Alright, just to living things up, I put together potential list of 64 (8x8) episodes, based on assumptions of which plot elements need to stay in order to get to where we're going. (easy example: the Bowl has to stay, since it's the Bowl that gets Mat to meet Tuon)

I will say it would certainly move at a breakneck pace through the series, and fix the slog really effectively, but you can forget about character growth and consideration through downtime

55 minutes ago, JenniferL said:

Honestly, with the changes to how gender and rebirth works, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t include Aran’gar and Osan’gar. 

My reason for thinking they get excluded (aside from the whole don't need them back and don't have time to explore it) is because it presents that kind of situation as both unnatural and a product of the Great Lord's will...stepping carefully, but I don't think that's a message they want to send.

Oh - here's an easy Cut; Dead Forsaken stay dead. Can burn through all 13 relatively painlessly if they don't keep coming back

1 hour ago, DojoToad said:

Skip Falme - does that mean no blowing of the horn?  Ouch!

 

I'd be all for skipping the bowl of the winds.  The search was exhausting (not as bad as Faile's captivity, but close).

Faile's Captivity I'm not worried about; I expect Dumai's Wells to take care of that

And this is the kind of plot cascade that can easily happen that makes me think the show runners already have the major plot beats for the entire series mapped out to determine what will and won't be cut (not pruned but lopped off like a Trolloc head:

Mat stays in TV and is healed of the dagger, therefore, the dagger isn't in FD to be stolen

Without the dagger, there's no reason for Rand to chase Fain to Falme; maybe he goes for the horn alone, but that conflicts with what he said in the book

The girls are kidnapped and sent to Falme. There's no one to save them

No one discovers the Seanchan until they sail into Ebou Dar

So that's why I think we get tGH relatively untouched. The season 3 compression will happen with 3/4, with something like the Season three cliff hanger being with Couladin  revealed as the Car'a'carn

Hmmm. I was thinking that they could skip Falme, and delay the Seanchan until Ebou Dar, but I'm really not sure the Bowl of the Winds makes it in, and without exploring the Damane, the leashing A'dam for Rand comes out of the blue. So we need the Seanchan earlier - maybe even a Daughter of the Nine Moons reference - in order to give urgency to the girls going to Ebou Dar for the A'dam.

One of the things I intended to do before this started was lay out a series plot beat curve for each of the major characters, but i didn't get to it.

5 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Looking ahead to episode 4, I am trying to figure out what  "An incredible new power is unleashed on the world" means. I can't think of anything this early in the story that lines up with that description. It seams early, but do you think they will show

  Reveal hidden contents

the Seanchan taking Falme?

Please tell me I'm missing something obvious.

The incredible new power is :

1 minute ago, Harad the White said:

How do you know?

It's a concern / fear - not a known thing. But if they don't make cuts, this is going to feel very rushed.

13 hours ago, Chwooly said:

 

 

Erosion is the geological process in which earthen materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water.  

 

Life is not needed for erosion...

 

 

Just sayin

 

 

Yeah, was thinking about urban decay type erosion not geological stuff. But of course, you're right

4 minutes ago, Beidomon said:

Yes I’d like to see that, too. I wonder if they’ll even dig that deeply in the show. So far, admittedly through just 3 episodes, they’ve approached everything related to OP and channeling at a very superficial level. 

My working assumption on this is that once we start getting the Wonder Girls' POV's, it will go from a generic white mist, to more specific, and maybe even colour differentiated weaves. 

Was going to post this is S1E1, but probably not a good idea. 

I'll re-watch when I can, but probably my biggest concern is them having to lop off entire branches of the plot tree - the Horn - gone; dreaming - gone; the Seachan - gone; the Breaking of the Tower - gone; half the Forsaken - gone. Morgase - gone. Entire multi-book plotlines and POV's excised completely.

OR...if they don't make some serious, serious cuts, this is going to feel like a mindless sprint through plot high points with minimal character development until we get to the slog, and then their edits to the slog will make it feel like a mind-blowingly good series.

I'm not concerned about the TV series' ability to get from Dumai's Wells the end of the series with incredible TV in about 4 seasons. It's the ability to get from the Two Rivers to Dumai's Wells in 4 seasons without losing much of the tapestry of the world and depth of character that makes the Wheel of Time great that makes me nervous.

Like LOTR, I'll be here, because we'll never get another, and I get that it will likely never be what we all would have wanted, but I just hope they find some time to let this breathe...

I would have loved a one hour initial episode that ended with the Fade stepping into Two Rivers, and then a second hour that ended after the weep for Manetheren speech in town, and them leaving.  Believe me I do.  but I also get the desire from Amazon to have kick ass Moiraine in the very first hour.

Assuming they end S1 with "We will meet again on Toman Head"

S2E1 - On the road from Fal Dara, portal stone split cliffhanger

S2E2 - Girls in TV, meet the Trakands, on the road with Selene and Ingtar. Learning to weave (colourization of Saidar?)

S2E3 - Murder in the WT, and the hunters released, Accepted Nynaeve. the Flame, the Void and the Grolm

S2E4 - Cairhien part 1, Thom, the hunters betrayed

S2E5 - Cairhien part 2, death of a king and a city burns...flicker, flicker, flicker...

S2E6 - Falme part 1, getting to know Tu, getting to know all about Tu...

S2E7 - Falme part 2, the Horn, a man in the sky, Lanfear revealed

S2E8 - The Camp of the Dragon, Rand sets off for Callandor. "He's gone" cliffhanger

My 0.02. Only real question I have is (rumor) if they leave Mat in TV in season 1, he's not really in a plot until the letter to Camelyn in TDR, so what's he doing in S2?  But he's in the Waygate picture from S1E6, so is Mat going to FD or not?

17 hours ago, Akragard said:

The meeting was cool.  I thought they looked like coyotes.  Wolves are huge.  I don't know why they made them so smol.

Because Wolves don't have SAG cards? ? You can work with trained dogs, but not wolves ("you can't cage a wolf").  You don't want CGI animals because we see the difference too quickly (some real animal recognition thing I can't remember the name of that wrecks CGI humans, too) , and you don't want the SFX costs of upscaling the Wolves in every shot they're in. Hence. Dogs.

8 hours ago, TheDreadReader said:

 

Given how many times the phrase "It's not like in the books" gets thrown about.... weird stuff happens all the time in the books without a lot of logical explanations.

 

 

But this is both in the books, and has a "rational" explanation. The Dark One's prison weakens, and he stretches forth his hand to effect the Pattern. It's not coincidence.  Like the slaughtered sheep in the woods, it's a sign for those who can see.

Time grows short...

9 minutes ago, Taishar Hawaii said:

You know, with Liandrin leading the capture, could it be foreshadowing a different end to her story?

Ask me in like 7 years...?

1 minute ago, ManetherenTaveren said:

Although the "video is blocked in my country," that's an interesting issue. Erosion rules. But who can verify the materials used to build those structures during the 2nd age? Maybe the structures were infused with some angreal? How old is Shadar Logoth (Aridhol)?

It's called a World Without Humans. A TV series.

Aridhol arose as one of the covenant of the 10 nations, 209 AB, but is a special circumstance; without life, erosion can't happen. No bugs, no vines, no creeping ivy, no nesting animals. Just mountains of unliving stone, and wind, and rain.

The other thing I would throw out here for everyone to remember here, is that for all the talk of feminism and women's rights and powers, sometime about 10 episodes from now, Egwene is

It will be an even bigger punch in the gut

2 minutes ago, flinn said:

^ I agree. To me there was never any mystery. You read the prologue, then the prophecy and then boom, we are inside Rand's head. Never a thought that it would be anyone else to me.

 

 I agree with most of what Brandon Sanderson said. When it comes to Perrin, there is no way he could recover from that trauma in the time frame of the books. He meets Faile when Rand is on the run, so what is that? 6 months at most from the time he left Two Rivers.. So he is supposed to get over killing his wife and fall in love, head over heels (I might add), with Faile? It was too much and I dont like it at all. I can see now throughout the series I will be saying... but he killed his wife.

IMO The only way to possibly save this is to show that she was a Darkfriend, she tricked him into marrying her under orders, she was trying to kill him, and his Ta'veren status (ie luck) acted to keep his thread from being cut from the Pattern.  And have him believe it.  And be damned if I know how they pull that off.

1 minute ago, ManetherenTaveren said:

Same here. I liked the ancient aqueduct that was inserted into the next ep as well. I'm on the lookout for fallen monuments and grand statues as well.

I wasn't a fan of that - too much Shannara Chronicles with the recent fallen world.  And 3,000 years is a long time. If you have 90 minutes to spare, check out the show here to see just how fast the world would be eliminated. Aqueducts I'm fine with. Stone is stone, afterall. But modern buildings? forget it.

6 minutes ago, flinn said:

 Interesting. We dont know the trim frame of that happening. I have often wondered how Moirraine knew the names of all the Aes Sedai involved to give Thom the list of names. In the show, she was watching it happen. It also appears she gentled/executed him there on the spot instead of taking him back to Tar Valon.

In the book, it was about 2 years before the start of the story, IIRC; a minor enough change to make. And doing it on the spot was in fact how it happened in the books. I remember Moiraine saying something like they shouldn't have done that in her letter.

New poster here, and I expect I'll spend most of my time in the full spoiler threads, since I can't keep stuff straight in the middle books. Fan since 1993,  probably a dozen re-reads.

I am cautiously optimistic; the only change that has me concerned so far is Layla. I pray they're not done with that, because if they are, it can't be fixed within the 24 months of the story.  I can see uses for it, but for now, it's still just WIR.

As for most of the other major plot changes - Whitecloaks and Reds a bigger threat, Mat more desperate, Logain  free on the screen - I think they will improve the story later on, but clutter the beginning up. They are taking a risk that people will stick with them to get to know and like the EF5 in order for later story beats. 

And a last note regarding the big last change - the mystery around the DR; I'm actually good with it, especially since I am very confident they can't change it; everything else falls apart. And for those who say Jordan always intended a bit of mystery, I encourage you to read more early fanstasy. I specifically went back and checked, and after the prologue, setting the stage for the Dragon Reborn to come again, Rand al'Thor is literally the first named character in the series. It's impossible to miss that he's the Chosen One.

Episode 1 comment that I haven't seen anywhere:

What are the odds that we do in fact know the name of the poor young man who was taken by the Reds at the very beginning?

"A young man, who had revealed the talent, and I was not there to help him; by the time I was, it was too late"

First time poster, but lurked here off and on over the years, and I expect I'll be along for the show ride.

The thing I want to add to this discussion is that we will have the opportunity to judge the TV show's reasons for making many of these changes, and not attributing them to motive. We will be able to judge them by the resulting changes on the screen. Or not.

I'll use one positive example to start - Logain. He's been beefed up to visually show the danger of a male channeller, instead of just whispered stories told by peddlers and gleemen. Show don't tell. But Logain is one great example of a reason to change from the book.

At first blush, I don't like the Perrin change. It's Women in Refrigerator time, and causes a cataclysmic shift in his character that I don't believe can be redeemed in the 24-30 month period of the story, and the clock is ticking on his marriage to Faile.  I think there's more to come with Layla on screen (Ba'alzamon's dreams?), and will judge them for what it is, but if it's nothing more than WIR, they will get justly pilloried.

I'm neutral on the Mat change; it does really help explain why a 20 year old is so desperate and money hungry, and gives him a place to start from that isn't an emotionally stunted juvenile delinquent.  It could also set up a Ta'veren type change for Abell, we shall see. Or Not.