12-18-2021, 04:30 AM
The Ways:
Loial states that Machin Shin feasts on the soul and is quite afraid of it. We saw only a glimpse of what Machin Shin does through the voices. Based on what he says, it implies that the soul is endangered based on its feasting. To me, that’s like an Ijiraq! The Ijiraq feast on the one power, but MS feasts on the soul and distracts you through the voices to just stand there while it consumes you. MS was supposed to devour, and I like this interpretation of what it does when it finds people. The x-ray says that “many people believe” MS consumes your sanity. Scary stuff.
I love how Moiraine says she wouldn’t let Mat within 100 leagues of the DO. Great explanation, I presume, for Barney’s writing out of the show.
Can we talk about that set?! The basalt columns are incredible. The behind the scenes for ep 7 talked about their making those sets, and I really appreciate how they used as much realistic effects as possible without it being 100% CGI all the time. Those are some of my favorite natural formations in the world (our world), and it just feels so alien and bizarre yet familiar. I thought they were brilliant shapes for the bridges and islands of the ways. Then the flickering lightning showing background out into infinity was super cool.
Lan says something is following their party and then there is a distant growl. I don’t know if at that point it’s Padan Fain or the sole trolloc that shows up later on. After the trolloc is thrown over the wall and the group flees to the Fal Dara gate, we see a quick flash of Padan Fain standing back along the way. It’s chilling and awesome.
it is clear though that they need Loial to read the guide-post to show them the way. Moiraine and Lan were absolutely useless there, suggesting that channelers and ogier collaborated or perhaps traveled together early on.
Lan with his hood up in the ways was jaw-dropping cool.
The voices:
Each one to me says the thing that the person fears the most.
Moiraine’s: “you’re wrong about everything.”
Egwene: “You’re nothing.”
Perrin: “You wanted Laila dead and out of the way because you loved another woman more than your wife.”
Rand: “Egwene will never love you as much as you love her. She left you once before.”
Lan: “You cant protect her.”
Nyn: “You’ll hear their screams… lost everyone.. you’ll be alone again.”
Plus each “voice” of MS is in that screechy sound but the actor that plays the character is also part of the voice melded with MS. So its like MS touches the soul and finds the thing you fear most and then you hear your own voice in your head tell you.
Obviously Rand has something else that’s said to him. But the thing that’s said first is about Egwene. Meaning to me he fears losing her more than anything, even more than being the DR. To me, by this point, he already knows, but he hasn’t come to accept it yet. Later on, when the group is walking through the city of Fal Dara, Egwene tells Rand to forget about the whispers. That none of them are true. And Rand looks at her with this pang of an expression that to me is interpreted that he knows one of them is true…
As soon as the exit the gate back into the real world, there’s a close up of Moiraine’s hair and you can see blue thread wound around her hair that is pulled into the clip at the back of her head. Super subtle but what a very cool addition that nobody would notice otherwise except paused and super close up.
Right before they walk away, Moiraine looks them all over. She’s very red-eyed. Everyone is red-eyed except Rand who has actual tears streaming down his face. I think Moiraine right then knows its Rand and knows Rand knows. Because I expecting her to say something about the wind’s words being untrue, or don’t listen to it, or it was a lie to frighten you. But she doesn’t say that. She says to put what was said out of their mind. Because she suspects that the wind said something to one of them (rand) about their fears like it spoke to her. Maybe that’s overthinking it, but I thought it very intentional that Moiraine didn’t comfort them. She said to put it out of mind.
Fal Dara:
Holy TOPKNOT batman! I was so happy to see Uno and the boys. With their shaved heads and topknots.
The city itself is incredible. The walls upon walls upon walls suggests that the people could close up deper in the city if it is compromised. I loved the surrounding landscape. It was absolutely just like I imagined it to be. The entire aesthetic inside the palace is just absolutely breathtaking. It’s beautiful but functional. The windows are made for firing arrows and defense, but also beautiful and artistic.
They went for the symbol of Shienar everywhere, flags, livery. The swooping black hawk on a field of blue and white. Then the same black hawk that’s on Agelmar’s back was just sick cool. Lord Agelmar’s sigil for himself is 3 running red foxes, which are carved onto the back of his Lord’s seat. The foxes are also on the banners behind his lord’s seat. Super cool distinction that the swooping hawk is everywhere that is “shienar” but the 3 red foxes are everywhere that is “Lord Agelmar” – they didn’t have to do that on the show and none would have been the wiser. Big tip of the hat to the set designers and Rafe for being super-fans.
So I gotta acknowledge some serious characterization of Lord Agelmar. He is proud and defiant that he does not need an Aes Sedai. He gives her a long speech. He antagonizes his sister for writing letters to Tar Valon about how bad it is. But as soon as Moiraine mentions the Ways, Agelmar looks horrified. The others turn to look at him to see how he will react, and instead of being defensive, disbelief, nothing, he issues the order to do as Moiraine says and block the waygate. His is honorable and wise. That was such a borderlander thing to do. Love love love it.
Speaking of the sister, she is definitely giving off creepy vibes. We don’t know if she is good or evil, or anything about her other than she might have a beef with the White Tower for being put out as an Accepted.
Next, Padan Fain pops out of the waygate. The x-ray says something about waygates can be permanently locked. That to me indicates that 1) Padan Fain can open a waygate without the use of the one power, and 2) how could it be locked if it only relied on the one power to open it? I suspect there’s more going on with waygates than we know so far in show. Also, kudos to Padan Fain’s swagger as he hops down the steps. He has so much character in him and we don’t even see his face. Brilliant.
Moiraine sending the Red Ajah after Mat was interesting. I am guessing that it is to either distract the Reds from the rest of her group or to make the reds take an interest in Mat, which would ultimately result in his full healing. What happened to the dagger anyway? Lan wrapped it up in a blanket. I assume they took it to the White Tower for safe-keeping.
Min:
World-weary Min is a big fave of mine. Book-Min was not a fave of mine as she just fell flat for me. I already like this Min better. I loved her appearance and attitude. Regarding her backstory, it seemed like she was a child in Tar Valon. I watched her explain her “first vision” multiple times to try and comprehend. I’ve come up with a few ideas about the first vision.
I have the same questions as you all. Moiraine says she’s known Min since she was a girl, so within the last 20 years. Suggesting Min is 25-30 years old. Given that Rand and co is maybe 25, Min shouldn’t be much older than him.
I loved the way they showed what Min sees. The golden eyes and blood on the chin was pretty obvious. What in the world is Rand and the baby he’s holding? Is it himself he’s holding? The baby he would have had with Egwene had they stayed and married? Is it symbolic of him caring for the innocent and the guilt he will carry?
I wish we’d seen the white flame with Egwene. That one is clearly referencing her future as Amyrlin. The question is did Moiraine understand what it meant? Min didn’t get it, but Moiraine should recognize a white flame. Finally, Nynaeve’s being a ring of gold. I am guessing that is her marriage to Lan? Or simply that she will be Aes Sedai? I feel like that should be obvious, but I’m probably forgetting something. The four of them being linked also seems obvious. Either through being ta’veren or just the pattern using them all, it’s clear their stories are intertwined.
The [not] love triangle:
Manflesh had an interesting take on this. As soon as Rand and Egwene started snuggling in the Ways, he looked over at me kind of confused and said, “Wait, are they still together?”
I thought a moment, and said, “Yes why do you ask?”
He responded with, “I thought she was with the wolfman guy now.”
And knowing I’d read this conversation on here before, I asked why he thought they were together. He explained they seemed really close before and just thought they were. Then during the confrontation between Rand and Perrin, he started chuckling and saying he thought something was going on with Egwene and Perrin. Otherwise, afterward he came to the conclusion that they weren’t an item after all. He didn’t seem to mind the drama.
The love stuff:
The Lan and Nynaeve scenes were so sweet. No special comments other than Lan was sweet.
The big reveal:
To start this off, Manflesh did a man-squeal at the end of this sequence and said he had chills. He even knew it was going to be Rand going into it, but he still said it was incredible and was all fired up for Rand afterward.
I liked the before and after of Rand shooting the arrows and missing the mark and returning later with presumably the flame and void and hitting the bullseye. Angry Rand is a thing. The intensity on Rand’s face was incredibly moving. I can’t wait to see him go Darth Rand later on. It’s going to be amazing. The glimpses of the taint on his channeling is scary and heartbreaking, knowing what it’s going to do to him.
We finally saw the fever-dream with Tam in the woods. It was hard to hear, so I watched it with closed-captioning to make out everything. Then there was the finishing up of the cold-opening. Seeing Tam take her hands and her flash of gratitude, it was so moving.
That leads me to my 1 gripe. The thing that bugged me endlessly and now I can never unsee it.
When the soldier comes up to Tigraine, we know it’s going to be Tam. He stands above her that moment and there’s this moment of tension. I held my breath and Tam takes off his helmet. This was the face I saw. I just wanted to see a young kickass looking blade master Tam. It was pretty disappointing what or how they de-aged him. I know it's a huge deal to de-age an actor. But I'd rather they just cast a young guy instead of what they did. It didn't look like Tam. It looked weird. Didn't like that.
Finally, the Blight. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought of the vine stuff. But the more I think about it, the more I love the idea of it. The blight seems very invasive for sure, like it is something like a fungus growing on top of the land, infecting it and moving across it. I never could get a good image in my mind of how the blight advanced and stuff, but I like this.
Blood snow:
Tigraine was a fucking beast. Behind the scenes said that they found the stuntwoman in Prague, red hair authentic and everything, and it took 5 days to film the sequence with this amazing camera that is apparently super rare or practically unheard of to use in tv. It definitely felt more like a movie. Wow. Best fight scene ever. Manflesh said that it was his favorite fight scene of all time. Which is saying something. The previous best fight scene in his opinion came from Netflix’s Daredevil and held for the last 6ish years. The combo of Tigraine going through the emotion, fear, and pain of labor while kicking Illianer ass just left me speechless. The fighting with her spears was incredible. The stunts and camera work. Even the snow they did that on was so beautiful and just.. I can’t believe how incredible that scene was. I’m so glad we got to see Tigraine.
Predictions for Ep 8:
Manflesh is so excited for the next episode. He stated that if the next episode is the fight with the dark one, and this is the end of the book, what happens in the rest of the books??? To which I prompted him to recall that the only reason they’re going to the Eye of the World was bc of the Amyrlin’s dreams. What did that tell him? He said it seemed a little suspicious… Like maybe it’s not what they think it is.
I assume the rest of the group will catch up to Moiraine and Rand before they all get to the Eye. I hope to see some scary blight monsters along the way. The skull in the vine was wicked awesome. It reminded me of annihilation, which was a great movie btw. I hope to get some more horror type elements like that.
There was a leak that possibly Ishy’s actor was revealed early. I don’t know if that’s true and havent’ investigated, but I really hope we see a showdown with Ba’alzy and a couple of forsaken. I want to see Rand use saidin, get the dragon banner, etc. I’m not sure if that will be the whole episode or if the Eye showdown will be the first half of the episode and the second half of it is taking Rand to another location or proclaiming him the Dragon or maybe introducing the Prophet. Don’t know.. But I can’t wait for next week!!!!!!!
Cons to episode:
Wish we had longer in the Ways. But honestly other than walk, not sure what else could happen there besides walking and talking. I like what we got. Maybe if it had felt like more time had passed. But it just seemed like they got in, walked like 50 meters, sat down, then walked another 50 meters and boom, done.
Padan Fain. I hope we get something that wraps up his plot in Ep 8 that shows us some kind of payoff for his following them around all season.
The Michael Myers Tam mask face.
Loial states that Machin Shin feasts on the soul and is quite afraid of it. We saw only a glimpse of what Machin Shin does through the voices. Based on what he says, it implies that the soul is endangered based on its feasting. To me, that’s like an Ijiraq! The Ijiraq feast on the one power, but MS feasts on the soul and distracts you through the voices to just stand there while it consumes you. MS was supposed to devour, and I like this interpretation of what it does when it finds people. The x-ray says that “many people believe” MS consumes your sanity. Scary stuff.
I love how Moiraine says she wouldn’t let Mat within 100 leagues of the DO. Great explanation, I presume, for Barney’s writing out of the show.
Can we talk about that set?! The basalt columns are incredible. The behind the scenes for ep 7 talked about their making those sets, and I really appreciate how they used as much realistic effects as possible without it being 100% CGI all the time. Those are some of my favorite natural formations in the world (our world), and it just feels so alien and bizarre yet familiar. I thought they were brilliant shapes for the bridges and islands of the ways. Then the flickering lightning showing background out into infinity was super cool.
Lan says something is following their party and then there is a distant growl. I don’t know if at that point it’s Padan Fain or the sole trolloc that shows up later on. After the trolloc is thrown over the wall and the group flees to the Fal Dara gate, we see a quick flash of Padan Fain standing back along the way. It’s chilling and awesome.
it is clear though that they need Loial to read the guide-post to show them the way. Moiraine and Lan were absolutely useless there, suggesting that channelers and ogier collaborated or perhaps traveled together early on.
Lan with his hood up in the ways was jaw-dropping cool.
The voices:
Each one to me says the thing that the person fears the most.
Moiraine’s: “you’re wrong about everything.”
Egwene: “You’re nothing.”
Perrin: “You wanted Laila dead and out of the way because you loved another woman more than your wife.”
Rand: “Egwene will never love you as much as you love her. She left you once before.”
Lan: “You cant protect her.”
Nyn: “You’ll hear their screams… lost everyone.. you’ll be alone again.”
Plus each “voice” of MS is in that screechy sound but the actor that plays the character is also part of the voice melded with MS. So its like MS touches the soul and finds the thing you fear most and then you hear your own voice in your head tell you.
Obviously Rand has something else that’s said to him. But the thing that’s said first is about Egwene. Meaning to me he fears losing her more than anything, even more than being the DR. To me, by this point, he already knows, but he hasn’t come to accept it yet. Later on, when the group is walking through the city of Fal Dara, Egwene tells Rand to forget about the whispers. That none of them are true. And Rand looks at her with this pang of an expression that to me is interpreted that he knows one of them is true…
As soon as the exit the gate back into the real world, there’s a close up of Moiraine’s hair and you can see blue thread wound around her hair that is pulled into the clip at the back of her head. Super subtle but what a very cool addition that nobody would notice otherwise except paused and super close up.
Right before they walk away, Moiraine looks them all over. She’s very red-eyed. Everyone is red-eyed except Rand who has actual tears streaming down his face. I think Moiraine right then knows its Rand and knows Rand knows. Because I expecting her to say something about the wind’s words being untrue, or don’t listen to it, or it was a lie to frighten you. But she doesn’t say that. She says to put what was said out of their mind. Because she suspects that the wind said something to one of them (rand) about their fears like it spoke to her. Maybe that’s overthinking it, but I thought it very intentional that Moiraine didn’t comfort them. She said to put it out of mind.
Fal Dara:
Holy TOPKNOT batman! I was so happy to see Uno and the boys. With their shaved heads and topknots.
The city itself is incredible. The walls upon walls upon walls suggests that the people could close up deper in the city if it is compromised. I loved the surrounding landscape. It was absolutely just like I imagined it to be. The entire aesthetic inside the palace is just absolutely breathtaking. It’s beautiful but functional. The windows are made for firing arrows and defense, but also beautiful and artistic.
They went for the symbol of Shienar everywhere, flags, livery. The swooping black hawk on a field of blue and white. Then the same black hawk that’s on Agelmar’s back was just sick cool. Lord Agelmar’s sigil for himself is 3 running red foxes, which are carved onto the back of his Lord’s seat. The foxes are also on the banners behind his lord’s seat. Super cool distinction that the swooping hawk is everywhere that is “shienar” but the 3 red foxes are everywhere that is “Lord Agelmar” – they didn’t have to do that on the show and none would have been the wiser. Big tip of the hat to the set designers and Rafe for being super-fans.
So I gotta acknowledge some serious characterization of Lord Agelmar. He is proud and defiant that he does not need an Aes Sedai. He gives her a long speech. He antagonizes his sister for writing letters to Tar Valon about how bad it is. But as soon as Moiraine mentions the Ways, Agelmar looks horrified. The others turn to look at him to see how he will react, and instead of being defensive, disbelief, nothing, he issues the order to do as Moiraine says and block the waygate. His is honorable and wise. That was such a borderlander thing to do. Love love love it.
Speaking of the sister, she is definitely giving off creepy vibes. We don’t know if she is good or evil, or anything about her other than she might have a beef with the White Tower for being put out as an Accepted.
Next, Padan Fain pops out of the waygate. The x-ray says something about waygates can be permanently locked. That to me indicates that 1) Padan Fain can open a waygate without the use of the one power, and 2) how could it be locked if it only relied on the one power to open it? I suspect there’s more going on with waygates than we know so far in show. Also, kudos to Padan Fain’s swagger as he hops down the steps. He has so much character in him and we don’t even see his face. Brilliant.
Moiraine sending the Red Ajah after Mat was interesting. I am guessing that it is to either distract the Reds from the rest of her group or to make the reds take an interest in Mat, which would ultimately result in his full healing. What happened to the dagger anyway? Lan wrapped it up in a blanket. I assume they took it to the White Tower for safe-keeping.
Min:
World-weary Min is a big fave of mine. Book-Min was not a fave of mine as she just fell flat for me. I already like this Min better. I loved her appearance and attitude. Regarding her backstory, it seemed like she was a child in Tar Valon. I watched her explain her “first vision” multiple times to try and comprehend. I’ve come up with a few ideas about the first vision.
I have the same questions as you all. Moiraine says she’s known Min since she was a girl, so within the last 20 years. Suggesting Min is 25-30 years old. Given that Rand and co is maybe 25, Min shouldn’t be much older than him.
I loved the way they showed what Min sees. The golden eyes and blood on the chin was pretty obvious. What in the world is Rand and the baby he’s holding? Is it himself he’s holding? The baby he would have had with Egwene had they stayed and married? Is it symbolic of him caring for the innocent and the guilt he will carry?
I wish we’d seen the white flame with Egwene. That one is clearly referencing her future as Amyrlin. The question is did Moiraine understand what it meant? Min didn’t get it, but Moiraine should recognize a white flame. Finally, Nynaeve’s being a ring of gold. I am guessing that is her marriage to Lan? Or simply that she will be Aes Sedai? I feel like that should be obvious, but I’m probably forgetting something. The four of them being linked also seems obvious. Either through being ta’veren or just the pattern using them all, it’s clear their stories are intertwined.
The [not] love triangle:
Manflesh had an interesting take on this. As soon as Rand and Egwene started snuggling in the Ways, he looked over at me kind of confused and said, “Wait, are they still together?”
I thought a moment, and said, “Yes why do you ask?”
He responded with, “I thought she was with the wolfman guy now.”
And knowing I’d read this conversation on here before, I asked why he thought they were together. He explained they seemed really close before and just thought they were. Then during the confrontation between Rand and Perrin, he started chuckling and saying he thought something was going on with Egwene and Perrin. Otherwise, afterward he came to the conclusion that they weren’t an item after all. He didn’t seem to mind the drama.
The love stuff:
The Lan and Nynaeve scenes were so sweet. No special comments other than Lan was sweet.
The big reveal:
To start this off, Manflesh did a man-squeal at the end of this sequence and said he had chills. He even knew it was going to be Rand going into it, but he still said it was incredible and was all fired up for Rand afterward.
I liked the before and after of Rand shooting the arrows and missing the mark and returning later with presumably the flame and void and hitting the bullseye. Angry Rand is a thing. The intensity on Rand’s face was incredibly moving. I can’t wait to see him go Darth Rand later on. It’s going to be amazing. The glimpses of the taint on his channeling is scary and heartbreaking, knowing what it’s going to do to him.
We finally saw the fever-dream with Tam in the woods. It was hard to hear, so I watched it with closed-captioning to make out everything. Then there was the finishing up of the cold-opening. Seeing Tam take her hands and her flash of gratitude, it was so moving.
That leads me to my 1 gripe. The thing that bugged me endlessly and now I can never unsee it.
When the soldier comes up to Tigraine, we know it’s going to be Tam. He stands above her that moment and there’s this moment of tension. I held my breath and Tam takes off his helmet. This was the face I saw. I just wanted to see a young kickass looking blade master Tam. It was pretty disappointing what or how they de-aged him. I know it's a huge deal to de-age an actor. But I'd rather they just cast a young guy instead of what they did. It didn't look like Tam. It looked weird. Didn't like that.
Finally, the Blight. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought of the vine stuff. But the more I think about it, the more I love the idea of it. The blight seems very invasive for sure, like it is something like a fungus growing on top of the land, infecting it and moving across it. I never could get a good image in my mind of how the blight advanced and stuff, but I like this.
Blood snow:
Tigraine was a fucking beast. Behind the scenes said that they found the stuntwoman in Prague, red hair authentic and everything, and it took 5 days to film the sequence with this amazing camera that is apparently super rare or practically unheard of to use in tv. It definitely felt more like a movie. Wow. Best fight scene ever. Manflesh said that it was his favorite fight scene of all time. Which is saying something. The previous best fight scene in his opinion came from Netflix’s Daredevil and held for the last 6ish years. The combo of Tigraine going through the emotion, fear, and pain of labor while kicking Illianer ass just left me speechless. The fighting with her spears was incredible. The stunts and camera work. Even the snow they did that on was so beautiful and just.. I can’t believe how incredible that scene was. I’m so glad we got to see Tigraine.
Predictions for Ep 8:
Manflesh is so excited for the next episode. He stated that if the next episode is the fight with the dark one, and this is the end of the book, what happens in the rest of the books??? To which I prompted him to recall that the only reason they’re going to the Eye of the World was bc of the Amyrlin’s dreams. What did that tell him? He said it seemed a little suspicious… Like maybe it’s not what they think it is.
I assume the rest of the group will catch up to Moiraine and Rand before they all get to the Eye. I hope to see some scary blight monsters along the way. The skull in the vine was wicked awesome. It reminded me of annihilation, which was a great movie btw. I hope to get some more horror type elements like that.
There was a leak that possibly Ishy’s actor was revealed early. I don’t know if that’s true and havent’ investigated, but I really hope we see a showdown with Ba’alzy and a couple of forsaken. I want to see Rand use saidin, get the dragon banner, etc. I’m not sure if that will be the whole episode or if the Eye showdown will be the first half of the episode and the second half of it is taking Rand to another location or proclaiming him the Dragon or maybe introducing the Prophet. Don’t know.. But I can’t wait for next week!!!!!!!
Cons to episode:
Wish we had longer in the Ways. But honestly other than walk, not sure what else could happen there besides walking and talking. I like what we got. Maybe if it had felt like more time had passed. But it just seemed like they got in, walked like 50 meters, sat down, then walked another 50 meters and boom, done.
Padan Fain. I hope we get something that wraps up his plot in Ep 8 that shows us some kind of payoff for his following them around all season.
The Michael Myers Tam mask face.