nicki_minajah,

They also did a role reversal in that flashback, making Latra Posae Decume the Tamyrlin Seat. So, LTT is rebelling against her (expressly female and speaking for all women who can channel) authority in the show. It makes for a very different dynamic, as it removes the nuance of her having her own cockamamie plan to use the Choedan Kal. 

The show seems very inconsistent here. We won't come out and say that saidar and saidin are two different things, but even in the Age of Legends, we'll tut-tut about dangerous men who can channel. The finale blurred the lines quite a bit on how, exactly, saidin works. When Ishamael gives Rand a channeling lesson, it sounds a bit like a twisted version of the Flame and the Void, but then he uses language of surrender not unlike how earlier episodes described channeling saidar. Contrast that with the books, where channeling saidin is described more like wrestling with an alligator. Also, Moiraine dodges the question when Rand asks her for help, which would have been a perfect time for her to say, "Sorry, sheepherder. It doesn't work like that."

I have to think anyone who reads the books after first watching the show is going to feel like they've been baited and switched. 

I just don't easily accept that budget constraints were why the show made the choices it made. The first episode is an excellent example. If they wanted to save money, they could have...done what the book did! Rather than seeing Emond's Field burn and Moiraine channeling everywhere, they could have focused on Rand dragging Tam to the village. Rather than the spectacle of capturing Logain, they could have...followed the story the book told! And on and on. As special effects go, the critical path in the Eye of the World needs very little of them. You need: Narg and a Fade, then not much else until Shadar Logoth, and then not much else until Loial, and then not much else again until they leave Fal Dara for the Eye.   

The simple truth here is they wanted to take a different perspective than the author and had pressure to be the new Game of Thrones, and that forced them to make decisions that had cascading effects on the story. Other choices just aren't that defensible, like decisions to kill off characters who aren't dead, invent characters just to fridge them, or turn Mat's parents into terrible people. I understand cuts; I do. But adding stuff that isn't in the books is how you get silly things like Faramir dragging Frodo to Osgiliath. In the book, he refuses the ring immediately, full stop, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. In the movie, we had to waste 20 minutes of screen time on his invented anguish. Likewise in WoT, there are a solid two episodes of content in this season that were not in the book which could have easily covered events that were in the book but left out.

The Great Hunt also has a pretty light critical path (except now they have to do things they didn't do earlier): They have to get the right people to Tar Valon and Falme, and then certain things have to happen in Falme.

7 hours ago, Mcmaddy said:

The books are so action packed and the dialogue is ripe for the pickens, whereas the show is full of long consternated facial expression shots and mediocre dialogue. They need to pick up the pace and quit cutting out interesting plot points to prolong scenes with the main characters just staring like they are on the toilet

I have to fend off the cynical voice in my head that says nearly episode, "I'm sure glad we cut this important scene in the book to spend twenty minutes on something that isn't in the book." 

Much of that boils down to the decision to make this the Moiraine and Lan Show, in much the same way that the Hobbit trilogy was really "The Dwarf King, with Special Guest Star Bilbo Baggins." That decision informs them tipping their hands early on all sorts of details, especially Aes Sedai. Instead of getting a slow drip that makes the reader crave more, we get it all at once, right up front. And, again, sooner or later they're going to have to either double down on that choice to an absurd degree or back off and make the show feel like a bait and switch.

Part of what makes Moiraine such a fascinating and endearing character, in my opinion, is the lack of transparency and gradual revelation about who she is and what she's about, with a lot implied and left to the imagination rather than directly stated. (See: her letters, whose contents we spend forever wondering about.) In this regard, the show is making a similar move to what The Witcher has done with Yennefer. It takes every bit of every book in hints and scraps to piece together what the show just lays out like a platter in the first season. 

They're inexplicably making Rand al'Thor the mysterious character. Granted, a lot about him *is* mysterious in the books, but we're in his head more than literally any other character, and he's just as surprised as we are as things happen to him. 

The big casualty so far this season is Thom, and this episode potentially did still more damage. We only got him an episode and a half, and Rand and Mat developed no loyalty to him. He never so much as met Moiraine, and the lack of Andor this season weakens even more of his backstory. 

Siuan and Moiraine felt like drama for the sake of drama. Do the two ever meet again in person after Fal Dara in the books? My memory is fuzzy.

If so, in this case as in so many others, the show runners have to decide whether to double down on changes, which will annoy people who dislike them, or not fully pursue them, which will annoy the people who do like them. Ripples either way.