What was Ba'alzamon doing to Rand, Mat, and Perrin through out the first book? What did Loial warn Moiraine about in Caemlyn, which corroborated what Perrin & Egwene heard from the Tua'than? Rand didn't show up to foul their trap. They "followed" Rand and Co. because they couldn't find it due to it's peculiar nature. Aginor & Balthamel were just cannon fodder. Ba'alzamon likely tracked down most of the seals locations and had a hunch this last one was in the eye, and it likely couldn't be broken if it was covered in pure Saidin. Ergo the "trap" was to allow the other's to find it for them, so they'd inadvertently release the last seal from it's prison.

I mean, one of the hardest parts they have is actually working in the great lines of dialogue into the show in such a way that feels natural and not in a cheesy or grandstanding way. Some will get upset that they'll include throw away easter-egg lines as fan-service... But honestly, we' haven't got to deep enough into the novels yet where the lines of dialogue are really worth stealing yet. (The only line I'm here for is the one where Nynaeve drops Lan off in the North)

Stumbled upon this. You can actually see the loop the enters the nose from this large "nose ring" that covers the mouth.

I believe there was one side photo we got a while back, and maybe confirmation from Sarah/Rafe, that it's not a pacifier, but a nose-piercing that hangs below the mouth. In the picture below, you'll see that it touches the nose, and due to the lighting you can't see any detail about how it's attached.

The show "ended" where the books are supposed to "end" because G.R.R is grinding his wheels finishing the last two. The last seasons issues, go beyond just that the books aren't done. D&D (show runners) literally didn't know what they were doing, and their hands were held the entire time, until the last season where they were brought to the edge of a cliff and yeeted off of it.

When I think 80s Conan, I think helicopter footage of a random hilly countryside field in some country, campy b-quality stages with lots of snake statues, and about a third of the movie is pure exposition with Arnold grunting at us as the women swoon. (Which then makes me wonder after learning about his affair(s), how he didn't knock up half of Hollywood in the 80s? Maybe one benefit of the roids?) Anyways, nostalgia is fun and I get it. I've noticed a lot of movies/shows shifting to tighter shots that when they're not careful they feel like a "play" and not a "movie". For me, this wasn't one of them. But I have seen some pretty bad offenders. I've forgotten their names...

Good news, you can always fast forward the s-exposition scenes and still get a feel for how the set designs are similar and different. GoT is endlessly compared to every other fantasy show as the superior adaptation in every category, so it could be good to get an idea of what others consider the best of the best.

Beat me to it.

I'd recommend watching at least the first two episodes to get the context of what a lot of people feel is the superior show in terms of all around quality.

Honestly, if you skim through S1 of GOT, the one thing that stands out is the use of outdoor scenes compared to WoT. What's probably feeling like "cheap sets" is that we get a lot of interior shots, that are often made to look cramped as they're trying to get us closeups on the main characters. Then we flicker over to GoT, and we see these expansive landscapes. These' outdoor set pieces. Courtyards with stables. Natural lighting is littered throughout the first episode of the first season. If a show goes from one interior set to another interior set, it starts to feel like a stage play, and that might be the feeling you're getting. It doesn't help that we only got 8 episodes to GoT's 10. We can't have a lot of extra's in certain scenes without crowding out the main characters. But if your in an outdoor scene with characters walking around, you can have extra's doing extra stuff... and we didn't get a lot of that stuff in S1 of WoT.

If we get flicker flicker, It's likely this was the child Perrin & Laila lost. I don't get this criticism. The sets don't look low budget, and they don't look too clean or neat/orderly at all. I'll give you that they need to work on lighting. (HBO has superior lighting compared to Amazon's). RJ was always going on about how the Aes Sedai, Aiel, and White Cloaks were meticulous about bathing and keeping things spick and span, so there are going to be areas of the world that ARE going to be clean and orderly, and that's reflected in the show. Here's a screenshot of Shadar Logoth. We see dust on the floor, broken stuff everywhere. Here's Dana's Bar. It's quiet lived in. Clutter everywhere. You see dust in the air due to the way the lights coming in. Here's the Place Rand was staying with Mat when brother book brought Nynaeve over. The piller's a bit dirty, the furnishing is sparing but it's an Inn. It doesn't need to look like a family lives there. You keep it to a few beds, wardrobes, light sources, maybe a painting or two. Here's Lan with Steppin. The area looks about as lived in as a Warder who spends a few weeks out of the year there. It's clean, because it should be. The novices & accepted do their jobs well. And of course here's Fal Dara throne room area. It should be clean. They're nobility. It's an open dais, you don't want a bunch of clutter around it. Now here's Game of Thrones S1. Sansa's room. Boy, that looks clean! The only "dirty" thing I see is all that candle wax. That throne room is really clean and bare! And of course, look how clean this chamber is! Those chairs are spaced far to evenly! Thank goodness there's no starbucks cup in this shot! 😉

Rand v Dark One ERB Style plz and thank you.

I suggest reading some comments regarding the choice of music in the Willow TV series on Twitter/Reddit sometime. Fans can and will find anything to criticize, fairly or unfairly when it comes to any sequel or adaptation of a beloved piece of work. (Remember kids, Fans = short for Fanatic) What will be interesting I think, is if we'll get any more in-world music like Thom's song and the song of Manetheran. I'd love to see how they craft in-world music that has evolved over thousands of years since the breaking. I doubt in-show we'll experience anything like rap, that would be too much for certain demographics, even though it's one of the most popular music genres in our world... A case could be made, that if it existed in that universe, it would survive the breaking far better then the likes of highly synthesized pop and rock music, as it doesn't require much in the way of instruments, since it's pretty much just poetry spoken over any type of music. Course, knowing my luck Shatner's spoken word singing is still a thing.

literally just post the youtube link, it does the rest.

I'd die on the hill that the soundtrack is what made that movie. Replace it with period specific music, and it'll lose it's charm. 😉

So, something to consider is that this is a world that is "our future", so who's to say our songs haven't lived on in different instrumental mediums with different lyrics applied? Or similar lyrics applied to different instrumentals? Thom's portrayal in this show is very country.

Definitely Emoji's. Much to the Confusion of Perrin who doesn't understand what an Emoji is.

Interesting counter-point, first trailer didn't really have "music" but did have a "generic fantasy score" as you put it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was something put together by Lorne Balfe?

One of the reasons I like 7 nation army, is the lyrics and that absolutely killer/catchy guitar solo that sounds like Bass but isn't. Replace 7 nation Army with 10, we've got a bit of Madness workin' in here. Indestructible works great for the Asha'man coming to Rand's rescue at Dumai'. 7 nation, that works when Rand's showing off how devastating he can be while the Asha'man are just gawking at how OP he is.

I moved the music discussion to this topic. To each their own for sure. I agree if it has modern, it should be written for the show, or at least re-worked, and something they did do, is rework the original song to the trailer. If you google the lyrics to the song "Control by Halsey", you'll see that the lyrics in the trailer don't match the song all that well. As for matching the tone/theme of the show, "Control" works really well. Rand's fighting for control of the OP. He's fighting control over his own destiny. He's fighting over other's trying to control him. He's trying to control others. He's wrestling with the madness trying to control him. The lines "And all the kids cried out, "Please stop, you're scaring me"" "Who is in control" Are lines that should send a shiver up your spine when thinking about Rand. Seeing the Text "To Seek the Light" with a little girl running and Perrin looking happy, while the audio is saying "I can't help this awful energy"... These are a couple of CW trailers. 1) Sometimes I think when people say something is like a CW drama, I don't think they know what a CW show is. 2) I don't think the WoT trailer resembles either of those trailers at all. Song lyrics - 100% agree that I wish "subtitles" would catch lyrics/display them differently so we could better understand them with everything else going on. Part of the audio mess going on, is not all of that audio is from the song. I hope we get some more bloody mother's milks in a cup in season 2 as well, but we do have to be mindful that sometimes using "period" specific curses can make a show an unintended comedy. I wish I could find the article, but there was apparently a script written for Deadwood where they used period specific language, and the actors couldn't stop laughing at the cursing, so they replaced the majority of it with modern words. I'm not saying WoT should replace Bloody with the F-Bomb at every opportunity it can, it should bloody well keep the bloody word in there, but it' can also be difficult to work certain made up curse words into natural language. Here's the original song song if anyone's interested.

I'm of the mind that a fantasy show doesn't need to have high fantasy LOTR music all the time. The Willow tv show got railed for having "modern" music but I loved it's sound track. I also loved "A Knights Tale" sound Track. The trick is finding the right balance of "High Fantasy Orchestral" and "Modern" that just fit. You don't want the music taking over the scene or the dialogue, unless it's a transition scene with a lot of walking/traveling, or some other type of scene where the music can be used to heighted the emotion of the scene. (Like playing Born to be Wild when someone rides off on a motor cycle) One example of something I'd love to see, is a version of this song play when Rand & his Asha'man enter the battlefield.

yes

Song lyrics as they appear in the trailer (there were some words or humming intermixed in the trailer where they'd singe a single word and stop so I wasn't able to parse what the word was and didn't include it here) I'm bigger than my body I'm meaner than my demons I'm bigger than these bones I'm bigger than my body And all the kids cried out, "Please stop, you're scaring me" I can't help this awful energy Who is in control? "Control" By Halsey, from the Album Badlands.

I looked at that image a million times while making that image. I was thinking she was a lady leaning back in a chair talking to Ishy, as he was out of his chair. I guess there are 12 chairs, and 13 people. Interesting.