Thoughts on the article at Wotseries.com re: Aviendha, Perrin etc.

[DojoToad]

53 minutes ago, Nik said:

 

Agreed, I think the writers found a good way to take "must have naked butt" and turn it into something that was relevant, character- and world-building for the story.

Yes, they did what they thought they had to do, but could have been done better:

• I think that could easily have been interpreted as 'sexy time is coming'
  • Especially with newcomers to WoT - they have no knowledge of the relationships from the books
  • Even for those that read the books, as episodes progressed, they changed so much - maybe they are getting it on...
  • Maybe they have an open relationship, friends with benefits?
• Still doesn't make sense to have a hot tub-sized bath in the backwater Two Rivers
• They didn't get to the Borderlands until the end of the season, but that was a much more natural place to have this occur - I know, too long to wait for a butt shot...
• They weren't shy about adding scenes not from the books or changing the order of scenes - 
  • Maybe start with a quick clip in a borderland fortress with multiple women and men relaxing in the bath house talking, joking with no sexual overtones - fairly quick scene with maybe some world-building commentary.  An alarm horn sounds and the scene shifts to the fortress wall and our first glimpse of Trollocs - maybe in the distance, at night...
  • Maybe in Tar Valon with some Aes Sedai and Warders in the Tower baths, but maybe someone is fishing for information on Moiraine.  I can see this as a longer scene then transitioning to Moiraine and Lan outside - "Where next?"
  • I don't think there were any shared baths in the Tower, but if we're changing things anyway, what better place than where women and men from all over the world gather bringing their own customs?

Many are fine with the scene as it was.  Just daydreaming over how I would have made it better.

[Andra]

3 hours ago, DojoToad said:

Yes, they did what they thought they had to do, but could have been done better:

• I think that could easily have been interpreted as 'sexy time is coming'
  • Especially with newcomers to WoT - they have no knowledge of the relationships from the books
  • Even for those that read the books, as episodes progressed, they changed so much - maybe they are getting it on...
  • Maybe they have an open relationship, friends with benefits?
• Still doesn't make sense to have a hot tub-sized bath in the backwater Two Rivers
• They didn't get to the Borderlands until the end of the season, but that was a much more natural place to have this occur - I know, too long to wait for a butt shot...
• They weren't shy about adding scenes not from the books or changing the order of scenes - 
  • Maybe start with a quick clip in a borderland fortress with multiple women and men relaxing in the bath house talking, joking with no sexual overtones - fairly quick scene with maybe some world-building commentary.  An alarm horn sounds and the scene shifts to the fortress wall and our first glimpse of Trollocs - maybe in the distance, at night...
  • Maybe in Tar Valon with some Aes Sedai and Warders in the Tower baths, but maybe someone is fishing for information on Moiraine.  I can see this as a longer scene then transitioning to Moiraine and Lan outside - "Where next?"
  • I don't think there were any shared baths in the Tower, but if we're changing things anyway, what better place than where women and men from all over the world gather bringing their own customs?

Many are fine with the scene as it was.  Just daydreaming over how I would have made it better.

Or perhaps they could have left Baerlon in the show, and made the bathtub scene there be communal, rather than individual copper tubs.

Of course, the biggest problem with doing that would be that theirs were not mixed-gender like those in Shienar.  But at least they actually existed.  And it would have given them the opportunity for a naked butt scene early.  Probably episode 2, rather than episode 1.

[Nik]

5 hours ago, Andra said:

Or perhaps they could have left Baerlon in the show, and made the bathtub scene there be communal, rather than individual copper tubs.

Of course, the biggest problem with doing that would be that theirs were not mixed-gender like those in Shienar.  But at least they actually existed.  And it would have given them the opportunity for a naked butt scene early.  Probably episode 2, rather than episode 1.

 

Yeah I think it needed to be episode 1. I got a distinct feeling that they were trying to say "hey look we can do sexy stuff too, don't worry, just stay with us for the ride." Because there was none after that until episodes 6-7. It just has that pilot feeling, for me. Which isn't necessarily bad, but I could tell they were doing some things because they had to for external reasons at times. I don't know if you've seen the original leaked script for episode 1, but it went even more heavily in that direction.

 

Spoiler

Among other things, it included Nynaeve slaughtering a lamb and spraying its blood on Egwene during her ceremony. And Mat going down on Dana. The Rand/Egwene scene was also more explicit.

 

It felt very much like a script that was trying to sell WoT to people who wanted the next GoT. I'm glad they toned it down in the final product and even more as the series went on. I hope as the writing team earns some trust from the execs they get more and more freedom to do things their own way and not have the burden of replicating GoT.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Nik

[Andra]

1 hour ago, Nik said:

 

Yeah I think it needed to be episode 1. I got a distinct feeling that they were trying to say "hey look we can do sexy stuff too, don't worry, just stay with us for the ride." Because there was none after that until episodes 6-7. It just has that pilot feeling, for me. Which isn't necessarily bad, but I could tell they were doing some things because they had to for external reasons at times. I don't know if you've seen the original leaked script for episode 1, but it went even more heavily in that direction.

 

  Hide contents

Among other things, it included Nynaeve slaughtering a lamb and spraying its blood on Egwene during her ceremony. And Mat going down on Dana. The Rand/Egwene scene was also more explicit.

 

It felt very much like a script that was trying to sell WoT to people who wanted the next GoT. I'm glad they toned it down in the final product and even more as the series went on. I hope as the writing team earns some trust from the execs they get more and more freedom to do things their own way and not have the burden of replicating GoT.

I haven't seen the scripts, but I have heard some of what was in them.

Personally, I think they could have pretty easily just expanded the Rand/Egwene scene to get whatever sexy time they felt had to go into the first episode.  Since it was pretty obviously a sex scene that happened off screen.

It's just there there were actual tubs with naked people getting into and out of them in Baerlon.  So why not film them?

 

And yes, I agree that they were trying to pull some GOT feelings there.

[DojoToad]

8 hours ago, Andra said:

I haven't seen the scripts, but I have heard some of what was in them.

Personally, I think they could have pretty easily just expanded the Rand/Egwene scene to get whatever sexy time they felt had to go into the first episode.  Since it was pretty obviously a sex scene that happened off screen.

It's just there there were actual tubs with naked people getting into and out of them in Baerlon.  So why not film them?

 

And yes, I agree that they were trying to pull some GOT feelings there.

Maybe Josha's butt isn't as nice as Daniel's...

[SinisterDeath]

33 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

Maybe Josha's butt isn't as nice as Daniel's...

It's also possible the actors/ress involved in the script, simply weren't comfortable doing something that explicit, and they removed said scene from the script after going through everyone's contract negotiations.