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#And even if the books don't give as much room to Egwene's trauma as Rand's it's always here
onaperduamedee · 9 months
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Heartbroken reminder that Egwene is 17 when she gets taken by the Seanchan, spends two months in captivity being tortured, used as a weapon and dehumanized. When she gets back to the Tower, she immediately passes a test that's not at all traumatic, nearly gets killed by a Grey Man and is sent on a secret mission to hunt murderers completely unsupervised. During this period of wandering, lacking direction, she naturally gets angrier and erratic, but Nyn and Elayne mostly treat it as childish rebellion against Nyn's authority, with Elayne slapping Egwene because she was mean to Nyn. When the girls eventually get captured because they are not equipped at all to hunt the Black Ajah, Egwene becomes so terrified of being taken again that she keeps on resisting the sisters long past it is sensible, earning a brutal beating from the sisters who throw her back into a cell, beaten to a pulp, with no hope for help this time.
Clearly, Egwene has no PTSD whatsoever.
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asha-mage · 8 months
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I've been reflecting on it for a few days and I think my problem with the assertion that Moiraine is 'taking' Siuan's scenes/character arc because she is having to navigate the world without the One Power is that it's like saying she's 'taking' Rand's character arc by driving those she cares for away as a trauma response and justifying it to herself with it being to 'protect' them.
Like, on one hand I get it. People are frustrated we aren't getting as much Siuan this season as they wanted, but I think it's jumping the gun to say that her arc is being handed to Moiraine, not least because I don't see Moiraine's lack of saidar lasting much longer.
The books are full of characters paralleling each other in interesting ways, and having mirroring sometimes directly matching story beats. It makes sense to give Moiraine a stronger arc, especially one that will parallel Siuan's later on: It fills in the space from Moiraine being absent for most of The Great Hunt, it touches on a lot of the key themes of the series (the relationship between people and power, the importance of duty, the strength of people to keep fighting even when all seems lost), and it will makes the events of the Shadow Rising and the Fires of Heaven a lot more impactful when they come to pass.
We already know Siuan's going to have a bigger role in season 3, and I'm not sure even if Sophie was available for filming more in season 2 that it would have been a good idea to include a whole arc for her. Already the show is jam packed right now, straining to accommodate all the entire cast, especially when you remember that COVID restrictions at the time where limited the number of people who could be in a given scene. Someone, likely several someones, would have had to be cut to make room for a Siuan arc this season: and likely not a minor character or an antagonist either. I don't know that the show would be better for it if we had less Perrin or Egwene in favor more Siuan, especially given it's far to early to do more then forehsadow her main plotline: the Tower Coup.
Basically, I wish people would trust the show runners more, especially when they have earned it by showing time and time again how much love and care they have for this series, and have some patience to let the story evolve the way they did with the books.
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