So I've watched again a couple times. While it's subtle, you CAN see the struggle on Rand's face. His overreaction, his declaration that he can't lose anyone else (thinking Mat- we haven't see him agonize over his perceived severing of his bond with Tam at all in the show), his telling Egwene to go to the WT as he knows she's not it, the warder comment (he told her this in book 1 or 2 as well).
But MOST OF ALL, is the look of relief on his face when she tells him "if it is you, I will stand by your side no matter what." He closes his eyes in relief. This was the most touching thing I've seen, perhaps even more than Moiraine's vow to Siuan at the last episode. It was beautiful. Heartbreaking. He can now face the things he's facing knowing that he has Egwene. After spending the night with her, being reassured, he is able to relive everything.
Is Marc Rutherford channeling Jon Snow? Jeez, they have the same facial expressions and way of speaking. It's uncanny. Close your eyes and you can hear it.
Josha does the same with Hayden Christiansen (who, I've always thought was a great actor. He had crappy dialogue and a terrible director. But even with that, I saw glimpses. Go watch "Life as a house" or "Shattered Glass" to see what he is capable of. Those roles- each different- show a great actor. It's sad he was pigeonholed because of SW. Natalie Portman, another great actor, struggled with that and had to fight to get out from under Padme Amidala.)
Even with the rewatch and shifting focus away from the triangle, it still sticks out like a sore thumb. Especially when you take into account the whole Laila not going to Egwene's ceremony, the obvious trouble in their marriage, the CLEAR shift to Perrin when Egwene lays down with Rand in the ways (initially, before they unleashed this story bomb, I thought it was him missing Laila, but on rewatch, it seems like more evidence that Perrin is carrying a torch for Egwene), and then Nynaeve's foot in mouth moment that seemed out of nowhere (when did we see them compete for her like a prize.)
Yes it seems to be resolved quickly, at least from Rand and Egwene's persective. And that is a beautiful moment, as I said. I've seen some commentary that there was a brief comment in the early books where Perrin says Egwene is like a sister, "well, er, not that, exactly, but...She's with Rand anyway..." but it was such a throwaway line and there was never any indication it was ever a thing. Like you see a friend's girlfriend and think she's cute and cool, and maybe, if things were different, you might have gone that way. But it's not an option and you don't really ever give life to that. That's how it feels. Not "competing over her" as Nynaeve says.
Yes, Nynaeve is wrong. Mostly. And her words were stupid (though after the Black Wind, explainable.) But the underlying evidence on Perrin's part- at least the way Laila felt about Egwene or his looking at Egwene longingly- Bah! I'm tired of talking about it. It bugs me and that's that. Stupid and unnecessary. Perrin being married didn't require him to be harboring longing for another woman to complicate why he killed her. I'd almost be joking to wonder if they are trying to turn Perrin into the wet blanket he was through most of the series by giving him ridiculous hangups.
Anyway, the ways. It bugged me a lot, but I think Barney Harris leaving really did fuck a lot of things up. Writing him out of the last 2 eps was going to be challenging from a metaphysical POV. One of the taveren not there. But they did what they could- if he was the dragon, there was no way he could be near the DO. It works. I think it is correct the Ways were changed so channeling needed them to be opened. That would explain why they couldn't just reopen it to get to Mat. The stills showing Fain and the Leaf are telling and you still wonder how Fain made it without channeling.
It's rough, honestly, and makes Loial superfluous, as the connection between the Ogier and the Ways has been completely removed, so far at least. This is a tough pickle and I don't envy them trying to get out of it.
I love Min and Rand. Yeah, she's probably 8-10 years older than him. Min was always older and, prior to Rand, liked older men (like the Warder she was around when she was with the Salidar AS Embassy in Caemlyn.) Older worldly men where her thing. But the pattern decided differently. Be interesting to see their relationship develop organically. Min and Rand were among the best couples in the books. And the series is doing romance wonderfully.
Someone suggested the circus she saw might refer to the foregaters storyline in Cairhien in book 2 when Rand was with Selene and Loial. The king of Cairhien paid handsomely for "circuses" (to borrow the term "bread and circuses" that referred to keeping the people happy and quiescent)- entertainers like gleeman, puppeteers, fireworks, jugglers, etc. They may pull Valen Luca's circus to Cairhien for this. (There's a theorylander, Felix Pax, who would love to see Luca again. This guy was certifiable but knew the books like the back of his hand and argued that Valen Luca was the true dragon reborn and pulled together the most amazing evidence for it. Brandon Sanderson responsed to his tweets that he would be disappointed. But you had to give it to the guy. He built incredible castles out of his evidence.)
Selene has been cast but I don't know who. I've seen someone post that Katie McGrath would be a great Lanfear. As you may have guessed, I'd TOTALLY be cool with that. ;-)
Who that kid is...man, that's tough. and doesn't fit anything in the novels that I can remember. Rand's kids were assholes, from Avi's visions. And they had dark hair. Maybe it IS Min's as was said. Or something Rand sees presented to him by the DO at the eye of the world. I don't think they are doing long term prophecies yet. Not until they show some being fulfilled. Egwene with the flame can be being AS and also Amyrlin later so that is ok. And LAn gives Nynaeve his ring fair early. Perrins eyes are pretty much done and his bloody chin can be anything but not like the broken crown or tinker with sword.
So my guess is the kid thing will be explained early. Could be a world of "if" reference or something like Egwene sees in her acepted test (she's married to Rand, etc). So it could be potential futures where the dragon faces a choice to be the dragon and try to live a semblance of a normal life.
And now I can't see Tam without a michael meyers mask., Thanks asc ;-) I kept wondering if they de-aged. That one was rough. (Need that guy who fixed Luke's deaging in the Mandelorian. He as a fan who took disney's footage from the show and did it himself, posted on youtube, and it was seriously much better. Disney fucking hired him! That's how cool it was!)
The baby was all mushy and wormy too. Hopefully with more time and the pandemic winding down, the VFX get better. It's been over all fantastic, but the fails are noticable.
Great episode, minus one thing. ;-)
But MOST OF ALL, is the look of relief on his face when she tells him "if it is you, I will stand by your side no matter what." He closes his eyes in relief. This was the most touching thing I've seen, perhaps even more than Moiraine's vow to Siuan at the last episode. It was beautiful. Heartbreaking. He can now face the things he's facing knowing that he has Egwene. After spending the night with her, being reassured, he is able to relive everything.
Is Marc Rutherford channeling Jon Snow? Jeez, they have the same facial expressions and way of speaking. It's uncanny. Close your eyes and you can hear it.
Josha does the same with Hayden Christiansen (who, I've always thought was a great actor. He had crappy dialogue and a terrible director. But even with that, I saw glimpses. Go watch "Life as a house" or "Shattered Glass" to see what he is capable of. Those roles- each different- show a great actor. It's sad he was pigeonholed because of SW. Natalie Portman, another great actor, struggled with that and had to fight to get out from under Padme Amidala.)
Even with the rewatch and shifting focus away from the triangle, it still sticks out like a sore thumb. Especially when you take into account the whole Laila not going to Egwene's ceremony, the obvious trouble in their marriage, the CLEAR shift to Perrin when Egwene lays down with Rand in the ways (initially, before they unleashed this story bomb, I thought it was him missing Laila, but on rewatch, it seems like more evidence that Perrin is carrying a torch for Egwene), and then Nynaeve's foot in mouth moment that seemed out of nowhere (when did we see them compete for her like a prize.)
Yes it seems to be resolved quickly, at least from Rand and Egwene's persective. And that is a beautiful moment, as I said. I've seen some commentary that there was a brief comment in the early books where Perrin says Egwene is like a sister, "well, er, not that, exactly, but...She's with Rand anyway..." but it was such a throwaway line and there was never any indication it was ever a thing. Like you see a friend's girlfriend and think she's cute and cool, and maybe, if things were different, you might have gone that way. But it's not an option and you don't really ever give life to that. That's how it feels. Not "competing over her" as Nynaeve says.
Yes, Nynaeve is wrong. Mostly. And her words were stupid (though after the Black Wind, explainable.) But the underlying evidence on Perrin's part- at least the way Laila felt about Egwene or his looking at Egwene longingly- Bah! I'm tired of talking about it. It bugs me and that's that. Stupid and unnecessary. Perrin being married didn't require him to be harboring longing for another woman to complicate why he killed her. I'd almost be joking to wonder if they are trying to turn Perrin into the wet blanket he was through most of the series by giving him ridiculous hangups.
Anyway, the ways. It bugged me a lot, but I think Barney Harris leaving really did fuck a lot of things up. Writing him out of the last 2 eps was going to be challenging from a metaphysical POV. One of the taveren not there. But they did what they could- if he was the dragon, there was no way he could be near the DO. It works. I think it is correct the Ways were changed so channeling needed them to be opened. That would explain why they couldn't just reopen it to get to Mat. The stills showing Fain and the Leaf are telling and you still wonder how Fain made it without channeling.
It's rough, honestly, and makes Loial superfluous, as the connection between the Ogier and the Ways has been completely removed, so far at least. This is a tough pickle and I don't envy them trying to get out of it.
I love Min and Rand. Yeah, she's probably 8-10 years older than him. Min was always older and, prior to Rand, liked older men (like the Warder she was around when she was with the Salidar AS Embassy in Caemlyn.) Older worldly men where her thing. But the pattern decided differently. Be interesting to see their relationship develop organically. Min and Rand were among the best couples in the books. And the series is doing romance wonderfully.
Someone suggested the circus she saw might refer to the foregaters storyline in Cairhien in book 2 when Rand was with Selene and Loial. The king of Cairhien paid handsomely for "circuses" (to borrow the term "bread and circuses" that referred to keeping the people happy and quiescent)- entertainers like gleeman, puppeteers, fireworks, jugglers, etc. They may pull Valen Luca's circus to Cairhien for this. (There's a theorylander, Felix Pax, who would love to see Luca again. This guy was certifiable but knew the books like the back of his hand and argued that Valen Luca was the true dragon reborn and pulled together the most amazing evidence for it. Brandon Sanderson responsed to his tweets that he would be disappointed. But you had to give it to the guy. He built incredible castles out of his evidence.)
Selene has been cast but I don't know who. I've seen someone post that Katie McGrath would be a great Lanfear. As you may have guessed, I'd TOTALLY be cool with that. ;-)
Who that kid is...man, that's tough. and doesn't fit anything in the novels that I can remember. Rand's kids were assholes, from Avi's visions. And they had dark hair. Maybe it IS Min's as was said. Or something Rand sees presented to him by the DO at the eye of the world. I don't think they are doing long term prophecies yet. Not until they show some being fulfilled. Egwene with the flame can be being AS and also Amyrlin later so that is ok. And LAn gives Nynaeve his ring fair early. Perrins eyes are pretty much done and his bloody chin can be anything but not like the broken crown or tinker with sword.
So my guess is the kid thing will be explained early. Could be a world of "if" reference or something like Egwene sees in her acepted test (she's married to Rand, etc). So it could be potential futures where the dragon faces a choice to be the dragon and try to live a semblance of a normal life.
And now I can't see Tam without a michael meyers mask., Thanks asc ;-) I kept wondering if they de-aged. That one was rough. (Need that guy who fixed Luke's deaging in the Mandelorian. He as a fan who took disney's footage from the show and did it himself, posted on youtube, and it was seriously much better. Disney fucking hired him! That's how cool it was!)
The baby was all mushy and wormy too. Hopefully with more time and the pandemic winding down, the VFX get better. It's been over all fantastic, but the fails are noticable.
Great episode, minus one thing. ;-)