10: "A Taste of Solitude" (The Wheel of Time S2E1)

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. I'm Greg. And I'm Veronica. And this is The Wheel of Time Cast. And this week we're covering The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 1, A Taste

[00:00:33] of Solitude. Oh man, it has been a hot minute since we have recorded on this show and I am super glad to be back. And Veronica, thanks for joining me. You know, we had some scheduling

[00:00:48] issues between Ben, Wendy and I and hopefully at some point, well not at some point, Ben will be back and hopefully Wendy can join us again. But for the moment for tonight, Veronica

[00:01:01] was able to help us out. Welcome to the show and how are you familiar with this lore material, whatever? Well, hi. It's really good to be here. You know, I have had this show on my

[00:01:19] list for a really long time to watch. And there has been, I really just feel like an explosion of good shows that have come out. And so it just kind of kept slipping down

[00:01:29] the list. And so, you know, you asking me to come and try to step in a little bit was the push I needed to dive in. So I am very, very new to this series. So sorry to the hardcore

[00:01:43] fans. I will do my absolute best to say all these names right and to keep things straight. But, you know, I just binged all season one and now, you know, this first episode

[00:01:56] of season two and I absolutely loved it. Like, I can't believe that I have, you know, not experienced this yet either in book form or show form. You know, it reminds me so much

[00:02:10] of my other favorite fantasy series like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, King Killer Chronicles. I love the world building. It just really by about like episode three, I was no longer distracted by some of the things like I didn't love the CGI at first.

[00:02:30] But, you know, by the third episode, I was so invested in and loved these characters and loved sort of the depth of the lore and the world building that like I'm all in.

[00:02:42] I loved it. I really liked all of season one and feeling like season two is off to a good start so far. So, you know, thanks for kicking me off on getting into the series

[00:02:55] because I have a feeling reading the books is in my future because I'm just loving it. That's hey, that's awesome. And we're glad to have someone who I mean, don't get me wrong. It's always good to have dissenting opinions and good, good, strong

[00:03:12] conversation. But I am glad that you are able to to come with a of viewpoint that is fresh. And I really do think that there is an advantage to being able to binge the entire first season rather than like Wendy did, you know, watch the first episode where

[00:03:35] you have no damn idea what the hell's going on who these characters are what's whatever and you're getting it in drips and drops. And I really think it's easier to to get in where you're at, not to belittle what you're saying. And I'm not trying

[00:03:55] to say that at all. But I think that you had a little bit more of an advantage. The fact that you're able to you know, hey, if I can make it through a couple

[00:04:03] of hours of this, I can see if I, you know, if it's something for me as opposed to I have to wait three weeks in order to figure out if I'm if it's something I really want to continue podcasting on or watching.

[00:04:18] Absolutely. And you know, I thought about that a little bit because I was able to listen to, you know, I watched an episode and then I listened to you guys podcast on it. So one, I am like, I have just been living with a little

[00:04:31] of time for like the last like week and a half. So I'm pretty like up to my eyes in it, but I also like definitely noticed some of the times where maybe you guys felt something they moved a little slower.

[00:04:42] I wasn't as bothered by that, but it's because I could just move straight on to the next episode. Right. So long for the right, right. Yeah, that's that's that's totally fair. All right. So again, thank you for coming on and

[00:04:59] joining us for this season. And hopefully, you know, if they actually make a season three or in the next five years or whatever, then we can actually continue the story. But we'll go ahead and it's like I said, it's it's been a been a while.

[00:05:16] So we'll go ahead and give a brief recap of season one of what the show is, right? So we are living in this world. We have our main characters, Rand, Perrin, excuse me, Matt, a Gween and Nineyev. They live in the two rivers and

[00:05:38] it is Christmas, I guess, Beltine. I'm not sure what Beltine was, but it's a holiday. And then a fancy lady and Iced I comes in and and oh, well, you seem super fancy and your sword carrying friend seems very dangerous. That's cool.

[00:06:02] And then, oh, now a bunch of evil looking Trollex show up and then kill a bunch of people in the village. And oh, it's it's after you guys. One of you is the Dragonry born. What? What's what's going on? I don't know.

[00:06:21] And so, hey, we know we're going to pull you away. So all of your friends and family don't die because all the the dark one who is either Satan or whomever the opposite of the light. And so now everybody we go off, we went to Shadar Lugoth,

[00:06:42] which I thought was really cool. You know, I really seeing that in person or on TV was really, really cool, given that I had read about it a bunch, which is struggle, everybody got split up. Then everybody got again.

[00:06:57] So now we have then we had a parent and a Gween and went and saw the traveling people and Matt and Rand met Tom Marilyn at the town and found a dark, a dark friend and. Nine Yave and rain and land. They were looking for the people again.

[00:07:21] I think they were going to Tarvalon. I can't specifically remember. And then. It's honestly, it's all kind of faded in my in my brain a little bit. But long story short. Rand was the dragon reborn or is the dragon reborn?

[00:07:40] And nine Yave is like the strongest possible channeler that we've seen in millennia. A Gween is also a very strong, very strong channeler. Very strong channeler. Moirain and land and Rand all went up to the eye of the world to face the dark one for the last battle.

[00:08:02] And then it turns out it wasn't the last battle. They went through the ways and Matt got left on the other side of the gateway or the sorry left or chose to stay. Sure, got got left. He they were separated.

[00:08:19] So Matt is off wandering around doing his own thing. And then in Faldara, a Gween and and nine Yave. They basically are just sources of power for Amalisa, I believe her name was who channeled through her to destroy whole asswaka of Trollex, excuse me. And.

[00:08:45] And and then ran in in in. Moirain are up in. Oh, sorry, I missed a parent and loyal are very fun. Ogeer friend. Um, they had they were in she and our and our Faldara and Pat and Fane, who was the peddler from the two rivers

[00:09:11] who had brought the Trollex there to hunt them down. He had followed them and they found the Horn of Valir, which was not explained at all. It was like, oh, it's the horn. If we sounded for the last battle thing, the dead heroes will rise

[00:09:26] and fight for whomever was. Oh, OK, I guess that's cool. The fact that we are not inundated with just this. Oh, the stories that we hear from Gleaman. Um, it just so. Hey, wow, we found this legendary artifact and immediately stolen. So that's not the best.

[00:09:47] So now they are, I think, Perrin and where we where we catch up is that that Perrin and loyal and the the sheenarians, you know, the one eyed sheenarian, Uno who just continues to cuss, which is a lot of fun. I like him a lot.

[00:10:06] Yeah, he's he's he's he's fun. Yeah. And so they're they're chasing down Pat and Fane trying to find the horn or to recover the horn. And then the last one was the last thing that we can talk about

[00:10:21] was Rand and Moirain face the dark one in the eye of the world. And he, you know, basically he offers rands to live in whatever his dream would be, right? Living with a queen and having children in the two rivers and never going insane because of of touching

[00:10:42] the the the male half of the source. And then Rand says. Get forked and channels into the the the Quindy are or whatever he was holding, right? And then that blew apart and the dark one disappeared. So he was maybe killed or something, something happened to him.

[00:11:10] And oh, in the process, shattered that. Yeah, shattered the seal. Yeah, the the the heartstone that we got. I don't remember if they we called the heart of the heartstone in the last episode. They called it this one.

[00:11:26] So all they really told us was like it shouldn't have shattered. It's bad that it shattered. I mean, the fight's not over. And that's sort of where they left us. Yeah, one of the one of the things that. I really.

[00:11:45] Was not something that it was I was to say it was different in the books. In in the books, Moirain was not. Cut off from the source and at this point in the books. So I was kind of like, oh, that is a. That is a significant divergence.

[00:12:06] So seeing her in this episode, the one we're going to talk about, you know, without not using the source and having to suffer through that loss that they talk about was interesting. Having said that. And I don't I don't know if we talked about on the podcast

[00:12:25] or if they even addressed it in the in the series. But there is a difference between shielding and stilling or severing. So. Or even like burning out, right? So one is you have a shield around you that is preventing you from touching the source. You can sense it.

[00:12:52] You just can't break through the shield to touch it. And then the other is I'm going to call it severing. It has like four different names in the books. I'm going to call it severing, but you are cut off forever from the source.

[00:13:08] And that's what the Red Aja does to men who can channel as they cut them off from the source. It cuts off the the like input from the dark one. And therefore they don't suffer the madness or any more. They've already suffered. So.

[00:13:29] The question there is is Moraine severed or is she cut off or is she shielded? And there are some and as I was rewatching and I did not go back and listen to our podcasts, but as I was watching

[00:13:45] some of the questions that I had with one is Moraine shielded or is she severed and could when when everybody's using the power can normal people who are not as a die or whatever, can they see what's going on?

[00:14:02] Can I see the wispy shit that is, you know, flying through the air or whatever? Or are they just seeing nothing and, you know, for example, in this episode, dirty water being poured and turned into clean water. So that almost seems like magic, which I guess it

[00:14:20] is magic, but it's like magic mixed with science. But yeah, so so maybe the dark one was was destroyed, but then he wasn't because we saw him in this episode. But yeah, so I know based on this episode, not the dark one, right? I don't know.

[00:14:46] I mean, I thought, yeah, he's definitely the dark one until like listening to you guys talk about it. And then I was like, oh, maybe he's not. Maybe he is. I don't know. I felt like he felt very like out of place.

[00:15:03] Like he seemed like and I think you guys even commented on this in that last podcast episode was like, he doesn't seem like he belongs to this time. Like he feels like he was just sort of plucked up and put there.

[00:15:19] Like I sort of feel like he seems like, I don't know, some rich dude from our time that is just now popped into this world. Like he seemed modern and not only his clothes, but just something about the way he carried himself and was groomed.

[00:15:36] Well, if you if you remember the opening scene in that last in the finale was that flashback to the Ambulance Seat and the dragon talking about going and stealing off the dark one or I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to go do this.

[00:15:53] I'm going to take my hundred companions and I'm going to go do do this. And but then like in a it was it was very short. It was like less than five seconds, but they like span out to whatever the and it looks like

[00:16:11] it looks like the Jetsons. It's flying cars and, you know, technological marvels. And all right. And I'm going to if this isn't necessarily spoiler, but it's a spoilery, but it's something from the books so it might explain why that he would feel out of place is that.

[00:16:31] All right. If you slightly spoilery, so if you want to skip ahead, skip ahead by like 15, 20 seconds. So that time was the age of legends. So this was the men and women using the one power to make insane technological advances and working together in order to create wonders.

[00:16:57] And and and so he may be from a time that is closer to where we are now. And then when the world broke, which was thousands of years ago, it plummeted the world into the dark ages. And so now no one remembers that.

[00:17:16] But so it would make sense kind of if you say, hey, this guy looks very refined when we're looking at people in farmhouses and and and shit like that. It would make sense, especially if he was a person of influence. That makes sense.

[00:17:32] I think I heard you guys talk about that on the podcast, but I sort of missed when I was watching like that technology piece. So I think that does I think it helps me like accept to this character a little more.

[00:17:45] Like at least it makes sense why he felt so different. So right. So I thought so that that kind of gives us where we were, right? So that was that was season one in a nutshell. That's me and this giant nutshell.

[00:18:01] How could I fit this possibly large nutshell? So now moving on to season two, episode one, a taste of solitude. The summary from Amazon, Wayrein, Lan, Nanyave, Aguin, Perrin and Matt find themselves more alone than ever. You might as well just say our characters return

[00:18:30] and are depressed like that was which is weird because it says that. But each one of those people are with people that they know and care about. So it's maybe this is just one of those useless. I don't want to give anything away because, you know, reasons. Yeah.

[00:18:51] But say, you know, there are people they don't mention in that list too, which is interesting. Yeah. I mean, like the don't get me wrong. Like you see Rand in this in this in this episode, but for like two seconds. And.

[00:19:08] But some of the things that, you know, we'll get into the points. All right. So real quick in we'll just say a hundred words or less. How did you feel about this episode? You know, I liked it.

[00:19:21] I don't want to get into my points, but I was appreciative of how many things I feel like they were able to touch on within the episode. And I felt satisfied as far as a setup for the rest of the season. OK, awesome. Yeah, I I felt similar.

[00:19:43] One of my complaints about other shows or other books, book series is that they won't spend enough time in they won't spend enough time with a particular character or a particular storyline, but they kept going back to the same characters and seeing where they're where they're at.

[00:20:01] And so I really I really appreciated that. And so I think we got and not we got quite a bit of time with everybody except for Matt and Rand. And we had at least two scenes or two like relatively extended scenes.

[00:20:19] With each of the other sets of characters. Yeah. I liked it and I some of the one of the things that some of the things that we'll talk about. All right, so if you are not familiar with our our format of

[00:20:38] of podcasting, what we'll do is we will go through. We're not going to give like a scene by scene breakdown or like a plot point breakdown or anything like that. We'll just pick our we're going to keep it short. Right?

[00:20:50] We got another episode to watch when we get done recording this one. And then we'll try to record that this week. And but so we're just going to pick three points and then we'll cover everything that will cover everything else that we didn't talk about with notes.

[00:21:05] And we're just not quite as in depth in this particular episode. We are we didn't ask for feedback. Unfortunately, we didn't ask for feedback. Unfortunately, life found a way to get in the way of podcasting. So I am not going to. I didn't ask for feedback.

[00:21:20] I didn't look into the news. Honestly, I'm probably not going to look into news until I finish the three episodes that are out. Just because I don't want to accidentally be have something be revealed that I will be like, oh, sweet, that's awesome.

[00:21:35] Because I really am I'm avoiding stuff for this. So long story short, we're going to have Veronica and I are going to do three points and then we'll cover the rest of the stuff in notes.

[00:21:48] And so I will turn it over to you, Veronica, for your first point. OK, so my first point and we've kind of already touched on this, but just I tell it the five are alive, but they're separated and alone and a little more exposed, I guess,

[00:22:04] based on I think it was Pear and who had the analogy about the shields when you're all together and when you're just by yourself, you're more exposed. But like I said, I was just really pleased that we,

[00:22:18] even though some of them were just snippets that we sort of got to see tiny little peaks into where everybody is. And I didn't really expect I didn't expect to see Matt and Rand really. And so, you know, just starting at the beginning,

[00:22:33] we got to see a Gwen and Nineve who are novices now at the White Tower. And both are struggling in their own way with trying to access the power. And we can like delve more into these, but I'm just going to do the overview

[00:22:49] of sort of where everybody is. And so and then, you know, we had Perrin, like you sort of already mentioned, he's with the O'Gyr loyal, which I left the end of the last season unsure if a loyal was alive or not.

[00:23:06] So I was excited to see him because he's a fun character and Perrin storyline for me, I feel like falls the most flat. I like him like he's sweet, but it just is like, OK, like tap into your wolfy power already and let's get this going.

[00:23:25] And second for me, it was actually important for me that loyal was with him too. Just I think that. I don't know. Perrin seems really just sad and down. I feel like author season one. And so I think having this sort of lighter, fun,

[00:23:43] lovable character as his sidekick is making me more interested until they just move that along a little further. And so we got to see the two of them out, you know, hunting for the horn and Perrin, you know, trying to I think, you know, similar to the women

[00:24:04] who are trying to figure out how to access the power. It seems like Perrin is trying to figure out his own internal struggle of like one, what the F is happening to my body and why can I suddenly see things

[00:24:17] and like have this weird relationship with dogs and wolves, but then also which he touches on later, just like figuring out this feeling of rage and need for sort of revenge for the things that,

[00:24:31] you know, both the bad people, but also kind of just the universe has doled out to him and he's feeling a lot of anger. I this made me flash back to the movie Mystery Men and Ben Stiller. You're going rage building. Oh, yeah, it's not the same.

[00:24:49] You know, that's humorous and this was very serious. But I thought I was like, unfortunately, it just it spoils the image in my head is rage building. That's OK, though, because I think Perrin, like for me, like I said,

[00:25:04] I need some comedy around him just because he just feels like the most tragic character to me. I mean, give him the feed murder his possibly pregnant wife. I mean, yeah, accident. Like, I mean, that's that's pretty tragic. Yeah. So let's see, that's where the three OK.

[00:25:27] And so then Rand, I'll just go ahead and say everything about Rand because we only got like you say like 30 seconds, but he shaved his head and he's in a village and he's in a village that is celebrating. What's the holiday bell time? Yeah.

[00:25:47] And that's really all we get other than it seems like the rest of the five seem to think he's dead or at least have no word on him. It seemed like when I have said they thought he was dead, but he was. That was part of his.

[00:26:03] That was something we didn't talk about the recap is that he told Maria more aim to tell land to tell everybody else that he's dead, that he died at the at the eye. And so she has passed that word on and now hopefully his spirit finds

[00:26:18] its way back to back to them. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to say when they are reintroduced to each other. Like, it'd be like, wait, what? It's been how long and we thought you were dead for me at this point.

[00:26:32] I did. I did like the fact that we that we found out that it was bell time. And so it's now been one year since they they left since the the Trollic raid on in the two rivers.

[00:26:45] It gave us kind of a sense of context, a sense of how much time has passed. You spent five months in the tower and you haven't, you know, you haven't touched the source. Um, so yeah, I did like that they. I feel that they did a good job

[00:27:07] putting that stuff in context rather than just explaining things. Yeah, let us pick up on it. Yeah. And I think the only other thing I picked up on from our glimpse of Rand was that he had shaved his head and I was like, does that hold any significance?

[00:27:26] And then I realized his red hair, like that was the giveaway of something pretty unique about him, right? Like that was what gave the O'Gyr the clue to be like, well, you're actually from this region and he didn't know what he was talking

[00:27:40] about because he didn't know his like birth story. Right. But I I guess it makes sense that if he has, you know, gone to go disappear from his former life, that he might want to hide a very distinguishing feature about himself but gives information about who he is.

[00:27:58] So yeah, absolutely. We got something about Rand. I guess so I I. I didn't actually make it through a full rewatch of season one, but I did finish. I did get through the first, I think, half the first half of the season

[00:28:17] and Tom Marilyn back in back in Boreen or whatever the Baron Hill or whatever it's called. And and he said, oh, you don't see that color hair outside of the eye you waste. And I was like, oh, that does make sense that he would have shaved his head.

[00:28:39] Yeah. Yeah. So he's laying low, I guess. And I guess we're supposed to also surmise that he's thinking of his friends as he lit his lantern and had a sad look in his eye at the moment. We're we're reading the very few seconds that we got.

[00:29:00] The twinkle in his eye, that said at all. Yeah. And then we got our little like scene and a half of Matt and got to see that he's, you know, being sequestered off somewhere. I don't know if we actually know where it's got to be.

[00:29:19] It's got to be. I mean, I guess so because Leandre, Leandre, the red lady has him. Yeah, I thought it was interesting that Moraine entrusted that task to Leandre specifically, even though they seem to not be but heads. Yeah. Very much on the same page.

[00:29:42] I guess she knew if anyone would hunt a man down who is trying to potentially, you know, use the source like she knew Leandre was her woman. But yeah, I guess I guess the point being is that who's practiced at hunting people down and the red is

[00:30:02] they are very practiced to hunting people down. And if you tell the red, hey, find a man. Well, I mean, it's not going to hurt Matt unless they just flood out murder in which they can't because of the three gods. But but like.

[00:30:19] If if he's not, if he can't channel, then it doesn't really like they can't really hurt him, but they can imprison him and then keep him away for however like psychologically torture him so that he believes his friends don't care about him.

[00:30:33] It was very Harry Potter to me. It was oh, your friends didn't send you letters. I was like, all right, Dobby, thanks. But yeah, I was I mean, I have a hard time. Like she the actress who plays Leandre and I hate her.

[00:30:51] I mean, I mean, she's so good. Yeah, I mean, you're supposed to hate her. I like killing it. But yeah, she does. She does a very good job just embodying not evil, but just like entitlement and ego. Ego. Yes. Absolutely. Narcissism and.

[00:31:11] Yeah, like she's a very, very good bad good guy. I guess if you could if I said I are good guys, then she's one. Hey, oh, Novice died in your care. Well, what the hell is that? Like, you know, we're killing people like just to

[00:31:33] and I mean, we don't know if the novice like got sick or if it was something that she did. Or maybe the novice killed themselves because she pushed her so hard or whatever. I'd yeah, sorry, not trying to trigger anybody.

[00:31:45] But like that's that's I can see how that that would that would happen. Yeah, very much, you know, full metal jacket. Ask anyway. So sorry, good. No, I mean, I think that that's pretty much it. Like there's definitely pieces about, you know, the characters

[00:32:05] that we saw more of that, you know, I'll let you do your points. If you don't touch on it, we can circle back around. But that's that was really just my first point that I was really pleasantly surprised and enjoyed getting

[00:32:16] even though some of them were brief like that look into where the five are and how they're doing and, you know, good. Yeah, checking in with our main hope that they all come back together. Yeah, I OK. So so my I'll say that my first point

[00:32:35] is also going to be the White Tower. But I'll go a little bit more specific. This particular plot line, so we have nine of and a green and then we've got some some primary characters that were not only reappeared, but were introduced.

[00:32:54] So Alana, who is the the green as to die that was enjoying the physical will say the physical fruits of her later of her waters. And also she always has a fruit in her actual a literal fruit in her hands. So that was a perfect description of her.

[00:33:16] That's I did I didn't think about that. But yeah, she was like eating the apple and yeah, well, and last season after the big dramatic scene of like the judgment of Moraine and Leandron or whatever, she walks out with them and immediately someone hands her a pair

[00:33:37] and she's holding a pair like she's always holding fruit like pay attention. She's just always holding fruit. That's really funny. Sorry. No, it's fine. Yeah, so we meet Alana or we see Alana again. And she is one of 98 of and Iguin's instructors.

[00:33:55] I really thought that it was cool how the description of the five elements of the power and, you know, as long as you know how to weave them together, you can do basically anything. They are very, very functional. And it makes me want to know more.

[00:34:14] I thought that was really, really cool. The I thought the teaching of of, hey, you know what? You're all going to drink your finger glass and then 98 of just gives her a big F you and like, oh, you say, all right, fine with me.

[00:34:34] I'm not even going to try. I'm going to drink this crap. But so then we also have we also saw Leandron a number of times between the Matt scene and the nine Aves scene. And so she, like I said, she apparently she pushes

[00:34:53] hey, using the one power is dangerous. And so it's dangerous. There's an inherent risk for every woman who's going to use it. So we have to if we have to burn out the ones that can't handle it, then so be it.

[00:35:05] We don't want them to break in the middle of a battle. And then we also met Sherriam, who was the who is the the mistress of novices. She was the older gray haired lady that told Leandron that she could have a talk with Nine Yave.

[00:35:23] And then I'm going to focus a little bit more on nine Yave and Leandron in that particular that particular scene. The. I feel like Leandron did a really, really good job of. One showing nine Yave that she that Leandron was effective

[00:35:47] in getting nine Yave to touch the source. You know, the and the words that she used. I want you to become the most powerful channeler since the age of legends. She may not send a legend, but in millennia

[00:36:05] and I want you to have enough power that no one can ever take that away from you, including me. And it really, I think that really, really, really, really, really, it really, I think that really is going to be a motivating, motivating factor

[00:36:21] for nine Yave that that she's, hey, I'm here to to basically make it so that no one can ever take this away from me. And I think that that's I think it's really, really cool. She is blocked for some reason.

[00:36:38] I don't know if it's a matter of I just can't do it. I can't. Whatever. The like my my guess on her block, she said something when she was talking to I think to Iguan when they were in the kitchen

[00:36:58] before Alana came in and she referenced being a bit afraid of that amount of power, like she says something like no one have no one. She had that power. And you know, something that really stuck with me in the

[00:37:14] in the finale of season one was the way that I don't remember her name, the king's sister that was sort of channeling through the four other women. I think it was Amelisa, I believe so. So right there at the end,

[00:37:31] Amelisa was literally almost like drunk off the power that she was channeling through nine A. Vinigwine, like she was talking about being able to I can feel everything in the world. And I think I mean, I just wonder there will probably be

[00:37:48] scariness around that much power in of itself and you know how it's driving all the men crazy when they tap into the power. But even seeing someone who was there trying to protect her own people to do good and she even got sort of carried away

[00:38:04] with it psychologically at the end, like it just shows the danger of the power even people trying to use it for good. And so I think to me it makes sense if that's a big driver behind nine A's block is just this fear of the immensity of it

[00:38:21] and how even if you're trying to do the right thing, it can go the wrong way, right? Yeah, I mean, and then you killed murdering or burning yourself out. If not murdering a bunch of other people.

[00:38:33] I mean, I guess murder means intent, but you will just say killing a bunch of other people. No, that's that's a that's a really good observation. And I think that that you might be on to something. But yeah, like I said, I thought that the androns

[00:38:49] that the tactic that Leandron used was the one thing that might actually get nine gave to to stick around and maybe. Submit to to to one of the hey, I'm using this. I'm here and I'm. Cleaning and, you know, being subservient specifically to meet this goal.

[00:39:17] What's the reason that you came to the tower? Right? That's that was one of the things towards you that what everybody has to figure out the reason they came and the the reason that she can focus on is so that I'm never helpless again. Yeah. So yeah.

[00:39:35] That was like the White Tower in general was was my point. I did enjoy some of the the waters discussions with 90 Ave. But but in general, yeah, the White Tower was my first point. Yeah, that's awesome. No, I I I agree with that. I sort of I struggled.

[00:39:53] I was choosing between two to be my in a third point and I ended up going with something else. But Leandron and that whole scene with her and Inave was up there for me. I agree with you.

[00:40:05] I think it probably was necessary to get and Inave to like focus and actually use her power. And still, it just made me like I do not respond to that sort of like leadership, like the mean tough love, like no, nothing more would make me

[00:40:23] just lay down and be like, I'm not doing this. And so like I hated it, but it obviously did seem to work. I did start like laughing at one point in that scene. Obviously, it wasn't funny.

[00:40:34] But like she was basically the emperor from Star Wars yelling at her to access this source through her anger. And it's there's no one to access it. And so I was like, oh, my God, like I hate her. She is the worst day and now she's the emperor.

[00:40:55] So so I thought that was yeah, interesting. But yeah, I also enjoyed that scene. I think I agree mostly that. Though I don't agree with her methods, they seemed to work. Yeah, effective, if not necessarily moral. Yeah, yeah. All right. What's your next point?

[00:41:16] My next point is that more rain is kind of a bitch. So I will say that, you know, by the end of the episode, I did come around and like I did have compassion for her. Like for more rain.

[00:41:30] She's obviously like very, very pained that she can't access the source. And like you find out later in the episode sort of the depth of what that pain really means. But you don't really find that out until I mean. He's made land suffer a lot.

[00:41:46] Yeah. And like I think land is, you know, he's the hero of the story at this point. Like he's just been this stalwart guy. I mean, I think the warden is a general, especially ones like land

[00:42:00] that are not romantically involved with the ace, ace a die that they protect. He, you know, he's this strong, really good looking guy who they seem to work in any chance they can get to have him shirtless. I mean, I'll be honest.

[00:42:17] I just fall for him even more. Daniel Henry with that shirt made me kind of go. Right. I mean, I could dig it. You know. And so then like on top of the fact that he's like this really gorgeous

[00:42:26] human being, he then also is playing this like hero character that is solely dedicated to protecting this person. And then, you know, then she treats him poorly. And so like, of course, I'm just like, what is wrong with you? Woman, like just be kind to him. Yeah.

[00:42:45] And I mean, so just I feel like land, he's beautiful. He's dedicated. And I just feel like Marene is not really giving him the respect that he deserves. And so like, I was literally when they're like arguing about dinner

[00:43:04] and she literally tells him like he's this, I don't know, servant of hers, which I realized on some level he is, but I didn't previously feel like their relationship was this like subservient of a role for him.

[00:43:22] And so when she said like, bring my dinner to my room or whatever, I literally shouted at my TV like, get your own effing dinner. And I was so glad that he then basically said the same thing. And so, yeah.

[00:43:40] And even, you know, he finally like he gets the other perspective during dinner about really understanding how difficult this is for her. And so he softens and takes the dinner up. But I was still like a little pissed that he was the one that gave in.

[00:43:56] And then, you know, the night progresses to him having to go save her, almost dying himself. Basically, like if you had just communicate, like you not communicating to him is putting him in danger. And and so and I think the other thing to that point sort of under

[00:44:17] the whole marine is a bitch umbrella of that point is also like other people. She endangered this episode, which was also the people who were opening their home to her. The merchant that she like ordered to come to her

[00:44:32] who was then being chased by are they fades or shades? So fade is fade. So with the what the I mean, the book description, it may have been in the in the show as well is mere droll. But the common name for them is fade.

[00:44:53] Yeah, I've been calling them the mouth of Sauron. I think I think you guys had a few other references of like similar. I think maybe, you know, been referred to as Voldemort as well. But yeah.

[00:45:08] So yeah, I just feel like she was endangering a lot of people this episode and maybe not not showing enough care. And I get that's been her character from the beginning, right? Like she's dedicated to a cause. If there are people harmed, innocent bystanders harmed,

[00:45:26] she is willing to risk that. And she showed at the end of last season that she's also willing to risk herself, you know, she went to the eye. And so I guess. I don't know. I mean, I guess it's duty above all, but it's like when you have

[00:45:41] someone close to you like land and you're still completely disregarding them, it just feels crappy. So I mean, and she may have thought. I mean, I don't know. You know what? Let's talk about Maureen for a minute. Yeah.

[00:45:57] I don't know what the purpose of her riding off into the night was. Like it didn't. I don't know if you happen to catch what she was trying to do. I like, I don't know if she was going out basically to die.

[00:46:10] Like, hey, so if they kill me, then they won't kill everybody else. But then she hid from them whenever they. I mean, I think she read something in the poem that they haven't told us about the poem that was on the broken heartstone that that merchant brought her.

[00:46:29] And so I can only assume that there was some sort of information either in the poem or something she needed to take to someone else that was informing her next move. But that's just me guessing because that's the only sort of clue they gave us.

[00:46:44] And she did have the little, you know, wrapped up note with her as she was packing. So I guess that is that. But feeling like they're giving us too much credit since that is spelling it out. No, for sure. And like, I don't know for sure.

[00:47:03] That's what it was. It did seem just careless of her. Like, what does she think she was going to do? She doesn't have terribly good fighting skills. It doesn't seem. I mean, she did. I mean, she she she managed to kill one of the three that were there.

[00:47:20] Although I'm just curious, was your screen like very difficult to discern anything because it was it was basically like the longest night in Game of Thrones couldn't see anything. Sidebar, but so many shows now are doing these dark scenes.

[00:47:35] And if I'm not watching it in a completely dark room at midnight, it's turned up. Yeah, exactly. I feel like like I have a pretty good like newer TV. Like, it's not that I'm just watching it on a crap screen and I still can't see anything.

[00:47:51] So yeah, I completely darkened the room on my rewatch. So I think I was able to confirm for sure that there were actually three of them that they were fighting. But the first time I just wasn't even I had like three question mark in my notes,

[00:48:08] because yeah, I realized that there were three and because. Excuse me, Maureen killed one by stabbing behind her. I totally forgot that fades could move through shadows who'd like appear in shadows and and I know all of this crap, right?

[00:48:27] And and she's just like basically just turns around and stabs and do a shadow and is like, whoa. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. And they fly. So there are in the books, there are multiple types of dark creatures

[00:48:46] and one of them flies and has like almost like a hypnotic song. Fades are another one. Trollix are another one. There are a couple of others that we may or may not run into. Again, close captioning has helped me. But it was like wings flapping.

[00:49:06] And so that made me think of a different a different creature and I was like, oh, are we going to see a different one? And I don't think they can fly. Maybe that's I didn't understand the rules of them, like what you said.

[00:49:21] And when you said that about them appearing, I do remember when like Rand and Matt met them, that it had sort of done that shift through the shadows. But I don't think I explicitly knew the rules.

[00:49:32] And so maybe that like flapping sound is just like the noise it makes when they like shift through the shadows. Maybe because it was so dark, I was like, are they showing wings? And I'm missing it. Like, I don't think they have wings.

[00:49:47] Yeah, but I believe close captioning actually said like wings flapping. And I was like, yeah, that's weird. Um, but yeah. So, uh, yeah, I didn't I did not put two and two together with the whole like, hey, she's taking off.

[00:50:03] I thought I was thinking that she was going off so that they that basically just to die herself so that Lan and Varen and uh, Adelaus, I believe, um, were, you know, basically were protected. Same thing with with Bail Doman.

[00:50:23] Um, so, but then she, the fact that she went off to fight fades on her own, maybe or maybe like I said, maybe she was trying to figure go, go somewhere under cover of night that, uh, that the poem was telling her to go.

[00:50:40] Oh yeah, I don't know. I'm looking forward to watching the next episode and seeing maybe see what it is that she's not telling Lan that his last lie, his last line before basically practically dying was what aren't you telling me?

[00:50:51] And she's just like, uh, at least that's, that was the, that was the, that was what I felt. It's like, oh my God. She's like, can I not have my secrets? No, you dumb, just talk to me like you're trying to protect me.

[00:51:10] You're trying to kick me like a dog that, you know, you love, but you need to kick him and to get him to go away. I get what you're doing. I'm not going anywhere. Just talk to me. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:51:23] I wish they would, I hope maybe this season that we get some more understanding of Moraine, some more backstory. I just, I don't really like her at this point. And they have done a few things to try to soften her.

[00:51:41] Or like give us more understanding about her, but it just hasn't been enough. Like she comes off too harsh and Lan is sort of the line I was drawing in the sand of like, I don't like you lady. Be nice to him.

[00:51:55] And I'm sure we'll find out that it's all been to try to protect him or something and hopefully we'll forgive her, but. So is that more in his, was your second point? Okay. So I'll go ahead and jump on that and toss in some stuff on that.

[00:52:12] So like I said, the, the other things that we learned from our new characters there were Varen and Thomas, who Varen's an SDI who is not cut off from the source and Thomas is her water and has been there for long periods of time.

[00:52:34] Decades Adelaus, who doesn't have a water, like I don't know if she's read or just a different Aja and just doesn't have one. So they're just, they're just hanging out here. I don't, I don't know if Adelaus is cut off or stilled or something like that.

[00:52:54] And that's why she's out here in the boonies hanging out at this house that, that Varen owns. I think that we've pretty much touched on all of that, that kind of plot point. But I do. I will say that Varen in the book was one of my

[00:53:12] favorite characters or at least one of my favorite SDI. And I'm looking forward to hopefully her ending the way that she ends in the book because she was, I thought she was, she was her character arc was really, really good. Nice.

[00:53:33] I appreciated her lighting Thomas's sword on fire or whatever it was. I thought she was pretty cool. Like her power. Yeah. I didn't know what she was doing. She's like, cover your ears. And I was like, are you, you have like a sonic blade?

[00:53:48] Like Thomas doesn't have his, like does he have earplugs in? Like what's going on? I don't know what's up. But yeah, that was, that was a cool kind of climax to that, to that scene. Um, I did, I was wondering if Maureen was like

[00:54:04] pulling through the shield when you saw like some of the energy or whatever next to her and. I think she even thought she was for a minute. I felt like, which, okay, I had a trickle of sadness square her there. I guess. All right.

[00:54:20] I am going to side note possible spoiler type thing. Um, in the book we, so, so there are two halves just like in the show, there are two halves of the source, right? And or the one power and, um, women can see.

[00:54:38] So I'm gonna throw out some words and names and you may or may they may not, may not have been included in the show. But so there's side R, which is the female side and side in, which is the male side and women

[00:54:51] who can channel can see weaves of side R and men who can channel can see weaves of side in if the dark one character put a shield on her. And there are no men who can channel. Uh, then no, no one would be able to see

[00:55:10] a shield or weaves on more and to be able to know whether she was like that she was. No, I just can't. Like, I don't know if it's a shield that's tied off or if it's that's what I'm just like would

[00:55:25] Rand have been able to see it though. So Rand, I don't know. So there are other this is getting even further into like the lore type stuff, but there are ways to make what they say is inverting your weave. And so you basically make it invisible.

[00:55:42] So it's if he was to like reach out with side in and like touch her and like touch whatever is around her, then yes, if you knew what he was doing, but if he didn't and he just reached out, he wouldn't necessarily

[00:55:57] it would be like, well, I can I can close my eyes and feel braille, but I don't know what it says. And I don't know what it's telling me to do. I can tell that, hey, there's a language here

[00:56:10] and it's definitely is saying something, but I have zero concept of what it is. And I wouldn't be able to tell like braille from gibberish dots, right? Right, exactly. Yeah. So I actually think that's a really good comparison. But I just came off top of my head.

[00:56:27] I was like, well, it's actually pretty good. So again, just I really like the introduction of the new characters. And and I'm interested, although Adelaus is kind of a bitch, too. But I did love her lusting over land.

[00:56:40] And she was like, are you sure you need to wear those wool trousers? I thought that was really funny. The you you are only affected by what you were let be affected. And I am ridiculously not affected by the fact that she wants to be shut away.

[00:56:59] Yeah, I thought she was she was some good humor, some good lightness to the episode. Totally. All right, so I am going to go ahead and pick for my next point. I'll talk about the less interesting storyline in Perrin and in Paddenfang.

[00:57:23] They meet a Lys who is also a wolf person. That was kind of cool. And so now we've maybe got a tutor for Perrin, who maybe can teach him how to either train him in the ways of whatever wolf thing he's got going on or

[00:57:45] or at least teach him to either control or adapt to to whatever is happening to him. Maybe he likes that. Maybe he won't embrace it, but maybe he can at least understand what's going on rather than just being like,

[00:58:04] why am I seeing visions of shit and possibly drive myself crazy? Like you said, I was kind of like, all right, this is one of those. I did like the fact that the the sheenarians were were giving honors to even a trader.

[00:58:23] You know, at some point or another. So yeah, I like the honor that the the the borderlands, right? And the idea that, hey, if if every sheenarian or every borderlands person for the borderlands like basically sought out.

[00:58:40] Re murder for revenge, there would be no one left in the borderlands. Like, yeah, that's that's fair. I mean, like you have to have some sort of of maybe not forgiveness, but at least understanding. Was there a reason that feigned at this?

[00:58:59] Maybe if, you know, at least find out what it is. It may not change your mind, but it might. And I liked the I don't remember what the guy's name is. Is that Agilmar? I don't remember what is it in tar or in tar.

[00:59:14] OK, yeah, in tar was another character. Is he I mean he was he sort of like the captain of the Kingsguard I would say one of the highest ranking men saw alive from. So yeah, I think because like because the the Lord died, right? Right. Yeah.

[00:59:30] And I think in tar was one of his like his yeah, his his like Captain the Guard or whatever. Or his like number one military person. And I feel like he said he was Amelisa's sister. Or rather Amelisa was his sister.

[00:59:48] Yeah, he was like he was like the sister to the Queen of that or the lady of that of of Veldara. Yeah, he carries himself, you know, as if he's grown up very religiously and I appreciated, you know, it was sage advice

[01:00:07] that I felt like he gave to Perrin there. You know, just like you said, maybe it's not the answer you want or even like what you're going to respect, but like calm your rage down long enough to ask because it might be important to know.

[01:00:22] I thought that was pretty, pretty good advice. Yeah, all right. So that that'll I'm looking forward to finding out more about Elias and and and however that goes. And then let me see. Was there any other new characters from there outside of Elias?

[01:00:42] I believe he was the only new character in that that storyline. Yeah, that's the only one that I had written down. OK, yeah, who knows? Still awesome and in Elias is a new character. So I'm good with mine.

[01:00:57] What's up with Perrin like seeing the vision of what happened the night before, was he seeing that through the dogs eyes that they then I don't know if you can answer this because it might be something

[01:01:10] you know, because the book, but like that was my like watching on second watch was like it seems like he's seeing this sort of as if he can channel through the dog that was there and see what was happening. But that that was my impression as well.

[01:01:25] It was either another another wolf or a different animal was like he was seeing getting like telepathic information from somebody or he was, you know, almost almost like being able to sense what the what the what the dog had done before he died. Yeah. Yes.

[01:01:50] So I agree with you. I think that's I think that's what it was. It was symbolizing. Yeah. And that that'll wrap up my number two. OK, so my third point was just basically, I guess this was the opener to the episode,

[01:02:08] but learning a little bit more, a little bit of insight into the dark one and his counsel of people. And so we saw that through basically through the eyes of this scared little girl who we don't know who she is. It opens on her.

[01:02:25] There's like this star shaped house and there's the symbol from the eye of the world on the ground. And she's scared of some Trollix that are lurking around. And she runs back inside.

[01:02:37] And so we do get like a few clues from what she sees when she's under the table. And I don't know if maybe those snippets of things are more meaningful to you. Having read the book, I don't know that I really like drew a whole lot from them.

[01:02:52] But I did just make notes of what she saw. So there's like at least seven people, I think, at the table. And the clues we get is there's someone sitting in a blue dress, like possibly a woman and she has these two long, like Wolverine style nails.

[01:03:13] And then we get someone with like a black leather glove and a black stone ring that looks really similar to what the eyes said I wear. So it had like a big black stone

[01:03:24] and then it was like a snake eating its own tail, holding the stone in place. And then we also saw a black bird, like a man or someone wearing what looked more like soldier type gear. And it had that black bird on the yellow tan circle.

[01:03:43] And this was the same thing that was on the trader's clothes that Perrin buried. And so that's the chaniran from the crest of Dara. OK, so I picked that up on Second Watch after I'd like noted down all these things

[01:04:02] and then they had talked about who that person was. And so I wasn't sure if this scene truly preceded that and this is the same guy that was killed or if this was just another of that same like group of people that had been black friends.

[01:04:23] The dark friends. Dark friends. Yeah. And then there was when they zoomed out from the table, you could see there was someone wearing all white. And so I didn't know. I can't remember what's the group called that were all white and they were like torturing parents.

[01:04:42] And then the children of white. Yeah. And so I wasn't sure if that someone all in white. Like they had a cloak over top, but I wasn't sure if that represented someone from that group or not. And then the little girl did right before

[01:05:00] Ishmael or the dark one or whoever the guy is leans down to talk to the little girl. She does say mum. And so someone sitting at the table was this little girl's mother, which I thought was interesting.

[01:05:15] And then we don't really learn a whole lot more about this this dark one character other than he tells a few of his other names he's been referred to as father of lies, betrayer of hope. I think there was one other that I didn't get noted down.

[01:05:32] But it was just neat. I sort of expected that this whoever this guy was that I didn't expect to see him in the first episode of the season. I thought it might be some time until we figure out if he's sort of reappeared or not.

[01:05:47] And so that was I guess just interesting to see a little bit of it. And I still I'm not really clear on like, is he a real person? Is he a shadow of a person that's being projected and his real,

[01:06:00] you know, soul or embodiment is trapped away somewhere? Is this house there in real? Or is it something he sort of conjured up in the imagination of all his sort of crew of people? I have a lot of questions about all of that.

[01:06:18] But I'm I'm interested to know more. And so I'm sort of glad they showed some of it. Yeah, absolutely. I I'm all about that as well. And all of those things, not all. I I did not go through with a second watch to identify each of the things.

[01:06:37] But as as you mentioned them, I like remember seeing like the long claws and and whatnot. That was the one thing that stuck out to me. I also remember seeing the ring. So I think what we are having indicated is that the.

[01:06:57] I'm assuming that at some point or another, we will find a we'll find some sort of culture that has the long the long nails. So hey, it's someone from this particular country or, you know, whatever or wherever or this culture.

[01:07:18] And then, hey, there's a she and area in there. And there is an S.S.I. there. So there can be a S.S.I. who are, in fact, dark friends. And then we saw Pat and Fane who, you know, giving this little girl

[01:07:36] like basically the creepiest stare and smile you can get. One of the other things that I did like about this, because this is my third point as well. One of the other things I did like about this was that.

[01:07:52] Was what Ishmael was saying and what is my saying was, hey, what really defines what a monster is? Is it good? Is it evil? Is it, you know, serving in their own interests? Like I am called the the betrayer of hope. OK. But upon rewatching season one,

[01:08:12] or at least what I was able to, you know, the when you go back and watch where Rand and Matt are assaulted by the the dark friend and Breen spring. That's what it was called. You know, she talks about breaking the wheel and making people not suffer anymore.

[01:08:31] And is that really the worst thing in the world? Like we are we were we were at the peak of our civilization and then somebody did something stupid and through the rest of the world into either chaos or death and and caused a ton of suffering.

[01:08:55] Like I can I can objectively appreciate that viewpoint, the viewpoint of, you know, we we've we've got all of these people like these. Hey, the S.I. They all serve their own cause. They're not they're not they're not any better than anybody else.

[01:09:17] They just happen to have been born with this power. They weren't chosen by the light. They it's luck of the draw and their luck was that they received power and my luck was that I was born into dirt.

[01:09:32] And, you know, it's not fair and it's a bunch of crap. And we should just break the wheel and start over. And I can't necessarily I can't necessarily disagree with that depending on your viewpoint. I can I mean, I can disagree,

[01:09:49] but I can't necessarily see the merit in that argument. But yeah, he the the you know, he seemed actually quite fond of of the Trollix. Yeah, if almost like that. Yeah, exactly. And I I really did like the the the fact that

[01:10:13] one of the one of the people at the table had a child that they were willing to bring to this meeting of this council who it seems like Ishmael was pretty important. Some of some of the some of the things that I'm just going to pull out

[01:10:29] that made me made me kind of gave me a tingle up my back. Was he said he mentioned the other Forsaken, which in subtitles was capitalized. And then he referred to them as the chosen and and I it makes me happy

[01:10:55] that they are going to those places and you guys have you have no idea what I'm talking about. But no, I am really, really looking for I like I like the the I like it when when shows do that where they give you

[01:11:10] the villain's point of view or the point of view of where hey, you can see a little bit and Robert Jordan in the books did that a lot where it would be a there is there's a meaning similar to this where you like the character that you're

[01:11:27] that you're following has no idea who anybody else is and they can't see their faces and they're all hidden by whatever. You can see a ring he can he can see an ice that I ring. He can see a a cloak that has a talisman on it.

[01:11:44] He can see those, but he has zero concept of who they are. And so I think that this was intended to basically give that same type of, hey, we are revealing information to you without revealing information to you.

[01:12:01] And I thought it was really, really, I thought I liked it. I thought it was well done. Yeah, totally, totally. They also I noticed when they were at the table, I mean, they do reference Rand specifically and say he is

[01:12:16] the dragon reborn to be, although he is not the dragon reborn yet. Which I thought was an interesting phrasing of it. And I still like. Again, as a non book reader, like I still am like, is he really the dragon reborn? Do we really know that for sure?

[01:12:40] You know, I still and like your book reader, so I'm probably like a total idiot and I'm probably totally wrong. But I'm still the if I was guessing, I think the dragon is split.

[01:12:54] Like I think it's there's a little bit of the dragon in all five of our heroes. And that's not a bad theory. And I don't know that for sure. I don't know one way or another. I don't remember what men specifically told him.

[01:13:09] In Faldara in episode, I believe it was nine or seven. Well, the second or last one. The match in the shin. The black wind in the ways specifically said you are the dragon reborn. Now, again, as you said, like I don't know if it's necessarily split

[01:13:29] or something like that. But truthful is the wind because it felt as though the wind was telling everyone the things that they didn't want to hear. But was it necessarily true? Or was it repeating back your own darkest fears to you? Oh, you know what?

[01:13:46] That's a good point. And I don't I don't. And so that's why like I feel like there have been several things that like keep pointing towards that. That's the thing. But like I didn't even feel like what's her name? Min Ming.

[01:14:01] The person is she's the one that could like see a little bit of the future. Like I didn't know how conclusive her what she said to him really was. And even what she saw, like she saw him holding a baby.

[01:14:16] And we did see him hold a baby, but that didn't really happen. And so how affected are her visions by reality versus, you know, what happened to him and sort of the dream world? Like I just I still don't feel like

[01:14:33] I've been fully convinced that he is the dragon reborn for sure, for sure. I mean, to be to be fair, like if it was Ishmael, if it was the dark one, whomever at the end of of the finale. Our last season's finale, like he was pretty convinced.

[01:14:52] So I think we've gotten confirmation. But I am also going to bring up the fact that we have yet another what we call false dragons. But of course the red odd, I call all we call all they call all people who call themselves dragons, false dragons.

[01:15:12] So yeah, another one in Saudi, I believe. So we're getting more countries. So we've got so Bael Domen was told to sail back to to Iliyan. We've gotten Saudi, which were the new dragon reborn or the new false dragon is. We had Geldan where the.

[01:15:37] Where the were Logan conquered. We have Karhain, I believe is where. They can't remember if that was on the rewatch or in this episode that someone mentioned Karhain. I think I think Maureen might have mentioned it this episode talking to Domen and then.

[01:16:03] Hamelin, the lion and or and or the lion throne of Andor. That was what the Stone of Tear, which is I think Tear is another country and or is another country. So we're getting we're getting more places

[01:16:17] in kind of filling out more of the world, even if they aren't there, they're building it in our minds, if not in, you know, in actual sight. I think what this is a good reminder for me that Amazon has a map

[01:16:33] and I need to go look at the map because I do not remember any of these names and have no real like picture of the geography in my head. But I did watch one or two of the little like

[01:16:49] oh, you should totally what you should watch all of those. They're great. I love them. The first one that explained the breaking of the world, like I actually like I watched it right after watching the finale and I actually was probably just feeling emotional.

[01:17:03] And so I teared up a little bit just because I think it really did like exemplify for me a little more like how serious this was, how like tragic it was. And it explained a bit more about why people like Leandrin is her name.

[01:17:25] They the extreme animosity she has towards men who try to use the source because when you really understand that history of what was destroyed, I think you can understand a little more kind of that passion of hatred and anger and drive to not allow

[01:17:45] that sort of destruction to happen again. And so it really put things in place for me. So if I can just sidebar on that specifically right now in the middle like throughout the world, we have all sorts of infrastructure. Right? We have roads.

[01:18:09] We have houses. We have power lines. We have all of the things. Right? Right. Imagine that someone basically and this is, you know, I'm going to try to mix a little bit of science and was able to take a portion of the Earth's core

[01:18:32] and pull it through all of the layers of earth and pull it, you know, basically pull that however hot, I say magma, but I mean, we're talking even more hot than that. Right? The Earth's core and just pull it straight out into the middle of Kansas.

[01:18:56] OK, so that is now solidified, right? Now we have basically like a mountain peak or whatever in the middle of Kansas. And imagine the damage that would do to all the tectonic plates and how everything would shift. I mean, what happened to Fukushima when Fukushima Fukushima

[01:19:15] when we had an earthquake there? Like stuff went really, really bad. And that was an earthquake. This would be shifting tectonic plates around the world. It would literally re it would literally change the face of the world. And all of the power plants, all of the, you know,

[01:19:39] all of the electric, the power lines, all everything would shift and fall and, you know, and damage and kill and all. So that. That would throw us back into the dark ages. No more internet, no more. No more roads like all the roads are all ripped up.

[01:20:02] We have bridges. How many bridges do we have in the US alone? And now we have, you probably have land masses in the middle of the Atlantic and Pacific and even the, you know, maybe now we've got oceans in the Arctic.

[01:20:18] And now maybe the poles shift for whatever reason. Like this is a not just a huge deal, but just to put it on an earth level. Like it is a global event that completely screws everything. So like, yeah, I mean, if you guys haven't seen the

[01:20:41] the the shorts that came out with every episode last last season, like watch them because they are there was a good one about the White Tower. Oh, I do want to mention one of the thing regarding the White Tower.

[01:20:55] Sherriam mentions that the the tower used to be full, like these be full every room used to be full. And now she didn't say how many rooms, how many beds or rooms were empty, but like they are very, very depleted.

[01:21:12] And so the the Isidae numbers have drastically fallen just in her lifetime. So that's that's that's significant. And and you know, if they are looking to fight the dark one and fight the last battle, then they are woefully unprepared for that.

[01:21:36] Totally. I'll say that was my third point was all of that stuff. Do you have any notes? I think that is, you know, most of everything I got. I did. I think we already touched us on Alana and I think she was pretty cool.

[01:21:59] I really enjoyed the the funny misunderstanding when Iguan went to her for advice on you think that was a misunderstanding. Or did she do it? I think she did it on purpose. I think maybe a little bit on purpose. I just loved everything about it.

[01:22:14] I loved how relaxed and comfortable with herself. Alana is and how uncomfortable Iguan is like Iguan even trying to like sit down and be comfortable in the room. And she like still had her back straight and is very like looks very, very uncomfortable.

[01:22:32] And I just really enjoyed the juxtaposition of those two characters. And I really liked the way the advice Alana left her with, which is nothing worthwhile is neat and tidy. I thought that was very, very good advice. And yeah, I just enjoyed Alana's character

[01:22:53] and her interactions with our other main characters. I was wondering if Alana was actually going to say, when she said focus on your own pleasure and you know, the rest will come. I was wondering if when Iguan like pointed out that

[01:23:12] oh, I was talking about the weaves and this I was wondering if she was going to be like, yeah, so was I. I actually I thought she might have to because I felt like it could just still honestly fit as advice for either scenario

[01:23:28] of whether you were taking a second lover or just trying to tap the one source. Yeah, take take two two two threads or two weaves or two men. Yeah, I get it. I feel like it could have gone either way.

[01:23:47] Okay, so I will go ahead and just I only got a couple of notes that we haven't talked about. I really liked so one of the differences from book to and I may have mentioned already, but I know last season

[01:24:05] I mentioned that I thought that the rings were super clunky and like the Iced out rings were super clunky. And I mean, sure, it makes it very apparent, but wearing a giant ball on your like above your your your hand is I just feel like it's cumbersome.

[01:24:22] And if you are, you know, one of the most powerful groups in the world, you figure out a less clunky way or a more majestic way to to display it. But one of but what the what in the in the book,

[01:24:38] what the ring is is a dragon eating its own tail, which is what you saw. And what is also instead of the weaving of the tapestry, the loom in the opening, all they had was the the ring and just the wheel of time.

[01:24:55] OK, the or a Boris, I believe is what's called in our world. It's a serpent eating its own tail. And that was what that's what the red the rings are in the book. So it's very distinct, but not nearly as I'll say stupid looking.

[01:25:14] Hey, maybe it was like cool and in fashion when the I said I first came around and they've just stuck with their tradition. Hey, fair fair enough. You know, I did think that the the visuals were stunning. I mean, I know you mentioned the CGI

[01:25:32] was you know, you were a little distracted the first couple episodes. But I mean, I I thought that all of the the scenery they could have done a lot of that on on location. Maybe not some of the beautiful, you know, far off views, but

[01:25:48] now that whoever's whoever's working that art, keep it up. I thought it looked really good. Yeah. Did we mention the five threads of the spirit? Yeah, yeah, you did. You did. So earth, water, fire, spirit and air. And so those are the different types.

[01:26:09] This is really the first look we've gotten, or at least I remember. Maybe I missed it. But in season one, like, I don't know if we learned much about this source other than like there were touches here and there. But this felt like I don't know.

[01:26:25] There were parts of this episode that felt like we were a Hogwarts right and very much so. Yeah. Learning at the novice level, which is what what they are. And gave us as the viewer. Yeah, that's actually a pretty good.

[01:26:41] I think that's an effective, you know, revelation tool to the viewer. It's like when you kind of have someone come in and they've never met any of these people, so now you have to have them introduced. And oh, all right. Obviously, it thought it was like I did.

[01:26:59] I thought it was a little bit silly that I felt like that question like what are the five? Whatever, you know, you almost expect her to go. All right, five points to whatever, you know, house because you got the answer.

[01:27:13] But like it seems like she seemed like a really basic question. Like that's it wasn't like she was she was asking, you know, how many threads are in this particular weave or whatever. It was like. I mean, basically say, hey, what are the states of matter?

[01:27:31] So OK, solid liquid gas. Very good. Probably not the question you're asking your students when you've been studying it for five months. Right, exactly. But I appreciated it as a viewer that allowed me to get the insight a little bit more.

[01:27:48] Only because only because I am like this is at this point, it's kind of second nature for me to understand those things. Like I'm like, OK, that was maybe a little dumb down. But we have all been weaving in our basements for the last 10 years, Greg.

[01:28:05] So what are you talking about? Twenty five. I've been reading these books since 1995. So that's only 10 years ago. I don't know what you're talking about. All right. Yep. Nope. That was nothing else there. Yep. I did like Doman, you know, Maureen got the better of him.

[01:28:31] And then he was like, you know what serves me right for you know, thinking I could get one over on somebody. I was like, hey, I like you. I like you guy. Yeah, I appreciate it. I thought Maureen was smart about it.

[01:28:43] She sort of tricked him, but then complimented him by saying I tricked you in a way that you trick people so, you know, like forced him to feel like, oh, well, she was smart, but only because she did it the way I would have.

[01:28:58] And all right, I have to give it to her. Right. That was pretty good. Yeah. The. So we've got new Matt who, I'll be honest, I kind of got used to old Matt. Like I thought that old Matt was did a pretty good job last season.

[01:29:17] So we'll see how I. You know, how we didn't get much of a new Matt this time. So I'm looking forward to getting more of new Matt. Well, this is Shawshank Redemption Matt. What do you mean? Because he's spooning his way out of the.

[01:29:35] Oh, yeah. No, that was actually like. I totally forgot about that. That's an awesome point. I did. I was like, oh, I saw that. And I was, oh, that's so mad. It seems appropriate. Yeah, I was like, oh man, that's that's super smart.

[01:29:51] He's just like, I actually use funny. You say Shawshank. I was like, what's he gonna? Like, I don't think he goes around any yards or anything. You can't like release the rubble out of his pants. But. OK, yeah, that's that I have. I have no more notes and.

[01:30:11] So do you have anything else to talk about? That is it. I'm poured out all my heart. All right, and I appreciate it. Thank you very much for your time and your effort and your your observations, because some of them absolutely helped me

[01:30:29] in the next like said in the next couple of episodes, we will address some more news and I will work to get a listener feedback. And we love to hear from you guys and we'll put the post up on Facebook at this point. That's our show.

[01:30:48] If if you'd like to write in or record a message, we're going to put a Facebook post up on on facebook.com slash podcastica. If you'd like to. You know, record a message and send it in.

[01:31:01] You can go ahead and send that to talk at podcast to go.com or go to podcast to go.com and go to go to the Wheel of Time thing and you can actually record a message right there. Yeah. And other podcasts right now,

[01:31:19] like the Jason and Randy and Jenny just wrapped up White Lotus. I still need to watch the finale. I meant to send in feedback, but I just haven't watched it yet. And I think they're going to go straight into season two. So yeah, I'm excited.

[01:31:34] You got to finish. It's so good. And I know Run For Your Lives just did, I think, the allocator. What have you been listening to? I just listened to the first half of Lucy and Jason on the cast of us covering their favorite things about Darryl Dixon

[01:31:57] because they're gearing up to cover the Darryl Dixon show that is dropping this month. So I'm looking forward to that. Yes, I just don't I just don't know. The I think with walking the proper ending, I just

[01:32:13] it's not that I'd not it's not that I won't watch it. It's not that I'm not into it. I know I watched Dead City. I watched Dead City and I was just like, OK, I mean, it's a it's a story.

[01:32:23] I'm not as invested in those characters or anything like that. I'm interested to see what happens. I, yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the preview. So I'm interested to see what they do with it, but it's definitely out there.

[01:32:44] Darryl Dixon washing up in France is not something I would have predicted would be coming, you know, 15 years or so after. What is it? 13 years, I guess, after we first met him and didn't anticipate he would head off to France. But it'll be interesting.

[01:33:02] Yeah, I mean, we'll see how it goes. But next time on this podcast, we'll a time season two, episode two, Strangers and Friends. That's our show. We appreciate you guys listening and look forward to hearing from you guys. Let the dragon ride again on the winds of time.

[01:33:23] Thanks for listening.