who in this bitch reads robert jordan? -- The Wheel of Time thread

Not to turn it into a contest but the most underwhelming is the last three pages tbh

haha fair.

Endings is tough, we will make allowances

While we wait, a thing:

https://deadline.com/2021/09/the-wheel-of-time-donal-finn-to-play-mat-cauthon-in-recasting-on-amazon-series-as-barney-harris-not-returning-for-season-2-1234840887/

There's a new sheriff in town (or something)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIMkfP4JsxU

Well im psyched but plenty is being moved about- thats clear

We got main trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPAYuCt7Eco

Lovely, not watching til later

Still lightly skipping through last two books

It's been 20 years so I started at the beginning and I could barely slog through the first book. It's not looking good for me lads.

Plenty looks to have changed for the series

NB ....... imo you wouldnt be a million miles from a Nynaeve betimes tbh

loool

No hes an ogier

Trailers look very promising

Trailer looks great. None of the implied changes vis a vis the book look concerning to me, and seem largely driven by a need to compress the events a bit.

Fans are freaking out that the trailer suggests that Moiraine deliberately takes all 5 Emond's Fielders away with her (incl. Nynaeve) and appears to tell them that any of them (including Egwene and Nynave) could be "the one" the Dark Lord is after.

This is being treated by dumb idiots as the greatest piece of leftwing bastardry since whatever franchise entrant pissed them off last week, when the real explanation is probably more like, "let's give Egwene and Nynaeve slightly more than paper-thin motivations to leave their hometown and also save a boatload of time in the process."

Yeah i think we - you, tbf- covered this well upthread

Changes so far seem judicious to me

I realised recently that my default form of critique is “okay, I love this. From a place of love, how could it be improved?”

Turning these very flawed but charming books into a tv show would be such a difficult but enjoyable exercise. So I’m inclined to sympathise with the show runners and give them the benefit of the doubt until given a reason not to, because there is no way I would tell this story totally faithfully if I was in their position.

Yeah i think changes inevitable both for adaptation and improvement purposes and the moves that seem to have taken place to bring the story up to the current social moment would seem to work hand in hand with the above in any case, so no loss there

I was trying to see from the snippets how far the adaptation goes, end of book one seems obvious but with some events from laters books brought into chronological order (prophecies and moiraine backstory) sewn in

Is that thom merrilin telling us what aes sedai means? Too young looking and not salty enough imo

"You have fully lost your mind" was a bit jarring

I think that is a young sexy Thom yeah

Posh mat

Be grand

Showrunner interview

https://gizmodo.com/adapting-the-wheel-of-time-for-tv-is-an-epic-all-its-ow-1848026456

Looks like the first episodes are live...

One episode in, seems like they figured out how to get it going. Rosamund's doing some big 'Cate Blanchett at the start of Fellowship' energy in both the start and end narration but that was probably unavoidable.

i'm pretty impressed! not into the music tho

My one real objection there was the Mumford and Sons-style instrumental jam as the town parties but that is, how you say, interrupted.

I havent read the books but enjoyed the first episode

The one boy gives me Hayden Christensen vibes (maybe just a danish thing) but otherwise I’m into it

oh and the dancing was dumb. stand in a circle, jump clap … honestly

among the lads the best actor (imo) is the one who's apparently gonna get booted?

why has darragh not weighed in here tho

also i had to search online to make sure that perrin did the very bad thing as opposed to pulling short and simply watching her die from other wounds

Ive been busy, will catch these as and when

this was...consistently mediocre

I assume "best actor" is the guy who plays Mat? Everyone else had strong "these are the words in the script and I am reading them" energy.

It is a *long* time since I read any of the books and most of what I remember has already happened, so I'll enjoy the ride until it inevitably gets cancelled.

Crossposted from Ned's FB post, a few thoughts...

1. Rand and Mat both seem much less likable than than in the books, though, (SPOILERS) Rand obviously becomes more of a dick as things go along.

2. Hated Thom's song and the corny guitar theme they play when he's about to enter the frame. Music in general is not great but I guess it could be worse.

3. Myrddraal good and scary. very good job.

There are certainly some obvious fantasy cliches, as my wife who has never read the books pointed out, but there's not much the TV creators can do about that. I think it's really good tbh. Or at least a lot better than I thought it would be.

There are some things, I wonder how well telegraphed they were to an audience unfamiliar with the books? Does the casual viewer have any understanding of what happened to Mat at Shadar Logoth? Again, I haven't read the books in decades, and maybe the reader doesn't understand shit at his point either, but i dunno man.

Whitecloaks are good cuz I hate them.

I am enjoying this but also I’m furious about Perrin

lol. at least it will presumably save us hundreds of pages' worth of axe vs. hammer whining

Yeah I don't particularly like the Perrin plot change but I can see the reasoning behind it. So far it has only meant that the actor sits there looking like he is deeply constipated but things could improve from this point.

always love a maria doyle kennedy appearance

Good irish casting from what i can see overall

Okay, my thoughts generally:

1. So far, about as good as I reasonably expected. Pacing feels all over the place but that is kind of inevitable, as is the frequent clunkiness of dialogue and intermittent failure to explain what is actually going on.

2. The adjustments to the stories of various of the characters seem like logical responses to the clear challenge of how to make some of these characters interesting who otherwise don't really do much in the first book. Apart from finding the dagger, Mat is a non-entity in the first book; Perrin has a great POV stretch but you'd never know he was interesting without being in his head. I think the show has mixed success in responding to these difficulties: they've successfully transformed Mat from the least interesting character to the most (obviously in the books Mat starts to become excellent from about book 3 and especially book 5); Perrin so far is a bit wait-and-see but I can see what they're trying to do. In some ways the adjustments to Mat's character are more subtly dramatic which is perhaps why they work more effectively at least initially.

3. Rand and Egwene, despite having the most screen time initially, are perhaps the least developed, which kind of makes sense given the intention appears to be to set them up as, effectively, duelling protagonists who are at once connected and opposed and who probably each get less likeable and more complicated as they go along. Both actors seem fine.

4. Nynaeve's character and actor do a lot with a little so far. The way the Nynaeve / Lan relationship is being set up seems fun.

5. I'm a bit surprised by how clearly they have set up some of the cosmic/philosophical questions that only come into view in the final few books. The nihilist worldview expressed by the darkfriend in episode 3 was a big surprise but I cautiously approve - makes the question "what do the evil forces actually want" a much more interesting issue than it was for at least the first few books - whereas Tam's short speech on reincarnation in episode 1 is basically a foreshadowing of the books' effective moral resolution in The Gathering Storm (if the show ever gets that far, I'm sure it will flashback to Tam's speech at that point).

6. Conversely, I do not like the implied adjustment to Ishamael's backstory. This is a much bigger deal to me than the whole "anyone, male or female, can be the dragon" adjustment which the fanbase (predictably and depressingly) is more upset about.

7. We definitely need more Moiraine backstory or to see more from her POV (and I suspect we're going to get one or both soon). Her general air of mystery feels a bit unearned and generic-fantasy at this point.

8. Totally approve of the whitecloaks' beefed-up menace, though the distinction between Eamon and Geofram's attitudes to Aes Sedai isn't really explained.

There are some things, I wonder how well telegraphed they were to an audience unfamiliar with the books? Does the casual viewer have any understanding of what happened to Mat at Shadar Logoth? Again, I haven't read the books in decades, and maybe the reader doesn't understand shit at his point either, but i dunno man.

Yeah, in the books you don't know he has taken the dagger until a bit later, and then you don't know the consequences of him having done so until later still. In the books he just seems to become really bitter and twisted and suspicious for no particular reason (or alternatively, the best reason is just the reaction to being on the run and feeling lost and abandoned and thinking everyone else is probably dead).

I think they're following that arc reasonably closely, at least based on the character's behaviour in episode 3.

More problematic to my mind was the failure to even say briefly what mashadar even was, though maybe they'll add some retrospective exposition when the dagger plotline plays out.

Arah we hardly ever find that out anyway tbf

The question of what a darkfriend is and what they want is well and truly botched by the time we get to the last battle anyways

the fact that mashadar appeared the instant mat unsheathed the dagger would seem to be telling, but since i've read the books i have no idea how obvious that would be to a new viewer

man, liandrin's face is *wide*

The question of what a darkfriend is and what they want is well and truly botched by the time we get to the last battle anyways

― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Monday, 22 November 2021 00:36 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha yeah well the last battle kind of abandons the notion of traditional darkfriends entirely - it's all shara channelers and vampire aiel and balefire destroying reality by that point.

But it was weird to hear a darkfriend in the show espouse a worldview basically limited to ishamael / moridin.

i read about half of the first book earlier this year, then abandoned it even though i was enjoying it well enough. i didn't having the commitment to reading all of them, and figured, why not just watch it on television instead!

which brings me here tonight. i don't really binge shows much but i watched all 3 in a row. not all the performances were great and i kind let out a little lol when the shadow was spreading in Shadar Logoth, not just because it looked like splatoon 3 but also the realization that the seemingly unstoppable evil force was going to be suddenly stymied at a border for at least the third time in three episodes. there was also the trollocs who can't swim, the trollocs who were afraid to enter Shadar Logoth (which, makes sense there I guess). it's not a big deal, it's just kind of funny.

the part where perrin and egwene meet the deadheads is around the time i abandoned the book. and also there was a cool dogwolfman - looking forward to that for sure

I like this. I have minor quibbles, but I'm mostly into it so far. Nynaeve is probably the best acting of the bunch so far, but I'm excited to see more of Padan Fain - feel like that actor is going to have fun with the role.

man, liandrin's face is *wide*

This was excellent casting and also this statement made me lol

My non reader brother’s favourite character: Nynaeve
Why: “she’s better than everybody else”

— ciara📖 (@emmacarstairsgf) November 21, 2021

Good to see some things translated well to the new medium

15 mins in and what the fuck is this