Wheel of Time MUD

Dark Along the Ways
Moiraine and her charges are diverted from their path by an unexpected encounter, revealing Moiraine's true goal, Lan's past, the fractures that have grown in the group, and the identity of the Dragon Reborn.
Release Date/Time: Thursday 12/16/2021 7 PM EST, Friday 12/17/2021 12 AM GMT

Watch party 7 PM EST: WOTMUD Discord Channel #tv-series-spoilers (you need admin permission to view)

Sneak Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXo8Fz-hyRE
Our heroes have arrived to the fortress city of Fal Dara, but will they make it out alive? Find out this Friday on #TheWheelOfTime on Prime Video.

Spoiler warnings: Spoiler mark Episode 8 and further. Spoiler mark any appropriate Book spoilers.

Trivia:
The Battle of the Shining Walls or the Blood Snow, was the final battle that ended the Aiel War. The war began after the abandonment of a 400-year truce between the Aiel and the Cairhien. The fighting lasted a little over two years, ravaging the Westlands, and eentually ending near Tar Valon when the king of Cairhien was finally killed for his sins against the Aiel and breaking the truce.

The Ways were created during the time of legends with its passages once connecting the many Ogier Steddings. Accessible by Waygates, the Ways ia vast ocean of pitch black, scattered with islands and bridges. By using the Ways, one can travel across a continent in a days' time.

For mysterious reasons, the Ways are completely dark. It is said that the Ways once were filled with light and lush vegetation, making ia a paradise for the nature loving Ogier. Fruit trees and flowers were always in season and blooming; there was always food for those traveling through the Ways.

Since there are many different paths a traveler might take to get to a specific location, a 'Guiding' provides direction and helps navigate the various options. There is always one just beyond sight of the Waygate after entering.

Some believe the Ways have long since been abandoned because of the appearance of Machin Shin, the black wind that lurks in the darkness and consumes the sanity of the living.

Islands and bridges are suspended in the black void of the Ways. Many people who have travelled the Ways feel unnerved by the bizarre nature of the place, feeling the constant shift of what was once above is now below.

Fal Dara is a walled fortress city at the northern end of Shienar. Sharing a border with the Blight, it is the first line of defense against Trolloc hordes .With Tarwin's Gap to the north, Fal Dara sits at a bottleneck, where the Trollocs must pass before spreading across the lands.

A Waygate can be permanently locked but most Ogier hestitate to tell the secret of how.

Women who are not strong enough to pass the Aes Sedai test are sent away from the Tower. There are many different reasons this might happen: some lack strength in the One Power, those who refuse to take the test for Sisterhood, or those who fail the test.

The ability to read the Pattern is rare, allowing the Seer is able to get glimpses of auras or images around an individual. Sometimes a Seer is able to interpret the images and other times it is unknown until after an event ocurs.

Moiraine and Lan first met travelling after the Battle of the Shining Walls. neither seemed to like the other very much; Lan tossed Moiraine into a pond and in retribution Moiraine caused ants to attack Lan in the night.

The Seven Towers of Malkier once stood as a great bulwark against the Trollocs of the Blight. For generations, Malkieri warriors stood strong against the Dark One's forces, but with the Blight spreading every day, it was only a matter of time before they were overrun. Eventually, Shadowspawn invaded Malkier and the Seven Towers fell. The once proud Malkieri became refugees, settling in the nearby borderlands.

Tam Al'Thor left the Two Rivers as a young man and joined the army of Illian. He eventually gained the rank of Second Captain of the Companions; an elite troop within the Illianer army. He had great skill with the sword, earning the heron mark on his blade which honors him as a blademaster.

The Great Blight is a massive expanse of land to the north of the borderlands. It is home to Trollocs, Myrddraal and all servants of the Dark. Filled with twisted jungles and ash-covered plains, the Blight is the most dangerous place in all of the Westlands. Here, the corruption of the Dark One has seeped into every insect, animal, and plant. THe air itself is unsafe to breath for too long.

From the Previews:
- The Ways
- Machin Shin
- Blood Snows flashback (possible cold open?)
- Introduction of Min and her visions
- Introduction of Fal Dara and Aglemar Jagad
- Rand and archery training (Flame and Void?)


Things that I would like to see

Much more development for Rand. It's not going to be super organic shoving Winter night flashbacks and a season of character developent into one episode, but it's going to be need to be done before the Dragon reveal. I hope the Flame and Void gets introduced with his archery training. Lan needs to acknowledge the heron-marked blade because he's looking like a total chode not recognizing a blademaster blade.

I hope they do a proper job with Machin Shin, but I'm not thrilled with the direction they're teasing. A creepy one voice talking in full sentences is a lot different than a legion of broken voices. RJ already did a good job of their speech, and it wouldn't be hard to create with audio processing, so this seems to be a change for the sake of change. But, we'll see when it premiers.

I hope the Blood Snows looks like a proper chaotic battle instead of a few Aiel and Companions. I know this is the first post-covid episode so there may be number restrictions but with it outdoors, hopefully there is more flexibility.

Pacing: Choppy and really feels rushed at times. The Ways felt like it was such a short segment, with one second in and out, without much sense of suspense or use of what seemed to be an expensive and time consuming warehouse build.

Acting: fine. New characters were good including Tigraine, Min, Agelmar, his sister.

Characterization: Lan's clearly a different character than his book character, and that's fine if you go into the mindset that it's a different character

Plot: it was okay. The "mystery" is over. The reveal was a little abrupt, and the flashback transition is likely too fast for many new viewers. As a book reader, you can fill in the gaps easier.
Missed opportunity for Flame and Void with the arrows.
Min recognizes a heron-marked blade, but Lan is beyond oblivious at this point.
Moiraine channeling the Waygate open on both ends. Loial not knowing how to open the waygate, or saying "Hey, we can just use the key" And then Fain uses the Waygate key like a normal person.

Sets:
Ways. Looks better than last week. The Lighting and CGI helps out.
Fal Dara was okay. Nothing stood out except some Asian-inspired architecture. Felt a bit empty.
Blight. Looks bad. Blight Trees look fake and then copy pasted.

Choreography:
Tigraine fight was good

CGI:
Machin Shin. Not a big fan of the new Machin Shin. I think the hungry legion better. The One Power vs battle was okay, cinematic enough, but this particular effect was done by Shadow and Bone already.
Min's aura. I couldn't tell if there was actually an aura or if there was just some lensflare. Missed opportunity for something, anything.

Music:
Did not really stand out this episode. A shame that there is not much memorable music or theming.

I actually enjoyed this one a lot!
Perhaps I'm letting go of the expectation that it must follow the books, or what, but I loved almost all of it.

The thing that stood out the most, as a missed book lore, was how the lord of FD, was so dickish towards an Aes Sedai. No clue why they chose to not portray much more of the deference /honoring of the sedai, as was depicted in the series.

LOL, guess this will be a reoccuring theme, but hello, did they miss the entire aspect of FD Keep and the women's quarters? I just don't feel people would be scampering about, hopping in and out of beds as was portrayed, or at least suggested.

Other than that, again, loved this one.

I liked this episode more than the previous episodes including Ep 6. It seems we are getting back to the book plot, and I also have my doubts about the Eye of the World being the Bore. In retrospect after Ep 5, I feel like the authors are just being a little deceptive to readers of the series to throw us off the trail. Maybe we are being shown the limits of what Moiraine and the Tower know about the Eye and what it will take to defeat the Dark One. The Aes Sedai know there will be a Last Battle because it came up in Ep 5 if I recall. So they obviously know that defeating the Dark One at "his prison" is not going to work. Who knows. In any case, this Episode feels like it finally got the plot back on track (mostly).


- Tigraine giving birth on Dragonmount. First, she did not look Aiel to me, which is correct! (she's Andoran). Her hair was light brown or dark blonde. In the books it was just blonde, but dirt and grease in battle can make it look darker. She also did not share the hard features of Aiel gained from spending a lifetime in the Three-Fold Land. I can see someone who had not read the books being confused why a pregnant Aiel woman was on Dragonmount fighting random armored guys, although in the books I do not think she was. There was almost zero context about who she was, what she was doing there, and why she was defending herself from a bunch of guys wearing armor. So that's kind of a bad thing particularly for television. Maybe a framing shot that shows TV with lots of rising smoke in the distance, lots of distant noise, and some guys fighting in the foreground would at least give the impression of a battle?

- Rand finally being revealed. He also looks a bit more tall and grim by the end of the episode as though he was starting to feel the gravity of his situation resting on his shoulders. I agree with halfhand that the reveal did seem abrupt.

- Min! Finally. And she has her Talent and wears trousers rather than a dress. I like the casting. I also like the effects. I just read through the Baerlon chapter in EoTW and her readings were not 100% but also not bad. The sparks trying to fill the shadow while the shadow tries to consume the spark is an exact line from the book, which was cool. Also her reading of Rand about the three women was welcome news since it suggests those roles will not be cut out of future seasons.

- Fal Dara looked really good. I think opinions will vary on this, but I like the architecture in the show so far. For those who read the books and may not remember, Fal Dara was rebuilt after the original city, which was built by Ogier builders, was destroyed in the Trolloc Wars. The new Fal Dara was rebuilt by the Shienarans (or their ancestors) and reflects their spartan culture. Simple, blocky, heavy buildings that can withstand siege and fire. The only thing that REALLY bothered me about the scenes shot "in" Fal Dara were the fact that the streets were quite dark and poorly lit. Fal Dara in the books made a point of keeping all of its alley's and streets well lit at all times to ward off fades.

- Lan and Nynaeve - I like how they are handling this, even if the closeness of their relationship is about 3 seasons too early. There's not a lot of time for the audience to get emotionally attached to this couple, so it kind of makes sense to start it here.

- Egwene and Rand...and Egwene and Perrin? The writers clearly spend too much time watching dating reality shows.

- I liked the casting for Agelmar and his sister. I did not like how confrontational Agelmar was with Moiraine. That just seemed really out of character for a Borderlander speaking with an Aes Sedai. Maybe in private, but definitely not while holding court.

- We got to meet Uno, eye patch and all. The eye patch in the episode has the fiery red eye on it like the books. We also got introduced to "Yakota", who I think is supposed to be Ingtar? *headache*

- The Blight looked bad. Its supposed to be overgrown with thorns and difficult to pass, but surely there's a better way to render that on the screen besides what looks like CGI done by an intern. Blight to me has always been synonymous with rot and decay, or fungus/moss. The way it was portrayed it just looked like a wilderness of dry undergrowth. Malkier can be reclaimed with a few well placed torches to burn it all away.

I hated this episode the most so far. First 5 minutes was okay, except for the armor being made of butter. And the last 5 minutes was okay (at least the Rand story is picking up)... But the middle was torture.

The Rand scenes are very brief, and nothing has been explained about what is going to happen. We have gotten more screen time for random characters like Siuan, or Lan's romance, than we even get for Rand and what is going on with the whole purpose of travelling to the Eye and what it even is.....

I would have to say this is shaping up to be one of the worst shows I have ever seen (for the budget). It looks terrible, the dialogue is terrible, the plot is so poorly explained. I honestly think the books should never have been adapted. They were great books, but the strengths was not in the story or plot. It was in the magic and world building and the blademasters.

You gut the magic and blademasters, and all you are left with is a cheap vehicle for YA drama and GoT drama.

Edit: Nyneave casting expecto patronum without any training is even worse than the heal bomb.

It was more of a horror comedy for me.. I don't know who's been writing the dialogue but man conversations do not flow well. I was nervous the whole time waiting for a jump scare. I keep thinking some fade was gonna jump out and stab or attack someone in a scene or their rooms seeing how dark FD seems to be.

Fight at the start was cool lil bit random with the bullet times but was still interesting.

This episode solidifies Moraine being a dick.. cold blooded as she did Mat dirty.. wouldn't open the ways for him, smacked talked the dude and then sicked the red ajah after him lol.. wtf.

Glad everyone got laid and was used to pad the run-time.. where was our boy Loial? Listening to him talk is like the best aspect of the show. Hopefully he does audiobooks after this.

Being a big Min fan.. no.. just no. They seem to be really aiming to make everyone feel dark and moody. And she just looks old.

Can't believe they changed up book narrative for the whole season in order to show that reveal.. probably woulda been more impactful if they spent a little more time building it up instead of relegating him as a secondary character for most of the season. Miss opportunity for that flame and void, thought for sure they'd do it during his bullet time scene.

Fal Dara was ok, thought they'd go with a more brutalist architecture seeing as it was rebuilt and a military fortress but meh. Kinda wish they explored the city where we can see stuff but I guess budget went to Stepin.

So dreadlords are with the trolloc groups in this timeline and Fain can channel? The callback on the heron is painful as whoever designed that seriously...

Who's excited to see the Dark One's prison in the Eye of the World?! We should move SG there.. be fun for the newbies to interact in!

Katherine wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:39 am

It seems we are getting back to the book plot

They are?

lollol the first five minutes. some of the fighting looked interesting but by the end (of the 5 mins) it was like a zombie fight. and then pregnant zombie. it's saying a lot that that was actually one of the better scenes of the show.

the other really funny bit is when moiraine has told them they're going to die tomorrow if they go and instead of talking about it, 1 min later they're in the middle of perrin-rand-egwene soap drama. the dialogue for lan and family also - 'how are you?' 'thank you so much' - yikes

anyway hopefully the straight people (who were offended by the previous episode) are happy this time with the gratuitous and off the books hetero sex - not one but two couples haha

the big reveal was a Massive tell don't show moment. and given how little they focused on rand before this, that was always on the cards. (also kordin, i told you so!!!)

moiraine sending mat to red ajah is very odd given her last episode confrontation with liandrin - does she trust her? no yes what? i guess we can hope it's a complex plot point that will make sense later. i don't remember it from the books.

some of the scenes felt derivative (padan fain following - gollum following, machin shin voices - harry potter horcrux voice at the lake). some scenes seemed decentish.

isabel wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 17, 2021 8:44 am

the big reveal was a Massive tell don't show moment. and given how little they focused on rand before this, that was always on the cards. (also kordin, i told you so!!!)

Weakest reveal ever...seriously....anything, anything but that would've been better...."Who could be the Dragon?! Dun-dun-duuuun..." and then;

*knock on door*

Moiraine . *opens*

Rand - "I'm Batman"