by pandrewfloyd | Dec 16, 2021 | Uncategorized
Welcome to the Completely Not-at-All Accurate WoT Show Meme Recap!
(Warning: Spoilers for Episodes 1-6)
Episode 6, titled “The Flame of Tar Valon,” begins with a young Siuan Sanche and her Father on a boat. (Don’t you ever forget!) He’s struggling with a knot and she channels to help him out. He chides her because they live in Tear where channelers, even women practitioners, are not liked. Well, his wariness was not unfounded as neighbors must have seen Siuan channel at some point. They arrive to their dock as their home burns to the ground. Knowing it is no longer safe for Siuan, Papa Sanche sends her off alone to the White Tower.
Fast forward to the show’s present where we meet the head of the Aes Sedai, the Amyrlin Seat.
Once seated, Siuan calls for the false Dragon to be brought before her. Logain, unfortunately, does not live by the old adage, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Once Logain is taken away, the Amyrlin turns her attention the the sisters who gentled him. She shows no patience for their circumstances and announces penance for Liandrin who was in charge when it happened. But Liandrin is not one to lie down without shouting, “SHE STARTED IT!”
Siuan was having none of their bull and retired to think on penance for them both.
Elsewhere Moiraine’s eyes and ears did their job, and she finally found Rand and Mat.
Oh, and Rand continues to look like a certain Jedi.
Moiraine’s eyes and ears also lead her to Perrin and Egwene. Egwene is much happier to see Moiraine than Rand was and she eagerly tells the blue of their plight. She ends her story by letting Moiraine know she took something very special from Valda.
That night, Moiraine and Siuan meet via the use of a Ter’angreal. The tension between them is completely gone, and they’re even revealed to be very… close. They have both been looking for the Dragon Reborn for twenty years and with Moiraine being so close to the end of her journey, they’ll have to keep up their fake rivalry.
The next day, before Siuan can sentence Moiraine, our favorite Blue has a run in with our least favorite Red (So far).
WIth Liandrin out of camera shot, Moiraine continues to prepare for “The Plan.” Step one: recruit help from one of the Builders.
And then it was time for Moiraine’s penance. Siuan was not kidding when she said they would have to keep up their ruse, she even pulled out the Oath Rod to help sell it.
Now exiled from Tar Valon, Moiraine is free to do what she needs. She meets up with the Emond’s Field Five and Loial at a Way Gate and explains to them that they may not all survive. They follow her anyway. Well, most of them do. The Episode closes as the Way Gate does so, as well, behind our cast with one notable exception.
The episodes keep getting better and better! Episode 6 brought in a lot of the Aes Sedai politics from the later books and made it very compelling. A large chunk of the episode was just sisters talking in the sitting room with not much movement, but I was on the edge my seat for every word spoken. But it wasn’t all Aes Sedai debates, as the rest of our cast is back together and heading through the Ways! Well, most of them. It’s a shame Barney couldn’t continue past this point. He was excellent as Mat all season long! But I hope he is doing okay and wish him well.
It’s hard to do a comparison for what was and wasn’t in the books for this episode as both all of it and none of it was in the books. Individual interactions from the books were tweaked and put in different locations. All of the characters are going in the same direction as they were in the books, their paths are just slight different. Moiraine’s exile was definitely new and the use of the Oath Rod was surprising, but that does come up later. Now we have precedent that it can be used for more than just the three Oaths. Plus, Moiraine can’t be called back so easily by Maigan or any of the other Blue Sitters. Even Moiraine and Siuan’s relationship felt like something pulled out of New Spring and brought forward. Despite the new context, everything is recongizable and just feels right. Loial continues to be perfect, and the very small bit of the Ways we got gave me chills. The next episode cannot get here fast enough!
Now it’s time for your free meme template! This one comes from the current episode, and it involves Egwene and Nynaeve.
Now let’s see what you’ve got! What caused Egwene to glare at Nynaeve?
Until next week, remember: the Wheel memes as the Wheel wills.
by pandrewfloyd | Dec 9, 2021 | Uncategorized
Welcome to the Completely Not-at-All Accurate WoT Show Meme Recap!
(Warning: Spoilers for Episodes 1-5)
Episode 5, titled “Blood Calls Blood,” begins with a rare look into Aes Sedai and Warder rituals. After the attack from Logain’s army, the Sisters put to rest their fallen and perform funeral rites for the lost. After which, they begin their long journey home.
But Nynaeve and the Aes Sedai aren’t the only ones heading to Tar Valon. Rand and Mat make their way there as well. And along the way we get a nice bit of foreshadowing.
Perrin and Egwene, along with the Tinkers, are headed to the White Tower too. But they have a run-in with the White Cloaks and, unfortunately, Child Valda recognizes them. Mistaking the two for Aes Sedai and Warder, Valda kidnaps them and subjects them to his own special brand of torture.
Back at Tar Valon, Mat gets sicker and we meet a new (old) friend. Plus, Rand continues to look like a certain Jedi.
But when Rand sees a procession on the streets below, Loial is left behind because our hasty humans just have to see the false Dragon paraded through the streets of the white city.
Elswhere in the tower… more Aes Sedai/Warder Rituals.
Later that evening after Liandrin gives Nynaeve some interesting directions, Loial returns to Rand’s hotel and brings Rand the person he’s been looking for. (Or at least the one Loial THINKS Rand’s been looking for.)
Over at the White Cloak camp, Valda tries to get Egwene and Perrin to decide which one of them dies. But they escape both with the help of some wolves, and some well timed channeling from Egwene.
And finally, we return to the White Tower for even more Aes Sedai/Wader rituals.
May Lan meet Stepin once again in Stovokor.
Episode 5 was the best yet. Our characters are moving right along to the end of the season, and each one of them continues to discover new things about themselves. The move from Caemlyn in the books to Tar Valon in the show makes budgetary sense and also gives us an early look into Aes Sedai politics—which will become very important. The additions of the many rituals give us insights that were mostly revealed in internal monologues. We really get to see not only how important the Aes Sedai/Warder bond is, but what effects its sudden loss can cause.
As far as things that were very similar to the books go, Loial was perfect. I’ll admit, when I first saw him my reaction was rough. He’s smaller than he should be, and he doesn’t look even close to how I pictured him. But as soon as Hammed Animashaun opened his mouth, I was sold. The voice, the mannerisms, the personality… I just can’t wait to get more Loial, son of Arent, son of Halan. The next episode can’t get here soon enough!
Now it’s time for your free meme template! This one comes from the current episode, and I think there’s a lot of potential here.
Now let’s see what you’ve got! Until next week, remember: the Wheel memes as the Wheel wills.
by pandrewfloyd | Dec 5, 2021 | Uncategorized
Welcome to the Mostly Accurate (Okay, 12% accurate) WoT Show Meme Recap!
(Warning: Spoilers for Episodes 1-4)
Episode 4, titled “The Dragon Reborn,” starts us off in the not-too-distant-past with an exciting introduction to our favorite false Dragon, Logain. As he single handedly conquers Ghealdan, we are shown in a very creepy and cool way that the madness has him – or does it?
In the show’s present, he’s been captured and contained in an Aes Sedai camp Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve stumble upon. Here, Moiraine is healed, we learn more about the bond between Aes Sedai and Warders, and Nynaeve has a very “pleasant” run-in with everyone’s favorite Red, Liandrin.
Meanwhile, Mat is getting crankier and Rand continues to look like a certain Jedi.
Back at the camp, Moiraine checks in on Logain. He’s almost definitely going mad.
And we meet some really cool Warders.
The camp gives us a good introduction to Ajahs and how different each can be. We see the Reds with no Warders and Alannah being very snuggly with her two.
Elsewhere, Perrin struggles with the direction of his life so far.
Me too, Perrin. Me too.
Back at the Aes Sedai Camp, Logain’s army attacks. The Sisters and their Warders do what they can, but there are too many of them. So they fall back to the cave where Logain is kept. Unfortunately for them, Logain escapes in all the confusion and leaves nearly everyone guarding him, including Lan, near death.
Of course, this severely angers a certain Wisdom from the Two Rivers, and we get our first glimpse of exactly what an angry Nynaeve can accomplish.
With the exception of Rand, Mat, and Thom at the farm, a lot of this episode was completely new material not in the books, but man was it good. It pushed forward pretty much every character arc and showed us just how powerful Nyneave is in a short amount of time all while leaving me wanting more. Knowing that they are probably saving things like Caemlyn until Season 2, this was a great way to move the narrative forward toward the climax of Eye of the World, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Now it’s time for your free meme template! This is actually a scene from Episode 3, but I love Dad-joke templates so much, I had to find room for it. Here’s my WoT dad joke.
Now let’s see what you’ve got! Until next week, remember: the Wheel memes as the Wheel wills.
by pandrewfloyd | Nov 24, 2021 | Uncategorized, Wheel of Time TV Show
Welcome to the WoT Show Meme Recap!
(Though, with so many episodes dropped at once, this first recap will be mostly discussing the general adaptation so far.)
(Warning: Spoilers for Episodes 1-3)
I was first introduced to Wheel of Time in college. It was around the year 2000, and I had a couple of friends who had been reading since high school who loved to talk about the series and theorize about the next books. I didn’t read it immediately, but I enjoyed hearing about the Forsaken and when they’d finally see Mat again. A few years later, I finally gave into their incessant pleas to join them and began reading.
Of course, I loved it. But also, as a young movie buff, I immediately saw the potential for transition to the screen and spent endless hours both in my head and discussing with my friends exactly how “I” would do each scene and concept. It was all extremely hypothetical though, as none of us ever truly thought we’d see it realized for film or television.
Twenty years later, it finally happened.
How did it compare to what idealistic young me envisioned? Well, we’ve only had three episodes so far, but even with so little there is quite a lot to unpack.
There were a lot of elements that were dead accurate to the books.
The Trollocs were spot on. And even the Myrdrall design grew on me since the trailers. Seeing Bel Tine was just how I envisioned it, and the battle that came near its end was breathtaking. Shadar Logoth was even better than I could have imagined. The Tinkers were somehow both very colorful, but also dusty and travelworn. And unlike another big budget high fantasy property, the songs were not cut.
The casting was all perfection. The standouts for me being Rosamund Pike as Moiraine and Madeleine Madden as Egwene. They both just felt like their characters even before I heard a word from them. But everyone else quickly became their respective roles for me and none of them were at all jarring.
There were some unexpected surprises.
There were definitely some changes that I did not expect. One, involving Perrin, reminded me a bit of things mentioned in a “fake spoiler” thread we created on the JordanCon Facebook group where we threw out impossible situations for a laugh. But honestly, after sitting on it, I think it not only works, but helps fix some issues I have with him in later books. Apart from that, most of the changes do make sense in context, even if some scenes were cut or certain things happened out of order.
Though, I do hope we get some “blood and ashes” in the future.
Overall, at it’s heart, this was The Wheel of Time.
Sitting and watching these first three hours was like meeting back up with old friends with new stories to tell. It was amazing to see them walk and talk and feel. To experience channeling in a new way. To hear the countless words that were mostly in my head for so long said out loud – AND CORRECTLY! It’s both completely different than what I imagined while at the same time being exactly what I imagined. The Trollocs were Trollocs. The Whitecloaks were very much Whitecloaks. And the Aes Sedai were Aes Sedai all the way down to the Three Oaths.
Overall, I can’t say all my anxieties have been quelled, and there are certainly some things from the books that I miss, but I can’t wait for episode four and hope this show continues on until the end.
Since this Meme Recap is, as Ben Wyatt would say, “about the memes,” I’m going to give you a free meme template. But first, I’m going to make use of it myself to point out an outstanding performance in these episodes. And that is none other than Johann Myers as Padan Fain.
He’s so good at seeming just the right amount of off that you just know he’s evil enough to prefer the Trollocs from the cover of The Great Hunt to the ones in the show. I think we’re going to see some spectacular performances from him, and I can’t wait until I hear that creepy whistling again.
Until next week, here’s the template. And remember: the Wheel memes as the Wheel wills.
