18 hours ago, Miso Beast said:

I've read a lot of the WoT complaints.  Many (most?) are hung up on details and then go on to say details are critical!...

 

Complaining about minor changes that don't drive significant plot points seem silly though...

It's not the details that are the problem, it's the fact that the whole thing was completely rewritten, and not in a good way! And I wouldn't really call things like Egwene healing death without even breaking a sweat as a "minor change." That changes the entire magic system of the story!

The frustration is that there was a brilliant story already there. Yes, it would need to be heavily edited down. But not changed completely. There is barely a single scene or conversation in season 1 that is actually in the book.

I really, REALLY want season 2 to be fantastic.

However, after last year's debacle, I am not holding my breath.

I too have taken some time to process before writing my opinions...

All I can say is, it's been about 15 years since I read Eye of the World, and I could not tell you how excited I was to finally, FINALLY see it realized as a series. Literally decades of anticipation. I invited all my family and friends around for weekly viewings, I was so excited.

When it was over, I was befuddled, confused, and pretty darn disappointed. This is not the Wheel of Time I know. Apart from character and location names (and I guess a vague plot shape) there is barely a single scene in the entire TV series that is actually taken from the book it's supposedly based on. Almost all of the dialogue is entirely new.

Not only that, but they removed key characters and important moments of development for our main cast to focus on new stories and characters that weren't even part of the book to begin with.

And I just cannot fathom WHY. Yes, of course you'd need to shorten, trim, simplify. We were all expecting that. But why rewrite the whole thing? I have pondered it for weeks and I still can't come up with a good answer.

After the show finished I began to read the book again. (I've almost finished) And OH WOW. It's so great! Better even than I remember it! And there are so many scenes that would have worked so fantastically on screen, but they just weren't there. My disappointment has only doubled since going back to the source material.

Look, I'm willing to give it another chance. I'll definitely be watching season 2. But mostly, I'll be watching in hope that the show will clank back on to the tracks that have been laid for it and start actually telling the story it's supposed to.