WoT ep 5

[cahn]

I actually do things besides watch WoT? But I am sort of enjoying this idea of actually being more-or-less caught up on a current fandom, which is never the case, and may not be the case for a couple of weeks after this week anyway because of moving from music-planning season into music-rehearsal/performance season, wheeeeee. (Also, tangentially, after failing hard at attending virtual Worldcon last year because I was busy with RMSE, I was amused to see that Worldcon has managed to be at what I expect will be exactly the busiest week/weekend of the year for me both with Yuletide and Christmas -- I may or may not actually get to see any of the Hugos, whereas last year I was able to block off what in a normal non-GRRM-infested year would have been more than enough time to see the entire thing, sigh. I will be quite shocked if I manage to attend any panels.)

Ep 5:
I am super happy that this adaptation is speeding things up and they already got to the White Tower. I feel like the showrunners and I have a very similar idea to the speed at which I'd like to see things (slowing things down for song/story about Manetheren, yes! Random subplots that go nowhere, no! White Tower and Aes Sedai as soon as possible, yes!) and I am here for all the Aes Sedai maneuvering and I can't wait for Egwene to get there too! And also I guess I was wrong about Stepin dying last episode but I was only off by one episode :P But at least he got another episode, I really REALLY liked him and I was just heartbroken by his entire plot, especially where he was laughing about being one of Alanna's warders and then we cut to the next morning and Lan wakes up and sees the sleeping stuff (that Nynaeve got for Stepin! oooooooff) and both he and we are like "oh crap..."

I mentioned to D that it seemed to be covering more than the first book and he said that it looked to him like they were dropping the whole Eye of the World subplot, which a) I do not remember despite having read that book multiple times, b) he described it as "it's there so they can have an end-of-book climax and then no one ever refers to it again" so I guess that's why I don't remember it :P

-Loial! Okay, to be honest, as usual I remembered the name and actually zero else besides that (at least I remembered vague things about Thom, etc.) but I really really liked him. I also saw a lot of people complain he didn't look like he was supposed to which see also: I remembered zero about him, so I didn't care about that at all.

-Right before Stepin threw his ring into the fire there was a shot of the fire from above making a big circle and I actually vocally went "oooooh pretty!" All of the White Tower was gorgeous though!

-So, the Whitecloaks. I don't really get them. Like, how.. does this work that the Aes Sedai are so powerful they basically are the rulers, and then there are these guys who go around killing them, and everyone is... more-or-less like "this is how the world is"?

-gotta say it was super viscerally satisfying though when Perrin and Egwene managed to overpower Child Valda and the wolves ate him (that whole scene I was like, "Come ON wolves, I hear you, run faster!") [J says the wolves didn't actually eat Valda? IN MY HEAD THEY DID, OKAY.]

Comments

[schneefink]

So, the Whitecloaks. I don't really get them. Like, how.. does this work that the Aes Sedai are so powerful they basically are the rulers, and then there are these guys who go around killing them, and everyone is... more-or-less like "this is how the world is"?
Yes, I was confused by that too. Someone speculated that maybe normal Whitecloaks don't kill Aes Sedai, it's just Valda because he's corrupted, and if anyone confronts him he pretends it was all Aes Sedai who'd "become evil" or something, but iirc he wore those trophy rings pretty openly, so idk. I'm still very unclear on what the actual role of the Aes Sedai is, politically. (I haven't read the books.)

I was also hoping the wolves would kill Valda!

[cahn]

I've read the books but so long ago I've forgotten everything, so it doesn't help :) It certainly seemed like the other Whitecloak leader guy was a lot less crazy than Valda!

Come on wolves, you can do it! :P

[likeadeuce]

I just read Book 1 in the last couple years and I can't remember which subplot they cut either lol.

Honestly, Valda is too good a villain to lose this early on -- that actor is great.

I feel like even in the books the politics are kind of vague to start (or maybe I just have forgotten all the exposition) but there's at least the setup of a monarchy + lots of areas over which it has more or less control. I'm kind of thinking England in Plantagenet times where you've got a king who relies on uneasy alliances with lords to keep the Welsh and Scottish borders in check + put down the occasional peasant revolt. But also, there's no single Church but warring worldview factions including Aes Sedai and Whitecloaks which have their own resources and seats of power. But the show really gives no sense of who's in charge at all??

[cahn]

Haha, that's a good point, the actor is really great. but so was Stepin's actor

But like even historically I sort of feel like if one powerful group was going around killing another powerful group it wasn't... really okay unless they'd declared war on each other?? Like England wouldn't go around assassinating all the nobility in France or anything! But maybe there wasn't so much of the actual torturing and killing Aes Sedai in the books?? IDK, I am just really confused as to how all this works. Now I want the show AU where Liandrin takes all that capacity for becoming annoyed and unleashes it at the Whitecloaks :)

[rachelmanija]

I am enjoying this show so much. I read one or two books and recall basically nothing other than that I know who the Dragon is, so I have no idea what's going to happen.

The Whitecloaks are basically the Inquisition, which made me assume they're being directed by someone rather than acting of their own accord. I've been assuming that the Aes Sedai and whatever non-magical authority controls the Whitecloaks are rival powers. I could be wrong though.

The brief discussion in this episode about how men still rule a lot of the world was enlightening. The Aes Sedai are hugely powerful but it seems like there's not very many of them, and even though a few of them beat an army they took major casualties doing it. I could see that sort of situation leading to a detente.

[cahn]

It is awesome and I'm enjoying it too! I got up to book... 7?... and I must have read book 1 about five times because I'd reread every time a new book came out (this is why I eventually stopped reading, because even high school me did not have either enough time or enough stubbornness to keep doing that) but I remember almost nothing about any of the characters (though I remember a little about the worldbuilding).

Ha, okay, I guess I can see that detente you talk about. Still I would think that would make some guy who's killed nine of you to be a bigger threat than it seems like the Aes Sedai in general think he is.

[rachelmanija]

I think the Aes Sedai don't know he's killed nine of them. He was showing off his serial killer trophy rings, but only to people he planned to kill anyway (I don't believe for a second he was going to let either of them go.)

Moraine clearly doesn't know; she seems to think he might harass and delay them, not kill them.

[cahn]

Huh! It... didn't even occur to me that Moiraine wouldn't know. Though I guess she knows how that Egwene's given her all the rings back.

[primeideal]

Agreed with everyone else that the Whitecloak thing is confusing, even as a book fan--I don't think they ever roamed so close to Tar Valon in the books.

There are countries/nations with their own monarchs, but most of them don't have much control beyond a large city or two. The Aes Sedai are the major "international" power organization, a bit like the medieval Christian church, but their level of respect/trust among the common people varies wildly from place to place. The Whitecloaks don't really answer to a higher leadership, they just think of themselves as the enforcers of justice, and in some places they basically are the de facto authority.

[cahn]

Heh, gotta say the medieval Christian church would have been 100% cooler with awesome channeling special effects.

...okay, yes, I can think of a bunch of reasons why that would be a terrible idea :P :)