TV Series The Wheel of Time

And you should absolutely watch Game of Thrones. It is disappointing how it was ended and it does go a bit off the rails in the final two seasons when they rush to tie everything up by jamming so much into every episode without proper story development and distances that once took characters entire seasons to cross they were now traveling from scene to scene in the same episode. Still though there were some really great episodes in the final 2 seasons. The first 3 episodes of Season 8 might be the best 3 episode stretch of the series. That 4th episode of the final season is so ridiculously bad though it is easily the worst in show history.
I'm actually just not really into TV shows with extremely rare exceptions (South Park, Arrested Development on DVD back in the day, Archer and X files is about all I've gotten into in the last 20 years). Don't really have time to get into TV shows; maybe I'll check it out some day when I'm retired...

But I spent many, many years of my life reading WoT books, and it's probably my favorite fictional story of all time. That's why I'm gonna make time for this one. In a series with almost 5 million words, these characters almost become like people you know just by virtue of sheer volume.

 
I watched the first episode. The Moiraine Damodred character doesn't come to life at all. Unimpressive performance, so this will be a difficult watch for me. But I like fantasy, so will watch it anyway
 
Re: episode 4

Just like the books: this is a slow burn. They're setting the groundwork for a lot of future stuff & explaining a lot more of the intricacies of the Aes Sedai and the White Tower.

Can't remember if they changed anything major in the story for time because it was so long ago I read the books.
 
Re: episode 4

Just like the books: this is a slow burn. They're setting the groundwork for a lot of future stuff & explaining a lot more of the intricacies of the Aes Sedai and the White Tower.

Can't remember if they changed anything major in the story for time because it was so long ago I read the books.
Going to watch later today, just watched ep 3 yesterday. Finally Thom Merrilon showed up!
 
Pretty slow start....
Yep. Exactly like the books. That's why I'm actually optimistic about the show in the long run. They're taking the time to establish the stuff that pays off later IMO.
 
Yep. Exactly like the books. That's why I'm actually optimistic about the show in the long run. They're taking the time to establish the stuff that pays off later IMO.
Well, you got me there. I have not read the books so once again, I’m just gonna get high & hold the couch down.
 
BTW, the books don't start the way the show did. The Eye of the World starts out with a prologue that takes place in a previous age.

They made a much lower-budget video based on the prologue years ago. It's not great, but it helps explain some of the mythology. I think it's actually a better place to start than the show (it's about 20 minutes).

The scene is The Dragon from the age prior to the start of the show. His name was Lews Therin in that age, and the guy who confronts him is an extremely important character in the WoT series.

 
Last edited:
Just cleared ep 4:

Awesome.

Killer ending.
 
Biggest mistakes I think the series has made so far

1. They made most of the main characters too old.

This series could take a decade to finish. They should have started with younger cast members. One thing they're going to lose from the books is the innocence and naivety that gradually fades as the characters mature. The 3 dudes' awkwardness & ignorance around women (and always thinking the other two had it all figured out) was a great part of the books.

With the TV series, they have Rand & Egwene boning, Perrin is married (which wasn't even in the books), and Nynaeve is going to look WAY too old when the series is coming to a close (Zoë Robins is already 28, and she doesn't look a young 28; see hair line). And it's a bummer to say this because Zoë Robins has arguably given the best performance of anyone in the entire show so far except maybe Barney Harris (and he's being replaced in season 2 for unknown reasons).

They should have done a better job at not only preserving the youth of the cast in the beginning but also starting from a character standpoint of way less maturity. They're going to lose a great nuance of the stories. But I get that you can't have everything.

2. The Dragon
could be a boy or a girl? Uhhhhh.... No. That's shameless, lame-ass girl-power pandering. The entire reason people in the story fear the Dragon is because HE could go mad channeling Saidin due to the fact that the Dark One tainted the male side of the one power. He did that specifically because the dragon is always a man. Every time. If the Dragon were a girl, the threat of going mad from the one power wouldn't even be there.

3. Logain
can see Nynaeve channeling? WTF? They even stated in the show that men can't see the women threads nor sense their channeling and vice versa. That's actually a big part of the story. The show is going to have to backpedal & have Logain give some other explanation for his "like a bright shining sun" comment or else live with a huge, gaping, confusing plot hole this early in the series.
 
Last edited:
Biggest mistakes I think the series has made so far
Part 3 is incorrect. Men CAN sense women channeling, as shown in the 4th book.

Correct on the other points. #2 really pisses me off, nothing more than social equity signaling and political correctness. But that’s par for the course nowadays.
 
Just finished episode 4 at lunch. Almost none of this stuff actually happened in the book. This is what has me so aggravated, there is no need to deviate, just condense it. Perrin and Egwene traveling with the tinkers happened. The rest didn’t. Logain’s gentling is mentioned in passing, we don’t actually see it played out and the main characters aren’t even there. They don’t meet him until book 3 or 4. Rand, Mat, and Thom are attacked in a town, not the farmer’s. Whitebridge, I thought.
 
Just finished episode 4 at lunch. Almost none of this stuff actually happened in the book. This is what has me so aggravated, there is no need to deviate, just condense it. Perrin and Egwene traveling with the tinkers happened. The rest didn’t. Logain’s gentling is mentioned in passing, we don’t actually see it played out and the main characters aren’t even there. They don’t meet him until book 3 or 4. Rand, Mat, and Thom are attacked in a town, not the farmer’s. Whitebridge, I thought.
Yeah, but stuff's happening!
 
Yeah, but stuff's happening!
I guess. It’s worth watching, but for the life of me I can’t imagine why they are doing it like this. I guess they wanted to make Nynaeve powerful ASAP instead of much later on.
 
I guess. It’s worth watching, but for the life of me I can’t imagine why they are doing it like this. I guess they wanted to make Nynaeve powerful ASAP instead of much later on.
They kind of did the same thing with Egwene, when she was able to make a fire in ep 3. And Nynaeve was supposed to have a block that took her many months to overcome, this is quite the departure from her book character. I'm guessing they're going to skip the long tedious training that they go through at the White Tower.
 
Re: Episode 5

Whatever was happening with that ending with Lan, that better have been some one-power s**t that caused him to react that way. If not, they're taking a runny s**t all over the coolest character in this entire series.

This is probably Hollywood Soy-boy'ing a character who was a real man (which they can't stand). No surprise: they've already changed Jordan's vision of warders to make some of them into literal butt buddies. Let's see what else they can do to to kill what made the books cool (like Lan). :rolleyes2:

Also, with so much story to cover, they spent an entire episode focused on 2 who-gives-a-f**k characters who end up dead? :headscratch: You cut dozens of great scenes for that s**t?

This episode was an absolute piece of crap. I'm losing confidence in them.

Their depiction of Loyal seems pretty cool, though.
 
Part 3 is incorrect. Men CAN sense women channeling, as shown in the 4th book.
Back to this point:

isn't it more like a tingling when Rand eventually discovers how to sense women channeling? Logain actually sees Nynaeve's weaves when she channels, mentioning how it's like the glow of the sun (obviously to throw off the viewers into thinking Nynaeve is the Dragon).

This seems like yet another huge change in the story, merely for a cheap fake-out.

Or am I not remembering this correctly?

How do these writers suck so badly? :facepalm:
 
Last edited:
Back to this point:
That is right. Rand could get a tingly feeling when saidar was being used. I suspect you are spot on with the rest.

The show is getting panned pretty badly by the WOT enthusiasts, I read an article saying it may not make it past season 2 due to the terrible hatchet job writing.
 
Back to this point:

isn't it more like a tingling when Rand eventually discovers how to sense women channeling? Logain actually sees Nynaeve's weaves when she channels, mentioning how it's like the glow of the sun (obviously to throw off the viewers into thinking Nynaeve is the Dragon).

This seems like yet another huge change in the story, merely for a cheap fake-out.

Or am I not remembering this correctly?

How do these writers suck so badly? :facepalm:
Just watched ep 5, kinda agree with much of your criticisms. This one felt like a huge waste of time, too focused on the grief element. They did some cool things with a few character arcs, though.
 
Back
Top