tv show spoilers S1E1: Leavetaking

[Wordjerk]

Well that was something! I just watched the first 3 episodes and will say it got progressively better. The first episode I definitely thought was not great. Some of the changes that they made felt odd at first but I understand them (Perrin's wife, Matt's family problems, etc.).

But the way the episode flew through things made it hard to get a good sense of the characters. 

 

The second episode was IMO not good for the first half. But by the second half I felt better about it. I was confused by the choice to make Rand so against Moraine's insistence that they leave the Two Rivers, but thought maybe that was to set up his eventual mistrust of Aes Sedai. Then that totally changed in the third episode, so I don't know what to think. Also, Lan felt so much less than he should be in this and all 3 episodes so far. But blah! 

 

The third episode finally started to make me feel good about the potential of the show. Even though a lot of changes were made, the character development finally began to get results. Rand seemed more who I wanted him to be. Matt's character felt more in line with how they've set him up. Egwene is great! Perrin felt more like himself (although, the whole death of his wife thing hasn't come to fruition yet), But Lan is still flat. Nynaeve is somehow a skilled killer. And Moraine is mostly dead.

 

Overall I was seriously concerned this might be bad after 1 and a half episodes. Now I feel like it could be solid. Especially considering what happens as the story progresses. But man, definitely could have been a better start. Hopefully people give it a chance and the show continues to improve. 

 

Side note; I was curious how they would alter the dialogue, because Robert Jordan's words don't necessarily suit a tv adaptation. Aaaand it was ok. But needs to get better if the show hopes to really connect with non book readers audience.

[Mnemosyne]

43 minutes ago, Wordjerk said:

Spoiler

I was confused by the choice to make Rand so against Moraine's insistence that they leave the Two Rivers, but thought maybe that was to set up his eventual mistrust of Aes Sedai. Then that totally changed in the third episode, so I don't know what to think.

 

 

Spoiler

Yeah, my partner (who hasn't read the books) was like, "That came out of nowhere! Why is he so angry?" And I had the exact same thought process and confusion after E3 as you did.

 

It's like they wanted to establish that Rand is stubborn and will not just do what Moiraine tells him... but also needed to give him a reason to keep going with the journey... but the overall effect is bemusing.

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Mnemosyne

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

6 minutes ago, Mnemosyne said:

 

Yeah, my partner (who hasn't read the books) was like, "That came out of nowhere! Why is he so angry?" And I had the exact same thought process and confusion after E3 as you did.

 

It's like they wanted to establish that Rand is stubborn and will not just do what Moiraine tells him... but also needed to give him a reason to keep going with the journey... but the overall effect is bemusing.

I haven’t watched the 2nd or 3rd episode yet, but if you remember, in the books, how the women of Edmonds Field (or in this case Two Rivers) always said their men were stubborn and needed to be prodded certain ways, and make it seem like it was the men’s idea in the first place.  Could be that’s what the show is trying to establish.  
 

just my two cents

[Starganderfish]

Hmmn. Just watched the first episode and so far I have pretty strong "meh" feelings. Taking MAJOR liberties with the story (the only way they could come up with to explain Perrin's mental struggles over the axe vs hammer was to comeplteley manufacture a wife and then have him kill her?) The feminist stuff was there though fortunately not as bad as I expected (the whole red sister tirade that the power was only meant for women makes ZERO sense given the fundamental dual nature of the One Power, even  comeing from a Red, and the bit where all the women rush in and gloriously slay a Trolloc was just about as gratuitous as the girl power "Assemble" moment in Avengers Endgame), but it could have been way worse.
The acting is pretty poor. I will say Egwene (who's probably my least favourite character) was probably the one of the best acted,  pipped at the post by Matt (such a shame he's not coming back next season). I really don't get all the praise for Pike's Moraine - she really feels like she's phoning it in (comes accross as more "bored" than "inscrutable Aes Sedai") and Rand is just wooden. He feels more like mid-to-late series Rand ("I must be hard as stone"), rather than early book "woolheaded sheepherder"). Fain was great, and Lan surprised me with how well he managed the stoic yet dedicated Warder. Not a huge fan of Tam's actor and the rest are kind of ho-hum. 
Most egregious of all (next to maybe the whole "Perrin's now a wife-killer") is what they did to Matt's family. Again, so unimaginative that they can't protray a troubled rouge like Mat without giving him an abusive family. And yet he just rides off at the end of the episode, leaving his sisters behind with nary a word?

Sigh

The special effects where okay, I guess. (not really seeing the $10M an episode special effects) but frankly Moraine just looked goofy swaying and thrashing about in the climactic battle. Looked like that wonky wobbling witch from the first Suicide Squad movie.
The editing and shhaky cam where nausea inducing.The scenery was decent but a little to clean and CGI. The Trollocs looked pretty goofy - veering between stunt-men in goofy suits and computer game CGI, from one scene to the next.

I enjoyed the sound-track and the general atmosphere (everythings a little too bright and saturated but I'll deal). I was torn on that one shot where we pass over the ruins of an ancient city. Kind of felt a little out of place at first, but then, I kind of appreciate the nod to the Age of Legends and the post-apocalyptic world.
The whole thing was massively rushed and forced. You can absolutely see that the writers are terrified by the length and depth of the book's and conscious that they are unlikely to get a long ulti-season run, so are cramming as much in as possible. 

I'll watch the next two episodes and so far its ok enough to keep me coming back, but it's never going to get a GOT style following and I'm highly skecptical Amazon will give it more than 3 or at most 4 seasons. It's just not going to appeal to the avaerage new viewer.
It may pick up in the next few episodes (the fact they released three at once shows that someone at least recognises that its off to a rocky start).
I do miss Tom, though I'm cringing at the thought of how they will butcher his character... and oh man, if they wreck Loial?!?

[CaddySedai]

It gets way better ?

[ManetherenTaveren]

Did Rand take the heron blade with him when they left? Did I miss it? I assume he did. I was hoping for a short scene near the end between he and Tam regarding the sword (and other allusions), especially since they highlighted Tam's sword during the trolloc fight. No biggie, I guess.

[TheAngryDruid]

Color me incredibly underwhelmed. 2 or 3 on a scale of 10. 

 

I mean, I knew it would be rushed, and there would be changes, but lordy, that was poor. 

 

Minor gripes: 

1) Perrin is married. And kills his wife. 

2) No Thom. 

3) Nynaeve gets kidnapped. 

4) Moiraine is recognized as Aes Sedai right away.   

5) Moirane knowing there were 4 ta'veren from the start. 

 

 

Major gripes: 

1) Losing the drama of Rand taking Tam to Emond's Field. And therefore Tam's rambling about finding a child in the snow. This is what drives Rand for most of the series, who am I? 

 

2) Rand seeing the Fade is also gone. Trollocs are the main threat here, and it should be the Fade instead. 

 

3) The Tower turning away Nynaeve's mentor. The Tower wants girls who can channel badly. Siuan is a fisherman's daughter, FFS. This is awful. Attempting to build elitist tropes. 

 

4) Moiraine's character is awful. Blurting about the Dragon Reborn? Preposterous. Destroying the Inn to throw rocks at Trollocs? Awful. She is Aes Sedai & from Cairhein. Totally out of character. As is a bath with Lan. Ugh. 

 

5) Having Rand accuse Moiraine of bringing the Trollocs, not the townspeople. Again, this totally misrepresents how rural communities feel about AS. The fear. The distrust. The ignorance.    

 

6) Losing Moiraine's tale of Emond's Field. 

 

7) The ease at which they go with Moiraine. So much for stubborn Two Rivers folk. Yeah, I have never talked to you before, but sure, I will leave everything I know to go with you. Sure. 

 

? 8. Lots of extraneous stuff was added (Perrin's wife, Matt's mom, the Reds, and Egwene at the river, even the battle), at the cost of better stuff.

 

They should have opened with Rand & Tam. Fade on the road. Arrived to a quiet, not yet boisterous Inn (Marin was bad). Done some world building with the adults at the Inn. Meet Egwene, Nynaeve, Perrin, Mat, and Fain.  Strangers. Gleeman. Moiraine with the coin. Return to al'Thor farm. Winternight. Rand arrives to Emond's Fielsld in ashes. Nynaeve cannot help his dad. Thom/Bran Dragon's Fang talk. Moiraine heals Tam. Then the whole convincing them to go, finding out that the al'Thor & Cauthon places & the forge were all that were attacked. Rand/Tam talk. They sneak out. End episode.  

 

 

[AusLeviathan]

21 minutes ago, Starganderfish said:

(the fact they released three at once shows that someone at least recognises that its off to a rocky start

That's just standard for Prime Video, originals are generally released with three or so episodes and then one a week from there on.

[CaddySedai]

The Wheel of Time series is over 11,000 pages. 

 

You would have to devote an episode a chapter. 

 

That is why the books are so good. 

 

Thats also why you wont get the books in tv format. 

 

Its fair to not like something but omissions and changes are par for the course. 

 

As I said before. LotR took 3 movies each around four hours and told the story well. It also - only had just over 1100 pages of content to portray. 

 

Just food for thought. 

[DaddyFinn]

The show would need like 16 episodes to give us every town and scene and it would probably be boring as hell.

[ksbsnowowl]

I had this revelation randomly during the 2nd (?) episode, but before the scene you would think would have sparked it (staying intentionally cryptic).
 

The death of Perrin’s wife will likely lead to the book scene of Ba’alzamon showing Rand his dead mom, Kari, and having her reveal she was a servant of shadow (or just that the DO has and is torturing her soul? I forget the specifics), be altered to that dream sequence being in Perrin’s dreams, using his dead wife as Ba’alzamon’s puppet. It works better for viewers, because it’s a character we’ve already seen on screen (rather than a dead mother we’ve never seen).

 

Then later there was the theory posited on the Dusty Wheel episode 1 discussion... Notice Layla’s stance when Perrin attacks her, and realize there are no more living trollocs in the forge at that point...

 

Spoiler

... Layla had the hammer raised over her head, approaching Perrin to attack him... in other words, she was a Dark Friend. 

 

[Agitel]

5 minutes ago, ksbsnowowl said:

Then later there was the theory posited on the Dusty Wheel episode 1 discussion... Notice Layla’s stance when Perrin attacks her, and realize there are no more living trollocs in the forge at that point...

 

  Hide contents

... Layla had the hammer raised over her head, approaching Perrin to attack him... in other words, she was a Dark Friend. 

 

 

I buy that based on everything I've seen.

[Skipp]

6 minutes ago, ksbsnowowl said:

I had this revelation randomly during the 2nd (?) episode, but before the scene you would think would have sparked it (staying intentionally cryptic).
 

The death of Perrin’s wife will likely lead to the book scene of Ba’alzamon showing Rand his dead mom, Kari, and having her reveal she was a servant of shadow (or just that the DO has and is torturing her soul? I forget the specifics), be altered to that dream sequence being in Perrin’s dreams, using his dead wife as Ba’alzamon’s puppet. It works better for viewers, because it’s a character we’ve already seen on screen (rather than a dead mother we’ve never seen).

 

Then later there was the theory posited on the Dusty Wheel episode 1 discussion... Notice Layla’s stance when Perrin attacks her, and realize there are no more living trollocs in the forge at that point...

 

  Hide contents

... Layla had the hammer raised over her head, approaching Perrin to attack him... in other words, she was a Dark Friend. 

I didn't notice that on my first viewing, I had to go back and watch it again when I saw someone mention it.  It also makes the tension between the two of them make A LOT more sense.

[Pandemonium]

1st episode not sure what to think.  why do all the action scenes look so blurry and out of focus?  all the trolloc scenes are so blurry.

 

 

[CaddySedai]

4 minutes ago, Pandemonium said:

1st episode not sure what to think.  why do all the action scenes look so blurry and out of focus?  all the trolloc scenes are so blurry.

 

 

frantic pace and bad editing in post. Still, thankfully it calms down as the series goes on. I think they were trying to portray the panic the EF folk felt but went overboard. It also doesn't seem to blur like that much if at all from then on. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by CaddySedai

[Starganderfish]

48 minutes ago, TheAngryDruid said:

Color me incredibly underwhelmed. 2 or 3 on a scale of 10. 

 

I mean, I knew it would be rushed, and there would be changes, but lordy, that was poor. 

 

Minor gripes: 

1) Perrin is married. And kills his wife. 

2) No Thom. 

3) Nynaeve gets kidnapped. 

4) Moiraine is recognized as Aes Sedai right away.   

5) Moirane knowing there were 4 ta'veren from the start. 

 

 

Major gripes: 

1) Losing the drama of Rand taking Tam to Emond's Field. And therefore Tam's rambling about finding a child in the snow. This is what drives Rand for most of the series, who am I? 

 

2) Rand seeing the Fade is also gone. Trollocs are the main threat here, and it should be the Fade instead. 

 

3) The Tower turning away Nynaeve's mentor. The Tower wants girls who can channel badly. Siuan is a fisherman's daughter, FFS. This is awful. Attempting to build elitist tropes. 

 

4) Moiraine's character is awful. Blurting about the Dragon Reborn? Preposterous. Destroying the Inn to throw rocks at Trollocs? Awful. She is Aes Sedai & from Cairhein. Totally out of character. As is a bath with Lan. Ugh. 

 

5) Having Rand accuse Moiraine of bringing the Trollocs, not the townspeople. Again, this totally misrepresents how rural communities feel about AS. The fear. The distrust. The ignorance.    

 

6) Losing Moiraine's tale of Emond's Field. 

 

7) The ease at which they go with Moiraine. So much for stubborn Two Rivers folk. Yeah, I have never talked to you before, but sure, I will leave everything I know to go with you. Sure. 

 

? 8. Lots of extraneous stuff was added (Perrin's wife, Matt's mom, the Reds, and Egwene at the river, even the battle), at the cost of better stuff.

 

They should have opened with Rand & Tam. Fade on the road. Arrived to a quiet, not yet boisterous Inn (Marin was bad). Done some world building with the adults at the Inn. Meet Egwene, Nynaeve, Perrin, Mat, and Fain.  Strangers. Gleeman. Moiraine with the coin. Return to al'Thor farm. Winternight. Rand arrives to Emond's Fielsld in ashes. Nynaeve cannot help his dad. Thom/Bran Dragon's Fang talk. Moiraine heals Tam. Then the whole convincing them to go, finding out that the al'Thor & Cauthon places & the forge were all that were attacked. Rand/Tam talk. They sneak out. End episode.  

 

 

Yep. Pretty much agree with all of this.

Just watched episode 2 and it does get better. Still a very rocky start and some issues but it's improving. 

 

19 minutes ago, ksbsnowowl said:

I had this revelation randomly during the 2nd (?) episode, but before the scene you would think would have sparked it (staying intentionally cryptic).
 

The death of Perrin’s wife will likely lead to the book scene of Ba’alzamon showing Rand his dead mom, Kari, and having her reveal she was a servant of shadow (or just that the DO has and is torturing her soul? I forget the specifics), be altered to that dream sequence being in Perrin’s dreams, using his dead wife as Ba’alzamon’s puppet. It works better for viewers, because it’s a character we’ve already seen on screen (rather than a dead mother we’ve never seen).

 

Then later there was the theory posited on the Dusty Wheel episode 1 discussion... Notice Layla’s stance when Perrin attacks her, and realize there are no more living trollocs in the forge at that point...

 

  Hide contents

... Layla had the hammer raised over her head, approaching Perrin to attack him... in other words, she was a Dark Friend. 

 

Urrgghh. I can beleive that but ... its terrible. Perrin's character just doesn't need that, he has his own arc, seperate from Ishamael. And worse, two episodes in and apart from Mat's "you should have this knife Leila made" scene, no-one has said a word to or about Perrin having lost his wife, like a day or two ago? No-one even asks "Are you okay dude?"

Edited November 19, 2021 by Starganderfish

[CaddySedai]

1 minute ago, Starganderfish said:

Yep. Pretty much agree with all of this.

Just watched episode 2 and it does get better. Still a very rocky start and some issues but it's improving. 

 

Urrgghh. I can beleive that but ... its terrible. Perrin's character just doesn't need that, he has his own arc, seperate from Ishamael. And wore, two episodes in and apart from Mat's "you should have this knife Leila made" scene, no-one has said a word to or about Perrin having lost his wife, like a day or two ago? No-one even asks "Are you okay dude?"

 

Wait till 3. Something kind in intent will just dig at a wound. Its class. 

[Pandemonium]

Rough start to the series.  can't believe they had an extra year to work on this and the 1st episode is so mediocre.  the person I watched the show with is new to wot and didn't want to keep watching.  I had to tell her it will get better.  

 

this show really needs some more humor too

 

 

[DaddyFinn]

1 minute ago, Pandemonium said:

this show really needs some more humor too

There is in other episodes

[Katherine]

6 hours ago, Agitel said:

 

Oh, and one negative comment. I didn't really enjoy opening with the red Aes Sedai. But ah well.

 

That’s one of the things I thought was really well done! It was a great way to explain the dynamic between women channeling and then channeling and foreshadows the future in a beautiful way. I liked it!

[Starganderfish]

Well watched three and it was mediocre at best. a slight improvement over #1 but not exactly a steep trajectory. Still feels petty meh

[Arkadious]

Went in expecting to be annoyed by sometings but as long as the general show was ok i could manage.

Oh wow so terrible.

 

accepting its an adpation ( losely), but apart from names of characters, who you have no connection or understanding of from the show and the names of the lcoations nothing else works, you dont get a connection at all, like going to hobbiton and just dragging froda away and leaving Sam and not mentioning the Ring.

 

 

Lighting terrible, nightshots with spot lights on buildings to light them up, made no sense to do and took away from the scene.

 

i could go on for hours matching to book but wont as its an adaption, however some key peices missing which ruin the show for me, if not just the bad acting from all.

 

Tom were is Tom and the fireworks come on, wouldnt have been hard.

 

Leaving taking in the day infront of every one, with Tam being awake and fine after very quick healing, no need for nynaeve to go after them, but wait she wouldnt be able to track as her dad never taught her(or existed).

 

Dragon reborn may be born as a girl, UM some ones been smoking, and four taverens mmm.

 

MY fave part that was missing i can understand why but was really sad for it not to be there is the flash back at the inn, suppose should say rubble of inn

 

The struggle through the woods, ok would have been too long to put whole thing in but could have shown abit of it, instead we have nice easy trip in with horse and cart, no stress.

 

No Narg smart, shame, whole going back to their place was pointless and never explained

 

if i didnt know better would think this was directed by same person who did Winters Dragon, (sorry yes that what ever shouldnt be named but still)

 

Suppose ill go rewatch, sword or truth or eregorn for a more faithful adaption.

 

[Wraith235]

sorry apparently the way I consume shows and process them is somewhat problematic ... I'll find another pllace for this post as I dont want to write 4 diff posts about my feelings on this

we need a place for the combined drop in addition to the individual episodes

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Wraith235

[Wraith235]

13 minutes ago, Arkadious said:

 

 

if i didnt know better would think this was directed by same person who did Winters Dragon, (sorry yes that what ever shouldnt be named but still)

 

 

it's not him... he died days after the it was finished
I have words for what I think happened but I shouldn't speak ill of the dead 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Wraith235

[Kathy5]

Hello new here to this forum but me and my books are old friends. I wasn't impressed with the first episode of this series so much was not correct  I don't know if I will continue