#myrddraal

[wot-tidbits]

The Great Hunt 04 from Dynamite Comics.

illustrated by MARCIO ABREU

[farmergilesofham]

On Halfmen

So, Myrddraal.

The way they're technically described in the books is as 'eyeless' in the sense of 'there is naught but skin over where eyes should be', but I don't like that.

Don't get me wrong, in the 90s that was a (reasonably) novel monster look, but nowadays it's been done to death and back - and besides that, even with the mentions of "pale skin where eyes should be", it is not what I imagined the first two times I read the series.

The Fades/Myrddraal/Halfmen/Eyeless/Lurks/Fetches/Nightrunners were made through human experimentation using the extra-dimensional magic of the Dark One, and it would be far more fitting if they more obviously looked like tortured corpses - grim, yes, but accurate to the books (Lan says at some point that in making Fades, the human strain and Dark One's magic are both made stronger).

The way I imagined them then, and belligerently continue to imagine them now, is as otherwise-ordinary-looking humans, with the signature waxy skin, but with tar-spattered hollows where eyes once were. It adds, in my opinion, to the body horror of the Wheel of Time when the monsters don't just look like generic monsters: looked at intently for a few moments they, instead, begin to look a bit too human. Also, a bit easier on anyone trying to adapt them to screen.

The same goes for Daghkar - they're often shown in art as these quasi-vampiric creatures, but I always saw them as oversized, pale dimorphodon/toothed pterosaur looking things, except that they look more like something out of All Tomorrows, as the only genetic material being used to make them was that of regular humans.

Trollocs are already described as well as they could be, with their grotesque, twisted features framing too-human eyes and their animal calls being twinged with the flavour of a human scream.

As for Shaidar Haran, I thought it would be extra neat if, on top of just being a Very Tall Halfman, it also had tiny points of white light fixed just in front of the ruined eye sockets, never moving in any expressive manner in order to highlight that yeah, those probably aren't eyes the way we understand them.

[theabyssal]

So who is this Myrddraal person, she and quaboth seem to be quite close.

Btw love your work hope your back isn’t hurting as much anymore!

You might be referencing the patreon's short story... Myrddraal is a key character to the story, she has a tragic past, much like Death, and she shares quite the history with Quaboth—their relationship is platonic but quite complicated tbh.

She will appear in the story in the next update and will assume an essential role later on in whatever decision Death chooses to make regarding their revenge/forgiveness/redemption arc.

Thanks for the ask! xx

[albumarchives]

Myrddraal | Blood on the Mountain (2001)

[drawingbones]

Myrddraal.

Done mostly as a stylistic experiment. Not sure how succesful, tbh.

[asha-mage]

I'm at that level of inability to sleep where I've just sailed past the question of 'would Laios dunmeshi try to eat Myrddraal and Trollocs' and landed right on 'how would Senshi dunmeshi attempt to cook Myrddraal and Trollocs'.

So far all I've managed to come up with is pickled Myrddraal and Roast Trolloc but that feels like it lacks the creativity senshi would bring to the table.

Maybe a stew? A kabob? A stir fry?

.....meat pie?

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 5: Nightmares Walking

Or uh, riding, since that's what my picture has. Alas. Anyway you know the drill by now I'm sure, spoilers for anything and everything under the sun in this post, especially The Wheel of Time since that's what I'm rereading.

This chapter has the Trolloc triptych because we're getting a Shadowspawn attack.

He opened his mouth to shout warning, and suddenly the door of Moiraine’s hut burst open and Lan dashed out, sword in hand and shouting, “Trollocs! Wake, for your lives! Trollocs!”

Perrin, with the magical help of an entire pack of wolves, is only ALMOST as fast to respond to a crisis as Lan. That man's real fucking badass, y'know? (But also: Perrin is fighting his powers every step of the way and Lan's got two decades of experience with his own supernatural aid. It's only a matter of time before Perrin makes Lan look like the chump.)

The Tuatha’an woman pressed her back against the log wall, a hand to her throat. The light from the burning trees showed him the pain and horror, the loathing on her face as she watched the carnage.

I was just reading some stuff iliiuan had to say on the Tuatha'an before I got into this chapter so let me just note: Leya's priorities are all out of whack here if Perrin's reliably relating her emotions. She's not keeping herself safe, she's just being judgy about violence happening in her vicinity. And it kills her.

All that mattered was that he had to reach Leya, had to get her to safety, and the Trolloc was in the way.

Perrin's desperation to do the right thing even though of course he could easily write Leya off as an inevitability (and an inconvenience until the inevitable happens to boot) is why he's a hero, you know? I'll be giving this boy the most shit out of anyone but he tries to save someone's life even though he knows he can't and that's something.

The stink of it filled his nostrils, goat-stench and sour man-sweat.

It's good to know that Trollocs produce all the scents available to them instead of just limiting themselves to one or the other. And by good I obviously mean gross, but since I read it you have to too!

She was still there, huddled in front of the hut, not more than ten paces upslope. And watching him with such a look on her face that he could barely meet her eyes.

Leya's zealotry may be a formative trauma for Perrin I think.

Suddenly Leya moved, throwing herself forward, attempting to wrap her arms around the Myrddraal’s legs.

Well that's great and all Leya but isn't restraining someone so they can't move a very light form of violence? Like good... well good may be strong, but some kind of positive adjective... effort trying to protect Perrin and all but if you tripped the Fade isn't that causing it physical harm? Where is the line for the Tuatha'an? Did she in the last moment of her life betray her own beliefs for nothing? Concerning if so.

“Fade,” Perrin said roughly, but then a different name came to him, from the wolves. Trollocs, the Twisted Ones, made during the War of the Shadow from melding men and animals, were bad enough, but the Myrddraal—. “Neverborn!” Young Bull spat.

Half the reason we don't get Rand POVs much in this book is that Perrin's stealing his TGH schtick of losing himself in his newfound powers. I think this is something of a leftover from the proto-Tam character who was going to be Jesus AND the luckiest SOB ever AND a werewolf AND probably a really good shot I guess or whatever that fourth kid was supposed to contribute. Being easily replaceable, maybe?

The urge to rush down the slope and join his brothers, join in killing the Twisted Ones, in hunting the remaining Neverborn, was strong, but a buried fragment that was still man remembered. Leya.

Perrin will of course spend this book (and the next... ten?) afraid that he might turn into a werewolf forever because of an encounter, but we see right here that this isn't a risk for him because he's always got stuff to pull him back. Leya's barely in the list of ten most recent people he talked to but he won't abandon his humanity for her sake - how much less likely is he to abandon it once he's got Faile?

He no longer thought of the greater battle. There was only the Trolloc he and the wolves—the brothers—cut off from the rest and brought down. Then there would be another, and another, and another, until none were left. None here, none anywhere.

Obviously this is a terrible viewpoint to adapt if you're trying to be the strategy guy, but since Perrin isn't that anyway and the battle isn't reliant on such things, it actually works for him here. He's also more aware of himself than he was with the Whitecloaks, showing he's developed a little with his powers even if he's afraid of them.

Young Bull threw back his head and howled with her, mourned with her. When he lowered his head, Min was staring at him. “Are you all right, Perrin?” she asked hesitantly.

Note that while Min's obviously freaked out by Perrin embracing his inner furry, she's not exactly treating him like a freak show either. Like I said, she'd probably be very supportive if she knew the details.

Frantically he walled himself off from contact with the wolves. Images seeped through, emotions, as he tried to stop them. Finally, though, he could no longer feel them, feel their pain, or their anger, or the desire to hunt the Twisted Ones, or to run. . . .

Again we can kind of see how the proto-Tam's various aspects would have tied into a central character arc, with rejecting the naturalistic wolf expression being just one more way he would have been hardening himself and just one more thing he'd need to embrace to be the full hero at the end.

The Shienarans still standing—so few—lifted their blades and joined him. “Tai’shar Manetheren! Tai’shar Andor!”

Hell, even the Shienarans aren't that judgmental since they are already following Rand around.

But when he was with the wolves, it was all so different. He did not have to worry about strangers being afraid of him just because he was big, then. There was no one thinking he was slow-witted just because he tried to be careful. Wolves knew each other even if they had never met before, and with them he was just another wolf.

Is it wrong that occasionally I think Perrin might be a little bit on the spectrum?

“A sign to confirm our faith. Even wolves came to fight for the Dragon Reborn. In the Last Battle, the Lord Dragon will summon even the beasts of the forest to fight at our sides. It is a sign for us to go forth. Only Darkfriends will fail to join us.”

Masema is of course foreshadowing his delightful nonsense, showcasing how he was still corrupted by Fain, and letting Jordan make it subtly clear that the real Last Battle will be more complicated. It's not just Darkfriends who won't be on the side of the Light, even at the very end.

Do you know what I did during the fight?” Still staring into the distance, Rand addressed the night. “Nothing! Nothing useful. At first, when I reached out for the True Source, I couldn’t touch it, couldn’t grasp it. It kept sliding away. Then, when I finally had hold of it, I was going to burn them all, burn all the Trollocs and Fades. And all I could do was set fire to some trees.”

Rand's an incredible channeler, but even he needs a teacher.

“We . . . dealt with them, Rand,” Perrin said. He shivered, thinking of all the wounded men down below. And the dead. Better that than the mountain down on top of us. “We didn’t need you.”

And likewise, in the final conflict, no one will be needing Rand to deal with the individual Shadowspawn and even if he could deal with them to keep the people alive it would be a waste of everyone's time.

There had been a man, Elyas Machera, who also could talk to wolves. Elyas ran with the wolves all the time, yet seemed able to remember he was a man. But he had never told Perrin how he did it, and Perrin had not seen him in a long time.

Sorry Perrin, but he doesn't really pull it off anywhere near well enough for your standards.

He gasped and almost dropped his axe. He could feel the skin on his back crawling, muscles writhing as they knit back together. His shoulder quivered uncontrollably, and everything blurred. Cold seared him to the bone, then deeper still. He had the impression of moving, falling, flying; he could not tell which, but he felt as if he were rushing—somewhere, somehow—at great speed, forever.

Another reminder that the best modern Aes Sedai have for healing at this point is emergency care, which works but definitely isn't the good stuff. Moiraine even tells him to eat afterward.

“Most of the wolves who were hurt made their own way to the forest,” Moiraine said, knuckling her back and stretching, “but I Healed those I could find.” Perrin gave her a sharp look, yet she seemed to be just making conversation. “Perhaps they came for their own reasons, yet we would likely all be dead without them.”

Moiraine is nice enough to try and thank Perrin subtly, but of course he's much too suspicious for any of that.

“If you could get me to Shayol Ghul now,” Rand said drowsily, “by Waygate or Portal Stone, there could be an end to it. No more dying. No more dreams. No more.”

It would obviously have a terrible ending, but a fanfic of Moiraine somehow taking sleep-deprived Rand to Shayol Ghul and just kind of hoping for the best would be hysterical. This Rand might not be as traumatized as he's going to be, but I still think assuming he'd last five minutes before agreeing to let the Dark One unmake reality is overly generous.

“That’s right,” Rand said bitterly. “I’m not to be trusted. Lews Therin Kinslayer killed everyone close to him. Maybe I’ll do the same before I am done.” “Pull yourself together, sheepherder,” Lan said harshly. “The whole world rides on your shoulders. Remember you’re a man, and do what needs to be done.”

If Perrin or Mat had tried sassing Lan like this they would have learned what their pancreas looked like once chopped in half before finishing the second sentence, so while Lan's toxic masculinity is of course only adding to the Dragonmount of psychological issues Rand's going to need to deal with, let's also reflect that it's still him going easy on his favorite boy.

Next time: Ingtar leads the crew out of Fal Dara, Rand finds out Moiraine fucked with his belongings again, and Lanf--

Wait no. Sorry. That was LAST book's chapter "The Hunt Begins". Next time we read THIS book's version, which probably has a lot less Ingtar due to his having a prior commitment. Also much less Rand on account of his running away.

[amemoryofwot]

And yeah ok “you have to already be dead” is cringe but it just illustrates the suicidal impetus with which Lan and the Aiel fight the Myrddraal

[xillionart]

Illustrations from the Japanese Lord of Chaos, 偽の竜王 (False Dragon-King)! (I waited one month for the little paperback, lol.)

From top to bottom, left to right: Mat, Rand, Perrin, Faile, Elayne, Birgitte, Min, Aviendha, Nynaeve, Egwene, The Dark One’s army, Moghedien

Translation undercut!

Mat Cauthon: The one who weaves the history (Japanese translation for Ta'veren). The sounder of the Horn of Valere.

Rand al'Thor: The one who weaves the history. The Dragon That Comes Again (aka Japanese translation of the Dragon Reborn) who can channel the Absolute Power (the One Power).

Perrin Aybara: The one who weaves the history. One who has golden eyes and is sympathetic with wolves.

Faile: Originally named Zarine Bashere. (I think the translation skips the "ni" in her name?) Perrin's wife.

Elayne Trakand: a Talented (異能者, Aes Sedai) candidate. Princess of the Kingdom Andor.

Birgitte: a legendary hero and gifted archer.

Min: a girl who possesses the inconceivable power of reading people’s future from their aura.

Aviendha: a Aiel Wise candidate.

Nynaeve al'Meara: a Talented (異能者, Aes Sedai) candidate and Wisdom of Emond's Field.

Egwene al'Vere: a Talented (異能者, Aes Sedai) candidate and Rand's childhood friend.

The Dark King's army: consisted of abnormal individuals and beasts like Myrddraal, Trollocs, and Draghkar.

Moghedien: one of the Dark Sedai (that's how they translated the Forsaken lmao, 闇セダーイ)

[gunkreads]

I sacked the fuck up and watched episode 1 of season 2.

Honestly? It's pretty good. I do agree with the incredibly well-considered and thorough commentary about how incredibly stupid it is to have Nynaeve train with a sword, not to mention how incongruous that scene felt within the show's canon and how pace-breaking it was, but besides that, it was honestly nice! Everyone and everything look(s) great. Acting is stellar as usual.

I definitely had an easier time forgetting to track book divergences than I did in S1, so the complete abandonment of canon was totally chill this time.

That said, there are a couple quick things:

Biggest gripe right up front, and one that is either going to sound INCREDIBLY stupid or VERY salient depending on what your priorities are when reading the books: the fights are too cool. I say this as a huge fan of wuxia, martial arts, and western action movies: I want less visually impressive fights. Jordan was the absolute reigning king of "violence is bad and stupid and scary and incredibly, incredibly uncool". It's a major part of why I like his writing--not only that I like that he sees things that way, but that it means he inverts a lot of tropes by completely disconnecting glory from violence. The show doesn't have that misgiving. The show very much says "stand here and watch this fight." To its immense credit, the show makes the fights very tense, knock-down-drag-out mud fights, leaning on the fear aspect, which is as much as I should hope for in a media landscape that really, really demands cool shit. I still want less effort to be put into making the fights elegantly choreographed and more effort into making them chaotic and scary. No, I don't know how to do that. Yes, I'm making up problems here. Yes, I'm griping "oh the show isn't made exactly the way I want it in my head." However: yes, I think that the portrayal of violence in any Wheel of Time adaptation is an incredibly important litmus test for me to know if the people adapting it have similar priorities to me.

S2E1 has several dialogue lines about how quiet Lan is, which feels very self-contradictory with how chatty he was in S1. Maybe that's still a comparison to book canon, but he was fairly open and talkative in S1, so if they're trying to course-correct that in S2, it's being done in the form of a very light retcon. Which is... fine, whatever, just a little weird.

Perrin's letter threw me off a lot, actually. I couldn't tell how much, if at all, it'd been censored by the Tower, but regardless, the prose in it felt very weird coming from such a physical character who doesn't seem to express much interest in writing or reading. He's read most of the same books as Rand (the Two Rivers' resident literature nerd), yeah, but that's book canon, so show-canon Perrin's written voice being that highfalutin--for lack of a better word--felt off.

Elyas was interesting. Fusing him and Hurin is understandable, but a little sad, if only because I like Hurin and his minor role in the story. It's fine, though. I liked Elyas' thousand-yard-stare--that was a wonderful acting decision. He felt simultaneously calm and jumpy in a very fun and interesting wild-man way.

The lantern scene would've been, in my opinion, a much better (if cliched) place to end the episode.

The one point of book divergence that did kind of catch me, though, was the fight between Lan and the Myrddraal. It felt like two things happened there: one, Myrddral got way easier to kill (mechanically and logistically, cut off their heads and they die style); and two, Lan got way worse at killing them. It's a really weird gripe, since the two functionally cancel each other out, so pay it little mind.

But yeah I had a good time.

[wot-tidbits]

New covers for Issue 5 and 6 of The Great Hunt from Dynamite Comics.

Written by RIK HOSKIN and illustrated by MARCIO ABREU with colors by VINICIUS ANDRADE, The Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt also features beautifully rendered covers by MEL RUBI and JORDAN GUNDERSON.

SOURCE

[theabyssal]

hi ^^ i've been playing the new release (and loving it so far!), and i encountered a bug where myrddraal is introduced. i selected the child to be a girl, but the last line says "The boy will be safe under her care."

So glad you liked it!! And thanks for the find, it's fixed now 🥰🥰

Thanks for the ask!! 🖤🖤

[dropoff99]

Wheel of Time S2 Episode 5 - “Damane” is an achievement in adaptation that should be recognized

I’m not an active reviewer of this show or any other. It’s not something I am very interested in. However I think it’s important to note when a piece of art begins to transform into something greater than the sum of its parts, especially with an adaptation of this magnitude which has so many things to juggle it can make your head spin.

This series has been a part of my life for over 25 years. It’s as difficult for me to remove my bias as it is for anyone, especially when beloved moments from the series are changed. Any fantasy fan who has spent time around the genre has experienced this. However I feel that the fandom really needs to recognize what is happening currently on Amazon Prime’s Wheel of Time.

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of time is possibly the most ambitious fantasy series ever created. A magic system with as much depth as you will find in fantasy, hundreds of named characters, 14 large books, a prequel novella, a couple encyclopedic volumes, and now a major streaming series on Amazon Prime.

Up until this point half-way through the second season the show has been admirable in some of its attempts at adapting Jordan’s beloved series but I don’t think any fan (of either the show or the books) could really say it is has been a total success in terms of quality. S2 E5 on the other hand is simultaneously a great adaptation of the series and a great episode of television that could be the turning point from a capable fantasy show to an excellent one. Before we get into that let’s revisit where we’ve been.

Season 1

S1 had 2 really good episodes, a couple outright bad ones (finale), but mostly could be described as average storytelling hidden by some great performances by Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney and set in a beautiful and interesting universe. For all intents and purposes it was a success in terms of attracting viewers, introducing new audiences to RJ’s series and being a decent show.

There have been some great casting choices and the majority of the cast has worked with a couple exceptions (recasting of Mat). The characters are firmly recognizable from Jordan’s work with of course some big changes as well that vary in terms of popularity with the fandom. However, the challenge of making the wheel of time universe really sing (ie the fantasy/lore concepts) was hit or miss for me in S1 (in many ways a miss). I’m not speaking of book accuracy, simply how interesting and cool they were.

Emonds Field 5 - not perfect but definitely a success

Myrddraal and Trollocs - success

Channeling - 50/50

White Tower - success

Thom/gleeman - failure

Ta’veren - TBD

Loial/Ogier - meh (admittedly high degree of difficulty)

Eye of the World - failure and was not interesting at all

Aes Sedai and Warders - biggest achievement of S1, huge success

Fal Dara - meh

Traveling people - meh

The ways - decent

Two Rivers - 50/50

Logain/male channelers - success

Darkfriends - success

Whitecloaks - decent

Shadar Logoth - decent

Overall an admirable effort, especially considering how much they adapted but IMO they had some big misses that brought down the season.

Season 2

So far the second season has seen a huge jump over the first season in terms of production quality, visual style, performances, and dialogue. Many of the actors on the show have found their footing, particularly Josha Stradowski who plays Rand. Every new major character they have introduced has not only been written well but their performances have been off the charts which I will touch on more when I discuss E5.

However the first 4 episodes were much like the first season. The pacing was hit or miss, some of the changes have landed (Nynaeve in the arches) and a few have not (namely Lan’s arc). Mat is still MIA but we will see how they land things with him later. Either way season 1 caliber storytelling combined with the other upgrades in acting, visual style, and overall polish makes for a pretty damn good product.

Episode 5 - “Damane” (full spoilers)

It’s difficult for me to fully explain why E5 was so satisfying. It is less about any one individual factor and more about how smoothly it weaved (no pun intended) many well executed components together.

The first thing I will start with is visual style. S2 has been an upgrade in general from S1 in many of its choices but Episode 5 is on a different level.

The initial location (near falme) Liandrin takes the girls is absolutely stunning. I took my own little photo above to demonstrate just how sumptuous this looked in 4K in my living room. The show has always been pretty but I will admit the variety of locales in S2 as well as the cinematography has been a significant upgrade. What I especially liked about this scene is that it did not lean on a slick establishing shot of a CG city or even a giant fortress/village made specifically for the show, two things WoT is very good at. Instead this is a simple scene in terms of CG. It’s just a waygate and the effects used for channeling all look great and are not too over the top. As far as set design it’s just the stone pillars for the waygate and the large throne that Suroth rides around on (and Seanchan costumes). Otherwise it’s a beautiful natural location that grounds the action and fantasy elements organically while pulling in the viewer to this world.

But that’s just a taste.

Story locations in this episode: Falme, Cairhien, Toman Head, The White Tower, Tel’aranrhiod, The Ways. And that’s not counting different areas within those places.

Each of the above have a strong visual language to communicate the various cultures and landscapes of Jordan’s universe and I don’t think it skips a single beat going back and forth between them. Forests, deserts, marshland, night scenes, day scenes, cities, villages, fortresses, and fantasy creations like the ways and the dream world. The show was in its bag in terms of something interesting to draw the eye the entire episode.

The performances were no different in terms of their variety and quality. Fares Fares (Ishamael) and Natasha O’Keefe (Lanfear) were probably the best on screen fantasy villains I’ve seen since vintage Game of Thrones seasons. They were engaging, scary, and villainous in a relatable but unapologetic manner, delivering line after line that could easily be viewed as cheesy if not for perfect execution in direction and tone. And frankly what I liked most is that the show didn’t fall in to the modern temptation to make them less evil. Sure they have their justifications/motivations but they are also unambiguous baddies from the viewer’s perspective which is true to Jordan.

Moving on to Rosamund Pike who we’re really running out of things to say in terms of her acting which has never dipped for a second for the entirety of the show. What was more impressive is how the show’s writers have demonstrated their commitment to showing a ruthlessly efficient character who will do whatever it takes to save the world. This episode highlighted her commitment to her cause as well as her intelligence in dealing with a character who is immensely powerful.

Ayoola Smart as Aviendha provided the best action sequence and an excellent dialogue scene with Perrin that efficiently introduced ji’e’toh and Aiel culture. I am really looking forward to seeing more from her as Aviendha is one of my favorite characters. On a similar note Meera Syal really got to flex her abilities as Verin in a much more recognizable manner to book readers than what we saw earlier in the show. It was thrilling to watch her pick apart Liandrin’s plot.

The last thing that I was really impressed by and primarily why I wrote this post to begin with is how committed the show seems to be to genuinely introducing some of the most difficult elements of the Wheel of Time universe which is honestly not what I expected given the first 4 episodes. Let’s take some inventory of what we got from E5 as well as S2 so far straight from the books/universe.

Aviendha/Aiel/ji’e’toh - success

Falme - as a location it’s a success

Seanchan - success (with a very high degree of difficulty)

Collaring - success

Lanfear/Selene - huge success

Ishamael - huge success

Novice training /arches - success

Cairhien - success

Horn - TBD

Elyas - success

Wolfbrother abilities - controversial but a success IMO

Tel’aranrhiod - success

Verin/Browns - success

Channeling - success

Mat’s abilities - TBD but this might be a big L

Min’s Visions - TBD but so far an L for me

Elayne - success

Do I think this show is going to be this good every episode from now on? Probably not. And yes there is still plenty to dislike from S2. Mat/Min are borderline non existent so far, the Lan/Moiraine arc was miserable until they separated, and Siuan hasn’t even shown up yet (despite having some badass scenes in the second book that are very memorable).

However I will say this is the first time where I’ve felt real confidence in where the story is headed both short and long term. If they do this for the remaining three episodes then Wheel of Time will hold the belt for best fantasy show currently running.

[aceofthegreenajah]

WOT Season 2 Predictions

MASSIVE spoilers ahead y’all

Information used on this: Memories of how books 2-4 went. Any info on season 2 I've come across on tumblr.* Story structure for how an 8-episode season is structured**

inciting incident, establishing the 'season question'. Season 1 was 'who is the dragon reborn'.

new normal; fun and games. Now that the inciting incident has happened, we live in our new situation for a while.

Story turn 1: something changes, things get even realer.

Midpoint: a visually explosive mini-climax

New normal 2: now that story turn and midpoint have changed things, what now? Might be a bad guys closing in episode.

Story turn 2; dark night of the soul - we lose things, things get worse, new information comes out.

Climax - season question is answered. Might be the explosive finish.

Resolution - finishing up what is left, telling us why we need to watch the next season.

Now: I've way overbloated some episodes in this outline I have. I've also failed to expand Moiraine's storyline sufficiently. AND I'm super unsure where to slot Thom and Verin. Verin could be in any plotline, or even switch mid-season, and Thom could be anywhere except with Perrin. (Give me your ideas, please!)

Season’s plot question I expect to have something to do with Dragon Stuff again, or as a second choice, Ishamael and/or forsaken. But I haven’t figured out how to form it. Ideas welcome. Now onto my outline:

Episode 1:

A plot: Perrin takes Loial to a stedding. We find out more about Loial; find out he can't be healed without the dagger; join the Hunt. Ending the episode with Perrin meeting Elyas and realizing they're alike.

B plot: Egwene and Nynaeve have arrived at the tower and are at odds. They're dealing with Rand's 'death' in very different ways - Nynaeve by hating Aes Sedai even more, Egwene by distancing herself from thoughts of home and moving on towards Aes Sedai training with full force. They're inducted as novices, but explained by Siuan that they're being fast-tracked to accepted.

C plot: Moiraine sets out to track Rand by ta'veren shenanigans. Rand sleeps and dreams of Ishamael, who reminisces about the past and how they always fight. Rand insists Ishamael is dead - Ishamael laughs and Rand wakes up with the heron burned into his hand.

Other: Ishamael wakes the forsaken. Mat is held at the white tower, and dreams of Manetheren and being at war.

Episode 2:

A plot: Elyas explains wolfstuff, they use the wolves and wolfdreams to track PF. Might see Hawking's statue and find the dead Myrddraal. We get to know the rest of the hunting party better. Faile is either part of the hunt from the beginning or becomes a part of the hunt!  

B plot: Siuan explains Nynaeve's block and Egwene's dreaming abilities. They meet Elayne, find Mat. Mat vs Gawyn and Galad? Egwene keeps dreaming of Rand, meets wise ones in her dreams***.

C plot: Rand kills a whole group of darkfriends a'la book 3 (That is just such a good scene to introduce his declining mental state. I'm not sure if it fits here but I want it to fit somewhere!). Rand ends the episode by falling asleep against the portal stone and finding himself Somewhere Else.

Other: Forsaken meeting and/or darkfriend social.

Episode 3:

A plot: Rand has been in the portal stone world for a while. Ishamael appears in his dreams and insists he can get Rand out and/or teach him to channel, Rand always refuses. Runs into Grolm and Selene. He has to channel on purpose to get out of the world.  

B plot: Accepted trials - at least Nynaeve, possibly also Egwene.

C plot: Perrin runs into whitecloaks who are holding Bain or Chiad captive. Manages to set her free, rest of the Aiel show up to rescue them from the mess. Bain and Chiad owe him a debt, whitecloaks hate him with the passion of a thousand suns. We find out why the Aiel are on this side of the spine.

Other: Mat gambles around; his luck is explored; in trying out his luck and figuring out how it works he ends up finding the red stone doorway and enters it.

Episode 4:

A plot: Rand arrives in Cairhien - the heron mark blade & Selene's presence convinces everyone he's super important. He sees the sa'angreal on the way in. He uses the misunderstanding as a way to get into libraries to get more prophecy information and runs into Moiraine AND Verin. Ishamael keeps sending him dreams about how actually destroying the wheel is great, you should try it, Lews Therin! Verin confronts Moiraine like she does to Moiraine and Siuan in book 2, and Moiraine HAS to take her into her confidence.

B plot: Mat in the red stone doorway.

C plot: Egwene keeps having Dreams about Rand, one in which a paranoid Rand tries to kill her. Min confirms he is still alive. Liandrin offers to take them to him. As the girls prepare to leave, they give Mat (who is out of the doorway and SUPER determined to run away right now) a letter to deliver for Elayne's mom.

Other: Perrin has a wolf dream about forsaken. Padan Fain delivers dagger to Seanchan.

Episode 5:

A plot: Perrin arrives at Toman head, shit's fucked y'all. Has a wolf dream where a paranoid Rand tries to kill him. We explore the Seanchan to build up how bad it is if the girls get captured.

B plot: Rand trains with Lan in the sword. Rand / Moiraine / etc are attacked in Cairhien, Cairhien descends into chaos. Rand freaks out over the little dead girl a'la book 4, trying to heal, except he can't, doesn't know how, and she dies in his arms. And you can't heal death Rand, stop trying Rand.

C plot: The girls show up at Toman Head. Either they are betrayed by Liandrin, or we incorporate Juilin Sandar somehow and he betrays them a'la book 3. Egwene is captured.

Other: Mat is delivering the letter, finds out shit's fucked in Andor and there's a plot to kill Elayne. Leaves for Toman's head asap.

Episode 6:

A plot: Life as a damane.

B plot: Rand finds out he needs to go to toman head somehow, Flicker flicker flicker.

C: Mat might meet Aludra on the way?

Episode 7:

Plotting rescue plan, Mat arriving at Toman head. Thom reunites with Elayne if he hasn't already. Rescue starts, with Mat running with fireworks as a distraction, Nynaeve collaring a sul'dam. Faile falls into sleep with the sleep ter'angreal and Perrin is off to rescue her?

Episode 8:

Rand arrives in Toman head just as everything is going to shit. Everyone else is off rescuing Egwene or possibly in Perrin's case Faile. Mat blows the horn at some point when they're in deep shit, and Ingtar sacrifices himself likewise. Rand duels Ishamael and wins, when he dies Moiraine is freed.

Min finds injured Rand and helps.

At the end: Egwene gets a letter from the wise ones. Nynaeve and Elayne intend to hunt down Liandrin. Min leaves to report to Siuan. Rand meets with Rhuarc or some other Aiel and intends to go to the waste. Moiraine is not going to let him out of her sight, and ALSO not going to let Mat out of her sight because HELLO, he BLEW THE HORN, so they and Egwene are accompanying him to the waste. Thom goes with Elayne cos that's practically his kid. Who takes the horn? Min or Moiraine, dunno yet.

Perrin goes to get Loial healed at nearest stedding and then leaves to go home. Loial and Faile accompany him because of course, Bain and Chian because they owe him a debt. Except oops, stinger: Valda and Fain are at two rivers!

END NOTES

As you see this is still missing: caihien’s king dying (by Thom’s hand or not), most Thom stuff, wtf Lanfear’s plain in Cairhien is...

Some stuff is probably cut. Portal stone world from Rand (even though I think it's nice to get to know they exist this way it's not necessary), or Faile, or Egwene's accepted test...

Episode 7 is kinda sparse so you could push some Rand stuff forward and free space from earlier episodes. But I spent like two hours on this and now it’s past midnight so any modifications have to wait until some other day. tell me what you think!

* some ideas courtesy of @amemoryofwot

**courtesy of Ali from Wheel Takes, listen to their podcast! They discuss season structure most in their WOT on Prime Episode 1 coverage.

*** this might come at any point but it has to come at some point

[bigbigtruck]

me irl: so much makeup i look like mimi from drew carey

me on the camera: a sandstone slab, a featureless ghost, one of the myrddraal