#wotshow

Retro Rhuidean!

Right away, there were two potential scenes that came to mind when I thought of this prompt, because there were two sets of pairs that I felt like didn't get properly 'closed out' at the end of s3 and that I wish had gotten one scene each during 3x08.

The first is Rand & Aviendha.

We get a light but solid thoroughline for a lot of the season with them... and then no one-on-one interaction in 3x08. Especially since we had the 'open wound' of Alsera's death. Given that the show has generally leapt forwards in time between seasons, even if we'd gotten s4, we probably wouldn't have gotten that follow-up scene about Alsera between Rand & Aviendha, because the right time for it would have passed. Which is a shame, because the development of Rand and Aviendha's relationship was really good during the rest of the season -- we had the antagonism in 3x01 that Elayne helps quell, we had more antagonism and then some connection in 3x04, and then we had Aviendha being (reluctantly) impressed with how Rand behaves with Alsera. But we never really got a final endcap on that relationship growth -- Aviendha is just one of many Aiel who bow to him in the finale.

The other pair of characters who I felt didn't get a proper closure were Mat & Nynaeve.

We start out s3 with her promising to help him, and she follows through in the immediate episodes, but then Mat's storyline shifts to pair him up with Min, and we lose the thread of Nynaeve helping Mat. I think if we'd gotten to have Nynaeve (now unblocked) healing Mat at the end of s3, we could have closed out that thread too (or, if Mat ~mysteriously~ cannot be healed with the One Power, have her helping him in a Wisdom-healer way). I'm guessing this kind of scene also didn't make it in because they wanted to end Nynaeve on the 'high' of freeing her powers and not bring her back down to earth again but, yeah, their particular friendship felt very under-served by the finale.

Maybe I'm imagining the smile, but it would be funny if so. Rand was sent to dreamland to basically seduce Lanfear into sharing the plan, but she tells him only what she wants him to know.

So, the song from the books that I most wish we'd gotten to see on-screen would have most likely come in s4 -- Jak O' the Shadows. Probably a popular wish for book fans!

I feel like the show really could have made it a character-defining thing for Mat, to showcase him (the way that Hills of Tanchico gave us a great snapshot into College Spring Break Elayne, lol), and, of course, to let us hear Dónal Finn sing!

I feel like they could have given it either more of a 'soldiers' chant' vibe or more of a mournful hymn (like Pippin's song in Return of the King) or a rousing "hey we just survived" vibe. Lots of options!

I would have really adored hearing what the show did with it and what kind of vibe they would have gone with. What tune goes with the words could have really made a difference in the impression that viewers had of what the song meant (and the different varieties that we might have gotten for different occasions!).

I kept getting distracted when trying to place favorite characters in Ajahs and I think the source of that distraction is what I'd like to talk about.

Because I feel like Robert Jordan did a fantastic job of making the Ajah system contextual to the world that he created. Especially for the two Ajahs that we're told are the biggest - the Red & the Green.

The Red Ajah exist because of the Breaking of the World and how these Aes Sedai were forced to turn on their former comrades because the Dark One's corruption drove them insane. They aren't generic 'magic police'. They have such a world-specific context, and that makes placing people who don't exist inside that world tricky. They're particularly vulnerable to Black Ajah infiltration because Ishamael could more easily take their original purpose and twist it than he could with some other Ajahs.

The Green Ajah is similarly very world-specific - they are the Battle Ajah but are particularly meant to hold themselves ready for the Last Battle. Which is taking its sweet time arriving. So long, in fact, that the purpose of the Ajah has degraded and it's now seen more for its side benefits (extra Warders) than its original purpose.

There's also another complicating element - the way 'Might makes right' is woven into everything in the White Tower. A strong channeler (aka all of our main characters) is courted by the Ajahs, while a weak channeler must be the one doing the courting in order to be accepted by her Ajah of choice. So I would need to ask myself - how strong is this character in the One Power?

Plus, choosing an Ajah is more like choosing a college major, in a certain way - it's about expressing your area of focus, and not always about any inherent characteristics. Or someone with a Talent for Healing might still prefer to choose the Green Ajah because there are two Warders they're interested in bonding (those killer side benefits of being Green!).