WOT on Prime Episode 8 - SPOILERS

[Thalia]

I would love to see the original script, prior to Barney Harris leaving, to see how major the changes were (we can guess at some I think, and honestly, my gut feeling is the revisions here have made a major difference). Episode 7 and 8 weren’t given to Sanderson for feedback either because of the tight turn around, and (though I enjoyed them both) I think it shows.

Episodes 3-5 were standout imo, and I think 6 would have also been excellent if not for the massive changes forced to explain Mat staying behind in Tar Valon. I’m convinced the Ways were originally filmed as being opened by the Avendesora leaf, and that scenes with Loial were cut as a result. This means we were also given less context for Fain entering the Ways (and why), and would have had major repercussions on the whole dagger plot. I liked Perrin’s confrontation with Fain but I can’t help but wonder if it was an adapted scene meant for Mat.

Episodes 7 and 8 had problems, but for me they still made me excited and gasp and feel, so I call that a win, and I’m looking forward to the second season. And I want all the merch lol.

I saw the AoL landscape picture yesterday, it’s a fabulous detail! This was near the Two Rivers right? Or did we see it somewhere indeterminate in ep1? (I can’t remember other than it was near the beginning) I just wondered if it meant anything for where the LTT and Latra scene was set.

Was it a world of “if” or a dreamshard? My thought was that Ishy had lured them to the Eye (through Suian’s dreams) and touching the AS symbol was the trigger for Rand getting trapped. This is one of the things I think is potentially quite frustrating with the series – we aren’t always given enough context or information to work out exactly what’s going on, or it’s left vague and never confirmed one way or the other. The show understanding of who Ishy is and his mastery over dreams is never really revealed, because the characters are ignorant of it. Even Moiraine’s line about the WT libraries being purged by darkfriends was glossed over.

I definitely think Ishy was always holding all the cards. Since I love a good villain, I enjoyed that  a lot. I presume the seals are already weakening but he needed Rand to expedite the process, and trigger Ishy and the other Forsaken’s release. He just needed Rand to channel extreme amounts at the seal, that’s it I think. It didn’t actually matter if it was to make Joiya real or to “kill” the DO because it was engineered that he’d be channeling in the same spot, and the result would have been the same – the seal broken. It was what made his taunt to Moiraine about how Rand was channeling and she did not know if he was strengthening the chains or breaking them so effective; it never mattered, so long as he did channel. She thought she was in control by holding a knife to Rand’s throat, but it was all totally doomed from the start. Even if she slits his throat, the Light loses.

I was waiting for that epiphany at the end but it was just a vague “this isn’t over.”

The Seanchan look terrifying. I like the stylistic choices for the sul’dam and damane.

I’m gonna refrain from predicting season 2, because I really have no idea, haha. I did wonder if Rand might stumble over a certain daughter heir before ultimately realising his task as the dragon is not over.