S1E7 “The Dark Along the Ways” —w/Book Spoilers

[Thaddius al'Guy]

anyone who comes to the Eye is super dead, is a weird way to raise the stakes. A) doesn’t really makes sense and B) why would you tell them that? Do you want the Dragon to go there or not? You let Matt leg it……. So maybe not? Like what if Mat’s the Dragon…. Everybody just suicide mission?

I think it's kinda dumb too but I also come from a perspective that Moiraine is probably acting on disinformation to a degree. She didn't even know the Dragon was Rand until he told her, just that it was 'one of them'. Moiraine isn't all knowing in this incarnation it seems to me.

 

[Maibella ni Rhoiden t'al'Varrak]

I loved this episode (other than the Perrin/Rand/Egwene triangle ). There was SO MUCH GOOD STUFF in there!

 

[Elania al'Manir]

A lot of the changes have been either 1) things that were mentioned in the books but happened "off screen" or 2) things that needed to be adjusted in order to work well in a visual medium. Overall I like the changes, and I think they make sense to tell the greater story. However, I don't see what the purpose of the Perrin/Egwene thing is yet. Everything else seems so intentional that they must have had some purpose in mind, but I can't figure out what it's supposed to be.

 

[Cinna Vrammar]

Random thought: maybe the Perrin/Egwene thing might actually be to later on give more credence to Faile's concerns about Perrin potentially straying.

 

[Thaddius al'Guy]

I saw it more as Perrin standing up for Egwene after what they had been through together with the Tinkers & whitecloaks. I didn't really read it as 'Romantic interest'

 

[Jocasta Braithe]

As a rare person who doesn't care for Min in the books, I found her current portrayal more interesting to me than I expected. Maybe she'll grow on me thru the showing she didn't thru the books.

I find her boring in the books too, and significantly more interesting in the show. I like the idea that Rand will go for someone who is less conventionally attractive and more androgynous. I think both Elayne and Aviendha are going to be classically pretty and very femme.

So Moiraine thinks everyone going to the eye might die unless they're the dragon and she's just been told that the woman she loves is going to betray her, I don't find it that strange she would go alone (well, with Rand) and risk her life, to be honest.

I think they're setting this up with her scene earlier where she says she took everything from Lan. She's trying to go on ahead with Rand and let Lan go free with Nynaeve. It won't work, but it's an early version of her same plan she tries later with Myrelle. Manipulative, but well-intentioned... Moiraine to the core though.

Cadsuane is one of my least favorite characters, but having Shohreh playing her might change everything about that.

We clearly have similar taste in characters. I wanted to chuck Cadsuane through a window, and I expected her to grow on me because everyone raved about how awesome she was and... no. Just. Wanted to chuck her out a window.

 

[Jocasta Braithe]

Oh couple more things. I REALLY liked how Egwene oops channelled with the trolloc, and how her oops hid Rand's oops. Nobody not even Rand suspected he'd channeled to protect her until later. I also like how they gave us just a hint of the Flame and the Void with his bulls eyes as he was thinking about channeling. That was a beautiful little reveal sequence.

I like the way they are displaying Nynaeve's channelling. So far it's happened out of desperation to protect people both times. I'm not sure if they'll change the nature of her block, or if she's ALSO angry both of these times. But I like how wild and uncontrollable her use of the Power is. She has a lot of strength but no control and it's very raw. I think it's shown really well that she's an exceptional talent, but also dangerous if left untrained.

Lanaeve. Oh my heart. I have to go cry tears of joy now.

 

[Elania al'Manir]

or if she's ALSO angry both of these times

To me it seemed that she angrily screamed "NOOOO" in defiance each time.

 

[Curmudgy]

I distinguish between liking the person and liking reading the character’s scene. Cadsuane is someone I wouldn’t want to be friends with, but I love most of her scenes. The same is true for the character Shohreh Aghdashloo plays on The Expanse, Chrisjen Avasarala. Great entertainment watching her, but I wouldn’t want Chrisjen as a friend. (I think it was rumors about the actress coming the Wheel of Time that started the Cadsuane discussion.)

 

[Elanda Tonil]

I think I figured out what bugs me most about the Perrin/Rand/Egwene triangle.

They were in the middle of deciding if they were going to go to confront the Dark One, who is threatening to summon forth millions of trollocs to swarm the land, burning cities, slaughtering and eating everyone, consuming the world in darkness. But anyone going other than the true Dragon Reborn, according to TV Show lore, will die. It's hard to walk to your death, even if there's a hefty consequence of not going. And in the midst of this, they get completely derailed because... *drumroll* Perrin likes Egwene too. :what It wasn't even Egwene cheating on Rand with Perrin or something real, it was literally that Perrin likes Egwene. Regardless of whether I think the love triangle is cliche (I do), boring (I do), and needlessly unfaithful to the books (I do), the timing of the conversation was just, imo, stupid. It's like you and your family are in the basement and your house is on fire, and then you remember you forgot to wipe the bathroom counter, so someone gets upset and stomps off to their room. If they wanted to have drama over this, they should have found a better time for it, imo.

All that said and done, I still think it's an enjoyable episode. I'm excited for episode 8!

 

[Axis m'Troutilas]

Agreed @Elanda Tonil

That's certainly a big issue for me too.

Right in the middle of "everyone besides the Dragon is going to die, and if the Dragon is Mat, we're all dead" talk it's a big problem for Perrin to have an unrequited crush.

Who cares? I did not sign up for ridiculous teenage high-school squabbling problems.

Rafe needs to drop this kind of thing from the show and drop it fast.

Still can't believe we wasted an episode on Stepin stuff, and now instead of actual character development, we are screwing around with made up love triangles nonsense.

If this ends up in friendzone whining I'm going to punch something.

 

[Nadezhda al'Lanahrin]

I am not entirely sure why Rafe and Co. put in a love triangle, but I have to imagine it serves a purpose. I have the patience to see how it all pans out. In regard to "teenage high-school squabbling," the characters involved are still very young and naive, I would expect this from those of their age still. They aren't grown up yet and I think this scene is true to the spirit of Robert Jordan and how he wrote characters in the book series.

 

[Arella Mathara]

My impression was that they needed a some drama to drive everyone to a certain point where they separated, some made up etc this episode to drive character progression and that's what they landed on. Still don't like it as I agree and I abhorr love triangle drama so wish they had found something else

 

[Melorea al'Taehor]

I wonder.. If they had to make some quick script updates since Mat wasn't there, they might have had limited writing time to fill in empty space. That triangle took screen time, and doesn't need big assessment of the impact. It also gives something to people who do like the silly triangles. (I do not)

 

[Nadezhda al'Lanahrin]

I think that is a good point and it also makes me wonder even more about the actor. I wonder what is going on with Barney Harris.

 

[Arella Mathara]

I wonder.. If they had to make some quick script updates since Mat wasn't there, they might have had limited writing time to fill in empty space.

Yes, this. I'm sure they planned some aftermath of the dagger healing and had to change things up a lot and at the same time messing as little as possible with future plans for everyone.

 

[Ahmyra al'Ruley]

Someone linked a Reddit post in the discord spoilers channel that it’s not a love triangle and it made a LOT of sense.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WoTshow/comments/rkt8ft/so_about_that_love_triangle/

 

[Sylas Ehlonite]

Wow, that reddit thread is a good way of looking at it.

 

[Maibella ni Rhoiden t'al'Varrak]

Agreed!!!

 

[Curmudgy]

I did not sign up for ridiculous teenage high-school squabbling problems.

Neither did I, but then I wound up reading about Perrin and a couple of other women competing for him. Maybe they’ll skip that part of the books.