JRRT famously refused to consider visual adaptation of LotR because he believed it to be "unfilmable" - although I think he wouldn't have been totally disappointed in Peter Jackson's efforts.

Did RJ ever say anything similar about WoT?

I've just watched Eps 7 and 8 with my partner, after being so disillusioned with Ep 6 that I wasn't interested any more.  I started the season as a card-carrying fanboy, and my other half as the person who just doesn't really care about fantasy movies or books.  Oh my, how the turnings have tabled.  He was the one who talked me into watching.  Well, it was on the TV in the lounge, so unless I wanted to sulk in the bedroom or the study, I was kind of stuck with it.

How on earth did they start with such potential (and I loved the show at the beginning), and with such outstanding actors (barring Egwene and mostly barring Matt, I think the casting is perfect), and turn it into... into... into this?  So much potential, so many (mostly) excellent visuals.  So many scenes which were book perfect, and still.  My profession is known for its loquacity and I persuade people for a living, but I can't find the appropriate words for how I feel.  Perhaps this is what stilling feels like.

Well, they've lost me for Season 2, although my partner will probably watch as he now appears to be hooked.  At the end of Ep 6 I was disengaged but hoped that the show would be successful.  I no longer care one way or the other.  It is dead to me.

I'm going back to reading the books.  You might see me on that side of the forums. Time for a re-read.

Just caught up with Ep.6.

My partner loves it.  I don't.

I'm out.  Ciao, y'all.

32 minutes ago, Beidomon said:

 

I’m going to need to rewatch, but I don’t recall much expression at all. His face reminds of the Burger King mascot. Looks like a wooden mask. 

 

I might have read something that wasn't there, but I distinctly remember just the faintest flash of... something (irritation?) when Loial was about to respond to something Rand said, and Rand then went straight onto something else.  Loial then comments "I forgot how you humans make light of such things", or something along those lines.

I didn't like the face at first, but I love the voice, and that lulled me into loving the face too.

LOIAL!  Okay, so he is at least a foot too short, but the actor has nailed him, and I loved his dialogue.  Especially loved the way he was about to go off into a discourse about a particular topic, on at least one occasion, and was brought up short by hasty humans talking about something else.  The expression on his face was subtle, but conveyed much.

TAR VALON!  THE WHITE TOWER! pretty much exactly how I imagined them.  The White Tower, in particular, looks hyper-real, as if it is more massive, contains more sheer existence than everything around it.

I thought that the ring being cast "into the fires of Mount Doom" was a bit overdone, but I like the symbolism of a dead sister's ring being returned to a pool of molten gold, from which is drawn the metal to make new rings for novices.  It makes Valda's little collection of rings all the more offensive.

Do I like how Mat is being portrayed as descending into madness?  No, I don't.  This was an "I hate Mat" episode.

I liked (well, loathed) the Whitecloaks in this episode but, so far, Perrin's wolf arc is not grabbing me, and I don't like the wolves.  Sorry.

I now get what some people have been saying about the sets looking too clean and polished: the grubbiness seems artificial.  It detracts from the atmosphere.

deep breath

It's not the books, and seems - at least, to me - to be increasingly deviating from the story of the books.  But it is still Randland.  I'm glad I haven't read the books for a few years, or I would probably be more upset.  As it is, I'm content to watch it, to enjoy it, as a new story, based on WoT but having its own rhythm.

Still watching.

2 minutes ago, TheChief said:

My husband was forced to watch (by me). Fantasy is NOT his cup of tea.

 

He patiently sat next to me eps 1-3. Only reaction is laughing at Mat's jokes. Likes Mat and can't stand Rand. Guesses at DR; ep 2 - "Perrin?", ep 3 - "Mat or Egwene?"

 

After ep 3 - "That guy Rand is such a dud, and hasn't done anything interesting".

 

At the end of ep 4 - "Ok, now it's getting good".  And of course he's certain Nyneve is the DR. ?

Mine thinks Mat is annoying and really dislikes him, and that Perrin is eye-candy but dull.  He decided that Rand is the DR after the door-breaking incident, and thinks that it is silly that he hasn't featured all that much since.  Nynaeve is, according to him, going to go on to have a pivotal role in the story, and will be the DR if Rand turns out not to be.  Egwene is a pointless waste-of-space.  Tom has "hidden depths".

My husband, my dearest life-partner, the only light in my declining years, the joy of my encroaching decrepitude, my one and only against whom none can compare, who is watching me type this ^{(send help, I'm trapped)} only admits to having read two fantasy novels in his life.  He further states that he only read Lord of the Rings because he's a linguist and Tolkien's philological predilections have always fascinated him.  He broadly dislikes fantasy films or TV shows, and he didn't make it to the end of season 1 of GoT because he thought it was too depressing and bloodthirsty.

He has now watched four episodes of WoT, and has already planned his Friday evening around watching episode 5.  My personal goal is to get him to admit that he actually likes a fantasy story, but he is still being bloody-minded about that.  Nevertheless, we are united in our fervent desire to see more Lan and more Perrin.

I think that counts as a win.  So far, at least.

On 11/30/2021 at 6:29 PM, Taishar Hawaii said:

And let’s not forget it is 

  Hide contents

Elaida

pulling the strings on it all from the White Tower. Another character I hope they get right.

 

Oh yes.  That character is going to be really difficult to pull off well.  She was a pantomime villain in the end, but that only worked because her fall from grace was so well-written.  I would hazard to suggest that her character arc needs to transfer to TV essentially unchanged, or she will turn into a farce.

3 hours ago, MasterAblar said:

 

No 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Galina puts Rand in a box, Liandrin hands Egwene to the Seanchan then escapes to Tear, and later Tarabon.

 

And they had better cast her perfectly, or I will be overturning tables and stomping about in a foul temper. 

happens to be my favourite character from the books.

1 minute ago, DaddyFinn said:

Yes and I like it. I hope she is still a Black. There's a couple of hints that she is (her ring looking black in episode 1) so I'm not too worried.

TV-Liandrin seems to be set up to be a significant villain in the series, and it's nice to see that she is not being immediately portrayed as someone we should all be booing and hissing.  In my entirely unhumble opinion, some of the best villains are the ones that make us go "I hate you, and I hate that I hate you".

1 hour ago, LoRd PyrO said:

Dude, wtf???!!; Can you elaborat?!!

I was being whimsical, aided by half a bottle of very nice cabernet saugivnon.  Pay me no heed.

12 minutes ago, MasterAblar said:

The voices could be former lives, but they could just as easily be voice he’s hallucinating. No way to really know.

An observation made by someone in one of the later books, someone who once had the reputation of being one of the greatest healers of mental illnesses the world has ever known, is particularly apposite to that statement.

(Not sure if I could be more oblique if I tried!)

A plausible argument.  Let's see what they do with LotR.

"It's a good story, but we need to do away with this concept of malevolent jewellery.  And instead of Hobbits, our test audiences show that sentient vegetables will be much better received by those unfamiliar with the source material."

2 minutes ago, Harad the White said:

https://screenrant.com/wheel-time-show-backlash-controversy-books-seasons-risk

This isn't true of the people I've spoken to about it, both a colleague who is a book fan, and a couple of other colleagues and my partner, none of whom have ever read the books.  All of them have had positive things to say about the story so far (I'll have to wait until next week to hear my colleagues' opinion on Ep.4.

I think it's too early for the postmortem as yet.  The Doomsayers may be right, but we'll see.

2 minutes ago, ManetherenTaveren said:

LOL. I suppose it's easy to confuse players on the Man United roster with a bunch of Tinkers! ? The way of the leaf indeed! 

Argh.  I meant Marcus Rutherford.

Marcus Rashford is hot, too, but that's a discussion for another forum. ?

8 minutes ago, flinn said:

 I thought the shadow figures were just the taint. It appears that hearing voices is going to be the universal madness in the show, instead of each person having their own unique madness trait.

Yes, could be that.  The reason I thought "Aha!  Forsaken!" is that just before they appeared, it seemed as if the channeling was snaking around Logain from off-screen.

Well I liked it.  I mean, I really liked it.  I'm not going to rehearse every aspect which I liked or disliked, because who wants to read that on page 17?  It does seem to me, though, that the show is now starting to hit its stride.  Let's see if they can keep up the pace in the next four episodes.  Some stand-outs for me include:

• Did anyone else notice that when Logain was channelling, sometimes at least, the power seemed to snake from somewhere outside of him?  A very clever way of showing how he is being manipulated by person or persons unknown.
• Not sure what I think of the shadow people whispering in Logain's ears.  Forsaken, I presume.  I hope they put in a fleshly appearance soon, because I don't think that the disembodied shadows really work.
• Really enjoyed the Tinkers scenes, and I don't mind overmuch that Ilya has been given prominence over Raen.
• I love Matt again.
• And Marcus Rutherford is hot.  My goodness me, I came over all a-flutter.
• Was less impressed with Rand in this episode, and my opinions on Thom are decidedly neutral.
• The actor playing Liandrin has really nailed her.

Overall, a solid 5/7.

2 minutes ago, Harad the White said:

Possibly, it's imperfect ADR ( re-recording if the original sound is bad).

You're probably right.  I wonder why I've only noticed Matt.  Oh well, it's time I stopped analysing and but the debate to one side until the next episode.

Ok, so I've had a re-watch (the alternative task this afternoon was ironing shirts).  I think I might have identified why Matt's portrayal annoys me, although I could be over-analysing in an effort to identify the root of my dislike.  It seems to me almost as if he is being overdubbed by someone who is speaking the same language but with a different accent, leading to a very slight lip-synch mismatch.  Has anyone else noticed that, or is it just me?

And I still have to iron some shirts.

14 hours ago, Akragard said:

I think being able to see the Weaves will be increasingly important. Particularly when you get to splitting weaves and healing later in the series. It was something I really liked. I thought the representation of the One Power was a good idea.

The more I think of it, the more I would have preferred to see some subtle shading of the weaves, to indicate which power were being woven.  Red for fire, blue for water, etc.  But I do like the concept.

13 minutes ago, WhiteVeils said:

...Did he really steal the bracelet in Episode 1, or did he ask for it/receive it as a 'gift for services rendered' from the woman he went to.

That's really interesting, and it could foreshadow his relationship with Tylin, if we ever get that far.

Other Half watched Ep3 after lunch, and demanded to know how Lan, if he is such a highly-trained warrior with preternatural abilities from his bond with Moraine, was able to be snook up on and almost murdered by Nynaeve, no matter how brave and skilled in woodcraft she may be.  I... had no answer.  He still enjoyed it, though.  He is actually looking forward to Ep4, which is something of a wonder - he stopped watching GoT after the second episode, because he thought it was boring and derivative.  Some people...

Just now, MasterAblar said:

 

I assume he's been merged with Asagawa or whatever his name was. Which is fine to be honest.

Possibly.  That would mean that quite a large CotL subplot would have to be excised or changed.  It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason it is one of the long-running WoT sub-plots which I find most memorable.

8 minutes ago, Ryan al'Thor said:

If you take away Elayne's baths, all the skirt straightening, and braid tugging...it should be able to keep most scenes intact.

And if they are still running out of time, they can cut the sniffing.  Oh, and all of Perrin's "Faile! Oh Light, Faile!" moments.

13 hours ago, Pandemonium said:

not sure I dig Thom's singing. surely I am not the only one 

I was disappointed with Thom, too.  Although that said, I do think that he is well acted.  I am wondering whether we will see that Thom is actually being the consummate showman, and suiting his style of dress, his voice, and his choice of music to the places where he is plying his trade.  I hope that we will see more of the bright colours when he is in a brighter place, and perhaps, when he is in a town with a middle- or upper-class, his voice will become more polished too.  That's my hope, anyway.

I really enjoyed this episode.  Still in the "good, but not great" category, but pushing toward the top now.  The two stand-outs for me were Nynaeve, who was fantastic, and Matt (he's growing on me again) who is starting to show subtle signs that the evil of Shadar Logoth is burrowing into his mind.  Show-Perrin bores me to tears, just like Book-Perrin.

On the whole, I feel that investing three hours into the start of the series was time well spent, and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

13 hours ago, CaddySedai said:

If anything the ferryman killed himself with Moraine. 

 

just sayin *innocently whistles* 

Suicide by Aes Sedai?  But yes, I do agree that he was accessory to his own death, while Moiraine stood firm and did her duty.

Overall I liked this episode more than the first, although I think that both of them are firmly in the "good, but not great" category.  Character development is going well, although I like Matt's characterisation less now than I did before, and I don't think he's coming off quite as I would have hoped.

I was very attentive to Moiraine's verbal fencing with the CotL, and I like how she described herself as the daughter of a fallen house, which was a nice nod to those of us who know her story.  I liked the casting, and thought that Geofram Bornhald was absolutely perfect.  Eamon Valda was very different to my imagination, but he has now transplanted my previous head-canon image: he was pretty close to perfect.  I just thought that he came off a little bit too psychopathic while he was barbecuing the Aes Sedai.  I would have expected him to be a bit more dismissive of her, rather than gloating over her slow demise.  Also, was Book-Valda a Questioner?  I don't recall that he was.

Disappointed that Shadar Logoth was not given more screen time, and thought the pacing was off there.  Also disappointed that we only got a hint of Mordeth.  The change to Mashadar took a moment for me to get used to, but I can see why it was done, and it was very effective.

All in all, it was a good watch.  My partner, who doesn't like fantasy, watched the first two episodes with me "under protest", according to him.  He has now gone out for the evening, and was unable to hide his annoyance that I'm going to watch episode three without him.  "Don't you dare tell me what happens until I see it," was the remonstration, so I think that's another fan.