12 hours ago, DojoToad said:

Or it could have worked - just as Nynaeve used saidar as a barrier to remove the taint from saidin.  If saidar had been at LT's attempt to seal the prison we might have avoided the taint and the breaking.  Maybe.

RJ confirmed both would have been tainted if the women had gone along with LTT's plan.

6 minutes ago, Kudzu said:

 

Well yes, but to be fair @ArrylT said it first.

3 minutes ago, ArrylT said:

 

Well until the taint on saidin is clean at least.  

 

Which I suppose makes for an interesting contrast.   IE some will see the show as saidin to the books while others will see it as saidar.

Ah, missed that post.

5 minutes ago, Kudzu said:

I've now surrendered to this telling of the story and am enjoying it immensely.

So you're saying the naysayers need to learn how to embrace saidar.

10 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

I will go back - once more - to The Last Kingdom. It is very, very different from the books. There are massive changes to characters, huge swaths of plot abandoned, events moved and combined, characters invented out of whole cloth. 

 

But it's still an amazing adaptation of the material. Character changes allow the show to bring out subtext and concepts that exist within the main character's head. [The books are from Uhtred's first person POV] They give context to the actions of other characters that viewers need. They explore relationships that are hinted at, but never seen on the page. 

 

Fidelity to the text is not the be all, end all. It's not a particularly important metric for judging whether a show is of good quality. At the end of the day, I want to look at this show and feel like they told the story of the Dragon and his companions in a way that is entertaining and that follows that major beats of the story I read.

 

So far, they have succeeded in entertaining me. 

Nice post.

Moiraine is my favorite character. When you condense the books down to just her screen time, there really isn't a whole lot of material there. She is just very interesting and memorable while she is there. So I am actually excited to see her do DIFFERENT things than she did in the books, as long as the character still feels like Moiraine.

2 hours ago, flinn said:

 It worries me what is going to happen when the DR is revealed. Because of the way they have done some things, when it is revealed I can hear it already "of course it is the pasty white guy hero" "why would we have ever thought anything else". In some ways they are setting themselves up to be bashed over it.

I don't think that will be a thing. It will be made clear by then that all 5 of the EF are very important.

And it's not really something they should worry about. Anyone who is upset Rand becomes the DR would have been upset if they had made it clear from the beginning.

On 11/20/2021 at 6:15 PM, Dozer said:

Seeing a lot of replies claiming that the atmosphere and physical appearance shouldn't change anything in the story or questions asking what does it change.  It changes everything!  

The story is written for the audience.  The story is designed to capture the audience.  Atmosphere and physical appearance creates the world that captures the audience.  Regular fiction exists in our world of Terra and can be adapted to different appearances for transition sake.  But in fantasy fiction the world is WHOLLY created by the author and every aspect is designed to amaze and delight the audience from the pattern of the rugs to the braids and shaved heads.  Add to that, the character development, in the context of world shaking missions and powerful confrontations, the physical descriptions between an Aes Sedai and her Warder become paramount to drawing in the reader and holding them to the story.

 

So to answer the question : It changes EVERYTHING

 

Especially the dynamic of a young ta'veren suddenly being married and killing his wife when his character development doesn't occur until he finds his future wife 

You're going on and on about appearance and then you talk about Perrin killing his wife. What?

I pictured the TR folk as white.

I also think people who are still obsessing over the races of the cast might be racist. The casting was announced over 2 years ago. Maybe I'm being unfair to people who never saw them until Friday. I suppose I can give them a couple weeks to get used to the horror that has been inflicted upon them.

1 hour ago, flinn said:

 Everyone who has had the opportunity to watch the 6 episodes have pretty much unanimously have praised ep 6. Once we reach there, and those who were willing to stick around to watch it, there will be a lot more positive buzz, IMO. That will be the make or break.

I've heard good things about 4 and 5 compared to 1-3 also.

Edit: Couldn't remember exactly what Sanderson said so I looked it up again:

 

Quote

Episode 6 is my favorite, Episode 7 is really good. Episodes 1 and 2 are both really good too. There are no bad episodes in Season 1. 

It's interesting because I thought episode 3 was by far the best.

I watched it with my mom who read the series 1 time, so she hasn't looked at it in 8 years. Also watched it with a friend who read the first 7 books 1 time about 15 years ago. They both loved it. I am trying to wait to tell anyone else to watch it until more episodes are out.

Here is the episode synopsis:

 

Quote

The Dragon Reborn

Moiraine struggles with uncertainty while Lan struggles with their new companion. Rand wonders about Mat. Egwene and Perrin take their first steps down a different path. An incredible new power is unleashed on the world.

Thoughts:

• Moiraine struggles with uncertainty 
  • Moiraine is worried she completely miscalculated on who the DR is.
• Lan struggles with their new companion
  • Lanlan struggles with the butterflies he feels when he looks at Nynny
• Rand wonders about Mat
  • They make it clear what the dagger is doing to Mat
• Egwene and Perrin take their first steps down a different path
  • Not sure  - maybe Egwene channels a bit more. Not really sure what they mean by different paths here other than her ability to channel. Could be more wolf stuff too though.
• An incredible new power is unleashed on the world.
  • We see (obvious) male channeling for the first time

3 hours ago, Maximillion said:

There are quite a few people who think the show ‘rocks’ … many 10/10 ratings on RT.

The flip side is that quite a few hate it. 

My hope is that enough people love it enough to keep it going but that the showrunner will listen to criticism and adapt the show to make it better in the next season. 
At this moment I can’t see anything more being Green lit beyond what already has, which I believe is three seasons.

 

Most of the people who hate it enough to give it 1 star are book readers. For the show to be a success it will have to rely on non-book readers anyway. If they like it enough to keep watching, then it'll keep going, and those 1-star reviews of the 1st season will likely not carry over to season 2.

25 minutes ago, Pandemonium said:

Honestly I think the Lord of the Rings may actually be worse because the source material isn't as strong as WOT.  Tolkien's best books were already mined in my opinion.

I'm completely over LotR. I will only watch it if it gets rave reviews.

7 minutes ago, ForsakenPotato said:

In the books when Egwene and Perrin are captured, their escape is assisted by Nyneave, Moiraine, and Lan who reunite with them. I wonder if that will happen next episode, the following, or they will reunite somewhere else? It seems like Nyneave, Moiraine, and Lan will spend most of the next episode with Logain and the other sisters, so I'm guessing the Egwene and Perrin capture will be in the next episode and the escape and reunion near the start of episode 5?

There was a released video where Egwene and Nynaeve reunite in the WT (which I believe will happen in ep. 6). I wonder if Perrin and Egwene will be helped just by wolves and Aram. The way Nynaeve helped them escape didn't require violence, so he or a group of travelling people could do it instead.

1 hour ago, TheDreadReader said:

Thematically, I think we may see the question of "Is Moiraine right about the dragon being from the two rivers?" being front and center in episode 4.

I think we may get a scene of her being really worried about this.

A couple more things to add to the list of what I'm getting sick of.

• People crying about RJ's legacy, saying things like he's rolling in his grave, or they're glad he doesn't have to see this. It's frankly disgusting.
• People who think they speak for the fan base saying no true fan could accept the changes.
• People putting Sanderson up on a god-like pedestal. Brandon is a Wheel of Time fan who is very good at writing and did a very good job of completing the series. But he is still a fan and he made mistakes. Brandon's comments shouldn't be use to defend every argument one has about what they don't like about the show. And on a related note, I felt Brandon messed up Mat in several scenes but I didn't go apepoop about it. His opinion is important and I'm glad he's there and they are asking his opinion, but he's not always right.

3 hours ago, DojoToad said:

If the concerns and criticism are valid - make changes where you can, or tell people to pound sand and just suck in all the adulation.  He's got the power, he makes the calls.  Just don't hide behind 'turning'.

I only ever saw that Brandon had called it that. Brandon is a fan. Did Rafe say it too?

28 minutes ago, themann1086 said:

Perrin & Egwene: probably a slower episode for them. A good chance for them to rest and recover, possibly get some important information (especially with Sir Not Appearing In This Adaptation, uh, not appearing) but I now think Episode 5 (Blood Calls Blood) will be the Big Whitecloack Confrontation. We may see the beginning of it though

Yes I bet they get taken at the end of the episode

1 minute ago, Daenelia said:

I ... already saw a spoiler about episode 4 and I tried to forget it immediately. I do hope for more wolves, and Perrin for that matter. It makes sense they follow up with more information about why the wolves are there and why they focused on them in the last episode.

 

We are halfway through the season with episode 4. Will we see another beloved character pop up?

I am guessing it will be wolves who are the main reason Perrin and Egwene escape the WC, but we'll see if it's still Nynaeve and co.

I think the cold open will be Logain causing chaos in Ghealdan and looking really powerful, then perhaps they'll show his capture.

I expect 70% of the episode to center on Logain, Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve. 20% Rand, Thom, and Mat, and 10% Perrin and Egwene. I feel episode 5 will have a lot of Perrin and Egwene.

ta'veren and the ability to sense them is not gendered.

I am getting sick of the racists reviewing this show.

2 minutes ago, TheDreadReader said:

One of my favorite reactions to Rand's diss of Lan from some non-readers that I've seen is along the lines of "Obviously, he is going to the Tower and he'll be Egwene's warrior companion." 

Ya I've seen that too

Ya, that scene probably turns non-readers off of Rand but it had to be in there. I especially liked his question on what a man does in White Tower, and his diss of Lan. 

I feel they will work on making Rand more likeable by having some scenes btw. him and Lan late in season 1 or early in season 2.

I wonder what they'll have Moiraine do. There is almost zero chance she'll be off screen as much as she was in tGH.

I read somewhere that supply chain issues impacted the amount of merch they have available right away.