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DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

Samt

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Everything posted by Samt

  1. Does that mean that you think Dumai's Wells itself is a critical point that has to happen? In regards to planning, I'm not sure whether they didn't plan or just the people who planned and the people who executed didn't talk to each other. I think they plan and then throw the plans out and make it up. For instance, they cast, advertised, and costumed Turak so that they could Indiana Jones him. Was that really the plan? It's kind of funny if you read the book, but is ultimately underwhelming and kind of pointless for non-book readers. They cast and built up Ingtar so he could die Leroy Jenkins style without any explanation. Was that the plan? They spent a ton of time with Elayne and Nynaeve creating a rescue plan and then had Egwene rage choke the Suldam. Was that the plan? There are tons of signs that they aren't really following a plan (even if they did make one).
  2. Thanks for the well thought out response. In regards to the wound, I see the wound as a direct reference to Jesus Christ and a symbol of Rand agreeing to suffer for the world. Drops of blood on Shayol Gul is very evocative. Losing that loses a lot. A major part of Rand's arc is that he embraces the fact that he will die but it will be worth it to save the world and the people he loves. It has to be a choice. In general, I think order matters at least a little bit and you can't just put some of this stuff back in later. If we go to Rhuidean without ever going to Tear, that's a big change. Callandor is kind of important. The arches in Tear are pretty important, too (to both Rand and Mat). But even if you could just fit it all back in, I'm just not optimistic that the showrunners care to do it. If they thought it was important, they would have just done it right the first time. They've already shown they don't think it's important, so why would we expect them to put in more creative effort to bring it back? I guess a bit of wait and see, but I'm not optimistic. In any case, why is Dumai's Wells the cutoff for Rand learning the sword? I would have put the cutoff at Falme if we were talking about a blank slate series since that is where he does the most with a sword and also where Tam's sword gets broken. By Rhuidean, he has stopped using swords entirely for actual fighting.
  3. I've listed a lot of fundamental changes on this forum in the past, but here are a few: --I think that Rand not getting his wound through sheathing the sword is a fundamental change because it changes the choice that he has in his own suffering and arc. And there is really no reason that this change had to be made. Doing it the way it was in the book doesn't put any more constraints on the production. --I think that making Matt's power not based on his Finn trips makes him a completely different type of hero. --I think that Min is a completely different person in the show and I don't think Rand can have the same arc without Min being Min. --Thom not meeting Moiraine fundamentally changes how things can play out (although if there are no Finns, this doesn't matter as much. But no Finns is a big deal). Of course, you can always argue that anything isn't fundamental. In the coming season, what are some things that you think have to happen in order to avoid changing the plot and structure fundamentally? As in, will you commit to saying that if x doesn't happen, that's a fundamental change? What is x?
  4. I suppose that is a matter of opinion. I always hated Lanfear (in the way that one does hate a villain, meaning I think she is a good villain). I thought that her neck getting snapped was a perfect ending. It subverts her belief that she is special and better than other people. It's a sort of put your pants on one leg at a time like everybody else. It proves that the shadow doesn't really protect its own and that the control she thought she had was an illusion.
  5. The fact that the story has been fundamentally altered means the story has been fundamentally altered.
  6. The intention was to use the name and proper nouns from WoT to make up a story. Maybe you think it's a good story. But it's not a good WoT series because it's only tangentially connected to actual WoT.
  7. I'm not saying he's a benevolent force or superfan. It's more a consideration of reputation (personal and for his streaming service) and ego. I just don't think that Bezos would part with the rights for WoT for an amount of money that wold reflect the economic value that someone else could get from them. He would jack up the price in order to compensate for the perceived harm to his own brands and that increase in price would make this an unviable venture economically speaking. So if someone wants to buy WoT from Bezos, they have to do that for a reason other than wanting to make money.
  8. Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world. I'd say there is significant evidence that he isn't doing WoT because he wants to make a significant profit on it. That suggests he may not be willing to sell the rights to WoT rights for any amount of money that could possibly be re-couped in making a new TV show. Thus, you would need to find a fan or group of fans that might be willing to take a 9-10 figure loss for the love of the story. Possible, but seems a long shot.
  9. Assuming we ignore recent podcasts, it is precisely Perrin’s sense of self and home that allows him to break the compulsion and kill Lanfear. Which is also one of the biggest reasons I dislike the Lanfear reveal. If it’s a trick, it feels really dirty to do to Perrin. It makes his entire arc a meaningless illusion.
  10. As I re-read the series, I am even more convinced that "Lanfear lives" detracts from the story in significant ways without really adding anything of value. Even knowing that it's supposed to be there, I haven't found anything that seems particularly interesting in that light. It makes the ending less complete and no sequel will ever be made. My biggest complaint is that it makes Perrin into a schmuck and I don't think that's justified.
  11. I don't think Cairhienin government is really on the list of things that need to be solved or even matter that much. With the level of abridgment that may be required, we may not go back to Cairhien at all. If we do, it's probably as a site for the battle with the Shaido and the government of the city is not super important. Royalty can die in the battle as needed.
  12. The exception is shadowspawn. Neither Lanfear, nor Ishamael, nor the Seanchan are shadowspawn and Moiraine does not know that any shadowspawn are present. And if they were present, that would not be enough to allow using the power to attack non-shadowspawn, even if those allied directly with shadowspawn.
  13. Lies. Everyone knows that Aviendha was always supposed to be black and there is no way they changed things in order to check boxes.
  14. Only a few people knew that Verin was a member of the Black Ajah (the heart structure meant that most members of the Black Ajah couldn't identify each other). And those that did, wouldn't have found it easy to ask her. Alviarin couldn't ask her without revealing her position. The others in Verin's heart wouldn't have been able to pull rank and force her to disclose. Darkfriends seem big on keeping secrets from each other in order to preserve power, so Verin could likely deflect any questions.
  15. I can see you have put some thought into it. And thanks for properly using the term glottal stop instead of guttural stop as I did. I knew it didn't sound quite right when I wrote it, but didn't endeavor to investigate why.
  16. What are the apostrophes in the old tongue supposed to mean? Are they guttural stops, pauses, omitted vowel sounds (if so, which ones), or something else? Are they just added to make it look fantasy? How do you pronounce them when reading? Personally, I just read the words as if the apostrophe weren't there and assume that they are sort of added for "flavor." But I'm not sure that is the intention. Thoughts?
  17. There are two related but ultimately separate subjective questions that I think are getting conflated in this thread. 1. Do the romances feel healthy, satisfying, and good for the characters involved? 2. Does the writing of the romances by RJ and BS make them feel realistic, do they work for what else we know about the characters, do they contribute to the overall story, plot, and character development, and does it feel like the romance is well explained to the reader? Of course, both of these questions are at least somewhat subjective and can have reasonable differences of opinion. But it only makes sense to discuss things when we agree which of these questions we are answering. For instance, I would rank Thom and Moiraine quite highly on the first question. I'm somewhat of a sucker for a good happy ending and I think both of these characters deserve a happily ever after. They both seem mature and well adjusted and reasonably able to make each other happy. That said, this relationship gets low marks on the second question. It doesn't really develop the characters or plot (other than creating a pretense for Moiraine's letter) and kind of drops out of nowhere. We don't get much POV from the participants and it doesn't really have any sort of buildup. It also doesn't really ask any interesting questions for the reader or make any interesting points about society or life or anything else. On the other hand, a contrasting relationship would be Tylin/Mat (not really a "romance" but still in the same category). It gets abysmally low marks on the first question for obvious reasons. However, it does tell us something about the characters, develops Mat, fleshes out the world, and builds the story. It also feels realistic in a somewhat cynical way. Moreover, the fact that it is a gender swap from what we would usually expect in this type of relationship raises interesting questions about sexual roles, society, and our notions of what is right and wrong, and how wrong something is. For that reason, I give it a high rating in regard to the second question.
  18. I don't mean to be moving the goalposts. I meant my tentpole comment as somewhat tongue in cheek. To be more clear, I think 80k viewers a week is awful. Not even breaking 1 million viewers in 3 months is terrible, especially since some of that is probably people that are re-watching. Much has been said about how the show needs to appeal to more than just the book audience in order to be successful. But over 100 million books have been sold. Accounting for 15 books in the series, over 7 million copies of the series have probably been sold. If the show had just gotten everyone who bought the books to watch it, it would be 7 times more successful than it is today. In other words, if just making a show for book readers was not financially viable, how is 80k viewers a week anything but abysmal?
  19. I don't think you are doing the math correctly. The figure as I understand it is 80 million minutes, not 80 million episode views. There are 16 episodes in the series and approximately 60 minutes per episode. Thus, 960 minutes per series view. 80M minutes is thus only slightly more than 80,000 series views (per week). That is not nothing, but hardly a tentpole. If that level of viewership is maintained for a year, you would barely break 4 million views of the series.
  20. It’s not Narnia or Star Wars. Other than New Spring, publication order is in universe chronological order and the books are intended to be read like that. New Spring probably shouldn’t be read before a certain point. I like it at the end.
  21. I actually like Thom/Moiraine myself. I just don't think we really get much of the backstory. I think part of the problem is that we just don't get any of their POV on the subject.
  22. I would add Siuan/Gareth, Moiraine/Thom, and Galad/Berelain as main character romances. That said, those 3 definitely feel a bit like extra people getting paired (feels like Pierre/Natasha to me). I think that to really rate the romances, you need some criteria. In particular, I would suggest categories such as 1. Relationship health 2. Believability 3. Enjoyability to reader.
  23. Wouldn't it be better for Setalle to meet Damer Flinn so she can be restored to full power?
  24. Berelain is definitely not not a psycho. She just knows how to play it a little better.
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