WoT season 2 episodes 5 SPOILERS

[Ascendancy]

Spoilers below














I'll do a longer review/post later, but that was a fucking awesome episode. Best one of the show so far.

[Thalia]

Well...




























Wow. Fantastic episode. It’s really hit its stride. And gosh the sneak peek for episode 6!! I feel like we are heading towards the sky battle in the finale and I can’t wait!

Omg I felt the nail thing at the beginning *cringe* but I liked that Suroth acted out in order to support the Shadow’s goal and was punished for it. Ishy’s puppeting of everyone and everything is immense, and yet he is also a multifaceted character. He’s only scary when he needs to be, and gosh he feels like a formidable force and not just a “bad guy.” And I mean right now it really feels like he could win.

I also really like the Seanchan aesthetic, the hair looks samurai. Gosh, the LOOK Fain gives Ingtar when he presents the horn to Turak! That was a nice touch since we don’t know about Ingtar yet.

Ah, Asc was right about it being the TP. Love that they included the saa, because if you’ve not read the books you wouldn’t even notice. Lanfear’s haughty accent and demeanour was a nice touch. The fact the Forsaken can wield the OP with such small hand gestures is a nice visual contrast to the Aes Sedai.

Moiriane is SAVAGE

Hopper <3 and oh a super cute puppa too! Haha. Dain’s intro was nicely done, obscuring from the viewer that he was a Whitecloak so that he and Perrin could have a nice bonding moment. And we see the questioners hook symbol this time around too on Valda’s cloak – interesting that it looks like a snake. His voice made my skin crawl as soon as we heard it! Kudos to the actor.

Brown Ajah! My people lol. So sneaky I love them.

Suroth’s got some balls on her. Ishy is as seductive as ever.

Avi is gonna be a favourite I think, and her scenes with Perrin were charismatic and funny, and clearly will help grow his character. His arc is being well handled this season. I’ll miss Gaul but the cut makes sense. Perrin fighting with a hammer and Dain with that rather beautiful axe was some nice symbolism. I think in both Rand’s vision and Nyn’s Arches, we see Perrin dead by axe (and both times Mat is missing his eye too).

Oh a mention of TAR finally! Which I don’t think we’ve had before, though I might be wrong.

Hey, my Barthanes guess was right! So do we think Anvaere is a darkfriend too?? Maybe made a little deal to restore House Damodred? Enjoyed Moiraine and Barthanes’ cute little banter. I’m glad we finally got to see a reminder of Moiraine’s humanity, the later scene with her sister was nice too. And a reminder that she can’t do this alone maybe? Though it’s going to suck if her family are all sworn to the Dark. She’s obviously fond of her nephew.

Ha, well I guess we know Sheriam is Black now. Could she have looked any more guilty when Verin asked about the girls. And of course the lie. And a name drop for Gawyn. I think the retinue Liandrin later speaks of, and the attack on it, was absolutely the truth. Perhaps Gawyn was being delivered to the Tower for the Warder programme (it’s mentioned it’s his nameday, so perhaps he’s finally “of age”). Liandrin did say Elayne was a complication. If Liandrin knew Gawyn was coming, she has to cover her tracks fast. Gawyn can’t realise his sister is missing if he never makes it to the Tower. And it gives some nice set-up for introducing his character and setting up his determination to find and rescue her.

Oh wait is Sheriam Black or was Verin right about Compulsion? They are playing with us! 

Oh Liandrin. I really do love what they’ve done with her because you can so clearly see the inner conflicts. I feel like it might be a good intentions leading to hell kind of story because she’s obviously not a sociopath. I adore her connection with Nyn. It feels more like Liandrin's lost her way. Drawing on the longevity of AS and how they watch everyone they love pass from the world, and how that might affect someone is some heavy existential shit. In any case, releasing Nyn was a nice touch. I thought I was going to hate her for delivering the girls, but I don’t. The fact they are fleshing out the bad guys in this series is probably my favourite thing about it.

Gah, the Forsaken scene! Love love love. Much enjoyed seeing the interplay of power between those two. The “3000 years later they’re still bashing swords” haha. And the name dropping, I literally squee'd. I wonder if it means Moggy or Graendal will be next, or if it's misdirection and will be one of the unnamed boys. I feel like Asmo will be next, since Moiraine is clearly gonna push Rand down the accepting her help route. Lanfear releasing, shielding and assigning Asmo to teach him would make sense as a result. I know they've set up Logain for that, but realistically he can't teach Rand anything, he was just their only choice before now. And as Ishy said in the last ep, some things can only be provided by the Dark. I noticed Lanfear has the AoL aes sedai ring too in that scene.

I am so excited for next week.

[Ascendancy]

Seanchan

I just can’t get enough of them. Their costumes! I loved how you look out and see the da’covale and the members of the Blood all designated by their rank according to the books. The intro with seeing Ingtar all dolled up and looking pretty made me outright laugh. I loved that they slipped “helenne” and “marath’damane” into the speech. They didn’t need to do that, they could have said The Return, but it was an egg to the fans. I also enjoyed seeing the two Voices speak to each other on behalf of their lords. They filmed the Falme courtyard scene in Morocco, and being on location makes such a huge difference to the grand feel of the surroundings. I was so bummed we didn’t get to see the horn taken out of its case. The anticipation builds!

The first thing I thought when I saw the collar be an actual collar was a “HA TAKE THAT” naysayers who disliked the shoulder brace in the trailer and wanted an actual collar and actual leash. Well I hope they are happy now. Because that’s exactly what we got! It also occurred to me that the collar is pretty small, and looks like a necklace, from afar on screen they needed something bigger so you can actually see it among people.

Lanfear

Behind the scenes said that they really wanted to show how scary the Forsaken are by showing Moiraine’s outright panic to get away from her, Moiraine who is usually not flustered by anything. They did a great job. I believe we saw True Power there! That was wicked. Does this mean that the Forsaken really are immortal (other than balefire) in the show? We should use that in RP! The atmosphere of that chase with the pending storm was so cool to watch. I am glad they used atmosphere that way.

Lanfear’s cruelty was on display in a major way. And I loved her disdain for the current age! “Horse, is there anything slower than a horse?” And her One Power whip was wicked, too. I think Rafe must be a Matrix fan. The lips and then Lanfear’s “Trinity” look in the dream. haha. j/k

Moiraine killing the horse was shocking to me! Clever, as Lanfear says, but shocking. Poor horse. And poor Rand seeing it.

Ishy

I found it really funny that Suroth thinks it is a higher thing to be of the Blood than it is to be a Chosen. lol.

Falme sky battle has been mentioned twice so far, this season! I think this means we’ll see it in the finale! We know the final episode has a huge battle sequence that’s been hinted at by the showmakers. I have NO idea how in the world that will be depicted. It always felt cringy to me in the books. It will be quite a thing to see how they show that.

TAR

I am so happy that they are introducing TAR now. That means it must be important to future seasons. And behind the scenes has a whole video dedicated to talking about TAR.

Lanfear’s trick on Ishy in the dream totally fooled me. Lol.

Name dropped Moghy and Greandal and “the boys”. I wonder who they’ll be!

Behind the scenes also shows close up shots of Lanfear’s black TAR outfit. Wow what a stunning costume. And you get a closeup of her throne that she’s sitting on. Also, that surrounding was shot on location in Africa. it’s not CGI. Good job, Rafe. He talked about having to have an “epic vista” for that scene, and they found one.

Perrin

I was peeved at Elyas for tricking Perrin. Like ugh, dude. But Hopper’s Good Boi cuteness made up for it.

Dain! I always hated him in the books. He was whiny and unnecessarily cruel, but I again say that I am so supportive that the show is making sympathetic villains. He gave Avi the water. He bought Perrin beer, warned him against Avi breaking his arm, and wished him well. Yet he had this arrogance about him. He looked down on Perrin and complained about the poor lodgings. And he goaded Valda over his fear of the wolves. There was just a second, but you get a hint of the politicking and danger among the children’s organization that I noticed.

I must take a moment to mention the upgrade to the whitecloaks costumes! First, they have actual cloaks that are spot on book accurate. And they are pretty! The way they move when the actors walk in them was mesmerizing.

So it turns out that I am really enjoying the banter between Perrin and Avi. Putting them together automatically made both characters more enjoyable to me. And so much worldbuilding! All the Aiel ways. Dancing, the veil, the badassery fighting, toh, the three-fold-land, far dareis mai, “Perrin A-barra”. And we knew seeing Avi fight was going to be a treat for us, and what a treat it was! It felt realistic, I thought, for a single person to almost single-handedly take down 11 soldiers. And Dain’s axe was gorgeous. Very symbolic.

Aes Sedai

As soon as I saw the Browns, I knew Thal would be excited! The camaraderie was so much fun to watch among them! 

The visuals of the Ways got an upgrade, too, I think. It bugged me that Liandrin was able to take the horses but in S1 Loial said the horses wouldn’t survive. But I suppose its an oversight in continuity. lol. I was just mad that Lan had to send Mandarb away.

Moiraine’s banter with her nephew was cute. Barthanes was a nice pampered lord. Barthanes was pretty enough. I wonder if he will be a Galad-stand in? Surely not. But i’m just eager to get a Galad. We got name-dropped Gawyn, so we know he will eventually turn up. But I always pictured Galad as more rugged than Barthanes, so I doubt that’s it.

I noticed that in Falme, Nyn had ripped off her rainbow hem off her cuffs to blend in more. That made me sad. It was so pretty! But I think they get their fake AS rings next episode, a blue, yellow and a green! Yay stuff is getting real!

[Ascendancy]

I feel like Asmo will be next, since Moiraine is clearly gonna push Rand down the accepting her help route. Lanfear releasing, shielding and assigning Asmo to teach him would make sense as a result. I know they've set up Logain for that, but realistically he can't teach Rand anything, he was just their only choice before now. And as Ishy said in the last ep, some things can only be provided by the Dark.

We still don't know who the unidentified casted "Steve" is yet. Could that be Asmo? I have no idea.

[Thalia]

It does look like the forsaken are immortal in the show. I was on the fence about that at first but it saves them having to change actors for the various resurrections, plus shows you really do get some cool shit for selling your soul lol.

The other thing I noticed is that the seals just seem to be the individual forsaken prisons, assuming that’s what they're supposed to be as I’m not sure if they’ve been named as such. Moiriane says they can’t risk all the forsaken getting free if they have any hope of winning the Last Battle, which suggests it could commence prior. So I’m not sure we know yet how the DO gets free or if there is a separate seal (or seals) for him.

I don’t mind it as a change. The “seal” as we’ve seen it so far, with the star motif, has patterns in between each point that match the forsaken statues we saw last season. We know there will be 8 rather than 13, and it looked like 4 male 4 female from what I remember (despite Lanfear’s implication that there are only 2 other women). 

I think we’ll see Asmo just because one of the statues is holding an instrument. Beyond that I think Sammael, Rahvin, Demandred and Semirhage will make the cut in some form, but since that makes 9 one of them will have to be merged somehow. Judging solely by appearance, there are two who visually match the descriptions ascribed Sam and Semi.

For some unfounded speculation, Semi, Aginor and Balthamel/Aran’gar could also make an easy merge, especially if they wanted to retain the storyline of a male soul in a female body (or vice versa). 

That’s a good point about the horses in the Ways. Maybe being Black offers her some method of protection. Or she just risked it. Or you’re right and they forgot lol.

I think Barthanes is just Barthanes and we will still see Galad later. Damn them for making him such a blueberry muffin.

As soon as I saw the Browns, I knew Thal would be excited! The camaraderie was so much fun to watch among them!

I am SO READY to join Verin’s impromptu Brown Ajah detective agency.