I'm sure you can tell a lot from feces. And it is suspicious no one ever talks about feces in books! Or at least: not in the books I read. Imagine though ... Considering how much I can tell from my dog's morning walks, I expect it would have been part of the stuff the wolves talk about.

And then as a reader we'd HAVE to imagine feces.

It's better not to ignore it though, @Guire. One may step in it if one is not careful.

I apologise for dragging the convo to this level. ? Sorry.

I blame the anticipation of seeing the episodes soon.

I'd love something like this as a jigsaw puzzle. We completed a Marvel one this year (lockdown makes you pick up weird hobbies ...) and it was fun trying to figure out which faces were which character.

Plenty of options of getting a custom jigsaw puzzle made ?

For all my imagination I don't really imagine faces when I read books: I imagine movement, facial expressions and tone of voice. Especially tone of voice. Voices are important in my head. Yes, I hear voices when I read. ... I'm not crazy, I think.

Now, no actor has ever sounded like anything I imagined (except Idris Elba, I dont know why. He is one of the voices that live in my head, I guess). I don't expect to suddenly be surprised at hearing them and say: 'That is exactly how I imagined them!'.

As for Lan, I did imagine him to be imposing but caring and careful. He was never a hack and slash fighter in the books, at least not to me. So in my mind, if he is caring an careful, and cares for Moiraine, I am not surprised at him being well groomed, especially in her company. He is not there to intimidate people. If anything, I think his lack of intimidation is what makes him a more effective fighter in the books. So I think this Lan will suit my imagined-Lan very well.

Don't warders also age a little slower?

Finished Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is kinda freaky but definitely good. And will now try to finish Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140, because it sounds like a possible future.

First, I will have to convince my guy that we need to ditch watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is our usual Friday night show, and go for WoT, which is based on a book series he could not finish nor remember reading.

- I know he read the first 2 books. He has retained ... nothing. -

I will have to be cunning. As cunning as a cunning fox who used to be Professor of Cunning. And then execute my cunning plan. Once I have something worked out.

My food of choice will be Flammkuchen, because it's Friday. Flammkuchen Friday. With onion and cheese, maybe mushrooms.

And we will watch only ONE episode. I will not binge. Binging is the story killer. For me, anyway.

Then I will order a new set of the books. Because I got rid of them all due to maltreatment: their spines were cracked by someone who had borrowed them from me. That person is no longer a friend.

I was about to answer @DaddyFinn about which scenes but yes: the arrows, the posing and the shot (as in the framing). It is clean but not in the sense that the AS are clean (:D) more that the framing is clean and ... eh ... childish? I guess it is hard to really really describe what strikes me as YA. Also the zooming in on the arrows is just odd. I would show that differently, for grown up audiences.

And the Red Ajah scene. It looks too 'look at us, we're a force, we may be good, we may be bad, but we are hella strong and we will kick your butts'. It's too on the nose in a way that it feels like it is being spelled out for a younger audience. No mature audience is going to be surprised by them, I don't think.

And on rewatching it ... jeepers. So many angles and shots are just very very verrry LOTR, what-what? That could be a good thing or .. I dont know. I will repeat: I will keep an open mind and not worry until I am thoroughly disappointed. And then I don't have to watch it. If the series makes me unhappy or angry, why would I?

I am excited about it though ? I am looking forward to being surprised.

There were two moments in the trailer that I think point to the fear of this being 'Legend of Monkey' (Not Xena; Xena had excellent stories and characters that made it a very watchable show. Monkey just misses that spot. And I do not talk about seeker.)

But arguably, Farscape had moments in the first series that were ... not quite getting there. FFS, it was basically Muppets in Space but  they quickly got over that in storytelling and acting. Farscape is one of my most beloved series ever. And until I see WoT, I won't say if it can or can't hit that point where it becomes awesome.

But I understand that people are worried. But for me it was 2 moments in an entire teaser trailer, with scenes that for all we know might not even end up in the final product!

Just now, DaddyFinn said:

Isn't Min closer to 30 than 20 in the books?

I really don't know. It would make sense to me if she was older. So if she is closer to 30 in the books, and Rand is closer to just under 20 in the books... the gap is okay!

It's weird, I never take age on board with characters in books, unless it is very very specifically a plot point as in just born or old enough to die of natural causes. ... Hmm. This may explain why age did not matter to me personally in my relationship. Wow. I am discovering things...

15 hours ago, swollymammoth said:

This is a funny joke, but I hope I don't have to tell you that you've totally missed the point. The point is just that it might look weird if there's a visible age gap between characters who are supposedly the same age and that this could be distracting. 

But why can't Min be older than Rand in the tv series? That would be such a great choice!

? Hi! I feel much the same way: just hoping for a good solid adaptation to a new medium - from book to tv. There will be people who are disappointed, people who will be happy enough and most of all I hope to see new fans pick up the books. We will see.

Nirvana. I was unconvinced at the time, because I guess the tone was just lost on me. But I appreciate them more now, even if it is only because I really enjoy the Foo Fighters and you can't do that without at least listening to Nirvana. But I am still not into very dark songs. I'm just not there.

Other than that , just a few songs that mostly make me nostalgic, but that I don't really like (or liked then). I still enjoy Billy Joel and Tom Petty is (was) awesome. The only true constant is Prince. I keep thinking 'nah, he wasn't that good' and then it hits me: he really was.

I will do so in the next 24 hours ? (unless someone beats me to it!)

I would really welcome another long running franchise in another universe. I'd love for Star Trek, Stargate ( ... and star wars) to get companionship from the B5 universe. What I do know is that these franchises can tackle different types of story and of course I am all for diversity, as a Trekkie!

Who knows? If it is a successful reboot it can still happen!

Waiting is hard.

But I keep assuming it will be available worldwide. I should find some confirmation of that, because nothing would be more annoying to have to avoid the forum because you all watched it and I have to wait for it to become available in my neck of the woods. (I checked: it should be available.)

I guess that is one of the things they might be doing: localization? All those episodes have to be subtitled, and have actors do the voices for other languages.

But that is what a reboot is, right? I mean, I still think they'd have no choice but to add some stuff, replace other stuff. There are more options now and times have changed. If they did the same scripts and shots, it would be a little ... weird?

Of course, I keep BSG in mind, where it worked awesomely. Then again, Ron Moore really did add a lot and change things to keep the story moving.

Then again, B5 was already a big thing and very respected for what it accomplished. They would have no trouble adding new stuff onto what already is there. Like Star Trek did. Even if they did not always move forward into the future.

That makes sense. It's what they did with Battlestar Galactica. Also, even if B5 was ahead of its time (it was, I know that much), it will be interesting to see what they do with it in this day and age.

I am onboard now.

I just need to watch the original before we get hit with a new series.

Is it needed? I mean, yes: it worked for BSG, but would you not be more interested in new stories in that universe?

... I still have to watch the entire series, so I am not that excited by a reboot already.

12 hours ago, Malkeri said:

How is Nyn going to yank her braid???

Ehm, a braid is easily made. And I am sure there can be extensions if needed. I don't think the braid-yanking will go away.

Also, I did see a photo of the actress with longer hair and braids. Not an issue.

Welcome! I felt the same pull! After all these years, seeing a tv show coming up just brought back to how much I enjoyed reading the books.

I am sure you will enjoy yourself here.

12 hours ago, Elgee said:

 

I have no idea! LoL ... He sounded something like this: Wha' ya' doon tday? Go'a go t ban' a' draw moony.

Almost positive that's "Geordie", from Tyne/New Castle. I think it is hardest English accent to understand, because they also have so many specific words, that it is just falling short of being an actual language. Dropping the o from 'to' is a very common Northern thing. Also a lot of glottal stops, skipping letters in the middle of words. (Bottle = boh'-lll.)

It's my favourite accent ?

Wouldn't it be fun if we got really unusual accents? I would love a Scandinavian accent (any) for the Two Rivers folks. 

I do love to switch between languages when watching a show: putting the German soundtrack under it, or the Portugese.

13 hours ago, Elgee said:

And then there are quite a few British accents that are incomprehensible. In fact, I dated a guy from England for 2 years - couldn't understand a word he said. Didn't even know we were dating because I just said yes to every question he asked.

 

You dated a Northerner then ?

16 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

Too many videos to watch. Does Bunny actually know what each button means or is he/she just trained to push the ones that the owner wants and fake the conversation?

Yes, Bunny seems to know what each button means. Or her owner is really good at editing for effect. There are more animals, cats and dogs, that are being trained to use buttons. Some more effectively than others. But Bunny's owner seems to experiment with things like awareness of time, location and associations.

I do say 'seem', because of course it is the internet and I have no independent research on how well Bunny talks. But as a dog owner, it convinced me. I know how dogs pick up language. My dog is bilingual in Dutch and English, even if his vocab is limited of course.

There is research out there about dogs' linguistic abilities and it seems to have grown out of their association with humans.

I guess this is why the wolves of WoT are so interesting to me. (Bringing it back on topic somewhat.) It would be wrong to make them 'talk' with their mouths of course. But personally I do 'feel' what my dogs is trying to communicate and if they can do that with the wolves, I'll be happy.

Hopper reminds me of my cat though. My ginger tom does not hunt, but he loves birds. My tuxedo queen (female cats are queens) loves high spaces: I bet she would love to fly.

Hi Analiese (I'll call you Anam if you call me Dae ? , welcome! I'm still fairly new but can say this is a friendly and fun bunch over here.

I know I have been a part of some other WoT site but it must have gone away, and I can't remember what its name was anyway (I checked, it was not TarValon.net).

I am more of a reader too. Audiobooks have only managed to put me to sleep, as I used to be read to sleep, I suppose.

Hope you have a great day and a wonderful time here ?

As a Dutch person, who does not 'do' accents, I can say I have been asked if I was French, Canadian, from Boston, Australian and Irish.

Not to say I sound like that, but rather that people listening can't flipping recognise accents anyway.

19 hours ago, JaimAybara said:

Also, I am very interested on how they do Hopper. I am cool with pretty much anything except for making the wolves literally talk. I think it obvious they would not do this, but one never knows.

There are dogs that talk ... Look up Bunny on yourtube, a dog talking through buttons with words. Though that would be hard to pull of in the series, I suppose.

Wolves (and dogs) talk with their facial expressions, which are so eerily human to me...

I hope Hopper will be one of my dog's faves.