How did the show hold up for you?

[zacz1987]

On 4/30/2022 at 12:26 AM, WoTwasThat said:

Agreed. I liked nearly all of the casting decisions, and I think the actors are doing the best with what they’ve got. I’m sure that goes for the vast majority of folks involved in the production. This seems like a top-down problem from Amazon/Rafe and some of the folks who are lighting/staging/shooting the scenes.

 

The latter can be fixed. There’s no changing the former, and look, I have to concede that this new story/framing appeals to a portion of the audience. Just not me. 

 

I agree. While I did find some of the casting questionable all the actors did a great job with what they were given. The issues I had with the show were based on the plot and the script rather than the actors themselves.

[MCSkembo]

On 4/29/2022 at 10:26 AM, WoTwasThat said:

I liked nearly all of the casting decisions, and I think the actors are doing the best with what they’ve got.

The only casting decisions that I didn't like were Egwene and Lan. Egwene was supposed to be a stunning beauty that men like Galad Damodred (pretty much the most handsome man in the WoT universe) instantly becomes infatuated with her. Well, mole nose didn't cut it for me. She's not ugly, but she's average, which isn't Egwene.

 

The guy they got to play Lan should have been JACKED. It should have been a mountain of a man, instead of some guy who is somewhat muscular, but is more pretty than anything else.

 

If those two are in the second season, then I won't even give it a watch.

[DojoToad]

16 minutes ago, MCSkembo said:

The only casting decisions that I didn't like were Egwene and Lan. Egwene was supposed to be a stunning beauty that men like Galad Damodred (pretty much the most handsome man in the WoT universe) instantly becomes infatuated with her. Well, mole nose didn't cut it for me. She's not ugly, but she's average, which isn't Egwene.

 

The guy they got to play Lan should have been JACKED. It should have been a mountain of a man, instead of some guy who is somewhat muscular, but is more pretty than anything else.

 

If those two are in the second season, then I won't even give it a watch.

They will be in the second season. 

[Andra]

25 minutes ago, MCSkembo said:

The guy they got to play Lan should have been JACKED. It should have been a mountain of a man, instead of some guy who is somewhat muscular, but is more pretty than anything else.

I'm not so concerned about his physical appearance in the show, as I've always pictured him as more tall and athletic, rather than muscle-bound.  And Daniel Henney is 6'3", so that works.

I think the impression that he should be huge is mostly in comparison with Moiraine, who is supposed to be tiny.

Unfortunately, if he were as much larger in comparison with Rosamund Pike's height, he would have to be about eight feet tall.  Not even Gregor Clegane would be tall enough.  ?

 

[MCSkembo]

14 hours ago, Andra said:

I'm not so concerned about his physical appearance in the show, as I've always pictured him as more tall and athletic, rather than muscle-bound.  And Daniel Henney is 6'3", so that works.

I think the impression that he should be huge is mostly in comparison with Moiraine, who is supposed to be tiny.

Unfortunately, if he were as much larger in comparison with Rosamund Pike's height, he would have to be about eight feet tall.  Not even Gregor Clegane would be tall enough.  ?

 

That's a fair way to look at it. The other thing I will say is that Daniel Henney is (IMO) too pretty to be Lan.

[MCSkembo]

14 hours ago, DojoToad said:

They will be in the second season. 

And I will pretend this ill conceived show never tainted my beloved canon.

[Pembie]

3 hours ago, MCSkembo said:

That's a fair way to look at it. The other thing I will say is that Daniel Henney is (IMO) too pretty to be Lan.

I wouldn’t class Ian as a main character or even Morraine really 

[Andra]

6 hours ago, MCSkembo said:

That's a fair way to look at it. The other thing I will say is that Daniel Henney is (IMO) too pretty to be Lan.

Now THAT gets no argument.

[DojoToad]

13 hours ago, Pembie said:

I wouldn’t class Ian as a main character or even Morraine really 

Maybe not in the books, but definitely in the show.

[Nik]

I hadn't read the series in 10 years when I watched the TV show and I thought it was good. Had some quibbles but overall I found it enjoyable and it made me want to pick up the books again for a reread.

[DojoToad]

3 hours ago, Nik said:

I hadn't read the series in 10 years when I watched the TV show and I thought it was good. Had some quibbles but overall I found it enjoyable and it made me want to pick up the books again for a reread.

Anything that directs people to the books is good for me. 

[William Seahill]

On 3/20/2022 at 3:03 PM, Pandemonium said:

Pretty average show for me.  The 55 metacritic score is a little low, but I wouldn't give it more than a 70.  I did tell many people about the show and they all started watching it. Unfortunately none of them finished it.  

 

This show has too many characters and plotlines for the amount of time they give each episode and the number of episodes per season.  Also way too much time given on minor characters

  Works great in the books, but is really unfocused for the streaming series.  I hope they can salvage this, but it is not a masterpiece show yet.

I hope they can save their show too. I’m not looking for perfection in season two, just a more streamlined story. 

[Harldin]

Looking back after 6 months I would have to say 

Somewhat underwhelming

It didn't jump up and seize me the same way LOTR or GOT did, it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. 

[Nik]

I would say it was a good start with lots of room for improvement. I look forward to seeing where it goes in the next couple of seasons.

[BookMattBetterThanShow]

I gave the show a 7 out of 10, so a C, hope it gets better. I think they spend too much time on Steven instead of the main characters, the one power looked cool, but they don't seem to be following canon with it. I know they had issues with COVID and an actor dropping out, but the last episode was just bad. I would have prefer they just not have done it over what we got.

[Nik]

2 hours ago, BookMattBetterThanShow said:

I gave the show a 7 out of 10, so a C, hope it gets better. I think they spend too much time on Steven instead of the main characters, the one power looked cool, but they don't seem to be following canon with it. I know they had issues with COVID and an actor dropping out, but the last episode was just bad. I would have prefer they just not have done it over what we got.

 

In his recent Q&A, Rafe said that they had to switch to Egwene healing Nynaeve with the power (instead of wisdom herbs/CPR) on the day they were shooting the scene. It sounds like an absolute nightmare. I wonder if they'd overspent so much putting everything on hold for covid that Amazon was forcing them to put something out no matter how bad it was just to be done with it 😬

[Elder_Haman]

3 hours ago, BookMattBetterThanShow said:

I gave the show a 7 out of 10, so a C, hope it gets better. I think they spend too much time on Steven instead of the main characters, the one power looked cool, but they don't seem to be following canon with it. I know they had issues with COVID and an actor dropping out, but the last episode was just bad. I would have prefer they just not have done it over what we got.

This is kinda where I'm at with it. I'd put it a little higher C+/B-. And I do have to give them a mulligan based on some of the challenges COVID presented. But I feel the writing was weak in some points and the choices they made to change (or obfuscate) the canon ended up raising the degree of difficulty unnecessarily. 

 

That being said, character driven shows tend to find their legs more in later seasons and I still have high hopes that season 2 will improve considerably.

[BookMattBetterThanShow]

I am not giving up on the show. The most recent interview with Rafe gives a lot more hope. I know not everyone agrees with be but I liked most of the episode, just thought they spent too much time away from the main characters for no real reason. I know they are not making this for the book readers but we are the ones getting others to watch. Before the show was release I talk lots of my family and friends into watching, most liked the show, but when they ask me questions I hard time explaining some of the changes. My complaints did affect their view of the show, but heck when they ask me about it, I need to be honest.

[DojoToad]

On 7/27/2022 at 3:35 PM, BookMattBetterThanShow said:

I am not giving up on the show. The most recent interview with Rafe gives a lot more hope. I know not everyone agrees with be but I liked most of the episode, just thought they spent too much time away from the main characters for no real reason. I know they are not making this for the book readers but we are the ones getting others to watch. Before the show was release I talk lots of my family and friends into watching, most liked the show, but when they ask me questions I hard time explaining some of the changes. My complaints did affect their view of the show, but heck when they ask me about it, I need to be honest.

I had hope in interviews leading up to S1 - you know with RJ2 being a fan and all.  I'm out of hope.  Will have to rely on the actual S2 episodes.

[Miika]

This is my first post here.

 

I recently started to re-read the whole saga. I disliked the freedom they took with the Dragon reborn. To me, most of fear of the Dragon comes from him and other male channelers breaking the world because they became mad. The Breaking put everything in turmoil and it is a testament to the female Aes Sedai that they are even remotely trusted after what the corrupted male channelers did. The possibility of a female channeler being the Dragon Reborn takes the insanity away of the equation  and makes the fear of another Breaking too obscure to me. If all channelers were really to be feared as much as the Whitecloaks assume they are to be, The White Tower never would have the power to meddle in anything.

 

I don't know how far the show runners intend to take the series to, but this point could provide a problem when Egwene realizes the point of the three oaths. Also I think the White Cloaks were a bit too one-dimensional. Based on the books most of them are, but they aren't inherently evil. 

 

I quite like what they did with Logain hearing the, I assume, earlier Dragons. It gives a nice, comprehensible showing of the insanity. 

 

Geography wise I wasn't too fond of their choice of Shienar nor the Two Rivers. In the long run it just makes no sense to have Shienar being a near desert-like place. or having the Two Rivers being mostly mountainous.  Also the Shienaran attitude towards the Aes Sedai was way off, unless they can explain it very well. 

[Elder_Haman]

21 hours ago, Miika said:

I disliked the freedom they took with the Dragon reborn.

I think this is the heart of the problem for me too, though for slightly different reasons. They didn't do enough to set up what a big deal the Dragon is. The male/female thing could have worked if they'd really made it clear why the Dragon matters so much. But all we got was the Rosamund voiceover.

 

If they would have started where they should have - the Blood Snow scene cut together with Gitara's foretelling, followed by a similar voiceover saying she'd been sent out to find the child - the subsequent "mystery" would have had a far better punch.

 

The other thing would be to add in some dialogue among the Emond's Fielders to show genuine concern about Logain being the Dragon and how awful that would be for the world (a perfect place for Cenn Buie). Following that up with some questions of Moiraine about Logain's threat (which would have made for a better Nynaeve/Moraine confrontation), during which Moiraine reveals that Logain can't be the Dragon - he's too old - and suddenly you have stakes. 

 

So many little tweaks here and there could have made this show 100x better. 

 

   

[DaddyFinn]

10 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

So many little tweaks here and there could have made this show 100x better. 

That's the truth with any show or movie

[DojoToad]

4 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

That's the truth with any show or movie

I think it depends how invested you are.

 

For example - I'm a huge fan of the MCU movies and find very little wrong with them.  But I have never read a comic book in my life.  If I had been a big Marvel fan for decades, I probably would have found lots of areas for tweaks.

 

But having read the WoT books repeatedly, I see all kinds of stuff to change that would have made a better show - from my perspective.

[RextheDog]

On 5/4/2022 at 8:29 AM, MCSkembo said:

The only casting decisions that I didn't like were Egwene and Lan. Egwene was supposed to be a stunning beauty that men like Galad Damodred (pretty much the most handsome man in the WoT universe) instantly becomes infatuated with her. Well, mole nose didn't cut it for me. She's not ugly, but she's average, which isn't Egwene.

 

The guy they got to play Lan should have been JACKED. It should have been a mountain of a man, instead of some guy who is somewhat muscular, but is more pretty than anything else.

 

If those two are in the second season, then I won't even give it a watch.

 

To me, Egwene is a beautiful actress.(my opinion)

 

absolutely stunning.

 

ill admit though, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....but both egwene and Nyneave are absolute stunners to me.

 

the one i need a bit of time with to be convinced is the actress who plays Min, just wasnt what i had in my head, shes a powerful looking women, whether as Min i had in my head as the girl youd take home to see Mum...the girl next door, cute, diminutive...powerful woman, dont get me wrong...but with a more caring nature than the hard edge we see (as a first impression)

 

 

[RextheDog]

Lan was a bit of a shock to begin with....i actually always had Eric bana in mind when reading...but im coming around to Henney....but yes, i pictured a larger statued male