The Wheel of Time - S02 E04 Discussion & Reaction (Why So Much Alanna?)

A long form discussion where I go through every scene and share my thoughts from the episode!

[@lanfearuk]

You came up in my timeline and I’m glad you did. Good video - keep them coming please. LanfearUK from London 🌚😊

[@Kevinbaconator_]

The monster herself! Thank you for the kind words, they mean a lot :)

[@tw7998]

As a reader i generally have enjoyed the season and some changes have worked really well - i personally love the show liandrin being far more complex than book liandrin. Love how zoe is playing Nynaeve, think the actress playing elayne and egwene are doing great as well. Like most readers i absolutely hate the time being spent watch alanna's warders discuss their sex lives and lan sulking. Enjoyed the discussion.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

I appreciate the feedback! I'm glad my general complaints have boiled down to one general thing (Lan / Alanna) because that means I'm 100% invested the other 45 minutes!

[@tw7998]

@@Kevinbaconator_ good point ! I do wish the time had been spent on mat however :) hopefully e5 will develop mat and perrin more.

[@ebenhopwil1886]

I really enjoyed this episode, particularly the multiple reveals at the end. It works well as a mid-season finale and ups the ante for the back half. I think it also works as a look inside the private lives of the Aes Sedai. I think the thing that changed Moiraine 20 years before wasn't just the foretelling from Gitara, but also the end of the Aiel War, the killing of her uncle Laman, and White Tower politics trying to get her to take the throne of Cairhien. I think all of these things made her disillusioned by the Tower and more determined than ever to be secretive, trust nobody, and just charge forward with her cause of finding and guiding the Dragon. I think one other good thing with the scenes with Ihvon and Maksim is (while this wasn't spelled out) that the two of them trained in the topper hoping to become warders, while Lan is not tower-trained. He's something of a wilder Gaidin and is very different from most others warders for this reason.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

Lan is a street cat amongst house cats

[@ebenhopwil1886]

@@Kevinbaconator_ 🤣🤣🤣

[@tlielaxumiykel2309]

I though Moiraine got the letter from the buyer, and Lan stole it from her, and then Alanna's warder took it for her.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

Makes sense.. I find it hard to believe Moiraine wouldn't realize Lan stole it which means maybe she intended for him to find it after she left and catch up with her. I may need to revisit ep 2 & 3 because I'm blanking on their exchanges before she left.

[@cairhieningent]

The Lan parts do draw the attention of book readers because we know they are filler and we are impatient but what do you think should fill their place? The season roughly corresponds to Book 2 and going by episode the first half of it. As I recall nothing really happens until the Wonder Girls' plot starts moving. It's hard to get ahead of that. I get the feeling the Tear storyline may get cut but keeping it would have probably required far more time than the smaller non-forward moving interludes take up. This Lan aside also serves to illustrate that Alanna who has been depicted to non-readers as possibly the friendliest Aes Sedai after Moiraine so far isn't that trustworthy either.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

One thing I would have liked to have seen is some type of reaction to nynaeve coming out of the arches. We only know about the channeling from her talk with that warder. I feel like it would have felt more important coming from sisters. Maybe a tid bit more mat just being on screen, or the wolf brother scene feeling a little rushed. I can see where developing Alanna will have returns post book 4 when she does the thing. I guess it comes down to what people's individual enjoyments of the series are, and if this extra Lan and Alanna stuff will feed into it and pay off later. For me, it doesn't. Also I don't think i would have any issue with it if it wasn't for the extremely short season time. We're already half way through so that mental clock is ticking in my head already and they are making 3 way jokes

[@Patrick-kh4bx]

​@@Kevinbaconator_pretty sure it was a 4-way joke 🤪

[@Kevinbaconator_]

Trueee