#WOT IS THIS DECISION

[teasholdingmetogether]

ITS TIME TO RISE UP AGAINST THE CHOICE OF FUCKING MICHAEL WALDRON FOR SECRET WARS. KEVIN WOT ARE U THINKING. ERIC MARTIN JUST DELIVERED ONE OF THE BEST THINGS TO HAPPEN TO MARVEL RN AND U CHOOSE FREAKING WALDRON

[arostormblessed]

I fucking love the wheel of time show everyone should watch it. Couldn’t understand why so many people were giving it negative reviews and then I came to the realization that it was made specifically for the weird gays on tumblr that actually appreciate interesting storytelling. it was made for the people who love awful women, unconventional relationships, negative character development, toxicity, polyamory, qprs, unhealthy devotion, etc etc

[amyrlinegwene]

My youngest sister favs <3

I feel like I don't really see people talking about how many parallels Egwene and Moiraine have in the books so here is my venn diagram. Feel free to add any more parallels from the books

[cairhienin]

rand and moiraine making the collective decision that their best bet of making it out of cairhien is to call rand’s balls to the wall murderous ex-girlfriend is funny but it’s even funnier that they were correct and that she took the time to do the outfit change of the century beforehand

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

The show has popped off in a Really big way the last two episodes. Like, taking a critical lens to the series, season one was rushed but it got the job done and introduced the concept characters and major conflicts and had a lot of good moments with characters even if they were quick. That was all pretty clearly a result of them having to do rewrites when they had two episodes cut last minute.

But season two is just plain out Good, and with recent developments, it’s heading towards fucking amazing. The first couple episodes were slower to start but very good thematically, and the last two have, as far as I’m concerned, been off the wall bangers.

Like we are In it shit is happening This is the wheel of time. Before these two episodes I have been enjoying the show yes very much, but the last two episodes have made me the same level of Insane about this series as I was when I read the books a dozen times as a teenager.

The acting? Sharp as a tack. Character beats? Fucking showstopping, starting with Nynaeve’s accepted test through the most recent episode’s introduction of Aviendha.

And obviously, episode 2x04 daughter of the night you will always be famous. Lanfear changed the fucking game here, now that the forsaken are Really out to play this shit is absolutely going places.

The forsaken, the aiel, the seanchan, the aes sedai, the costumes, the sets, THE MUSIC, it is all working so well.

They’ve focused individual episodes on consecutive main characters and I cannot fucking WAIT for whatever they have in store for Mat, since his screen time has been sparing so far (other than the god tier decision to have him team up with Min, that was the first choice that made really go ‘oh this season is On to something here) it is Gonna Be Good. AND Siuan, she’s in the next episode I think???? I hope the last three episodes can keep up this momentum I am Absolutely psyched for the rest.

[sparklyeevee]

So I get that this is Tumblr and probably not a lot of us here have direct experience with having a spouse who's also a work partner, but I have and it is on this basis that I say that Siuan Sanche made the best choices available to her under the circumstances. She's already having all kinds of reservations about this plan, yeah? And about her ability to execute her part of it. She utterly failed to get the Tower ready to support the Dragon, and then rushed Moiraine and the kids into the situation in Episode 8, which would reasonably be setting off a lot of "Oh, light, what have I done" feelings even before she started hearing how it went down, but like, also turns out she didn't send her wife to her death after all so that's a plus.

Anyway they've found the Dragon Reborn, but so far literally nothing else has gone to plan. They need to regroup and reevaluate, but Moiraine's letters are still trying to make out like she's got everything under control. Then it comes out that: Moiraine is stilled, Moiraine didn't tell her for six fucking months, Moiraine is handling it so badly, psychologically, that she threatened to have another Aes Sedai forcibly take her Warder's bond. I wanna be clear on that middle thing - in a spouse, keeping a secret like that for six months is forgivable, probably. In a work partner, it's completely unacceptable. They needed this time to make a new plan, a plan informed by the reality of their situation, and Moiraine, however understandable her reasons, made that impossible.

So Siuan realizes somewhere between Lan finding her and her putting a shield on Rand, that Moiraine is no longer someone she can rely on as a partner in this. She knows she can't do it on her own - she can't be in that many places at once. She goes through it in her head and can't think of anyone else she could trust to guide the Dragon Reborn. So the only viable course of action available to her is to obey Tower law, shield Rand, get him back to Tar Valon. Maybe in a few months she'll have a better idea, but right now this is the safest, and most reversible, thing she can do.

I want to be clear here, as a viewer, I'm not like, a fan of this plan. Rand is a whole person and he doesn't deserve to be kept on a leash, or in a cage, or wielded like a weapon. I don't think Siuan likes it either.

But somehow Moiraine and Lan escape, because apparently Verin told Leane to let her go, and that's going to be a problem later but right now she's got several more pressing problems. She finishes putting out the extremely literal fires, and she finds Moiraine about to take the Dragon Reborn through a waygate, and apparently able to channel?! She needs this situation to not vanish out of her control right now, and Moiraine lied to her (again?), and she's trying to address the practicalities of the situation but Moiraine keeps trying to steer things back to the interpersonal ("I've been more truthful with you than anyone else", "If you ever loved me", rather than anything relevant to the situation at hand, like "I thought I was stilled", or even "Let me explain"), so she uses the most expedient means available to stop everyone from just fucking leaving.

A fate of the world level important project is falling apart, she just found out that her wife with whom she's been working on this for 20 years cannot be relied upon to work with her on it, and she's making the best choices she can with the time and resources available. Calling that "character assassination" is unfair to the writing and to her.

[sixth-light]

Possible galaxy-brain thought: what if they introduce Mazrim Taim onscreen in S3 to lay the groundwork for the Black Tower in S4...and also tie him to Elaida's introduction and the Tower Coup plot. He was namechecked in S2 as a False Dragon; his existence and Logain's could be used by the Black Ajah to muddy the waters SIGNIFICANTLY on what Siuan and Moiraine are doing with Rand, making the decision to depose Siuan even more understandable from an outside perspective. (Elaida can easily be convinced post-Coup Rand is the real deal DR after all via Foretelling or other evidence).

Additionally...if they go full Taimandred...then he could be the Forsaken in disguise that has been referred to...and that would firmly centre the Tower Coup as a deliberate strategy of the Shadow but only once we know who he is (which presumably you'd save for post-Dumai's Wells for full OH SHIT potential). Yes he'd have to have replaced the real Taim, but AFAIK that's what happened in the books until the reality-switch in WH where Taimandred was no longer a thing.

[vulpixenthusiast]

Lanfear would NEVER say “light help you” to anyone. Not even as impulse. Mierin, however, might’ve. Once upon a time. So the show in my view is doing with her what it did to Ishamaels character: bringing forth who they were before along with their forsaken personas.

Ishamael in the show is not the crazed ba’alzamon we saw in the books. He’s “forsaken” Elan. So it does make sense that the same would be for lanfear. She’s not lanfear lanfear. Shes “forsaken” Mierin.

And tbh I like that

[fishalthor]

wot gif meme: 5 scenes: 4/5 logain’s first appearance

[uri59]

If you haven't been watching the reviews from The Sword and the Pen Reflections about the wot show season 1 you truly are missing 🤭

[rogue-rook]

tumblr wot book club all seem to be in consensus not only about being hyped for season 3 but specifically because season 3 will adapt the shadow rising and that shadow rising is one of the best books in wot. I didn't realize when I was doing my read through last year that shadow rising is a fan favorite but it is definitely MY favorite. who doesn't love a good character building field trip into the desert?

[wyvernwinds]

just remembered they made moiraine and siuan kiss with tongue in the wot show

[sadhorsegirl]

if you've talked to me at all since the first big episode we had in carihien then you know how much i disliked the decision to go for a rococo aesthetic given what we know about cairhien in the books lol

by invoking the french revolution you bring in the audiences preconceived notions about what that time period was like. in popular historical imagination its a situation where the rich hoarded all the wealth until the poor rose up and killed them, which is simple but true in broad strokes. while we definitely see a wealth divide similar to this in the books (particularly with the forgate), it also isn't really the best analogy for the state cairhien is in in the mainline of the series in the books.

due to the aiel war and their custom for taking one fifth of the property from their enemies when they defeat them, the land has low-key been strip mined. by the time rand gets there the towers are still covered in scaffolding, we see that the aiel are still passing around treasures from cairhien when we spend more time in the wastes in later books, famine is imminent and the line of succession is tenuous at best. the caste system is also a bit more complex (convoluted?) than the french rev analogy as the average viewer might interpret it implies. the upper class are essentially killing and torturing each other to have power for like a week over dwindling resources that they will be assassinated for starting the cycle of power struggle all over again. if cairhien is anything french rev it's like. IMMEDIATELY post revolution not pre just in terms of a chaotic, painful rearrangement of society

cairhien in the books a nation that used to have way more sway politically on the continent having to come to terms with the fact that it's future means potentially abandoning sovereignty or becoming increasingly dependent on the nations around it for aid. and i think the architectural aesthetic described in the books (granted, as recreated in my mind palace) is way more interesting!! we could have had organic brutalist wood clad skyscrapers!!!

i think the idea of dark wood and geometric design with sharp angles is also more interesting thematically in communicating how the people of cairhien operate as a society. this kind of minimalist presentation belying the fact that they literally might not own as many ostentatious family heirlooms as they used to, but also giving the false impression that the home owner is being transparent and has nothing to hide. the ultimate "im an open book" power move while they are all hiding way more secrets than than their walls might imply lol

by not talking about laman and the lingering impact of the aiel war, season 2 just ended up feeling like the writers had sanded the more dynamic political dimensions and ideas surrounding cairhien in the books for an easy visual catch all

[fantasiavii]

Forgive me, I have never been in the fandom when a Game of Thrones related show has been airing. I may become obnoxious. Please just block the tag if you need to

[lakeofsilverpike]

I love Lan doing whatever he needed to get Moiraine un-shielded and get back to her and their mission.

But did he accidentally trigger the coup in the process? And also maybe be one degree of separation from the reason Cairhien burned down.

In retrospect telling Alanna about Rand and bringing Siuan and 14 Aes sedai to cairhien did not actually go well Lan, now did it??

[all-about-the-tea-parties]

was looking at some gifs of s1 and appreciating and even missing some of the saturation and lighting choices (the night scenes! The forest looking cold and crisp!) and wishing s3 would return to form a little and now I’m wondering

… are they doing the Harry Potter thing? Is each season gonna lose its colour more and more as the Last Battle nears?