cottchad

This is one of the most important, profound and best written parts of the books, and it needed to be that for the show. They have absolutely achieved what I didn't think was possible. Going into it, I said the most important thing was to give this episode time with each scene/vision and they did that. I felt the magnitude of every scene just as much as in the books. Every vision got to breathe. Josha absolutely killed it by giving each of his ancestors nuance and character. The direction and cinematography were outstanding. Rafe wrote a beautiful episode that's going down as an all-time great.

Admittedly, the first two seasons only truly feel like The Wheel of Time *some* of the time. This season so far has far surpassed the first two, and this episode in particular IS The Shadow Rising. It genuinely feels like I'm in the WoT world and the plot of the first 20 or so chapters of the fourth book were put to screen in a mostly accurate way. Even scenes that are show-original, still feel directly influenced by the books. To be able to say that the essence of the world, these characters and the story are being captured so well is shocking. The WoT is a massive undertaking and the first two seasons were certainly rough around the edges, but this season so far has proven that the same as the books, this is show is only going to get better. This season is going to be a masterpiece.