My opinion: Witcher S1 is not bad (better than WoT) Witcher S2 and S3 very bad (below WoT)...and guess why? they derailed heeavily from source material, so much that even their star decided to quit. Witcher Blood Origin is trash.

In this sense, you are more positive (than me I was intending not in absolute value). In my opinion they have already invented something new (and quite bad in some cases), call it another turning of the wheel if you want.

Ok, lack of fluidity in the movements, lack of a nice flow in swordfights, the strength of hits is not sold, editing obliged to cut fast to sell you that something good is happening while it's not, fights almost always in the dark. so you cannot understand again what's going on (because what's going on is not good). Just for comparison, look at how Henry Cavill plays the Witcher and how believable he is in his fights.

Of course, It is not only abbreviating the story but also not changing the tone, the genre, the core of the story. Novel scenes can happen and they are welcome (flashbacks on the Forsaken, stuff we did not see about beloved characters etc etc) but they still should convey key points within the source material, just differently from it (instead we get "oh my bond"). Otherwise, why not just invent something completely new? (answer: they are not talented to do that) For the rest, I am sorry to say but Rosamund Pike larger role is one of the worst thing of the show at this point (as her storylines). I would like to be as positive as you but with 2/8(?) seasons already out I find difficult to imagine course-corrections.

Honestly, in this particular case I can say to be an expert because I have been practiced martial arts for 20 years, been a pro, a champ and I have coreographated fights that went on TV. Fight scenes are terrible in this show but at least this is not a big problem because they just decided to go all in on drama and there are very few of them.

Fight scenes in OP are exaggerated but stylish and well filmed In WOT we are almost at amateur level of fighting and directing.

Technically, the first books of WoT also follow a small number of storylines and should have been the easier to adapt with some tweaks here and there. I really feel we should stop pretending that some changes were made because they had to, while it is clear that they actually wanted to. By the way, this is perfect legitimate. I can argue that taking an adventuresque fantasy and transform it in an almost actionless drama in expansive costumes is not what many fans would like to see but they are perfectly entitled to follow that route, just I am not obliged to buy that it was the only possible route.

Still all the humorous and funny parts of WOT books are lost in the adaptation Of course, the two series have a very different tone but, from Ep. 1 S1, just from the depiction of Em..ehm Two Rivers, it is clear that they were trying to paint it with a darker tone...and then they filled it with too much non-sense drama/mistery (who is the Dragon, Moraine walk of shame/exile, is she stilled/shielded, the pointless bond storyline) at the cost of incredibly subtracting from adventure, worldbuilding, cool moments and also some funny ones.

Rand forgot the PIN code or it ran out of battery.

...and still it is a much more faithful adaptation than WOT will ever be because it captures the heart of One Piece As a stand-alone TV show, WOT is quite decent/watchable but it is not a faithful adaptation. They wanted too much to put a GOT object in a WOT shaped thing. By the way, overall I think that the success of GOT hurted other fantasy franchises sooooooo bad. Imagine WOT show done after the LOTR trilogy.

Yes. You can have cuts and still be faithful to source material as it is sanely possible. Or you can make Luffy having sex with Nami, Zoro coming from a drunken and abusive father, Sanji freezing his made-up wife...

short reply: One Piece showed that you can be successful and be true to source material Now, imagine the One Piece Ip in the hands of someone like Rafe and his Fors...ehm Chosen. Actually no need to imagine because this was the Cowboy Bebop disaster. Then the same people learnt from their mistakes and understood that maybe maybe the existing fanbase of a beloved IP wants something respectful to the source material. Results: they got a big success...while we can say that WOTshow at best is not a super-flop.

No but I don't think you were wrong or arguing on the fact that "there was too much emphasis on sexual abuse and torture of women" Just i don't think it was RJ purpose to have us feel happy about the Darkfriends getting retribution.

Again, I disagree with this interpretation. I don't think RJ wanted us to feel schadenfreude. I often felt bad for the bad guys. For example, it was quite delicate the way he handled Jaichim Carridin POVs during his fall and how he tought about his family. Furthermore, the same darkfriend was horribly tortured and his death was disgusting.

Technically he said that "Overall their choices have been a disgrace to the original text. ", not that he is a disgrace himself (at most a disgrace bringer 🙃) As for the blacklist, Well, I would black list the coach of my team from professional football (the real football, not the US one played with hands). 🙄 I don't think it is ad hominem attack to hope that someone whose work you don't like will never touch an IP that you love. When Netflix announced One Piece, I would have been still in hospital for heart attack if at the voice "Showrunner" I would have read "Rafe Judkins" 🤣 but that does not mean I hate him. I wish for him a successful career of original and adapted TV-show, preferably not from books/Ips I like 🙂

I always thought (but probably translation could change meaning of some words) that having seen Tylin-Mat relationship from Mat (usually comically unreasonable), it was him being the reluctant lover (instead of the typical reluctant hero). Reread recently and never saw it this way.

Maybe it was salty language but i don't see it as ad hominem attack. Probably Rafe is a marvellous human being, salt of the earth etc. etc. but I think it is still fine to express that opinion that I would instantly swap him with a random user of this forum as a showrunner of WoT (with a few exceptions @Elder_Haman 😝)

I add to this very good post that making EF as cosmopolitan as the London subway deprives ) that story of a very nice (and progressive) arc (or at least imho weakens it): when refugees come to EF, they do not only find shelter but EF goes from being a small rural town to a city with new activities, new customs, more florid commerce. In other words, a clear example of the wonders of a multicultural society in which the strengths of all individuals complement each other.

Wow always making the right choice (sarcasm).

Maybe they should find time to add Siuan plot (rumors say Elaida has been cast)? The way you outline this is as close to books as it is possible at this point, I like it.

Well, in order to do so, they should do actions scenes better. The best one stil remains the cold open of Rand's mom in S1. This is still a high-fantasy show: can we have some really cool, nicely coreographated and well directed action scenes at least? The way action scenes are filmed and cut is really disturbing and it is always difficult to understand what is going on.

But they need to give them real time and real quality storyline (a suggestion: there is a series of books called The Wheel of Time, crazy idea: get some inspiration from it?)

It is true that one of the good things about modern-day entertainment is that evil characters are given more space and more info about their motivations. This is valid also for WoT Show and Ishamael, Lanfear and Liandrin are very well presented in the show. The only problem I have in this regard is that main characters for me have not received an equally good treatment and many times I found myself rooting for villains. Small OT: Reading the books, I have always wondered about the details of Forsakens background which are only hinted at in the books. I would have loved to see a telling of that story.

They have been argued so many times: I respect you and don't want to start other arguments. Let us just state what we agree on at this point: S2 better than S1 as a TVshow: no doubt about it

If you like something, of course you don't need approval from anyone else. By the way, Mirefox is not wrong either...let us say that sometimes your justifications of some of the weaker points of the show are quite far-fetched...if next season, Rafe comes up with (i am just kidding Rafe, do not take notes) Callandor being a LightSaber, I can come to this forum or WoTShow and find thousands of justifications for that 🤣