On 1/24/2024 at 10:04 AM, dwn said:

Faile is 14/15 at the start of the series, 16/17 when she marries Perrin, and 17/18 in AMoL. I presume they'll age her up for the show like they did with Egwene. (For reference, Egwene and Elayne are 16 at the start of the books.)

 

Whoa, where is this information from? I never imagined Faile that young. I always pictured her as about 20, same as the main characters.

1 hour ago, Mirefox said:

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?

I decided about halfway through Season 1 that I really don't like the title sequence. I was glad to see it (almost) gone from Season 2.

While I think the "weaving" motif is cool, I don't like the music, and I don't like that it only focuses on showing Aes Sedai, as if to say, these are the main characters in this story. It's only a story about all the different Ajahs of the White Tower.

The gold standard for title sequences has got to be Game of Thrones. Brilliant, iconic earworm theme song, and a chance to show different locations of the world and how they all connect to each other.

I can remember years ago, imagining Wheel of Time as a TV show, I would use the opening theme to Chrono Cross to picture what I thought it might look like. During the opening moments, there would obviously be narration: "The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, etc. etc." Then when the rhythm kicks in, there would be sweeping shots of all the major locations. The Two Rivers. Dragonmount. The Aiel Waste. The Mountains of Mist. It would immerse the viewer in the world itself, then would zoom in towards wherever the story is starting, and the episode would begin from there.

Wow. When the script consultant and series author watches the show and cringes in frustration in the same way I do when I watch it, at least I know I'm not alone.

"I tried, guys. I really tried."

Can you believe the arrogance of these people? The author who was chosen to write the final three books of the series is telling you that you have story issues, and here are some ideas on how to solve them. And you just say, "Nah. We're better at this than you."

I can't even...

On 10/7/2023 at 6:15 AM, fra85uk said:

Again, as bookreader I feel that I am missing the opportunity to see in live-action some of the most iconic moments of the books and I am quite sure there will be no other adaptation in the near-future.

Detaching myself from the books, I am trying to see it as a different version but honestly, as a show itself, I don't see it being great either, it has way too many issues. However, the technical part has been improved.

Yep, totally agree with this. There are (in my mind) ICONIC scenes in the first two (or three?) books that I was so excited to see realised on screen. And they've just been removed. Ignored. They're never going to be there. What's been put in their place is boring, inconsequential soap-opera stuff that has no bearing on the actual plot. I had kind of come to terms with this after season 1. Okay, I thought, it's just the team getting to grips with how to tell the story. They will have learnt their lesson. But then they went and did it all over again in season 2! >_<

There are elements of the show that I feel like have so much potential if they were handled properly. For the most part, I think the cast is great. Egwene, the new Mat, Nynaeve, Verin, Lanfear, all really great. I would love to have seen them given better material to work with. (Though Maddy really shone with those damane scenes!)

The characters have barely been given any real space to develop. Take the last episode, for example. Each "party" of characters would be on screen for a few seconds. Maybe say a line or two if they're lucky. Then the action would switch to someone completely different. Then switch again. This is the kind of technique that can work really well at a climax (think of Lord of the Rings) IF the characters are well-known and developed by this point, and the audience knows what their stories are. But Aviendha, Elayne, even Mat, have barely had anything at all to do this season! They audience hardly even knows who they are and what they're trying to do!

I'm sure I'll watch season 3. This show drives me crazy, but it's Wheel of Time, of course I'm going to watch. I just wish someone at Amazon could recognize that having a room of writers who don't actually know anything about the characters or world that they're writing about is sure to cause problems down the line. Maybe time for some fresh faces in the writers' room...?

On 10/7/2023 at 8:53 PM, Uncontested said:

I know this is like 11 pages long already, but I haven't seen a single post about how the White Cloaks are finally wearing armor... that definitely made me happy considering how silly some of the costume design decisions of this show have been so far..

That was one thing that I did give an appreciative nod to.

Their costumes were much better this season.

On 10/7/2023 at 1:28 PM, Scarloc99 said:

I do worry if the writing team are more on the Witcher end of the scale then not, Sarah said in her q and a that getting the writing room to understand Aiel and Seanchan culture was hard, so do we have a room of non book readers being given 2nd hand info by Rafe and Sarah? 
 

You then have the individual directors who actually make the episodes, are they book lovers or are they just filming a script that is 3rd hand lore now? 

This is the thing that just completely frazzles my brain.

You're about to produce a MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR production, based on a BEST-SELLING and BELOVED series of books.

Firstly, howwwwwww do you employ writers that are not familiar with and do not understand the source material?? Why would you ever do that?? I would think that would be the FIRST QUESTION in any kind of interview! "Tell me how much you know about the Wheel of Time."

Secondly, if you are lucky enough to be an employed writer on said show and you AREN'T familiar with the story, characters and lore, how can you possibly not think it might be useful (or at least professional) to become as familiar as you can before you start writing??

I just... I cannot comprehend it!

Oh geez.

What have they done to Lan...?

What have they done to Siuan...?

What have they done to Mat...?

This show, man. I swear the writers have never actually read the books. They just looked at names and general plot points and said, "Ah, we're all right. We can do better."

/ shakes head in disbelief

So I have to admit, although this show does a fantastic job at driving me crazy, this most recent episode was probably the best one yet.

There were moments - like the girls being dropped into Falme by Liandrin - where it was finally beginning to look like a faithful adaptation. Oh look, a scene actually taken from the source material!

The pace was faster, the dialogue better and the story moving towards a definite endgame goal for the season.

I love the actresses playing Verin and Sheriam. Great stuff. More of them please.

Padan Fain is barely a character at all. I wonder if they're even going to take him on the "Ordieth" path or if he'll just fade away as some forgotten darkfriend lap dog. Pretty sure he hasn't said a single word all season.

But overall, huge improvement on last week. Fingers crossed it just keeps getting better from here.

On 9/15/2023 at 12:53 PM, Agitel said:

And, I'm going to get stoned for this, but I'm not 100% sold on Josha as Rand. His voice is very pouty. This isn't a commentary on his acting skills, exactly. You know, I can see some of Rand in the way he's being written. I can. I just finished Book 8 again in my sixth or seventh reread, and there are aspects to all of this where I do see Rand. But I don't feel like I see either the sheepherder or king yet. (Obviously we shouldn't be seeing the king yet, but still). He feels a bit in no man's land.

I agree. I feel like Rand seems pretty weak, although Josha certainly looks the part. I think the problem is, he really hasn't been given a whole lot to do yet in this show, which as the main character is a bit of a problem. Most of his scenes are just standing around looking bewildered. Hopefully he'll take a more active role in the future.

Me watching the Wheel of Time TV show...

At this stage it's train-crash television: horrific, but I can't look away because it's all just so unbelievably unprecedented and weird. I'm just at a total loss why you would get the licence to such a beloved series and then just rewrite it from scratch. Why not create a prequel or a sequel story if you wanted to write your own plots? There are so many iconic, incredible scenes from the early books that are seared into my memory; scenes that I was so excited to see realised on screen. They are nowhere to be seen. They've been removed. And what's in their place? New, completely inconsequential stories that take up way too much time, and scenes where the beloved characters behave completely contrary to their book counterparts.

Thinking back to the king of the adaptations, Lord of the Rings: While there were definitely aspects of that story that were adapted for the screen, it still absolutely FELT like the book series it was based on. It was completely true to the spirit. The Wheel of Time show doesn't feel anything like the books that I've loved for so many decades. It's like some weird, badly-written alternate universe fan-fiction.

The sad part is, I quite like a lot of the cast. I really like Nynaeve, and even though he hasn't had much to do yet, I like the new Mat.

I just live in hope that maybe 10, 15 years down the track, after this show has been long abandoned, someone will take the reins and do it right. I look forward to that movie or TV series.

As for now... I guess I'll just keep watching the train wreck...

On 9/2/2023 at 10:20 AM, DigificWriter said:

Those examples told completely original stories based on classics, while completely changing the names of the characters, place and title. Entirely different situations. Imagine if West Side Story had actually been called William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The episode was fine, but... seriously, what the hell are they doing here? Apart from the fade being nailed to the door, I feel like there wasn't a single scene or story thread in this episode that actually comes from the source material! Like, seriously, what the hell are they doing?? Why even bother getting the license to adapt a book if you're just going to make a completely new story anyway? It's so weird. It's like fan-fiction.

Gal Gadot, anyone...?