#wot 2x2 spoilers

[butterflydm]

wheel of time s2!! 2x1-2x3: first impressions

Just watched the first three episodes and jotting down my thoughts before I finally remove my filters and read other people's thoughts. <3

I'm sure I missed a bunch, but I'll be rewatch the next couple of days.

There will be mild book spoilers in the sense that I'll talk about differences and pacing and whatnot, but only through book 2, The Great Hunt.

Okay, okay okay okay. I was surprised by so many things, even with the teasers and trailers!

I just feel so hyped and thrilled and I hope that everyone else loved that as much as I did, wow.

I don't even know where to start!

I was NOT expecting the Seanchan to be introduced so quickly! Holy shit! Uno is DEAD! And in such a nasty way. That was such a bold introduction to the Seanchan. And now Perrin is split off on his own with Elyas and the wolves. I loved the talk that he and Ishamael had and it really set up a reason for Perrin to worry about the wolf inside him too.

My girl Elayne! She was very sweet. I'm looking forward to her getting to know Nynaeve in the upcoming episodes. I am sorry for @markantonys's sake that we still have not heard anything about her brothers, though!

Egwene and Nynaeve getting very different Tower experience overall. Liandrin taking Nynaeve under her wing seemed... sincere? We still don't entirely know her situation.

Nynaeve's journeys through the arches made me cry! I'm just... it was a lot, I feel very emotional.

@markantonys was right that they made Verin and Adelas sisters and it worked really well. That whole plotline with them and Moiraine and Lan was very interesting and surprising. So Moiraine has the info about Toman Head.

Mat's plotline! Mat and Min being captives together, except that Min is working for Liandrin (on a promise to be left along by Aes Sedai? Moiraine's methods backfiring on her) so Liandrin's eyes are on Mat even though she's pretending to let him leave. I am fascinated by this plotline (is she going to lead him to Falme? is she going to lead him to Cairhien?) I also wonder if part of the reason she's willing to betray him is due to that viewing she had of Mat stabbing Rand (which was, again, fascinating!). Mat almost talking to Egwene was heartbreaking, thanks!

And my boy Rand!!!! He's trying to find his own mentors (first Errol with learning sword forms and then trying to get Logain to teach him). And everything that Selene said was just... amazingly double-sided. Being with you helps me remember the man I was in love with indeed, lol! (also, um, given that that last sex scene with Selene was a dream of Rand's, apparently he kinda wants someone to call him 'my lord' during sex so, that's interesting -- also, dream!Rand had Selene's number better than awake!Rand)

I love that we got to see the EF5 being connected in their hearts even when they were separated from each other.

Oh, man, I'm just so overwhelmed. Will definitely be doing a deeper dive on all these episodes this weekend!

!!!!

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x2

Additional thoughts that had too many spoilers to go into my earlier post will be found here. Spoilers for all the teasers and trailers, plus through book 13: A Memory of Light.

So one of the big questions that I have is: how much is Lanfear acting with Ishamael's knowledge and how much is she going her own way? Ishamael said in the Darkfriend social scene that he is still looking for Rand. If he's being truthful there (and he's talking to his minions, so there's really no point in lying), then Lanfear has not told him that she located Lews Therin.

2. I hadn't thought about this on my first watch, but @ladyofpembroke noted that Lanfear is probably in Rand's final dream in the next episode, so it seems possible that she actually has a hand in all his dreams. Constantly reminding him that he could kill his friends if he sees them again is a good way to make him want to stay where he is (with her) and not try to reconnect with his past life. Like any effective manipulator, she's keeping him isolated from his friends and family as much as she can.

3. otoh, we know from the books that being able to locate someone's dreams doesn't mean that you know where they are in the physical world, so this might be an Ishamael-influenced dream (I note that while Rand's visions of his friends has them wearing their S1 outfits, Ishamael is wearing his s2 outfit, which Rand hasn't seen), so this might be an Ishamael-influenced dream since he figures he might as well torment Rand in the dream if he can't find him irl.

4. Given that Rand is already hearing whispers, I wonder when the show plans to re-introduce Lews Therin to us in his own form. It might even be this season, if they wanted to make sure to keep a lock on the actor (or we might get another Age of Legends cold open -- though I note that we only had one cold open in this set of three episodes, though that might be because Rafe & co were aware that they would likely all air the same night so that might have affected their choices there - I'd love an AoL cold open where we get to see Lanfear and Lews Therin together).

5. So, did Rand find his way to Cairhien first and then Lanfear set up an inn in the Foregate to entice him to her, or did she set up her inn before he arrived and she figured out a way to lure him in? Either way, she's doing a much better job than the Lanfear in the books. She's much less suspicious than "random noblewoman who managed to appear in an unpopulated parallel world so that Rand could save her" and she's more subtle too. While the cringefail Forsaken in the books can be amusing, the threat level of the villains also helps tell you how seriously to take your protagonists, so I'm glad that they beefed up her threat level by actually making her effective. Right now, Lanfear is #winning on every possible level.

6. I love Errol because he serves several story purposes -- he's reminding us that Rand looks "like an Aiel"; he's serving Hurin's purpose in the story of giving Rand someone to look after and be protective of; he's teaching Rand sword forms because he was a blademaster; and he's giving us a bit of history about "the Aiel war". And the actor is quite charming. Plus he's used to show us both Rand's compassion and his need/desire to find mentors to help teach him the skills he needs. At this point in time, Rand does believe that he's defeated the Dark One and his nightmares are just nightmares but he does still want to learn how to protect himself and how to control himself.

7. We mostly hear indistinct whispers until Rand is walking down the hallway (it's the shot from the trailer) and it resolves into "Do you hear me? You are mine, Rand al'Thor." Which is very interesting. Our first inkling of Lews Therin? If so, it shows a greater awareness of Rand as a person than LTT's voice showed in the earlier books when it appeared in his head. I've speculated that this might happen, so I wonder if we're going to get more genuine back-and-forth between Rand and LTT than we really got in the books as a way of letting us into Rand's internal narration without him needing to pour out his heart to any of the characters around him.

8. I am actually loving Perrin getting Rand's plotline here -- it's working really well for him, being used to show us how Perrin can smell what happened in places so vividly that he's re-experiencing the past. I feel like if I didn't know this was Rand's original plotline, I wouldn't have guessed. It suits how they're exploring Perrin's character so well. I do wonder... Elyas speaks of Perrin experiencing a 'vision' -- I wonder if they're going to make the mystical side of being a Wolfbrother more distinct from what Dreamers do in this show version. Because it really was kinda... weird in the books how Perrin and Egwene are doing all this training in the same dreamworld but Perrin never runs across her or any of the Aiel Dreamwalkers, even once they're spending more time in the wetlands side of things.

9. The nailed-up Fade is used in the books to mark when Fain 'takes control' of the Darkfriends & Trollocs. I wonder here if it's meant to mark the moment when the dagger owns him more strongly than the Dark One does. Because the people of Shadar Logoth were not darkfriends -- and they focused on this in s1, too, because dagger!Mat is not a fan of the Fade that he meets in the farmhouse.

10. Love foreshadowing of Errol talking about "Aielman among us and no one bats an eyelash in the entire place" -- Rand is going to be bringing a lot of Aiel to the wetlands. I bet we're going to get to see some of these sword forms in the finale!

11. Liandrin does seem like she's becoming genuinely invested in Nynaeve. I like that (almost) everyone gets their own personal Darkfriend -- Nynaeve has Liandrin, Mat also has Liandrin (she's a hard worker!), Rand has Lanfear, Perrin has (remorseful) Ingtar, Moiraine has (double agent) Verin, Lan has (repentant) Tomas, and even Egwene gets a scene with Sheriam (who will get to be Her Darkfriend Among Us later on, if we're able to follow the books that closely when we get there), though she's not really the focus of Sheriam's attention. Everyone gets a little personal attention from the Shadow!

I like that Nynaeve gets rushed forward to the test for Accepted due to Liandrin wanting to teach her so badly. It seems more realistic reasoning than we get in the books.

12. Another big lie from Liandrin here about how Mat is here because they are "only observing" that the effects of the dagger are out of his system, which Mat immediately calls bullshit on. He's locked in a cell and only Liandrin is around -- that is not an official observation by any means. That's a prison. It's been six months. So I would put Liandrin's official lie count at two. Notably, she's only lying to Mat so far, who is both kept well away from other people and also doesn't really know as much about Aes Sedai (we know from Egwene and Moiraine's conversation in the woods in s1 that the people of the Two Rivers do not have the Aes Sedai oaths memorized).

13. My dearest, my darling, my deepest love is finally here! At the end of my reread, when I was ranking my favorite characters, Elayne was my number one favorite. Ceara is doing such a good job with her and the writing is also excellent. I love how many different sides of her we get to see in just these two episodes -- sheltered noble, awkward girl who grew up with no friends, someone familiar with the Tower but not familiar being a novice in the Tower, but a tinkerer (!!! so excited that they put this in so early) at heart and incredibly loyal and compassionate. I just adored her so much in these two episodes and I am looking forward to seeing more of her. I do really hope that, in the midst of all the chaos, that the show does manage to give her something of a meet-cute with Rand, even if it's less obviously romantic than the one in the books. But I'm really looking forward to more of her interacting with Egwene and Nynaeve, and hopefully meeting Aviendha and/or Min and/or Mat in the finale or before it.

14. I have zero issue with Sheriam not being a redhead. I think it's a good idea for the show to cut down on the number of redheads, given that Jordan says it's rare but then keeps giving us random redheads. Limiting the on-screen ones to the Aiel and the royal house of Andor seems like a good idea to me.

15. So first we got Perrin's letters last episode. Now, in this episode, Elyas tells Perrin that the soldiers he's with right now "are not your pack". While he could be talking about the wolves, of course, I feel like, as a viewer, that makes me think of the EF5 and how that's who Perrin belongs with right now. Especially after Perrin's letter talking about how he feels 'exposed' without the others around. Again, it gives me the hope that we'll get more moments of reconnection between the EF5 over the course of the show.

16. This moment with Verin is such a great one to look at knowing the truth of her situation. "Even oaths have loopholes one can exploit". She's the expert at it. Oaths are a bit of a minor theme in this episode and the next -- the loopholes and also, next episode, we're introduced to the Seanchan oaths where Perrin is, I assume, going to take the very reasonable position that a forced oath is not binding (which is the same position that Mat had in Winter's Heart but inexplicably abandoned in Crossroads of Twilight when he decided his accidental wedding vows were binding).

Oh! I knew I remembered hearing the words "Toman Head" in these three episodes but hadn't remembered it was Verin mentioning it! I thought it was noted as part of the Dark Prophecies but it's mentioned here as mainline prophecy. But the name is out there now. And this conversation also confirms "sword of flame" and "battle in the sky" for the finale, most likely, and a mention of a "branded hand" which feels like it confirms the herons. I wonder if Rand is going to use the same weave on his dad's sword that we saw Verin using at the end of the last episode for Tomas's sword. This may also mean that it's using that weave that burns the herons into Rand's palms?

17. The Rand and Lanfear scenes. Wow! But, yeah, I wonder how much her non-reaction to his bloody knuckles struck show-onlys. She doesn't ask him what happened, who he beat up. She just kisses his bloody knuckles and sweet-talks him into bed.

18. So far, we've heard/seen three separate form of violent teaching in the White Tower -- the unnamed woman who beat Moiraine to make her channel (likely Elaida); Liandrin's behavior with Nynaeve; and Sheriam telling Elayne that she'll be switched. Both Liandrin and Sheriam, of course, are Black Ajah. But from Egwene's reaction here, it doesn't seem like being ordered to be switched is anything close to the common punishment that it seemed to be in the books. But we'll see!

19. It does occur to me that Gawyn (maybe Galad too) might already have been in training with the Warders even if Elayne wasn't a novice yet -- Elayne has been spending her summers in the Tower and it's entirely possible that Gawyn's training to protect her meant he was sent off early to start learning from the best. We don't get any hints in this episode or the next about her brothers, but we're pretty focused on her developing friendship with Egwene.

20. "Min is in Tar Valon" and "Min and Mat share a plotline" were my two most hoped-for options for Min's storyline for this season, so I'm happy about that. I do wish that Min had been given a chance to bond with Elayne or Egwene but, hopefully, there will be time for that later. But I really love the set-up we've been given where we are going to explore Elayne with Egwene and Nynaeve; Min being more fully-explored with Mat; and then Aviendha when she enters Perrin's storyline. All of them are getting fleshed out as individual characters before any of them get romantically involved with Rand. I am feeling pretty hopeful that we're going to get our polycule (and a genuine polycule, not a harem) in the upcoming seasons. They've been putting in a lot of "poly relationships are valid and complex" groundwork in and it looks like they are going to be making sure that all of the characters involved get to be full characters who have their own agendas and their own arcs.

Some people on reddit are still pretty disappointed that Min isn't the male-gaze fantasy that she is in the later books but I have been thrilled with the changes that the show has done so far with her. We also maybe get a hint here that Min is going to be canonically bisexual by the way she jokes about Liandrin, so I will cross my fingers on that.

20. Min's viewing! I do love that they're massively cutting down on the number of Min's viewings to focus on ones that are interesting and relevant. This one is particularly interesting because there's nothing like it in the books. Mat stabbing Rand, then cradling him as he falls.

Theory #1: this is a flicker-flicker world (maybe we only get one big one?) and it's not Our Mat stabbing Our Rand but an alternate one.

Theory #2: Rand asks Mat to fulfill his promise to keep Rand from going mad and that's why Mat stabs him.

Theory #3: Rand loses control of himself (like Lady Amalisa in 1x8) and Mat stabs him to try to get him to lose his hold on the One Power.

Theory #4: Mat gets placed under compulsion (which would be another reason for him to want protection from Aes Sedai and channeling).

Theory #5: Mat gets The Dagger again and he's the one who gives Rand the wound in his side, while under its influence.

Theory #6: It's metaphorical and Mat takes the place of Alivia and helps Rand 'die' at the end of the series (seems unlikely but I'll throw it out there).

And probably lots of other things I haven't thought of. But it definitely shakes Min to see it.

I wonder if she only agreed to help Liandrin after this moment or if she'd already agreed and this is just additional incentive. I don't think she's told Liandrin anything about Rand. She was able to keep that secret from Moiraine even under blackmail so I think she kept it from Liandrin too.

But I do love that we get a viewing that connects Mat and Rand together, even if it's through a traumatic encounter. I am a simple soul who finds messiness intriguing.

21. Lanfear! Talking about her broken heart to the man who broke it and who she is, even now, doing her best to groom back into the man that she wants. The layers in this conversation are exquisite. When she tells him that he can't hurt her, she also can say that because she has a strong grasp of what she can do with the Power while he's still stumbling in the dark. Ooof, but Rand was (unknowingly) on risky ground when he confirmed that he does sometimes think of his past when he's with her.

Also, talking about how "no one else" could ever have power over her heart now that her previous lover is gone... when she's literally talking to his reincarnation. The conversation is just so rich and so sharp and there's so much of it that is going over Rand's head because he doesn't have the necessary information to even begin to put the pieces together. "What's left to hurt if he still has my whole heart?" she says, to the guy in question. "When I'm with you, I can pretend you're him." YEAH. I BET YOU CAN.

22. So I wonder if Moiraine's threat here to Lan, that she would let Alanna take his bond if he didn't let her leave on her own, is going to be the extent of the "Myrelle" plot point that Alanna absorbs and it won't actually happen in fact. But now it's out there as an idea that Warders can be forcibly bonded so that when Alanna forcibly bonds someone else down the road, the idea isn't coming out of nowhere.

23. I was so shocked when the Seanchan attacked in episode two. I was thinking this would happen in episode five. But once I sat down and thought about it, I realizes that Perrin has already hit all the main points of the Hunt for the Horn storyline on his side of things (and even partly on what Rand would have been doing). We've found the traitor and had Ingtar reveal his sympathy towards said traitor; we've found the Fade and the moment when Fain started playing by his own rules; and we've even been exploring Perrin and his senses. This does mean that we're going to have a lot of potential time to explore the Seanchan invasion and culture.

24. I don't have any issues with Ishamael openly being Suroth's advisor vs someone covertly giving Suroth her marching orders. High Lady Suroth is a Darkfriend and always was. We're just taking it out of the shadows and showing it openly to the viewers (and Perrin).

I do wonder if Perrin specifically seeing the Shadow and the Seanchan so entwined will have an impact on his later storylines. That I wonder about. But the later books were, tbh, really weird about how low-impact the Falme encounter ended up being in the long run for pretty much everyone except Egwene. Min basically forgets she knows anything about the Seanchan even when that information could help Rand, everyone forgets about the environment of paranoia and fear that the Seanchan created in Falme, etc. There's a lot of weird forgetfulness going around, especially in CoT & KoD, when Jordan wanted to sell us on his slaver romance.

(the way that the show has been improving characters like Min and relationships like Rand/Lanfear does give me a lot of hope in how they will handle Tuon and the Mat & Tuon 'romance' and that they'll make it better than the poorly-written dumpster fire that it is in CoT & KoD)

[butterflydm]

wot deeper dive 2x2: strangers and friends

My deeper look at 2x2, without any spoilers from the books. I'll be posting an additional post after this that gets into book-related thoughts.

After we only got a glimpse of Rand in the last episode, we are starting with him right out of the gate. Now, Rand's dreams... Moiraine mentioned in the first season that dreams were important but most of what I have to say about Rand's dreams is probably going to need to go in the post that has spoilers for the books.

2. I can talk about how devastating these dreams must be for Rand. This is his great fear -- that being a male channeler means that he'll kill the people that he loves. That's the whole reason that he's here in Cairhien, why he asked Moiraine to pretend to the others that he's dead. So he has to relive his greatest fear over and over in his dreams now. His hands covered in his friends' blood. Also... I think he's in essentially a mimicry of the outfit that The Man at the Eye of the World was wearing. It's not quite the same outfit, but the white shirt and black coat.

3. Rand is already hearing whispers in his mind, which he'd mentioned at the end of s1 as well -- he said that he could feel the madness coming for him. Even awake, he's hearing whispers.

4. And this is our introduction to Selene. She's aware that he has nightmares, which is probably pretty obvious, to be fair, but I feel like we can be pretty sure that he hasn't mentioned the whispers in his head. He can tell that she's thinking about a morning quickie just from the look in her eyes, but says he has to go to work. There's some teasing about how he's paying for his room & board with sex (which definitely gives me flashbacks to Dana and Mat's intentions there). We don't get a firm answer here on how long they've been sleeping together just "all these nights together".

5. Rand has been in Cairhien (the Foregate, specifically) for long enough that he's formed a routine and a rapport with his neighbors here. He has a coin for the boy that he passes along the way and someone tosses him something to eat without them needing to discuss it first. He's built a little life for himself here, far away from his other friends. We see that he needs a work-pass to enter the walled city (due to being A Poor, I assume) and we also see the richly-dressed people on the streets of the walled city shy away from him and don't want to walk near him. It's such a great setting of the scene and showing what kind of place Cairhien is, with how strict the division is between the wealthy and the poor.

6. The subtitles reveal that what Rand hears in his head as he walks down the hall is "Do you hear me? You are mine, Rand al'Thor."

7. Poor Moiraine looks so deflated and depressed. She was planning to be on her way in secret! Following up on the poem that we still don't know the details of! And now Lan, Verin, Adaleas, and Tomas all know about her plans and are going to tag along. Things are not working out according to her design. I feel like Moiraine has been feeling very helpless recently (ever since she lost the four kiddos while she was injured, honestly -- I'm not sure she ever really recovered her sense of balance after that, because she kept getting surprise after surprise... and then, after she thought she and Rand had succeeded at the Eye of the World, she realized that they failed. AFTER she'd already let Rand leave on his own. She is on a hardcore losing streak and it's depressing for her!) "You're in luck. My sister and I have decided to accompany you," Verin tells her and Moiraine is going, "fuck fuck fuck" in her head. What a delightful scene.

8. Also, regarding Lan -- Moiraine left Lan in 1x8 expecting to die at the Eye of the World. That was her sincere belief when she masked her bond and left with Rand -- she was assuming that she would die there and then maybe Lan would escort Nynaeve and Egwene to the Tower and eventually become Nynaeve's Warder, probably. And if she'd been able to unmask his bond after the events at the Eye, then she might have been able to find her balance with Lan, at least, but she can't sense him any more than he can sense her. And she still believes that the Dragon must face the Dark One and anyone who is at his side is going to die. She is still in 'solo death march' mode. So that's why I don't have any issues with Moiraine's characterization. She shouldn't be doing this to Lan but it feels very in character to me that she is doing it.

9. Oooh, this whole scene with Perrin and the abandoned manor house is very creepy and effective, especially as we build up to them finding the Fade nailed to the door. Perrin worrying that Elyas has "done something" to him to make him experience that moment in the house reminds me of how accusatory Rand got towards Moiraine at the start of last season.

"Useful, to know the difference between vision and reality." Elyas is a man of few words, but they're good ones.

10. So my current guess is that Rand shaved his head because he was getting reactions from people (maybe even specifically from Errol) about how he looked like "an Aielman" and he was trying to mitigate that. It doesn't work fully -- Errol definitely still thinks of Aiel when he sees Rand -- but it helps conceal him.

I love the slow reveal of what's going on with Rand here -- how the relationship with Errol is partly because Rand does like him and want to help him, but he's also learning from him. How Rand's actions make sense in the moment but then are also revealed to have a deeper ulterior motive underneath. He beats up Yann because Yann is an asshole to Errol by deliberately triggering his PTSD... ah, but also because it's going to get him access to Logain, who is held in the more secure areas of the facility. And that moment itself is also used to show us how the whispers are affecting Rand and how he's having a hard time controlling himself. He fears losing himself too. This episode did a really good job showing us both the good of who Rand is but also the negative influences that are working on him.

11. Nynaeve got pulled out of doing chores with all the other novices so that she could get a special lesson from Liandrin. Also, we get the thread of 'crimsonthorn' started here -- it kills in large amounts but dulls the pain when used appropriately. Liandrin steals a bottle here and we'll find out why later in the episode. Nynaeve getting to see some official Aes Sedai healing was very nice though. Liandrin taking Nynaeve under her wing has definitely been fascinating to watch. Also I love this worldbuilding where we find out that the Accepted get to spend time with each of the seven Ajahs to find out where they are best suited. We also find out that Aes Sedai are capable of living "hundred of years", setting us up for the reveal later in the episode.

12. We get more from Mat now! The dynamic between Liandrin and Mat really is fascinating. He doesn't trust or like her, but she's also the only point of human contact that he's been allowed for six long months. We really get to see him acting under adversity here. The miming of the door locking was genuinely delightful. I love how we see that his spirit is not broken by his imprisonment. He's still resourceful and determined.

13. And now we have our introduction to Elayne Trakand, the Daughter-Heir of Andor, who puts her foot in her mouth with Egwene several times by accident. Elayne's little moment of realization that Egwene's room was not "full of rubbish" but was actually Egwene's stuff was really good. I am loving Ceara as Elayne. But Elayne's little realization that she fucked up and then she desperately tries to fix it by complimenting the stitching on Egwene's blanket and then screwing up again when she tells Egwene that Egwene is "her subject" and how she tries to recover from that by sorta flirting with Egwene. She's sweet and awkward and Not Good with people her own age that she wants to be friends with.

14. Alanna and Sheriam's conversation starts out on a tense note when Alanna asks after Sheriam's Warder and Sheriam expresses the feeling that Warders shouldn't be present in private meetings between Sisters, when Ihvon and Maksim are literally right there. We are seeing that there are lots of different relationships that Aes Sedai and their Warders can have! Alanna clearly has no secrets and holds nothing back from Ihvon and Maksim. Lan and Moiraine had a strong queerplatonic bond (that is currently strongly being tested). And Sheriam feels that Warders don't always need to know their Aes Sedai's private conversations. But Ihvon and Maksim feel free to chime in on the conversation between Alanna and Sheriam without holding back.

15. Alanna standing up for Nynaeve not being pushed too early to become Accepted: she's genuinely making so many good points. Interestingly, Sheriam is now echoing the argument that Liandrin made in the last episode -- that Nynaeve's strength in the One Power justifies pushing her harder than you might push other novices.

16. Alanna points out the same thing that she mentioned last season -- that she believes strongly that the Last Battle is coming, and that these powerful channelers are a sign of that. "The Daughter-Heir" gets noted as being a strong channeler alongside Egwene and Nynaeve and the false Dragons Logain and Mazrim Taim. "The Pattern's giving us weapons to fight against Him."

Oof, Sheriam's last little jab at Alanna for 'letting' her Warders attend this meeting with her. "There, you speak as one and not three."

Alanna and co are leaving the Tower to go help Moiraine, on her request. That really does show us that Moiraine considers them genuine friends too, if she's willing to trust Alanna to help her, even after she's been exiled from the Tower.

17. Nynaeve loves tracking people. And this is now the second time when she has tracked someone to their previously-unknown-to-her family (after finding Lan with the other Malkieri in 1x8). I do admit that I was wondering if she was going to discover Mat being held prisoner but I understand (narratively) why it didn't happen.

18. Elyas is not with the others when the Seanchan attack because he doesn't want to sleep indoors. And he tells Perrin that the soldiers are not Perrin's pack.

19. It's also night where Moiraine is, now within sight of the White Tower. We learn that Verin and Adeleas have been working on a history book all these years. Oh, and Verin reveals that she's figured out that Moiraine found the Dragon Reborn and that it's one of the boys that Moiraine left with "last autumn". And we get Verin's philosophy on how to approach the Dragon laid out: she disagrees with the idea that the Dragon should be 'caged' by the Tower and believes that he needs to be left free to act. She believes that the world still has not recovered from the Breaking and that the Dragon is what the world needs in order to be healed and whole, and so she supports Moiraine in "leading him to victory". Moiraine tries to get an oath from Verin and Verin tells her no dice, plus "even oaths have loopholes one can exploit." We gotta work on the honor system.

Verin mentions prophecies found in the Tower that speak of "Toman Head, battles in the sky, a sword of flame and the branded hand that wields it".

20. Ooof, the whispers of "kill him" that Rand is hearing when he attacks Yann, and how he loses control of himself and almost does kill him -- it really does help show how poorly Rand is already doing (I mean, he's been fighting against this for half a year now!). And when he goes back to his room and Selene is waiting for him, she kisses the blood on his knuckles and tells him that "when things get bad, we want to be alone. The truth is, that's when we need each other the most. We can be alone together." And he's clearly still having a hard time controlling himself, but she doesn't seemed fazed by it. Seems kinda into it.

21. Egwene being the experienced novice and then... realizing that Elayne was just trying become friends with her and actually is already pretty familiar with the Tower (I will make a mental note that Elayne has spent the last few summers here... and clearly was getting special treatment while she was visiting). And gets to be present when Elayne gets a harsh setdown from Sheriam for acting like the Daughter-Heir and not a novice. But Egwene, and the viewers, get to see Elayne's loyalty and her integrity here, when she refused to give up the name of the person who allowed her to bring her personal items into the Tower, even when Sheriam makes it clear that she'll face (physical) punishment for her transgression.

22. I love this scene with Liandrin and her... son (?). The reveal, how she reacts to discovering that Nynaeve is watching, how she reacts to Nynaeve trying to give her advice on how to help him, and then her apologies to him afterwards as she admits to him (but not Nynaeve) that Nynaeve was right. Liandrin cannot abide people witnessing her being weak (...which is something she has in common with how Nynaeve has been acting re: her channeling block, I will note) and she defaults to violence when she's upset.

23. Mat discovers that the room next door is an adjoining cell, and one that is already occupied by Min, who we met in episode 1x7 last season. This conversation between the two of them was funny and enjoyable on both sides. But it's an interesting reminder that Mat and Min didn't meet last season, so they are encountering each other as fresh new faces, who are both being held prisoner by Liandrin. It must be such a relief for Mat to talk to someone else after months of only talking to Liandrin. And they have a fun dynamic. Sharing wine.

I love love love that Mat is not interested in finding out his future from Min. "That is way less interesting than I'd expected. I'd hoped for a murder or a secret affair with an Aes Sedai." Also, I wonder if that's refreshing for Min, to be hanging out with someone who is NOT interested in hearing his future from her.

Well, until she does get a viewing off of Mat. And it's him stabbing Rand, who she did appear to genuinely like when they spoke last season ("You seem like a decent person"). And this viewing does also confirm that Min is aware that Rand is still alive (though I don't think she actually knows that his friends all believe he's dead... or that Mat is one of his friends, for that matter).

After some careful considering, I do think that the shirt Rand is wearing is the dark shirt that we've seen him wearing under all the rest of his clothes. Maybe. The dagger does look like it could be The Dagger, maybe.

(I'm just excited to see Mat and "Rand" on-screen at the same time haha)

24. The after-sex conversation between Rand and Selene, where he talks about how he doesn't want to hurt her and she tells him that she's already carrying a broken heart, so nothing can hurt her more than that, and they kinda mutually say that they're both in this for reasons that aren't about being in a relationship -- she wants to remember her past relationship and she can do that with Rand; while he doesn't want to think about his past that he's walked away from.

25. Elayne brews her own alcohol with a weave that she's invented. I love her so much. "I like to tinker with things." She also confesses here that she didn't have any friends growing up. But this whole conversation where Egwene tries to work through her feelings about her imposter syndrome and how being around Nynaeve kinda makes it worse (which is something that we got a hint of in Egwene's deepest fears from Machin Shin last season).

World info: Elayne says that Andor is "the most powerful nation in the world" (to her knowledge, anyway).

26. I do love that now that Nynaeve is going to do the Accepted test, Liandrin is angry at her and kinda doesn't want it to happen anymore but she's accidentally trapped herself into it.

27. Lan discovers and takes the poem (that we still don't know the contents of) and then he tries to have a conversation with Moiraine.

While I liked getting to hear the story of how Moiraine and Lan met earlier in the episode, but I feel like the point that is most significant is here when she talks about when she realized she wanted Lan to be her Warder.

Moiraine: "I couldn't imagine the courage it took to face the Shadow with nothing but a sword."

Also Moiraine: "We were never equals."

(psst, Lan, maybe it's not that she thinks she's better than you. Given that she admits in this scene that she was "wrong about everything". Again, she's still in solo death march mode. She doesn't want Lan to die with her; that's why she left him behind in 1x8 and that's why she's pushing him away now. But it's still painful to hear)

Lan does get to find out here that Rand is alive and Moiraine has hidden it from him because "my loyalty is to [the Dragon] and him alone".

And Moiraine threatens to have Alanna forcibly bond Lan if he doesn't agree to stay behind. "I'll have her take your bond by force, if I must."

28. Almost anything I would have to say about the final Perrin scene is heavy spoilers except: I appreciate how hard they all fight not to be captured here. This is a brutal attack. And then the final attack of the One Power at the end to incapacitate the town.

29. And we get the reveal that these invaders have someone leading them who has a Known Bad Guy as her advisor, which is... not great. And he's clearly thrilled to see that they've managed to capture Perrin.

30. At the very end, Rand's plan comes to fruition when we see that taking Yann (still alive!) out of the picture means that he's getting assigned to take over Yann's position as Logain's caretaker. "I have a feeling you and I have a lot more in common" and Rand can't hide how excited he is to get a chance to talk to Logain. This is, I assume, the original reason that he got the job here -- he found out that this was where Logain was being kept in the city and he has been working his way up to try to become seen as trustworthy and reliable so that he would be able to finally meet Logain in person.

[butterflydm]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Wheel of Time (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Rand al'Thor/Selene Characters: Rand al'Thor, Selene (The Wheel of Time) Additional Tags: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, has a fairly important spoiler for book 2: the great hunt, Canon Compliant, Undernegotiated Kink, Unnegotiated Kink, spoilers for episode s2e2: strangers and friends, Manipulative Relationship Summary: Selene shares a moment with Rand, set before episode two: Strangers and Friends.

Has spoilers for The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, book 2) but is very much set in the show-verse.

“It’s not morning yet,” she murmured, resting her hand on his throat. He swallowed underneath her fingers, his mind likely still caught up in his dream. She kept her grip loose, for now. “So there’s plenty of time for a bit of fun.”

[butterflydm]

do you think we'll ever find out what happened with the fade that padan fain? or why he took that little girl and she was in the dream world in the season premier?

I suspect that Fain is probably going to be in the Two Rivers in Perrin's storyline next season and both of those plot-points were related to Perrin's journey across the continent, so it's very possible that the details might come out next season, yeah!

My main hope for Fain is that he stays a more focused character the show and doesn't bounce around all over the place like he does in the books, lol. But we'll see!

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x7

Spoilers for all the aired episodes, it will also have book spoilers through book 6: lord of chaos.

I was able to talk a lot about this episode without needing book spoilers, so this post is much shorter than my earlier one! Like incredibly short.

Thinking about this first scene in the context of Gitara and Tigraine is fascinating. Is Gitara still the person who told Tigraine to go out to the Waste in the first place, in the show's version of events? Because Gitara really is the secret mastermind of a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff.

Gitara essentially engineers the succession crisis in Andor that leads to Elayne being the Daughter-Heir, and Elayne is a very strong player for the Light in the Last Battle. Gitara engineers Rand's birth. And then she sets the threads in motion for Moiraine and Siuan's search for Rand.

The prophetic thread from Gitara (who seems to have been very reliable at figuring out the important bits of her Foretellings) to Elaida (literally The Worst at figuring out her Foretellings) is fascinating to think about. It's not the Talent that makes the woman, but the woman that makes the Talent.

And to pick up from the thread of duty that I was talking about in my earlier post --

Liandrin gave up everything for her son.

Anvaere gave up her son in order to do what is right.

Tigraine does both. She gives up her son (Galad) so that she can follow Gitara's Foretellings, abandoning her old life to save the world. But she also gives up everything for her son (Rand), fighting to the last to give birth, no matter what obstacles face her.

I do think that Tigraine (a former Daughter-Heir of Andor) definitely realized that her son would be the Dragon Reborn, once she was, you know, pregnant and about to give birth on Dragonmount. I feel like she probably figured it out (potentially much earlier than that, though it's hard to say when, exactly).

2. I am... I am genuinely wondering if we're going to skip straight to Moiraine and Rand actually being able to trust each other, and getting to be a team in the Aiel Waste. Because they have bonded so hard this season and Moiraine has made her loyalties painfully clear, especially in this episode and in 2x2 -- I choose Rand. I will protect him, I will guide him. I will trust him even when that trust is an act of faith instead of being based on reason. And that's really a point that she only openly reaches in the books during TFoH. And Rand has SEEN that she was willing to go against Tower on his behalf.

So, yeah. I am very very curious about what our s3 dynamic is going to be with these two. Will 2x8 do something to shift this dynamic or will we take it with us into s3?

3. I'm also... big ouch re: Alanna being one of three Aes Sedai in the entire world that Rand currently feels like he can maybe trust. Salt in the wound, there!

4. Could Siuan be under Compulsion, as I've seen some people speculate? I mean, I wouldn't put it past Liandrin, but we don't really see any opportunity for Liandrin and Siuan to be alone together. And I think all her choices and arguments in this episode feel pretty firmly grounded in what we know of her as a character from the show. So... you know, maybe? I wouldn't feel like the show was cheating if it told me that Compulsion was used to encourage Siuan to stick by Tower policy but I would not be surprised if this is just... Siuan making a different choice than the one that Moiraine makes.

The other possibility I've seen floated is that this was a deliberate ruse by either Siuan alone (to push Rand into trusting Moiraine) or by the two of them together but I feel like Siuan telling Leane "That boy must not leave the city" makes that theory much less likely. We have seen them performing a grand ruse before, of course, back in 1x6 but... I don't feel like the evidence is on the side of this one being a ruse. I feel like they say too many things that would need to be actual lies for this one to work, which is not possible given the Oaths.

Anyway, like I said, this book spoilers post is a short one!

my non-book spoilers post is much longer