E6: Let’s hear it for the Hills of Tanchico!
I have zero recollection of what happens while they’re in Tanchico, so excited to watch.
The show has been merging arcs from the books – show Tanchico is arguably a blend of book Tanchico + Tarabon + something else.
In the extra where Rafe and some of the cast discuss the episode, Rafe mentions that when they started sketching out S3 that they had a list of key scenes from the books that they had to hit in this season…and they hit several of them in E6.
And now I have a song, The Hills of Tanchico, stuck in my head.
Oh, and my other non-spoiler hot-take…Moghedien is disgusting. But thinking about it after…the showrunners ran with one line from the books.
This season is proving to be excellent. Annoyingly, it sounds like Sony still isn’t convinced enough to greenlight S4.
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Great admiration from a small group of devoted followers is not what they are after. They need ratings, so they need the shows audience to grow wide. They need to hook people who havn’t read the books. D&D were able to do this with the GoT source material with good storytelling, informative exposition, pretty people, crowd pleasing amounts of sex and violence, and eventually CGI dragons. Most of these elements are lacking or non-existent in WoT.
I really want to like the show, but I watch and watch and I am still never sure about what the heck is going on. I can see why the mass populace might give up on this.
I have not yet seen the most recent episode.
I am trying to think of a joke built around the line “Tanchico and the Man” but I just can’t find it.
Oh yeah! Now I remember.
The actress is exceptional at playing the part. I genuinely think others in her scenes up their game in response.
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S3E7 – There are going to be a bunch of PISSED book fans.
There are a couple of very significant changes from the books. One of them will be interesting to see how it gets resolved…if we get a fourth season.
The other change…the “Inside Episode 7” extra tries to explain why.
I wish Amazon weren’t limiting the showrunners to 8-episode seasons. They could have used part of an extra episode to improve the run-up to this one, and I’m concerned about hanging threads vs being rushed for what has to happen in the next episode.
That being said… it was an impressive episode.
Haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve basically understood where certain characters would end up for the season finale from the beginning. Somewhat lost still on Rand in particular though. A whoooooole bunch of stuff happens while in the Waste in the books that hasn’t even been hinted at yet.
Thanks for reminding me there’s a new episode to watch! Watching it now!
From leaks and the trailer for S3E8 (available in the E7 extra) it looks like the season (and potentially series) finale will give us:
Spoilers/speculation within
- The big scene at Alcair Dal, where Rand is presented to the Aiel as the Car’a’carn, and his big disclosure to the Aiel of their forgotten past, triggering chaos.
- Elaida’s coup at the White Tower.
- A big battle between Moiraine and Lanfear, likely resulting in Moiraine’s demise; this would replace the Rand v Asmodean battle we have in the books.
That’s a LOT that will probably happen in one episode, bringing back my concerns about the show suffering from that pesky 8-episode season constraint from Amazon.
It looks like Perrin’s capture by the Whitecloaks and the Tanchico storyline will be unresolved this season, which will make it particularly lousy if the show isn’t renewed.
Umm… I’m not quite done with the episode so I haven’t read the spoilers above. It’s been a while since I’ve read the books (which I think helps me enjoy the show more), but…
?????
Loial dies??? What??? Definitely did not see that coming! I’m assuming that’s the big book variation you’re talking about above. Who is going to write the story now!!!
ETA
Why wasn’t closing the waygate as simple as stealing the leaf? That was my memory from the book (though I could be wrong).
Responding behind this tag so as to not spoil the E7 plot detail this focuses on
I saw a few comments online that the show’s never really known what to do with Loial, and presumably given the constraints of trying to fit the books within a limited amount of screen time…the future parts of book Loial’s story line, are either not critical to the overarching story, or they add complications in a series where they’re already challenged to keep the story understandable to folks unfamiliar with the books.
I really, really hate that they killed off Loial, but I sort of understand that rationale, and I appreciate that he went out in a rather epic way.
In the books, nothing can really destroy a waygate. However, you can lock a gate from one side by putting both of the keys on one side (the tactic used initially to block trolloc reinforcements from entering the Two Rivers), and you can cause a waygate to eventually whither and die by removing the keys.
Since the show deprecated the keys in S1, and reintroduced the idea that something other than the One Power could be used to open a gate for S3…I don’t think that either of the book provisions for locking a gate would have made sense for the show.
I had thought the show was getting back more on track with the books, but this…damn.
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Yeah I’m definitely misremembering the book order of some things I think. Just gonna watch and enjoy.
Regarding where things align with the books
They have definitely rearranged the timeline show vs books:
- In the books, the entire gang goes to Tear before Rand, Matt, Moiraine, Egwene, and assorted Aiel go into the waste
- After Tear, Perrin and Min do go to the Two Rivers, where there is indeed a big battle and the proclamation of Lord Perrin Goldeneyes. In the books, the Whitecloaks are present but do not help.
- Perrin does eventually have an encounter with Bornhald Jr. where the question of justice is addressed…but that doesn’t happen until Book 13.
- Loial doesn’t die. He eventually gets married, and then he and his wife bully the other Randland Ogier into joining the Last Battle. His future book gets quoted in the prologue to Book 14, I think?.
- In the books, Moiraine and Lanfear do have an encounter right after Rand is proclaimed the Car’a’carn, but they fall through a gateway in Rhuidean, falling into an alternative universe that the show might not touch upon (almost certainly not this season).
- In the books, while the aforementioned characters are off doing their thing in the Waste, Elayne, Nynaeve, and Min do go to Tanchico, to hunt darkfriends and the “sad bracelets”. The show’s been pretty consistent with the books in that regard (aside from the Sea Folk women being more thoroughly clad enroute). Matt didn’t go to Tanchico in the books, but I’ve heard that the Tanchico and Ebou Dar arcs are being merged in the show. Matt meets his future bride as a result of events in Ebou Dar (books 7-11).
- In the books, the two most powerful sa’angreal are big statutes that, if worked together, are said to be potentially powerful enough to destroy the world. Book Rand finds their access keys in Rhuidean. The bauble that show Moiraine found in Rhuidean doesn’t exist in the books, although a different sa’angreal with the same name does appear at the Last Battle.
Thanks for this, glad to know I wasn’t crazy. I had forgotten some specifics in the show-world of waygates, so your clarifications helped, thank you!
I appreciate you laying things out like this! It helps me remember things I’ve forgotten. I do remember while watching S3E6 how much of the Sea Folk women would be shown during the voyage 
Not too surprised they decided to change the dress code.
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I forgot to mention earlier today that the season finale is out.
I was going to watch it as breakfast entertainment, but I made the mistake of checking email/teams before being entertained…
About to fire it up now.
Dayum.
They finally had a good season-ending episode…and now I appreciate some of the irate/upset thread headers I saw on Reddit earlier today.
It’s going to suck if that was the series finale.
Added to my to do list for today. I’ll check back when I’ve finished it.
Ok, did some multi tasking and just finished the episode. Agreed that it ends with lots of loose ends. Also, the story line with Moraine seems quite different from the books…
What I remember about Moraine
My memory is that she grabs Lanfear and jumps through a Ter’Angreal (sp?) while channeling, which was a big no-no. Everyone assumes she’s dead because she cuts off her bond with Lan (I think I remember most of his story after that). I remember for years thinking she was for sure going to come back, but not being sure. It was super cool when she finally did come back.