open in the show, probably because it's just easier to have characters play off each other when they're being allowed to show affection to each other and because the shows don't have the benefit of internal narration.

This scene does show us that, from Aviendha's perspective, she feels like being someone's only lover is a lot of work, and she would want to share that with at least one other person (we've only see throuples so far in the show, but I will leave the door open here for more complex polycule shapes). So it's possible that if she and Elayne do meet again in the future, they will need to talk about their differing expectations for potentially continuing their relationship (though it's also possible that Elayne has already been told this, during their cultural exchange moments on the ship).

Something I find interesting to think about is how long the Aiel have had this belief and this tradition in polyamorous marriage, because it seems firmly ingrained in their culture. Is it a result of the sharp population bottlenecks that the Aiel went through over the course of their history, or is this something that was passed down (likely in transformed form) from the very first Aiel that we saw in the show (Charn's generation)?

I do also want to note that though Aviendha and Rand are low-key antagonistic here, Rand does take Aviendha's note about which hand to eat with, and implements it (which probably annoys Aviendha more, because it shows her that her snide comment to the Wise Ones earlier was a big assumption on her part that doesn't actually have a basis in Rand's character).

We get another thoroughly adorable interaction between Alsera and Rand (her delivery of "I grew the squash, Rand al'Thor" is so so cute/ She is so proud of herself! And Rand is so sweet and sincere in his reaction to her). <3 And Aviendha's face of 'ugh why does he have to be good with kids? I much prefer it when I can just dislike him based on my prejudged notions of him' is hilarious. Aviendha is the much softer version of the other antagonistic relationships we see this episode, the comedy version instead of the more serious and dramatic versions that we get in Siuan vs Elaida or Perrin vs Dain.

So, we have three 'pairings' who are kind of eating together at this meal -- Rhuarc and Lian; Rand and Aviendha; and Lan and Melindhra. Alsera is there to be cute; while Moiraine is melancholy. She still hasn't talked to anyone about her experience in the rings.

Lan and Melindhra is interesting because it's a reflection & inverse of Rand and Aviendha. In both cases, we have someone who is of a people but not of their culture; and we have them introduced to someone who knows that culture and can teach it to them. Aviendha is an unwilling teacher to Rand, assigned to teach him in the hopes that doing so will teach her how to be wise. Melindhra is an eager teacher to Lan, in both Aiel and Malkieri culture.

Is Melindhra flirting with Lan? It is so hard to tell. Lan isn't open to it even if she is -- he didn't have any real interest in following Melindhra out of the tent in 3x03 until he saw the tattoo on her back -- but Melindhra might be. It's clear that she knew who Lan was on sight, and she's explicitly told him that she would throw away everything that she's built among the Aiel if he decided to take up his crown and call for him people to follow him to the Blight to reclaim Malkier.

How much older than Lan is Melindhra? Again, hard to say. We know that she was a 'child' when Malkier fell, while Lan was 'a baby' who remembers nothing of his people. There's a lot about Melindhra that is still a mystery. Her memories of Malkier later are fairly vague, which fits with a child (maybe she was around Alsera's age when Malkier fell).

Moiraine gets up to leave -- Lan almost joins her but she tells him to stay; and Rand notes her departure but doesn't attempt to join her. Though Moiraine and Rand both went through transformative journeys in the last episode, they have not talked about it with each other. If they had... well, Rand's conversation with Lanfear later on in the episode might have gone very differently.

We get Egwene's first lesson with the Wise Ones. And I am definitely personally still trying to figure out the rules of show!TAR, so I will do my best to also attend to the lesson.

Bair tells Egwene that she must "listen, remember, and do as you are told. Above all, you must not enter Tel'aran'rhiod again. Until Melaine or I says you may." Egwene agrees to their terms.

Now the question I have is -- does Egwene believe that she is still abiding by their terms when she helps Moiraine later on in the episode? She does kinda loophole her way around things by only directly entering other people's dreams rather than being in TAR itself, but is that following the spirit of the Wise Ones' instructions and the promise that they asked of her? A promise that she freely agreed to.

What we learn about how TAR works:

anyone can 'touch' TAR but very few can 'truly enter it' - what we are shown in a little bit is that those who 'touch' TAR appear as somewhat ghostly apparitions to Egwene's eyes.

It is not related to the One Power -- Melaine cannot channel but is still an able Dreamwalker (and she and Bair are the only Dreamwalkers among the Taardad).

Entering the dream world is risky. Death in TAR also means death in the real world.

Your thoughts can affect your appearance in TAR, so you must control your thoughts in order to control yourself and your surroundings.

You can set up an outside sound to 'trigger' yourself back to wakefulness. It appears that this works whether or not you're a dreamwalker. as Egwene will also tell this to Moiraine at the end of the episode.

Falling asleep in WoT!verse is so much easier than it sometimes is IRL, lol

Not all dreams take place in TAR, but the Forsaken can stalk people inside their own dreams (this explains why Rand stabbing himself in his own dream back in 1x08 didn't kill or hurt him in the real world, but it would have, if it had happened in TAR). We actually don't know if Rand has ever been in TAR or if it's only ever been the Forsaken going into Rand's own dreamscape.

"You have power over your own dreams. If you want her out, just believe she's out" - is this only true for Dreamwalkers or would this protection work for other people as well? If someone tells Rand that he has the power to keep Lanfear out of his dreams, would he be able to enforce that, or does he need to be a dreamwalker to be able to keep her out? Because that could make a huge difference in how the rest of the season plays out.

The second that Egwene is told that she can just think herself somewhere else, she immediately does it, and she wanders around the TAR version of Tar Valon for a while, before she's found by Lanfear, who sets to torturing Egwene (as herself this time -- the first time that Egwene has seen Lanfear's face, and she doesn't know who this woman is, but is able to piece together that this is also her tormentor from her own dreams). The brass pin drops and Egwene wakes, and Bair and Melaine tell her that she's being stalked by one of the "Shadowsouled" aka one of the Forsaken.

Does Egwene tell Rand about this, given that he's the Forsaken's main target?

No, of course not. Rand and Egwene don't talk about important things basically ever, why would you even think to ask? Egwene views herself as Rand's Protector, so likely views this as something that she needs to solve on her own, without involving him and putting him into additional danger.

From Lanfear's perspective, I think Egwene just made the game interesting by showing that she can enter TAR. Before now, Egwene was the annoying "doe-eyed cow" that Rand insisted on playing boyfriend-girlfriend with, but Lanfear didn't really think of her as a threat (imo). But now she's shown some actual ability and power, which makes Lanfear take her seriously enough to set up her little power-play later in the episode.

We dive more into Elaida's politicking -- Siuan warned her that if she's going to call a vote in the Hall, she better have the votes in hand, and now Elaida is at work doing just that. She's talking with one of the White Ajah Sitters, Alviarin, and getting her temperature on potentially voting against Siuan as the logical choice when it comes to the issue of the Dragon.

Then she spots Adelas, on her own outside her rooms with 'just' an Accepted (and we get the additional information here that Elaida is very much an asshole to everyone that she sees as 'beneath' her, including the novices and Accepted).

I like that Adelas is able to help with the plan (is the key to the plan, even!), even with the injuries to her mind, and Verin's certainty that her sister will be able to help. That relationship has been really emotional for me this season, even though we've only had it in tiny doses.

So, Elaida (if we are assuming that she's not a Darkfriend) must genuinely believe that Verin "needs" her in order for her to say it here -- but Elaida is clearly very good at rationalizing her desires to herself (most Aes Sedai are), so she may just mean it in the sense that she believes all the Aes Sedai here need Elaida to 'save' them from Siuan 'destroying the Tower from within'. Difficult to say.

Mat getting exhausted by dealing with Nynaeve's constant barfing and Elayne's constant cramming for what they might need to know about Tanchico is very understandable when we learn that he's been dealing with this for fourteen days. I love so much that we got an episode with them on the Sea Folk ship! This entire section was lovely and had both touching and melancholy moments while still maintaining an overall upbeat atmosphere.

Things we learn about Tanchico:

It is spread over three hills in Tanchico Bay.

The rich people live at the tops of the hills.

Thievery is fairly common and even the wealthy are not particularly stable in that wealth.

Mat and Elayne snipe at each other, while poor Nynaeve wishes for death. Any differences that Mat and Elayne might have had have definitely been exacerbated by being forced to travel in extremely close quarters for the past two weeks. With the smell of vomit in the background, too, because of Nynaeve. Mat snipes at Elayne for being a spoiled princess and she snipes at him for drinking too much and being stuck in his own head (re: the Old Tongue).

So they are definitely starting out in a rough patch! I am really interested to see how/if this dynamic evolves in the next couple of episodes, or if Mat's screen time will focus more on his established friendships with Nynaeve and Min.

Instead of focusing on understanding Tanchico itself as the way to locate Liandrin, Nynaeve feels like they need to focus on centering what they know about Liandrin and using that instead, but Elayne wonders how much of what they knew about Liandrin was a lie.

Mat is so tired of being stuck below decks, so when Elayne accidentally gives him an excuse (she notes that they appear to be traveling at an 'impossibly' quick rate), he takes it, bolting for the upper decks, thus triggering both him spotting Min and Elayne and Nynaeve beginning their journey of learning about Windfinders being able to channel.

The Sailmistress (Coine din Jubai Wild Winds, per the credits) is angry at them at first but then sees how poorly Nynaeve is handling the travel and gives her some advice on feeling less sea-sick, which does seem to help her, and Coine takes pity on them and gives them permission to stay on the deck.

Min was trying to stay incognito during this trip (so must have been very relieved when she learned that Mat's group was restricted to their room) but now Mat has caught up with her and is relieved to be around neither vomiting nor lectures.

Back in the Two Rivers plotline, we set up that the reinforcements are arriving 'tomorrow', so Perrin really does just have tonight to save the girls. We briefly meet Child Byar -- I'm going to try to see if it looks like he died at the end of the episode or survived.

And then we see Dain trying to do the same thing he did with Aviendha in s2 -- sure, he's locking her up and he's willing to kill her if she tries to escape, but he gives her water while she's a prisoner! This lets him feel like he's a better man than Valda, even though he's helping enable the system that upholds men like Valda. And this is a very true thing that we see in our own world -- Dain thinks of himself as righteous because he isn't 'as extreme' as Valda but... of course we learn in this very scene that the line is much thinner than Dain pretends that it is. When he catches Natti trying to escape, he uses physical violence against her (she is in a cage, you asshole).

When one of the girls channels to protect her mom and then Natti confesses to it (lying to protect one or both of her daughters), he hands Natti over to Valda for him to torture and to murder because as soon as she's a 'witch', she is no longer a person to Dain.

I really like how complex they made Natti in the show. She was lost her own rage and grief when we first met her, and was an awful mother. Then the horrible events of Bel Tine shook her up (and the surrogate parent that the girls had in Mat left, so Natti & Abell didn't have anyone else who could take care of the girls for them) and she took responsibility.

And now, she acts to protect her daughters even at the cost of her own life (which was the same sort of behavior that we saw from Mat in 1x01), yet the damage that she caused her kids (especially Mat, who was hardcore parentified) hasn't been overlooked by the show either -- even in Mat's dreams, he can't quite fully take on the praise that he longs to get from his mom, and deflects away to the safer topic of one of his friends.

Perrin tries to keep Faile out of the rescue, but she's not having it (and good thing; she definitely saves Perrin's life down there) and insists on going with him, and Bain & Chiad back her up. Loial will be waiting with their escape, and Alanna insists that she provide some covering fog for them so that they can sneak in effectively, which deeply upsets Maksim, who thought she would be staying back with Loial where it's safer.

As soon as they're away from the others, Maksim sounds like he's on the verge of crying during their entire conversation/argument, while Alanna tries to stay stoic until she finally unleashes her anger (at herself and all of them for not being ready).

Alanna isn't willing to put her trust into Siuan (politics) or Moiraine (prophecies). Facing off against the Black Ajah convinced her that what they need is firepower. And she has had some recent evidence that there is an untapped powderkeg in the Two Rivers, and she means to find a way to use it against the Dark One.

We don't see the scene where she asks, but Bair is clearly continuing her "please break up" campaign for Randgwene, as she has requested that Egwene come sleep with the Wise Ones to continue her training.

The scene between Rand and Egwene is... awkward. Egwene doesn't mention being stalked by one of the Forsaken in her dreams; Rand maintains his silence about being stalked by one of the Forsaken in his dreams. They are continuing Not To Talk about anything important, just as Rand confessed to Mat & Perrin was the case back in 3x01.

I do feel like the show put Rand into such a Catch-22 with Egwene, where he is damned no matter what. It's clear that both of them are in the relationship for the wrong reasons and that the life and passion is gone, yet they muddle along -- Egwene because she feels an obligation to protect Rand (because she feels like she failed him at the end of s1) and because of her PTSD (we've seen that she clings to her relationship with Rand when she feels unsafe); and Rand because of his overwhelming guilt over falling in love with someone else while Egwene was suffering - he thought that faking his death would mean that she could move on and be happy, and discovered that he was wrong in a very awful way.

There's no situation where Rand feels like he can break up with Egwene, no matter how dead the spark is between them. It has to come from her. And yet she also probably felt like she can't break up with Rand either, because she has to be there to protect him and watch him and if she breaks up with him, then he might back away from her (because the last time she broke up with him, he wanted distance afterwards).

But in 3x01, it was Rand who suggested that Egwene was going to stay behind in the White Tower with Nynaeve and Mat -- I suspect he was trying for a soft breakup, and Egwene pretty firmly rejected the idea of her not staying by his side. And again in this episode, when Egwene floats the idea of her staying with him instead of going with the Wise Ones, he's quick to tell her that she should absolutely go sleep with the Wise Ones instead of him and I'm not even sure he knows exactly what the Wise Ones are teaching her.

Rand has picked up what Bair put down about him and Egwene needing to be on different paths, but he still can't take that final step of opening up the floor to an official breakup -- likely because of how guilty he feels over faking his death and then essentially abandoning Egwene to be kidnapped and sold to the Seanchan on Ishamael's orders (from Rand's PoV).

And I was talking about this with @markantonys but one of the things we noted is that it really feels like the Randgwene relationship is there pretty much entirely 'for' Egwene at this point, while Rand's s3 storyline feels like it would have been basically identical so far if Randgwene got lifted out entirely -- his conflict over having feelings for one of the Forsaken would still be there; his conflict over his identity as being Aiel by blood but Two Rivers by the raising would still be there; his conflict over his destiny as the Dragon Reborn would still be there.

It's Egwene who is being driven by the Randgwene romance - Rand is the reason she goes through the Arches, Rand is the reason she goes to the Aiel Waste, (losing) Rand was even the reason she was pushing herself so hard at the White Tower back in s2. And I just really want Egwene's story to be driven by her own wants and needs, and for her to define herself by who she is, as opposed to being Rand's Protector. Because we know that when Egwene didn't feel the need to protect Rand, when Egwene was pre-trauma... she was okay with the idea of being done with her relationship with Rand and moving on to being Nynaeve's apprentice instead.

Which is exactly the kind of thing that Bair has been trying to push ever since she and Egwene had their first solo conversations -- that Egwene needed to take her own journey, that she needs to understand herself, that her path is not aligned with Rand's, that the time for watching Rand is over -- but Egwene keeps going back to the same patterns over and over again.

Hopefully, their upcoming conversation in 3x06 is worth all the build-up and really shakes up this dynamic because the Randgwene relationship has been the weakest and yet the most persistent part of S3 for me so far, the only part that has felt like it detracts more than it adds to the characters, and I would like not to feel that way about a relationship that has been so highlighted.

But the whole way this conversation is framed -- Rand enters the tent and audibly sighs, before he notices that Egwene is packing up her things. He mentions that they "haven't had a moment alone since Rhuidean" (since they've been traveling the last two weeks, presumably, and this night in Cold Rocks Hold would have been their first time actually being 'together alone' in the same room since the night in the Tar Valon inn where his mirror images tried to murder her) and yet when Egwene offers to stay, he tells her that she should go be with the Wise Ones.

It's funny how both the Randgwene kiss and the Randfear kiss are very hesitant on Rand's part, but for almost completely opposite reasons. Here, Randgwene are continuing to avoid actually communicating with each other, while the Randfear kiss is Rand finally believing that Lanfear is still the person that he fell in love with in s2 -- that her heart is Selene | Mierin, and that she wants to stop being Lanfear by breaking her Dark Oaths and helping kill the Dark One.

And as soon as Egwene leaves, we see the weight of what he's going through (all the things that he isn't telling Egwene about) immediately weighing Rand down.

Moiraine sits and ponders her orb some more, when Lan comes to talk with her, and it's a good talk. But it really does feel like her experience in the rings has shaken Moiraine in a way that she doesn't know how to process -- she's learned that she won't be at the Last Battle and she's trying to figure out how to live with knowing that she isn't going to get to see the great work of her life actually come to fruition. She's going to need to trust Rand to follow through on it without her. Lan gives her companionship and comfort and some time just sitting with her and being her best friend.

Just as Moiraine is thinking about coming to terms with the possibility of her death being fated, we get a scene where Mat comes face to face with that potential knowledge as well -- he wakes to find Min feverishly drawing her viewing of him hanging, because she is trying to work out how to stop it. Which... that is exactly the warning that Bair gave back in 3x04 - about the trap that knowing too much about the future can make people fall into. So I wonder if Min's attempts to stop her viewing might end up leading to it happening?

We will see!

"It's lucky for us that your visions don't really come true, do they?"

I was so puzzled after the first three episodes, when Mat didn't bring up Min's viewing about Rand at all, when that was the centerpiece of his emotional arc in s2, so I was really glad to get this conversation and to hear where Mat's head is at -- he does remember the viewing, but he also remembers how, yes, he was terrified that he'd killed Rand but then Rand didn't die. So that means that Min's visions are flawed, which meant that he could focus more on the whole 'sold me out to the Forsaken' thing.

But we also see when he turns away that he is worried about her viewing -- probably because it echoes some of what he saw in Ishamael's "you're a horrible person" tea that he drank back in s2. We says here that he wouldn't kill himself but then we see him react to seeing that people get hanged for crimes in Tanchico, so that will probably up his worry factor in the upcoming episodes.

Both Rand and Mat having those moments of 'breaking' a bit when no one is looking at them -- they need their friendship so much! I really do miss getting to have Rand and Mat interact. I know that after two seasons of them getting to have some great duo scenes together, that it makes sense to spread their interactions around to other cast members too, but I just really miss them together!

Because they got permission to sleep on deck, they (and we) get to witness the gorgeous channeling by the ship's resident Windfinder (Jorin, per the credits). We learn that the Sea Folk deliberately have led the White Tower to believe that they are inherently weak in the One Power, too weak to become full sisters, as a way of protecting themselves from getting drafted into joining. Elayne can't quite understand why they don't want the training of the Tower but she is also very obviously enchanted by watching Jorin at work.

One of the great things about TSR (and this season) is that the world opens up to show us all of these ways of interacting with the One Power that isn't about going to the magic school and doing magic school things. You don't have to separate from your community in order to learn magic -- you can do it while still embedded in your community. Something that both Nynaeve and Elayne might find reassuring to think about.

Nynaeve also gets another lesson in potentially learning to access her Power -- Coine tells her to think of it as being like the sea. You can't control the sea, only the ways that you move with the sea.

Mat comes back to the room that he was previously sharing with Nynaeve and Elayne, with Min in tow. Elayne vaguely recalls her as a servant from the White Tower, and Mat quickly reveals that she was acting as the Amylin's spy. Then Nynaeve mentions that Min is the person that confirmed to Rand that he was the Dragon (which means that Rand told them about that), and Mat also reveals that Min had a viewing that Mat would kill Rand, which didn't come true.

"So I guess, in a way, that you're not good at any of your jobs." That cracked me up the first time I heard it and still cracks me up now.

But it means that everyone is basically on the same page, except that Nynaeve & Elayne don't know about Min's most recent viewing, and are probably assuming that she's there on Siuan's behalf, and they basically only allow her into the group on Mat's word that she can be trusted.

The Liandrin Grudge Squad has been released into Tanchico!

The next plotline to resolve is Siuan's set-up of Elaida, to try to figure out whether or not she's Black Ajah. From what we see in this episode, Elaida does not appear to be Black Ajah. But she does seem to be pretty hardcore -- she kills Amico as soon as she's sure that Amico isn't going to speak, and she makes it clear that she doesn't negotiate. A Gray Man shows up and kills Joiya before she can reveal the last member of Liandrin's hearts, and attacks Elaida. Siuan heals Elaida while Leane kills the Gray Man.

Elaida's main take-away from this encounter is "You led me here" aka that Siuan set her up.

Siuan's main take-away is "Maybe I misjuged [Elaida]" by assuming that she was Black Ajah simply because she's an asshole.

Our next plotline resolution is the Two Rivers plotline, with Perrin & co sneaking into the camp. They successfully make it to the girls and free them, but Natti isn't there, so Perrin assigns Bain & Chiad to get the girls out of the camp while he and Faile search for Natti.

We see that the Whitecloaks have been killing wolves and it is soon reveled to both us and Perrin that the Whitecloaks (Valda) killed Natti as well.

Fighty-fight stuff happens, with Faile putting up a very good showing against multiple Whitecloaks while Perrin struggles against Dain (who still feels very self-righteous even after handing over a woman to be burnt alive) until Faile comes to get Dain off him.

Alanna gets pincushioned by Whitecloaks before Maksim returns to re-affirm his commitment to her as a Warder. Together they kill about a dozen Whitecloaks, I think, but Alanna, Maksim, and Perrin all get injured.

One thing that this episode does exquisitely well is lay bare exactly how deliberately manipulative Lanfear is being, and how much she is feeding into what she can tell Rand wants her to be in order to win him over to her (again, I go back to my feeling that this is exactly what she did to 'win' Lews Therin in the first place). Now, I did not trust Lanfear's softness in 3x02 or 3x03 in her dreams with Rand, and I was 100% sure she was lying about Rand being the one to put them into the Cairhienin inn in 3x03, and I feel like this next encounter proves that, as when she enters a dream of his imagining (and it's not her grabbing him the second he falls asleep), he is alone on a mountain overlooking his home (the one that he's been told over and over isn't allowed to be his home anymore).

And we see how soft and vulnerable she is with Rand... and then how much she's twisting the knife and enjoying screwing with Egwene's head when we see Egwene's side of things. That is exactly what Selene was talking about when she said that she reflected the things back to her past lover that he wanted from her, and hid the rest of herself in darkness. She is doing the exact same thing with Rand.

Like Moghedien and Sammael said in 3x03, Lanfear is using her old playbook all over again, hoping it will work with a younger and more naive 'version' of LTT. She shows him the parts of herself that he will desire, and hides her cruelty away from him, where he can't see it.

"I see you come here a lot," Lanfear tells Rand here, which reveals to him (and the audience) that she's spying on his dreams even when she doesn't show herself to him.

Rand did fall for Selene -- for the woman that he thought Selene was. That's been the driving force of his guilt with Egwene, I believe. If his feelings for Selene hadn't been real, I think it would have been much easier for him to talk about it with Egwene.

But then he found out that Selene was a lie. That she was really Lanfear. And he has been struggling with that knowledge ever since. Lanfear made a mis-step in the episodes immediately afterwards, when she went hardcore dommy-mommy, which only made Rand feel that Selene had been a total lie. But Lanfear realized that she was hitting the wrong note with Rand, and she recalibrated. She's been playing sweet vulnerable Selene in his head for the last month, working on getting him to remember that version of her.

Even that wasn't enough -- we know this because he was resisting her urging him on towards Tear; that he was even telling Moiraine about Lanfear's visits to him in his dreams.

And then he saw Mierin. That's something that he could point to that couldn't be a manipulation from Lanfear. Mierin was something true. And it's something that he wants to be true, because her manipulations of him in s2 really did work to make him care deeply about her, and he wants that woman to be real.

He wishes that woman were real.

But she's not.

After her moment with Rand, Moiraine goes to Egwene, to see if Egwene can help her give a message to Siuan in her dreams, and after checking that it's important, Egwene agrees to help, and she takes Moiraine to see Siuan, who is waiting in a sun-drenched version of their fisherwoman's hut in Tear.

I am not entirely certain how much the show wants us to think of these shared dreams as actual dreams vs real-world conversations. I won't worry about that right now. We'll see what the next episode brings us.

First we have the Moiraine & Siuan conversation, where they talk about some things and avoid others.

"You cannot afford to fail again" is a line that the trailers heavily implied would be Moiraine speaking to Rand, but is actually her talking to Siuan.

What Moiraine tells Siuan -- you must get the Tower ready to follow the Dragon. The fate of the world depends on it. What you did to me hurt me deeply, even if I agree that I might have done something worse in the same circumstances. I don't think we'll have time in this life to fix things between us, but maybe in the next. I love you.

What she doesn't tell Siuan -- I will not make it to the Last Battle. I don't know when I'll die, but I fear it might be soon. I failed too. I found the Dragon, but I cannot control him or his actions.

What Siuan tells Moiraine -- I deeply regret some of what I've done, even if I didn't see any other choice at the time. Part of me wishes that we could have remained ignorant and happy, even if it had doomed the world.

What Siuan doesn't tell Moiraine -- how fragile things are at the Tower. That if she tries to push this agenda of theirs, everything might come crashing down around her head.

It is a lovely and emotional scene.

Then we have Egwene stepping through her friends' dreams and let's all be glad that Nynaeve wasn't dreaming of having sex with Lan and was instead having an innocent dream of her fake daughter, because that could have gotten really awkward really quickly.

It doesn't seem like Egwene's friends are aware that she's in their dreams, so presumably Rand isn't aware of her screaming in the last dream either (he doesn't react), and Lanfear is only aware because she's also trespassing in Rand's dream.

So Egwene gets some insight into what all of her friends and thinking and feeling -- Nynaeve is feeling wistful of that life that she and Lan never really had; Elayne is dreaming of freedom and embracing this beautiful new way of channeling that she just learned about and Aviendha being there with her; Mat dreams about a better life for his sisters, and for his mother to be proud of him; Perrin dreams about being a blacksmith, about Hopper, and about Faile being part of his simple life in the Two Rivers.

At first, Egwene thinks that Rand is dreaming about home, then she sees that he's dreaming about the woman that Egwene just realized earlier that day has been torturing her for the last month. Who is also one of the Forsaken. And who looks Egwene directly in the eyes and clearly knows that she's present.

And we have to wait until the next episode to get the fallout from Egwene's discovery.

#wot #the wheel of time #wheel of time #wot on prime #wot s3 spoilers #wheel of time s3 spoilers #butterfly watches wot #wot meta #my wot meta #wot 3x05 spoilers

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andmineisyellow · 1 year ago

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Storytelling through costuming:

I really love this coat Colin wears in episode 5. It's the same style as the brown pirate coat but in a darker teal. And when we go back and look at Colin's wardrobe from season one, the jacket he wears the most is a lighter shade of this color:

It's a nice way to show Colin returning to his old self while still maintaining the maturity and experience he gained while traveling.

This color also appears in the set design of the very next scene in 3x05:

And most notably it's one of the main colors used during the Butterfly Ball. Violet, Queen Charlotte, Eloise, and Portia, all wear variations, but it's Penelope that's stands out the most:

I talked a long time ago about how yellow represented comfort for Colin and Eloise when they were experiencing moments of distress in season 1. Perhaps we're doing something similar here. Penelope didn't need Colin to teach her how to find a husband, nor did she need him to save her. All she needed was someone to support her, encourage her, and be in her corner. Just like yellow is a representation of comfort for Colin, teal is a representation of comfort and encouragement for Pen.

#polin #bridgerton #them💛#bridgerton season 3 #penelope featherington #penelope bridgerton #colin bridgerton #bridgerton spoilers #bridgerton season 3 spoilers #s3 #thought bubble

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bringbackavac · 2 months ago

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buddie arguments pattern in one sentence:

eddie’s self–loathing self-blaming tendencies and buck’s insecurities (which are usually resurfaced by the current problem) cause them to clash with each other, with eddie being hot headed/confrontational and buck being defensive.

this came when i was rewatching the 8x17 kitchen scene and realised that it felt like a lot of the past fights they've had??? the thesis is that its rooted mostly by their character flaws, history and upbringing. so i wrote this, and honestly i still have more to add. but let me know what yall think!

EDDIE: offense

when the fights get big, eddie’s the one who would raise his voice in frustration. sometimes by the need of having someone to blame. he’s not above using petty mean words, dripping with sarcasm and malice in the moment of heat, pointed straight at buck’s issues, to hurt where it hurts.

“because you’re exhausting! we all have our own problems, but somehow, we manage to suck it up. why can’t you?!” (lawsuit arc, 3x05) “i don’t know what you want from me, buck. forgive, forget, make you feel better about what you did.” ”when you decided to sue the department, to make cap the bad guy, did you ever stop for a minute to think what it could do to us?” (lawsuit arc, 3x06)

“wow, it really is always about you isn’t it?” “you got mad, so you acted out, like you always do.” “[…] if you need to be pissed off at me, to make it easier for you?! then be pissed off!” (eddie leaving, 8x09)

“[…] you’d make it all about you. the trial and tribulations of evan buckley, a tragedy in 97 acts.” (bobby’s death, 8x17)

even in smaller arguments, he’s never afraid to call buck out.

“you have a whole life ahead of you. so why don’t you take it as a win? stop feeling sorry for yourself.” (pulmonary embolism, 3x01)

“your actions, your choices, they impact the rest of us. thats what it means to be a part of a team.” (lawsuit arc, 3x06)

“you act like you’re expendable, but you’re wrong.” (shooting arc, 4x14)

he doesn’t realize the moment he gets carried away by his own anger, his mouth involuntarily spills the true root of his problem.

“i couldn’t even call you to bail me out of jail! […]” (lawsuit arc, 3x05)

“if you’re gonna make this about me having to choose between you, or my son, […]” (eddie leaving, 8x09)

BUCK: defense

on the other hand, buck is the type who draws back to himself and stays bitter on his own. loves to suffer and stew on his own, and when confronted, would always, always, try to defend himself—often missing the actual point.

“you’re my problem. your comfort level. you’re not supposed to just walk in here like you’ve been here for years! it’s meant to be a ‘getting to know you’ period.” (eddie joins 118, 2x01)

“you’re supposed to be truthful to your lawyer. why are you so pissed at me?!” “why can’t you see my side of this?” “i didn’t realize that. maybe i could visit christopher, you know the lawsuit doesn’t prevent that.” (lawsuit arc, 3x05) ”i needed my job back! i miss being here, being part of a team. i never meant for anyone to get hurt.” (lawsuit arc, 3x06)

”i know! […] but i made a promise, […] to his fiancée.” (trail derailment, 3x18)

“c’mon! it’s a fun story! it shows the neighbourhood has character!” (eddie leaving, 8x09)

“[…] instead everyone has been tip-toeing behind my back, cause apparently i’m to fragile to handle the truth.” (bobby’s death, 8x17)

so used to being doubted, judged and alone. so he reverts to his old ways of words to prove something. a point, his point, to be seen and understood and not left behind, again, and again, and again.

loves adding petty things that he knows would hit the mark too, while the anger is present. before he sobers up from the blinding red and can feel the hurt inside once more.

“so that’s how it’s gonna be now. you’re just gonna keep on ghosting me. cause, halloween is over, just so you know.” (lawsuit arc, 3x06)

“do i have to run everything by you now?” “this is my new best friend, blaze. […] don’t want him to think i’m abandoning him.” “he knows how to stay, unlike some people.” “yes eddie, i’ll move! you’re not the only one who can do that, you know?” *to the dog, knowing eddie is behind him* “[…] and don’t go running off your people anymore, okay? you have no idea how hard it is on them.” “i don’t need you either.” (eddie leaving, 8x09)

“and you! you’re moving back to texas, mm?! like its nothing! it doesn’t affect anybody else. it does!” (eddie leaving, 8x10)

“sorry i’m sad that bobby’s dead.” (bobby’s death, 8x17)

TLDR: when buck and eddie fights, they have their own type of hurting each other. the type built from old habits and knowing each other too well that both knows perfectly which words to use and which buttons to push for it to deliver most. just the same as they do in work, in partnership, and in co-parenting.

both understands that as petty and cruel-sounding they could get when they argue, it's all a facade to hide the real wound they can always see when the cold thick fog finally evaporates for clear sight. close and comfortable enough to have the intimacy of being real and raw, with the security that they'll never lose each other an unspoken oath.

it would never happen. losing each other is not an option. never ever. especially not by stupid, callous, meaningless words. they know each other's scars and pasts too much to put faults in moments of weakness held accountable. they have suffered and survived too much crap and bruise between them to dumbly do that.

and later, when all is said and done, has been laid bare in the air, long enough that the storm turns into still water, they would help each other clean the proverbial broken glass shards in the kitchen to make the space—their space—warm and safe once again.

because they would, and always will have each others backs.

#evan buckley #eddie diaz #buddie #911 abc #this is for yall eddie haters #NEVER DOUBT BUDDIE #bbaoriginals

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thebluemallet · 1 year ago

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Eros/Psyche Parallels in Bridgerton Season 3

The show was not subtle with the Eros/Psyche parallels this season. So I attempted to go through episode by episode and find the connections. If I miss any obvious ones, let me know and I'll edit the post.

3x01- Out of the Shadows

Starting off strong with the opening credits! You briefly see a butterfly. Not only do the Featheringtons use butterflies as often as the Bridgertons use bees, but the butterfly is a symbol of Psyche.

When Penelope opens her wardrobe to that sea of YELLOW, her butterfly dress from the first ball of season 1 is visible.

Penelope talks with Genevieve about needing to find a husband this season and then we cut directly to Gregory with a bow (sans arrow) and he's pointing it directly at Colin. The bow and arrow is a symbol of Eros/Cupid.

Penelope sheds her cloak at that ball like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.

The original Eros/Psyche myth has some jealous sisters and Prudence and Philippa, while maybe not jealous per se, are not happy to see their baby sister shining so brightly when she arrives.

And for more connection to the sisters--Psyche is the youngest of three daughters and her two older sisters are married before she is.

This one is, admittedly, a bit of a stretch but in the original myth there's some ire from Aphrodite because of all the attention Psyche is getting. And Cressida rips Penelope's dress once she is getting all the attention at the ball, specifically from Lord Debling.

Eros is sent by Aphrodite in the original story to marry Psyche off to marry someone/thing horrible (or just making sure no man wants to marry her) but Eros ends up falling for Psyche himself. Colin offers to help Penelope find a husband as a way to make up for what he said about her last year and, well, we all know where this is going!

3x02- How Bright The Moon

Edited to add (credit to @bridgertonblue)- Colin cuts his hand on the glass in the study. They flashback to this scene a few episodes later when Colin finally decides to take action with Penelope and his feelings for her. This can be a parallel to Eros getting struck with his own arrows and falling for Psyche.

Eros only visits Psyche at night. Colin comes to see Penelope at night in the garden after their scheme is exposed.

Eros accidentally struck himself with his own arrows and that's how he came to fall in love with Psyche. Colin kissed Penelope because he thought he was doing it for a friend, and he ended up awakening feelings he didn't even realize he had for her.

3x03- Forces of Nature

In the Architectural Digest Bridgerton Set Tour video, you'll see butterflies on the staircase in the entrance hall of Featherington House. It's not exclusive to this episode, I just thought I'd highlight it here since it's when we have the Eloise apology scene.

THIS ONE IS A HUGE STRETCH BUT I'LL PUT IT IN HERE ANYWAY--remember how windy it was with the balloon and Colin's arms that Penelope couldn't stop drooling over? Psyche was carried by Zephyrus-the West Wind-to her fancy new home and the godly husband she never sees.

3x04- Old Friends

Eros is tasked with marrying Psyche off, falls in love with her, and marries her instead. Colin offers to help Penelope find a husband earlier in the season, realizes he's been in love with her this whole time, and we get the iconic line, "For God's sake, Penelope Featherington! Are you going to marry me or not?"

3x05- Tick Tock

This one is another stretch, but Psyche has some jealous sisters who are not permitted to visit her at her new home (until Psyche convinces her husband to let them visit many months later). Prudence and Phillipa are being mean to Penelope over her engagement and Portia doesn't allow them to attend the engagement party. A Bridgerton engagement party, so you know that stings.

And another stretch! Psyche gets pressured by her sisters to find out her husband's true identity. Penelope gets pressured by Eloise to reveal her secret identity to Colin.

3x06- Romancing Mr. Bridgerton

Eros tells Psyche that she can never know what she looks like, which is why he only visits at night. If Psyche knows who her husband is, then eventually Aphrodite will find out and she'll be pissed. But Psyche, filled with doubt thanks to her jealous sisters, lights a candle while Eros is asleep, revealing his identity and betraying Eros.

Penelope writes/delivers her Whistledown column at night. Colin follows after her, discovers her secret identity, and feels betrayed.

3x07- The Joining of Hands

Eros leaves Psyche, feeling betrayed even though he still loves her deeply. Colin is cold and distant to Penelope in the fresh sting of his betrayal. But he still loves her and goes through with the wedding.

3x08- "Into the Light"

Eros refuses to see Psyche because he's been so hurt by her betrayal. Colin sleeps ten feet away from his wife's bedroom door (they must have had other bedrooms!) and leaves soon after she wakes up in episode 8.

Psyche has to go through some trials put forth by Aphrodite to get a chance to see her husband again. Penelope is confronted and blackmailed by Cressida when the latter learns that she is Lady Whistledown.

Psyche approaches two different goddesses to help her find Eros. Sometimes they refuse to help. Sometimes one of them points her in the direction of Aphrodite's place. Those two goddesses are Hera and Demeter. Two members of the most unlikely dream team in this episode are Portia and Eloise.

Hera is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and she doesn't have the reputation of being an upstanding mother in mythology. She parallels Portia, mother to three ladies who she wants to see in secure marriages.

Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture. This is more of a reach, but she can parallel Eloise. In her book, her love interest Sir Phillip is experimenting in his greenhouse with peas(?) (I should probably read that book again) to increase their yield. Eloise also initially refused to get in between Penelope and Colin in the previous episode.

When Psyche goes through these trials, she's pregnant with Eros's baby. The showrunners confirmed that Colin knocked up Penelope in that mirror scene so she's in the very early stages of pregnancy here.

Psyche is indirectly helped by Eros (Zeus's eagle helps her out when they remember they owe Eros a favor). This angers Aphrodite and makes things worse for Psyche. Colin tries to save his wife by appealing to Cressida and ends up making things worse for Penelope.

Psyche's final trial involves going to the underworld. She deems this an impossible task and intends to sacrifice herself before she finds another way. Penelope decides to reveal her identity to the Queen and the ton, effectively sacrificing her reputation and potentially her marriage.

Zeus listens to Eros's pleas and grants Psyche immortality. The Queen is merciful to Penelope and doesn't punish her for Whistledown, allowing her to keep writing.

Psyche is often depicted either with butterfly wings or with a butterfly near/around her in art. Mrs. Varley releases the bugs (butterflies) directly after the Whistledown reveal.

Eros and Psyche are reunited and live a rare Happily Ever After in mythology. Penelope and Colin reconcile and go on to their own Happily Ever After.

#bridgerton #colin bridgerton #penelope bridgerton #penelope featherington #polin #eros x psyche #bridgerton season three #bridgerton s3 #i think i got all the references #edit- i found more!

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paperstorm · 6 months ago

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2024 fic round up!

I was tagged by so many lovely people I have lost track of them, so my whole tag list is under the cut! I wrote 270,000 words this year, including the entire Missing Moments season 3. Thank you to everyone who commented or kudosed or reblogged or read silently, the support for writers in this fandom is really so wonderful 💛

Missing Moments [a series of canon compliant tags for every episode of Lone Star, seasons 1-3 completed]

3x01 – Imperfect pieces pulling at the glue (9.1k) 3x02 – Up in smoke (9.4k) 3x03 – Wayfaring strangers (10.4k) 3x04 – Homeward bound (15.7k) 3x05 – Reconstruction (7.3k) 3x06 – All these sacred melodies (8.5k) 3x07 – Everest to mariana (8.2k) 3x08 – "You have one new message..." (12.4k) 3x09 – Cracks begin to show (5k) 3x10 – Push and pull (5.2k) 3x11 – Where the rain won't hurt (9.7k) 3x12 – Losing streak (4k) 3x13 – Heard the risk is drowning (15.3k) 3x14 – Live in the layers (5.6k) 3x15 – Switch (5.5k) 3x16 – Everything and every dream (5.6k) 3x17 – Move into the new (7.5k) 3x18 – Forever is the sweetest con (10.1k)

Hold me too close (1.8k)

Carlos’s lips curve into a small responding smile and he shakes his head. “It’s okay.”

He tilts his chin forward, asking for a kiss, that TK gives him readily because he thinks it would hurt like having a limb ripped off if he didn’t. Carlos’s lips are smooth and damp against his, wet with the salt from his tears.

“Wanna go for a walk?” TK asks when they part, and Carlos quickly nods.

A small extension of the scene after Tommy sings at their wedding.

In Loving Memory for @carlos-in-glasses (1.3k)

The word son catches his eye, and Carlos frowns and tucks his head to look closer. His legacy will continue to live on through his son’s own dedication to public service, is written at the bottom of the thin obituary.Carlos feels his stomach roll and his mouth slacken. Heat blooms in his cheeks and the tips of his fingers tingle. Next to him there’s a tiny, nearly imperceptible gasp – as TK finds the same words and his grip tightens further on Carlos’s arm.

Silver Lining's Gold and Shining (25.3k)

A story of nine pivotal moments in Carlos's life, and nine times his best friend was there beside him.

Butterflies and Sky-High (8k)

TK leans in closer and rests his forehead against Carlos’s cheek, understanding that this is hard for him. Carlos is so heart-warmed by the gesture that it gives him the courage to say, “I’ve been reading about demisexuality. It’s this thing where …”

“I know what it means,” TK says softly, and thank God he does because Carlos isn’t sure he would have done justice to an explanation anyway. Not right now.

“I think … maybe I am. That. I didn’t think I was anything other than gay but then I was reading and some stuff started to make sense.”

Made From Stardust (8.2k)

Adoration swells in your chest as it always does when the warmth of his smile is draped over you like a blanket. You could not express in words, not even if you spoke 50 languages instead of just two, the magnitude of your love for this man. It’s too big, too necessary, too seeped into the cracks of every plane of your existence. You cannot be you without him, because the you who sits here on this couch with your fiancé in the home you share with him would never have taken shape without his guiding hands. A man named Carlos Reyes would have existed, but not this one. He would have been somebody else.

A collaboration with @reasonandfaithinharmony, check out her beautiful gif set 🖼

Fine Line (6.8k) for @heartstringsduet

Carlos ghosts a kiss along TK’s cheek, feeling the shudder of TK’s inhale as he murmurs, “You need me?”

“I …” TK swallows, his throat clicks and Carlos hears it.

Their knees bump and Carlos trails his fingers through TK’s hair and just waits. He doesn’t ask again, he just holds TK in a vertical embrace and strokes his hair and stays patient.

“There’s something that’s helped in the past,” TK says in a small voice. “Something you and I haven’t done before.”

brighter in the morning (40k so far) cowritten with @strandnreyes

Sometimes nights together are hard to come by, but TK and Carlos find ways to connect as husbands in the morning.

A series of 12 mornings together for each of the 12 episodes in season 5 (plot permitting …)

Somewhere in a Song (23.7k so far)

Fresh out of rehab for drug and alcohol addiction, lead singer TK and his band Stranded are pushed into a tour he's not sure he's ready for. To combat the bad press from his very public hitting of rock bottom, his label suggests they take up-and-coming country singer Carlos along with them. Between TK's still healing wounds and closeted Carlos's fears that his parents don't support his musical career, a rocky start might turn into finding exactly what they both need.

Tagging @theghostofashton @birdclowns @reyesstrand @strandnreyes @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut

@carlos-in-glasses @actual-sleeping-beauty @thisbuildinghasfeelings @herefortarlos @heartstringduet

@goodways @alrightbuckaroo @lightningboltreader @freneticfloetry

@liminalmemories21 @nancys-braids @whatsintheboxmh @bonheur-cafe

@reasonandfaithinharmony @thebumblecee @never-blooms @lemonlyman-dotcom

@sanjuwrites @orchidscript @jesuisici33 @kiwichaeng @honeybee-taskforce

@hereghostslive @butchreyes @just-inside-her @firstprince-history-huh @captain-gillian

@tellmegoodbye @anactualcaseofthetruth @ironheartwriter @eclectic-sassycoweyes @ditheringmind

@emsprovisions @irispurpurea @nisbanisba @corsage @chicgeekgirl89

@carlossreaders @ladytessa74 @denizoid @everlastingday

Want to be added or removed from the list? Lmk

#911 lone star #911ls fanfic #tarlos #paperstorm writes

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piratekane · 1 year ago

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(post-3x05 kacy scene)

Warm fingertips press down against the thin skin on the inside of her wrist, a melody she knows that she knows but can’t quite place in the early grey of the morning, the sun rising, muted, through the low clouds outside the window. She was asleep a minute ago and there’s a dream quickly fading away as her eyes open slowly and the room shifts into focus.

“Morning,” Kate whispers, still sunken in her pillow.

“G’morning.” Lucy pulls the words from the back of her throat like she’s pulling cotton from a cattail. “Time s’it?”

Kate doesn’t roll over to check her phone. “Early,” she guesses. “Too early for our day off.”

A day off. A present for her jungle excursion, courtesy of Tennant. A whole day to let her body come down from the high of being chased through thick vegetation with a life hanging delicately in her hands. Lucy lets her eyes close again and sinks back into her pillow. She goes back to focusing on Kate’s fingers looped carefully around the wrist between them. Tap, tap, taptap. Tap, tap. A song, then. One that she knows but can’t quite place.

“Is that Boot Scootin Boogie?”

Kate exhales a short laugh. “Taylor Swift.”

“Who else would it be?” Lucy feels the bed shift as Kate slides a little closer. She can feel the soft heat coming off Kate’s bare arms and wants to reach for it, pull it back over her, close her eyes and slip back into sleep for just a little bit longer.

It was a long day yesterday, her nerves pulled to their breaking point. When she stepped over the threshold to their apartment, the weight she had been working so hard to push off came crashing down on her. She doesn’t remember tasting the pizza Kate ordered, doesn’t remember picking Love is Blind on the TV or queuing up where they left off. She doesn’t remember brushing her teeth or turning out the light.

She does remember Kate’s body warm behind her on the couch, her own body pressed to Kate’s front as they sat wrapped up in each other. She remembers Kate’s arms and how they wrapped low around her waist in bed and held her tightly. She remembers soft lips to her bare shoulder and I love you against her skin as she let the exhaustion take over.

She remembers the Kate of it all, the steady and warm and loving presence she’s come to need like oxygen in her lungs. She remembers the overwhelming feeling of love—one she thought she’d never find in a million years.

“I could sleep another hundred hours,” she admits, eyes still closed.

She feels Kate’s smile against the back of her hand. “You can. We have nothing planned today.”

The thought is so tempting. She could pull Kate’s arms around her, drape them over her like the light comforter they’re sharing, and let herself sink back into sleep. It’s not too far off; she could reach for it and be asleep in moments.

But Kate is awake and tapping out a Taylor Swift song against her pulse point and that usually means banana pancakes and a Golden Girls marathon and pressing Kate against the counter edge and kissing her until either their lungs start to burn or the pancakes start to smoke. Lucy loves those mornings and the way Kate tastes like the bites of bananas she snuck before mixing them into the batter.

“Did I dream yesterday?”

“Only if we were having the same nightmare.” Kate’s free hand pushes back some of Lucy’s hair. “Otherwise, it was real.”

Lucy slides her foot forward, curling her ankle around Kate’s calf. “I thought so.” She opens one eye, studying Kate’s profile. She’s committed it to memory by now. “I feel like a truck ran me over.”

“It did,” Kate murmurs. “That very much happened.”

Lucy sighs. Yesterday wasn’t a dream. She can see it vividly in her mind and she closes her eyes against it again, trying to fill it with Kate—Kate so close and so warm.

“I’m not ready to talk yet,” she admits. She isn’t. She can’t. She’s still working through her family in her own mind; she can’t possibly put into words what they’re like and what they’ve done to her and to each other.

“We don’t have to talk.” Kate’s voice is soft and genuine and Lucy thinks again—again and again—how lucky she is. “We can just lay here. We don’t have to do anything at all.”

Lucy knows Kate isn’t lying. She knows Kate won’t push and she won’t prod and she’ll let Lucy set the pace for when and where and how. And it sounds perfect—a whole day in bed with Kate and their bodies pressed close together, hidden away from the world.

But someone told her to live her life yesterday. Someone who had the courage to throw theirs to the wind and start over from scratch. Someone who proved that there are still good people in the world who want to do what’s right for the sake of doing the right thing. And even if she can’t talk about it yet, even if she’s not ready to unlock the ugly parts of her past and lay them out on the table, she’s not going to lay in bed all day and let the world just pass her by.

“No.” She opens both eyes, staring deeply into Kate’s brown ones. “Let’s get up. We can make pancakes.”

“Banana or blueberry?”

“Both,” she says, feeling greedy and not caring. “And bacon. And toast. And—“

Kate laughs. “Okay. Remember we can only eat so much.”

“I can eat so much. I’m from—“

“Texas, yes.” Kate laughs again and leans in, kissing Lucy softly and pulling away too soon.

Lucy thinks about chasing her, pressing her deep into the mattress and not stopping until she has to come up for air. But she settles on letting Kate pull away and slide out of bed, pulling her hair up into a ponytail that exposes the long line of her neck. In her thin tank top and her soft shorts, no one has ever looked more beautiful than Kate does right now.

Lucy may be holding some things back, may be keeping some things close to the vest, but this? This she wants to scream from the rooftops. This she wants everyone to know. This she wants to tell Kate.

“I love you.”

Kate looks back over her shoulder, a smile on her face that threatens to break through the grey clouds outside their window. “I love you too.”

Live your life, Lucy Tara.

Lucy smiles as she gets up and stretches her arms above her head, feeling the tension break in her shoulders. She is going to live her life. She’s going to take every moment and hold it tightly in her hands. She’s going to love Kate with every part of her that’s capable of it and when she’s ready she’ll tell Kate everything she wants to know.

“Lucy?”

Lucy looks up. “Hmm?”

“I said, we can make toast too. If you want.”

She thinks about it for a moment before she smiles. “Life is too short to skip the toast.”

Kate rolls her eyes, pulling the sheet back up on the bed. “Where did you read that?”

“That’s a Lucy Tara quote, free of charge.” She winks when Kate laughs and scrubs her hair back off her neck into a bun. “There’s more where those came from, by the way.”

“Lucky me,” Kate grumbles, still smiling.

“Yeah,” Lucy says softly. “Lucky you.” She holds Kate’s eyes for a moment. “Lucky us.”

Kate’s smile slips into shy before she clears her throat and gives the neatly-made bed one last pat. “Lucky us,” she echoes. She slips out of the bedroom and heads towards the kitchen, humming something under her breath.

Lucy watches her walk away and thinks: this is a good life. This is a life worth living.

She follows Kate.

#ncis: hawai'i #kacy #kate whistler #lucy tara #post-ep shenanigans #a next morning run-on sentence that won't let me go #i wrote this in my notes app during a family easter dinner so excuse me i was in the middle of passing the peas when this idea came to me #actually it was mashed potatoes and my cousin wouldn't shut up about tswift and i was like get me outtttttta here #and since my brain is kacy-mush anyway this just happened #k bye <3

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primal--scream · 4 months ago

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Working on a Buck/Eddie vid, and I'm rewatching the grocery store scene in 3x05 (because its an angsty ass video and i need these scenes), and Eddie is so angry, and it's just incredibly palpable. His anger is a living, breathing thing that you can touch.

It's a point in his life where he needs Buck. He needs Buck to talk him down from the ledge, he needs the peace and comfort Buck always brings him. He needs the calm, soothing bubble that Buck creates for him when he's close to losing his shit. The person he needs the most, who understands him the best, who is a vital part of his life and family isn't there, and he's so frustrated and angry and devastated at the loss and it's so real, it doesn't feel like acting, it feels like you're standing off to the side in the produce aisle with a pineapple in your hand watching two peiple who love each other deeply airing their dirty laundry and you want to look away but you can't.

Ryan did an amazing job in this scene. I hope he's proud of it.

At least, that's how I'm reading it. YMMV.

#eddie diaz #evan buckley #buck x eddie #buddie #ryan guzman #911

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outmakingmoonshine · 1 year ago

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I was just writing a post about the Carmy/Faks scene & how it's really just Carmy talking to himself. For this scene the two Faks represent his inner voices/subconscious (which might only apply to this scene idk), but then I decided to see what all these scenes looked like together and wow am I glad I did!! Seeing these 4 scenes side by side is very interesting.

The first two scenes in 3x05 & 3x07 mirror each other, the last two scenes in 3x09 mirror each other and all 4 of them tell their own story together. The first scene is Carmy's talking to himself but shouting & aiming it at anyone who's listening. The 2nd is Syd talking to herself but mostly mumbling so only she can hear. In the Faks scene Carmy's having an "imaginary" conversation out loud with two people, just like Syd's doing in the last scene rehearsing what she might say to both Adam Shapiro and Carmy.

And if you rearrange these scenes & put the first 2 after the Faks scene, if we saw/heard those sarcastic "that makes sense" comments after we saw the "Claire is peace" scene in that exact same location, it would've been a lot easier to figure out what they're really referring to!

There are lots of layers to unpack here but I'm gonna talk about the main things that jump out at me. This is probably gonna be a bit chaotic with different ideas and breakdowns of what things could mean so I hope it's not too confusing. Anyone else feel free to jump in with your thoughts.

Below the cut

Notice how in all these scenes, except one, Carmy and Syd are alone talking out loud to themselves, vocalizing their inner thoughts. Mute the video and just read the subtitles if you need to. The scene with the Faks reads like a conversation with imaginary friends or like the two funny inner voices of a character in a comedy movie. All these scenes are like they're from a comedy movie tbh.

In the first two scenes Carmy & Syd act the same way they both deal with their problems (Carmy shouting about it to anyone who'll listen and Syd pissed but mostly keeping it quiet/to herself). They're the only ones actually inside the dumpster in all the scenes which makes me think it represents their minds and the boxes are the mental chaos & thoughts they're trying to sort through. The Faks are technically outside Carmy's mind/the dumpster so they don't speak from the mind or for the mind but they're close to it, communicating with it & "helping" sort through the chaos. Maybe the dumpster represents the conscious mind and the Faks are Carmy's subconscious. It sounds like The Faks are encouraging Carmy to fall back into his base programming, which people often tend to do when they're lost and don't know what to do. They're trying to convince him to call Claire bc Carmy's base programming from his family is "Claire is good". That's what safe to him bc it's a "truth" he's always known & believed. Idk there's many possibilities. It's also Interesting how later this episode The Faks go to Claire and speak directly for Carmy like they know for sure what he's thinking & feeling.

Lets get into the dialogue of the first two scenes:

"[Carmy] That makes sense. [box clatters] Boxes full of bullshit. Put it on the f*cking list. Oh, it's good. I'll do it. I got it. I got it."

Just a side note: The next line in the script is "I don't know wha-what I'm supposed to do with all this stuff" from Marcus in the next scene where he's clearing out all his mum's stuff with Syd.

"[Syd] 'Cause why would you do it? I mean, you're supposed to do it. This is-- This is fine. This is good. This makes sense. This is f*cking… F*ck. F*ck. [pants] [muttering] F*ck. [growls] fcking-- Where are the fcking Faks? F*ck!"

I don't even know where to start, there's so many ways to read this!

Carmy said one specific thing in the Faks scene that very clearly "didn't make sense"...Claire is peace. He knows that's not true but I think the point is he's been avoiding thinking about who his peace actually is all S3*. Carmy & Syd are both sarcastically saying "that makes sense" like it's subtly referring to that scene later in the same place. Was the panic attack scene by the same dumpsters? Idk someone let me know please.

*Carmy said in 3x07 he tries to avoid thinking about legacy. The only legacy we know of is the one he's trying to build with Syd both professionally and personally. His realization that Syd's brings him peace in the panic attack in 2x09 is the reality of his legacy that he's been trying to avoid all S3. He's working to get her his star and creating dishes inspired by her so Syd's cearly on his mind but the one thing he should be thinking about and talking to her about, he's avoiding.

There are many different layers of possible meaning and/or foreshadowing in this dialogue, but one layer it can be read is how they're both thinking/feeling about the Claire situation bc even tho Syd didn't mention it all season it's still there between them. Maybe none of this is about Claire, but if it was:

Carmy: "[sarcastically] that makes sense"...claire is "peace". "Boxes full of bullsh*t"...he's full of bullshit that Claire's his peace?!! Or maybe Claire is in the boxes of bullshit aka his baggage and past trauma he needs to sort through? "Put it on the "f*cking list"...put Claire on the list of his stress & baggage? And a very sarcastic "Oh it's good. I'll do it. I got it. I got it." He'll do what he's "supposed to do" with Claire & call her/apologize/maybe even be with her even tho it clearly sounds like he doesn't want to..?? He's "got it"...even though he clearly doesn't. "It's good" but she's clearly not The Good Thing™.

Syd: "Cause why wouldn't you do it? I mean you're supposed to do it"...why won't carmy just sort himself out? why wont he just call claire/be with claire since Syd thinks that's what he wants & she acts in front of him like "it's not her place to be [beside him on a personal level]" almost direct quote from her in 3x09. She's probabaly confused why Carm just wont be with Claire. From Syd's perspective he changed his mind about her and chose Claire in S2, so the next logical step is he'd be with Claire. "This is fine. This is good. This makes sense."...carmy saying claire is peace & also probably how she'll react out loud if carmy/claire get back together. "This is f*cking… F*ck. F*ck. [pants] [muttering] F*ck. [growls] fcking--"...this is how she really feels about the whole Claire situation & Carmy just ditching her & "changing shit" (that came up a lot this season), which ultimately led to him not treating her like a partner in their professional relationship. "Where are the fcking Faks? F*ck!"...a direct lead in to Carmy's scene in the exact same place 2 episodes later.

Sydney's dialogue in 3x07 scene also reads like a run-on of Carmy's dialogue in 3x05, continuing his thoughts trying to convince himself of what he should do with Claire but he's panicking so he calls for the Fak's, his imaginary friends/inner voices, who are there with him the next time we see him in that spot. From the dialogue it makes sense but idk if we've ever seen the show do that with Syd before so idk. Sydney is clearly definied as her own character but she is definied as a mirror of Carmy too so it's a possibility.

Of course this is all interpretation, some or none of this could be directly about Claire but idk. The location (esp if it's in the same place he had the 2x09 panic attack), all the "coincidental" dialogue, the way all these scenes tie together...and with the panic attack scene and the opposing realizations Carmy comes to about Syd & Claire in 2x09 & 3x09. It wasn't a "realization" about Claire in 3x09, he didn't even look like he believed what he was saying tbh. It looked like he just made it up on the spot.

It's also interesting that these scenes by the dumpsters are the quivalent of S1 & 2's walk in scenes where both Syd & Carmy go for a moment of peace to clear their thoughts and "cool off". We don't see those this season but we do get these which is more like them sorting out all the chaotic thoughts & feelings inside them, separating the "trash" from the good stuff, "the bad from the good" like Carmy said he wanted/needed to do to achieve his legacy in 3x07.

In the Faks scene listen to all the "we" and "us" talk;

"If we did it when it was scheduled. We do though. We do it, Carm. All we do is break down boxes. We break 'em down and we have to do it again. Who would wanna haunt us? Who's pissed at us? Sammy's pissed at us."

Until Claire is mentioned (a sobering thought for Carmy) and it's suddenly "Not us. Just you. Not us." Reality hit for a moment and the imaginary friends want to separate themselves from him because they're not "real" & they didn't upset Claire so she can't be mad at them. I think Carmy is the only "real" one in this scene. The Faks are the imaginary friends/inner voices that seem like they're helping the main character but they're really just causing more chaos and leading him down the wrong path because they're misunderstanding what he wants based on what he's forcing himself to think about; Claire. (I lowkey think Carmy's forcing memories of Claire to stop himself from thinking about Sydney.)

The transition of Carmy talking to himself with The Fak's representing two parts of his mind aka "two minds" going straight into Syd talking to herself & voicing out loud what she'd say to both Shapiro and Carmy like she's having a mental conversation with two different people and that she's in "two minds". "I wanted to start off by saying I'm grateful" sounds formal and directed at Adam Shapiro. "Ok so I wanted to talk to you..." sounds more personal and directed at Carmy. It's a similar concept of being in two minds used in a slightly different context but in this show and the writing specifically, context is all over the place anyway.

Also the transition into the Syd scene is to drive home the point that Carmy was just having a conversation with himself, trying to convince himself that Claire is peace, she's "good" etc. For this scene (and possibly this scene only) Theodore is the stubborn part of Carmy that doesn't like to be pushed around who thinks stuff like "Yeah but I'd see his ass" about Sammy Fak. And you know there's a part of Carmy that would have that attitude but the conscious part of him is smarter than that. Neil is the more sweet, anxious side of Carmy that is kind of "away with the fairies" a little bit, in his own head a lot. Carmy is the regular, conscious, "real" Carmy trying to figure out the mental mess he's in.

I think transitioning into that Syd scene was also to callback to the only other times Syd or Carmy spoke aloud to themselves. I might be forgetting something but I think all these scenes are the only times we see either of them have full conversations with themselves out loud in S3..? Someone let me know if that's wrong please.

Side note- From one perscpective: Carmy's reaction to Theodore calling Claire "a piece of ass" was so...unaffected??! Could you imagine if someone said that about Syd?? He bit Richie's head off for calling her "sweetheart" in 1x01 and physically put himself between them so I can't imagine he'd take it that lightly if it was about Syd...From another perpective, if this scene is all about Carmy's inner thoughts, is he asking himself if that's how he sees Claire? I don't think he does intentionally but it's a valid question considering the show seems to use physical intimacy as a substitute for any real connection between them. If Claire & Carmy never kissed or had sex, would anyone see that relationship as a romance?? I really don't think so tbh, the physical initmacy is the only thing about their scenes that confirms it's supposed to be seen as a romance. Meanwhile SydCarmy are drowning in real connection before any physical intimacy.

Anyone please feel free to jump in and add your thoughts, I'd love to know your perspectives on seeing all these scenes together @thoughtfulchaos773 @sydcarmyfan @yannaryartside @currymanganese @vacationship @afrofairysblog @greekyogurttragedy @tvfantic87 @moodyeucalyptus @gingergofastboatsmojito @ambeauty @whenmemorydies @brokenwinebox and anyone else who wants to jump in is welcome to.

#sydcarmy #sydcarmy meta #sydney adamu #carmen berzatto #neil fak #theodore fak #the bear meta #the bear fx #carmy x sydney #anti claire bear #the bear season 3 #carmy berzatto

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raayllum · 6 months ago

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the framing of Ezran compared to Viren in the dungeon scenes (and how Soren is framed with the latter), regarding what we know about AtLA really framing Zuko as the one imprisoned rather than Iroh despite Iroh being the one in jail.

That's all, have a nice week (before s7 destroys us)!

I've been thinking doing a post about the show's literal framing of physical imprisonment just cause there are two shots from 3x03 and 5x08 that I think about a lot, but I wasn't thinking about Ez in the mix so time to go digging. (And yess I love that detail! I still remember watching this youtube essay about it and how exciting/illuminating it was.)

3x04 is a really interesting episode just because it sets a lot up symbolically before things reach literal standpoints (i.e. Ezran taking off one chain he's chosen — the crown, i.e. 'a child is freer than a king' — in favour of literal chains and imprisonment, sacrificing his freedom for other people's). An example is how Ezran is already shown behind bars as he prepares to give up his crown:

We see something similar with Aaravos once Viren can see him. Even though we don't Know yet that Aaravos was imprisoned (that only comes in 3x06) it shows the bars that seemingly imprison him being something he can easily pass through as he takes the next step in his plan with Viren. Viren's freedom means his freedom.

There's also some interesting things done with how Viren is presented in jail earlier on in the episode. When Aaravos is about to begin preparing his eye with little bug pal, and the eye itself, the 'bars' (the stripes in the eye's case) are prominent and total.

These emphasis on bars is shifted from as Aaravos goes to take the eye goop off, and we switch it to an emphasis on TDP's favourite light and dark motif, with Viren entirely in the dark vs Ezran in 3x05 who lies in the light. This combination of the imprisonment framing/subversion and some kind of light/dark symbolism is also frequently common. So while the chain framing for Ezran isn't really There (and he's doing the 'right' thing / isn't tethered to Freedom as a theme as much as Justice, honestly) but that sort of makes sense in its own way, favouring his light-dark symbolism contrast instead.

Case in point, in the meantime, for Ezran: Viren being in the light when Ezran comes to make the transfer, with Ezran much more in the dark in the end credits art:

We also get some nice parallels with this shot from 3x04 vs 3x01, of Viren being trapped in a circle/chain/cycle vs not (as he's being freed and simultaneously pulled deeper into Aaravos' trap as he goes).

And last but not least some framing for Viren and Ezran as they switch places, with the actual transfer having a parallel "walking in, walking out" tradeoff from 3x06:

We also get some nice set up ("sometimes a friend can help light the way!") for Bait and Soren in 3x05, and in 3x03 with Viren's visitor being just another means of control/deception through consumption rather than aid and actual sustenance (jelly tarts).

Keeping Soren shadowed, I think, isn't necessarily to make us doubt if it's him (it's not dark enough for that) but it does reaffirm us having doubts about what he's doing to do, before we see the happier turn and know we can trust him, which is Also a direct opposition to Viren's false framing with it in 3x03.

There's also Lots of great framing in the scene with Claudia, Soren, and Viren, that continually use the bars and lighting to make it look like the siblings are the ones imprisoned rather than their father and that bars symbolize the growing wedge between them. Even just the way Viren is framed with light around his head ("but we must be willing to sacrifice, even the things we love") as he portrays himself like a (false) martyr. These are the shots I always think about when watching 3x03, as referenced above.

However, Viren being placed behind bars does start to enter the framing, with the siblings being portrayed side by side (with nothing dividing them) once Claudia brings up her brother's truth:

But we go right back to the 'siblings divided by bars' symbolism once Viren is considering what to do, and then chooses the lie and gaslighting Soren. However, we never go back to Viren being portrayed without the bars to the same degree. He's trapped himself in too, which is fitting, as this is the moment he ultimately loses Soren (and Claudia) forever.

And we see this first hand in Soren's visits to the dungeon in 6x05, 6x06, and 6x08, but that might have to be a post in its own right since I'm getting close to the picture limit for this one. Part 2 to follow!

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markantonys · 2 months ago

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My Mom Reacts To: wheel of time season 3 episodes 5-8 (no book spoilers)

season 1 (book spoilers)

season 2 episodes 1-4 (no book spoilers)

season 2 episodes 5-8 (book spoilers)

season 3 episodes 1-4 (no book spoilers)

3x05

since i'd already watched the episodes on our account back when they came out, the player attempted to pick up where i'd left off and opened this up at the very end of the episode and so my mom saw a few seconds of the egwene-lanfear-rand cliffhanger scene as i was frantically trying to pause and rewind, so she knew that was coming haha but even at this initial glimpse she wasn't shocked or anything, perhaps because while it was loading she was reading out the episode summary about "egwene learns rand's dark secret" and asked "what's rand's dark secret?" and i said "guess" and she said "lanfear" and i said "yes. oh, maybe i shouldn't have told you that."

as soon as they showed cold rocks hold, she started wondering about how the aiel survive with so little water and seemingly no place to grow food. once again, a woman after robert jordan's own heart! she wants to know all the little anthropological details!

she went "oh! he has different wives?" but that was her only comment on the aiel polyamory loredrop

elaida: i know what you are. river trash. mom: TUH!

"i feel like egwene suffers so much" -mom seemingly apropos of nothing (egwene was just sitting in the temple talking to the wise ones), but maybe thinking of the spoiled end of the episode lmao

she finds all the dream lore stuff very confusing. i do too! thankfully, she only asked me basic-level questions that i knew how to answer.

my dad loved elaida's dramatic hand-flick shooing motion when she was sending the novice away from adeleas haha

mat: [runs out of the ship cabin after being repeatedly told not to, while elayne yells at him to stop] mom: mat is always doing the wrong thing. every episode, someone is saying "mat, don't do that!"

Mat Cauthon: A Summary

"that doesn't really look like him" critiquing min's art skills

multiple mentions throughout theses episodes about how concerned she is by the prospect of these four young people haring off on a dangerous mission all by themselves. she would definitely be the kind of person to go "but where are their parents??" when reading a YA fantasy book.

min: no eye contact mat: [stares at the hanged man] mom: no eye contact, mat!!!!! me: it's a corpse mom: oh

when whitecloaks appear onscreen: "i don't like these people"

mom: so elaida's not black ajah me: no mom: then why is she siuan's enemy? me: she can be her enemy without being a darkfriend mom: [sighs] i guess that's true

once again she is distressed by how many different factions of Bad Guys there are

the cauthon girls: perrin what's happened to your eyes? mom: i don't think that would be the first thing i'd notice right now me: you wouldn't notice if someone you used to know suddenly had bright golden eyes??? mom: well, it's dark in here

perrin: i thought you were a good man dain: I WAS!!!!! dad: [chuckles] that's a good answer

rand: [gives his earnest speech about how he believes lanfear can be a good person again] mom: [sadly] oh rand, you have rose-colored glasses

so! she doesn't seem to blame rand about the whole randfear situation (perhaps because seeing the ending kiss scene first helped prepare her, perhaps because all my rand sympathy seed-planting in the first half of the season was successful, perhaps because the "this naive young man is getting preyed on" angle comes across more clearly to the middle-aged mom demographic than it does to some other demographics who dismiss it as cut-and-dry rand-fault cheating. who can say?)

and at various points in the episode she asked "what does lanfear want, just to rule everything?" and "does she actually love him or is she just saying that?" so i don't think she has ever been taken in by lanfear's tricks for one second even though many viewers did feel swayed by her "i want to break my dark oaths" schtick haha my mom never has any time for the forsaken's sob stories, like when she went "so kill yourself then" while ishy was delivering his sadboy nihilism monologue. WOT if my mom was a ta'veren: 1 book

mom as egwene is preparing to give moiraine a ride to a meeting: how are they traveling around to these places? me: they're going there in a dream dad: which is the only way anyone seems to travel anywhere in this show

mom while moiraine and siuan are kissing: .........is egwene still watching all this?

during the montage of all the friends' dreams she asked if this was halfway through the season because "it feels like they're giving us a recap" (but i reminded her that last episode was the halfway point)

speaking of last episode, before we started this one she said that she liked that episode because it was only about one plotline so it was easier to keep track of what was going on

3x06

"i vaguely remember him" about thom

mom during the weird moggy montage: what is she doing???? me: she's just really weird idk

when egwene pushed the wise ones out of her dream my mom gasped and thought egwene had destroyed them

rand: do i kill egwene? mom: [gasp] is that prophesized???? me: no he's just worried it might happen when he goes mad dad: it can't be prophesized if she [moiraine] keeps saying things will happen "sometimes"

(it felt dishonest to transcribe that sentence more efficiently as my dad saying "moiraine" himself, because i need you to know he does not know a single name of any character in this show)

faile talking about her backstory: she killed him mom: her own son???? faile: her own son mom: oh, i guess if i'd just waited a second

mom: does elayne stay good forever? me, incapable of shrugging mysteriously and letting her think elayne might become evil: yes she does mom: oh good. it's hard to get invested in characters when i'm always afraid they'll turn out to be evil.

mom after the hills of tanchico: i thought they were trying to be subtle

she liked "i don't mind strange" and faile's reaction to finding out mat blew the horn, but was feeling wary about her. "i don't know if this is a good thing or not" when faile and perrin kissed, then in the next episode she asked 1) is faile secretly evil? and 2) will perrin kill her by accident like he did his wife? and i told her no on both counts, sometimes i've just got to spoil her for the sake of soothing her worries haha

even after the kiss she referred to faile as "perrin's new friend". diversity win: straight couple gets "and they were roommates" treatment

after all my wondering, she ended up having absolutely zero reaction to or comment on the randgwene breakup! oh well, i don't think she minds it or blames rand too much at least, or else she would've said Something, and she definitely seemed fond of both rand and egwene throughout the season, so maybe it came through fairly successfully as a balanced No Bad Guys breakup for her.

3x07

she was so happy to see the s1 tuatha'an again!

perrin: it may be the season of falling leaves, but when people see how bare the trees are, they'll long for spring mom: [chuckles] when did he get so wise?

someone mentioned lord luc and she went "who????" lmaoooo he really was such a "go girl give us nothing" character this season

i've had to go "that's the son of the guy whose dad perrin killed" just about every time for dain's first scene per episode, she never remembers who he is

she also asked "who's that?" about egwene's mom no joke at least 5-6 times during this episode

in loial's first scene this episode she was like "i want him to have more to do, he's one of my favorites" and i was internally thinking "well, she's about to get her wish............."

ila: there is no leaf without the seed dad: they have a lot of weird sayings in this show

"since they have two rivers nearby, why don't they just dig a moat around the village to keep the trollocs from entering?" perrin come hire my mom as your new strategist

dad about alanna taking out a huge chunk of the army with her hailstorm: "that feels like cheating somehow"

my mom was very sad about loial! but she figured it was coming because "angels started singing" right before his final moments.

me: he doesn't die in the books, but in a show you can't keep as many characters around forever, so that's why they killed him off here mom: but they don't understand that he's my favorite character

then i said "what about lan?" and she said "he's a different kind of favorite character" haha and she went on to say that she liked loial for his comic relief and also because he was a scholar who showed the importance of books and stories in a world full of warriors and battles. RIP loial!

she does not believe for one second that padan fain will keep his promise to perrin and thinks he'll be coming right back to attack again sooner or later

mom taking stock of the battle results: so, Worst Whitecloak is dead and Peddler escaped and is still alive

3x08

mom about the amyrlin election: it's like the conclave for the new pope

leane to siuan: you haven't once told me how you know this mom: i guess she can't exactly say "somebody told me in a dream" can she?

when sammael says lews therin gave him his scar: "lews therin is something to do with rand right?" oh mom

moggy to liandrin: mistress has been very busy mom: she sounds like gollum

mat and nynaeve: [put on their veils to follow liandrin] dad: [scoffs] THOSE are their disguises?

mom about lanfear's little wedding dress number for her meeting with rand: she always has the best costumes

moiraine: we leave for alcair dal mom: where? me: just some other location don't worry about it

mat: [making for the doorway] min: mat wait! mom: he never LISTENS! he's so ANNOYING!

but then him yelling at the eelfinn about being sick of every magical force on the planet got a hearty chuckle, so it's not all losses for mat in her esteem haha

she was worried about thom dying because she "likes his voice"

mom about min's CPR: i can't believe that worked

she was upset with nynaeve for not hiding or disguising herself while waiting for the others, solidarity with @butterflydm haha

dad when nynaeve parts the sea: too bad no one else is around to see how cool this is mom: too bad liandrin isn't around to see that she needs to try harder!

she said fondly "he's gotten so smart" about rand at some point during his convo with moiraine

mom when lanfear shows up in her Ultra Goth Supreme getup: who's that? me: lanfear mom: oh. she looks different every scene!

my dad likened the Dueling Car'a'carn Presentation to a gameshow lmao

mom had a moment of panic thinking lan might die, so i had to blurt out that he was not going to die

mom: he made it rain in the desert? the other guy's gonna have a hard time topping that!

she's getting very concerned about rand doing big channelings since it will bring him closer and closer to madness every time he does. the show's done a good job emphasizing those stakes for viewers!

after it was over she said "so many good guys died this season! i'm so upset!" in the same sentence as asking hopefully if there would be an s4 haha

later that evening: "i really hope they do more seasons, because i'm not reading all those books". i hope so too!

#wot #wot on prime #the wheel of time #wot show spoilers

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