WoT S1E7: The Dark Along the Ways
In S1E7 of The Wheel of Time, the group traverses the Ways and- much like the episode title "The Dark Along the Ways" suggests- is accosted by various terrors there. They emerge in the borderlands city of Fal Dara. There we finally meet Min, a seer who can read people's fates; see some character development with Lan (and Nynaeve); and watch as the young members of the group struggle through a crisis of faith in each other. The episode ends with a journey into The Blight to reach The Eye of the World, setting up for a season finale (IMO) that parallels the first book, The Eye of the World.
My "Five Things" structure has worked well for all the episodes so far, and there's enough in S1E7 to continue it. As this episode is full of reveals (which makes sense, as it's setting up the season finale) I'll put the whole thing behind a spoiler cut.
1) Needing the One Power to use the Ways
We see again in S1E7 that it's necessary to use the One Power to access the Ways. Moiraine did it in the previous episode to enter the ways at Tar Valon, and she does it again here to exit at Fal Dara. This is contrary to how the Ways work in the books, where opening Waygates involves a physical key, shaped like a large leaf. The difference is important because the Waygates were designed for Ogier to use, and Ogier don't use the OP.
I get it that requiring Moiraine to channel to wrest open the gates creates dramatic tension in these two episodes; there's time urgency as her companions must rush through, possibly with evil on their heels, during the short time she's able to hold the gates open. But then how do the Ogier use the Ways? How does Loial know how to read the guiding stone, a plot point in this episode? Plus, dramatic tension can be created even if the original system of gate keys is used: what if a key is damaged or missing, locking people out- or worse, locking them in? The books do precisely this to add dramatic tension!
The need to use OP to open the Waygates also raises additional questions about how Trollocs were able to get through Ways to arrive undetected in Emond's Field. Trollocs don't use the OP. Neither do Fades. So a channeler aligned with the Dark One must have traveled with them. ...And an extremely strong one, too, to let hundreds of Trollocs pass. Moiraine is one of the strongest among the Aes Sedai and she's shown struggling just to get 7 people through.
2) Machin Shin is... Neurotic?
During their journey through The Ways the group is accosted by Machin Shin, the black wind. In the books Machin Shin carries the voices of madness. But it's a psychotic, murderous madness. The books describe it as multi-vocal chanting with the words
Flesh so fine, so fine to tear, to gnash the skin; skin to strip, to plait, so nice to plait the strips, so nice, so red the drops that fall; blood so red, so red, so sweet; sweet screams, pretty screams, singing screams, scream your song, sing your screams...
In the TV show, when Machin Shin surrounds the characters it speaks to them in the language of neurosis. It tells them that they're not good enough, not brave enough, don't love their friends enough, always let their parents down, etc. This seems like the work of young scriptwriters who've been in therapy their whole lives and can't imagine anything more terrifying than self-doubt. How... banal.
3) Min!! But her visions are different....
We finally meet Min, a woman Moiraine knows with the ability to read people's fates in the Pattern, in Fal Dara. I noted in S1E3 that after the TV adaptation skipped her hometown of Baerlon the scriptwriters must've been moving her introduction to some point later in the story. Her readings of the five villagers are important to the story, and she is important to the story later, too.
It's weird that what Min shares with Moiraine about her visions of the villagers is... frankly, weaksauce compared to what's in the books. She doesn't tell her that Rand's the Dragon Reborn (see next item). But she does tell her that the Amrylin Seat will be her downfall! I don't remember that in the books... but it's an interesting foreshadowing! Of course, in the books Siuan Sanche also wasn't a dumbshit who fell for Liandran's bait and guilelessly challenged Moiraine to expose their secret plan to the whole White Tower, then had to punish Moiraine with exile to cover up her own damn mistake....
4) Lan and Nynaeve get it on... but what's the attraction?
Lan and Nynaeve spend a night together in Fal Dara. I'm disappointed... but not because I dislike elements of romance or physical intimacy in stories. It's that, aside from maybe both of them being horny, why? Why are they attracted to one another? Lan admires Nynaeve's hunting skill because she was able to track him... okay, that's more like a Hollywood "bromance" than a romance. Does Nynaeve pity him for being a king without a kingdom, whose blood kin all died? Was it pity sex? Was she doing it despite Lan's Warder bond to make a point with Moiraine that she can compromise their relationship? In the books they do get together...but, like, 4000 pages later, with a lot more buildup for how it makes sense.
5) Rand figures out he's the Dragon Reborn
I've written a few times already about how the TV adaptation has changed one of the important narrative arcs of Book 1 in Season 1. In the books Rand knows early on that he's destined to be the Dragon Reborn. A major story arc is his struggle to come to grips with it, conquer his fear of it, and figure out what to do about it. Here in the TV series they replace that narrative with the identity of the Dragon Reborn being a mystery. It could be any one of them, including the young women; or it could even be multiple of them put together. I'll repeat my contention that while this change is both good and bad in certain respects, the bad outweighs the good.
Yet more evidence for it being a bad change is that Rand basically suddenly figures it out for himself in Fal Dara. He's practicing archery (still no lessons with that sword he's worn on his belt since S1E1??) to clear his mind after a fight with Egwene and Perrin when suddenly a series of flashback hit him. He thinks back to Tam's delirious rambling after the attack on Winternight- the important ramblings they skipped in S1E1- about how he's a foundling... although that doesn't prove anything because Moiraine never told him about Gitara's vision of the Dragon Reborn being reborn on the slopes of Dragonmount, because apparently she doesn't believe that's story's necessarily true. It's a prophecy only 20 years old that she was first-hand witness to, and she doesn't believe it. In the TV adaptation.
So then Rand goes back to Min and demands to know what her visions reveal about who's the Dragon. And she... doesn't really tell him- not on camera, anyway- except he concludes it's him. Then he realizes, via flashbacks, that he's already channeled the One Power at least twice, in moments of stress to save his own life or somebody else's. Ugh! This is weaksauce storytelling. It's exchanging gradual buildup of dramatic tension in Rand's character for the quick cheap thrills of him figuring it all out in, like, 3 minutes of screen time.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/156241.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
My "Five Things" structure has worked well for all the episodes so far, and there's enough in S1E7 to continue it. As this episode is full of reveals (which makes sense, as it's setting up the season finale) I'll put the whole thing behind a spoiler cut.
1) Needing the One Power to use the Ways
We see again in S1E7 that it's necessary to use the One Power to access the Ways. Moiraine did it in the previous episode to enter the ways at Tar Valon, and she does it again here to exit at Fal Dara. This is contrary to how the Ways work in the books, where opening Waygates involves a physical key, shaped like a large leaf. The difference is important because the Waygates were designed for Ogier to use, and Ogier don't use the OP.
I get it that requiring Moiraine to channel to wrest open the gates creates dramatic tension in these two episodes; there's time urgency as her companions must rush through, possibly with evil on their heels, during the short time she's able to hold the gates open. But then how do the Ogier use the Ways? How does Loial know how to read the guiding stone, a plot point in this episode? Plus, dramatic tension can be created even if the original system of gate keys is used: what if a key is damaged or missing, locking people out- or worse, locking them in? The books do precisely this to add dramatic tension!
The need to use OP to open the Waygates also raises additional questions about how Trollocs were able to get through Ways to arrive undetected in Emond's Field. Trollocs don't use the OP. Neither do Fades. So a channeler aligned with the Dark One must have traveled with them. ...And an extremely strong one, too, to let hundreds of Trollocs pass. Moiraine is one of the strongest among the Aes Sedai and she's shown struggling just to get 7 people through.
2) Machin Shin is... Neurotic?
During their journey through The Ways the group is accosted by Machin Shin, the black wind. In the books Machin Shin carries the voices of madness. But it's a psychotic, murderous madness. The books describe it as multi-vocal chanting with the words
Flesh so fine, so fine to tear, to gnash the skin; skin to strip, to plait, so nice to plait the strips, so nice, so red the drops that fall; blood so red, so red, so sweet; sweet screams, pretty screams, singing screams, scream your song, sing your screams...
In the TV show, when Machin Shin surrounds the characters it speaks to them in the language of neurosis. It tells them that they're not good enough, not brave enough, don't love their friends enough, always let their parents down, etc. This seems like the work of young scriptwriters who've been in therapy their whole lives and can't imagine anything more terrifying than self-doubt. How... banal.
3) Min!! But her visions are different....
We finally meet Min, a woman Moiraine knows with the ability to read people's fates in the Pattern, in Fal Dara. I noted in S1E3 that after the TV adaptation skipped her hometown of Baerlon the scriptwriters must've been moving her introduction to some point later in the story. Her readings of the five villagers are important to the story, and she is important to the story later, too.
It's weird that what Min shares with Moiraine about her visions of the villagers is... frankly, weaksauce compared to what's in the books. She doesn't tell her that Rand's the Dragon Reborn (see next item). But she does tell her that the Amrylin Seat will be her downfall! I don't remember that in the books... but it's an interesting foreshadowing! Of course, in the books Siuan Sanche also wasn't a dumbshit who fell for Liandran's bait and guilelessly challenged Moiraine to expose their secret plan to the whole White Tower, then had to punish Moiraine with exile to cover up her own damn mistake....
4) Lan and Nynaeve get it on... but what's the attraction?
Lan and Nynaeve spend a night together in Fal Dara. I'm disappointed... but not because I dislike elements of romance or physical intimacy in stories. It's that, aside from maybe both of them being horny, why? Why are they attracted to one another? Lan admires Nynaeve's hunting skill because she was able to track him... okay, that's more like a Hollywood "bromance" than a romance. Does Nynaeve pity him for being a king without a kingdom, whose blood kin all died? Was it pity sex? Was she doing it despite Lan's Warder bond to make a point with Moiraine that she can compromise their relationship? In the books they do get together...but, like, 4000 pages later, with a lot more buildup for how it makes sense.
5) Rand figures out he's the Dragon Reborn
I've written a few times already about how the TV adaptation has changed one of the important narrative arcs of Book 1 in Season 1. In the books Rand knows early on that he's destined to be the Dragon Reborn. A major story arc is his struggle to come to grips with it, conquer his fear of it, and figure out what to do about it. Here in the TV series they replace that narrative with the identity of the Dragon Reborn being a mystery. It could be any one of them, including the young women; or it could even be multiple of them put together. I'll repeat my contention that while this change is both good and bad in certain respects, the bad outweighs the good.
Yet more evidence for it being a bad change is that Rand basically suddenly figures it out for himself in Fal Dara. He's practicing archery (still no lessons with that sword he's worn on his belt since S1E1??) to clear his mind after a fight with Egwene and Perrin when suddenly a series of flashback hit him. He thinks back to Tam's delirious rambling after the attack on Winternight- the important ramblings they skipped in S1E1- about how he's a foundling... although that doesn't prove anything because Moiraine never told him about Gitara's vision of the Dragon Reborn being reborn on the slopes of Dragonmount, because apparently she doesn't believe that's story's necessarily true. It's a prophecy only 20 years old that she was first-hand witness to, and she doesn't believe it. In the TV adaptation.
So then Rand goes back to Min and demands to know what her visions reveal about who's the Dragon. And she... doesn't really tell him- not on camera, anyway- except he concludes it's him. Then he realizes, via flashbacks, that he's already channeled the One Power at least twice, in moments of stress to save his own life or somebody else's. Ugh! This is weaksauce storytelling. It's exchanging gradual buildup of dramatic tension in Rand's character for the quick cheap thrills of him figuring it all out in, like, 3 minutes of screen time.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/156241.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]