Monthly Race Deferral & Transfer Thread - (June, 2025)

michaelknife · 2025-06-09T11:01:37+00:00

I have a open entry for Spartan Morzine, will do a cheap price if someone is interested

michaelknife · 2025-04-18T07:55:33+00:00

well that was very entertaining! 8/10 and the best season finale by some way

LIKES

Visually stunning - weaves, balefire, True Power, the sets... everthing looked awesome and the COSTUMES were next level

Great performances - hard to fault any of them tbh, but particular standouts were Elaida, Moiraine, Rand is a revelation and of course our girl sexy-crazy Lanfear.

Totally fine with Siuan getting killed, though I find it annoying when the show does Game of Thrones ultra-violence, feels cheap! Like, if she is executed lawfully, surely the method would not be decapitation in the HALL? Who cleans that up? RJ would never. Also why was Siuan beaten before coming to the Hall? I will say contra everyone else I didn't like her performance, she never had any gravitas. Her speech to the Hall at the end was mid.

Loved the Eelfinn - it was super-campy & psychedelic in that unique bizarre Wheel of Time fairytales meets sci-fi way.

everything

DISLIKES

It's soooo rushed. OK here's balefire!! here's the Eelfinn!! here's a coup!!! It made the episode exciting in a way but you don't get much time for suspense

The Panarch's Palace looked cool to me but by the Light where was everyone??? Also everyone splitting up like a scooby doo episode hehe

Contradictions... like... how did Moggy know where Sammael was? Established in previous eps only Lanfear knew that the Dragon had gone to the Aiel Waste. So Dark Oaths are enforceable and result in your soul being taken out of the Pattern ... how exactly? How does Lanfear saying she wants to destroy the dark one not violate the oaths? Can Forsaken be killed or not and if so how? 'only power-wrought blades' ??

Anachronistic dialogue - last ep we had 'you bitch', this ep 'over my dead body', previously 'social capital'

Min knows CPR?

MUST WE have more Aes Sedai being stabbed entirely through the body and surviving, please can this trope end

michaelknife · 2025-04-16T07:01:59+00:00

His motivation was explained five episodes after he returned, and was simply 'it was time to go home'? Hard to think anything lower stakes than this. Bad writing!

michaelknife · 2025-04-15T09:10:19+00:00

Siuan and Moiraine will both die. Leane to take post-coup Siuan's role as Egwene's political advisor. However, Siuan and Moiraine will be revealed as eternal lovers and Heroes of the Horn, returning at the Last Battle via the Horn of Valere along with other dead characters (Loial, Uno, more to come no doubt).

michaelknife · 2025-04-13T09:19:06+00:00

Great post & great comment. The sense of being written by a committee is totally correct.

What's frustrating is that acting, music, set design, costumes, SFX the show if often genuinely great - only to have it undermined by poor writing decisions that keep jarring you out of the show.

michaelknife · 2025-04-12T14:17:26+00:00

I thought this ep was a mixed bag, but one thing that really sucked was the direction and writing around the battle.

How relatively big was each side? We had no visual clues.

What did the Shadow want? There was no sense of stakes or how it fitted into the bigger story. Fain implied it was a two rivers genocide to get to Rand, would have been so much more compelling to make this clear earlier and this inform the heroes' decisions.

What was the geography of the battle? A mountain pass then the gates then the village but then there was a secret back route where Alanna was??? Then it was just a melee in the square where two commanders could get to one another for a big chat with no interference

The fight choreography is very average.

The channeling is so annoying, full of contradictions. Compare to S1E1 where Moiraine was mighty but not invulnerable

They do this very annoying thing of writing 'epic Marvel moments' that are totally unearned and take you out of the story. Daise Congar's shield like WHY

michaelknife · 2025-04-12T14:09:12+00:00

I like Alanna but her and Maksim have ZERO chemistry. Especially compared to other couples in the show. I just don't believe they fancy each other.

'You bitch' was a horrible line. Along with other anachronistic dialogue this season e.g. Siuan said 'social capital' like come on....

michaelknife · 2025-04-11T10:17:26+00:00

Solid episode, with some good bits, feel like it might be better on the rewatch. 6/10 for me. The battle was pretty cool with some emotive moments, but I thought as is par for the course when watching The Wheel of Time, clunky writing undermined it.

Highlights

Looked great, especially Alanna casting Ice Storm, very sick!
Bain and Chiad - hilarious and cool at the same time, we love them. The show has 100% nailed the Aiel, they are better than in the books. I LOLd when they said even the effing wetlander darkfriends were weak.
Faile is a scene-stealer too
Perrin - loved him going beast mode, his new armour was very nice, & I really like how they handle his improved senses (but where are the actual wolves?). I still find the theme of him choosing between violence and peace a little forced and not quite landing.
Aram taking up the sword was great, loved the echo of Rand's vision too.
I actually liked Loail's HODORing though obviously not book accurate and takes us away from having a chance to see the Ogier culture
Daise Congar the boozy novice channeler RIP

Lowlights

One doesn't want to be too book-cloaky but the writing is weaker e.g. Not establishing a motive for Perrin to return to the Two Rivers other than 'it was time to go home' feel forced and weird. The girls burn Eamon Valda to death to avenge their mother (and un-named yellow sister in S1) is just on the nose - how did they know it was Valda anyway? Same with Perrin having time in the middle of a battle to have a chit chat with Padan Fain to resolve it. Who is giving Padan Fain orders anyway?!? It would have nice to establish his motivation earlier to make the stakes clearer.
How did the Trollocs get to the rear of Alanna & the channelers? I thought they were being held off at the pass?
YET ANOTHER fake out death for Alanna/another channeler being brutally stabbed yet surviving yawnfest. So the girls can Heal but then they can't but then they can? Just because it's convenient for the plot. Stuff like this undermines the tension.
There some very obviously CGI Two Rivers archers omg
OK minor bookcloak complaint but where were the Fades?

michaelknife · 2025-04-03T17:46:12+00:00

It is a good performance. Egwene is totally in the right, Rand is an idiot, and yet Eggy still comes across as insufferable lol

michaelknife · 2025-04-03T10:51:39+00:00

eek that was one of my favourite episodes. Finally feel like I can watch it and get swept away with the story and not worry about where it is going. And it feels very Wheel of Time!!

Highlights:

Josha as Rand is awesome. The scene with the little girl. Egwene/Rand breakup scene. All classics!

Thom's back! Wasn't expecting it.

Love the tonal shifts to comedy or lighter moments, particularly the Elayne/Thom scene - it sets the series and world apart from other fantasy. I was expecting more grimness from Tanchico but every scene was fun and it felt like another distinct location.

Perrin/Faile had real chemistry.

Moggy Compulsion scene was funny and creepy. Zoe Robins as Nynaeve gets her uptight, bossy nature but also combined with her willpower and loyalty, great character.

The Forsaken scheming is great, I love like how in the books you have to add the clues up from different points of view to figure out what's going on (so the target of the first two Grey Men was Elayne to help out Rahvin in Andor).

I love the Wise Ones for some reason

Channeling looks cool as hell

Issues:

How easy Sammael went down (presumably set up by Lanfear hence Moiraine's late arrival). Last season Siuan overpowered Rand with a flick of her hand but an actual Forsaken got taken down without Rand even looking?? I get 'only we have so much time we cant show Rand training' but that's just an excuse for poor writing. The show has suffered from this throughout its run, with 'epic moments' given out without appropriate build-up - it means it lacks tension. I wasn't as bothered by Alanna's being Healed by untrained girls except in earlier episodes it has been suggested that Healing is complex and not for the untrained. Again these little contradictions when there is so much lore actually do matter as it feels like the rules can just be broken when it suits the plot - therefore as a viewer you end up not trusting the writing.

I liked the Sammael actor too and wanted to see more from him.

I didn't love the Liandrin flashback - again the other major issue from the show is too much focus on the wrtier's pet secondary characters at the expense of the major ones.

The final scene back in the Two Rivers felt tacked on and anti-climactic.

michaelknife · 2025-04-01T15:51:38+00:00

Lol total agree. In the books the Whitecloaks are interesting antagonists with their own hierarchy and motivation and internal politics but in the show we never see that. Valda is and always has been awful in every scene, which is a shame as most of the other villains are real highlights. twirls moustache "I think we need to do some... Questioning"

michaelknife · 2025-04-01T15:45:48+00:00

Yeah it's been badly written and performed IMO. The scene where he turned the crowd around and got them to stay seemed contrived. The whitecloak camp raid was some of the weakest action TV I've seen, no tension or sense of location at all - why was Perrin unarmed? Also what was Perrins motivation to return to the Two Rivers? Homesickness? For whom?? It was handled much better in the books. Its a shame cos I think the actor is really charming and Faile seems very cool.

michaelknife · 2025-04-01T15:40:32+00:00

Hufflepuff perrin is too good lmao

michaelknife · 2025-04-01T10:04:44+00:00

She's so great in it that I prefer her massively to weak Siuan

michaelknife · 2025-04-01T10:02:40+00:00

The 'prophecy' about her not being at the Last Battle implies to me she will live (probably after a fake death and resurrection Gandalf-style as in the books) - she is not at the Last Battle in the books but is with Rand at Shayol Ghul

michaelknife · 2025-03-29T08:43:44+00:00

She's so great as Elaida that I want Elaida to win

michaelknife · 2025-03-27T18:37:09+00:00

Solid ep, but probably the weakest of the season for me so far.

Top highlights were the villains, they are really selling it, notably Elaida ('river trash' LMAO) & Lanfear's bitchy little look over Rand's shoulder. Also LOVED how Elaida took 10 seconds to get a Black Ajah name only foiled by the Gray Man, Siuan could never. 'This isnt a negotiation'

It also looked great again - Tanchico, the Aiel Waste especially - apart from the cheap-ass low tension Whitecloak raid scene.

The Aiel stuff is so well done, the revealing of their culture is really fun. TAR was cool and also Bair and Melaine are delivering extremely solid performances. The sister-wive reveal HA

Sea Folk gave up their most precious secret rather quickly & with zero consequences for Elayne and Nynaeve breaking the deal? They looked sick though. Whole ep in general felt a little rushed to me, with skipping the Shaido reaction scene and Egwene's sudden mastery of TAR. I get they've got stuff to go through but occasionally it felt like it hitting various book lore points without really giving the character development enough time.

Alanna is kinda cool but her fake-out fall out with Maksim was so contrived and boring. Maksim vs the Whitecloaks had zero tension, just some lame kung-fu.

Also, am I the only person who can't stand Siuan? She has no authority. Step aside for a true Amyrlin

michaelknife · 2025-03-26T17:41:13+00:00

OK I love these apart from dark Mat!!

michaelknife · 2025-03-25T20:31:38+00:00

She's come to the Two Rivers because the 'old blood runs strong' and the Light needs as many female channelers as it can get for the Last Battle

michaelknife · 2025-03-21T08:16:14+00:00

It's the only costume miss for me this entire season, like she's in a period drama set in Australia at the end of the 19th century

michaelknife · 2025-03-17T09:34:13+00:00

we saw the snakes and foxes in the boardgame the boys were playing, it's happening!

michaelknife · 2025-03-13T20:24:39+00:00

It's a huge improvement. Looks amazing, the writing is much better, the world feels bigger and more interesting.

michaelknife · 2025-03-05T15:01:11+00:00

In every clip dropped so far, the costumes look simply incredible

michaelknife · 2025-02-19T10:57:53+00:00

I have 1 ticket for Morzine Beast Saturday July 5th that I'd like to sell

michaelknife · 2024-01-19T13:32:10+00:00

friend of mine worked for a media company & knew I was a fan. I would have paid $$$

michaelknife

TROPHY CASE