WoT Season 3 - SPOILERS

[Thalia]

Good point about what Moggy said.

And interesting about the credits for Sammy. Really hope they are not replacing Amo being Rand's teacher with Sammael...

[Thalia]

Episode 7 spoilers





















This ep felt like it had a lot more room to breathe since we stayed with Perrin and the Two Rivers cast, and I enjoyed it more because of that. I especially enjoyed that Loial finally got to be more than a random side character, and the build up to Aram taking up a sword. Bain and Chiad also had some nice moments.

Perrin and Faile’s first kiss felt rushed imo (right after confessing he accidentally killed his wife. Really?), and they could easily have left it until the after-battle kiss they had in this ep instead, which was a far sweeter moment. They had hardly any screen time prior to today’s ep, so seeing them actually interact and build a more believable bond was great. I particularly liked their argument and Faile’s speech about why she was staying to fight, despite Perrin’s fears. Perrin taking up the hammer and axe, the “Stay behind me. Kill the ones I miss” line and the goldeneyes theme music kicking up gear was *chef’s kiss*. Perrin’s inner conflicts were really well done. It tied nicely with the Rhuidean episode too.

Loved the Cauthon girls, and also their “when do we learn to shoot fireballs” interaction with Alanna. Their giggling over Mat was so damn cute.

So I didn’t much like the miraculous healing of Alanna in the previous ep (even if they’d just established that the girls had instinctively learned to heal as part of protecting their mum, that would have been more palatable). It felt equally dumb that Alanna gets grievously injured AGAIN and of course because the plot requires her to be out of action but not dead the girls struggle to perform this time. Having said that I couldn’t tell without rewatching if we have only seen them channel while holding hands, and if healing didn’t work the second time because they weren’t holding hands? So it wasn't so much a logic issue as much as a meh reaction to two near death experiences so close together with the same character. Anyway, sorry Maksim but you’re a shit warder – you’re supposed to keep your AS alive, and to do that you kinda have to be with her, especially in the middle of a battle. Someone else could have taken point at the pass.

I did enjoy Valda’s show-end at the Cauthons’ hands. Though how he knew they were channelers when all he should have been able to see at that point was two little girls holding hands is anyone’s guess lol. Did make it satisfying though.

The battle was tense and emotional and on the whole I thought it was well done. I certainly felt the feels. It’s my favourite episode this season…. aside from the end, which I am still digesting. Because wtf did they really do Loial dirty like that??? The end voiceover was moving, I actually wish they had utilised that more.

I wonder if they will actually explain what happened to Padan Fain since we last saw him, since I don’t recall them doing any setup in the show for his being able to control the Trollocs (might have forgotten it though - I remember they did the Fade pinned to the door thing, but no hint what did it that I recall), and he seems to be acting for the DO rather than a maverick even creatures of the Shadow are afraid of. Does he have the dagger now in the show? I can't even remember, and if we saw it today I didn't notice it.

Lord Luc wins the award for most pointless appearance so far. No idea what they are doing there since it's starting to feel like they might have axed the wolfdream part of being a wolfbrother. If he is still after Fain as in the books he could have done a better job given he was in the Whitecloak camp (or at the very least went there to relay a message). On the note of the Whitecloaks I really like how they have managed to show Dain's conflict and fall since his father's death with so little screen time. The greasy hair, the reliance on drink, the conflict of honour and vengeance. I'm looking forward to future scenes with him and Perrin.

[Thalia]

Spoilers for the finale abound:














































THE SHAWLS!!

Elaida, her bracelet, and the Finn – interesting.

So Sammael wasn’t dead. I guess he has indeed been merged with Demandred if he was the one to rediscover the art of war in the AoL, so Asc was right. I was a bit meh about Lanfear’s surprise being setting Sammy up as Rand’s teacher, and now she did Couladin’s tatts, so what role is there for Asmo? I still think he will be the last Forsaken though. I guess potentially he still will be Rand’s teacher given Sammy didn’t last the episode haha.

Talking of, Moggy is killing it. Literally. She steals every scene she’s in.

What game is Leane playing? Do we think one of the Forsaken is masquerading in the Tower? Because she told the Reds to send the 8 sisters after Taim but then seemed surprised when 8 Red sisters left the Tower? I realise they said they didn’t know why, but it just seemed off for a minute. At the time it confused me, but by the end I figured it was simply me misunderstanding and it was different Red sisters, since they were aiding Elaida’s coup (I wrote this as I was watching)

The Panarch’s palace seemed creepy and abandoned despite having guards, which was weird, else I just remember it wrong. The squat little child statues were creepy.

The red doorway! The Finn! The foxhead medallion! I have to say though that the finn looked like if the Grinch and a Catz castmember had a baby lol. I would have loved something more Del Toro but I guess it was fine with a TV budget. The Finn clearly getting off on Mat's emotions was creepy as fuck, and I thought they did the scene well.

Loved Thom and Elayne. Nice way to introduce the effects of balefire.

Interesting to see consequences for breaking the dark oaths.

Rand and Moiraine’s moment had FEELS.

The coup! As an irrelevant aside, Siuan’s outfit in this episode was beautiful. Leane is fierce and I love how much Green Ajah energy she puts out – even if it doesn’t go that way in the show, you can totally see how she would switch to Green as a character.

Elaida is wonderful, I love and hate her at the same time  – and you could literally see her doubts during Siuan’s speech (which was a great speech). I think they’ve done an excellent job weaving in Alviarin and keeping her under the radar. Also thought it was a nice touch to illustrate that Moiraine was the political powerhouse behind Siuan’s rise by juxtaposing how she became Amyrlin with her fall in the same ep.

I couldn’t quite figure out why Lanfear chose to attack Moiraine in that way at the end, it just felt like plot. I know we have all the death scenarios from Rhuidean as set up, but why then? Even if Moiraine was just being bait, she already slit Lanfear’s throat once. How was she planning to kill a Forsaken? Even with the sakarnen? Was it just to distract her while Rand declared himself? Since the viewer already knows Lanfear is using Couladin it felt disconnected to me, else I missed something somewhere (quite possible, haha). The more I think about it, I guess Lanfear was just being cruel after being rejected. She sent Mel after Lan so she could pick Moiraine off easier? I dunno.

Either way the fight itself was epic, and I loved seeing an AS and warder work together. They did a fantastic job of raising the stakes by raising the expectation over the entire series that this would be Moiraine’s death scene. 

Did Moiraine and Siuan share a bond? Because it totally seemed like they did. I wasn’t surprised to see Siuan die and didn't expect to much care tbh, but the way they did it was actually heartbreaking. 

I guess we will still be getting Moiraine and Lanfear fall through the red door.

Hands down the best finale so far. I found the end portion very edge of the seat. Hope they announce confirmation of season 4 soon.

[Ascendancy]

I'll write up the rest of my thoughts later, but super quick: 






















Moiraine thinks she can permanently kill Lanfear by using the One Power sword Lan owns. But she previously used Tam's OP sword to slit Lanfear's throat the first time, and obviously it did nothing. So either the show has retconned that rule or Moiraine was just doing the only play she had, which was try really really hard to kill Lanfear. I suppose even if she takes off Lanfear's head, it's gonna be hard to come back from that. 

The "bond" moment that Siuan and Moiraine had was Moiraine being freed of the oath she took on the oath rod to obey Siuan. That's how she knew she died.

The Finn was so wonderful. I would hate to be the person to have to take this alien enigmatic bizarre creature that even I don't have perfectly formed in my head as to what they look like and put a real person in a suit and film it. If they'd done full CGI it would have been cheesy, but a real person in costume? Hard. They totally should have hired Del Toro! I'm just relieved they did it at all. That's a huge risk for mainstream viewers who are like the Game of Thrones/ROP fan because Finn are hard core nerddom. Loved its teeth and eyes though!! I can't wait to see what manflesh thinks of it. Its outfit was super cool too. The vocal "DONE" was sweet.


Okay, full response later when I can process everything I saw. I'm so sad now though that it's all over.

[Jaxen Marveet]

Fuzzy fox was pretty hilarious but I'll take it. And Ashandarei!

[Jaxen Marveet]

Found an interview of the actor doing Foxy Fox. 

The costume is indeed meant to be human skin. Provocative. The platform boots were enormous and gave him the height. But horrific. Filming took 1 day (2 am - 10 pm: hell of a day). They invented a new accent because they didn't want it to sound like anything else in the show. 

https://youtu.be/f3gfitwcPSY?si=olLoydoi3pzcQ93a

Dude's legit. Talked about researching fan art, filmed the scene in both English and old tongue so editors had both to work with. 

Actor says that you can hear the echos of the actor's voice doing the Fox-Noises when Elaida pops out of the doorway.