SHIT, I took too long reading my books and THE GREAT HUNT returned itself ... seriously considering buying it on Libro.fm bc the library has an eleven week wait 🙃🙃🙃

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Rand said, "I didn't just come here. Egwene invited me into the women's apartments."
Nynaeve lowered her knitting and gave him an amused smile. "the Light help me, Rand, you are becoming more Shienaran every day. invited into the women's apartments, indeed." she sniffed.

not saying that Rand is trans, but I AM saying that Nynaeve is saying "trans rights" here

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book two: THE GREAT HUNT by Robert Jordan

far from pretending to be dead and shacking up with a Cairhienen innkeeper, Rand is still in Shienar with the other Emond's Fielders and Moiraine and Lan

we open on Rand and Lan doing sword training, and a wind that pins Rand in place up on the wall

this is totes a thing one can do with the One Power, but at this time there's no one near enough to have done it

Lan says "strange things happen this close to the Blight", which Rand takes to mean that he isn't taking this rogue wind seriously

he also says "with the Amyrlin Seat coming here, you would be better off being a week gone from this place", which Rand takes to mean that he's in serious trouble and that the Amyrlin Seat will gentle him, or worse

we also learn that Moiraine has been ignoring him

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I'm nearing the end of THE EYE OF THE WORLD and I'm trying to order my thoughts ... a lot of what I'm thinking touches on later stuff

but Rand "kills" "the Dark One" and Moraine STILL doesn't tell him he's the Dragon, as compared to in the TV show, where it's practically the first thing out of her mouth

like Moiraine [TV] is GOSSIPY compared to Moraine [book], and some of that has to be just the way modern TV shows are structured, like, she has to make it textual bc we don't have half a book of worldbuilding

but idk, bc they still could have had her keep it a secret from Rand, and frankly it makes her seem kind of ... incoherent

like, why does she work with Lanfear in season 2? they have to do this thing where he finds out she sent Logain to Cairhien so that he stops trusting her bc she was too trustworthy in season 1??? I guess???

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they really changed Machin Shin in the TV show, holy shit

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"a beggar¹." the innkeeper² grunted. "half mad, I hear. even so, he could take the Queen's Bounty at the Palace, even with things as hard as they are. on High Days, the Queen³ gives it out with her own hands, and there's never anyone turned away for any reason. no one needs to beg in Caemlyn."

so, first of all, BASED. however, it keeps going:

"even a man under warrant can't be arrested while he's taking the Queen's Bounty."

THAT'S RIGHT, Y'ALL ... someone WANTED for a CRIME can walk into the PALACE and take WELFARE from the QUEEN'S OWN HAND and then LEAVE AGAIN and NO ONE can arrest them!!!

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¹ Padan Fain! (though of course we don't know this yet)
² Basel Gil! good friend of Thom Merrilin and my favorite innkeeper
³ and it's always the Queen, bc Andor is always ruled by a woman

more changes that I don't mind/that make sense:

in the books, we follow Mat and Rand from Whitebridge¹ to Caemlyn, and see their journey in farm chores, juggling/flute playing in inns for room and board, and Darkfriends trying to kill them (with a sprinkling of Rand reacting to using the One Power)

it definitely makes sense to elide all of that into doing chores at one inn and one Darkfriend trying to kill them and one instance of channeling (but no reactions), but I didn't realize until I read the book that the inn and the Darkfriend were inventions of the TV show ...

like I guess it makes sense not to do the Four Kings in Shadow story, if you're also introducing Thom Merrilin (and additionally doing the Aiel in a cage thing), bc that story was already kinda involved

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¹ which is where Thom Merrilin tells them to run as a Fade is bearing down on him

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ELYAS!!!

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now for some changes #WheelOfTimeOnPrime made from the #WheelOfTime books that I DON'T like:

a) Moiraine: "No Aes Sedai can stand in the presence of a woman who can channel, or who is close to her change, and not feel it."
b) Moraine to Egwene: "Child, only a very few can learn to touch the True Source and use the One Power. Some of those can learn to a greater degree, some to a lesser. You are one of the bare handful for whom there is no need to learn. At least, touching the Source will come to you whether you want it or not. Without the teaching you can receive in Tar Valon, though, you will never learn to channel it fully, and you may not survive."
c) Mordeth, of Shadar Logoth

a & b are related and in fact come from the same conversation, but these changes have far-reaching consequences, not least of which is the weird way they decided to make suldam and damane work

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