Wheel of Time Season 3 - Full Season Discussion

[DreadLord31]

I feel like they have “too much” to do … and this finale is gonna be another disappointment. 
 

Hope I’m wrong. 
Also … this is about the only crowd who will understand how amused I was at Perkins today … 

 

[Mirefox]

  On 4/11/2025 at 12:16 PM, DreadLord31 said:

I feel like they have “too much” to do … and this finale is gonna be another disappointment. 
 

Hope I’m wrong. 
Also … this is about the only crowd who will understand how amused I was at Perkins today … 

 

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First, yum.  Just imagine you’re at the Winespring.

 

Second, we’ve been talking for three seasons now about pacing donor shouldn’t come as a surprise that suddenly there’s a lot to do with little time.  For a show that has a ton of book to adapt into a much condensed form, they’ve spent way, way too much time on things that don’t matter and aren’t actually part of the original story.  I’ll grant that this season has been more on point, but even then, get rid of the chaff like the Alanna/Maksim nonsense, Liandrin’s wedding massacre, etc.  one huge complaint is that this show uses a lot of forced exposition and doesn’t give the story time to breathe, but they keep putting in extraneous fluff.  If they do everything that they are expected to do, the next episode is going to feel very rushed, but that’s also par for the course.

[SinisterDeath]

  On 4/9/2025 at 6:32 PM, DigificWriter said:

I was trying to do some research on licensing agreements, and based on what I could find, I'm almost 100% sure that Sony Pictures Television's licensing agreement with iWoT/Red Eagle is non-exclusive (since there have been other WoT-related projects announced as being in development that have nothing to do with the live-action show), which means that SPT cannot just bow out of producing the live-action show and let Amazon assume the licensing rights to it.

 

Thus, it would be incumbent upon Amazon to negotiate their own licensing agreement with iWoT/Red Eagle in order to unilaterally move forward with producing the live-action series on their own. They would also likely have to negotiate their own contracts with the cast and crew of the series.

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Some of REE's "projects", depending on their original contracts with the Bandersnatch group, which unfortunately aren't available publicly, may very well be overstepping the bounds of their contract and are opening themselves up for multiple lawsuits. (Re: See there AI Projects)

[Samt]

  On 4/11/2025 at 12:16 PM, DreadLord31 said:

I feel like they have “too much” to do … and this finale is gonna be another disappointment. 
 

Hope I’m wrong. 
Also … this is about the only crowd who will understand how amused I was at Perkins today … 

 

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Definitely should be mutton.

[Sabio]

  On 4/11/2025 at 12:29 PM, Mirefox said:

First, yum.  Just imagine you’re at the Winespring.

 

Second, we’ve been talking for three seasons now about pacing donor shouldn’t come as a surprise that suddenly there’s a lot to do with little time.  For a show that has a ton of book to adapt into a much condensed form, they’ve spent way, way too much time on things that don’t matter and aren’t actually part of the original story.  I’ll grant that this season has been more on point, but even then, get rid of the chaff like the Alanna/Maksim nonsense, Liandrin’s wedding massacre, etc.  one huge complaint is that this show uses a lot of forced exposition and doesn’t give the story time to breathe, but they keep putting in extraneous fluff.  If they do everything that they are expected to do, the next episode is going to feel very rushed, but that’s also par for the course.

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At the end of episode 7 Rafe said Loial was cut for time, with only 8 episodes he pretty much admitted there were simply too many stories to fit in, so some had to go like Loial.  It should be interesting if there is any Perin in the last episode because he had said something that made it seem like Perin might be done for the season.  

[Mirefox]

  On 4/11/2025 at 3:09 PM, Sabio said:

At the end of episode 7 Rafe said Loial was cut for time, with only 8 episodes he pretty much admitted there were simply too many stories to fit in, so some had to go like Loial.  It should be interesting if there is any Perin in the last episode because he had said something that made it seem like Perin might be done for the season.  

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I’m fine with Perrin’s story being done for the season.  We had the climax of the arc and then an uncertain transition /cliffhanger that can be left until next season.  Structurally it makes sense.

 

 

[Samt]

  On 4/11/2025 at 3:28 PM, Mirefox said:

 

I’m fine with Perrin’s story being done for the season.  We had the climax of the arc and then an uncertain transition /cliffhanger that can be left until next season.  Structurally it makes sense.

 

 

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Perrin is literally not in TFoH.  So he’s due for a break.

[Turin Turambar]

Now he has something to do next season (if it happens). Escapeand maybe do some.wolf dream/slayer stuffs.

[Jaysen Gore]

Assuming that they are even given the opportunity to finish the TV series, the major legacy of this adaptation is going to be what might have been. When this was announced, I did an exercise where I broke down exactly what 8 seasons of 8 episodes needed to cover. Not what would be nice; what was interesting subplots of backstory, but what is the absolute mission critical beats of each of the 6 main characters of the series, and what exposition needs to happen to make those stories make sense.

And so what we're left with is the bare bones skeleton of the lengthiest single plotted fantasy ever written, held together with short vignettes of well loved moments from the series, all spackled together in slapdash fashion with not enough time, budget or art to hide holes. Add production issues that could overwhelm even a simple production (Covid, Writer's strike, Barney Leaving, Tam's absence), and creator's intent in the adaptation that is different than the creator's intent of the series, and it's surprising it's as good as it is.

and as I noted - either here or elsewhere - the issue isn't really the number of episodes, or the number of seasons; it's the missing pieces of 15-30 seconds maybe 25 times (just 10 min) that would help the scenes makes sense, add depth and nuance to plots, and let the impact of moments be felt more deeply by the characters. And without implying anything political, allow people to prune the story not with a scalpel - no time for that - but at least not with a chainsaw.

a perfect example from this episode in about 30 seconds of spectacular story telling, the scene with Thom, Elayne and Jeane Caide laid the foundation for the rest of Elayne's story, set up Thom as a bad ass, introduced a key concept for the absolute climax of the series ( the crescendo of Olver's story), and 3 major story beats for our heroes in the middle (Mat and Avi in Camelyn, Rand, the idiot and Graendal, the Tower against Shara). But how many of those 30 second moments are missing? How many of those could have saved the "why isn't this person dead" set up from happening?

I've read the series a dozen times or more - the earlier books more than that. And there is enough of my WoT in the series to keep with it. But without the attchment to the series. I'm not sure I would care what happens to these people.

[Mailman]

  1 hour ago, Jaysen Gore said:

Assuming that they are even given the opportunity to finish the TV series, the major legacy of this adaptation is going to be what might have been. When this was announced, I did an exercise where I broke down exactly what 8 seasons of 8 episodes needed to cover. Not what would be nice; what was interesting subplots of backstory, but what is the absolute mission critical beats of each of the 6 main characters of the series, and what exposition needs to happen to make those stories make sense.

And so what we're left with is the bare bones skeleton of the lengthiest single plotted fantasy ever written, held together with short vignettes of well loved moments from the series, all spackled together in slapdash fashion with not enough time, budget or art to hide holes. Add production issues that could overwhelm even a simple production (Covid, Writer's strike, Barney Leaving, Tam's absence), and creator's intent in the adaptation that is different than the creator's intent of the series, and it's surprising it's as good as it is.

and as I noted - either here or elsewhere - the issue isn't really the number of episodes, or the number of seasons; it's the missing pieces of 15-30 seconds maybe 25 times (just 10 min) that would help the scenes makes sense, add depth and nuance to plots, and let the impact of moments be felt more deeply by the characters. And without implying anything political, allow people to prune the story not with a scalpel - no time for that - but at least not with a chainsaw.

a perfect example from this episode in about 30 seconds of spectacular story telling, the scene with Thom, Elayne and Jeane Caide laid the foundation for the rest of Elayne's story, set up Thom as a bad ass, introduced a key concept for the absolute climax of the series ( the crescendo of Olver's story), and 3 major story beats for our heroes in the middle (Mat and Avi in Camelyn, Rand, the idiot and Graendal, the Tower against Shara). But how many of those 30 second moments are missing? How many of those could have saved the "why isn't this person dead" set up from happening?

I've read the series a dozen times or more - the earlier books more than that. And there is enough of my WoT in the series to keep with it. But without the attchment to the series. I'm not sure I would care what happens to these people.

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Not a bad summary although it is more generous than I give the show credit for.

[Jaysen Gore]

  1 hour ago, Mailman said:

Not a bad summary although it is more generous than I give the show credit for.

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I'm not judging it against Game of Thrones seasons 1-3, I'm judging it against Season 8 of GoT, the Shannara Chronicles, and Rings of Power.  For big budget TV adaptations, WoT is above average. Not by alot, but enough.

[Mailman]

  1 hour ago, Jaysen Gore said:

I'm not judging it against Game of Thrones seasons 1-3, I'm judging it against Season 8 of GoT, the Shannara Chronicles, and Rings of Power.  For big budget TV adaptations, WoT is above average. Not by alot, but enough.

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Judging just about anything against GoT S8 is going to give you a positive result.

I mostly judge it against the source material which leads to a very disappointing result.