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Egwene:

Nynaeve:

If Nynaeve is angrier and less in control, if she NEEDS anger to channel - she’s more likely to end up isolated. And since the other teachers don’t subscribe to the “make her furious to get her to attack me with the Power” school of teaching, they won’t be able to get her to channel - ONLY Liandrin will. Nynaeve would be lonely and reliant on Liandrin, and even more bitter with the White Tower that keeps failing her - which would make it easier for her to eventually be recruited to the black ajah (or at least Liandrin thinks this is what would happen; Nynaeve would never).

Elayne: Decided to have a pool party because she got a new in-ground pool installed. Planned on keeping the look of it secret, but ends up ruining it herself with all the selfies she posted on Instagram.

Aviendha: Is floored by all the water that wetlanders get to just float in and play games. Is first angry at the waste of water, but Elayne enjoys it, so why not her? She takes a bunch of pictures with it and in it to send to the Wise Ones. They never answered.

Egwene: Got there early to help Elayne set up, but ends up setting up by herself because Elayne is playing Marco Polo with Aviendha.

Nynaeve: Shows up shortly after Egwene and brought water and cupcakes. She helps Egwene until she gets sprayed by something in the back. Turns around and sees Mat with one of her cupcakes, whom she begins to chase with promises that he'll regret the first kiss his father gave to his mother when she catches him.

Mat: Shows up with so much beer. Like, so much. Also brought water guns. Nynaneve just needs to lighten up. It's water. Is in a speedo.

Moiraine: Shows up with Thom and ice cream sandwiches no one thanks her for. Siuan is there. She spends a lot of time in the deep end.

Siuan: Is so excited to see Moiraine is finally able to swim so well in the deep end. She came with Gareth Bryne, who can't swim at all. Goes to swim with Moiraine.

Thom: The self-appointed DJ. He does not take requests and asks Gareth to bring him drinks. Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

Perrin: Is so excited. Once he and Faile say hello to everyone, he jumps in the pool. He mostly stays in the shallow end because, you guessed it, he can only doggy paddle. Swimmies are too small for his blacksmith arms.

Faile: Is already mad at Perrin because he's spending too much time in the shallow end. Berelain is in the shallow end. She calms herself down and gets the volleyball net and ball she brought. She's finally going to show Berelain who's boss.

Berelain: Unbothered by the daggers that Faile is shooting her, because Galad is there, jumping off the diving board. She gets on a float and goes to the deep end to purposely knock herself off when Galad jumps to get his attention. "You make such big waves," she tells him.

Galad: Is so confused; he doesn't make waves when he dives. He perfected diving so long ago. Anyway, he enjoys what time he can before Morgase comes home. She never gave Elayne the okay to have this party, you know.

Rand: Enjoys himself more than he thought he would. Spends a good amount of time on a lounge chair under the umbrella. Gawyn made him a burger and Rand compliments him on how well he did it. Is confused as to why Gawyn throws the spatula down in a rage though.

Gawyn: Self-appointed grill master. That is, until al'Thor had to ruin it. He made that burger well-done on purpose because he thought al'Thor wouldn't like it like that, but he does anyway? Goes to assert his pool party dominance by doing a flip off the diving board. Belly flops.

Min: Amused that Gawyn belly flops. Figured that's what the red circle she saw over his head was about. Spends most of the time with Rand and Loial to read. Goes in the pool when the volleyball game starts.

Tuon: Went because Knotai is there, and she wanted to make sure he acted properly. The speedo was her idea. Waited five minutes after Egwene told her to go in the pool to actually go in, because it was her decision. Will not put her head under the water because she didn't want to get her hair wet. "She doesn't even have hair, is she crazy?" Elayne is heard asking.

Lan: He spent most of his time so far sitting at the edge of the pool, trying to tune everyone out. Decided that he couldn't anymore. It is time for the volleyball game.

Birgitte: Took so many pictures of Elayne for Elayne while she does all these poses on floats, at the edge of the pool, and on the pool deck. Sees Lan setting up the volleyball net and ditches Elayne to help him.

The game starts pretty friendly but then becomes incredibly competitive. It ends because Faile spikes the ball into Gawyn's face and leaves a red mark on him. "So that's what the red circle meant," Min is heard saying.

Lan and Nynaeve

THE WHEEL OF TIME

Lan and Nynaeve

THE WHEEL OF TIME

Episode three was interesting because the premise of the Accepted test is that the person being tested makes a choice. They face temptation and then choose. It felt like this rendition of the test turns this premise on its head.

Book Nynaeve makes a choice. She sees a fantasy of the life she imagines with Lan and then remembers the people she has a duty to and leaves.

Show Nynaeve chooses to live the fantasy. It’s only after her Lan is killed that she leaves. And yes there is guilt throughout the arches about having power but not using it when the world and people she loves need her to. But she chooses the fantasy instead. And then she is forced out of the fantasy. She watches her friends murdered then Lan murdered. And then she tries to leave with her fantasy child.

It’s not a choice to turn away from something she dreams of for her duty. It’s watching her dream die and then going through the arch.

I like that she comes back not because she chooses to face her responsibility to the world but because the arches show her that running from it will only lead to everyone she loves dying.

She feels very similar to Rand in this way. She is not yet choosing. She is recognizing that she has no choice. That choosing her selfish fantasy still leads to everyone she loves dying. So she has no choice but to fight.

It’s an interesting change, because if the test is at least in part about temptation then show Nynaeve fails. But then she gets another arch to go through once the dream is taken away. As if the pattern will not actually let her choose. Yes she chooses to walk through the arch but only after everything good about remaining has been taken away. There is a choice, but it is so limited as to only offer one real option at that point.

On a related note, I am happy so far with how Lan and Nynaeve are depicted this season. They got a little dramatic in 1x08. A lot of big feelings and declarations for two people who knew each other a month or two and slept together once (but Lan is the most dramatic so I suppose I can forgive it. And Nynaeve is having feelings for someone maybe for the first time in her life and that tends to make people dramatic).

Lan is rightly focused on his twenty year long relationship at the moment. And Nynaeve is dreaming about Lan in a way that feels so true to very early in a relationship. She fantasizes about him choosing her over Moiraine (without confronting the reality of loving someone who also loves another person deeply and intimately). She imagines Lan as a househusband in the Two Rivers (different from book Nynaeve who sees them in Malkier). She doesn’t know Lan well. Right now he is a person she can meld in her mind to her fantasy partner. In this episode this isn’t Lan. This is a fantasy Nynaeve has of a life she wishes for that she can’t have because the Last Battle is coming. Her Lan is not the person fighting since he was a child against the Dark. Her fantasy Lan is in this way the antithesis of Lan - willing to give up his sense of duty to the Light and his relationship with Moiraine.

Nynaeve’s Show Accepted Test is a mix of both her book Accepted test & test for the shawl. We see glimpses of that in her saying that she doesn’t want to have to choose between those she loves & the Tower but if she does have to choose she’ll choose love & helping others. All the show test teaches her is that what she can learn in the Tower is only her way of doing that. Her fear still remains being unable to protect.

“If HoTD makes Daemon and Nettles happen, is because the showrunners hate Daemon and want to paint him in the worst possible light.”

The thing is: this part of the narrative doesn’t paint Daemon in a bad light AT ALL. If anything, it’s what gave him a career as a “gray character with equal parts light and dark.” It’s what made Daemon sympathetic. George gave him a tragic romance arc (because of course he did, he’s George fave) and it’s pretty clear that’s what he intended for this part of their respective stories (Nettled and Daemon). All problematic aside (because it’s nearly impossible to have an asoiaf ship without it being problematic), Nettles and Daemon was never painted as something evil or scheming from his part. I dare say that, unlike his early on relationship with Rhaenyra when she was a teen, it wasn’t even written with the intention of portraying Daemon as grooming Nettles. Unlike some fans insist on saying, there aren’t any of the salacious details added in terms of their physical dynamic like there are for his grooming of Rhaenyra for example. In fact, quite the opposite. Their relationship, while detailed, is fairly tame in their description compared to that, and their interactions seemed to steam from a genuine connection. Daemon seemed to be very protective of her, seemed to be affectionate, and “dotted upon her”. People around them knew without a doubt he was “more than fond” of Nettles, even to the point of fearing what he could do if they came to harm her. It’s media illiteracy if you don’t see that, from all the accounts of the things Daemon did in his life, his relationship with Nettles is one of the few things that humanizes him.

The maesters did try to paint him in a bad light, but not in the way y’all want so hardly to believe it was. It wasn’t by sharing the account of his relationship with Nettles (or “making it up” a relationship between them as some of you want to believe) that they tried to give Daemon a bad reputation when it comes to her. Where they tried to do that was by implying things such as: that Nettles was not pretty, was dirty, was “unwashed”, was not young enough for the likes of him, wasn’t a maiden, wasn’t the type of woman he’d come to have any sort of relationship with… these were the maesters attempt in making him look bad (+ misogyny&racism against Nettles, but this is a whole other discussion for another post).

Because if the maesters didn’t say those things, then they would have to write it down that power hungry, warmonger Daemon Targaryen… FELL IN LOVE. And fell in love with a common lowborn girl nonetheless, one that did nothing to advance his political position, who didn’t bring any sort of advantage to him or his cause, a girl that apparently had nothing to offer or entice such an ambitious man. A brown girl with zero Valyrian looks, unlike all the others he got himself involved with in the books. So that meant that what he fell for her was simply… love. And that he chose her above his own life. That’s what the maesters were trying not to talk about.