Well I have been lost in the ways since the end of last season. I thought I would drop in and see what people think and share my thoughts. I have finished E4. After last season I listened to the books on audio for the first time. That was a great experience and was free since I have a library app. Having read the books numerous times I could listen to the narrator tell the tale and not have to focus on it. The slog was much more enjoyable. Watching the first 4 episodes of season 3 was very helpful. I no longer think of the Amazon story as an adaption. It is a derivative story that leans more or less heavily on the source material. This mostly frees me from the compulsion to compare the Amazon story with the book story and evaluate the Amazon story on its own merits. That said I will say that the writing team for the show is not up to the caliber of RJ. The story is best when they remember that Wot is basically a young adults hero's journey story and not a we all live in GoT dark slime story. I was puzzled by the number of Rand's ancestors lives they elected to show in E4. That is a spot they could have trimmed to add other material like having Matt's quarterstaff exercise be in front the guard trainee's and novices instead of a private affair. There are numerous other nits to pick with the decisions so far but why bother. I will just enjoy the show for what it is and not worry about what it could have been. The good news is that when AI starts creating these shows one could program it to reboot the series and have the show that could have been. More fidelity to the source material with careful pruning of the story, where instead of making up unnecessary storylines, unnecessary storylines are cut. I am not sold that the timeline shuffling is going to make the series better. There is a character arc they are supposed to go through and going to Tear before Rhuidean is a key part of that arc. I will also be interested to see what happens to Moraine. She is the "star" and I was unable to pick out from her Rhuidean visions what will replace her book plot scenario and keep her in the show. I may have to rewatch to try and pick it out. In summary this show is a whole lot better than no show and I prefer it to the Rings of Power or GoT. If the writers can keep themselves from wandering too far from the source material they will have an excellent show by the end given the season by season improvement arc so far.

So I have been away for a while and I am sure much discussion is under the bridge. After Season 2 I actually checked out the WoT audio books and listened to them. It was most interesting and a completely different experience than reading them as I have done many times before. My conclusion after that was that the show will never be as good as the book story. It has the potential to be a good or even great story on its own but it is no adaptation. It is a different story and needs to be judged on its own. I will watch the story as long as it isn't too stupid, too dark or any other thing that turns me off a show. I do feel that the more the writers can incorporate source dialog and situations the better the story seems to me. Perhaps I mistake familiarity with better. I do feel that season three is finding its way and seems better than the first two. I will address some specific comments in other threads.