tv show spoilers S1E8: The Eye of the World

[Rogue One]

(Long time lurker, first time poster!)

 

As a book reader, I enjoyed the show so far. It is not a page by page adaptation and some of the changes are a bit odd, but overall it kept me entertained and even got me excited at times!

 

What I will say about the first season overall and this episode specifically is that to me the biggest issues with the shows are not with the changes from the books, but that it seems to me to not have quite gotten its act together *as a tv series*. This episode for example did not feel like a season finale - we didn’t really know what we were trying to achieve, no one’s arc was really tied up or significantly advanced, not much being clearly set up for next season…

 

and I would say the same about the season as a whole as well, while I enjoyed each episode it doesn’t really feel like a cohesive whole. At point it felt like the EF show, at points like a WT show, for a bit Logain was very important and then never mentioned again….

 

I don’t mind about changes from the book as much as long as it feels like the show hangs together like its own thing, and I hope They manage to do that more in S2, though I suspect the way to do that is to consolidate / cut down from the books even more! 

[DaddyFinn]

7 minutes ago, DermidAjala said:

Egwene more pointless moment stealing. She can now hear the bad things on the wind and heal the unhealable.

I don't think Nyn was dead. Her eyes were not burnt out like the rest. It was a pointless fakeout IMO. Why change how the linking works? It doesn't allow to draw too much in the books, right?

[DermidAjala]

8 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

I don't think Nyn was dead. Her eyes were not burnt out like the rest. It was a pointless fakeout IMO. Why change how the linking works? It doesn't allow to draw too much in the books, right?

 

I'm exaggerating because I'm wound up. I just find it ridiculous that Egwene now instinctively heals someone from life threatening injuries given it's literally Nynaeve's main thing and she already jacked one of Perrin's only big moments.

[fra85uk]

I tried to be hopeful after ep7 but my hope was rewarded with a complete disaster, which is impossible even to break down.

Now i am not anymore in the dislike camp, now i want balefire.

[fra85uk]

32 minutes ago, DermidAjala said:

 

I'm exaggerating because I'm wound up. I just find it ridiculous that Egwene now instinctively heals someone from life threatening injuries given it's literally Nynaeve's main thing and she already jacked one of Perrin's only big moments.

Mary Sues can do everything.

[Ralph]

5 hours ago, Sabio said:

You don't need an army when you have 5 linked women.  Keep 5 women who can channel at Fal Dara at all times and there will be nothing to fear.

 

No army in the world can defeat 8 full Aes Sedai

 

You've turned back armies 

[Maximillion]

12 minutes ago, Ralph said:

 

No army in the world can defeat 8 full Aes Sedai

 

You've turned back armies 

 

So then - the Dark One poses no real threat.

Why the drama?  

Actually no need for a Dragon at all.  

There is no battle scene in the entire series now that can even mean anything or be even slightly interesting. Huge army masses and is ready to attack - the build up?  Who cares, just send out 5 women who can channel a bit and swat the enemy away... everyone carry on shopping and drinking and turn up the music so you can't hear Trollocs and Fades being obliterated.

 

[Ralph]

Late to the party as usual - 

 

A question

 

Sorry I can't keep track of all our esteemed contributors and who holds what

 

How many people who liked the show until now, and were OK with the changes (not just tolerating and waiting until they stop, but trying to understand why) , were now put off and felt it is no good? 

 

Poll material? 

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Ralph

[Ralph]

Re some of the points raised in the conversation - 

 

It is clear to me they want us to think Ishy is the DO. That is why they haven't shown the prologue. 

Which is like the books. 

I was surprised the xray info named him as Ishmael (sic) 

 

Re Amalisa. I think it was her last stand, and she never dreamed the power she received from Eg and N would allow her to wipe them out

Therefore no reason to go to the Gap. 

The reason it has to be her leading is because only she had the training. Although not strong enough, she knows how to cast lightning. Which E and N don't 

 

The reason it is them not Rand was explained by Rafe in the BtS clip. And I would add, as others have said, the Travelling in EotW has never been explained

 

Overall lots of plusses lots of minuses 

 

Can't wait for next season

 

 

[dwn]

I liked most of the broad strokes, but there were a number of things that didn't work well, or make sense, as others have pointed out above.

 

I liked the cold opening, though I agree the tone should have been different to show the desperation of the War of the Shadow. Latra Posae predicting what would happen is just a TV thing to remind viewers how saidin was tainted.

 

They really didn't need to give Moiraine a tracking tell--Lan could have just followed them on his own and refuse to take the others so he could move faster.

 

The battle scenes were pretty meh--clearly showing the limits of their budget. The myrddraal still look cool. The blight and Malkier matte painting were pretty bad.

 

Padan Fain and the Horn of Valere worked fine. I think we should have seen someone we know let Fain into the keep, rather than using the pass-phrase thing. Perrin's struggle with violence is interesting, but I think his scenes were poorly directed. Assuming Loial's death is a fake-out, it's kinda weird.

 

Amalisa's wilder circle was silly, but I'm okay with it. I like that she died from lack of control, but I feel Nynaeve should have just hit her over the head with a rock or something. The Nynaeve dead-not-dead thing was kinda pointless.

 

Ishamael was great. I like that it's never confirmed he isn't the DO, but we can easily tell it's some guy from the AoL given his clothing. That Moiraine saw him, and that he channeled like any other man, will likely feed into her research quest next season. I agree she's shielded--not sure where they're going with that.

 

Rand's choice worked well for drama. Interesting that they pulled stuff from Egwene's accepted test. Whatever he ended up doing was extremely vague, though. Looks like they're merging the seven seals into one, which is probably easier to understand than the metaphysical weirdness of the DO's prison in the books. I expect they dropped Shayol Ghul so viewers wouldn't confuse it with Dragonmount.

 

Padan Fain's speech about this being the first battle was really good--possibly the best part of the episode. Ishamael should have echoed that before he poofed.

[Finfolfin]

10 hours ago, CaddySedai said:

Also I can help Moiraine with her “not lie”

 

Rand died. 

 

The Dragon Lived. 

 

Easy Peezy

Ahh but the showrunners and writers were dropped on their heads as kids so it it would be difficult for them to be this witty.

[Gothic Flame]

2 minutes ago, Finfolfin said:

Ahh but the showrunners and writers were dropped on their heads as kids so it it would be difficult for them to be this witty.

Not so witty.

It's Star Wars. It's Ben Kenobi telling Luke that his father, Anakin, was killed by Darth Vader.

[Finfolfin]

9 hours ago, VooDooNut said:

I really liked the Rand dream moment when Moiraine gets knifed. Really spooky. And then it just kept getting spookier from there. This was a terrifying episode.

 

Untrained channelers burning out in a circle? Oh no big deal, just watch our heads cook from the inside out. No biggie. ? (No, I don't think Nynaeve was ever actually dead.)

 

I liked the moments with Ishamael and Rand. In the books I always enjoyed how much more Ishamael was prepared for this moment than Rand was.

 

It looks like The Eye Of The World was adapted to be a seal imprisoning the Forsaken (Ishamael specifically). Rand was tricked by Ishmael in this battle. He broke a seal and freed Ishamael.

 

Oh, Mat wasn't actually in the episode. Huh. I am very interested in how his story is going to be told going forward.

 

In general, I feel like they turned it up to 11 with this episode in terms of tone and pacing, especially the second half of the episode.

I agree with the pacing going supernova in this episode. I feel the pacing of the season is off. We had too many filler episodes with OC that seem unnecessary now. Too much focus on characters they killed off than on Matrim, Perrin and Rand. It is all very jumbled.

[Finfolfin]

8 hours ago, Wolfbrother31 said:

 

Mmmm

How about:

 

1) Borderlander men get massacred and totally suck in Tarwin's Gap - 5 untrained women OP wielders do the hokey pokey and waste the bad CGI monsters. Then burn-out. Buuut don't worry - Nyn while linked can still shield Eggy and Eggy can heart heal Nyn.

 

2) Matt is inherently evil and will turn to the Shadow - but Perrin will save the day by not going evil and sticking to the Way of the Leaf. 

 

3) Moiraine is stilled? No, just shielded...wait - we didn't explain that to those who didn't read the books and the people who did read the books - half of them have given up on the show. 

 

4) Lan is completely useless. Rand has done nothing but mope over Egwene. Perrin has done nothing & his lines are bad. Matt is MIA (good move by Barney). Sooo basically nobody cares or sees the significance of 4 of our main characters. This is the Nyn & Eggy show.

My boy Perrin is a gormless, emotional mouthbreather. Not the thoughtful, gentle lad from the books. The acting is terrible he is like a parody of jon snow from season 8 of GoT

"I dOnT waN iT"

[Finfolfin]

6 hours ago, KakitaOCU said:

Thankfully most disagree and Amazon stated they plan to do all 15 books.

https://www.ign.com/articles/amazon-wheel-of-time-span-14-books-prequel?fbclid=IwAR0ydk4G9zIedNGuKlE9F8RkhmOaFmcRFN9sohMICi0VVjsETIt53V7TmUg

Most disagree

 

[Gothic Flame]

9 minutes ago, Finfolfin said:

So we are darkfriends now? Better than an amazon shill

It does explain how "Transformers" became a multibillion dollar franchise.

 

Just now, Finfolfin said:

Most disagree

 

The link is headed that they want to do the 15 books. Not that they plan on it. That'd take funding. 

[Daenelia]

Yes! I actually read through all of your posts! Thank you! Even the ones who did not enjoy it, because I really do feel bads for peoplewho feel cheated out of their version of the books.

 

I enjoyed the finale and look forward to next season. Happy to see the intention is there for all books to be used and that makes me a little bit hopeful that they may even extend the seasons to come with maybe 2 more episodes? So we have more time for the exposition some seem to need? (It could do with a bit more slowness, exposition, tiny moments, comic relief...)

 

If I was not enjoying this series, I would just not watch it. So I get that. Just remember that hate-watching is still watching. If anyone seriously wants a new version: stop watching. ?

 

I don't know what I liked best, but I did enjoy Rand getting more dialogue so I could listen to his accent. ? I can't tell my guy yet that the DO on screen is not the DO ... as he thinks it is. He has no clue. I have some insider knowledge. Also. Cracked seal. No good. Bad news.

 

Yeah. I will have to finr time to watch it again. Might have to really drop something else to make that time. Why don't I have time?? I used to have all the time in the world to read the books! And now! ... oh right. I used to not do homework. That's it.

[Daenelia]

4 minutes ago, Finfolfin said:

Most disagree

 

Can you give me a link to where that chart came from? What articel? What data?

[Finfolfin]

1 minute ago, Daenelia said:

Can you give me a link to where that chart came from? What articel? What data?

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fg%2F11gt__lv30,%2Fg%2F11f630gjr9,%2Fg%2F11f3w6j16g

google trends

[TheMountain]

The Wheel of Time has been given the CW, Last Jedi and GoT Season 8 treatment all in one. 

[DaddyFinn]

1 minute ago, TheMountain said:

The Wheel of Time has been given the CW, Last Jedi and GoT Season 8 treatment all in one. 

Thank Bela I don't know what any of those things mean. I can enjoy the show as it is.

[TheMountain]

2 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

Thank Bela I don't know what any of those things mean. I can enjoy the show as it is.

The books deserved more.

[Pandemonium]

19 minutes ago, Finfolfin said:

Most disagree

 

Parrot analytics show wot web interest has been more than than the witcher thus far.  it probably changed last week though when the witcher was released 

[Sarlic]

So, obviously response to this series is very subjective.  I’m an avid reader of these books and my first reaction to many of these episodes was one of annoyance if not outright frustration.  I would always watch them a second time, once I was prepared for the changes, and would tend to enjoy them more.

 

The finale was just disappointing on every level.  I’m tired of reading interviews about how “high fantasy” needed to be changed to appeal to the masses (“dumbed down”, then?) or that changes needed to be made because they are adapting the “entire series.”

 

The show fails to lay proper foundation for many elements of the plot (see Horn of Valere) and yet adds tons of extra scenes and characters that take up large amounts of time in an already much-reduced screen time. (Stepin, Siuan make out, etc.)

 

Then changes that make no sense logically (Amalisa/Nyn/Eg destroying the Trollocs after allowing everyone else to die???), most powerful relic in the land being buried under a CHAIR??

 

The Eye of the World sequence, which combines some of Eg’s accepted test (baby Joiya etc) and perhaps some of book 14 Rand vs DO made no sense.  Why the fundamental change to the Eye itself (from pure essence of saidin with enough power to break DO free to….whatever that was).  Channeling *into* sa’angeal instead of through it to do….what?  The end of EotW was that Rand used all of that pure essence of saidin to destroy the army at Tarwin’s Gap - fighting Forsaken to prevent their use to break DO free - and start the journey of the Dragon Reborn made much more sense narratively than whatever it is we just saw.  The change was unnecessary and the execution of said change sloppy at best.

 

I’m just so disappointed - and now I’m wondering if Amazon’s immediate renewal for S2 was an act of desperation instead of a sign of confidence.  Take all of the changes that annoy us away, and the writing quality of this show just isn’t good.  
 

super-bummed.  But I’ll still watch season 2.

 

PS add to my frustration that in my reread I’m just starting Path of Daggers, where it takes 40 pages covering the 10 minutes it takes Elayne & Co to leave Ebou Dar, ugh.  If the show is thinking long term narrative cuts, elements of books 7-10 could likely be consolidated into 1 season!

[Mirefox]

For weeks people were bending over backwards to defend how much time was spent with all the Steppin melodrama claiming there is was no other way the show runners could possibly have shown the importance of the Warder’s bond in order to feel the impact of future events.

After this episode said future events are completely in the wind.

 

On top of that, Lan’s bond has already been masked twice, his Aes Sedai stilled or shielded, and he’s all “what’s this white rock?”

Edited December 24, 2021 by Mirefox
Autocorrect. First LAN then Alan…