Goldeneyes! - Episode 7 Review: Wheel of Time Season 3

Here it is! The Battle of the Two Rivers! Here is my review of the episode Goldeneyes from Wheel of Time Season 3. Episode 7 wasn't my favorite, but I'll talk about what I liked, what I didn't, and what I would have liked to have seen differently and then I'll give the episode a score!

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[Phbalancedshorty]

Trust me, as a non-book reader we had plenty of time in the series to make local’s death extremely emotionally impactful 😢 the idea that he gave his life to keep the two rivers from being flooded with endless trolloc reinforcements and wiped off the map Was very emotionally satisfying to me

[bt]

All I could think during the last half of the episode was “Where are the effing wolves!??”

[jesscarver]

I see you Nae'Blis.
I offer my water and shade.

I agree with most of what you said.

However.
When Perrin lead the Two Rivers people in the Manatheran song, for the first time in all three seasons, I had goosebumps and was uncontrollably smiling.
Kind of like when I watch Smashing Pumpkins 1979 video.

[Neil-tdhr]

The reasons you point out as weaknesses are legitimate. The earlier episodes with Perrin was where some scenes you describe should have been placed. Also, I feel strongly that Perrin's reason for going back to the two Rivers should have been like in the books, trollocs have invaded it and Rand can't go so Perrin goes instead. The positives you speak of I totally agree.

[ianlanlanian]

you're always on point with explaining why we are missing the complete urgency and reason for the two rivers plotline to exist in general. They screwed that up from the beginning of the season on. Having said that, the actual battle itself was fine. I just think some decisions were weird, like having the darkfriends just up and leave. And for god's sake, can we stop constantly stabbing or shooting people to near death and having them be healed up? Alanna and Nynaeve are just pincushions at this point.

[Arianrhod]

I had a really hard time with this episode too. I haven't felt this way about the show since season 1. While the quality of the episode is definitely much better than season 1, it gave me that same sinking feeling in my heart. I love the books, and have really enjoyed this season, other than this one episode.

[tresto]

Padan Fain is such an intriguing character in the books (at least until Brandon Sanderson took over). But here, they have stripped him of all his interesting qualities (no dagger, no amalgamation of powers from both the Dark One and Shadar Logoth, etc).

In the books Padan Fain is a power to rival even the forsaken, but here he is just a whimpering darkfriend. If they weren't going to embrace his full qualities, then why bother even having him as a character in the show? It's such a shame because the actor is so talented.

[bennyflint]

The folks of the Two Rivers really got shortchanged in this episode. They didn’t actually win; the enemies retreated because of a deal struck by Perrin. And why not include Faile saving the day with the other Two Rivers villagers? Her leaving and subsequent return really help define her and Perrin’s relationship. It’s also the moment that the Two Rivers becomes more than just Emond’s Field. I love the show, but this was a missed opportunity.

[johnnygraz]

The lazy writing got to me this episode. Maksim has spent how long in the Two Rivers and he's just now learning they're good with bows? Loial's death seemed to be motivated by the writers being tired of the character and out of ideas for him. And where was Tam?? One way the books earned Perrin's leadership role was how the older generation deferred to him and took his orders.

And once again, the writers are trying to shove emotions at us rather than just writing something good and letting us decide how to feel about it.

This episode was everything wrong with the show packed into a single hour. 2/10

[proteuswest]

The things I didn't like:

Alanna getting another arrow fakeout death. Arrows kill other characters, but not her, which makes it feel like she has a lot of plot armor going on.

The choice to use the Hero of the Horn music during Loial's final moments. I have rarely had much problem with the musical choices in the show since it's such a strength, but I think it gives people an idea that Loial may mirror Uno, and since we already got a replay of it in 303 during Mat's fight, I think it's one of those things where that theme becomes less effective the more it gets used. The callbacks to the Manetheren theme from 102 are great and relevant, but this, not so much.

Everything else, including the decision to give Loial a sacrificial death, was really good to me. Loial, Bain, and Chiad really got to shine in this episode, Perrin and Faile are amazing, I loved how they integrated the Tinkers and connected it so directly with 304, and even though I didn't like how they repeated beats with Alanna, I did appreciate how the Two Rivers was left to fight the battle on their own, showing the strength of the old blood. And I am never going to complain about any episode where Eamon Valda dies, especially since it was such an apt way for him to go, given what we've seen of him even back to 102.

[ScorpioNick]

This episode felt like a return to the first season. Loial might live through the magic of plot, but they've done this before with the Shadar Logoth dagger which should have _more_ _than_ killed him. So at this point, I consider him an immortal character. I never once worried about Alanna either.

The Cauthon girls killing the Questioner is... 'cool', 'badass' whatever, but how did they learn this in such short time? They wanted to go train in the Tower, but Alanna apparently doesn't want this? It goes against Tower law/custom/policy. Maybe she knows of the current turmoil there somehow; I might've forgotten.

I see too many comments talking about how 'badass' and 'epic' some scenes were. That's nice, but I'm starting to feel like WoT is getting the Transformers treatment where it's more spectacle than anything.

But I will say this: to anyone saying it's 'destroying the books', that's dumb. The books cannot be changed, and will always be as enjoyable as they've been, no matter what this TV show does.

[gokbay]

To add something, I liked the "we bury our dead and move on" call back to Rhuidean. As well as the book reference with one of the Darkfriends being named Sheaine.

That said I do agree that the lack of build-up with Perrin was very much an issue and will agree that this is probably the weakest episode of the season (I could add "so far" but hopefully the finale won't be worse). Loial dying I am not happy with but I could understand and live with it. And tbh I think letting him stay death and missing him in the rest of the story would probably be better than bringing him back and making this yet another fakeout death.

[dusty]

I love how passionate you are in your love of the characters and their arcs. Perrin's story was hurt all the way back in season one when they needlessly had him be married and be responsible for the death of his wife. It has had some good points but overall it has been a weak point of the show. I personally don't think the actor playing has the magnetism to pull of the role. Nothing to do with the look of the character but just doesn't eat up screen time like a character of his magnitude should. Been a subscriber from the beginning and glad you have kept with it. Thanks for the great content.

[Sirchud]

All very valid points,
I’d give it a bit higher score but you made some very valid points

[BastiaanOlij]

Totally agree. I understand that skipping the stone of tear story line moved Perrins growth till later, I was expecting that growth to happen during his time in the Two Rivers. But if that happened, it all happened off screen. There is no payoff here, no justification, for why he suddenly became a leader and became respected.

That said, I did enjoy this episode for the most part, there was a lot of good in it. Its just overshadowed by Perrins miraculous journey to becoming a leader. If you take that as something that happened off screen and you imagine the missing scenes preceding this episode (indeed scenes like Padan Fain murdering his family), the episode works a lot better. So maybe its not this episode that was meh, it was the lack of preceding setup.

Killing off Loial at the end is unforgivable though, that just felt unnecessary.

[BaalsMistress]

Most of @Nae'Blis criticisms I can get behind. More exposition and buildup would have been great.

With respect to book vs TV Show differences, I long ago came to view the Books and TV Show as different turnings of the wheel; The characters have huge similarities, the story rhymes, the journey has the same starting point, many of the same waystations and the same destination, but the paths wander.

[trashak]

Killing Loyal was definitely a strange move. We know they have no time/budget to show steddings and etc, so they didn't know what to do with Loyal, but instead of killing him, they could have leave him destroying the gates and jumping on the other part of the ways, as characters did somewhere in the books. And finish the scene with him running in the darkness searching the way somewhere closer to stedding, so we know he is alive and just wondering on the ways or went to Stedding

[Yarazin]

Its difficult to get past how dirty I think they have done Perrin in the adaption. Otherwise its fine, though its amazing how quick people learn how to channel in this.

[SamanthaAskew-dzvf]

My husband really loved this episode and was so surprised by how upset I was. I had a very hard time with this episode. There were so many things I started out the episode enjoying, but Loial dying took me right out of it. I couldn’t even process the rest of the episode after that. I will go back and watch it again with fresh eyes and new expectations. This season has been amazing so far. I’m just really devastated right now

[jonathonwhitington]

I understand the criticisms and I mostly agree with then, but to say it's as bad (or even close to it) as the season 1 finale is absolutely crazy to me. I don't think it's anywhere near that bad.