There, I have created a thread. To the extent possible, this is a thread for discussion of the TV show, with appropriate spoiler tags for episode-based spoilers, and to the extent possible, a complete ban on all book spoilers, all foreknowledge of book info, all mega-detailed WoT-pedia type stuff, etc. All of those fine topics can be dealt with in the full blown book/show/whateva/spoiler thread.
For those who want to discuss the show, as it is broadcast/streamed, have at it.
To get the ball rolling, I have been pleasantly surprised by this show. At the start, it seemed… fine, but a tad generic, with inconsistently good to indifferent casting. But as the show has progressed, I feel like the level of exposition is adjusting to the material and the world is getting fleshed out nicely. This has become a show I look forward to.
I think it was really smart of them to drop 1-3 together. Other than the amazing landscapes, if it took a month to get to the excitement of Ep. 4, I might have lost hope.
On the topic of landscapes, I thought it was hilarious that Rand and Matt trekked out of Shadar Logoth by what looked like at least 10 miles to get to a mountain top so that Rand could shout loudly for Perrin and Egwene. Uh, dude, you’re like 10 miles away.
Thanks for creating this thread @Sharpe - Much appriciated. I’d have preferred it the other way around, with the new thread being the one with the book spoilers, since …well, the original IS about the TV show, and not the books.
But - here we are!
Loving the show so far as well, even if some of the special effects work looks kinda poor at times.
I am also not a fan on the Rand character, but the rest are brilliant to me.
Thanks for creating the thread!
Good point on the faster release of 1-3 being needed to get the world building and initial story hooks done quickly.
So far, my wife and I have been pleasantly surprised by the episodes. The fact she knows the books has not prevented her enjoyment one bit.
And for someone like me who hasn’t read them, the show is both understandable and unpredictable.
I hope this is successful and keeps going for quite a while.
Episode 5 gets a big thumbs up from me, even though there were a few slowdowns at the 25 and 35 minute mark (that’s when I checked to see how much time was left in the episode). Loved the introduction of Loial and Perrin and Egwene escaping from the Whitecloaks but felt they spent a bit too much time on the grieving warder and his expected demise.
The woman who plays the main Tinker lady continued to kill it though, she is awesome. Every time she’s on screen I think I should look up other stuff she’s been in and go watch it.
If it comes to that, the other popular nerd show she’s featured in is Orphan Black.
I was keeping up with the other Wheel of Time thread until it blew up and had a flurry of posts and changed its name and I switched to this one. 114 new posts! They must be discussing the books in there.
Anyway, overall there’s enough positive buzz on Qt3 about the show now that I’ll be checking it out next time I get Prime Video. You guys have convinced me that I’ll likely enjoy it.
Yeah I peeked in, clicked one thing, and had something spoiled. It’s too dangerous. :)
Even though I’ve read a bunch of the books, it was so long ago I’ve forgotten!
Same for me. So far this show is great.
I’m still not sure what’s going on with the ogre guy, that seemed a bit abrupt and unexplained to me. I know from one of the earlier episodes that there are different races of men, and I assume he’s just a different type of man. But where was Rand, was he wandering around visiting a bookshop, that wasn’t clear to me. Was that just a different part of the inn? Was that Loial’s bookstore?
But as for Perrin and Egwene, I thought they did a great job with that. They really cranked things up. I really didn’t like the Whitecloaks before, but now I really, really hate those bastards.
That was my thinking. I may just stick to this thread. I’ve read somewhere between 3 to 5 of the books some 30 years ago. Best to not be reminded of things and definitely best not to hear about stuff I didn’t know on Qt3, although shows are more fun with people to discuss them with.
Regarding Loial the Ogier in ep 5, I felt like there was a scene missing.
No, not a complaint that the rookie screenplay author, Celine Song, didn’t write one; I mean the scene was written and was quite literally missing. Perhaps caused by a change to the prosthetics and makeup of Loial, inconsistencies with trying to re-shoot the “persimmons ripening in December” scene in a garden in the Czech republic, or some other Covid related impact. Whatever the cause, some scene was missing from the show. It felt off.
Ep5 Show Spoiler, not a Book Spoiler So instead of getting that scene, we get some hasty dialog added on to Nynaeve’s entrance into Mat and Rand’s room. It works, but barely and feels far too abrupt.
Basically, we get two-and-a-half funerals in Ep 5, when what it really needed was two-and-a-half more minutes with Loial. Oh well.
That makes a lot of sense to me, it definitely seemed like something was missing. An extra scene that got cut would make sense for why it was confusing.
That was another area that seemed a bit rough. I’m still not understanding what’s going on with Nynaeve. She shows up at Mat and Rand’s room, says that the Two-River folks need to stick together and don’t need the Aes Sedai, but then I’m pretty sure that was her standing behind Moiraine at the funeral at the end. Is she popping in and out of the White Tower at will? If she doesn’t think she needs the Aes Sedai why is she still hannging out in the Tower? Also wouldn’t someone notice and try to follow her and discover Mat and Rand? It seems like another area where some explanatory scene as to what exactly she’s doing was omitted.
I think leaving and coming back into the White Tower is exactly what she is doing, and accompanying an Ogier to an Inn is, as you suggest, going to be noticed by Moiraine Sedai’s “eyes and ears”. I fully expect that Moiraine will march into Rand’s bedroom unannounced in ep 6 by reason of Nynaeve’s movements having been observed and noted.
I don’t think that was omitted though; rather, I think the logical effect of all of that is coming in ep 6. I further expect we will get some explanation from Loial as to what has brought him to Tar Valon. My guess is that news of an impending threat will come to Moiraine from Loial, perhaps confirming other intelligence and rumours heard by Siuan.
Note: this is conjecture, obviously. At this point in the tv series, we are in the middle of something that never happened in Vol 1 at all. Nobody ends up in Tar Valon in Vol 1. We are all in the same WAFO boat.
That’s pretty much what has to happen. Rand certainly can’t walk into the White Tower at this stage, he’s an infant, they could and absolutely would completely dominate him.
The Trollocs are stunt people wearing stilts to make them appear much taller. That seems like it would be very awkward. I’m sure the stunt people are all very fit, but it still seems like it would take some time getting used to to move around an extra foot above the ground.
More surprising, the choreography between Morainne and Lan in the Two Rivers fight didn’t get worked out until the day of the shoot. I thought they worked great together.
That’s their job, though, right? I thought they did it well.
I agree. They did a great job.
Yeah, as someone who has read the books, I actually turned it off after the first fifteen minutes because of the casting disconnect from my expectations.
Decided to try again with an open mind and give it a shot and I’m glad I did. Really enjoying it, though we haven’t finished the second episode yet.
I think I was just a bit shocked and it took a mental reorientation to accept.
So a few months ago Tom and I had a brief argument about Rosamund Pike. My point was that she hadn’t really done a super great acting job yet. He cited 12 or so movies. I forgot my expression.
So I’m in the middle of episode 5 of this and … I concede. She is a classic. This is her show to make or break. She is incredible. Her facial expressions and her presence are wonderful. I lose.
As for the show itself I dunno… it seems to get better the more I watch. But she is a treasure.