*Breathes, holding the weave of fire and air, smiling quietly as she feels her warders’ heart beats.”
“Like a raging sun.”
Today we discuss, Episode 4 “The Dragon Reborn”, ostensibly the same name as the third book in the Wheel of Time series. Now, first and foremost, the prologue featuring Logain in Ghealdan (a nation NOTORIUS for its fractious nature and spinning door of Kings) is a new addition. Logain is given a much greater sense of story here compared to the books where he is revealed in the cage from the onset. The corruption of Saidin (the masculine side of the one power) is beautifuly portrayed here including the madness.
The biggest story here for me really is the plot in the Aes Sedai camp, composed of seven sisters each from three ajahs of the White Tower. We learn more about the differen sub-orders (Ajah for you newcomers). The Greens are the Battle Ajah, they can bond more than one warder, and yes, I AM a Green. Reds are law enforcers and those who interact with the broken male channelers corrupted by the taint of Saidin.
And Blue Ajah meddle, they are diplomats, spies and more. Moiraine is a Blue for a reason and it will become more apparent later on. This subplot really set the stage for my favorite, Nynaeve, the woman who makes up my top accepted heteroship of this series (Lan x Nynaeve or I guess Laneave? or Golden Braid?). And we see her power here (which foreshadows her incredible abilities and raw power later in the story).
Madashar has successfully corrupted Mat at this point meaning we are seeing his fall from grace and his set up for needing to reach the White Tower. The murder of the family and the shadowstepping powers of a Myddraal. More on the Tuatha’an, and the Way of the Leafe. Over all yes, I like stories B and C, but the Aes Sedai camp and Logain’s plot was my main interest.
Hottakes:
-I love how they are using the white threads to establish the power of weaves and much more. Liandrin is an insidious, but convince woman as well.
-Can we get some series love for Moiraine and her Green Ajah friend. Got some fun fanfic ideas from those two.
-Lan you are a wonderful bastard, also those two very bisexual / pansexual energy warders were amazing.
*Raises her her hands as her warder, Delphine, blocks the Fade’s attack. A weave of fire wraps around the creature burning the Myrddraal.*
“I like Oddities.” - Loial son of Arent
Episode 5 “Blood Calls Blood”, continues the major shake up for the first season of Wheel of Time. Alright, in Eye of the World, everyone is still in Andor and comes to its capital, Camelyn. It’s here where we meet Elayne Trakand Daughter-Heir of Andor, Gawyn and their half-brother Galad. It seems that they decided to introduce Andor later, which makes more sense for Season 2 honestly since Tar Valon is central to A LOT of character development for Books 2-3. Tar Valon, is a definite dream for the eye, a little low end for the VFX, but that’s understandable .Its easily on par with the Witcher, and I think by season two we’ll be on GoT level of VFX.
Alright, introducing Loil, our Ogier, I’m not sold on the make up, but they nail the nose, and the beard. His deep voice FITS hard, and yet I really didn’t see any tufted ears. I think they decided to forgo the ears and make things a bit less animated. The ears would likely have ben hard to do with all the set pieces they are already creating. Once again we jump back to the Tuatha’an where Egwene and Perrin are now dealing with the Whitecloaks. Fuck, I hate these fuckers, and Galad is the only one I ever liked remotely. More nuances on the Way of the Leaf, good to see Valda getting some serious resistance.
One big thing in this story I forgot to mention, in the books Kerene dies off set in a river killed by Darkfriends. HER death in this series emphasizes not only the sorrow of her loss, but honestly gave her more agency. Especially, since in the books she is the “Captain-General” aka she was -the defacto leader of the Green Ajah! Stepin’s actor nails the grieving, and his warder friends while a little stiff in their acting convey the emotion right for the scene.
Rafe made the whitecloak abuse of Egwene reminescent of Witch Investigations from England and the New World. Honestly, it was disgusting, but luckily the scene wasn’t too overgenerous. Game of Thrones failed this aspect hardcore especially in the White Wedding and their treatment of Sansa. Eamon again is a fucking piece of shit, and the actor is…insidiously good at his job. The fact they are torturing Perrrin and it activates his wolfbrother abilities is interesting. Their options are plainly given, but I mean it is just blunt that Eamon is a plainly evil man.
The story eluding to Egwene’s strength (future Amyrlin material right there bitches) does a good job as they segue into her escape fro the White Cloaks with Perrin. Marcus Rutherford, does an okay job in his confession to Egwene in how Perrin killed his wife. I think that the scene itself was one of the weaker ones in today’s episode, but it doesn’t marr the totality of their collective acting. Perrin to me was always either a boring or fascinating. The escape itself solid shows the dangers of the Wolfbrothers and honestly Egwene’s subterfuge was well played.
Tar Valon’s internal politics are small now, but we learn more and more about the backstory of the world. Stepin and Lan show off figures representing the Forsaken, the Aes Sedai of legend who turned on the Light. The gay energy in the Tower and the platonic energy between the Aes Sedai is palatable. I like how Liandrin tries to get to Nynaeve, and how Alanna tries to warn Moiraine. There are ears everwhere in the Tower, the Black Ajah watches, and perhaps Mogdien has already draped her control of the Red for the future.
“The Wheel of Time weaves as it wills.”
Hottakes
1. More Nynaeve choosing Yellow Ajah with her Tar Valon clothing doing some nice foreshadowing.
2. Loial is strange, the slight blonde ginger hair they gave him looks better upclose than in some of the promotional images they dropped.
3. I just wanna give Nynaeve and Egwene a hug! Two Rivers sisters unite!
4. Logain Ablar laughing at the “boys” as they watch him is an interesting twist. Is he seeing Rand rising as the Dragon and Mat’s leadership of the Band? Who knows?!
5. Liandrin you Black Ajah bitch, stay away from Nyn!
6. Rand getting flustered when Loial calls him an Aielman, fucking finally! Give me some Aiel soon! Far Dareis Mai preferrably!
7. The fact that there appears to be different funeral rites for Stepin versus those out in the field is interesting. Is this cultural, or is it because Stepin took his life.
8. Lan’s grieving cry is pretty fucking Klingon if you ask me.
*Glares at the gathering of the sitters and scoffs while shifting her scarf and smiling.* “No mother, I will not yield to red nonsense!”
FUCKING SPOILERS FOR WHEEL OF TIME AND THE BOOKS!
Let us begin, tonight we discuss Episode 7 “The Dark Along the Ways”, we seem to be back during the time of the Aiel War. A young Aielwoman, a Far Dareis Mai, or Maiden of the Spear, unveils herself on dragonmount. Yup, this is RANDS MOM yo! We are about to see the beginning of a prophecy. Now, for a woman who lives somwhere filled with hot sun and sand she looks a tad paole. Could because she’s in the Wetlands, but blah. Good battle chereography, and the Illianer Companion soldiers look appropriate. They are -small- compare to our aiel, not in stature, but in presence. This is proper for a renowned warrior being killed by a fucking Aiel.
And wait, she’s PALE BECAUSE she isn’t an Aiel by blood, she’s adopted! THIS IS TIGRAINE former daughter-heir of ANDOR! Woot!
Combat will look evne better when they can be more proper with the VFX, which they have REPEATEDLY said have been fucked by COVID.
And now we are in the ways. Now, this honestly is a pretty obvious ecample of simplicity in set design. Much of what the actual set itself appears to be is just darkness reinforced by select walls and “shafts”. It’s a pretty straight forward deep dark dungeon scene ala the “Depths of Moria.” I’m not going to say it’s Original, but let’s be plain, it does the fucking job. Little bits of dialogue help to drive the point home, and the stress they all face of who the Dragon is increases.
Hey its another goatorc! I mean trolloc! And here comes the giant Pac Man wind, which looks a hell lot like the evil bat prianha from “Pitch Black”. I mean if we have to differentiate shit from the other evil shadow thing let’s do flying death krill than you know more shadows. Nynaeve does here exploding shield thing again and this part is a little -overdramatic- I’m gonna be honest, this was one of the poorer art designs I’ve seen. I liked it, but I can get over it making me thing we’re back in Gears of War.
So good notes, nice dialogue woot! And the borderlands look appropriately -dead- since you know they are a literal fucking BORDER AGAINST ROTTING CORRUPTION :D Think the White Wlakers on steroids, and with fucking mutagenic masters rather than just ice zombies. Better tacticians too!
Shienar and Fal Dara seem pretty spot on in how I saw them in the books. Stark, squate buildings with people with a sort of austere style. Definitely have a serious Tang Dynasty / Northern Han feel here for the set design when it comes to how the city itself feels. Showing Trollocs in the ways I think is a good example of kicking up the plot (which was revealed in the books in the ways as well). And seems Padain Fain aka, Evil Goblin King Jareth (who likes to play where’s waldo in the set pieces is here! Now, since they’ve removed the dagger connection to hi and Mordreth I am keen on what
There are more than a few things that Moiraine seems to be doign in the streets and appears to speak to someone who can see patterns. Oh shit, I THINK THIS IS MIN! THat or someone LIKE MIN! Checked the casting, fuck yes it’s MIN FARSHAW. Okay, I am okay with this casting and fucking hell I like that she’s being cast as a eyes and ears of the Aes Sedai. Bitch better come back!
And again we have a confrontation between Nynaeve and Moiraine as the Aes Sedai is once again frank with the kids. And yeah, their really acting like children. I mean I would if someone said I was going to die by going into the apocalypse laden land. The angst in the room is SO FUCKING PALATABLE, and I think a bit of it here could have used a second go around. A bit of it except the end about Perrin and Egwene was a little stilted. Rand’s performance in defense, could have used a small hitch or pause when Egwene stated “HE LEFT US!”.
People complain a bit too much about how Lan (Daniel Henney) is not “stoic and cold” enough, he isn’t stony faced. First, let’s be a little frank, visual media is far different than a book. We all create a unique take on our viewpoint of a given character. Nynaeve might seem a bit “taken” with Lan a bit quickly in the story. But let us not forget, she has a fairly private an intimated conversation with him about her attraction in Eye of the World. So this interaction fits the timeline presented really.
It’s clear she’ doesn’t understand who he is, that he’s a prince of a fallen Kingdom. Only that he’s someone of note, and that the Malkier enclaves still see him as their leader, Dai Shan. So yeah, the kiss and lovey scene fits. LONG LIVE GOLDENBRAID!
And now back to Rand being an angsty whiney bitch, oh wait he’s dealing with betrayal while showing off that Two Rivers bow skill. Oh, and a little confrontation with Egwene. This scene pushes a sense of false hope, and I think, kind of rectifies our earlier conflict with the five. Bam, Nynaeve’s jealousy of Lan Gaidin being a Warder shows. It shows how their dynamic later -really just is so fucking great!
Ah yes, the DRAGON AWAKENS. Lews Therin’s heir has come. And I love how they are doing the revelation for Rand, and how he was deflecting on Mat. Min’s vision and using it as a basis to overlay the story of Tam saving him on Dragonmount. His mother’s death, it’s all a pretty obvious evolution of the story they were setting up. The small pillow talk between Nynaeve and Egewene = fucking lol.
Holy shit the blight is sufficiently rotten, and like a giant monstrous hybrid of briars, mirkwood and bloody fungus.
Hottakes:
And once again the Aiel remind us that redheads are a force to be reckoned with.
They casted Tigraine pretty well, tall Andoran woman who ran left her family and fell in love with an Aiel Step Chief.
I really do like that they are putting some good solid thought into costume design when it comes to armor.
The negative traits that Egwene and Rand share that split them, and lead to their conflict as Amyrlin and Dragon are laid well here. This will get better once we near Tarmon Gai’don.
The scene in the archery range really cements the dying relationship between Egwene and Rand. It show us how love can be torn asunder by the Wheel and fate -must- change to ready the ta’veren.
Nynaeve doing her fidgety hair pull and tugging and yeah, the actress has nailed the act here.
I see why they did the clearer massacre backstory of Nynave to create a stronger relation to Lan, not a bad call down the road. It gives them both more sympathy and builds the animosity that Nynaeve is really showing.
The transition editing for the scene leading up to Min confirming Rand’s revelation was well done. Not too messy and paced well for a little sequence.
Perrin has the least lines, and is so fucking out of place in this episode. I really think the lack of Elias in this season is harming him in a way. I hope he gets a better part in season 2.
