Don’t forget that Moiraine has the sa’angreal Sakarnen which upped her power a LOT (one of the most powerful sa’angreal in the world). Ordinarily Lanfear would wipe the floor with Moiraine. Lanfear is supposedly as powerful as any female channeler can be unaided.
Sure. My point is, I don’t think the series has done a good job of establishing either “here’s how strong Moiraine is compared to Lanfear” or “here’s how much a sa’angreal increases someone’s effective strength in the power”. So you can’t really say that the outcome of the Moiraine-v-Lanfear fight was justified in the show’s worldbuilding, because there hasn’t been enough of that worldbuilding to have established a precedent.
I thought I’d be miffed about these but came to a similar conclusion.
Same here. I get the TV series needs to condense things or we’d need 14 seasons at the least and that will never happen (and even that would be condensed).
I think they are doing a good job and I’m ok with the departures from the books so far (mostly).
I finished watching the episodes over the course of a week. I haven’t read the books and my thoughts about the season were basically the same as the previous seasons: I liked it very much and each episode made me eager to see the next episode. The outside locations looked amazing (as usual) and the interiors were pretty good but not 100% convincing to me.
My favourite episode was probably the defense of Two Rivers. The only episode that I found a bit confusing (not having read the books) was the episode with the history of the Aiel. It wasn’t clear to me if there were supposed to be a lot of mysteries that would subsequently be explained, or if I was supposed to understand more but I wasn’t paying attention.
- What were the original Aiel: an ethnicity, a nationality, or followers of a philosophy? All of the above, or something else entirely?
- Was Lews an Aiel? An ex-Aiel? Or just a friend to the Aiel?
- Was the Way of the Leaf something the Aiel adopted in reaction to the war or something they always followed? Or was it imposed on them somehow?
- Why were the original Aiel being so obedient to the Aes Sedai?
- When the Aiel were given the choice of wandering around or finding a safe place to live, why did they choose to wander around? And why did they subsequently change their mind and decide to build Rhuidean?
- How could a bunch of seemingly impoverished nomads build a large city in the middle of the desert?
- Did the Aiel ever live in Rhuidean? Why did they abandon it?
- How did two men from an Aiel wagon leave and become a nation of tens of thousands?
- When did the modern Aiel start disliking the Aes Sedai? It seemed like they were still following their advice when the Aes Sedai sister created the rings and glass columns in Rhuidean.
I don’t mind mysteries, but it wasn’t clear to me how many of those things were supposed to be mysteries and how much was me just not getting the hint.
There really was no mystery there. It was just giving us the history of the Aiel.
- Philosophy. They welcomed anyone to join them who was willing to follow the Way of the Leaf and, indeed, they’d help pretty much anyone they came across.
- Lews Therin was no Aiel. He is Rand al’Thor in a previous life. Rand is born of the Aiel but not raised by them (think spirit and not genetics).
- I do not know we are ever told how The Way of the Leaf came about. It’s a philosophy some people hold.
- I think they were like anyone else. The Aes Sedai were the tippy-top of society. They were the ultimate teachers/professors. Something the Aiel would revere but there was nothing enforcing it. Same as you would regard a liked professor.
- The Aiel were the Tuatha’an…Tinkers. And they were nomadic from the beginning (we never learn why, just who they are). Then there was the schism which formed the Aiel out of the Tuatha’an. This new faction wasn’t keen on being nomadic. Rhuidean was made after the schism and after the Breaking of the World as a place to safeguard Aes Sedai sa’angreal and ter’angreal.
- No idea. Doubtless there were more than a few of them though. Egyptians built the pyramids using farmers. I don’t see why this should be hard to believe.
- Yes, the Jenn Aiel built Rhuidean. It was never fully populated before the Jenn Aiel died out. (there are more than one branch of Aiel)
- Two men left but they were not the only ones who were not 100% down with the Tuatha’An non-violence thing. The Tuatha’an would often be attacked. If you had (say) your daughter raped and killed it would be difficult to keep to the whole non-violence thing so the new group got converts.
- I think the modern Aiel aren’t keen on Aes Sedai is they still feel they have toh (an obligation) towards the Aes Sedai that cannot be rectified. They were tasked with guarding many ter and sa’angreal and partially failed (Rhuidean was built for the protection of many angreal). It means they have a sort of forever toh towards Aes Sedai and they aren’t keen on being reminded. That said, they respect them and will allow them passage or to stay with them. Kinda like an estranged sister. You might not get along but if she shows up at your door you’ll give her a room and some food for the night.
I’m less of a fan of the show than I used to be.
I LOVED the episode where Rand stepped(literally) back in time. I loved the major battle episode this year with Perrin.
The rest were only OK for me.
My biggest complaint about the series so far is the same as in previous seasons: I find Nynaeve to be one of the least interesting characters in the history of television. Other people tell her to go somewhere and she follows their orders with no particular enthusiasm or reluctance. And once she gets there, she has no particular problem-solving abilities other than very rarely exploding.
I’m sure she comes into her own in the books, but it’s been 3 seasons so far where it seems like her character could be cut out completely and I wouldn’t miss her. The new character Faile was only in a few episodes of season 3 and already she has shown ten times as much personality as Nynaeve.
I’m referring to the oldest vision where Lews is talking with Lanfear/Selene and watching the Aiel doing their harvest. I thought there was some talk about how Lews grew up around there and he seemed to know their harvesting song.
Nynaeve was always my least favorite character too. Volatile, complained constantly…basic pain-in-the-ass person and I never liked her whenever she showed up.
Nevertheless, she is a central character so we have to deal with it. As for the story, she is the most powerful female channeler in 1,000+ years so there’s that (when she can manage to channel…which we saw she finally sorted out in the TV show…takes longer in the books). Still not as powerful as Lanfear though…Lanfear is the most powerful female channeler ever but Nynaeve is up there. Only a few more powerful than her. Nynaeve also rediscovers some long-lost powers such as reversing being Stilled so she is important.
That’s not Lews Therin. That’s some ancestor Aiel shown to modern Aiel when they pass through the history lesson ter’angreal.
So why was Rand’s ancient Aiel doppelganger chatting and hanging out with Selene in the floaty ball?
Because the Aiel served the Aes Sedai; that was the purpose of their order/ethnic group. The people that Rand was living his genetic memories through were all played by Rand’s actor, but that was just for the sake of convenience so we’d know who the PoV characters were; they weren’t actually his doppelgangers.
Thanks; it seemed like that was the case, but it wasn’t 100% clear to me.
I realised yesterday that 3,000 years is plenty of time for a group of people to wander about, decide to settle down, build a city, die out, form a splinter group, etc.
Oh no. It’s cancelled.
I am really bummed about this. Season 3 was really good. Each season was getting better and better and I think we deserve at least one more season to wrap it all up (maybe a tall order).
I am astonished at this decision. Doubtless it was numbers on a spreadsheet that advised them.
Still not happy.
Damn, I am halfway through S3 and really enjoying it.