Overall I’m very happy with these episodes. I think it’s an improvement over season one, and I’m someone who liked season one.

Episode 1:

While I loved the dark friend social in the books, it’s a scene that really only works in a book. The visuals of film would ruin all of the fun hints in the book chapter. I think they did a good job adapting it to be nice and teasing without being too forthcoming with information.

I liked how they incorporated part of book 3 here with Moiraine having lots of visitors bringing her news. I also think having her and Moiraine and Lan have a season of repairing and strengthening their relationship will make it much more impactful ||when she dies.||

I liked all of what we got in the tower. Making Nynaeve have a little time as a novice is a great idea IMO, it gives them time to establish the problems she is having. And Egwene is doing great here, nothing to complain about.

Verin is perfect. New mat is great.

The scene at the end with the fades was AMAZING. I love how they leaned into fades being able to teleport in shadows.

Episode 2:

Selene is fantastically cast. She nails every scene she is in, and they are doing GREAT work at foreshadowing who she really is. And having Rand scheming his way into Loganes room is a really great plot for him.

I LOVE that they are making liandrin more human. Giving her time to win the audience over does a LOT of lifting. First, it makes the reds not seem like such giant assholes. I feel like in the books up until book 8 or 9 EVERY red we meet is just not a good person, and isn’t likeable. I like it that they are making Liandrin so much more interesting than just "that scary teacher who kidnaps the girls."It will make her betrayal so much more impactful. Giving her a son adds a lot of dept. I know book liandrin would never have had a child, but this was a really good change I think. It really helps to drive home how OLD these women are, and

Mat and Min is a FANTASTIC pairing. More on them in episode 3.

ELAYNE IS PERFECT. Everything about the scenes with her is REALLY Elayne. She’s emotionally intelligent, but clueless about the world, and she doesn’t always realize when it’s appropriate to speak up to people. But when she gets other people in trouble through her own stupidity she protects them, even to her detriment.

And the SEANCHAN. That palanquin is 100% extra in the most Seanchan way.

Episode 3: Fs in the chat for my Boi uno. Gutted we won’t get him later… But I kinda get it. Minor characters dying off is part of this series, and he really isn’t too important going forward. Using a minor character we’ve been seeing a lot of to show the brutality of the Seanchan is a good decision IMO.

And the accent is there! They aren’t emphasizing it too much, but they clearly went with the mild southern drawl the Seanchan have. I love the hunger games announcer lady vibes I got off of Suroths speaker. The anesthetic they went with for the Seanchan is really good, I love that they are leaning into the creepy factor for them.

Rand and Loganes is a fantastic pairing. I love how we see how Loganes madness comes out, and makes him believing he is the dragon a prlart of his madness. I’m really interested to see where they go with the character.

Mat and Min are another great pairing. We didn’t get much of them in the books and I’m excited to see them interact more. I LOVE that Liandrin is sending Min and Mat off somewhere… I’m guess west, to Falme. It’s a nice detail that helps get us on the path to everyone being in the right place.

And of course the elephant in the room here is Nynaeve. The accepted test was great. Most of the dialogue before it was ripped right out of the books, and the rest itself worked surprisingly well on screen. I wasn’t sure that it would going in. I loved both the fake outs, I think they both worked well. It gave Egwene some time to grow, and gave Elayne some time to show her emotional maturity. She was raised to deal with stuff like this, and it shows.

I’m excited to see more!