15 minutes ago, swollymammoth said:

This is some BUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLL CRRRRAAAAAAAAPPPPP 

 

And I'm not afraid to say it. 

 

Why? Literally why? The "It's one of the boys but Egwene and Ny'naeve come along too because Moiraine senses they may be important too" setup from the books is FINE. There was nothing about that setup which needed to be changed in order to adapt the story to TV. 

 

Just yesterday I was listening to a podcast with the Dune director and Christopher Nolan, and the guy just kept talking about how the source material was the bible to them while working on the move, and all I could think was, "Why couldn't we get someone like this to do WoT?" No talk of an "interpretation" or "another turning of the wheel." Just a straightforward adaptation. Put the source material on the screen with the goal of recreating the experience of the books as accurately as possible in another medium. 

 

Apparently that was too much to ask from Amazon. 

The ultimate reason for a straight adaptation is that you would have too many viewers turn off the TV two episodes in to the EotW content.  Its pacing is slow, it would appear very derived from LotR to people who are only familiar with other TV and movie fantasy shows. Alot of people get turned off by the initial books based on pacing alone. 
I was one of these people and owned first printing paperback that I never could get into. It wasnt until over a decade later that I tried the audio version that I finally pushed through.  Even then there was still the slog on the later books. A straight adaptation would be closer to the Winter Dragon pilot that was just awful. 
In the end if there are no viewers, they cannot sustain the amount of seasons they would need to tell the whole story. Also, we dont have Nolan running this show who would literally bring viewers in based on his name alone. 

55 minutes ago, TheMountain said:

A female Dragon Reborn though wouldn't be another turning of the Wheel, it would be a different universe.

Agreed, and I don't really think that they will change the identity of the DR.  If you watch todays trailer release with the showrunner talking over what we see, it implies his desire to convey the source material as best possible with the medium; ie showing the Moraine swearing the oath on the Oath Rod or Lan clearly in emotional distress (when he normally conveys little emotion) and Moraine experiencing the feeling, or Logain having a more significant part in the events of EotW besides rumor and Rand's sighting in Caemlyn.  

That was the point I meant about another weaving... I don't think Egwane will be the DR... but implying she is more significant than the first book did I am fine with because it ends up being true.  For the first two books Elaine, Egwane and Nienieve seemed to be ancillary to the plot... providing different views but not significance vs the boys.  That changed in later books but I think its fine to start with that implied significance in the show.

I feel the ambiguity helps create the Macguffin for the show.  I have read the series several times over the course of the last several years, more so the older books. The biggest thing that I realized when I first read the series was that going back to the first 3 books after reading through books 1-7 that I understood alot more of the foreshadowing and the significance of items during the second re-read.  It was one of the things that originally turned me off to the WoT series in the early 90s when it was recommended... I just didn't understand anything and that prologue didn't make sense.  It wasn't until I got audio books that I really trucked through the first few books and the re-read made me like the story even more.  

I think if they take the books' approach with the series they will lose alot of people.  You have to establish the world and some of the motivations for what is going on.  That means borrowing from a New Spring and re-imagining the world from the perspective of how do you get an audience engaged and stay engaged.  

The question of whom the dragon reborn is something they can present right of the bat.  I could also see that implication that all 5 are Taveryn (spelling? remember I am audio book guy).  All five of them have those qualities though only the three boys were specifically identified as such.  Egwene dealing with the Seanchen and the Hall of Tower being perfect examples.  They are all key to the dragon in the last battle.  

I think the new viewers will see this as THE question for the first season with the happenings at the Eye of the World revealing ultimately the dragon but also the importance of the other characters.  It will be the quickest way to get people invested in all of the initial cast as the show progresses.

As filmmaker myself, I often pondered how you could tell this epic story and I know things will have to be changed, moved, and cut; however if the essence remains then we should grant the creative license due to the differing medium.  As we examine this, we could look at this at another turning of the wheel, a similar but not the same pattern of events; a new third age cycling around.