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I think you can have interesting villains without giving everyone a "sympathetic backstory," but also without falling into psycho megalomaniac Bond villain tropes

But Ba'alzamon in TEOTW-TDR is so much fun

He is great as Tam. One of the bright parts of the show imo

Here are some of my picks. I find it a little bit easier to brainstorm for bad guys and minor characters than for the mains.

Moridin - Kyle Machlachlan (thinking along the lines of his performance in "Twin Peaks The Return")

Ba'alzamon - Christopher Lee in his middle years

Padan Fain - Willem Dafoe

Lanfear - Jennifer Connelly

Asmodean - David Bowie

Moghedien - Winona Ryder

Demandred - Daniel Day Lewis

Sammael - Jon Voight

Semirhage - Grace Jones

Rahvin - Idris Elba

Graendal - Christina Hendricks

Mesaana - Bebe Neuwirth

Be'lal - Jack Cassidy

Aginor - Gary Oldman

Balthamel - a guy in a mask (Pedro Pascal? Jim Carrie? 🤣)

Mazrim Taim - Michael Fassbender (his appearance in 300 made me think of an Asha'man. Minus the coat..)

Corlan Dashiva - taxi driver era Robert Deniro

Halima - Eva Green

Lord Barthanes - Julian Glover

Ingtar - Toshiro Mifune

High Lord Turak - Chow Yun Fat

Bayle Domon - John Rhys-Davies

Berelain - Monica Bellucci

Jaichim Carridin - James Purefoy

Herid Fel - Peter Falk

The lesser gleeman Thom snorts at that one time - Larry David

I was listening to the Origins audiobook and at the end there's an interview with Rosamund Pike, who said that Bayle Domon is in Season 2 and is played by a Welshman.

Apologies if that's old news!

A work of art is never finished

I liked WoT better even though it made me rage out with all the changes.

Somehow it was more faithful to the lore than Rings of Power, which is like nails on chalkboard after reading LOTR/The Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales/Children of Hurin/Fall of Gondolin 

The Rafe interview was kind of toothless. Too many "what's your favorite flavor of ice cream" questions imo

On 9/12/2022 at 10:14 AM, SinisterDeath said:

How important to the lore is it, that they were crafted 1600 years before the person that ultimately cuts off Sauron's finger was born?

They could do the time-skip thing with Elves in the past, and men/hobbits in the present and work their way forward, but audiences hate confusing timelines. *cough* Season 1 of the Witcher *cough*

Ultimately, they're dealing with 6000+ years of history, and they have to condense that into 8 episodes, in a way that is enjoyable and not a snooze fest like "The Silmarillion".

Dunno about you, but I'd hate to watch the "Rings of Power" WW2 History Channel style.

I'd prefer each season to be somewhat self contained in it's own era & storyline, like a set of mini-series. Obviously they don't have the rights to the Silmarillion so it's a moot point.

And the History Channel hasn't been good since they stopped doing all that WW2 history 🙄

I'm having a hard time overlooking all the issues with the timeline in this show. Isildur is alive and the rings haven't even been forged yet? What? In the text he's born like 1600 years after the One Ring is made.

It's as much of a mess lore-wise as WOT season 1 was. Probably worse

On 8/17/2022 at 4:35 PM, WhiteVeils said:

In Falme, I think Perrin will fight Lord Turok

No matter how well it does, Amazon will say that it's a huge success

IIRC the data analysts at amazon deduced that an 8 episode season is the optimal number to keep people engaged and watching a whole season. The Rings of Power will also feature 8 episodes per season

I would have required the majority of the dialogue to be straight from the text, and the rest paraphrased lines from it.

12 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

Perhaps too soon for the EotW prologue scene

We already got that! 😜

Perrin after the Battle of Emond's Field, finding out he still had a little cousin

I always read the end of TEOTW as it being Rand's baptism-in-the-Jordan moment. I know they wanted to give the girls something to do but they could have incorporated Rand into the gap still. It would have been cool to have gotten the "big voice" 

Sick and tired of Hollywood deconstructing the stories I grew up with. I'm canceling my prime subscription 

47 minutes ago, Spiritweaver1 said:

On a more serious note.  

 

Lan goes after Mo

 

Nyn goes after Lan and saves him from the mangroves who want to eat him.

 

Fain gets arrested for being a scumbag and whistling without a permit.

 

Perrin and Egwene realize that they don't really make a cute couple cause Min sees a falcon on his shoulder.  Egwene starts visiting Fain 

 

The team find the Eye with the green man who kills a forsaken but dies doing it.  Ba'alzamon shows up breathing fire.  DR "kills" him.  Moraine is wounded.  Lan uses his swqrd to make a litter to drag Mo home, alternately Nyn heals her again.  

 

The team brings the trinkets, one of which is broken in the fight back to Fal Dara

 

There is no battle at Tarwin Gap cause we only have budget for 50 trollocs and I fade costume.  

 

Somebody springs PF from the dungeon and gives him a magic musical instrument that we don't want to loose.  I liked a previous posters notion that they don't go to Toman Head they have to go to Tear.  

 

We have done one book in one season.  That leaves thirteen books in 7 seasons, I am guessing AMOL will get it's own season so we have twelve books in 6 seasons so that's two a season.  That means  TGH and TDR  have to be combined.  Perhaps when the season is over somebody will start a thread where we can list our favorite events in those books that we want to see in the show.  

 

 

I wouldn't mind if they "killed off" Moiraine tbh. The more focus on the EF'ers the better imho

I hope Liandrin and Elaida are not combined. Besides being Red and unpleasant they are really not similar at all and have significantly different roles in the overall plot

40 minutes ago, Sabio said:

I did notice when at the entrance to the Ways when Moiriane was asked if she still didn't know who the Dragon was that she never answered the question.  I found this interesting and thought maybe she does suspect who it could be.

I think she knows it's Rand

31 minutes ago, phoenixtrinity said:

I am realizing more and more that I don't understand if the LotR movies were a great adaption of the books or a terrible one. Note, I haven't read the books, so here's what I'm working off of from here and Reddit:

 

- When the LotR movies came out, everyone said they were nothing like the books

- The LotR movies changed or removed character and major plot lines

- Somehow, the LotR movies became popular anyway?

- LotR is so popular it is getting a show on Amazon that I'm guessing must be faithful to the books or no one would want to watch it, if I'm understanding the comments.

 

My question is... Why is Amazon banking on LotR if people are complaining about the WoT adaption the same as people complained about the LotR movies?

 

I'm not trying to be clever here, I am confused. I thought LotR was an extremely popular movie franchise, but now I'm hearing people hated it because it wasn't like the books. So now I'm wondering what this might mean for the WoT.

LOTR was generally a good adaptation, if greatly flawed in parts. Some book purists were upset at changes, of course, but the film trilogy had widespread appeal to non book readers. It was accessible, entertaining, and maintained the soul of the story. I know that personally I had several qualms with changes that Peter Jackson made in the last two films, but still enjoyed them greatly and am glad they were made. IMO they were as good as could be expected.

It's coincidental