This is a rule I didn’t have when I started wheel of time (back in 99). RJ made me take it on when he died, and as a result I refuse to even think of picking up games of thrones to read lol. Burnt once, never again :). I will caveat the rule for me is a series written by a solo author. Anthology series I am happy to dive into (I don’t think I could even consider starting the fantastic 50+ book series the Horus heresy today from Scratch lol)

Books 9 and 10 are 2 of my fav of the series, I never understood people who call them a slog. But it’s a personal thing.

It’s all about opinion, in my opinion no, the last 2 books are the weakest of the whole series in many ways. But I understand the choices BS made, and can respect him for taking on finishing the story, I just don’t like Brandon Sanderson style of writing (have tried his books really dislike them). I would say go into the last 3 books happy the story was finished but reading them just to enjoy the ride rather then try and get deep into the story.

Books 1-3 Robert Jordan had no idea how long he had to tell his story. Book 1 he wrote as a one off standalone novel with the potential to turn it into a trilogy if he was given the contract by the publishers. He was also told to write a story more identical to fellowship of the ring by his publisher. He was then given a contract to write book 2 and while writing book 2 was then given a trilogy. while writing book 3 he was told he had a forth book, with the potential I believe for a 5th. It wasn’t until he was writing book 4 he was told he had as many books as he needed to tell the story. If you understand this then you understand why the story doesn’t really find its voice until book 4, and why books 1-3 seem a bit repetitive. He had to try and finish each one off as a contained story.

Am I the only person for whom this storyline is a particular favorite :). I have also never felt it was overly long, paced perfectly (I am now at a point where I will pick up the books and skip whole chapters to just read my fav storylines in order linear style and this is one).

That is a marketing thing as much as based on any real stats. Amazon can make the shows they want appear in those lists.

My gut feeling here is season 4 is confirmed behind scenes, the important question for Rafe is will the be a 5,6,7 or 8. He needs to know if he has to finish everything in 1 season, or if he has longer to get us to the last battle. Amazon need to stop this season by season approach.

I mean it already has. I keep going back to what Peter Jackson said about adapting lord of the rings. he started at the end, what are the key things you need to deliver to complete the story. Then you work backwards and identify the things that happen in the book key to getting to that end. Then you fill in the space around with other things in the books you know the fans will love and fill in gaps in prose that are left to the readers imagination but will need a scene on screen. Now LOTR that is fairly easy to do because in reality the books are short and have 2 linear story threads at the end of Fellowship, and also in the book you can argue there is not much of a character arc for many of the characters (Frodo and Sam yes, but in the books the rest of the main characters remain pretty static). But WOT was always going to be much harder to do, you start at the last battle and the characters you decide need to be there (on both sides), and then you have to map backwards the character arcs of how they progress from where they are at the start to the end. Add to that the fact Rafe didn’t know how long he had to tell the story, and the fact that Amazon are refusing to give him a budget that the show deserves (wheel of time should have ROP money), and you can forgive some of the choices made as artistic differences. But for me he has missed far far more than he has hit.

Ok while yes in the books RJ had him go to Tear in book 3 at that point RJ thought he only had one book left to write. As I have said repeatedly I am convinced that had RJ known from book 1 he had 14+ books to tell this story the opening trilogy would be very very differently paced. Now I love the way the taking of tear happens in the books but part of the issue RJ created was overpowering Rand in the first 3 books and then having to deport him and power up his enemies to put him in peril. I am perfectly happy talking about what I think Rafe got wrong, but the actual changes he made to pacing and the order things happen for me is not one of them.

Alanna’s plot armor is a cheap rubbish writers trick to shock viewers when she actually does die. I agree it removes any sense of jepordy (or between her and moraine it teaches us that Aes Sedai have no internal organs lol)

I would love someone to explain why he is so important to the maidens at some point,

ok plenty of people like the political side. As many maybe as those who don’t. I am not sure the salidar story will be presented in anywhere near the same way. It seems clear the epic scene of an army of thousands pouring through the traveling gates to lay siege to Tar Valon won’t be coming. Maybe an “army” of 30 lol given the budget and seeming inability to film big battle moments. I think that’s my biggest issue with this show, a lack of ambition with budget and set piece battles. There is going to be no rings of power siege if Erigion, or got battle of the bastards. I gave them benefit of the doubt in season 1 because of covid. But I truly hoped the battle of the 2 rivers would be far grander and larger. Even if I am very happy to get a nighttime fight I could actually see on my tv 🙂

The fact is in the books it’s Siuan’s arc, and there are many of us who think WOT is great because of the politics. I know for me if you took that out I would have probably ignored it and not bothered reading anymore. So RJ takes Siuan out and then creates a new character to do the same thing for egwene? That’s like saying does Rand have to be the dragon reborn, isn’t there another character who could end up fighting the last battle. RJ made certain characters to have certain roles in the story. I really see no point in the TV show in killing off a major character to then give her entire arc to another character?

So you create another character to take the part of a character who had that clear arc, that makes no sense. And no, who else understands the intricacies of tower politics and what it takes to rule all the ajahs? Siuan was unique. A former AS who is alive and able to mentor the new one. A situation that has never happened before.

One thing that I think needed to be explained more is how Rand “knows” why Lewis Therin left her, we haven’t seen any indication that he has those memories or insights.

I mean at this rate the dark one himself could stand over Alanna in that final scene, Nynave tell Alanna to end the bond and Alanna look at Nynaeve and say, “this is but a flesh wound, I have had much worse” (picturing the black knight from Monty python and the gold grail)

What, sorry statements like this make me wonder if people really understand the character arcs in the books. Siuan is the driving force behind Egwene’s ascension in the tower. No Siuan no making Egwene AS. No Siuan and the rebel Aes Sedai fold, no Siuan and all of that story thread. One of the key fav threads of most readers is gone.

Alanna has the key moment at the end of the book series. Bonding Rand and then her death being the threat to force Rand to end the world.

Given what we know about Alvarin from the books it is possible that there were other forces at play.

So I was def the former in the first 2 seasons, I have stated for a long time that books 1-3 are repetitive, probably would have been so so different had RJ known from day 1 he had as many books as he needed and they needed to be seriously truncated for TV. But, season 3, while by far the strongest season so far, has for me just dropped the ball that was the strongest book. I don’t think this is all Rafes fault, I would love to see a Wheel of Time with Rings of Power budget, it seems we are relegated to “battles” consisting of tens of warriors fighting in them instead of thousands. I would have loved to see Amazon commit up front to how many season there would be. Ironically It feels that Rafe has the same issue RJ had, not knowing if the next season/book would be his last. there have been some things that have hit the mark, watching with a non book reader some of the scenes have hit her hard, but my own good will is slowly sapping away.

Next season Rand takes tear and fights the dark one potentially, Or if we are lucky next season Rand takes tear and then we get a season building to the last battle. I really don’t see how we have time to do the Rand live stories with all 3 women and save moraine and cleanse the source and everything else that needs to happen, including Egwenes story which is clearly now going to be her teaching herself how to politic to the Amyrilian Seat with no help.

I think we have 1 maybe 2 seasons left, the moraine rescue is not happening,

This may also be the case, end of the day it doesn’t really matter because he dies mins later. Wondering if there is a scene somewhere on a cutting room floor,

Not an ideal explanation but moraine experienced being tied off in a shield and Rand explained what he saw as he untied it so in terms of TV logic that isn’t a massive stretch, she also has the added boost now of her glass orb so that allows her to have the power of 8.

I don’t care about the maksim story line, part of me quite enjoys it, it shows the warder bond and if they are going to follow through with the story as is then Alanna is a key pawn in the dark ones final plan. Maybe the key pawn, I personally don’t care about many of the story changes. And Perrin is getting his chance, non book lover friends of mine have said he is one of there fav characters and a proper bad ass. Like I said, my issue here was the loss of that key emotion, even in my non book lover friends. They never felt any sense of real peril or tension in the battle. There was no emotional output except for a real outpouring when Loial died.