The TV and Streaming Thread: Now up for syndication...

[Bartimaeus]

  On 12/17/2021 at 12:13 AM, majestic said:

Unfriendly engineering lady from... a while back suddenly shows up again and tells Stamets' that nothing in space just disappears. I realize now that I actually forgot her name. Wow. Technically true, but then they're been flying on a starship that can instantly appear anywhere in the universe, so that statement is a little weird. I mean, they can pretty much disappear whenever they want to, right?

Sitchroom dialogue says that the anomaly just violated every known law of physics by going 1000 light years in an instant. Yeah, except for the helpful bit that Discovery can do that whenever its crew  god damn wants it to. Hello guys, after four seasons of traveling through the mycelial network of the universe, you're weirded out by that? Really?

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This doesn't seem like good writing, .

  On 12/17/2021 at 12:13 AM, majestic said:

Burnham crying counter now 1:4. Not sure if it was watching at twice the speed, but this one wasn't nearly as terrible as the others in the season.

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Watching at too fast of a speed really helps smooth over some of the rough spots of a show, I find...there's so much less time to notice how bad something is because your brain is simply trying to keep up with what's happening and being said. Issues of terrible writing, pacing, scene construction, line timing, annoying characters, pointless garbage, etc., are much more difficult to take offense to when there's no time to contemplate any of it.

[ShadySands]

Wasn't as jazzed with last week's episode of Hawkeye but loved this week's episode.

[Raithe]

Episode 7 of WoT was pretty damn good.  A great cold open showing the Blood Snow.

Apart from the inherent awkwardness of the Mat issue - You have to give them some inherent wriggle room over that. The show got paused for Covid lockdown during the finale of episode 6, when they came back to episode 7 the actor playing Mat being out and having completely shut down all his social media suggests something cropped up seriously. So they had to re-jigger things to work the story around that before a new actor replaces him in season 2.

The main thing I had issue with was the bizareely CW style "love triangle" discussion, but eh, that might have been stress fallout post Machin Shin.

Still, when you combine the cold open of Blood Snow with the Rand flashbacks, Tam's fever during Winternight, and that other.. perspective shots of things that have happened previously, rather well done.

 

[Gfted1]

I stopped at Ep3 so I guess I need to go on a binge and catch up.

[Raithe]

  On 12/17/2021 at 2:15 PM, Gfted1 said:

I stopped at Ep3 so I guess I need to go on a binge and catch up.

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I'm kind of stepping back and viewing it more as the story as it would be a turn of the wheel later, not the specific turning of the books.  But it's interesting how the majority of the fans keep keep discussing how episodes 4, 5, 6, 7 are their favourites so far. Looks like the early three were too much setup and people adjusting to the differences due to adaption.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Raithe

[majestic]

  On 12/17/2021 at 2:47 AM, Bartimaeus said:

This doesn't seem like good writing, .

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Helpful hint: That is merely because it isn't.

  On 12/17/2021 at 2:47 AM, Bartimaeus said:

Watching at too fast of a speed really helps smooth over some of the rough spots of a show, I find...there's so much less time to notice how bad something is because your brain is simply trying to keep up with what's happening and being said. Issues of terrible writing, pacing, scene construction, line timing, annoying characters, pointless garbage, etc., are much more difficult to take offense to when there's no time to contemplate any of it.

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Terrible line timing is really smoothed over because there's not enough time to notice it. Playback at twice the speed also adds the soap opera high frames per second effect to Discovery, which makes everything look cheap, and that's actually really helpful, because these half CGI, half terrible sound stage sets that look like leftovers from a mid 90ies FMV video game shoot aren't standing out so much any more.

Edited December 17, 2021 by majestic

[Zoraptor]

WoT Ep7

TLDR; it was alright. Main problem, like much of the show, is that it should be better than it is and it's very uneven.
 

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I didn't really like the Blood Snow- it was just too much to have any sort of suspension of disbelief. Tigraine (credited as that per xray, not as Shaiel) was a pampered Andoran noble into her 20s, unlike most Aiel/ Maidens and had had ~5 years training. Soloing four guys while not only pregnant but in labour was literally a lol moment. It's the sort of thing I'd be dismissing if everything else was good, but..

..what this show really needed was a CWesque love triangle. Or two, if you count Lan/ Moiraine/ Nynaeve. Which kind of illustrates the fundamental problem I have with the show. It isn't so much departures from the book- it's that the world and society doesn't feel quasimedieval, it only appears it in terms of tech. It feels like currentyear California.

The other major problem is that Rand basically woke up post coitus and decided he was the Dragon, completely randomly. For what they wanted to be the central mystery of the season that was... extraordinarily weak for a big reveal. Obviously I knew what was coming, but I can't see how a non book reader would be happy with the way it was handled either. It needed more development as an idea, and 5 candidates were far too many. 5 candidates in 3 different groups for multiple episodes, even though it was inherited from the books, didn't work, and especially didn't work when adding in a bunch of ancillary stuff like Stepin that might have been nice to have if you had 10 episodes but was a luxury and indulgence with 8.

If it was simply bad I'd be fine with it being as it is, but most of the rest was fine to good. The overall impression is a bit like alternating between watching GoT S1 and S8. Half the time you're going "yep, this is pretty good really" the other half you're wondering what the writers were thinking.

Expanse s6e02

TLDR; another perfectly decent episode. Only criticism is that it does feel rushed and a bit linear, but with only 6 episodes I can't see how that's avoidable. Guess the positive alternative take is that they're culling the fat.
 

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Like Ep1, not that much to say since it's still largely setting stuff up. Drummer setting up Belter discontent with Marco is a little jarring given how desperate and friendless they were implied to be in ep1, but I guess subtlety has to be sacrificed for brevity- same with Holden suddenly being OK, more or less, with Clarissa who was trying to kill him 2ish seasons ago. Marco showing again that he's not exactly a builder. Capturing the spy ship was fine too, though not a patch on some of the set pieces in the earlier seasons and again, they really need a specialist pilot if they're going to be pulling out there manoevres, which they've done in both episodes. If they couldn't have Bull someone new would be better than Holden, all it's doing is hilighting how jarring losing Alex was (and not in a good way).

As for the starting/ Laconia vignettes, I'm going to go out on a very small limb and say that the dead bird stolen by whatever that thing is ain't getting eaten and is almost certainly coming back to life. Can't see a point to them otherwise.

 

[Azdeus]

  On 12/17/2021 at 8:39 PM, Zoraptor said:

WoT Ep7

TLDR; it was alright. Main problem, like much of the show, is that it should be better than it is and it's very uneven.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I didn't really like the Blood Snow- it was just too much to have any sort of suspension of disbelief. Tigraine (credited as that per xray, not as Shaiel) was a pampered Andoran noble into her 20s, unlike most Aiel/ Maidens and had had ~5 years training. Soloing four guys while not only pregnant but in labour was literally a lol moment. It's the sort of thing I'd be dismissing if everything else was good, but..

..what this show really needed was a CWesque love triangle. Or two, if you count Lan/ Moiraine/ Nynaeve. Which kind of illustrates the fundamental problem I have with the show. It isn't so much departures from the book- it's that the world and society doesn't feel quasimedieval, it only appears it in terms of tech. It feels like currentyear California.

The other major problem is that Rand basically woke up post coitus and decided he was the Dragon, completely randomly. For what they wanted to be the central mystery of the season that was... extraordinarily weak for a big reveal. Obviously I knew what was coming, but I can't see how a non book reader would be happy with the way it was handled either. It needed more development as an idea, and 5 candidates were far too many. 5 candidates in 3 different groups for multiple episodes, even though it was inherited from the books, didn't work, and especially didn't work when adding in a bunch of ancillary stuff like Stepin that might have been nice to have if you had 10 episodes but was a luxury and indulgence with 8.

If it was simply bad I'd be fine with it being as it is, but most of the rest was fine to good. The overall impression is a bit like alternating between watching GoT S1 and S8. Half the time you're going "yep, this is pretty good really" the other half you're wondering what the writers were thinking.

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I've invested far too much into the books to be able to like much of what I've seen so far, but then again I'm far off the end of the spectrum, owning the books in Swedish, English, The World of Robert Jordans Wheel of Time, pen and paper RPG and such. I mean to the point of me going "Why the hell are they coming from the Osenrein/Cairhien gate?".

The TV series really doesn't capture any of the "feel" of the world that I had when reading the books.

[Raithe]

To be fair, Jordan consistently said he really disliked people associated WoT with "Medieval" settings. To his mind it was always "The Renaissance if gunpowder hadn't been around earlier."

 

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See, to me it didn't come across as a 'sudden realisation' from Rand. The way the flashbacks of perspective happened, it was a culmination of small things that had been nagging in his mind. Machin Shin whispering in his ears that it was true, that he couldn't deny it, that he was the Dragon Reborn just pushed it even more.   Throw in the flashback to Tam's fever talk telling Rand he was found on Dragonmount during a battle, showing Rand was aware of some of those elements before they went anywhere with Moirane and was being very Rand-like in not talking about it with anyone.

Also, Egwene's "I've been waiting in my room alone for an hour for you to come apologise" was one of the most Egwene pieces of dialogue I've heard.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Raithe

[Zoraptor]

Yep, if you've got channelers it's never going to be an out and out medieval equivalent. In some ways the books are also quasimodern- doesn't seem to be much if any illiteracy for example, when maybe 5% of a renaissance society would be literate. But, in most ways and for most people there was very little difference between medieval and renaissance anyway- more or less subsistence agriculture, horse power, horse or water transport, very low education etc.

I guess, technically, it's most accurately described as a post apocalyptic society and if you want to get really technical, post apoc twice over.

  On 12/17/2021 at 9:13 PM, Azdeus said:

 

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I've invested far too much into the books to be able to like much of what I've seen so far, but then again I'm far off the end of the spectrum, owning the books in Swedish, English, The World of Robert Jordans Wheel of Time, pen and paper RPG and such. I mean to the point of me going "Why the hell are they coming from the Osenrein/Cairhien gate?".

The TV series really doesn't capture any of the "feel" of the world that I had when reading the books.

 

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Yeah, it misses the feel except at very occasional points. It also doesn't feel consistent in what it does do- as simple as each person from the same small isolated village having a different accent. I'm sure half the complaints about it looking like cosplay is because of the lack of consistency in anything else, so far as I can tell the costuming is objectively fine. There's no sense of scale. Things are rushed, other things have too much time spent on them. And there's just enough good stuff there (put an example into the spoilers) to make me more disappointed with the stuff that doesn't work.
 

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For an example of something done right I can't really go past the presentation of Nynaeve and Egwene to the Amyrlin. Moiraine building up to announcing the most powerful channeler in 1000 years and it being Nynaeve instead of Egwene worked absolutely perfectly; and was well acted too. Unfortunately there isn't enough stuff like that.

I don't know how they're going to handle the EotW. Baalzamon has barely been in it and there's been no effort put into establishing anyone else either. The book has issues there as well, of course, but they've handled most stuff worse than the book, so...

Which brings me onto my second pet peeve, characterisation. Both Nynaeve and Egwene seem to have short circuited almost all their development. Nynaeve has lost her grumpiness and is far closer to her late series character than her early one. I know a lot of people found her annoying in the early books, but that isn't in itself a bad thing. Overcoming her shortcomings is one of her most endearing characteristics, and at the moment she doesn't really seem to have any shortcomings to overcome. Mat I'll excuse since the actor went, Rand.. well his development has been the biggest casualty of the Dragon mystery since if you got it the mystery becomes moot- and I'm not sure comparisons to Anakin Skywalker are all that complimentary. OTOH I simply have no idea what they're trying for with Perrin, having cut almost all his book development. There was a very brief soupçon of love triangle in the books too but it got resolved in a far more mature manner despite the book characters being 2 years younger with Perrin telling Rand that he loved Egwene as a sister. As it stands the guy who is the most thoughtful and restrained in the books is coming across as a lot closer to a berserker than anything else, and that's an absolutely fundamental change from, say, Perrin being sad that he'd considered killing Egwene to save her from ravens. I'd say the actor is poor, but to be fair to him he hasn't had anything to work with except looking angry or gormless. Lan and Egwene I've talked about before.

I'd be withholding judgement on the character changes if the overall impression was good. Because it generally isn't I don't have any faith that those changes will have any pay off either.

 

[BruceVC]

Just started on the second season of Witcher and on episode 3 and its excellent as I was hoping

More monsters and real integration of the Wild Hunt and some interesting character history, a worthy season

[Azdeus]

  On 12/18/2021 at 1:44 AM, Zoraptor said:

Yep, if you've got channelers it's never going to be an out and out medieval equivalent. In some ways the books are also quasimodern- doesn't seem to be much if any illiteracy for example, when maybe 5% of a renaissance society would be literate. But, in most ways and for most people there was very little difference between medieval and renaissance anyway- more or less subsistence agriculture, horse power, horse or water transport, very low education etc.

I guess, technically, it's most accurately described as a post apocalyptic society and if you want to get really technical, post apoc twice over.

Yeah, it misses the feel except at very occasional points. It also doesn't feel consistent in what it does do- as simple as each person from the same small isolated village having a different accent. I'm sure half the complaints about it looking like cosplay is because of the lack of consistency in anything else, so far as I can tell the costuming is objectively fine. There's no sense of scale. Things are rushed, other things have too much time spent on them. And there's just enough good stuff there (put an example into the spoilers) to make me more disappointed with the stuff that doesn't work.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

For an example of something done right I can't really go past the presentation of Nynaeve and Egwene to the Amyrlin. Moiraine building up to announcing the most powerful channeler in 1000 years and it being Nynaeve instead of Egwene worked absolutely perfectly; and was well acted too. Unfortunately there isn't enough stuff like that.

I don't know how they're going to handle the EotW. Baalzamon has barely been in it and there's been no effort put into establishing anyone else either. The book has issues there as well, of course, but they've handled most stuff worse than the book, so...

Which brings me onto my second pet peeve, characterisation. Both Nynaeve and Egwene seem to have short circuited almost all their development. Nynaeve has lost her grumpiness and is far closer to her late series character than her early one. I know a lot of people found her annoying in the early books, but that isn't in itself a bad thing. Overcoming her shortcomings is one of her most endearing characteristics, and at the moment she doesn't really seem to have any shortcomings to overcome. Mat I'll excuse since the actor went, Rand.. well his development has been the biggest casualty of the Dragon mystery since if you got it the mystery becomes moot- and I'm not sure comparisons to Anakin Skywalker are all that complimentary. OTOH I simply have no idea what they're trying for with Perrin, having cut almost all his book development. There was a very brief soupçon of love triangle in the books too but it got resolved in a far more mature manner despite the book characters being 2 years younger with Perrin telling Rand that he loved Egwene as a sister. As it stands the guy who is the most thoughtful and restrained in the books is coming across as a lot closer to a berserker than anything else, and that's an absolutely fundamental change from, say, Perrin being sad that he'd considered killing Egwene to save her from ravens. I'd say the actor is poor, but to be fair to him he hasn't had anything to work with except looking angry or gormless. Lan and Egwene I've talked about before.

I'd be withholding judgement on the character changes if the overall impression was good. Because it generally isn't I don't have any faith that those changes will have any pay off either.

 

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I really did like the overgrown highrise buildings in the mountains in the first few minutes of the first episode, even though it more brought to mind Shannara with how "clear" it was. I do feel petty about some of the things I react at, such as how Fal Dara was presented, sure, it's a fortification, but it's also a city and as far as I recall it was surrounded by farms and such. It wouldn't have hurt them to add such things in to atleast attempt to make the world more lived in. The Star Fort design did get me to raise my eyebrows a bit though.

 

That's a very good point, I don't have any objection in the clothing department with the exception perhaps being the serpent ring of the Aes Sedai, they're ludicrously huge.

 

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I can only agree with your points here, the plot building and character building is a mess really, and so I find it hard to like the Two Rivers folk at all. As it is they've done more of a setup for Valda being "The Dark One"/Baalzamon than anything else. I disliked how they handled Min's viewings overall aswell, being a necessity for their "plot" or not, the specificity was annoying. I'll also admit that her actors ethnicity irks me a bit, I can't see her as Elmindreda Farshaw, it doesn't vibe with me. It's the first time it happened for me so far though, so there's that. Also, she wore a dress. Tsk.

I'm sad to see Rands "flame and the void" concentration technique get cut as with his swordsman training, his archery improving when he got all emotional didn't sit well with me. Atleast they managed to nail Nynaeves "channeling when upset".

I'm trying to get a couple of co-workers that haven't read the books to watch the series to see what they think of it, but noone has shown any interest in it.

I'm also going to be petty on the opening of ep 7. Unveiled. Tsk.
 

Oh, hey, there's a Shannara TV series.

Can anyone tell me if it's worth watching or if it's even worse than WoT?

Edited December 18, 2021 by Azdeus
Forum software bugged on me -.-

[ShadySands]

I think Shannara is an MTV series. I never watched it but I'm guessing CW level angsty teen level writing/acting. Would be glad to be wrong but my faith in humanity is at an all time low.

[BruceVC]

  On 12/18/2021 at 7:10 AM, Azdeus said:

I really did like the overgrown highrise buildings in the mountains in the first few minutes of the first episode, even though it more brought to mind Shannara with how "clear" it was. I do feel petty about some of the things I react at, such as how Fal Dara was presented, sure, it's a fortification, but it's also a city and as far as I recall it was surrounded by farms and such. It wouldn't have hurt them to add such things in to atleast attempt to make the world more lived in. The Star Fort design did get me to raise my eyebrows a bit though.

 

That's a very good point, I don't have any objection in the clothing department with the exception perhaps being the serpent ring of the Aes Sedai, they're ludicrously huge.

 

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I can only agree with your points here, the plot building and character building is a mess really, and so I find it hard to like the Two Rivers folk at all. As it is they've done more of a setup for Valda being "The Dark One"/Baalzamon than anything else. I disliked how they handled Min's viewings overall aswell, being a necessity for their "plot" or not, the specificity was annoying. I'll also admit that her actors ethnicity irks me a bit, I can't see her as Elmindreda Farshaw, it doesn't vibe with me. It's the first time it happened for me so far though, so there's that. Also, she wore a dress. Tsk.

I'm sad to see Rands "flame and the void" concentration technique get cut as with his swordsman training, his archery improving when he got all emotional didn't sit well with me. Atleast they managed to nail Nynaeves "channeling when upset".

I'm trying to get a couple of co-workers that haven't read the books to watch the series to see what they think of it, but noone has shown any interest in it.

I'm also going to be petty on the opening of ep 7. Unveiled. Tsk.
 

Oh, hey, there's a Shannara TV series.

Can anyone tell me if it's worth watching or if it's even worse than WoT?

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I enjoyed Shannara despite it being aimed at Teenagers, it was entertaining 

[Azdeus]

I'm going to be more petty actually, thing that irked me.

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The waygates shouldn't need the one power to be opened, wth! Are they going to make Padan Fain a channeler? TSK.

Sending the REDS after Mat when he knows your plans? When did Ms. Damodred turn stupid?

[Zoraptor]

The Shannara series was better than it had any right to be. Which isn't saying all that much. You'd not mistake it for anything other than MTV (though iirc they quit scripted dramas between S1&2, orphaning the show), down to the lead actress in S1 being a model who unfortunately couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. She did really look like she was trying though, to be fair to her, as did pretty much everyone involved; and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. Dunno if I could recommend it- at the moment I'd probably have to say it's better than WoT, but then I never read Shannara and didn't expect much, so limited capacity to be disappointed.

Fal Dara I thought was OK, the environs were certainly too desolate and I also never envisioned the Blight as shown, though that's not a big deal if it's now more of a fort specifically guarding Tarwin's Gap than a city. The star design of the fort is very renaissance/ musket and pike, but you can justify that as it potentially having to repel 'magic artillery' in the form of dreadlords.

On the waygates etc:
 

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In xray there's some stills showing Padan Fain at the waygate with an avendesora leaf, so he presumably went through the 'book' way, it just hasn't been shown. Whether we will be shown that in ep8 or not (doesn't seem likely, though we did belatedly get Tam's fever mutterings) I don't know. To be honest, it would make sense that the Tar Valon waygate be Locked.

The Mat thing is weird on the face of it and probably a kludge as a result of the actor leaving- logically, as portrayed on tv, he'd grab the dagger and leave or head back to the 2R if given a chance; either way he'd be gone. If he's nabbed by the reds he can't leave though, and is available for the next season. That even plays into the theory I have that he'll go with Nynaeve and Egwene to Falme instead of Elayne.

 

[Azdeus]

  On 12/18/2021 at 8:39 AM, Zoraptor said:

The Shannara series was better than it had any right to be. Which isn't saying all that much. You'd not mistake it for anything other than MTV (though iirc they quit scripted dramas between S1&2, orphaning the show), down to the lead actress in S1 being a model who unfortunately couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. She did really look like she was trying though, to be fair to her, as did pretty much everyone involved; and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. Dunno if I could recommend it- at the moment I'd probably have to say it's better than WoT, but then I never read Shannara and didn't expect much, so limited capacity to be disappointed.

Fal Dara I thought was OK, the environs were certainly too desolate and I also never envisioned the Blight as shown, though that's not a big deal if it's now more of a fort specifically guarding Tarwin's Gap than a city. The star design of the fort is very renaissance/ musket and pike, but you can justify that as it potentially having to repel 'magic artillery' in the form of dreadlords.

On the waygates etc:
 

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In xray there's some stills showing Padan Fain at the waygate with an avendesora leaf, so he presumably went through the 'book' way, it just hasn't been shown. Whether we will be shown that in ep8 or not (doesn't seem likely, though we did belatedly get Tam's fever mutterings) I don't know. To be honest, it would make sense that the Tar Valon waygate be Locked.

The Mat thing is weird on the face of it and probably a kludge as a result of the actor leaving- logically, as portrayed on tv, he'd grab the dagger and leave or head back to the 2R if given a chance; either way he'd be gone. If he's nabbed by the reds he can't leave though, and is available for the next season. That even plays into the theory I have that he'll go with Nynaeve and Egwene to Falme instead of Elayne.

 

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I might give it a go then, it might bring my spirits up. I've not consumed the Shannara series in as much detail that I can probably overlook/not remember the lore misses.

I have the same mind about the blight, having it be an invisible border where things slowly decayed the further in you got would give it a much more insidious punch than a line of millions with evil trees in my opinion. They could've used some of those wasted 30 minutes from the previous episode to give the blight a better showing. Having a star fort wouldn't make much difference in that case though, machicolations and "Aes Sedai turrets" would eliminate much of the need for the more complex Star Fort construction, but I was mostly doing some petty nitpicking.
 

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I don't view the "xrays" as my vpn hates streaming/streaming service hates my vpn and I already have pretty poor performance, so good on them, though it should've been in the show already. It still would need Padan Fain to be a channeler though as unless he managed to either sneak in with the group or he'd have to know that they were going to use the Ways beforehand and be waiting there. I don't know, I might be reading too much into it.

I don't mind Mat being nabbed by Aes Sedai, what I do mind is Moiraine asking to send the Red sisters after him, he knows of much of her plans about the Dragon and they would in all likelyhood get that information out of him, it's a stupid decision and would be much better done if she sent her own Ajah after him. I can understand them having to bus the character, but I think they should've done it much better.

 

[Raithe]

The Behind the Scenes in regards to costume design for WoT I found quite interesting. They've laid out the map, the various influences that Jordan mixed together for those countries, tied them into the fashion choices, and tried to keep them consistent. I mean, they've even planned out all the countries that haven't been directly mentioned yet, in part due to how the Sitters in the hall would have elements of their outfits from the cultures they grew up in.

[Zoraptor]

  On 12/18/2021 at 9:19 AM, Azdeus said:

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I don't mind Mat being nabbed by Aes Sedai, what I do mind is Moiraine asking to send the Red sisters after him, he knows of much of her plans about the Dragon and they would in all likelyhood get that information out of him, it's a stupid decision and would be much better done if she sent her own Ajah after him. I can understand them having to bus the character, but I think they should've done it much better.

 

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It makes zero sense per book logic, but it's... OK going by what the series has set up. While I'm very much of the opinion that it's a kludge due to the actor leaving I don't see it as a disastrous one.

Using the reds can be explained by them having a better network set up explicitly for catching men. Blues may have better networks overall, but the reds are more specialised.

The way they've set things up Moiraine should also be of the opinion that any information gained from Mat will be useless by the time they get it. She thinks that everyone apart from the Dragon will die at the EotW. That would include her. She also seems to be of the opinion that this is, basically, the Last Battle, taking place at the site of the Dark One's prison and versus him himself. So any information incriminating her will be useless since she'd be dead, and the Dragon will be victorious or defeated by then. If Mat is still effected by the dagger the reds should also notice it, if not the worst he should expect is a gentling that won't effect him as he cannot channel. He also cannot link Siuan to anything, since he doesn't know that information.

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Zoraptor

[Maedhros]

Watched a couple of episodes of S2 Witcher. A clear step up in quality from the first season, but I'm a bit annoyed with all the unnecessary changes from the books. I'm not a book purist (omitting Tom Bombadil in Lotr was the right move!), but I dislike when they change things for no apparent reason.

[Gfted1]

I just watched Witcher S2E1 and it was really good!

[kirottu]

  On 12/17/2021 at 6:26 AM, ShadySands said:

Wasn't as jazzed with last week's episode of Hawkeye but loved this week's episode.

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I do hope they keep up with this smaller more personal feel, but it is a marvel show. I'm going to really surprised if last episode isn't some giant CGI battle.

[Sarex]

  On 12/18/2021 at 2:07 PM, Maedhros said:

Watched a couple of episodes of S2 Witcher. A clear step up in quality from the first season, but I'm a bit annoyed with all the unnecessary changes from the books. I'm not a book purist (omitting Tom Bombadil in Lotr was the right move!), but I dislike when they change things for no apparent reason.

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Agree with you on the step up in quality, disagree about the changes from the books, at least in this particular case. Apart from the short stories (the first two books) each book following then had a steady drop in quality. I hope they do something different with the story, as the last 2 books were painful to read.

[LadyCrimson]

Still just waiting for the Gong Yoo (and other ensemble cast) netflix show. Tried a fantasy film that I thought was going to be some kind of Chinese or other action fantasy (Yin Yang Master?) but suddenly there were lots of Rocket looking and other animated walks-on-two-legs animal based creatures everywhere alongside human wizards. A little too weird for me. Turned it off.

If you looked at my "personalized" Netflix recommends categories, you'd think they were an all S. Korean/East Asian streaming service. Oh, and the occasional 1980's show for nostalgia's sake. Knight Rider ftw!

[Azdeus]

  On 12/18/2021 at 11:32 AM, Zoraptor said:

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It makes zero sense per book logic, but it's... OK going by what the series has set up. While I'm very much of the opinion that it's a kludge due to the actor leaving I don't see it as a disastrous one.

Using the reds can be explained by them having a better network set up explicitly for catching men. Blues may have better networks overall, but the reds are more specialised.

The way they've set things up Moiraine should also be of the opinion that any information gained from Mat will be useless by the time they get it. She thinks that everyone apart from the Dragon will die at the EotW. That would include her. She also seems to be of the opinion that this is, basically, the Last Battle, taking place at the site of the Dark One's prison and versus him himself. So any information incriminating her will be useless since she'd be dead, and the Dragon will be victorious or defeated by then. If Mat is still effected by the dagger the reds should also notice it, if not the worst he should expect is a gentling that won't effect him as he cannot channel. He also cannot link Siuan to anything, since he doesn't know that information.

 

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Yeah, that's my problem really. But even so, after Moiraine and Liandrins exchange just before leaving, sending the very same Ajah after Mat is a monumentally bad decision. The reds having a better network for catching men or not, any Aes sedai is quite capable in such things, and the blues network is equally capable of finding a man, and can likely do so more discreetly.

The influence of the dagger would be something for the Yellows to deal with though as they are the specialists in that subject, and she supposedly didn't know that Mat wasn't the Dragon at that point either, so to me it doesn't feel consistent with what is supposed to be her lifes goal.