The Wheel of Time s1 finale
Dec. 9th, 2023 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Wheel of Time - 1.8: The Eye of the World
Not bad – I enjoyed knowing that I could start watching the next episode/season at my convenience. It was hard to buy in to this really being the last battle, simply because there’s a whole new season and the rest coming. Also, the previouslies had reminded us of the vision of the Two Rivers foursome being linked, which suggested that whether Rand really was the Dragon reborn or not, he might need the rest to best the Dark One.
The opening scene was fascinating (the final scene was SPECTACLE) taking us back to the appearance of the last Dragon reborn, and learning he had been an Aes Sedai, but that he and his male followers had split because he wanted to face the Dark One, while the Hamlyn Seat of the time wouldn’t. It seemed like they were a couple until it was revealed that they weren’t, and the baby in the nursery (soon to be an orphan! Also, let’s call her Baby Foreshadowing) was his. I am curious as to whether they spoke in a real or made-up language.
Lots of impaling, dreamed and real, this episode.
I think it was only in the previously that I took in that Perrin (not Rand) had thought he’d seen the peddler. IMDB confirms we hadn’t seen the Dark One before (I wondered if we had and I hadn’t registered him.) I still thought Rand and Moiraine were being stupid, although I had to admit that he was the Dragon reborn. Yeah, she had a self-sacrificial plan.
For all my eye-rolling about Rand (listening to the Dark One, trying to test a probably manipulated manifestation of his subconscious in this episode, projecting his low self-esteem at Moiraine thinking the Dragon would be Egwenne, when Moriaine probably didn’t if all Egwenne had managed was weeny channelling. I still think it was the instinct to teach any woman with potential), at least he proved that he loves and knows Egwenne for who she is. And hey, Egwenne might already be carrying his baby.
She was having a meltdown that Rand and Moiraine had gone, Nynaeve took her sweet time telling Lan how to track Moiraine, he gave her a speech about how much he loves her but can’t marry her. The seer saw bad things happen to Nynaeve and most of the patrons (and fled when she got the chance.) And then the city realised how much it was under attack and the arrogant brother king had to concede he should have listened to his sister. He tried to make up for it. I was chuffed the sister got to wear the family armour. I suppose the men having their job while the women got to be the last defence tied into the gender roles since the Dragon’s last emergence.
Interesting that Nynaeve had stopped hearing the wind since channelling, but that Egwenne hadn’t. Of course, they were called upon to help channel (I thought they’d make something of the fact that Dragon!Rand and Egwenne were channelling at the same time.) I didn’t quite follow what Nynaeve did to stop the unbridled channelling from burning Egwenne up, as the princess who hadn’t been powerful enough for the White Tower failed to control the channelling, other than it was self-sacrificial and she was passing on Wisdom duties to Egwenne. Except! Egwenne now has enough channelling ability to bring Nynaeve back (as Nynaeve had the first time she channelled.)
Perrin didn’t have much to do, until he and Loial got in on helping to find the horn that would sound in the Last Battle and then he get to listen to the peddler exposition in the midst of others’ fight scenes. No yellow-eyed wolfy powers, nothing he could do as the peddler took the horn as he had numbers on his side (alas Loial and those guys we met in the previous episode had been done for by spies in the city.) So, all five are important, not just Dragon!Rand, and the Dark One kinda wants balance (hmm,) so if he could influence a few of them, he’d be quite pleased. (We got just a glimpse of Mat, no more.) Lan was also underserved, a peep at his lost kingdom and then turning up after the main action to find out that Moiraine couldn’t reopen the bond between them, so you could argue that the season finale failed to serve a lot of main characters.
Rand seemed to have chosen light, or at least not followed the Dark One’s illusion. It wasn’t clear that he had bound him as had Moiraine wanted, just bested him. But as it was clear the Dark One had other plans – from the changed rock Moiraine was left holding and the peddler’s instructions – I tended to agree that it was just the First Battle, not the Last (well, I’d assumed as much before the episode started). All the evidence that the Dark One had gained strength was in contrast to Moiraine’s girlfriend’s dream/vision, so she ought to follow up on that. What a price for such a powerful channeler to be cut off from the source, though. Wonder how long she’ll be able to keep implying that Rand is dead – as he realised that by channelling he’d likely go mad, and we’d all seen the black strands along with the white, so he decided to go off on his own.
I got a taster for the next series, but wasn’t able to take in much, except there seemed to be a lot of masks/covered mouths which feels like the writers processing the pandemic.
Not bad – I enjoyed knowing that I could start watching the next episode/season at my convenience. It was hard to buy in to this really being the last battle, simply because there’s a whole new season and the rest coming. Also, the previouslies had reminded us of the vision of the Two Rivers foursome being linked, which suggested that whether Rand really was the Dragon reborn or not, he might need the rest to best the Dark One.
The opening scene was fascinating (the final scene was SPECTACLE) taking us back to the appearance of the last Dragon reborn, and learning he had been an Aes Sedai, but that he and his male followers had split because he wanted to face the Dark One, while the Hamlyn Seat of the time wouldn’t. It seemed like they were a couple until it was revealed that they weren’t, and the baby in the nursery (soon to be an orphan! Also, let’s call her Baby Foreshadowing) was his. I am curious as to whether they spoke in a real or made-up language.
Lots of impaling, dreamed and real, this episode.
I think it was only in the previously that I took in that Perrin (not Rand) had thought he’d seen the peddler. IMDB confirms we hadn’t seen the Dark One before (I wondered if we had and I hadn’t registered him.) I still thought Rand and Moiraine were being stupid, although I had to admit that he was the Dragon reborn. Yeah, she had a self-sacrificial plan.
For all my eye-rolling about Rand (listening to the Dark One, trying to test a probably manipulated manifestation of his subconscious in this episode, projecting his low self-esteem at Moiraine thinking the Dragon would be Egwenne, when Moriaine probably didn’t if all Egwenne had managed was weeny channelling. I still think it was the instinct to teach any woman with potential), at least he proved that he loves and knows Egwenne for who she is. And hey, Egwenne might already be carrying his baby.
She was having a meltdown that Rand and Moiraine had gone, Nynaeve took her sweet time telling Lan how to track Moiraine, he gave her a speech about how much he loves her but can’t marry her. The seer saw bad things happen to Nynaeve and most of the patrons (and fled when she got the chance.) And then the city realised how much it was under attack and the arrogant brother king had to concede he should have listened to his sister. He tried to make up for it. I was chuffed the sister got to wear the family armour. I suppose the men having their job while the women got to be the last defence tied into the gender roles since the Dragon’s last emergence.
Interesting that Nynaeve had stopped hearing the wind since channelling, but that Egwenne hadn’t. Of course, they were called upon to help channel (I thought they’d make something of the fact that Dragon!Rand and Egwenne were channelling at the same time.) I didn’t quite follow what Nynaeve did to stop the unbridled channelling from burning Egwenne up, as the princess who hadn’t been powerful enough for the White Tower failed to control the channelling, other than it was self-sacrificial and she was passing on Wisdom duties to Egwenne. Except! Egwenne now has enough channelling ability to bring Nynaeve back (as Nynaeve had the first time she channelled.)
Perrin didn’t have much to do, until he and Loial got in on helping to find the horn that would sound in the Last Battle and then he get to listen to the peddler exposition in the midst of others’ fight scenes. No yellow-eyed wolfy powers, nothing he could do as the peddler took the horn as he had numbers on his side (alas Loial and those guys we met in the previous episode had been done for by spies in the city.) So, all five are important, not just Dragon!Rand, and the Dark One kinda wants balance (hmm,) so if he could influence a few of them, he’d be quite pleased. (We got just a glimpse of Mat, no more.) Lan was also underserved, a peep at his lost kingdom and then turning up after the main action to find out that Moiraine couldn’t reopen the bond between them, so you could argue that the season finale failed to serve a lot of main characters.
Rand seemed to have chosen light, or at least not followed the Dark One’s illusion. It wasn’t clear that he had bound him as had Moiraine wanted, just bested him. But as it was clear the Dark One had other plans – from the changed rock Moiraine was left holding and the peddler’s instructions – I tended to agree that it was just the First Battle, not the Last (well, I’d assumed as much before the episode started). All the evidence that the Dark One had gained strength was in contrast to Moiraine’s girlfriend’s dream/vision, so she ought to follow up on that. What a price for such a powerful channeler to be cut off from the source, though. Wonder how long she’ll be able to keep implying that Rand is dead – as he realised that by channelling he’d likely go mad, and we’d all seen the black strands along with the white, so he decided to go off on his own.
I got a taster for the next series, but wasn’t able to take in much, except there seemed to be a lot of masks/covered mouths which feels like the writers processing the pandemic.
