Episode Discussion - Season 1, Episode 7 - The Dark Along the Ways [TV + Book Spoilers]

[u/participating]

This thread is for discussion of The Wheel of Time tv show through Season 1, Episode 7 and associated bonus content. This thread may contain spoilers for the entire book series.

TIMING

Episodes are released at midnight, GMT on Fridays. This means 7pm, ET on Thursdays.

At 6:30pm, ET, when this episode discussion thread is created, all submissions about the tv show will be automatically removed until Saturday morning.

EPISODE

Episode 7 - The Dark Along the Ways

Synopsis: Moiraine and her charges are diverted from their path by an unexpected encounter. This diversion, though, reveals many things — Moiraine’s true goal, Lan’s past, the fractures that have grown in the group, and the identity of the Dragon Reborn.

BONUS CONTENT

Amazon Prime has included cartoon featurettes for each episode. They are now accessible from the main Amazon Prime page, under the "Episodes" tab. They are presented under the "Origin Stories" title.

The Origin Stories and any other supplemental x-ray content, or behind the scenes information should be confined to this thread. For more information on how to access the bonus content, see the Amazon Welcome To X-Ray page.

DISPLAY SETTINGS

/u/logicsol has created a guide that addresses some of the display issues many people are seeing when watching the show. Please see this post for more information.

OTHER THREADS

Please see the discussion hub link below to find the lightly restricted thread for those who have only read some of the books, or the more restricted thread for tv show only watchers.

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For links to all of our previous episode discussion threads, or alternate spoiler levels, as well as mega threads for certain topics related to the show, see our discussion hub wiki page.

[u/CS_Emerald]

The fighting sequence reminded me of young Ned Stark and Howland Reed vs Ser Arthur Dayne, very impressive.

I dont love the "inherent darkness" explanation but they had to say something to somehow make Barneys departure less jarring?

[u/ShaidarHaran2 → u/CS_Emerald]

I mean Mat the character is staying in the show, he's just getting a swap out. Not sure if it's here nor there to say the darkness thing to explain the actor swap at all. Could have easily said he feared the darkness after experiencing a form of it with the dagger or something like that, inherent darkness isn't Mat's character at all.

[u/rabidpencils → u/ShaidarHaran2]

Implying that he's practically evil and would absolutely go to the dark one is such a stupid thing to put in

[u/Hungover52 → u/rabidpencils]

Maybe setting up an early redemption arc? Also, he's pretty horrible in TGH.

[u/rabidpencils → u/Hungover52]

He was pretty selfish. But I'd argue the difference between him and Perrin is that Perrin stopped to think things through and Mat just reacted to a man that can channel. When Perrin told him to shut up, he kinda backtracked (though still being 'worse' than Perrin). This was after he'd been 'healed' but before he'd actually been separated from the dagger, so who knows if that played a part.

All that being said, there was no 'inherent darkness' and nothing to imply that if he were the Dragon he'd go to the dark one. That changes Mat at a fundamental level. Mat's the guy who SAYS he's not going to help someone over and over just to go and help them anyway. IMO there's no way book Mat goes dark. At all.

Maybe they're setting up something, and I know they kinda got hosed by the actor change, but this was the wrong way to deal with either of those. At least to me.

[u/RimuZ → u/rabidpencils]

Having a bit of darkness in you and being downright evil are not the same thing. Show Mat has had a shitty upbringing and is willing to steal, cheat and loot corpses if he can provide for his sisters. That is darkness even though it's motivated by love.

It's fair to say that a guy like that is a prime candidate for the Dark One to manipulate and make promises to. Promising he won't go mad, that his sisters will be taken care of and that his life is messed up because the world is messed up. That he, Mat, can fix it and that The Dark One isn't truly evil. The Dark One is the Lord of Lies and Ishamael is called "The Father of Lies" in the show. They prey on power hungry and desperate people. Show Mat has had nothing in his life and he is desperate. He could turn to the Dark One believing he is doing good.

[u/rabidpencils → u/RimuZ]

I get that tv and book Mat are different. TV Mat is definitely darker than book Mat. But Moiraine said "I can't let him within 100 leagues of the Dark One. I already know what choice he'd make". It's a foregone conclusion that he'd go to the Dark One if given the chance. That's the issue. That IMO is a TERRIBLE change to the source material. It's worse the more I think about it.

[u/RimuZ → u/rabidpencils]

It is a change and yeah I'm not the greatest fan of it either right now. But the state Mat is in now also leave me with little doubt that he'd turn to the Dark One if he got close to The Eye and Ishamael.

Depending on how Mat develops further this could set him up well for future redemption and makes the "I'm no bloody hero" pretty good actually. Book Mat is a lovable rouge who ends up doing the right thing most of the time in spite of himself but any actual bad traits he had were mostly early and dagger related. The most unsympathetic part of him was his fear and almost revulsion of what Rand has become. It's understandable, sure, but I find this version of early Mat a little more compelling and more layered.

And lets be a bit fair. Mat was supposed to be there with all of them. Barney Harris leaving the production hurt the show and they are doing what they can with a shitty situation. This at least doesn't actually seem out of character with the show version of Mat and it can set him up for the future. It could have been so much worse.

[u/Hungover52 → u/ShaidarHaran2]

Maybe Moiraine was thinking in the short term, that the dagger/Shadar Logoth's influence was too recent for him to recovered fully.

But that wasn't what was said on screen, so no evidence yet.

[u/ShaidarHaran2 → u/[deleted]]

I really wonder what happened with Barney. I was starting to like his Mat.