1 minute ago, swollymammoth said:

This stuff worried me too, but I forgot to mention it in the post. It kinda reminds me of that show The Seeker which was based off Wizard's First Rule. That's not a good thing haha As many people have pointed out, most of my concerns could certainly amount to nothing. The show could be great! But it's difficult to look at poor aesthetic choices in the trailer and believe that the entire show won't be like that. I WANT TO BELIEVE!!!! haha

I did have slight worries about that too. I never saw The Seeker properly (I kinda went off the books for some reason and then the series was bleh). But if my worst nightmares come true, it will be like that and I won't watch. I respect myself too much to watch a show that makes me cringe...

But I am optimistic by nature (mostly. There are subjects I am very pessimistic about). So I will just look forward without worrying about things I cannot change.

Verin was one of my faves. But Elyas is also interesting.

Maybe I am mostly interested in the wolves.

2 hours ago, DojoToad said:

How is 'Dune' doing well?  It hasn't been released yet.  Or are you talking about buzz?  In which case, to your point, who cares?  There have been movies with great buzz that flopped horribly and vice versa - so we will see.

 

And yes, several parallels between Dune and WoT.  I've read the original Dune almost as many times as I have EotW.  Something about low tech desert warriors...

I saw it last Friday. It was packed (well, as far as it could with the Covid rules in cinemas in The Netherlands. It's been out in Europe, I know it's been showing in Spain and Germany, as well as here. It's not buzz. Here it is an actual success, for such a complex story and a 'show, not tell' approach. I'm impressed.

I love all the posts and wish I could just address everything that it made me think of, but I think I am just going to sit here with those thoughts. Knowing we really all just want to same: not to be disappointed ... too much.

What if the series is a success, and actually really decent storytelling ... but none of the fans like it...? I think I could get over it not being WoT-of-my-mind, if the storytelling is good enough.

As for the recasting: recasting can be down to so many things. In the series Spartacus they had to recast for a horrible reason. Let's just hope that this is for other reasons. Happier reasons.

Last thing about trailers in general: there have been many trailers that looked awesome to me and then disappointed me a lot in cinema/on screen. Or the other way around. But look at how well Dune is doing when a lot of people said it would bomb. And one could argue that Dune is all about Paul, a messiah-like figure, surrounded by female 'witches' and with a lot of male bonding and a father figure, and ... wait. Fremen ... Aiel?

The time could just be right.

9 hours ago, DojoToad said:

How could you possibly know that most GoT viewers went back to read the books?  In my limited circle of friends, acquaintances, coworkers, etc. I find that people who watch a lot of TV and/or movies usually read very little - not always, but usually.  And the few people I know that watched GoT have not and have no plans to read the books - they're looking for the next show.

Well, let's look at The Witcher then. In my circle a lot of people have turned to the original books (not the game) to get their fix waiting for the next season. It is not unreasonable that might go double for WoT. That being originally English, where The Witcher is a translation for many (translations can be VERY good, but it does seem to be a hurdle for English native speakers. And that said the Dutch translation of WoT, originally, was horrendous. I think they re-did the translation).

Yes, the show can go in a direction some people don't like; it can be a hit with non-fans and not with fans; it can aim for the wrong audience, or it can be a surprise and be the hit I think we all expect and hope it to be.

I'm happy I have low expectations. I read the books at 14 ... funny enough around the same time I picked up Dune. The latest Dune film was right for me. So I know WoT can be done correctly in the right hands. And unless it is badly written, badly acted and looks cheap, I think I will enjoy watching WoT even if it is now my vision.

It's still subjective! Reading is very very subjective. The author communicates with you through your own frame. Nothing comes straight from their brain into yours. A TV series has a different way to communicate and it is there in the open. Our world view, our own frame, does impact it, but only where it deviates from the view of the writers, director, costume department, actors...

Still giving it the benefit of the doubt. And if Egwene and Rand having sex is the worst thing to come out of this, I say: that would be more realistic, now wouldn't it? I lived in a tiny community. I know what goes on.

Go see it when you can. See it if you have read the book, or have not, or like or dislike the Lunch film. Go see it. Be prepared, don't drink too much (dont expect a toilet break).

It is a part one. I think it is great, on its own, but I need, NEED!, the second part to be made. So this needs to be a success. You need this to be a success.

It's very good.

I can't be the only one who has ever guessed somenone's age wrong. I never understood the 'ageless' look description, it makes no sense to me What does that mean?

The thing is that you can't live for 40+ years even and now learn to 'act your age' when necessary (good news everyone!). So living for 200 years, the amount of time one would become fed up with people who have less experience will be astounding. You'd need a resilience that would translate to an ageless manner. A way of not sighing with exasperation at the slightes ridiculous thing a 20 year old does.

Because (good news everyone!) you do a lot of ridiculous things in your 20s and you should!

22 hours ago, TheMountain said:

[...] the age gap between Kae and Josha is quite large for a show that might run for almost a decade. Reddit internet sleuthing found her to be 35-37 years old. Josha is 25-26. That 10 year gap is going to look like 20 by the end of the show. I just don't see it working very well over time, which leads me to believe that they might have nixed the romantic relationship with Rand or made it more of a fling for the early seasons.[...]

Oh yeah. Fat chance that people with 10+ years difference will stay together for oh, 20 years and counting now. I am rooting for Min now, she is my hero right now and the one representing me the most.

Yes, I am more than 10 years older than my husband and we have been together for 19 and a half years now. Go figure. So unrealistic that I would be together with him for more than a decade. Maybe I should file for divorce ... ? (Kidding, I know it is not that common this way around. However, do ask yourself if this would be exactly the same problem if it was the other way around. ? )

Well. The actor they cast as Rand is (half) Dutch. We are everywhere. I am putting (half) between brackets because you really can't be half-something, and certainly based on a nationality it is meaningless.  ... Nevertheless: Dutch, right there. My pride in that is meaningless. ?

I can't really say much until I see them acting like their characters. And then it all has to fit in with the tv-world building, how they make things feel real. I am not up for watching a model-contest or pretty people prancing.

13 hours ago, Elessar said:

 

I enjoyed Buffy too. How about Charmed (a bit in the same genre), did you enjoy that series? I liked Charmed but preferred the first 3 seasons (with the original cast).

 

I did watch Charmed, but just the first season I think. It felt more like a soapy story with some witches thrown in, so I did not stick to it. I don't remember any standout episodes for me. Buffy just vibed with me on more levels. It certainly had its soapy moments...

Funny, isn't it, that some series get you and others, that you'd expect to be along the same line, don't? But I have come around to likng series I did not like when they started out. If I can get Charmed streaming somewhere, I might try it. I don't think it is currently on any service I have in The Netherlands.

Oh yes, Firefly ? Farscape ? X-Files ? Buffy!  And I though I was the only one who ever watched The Pretender!!

I still need to watch Babylon 5 start to finish. I did see a few episodes here and there, but never really got stuck in. And I know I have to watch Twin Peaks, I figured when it came out I was just not ready for it.

I used to watch News Radio. It was funny. And I think I now know what the series Great News kinda reinded me of (though it is not the same, it does have a different tone).

As for Buffy, I think my nostalgia may colour my view a lot, but I watched it with a 14 year old a few years back and she was still very much taken with it. ... but then, I know all the lyrics to Once More With Feeling.

I also liked Xena a lot, and I keep thinking I may want to watch Hercules again, but then I have to get over my dislike of sorbo.

I think it is quite realistic to see that Rand won't settle on one person romantically. That is pretty much a reality for most people.

... but I am European, I may see things differently.

I don't think Min would stick with Rand if she was the sole focus of his attentions. He is intense, man!

Shall I start a new topic for it, or shall we first test it out here?

In my mind Rand and Egwene were just each other's default. They would definitely have ended up being a comfortable couple if nothing interesting had happened in their lives. They would not have been unhappy either.

Rand and his three ladies can stay ? I'd like to see them try and do a convincing polyamorous thing there. That would be fun. As long as it doesn't become the main raison d'etre for some of the characters. Romance is nice, but it is never the goal.

@Liitha I'll get started on it tomorrow. Maybe make a template, so we work with the same sizes. And I guess we just need to make sure the next person gets the starting point for the next part. You normally would not see what the person before you drew. I guess I can try to use the spoiler-option to post the part I am drawing, then present the next piece with starting points for the person taking up the challenge.

Or we just try to make do without all the secrecy.

There are lots of new tv shows to watch, too many to keep up. But we still manage to get some old shows in our viewing schedule. Right now we are watching the old BBC SF show Blake's 7, which aired in 1979/up to the early 1980s. I was a kid, but I remember a lot of it. Pretty good still, even if the show is just a little dated.

I also got my guy to watch another sf show from 1999-to early 2000s: Farscape. There are some overlapping themes between Blake's 7 and Farscape. And it is fun to find them. Basically, I had to really push Farscape because somehow it was not seen as interesting enough because they used puppets. But it works and the episodes are fantastic and fun. I'd recommend that show to anyone who likes science fiction.

Any surprising older series or films you'd recommend?

I was sceptical at first, but it really is good. We are somewhere in s3 now, and trying to avoid the s5 spoilers. They kept showing the trailer as we started watching! Lots of yelling and grabbing the remote to skip the trailer ensued. We are still blissfully unaware.

I really don't want to binge this... But if the first episode is really good and we get a cliffhanger, I may not be able to stop.

There is just something about waiting a week to see the next episode in a series. I will keep my fingers crossed it will be a Friday night show for us. In that case it will be Flammkuchen Friday, which seems more thematic food than pizza anyway ?

I do some drawing. Here is some stuff I made earlier...

I'll probably be all set at the wrong day at the wrong time. It's how it usually is.

I am assuming it will be one episode per week, right? Because binging would be wrong. So we will pick a day that suits us to fit it into our schedule. Friday night seems right, but I am in Europe, maybe we wont get it until Saturday evening. Which means we will have to have finished watching Blake's 7 by then. Lemme calculate... No, we will be at episode 26 by then, with 26 more to go.

I will then just have to move Blake's 7 to Friday and watch WoT on Saturdays. There will be pizza and chocolate. We will watch it together: my guy has read the first 3 books, but doesn't remember. The dog will sit between us on the sofa, hopefully interested in any wolves on screen. The cat will be Garfielding on the armrest of the sofa. And I will keep a very open mind.

Has anyone ever tried something like a collab here? I'm (also) a digital draw-person (artist seems too big a word), and it is easier to do something collaboratively if it is digital. Maybe like those games I used to do where you fold a piece of paper in 3, someone draws a head, the next draws an upperbody plus arms and the third draws the bottom/legs.

(Ex. https://www.instructables.com/Fun-Monster-Drawing-Game/ - okay, very kiddy. But hey, it looks like fun-  or http://artofvisualthinking.blogspot.com/2012/11/exquisite-corpse.html -it has a name??)

Or something easy and fun could be to draw the view from your dream house/location? Or draw your pets as a character from WoT? (I am not sure if I can match my chihuahua up with anyone, but I would like to try...)

I confessed in some post that I got rid of all my WoT books*. Even the hardcovers. Except the The Eye of the World (it's too beautiful and holds too many memories).

I am now getting ready to get the serie complete in one go as a set. Including the first book, because otherwise it would look wrong on my bookshelves.

I never read the Sanderson books either, but having read this thread I am actually ... not so much 'getting excited about it' but less apprehensive. I will re-read and then read the rest.

* Someone borrowed my books. Cracked all the spines. The hardcovers are just too heavy to carry around for reading. How does someone crack book spines of books you BORROWED??? Hm? Who does that? WHO??

17 hours ago, Wolfbrother31 said:

 

Tell us more about that. 

What would you say is the core of the story?

I can tell you what attracted me to the story. So many Arthurian influences. But for me it is about growing into who you are. I don't want to say it is a 'coming of age' story, because I think that is too broad. But all the characters find their way to 'fulfill their destiny' while it still feels like it is true to who they are.

But mostly the core of the story is adventure and exploration for me ? I love exploring the world and see it open up as the group travels through it. It should be amazing and bewildering, and scary and grand, and mysterious and disturbingly familiar in places.

But that could just be me.

@CaddySedai ... I have a captain's uniform shirt for my chihuahua ... ?

No Man's Sky.

Also Tropico 6. Sims 4 (why do I keep doing that - it is the most boring game of all time). And Banished.