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.

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.

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.

I think my take away was that I expected "stout Two Rivers wool" dresses to not be see through when wet or made of linen.

24 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

Seems like you and your wife are a match made in heaven. ?

It's true. I actually hoped she'd like it more than she did. I've been trying to get her to read the books for years.

1 minute ago, Sir_Charrid said:

Anecdotally 10 of my friends are non WOT book readers, all 10 have told me they won’t be carrying on watching it and don’t want to borrow the books. They are all fantasy people, some of them I play DND with but all of them thought the opening 2 episodes where, in the word of one, just bad. This was heralded by Amazon as there GOT, it lacks either the quality of script, acting or feel of that series. 

I would imagine most of the people who are giving it reviews online (good and bad) have a history with the books. Honestly after talking to my wife I'm realizing that I was probably too kind. The only reason I was as positive with it as I was is because I knew the story and where it was going. To her it seemed weird and rushed. She doesn't feel anything towards any of the characters except maybe Rand, but if any of them died it wouldn't hurt her at this point. She also said it didn't feel like there was actually a story being told.

My wife finished E1 a few minutes ago. Here are some quotes from her.

On the opening scene.

"They are killing a guy because he touched one of them?"

"It made it look like it was going to be another girl power show"

Perrin

"Kind of a turd, he's in the bar drinking while his pregnant wife is working and has to be reminded to go and help her."

"Does he even work?"

Mat

"Weasley scumbag"

"Oh, since he takes care of his little sisters when his mom is depressed and his dad is fucking other girls that makes him OK? I don't buy it."

"Was he selling that bracelet to pay his gambling debts?"

"Why did they make it look like he was his sister's protector and then he just leaves the village leaving them behind?"

Moiraine

"The sorceress? She's ok I guess."

"The scene with her and her lover taking a bath was stupid"

Lan

"I didn't know his name"

"Seems kinda girly"

Nynaeve

"Seems like a pain in the ass with a constant chip on her shoulder"

"Seems like the only person she likes is the girl she's trying to seduce"

Egwene

"The one with the mole on her nose?"

"Did she just screw that guy in the lobby?"

"Do they even really like each other?"

In general

"If these are the four chosen ones, then they are pathetic, the couldn't do anything."

"They accuse the sorceress of bringing the monsters and ten second later are leaving with her? That doesn't make any sense."

"Did she have to tear down that building to beat the monsters? Were any people inside it?"

"Why was Voldemort on a horse"

It seems like it's even worse if you aren't invested in it.

10 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

Hard to take seriously anything you say when there's stuff like that. Shame.

 

 

Egwene is supposed to be a world class beauty who Gawyn and Galad both fall for at first sight. I get that it's shallow, but can't you see how this is an issue for the character?

3 minutes ago, Raezold said:

So I just got home from visiting friends who apparently have Amazon Prime and they noticed there was a series about the books I've been trying to get them to read for years. So of course they had to put it on because wouldn't it be awesome to see your favourite series on screen?! 

I agree with pretty much everything you've said. I'm waiting for my wife to watch E1 to see if I'm just pissed because someone messed with my precious, or if it is really that bad. How did your friends like it?

11 hours ago, SingleMort said:

 

so is this a deleted scene? Do we have to wait for The Wheel of Time: Extended Editions to get the full thing?

That's what is frustrating me with the defenders of this show. I get that you want it to be good, it just isn't. I'm trying to look past all the bad decisions, but at some point we have to admit that the script sucks and everything is downstream of that.

I just forced myself through Episode 1. Here's my take.

The good

1. Solid acting pretty much across the board. Some were better than others, but as a whole the acting was good.
2. Scenery was good, the environments were great. The village looks wonderful, if different from what we imagined.
3. Tam and Rand look almost exactly like the book says.
4. The pan up to reveal the slaughtered sheep in the shape of the Dragon's Fang was a brilliant cinematic moment.
5. Special effects weren't bad. They weren't outstanding and some corners were cut, but you had to do something other than have Moiraine standing there looking bored while things happened. The trollocs were diverse and well done.

The Not so great

1. The people of the town don't feel like a small village. Small villages who demand to know who a person is the moment they step through the door are not the types of places where you find a wide variety of races and ethnicities. This is a stupid choice that makes it feel unreal.
2. The wardrobe department gets a D, it's not a complete failure, but it could have been so much better. Especially Moiraine's ring, that thing looks like a toddler made it with play-dough.
3. Moiraine and Lan in the bath scene was just odd.

The Ugly

1. Let's get it out of the way, the script sucks. We all knew they were going to have to make changes to the storyline in order to make it work in a different media, but this is ridiculous. Honestly the last place you needed to change the storyline was in the first part of the first book. They didn't even do it for rational reasons and their storyline is much less effective.
2. Casting is rough. There is some solid acting, but why couldn't they have shaved enough money from the budget to put Perrin and Lan through a bulking cycle? Or shave the massive mole off of Egwene's nose? Literally Rand and Tam are the only ones who really look like they were described in the books. Maybe Moiraine too, but as I said the smoothness was a fail.
3. Nynaeve's character is even less likeable than in the books and that's saying something.

It's like they are stripping everything special out of the books and shoving in things they think will be more popular to a casual audience. It's so ham handed that it's hard to makes sense of things, especially the trolloc attack. 

Relationships

Putting Moiraine and Lan naked in a bath together was dumb. Having Rand and Egwene intimate and then casually walking around half naked (like anyone who lives with their parents does that, especially in a medieval setting). I don't want to even get into Perrin and his wive's stupidity.

Fighting

Lan telling Moiraine that they need to leave because "The Fade has trollocs with it, dozens" was a dumb line that made him and Moiraine less. Something he can't afford with his lack of physical presence. Neither Lan nor Tam move like blade masters.

Exposition

"it's trolloc poison" is another idiotic line that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. The "the four of you" speech is convincing and having them all just go "okey dokey" and hop on horses to follow her was... weird.

I'm waiting for my wife to watch the first episode (she's never read the books) and will watch the second one tonight with her. It will be interesting to get her take on it as someone who doesn't have any skin in the game.