S1E5: "Blood Calls Blood" - w/Book Spoilers

Cahalan Sothron

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Calling Egwene "unbreakable" when she can create cuendillar: perfect. Calling her "unbreakable" in light of what happens during the Last Battle: ugly tears.
 
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I think the amazing thing about this show is how each episode steps up from the previous. Really, this was fantastic.

I’m not sure how I feel about them changing Caemlyn for Tar Valon, (in all honesty, if they already needed a city, why not build Caemlyn instead?), but they did nailed the events of the book - the procession, Logain’s laughter at seeing Rand, Loial, etc.).

The wolf attack was EPIC! Loved that part so much!

And that goddamn Fain whistle!

I LOVED how they portrayed Loial! So much like the books!
In general, there were a few things there that were straight out of the books (Blood and Ashes!), and you finally really feel this is Randland and not a generic fantasy world.

This episode also had so much foreshadowing!
And it was all about the Warder Bond. More foreshadowing for the future.

But like all other episodes, there are things they do very well, and things they don’t do well at all.
Loial isn’t big enough I think. They clearly tried to play with camera angles to make him look taller, but that only worked for some scenes. In others he was clearly not tall enough.
Lan - this episode kind of ruined Lan for me. Where is the stone face we know and love? He was perfect for most of the episode, but that last scene ruined the effect :(

I’m very interested to see how they will correct the storyline from here. It’s too early to heal Mat, so maybe the dagger will be stolen in Tar Valon? And the whole attack will be in Tar Valon instead of Fal Dara?
I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see of course. Show still somehow goes the same route but differently.
 
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Oh, and also - the Loial finding Nyneave scene was way out of the blue. Clearly there was a scene there left on the editing room floor or it was never shot due to budget reasons, which is unfortunate.
That edit was really poor and came out of nowhere.
 

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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I’ll be really sad if they take out Elaida. She’s one of my favorite characters in the series.
 

Xylianna Paladina

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Wow what a wild ride!

I guess the show is not even pretending Whitecloaks are anything but pure evil. Those scenes were hard to watch, but I loved the way Egwene got them out of it, and Goldeneyes! Egwene taking the "ring collection" was a nice touch

Agree with the sentiment that Loial does not look as I expected (where are the big twitching ears lol) but love him anyway!
 
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Loial was the best thing in this episode. And I also agree with the previous statements; he was not as I expected, but definitely not bad. Personality-wise 100% Loial. The small statues of the forsaken was a cool detail.

Also Moiraine and Liandrin? What was that gesture really???
 

Cahalan Sothron

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If I'm honest, I didn't care for how the Tower itself looked internally. I always imagined it very...expansive, I guess. Wide, bright hallways that looked less fortress-like on the inside.

Overall, outside of Egwene and Perrin, this was probably my least favorite episode so far.
 

Veluene al'Myr

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I am so in love with that episode. Only had one watch through so definitely will be doing a repeat in the coming days. It made me realised I never actually teared up in GoT, but here, by episode 5 I'm crying over characters I had just recently met because this show has actual heart and tugs on those emotional strings which I absolutely adore. It makes me care and become invested in the characters.

I really hope Elaida does make an appearance sometime however, as I did like to dislike her. To be completely honest I liked her enough to name some mmorpg characters after her haha I may love the bad ones.

Absolutely loved Loial, his hands and voice... so soothing and comforting. Perfection.

Also, if Moiraine and Liandrin did have a past I so want to read about. Give me a lovers to enemies story any day! (Or the other way around...either works as long as there is angst lol)
 

Catt Heckathorne

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Lan - this episode kind of ruined Lan for me. Where is the stone face we know and love? He was perfect for most of the episode, but that last scene ruined the effect :(

So in anthropology, if you study mourning traditions (*waves*) there are very specifically certain types of mourning ceremonies that are meant to release emotion. In some cases it's the only time you're socially and culturally expected to release raw emotion.

The whole funeral scene for Stepin screamed that. It seemed that the Warder leader chooses the one who finds the body of a downed Warder to release that emotion. It also seemed to be a ceremony really specifically linked to a suicide after losing one's Sedai.
 
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I am so in love with that episode. Only had one watch through so definitely will be doing a repeat in the coming days. It made me realised I never actually teared up in GoT, but here, by episode 5 I'm crying over characters I had just recently met because this show has actual heart and tugs on those emotional strings which I absolutely adore. It makes me care and become invested in the characters.

I really hope Elaida does make an appearance sometime however, as I did like to dislike her. To be completely honest I liked her enough to name some mmorpg characters after her haha I may love the bad ones.

Absolutely loved Loial, his hands and voice... so soothing and comforting. Perfection.

Also, if Moiraine and Liandrin did have a past I so want to read about. Give me a lovers to enemies story any day! (Or the other way around...either works as long as there is angst lol)

I don’t know. The rooms were VERY expansive. And for the rest, we only saw like two corridors.
I imagined the corridors much larger too, and the rooms actually smaller, but it actually makes more sense this way.
 
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So in anthropology, if you study mourning traditions (*waves*) there are very specifically certain types of mourning ceremonies that are meant to release emotion. In some cases it's the only time you're socially and culturally expected to release raw emotion.

The whole funeral scene for Stepin screamed that. It seemed that the Warder leader chooses the one who finds the body of a downed Warder to release that emotion. It also seemed to be a ceremony really specifically linked to a suicide after losing one's Sedai.

Not arguing with that, it’s just very different than the way he is in the books. And I think it changes his character considerably…
Bothered me, is all.
Though to be fair to the show, he was a bit different since episode 1 with the “it could be warmer” scene, so I guess it does track with his show personality.
I prefer the rock-solid Lan.
 

Jahily al'Karee

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So in anthropology, if you study mourning traditions (*waves*) there are very specifically certain types of mourning ceremonies that are meant to release emotion. In some cases it's the only time you're socially and culturally expected to release raw emotion.

The whole funeral scene for Stepin screamed that.

If you watch the behind the scenes for this episode, they talked a bit about this - the research into different cultures’ funeral traditions and why they made the various choices they did - for this scene and the funeral scene at the beginning.
 
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I read Liandrin's touching of Moiraine's face and hair to be a power move, kind of the way you sometimes see between men in a corporate setting when the ladder-climber steps up to a rival and while talking to them also takes initiative to brush off their jacket or straighten their tie for them. Kind of a passive-aggressive move to establish superiority, whether it works or not.
 

Alyria Ess

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It sounded like during this type of mourning ceremony, someone is chosen to lead the release of energy, I'm assuming someone close to the deceased.

Alright, I'm going to start with my complaints because why not.

I don't like the way the Tower looks on the outside, but not enough to fuss over. I don't like the way Loial looks, but again, meh. I thought everything with Stepin took way to long and it didn't mesh with the fast paced scenes with Perrin and Egwene. It kept taking me out of the moment. That's not great writing, folks. Sew it up. I really thought Rand would be more shocked to see Nynaeve - like he thought she was dead and also how did you get here? That needed a skosh more attention. I would have liked her to have taken a step back and said, thank you Loial it was nice to meet you (because she would have been what-the-helling when an Ogier came and fetched her...I mean...this seems like a big gap to me.) I get that she's hyped to see Rand and Mat but c'mon.

Good stuff:

Allll the Perrin and Egwene scenes. I love Egwene, that's all. Just love. She's a star. The scene with the White Cloaks "cleaning" her was disgusting and I could barely watch, but it was a fantastic illustration of just how awful the White Cloaks are and how they'll use the flimsiest excuse to torture people. Oooohhh the scene where Egwene tries to touch the source and there's that one just tiny bit of expression that channeling the power is euphoric. Madeleine Madden is amazing.

I like that's they're sending everyone to Tar Valon instead of to TV and Caemlyn and TV again and then out again - this makes more sense and takes nothing away. I love that they thought of the bit from the books to have Rand and Mat sitting on the balcony edge watching the false dragon parade. Nice little nod.

All the scene between Moiraine and Lan where they don't speak <3

Gaaaaayyyy talking about same sex sex is just normal how you do. Fantastic.

Other stuff:

So that conversation between Alanna and Moiraine was to say that Moiraine is considering not being bonded to Lan? That's what I thought but I was like, shew I don't know. If so then I would like to see it revealed more about her ~cause~ and how she accepts it's pretty much a deathwish and how she doesn't want Lan to have to go through her dying. I hope we get a lot of Alanna. I do think that Liandrin and Elaida will be merged, and I'm fine with that. And yeah she is super creepy. For someone who doesn't like men she sure gives off a real strong "weird guy in bar that keeps hitting on you" vibe.

I want to go back and take a closer look at the Forsaken statuettes. I definitely could see a busty gal, and I am assuming that's Graendal. And I think I saw Semirhage? I sure hope so, because the whole doctor turned torturer thing is scary and I like it.
 

Ty al'Djinn

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I read Liandrin's touching of Moiraine's face and hair to be a power move, kind of the way you sometimes see between men in a corporate setting when the ladder-climber steps up to a rival and while talking to them also takes initiative to brush off their jacket or straighten their tie for them. Kind of a passive-aggressive move to establish superiority, whether it works or not.

This is also how I read it.
 

Azlan Marenellin

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I missed Fain... I need to re-watch.

I honestly didn't have any complaints about this episode. It depicts an aspect of Aes Sedai / Gaidin society that is never addressed in the books, and I found it quite appropriate that Lan, clearly being a close friend with Stepin, was asked to be emotional. It struck me as especially poignant since it's clear most of the Warders were more emotive than Lan by a big margin. It also shows that he feels as deeply as anyone, but chooses to close his emotions off. It's explained in New Spring, but it's hard to explore internal monologue on TV.

The skipping of Caemlyn in favour of Tar Valon was fine IMHO. I LOVED the Tuatha'an and their non-violent protest. Amazing. I loved that Aram chose to risk himself to get Eggy and Perrin away, and perhaps was seriously hurt in the process. A little more foreshadowing.

I loved the procession. I got the impression the Logain laughing scene was Mat's corruption/paranoia rather than Logain actually reacting, since the next scene shows him in exactly the same limp, dejected position as he was before.

Loial was not as I expected, but his appearance grew on me. I agree the Nynaeve scene needed an interceding scene showing Loial finding her in a garden or such.

I hope Liandrin and Elaida get merged. It compresses the whole Broken Tower arc.

I'm enjoying the Alanna x Moiraine and Liandrin x Moiraine tensions, and the near secret friendship between Siuan and Moiraine.

Like, this whole episode is just amazing. I still need to collect my thoughts.... my disorganized drivel surely demonstrates that haha.
 

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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Yeah, I never saw Fain at all.
 
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