First, the “slavish aping of LOTR” is pretty much over after leaving the Shire I mean the Two Rivers. And the lore, which is the thing that makes WOT so awesome, pretty much immediately sets it apart. Second, if you couldn’t tell the EOTW was about the Dragon Reborn within the first hundred pages or so… I don’t know what to tell you. I think you need to dust off the book. Because I think you’re seriously misremembering. I mean, the Prologue to all the talk about the Dragon Reborn, to Tam’s fever dream, to pretty much the whole book being written from Rand’s POV… what was unclear? And finally, my use isn’t consistent with a fan of the books?? I think I’ve pretty well established my bona fides by now. I LOVED Books 1-6, and the show would have had a much better chance at success if they had been more faithfully adapted. That doesn’t mean down to every single page. Of course not. Heck I supported moving Thom and Min to much later in the show. Certain changes made sense.

Agree. Can’t believe they left out the TAR dream sequences with the boys and Ishy in the first season. And then spent like 10 mins in Shadar Logoth. In the second episode. What a mess.

Oh the later books - specifically 7-11 - are insanely slow. But that wasn’t true for *much of* the first 6 books. Those could have been easily and much more faithfully adapted into 3-4 amazing show seasons. And I’m posting here because I’m mainly interested in the show’s cancellation, what a terrible job they did adapting the books, and how that adaptation could have been so much better. Is that not permitted? I mean, I’m currently re-reading EOTW and I’m just amazed how good it was, and how easily this could have been much more faithfully adapted into a Season 1. I think most of the “this adaptation was just too hard” crowd would do well to actually dust off EOTW. They might be shocked.

I also think non-book viewers would have enjoyed it more if they’d stuck closer to the books. It’s not some freak coincidence that books were so massively popular.

I have zero proof of this, but I’m convinced that Rafe pitched WOT to Amazon as “LOTR / GOT for women!!”

Did I say “fully”? I think I said “mostly.” Your nit is irrelevant to my broader point. The point is, that within the first 50 pages you understand the following things you saw in the prologue: 1. Dragon 2. Tried to beat the Dark One. 3. Tainted his magic source - something called Saidin - in the process. 4. Went crazy. 5. Killed his family. 6. Killed himself. 7. He’s gonna be reborn. 8. Nobody’s quite sure if that’ll be good or bad, but prolly both. AWESOME!!! Meanwhile the prologue detractors can only argue “yeah, but ‘nine rods of dominion’ is hella confusing and the non-book readers woulda been way too stooopid to appreciate any of this.” It’s a pretty lame argument that just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny if you go back and read the first 50 pages.

Not until book 3 or 4. Why does that matter? Ishy is just “bad guy” for a while, and that’s perfectly fine. You don’t need to know exactly who or what he is to get a basic understanding of the lore and magic system within the first few chapters, and very first episode if Rafe had followed the book more closely.

Exactly - it’s a hook. And a hell of a hook. And it all starts making sense within the first 50 pages of the book. Any confusion about the prologue would have been resolved by the end of the first episode had Rafe chosen to more closely follow the book. People seem to be misremembering just how much of the lore and magic system RJ clearly explained early on through natural exposition among the Two Rivers folk.

Correct on the names. Cut that stuff out and the scene is easy and awesome. Also, go back and read the chapters I cite if you’ve still got a copy of EOTW. You don’t have to be perceptive - RJ basically spoon feeds a primer on the lore and magic system using narrative of the crowd gathered around Fain. It’s was more obvious than I remembered. This was a layup but somebody in production had very different plans for the series.

I think you may be misremembering. I know I was. Most of what happens in the prologue is explained within the first 50 pages of the book. See my post from yesterday with the specific cites. The prologue, Moiraine’s intro to The Boys, and the crowd’s discussion while assembled around Padan Fain’s wagon (which basically explains everything in the prologue) could have easily all happened in the very first episode of the show.

It’s funny, I started re-reading EotW last night just for fun. I had forgotten so much. Just in the prologue and the first three chapters, using a little exposition between Rand, Matt, Perrin, and… Padan Fain of all people, he basically explains the entire premise of the magic system and the dragon reborn, right down to the breaking, the false dragons, suspicion of the Aes Sedai, a LOT of stuff!! If you go back and read the first few chapters, it will dawn on you how EASY it would have been for the show to have explained a TON with just a few minutes of exposition exactly as it happened in the book! Seriously, and doubters should go back and read: - The Prologue (just a few pages, and honestly this is the least important part of the explanation, but it immediately makes sense when you read the next couple chapters) - Chapter 2, page 29 (Moiraine briefly explains the WOT and reincarnation). - Chapter 3, pages 35-40 (Rand, Matt, Perrin, Fain, and the crowd talk about the magic system, the taint on Saidin, the Dragon, the Breaking, the Dragon Reborn, the false dragons). This is not internal narrative. It is the natural exposition of a few characters. It is relatively short and it could have been recreated easily in the first episode of the show!!

Lol. Nice.