The Wheel of Time - 2.5 Damane
Mar. 19th, 2025 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessA lot happened to be parsed. Loial and thingy got presented to a higher up lord by Lady Sudol, but she got reprimanded for going off on a raid on her own initiative (except it wasn't, it was Ishamael's idea). Apart from being kind of grounded in punishment, her four long nails got cut off - I was not sharing the horror on a deep level, any kind of long nails make me go 'but don't they get in the waaaaay?' And then Ishamael, I think, brought the horn as a gift.
Rand seemed...mostly accepting of what Moiraine was saying about Lanfear and their need to run. If proof were needed of Moiraine's ruthless practicality (or that she's hardcore), the killing of the horse showed it. Also then she was sneaky by sending the horses and their mistress off as a distraction, but undone by the horse lady's care for her charges. Lanfear's cruelty to the bystanders was quite something (but it’s not like Rand witnessed it.)
Nynaeve woke up to find that she, Egwene and Elayne were bound and shielded and in the Ways by Liandrin (I was a bit slow to get that, although the previouslies should have prepped me, my bad.) She was scathing about Liandrin selling them and everything she was meant to be loyal to out, Liandrin was patronising, which doesn't really justify anything. She handed the girls on to Lady Sudol, with both referring to Ishamael as their master. BUT! Liandrin relented enough to free the girls so they had a chance of escaping against the other channelers (so creepily done up.) Nynaeve still couldn't channel, but it was Egwene who got captured and tortured.
This would gave us the fun dynamic of Nynaeve as a bulldozer in the nearby town, while Elayne was making sensible points about situational awareness and blending in serving them and their aim of rescuing Egwene better. They got captured by some dude, and by the end of the episode, we learned he was the warder of a Yellow Aes Sedai - which sort of surprised me becauseFarne (sp?) Falme seemed so set against the Aes Sedai and such a separate empire. Handy, though.
Meanwhile Egwene got presented to the Lord by (an unmasked) Lady Sudol, and was collared, which seemed to be a way to control her powers. Her face promised vengeance.
Perrin realised Tracker and Hopper were leading him in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go. Blah blah they’re not your pack, don't tell me who my pack are, Perrin wrestling with who he's becoming. I tended to support his loyalty to people who had been abducted and enslaved, though I was confused, because it was night-time, did he return to the town where they'd been kidnapped? We met a blonde guy with an attitude problem and a powerful dad, and a girl in a cage who turned out to fight like a dancer. Perrin got some help from a dog, realised White Cloaks were about, and tried to rescue the girl, before they both got surrounded by white cloaks, including the blonde chappie. Totally looked like the KKK as the two they were surrounding were dark skinned. but she could fight like a dervish and Perrin wasn't half bad, he stopped her from killing the blonde (<3 Perrin) for he had given her water and better to disable than kill. She seemed to feel that she owed him her life after that and so should diverge from her mission of exposition that I didn’t follow.
Meera Syal's retiree returned to the White Tower, where it turned out she'd been a brown Aes Sedai (the librarians or readers. Oh, I guess so would I if I could channel enough, I realised.) Meera Syal has, I think, played at least one amateur detective before and was at it again, with the superpower of curiosity leading her to question the Mistress of Novices about Nynaeve and Egwene and uncovering that what it said about their doings in the book was a cover-up. When she bumped into Liandrin with her white asparagus 'proving' she'd been where she said she'd been, she clearly wasn't buying what Liandrin was selling about a supposed attack on the girls' party.
Moiraine took Rand to her house, wanting a bath, food and a change of clothes. We met her grown-up nephew, a pleasant milquetoast about to get married. Moiraine was resolute that they could not sleep, because Lanfear was powerful in the dreamland. We got proof of this as she conferred with Ishamael in their dreams, though she might want to keep an eye on how much he's improved in that sphere. They discussed their plans, we learned that Lanfear had been an Aes Sedai and didn't think much of the other Forsaken. With the paleness of her eyes and her dark hair, she comes across as a near opposite to Liandrin.
Moiraine's sister came to have a talk, cutting through the bluster, and by throwing back some advice Moiraine had once given her, she changed Moriaine's mind. That I bought more than how easily Rand went along with this whole 'Lanfear's ex was the previous Dragon Reborn, I don't think she will hurt you in your sleep, actually' thing. So he went to sleep with Moiraine watching (all due respect, Moiraine, but I think I'd have liked someone watching you too. I note there was no Lan in this episode.) And he woke up tied up shirtless to some sort of wheel, opposite a formally dressed Lanfear on a throne, which was either a prelude to a sex game or torture or both.
As ever, brilliant job on the scope of this world, even if I would still dearly love a map, and feel that the introduction of characters (where nearly all the names for people, peoples and places are made-up and meaningless to me) probably works better in the books than on screen, where I'm all 'tall, thin black guy' 'different tall, bulkier black guy' 'have I seen her before?' 'Is that Katie Leung or someone who has lost a lot of roles to Katie Leung?'
Rand seemed...mostly accepting of what Moiraine was saying about Lanfear and their need to run. If proof were needed of Moiraine's ruthless practicality (or that she's hardcore), the killing of the horse showed it. Also then she was sneaky by sending the horses and their mistress off as a distraction, but undone by the horse lady's care for her charges. Lanfear's cruelty to the bystanders was quite something (but it’s not like Rand witnessed it.)
Nynaeve woke up to find that she, Egwene and Elayne were bound and shielded and in the Ways by Liandrin (I was a bit slow to get that, although the previouslies should have prepped me, my bad.) She was scathing about Liandrin selling them and everything she was meant to be loyal to out, Liandrin was patronising, which doesn't really justify anything. She handed the girls on to Lady Sudol, with both referring to Ishamael as their master. BUT! Liandrin relented enough to free the girls so they had a chance of escaping against the other channelers (so creepily done up.) Nynaeve still couldn't channel, but it was Egwene who got captured and tortured.
This would gave us the fun dynamic of Nynaeve as a bulldozer in the nearby town, while Elayne was making sensible points about situational awareness and blending in serving them and their aim of rescuing Egwene better. They got captured by some dude, and by the end of the episode, we learned he was the warder of a Yellow Aes Sedai - which sort of surprised me because
Meanwhile Egwene got presented to the Lord by (an unmasked) Lady Sudol, and was collared, which seemed to be a way to control her powers. Her face promised vengeance.
Perrin realised Tracker and Hopper were leading him in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go. Blah blah they’re not your pack, don't tell me who my pack are, Perrin wrestling with who he's becoming. I tended to support his loyalty to people who had been abducted and enslaved, though I was confused, because it was night-time, did he return to the town where they'd been kidnapped? We met a blonde guy with an attitude problem and a powerful dad, and a girl in a cage who turned out to fight like a dancer. Perrin got some help from a dog, realised White Cloaks were about, and tried to rescue the girl, before they both got surrounded by white cloaks, including the blonde chappie. Totally looked like the KKK as the two they were surrounding were dark skinned. but she could fight like a dervish and Perrin wasn't half bad, he stopped her from killing the blonde (<3 Perrin) for he had given her water and better to disable than kill. She seemed to feel that she owed him her life after that and so should diverge from her mission of exposition that I didn’t follow.
Meera Syal's retiree returned to the White Tower, where it turned out she'd been a brown Aes Sedai (the librarians or readers. Oh, I guess so would I if I could channel enough, I realised.) Meera Syal has, I think, played at least one amateur detective before and was at it again, with the superpower of curiosity leading her to question the Mistress of Novices about Nynaeve and Egwene and uncovering that what it said about their doings in the book was a cover-up. When she bumped into Liandrin with her white asparagus 'proving' she'd been where she said she'd been, she clearly wasn't buying what Liandrin was selling about a supposed attack on the girls' party.
Moiraine took Rand to her house, wanting a bath, food and a change of clothes. We met her grown-up nephew, a pleasant milquetoast about to get married. Moiraine was resolute that they could not sleep, because Lanfear was powerful in the dreamland. We got proof of this as she conferred with Ishamael in their dreams, though she might want to keep an eye on how much he's improved in that sphere. They discussed their plans, we learned that Lanfear had been an Aes Sedai and didn't think much of the other Forsaken. With the paleness of her eyes and her dark hair, she comes across as a near opposite to Liandrin.
Moiraine's sister came to have a talk, cutting through the bluster, and by throwing back some advice Moiraine had once given her, she changed Moriaine's mind. That I bought more than how easily Rand went along with this whole 'Lanfear's ex was the previous Dragon Reborn, I don't think she will hurt you in your sleep, actually' thing. So he went to sleep with Moiraine watching (all due respect, Moiraine, but I think I'd have liked someone watching you too. I note there was no Lan in this episode.) And he woke up tied up shirtless to some sort of wheel, opposite a formally dressed Lanfear on a throne, which was either a prelude to a sex game or torture or both.
As ever, brilliant job on the scope of this world, even if I would still dearly love a map, and feel that the introduction of characters (where nearly all the names for people, peoples and places are made-up and meaningless to me) probably works better in the books than on screen, where I'm all 'tall, thin black guy' 'different tall, bulkier black guy' 'have I seen her before?' 'Is that Katie Leung or someone who has lost a lot of roles to Katie Leung?'
