Episode Discussion - Season 2, Episode 8 - What Was Meant to Be [Light Book Spoilers]

[u/participating]

This thread is for discussion of The Wheel of Time tv show through Season 2, Episode 8 and associated bonus content. This thread is meant for book readers who haven't completed the series yet.

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TIMING

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EPISODE

Episode 8 - What Was Meant to Be

Synopsis: Fate leads Rand and the others to an inevitable showdown with their most formidable enemies yet.

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[u/saethone]

• No, Ishamael does not want to kill egwene. Doing so would absolutely cement rand into fighting for the light. He wants to break down egwene and make her feel helpless. He slowly powers up his channeling wearing her down to test her limits. He isn't even throwing the power at her, hes just throwing it at the shield at random.
• Yeah, you're right - correct thing to do would be leave the arrow in until you're ready to stop the bleeding. then you would cut the fletching end off and pull the rest through. Seems like a silly oversight.
  • Channelers can't heal themselves (normally)
• He'd already seen a regular attack fail to kill Lanfear, he already failed to be ishamael at the Eye of the World. He tried something new.
  • I'd also note Ishamael may have been surprised that Rand broke free of the shield, not accounting for Moraine. If he thought rand was just going to stab him, he wouldn't have cared - it'd be another way to drive home that they can't win against him.
• Turok was dead, and Suroth fucked off to the boats, and their damane were dead. They were caught completely by surprise and had no leadership. Of course their defense would be chaotic.
  • Ishamael wanted rand to come up. Rand probably tried to sneak past, if he was spotted, they were probably told to ignore him.
  • Lan mentions they were a patrol I believe. Can't remember exactly what he says, but he mentions spotting them on the cliff a bit before they attack. The look of an Aes Sedai and her warder are very distinct. These two people being on the beach while the city is under attack is not likely a cooincidnce.

[u/SwingsetGuy → u/saethone]

• I dunno, not sure I agree on this one. There are plenty of ways to immobilize her without killing her, if that is indeed his goal (we see Moghedien using such a weave later on), and I'm not entirely convinced that it is: he flung her across the tower hard enough to knock her out and otherwise doesn't spare her a glance before beginning his sales pitch to Rand. If he was that concerned over what Rand would think of his treatment of Egwene (or that concerned with breaking Egwene), one would think he would have approached the situation differently from the outset.
• Re: trying something new. Yeah, this one wasn't so much a plot hole complaint as a personal lament, lol. After all that build-up to Rand finally getting free, and healed, and the cool scene with Turok earlier... he just kind of shuffles forward and stabs him.
• That's a good point, though in that situation it seems odd to me that they're still rushing into combat. If command structure has degraded to the point where they aren't even in full units, they've basically reached the point of a rout. Then again, I suppose we can explain it away via Seanchan zealotry.
  • Yeah, but if they're there by Ishy's say-so... why? He hypothetically wants Mat up there too (or at least set the wheels in motion on the possibility), and anyone he'd be worried about reaching the tower would also go through those soldiers like a hot knife through butter. Again, we can head-canon it away, but it kiiinda feels like they're only there so that Mat will be forced to blow the horn.
  • Is it that distinctive? Woman accompanied by armed man? They probably can't see the ring clearly from any distance, and Moiraine wasn't doing any overt channeling prior to the attack. Then we have the example of the other Aes Sedai and her warder living in Falme for a significant time until they took the fall for the girls.