The Wheel of Time is picking up pace, after two episodes of watching Moiraine complaining about how Lan fail her and does not need him anymore, even after he safe her life one more time; way more important to her now because she got no powers, the story is starting to move more than before, also Nynaeve and Egwene has build up some context at The White Tower of what they have been up to and what others expect from them.
I would say the second most powerful character in the story Nynaeve is put up to a task that not all Aes Sedai take on the first try but as reckless as she is took it as soon as Liandrin and the others Aes Sedai ask her too, she wants to demonstrate and become as powerful as they say, I think Nynaeve is tired of taking crap from others, this task will take her through three arch each will show her worst fears and nightmares that she will have to face, not only face but walk away from them, similar to a parallel world, inside this other world she can still be hurt or killed if not careful enough, some of this fears and nightmares is to leave what she loves the most and if she doesn't will stay inside this world for ever.
Liandrin is in a rush to make Nynaeve into an Aes Sedai, also would love her to be a red; she push other two of her sisters to take Nynaeve to the Archers, there are many other Arch, some have been explore, some have burn Aes Sedai but this inside the tower will show her fears, to become a sister Nynaeve will have to face her worst fears and come back to them, if she refuse three times then will be kick out of the tower but if she starts she cant stop, it takes three Aes Sedai combine power to activate The Archers.
Each arch she goes in is a different reality, on the first one Nynaeve goes back to the moment she was a child, here she meets with her father and mother, there was something interesting that her father told her "remember red is dead" , could this make reference to the red Aes Sedai? after all Liandrin would love Nynaeve to become a red, usually the most aggressive and radical Aes Sedai, inside this Arch Nynaeve and her family are attacked by a large group of raiders, its weird because for some reason they want to kill them like twenty arm men against a child and her parents, they are corner inside their house until they raiders brake in, last thing Nynaeve saw of their parents was them been slaughter while she hide in the basement looking up, at that moment the Arch show up inside the basement and she have to come back to the tower.
As part of the ritual every time she comes back from an Arch, an Aes Sedai throws water on her head saying "you are washed clean of you sins and the sins committed against you..." and Leane would heal her if she was hurt. After the first Arch Nynaeve was panicking, she could not understand how it felt so real even when she knows it was not, each Arch she gets in looks like it felt more real since on the second one kept complaining more telling the rest that they need to go to the Two Rivers because there is a lot of people that need help, friends of her.
The first two Arch were less difficult than the last one, the third Arch seem to be impossible to escape from, on this last one trip she fall into a world full of shadow, she was dress in red and comes back to the room with the other Aes Sedai with Lan's hair on her hand and all cover in blood, blood was not hers, she thinks she hurt Lan and got piss off at the Aes Sedai wanting to leave the tower, it even look like it was the real deal until she meets with Lan and the Arch in the back shows up but she could not come back this time. At least not on this try, I'm sure she is not lost on this world and some how will return, you can't killed the second main character of the story so early.
On the other side of the world, one of the less but still part of the puzzle characters, Perrin is about to find out what his power really are, he and the rest of the warriors he was marching with, lead by Ingtar Shinowa are no prisoners of High Lady Suroth but specially Ishamael, who I had my doubts if he was really helping Lady Suroth or he had his own agenda and the second answer seems to be the case, High Lady Suroth came to conquer and Ishamael is after unleashing a bigger power, he is interested on Perrin so he must be the key to something Ishamael is after.
The tracker that once help Perrin and the other warriors locate the town that was attacked, named Elias, already know who he was, the moment Perrin and other prisoners were transported, he appear with a wolf pack an attack the caravan, free Perrin, helping him to escape to latter on regroup.
There is some disappointment and sadness in The White Tower after Nynaeve didn't came back from the last Arch, Egwene find out about the news after she went looking for her and found Aes Sedai Sheriam picking up Nynaeve things and let her know what happen. For the first time we see Egwene mad, she was piss off, she went looking for Liandrin because she thinks either she wanted Nynaeve dead or gone when it was the opposite, Liandrin always wanted Nynaeve to become Aes Sedai to weaponize her, Egwene confronts Liandrin and as she is walking away she lights up in fire, very similar to what Brand has done in a few occasions, its strange that so far other characters rather than Rand have shown part of their power before him, sometimes I wonder if we will ever see them fight with their full powers or may be not, at the current pace of the series if they do not crunch the story this might take another season for them to show their full potential.
Rand keeps wasting his time with Logain, a trickster who is drunk in pain after the Aes Sedai took his powers, Rand finally find his way up to Logain in the Asylum, he has ask for a specific wine bottle in exchange to show Rand how to control his powers, Selene, the mysterious woman who look like she has everything and enough time to fool around with Rand every night helps him get this bottle. Logain is only selling him smoke, he is just mad with the world after loosing his powers and is probably jealous of Rand, after Rand gave him the wine all he tells him is that he can't control it, he can't stop it, all he can do is embrace it, it will eventually spills out.
Rand is starting to manifest more his powers, I think Selene knows this and thats exactly what she is looking for but so far doesn't reveal who she really is and what does she wants from Rand, sure thing is that some how she wants to manipulate him but with what purpose and who is she?
In a desperate attempt to bring Nynaeve back from the third Arch, Egwene tries to power the Arch by herself, desperate actions for desperate times seems to be forcing everyone to show their powers, this includes Rand, Perrin, Nynaeve and Egwene has show part of their powers that they haven't in previous episodes, finally its starting to get interesting.
Egwene is stop by Elayene, her novice companion, tells her that it takes three Aes Sedai to power the Arches and that in a thousand years many have try to bring back friends, lovers, that have been lost in the Arches with no luck. All they could do is sit there and hope, Nynaeve was deep on that dream, the first chance she had to come back she didn't, no body knows what happens on the other side so no body knows if the Arches gives you more than one chance to come back, as any other of this kind of test is up to the one been tested to decide what to do but as I though they could not get rid of the second main character so early in the series. While Egwene and Elayne were sitting there, tired, she finally came back crying for all the pain she went through on that last trip where she was with Lan and even had a daughter, lost them all to Trollocks.
A character I haven't cover that much is Mat, same as Perrin they are not that interesting from me, Nynaeve, Egwene and Rand can channel and are very powerful but what does Perrin and Mat does? what is their purpose on the series, Min did see Mat killing or at least stabbing Rand but what else is about it, this are things that has not unfold yet and why the story remains interesting.
As some good things in life you need to have some patience, same goes for some TV Series, few weeks ago I saw online how people were saying that season 2 of The Wheel of Time (WOT) was just too slow, it was not interesting, was nothing like the books and to that I have to say a few things.
- None of these series based on books or novels will be some times even 80% like the books, the amount of things they have to adjust because of time, budget, TV restrictions, etc do change an entire season, all the cut scenes, so don't expect it to be like the book
- If you read the books, I have not; I'm sure you will spend more time waiting for some action than in the TV Series
- It took the season three episodes to pic up some pace and do something different than not just Moiraine arguing with Lan, latter on you will find out why, there was a reason for those to first episodes.
Episode 1: @skiptvads/the-wheel-of-time-a
Episode 2: @skiptvads/the-wheel-of-time-strangers
