It appears the success of LOTR has been great for WOT. Here in Australia WOT spent most of the last few weeks back in the Prime Top 10

36 minutes ago, templar7 said:

 

What a great perspective. I agree from a non readers point of view. 

As a fully read Tolkien and RJ fan, as I'm sure you are as well, RoP changed way too much. I think it's a problem of only having the appendices to work with though.  

Like what is Galadriel doing taking orders from Gil Gallad... Gandalf and the Istari came to middle earth by ship, and long after the rings were forged as Cirdan gave one to Him and the other to Galadriel. And the Numenorians should have had numerous settlements in middle earth by this time. 

Buy comparison WoT stayed much tighter to the source. 

Not yet convinced that the Istari is Gandolf or that we will ever know who it is, we may be left guessing with the Stranger and he may just leave Middle Earth at the end of the series, without giving a known name. 

On 9/3/2022 at 4:57 AM, Jake Sykwalker said:

After watching about 16 minutes of ROP I hope it gets better.  So far it is slow and boring with cringe dialog.  Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Galadriel vs the snow troll was epically cringe.  Watching a slight elf one hand a two handed sword like it is no big deal and use it as a platform for a mailed warrior to jump off of to wire fly was painful to watch in a fantasy show. 

 

Almost as cringe as her acting so far.  She talks like her lower jaw doesn't work and is constantly angry and berating her companions.  Don't get me started on how the elfs hold their swords, the fact that they look like they are wearing makeup, or how unnatural their armor costumes look.   They appear to be wearing gauntlets and full armor boots, but light (elven?) chain mail.

 

Almost turned it off after pouring water on an old Sauron mark and having it boil away in the middle of a frozen tundra only to then refreeze.  Props to the snowflake cgi of that scene, but it still doesn't make much sense.  If the rest of the show is this "good" we don't have to worry about it drawing people into other fantasy works.  I'll give it a chance, but the acting and writing better improve.  I don't get how you can spend millions on CGI and this is the quality of writing and acting you get for that budget?

I am not sure why you enjoy epic fantasy, Elves are not Human they are a magical, immortal race of beings that you should not compare to Humans. Did you enjoy the Jackson movies because nothing Galadriel done even remotely comes close to Legolas running up the back of a 20t Giant Elephant. If you are going to restrict them to Human level of capability, then why bother having them. They are superior to Humans in every single way, they were written that way. 

They also possess magic which they use in weapon and armour making, example is the chain mail given to Bilbo, it may look thin and weak but it's not. You need to either stop watching with such a critical eye for details. You are not going to enjoy ROP if you worried about little things like water boiling in the Artic, its Epic Fantasy supposed to be full of impossibilities, be boring if it wasn't. 

On 8/5/2022 at 1:19 PM, Harldin said:

1 hour ago, DaddyFinn said:

Loial is in the background in a couple of shots in the BTS teaser. Perrin is with him in at least one of them

Rafe said something about Loial and a stedding in the recent AMA when asked how Loial survived the knife.

 

Someone here or elsewhere wondered if the dagger gets gradually more powerful as Fain and Mordeth merge and he gets other powers also. That could work

I also have a theory about the Dagger.

It is not as deadly as in the books when Fain first gets hold of it, thus Mat and Loail surviving but it gets more and more deadly the longer its in Fains possession, so by the end of S2 we start seeing people die from the merest scratch. 

 

That was my theory concerning the dagger.

1 hour ago, WhiteVeils said:

 

It is important to remember Fain is a prick. 🙂  My current hypothesis is that Fain meets Mat outside the Waygate, as Mat is turning around to head back to Tar Valon and the Two Rivers (and his sisters).  Fain wants Mat alive, because he thinks he'll turn to the Dark, but wants Mat contaminated with the dagger to help him along.  He stabs or nicks or otherwise uses the dagger on Mat in a non-lethal fashion, then enters the Ways after the others. Mat is hurt now and recorrupted, and doesn't have a means to follow Fain even if he wanted to.  He survives and staggers back to Tar Valon, and that's why he looks so corrupt and awful in that shot of him.

At least that's what I hope happens.

Yes that does sound very plausible, haven't seen the shot you are referring to. Also we don't know how Rafe is planning to do the change of actor, will it be, just carry on as if nothings happened or could they fold Mats change of appearance into the storyline, make him look totally unrecognisable using the dagger then heal him, Donal looks enough like Barney to pull it off. 

6 hours ago, Nik said:

My dagger theory is that Loial will survive but be in the same state Mat was in during tGH, where he's deteriorating and being slowly infected by the Shadar Logoth evil, and they need to get the dagger back to heal him fully.

 

I wonder if we'll find out Fain was the man Liandrin was meeting with in secret, and she gave him the waygate key and/or the dagger.

Yes I could definitely see something between Liandrin and Fain, not so sure about Loail though. I am somewhat surprised that Loail is missing from the scenes of Perrin and the Shienarens we saw, thought it would be a given he would go with Perrin, maybe he was just off camera and they are behind the scenes stuff and not actually episode film. 

Actually another possible cold open we may see in S2 is Hawkwing sending the army to Seanchan, especially if Hawkwing is at Falme with the hundred heroes. 

On 8/2/2022 at 7:03 PM, Dagon Thyne said:

First one will like be Fain stealing the dagger and something to do with mat.  Maybe mat wasn't fully healed, and the dagger called to him, which is why he stayed behind.

I have actually come up with a possible storyline for E1 for Mat, Fain and the Dagger

After the opening credits, the opening scene is Donal Fin as Mat standing near the Waygate as it closes. Mat then heads back to Tar Valon, where he runs into Fain, still having no idea about Fain, Mat tells Fain over a few drinks about there adventures including the Dagger and where Mat got it. This immediately gets Fain's interest and they hatch a plan to get the dagger back. While attempting to escape from Warders, Fain turns on Mat and slashers him with the dagger, he is found barely alive by the Warders and taken to the Tower for healing, thus bringing Mats story back where it should be.

I also have a theory about the Dagger.

It is not as deadly as in the books when Fain first gets hold of it, thus Mat and Loail surviving but it gets more and more deadly the longer its in Fains possession, so by the end of S2 we start seeing people die from the merest scratch. 

The way they may go with the Antagonist is, S1 was Shadowspawn heavy, S2 may be more about Darkfriends including Fain as well as the Seanchan of course. Then S3 will be more about the Forsaken, not to say we won't see Forsaken and Shadowspawn in S2 but it will be more centred on DFs

9 minutes ago, Nik said:

I LOVE this one.

With the caveat that if they appear in disguise later we have to be unable to identify them right away.

I can see this as the S2 Epilogue

This is a scenario I really like, a Beautiful woman is walking through the blasted lands towards a building and then you see Shadowspawn cringe away from her in fear as she walks up to the building, opens the door and there are several people inside and one of the men looks up and he says "ah Lanfear, nice of you to join us" and then you see her face for the first time and its Selene. 

47 minutes ago, WhiteVeils said:

I expect very different things.

 

I'm going to guess:

 

Forsaken waking in the bore when the seal is cracked cold open

Bayle Domon cold open

Padan Fain/Mat cold open

High Lord Turok/Lady Suroth cold open

White Cloaks Cold open (Pedron Niall and Geofram Bornhold politics something something)

Dark Friend Social cold open (since that was already said)

Elayne/Morgaise/Galad/Gawyn/Elaida and maybe Thom cold open

One age of legends cold open, focusing on the forsaken. (NOT Illeyana yet)

 

I can see combining some, of course.

 

I could see Domon involved in the Seanchan Hierachy cold open but I can't see 2 cold opens in Falme, Could see a Mat cold open maybe with Fain. Doubt we would get 2 cold opens involving the Andor Royals and I think the Tigraine cold open is highly likely, ties in with the Aiel. 

8 hours ago, Nik said:

Aiel war cold open

Lanfear cold open

Hawkwing cold open 

Gitara cold open?

I think Lanfear might be a S3 cold open, I think they will set up Selene in S2 then have her revealed as Lanfear in S3

Could see Gitara as E2 and Hawkwing as E8 cold opens

7 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

I'm expecting one AoL per season. Perhaps too soon for the EotW prologue scene but maybe the sealing of the Bore

Rick Salvage and Larry Mondragon will be pushing to keep things like the drilling and sealing of the Bore out of the show if they still have plans for AOL Movies, could be a show of how strong or weak their influence is. 

Used to be called prologues, don't know when that changed but ah well.

My list of possible Cold Opens for S2, *E1 but no particular order for the rest.

"Spoilers"  of course

*Dark Friend social E1

Aiel(including Aviendha) being sent out from Cold Rocks Hold by Wise Ones(Amys?) E3-5? 

Tigraine Mantear getting told she has to go to the waste E2-4

Pedron Niall sending Whitecloaks to the Almoth Plain E2-4

A meeting of Seanchan Hierachy in Falme E6-7

Looking back after 6 months I would have to say 

Somewhat underwhelming

It didn't jump up and seize me the same way LOTR or GOT did, it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. 

On 7/7/2022 at 2:44 AM, Nik said:

I love all of these. If they're going to cut characters so they can take others and expand them, these are my candidates for expansion/improvement:

- Lanfear

- Min

- Logain (already happening)

- Galad 

- Fain (give him a better ending please)

- Asmodean

- Tuon

- Verin

I think they should have left Fain out out of AMoL full stop. Leave him as mystery, would have been a better story.   

2 hours ago, EmreY said:

I do wish someone would do a parody of the Wheel of Time.  Or is there one already online somewhere?

Ep 1 Leave off taking the P***

Ep 2 Don't weep for me Menetheren 

Ep 3 Thom sings the Blues

Ep 4 Drogon returns from Westeros

Ep 5 Blood calls Blood nasty names

Ep 6 Those Flaming Witches

Ep 7 Who forgot the Torches

Ep 8 The Eye Sedai and the Eye eel go to the Eye

On 12/15/2021 at 8:37 AM, SinisterDeath said:

From this limited set of data, we have 
2753 Book readers.

65.2%  liked it.
24% liked it enough

10.8% don't like it.

 

From this limited set of data, we have 
226 Non-Book readers.

73.4% liked it

17.3% liked it enough

9.3% didn't like it.

 

As to the quality of that data... If we are to believe people who hate the show, they have made claims that Reddit mods ban show haters for offering any criticism. Whether true or not, any data sample is gunna have flaws. ? 

I have said all along that no matter what they do between 15-20% of book fans will hate the show, so those numbers are not bad at all

As a stand alone TV Series 8/10

As an adaptation of the books 6/10 for me

It has its flaws and needs some improvement in the writing and there are a few things that have been changed that i'm not a fan of especially the Ways so far. Don't like the Waygate design or Channeling to open it. Will be interesting this week to see if there are any changes due to the break in filming and the fact that Rafe would have watched the virtually finished first 6 episodes before filming 7&8

21 hours ago, ArrylT said:

Regarding Stepin - my take on his actions is this

 

Kerene dies and he is in absolute agony

 

The agony continues and he wanders around slightly

 

Then the remnants of Logains Dragonsworn and an attack on him directly caused him to instinctively defend himself, and take out his pain on the attackers.  

 

Then still shell-shocked, all he could do was follow the orders of the closest Green Ajah Aes Sedai and run to the cave.

 

There immediately upon seeing Kerene and realizing who had killed her, the rest of the agony of her death, aided by that visual acknowledgement, led him to make that berserker rage attack that was so not helpful.  

 

Wonder if we'll see what happens to him - will his bond be picked up by another Aes Sedai.   Based on the instinct to defend himself, even in the shock of what happened, suggests that perhaps he could be able to recover.  

 

I like Stepin I hope they retain Peter Franzen, maybe have Alanna bond him.

Wow 2nd one from the top would make a perfect place to film scenes set on Worlds End(long finger of land in the very NW Corner of the Westlands).

Great Photo's by the way. 

19 hours ago, Bill1185 said:

I read the dragon reborn might be a woman. I am a bit of a purist in that i think this is a huge change to the story

Ain't happening, all this is, is marketing by Amazon Prime in that they want to keep the true identity of the DR a secret for a few episodes, that's all.

Rand is the DR, 

27 minutes ago, AusLeviathan said:

I don't personally care about whether the series is woke, I care about whether it makes sense and keeps the spirit of the books.

 

The things I do have a problem with which are related to that and are confirmed.

 

- Nynaeve taking on and killing a Trolloc after Tam struggles with and needs help taking out one Trolloc.

- Nynaeve sneaking up on Lan and getting the drop on him.

- Nynaeve suggesting that the ability to take a life is what makes a woman strong.

 

This is poor writing that makes no sense for the character or the world. It's in the show because writers often struggle with female characters, not wanting to show them actually vulnerable in situations when they would be and defaulting to making them fighters regardless of how much sense it makes.

 

As for the preaching, the marketing has made it pretty clear what tone the series is going for and the fact we've seen the first scene of the show and the first thing we're told is that men are arrogant world destroyers supports the marketing's message being accurate.

Nynaeve killing the Trolloc, who says she doesn't use Saidar to do it? she has been unknowingly channeling for years.

Nynaeve sneaking up on Lan, she does it in the books when she meets up with Morraine and Lan after Shadar Logoth and listens to them speaking for several minutes from a hiding spot, before Morraine  finally calls her out and Lan is totally surprised she is there.  

2 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

Level of anticipation - 10/10. I'll watch the minute I am able to and definitely will binge the first three episodes. I'm guessing I'll end up watching them twice. I haven't invested the nearly the last three years following the show to not.

 

Confidence in the quality - 8/10. This is not going to be Shannara Chronicles or Legend of the Seeker type dreck. At worst, it will be on par with Shadow & Bone or His Dark Materials. Breaking it down further based on the trailers, clips and other promotional materials:

• Cinematography: 10/10
• Costumes/design: 9/10
• VFX: 8/10 [love the monsters, mostly like the weaves]
• Acting: ?
• Writing: ?
• Editing: ?

Obviously, the last three components are really important to making a good show. And we have scant evidence upon which to base judgments. Thus far, the castings seem great. I've had no problem adjusting my head canon to match the main 7 people.

• Rosamund Pike: I love her as Moiraine already. She has the steely determination, the charm, the ruthlessness, the imperiousness and the presence. I don't care at all about her height.
• Daniel Henney: Too early to say. I don't hate him, but I haven't seen enough to know whether I'll like him as Lan. I need a larger sample his physicality and to see how he interacts with the kids before I can make a judgment.
• Josha Stradowski: Physically, they nailed this casting. Everything I've seen from him makes me think he understands the character. He's a capable actor from what I've seen, and from the little we've seen he seems to have a good amount of subtlety.
• Madeleine Madden: Love her. She really seems to have the perfect temperament. And she's beautiful.
• Zoe Robbins: When castings were announced, she was the one that I disliked the most. Having seen her in action, I've done a total 180. She looks fierce and she hit all the right notes in the cast interviews.
• Marcus Rutherford: I like what I've seen so far. He's got a cautious, steady cadence that absolutely seems to match Perrin. 
• Barney Harris: No idea. Have seen very little. It's a bit of a red flag that he was replaced after only one season.

It will really all come down to the writing and the editing. Having seen neither, I can't really offer a judgment.

 

I will say that I am concerned about a couple of things:

• The potential for degendering the One Power. I hate it. It would be lore breaking to the extent that it would not be the Wheel of Time. Saidar and saidin and the resulting gender essentialism is really the key feature of the magic system. If it is actually removed, I would consider bailing completely. That being said, I'm very confident that they will not do that.
• I don't love Perrin being married and really do not like the idea of Perrin killing his wife. This is one of those changes that could work, but will have to be executed perfectly. How this is handled will give me a really good idea of the quality of writing to be expected. 
• I don't like the idea of the Cauthons being written as ne'er do wells. Like Perrin's wife, I can see ways to make this work, but it will be difficult to pull off correctly.  
• I do not want them to make Min into a trans character. That would be a jarring change of her character for me. 

  

I could nearly have written this post myself, agree with just about every point.

7 hours ago, Deadsy said:

 

 

I don't think songs with English would have been a good idea. I think with a fantasy adaptation you either go all instrumental or you have a language very few people understand so it sounds like background noise that blends with the instruments. I like the music so far.

There are Songs that are in the show that need to be done in English and I think when we start seeing Thom and other Gleeman in Taverns, most of it will be in English but we may also get some of the stuff we have heard so far in the Old Tongue as well. The Aiel battle chant needs to be in English and of course Jak of the Shadows.