WoT season 2 episodes 4 SPOILERS

[Thalia]

Here be spoilers...

































Finally some wolves! Hopper was so cute. I like their interpretation of wolfspeak. Anvaere owning Moiraine at her own game was great. She mentioned a son marrying the Cairhien queen which I assume will be important down the line (and is also presumably the reason they have given Cairhien a queen not a king). I wondered if maybe they were just changing up Galad's relations, but on the casting leaks Galad is described as a Trakand not a Damodred. Though maybe that's misdirection and simply indicates that Galad and Gawyn's roles have been merged some. I could see Moiraine's nephew being "Galad Damodred" but actually being a Gawyn character storyline (no brother for Elayne), and Dain taking on the White Cloak Galad role alongside beef with Perrin. They did cast him as very handsome.

Man, Accepted get one hell of a room upgrade!

Ihvon's "we see their weakness and remind them they are not gods" line was great, and also made me think of FA *grin*

I love Liandrin. I can't help it. The show is doing a fantastic job of humanising the "baddies" and making their fall to the Dark relatable. Selene also had some great lines about being a mirror to Lews. As did Rand with his want to be seen as a man and not a monster.

What was Lanfear doing at the end there? Where the weaves just masked?

They keep saying the Amyrlin is out of the Tower. So where on earth is she??

From the ep 5 preview it looks like Gaul has been cut and Perrin will rescue Avi, which makes me sad.

[Ascendancy]

Spoilers-















The opening was cool. I wish it could have been longer, though, I am sure that we all say that about everything. I just love me some Ishamael, and really want to see the Forsaken channel more. I lost count of how many individual threads he created after 9, and I enjoyed the beauty of the weaving in contrast to Rand’s more chaotic creations. It seems clear that these seals are holding the Forsaken, and all of them weren’t released simultaneously as they were in the books. I wonder who the next batch of Forsaken to be released will become? For non-book readers, I am sure they appreciate not having a whole cast of villains released at the same time. I hate it when I am watching a show, like the Witcher, whose source material i’m unfamiliar with, and I constantly lose track of who all the characters are beyond the core cast. So the pacing of reveals seems to help.

House Damodred

Lady Anveare has become a favorite! She’s a legit actress! I think it gives the show more credibility to have respected industry names as characters. How cool is that?

Anveare schooled Moiraine though. She owned her, which was really fun to watch. They hadn’t seen each other in 60 years, and the relationship reminded me of a line from S1 where Moiraine was telling the kids how to describe her when they were confronting the Whitecloaks as a “lady from a fallen house” - and indeed she was from a disgraced house, obviously due to Laman and all that business. Kind of a neat throwback.

Anveare is pretty old. She must be 60-70+ as far as I can tell, and if she has a son, he must be well on adult, 30+ years old. Maybe as old as 50. That doesn’t strike me as the right age for Galad, if Galad Damodred is indeed the son in question or if its an unnamed generic son created for storytelling purposes. I remember that leaked casting as well that showed Galad’s surname as Trakand, as well as a lot of writing about how cast documents like that often screw up the characters names and it could easily just be a mistake. Or it could be correct and lead to a merging of Gawyn and Galad. The things i liked most about Galad was how vehemently he hated Rand, and I was never a Gawyn fan, so if they merge those two characters, I’m okay with it so long as we keep Galad’s conflict with Rand central. The conflict was what made it interesting, after all. And he has to be hot. Obviously.

I loved the banter between Moiraine and Logain. Gosh I can’t wait for the day when Logain comes into his power and mind again. He’s going to be wicked cool.


The Aes Sedai

Alanna’s penchant for eating is explained in the scenes with her family! Breakfast was 2 hours ago, at least! haha. Behind the scenes said that they were contrasting the family differences between Alanna’s and Moiraine’s families, to show how differently dynamics people come from, which was a nice touch. But the teasing and joking among them all really made me feel like it explained why Alanna was such a Green. “You heard what I said about fire?” “Where does the 3rd one go now?” hahaha
Finally a namedrop on Cadsuane Sedai! Yay!

So I wrote a Keeper character for many years, and the scene with Liandrin and Leane tickled me so much. She was literally standing at a book and ‘keeping’ the chronicles. haha. And the threat at the end. Foreshadowing!

I do not quite remember how the events unfolded when the girls left the Tower. Did Liandrin kidnap them? Or did she just help them?

Other

I agree with Thal that the Accepted’s rooms were nice! I still love those rainbow ombre accepted dresses. The little rainbow embroidery are tiny Flames of Tar Valon, which is just a lovely detail.

Yay Quarterstaffs!

Hopper was so cute!

Mat dicing!!

I assume the scene with Min and Ishy was TAR. It was certainly freaky enough, and Ishy was obviously in command of it. “For some things, the Dark is the only place to turn.” is my favorite quote of the episode.

Selene’s reveal was exciting. I was not expecting that to unfold the way it did. When Lanfear was channeling, I took that to be saidar that Rand couldn’t see? or maybe it was inverted and it just couldn’t be seen? I’m not sure. But it seemed to be in purpose of showing off who she was. I assume the black flecks were signs of the True Power? Whatever it was, it made for an exciting end! Especially with Rand just switching all of a sudden and believing Moiraine and them both running.

[Thalia]

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Oh yeah, that’s a really good point about the age, I hadn’t considered that. Maybe it is just the equivalent of Taringail then? And they’ve just changed him from half-brother to a son instead. I’d be surprised if it was a throwaway comment but only because I wonder why they’ve changed Cairhien’s ruler to a queen, and also expanded Anvaere’s role. My money’s still on the introduction of a Galad (or Gawyn) character, or somebody significant anyway. Since they’ve aged the Emond Fielder’s up, he could be slightly older, and Anvaere herself may have been older if she considered his birth a solution to their ailing house. Though actually I’m not sure how old he was in the books. The guy rumoured to play “Galad Trakand” is 29.

I could definitely see them merging Gawyn and Galad, either with each other or streamlining them with other characters. For instance, I could see them making Dain the noble Whitecloak side of Galad, and giving his animosity with Rand to whoever the “Galad Trakand” guy is.

I may be completely wrong, just wondering aloud. I’m definitely curious to see what they do with it!

Oh, actually, what if Anvaere’s son was Barthanes?? Now that the thought occurs to me, that makes much more sense. Duh. And we know he has been cast.

Elayne named dropped Cadsuane in episode 2 as well, when she was befriending Egwene (I just watched it with my husband). And as a general aside, just because it amused me, during the Seanchan raid his biggest takeaway was “but I thought Loial was just a gentle librarian!?” XD

I think in the books Liandrin gets them to leave by telling them Rand is in danger, and then delivers them to the Seanchan when they exit the waygate.

I thought Min and Ishy was TAR too.

I wonder if Ishy intends to get Mat to go to Cairhien to give Rand the unhealing wound, which seems to be what Min’s vision suggests will happen.

The ending took me by surprise also. I didn’t notice the flecks, I’ll look out for that.