Wheel of Time: A Question of Crimson
March 17, 2025 11:02 AM - Season 3, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Elayne finds herself faced between choosing between two mothers, while Perrin, Loial, and the two shieldmaidens arrive in Edmond's Field to discover unexpected parties had arrived ahead of them. Elsewhere, those not back in Edmon's Field or in Tar Valon, make their way to the Three Fold Land.
Shohreh Aghdashloo joins the cast of WoT as the Red sister guiding Elayne's mother, Morgase, to victory in an Andoran war of succession.
TW: A preteen or close to that age is graphically murdered in the opening of this episode. Ooof.
Shohreh Aghdashloo joins the cast of WoT as the Red sister guiding Elayne's mother, Morgase, to victory in an Andoran war of succession.
TW: A preteen or close to that age is graphically murdered in the opening of this episode. Ooof.
The non-diegetic music is definitely dropping any reservations there may have been about exploring itself - almost distractingly so.
I also agree, the season needed to get the pieces moving to really find its form from the bucket of cold water opening episode. I enjoyed the meleé, but I pretty much only knew to route for Siuan, her lieutenant, and well, that was mostly it. I think they at least tried to center the Black Ajah members in the center around Liandrin to create some kind of spacial dividing line.
Somehow I completely missed that Aghdashloo's character was Elaida. That's awesome.
When we meet the Hunters for the Horn, I'm just, "Day late, sorry."
I unfortunately watched this episode and the next over the weekend and now they're somewhat blurring together. I'll wait a day, unless someone puts up the third episode sooner, to do so.
posted by Atreides at 12:33 PM on March 17
I also agree, the season needed to get the pieces moving to really find its form from the bucket of cold water opening episode. I enjoyed the meleé, but I pretty much only knew to route for Siuan, her lieutenant, and well, that was mostly it. I think they at least tried to center the Black Ajah members in the center around Liandrin to create some kind of spacial dividing line.
Somehow I completely missed that Aghdashloo's character was Elaida. That's awesome.
When we meet the Hunters for the Horn, I'm just, "Day late, sorry."
I unfortunately watched this episode and the next over the weekend and now they're somewhat blurring together. I'll wait a day, unless someone puts up the third episode sooner, to do so.
posted by Atreides at 12:33 PM on March 17
TW: A preteen or close to that age is graphically murdered in the opening of this episode. Ooof.
Yeah that opener was extremely yikes. I only watched the first two episodes of GoT and bounced off it very hard, but it felt like something out of that. It's been literal decades since I read the early books, but I don't remember Morgase being anything like that brutal.
posted by jedicus at 2:12 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
Yeah that opener was extremely yikes. I only watched the first two episodes of GoT and bounced off it very hard, but it felt like something out of that. It's been literal decades since I read the early books, but I don't remember Morgase being anything like that brutal.
posted by jedicus at 2:12 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
my dudes, I need more than a "previously on WoT" to get caught up with intrigue
I totally get where you're coming from but balanced against this is - they're compressing 15 books into who knows how many seasons.. not a lot of room for characters to do an expository recap.
posted by coriolisdave at 4:40 PM on March 17
I totally get where you're coming from but balanced against this is - they're compressing 15 books into who knows how many seasons.. not a lot of room for characters to do an expository recap.
posted by coriolisdave at 4:40 PM on March 17
Oh, see, it sort of felt like last season needed to have ... I dunno, the first half of this episode squeezed into it, somehow. I mean, it might be more accurate to how the book splits things up for all I know, but it feels like "ah hah! we did the thing! Huzzah! And now the white tower is being attacked! oh noes! See you next year on Wheel of Time!" would have been a workable ending point as well?
Anywho, this is the third season where they've dropped the first three episodes simultaneously, I suppose they've decided that that's the best, their viewers will binge and get caught up that way instead, which is fair enough.
posted by Kyol at 7:50 PM on March 17
Anywho, this is the third season where they've dropped the first three episodes simultaneously, I suppose they've decided that that's the best, their viewers will binge and get caught up that way instead, which is fair enough.
posted by Kyol at 7:50 PM on March 17
Shohreh Aghdashloo is such delightful casting for Elaida, who is a hard character to make tolerable, because she is The Worst. Absolutely The Worst. And watching that actress be The Worst is really a tremendous amount of fun so far!
I think the opener is exclusive to the show? I don't believe that's straight from the books? But I don't remember it particularly myself, because most of the detail we get about Andoran politics is from one of the much-later books that I have read exponentially fewer times than the early ones. (I reread the ones I had over and over until the new one came out, at least through book six or so, but after that I've only read them a few times. Yes, I was a bored hyperlexic teenager.)
posted by restless_nomad at 6:11 AM on March 18 [3 favorites]
I think the opener is exclusive to the show? I don't believe that's straight from the books? But I don't remember it particularly myself, because most of the detail we get about Andoran politics is from one of the much-later books that I have read exponentially fewer times than the early ones. (I reread the ones I had over and over until the new one came out, at least through book six or so, but after that I've only read them a few times. Yes, I was a bored hyperlexic teenager.)
posted by restless_nomad at 6:11 AM on March 18 [3 favorites]
Yes, I was a bored hyperlexic teenager.
This is probably true for most of us who were teens when WoT was regularly coming out!
I wonder if the writers really just wanted to make us alert to Elaida being awful from the get go versus her just showing up with the queen's retinue.
posted by Atreides at 10:34 AM on March 18
This is probably true for most of us who were teens when WoT was regularly coming out!
I wonder if the writers really just wanted to make us alert to Elaida being awful from the get go versus her just showing up with the queen's retinue.
posted by Atreides at 10:34 AM on March 18
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And yeah, once things actually started moving along it mostly starts answering its own questions, but I think that while modern streaming writers have learned that they can't leave on a cliffhanger (might not get renewed!), I'm not sure that ending the season with a big blowout so you can pick up the next season with another big blowout was much better? I mean, ending the season that way is fine - they'd had 8 episodes to lead up to it, we knew where all the pieces were, the storyline was coming to a head and go. But starting out with a big 18 way fight between barely memorable side-Sedai and ... ech yeah nice effects my dudes, and it's clear there's a fight for the tower or whatever, but who's a good guy and who's a bad guy and who's a turncoat? It's been 18 months, my dudes, I need more than a "previously on WoT" to get caught up with intrigue, y'know?
But once we got into the second episode and had a chance to breathe it started shaking out a bit. I guess that's why it was a 3 episode drop to start the season.
posted by Kyol at 12:05 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]