It may have been mentioned somewhere in these forums but a couple of weeks ago Amazon fired Jennifer Salke, who was the head of their film division. I would imaging this puts most of their project under the microscope and could lead to a delay in any green lighting.

That works to some extent if the scenes work in a way that evokes the theme later revealed. Like if they showed Mat playing dice and winning repeatedly, they wouldn’t need to explain that he’s extraordinarily lucky and later when they make it more explicit, previous scenes where luck is often a theme (like with dice) would make sense. I’d argue that asking a peddler to find an ancient relic and then having it by the end of the episode could certainly be revealed to be a part of Mat’s luck, but doesn’t immediately evoke the theme of luckiness, just sloppy or hasty writing.

It would actually have been more effective to establish her as wise and benevolent and then show her later as impatient and ruthless. She is, after all, a different person with Gaebril around. How are they going to show that.

This kind of sounds like the news reports where some mass shooter’s parents say “he was such a sweet boy, that’s not who he is.” I’m pretty sure is you plan/condone/allow the slitting of throats, including that of a child, publicly and in your presence at the seat of your throne, that’s who you are.

They don’t. Just in this instance. I’m with you, they need to show it more and actually point it out.

Yeah, I didn’t mind this bit of randomness, but it’s because I have context from the book to know that Mat is supernaturally lucky. I think they should have highlighted this a bit more in the show.

You mean you didn’t picture Min in a Hillary Clinton pantsuit?

It’s also brain dead stupid “ruling.” Why publicly show that you are not to be trusted? If she had some behind-closed-doors agreement with the Houses to remove their rulers, she should have forgiven them, sent them on their way, then had all the assassinations carried out back on their turf with plausible deniability. This scene couldn’t have painted Morgase in a more negative light.

The reason I don’t like the change is that yes, he could be deadly and rough in the book but he hid it behind a facade. In the show he looks exactly like a guy who might throw a knife in your throat. I actually thought he was going to take out the guy accosting Elayne.

I agree, though I reserve the right to withdraw that statement if the ruin her going forward, which is entirely possible given this show. I was more or less neutral on her last season mainly because she felt a little underutilized. She’s been good the last two episodes, though. I do wonder where they are going to go with her relationship with Thom. That might be a little odd for this show.

It’s how maturity works, hence the word “kid” instead of “minor.”

The SAG writers’ strike was July 14-November 9 2023. Principal photography began for season 3 on April 17, 2023. All filming wrapped March 22, 2024.

I can buy that. For me, Perrin is so reluctant to be a warrior that I feel like he would avoid armoring up, but I can see how your thought process would work, too.

I don’t remember if it is something he ever does by the end of the book series since it’s not a detail that stick with me, so I could be wrong, but for me it just boils down to something “he wouldn’t do.” It seems very out of character.

And miss Elayne singing bawdy songs and dancing? I think they could have been throwing dice at his head and it wouldn’t have been a distraction at that very moment🤣

If you’re being a legalistic ass, maybe. If you’re an adult and come across a 17 year old, they are a kid in every way possible.

First, it was one example of many in the show, I just went right back to the start. Second, they were between 17-19 when the books start. They were kids. Third, I’m sorry for you that you read over 4 millions words’ worth of novels and didn’t see any character growth from Eye of the World to A Memory of Light.

When he first heard Thom I didn’t notice the singing. I though he was maybe distracted by a game of dice and I thought we were going to see him go and win a dozen rolls in a row or something.

It would have been so easy to have any character, even the guys selling it to him, to just say something “you have the Dark One’s luck” or something like that to hint that there is a supernatural element to Mat’s fortunes.

And wasn’t Noal supposed to be really rough looking? Like a crazy old man with a bunch of scars or something? I don’t remember his description exactly. Plus, I may be misremembering but didn’t one of the EF kids call Jain “she” at one point? Don’t hold me to that one.

It was the juxtaposition of the naieve/idyllic upbringing the the EF group with the horror of the Enemy that makes the difference in times work in the book. The tone changes as the kids grow. They were to WoT what the Hobbits and the Shire were to LotR. But instead, we started this show off from the very first episode with a Shire where the Hobbits are thieves, drunks, adulterers, pushing their women off cliffs into a river, casually sleeping with each other, etc. if you can’t at least recognize that that is a change of tone then there is no way to even debate the merits of it.

This is very old, but I just read an article about Lord of the Rings. Apparently, Ian McKellen instructed Sean Aston to grab Elijah Wood’s hand when he first sees a recovered Frodo in Rivendell because it is a small detail in the books that fans would be looking for and would be excited to see. Now obviously LotR is not a spot-on adaptation, but this is the way to approach it - what details, no matter how small, can we squeeze out of the books while doing our best to adapt the author’s story to new medium. This show very, very clearly takes a polar opposite approach - what details can we change while changing the story in a way that we think it should go.

Rafe Judkins has entered the chat, folks.

For what it is worth, if you go through frame by frame, there are sometimes spear shafts and sometimes not, and I’m guessing they couldn’t put them in for some of the moves that are impossible with actual spears. Further, she wields them as swords, the one in her right hand often looks a bit like a curved scimitar, and in a couple frames it even looks like it has a crossguard and at one point a hand guard. I’m not arguing that they were swords anymore, but they definitely botched the effects and choreography. No matter what she was holding, she was sword fighting and if were to believe they were spears, we also need to then believe she’s completely incompetent with them and holds them high up the shaft near the blade and uses them with downward slices…

It’s pretty clear in the book that she has to be angry to channel.