It's like the fight scene they show with Moiraine & Lan at the end that looks like they are defending Emond's Field from the Trollocs, but Moiraine calling down a lightning storm. Nothing WRONG with that and it looks cool, but for Moiraine to singlehandedly save the village (instead of just a lot of individual lives and that as much with her Healing as her lighting or fireballs) undercuts the Two Rivers folk and at the same time exceeds her own limits. If she can save the village, why do they spend the whole book in her company running and hiding? Why do they have to take the incredibly dangerous Ways out of Caemlyn? Even if there are more Trollocs around Caemlyn, there are many more sisters in the city, not to mention a significant military presence. Why can't Moiraine and the sisters there with Logain defend the city from the Trollocs gathering in the countryside? Because the reality is, Moiraine was not that powerful, she could handle a couple of Trollocs in a skirmish, but she's not a WMD.
Moiraine, firstly, doesn't raise a storm. She brings down a single filament of lightning, as far as we see.
Later in EotW, she brings down a steady drumbeat of lightning and thunder at the Whitecloak camp, and of course, before they enter Shadar Logoth, she uses walls of Fire and crests a crazy earthquake to destroy hundreds of Trollocs.
What held her back in Emond's Field, and that seems to hold in the show, correctly, is she didn't want to destroy the village in the process of destroying the Trollocs. In Shadow Rising, we see that with the Trollocs massed, Verin and Alanna cut loose and do a lot of damage, though not having a powerful angreal like Moiraine's and being somewhat weaker, and probably less experienced than her on this front, they're somewhat less impressive in their abilities.
So I think it's wrong to think Moiraine is somehow constrained to a few-on-one dynamic with the Trollocs. She can absolutely take on a band or two, given the right conditions, and end them in a few moments. That holds up based on everything else from the books, too. Agelmar saying that a single Sister is worth a 1000 lances isn't wrong. If anything, it is an understatement, in a situation where the Aes Sedai is just facing an advancing army head-on and can simply unleash slaughter. We saw that with the Aes Sedai who kidnapped Rand against the Shaido. They absolutely had that very large army stalled before Rand started thinning their numbers.
In the Two Rivers, Moiraine fought at the Green, as we see in the show. There's nothing surprising with her and Lan simply owning the battle, there. The Two Rivers folks showed bravery in their own homes. What Moiraine couldn't do is what Rand does at the stone: channel all the energy available to her in such a precise way that lightning strikes every Trolloc in the vicinity, whether in sight, or not.
Moiraine could, and did, destroy any Trolloc she could see. And the show seems to hold true to what's described in the books:
“Moiraine?” Rand said incredulously, and the Mayor nodded. “Mistress Moiraine. And Master Lan was a whirlwind with that sword of his. His sword? The man himself is a weapon, and in ten places at once, or so it seemed. Burn me, but I still wouldn’t believe it if I couldn’t step outside and see. . . .” He rubbed a hand over his bald head.
That scene is pretty much straight from the books. Dunno why you're so bent out of shape about it
*NM*
*NM*
- 09/09/2021 07:23:11 PM
137 Views