I never thought Mat was pro slavery.

Uncollaring captured damane during a battle makes no sense.  Though some would gratefully accept their freedom, many more were broken and would be a danger to all around them.  Time enough after the Battle to sort out what to do with them.

20 hours ago, Dark Ones Taint said:

Rand drove me nuts with his behavior though most of the books.  I was especially irritated by Rand's negligence with Mazrim Taim.  He gets many warnings about Taim and does nothing.  Early on, I actually thought Taim was going to turn out to be a Forsaken in disguise, so I was wrong about that.  But Taim ascending to Forsaken status is even worse.  Rand allowed him to train the next generation of Dread Lords.  

The minute Logain came to Rand with essentially a final warning about Taim, Rand should have done something.  Replacing Taim and company with a loyal Logain would have saved so many lives. 

I think if the author's intent was solely to create Dread Lords, it could have been executed better.   

But I thought prophecy demanded a new crew of Dreadlords at the Last Battle.  If Rand had done something about Taim, he would have broken prophecy.   Maybe the Pattern prevented him from taking action...

Though I was very frustrated with his lack of addressing the obvious need as well.

Glad you loved it.  I'm on my third full re-read since MoL came out.  Though many of the early books have been read a dozen times.

Are you that kind of psycho, or do you have broader horizons?

6 minutes ago, SinisterDeath said:

I think what's trying to be conveyed here is that the story itself is actually short, it just takes place over several chapters, which makes it feel more drawn out then it actually is.

 

Both can be true at the same time. It can be a short story that feels like it is drawn out.

Drawn out over several books.  But think I get your point and @Sir_Charrid's

1 hour ago, Sir_Charrid said:

My argument however is that if you remove the repetition and put those chapters in linear order the story of the bowl of the winds is clear, concise and moves pretty quickly through the arc. 

I think conflating a writing style and saying it makes a part of the story pointless or unnecessary to the whole is a mistake, all the events in the search for the bowl of the winds have impacts later on beyond actually finding the bowl, the bowl acts as the Mcguffin for that part of the wider story, but the story told around it is more important then the actual bowl of the winds. but without the bowl none of that bit of the story would happen. No reason to go to Ebou Dar, no meeting the kin etc. 

I never said the bowl of the winds was pointless or unnecessary.  I said the arc was too long - which you presented evidence in support of...

54 minutes ago, Sir_Charrid said:

I mean did he,

 

Yes - see below...

54 minutes ago, Sir_Charrid said:

 

it feels like it

 

Then it is

54 minutes ago, Sir_Charrid said:

but that is largely the disjointed style of writing, jumping from storyline to storyline with long gaps between, and the fact that in those books where they are hunting the bowl RJ was at his most repetitive, insisting on telling the reader again things he had already detailed out the last time he returned there.

 

You explained perfectly why it was too long.  Thank you.

27 minutes ago, Guire said:

I have read WoT many many times since 1991.  In a GQ interview Rafe said he pitched this show as a corrective to all the misogyny in GoT.  He wanted to center the female characters.  I think this has added an extra layer of difficulty on top of all the reasons it is a tough adaptation. To me Jordan's voice in the series is an old soldiers voice. I think Rafe's perspective from an activist feminist perspective is not a very good choice for a march to apocalyptic war, but that is what Amazon hired him to do.  That is the story we are going to get.

TRUTH

23 minutes ago, TheDreadReader said:

Depending on how they structured it, the Sea Folk / Bowl of Winds arc could be accomplished in just one to three episodes.  1 episode to introduce it.  1 episode to look for it.   And, 1 episode to find/use it.   You don't need to introduce a lot of information about them in order for them to appear and hit their plot points.   

 

The same applies to the kin and a bunch of other things.  

 

Jordan took too long with Bowl of the Winds.  Hopefully the show improves on that arc...

4 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

I doubt they cut Gaul. His arc is too tied into Perrin’s. 

I hope not.  But wouldn't surprise me...

34 minutes ago, DreadLord31 said:

The show is all about “girl power”. So yes, they’ll cut Gaul. But Bain and Chiad were already cast, so no, they’re not cut. 
 

watch this video: 

 

Ah yes...

I personally liked the Abel change though they were a bit ham-fisted about it.  Mat being a bit of a scoundrel also good.  Other changes not so much...

On 8/10/2023 at 8:03 PM, SinisterDeath said:

Again.

When you have to subtract a ton of locations to save time & money, that allows you to add or change minor things.

You're acting like changing Abel to a drunk is the same as moving Episode 6 from Caemlyn to Tar Valon.

 

You're confusing the spec for the log in your eye.

Dang - going Biblical!  Wouldn't have expected that from you.

4 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

I’m about to start my 3rd watch. First since right after the show was finished. (Watched as it came out, then binged again afterwards.)

 

 

Let us know how it works for you.  Do you like it more or less then on 1st and 2nd watch...?

I probably would have liked the show better if I had never read the books.  Though there were still problems with the show...

Would have like a fantasy show, but still would have had problems with 'Dark Crystal' trollocs and terrible (IMO) battle scenes.

7 hours ago, Lightfriendsocialmistress said:

Another key element in the books that will by necessity likely have to be left out is the forsaken returning with different appearances and names. Also the age factor of stilled AS. But who knows, maybe the show will go for it?

Think they might roll Bain, Chiad, and Gaul into Avi - must make sacrifices...

4 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

I’m not sure you’re on solid ground here. “The public” is not the same as “hardcore fans of the book”. It’s also not the same as US viewers. 
 

By all accounts, S1 was extremely popular around the world. It’s also unlikely they would have green lit S3 already if the metrics proved that “the public” didn’t like it. 

Very true. I didn't like it.  But I think overall it was a success.

12 hours ago, Pandemonium said:

i agree with this video.  Most of my friends that tried to watch season 1 didn't even finish the season.  I'm hoping season 2 is really good so I can try to convince them to give it another try.  

With you on this. Hoping S2 is good enough to pull me back in. 🤞

3 hours ago, Pandemonium said:

 

Yes,  if they hype it up that much they got have some substance to meet the hype....  The article said this is on scale with Cleopatra or Gladiator.  That would be amazing if true.  Season 1 did royally screw the episode 8 battle, but it did have some good glimpses of action.  I would say the closest example would be the pregnant dragonmount scene.  I also thought the battle vs Logain's army in the Aes Sedai camp was a little underwhelming... bad CGI, definitely lower production value.  So hopefully they really step up the ending this time since it just didn't land with too many viewers last season.  

 

 

 

Logain’s army?  You are very generous. The scene was so underwhelming that the show never recovered for me. The forthcoming biggest battle in tv should help balance that out…

2 hours ago, Lipsofia said:

You're right. I stopped buying stuff there too, as their prices are often overpriced.

The price for the book might be higher, but when you factor in the 'free' shipping maybe not.  It's a package deal...

3 hours ago, DigificWriter said:

 

You don't have to agree with the decisions that Rafe and Co. have made, but there's a difference between disagreeing with their decisions and openly doubting or downplaying their actual conpetence/abilities as storytellers by questioning the level of thought behind the decisions that have been made and the ramifications/ripple effects of said decisions.

Yes, there is a difference. 

1 minute ago, king of nowhere said:

we have no hard data on viewership, but season 3 was greenlit after season 1 was aired, so the execs judge the data to be at least good enough to keep spending money on making new episodes. as for how to quantify revenue, I have no idea how they do it, but I am pretty sure they do have ways to at least make estimates. people do not throw around hundreds of millions without some cost/benefit analysis.

Right.  But how did they approve S2 before S1 even aired?  Couldn't be a cost/benefit analysis.  There is something else they are looking at.  Maybe they just had space to fill and nothing else to plug in?

26 minutes ago, SinisterDeath said:

Or you've given their team to little?

Perhaps.  Time will tell.

8 hours ago, SinisterDeath said:

What was the theme of the marketing for Season 1?

 

"Who is the dragon reborn?"

"Is it a woman that'll save us, or a man who'll destroy us all?"

 

What we have, was a carefully crafted narrative that they fed to us, the book readers, that changed what the Aes Sedai believe about the world and how it works. How much of those changes are actually changes behind the scenes, remains to be seen. (One of the obvious changes is linking no longer being safe. That's massive, and implies that key characters may die, during the cleansing.)

 

We the book readers, know how all the rules work. 
 

We as viewers, are going to see characters in the show act like they know how everything works, and then hopefully as book readers we will exclaim "Well duh!" when the character is shocked as they find out what they thought was true was a lie the entire time. 

We're going to see that there has been a millennia long misinformation campaign orchestrated by the father of lies throughout the worlds history.

We're going to see doubt, and a lot of contradictory stories/prophecies... Because information is power. 

One benefit that the show runners have, is that they have the complete works to go through. 

They would know what weaves Ishamael would have access to in EotW that RJ hadn't really thought up yet.
They would be able to go extrapolate. How could Ishy have used that weave throughout history to distort people's perceptions of reality? Sow seeds of chaos? Distrust? War? Famine? Discreetly alter prophecies that were written down and locked away in dusty vaults?

I think you are giving the show runner and his team a lot more credit than they have earned

50 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

I prefer not wasting my money on months and months of subscriptions for just one or two shows I'm interested in. I also strongly dislike shows with dozens of episodes per season

Amazon already has my money and has for for years due to our Prime subscription - which is well worth it for the free shipping and convenience (in my family's life anyway).  So the subscription is not a factor for me, I don't turn it on and off.

I liked many episodes going back to my heavy TV watching days, others don't - all good.

For me, making a short 'season' even shorter by dropping multiple episodes at once is less than ideal.  But I get it - I'm a dinosaur.

52 minutes ago, Skipp said:

 

Well that confirms they are releasing 3 episodes again on the premier, good to know.

 

I am continuing to love the look of the Seanchan.

Yep - Seanchan not what I expected but look good to me.

Not sure I like the release 3 episodes with only 5 to go.  You see almost half the season in one go and the whole season over the following 5 weeks.  Guess I'm still used to the network model when I was younger where a season seemed to last for half the year.  Now six weeks and done.  The streaming world is so different.