Online Series: The Wheel of Time (Prime Video, Nov 22)

[Jussi]

I thought the graphics kinda do that for us. Watch the streams of power and compare them to amalisa.
Egwene has something like 4-5 streams and nynaeve 6-7 or so.
Moiraine I think maxes out at 2 I believe.

That's very useful information. I didn't even notice it.

 

[IDvsEGO]

It ended better then it started, however pretty clear they were hamstrung by budgetary concerns for the finale. Similar to Game of Thrones early seasons where they couldn't show really huge battles in detail.

As an aside I'm going to try and read the books. I attempted about 20 years ago and didn't make it more then a couple hundred pages in. I recall thinking the author was more exhausting at detailing mundane things then even Tolkien was

The finale was less hamstrung by the budget and more by covid. they had to use cgi because they couldn’t get extras during the final battle.
also having one of the major actors in the show quitting after episode 6 caused them to modify the plot.
Fain was likely supposed to be a foil for mat, not perrin.

 

[IDvsEGO]

That's very useful information. I didn't even notice it.

Book 1, 2 and 3 are good. 4, 5, 6 and 7 amazing. 8 was meh rushed. 9 was amazing with a huge ending. 10 was , sad to say ,skippable filler. More happens in the first 50 pages of book 11 than all of 10 combined.

11 was good.

Then the new author took over. 12 and 13 were amazing and 14 was everything I wanted in a final book and then some

1-3 feel like good Tolkien type books, 4-6 and 11-14 are some of the best fantasy ever. 7-10 vary scene by scene.

The show is darker than the books, but Only in the sense that he would mostly talk about bad things, but wouldn’t focus on them.
This show is showing them. which fits more for tv.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

The finale was less hamstrung by the budget and more by covid. they had to use cgi because they couldn’t get extras during the final battle.
also having one of the major actors in the show quitting after episode 6 caused them to modify the plot.
Fain was likely supposed to be a foil for mat, not perrin.

Oooh spicy! I didn't know that they had budget restraints or that one of the actors quit. Know anymore interesting details? I would check TMZ but I've never been to TMZ so figured I would ask you instead.

 

[Osprey]

also having one of the major actors in the show quitting after episode 6 caused them to modify the plot.
Fain was likely supposed to be a foil for mat, not perrin.

I can't find any verification of him leaving mid season or the writers changing the plot because of it. Every indication that I've seen is that he simply left between seasons. His character wasn't even re-cast until September, two months into filming of Season 2. I imagine that they would've re-cast it a lot sooner if he had quit before Season 1 even finished.

 

[IDvsEGO]

I can't find any verification of him leaving mid season or the writers changing the plot because of it. Every indication that I've seen is that he simply left between seasons. His character wasn't even re-cast until September, two months into filming of Season 2. I imagine that they would've re-cast it a lot sooner if he had quit before Season 1 even finished.

He left when covid hit. He never returned after the covid break.

 

[67 others]

1-3 feel like good Tolkien type books, 4-6 and 11-14 are some of the best fantasy ever. 7-10 vary scene by scene.

The show is darker than the books, but Only in the sense that he would mostly talk about bad things, but wouldn’t focus on them.
This show is showing them. which fits more for tv.

7 is equal to 4, 5 and 6 for me. It's mostly a Mat heavy book and at that point, he was the most interesting character. Perrin started getting boring during book 6 and didn't get awesome again till book 13. At which point he went nuclear levels of awesome.

 

[IDvsEGO]

7 is equal to 4, 5 and 6 for me. It's mostly a Mat heavy book and at that point, he was the most interesting character. Perrin started getting boring during book 6 and didn't get awesome again till book 13. At which point he went nuclear levels of awesome.

The perrin story in 7-12 is fairy rough, and likely something either completely removed or heavily tweaked/shortened.
Mat is a great character at that point, but the plot moves slowly, which is why 7 is not as well loved.

 

[RandV]

7 is equal to 4, 5 and 6 for me. It's mostly a Mat heavy book and at that point, he was the most interesting character. Perrin started getting boring during book 6 and didn't get awesome again till book 13. At which point he went nuclear levels of awesome.

I don't know how different it would have been with Robert Jordan writing but Perrin thrived under Brandon Sanderson's care. Having been dubbed early in his career as the 'magic systems guy', Sanderson knew exactly what to do with Perrin. Quit moping around after half a dozen books, become a video game character!

 

[Tawnos]

The perrin story in 7-12 is fairy rough, and likely something either completely removed or heavily tweaked/shortened.
Mat is a great character at that point, but the plot moves slowly, which is why 7 is not as well loved.

There's not a whole lot there. I loved what they'd done with him in 4-6... it turned him into my favorite character in the series. I'm on book 8 now... not really interested in his story.

 

[NyQuil]

Mat is like the Han Solo of WoT.

I think he's everyone's favourite character.

Meanwhile, Perrin is a mope and Rand is a drama queen.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Mat is like the Han Solo of WoT.

I think he's everyone's favourite character.

Meanwhile, Perrin is a mope and Rand is a drama queen.

Mat is an extremely controversial character due to the last few books.

 

[NyQuil]

Mat is an extremely controversial character due to the last few books.

Really?

Spoiler

The Tylin thing? Tuon stuff? *frantically trying to remember what happens*

 

[Make]

I've come to realize that I'm in the extremely small minority of people who don't really care for Mat's chapters. I was surprised to find out he's such a fan favourite.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Really?

Spoiler

The Tylin thing? Tuon stuff? *frantically trying to remember what happens*

The seanchan stuff.

 

[Osprey]

Speaking of Perrin being a mope, it was interesting to read a criticism in which I learned (because I haven't read the books) that Perrin doesn't have a guilt crisis in the books until he kills later on, during their journey. In the show, he accidentally kills his wife before we even get to know him, so he starts out as a mope, robbing him of important character development and viewer interest. It seems like it might've been a poor judgment call by the show writers.

He left when covid hit. He never returned after the covid break.

He might've not returned because his character left the main group and didn't have any scenes in the final two episodes. Seemingly so much of the book was changed that the writers might've planned it that way (to increase the drama with yet another fracturing of the "fellowship" moment) and it was just a coincidence that COVID hit after his scenes were finished. Your theory (that the plot was changed and he was written out of the final two episodes because he didn't come back) is certainly possible, too, but we don't know for sure.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Speaking of Perrin being a mope, it was interesting to read a criticism in which I learned (because I haven't read the books) that Perrin doesn't have a guilt crisis in the books until he kills later on, during their journey. In the show, he accidentally kills his wife before we even get to know him, so he starts out as a mope, robbing him of important character development and viewer interest. It seems like it might've been a poor judgment call by the show writers.


He might've not returned because his character left the main group and didn't have any scenes in the final two episodes. Seemingly so much of the book has been changed that the writers might've planned it that way and it was just a coincidence that COVID after his scenes were finished. Your theory (that the plot was changed because he didn't come back) is certainly possible, too, but we don't know.

I am 100% certain that him leaving caused the plot to change for episode 7. Brandon Sanderson is a producer for the show and helped them with the writing and talked about how they had to scramble because of him not returning.
The shot of him not going into the ways is a clip from another scene. he was a main character, he was going to fal dara.

As for perrin, there are valid reasons why they sped up his development in terms of being scared of violence. It’s key to his development, and there’s a huge difference between what he deemed self defense and harming an innocent.

 

[TonySoprano]

Just finished the TV series. As somebody who has been meaning to read the books for a while I wanted to finish the 1st book before watching the series. I really enjoyed the book a lot

With that said the TV show was the biggest piece of shit I have ever seen.

 

[67 others]

I don't know how different it would have been with Robert Jordan writing but Perrin thrived under Brandon Sanderson's care. Having been dubbed early in his career as the 'magic systems guy', Sanderson knew exactly what to do with Perrin. Quit moping around after half a dozen books, become a video game character!

Probably would have had 17 books, with lots of filler.

EVERYTHING thrived under Brandon Sanderson's care.

I love Robert jordan. I do. But man book 10 and 11 he got way into filler. People complained about the early books having too much filler. I disagreed and thought they were great.....Until book 10. A book of NOTHING BUT FILLER.

You can skip book 10 and not miss anything important to the story. Literally. More happens in the first 30 pages of book 11 than all of 10 combined. And 11 just moved the main story along with nothing major happening.

There's not a whole lot there. I loved what they'd done with him in 4-6... it turned him into my favorite character in the series. I'm on book 8 now... not really interested in his story.

Don't worry. The best of Perrin is coming.....in the final 2 books, 13 and 14. that aside I was underwhelmed. He seemed to have developed as far as he was going to was how I felt about him, but i was wrong.

 

[Tawnos]

Probably would have had 17 books, with lots of filler.

EVERYTHING thrived under Brandon Sanderson's care.

I love Robert jordan. I do. But man book 10 and 11 he got way into filler. People complained about the early books having too much filler. I disagreed and thought they were great.....Until book 10. A book of NOTHING BUT FILLER.

You can skip book 10 and not miss anything important to the story. Literally. More happens in the first 30 pages of book 11 than all of 10 combined. And 11 just moved the main story along with nothing major happening.



Don't worry. The best of Perrin is coming.....in the final 2 books, 13 and 14. that aside I was underwhelmed. He seemed to have developed as far as he was going to was how I felt about him, but i was wrong.

That's good to hear about him later on. I really enjoy that he's one of the few characters that doesn't seem to have an agenda, doesn't assume he knows what's best for every other person, and is generally honest and direct. There are VERY few characters like him in the series, but a lot of the other characters are like each other.

 

[67 others]

That's good to hear about him later on. I really enjoy that he's one of the few characters that doesn't seem to have an agenda, doesn't assume he knows what's best for every other person, and is generally honest and direct. There are VERY few characters like him in the series, but a lot of the other characters are like each other.

Not sure how fast you read, but keep me posted as you finish books. Always happy to chit chat with folks after they get through each book because I remember reading them for the first time and having few people to talk to. Mostly in the age before the internet lol.

By book 9 I had plenty of folks i could chat with because we had some fledgling sites.

I still remember the "Pick an actor/Actress for each character" thread on an old now gone WOT page from 2001.

This was the main guy folks were choosing to be rand, because of his height.

and everyone wanted keifer Sutherland as Dain Bornheld and Donald as Geoffram Bornheld

 

[IDvsEGO]

Just finished the TV series. As somebody who has been meaning to read the books for a while I wanted to finish the 1st book before watching the series. I really enjoyed the book a lot

With that said the TV show was the biggest piece of shit I have ever seen.

Probably would have had 17 books, with lots of filler.

EVERYTHING thrived under Brandon Sanderson's care.

I love Robert jordan. I do. But man book 10 and 11 he got way into filler. People complained about the early books having too much filler. I disagreed and thought they were great.....Until book 10. A book of NOTHING BUT FILLER.

You can skip book 10 and not miss anything important to the story. Literally. More happens in the first 30 pages of book 11 than all of 10 combined. And 11 just moved the main story along with nothing major happening.



Don't worry. The best of Perrin is coming.....in the final 2 books, 13 and 14. that aside I was underwhelmed. He seemed to have developed as far as he was going to was how I felt about him, but i was wrong.

Im pretty sure most of perrin's arc was written by jordan, not sanderson.
Sanderson had almost no notes on mat, and so thats where the problems were.

There were specific places every character needed to get to, and sanderson just had to get there.

I think the series would've ended at 14 books just like it did with sanderson. book 11 was jordan still and is considered almost in that top tier, and it was a return to the stuff that made 4-6 fantastic.

 

[I am not exposed]

Couldn't finish the 1st series. Overall a poor show. I don't care for any of the characters apart from maybe the Asian sidekick.

 

[I am not exposed]

An ok end to the season, I really hate that so many of these online series are only 6 to 8 episodes long. I mean I understand they aren't going to be 20 to 25 like TV sitcoms and dramas are historically but maybe 10 to 12 would be nice. Especially since with some of the, we have to wait so long between seasons.

Welcome to the British way of doing TV shows!

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Welcome to the British way of doing TV shows!

I have a question, who is that in your avatar? Nick Bjustad?

Also, I didn't really like WoT like you. Just could not find a connection to any character. I liked the magic though.