WoT S1E3: A Place of Safety

[canyonwalker]

In WoT S1E3, "A Place of Safety", the main characters are split into three small groups following their escape from a deadly horror in the previous episode. They try to reunite while continuing their mission. Along the way they face new dangers as the reach of the Shadow grows.

In watching this episode I was struck many times by ways the streaming series diverges from the books. As I've noted before, different doesn't mean bad. I judge each change for how it helps or hurts characterization and the story. Some changes work pretty well! Here are Five Things about changes in S1E3:

1) I knew it! The sacred bath-cave appears again 🤣

I've expressed surprise at the sacred bath-cave of Emond's Field in S1E1. It's something totally out of left field that's not in the books. I knew that given the directors spent time and money creating it for one scene— showrunner Rafe Judkins has stressed in public conversations that there's a tight economy on how many locations can be portrayed, and lots of things from the books must be cut— that if they built it once they'd certainly use it again. And they do.

The bath-cave appears again in a flashback scene when Nynaeve explains to Lan how she escaped the Trollocs. One of the beasts caught her and dragged her off by the hair! That was a weird moment in S1E1 for us fans of the books in because we're like, "Wait! Nynaeve is a main character through the whole story! There's no way she can die in the first episode!"

This aligns with what I wrote early on what I start trying to figure out each time the show makes a departure from the books' basic sequence of events. How are they going to patch it back together without making wholesale changes to the story? Or will they make wholesale changes to the story? Putting Nynaeve in jeopardy for a few episodes creates narrative tension for non-book viewers (NBVs); folding her back into the story here manages not to turn things upside down— except having leaving us book viewers (BVs) wondering for a few episodes.

2) No Min? The problem of Jordan's long long game.

Rand and Matt arrive in a mining town and make up a cover story about having come from Baerlon. In the books they actually travel through Baerlon, with the whole group. It would've been in S1E2 before they entered Shadar Logoth. This is a notable omission because in Baerlon, in the books, they meet a woman named Min who 1) has a mystical power that provides information that drives character development with Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve; and 2) becomes an important character herself later on in the story.

The latter problem I believe they'll solve... eventually. One of the challenges in making this adaptation showrunner Judkins has talked about is Robert Jordan's penchant for introducing a seemingly throwaway character, action, or remark... only to have it take on major significance hundreds, or even thousands, of pages later. We rasfwrj'ers decades ago called this "ironic foreshadowing". As readers it was fun to discover. But to a TV producer it's infuriating. Judkins says that it's impossible to cast a good actress capable of playing a major character who only gets 1 scene then doesn't appear for two more seasons. I figure they'll introduce her later, and that'll be okay for item #2.

Omission #1, though... that one hurts. Min's revelation is not just that the villagers are Ta'averen— a word Moiraine used in S1E1 without explaining it— but that their fates involve different themes. Leaving this out hampers some of the enjoyable character development. The directors seem to be replacing this with the trope of "Any one of you might be the Dragon Reborn".

3) Thom Merrilin: different and, I think, better

Rand and Mat meet Thom Merrilin, a gleeman— the local term for a traveling minstrel— in the mining town I mentioned above. In the books Thom is introduced in Emond's Field, before the Trollocs attack and the group flees. I wrote before that, as a matter of pacing, it made sense to delay his intro. And my opinion's the same now. This is a good time to add Thom because of how he intersects with Rand's and Mat's character development.

The Thom we meet in the hardscrabble mining town is different from book-Thom, though. Streaming-Thom is harder edged. He treats Rand and Mat with tough love. They, in turn, aren't 100% sure they can trust him. I like that better than book-Thom, who's like a friendly uncle who goes along to protect the kids. Not being 100% sure whom you can trust is a more powerful narrative theme.

4) Darkfriend Dana was really well done

Dana the innkeeper who turns out to be a darkfriend was really well done. The show had me going that she was a no-nonsense young woman whom Rand and Mat won over with their Yin-and-Yang of earnest hard work (Rand) and rakishness (Mat). Then— WHAM! the knives come out.

While Dana doesn't exist in the books— does she? Things like this make me wonder about my recollection from 30 years ago— she's a good amalgamation of the dangers the villagers face from darkfriends who've been warned to be on the lookout for them.

5) When will they explain the wolves?

As Perrin and Egwene travel through the steppes they are pursued— or are they herded?— by wolves. Without trying to spoil things too much for NBVs I'll just say that the wolves are important... and not hundreds or thousands of pages later like Ironic Foreshadowing but, like, now. They're not doing justice to Perrin's character development by leaving it 99% a mystery what's happening here.