forbiddenjello

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So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

(x)

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THE WHEEL OF TIME ↳ Season 2 ↳ Episode Eight | What Was Meant To Be

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"The Wheel does not care if you are young or afraid, petty or weak. It certainly doesn’t care what you want. The Wheel calls you to this whether you can bear it or not. The Last Battle is coming. What any of us wants now is meaningless. The only thing that matters is what you do." - THE WHEEL OF TIME 1.06

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“So you want to come with me?” Rand said softly. “You want to be at my back when I face Rahvin?” “What better place for the Lord Dragon’s bard? But better yet, say under your eye. Where I can show my loyalty."

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This ep lives rent free in my mind

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Remember how at the end of The Dragon Reborn, Ishamael wrapped Moiraine in black lightning and she screamed and Ishy hurled her across the room into a column where she lay unconscious for the whole duration of the book's final confrontation and then that was just never mentioned again and she was completely fine ?? Not on my watch 🤨

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just an outstanding choice from all sides to have egwene driven by her ambition, trying so fucking hard to reach for a power, clawing her way to a goal and refusing to let it go.

and also in many ways have her be the moral center. the one who advocates running into danger for a purpose. who wants to save the world in a visceral way. who already understands what it is to be a servant of all even when she isn’t yet at the white tower.

not precluding one with the other. wanting things making her no less good. not glorifying complete self-sacrifice in a woman, but instead putting it together that she chooses the hard way in every instance - she won't take it easy on herself and that’s why she strives to be capable anf also why she strives to do the right thing especially when it isn't easy.

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In This Life (Or The Next)

prints available here!

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THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON 2 BLOOPERS (x)

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"best friends"

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Ishy and Lanfear blooper

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“your life isn’t going to be what you thought”

it was meant to be a quick study but ended up as a whole religious painting (and I was so right for it xD)

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“Why would Elayne brew her own wine when she has access to the finest wines in the royal palace?”

Bruh that’s the POINT that’s the POINT she’s not your lofty princess stereotype she finds joy in the act of creation she’s hands on she’s leading by example she’s all in. She’s not making ter’angreal and dragons on a whim she’s had curiosity and drive and a hint of mad scientist all her life. Her nursing animals back to health in the book is this exact character trait but they went with something that could reasonably happen 1) in the Tower and 2) with Egwene. Sharing a drink is like the quintessential icebreaker/guestright ritual. And it’s not like she and Egwene get slatheringly drunk, unlike a certain book scene.

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small study of my favorite difficult women while i rewatch s1 scenes just to feel something

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I was as frustrated as any every Nynaeve fan in 2x08 when Elayne had to prompt her to remember she was a Wisdom and could heal people without the One Power. Book Nynaeve doesn’t struggle with that, and it felt like the back half of the season just kept working to make Nynaeve look bad.

But then I started thinking about her overall arc, and about how eventually she’s in a cave, unable to use the One Power, and has to save a woman’s life to keep the world from literally ending if she doesn’t. This season, this episode, and this moment in particular could be a fabulous parallel/contrast to season 8 Nynaeve (willing it into being!!).

Season 2 Nynaeve is afraid of the power she could wield and doesn’t have a clue how she fits into the world any more. Like Moiraine said in 1x05, she can’t go back to who she was before, and she won’t be able to relate to the people she knew before in the same way. But she still hasn’t learned to appreciate it for the gift it is. Everyone has been telling her how special she is, but she hasn’t been able to demonstrate any actual results yet. In the arches she watches as everyone she loves is killed or lost because she’s unable to save them, with or without magic. And then in the back half of the season she trusts the wong person and gets betrayed, gets her best friend tortured and enslaved, accidentally exposes Ryma and she gets enslaved, and can’t seem to get back on the right foot from the moment she heads for Falme. Plus the bloody Daughter Heir of Andor got dragged along and gives her zero respect. She’s learned she really doesn’t know anything of this world and that it’s so much bigger than she thought. So when she’s faced with death and injury on the battlefield she’s paralyzed. She’s forgotten what’s she capable of, she’s afraid of failure, and she’s lost her confidence.

But season 8 Nynaeve will have mastered her powers, done the impossible more than once. She will have traveled the world and experienced so much of it. She will have been humbled by powerful women, and humbled powerful women herself. She will have earned her place in the world. And this time, when faced with the literal end of the world she will know that she is more than her magic powers and she won’t doubt or be paralyzed, she will be able to just act. And she’ll be amazing.

So, as a Nynaeve fan season 2 was disappointing in some ways. But I really, really hope that in the context of a full 8 seasons (it’s gonna happen!) it’ll make a lot of sense and make her growth believable. If that’s the way it goes, it’ll be so much more rewatchable and I might come to appreciate it.