rationalnerd62

[rationalnerd62]

Every year in April, a little (not so little) convention opens its doors in Atlanta to the Wheel of Time (and other fantasy-verses) nerds. For the first time ever, all of the Queers of Time co-hosts will be there (it'll also be the first time we'll ever meet in person lol). As you can imagine, we are very *hyped* about it - which is the topic of our newly released episode, "Be There or Be Straight".

[rationalnerd62]

Today's the day! We were honored to interview NYT Bestselling author F.T. Lukens on their latest queer fantasy romance novel, 'Otherworldly.' Check out the interview and grab yourself a copy! We had a ton of fun reading the novel and interviewing FT 🌈

#it was a fun interview #ft was delightful #and Otherworldly is a great read #im not over that third act myth #queer books #otherworldly #ft lukens

[rationalnerd62]

While we're a queer podcast that initially started with a focus on the Wheel of Time, we have expanded on plenty of other topics, especially other queer media.

Our last episode, "Sorry, We're Going A Little Bit Off Topic Here", is revisiting a classic queer movie, "But I'm A Cheerleader". Join us to enjoy how incredibly campy and delightful this movie is!

[rationalnerd62]

Now that I'm slowly recovering (or at least trying to recover) from A Desolation Called Peace (what do you mean, it's a DUOLOGY?!), can I talk about how much Three Seagrass is such a mood? Our girl spent at most one week with Mahit in the first book, and after that she cannot even stand a few months at her desk job before she randomly decides to take an assignment at the edge of the Empire just so she can make a stop in Lsel and see her girl-who-isn't-her-girl. Professional simp behaviour, I can only respect that.

Not that Mahit is much better, Ma'am "yes you've been flirting with your cultural liaison since day one".

I'm still kinda mad about ADCP's ending, in most part because so much could still be said about those characters, but let's be real. I don't think that LDR / "I'd write back. All the time." will last long before one of them does something ridiculously gay like uhauling or whatever the space lesbians do.

#arkady martine #a memory called empire #a desolation called peace #mahit dzmare #three seagrass #mahit dzmare x three seagrass #yes three seagrass still has plenty of growth to do wrt f up cultural superiority #and mahit has a big career/life goal crisis in progress #but they have all the time in the world to figure it out #and i can be okay with that #still would love more teixcalaani books though

[rationalnerd62]

I’m back on A Desolation Called Peace and I cannot stress enough how much this book goes back and forth between “Mahit Dzmare, complicated feelings about political entities” and “Three Seagrass, professional simp and problematic product of her environment” and “Eight Antidote, the love of my life a perfect adorable child I want to protect him he has an attitude this is the only child whose perspective I ever want to read from”

[rationalnerd62]

It’s that magical time of the year so what better to celebrate than with that most magical number—that’s right, it’s our 69th episode! Casual Queerness in Season 2 of The Wheel Of Time. Check it out 😍

Available where ever you get your podcasts!

#the wheel of time #queers of time #zero spoilers for the books #come and enjoy the gay stuff #siuaraine #maksim ihvon alanna #everything else

[rationalnerd62]

I still can't believe that I thought we would have *two* Siuaraine kisses after watching the S2 trailer (why put everything in the trailer, after all), and instead we got a divorce 😤🤣.

Anyway, if you're into gays talking about gay stuffs in WoT, you should check out our podcast! All of our TV show episodes start with a book spoiler-free discussion for show-only viewers. For this episode, it's more than an hour of gay mess to brighten your day 🥰.

Episode 62 of our podcast has everything to please: a cursed title, plenty of chaos, and a very lengthy discussion of what the hell happened between Moiraine and Siuan in Episode 207 of The Wheel of Time. "I Don't Need The Dick Noise With It" is now available wherever people listen to podcasts.

#queers of time #wheel of time #this podcast is my baby #and im proud of it #this title is obviously James' fault #but gosh i love them #my co-hosts are the best 🥺

[rationalnerd62]

Our discussion about s2e5 is now available wherever you can listen to podcasts! As always, the first part does not contain any WoT book spoilers...

Between a very sexy and corruptable Dain Bornhald, dominatrix mommy Lanfear, and the maiden who speared our hearts, The Wheel of Time Season 2 continues to give. In fact, it's so good that even some of the most vocal critics are accidentally stumbling into quality opinions on the show. What's not to love? Well, unless you're Egwene. Maybe if she were the strongest channeler we've seen in a thousand years, she wouldn't be in this situation. But anyway, it's time for us to discuss episode 5--Damane.

[rationalnerd62]

So um...maybe I went a little unhigned after watching episode 2.07 and wrote a whole piece about how it could make sense for Siuan to believe that Moiraine (and Lan?) have turned to the dark?

First of all, I should preface this by saying that I don’t 100% believe that this is what happened, or that this is the thought progress Siuan went through, but it seems at least plausible? Many have suggested that seeing Moiraine channel is what made Siuan believe that she could be a darkfriend, and that would explain Siuan enforcing the sacred oath despite Moiraine's pleas, but it didn’t sit right with me as the only explanation because Moiraine never directly told her that she was stilled, and therefore did not directly lie to Siuan about it.

But taking a few steps back and looking at the whole episode, and even the previous episode, and considering the possibility that the seed of doubt had been sown in Siuan from the moment Lan told her Moiraine had been stilled for months, it started to make more sense to me how the episode could unfold the way it did. Maybe I’m giving more credit to the writers than what they deserve and this is not what really happened at all, but it was an interesting thought experiment to go through.

Now, starting from episode 6. Siuan has been corresponding with Moiraine for 6 months after the Eye of the World, and not once has Moiraine even hinted at being stilled. Lan then appears out of the blue one night to stop her carriage, telling her that Moiraine has been stilled ever since taking Rand to the Eye of the World.

Now, that simply does not compute for Siuan. Her and Moiraine keep secrets from everyone else but never from each other. For 20 years they have shared this mission and the Moiraine she knows would not keep something so big from her, or so she had thought. 

So what does mean for Siuan? Either Moiraine has been stilled for six months and she hasn’t said anything to Siuan about it, or something even more sinister happened at the Eye of the World and the Dark One somehow got to Moiraine.

For the first time in her life, Siuan has to seriously doubt Moiraine, and by extension she also has to doubt Lan: because why is Lan the one to tell her that Moiraine has been stilled? If it’s a lie, of course it makes sense to send Lan to tell it, because if Moiraine herself was caught in a lie, it would immediately be obvious that she has broken the three oaths.

And so Siuan arrives in Cairhien, with 14 Aes Sedai in tow, because she doesn’t know what she is dealing with and whether she is entering a trap or not. She needs to see Moiraine, alone, to determine where they stand, but she can’t go there without reinforcements and a back-up plan.

It’s telling that she doesn’t disclose to the other Aes Sedai why they are there. As she tells Liandrin: “We’ll have to wait and see.” Even Siuan isn’t sure at this point what she will need the 14 Aes Sedai for, if for anything other than show. It will depend on her meeting with Moiraine.

Then she meets Moiraine, and immediately opens with “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me you’d been stilled?” because that’s what it all boils down to.

She desperately wants to believe Moiraine and needs to hear her explain why she has not communicated this monumental thing to her before, but she finds Moiraine distant and defensive. They are alone but Moiraine isn’t talking to her. She is avoiding answering anything and is in fact countering Siuan’s questions with questions of her own (an effective way to avoid having to lie) and no matter how closely Siuan is looking (and she is looking very closely) she cannot glean the answers from Moiraine that she’s looking for.

As a last resort, she approaches Moiraine and tries to directly appeal to the love they share, the mission they share together and Moiraine visibly flinches under her touch before surrendering to it.

The change that has happened in Siuan's expression by the end of the “interview” is noticeable:

She still may not fully believe that Moiraine has pledged herself to the Dark, because that would be a huge leap, but it’s an option she now has to take very seriously and act accordingly.

Next she has to meet Rand. She is in no mood to have a real conversation with him, nor give him a pep talk like she did to Nynaeve and Egwene. She just needs to find out what she can and learn if Moiraine has actually held any part of their deal and taught him how to channel - the answer: she has not. Rand is completely useless and unprepared, which happens to be hugely convenient for the Dark One.

Siuan now knows what she must do: the Dragon Reborn must be separated from Moiraine, for the sake of the mission, if there is any chance that Moiraine is now a darkfriend (and maybe for Moiraine’s sake as well, because maybe things are not as bad as they seem and there is still something that can be salvaged) and at the moment, the best action Siuan can see before her is to fall on Tower protocol, especially, as Siuan has found during her interview with Rand, the Dragon Reborn is still weak and easy to control. They had tried their way and it now seems to have cost her Moiraine. What else is there to do now but try the other approach?

When Moiraine enters the room again, Siuan meets her, not as her lover, but as the Amyrlin: cold and detached.

When Moiraine asks “have you forgotten that day” it clearly affects Siuan. She has not forgotten. But has Moiraine?

“Of course I’ve not forgotten, but YOU were supposed to be with him”

Now, it’s unclear to me if Moiraine is imprisoned with Rand, or if she is there with him by her own will, but clearly she is at least under surveillance. Leane tells Verin not to let Moiraine get close to her, implying that Moiraine is now considered a threat. Presumably these are  instructions from Siuan.

Things are already bad, but they are about to get worse, and confirm Siuan’s worst fears which she still might not have fully allowed herself to believe.

Lanfear is on the loose, and Moiraine and Rand escape. Verin seems to be in on it too. The person that Moiraine recently spent several months with. (I’m not sure if Siuan knows that's where Moiraine was, but since she and Moiraine did correspond during those months, I assume Siuan was aware of her whereabouts.) It doesn’t look good.

Siuan rushes to find Moiraine and Rand because it’s now of paramount importance that they don’t leave the town together. The best case scenario remains that Moiraine has simply lost her mind due to being stilled, but the worst case, and now a seemingly very possible scenario, is that she could be worse than that. But still, Siuan has not let go of all hope and she goes alone to deal with the woman she loves - to try one more time to either reason with her or stop her by force.

She finds her at the waygate and arrives just in time to see that it’s Moiraine - the supposedly stilled Moiraine - who has opened it. Whatever hope she was still clinging onto is gone.

“You lied to me about being stilled.”

Moiraine denies it but what value do her words have anymore if she has pledged herself to the Dark and broken her oaths?  And she looks utterly unhinged too. This is not her Moiraine.

But also Siuan can’t play her hand and directly accuse her of being a darkfriend because what good would that do? If she is a darkfriend she can lie, so her words are worth nothing.

But there is another oath that Moiraine has made directly to Siuan. Maybe that’s been broken too, but it’s all Siuan has now.

Moiraine is begging her not to, and it’s almost enough to break Siuan’s resolve, but she can’t know anymore what Moiraine’s motivation is. Is she begging her not to enforce the oath because it’s wrong, or because it would reveal that she is no longer bound by it, or maybe there is even a possibility that she still is bound by this oath because her deal with the dark one only included freeing her from the three oaths of the Aes Sedai, and now being commanded by Siuan would simply prevent her from taking the Dragon Reborn to Ishamael?

Siuan's command works and it hurts her more than anything to watch Moiraine being moved against her will by a force she cannot resist, but maybe there’s also some relief in seeing that the oath is still in place. Maybe, just maybe, Moiraine has not turned to dark after all?

When Siuan looks at Moiraine after the deed is done, she sees  her Moiraine again and she is beyond sorry for what she has just done. There is a fleeting moment where things could have been said and misunderstandings cleared, but it's too short. There is not time, because Lanfear appears before any of those things can happen.

Siuan doesn’t have any answers yet, but one thing she knows is that she’s not going to let Lanfear go unopposed. It was a valid effort but completely useless. Siuan gets tossed aside as easily as she herself had just knocked out Lan.

Now, I don’t know how Siuan interprets the last things she sees before passing out, whether she believes now that Moiraine remains true to the mission and can appreciate the fact that Moiraine having managed to win Rand’s trust is a good thing. She is awake to see Lanfear about to attack Moiraine, and to see Rand stand between them, which should suggest that Moiraine and Lanfear are not working together, but then Moiraine does go with her to the ways, so it’s open for interpretation I guess, but that doesn’t really matter in the sense that it’s something that must be dealt with later. What matters more is what Siuan believes up until the moment she forces Moiraine to close the gate.

If this is what happened, it kind of makes sense to me. But I guess only time will tell what the real story is.

#it breaks my heart #but that totally could be it #moiraine x siuan #siuan sanche #moiraine damodred #wot show spoilers

[rationalnerd62]

Hilarious that this post has recently taken off for a completely different fandom right when the Wheel of Time fandom is having a crisis about Siuan Sanche. And she's black on top of being a woman, so complexity, what complexity?

(Although in that case the "she was just doing what she thought was best for the people she loved" should be replaced by "she was just doing what she thought was best for the mission her and her lover have put above anything else including their relationship for the past two decades because that mission involves saving the world")

Oh your girlfriend? yeah sorry she made one mistake and now the fandom hates her. yeah they're calling her a terrible character. oh definitely, they miss the entire point of her character arc, they really don't understand how it works in the story. yeah if she was a male character her flaws would be chalked up to moral complexity, no sorry, they're writing essays about how she should be held more accountable for her actions even though she was just doing what she thought was best for the people she loved and-

#wheel of time #siuan sanche #moiraine damodred #wot on prime #siuaraine #wot show spoilers

[rationalnerd62]

Here's what I'll say about Siuan for right now, since their are still a lot of unknowns floating in the air: I think her actions in this episode are largely in accord with her book characterization no matter which way the show breaks on certain details.

Siuan's central character flaw in the books, the thing that largely leads to her downfall, is her default response to most problems being to exert raw force and control. It was how she handled the Hall of the Tower which allowed opposition to coalesces around Eladia and Alviarain, it was how she handled Gawyn creating a resentment in him that would drive him to side against her during the coup, and how she forced Min to remain in the Tower against Min's wishes which was the catalyst for Eladia realizing she could strike against Siuan at all.

And it's what Siuan does in this episode when confronted with a problem she does not have another way to deal with. Moiraine is with holding information from her? Go to Cairhien herself and seize the tiller of events with her own hands. Rand is running wild, derelict in his duty? Take him captive and bring him to the Tower where at least he will be under her eye and safe from the Forsaken. Moiraine is attempting to abscond with him as a result? Cut off her avenue of escape by any means necessary, even if it means damaging her personal relationship with Moiraine, possibly forever.

And that's the other thing to keep in mind: Siuan, like Moiraine, fundamentally does not trust anyone except her partner in conspiracy. She can't. For twenty years she's been on a quest that will lead to her stilling and execution if it is ever discovered. She and Moiraine are each other's confidants and allies, their deepest and most important loves. But even in the books Moiraine is withholding information from Siuan out of a sense of greater good. The difference is that in the show Siuan becomes aware of it in the show and of course she begins to doubt and loose trust in Moiraine as a result.

In her mind she has gone almost at once from being a partner, one half of a team that trusted in and depended on each other, to being on her own against the storm. If Moiraine didn't tell her about being stilled, what else might she be holding back? And if she is stilled, then realistically, how much good can she do for their cause now? How can she keep Rand safe from himself and the Forsaken, prepare him for what's coming, when she might not live another year? And that agony- that pain that the person she trusts and loves most didn't just betray that trust but also might not be around long enough for Siuan to be mad even be mad at her- has to be put aside because the mission, the duty, is everything to Siuan, just like with Moiraine. The stakes are too high for anything else.

So she falls back on the safety net of the Tower's traditions and secret plans. Take Rand to the Tower, keep him safe, prepare him for what's coming and trust to the Light for the rest. Take away his agency for his own good and the good of the world (something it should be noted she's wistful for the ability to do in TSR when she wishes she could keep hiim from a learning a word of the Prophecies, which is the same scene where she outright admits to Min she intends to try and control him in), and bring him firmly under her thumb. And what does Moiraine do? Enlist the aid of one of the Forsaken to break Rand free and flee to Falme through a Waygate, which is at best an INSANELY risky and potentially very stupid play, and at worst tacit confirmation of her worst fear, that Moiraine has gone over to the Shadow, and everything is on the brink of being lost.

And where does that leave Siuan? Isolated and alone and with no other fallback by her same response: to keep exerting raw force, to pressing the spring down until it snaps.

#all of this #Siuan isn't perfect #but the error she makes here aren't so far from the books #it makes sense for her to doubt Moiraine #and it leaves a lot of opportunities for growth #she has much to learn from will come before her #and that's ok #WoT on Prime #Wheel of Time #wot book spoilers #siuan sanche

[rationalnerd62]

Not gonna lie. The more I think about it, the more I like how ruthless Siuan is in s2e7 😅. Sure, using Moiraine's oath this way is shitty (although she never asked Moiraine to swear such an oath in the first place), but compared to book-Siuan? Book-Siuan sent three Accepted to hunt for the Black Ajah, she put an 18 years old on a very unstable Amyrlin Seat just because she thought that'd give them bonus points with the Dragon Reborn and that it'd be ready to manipulate her, and she casually offered to assassinate a Novice that is causing Egwene troubles. She's a lot more morally grey than we saw in s1, and even if I'm still cautiously waiting to see how Moiraine and Siuan's journeys will go during the full show, I'm glad they're establishing that she isn't just someone following whatever plan Moiraine wants to do. She has her own agency, and if that leads to bad judgement calls, well... At least it'll leave her some space to grow.

#wot book spoilers #wot show spoilers #the wheel of time #siuan sanche #moiraine damodred #siuanraine #siuraine #siuaraine

[rationalnerd62]

Listen. Every book reader who likes Siuan has to admit her characterisation falls apart as the books go on. She goes from badass to someone that is head over heels for some bland general who makes her do laundry and bring some rope in the middle of the Last Battle, when she's supposed to be a goddamn good tactician.

I'd rather for the show to do the opposite: start with mistakes, and have her character grow from them.

She fought with swords as Moiraine did against Ishy. She doesn't trust Moiraine to still do her mission well because she didn't tell her for months that she had lost access to the One Power, and stilled channelers are known for being suicidal and not great with rational decisions (ooooh, the pain it will be when Siuan gets stilled). She doesn't know Rand even trusts Moiraine (but now she knows). Also she watched Moiraine channel after being told she was stilled, and Moiraine just followed Lanfear into the Ways.

The difference with Elaida is that using the oath hurts Siuan as much as it hurts Moiraine. She will remember that, and both be mad at Moiraine and scared and in pain and sorry and everything. Also Moiraine threatened Lan to transfer his bond, so really both Moiraine and Siuan are doing crazy desperate things this season.

Maybe seeing Siuan this desperate will explain why she's throwing three Accepted on the hunt of the Black Ajah. Cause that was a crazy desperate move from Book Siuan that surely didn't have the same set-up as here, when Siuan basically did the same thing as Moiraine: sacrificing everyone she held close to her heart for what she thought was the greater good.

I'm sorry but I'm feeling so frustrated and upset with what they've done with Siuan's character.

YES, it's an adaptation. AND YES, adaptations change things.

BUT the show has made changes to Siuan's character that are FUNDAMENTALLY opposed to her character in the books, and often the EXACT OPPOSITE decision that she made in the books.

They gave Siuan's scene about a sword of air not being much use to Liandrin, and have her use blades of air to defend herself-- which causes her to immediately lose when face to face with Lanfear. She literally makes the mistake that she warns against in the books.

In the books, she lets Rand go and trusts the pattern and is deposed and stilled for it. She undermines Tower norms and risks everything for it. In the show, she scoffs at Moiraine's trust in fate and tries to cage Rand because it's Tower law. Literally the opposite of her attitude and actions under almost exactly the same circumstances.

She controls Moiraine with the oath. Setting aside the fact that they completely brushed aside the sacred way in which (non-BA) Aes Sedai view the oaths (and the fact that it took a hunt for the Black Ajah to do any sort of experimentation with it). It also is diametrically opposed to the way that Siuan and Moiraine trust each other to do their part in preparation for the Last Battle in the books.

AND in case of the last two points, do they remind you of anyone? Someone who was in direct opposition to Siuan and the choices she made? They literally made her Elaida. Elaida wanted to trap Rand and control him. Elaida wanted to have Sisters swear a personal oath to her. What is the point of this?

An adaptation can make changes, of course, but you have to weigh the changes you make in plot and characterization and choose carefully. Characterization is especially delicate. People can tolerate and enjoy the same characters being put in different situations (see AU fanfictions) but when you change who the character is at their core, people get rightfully frustrated that you put the name of their beloved character on a different person (see reactions to OOC).

#wot show spoilers #wot book spoilers #moiraine damodred #siuan sanche #siuaraine #siuraine

[rationalnerd62]

We used Tumblr for three days then forgot it even existed? But our s2 coverage is still ongoing, so if you ever want to listen to some gays talk about the Wheel of Time show, well, we're there. And by there, I mean on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and every other place where you would potentially listen to a podcast.

All of our TV show episodes contain a first part with zero book spoilers, for the show-only viewers out there, and a second part where we talk about Easter eggs and other funny foreshadowing moments the show is doing. Hoping some folks will check it out!

[rationalnerd62]

Knifewifes: Slay Together Stay Together

1x08 || 2x06

[rationalnerd62]

Both Marisha AND Laura being shocked by their characters' path to romantic entanglement is so fucking funny. This is peak disaster lesbian/sapphic shit lol

[rationalnerd62]

The 50th episode of Queers of Time is out!

Throughout its 121-episode run, Glee was a show that, at its best, was a cultural touchstone that blew open doors for queer representation and what it could be. The other 115 episodes were a mixed bag ranging from cringe to cursed. So much cursed. In celebration of 10,000 downloads, we told y'all that we would subject ourselves to one of the worst episodes of Glee. And today we've picked one of those episodes, "The End of Twerk."

God help us. Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

#queers of time #glee #new release #we suffered