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esterzach · 6 months

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The price of the small pleasures

Alanna's character feels like a needed contrast that helps shape the perception of Moiraine's character. There is this whole episode where it's all about family and home. Alanna comes back home with a huge family, the kids are having fun, laughing, and playing with her Warders, it's warm, sunny, and cozy, a beautiful nature around, with lots of food as usual. Alanna is open, speaking with everyone, and making jokes. Life is good and people seem happy. Alanna is never alone and it looks like she is often home, where she is accepted and loved. And then there is Moiraine. Oh, boy... It's almost hilarious if it wasn't so fucking depressing.

This one comes back to her huge house, dark and gloomy even during the day, and revisits her memories, but it doesn't seem happy. It looks like a museum of someone long dead. Her things are covered, someone is keeping her room, all her things, but she is never home. She barely says two words to her sister and immediately they have a fight. And I get it - Moiraine is not exactly pleasant in her behaviour, even though she has her reasons. But she refuses tea. TEA! Alanna is cooking, having full meals, and enjoying life, and Moiraine refuses even that small pleasure. And tea is one of the few things Moiraine loves. It's almost as if she deprives herself of every pleasure. And it's not like she can't spend 20 minutes with her sister and say at least a few nice words.

Moiraine doesn't eat. They make a point with that one. We never see her eat. Lan eats, Nynaeve eats, Alanna( almost all the time - she is green, after all), her warders, Lan, Thomas, Verin, and Adeleas is all about LET ME enjoy my meal and wine ( half of the time she is completely out and doesn't know what happens around her and the rest of the time she is horny (now that is not exactly true, but that is for later). Perin even eats. Egwene drinks with Elayne. Everyone at some point is shown to eat. Never Moiraine.

Food is not just necessary for survival. Food is also a pleasure. It should be a pleasure if done correctly. Meals also mean connection with other people. If and when Moiraine ever eats, she eats alone. She refuses to join the others in Verin's house, her sister, and she refuses the sandwiches of her nephew. They make yet another point of showing how isolated she is, even from people, who genuinely care about her.

The first time her sister is actually nice to her, her first reaction is to get defensive and snarky and, after a couple more words, Moiraine literally crumbles and starts to cry. This is the first time in months, after The Eye she shows emotion in front of someone. And it's almost forced, she is exhausted, and hasn't slept in... a while and someone basically reads her and finds exactly her weakness and confronts her about it. That is just for a moment and she composes herself immediately. Seconds later she gets help and she shows emotion again. It sort of seems like showing vulnerability and weakness, and asking for help is something that she has no right to do, or... I don't know.

The one time we saw her doing some for her own pleasure was Tar Valon. The tea and the spa. And Siuan. And this was it. Now it sort of feels like she is avoiding that on purpose. Either she thinks she doesn't deserve it or thinks that this is a distraction.

Her baths in Verin's house are more self-punishment than pleasure. She doesn't have to carry water alone, but she does it anyway. And something tells me that this well is probably not the only one around that house. Both women are Aes Sedai, which means they can use The One Power for ... a lot of things. They have a garden and a bunch of flowers in the house, that look pretty fresh and green for the Mediterranean climate, considering the grass around is dry. Usually, every house has a well or some source of water close by. Yet, milady goes to a well, that is so far from the house, that is practically useless. Good luck bringing enough water from there for all the needs in this house, but anyway. Even with nothing to carry, in this heat, a walk like that is, to put it mildly very unpleasant. With something that heavy to carry up that hill... I don't know.

The other thing is - small pleasures are distractions. The only time she actually sits in the company of the others in S2 is when they are on their way to Tar Valon. And that is because she doesn't have a choice. And something happens there, that I think she thinks is a mistake. A moment of distraction, a small weakness, that threatens to ruin her plan. She is having a conversation. That scene is brilliant! Subtle, well-written, and perfect and I watched it like probably 30 times so far but I was focused on the wrong thing. The night when Lan and Moiraine travel to Tar Valon, everyone is around the campfire. Moiraine is again standing at a distance, isolated from everyone else until Verin goes to her, reveals what she knows and basically tells her "You know what I am not promising anything, you just have to trust me." They cut to other things and when are back again Moiraine folds and decides to sit with them. What could go wrong? Adeleas is drunk again, floating on a pink cloud, imagining romantic stories, speaking of sex life, and trying to make Lan talk. She asks how Lan and Moiraine met. What follows in uncomfortable silence! None of them speaks, Lan seems uneasy, and Moiraine glares annoyed. She continues to avoid his eyes. Verin tries to help, by saying that it's late and they have to go to bed. Adeleas ignores her, in her drunken haze and blabbing some imagined overly sexualized story, which gets on Moiraine's nerves. She quickly interrupts Adeleas's idiotic monologue with the true story of their first meeting. Whether it is because she is already annoyed with Adeleas' behaviour toward Lan, or wants to save him from an uncomfortable moment, is irrelevant. Lan is surprised. Moiraine speaks! But what was meant to be just a way to make Adeleas shut up, turns into a sweet moment. Because this memory is precious for both of them. Lan smiles and joins the explanation, they look at each other, and she smiles too throughout the whole time she tells the story. It turns into a banter between two very close people. Bond, no Bond, at this moment it doesn't matter - they are in synch again. This is beyond sweet. They joke! hell, Moiraine jokes! This is what they look like. This is them. For one very small moment. Everyone laughs. And then, all of a sudden, with a serious voice, a laser-sharp focus, and a very sober-looking expression, Adeleas says her great line. "And that's when you knew. Any old Warder can save you from Trollocks, that right one can save you from yourself." Adeleas wasn't drunk at all. You can pretend to be drunk when you are sober, you can't act sober when you are drunk. It was a setup for Moiraine, to open up, to speak, and she knew exactly how to make her drop her defenses and finally speak to him. An attempt to make her get close to Lan again maybe? Lan was happy for sure. Moiraine though... is on the verge of tears.

She knows what her goal is with him. She knows what the plan is and that little moment was a failure. The small pleasure of this moment would probably cost her. In order for her plan to work, she has to be awful to Lan. One small distraction, and she falls back into her normal self. A tiny moment of happiness, a shared memory, and the old, cold, and sour Aes Sedai is a normal woman with feelings. The danger - Lan sees through her and never wants to leave her side which eventually will lead to his death. That's how much a moment of weakness might cost.

#wheel of time #moiraine damodred #lan mandragoran #wot #S2

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butterflydm · 2 months

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Kinda jumping off a discussion I was having with @markantonys and @sixth-light the other day, I am really feeling excited about potentially bringing in most/all of the rest of our endgame love interests next season because I think they'll pretty much all benefit with the jump from book to screen.

(contains some book spoilers through Knife of Dreams)

I really enjoy a lot of the choices that the show has made so far, and I think they've done a lot of good set-up for the romances as well. To start with the characters who are locked in already, I really loved that Rand's three love interests all got to spend some extended time with (at least) one of his friends in season 2. Elayne being close with Egwene and Nynaeve is book canon, of course, but I like that the show essentially did that with Aviendha & Min too -- Perrin and Aviendha were so funny together, Mat and Min were also funny but had some great depth and angst. We got to see all three of them shine as individual characters before we got into any romance elements.

Especially with Min, I really loved the choice for them to take Min's self-reported past struggles with her ability and make it a current thing for her. It gives Min an active emotional storyline that is about herself and not centered around Rand, which is a big plus for me.

For next season, it's fairly well confirmed that we're getting Faile, and I think the show is set up to do really well with her:

a. the fact that we're not getting Perrin's internal narration will do so much to combat the 'constantly possessive and jealous' vibe that she often has in the books, because she frequently does not act on it but is just feeling something and if Perrin didn't basically have telepathy, no one would know.

b. Perrin's previous marriage provides a good reason for his relationship with Faile to be much more of a slow burn than it was in the books, and also provide background on why he'll be over-protective of her without falling into Jordan's "Women Are Precious Frail Flowers" trap (which Jordan did realize was a flaw in his writing -- we see him trying to interrogate it over the course of the series. But sometimes he would fall into the trap anyway).

c. And Faile and Perrin's relationship being more of a slow-burn would also make Berelain be a less ridiculous character (if they choose to still have her & her pursuit of Perrin). I'm also fond of the (from reddit!) speculation that maybe Berelain will be Graendal in disguise, which would have the potential of working really well to bring Graendal in sooner and give Perrin a proper Forsaken nemesis.

We are likely to get Gawyn, and if he's our main PoV for split in the White Tower, rather than it being Min (who is going to be in the Tanchico storyline with Mat, if that leak from a couple of weeks ago is true), then the audience will be more inclined towards being sympathetic towards him. We're also not likely to have the huge slow-down in pacing that happened in the second half of the book series, so it won't feel like Gawyn is just marching in place for forever. He's definitely one of the characters who suffers the most from how slowly the plot moves in The Slog.

Less likely but still very possible (especially if the leak about Mat is true) is that we may meet Tuon next season, and the show has done so much to make Mat & Tuon more plausible as a romance, even before we get into anything like character development.

Partly in the difference in Mat's background, in his relationship with his parents, and also in the way his dynamics with characters like Liandrin and Ishamael were played out.

Plus the set-up for what the show is doing with damane & sul'dam is promising in terms of Tuon because the show has established that the sul'dam are very weak channelers (as opposed to being learners), which means that Tuon actively beginning to channel wouldn't be plot-breaking in terms of her capabilities and would just affect her on a narrative level, which makes that feel like a much more likely path for them to choose to go with her and which opens up some avenues for some genuine character growth from her, which would be an exciting change from the books.

And, on a more subjective note, I feel like Jordan really fell down on the writing of Mat and Tuon, especially in CoT & KoD, so basically anyone else taking them over is probably going to be an improvement for me.

The show also really established a strong personality for Mat off the bat, which is something that Jordan was pretty inconsistent about. 'Mat' doesn't really gel as an individual character until the third book when he gets a PoV; and then he changes in several ways between the end of Winter's Heart and the start of Crossroads of Twilight (which is only a week later); I think that 'Crossroads' Mat could have been plausible (if depressing) as a character if Jordan had actually worked up to him over the course of CoT & KoD rather than him abruptly becoming this New Slavery-Neutral "both sides are valid" Mat in-between books (in WH he has an actual ethical & visceral objection to slavery, while in CoT & KoD, he only seems to object to the idea of being personally enslaved and views it neutrally if other people are enslaved). But I've talked about all that before, lol, so I will just say that it feels like the show already knows who they want Mat to be and has taken a pretty bold stand on the subject (re: being a Hero of the Horn), so I don't think we'll see them dumping his brains and empathy overboard between seasons.

So, yeah, I know s3 is still filming, but I am already anticipating it so much!

#wot #wheel of time #wot on prime #wot book spoilers #wot s3 speculation #wot s3 spoilers #wot s3 leaks #knife of dreams

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markantonys · 3 months

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today's gawynposting topic is: the "gawyn wants to be a hero" fandom narrative

i think it is complete nonsense to believe he still holds this attitude by the second half of the series, and i will fight brandon sanderson himself on it. we all know that sanderson's characterizations should be taken with a grain of salt at best, and at worst dismissed as inaccurate contradictions of jordan's characterizations, and he simply missed the mark on this aspect of gawyn's character. (in my opinion he struggled with the 3 trakand siblings even more than he did with mat, but that's another topic.) and unfortunately, recency bias makes this the general fandom memory of gawyn, even though it contradicts what we saw of him under jordan's pen.

gawyn's actual arc in this regard is more nuanced. to me, he reads as a representation of a young man who's been fed patriotic idealizations of war ever since he was a kid, and maybe at first he's eager to get a taste of real war, but when he actually does, he's given a brutal and immediate awakening as to the true horrors of war. it is nothing like it was told to him growing up, and he doesn't want anything to do with it anymore, but he's already signed up for it and so he has no choice but to keep going.

and that brutal awakening happens aallll the way back in book 4, the tower coup:

Most frightening to Min, with that blood-masked face and half-glazed eyes, with his body tensed almost to quivering and his hand upflung as if he had forgotten it, he never raised his voice or put any emotion into it. He only sounded tired, more tired than she had ever heard anyone sound in her life.

“If anything happens to them,” he said in that expressionless voice, “to Egwene or my sister, I will find you, wherever you hide, and I will make sure the same happens to you.” Abruptly he stalked a dozen paces away and stood with his arms folded, head down as if he could not bear to look at them any longer.

here min is doing what she does best - completely misinterpreting other people's behavior - but to the observant reader, it's obvious that gawyn hasn't turned into some violent, emotionless psychopath all of a sudden. instead, he's incredibly traumatized by what's happened today and has shut down as a coping mechanism. in fact, his behavior here is very very very similar to trauma behavior rand frequently demonstrates. a later line in this scene even describes gawyn as "brittle, ready to shatter at the wrong blow", aka the same analogy used for rand's whole "hardness vs. strength" arc.

as of today, book FOUR, gawyn no longer has any delusions about battle and heroism and glory. for further evidence, let's take a look at some of his reactions to dumai's wells, this time from his own point of view:

Young, as indeed all the Younglings were—many did not need to shave beyond every third day, and a few still only pretended even that—but Jisao wore the silver tower on his collar, marking him a veteran of the fighting when Siuan Sanche was deposed, and scars beneath his clothes from fighting since. He was one of those who could skip the razor most mornings; his dark eyes belonged to a man thirty years older, though. What did his own eyes look like, Gawyn wondered.

the younglings as a whole are meant to represent young men - boys, really - getting indoctrinated with patriotic ideals to make them eager to join up, and ultimately ending up dead or traumatized beyond repair because of it. these are teenage soldiers being manipulated and used by adults & institutions for their own ends, and yet fandom treats them like they're psychopathic monsters who love to murder their own mentors. jordan literally chose to name them the YOUNGLINGS, guys, like, i think he was trying to say something here.

Once he would have felt regret; he had grown up believing that if two men must fight, the duel should proceed honorably and cleanly. More than half a year of battles and skirmishes had taught him better. He put a foot on the Aiel man’s chest and wrenched his blade free. Ungallant, but fast, and in battle, slow was often dead.

Turning his bay with a sigh, he rode back down to see what the butcher’s bill had been this time. That had been his first real lesson as a soldier. You always had to pay the butcher. He had a feeling there would be bigger bills due soon. The world would forget Dumai’s Wells in what was coming.

in both of these passages, we see very clearly that gawyn has long since lost the idealization of war he grew up with. he is very aware of the true cost of war, and the prospect of future battles fills him with grim resignation rather than eagerness at more chances for Glory. he knows by the ACOS prologue that there is no glory to be found in war, only death. but he keeps on going because he feels trapped out of any other path, and because he feels a responsibility to the younglings and to the white tower.

and so sanderson's TOM passage where gawyn muses about how maybe the reason he hates rand so much is because rand gets to be a hero the way gawyn wants to be - total bullshit. as of the coup and certainly as of dumai's wells, gawyn has been thoroughly disabused of any heroic notions and has no interest at all in being a hero or gaining glory. if we think that incorrectly blaming him for morgase's death isn't a good enough reason for gawyn to hate rand for so long, then i can definitely buy that he hates him because in his mind rand is responsible for overturning the world in a way that caused gawyn all this trauma and loss of innocence and that broke his family apart, but i cannot buy that he's jealous of rand for getting to be the big hero despite being a lowly peasant.

that being said, in AMOL gawyn's characterization is more or less back on track, and his stated reason for going after demandred is because it needs to be done for the good of the last battle and he considers himself someone unimportant who can be risked for the task*. the idea that his motive is Wanting To Be A Hero is a fandom invention caused by that wonky OOC scene in TOM which apparently dictated gawyn's entire characterization forever despite 12 previous books of him not being like that.

*on this note, i came across one more line from his ACOS prologue that broke my heart: the inscription on his spyglass from morgase

“From Morgase, Queen of Andor, to her beloved son, Gawyn. May he be a living sword for his sister and Andor.”

a sword for others' use. that's how gawyn sees himself, because his own mother (along with gareth bryne and many others, i'm sure) taught him to see himself that way ever since he was a child. is it any wonder that gawyn is so self-sacrificial in the last battle without stopping to consider how his death might harm others? a sword is only worth anything if it's useful, and no one mourns it if it gets broken in battle.

of course he knows egwene will be hurt by his death because of the bond, but at the same time, he so deeply thinks of himself as disposable and as a sword meant to protect people who are more important than him that when he is put into a situation where he can sacrifice himself for a chance of saving someone more important (activating the rings which will kill him for a chance of helping egwene escape the sharans; going after demandred for a chance of taking out the person doing the most damage to the light's army without needing to risk more important people in the attempt), he's going to take it. he's a LOT like lan and rand in that way, convinced their duty is to die to protect others, but lan and rand got to unlearn that and live, and gawyn never did. and i am tired of people writing him off as a character meant to embody "cautionary tale of a mediocre white man arrogantly assuming he's more capable than he is" because that is so completely not what his character is actually about, and what his character IS actually about is really fucking sad!

#every time i gawynpost somebody inevitably 'wElL ActUAlLy'-s me with the coldest stalest takes imaginable #thus obligating me to gawynpost again! there are neither beginnings nor endings etc #gawyn trakand #wot #wot book spoilers

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queenofmalkier · 7 months

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Queen Nynaeve is nowhere to be seen in the second of the season

Interestingly, the showrunners seem to be favoring Egwene by making her the hero in both season finales. However, I have high hopes for Nynaeve's character development in the next season, depending on how the writers handle her storyline. One thing that I don't enjoy about the books is the lack of Nynaeve's point of view in the later books and the disregard for her safety by her friends. Nynaeve is my favorite character, and it's disappointing to see her become an afterthought to move the plot forward at times in the book, so I am happy with the show expanding her storyline. With that being said, I was disappointed with the finale, but I do see a path forward in season 3 and future seasons. What are your thoughts on the lack of focus on Nynaeve in the second half of the season? What is your expectation for season 3 and future Lan and Nynaeve moments?

I love this ask because I have so many thoughts.

To start with, I have felt disappointment with Nynaeve in the show not being straight up BAMF. I want to see her get hulk!mad and blow stuff up! SHE ANGY!!! But when I take a step back from my violent need to see Nynaeve commit violence of all forms, I'm actually left pretty satisfied with what they've done so far?

Season 1 was about establishing everybody, including Nynaeve. We needed to see that she came from a position of power and respect in the Two Rivers despite her young age. People trusted her because of her knowledge, because she'd proved herself worthy of that trust.

As she's older in the show we don't see the outbursts she's known for in the books nor does she whack people with a stick, but that's too be expected. She's grown past feeling like an imposter as a wisdom - though she still feels the sting of it, as evidenced by how she interacts with Moiraine.

We see her do some incredible things, and then we see she's capable of wielding some truly awe-inspiring power.

Season 2 takes that Nynaeve and scares the hell out of her. I think Ishamael said it best - she's afraid of power. I have a whole schpeel on the arches that I want to do because I think that episode (mostly) hammered home that pure terror she has about wielding the one power, but that's for another day.

Contrary to the books, Nynaeve isn't treated as another novice. Instead these mythical, powerful women she does not trust are borderline obsessed with making her channel . They keep talking about her potential, about her gift, about what she'll do... but none of them is really talking about Nynaeve al'Meara doing those things. They're thinking about the woman they want her to become: Nynaeve Sedai.

They don't even ask what she wants.

The fact that she has a block and cannot control her power is explored more in the show than it is in the early books, in my opinion. Later books she breaks down and admits just how afraid she is, but instead we're getting that earlier - in the arches, she can't heal Tam, then later she explodes in the same rage she did in season one but nobody is healed, nobody is saved.

Close your eyes, think of a flower. We've seen Nynaeve react negatively to that statement more than once, and I think that's a really, really good way to demonstrate just how unlike the other Aes Sedai she is. "It doesn't work for me like that!"

It's heartbreaking to see, and it's why Liandrin is able to manipulate her, because she doesn't treat Nynaeve like everyone else, nor does she really put her on a pedestal. She challenges her, she shows her the possibilities, she tells her there's no one way to be an Aes Sedai. She makes Nynaeve feel seen. (Putting aside the stolen Siuan scenes.)

Ryma is also able to break through Nynaeve's fear because she approaches it on Nynaeve's level, from a place she'd understand. No flowers, no soft petals. Healing.

Without Ryma there she cannot heal Elayne's leg, and she's so hurt and upset that she can't, but she can still help. She still has all the knowledge of a Wisdom inside of her. It lessens the blow of being unable to channel through her fear.

As much as I want to see Nynaeve channeling like a beast, I'm enjoying watching her work her way through her fear in a way that will make her channeling later on feel earned.

I'm hoping in Season 3 that she acknowledges that fear, as well as her feelings of being a failure to those around her when that imposter syndrome comes back in full - and that she gets past it with the help of Egwene and Elayne, two women who see her for her, and not for the power she can wield.

In regards to Lan/Nynaeve if we don't get the ring scene in Season 3 I'm gonna be so upset lol. It's really difficult to judge where they're taking things from here - how's Tear going to fit in? The hunt for the Black Ajah? Are we staying together? My guess is the 'better together' theme of Season 2 is going to expand to Rand breaking up the gang again because of his own fears, but I really don't know and I'm trying not to overthink it.

#wheel of time #wheel of time tv series #wot prime spoilers #nynaeve al'meara #wheel of time book spoilers

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evilphrog · 8 months

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Watching Wheel of Time without reading the books: Season 2, episode 2

I am going to have to post this as half a review again. I had a lot of feelings, and I am never going to get around to watching the rest of the episodes if I don't just post what I have. I still haven't covered the Moiraine or Perrin plotlines, but believe me when I say I adore them also. You can read about the rest of them below.

We finally get to see what Rand has been up to all this time: having nightmares about hurting everyone he loves, and whoring himself out for room and board. It’s like he got separated from the group and immediately thought “What would Mat do in this situation?” He is also working as an orderly in a mental hospital. Ah yes, I see. He needs to prove the intrusive thoughts wrong, by being extra caring and kind. Someone should let him know that command hallucinations are not a predictor of violence on their own, and one of the best protective factors is having a robust support network that keeps you grounded in reality. In other words, he should be doing the opposite of what he has done. But that’s Rand. His head has never contained any thoughts except “Gee I sure love my friends and family” so it was the perfect place for Nancy Reagan to move right in. Just a big house with five bedrooms, cathedral ceilings, and only two cardboard boxes stuffed in one corner of the garage. The first was labeled “willingness to do anything for my loved ones” and the other was labeled “nuance.” The second box was empty. This will not go well for him.

He’s been caring for a man who survived the Aiel wars, and got some serious PTSD from it. He’s a sword master, and has been teaching Rand some proper forms. Too bad some absolute caricature of a douchebag working at the hospital likes to pick on him for no reason. Rand responds in the way every mental health worker witnessing an abusive staff member dreams of. He calms the patient, finishes out his shift, then follows him home and beats the shit out of him. But whoops, he underestimated his Manneler strength and maybe killed the guy instead. It’s hard to know for sure, since Rand has some major hallucinations going on most of the time. I feel for him here. In Rand’s mind, he was standing up to a bully as his equal. But Rand has no equals. He is quickly realizing that no fight involving him will ever be fair.

Douchebag fails to show up for work, so Rand gets promoted to the garden, where all the famous patients hang out. And his first patient of the day is Logain, the false dragon. Dun dun DUN!

Meanwhile, at the White Tower, Nynaeve is busy being wooed by an increasingly desperate JK Rowling. Unfortunately, her main selling points are gender supremacy and pre-crime. The fascism isn’t even thinly veiled, she just comes out and says it. Nynaeve isn’t interested. JK needs to change her sales pitch. To cope with the rejection, she goes and torments her pet Mat for a bit. He tolerates it, and as soon as she is gone, continues his Shawshank Redemption plan. He eventually succeeds in tunneling through his wall, only to discover another cell. At least this one comes with company in the form of Min, the psychic who bailed on the final battle. Once in the presence of another human, Mat’s charm immediately returns. Thank the Light. I like New Mat after all. He wants to know how Min ended up in Aes Sedai Jail (because she’s a girl), but Min has no clear answers for him. She does have wine, though, so now he has a drinking buddy. He offers to also be an orgasm buddy, but she has a vision of him stabbing Rand with the cursed dagger, which is a major lady boner killer. The rags and prison smell are probably also a factor.

A new girl has moved in to Novice school. Obnoxiously, with all her furniture blocking the hall. Egwene goes up to yell at her, and I get to meet Elayne, the girl everyone has been screaming about since the promo photos dropped. First impressions of Elayne: I want to hate her, but I just can’t. She is naive, but earnest. She’s very excited to be “just like everyone else” but can’t help mentioning that she’s the princess three times per conversation. I have to hand it to the actor. This character could very easily be played as condescending and out of touch. But instead, her sincerity bursts out of her with such force that I can’t help but like her. She latches onto Egwene like a lovestruck koala and never lets go. She propositions her in the first conversation, and says she hopes they become soulmates. Egwene is redheaded channeler catnip.

JK’s new sales pitch is apparently accidentally-on-purpose getting caught caring for her son, who is dying of old age. Or maybe it was a genuine accident. It is hard to tell with her. Nynaeve shows concern in the only way she can, by helpfully pointing out a mistake JK made, and telling her how to fix it. That earns her a slap in the face, which was pretty much what she expected, but JK does take her advice.

Meanwhile, Egwene figures out that Elayne is making up excuses to spend time with her. Good. She really needed this, because she has finally fallen into Gifted Kid burnout. She cries to Elayne about how Nynaeve gets all the praise without even trying, and meanwhile, she struggles to even get noticed. Elayne tells her jealousy isn’t a good look on her, in a voice that strongly implies she thinks nearly anything at all would be a good look on Egwene. I told Husband that Elayne is going to leave her morning whippings and run straight to Egwene to rub soothing lotion all over her. He said that’s actually canon.

Sadly, Nynaeve overheard this conversation. The thing that upset her wasn’t any kind of insult or character assassination. She is hurt that Egwene feels abandoned. She pretty clearly only joined Novice school so she could watch over Egwene and protect her. She is being harangued every day by the people she hates most, and now she’s being accused of ENJOYING it? Oh no! I hate miscommunication as a plot device, but I like this show’s spin on it. Another show might have Nynaeve walk away with the impression that Egwene has upgraded her best friend to the princess of the kingdom, and no longer needs the peasant from the two rivers. That was what I was worried would happen. But once again, the soul of the show is the way these five all love each other so much and know each other so well. I now have more hope that Mat isn’t as fooled by JK’s cursed dagger behavior as he is pretending.

JK interrupts Nynaeve’s angst to come extremely close to apologizing, and even closer to saying thank you. But her evil plan to force Nynaeve into an acceptance speedrun has already started, so there’s no turning back now. Nynaeve must walk through the arches and face her biggest fears, in order to become a full Jedi master Aes Sedai. Dun dun DUN!

Other episode reviews

#wot on prime #wot prime spoilers #wheel of time #episode review #nonreader #wot season 2 #evilphrog reviews

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blysse-and-blunder · 5 months

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in lieu of a rainy day

10pm, sunday, nov 26, 2023

went to a gig for a friend's band last night, but otherwise it's been an extremely lowkey and indoor weekend. living that housecat lifestyle. aside from the sunday scaries (but, like, for the semester....for the year....) all in all the past week+ has been Okay. whoever is in charge of my calendar (which is me) made a pretty big gamble booking three-four medical-esque appointments back-to-back-to-back this week, but it paid off, we got through it, and the decks are cleared (so to speak) for writing between now and the holidays.

reading i got briefly very into freya marske's books a marvellous light and now a restless truth, though i will admit to having calmed (slowed) down a lot in reading the sequel, after tearing through the first one like there was a deadline. the world building and magic system are very fun, i am a big fan of the aesthetic; they're extremely sexy but not at the expense of plot or dialogue or characters' having their own real personalities, flaws and hobbies and all. excited to read the third one.

listening a quick skim of the previous few ilcb entries (have there really only been three all fall, dear me) to check i hadn't already posted this, and it doesn't seem like it? so, gregory alan isakov with the colorado symphony. the additional strings, the additional brass, it adds such a gorgeous dimension to this already pretty good song; the way things build from 1:20 on or so, to burst into full color and light from 1:59 to 2:14.... i've turned a few afternoons around lately just leaning into that orchestra swell in my headphones. wish it lasted a full 10 minutes, wish it had multiple movements.

youtube

watching more burrow's end; finished arcane season 1 with @hematiterings and began watching the first season of stranger things since she's never seen it; the nostalgia and affection i feel! the real satisfaction in how good season 1 is, how young they all are!! also started season 2 of slings and arrows with the housemates, which is new territory for me and which is similarly filling me with affection for characters i've known a long time, and fascination at seeing them doing new things and making new bad decisions. also started the second season of wheel of time on my own, as background while doing some unpaid graphic design/newsletter prep; my gratitude for this show making something so rich and visually interesting and real out of the books is unabated, even though i'm not feeling anyone's storyline very intensely at the moment. rand meeting logain was cool; perrin has been captured and that's bad; mat is now traveling with min, which is also cool because it's probably a set-up; i'm sorry that nynaeve had such a hard time in the arches but her romance subplot with lan has always left me extremely cold; moiraine is being frustrating! the show has a nice way of showing us other characters, minor characters, too-- moiraine's sister, for one, and starting that encounter by showing us her sister's morning routine, clarifying the difference in their ages where one is aes sedai and aging very, very differently. egwene and the daughter heir are in a magical boarding school subplot which is surprisingly delightful.

playing dnd campaign a had a session for the first time in aaaaages not too long ago, and it was good. spoke to the gods briefly, got started trying to appease them with sports as opposed to human sacrifice, and ended the night beta testing a phone-based game a friend of the dm's wanted us to try which involved a lot of bluffing and bs and laughter. campaign b, meanwhile, is in combat with some were creatures; @dimir-charmer's character has maintained this whole time that she is Not a Werewolf but circumstances may be, in fact, conspiring against her...... worrying!

making not a whole lot. i bought a box of cards since the closest thing i've come to a hobby recently has been sending a few cards (well, one and a half); i feel the pull of stickers and sealing wax and stamps.... wandered through an art supply store only a little while ago and came so close to buying the vinyl stamp making kit, but the only paint i could find to go with vinyl stamps was metallic so i decided to wait. contemplating making potato stamps, like i do every year around this time, but again the ink or paint or whatever is the limiting factor there.

working on taught my second and final guest lecture of the semester! read back through the written feedback on my conference paper! have started to look at integrating said paper back into the chapter whence it came, and had to have a little lie-down, but that's the big project remaining. at the same time, the running commentary at the back of my brain is about lecture prep for the course i'm teaching in the spring, specifically, what i'll say to situate/contextualize/prepare students to handle the material, how i'll thread various needles, which texts i'm going to ultimately assign, and on and on. i've started trying to turn this background noise into brainstorming/writing/limited, focused bursts of work on said course, in the hopes that getting a little of it out of the way will let me brain settle back in to other projects afterwards. i've also realized i've started doing the Discretionary stuff first, i.e. the reading extra articles, the looking at post docs or awards or things to apply for, the stuff that won't happen if i don't allow myself 15 min to look into it, because the Actual Work will be enforced, it will have to happen eventually, and the discretionary stuff won't. jury's very much out as to whether this will pay off, especially when it's not discretionary work at all, but discretionary attending-a-lecture time, or -coffee-with-a-friend time, or discretionary-at-the-gym time. time spent with the cat, of course, is non-discretionary.

#ilcb #in lieu of a commonplace book #a few spoilers for some early episodes of s2 wheel of time #not as long a post this time #i was quite restrained really! until the work section #Youtube

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apocalypticavolition · 4 months

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Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 24: New Friends and Old Enemies

Spoiler alert: I don't know who made this. Eugene de Blaas definitely did most of the work, but I found this as a reblog of a now-dead account "laurientius" so... yeah. Also spoiler alert: My reread has spoilers for the entirety of the series. Don't keep reading if that's going to be a problem.

A second chapter in a row with the Flame of Tar Valon, which again is a reflection of us exploring the White Tower.

Egwene curtsied, then stuck out her tongue at the Accepted’s retreating back.

Egwene has a weird problem with authority sometimes. I suppose Pedra must have an unpleasantness in her voice, though we know from later on that she's not really that unpleasant.

“My name is Elayne,” she said. She tilted her head, studying Egwene. “And you are Egwene. From Emond’s Field, in the Two Rivers.” She said it as if it had some significance, but went right on anyway.

The significance is of course primarily that she's already met someone from the Two Rivers and not specifically that Egwene is her subject. Elayne's not awful like that.

Also: yay! Elayne!

From now on, you will be at training at this hour every day, as a matter of fact. From breakfast until High, then again from dinner to Trine. If you are especially quick or especially slow, they may take you from supper to Full, as well, but that is usually for more chores.

All the chores and training sounds like a particularly grueling schedule, though I suppose the average gal in this setting would probably find it relaxing since they'd be working all day at the farm or store anyway.

“You saw it around me?” she said excitedly. “I saw it around you. Sheriam Sedai said I would, eventually. This was the first time. For you, too?”

How can they not be fated to be bestest buds at this point? In a more sapphic novel this is the part where they'd kiss. Well, think about it anyway.

Abruptly Egwene found herself remembering a tale Rand had told, a tale she had not believed, about falling off a wall into a garden and meeting. . . . “You’re the Daughter-Heir of Andor,” she gasped.

Shoulda believed that poor boy.

“She keeps a willow switch on her desk. She says if you can’t learn to follow the rules in a civilized way, she will teach you another way. There are so many rules for novices, it is very hard not to break some of them,” she finished.

Elayne probably hasn't been spanked much before this. Considering the schoolgirl approach to the Tower training, the switch being present is probably some of the least eyebrow raising physical punishment we see in the series, but again it's important to note these things so we can discuss the more egregious examples later on.

But we are children. The Aes Sedai, the full sisters, are the grown women. The Accepted are the young women, old enough to be trusted without someone looking over their shoulders every moment. And novices are the children, to be protected and cared for, guided in the way they should go, and punished when they do what they should not.

In fairness to the Aes Sedai way of thinking here, novices are unlikely to be a tenth of the way through their natural lifespan at this point and Accepted only barely past that. The long life makes for longer periods of initiation.

Egwene, there are only forty novices in the Tower. Only forty, and no more than seven or eight will become Accepted.

Yeah those numbers are outright atrocious. Without change, the White Tower won't be able to last as an institution past the current number. By the time they've died of old age, there won't be enough Aes Sedai left just to train the new generation.

But the Tower will not . . . cannot . . . lower its standards.

Elayne is correcting herself here to be diplomatic, but she was right the first time, as Egwene shows. There's plenty of ways the Tower could have high standards without doing all the crap it does. And Sheriam badmouthing the current state of affairs is just so perfect. As a Black she's encouraging novices and accepted to despair at the current state of affairs while seeming to be arguing for something that would only hinder the Blacks and thus keep her above suspicion.

Elayne paused, and then said, “Is Rand well?” Egwene felt a sudden stab of jealousy—Elayne was very pretty—but over it came a stronger stab of fear.

Egwene just ain't used yet to Rand being off the table, but her heart's in the right place.

Anyway, I’ve not seen her since the day we arrived, with Whitecloaks dogging our trail. They are still camped on the Dragonmount side.

What delightful foreshadowing.

“Men,” Egwene muttered. “I dance a few dances with a nice boy, and Rand goes around looking like a dog with a sore tooth, but he—”

But he didn't dance with anyone and barely flirted except with Elayne. Calm down girl. Hypocrisy is your worst look.

The man rumbled a bitter laugh. “With two or three of you watching my every move? You’re just afraid I’ll find a knife.” At the look in the Accepted’s eyes, he laughed again. “For myself, woman. For myself. Lead me to your garden, and your watching eyes.”

Poor Logain. Elayne's quite wrong. At the moment he's less dangerous than most other men.

“Do they always have to be gentled?” she asked. Elayne stared at her, mouth agape, and she quickly added, “It is just that I’d think the Aes Sedai would find some other way to deal with them. Anaiya and Moiraine both said the greatest feats of the Age of Legends required men and women working together with the Power. I just thought they’d try to find a way.”

Good cover, Egwene. And honestly the kind of question that, even though you are asking it as a ruse, shows your potential and keen mind.

“I know you,” Egwene said. “You worked at the inn in Baerlon.” A light breeze riffled the water beneath the bridge, and graywings warbled in the trees of the garden.

You can see why people think Egwene should be ta'veren, though I'd say all these meetings are more about her being at the place that is the current fulcrum of the world than anything inherent to her.

She said I’d have to share my husband with two other women, and I’d never put up with that. She just laughs, and says it was never her idea of how to run things, either.

It's a little bit of a shame from a drama perspective that there's never any real fallout when Elayne realizes that Min knew she was one of the other two women all along. It's also sad for Min that it's quite clear she dislikes her destiny and never comes to terms with it.

“A white flame, and. . . . Oh, all sorts of things. I don’t know what it means.”

The White Flame is obviously the Amyrlin Seat itself - surprising no one makes this connection early. I expect she sees the lights she saw last book, more swallowed up now that Egwene is comparatively alone (though Elayne may be another person who has this image). She probably sees something about Gawyn in specific that she doesn't want to share in front of Elayne.

“One of the things she said she saw looking at me was a severed hand. Not mine, she says. She claims she does not know what it means, either.”

This would have been Rand's severed hand back when he was going to lose it by royal decree but I have no clue what it's about now. Maybe it's got something to do with the Band of the Red Hand?

She tried to settle herself, to think of Rand. He’s so . . . beautiful. She gave a jump, half afraid she had spoken aloud.

Galad's getting extra attention in this first meeting is probably an artifact of when he would have ended up with Egwene after Gawyn died. Still kinda works to subvert the first meeting of fated lovers kinda thing though.

I have met all sorts of people, and they’ve met Rand al’Thor. Some do not even know his name, but the description could not be anyone else, and he’s shifted every one of their lives. There was an old farmer who came to Caemlyn just to see Logain, when Logain was brought through on his way here; yet the farmer stayed to stand for Mother when the riots started. Because of a young man off to see the world, who made him think there was more to life than his farm.

We're going to hear a lot more about the lives Rand changes. It's funny that it's Gawyn who first really highlights it, considering how negative his obsession ends up being.

“We three are tied together,” Min said, “and we cannot let any man get in the way of that. Not even him.”

Min, when after this book is the next time you even see Egwene? Maybe in Caemlyn for a bit? You and she have almost less time together than you and Mat and that's saying an alarming amount.

“In Caemlyn, child, I am councilor to the Queen your mother, but this is the White Tower, and you, a novice.”

I mean yeah Elaida's being a bit stuck up here but is she wrong? I bet if Sheriam overheard Elayne not say "Sedai" to Elaida she'd have her horsewhipped before Elaida could get two words in. The whole point is to leave old connections behind, even if the Tower is hypocritical and wants the princesses it teaches to rise to power.

Behind them, Egwene heard the Aes Sedai begin, “I am given to understand, girl, that you were brought here by Moiraine Sedai.”

Does Min see the White Flame around Elaida? Does she see Fain? The vanity tower? The Black Ajah hunters? The a'dam?

She looked over her shoulder to make sure the Aes Sedai was not following her, but Elaida was nowhere in sight.

Dammit narrative I want my questions answered and here you are cutting in only when it's too late! It's frankly a bizarre choice at this point, as Min gets only the tiniest bit of POV and only to establish that she's pissed at Moiraine too. That could have been done in Egwene's perspective I think.

Next time: The House of the Rising Sun!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #egwene al'vere #pedra #elayne trakand #logain ablar #min farshaw #galad damodred #gawyn trakand #elaida do avriny a'roihan

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mashithamel · 8 months

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Full spoilery thoughts on S2E2 below the cut

- I feel confident the guard checking Rand’s pass is the same guy who sees him every single day, and still asks to see it every single time

- I love how the couple passing Rand make sure to step quite to the side to avoid brushing into a poor. And how they don’t need to spell out the sharp divide between the Foregate people and the wealthy inside the walls, they just show it.

- I was definitely hoping we’d get the opening credits for the second episode. Please let them come back eventually?

- I do like how both Lan and Moiraine look like death warmed over. Last season skipped the fatigue of Healing, but they use it well. Neither of them is feeling good enough to even pretend to hide how pissed they are at each other.

- Do we think we’ll get more on Adeleas not wearing her Ajah’s colors? Like, is she just an eccentric, or is it just because she’s semi-retired, or because she’s at home and she’s damn well going to wear what she wants at her own house (or Verin’s house)? I wonder how that will be reflected in how Egwene and the Wondergirls ultimately dress. Elayne will have to be in red eventually.

- “You’re in luck. My sister and I have decided to accompany you.” Love Moiraine’s face there.

- “Have Tomas ready my horse. You’re still weak from the Healing. I don’t want my saddle to slip.” Yes, Moiraine. Make sure any sign of sympathy or kindness gets followed up by a serious jab at his honor. That will help you get rid of him faster.

- Yeah, Perrin with a sword just feels weird.

- For Nil on Twitter, I am happy Ingtar has an owl on his breastplate.

- I seriously love that they include this scene from the books (complete with flies on the table afterward!!) and use it to help show how Perrin’s senses will work. Again, such a good translation for a visual media. I was wondering how they would do it, and this works so well.

- I feel like Elyas is going to be a lot more helpful for Perrin’s development than he was in the books. For someone who should have been a mentor and teacher, he really didn’t do a whole lot for him.

- Honestly, Perrin, how on earth could Fain have done that to a Fade? For that matter, how did he do it? It’s not really clear how he could overpower and torture an awake Fade in the books. Perhaps we’ll get a chance to see some power or enhanced strength from him later in the season?

- Love how they use a unique character so efficiently with Errol. Aiel War. Yep, Rand still looks like Aiel even with his head shaved. More of Rand’s compassion and kindness (like Mat in season 1 we need to make rhat clear so later characterization will hit harder). Sword forms! PTSD.

- I have to admit, I really did not catch on to the fact that Errol was actually teaching Rand sword forms. Dunno, in my line of work crazy old people are not in great shape to be showing real physicial stuff. But I’m glad to see it. It’s more Rand seeing beyond the surface to the value and dignity of a human being others will easily overlook. And I really like how Rand is using his time here well. It feels very much like TSR Rand, who is trying to use every single moment available to him to learn something, so much better than the Rand of TGH who is really just trying to run away, or TDR Rand who is not really avoiding the crazy…

- Is the type of cloth for Errol’s bathrobe anachronistic?

- Sword forms!!!

- Oh, showing Nynaeve Healing is so smart. And we’ve already established that breakbone fever is usually lethal. Do we think Nynaeve actually healed Egwene, without realizing?

- Someone pointed out that crimsonthorne is what killed Adeleas. It’s like they read the books!

- In my head this unnamed Accepted is Theodrin. She’s so kind to Nynaeve in the books. This Accepted is just giving me her same energy.

- “Men who can channel are not a disease.” I so look forward to Nynaeve being able to intentionally heal. I am really so envious of the ability to Heal, I want it as much as Nynaeve does.

- I like this look at Liandrin’s reason. She wants to change the course of history itself.

- Aes Sedai live for centuries! I seriously thought they were going to leave that out! But this episode really plays into the tragedy of outliving your loved ones.

- Donal really understands Mat.

- I love his mimicking her actions locking the door

- I have never loved Elayne. She never did anything for me, and by the end of the books was my third least favorite. But I adore Ceras’ Elayne and I am ready to be her new best friend too. Spoiled (by which I mean the kind a child who is loved well by their parents but grew up in priviledge), sheltered princess, but kind and lovely, and not ignorant. She had me with “You’re my…subject?”

- Cadsuane!!!

- Sheriam’s reaction to Ivohn speaking in an Aes Sedai meeting is so good. Nynaeve in the books sometimes gets looked at askance for “letting” Lan speak up—this is a nice soft change from the book, which also makes us like Alanna more. Is she going to betray us? Rafe, you are going to break my heart.

- Love the Warders being worried about Nynaeve. I so love that she has friends in this turning.

- Sheriam’s internal monologue while Alanna talks about the Last Battle coming must be so great. “Blood and ashes. This was supposed to be about gaining power and advancing, not the bloody actual last Last Battle in my life time. Goat kissing—“

- I do really like how Alanna and her Warders act as a team. It’s a nice juxtaposition against Lan and Moiraine, especially this season.

- Does Nynaeve’s tracking ability work in a big city? Is that how she follows Liandrin?

- Lionfish!

- Why would the first plate be on the house? That seems like a bad business practice for a small village

- Someone pointed out Moiraine’s dagger may be the same one she killed a Darkfriend with in NS.

- Why does Verin think it would only be one of the boys? Oh. Because those were the ones who didn’t come back. She knows the girls are in the Tower. She is really knowledgeable for someone who lives in retreat.

- “Either of those things may one day be necessary.” I love how this series (both book and show) get into the gray areas.

- “Oaths have loopholes.” And later, when reminded Aes Sedai cannot lie, Moiraine says “we were never equals.” Loopholes indeed!

- Tomen Head! Battles in the sky! A sword of flame! A branded hand!

- Trolloc puppet! And it really doesn’t look like a Trolloc!

- I like how it seems Rand is just getting justice for Errol. But we learn later he has additional motives, that gets him closer to his goal. Very true to Rand.

- I’m glad they show the guy is still breathing.

- Selene in the books was playing such an over the top, seduction role, it was so painful to read. “Help me undress, Lord Rand.” “Don’t you want glory and power, Lord Rand?” “I am so into men who want glory and power.” For the love of the Light, Rand, don’t let her touch the Horn! As much as the show is doing a clearly toxic relationship, it’s leagues better than Selene in the books.

- Elayne continues to be adorable and I want to be her friend. And she understands her duty to her subjects—she will take responsibility for their actions. Oh, she’s going to be such a good queen. When did I becomes an Elayne fan??

- I am so releived that corporal punishment is delivered on the shoulders. Thank you, Rafe, for fixing that.

- Liandrin has a son??? I am on board for fleshing out Liandrin’s character.

- Love Nynaeve stepping out, against Liandrin’s threats (and she knows Liandrin can definitely hurt her), to be a Wisdom. Because Nynaeve will always be a Healer, no matter what.

- “I didn’t know it would hurt you. I didn’t mean to leave you here in pain. I’m so sorry, my boy. My beautiful boy.” 😢

- I am fully in support of Mat and Min being buddies. This will be fun.

- Why was choosing Verin the end of Tomas’ sex life? I mean, aside from waaay TMI, Adeleas. That’s….interesting.

- Oh goody/s. We aren’t skipping the carneira thing. I will just have to keep reminding myself about wearing a shift through the Arches and no spanking. Rafe can’t fix everything, I suppose.

- I mean, Edyn trying to kill him, and then deciding to bed him and marry him to her daughter, was an interesting plot point. But everything else…ugh.

- “Meditation’s never come easily to me.” Um, I have decided to trust Rafe that he knows what he’s doing, because it has been demonstrated over and over that he knows how to make good use of changes. But in the books Lan can enter the ko’di without any effort, he’s so good at it. I will withhold judgement on this until I see more.

- We get the pond scene! And leave out the ants part!

- Adeleas: The right Warder can protect you from yourself. Moiraine: Ah, yes, this means I must immediately push him as far away as possible. And be brutal about it.

- Mat not wanting to know the future is so correct for this character.

- Possum is a great nickname and I’m glad she gave it to him.

- Selene: “You can’t hurt me.” Of course not. He’s basically a toddler. She is totally safe.

- Also, Selene is very toxic and deeply messed up. It’s been 3000 years. Get over him already.

- “I like to tinker with things.” ❤️ They manage to tell us so much about her in just a few scenes. I am an Elayne fangirl now.

- Oh, poor Nynaeve. Overhearing something like that is always so hard.

- “Jealousy, it’s not the best look on you.” I love how they brought this conflict, and adapted the slap, from TDR!

- Oh, that slap left a mark on her face.

- It’s dialogue right from the book :)

- Yep, take that right out of her saddlebag, Lan. I feel like this is something he’s never done before, and never thought he’d have to stoop to.

- “I couldn’t imagine the courage it took to face the Shadow with nothing but a sword.” Aww, that’s a nice thing to say, Moiraine. “I knew when the time came you’d be able to survive on your own.” Oh. That’s a deeply cynical way to look at it.

- At least she’s sharing some information?

- It takes 8 Aes Sedai to cut someone off? Interesting. So, 13 just gets translated to 8 in show language.

- Also: not stilled. There, I’m placing my bet.

- “You and I walk this path together. Every step of it. Every choice, every sacrifice” Oh Lan. You are breaking my heart.

- “We’ve never walked this path together.” Moiraine. How did this get past the Oaths? “I’ve never shown it to you.” Has to be a lie, somehow.

- “You failed me.” Ouch.

- “I’ll have her take your bond by force if I have to.” Foreshadowing? For Lan or for Rand, or both?

- I wanted her to say his full titles here.

- My first thought (forgetting the Seanchan exist): please don’t let this be Hinderstrap. It’s too early, right? Me a minute later: oh. Maybe Hinderstrap would have been better.

- Oh. Hotsema is, indeed, hot.

- Ishy taking an interest in Perrin is a delightful turn of events.

- Of course they have better care for the rich in Cairhein.

- I love Josha’s little smile here. “I have a feeling you and I have a lot more in common.” 😊

#wheel of time #wot spoilers #wot on prime #wot show spoilers

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libbymonroerandomthings · 1 year

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My Top 5 books that I’ve read this year, 2022!

no one asked for this but whatever! I read 37 out of my goal of 40 books this year. I was so close! Do you think if I read some of my nephew’s little toddler books could I count them towards my goal 🤔!? I’m not really going to give a summary of any of the books, just my general opinion and feelings towards them. Also, Spoiler warning for all books (I think I did really good job at not giving anything away but still just be careful anyway).

So here is my favorite 5 books from this year. ❤️

1) A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson.

I actually will saying the entire ‘The Wheel of Time’ series is in the number one spot. But I reduced it down to A Memory of Light (AMoL) since it’s the final book of the series. After 14 long books, AMoL wrapped up an incredible series that I’m completely obsessed with. The thing that was talked about since book 1, The Last Battle, was in my book 175 pages long and 6 hours long with audiobook! The Last Battle was epic, traumatizing, emotional, infuriating and so much more! Egwene, Rand, Nynaeve, Mat, Perrin, Faile, Elayne, Min, Aviendha, Siuan, Thom, Lan, Moiraine and all the 200+ characters living my heart and I will forever cherish this series. I can’t wait to re read it over and over again and recommend it to anyone and everyone! If anyone cares The Gathering Storm was my favorite book out all 15 and Egwene is my favorite character!

2) Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

I have another post one here doing a more detail explanation of this book and my love for it (link below)! I seen Legendborn in the book story for two years and alway walked past it. But one day I seen it and it’s sequel, BloodMarked, sitting on a table calling me. I’m glad I finally listened to it because it’s an amazing YA Fantasy book. I felt seen within the main character, Bree. I remember explaining Legendborn to my dad and I must have done a good job because he decided to read it and loved it.

3) Tomorrow and Tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This was the first book I read by the author Gabrielle Zevin and I like her writing style. This book is beautiful written and it’s great story that goes back and forth in time. I loved and hated Sam and Sadie multiple times throughout the book. I’m not a massive gamer but when I’m in the mood, I can get lost for hours playing, so I loved the gaming and game building aspect of the book. Sam, Sadie, and Marx were written beautifully with depth and empathy and their humanity and emotions really shines throughout the book. It’s a good book that shows the messiness, the ugly and the beautiful and great parts of friendships.

4) Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

This was a cute, funny, refreshing and hilarious read. Out of the three Brown Sister books (Get A Life, Chloe Brown and Take A Hint, Dani Brown), I enjoyed Eve Brown the most! I also related to her more then I did with her sister, Dani and Chloe! Plus, that first spicy moment between Eve and Jacob was… 🥵 hot! Chloe and Red’s public spicy part in their book is my second favorite. If you want to read some cute, well written spicy books I recommend Talia Hibbert Brown Sister trilogy. If you read it start with Chloe then Dani and end with Eve.

5) The Jasmine Throne and The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

I’ll link my more in-depth review of this series below. Basically these two books fueled my need for good sapphic high fantasy! If you want to read about morally grey characters, a slow burn romance, war and betrayal, a magical system, messy family life and epic world building then this is the book series for you.

If you can tell, I love fantasy books, romance books and even better if their sapphic lol! If you have any good recommendations for those categories or any book in general you really love, feel free to recommend them to me! My goal for 2023 is 55 books!

#top 5 books #book blog #booknerd #wheel of time #legendborn #talia hibbert #the jasmine throne #the oleander sword #tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow #who cares #2022 books #fantasy #book recap #book recommendations #book recs wanted

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iviarellereads · 3 months

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The Eye of the World, Chapter 27 - Shelter from the Storm

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Leaves and vine icon) In which a sexy dance is a fun way to torment the new guy.

Perrin and co spend several more days traveling with the Tuatha'an. The People are always friendly, always making music, and they don't travel in any hurry, keeping the wagons so slow the children and dogs can walk alongside them. But they're also wary, particularly of Elyas, always watching him as if unsure if he'll turn on them with no warning, but they're almost as watchful of the Emond's Fielders.

When Perrin suggests leaving, Elyas tells him it's better to rest now while he can, and not to be so hasty to get back into Aes Sedai hands. Something is telling Elyas to wait a few more days. Perrin is skeptical, and Elyas can't say more, but he trusts this feeling when it comes on him.

The Tuatha'an have many songs from the world over, and some of them Perrin recognizes, though by different names and with different words.(1) They dance almost constantly, and Perrin finds himself drawn into it often. On the second night, the women of the group do a sexy dance, and Elyas opines that Perrin's blushes are the reason they do it every night afterward. Even Egwene starts learning the dance. When Perrin asks her if she still means to go to Tar Valon, she says she just wants to have some fun and relax while they still can.

Perrin has nightmares about the Trollocs and Myrddraal catching up with the People, attacking the camp at night. But still no sign of the Dark One in the dreams, just normal nightmares, until one night Baa finally appears again. When Perrin wakes with a start, Elyas is already standing over him as if to wake him. It's time to go after all, now, and Perrin can feel the anger in the wolves. "Fire. Pain. Hate. Kill!"(2)

Raen says they have to change directions, and asks will they come with them. Elyas says no, they don't even have time for breakfast, they also have to go another way. Raen makes sure they shake hands or hug everyone in the camp before they go, and Aram storms off when, in a quiet word with Egwene, it becomes clear she won't stay with them. Ila looks relieved at knowing that Aram also won't leave with her.

When the People have left, the wolves come back. Perrin hears them talking about fire eyes, pain, death, and "Heartfang", and knows they're telling Elyas what he dreamed.

Perrin did not want to think about his dream. He had thought that the wolves made them safe. Not complete. Accept. Full heart. Full mind. You still struggle. Only complete when you accept. He forced the wolves out of his head, and blinked in surprise. He had not known he could do that. He determined not to let them back in again. Even in dreams? He was not sure if the thought was his or theirs.(3)

Perrin notices that Egwene is still wearing a string of blue beads, given to her by Aram, and a sprig of something red in her hair, a gift from another one of the young Tuatha'an.

Finally he said, “What did you spend so much time talking about with Ila? If you weren’t dancing with that long-legged fellow, you were talking to her like it was some kind of secret.” “Ila was giving me advice on being a woman,” Egwene replied absently. He began laughing, and she gave him a hooded, dangerous look that he failed to see. “Advice! Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are.” “That,” Egwene said, “is probably why you make such a bad job of it.”(4) Up ahead, Elyas cackled loudly.

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(1) Consider how many of our children's songs have the same tune, more or less. The ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep. Now, cast a wider net, and consider how someone might hear a tune, and come up with their own words for it, that came out of their own experience and culture. In a world without copyright protections, it's one of the many ways you'd get people creating. (2) They know who that was, in the dream. Elyas did say wolves hate the Dark as much as they can hate anything. (3) Certainly, it seems like he's not going to have any luck keeping them out permanently, if they're so sure he will only be complete when he accepts what he is now. But, we can leave him a convenient fiction for now. (4) I sigh and raise a tired, skeptical eyebrow at a lot of RJ's gender-observations through his characters like this, even though I think a lot of them are intentional and part of one of the themes he was aiming for by lampshading gender relations and divisions. But, you gotta admit, this one's… not as far off the mark even for our world, today, in 2024, as some people might want to believe.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #the eye of the world #eye of the world #eotw #teotw #wot leaves and vine icon #perrin aybara #egwene al'vere #elyas machera #raen (wot)#ila (wot)#aram (wot)#ba'alzamon

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cosmic-llin · 2 years

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Dear Festividder...

Some ideas if you're vidding for me and would like more to go on!

Music: I like most things but tend towards the pop/folk/soft rock/female singer-songwriters who play instruments end, BUT, most important thing is that you choose the song that works for you and the vid! I'm less keen on really repetitive dance music and death metal-style vocals, and please no Ronan Keating or Sia.

General: Found family, happiness, teams, shenanigans and fun, character studies, angst, feelings!

Specifics for individual fandoms:

A League of Their Own Queer women's baseball historical drama (8 x 60 mins) I would love something about Clance, or Max and Clance's friendship, a Max/Esther vid, or a vid about Beverly's perspective on the Peaches. I also love Lupe and Jess.

Abbott Elementary Heartwarming workplace sitcom (18 and counting x 20 mins) I love everyone in this elementary school! I'm especially interested in Barbara's (and Melissa's) mentorship of Janine, Barbara and Melissa's friendship, Gregory's whole deal, and Janine/Gregory.

Alpennia Series - Heather Rose Jones Queer historical fantasy series (4 novels plus two short stories) I'd just love anything that captures the feel of the series - magic, mystery, scholarship, queer community, intrigue - or the atmosphere of 19th-century Alpennia.

As Time Goes By Second-chance romance sitcom (67 x 30 mins) I would love a vid about Jean and Lionel’s romance (heartfelt or funny or a mix of both), a fun ensemble vid, or absolutely anything about Jean and her ridiculous perfect Judi Dench face.

Bugs '90s futuristic cybersecurity action-adventure nonsense (40 x 50 mins) Something about my childhood crush amazing hacker badass Ros would be wonderful! I also really enjoy the original OT3 of Ros/Beckett/Ed, and the sheer tropey, explosiony energy of it all.

Raising Dion Sweet family superpowers show (17 x 45 mins) I've just finished S2 and really enjoyed the way the world expanded a little, so I'd love something about the Triangle of Justice, or about Nicole's interactions with Suzanne, Janelle, Tevin, etc, or about the growing community Nicole and Dion are building.

The Wheel of Time Epic fantasy questing (10 x 60 mins) I would love something exploring the various relationships between Moiraine, Nynaeve and Egwene (and Siuan? Although less of her to work with!), or something about the Aes Sedai as a whole, or Aes Sedai and their Warders, or a character study of Moiraine that leans into the angst and drama!

Thunder Force [SAFETY] Superpowers and friendship (1 x 1hr 46 mins) I'd love something focusing on Lydia and Emily's friendship and/or Lydia's friendship with Tracy and the three of them as a team, or something femslashy for Lydia/Emily, or just something fun about them kicking ass, also I'd prefer no Crab Guy.

Travel shows presented by Susan Calman [UMBRELLA] Gentle pootling around the UK with an enthusiastic Scottish lesbian (IDEK how many episodes - Secret Scotland with Susan Calman, Susan Calman's Grand Day Out, etc) I'd love anything that captures the playfulness and sweetness of these shows and Susan's enjoyment of new experiences, as well as the beautiful locations she visits! I'm most interested in Secret Scotland and Grand Day out, less interested in the cruising and antiques ones!

#festivids #exchange letters

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wheresmulder · 2 years

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In my extensive experience there are quite a few racists in the Wheel of Time fandom. They're especially bad on reddit but they've made their way to Tumblr as well. Engaging with them is a fruitless endeavor unfortunately. They rarely ever admit to being wrong about anything. After spending years arguing with them I personally try to block them on sight these days. It's really sad but there are lots of good people too! I truly hope this guy doesn't discourage you from engaging with the fandom.

Oh ty but I'm not discouraged 🤣🤣🤣 not even close especially not by racism bc at this point the racists are losing sooooo bad rn like HOW DOES IT FEEL THAT HALF THE CAST ARE POC???? Bc for me? PARA MI? It Feels fucking PHENOMENAL 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 COULD NOT BE MORE PLEASED literally love to fucking see it and love even more to see ppl mad about it 💕💕💕💕💕

But in this situation they didn't say anything racist on my post, i just saw their top post was one lamenting that the show runners were picking black people for "white characters" (as if it fucking matters) bc oMg mUh bOoK dEsCriptiOnS but that was totally unrelated to my post

No this bitch just rly thought they told me some shit I never thought abt before 🤣🤣🤣 like omg I never would have considered that moiraine might use rand 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 and he might not be comfy telling her shit 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 like im not sitting here reading the fucking books myself and couldn't draw that fucking conclusion that has been beat over my head by every book so far in the series (I'm on book 4 thats a couple thousand pages of rand not trusting moiraine) like goddamn man, you don't say, this is brand new information 🤣🤣🤣🤣 tysm 4 your insight 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 yeaaaaaah no that shit is so insufferable. And on a shitpost I made in 30 seconds. It ain't that fucking deep and I Definitely didn't ask. AND DID NOT ASK FOR THAT SPOILER THEY HAD TO SLIP IN THERE🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 TYSM

It literally kills me that the mf didn't even know wtf my post was about 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 EGWENE HAVING A DREAM ABOUT MAT LOOKING HER DEAD IN HER FACE AND SAYING HEY HO IMA COME FIND YOU and her being like damn what a weird thing to dream about well anyway,,, only to find out that hm I guess mat rly was coming for me after all 🤣🤣🤣🤣 and also to a lesser extent perrin was trying to convince himself the wolf dreams weren't Significant bc he was in denial still.. But yeah rand is the only character in the books, my bad I forgot 😅

Maybe this guy is just salty that his 1k word dissertations get 10 notes and my 30 second no effort vagueblogging shitpost has ten times the notes??????.........???? idfk ????? Get a life???????

This was a nice message tho thank you and feel free to message me off anon whenever 💕 everyone I've talked to so far in the wot fandom is super nice and I'll be blocking that person as soon as I know they've read my response

#ask #like if they had made that post independently? good post. fine post.#And tagged it as a fucking spoiler maybe?????????????? no??????????#force me to read your bullshit instead

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paging-possum · 3 years

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Egwenes

[id: two black and white digital sketches. The first is of three teen halflings- Egwene, Erlin and Beverly. Egwene, with her hair down, is smiling at Bev and Erlin, holding a nail polish brush and saying “if you want, I can teach you guys” Erlin, a teen with a mullet, holds out his hands, excited and Bev, a teen with short, curly hair, is pointing to them, smiling. In the upper right corner is a doodle of Egwene holding Pawpaw in one arm and looking confused at a bottle of nail polish in the other. The second doodle is of Egwene from the shoulders up. She has freckles and her hair is pulled into a short ponytail. She is looking to the side and wearing an unbuttoned flannel, and her hair and undershirt are colored in green. End id.]

#IM SO RUSTY I HAVENT DRAWN PEOPLE IN A WHILE #ill do studies later or smth i just wanted to draw her #my art #naddpod #egwene kindleaf #erlin kindleaf #beverly toegold #the first one is from a fic byyyyyy #*checking*#sesquidpedalian #on ao3 #also the second drawing was gonna be me drawing her in my outfit from the other day but i realized i should go clean or smth #god its been a hot second since i posted naddpod #fingers crossed my hand stays okay and i can clean up some more stuff #i wanna finish my crick library drawing

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markantonys · 2 months

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parsing through my thoughts on the TOM gawene conflicts as i've been rereading some of their scenes while working on my fic! as always, my interpretations are colored by my role as gawyn's defense attorney lmao

the core of these conflicts really is so good to me. because we have egwene, who has a complex about needing to do everything herself and thinking she can't rely on other people to do things on her behalf (due to her experiences of needing to strong-arm into supporting her aes sedai who only raised her because they wanted to use her as a puppet). and we have gawyn, who has a complex about needing to be useful to a more important person at all times (due to his upbringing as "a living sword for elayne's/andor's use"). and so OF COURSE they run into a problem of gawyn trying too hard to be useful to egwene, egwene getting mad that he's interfering and presuming she needs his help, and then gawyn getting upset that egwene is rejecting his help and not letting him be useful. tasty, delicious, organic, and in character if you ask me! and throughout, we see that they both care about each other and both ultimately want the same thing (gawyn becoming egwene's warder), but just can't quite understand each other well enough to get onto the same page about making that happen.

now, sanderson's spin on it of "oh, gawyn's too used to being a prince so he struggles to follow orders and play second fiddle" isn't the correct read to me. imo it's based on real-world, patriarchy-rooted assumptions of what being raised as a prince would be like, but in andor's matriarchal monarchy, gawyn has always been raised to play second fiddle rather than hold the spotlight himself and he never had a problem with it prior to TOM (in fact, he was actively miserable being a large-scale military leader), so transitioning from being elayne's first prince to egwene's warder shouldn't be too big a shock to his system. and he's usually shown to be pretty willing to follow orders - UNLESS those orders are to do nothing, which most (all?) of egwene's orders to him in TOM are. because he Needs To Be Useful and can't accept that sometimes he can help somebody best by Not Doing Anything (encapsulated perfectly by the "gawyn i need you to do something for me" "yes anything" "stop guarding my door" "what no!" exchange). so in that sense i think gawyn behaves pretty in-character in TOM, but sanderson just picked out the wrong reason for what's making him behave that way.

thus, the resolution of the conflict does stumble a bit. egwene being put in a situation where she would've died if gawyn hadn't helped her works for her end of it (learning to lean on others), but on gawyn's end it's kinda clunky. the lesson he Truly needed to learn is that sometimes the best thing he can do is nothing, but sanderson was under the impression that the lesson he needed to learn was that his place is in egwene's shadow and he must come to her as a warder rather than as a prince. hence, the resolution on his end is him accepting his own death as the price to pay to keep egwene alive. which is........kinda the opposite of what he needed to learn and basically contributes to his actual death in AMOL.........wait a minute, WAS this a mishandling by sanderson or was he deliberately making gawyn learn the wrong lesson to set up his death? lmao

anyway, at the end of the day the whole bloodknife sequence is SO goddamn romantic that i don't even care about some of the details of gawyn's motivations feeling off to me. literally a top 5 most romantic WOT moment from which i will never recover!!!!

#wot #wot book spoilers #gawene #gawyn trakand #egwene al'vere

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rationalnerd62 · 2 years

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Wheel of Time Screentime, s1e1

Time perception is a highly subjective experience. Emotions, among other things, play a role in how we feel the passing of seconds, minutes, and hours. We can lose track of time, or race against it. It drags when we are bored, or flies when we laugh.

This subjectivity affects how we experience real events but also entertainment. Our favorite characters never get enough screen time, while the ones we barely tolerate always get too much. The credit rolls on a disappointingly slow episode, only to realize many found it too fast, or just as it should be.

I’d like to say that this is why I’ve been looking at screentime in The Wheel of Time show, but, to be honest, numbers are fun and I’m a nerd. Since they can also tell us some interesting information, I guess I can share them too.

Disclaimers:

Screentime can be… tricky to measure. Do we only count the time where a character is directly on the screen, or is being in the scene enough? Should we measure how often a character is in the background? Does it matter if the character is asleep, unconscious, or dead?

At first, I tried to take into account background time. The scene in the Inn in the first episode quickly showed me it was going to be an absolute pain, so instead I’ve decided to follow these rules:

Time starts when a character enters a scene and stops when the character leaves the scene.

If a scene starts with a group shot, a character is considered as entering the scene the first time they are visible on camera. Their screentime stops when it is shown or suggested that the character left the group (or was left by the group), or when the group scene stops.

The screentime of a dead, unconscious, or asleep character is taken into account but annotated as such. I also separate voice-over time.

Only the screentime of named characters on IMDb is taken into account.

Is it perfect? Nah. Relatively minor characters can end up with a higher “scene” time than expected, just for staying in the background. But as long as I’m consistent with how I measure this time, we should still have some interesting information.

To compensate for this imperfection, it could also be interesting to look at speaking time. I haven’t done that yet, but who knows… Maybe I’ll try that out some day.

Anyway, here are the results for the first episode.

Some notes:

Rand and Egwene have a very similar screentime. For almost 13min, the two are in the same scene (group scene or only the two of them), but it’s still quite interesting to see the difference with Mat or Perrin’s screentime...

When it was announced that the show would be focusing on Moiraine, many worried that our EF5 wouldn’t get the time they deserve. Considering how Moiraine is several minutes behind Egwene and Rand, it was much of an issue in this episode.

For the scenes in the inn, I considered a character in the scene the first time they appear. They mostly all stay there until Mat leaves to find his mother. As mentioned before, I tried to distinguish in background / on the front for a bit, but that turns out very tricky when the camera moves from some characters to others quite quickly. As a results, a lot of folks get increased screentime just for being around during those scenes.

Fun fact: Laila was in the inn! We see her among the women standing up when Egwene arrives. I assumed she was gone by the second scene in the inn (in the evening, when Lan and Moiraine show up).

Tam's voiceover is during the lantern scene. That scene contained a few groups: Rand/Tam, Egwene/Marin/Bran, Mat/Natti/Abell/Bode/Eldrin and Perrin/Leila. For each group, I considered that either they were all present or none of them were. For the bel time dances, I considered all those groups except for Rand/Tam and Abell/Natti to be present. They are then joined by Padan Fain and Nynaeve a bit later.

Moiraine's voiceover is for the end of the last scene.

For fun, I also took a look at the men/women repartition in term of screentime.

The ratio men/women is very sweet. Even with an ensemble cast, it seems pretty rare to have such little difference between the two. Sure, the screentime of women is definitely helped by the number of minor women characters (Daise, Laila, Danya, Bode, Eldrin and Natti have a total of 24min all together), but it’s still really balanced and this is immediately refreshing in that first episode.

Also, those numbers have made all the critics about the show not giving space to men quite funny. It’ll be even funnier after looking at the numbers for the second and third episodes, when remembering the trolls on the release day.

FYI, here’s a link to take a better look at those numbers. The work is already done for the second and third episodes, so I’ll probably share that during this weekend. Then, it’ll depend on how fast I go and whether this sort of content actually interests people...

#the wheel of time #wot screentime #egwene al'vere #rand al'thor #moiraine damodred #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #sorry i'm a nerd

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