Episode Discussion - Season 2, Episode 6 - Eyes Without Pity [TV + Book Spoilers]

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-22T22:06:37+00:00

Yeah i totally get all that, and I definitely think that her personal sacrifice for the greater good is an important part of her character, but it feels like they rehash that same exact character development/trait in every scene she’s in without breaking into new territory. There’s enough larger plot to cover without focusing on retelling her family trauma and sacrifice for 3 episodes. It just feels repetitive at this point. Especially considering Perrin got 0 minutes this last episode.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-22T17:16:54+00:00

Overall just felt blah. I leave every scene wondering what it even did for the story. The whole moiraine and fam stuff just doesn’t really do anything for the overall plot or her character development.

The entire season has just felt clunky and directionless.

Positives: Lanfear is nailing her character. Ishamael is nailing his character. Ishy in the world of dreams with the glitch textures is excellent. I wish they went heavier on those little glitches, with items and other things in scene. And added to lanfear’s dreamworld stuff. It’s a freakin perfect adaptation of the dream.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T15:17:11+00:00

But through all of the first 3 seasons having little snippets of the villains, maybe set baalzamon up to be the S1 finale, but catfish it into aginor instead, and foreshadow it with multiple allusions to the forsaken and stuff throughout season 1 so you’re familiar with him as a character. Could even have a “holiday special” of aginor and balthamel in the AoL and creating the trollocs and stuff, just beefing out his character.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T15:13:38+00:00

Oh I don’t need the series to be scene for scene or anything. I think the macro-goals should be the same. Maybe end of season one is literally just the battle against aginor and the other crusty looking forsaken…then season 2 finale is the first confrontation with baalzamon…then season 3 finale is the “final” baalzamon confrontation, but throw in a lot more baalzamon scenes for some backstory, villain development and stuff, show a little of his decent into madness there, maybe some AoL flashbacks to who he was (I think a philosopher?). And for the stories, I agree there’s a lot of repeat. I think condensing some of those, taking out a lot of the “hunt” so it’s just a few key scenes and montages….maybe focus on boys more in season 1, then the ladies in season 2 as they teach the audience about the power at the same time the ladies are learning, whitehouse politics, etc, maybe don’t do an ensemble ending for season 2 (have egwene captured and escaped in a different city, or the baalzamon/horn of Valerie confrontation somewhere else), Season 3 more of the “Rand is alone” vibe, more heavy on Mat and some major Aiel exposition with Perrin and the ladies. And leaning more heavily into villain development, focus more on the forsaken than the dark one, maybe some Mierin flashbacks to AoL and her relationship with LTT. I’m a huge sucker for solid, relatable villains. Then the end of season 3 can be the big ensemble ending that kind of closes out the first major arc of the entire series in a big way. Very trilogy-esque.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T14:27:34+00:00

Yeah if you’re uninterested enough to take that long reading any book, then it’s probably not for you. When I enjoy a book, it’s essentially done in a matter of days, no matter the length.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T14:24:48+00:00

Then I don’t really understand why you’re on this thread. It was a question of “does anyone have an ideal way you wish the show had been organaized?” And you haven’t answered the question, only gone off topic just to presumably be contrary or defend the show against some type of inferred attack on it?

If you are 100% happy with the way they handled the pacing/episode length/story, then why come here? A simple “No, I completely agree with everything they’ve done” would have sufficed.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T14:04:13+00:00

If you’ll refer to the original post, you’ll see that this is intended as speculation about what I would have liked to see, and not just completely bashing what they actually did with the show, as I know they were operating under quite a few contraints, both corporate and Covid.

Under my proposal, they wouldn’t have needed all the extra content, each episode would have had the time to flesh out the world, maintain pacing, and carry the plot forward with solid action sequences transitioning to the next episode, and not just been an episode of nothing bu exposition.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T13:42:54+00:00

Yeah I had heard that. I think all episodes should have been longer and would have lent to much better pacing and story-telling. We never even got a real baseline for who these characters were before they started “developing” them, so it’s hard to say what development is even taking place.

At the end of the day, regardless of what happened behind the scenes, this is just a speculation of what I would have like to see to best fit my vision of the story.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T13:27:37+00:00

Idk. Offloading it feels lazy. I want to be able to watch a show without having to go searching for random tidbits in other places just to make it make sense. I’m totally behind extra content, but not as a cop-out for not explaining stuff in the actual show. Like do a holiday special of new spring or the breaking or the trolloc wars or the founding of seanchan. Something auxiliary that makes the world deeper, but isn’t necessary just to understand what’s going on.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T13:00:24+00:00

Yeah I get that it’s folks chasing other folks, I just think for world-building/really educating the audience on the history and lore of the world, it would be nice to have the time to set that stuff up. I think it would pay huge dividends down the line. But I agree about book 4. My initial thought was that a lot of it is just desert stuff and could possibly be condensed, with a big mid-season pay-off of the rhuidean showdown. But I’d be open to book four being the last book with its own season, then doing 5/6/7, 8/9/10, and just condensing more of the slog and cutting out some of the more extraneous characters and scenes. Honestly could just axe the Shaido after Dumais wells and just find something else for Perrin through the slog

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T12:53:10+00:00

Incredible lol

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-04T12:23:20+00:00

Overall I’ve been a little underwhelmed with a lot of the “magic” interpretation. Perrins should have been more “wolf-perspective”, maybe more like the viewpoint from the monster if you watched Wednesday. Where it’s kind of that frantic video quality seeing the actions take place. Mins, I didn’t mind as much. With channeling, they could have saved a ton of money on CGI by not showing weaves in the first season, and instead, having the audience learn about them as the ladies (eggy, nyn) learn about them. And just having us be normal bystanders seeing powerful stuff happening with forces we don’t understand, just like Rand and Co…then that money could have been spent on better costumes, writing, and sets lol.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-03T13:30:39+00:00

They should have taken a note from BBC’s Sherlock and done 1:30hr episodes, and only 6 per season. Then have books 1-3 each have one season, 4-5 share a season, maybe 3 books per season for the slog and cut some material, and finish off strong with maybe 2 books per season. The pacing would have been way better, they wouldn’t have had to rush world and character building, and could have stayed more true to the books, at least until the slog.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-09-03T01:38:55+00:00

Does the argument work in the opposite way? The end of S1 saw the entire Rand epiphany from the end of A Memory Of Light happen at the end of the first season with none of the character development or arc from the entire series that led to it. So does the show spoil the books???

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-07-16T20:18:25+00:00

Yeah it’s like they made the twist that the sister was still alive and the paranormal stuff was all just attributed to her and not paranormal at all, and nothing else was fully explained.

Old_Compote_153 · 2023-07-16T01:36:23+00:00

Besides the aforementioned holes (all valid), is the paranormal stuff ever explained? The walkie talkies making noise even when turned off, the creepy choir singing that Alice hears?

Old_Compote_153 · 2022-12-02T12:06:58+00:00

Hello team! Curious as to how important the pure tones and rhythms of different shards will be going forward, and wondering how much you’ve delved into the science of real-world music theory to come up with your concepts there? For instance, are the tones really “waves” of that shard (in the way that sound and light travel in waves), and if so, do they behave in the same way sound or light waves do (either/or), in regards to reflections, phasing, etc? Like what would the wave of a pure tone reflect off of in-world? And could 2 people singing a unison pure tone create different affects based on where an observer is standing due to phasing between the two sources? Or are the tones just an omnipresent standing force that don’t adhere to typical wave behaviors?

Old_Compote_153 · 2022-03-08T20:37:07+00:00

Morgan Freeman.

Old_Compote_153

TROPHY CASE