DoctorAtomic

Does the show even need Asmodean if Rand might be learning from Logain? Maybe he's lucid if he's on the sauce. We know how important he is later on, so cultivating this relationship on the show makes a lot more sense. If you pitched a script at how Asmodean got whacked based on the books, they'd throw you out the room. I think with how heavy the Aiel lore is when they're all in Rhudien is going to take up a lot of screen time. Throwing Asmodean into it is just a lot.

I can see why Buss thought maybe Magic was just blowing off steam. He was young. I can also see why he wouldn't want to go through another coaching change during the season. Nowadays, players have much more control of their own movement, and they should, so back then, this must have been unbelievable. I can get the public blowback. The scene with Magic and Buss was fantastic. I know it's played like Magic is being petulant, but he's not wrong. Bill and West are saying the same thing. I did like the subtle 'shut up and ball' crack Magic made too. Really though, Buss offered Magic the 25 years. Magic just wanted something beyond only the 5 years. It's kind of on Buss. Clarke is absolutely brilliant. I don't know if West was that irl, but I so want to be that. I loved that Riles took a page and became Coach when he punched out the chalkboard. West looked gleeful when Riley threw him off the bench. I would like to know what the offense is. Clearly, it is more like McKinney than the System, but I don't think they were just going out and winging it either. I can't imagine Kareem roller skating. I'm really interested in how Buss locks him in for the rest of his career. Riley becoming coach is "The Lakers" for me.

I don't think it was turning her back on the power; it's walking away from learning how to use it that could cost her loved ones. Which interestingly includes Mat. The third arch bookends the first nicely. I mean, really, if she was in command of her channeling, three Trollocs are a flick of the wrist for her. Unfortunately for her, the only way to learn anything is to remain in the tower. It's hard because she's older. Almost like going back to school in your 30s. You know though, just get out of the cell and take your chances. Liandrin may think Mat is important to Mo's schemes, but he's kind of not, so Min can't really report on anything anyway.

It's probably better to have Ish taking a more prominent role at this stage of the show. I'm hoping they pare back on the sheer amount of characters. Ish can Travel, so being all over the place isn't really an issue.

Was Ish in cahoots with the Seanchan this early on? I think who they are could be confusing to the non bookers. Does Liandrin know that Mat is taveran?

The turning on of the Arches was really cool. I laughed when they just dumped a bucket of water on her. I liked that they did the whole scene without breaking. They totally faked me out too. Falme is 'Fahlm'?! I've been saying 'Fahl-may' for 25 years. I wouldn't have given Logain the whole bottle. Just one glass. Dole it out. Did anyone see that Xray also has notes on all the nations?

That too. The team forgets Archer actually knows what he's doing.

I'm thinking if the Tower finds out that Li has a son who is a senior citizen and she looks like she's in her 40s, that they'll figure out she's Black Ajah and was freed from the Oath Rod. If I'm right, that's clever of the show to tip us off. We already saw in the first episode that there was an Aes Sedai at the Ish meeting, confirming to us that the Black Ajah is in the show.

I think the speculation about the son is correct here. If we think of Jedi, you couldn't have any attachments. While Alanna is in her thruple, it's internal to the Tower. And it's not a spoiler that the Red aren't fans of the men as it is. Reds alone could kick her out. Ajahs are hands off on internal matters. She may also be hiding her age, and I think I know why which I'll say in the book thread.

My problem in addition to all the characters is that they pronounce the names all different than what was in my head too. I used to say Moirane as Moy-rain. At least I got Rand right. I'm not complaining. It's just funny how I'm always, "that's how you say it?"

Another good choice for TV is making Verin more active so early on. I liked her talking to Mo and saying that basically the whole Aes Sedai will tell the Dragon what to do and how to win the last battle isn't going to work. To be fair, I don't think Mo ever thought that. She probably preferred him not being revealed for a whole lot longer. It seems like Rand will be learning the sword but not from Lan right now. There were like a million characters and maybe 7 or 12 with actual depth in the book. Liandrin and Ny interacting is really compelling because we know she's trying to turn Ny on the show. Liandrin would never accept a male Dragon. Which I think will pay off since Rand is even more than Ny. Similarly, keeping Mat captive seems like a good choice because there is resentment that justifies him asking for the medallion. Too bad for the non bookers who missed those massive anvils. I don't recall in the books Mo saying explicitly her loyalty was only to the Dragon. That's huge.

Same thing with the Foresaken. You probably have to smoosh a lot of the Black Ajah together too. In the opener, when the little girl went under the table, one of those seated was Aes Sedai.

This is really a huge plot development. Rand 'earning' the heron and flat out beating the Seanchan was a very big deal. With Rand having zero handle on channeling and not knowing if he's the Dragon or not, relying on tangible, real skills gives him self-confidence. I hope they don't cut it out. I mean, this doesn't have to happen for a while, really. On the other hand, seeking out Logain to learn to channel makes sense for tv because we know how important Logain is later on. Just having him show up and taking up the Callandor like 5 years later or so kind of comes out of nowhere. This way, he's around and has a purpose to the story, so when he does, it will be a more organic development. Also, maybe that means we don't get Asmodean. We already talked about merging/dropping some of the Foresaken, and this is an easy out. I'm not really complaining about the changes. For one, the show had to deal with Mat, so they needed a plot to sideline him, and, like I said, lugging him to Falme isn't particularly interesting. Separating the group is a typical, and not bad television move, but from just the first episode, they seem to be keeping all the balls in the air. Clearly, we have to have Mat blowing the Horn at Falme. So they're going to have to come together at some point. Maybe Lan being sent off gets him to them and he trains Rand. Where was Mat being held? Was it in the Tower? I didn't get that when I watched. Rand banging Selene (I only saw in the trailer) seems fine to me because we all know he chokes it when he should have killed her and cost Moraine years on the sideline. So him hesitating now in the show has some justification for it. That's going to be weird if they actually get to that given that Mo clearly billed as the main character. Maybe they'll make her search quicker. I only watched episode 1, but I saw the trailer. I'll probably watch at least one more tonight. Frankly, the books aren't that good and would have benefited from serious editing anyway. I'll give Jordan enormous credit for the scientific-physics based methodology behind channeling and the cyclical nature of the world, but after Rhuidean, the next 5 books were like 6 weeks time, and it really dragged until the other author took over. So I'm typically in favor of the show making some changes.

I don't remember much before Tear. It's a good idea for the TV show given what happened with the actor just leaving. But they're going to need to deal with this dagger plot sooner than later.

Mat wasn't held captive by the Reds, right? I don't remember much of the beginning of the Great Hunt. I only remember Egw and Ny were dragging Mat to Falme while he was knocked out from the dagger. Granted, that doesn't make for compelling television, and I know they had the recasting.

It's a nice parallel with her knifing the Fade and Ny training with the Warders.

They brought in Verin quick! Good. She actually looks close to in my head. Domon looks good too. I thought he was younger, but no one looks like they did in my head. And Alanna too. They're dropping in a boatload of new characters. There's one I'm hoping *not* to see so soon though. I liked the introductory scene of Egw in the Tower too. Lots to pick up on. I thought it gave a good portrayal of the scale without being overly expository. And Ny being Ny. I'm interested in how she can overcome the block because she's going to be drinking a lot of dishwater. She's in an interesting position because in the kitchen scene, clearly she's the oldest novice. You'd think how she would channel could be different. (The shield looked really cool). Though I'm not so sure we should be pissing her off. I really liked her training with the Warders. Great advice from Alanna to Egw - "Maybe you need to get laid?" Only to be supplanted by Lan telling Mo she could have her dinner right up her ass. Whee! This was a pretty good kick off to the season. A lot going on, but I like the pace. I'm glad Amazon has the X Ray so I can keep track of who is who.

I don't know why Joyce needs to check with Constance when she offered Doug Minx International. Joyce owns the majority of Minx, and Constance said so in the Club Minx episode. Constance should have checked with Joyce. They seem to be implying Constance actually owns Minx International. Tina and Doug so need to get married if she knows when he's been drinking with his bird again. I thought bathhouses were legal in the 70s? Because anything I know about bathhouses was from The Deuce, and there was a lot of them. Good for Bambi for sticking up for herself. That went by really fast. I can't wait to see what happens with Richie's pictures. I do feel a little bad for Doug, but Tina is also has a legitimate argument.

Yes, I'm saying perhaps Ahsoka has a theory about that where Sabine is the test, so to speak. With no Order around anymore, maybe it's time to rethink our connection to the force. Sabine could be a whole new type of force user. In the movies, we've really only seen the 'traditional' Jedi v Sith. Ahsoka is the only one we know that walked away to not become Sith. Just walked away.

I put my reply in the other thread since I'm ranging out a little past just the show, but that article was a jumping off point.

This continues a discussion from the media thread where an article was posted about the scene with Hera and Mon Mothma. I was just throwing it out there about the USSR. I didn't watch Andor, but I thought it was basically a cold war spy show. So thinking about the Empire af the USSR wasn't that much of a leap. There's no Putin at the dissolution of the USSR. I'm talking 1993 - 99. That's where we'd be now post ROTJ. There's a loose confederation of states with one or two bigger powers. Yeltsin kind of rose up to power for a while out of nowhere, but the real power became oligarchs because former State officials could actually make money. We don't really see that, and really, TPTBs are producing Ahsoka as a larger story since she was in Mando. We didn't see it there either. Tatooine doesn't count because it was always a far off old west place from the start. Here, we're seeing Mon Mothma, what? Chancellor? PM? Just taking right over and restoring the senate? Is that who she was with? You mean to tell me there's no formerly separatist worlds swallowed by the Empire going, "hold on, it's been about 50 years of I don't know what. I think we're going to sit this out. We'll send you an ambassador to keep the peace, but I think we'll go on our own for a little while to catch our breath." That's basically Ukraine in 1995. They shipped out Soviet nukes because they didn't want to be bothered by anyone. 55 minutes ago, Anduin said: To an extent, I think it's JJ's fault. He wanted a reset, wanted to do the OT again, which requires the same dynamic. That's basically it and why I said it's lazy. We have examples of how republics become empires, but we also have examples of how empires dissolve. The USSR was literally compared to the Empire by potus in the 80s. It's right there to pick up. The Empire didn't even last as long as the USSR. It just crushes Mon Mothma as a character because we all know she's doomed to fail, and the reasons why are derivative imo as shown by the last episode. All those Bothans. For what?

I liked how Pam's cans were still pert and not up in her face when they were hanging upside down. And that's why I don't fly coach. I'm with Ray; I'd be pushing the chair from the back. Lana is going to have to be getting jealous of Zara eventually. Archer isn't stupid; they're going to come around to each other sooner or later. Zara may have or not pinned Archer down on the contest, but they both cleared out the entire complex. With this show, I think they're going to turn that on its head. Lana isn't the most level headed.

I guess our new agent wasn't a flash forward to AJ all grown up. I was kind of calling out Archer being not into the heist, but it's fair he thought the whole operation was a double cross to set them up. I'm glad he was proven right. Not exactly what he thought, but close. I don't want the show to forget that Archer and Lana actually know what they're doing. Wow, I totally died at the Lana/Malory scene screaming on the phone. Brilliant line reading. I do hope Lana isn't sidelined too much being the boss. We got two 'fucks' from Lana.

The article content annoyed me because I think this cyclical 'Republic fails from within' is just lazy and not ambitious. I know the shows have to fit into the movies, so my blame is on the movies. I can buy the Old Republic (from the prequels) failing. Ok. You all missed the Sith coming back because they hadn't been around for a while. However, the Empire barely lasted a generation. It's not like there aren't Old Republic politicians who can provide institutional knowledge on how to govern. I said in the E1/E2 episode thread that it's kind of ridiculous that a hyperdrive factory has Empire loyalists that they'd try to do I don't know what by shooting Hera and Ahsoka. I tend to think it more like the break up of the USSR. There were just a bunch of warlords for a while. It didn't really destabilize the world order, but it wasn't smooth either. We know there's been extended periods of peace because the High Republic era is canon. Right now, you have a newly installed government without jedi for the first time in a long time. Maybe it would be more interesting if Mon Mothma realized that a centralized galactic government probably isn't going to work. What would a galactic constitutional convention look like? You still have plenty of drama. Maybe they form a confederation or a European union type of government. You could still have the pacifist guy that didn't want them to go after Thrawn. You still have some Empire remnants to put down. It's kind of cynical and plodding to me.

I remember that. I never made the connection that it was Westhead because I didn't know of him before. I don't know if the system really paid off. He was successful in a weak conference, but they only got as far as the Elite Eight under him once and got blown out by UNLV. They lost in prior years to better teams that still outscored them in the 100s. The top college teams from the 90s never adopted the style. That kind of goes to my prior point that his system can plug anyone one in. That makes sense in college, and even then only to a point because you need shooters. The scores they showed in the last episode were the historical scores. Whether West said what he said in the episode and in irl or not, they were squeaking by teams they were far better than. They weren't losing because of Magic not trying. They lost because they were all getting to their spots instead of playing basketball. Even then, the 'system' was a lot of dumping to Kareem. McKinney's concept was also transition and movement, but it allowed for the players flexibility than just run to spots. The triangle is similar. You can't be waiting for you point guard to plod up the court every possession and calling out every single play.