Regarding spinoffs, Rings of Power has completely destroyed my interest in the idea of third-party written side stories loosely based on established lore.

RJ: “It’s my story, guys. If you have ideas, write your own stories.” Rafe: OK, Boomer

This is kind of a stream of consciousness thought and I wasn't sure what thread to put it in, but I was watching this review of S1E8: (By the way, it is a thoughtful and well-edited review with a couple jump cuts that made me chuckle.) ...when a thought occurred to me; we often discuss book-readers and non-book readers but there is a third category, or possibly a sub-category of book reader, who have read the books enough to stay ahead of the show but haven't read enough to know full story and character arc. It creates an interesting perspective that I haven't considered in the past.

Hints? He corrupts everything around him in prison, act and talks like a madman, taunts Rand with a message written in blood, then nails a fade to a wall through its face...I think that's a little beyond hints...

So Gaul?

I won’t spoil who killed the fade but I doubt we are going to revisit that as the character really isn’t the same as in the books.

A) This is multiple times now you’ve called me an anti-feminist, which is not bad hominem and a demonstration that you don’t understand the differences between traditional feminism and modern liberal feminism. B) Rafe has literally said that he wants to update Jordan’s idea of feminism for the modern world. That is literally an agenda. It also suggests that Rage, at least, acknowledges a difference between feminist philosophy of 20 years ago and today and he reject the philosophy of the book as unfit for modern ideals. De facto agenda.

I, unfortunately, wasn’t a Survivor contestant.

Doctorate of the written word, actually.

Yet completely on point. This show wouldn’t recognize character development if it stepped in it. The writers for this show think that artificially putting a character in a scene they were in in the book is the same as character development. The writers of this show fail so miserably at character motivation that they literally used the plot device of knocking a character out and instantly relocating them THREE times in an episode and a half. They can’t be bothered with writing real motivations for characters. Character motivation is one of the things BS has criticized as well, to keep it on topic. The characters and their motivations in this show are so shallow compared to the books, and that’s comparing them to the early books that are admittedly more shallow than the later.

I 100% promise you there were doing everything they could not to have a gendered power in season 1. It was so painfully obvious and that Moiraine talk with Rand is laughable in the mental acrobatics they were attempting.

And it would be nice if if some of you would stop pretending like there is no agenda when the show runner has explicitly said there’s an agenda. You can agree with it, move it, loathe it, embrace it, be blind to it, or whatever, but saying things like “alleged agenda” is either willful ignorance or gross sycophancy.

The last couple posters have hit a big issue on the head - Sanderson’s strength is world building and that is by leaps and bounds the weakest part of this show. His critiques on those issues are most valid.

You’re right. That wasn’t my intent with the post. I can talk about why it isn’t working elsewhere. My point is that framing the show in that way really adds little value to the quality argument and certainly can’t be used as proof of quality.

Nobody in the world cares about whether you enjoy the show or not. It’s your vehement defense of objective mediocrity that causes half of the arguments on this board. Is this in the best fantasy available right now that’s because Rings of Power managed to be even worse and that’s about it for the high fantasy competition. Winning a 2-man race only proves you’re not as bad as the one other guy.

There are two truisms about the new Justin Bieber album that are absolutely essential when it comes to accepting - or at least understanding - how and why things have thus far played out musically the way they have: 1) The Beiber album is very much a rearrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” 2) Bieber has taken all the tracks from the album and Remixed them You analysis sure sounds bad when you apply it to a work you respect and mediocre talent…

Who ever said you need our permission to enjoy it? We all have our guilty pleasures. Some of us demand better than D-List crew creating a D-Level product. If you said “yeah, it’s not great but I enjoy it anyways,” not a single person would object to that.

They looked wooden to me. I remember watching the scene and expecting the break off so I was paying attention to the bolts.

That’s what made Game of Thrones Season 8 so much better than Game of Thrones Season 1….

He praised production and marvels that a story of this d or can be made. He is critical of story arcs, characterization, lore, world building, etc. Too many are satisfied with mediocre storytelling under a pretty veneer and it would be nice if the writers listened more to the criticism. But how many times did we hear BS say things like “I really tried, everyone…?”

The title sequence appeared again in this episode. I think it is technically done well but what is the point of it? What do you suppose someone who knows nothing about WoT would think the story is about if they only saw the title sequence?

Over on Reddit as part of the conversation, BS called out the show for playing fast and loose with its magic systems. I have a few problems with the writing but I think this in particular is so damaging to a fantasy show; the more fantastical you are the more you need rules lest every bit of magic just be a deus ex machina for the current problem. The lore and the magic in the show is sometimes changed on a whim to suit the plot and this is weak writing that damages the show. I’m obviously a big critic of the show but I think part of the problem is that the issues are compounded on each other. I could handle a “different turning of the wheel” a lot easier if the lore and world building were more consistent. Amazon did not out its best and brightest to work on the writing here and every issue I’ve had with the show is magnified by that.

Brandon Sanderson himself comments “Why is Rand even there? Just give Egwene a sword,” yet when we complain that for the second finale in a row they stole a scene from Rand to give to the girls we are called sexiest for noticing…

From the start Rafe Jennings and crew thought they were better writers, better storytellers, and overall more clever than Robert Jordan. It shouldn’t surprise you that the feel the same about Jordan’s successor. And people here and elsewhere buy it and find ways to put the books down in order to elevate the show.

This! Yes, you push the arrow through, but after breaking off the fletching.