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

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

Look we'll get to the changes later, and the music on ilm, but whats with the terrible sound mix with the dialogue

Think the cleverness of "anyone might be the dragon" lasts ok at first glance but as a very specific contributor to the underlying gender/magic politics and history im not sure they havent screwed up things a bit with it

Perrin/Mat backstories might make it easier for this rafe lad to jump things forward quickly but it's significant disimprovement on the patience you'd have hoped for- part of the energy of the first few books is the slow reveal and the very open feel of what might be happening as the characters and situations emerge

In one way Im relaxed now because the divorce from the source material is so complete and strong already that theres no emotional heft to this after two episodes and i can just watch it until the surprisingly cheap FX get to me, if i get into it (and it has plenty of good points) then great if not then great, but a bit of a pity

Whatever about Perrin, whatever about sex scenes and swearing (bad indicators here as to whether our producers have a feel for or care about our books i feel) its a scandal how abell cauthon has been done so dirty

Mainly i want to go on holidays to slovenia

The books more or less ruined fantasy for me when I was twelve.

Early in the fourth volume I realized Robert Jordan had no plan for how to finish the story, and I lost my taste for the genre. Giving up on a novel has never felt better.

It was so unsurprising when Robert Jordan died with this shit incomplete, what was it... thirteen years later. But I did (and do) feel bad for everyone who had stuck with it only to be cheated out of an ending by the original author.

XP darrahmac have you been to Slovenia before? I was lucky enough to visit a few years back and it was well worth the trip.

The whole region is high on my list, never went further than landing in bratislava and immediately coaching to vienna (lol ryanair)

The books are worthy (better than this imo) through 6 and pick up again at *disputed book number here* but this os ofc a matter of personal taste

the western side of lake bohinj is one of the most beautiful places on Earth

(imo)

yeah the landscapes are magnificent, nice one slovenia 👌🏻

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

— ciara📖 (@emmacarstairsgf) November 21, 2021

Episode three:

Matts a good actor, sells the somewhat grittier shorthand world/story they are giving us here

Darkfriend shouldnt have been asked the philosophy, it was hollow stuff and as discussed jordan himself wasnt much cop beyond "riches or threat" at that level.

Merrilins nick cave was as bad as feared but i like the rest of him

Getting into it

Herself likes it without having any investment in the books, she has enjoyed witcher and shadow and bone and i guess its in those wheelhouses (of time) pretty squarely, when i can remember not to wonder what (change x) will mean for (what i know about the books) im sure its simple, fast-paced enough fare

Arams irish accent is fucking nonsense

Which is impressive bad acting given hes irish

can already see that show vs darragh's reactions will be the real entertainment value here

that said i find it quite decent, and am taking bets on when orla brady will appear

Four eps in

This is good now, its own thing

They pronounce everything wrong, ofc

Maria Doyle Kennedy is, I think, trying for an irish traveller accent, i think thats a bit literal but a choice is a choice

Only just spotted merrillin as merlin whether thats just coincidence or jordan playing with names as is his wont or them pronouncing it that way (cf above) is hard to say

End of episode 4 - that didn't happen in the books right

Agree on MDK's accent it's definitely not her normal one but it's not a traveller either it's like "imagine you're still Irish but you have a different accent good luck"

The paving on this show is so strange.

The pacing too.

crazy

pic.twitter.com/hGCpcjVq1d

— Assmodean (@AsmodeanChosen) November 30, 2021

i dont see an issue, and the potential was there, because of the extensive and immediate changes

Its not the books, nobody can mistake it for the books, wonder what theyll do with it

I'm actually enjoying that while I'm reasonably confident as to the broad outline of where things will go (i.e. I think a one minute summary of the show's overall plot ultimately will basically match an equivalent summary of the books) I can't be sure of the specifics.

Yes, pretty much

Disappointment: various kingdoms and lands are just gonna be transposed eg spain

In my head while reading its a lot freer, and its important imo to have the national/ethnic/whatever entities not shorthanded to the familiar

Disappointment: various kingdoms and lands are just gonna be transposed eg spain

In my head while reading its a lot freer, and its important imo to have the national/ethnic/whatever entities not shorthanded to the familiar

episode 4 was v exciting!

rand seems like such a smoothbrained idiot, i really dont care for the character or the actor at all so far

everyone else v good, no complaints yet

i have to say, i really love the CGI scenes where moraine is doing some incredible spell and lan is tromping around the spell's area effect, kicking ass like it's Diablo II

The bad news is that this contravenes major elements of the magic and world as written in several serious and important ways the good news well the producers liked it too i guess

wait, why can't moraine charge up and do her cool magic spells?

Good new episode, I thought. Felt the last minutes were especially striking. Loial of course now the greatest character.

loial was really awkward/corny, but i suppose that's vmic

can only assume that making rand the least interesting person the wheel has ever spun out is being done on purpose? i guess it worked for star wars

Won't be watching until tonight, but wishing I hadn't already stumbled on photos of Loial on Twitter already. Would have been a nice surprise to see how he was rendered.

Bad episode furthered nothing corny ending changes served no purpose at all

Given that I've landed closer to Ned's opinion than darraghmac's on the previous episodes, I'm still excited.

That Chris Eubank wannabe mf character is getting on my nerves, annoyed that he wasn't seen to be killed, hope a wolf polished him off.

pvmic i cried my face off during that ending

I'm glad they made Perrin bad ass at the end of this last one, I was going to completely lose my shit if they decided to just have him cry through the entire series

I think the character is right i think the actor is fine i just think theyve given him nothing yet

Rand otoh given nothing yet and im still worried about the lad tbh

Mat and Nynaeve are clearly winning the series so far

serious Hayden Christensen vibes from your man playing Rand alright

Show is a dutiful slog so far. Wonder what the general public makes of it

I just don't feel like they've given Rand much chance to show off any kind of range at all yet.

Fwiw, my wife enjoys it and came to the show blind.

yeah I know nothing about the books and am enjoying the series thus far, it has done about the right amount of world-building and exposition as compared to actually advancing the plot. Agree that Rand is a bit of a charisma vacuum but the rest of the cast seems pretty good.

Liandrin, and i mean look ok its why she was cast and its a living, ok, has just a great hateful face and i hated her straight away more than i should and i looked up other roles and shes from les mis, where if anything her hateful face is put to even better use

it is an astonishing face. absolutely steals all its scenes