DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Front of House Our Community Review Film TV Wheel of TIme (WARNING - Includes Spoilers)

MikeD it's not cheating. Knowledge is power!

So far I am loving the show a lot. Some things that bug me, and have bugged others... The casting should have been more similar for Perrin, Matt, and Egwene given their backgrounds and Two Rivers being so isolated. I get wanting a diverse cast, but they have opportunity to do that with other characters, like Moiraine, Lan, Nynaeve, Thom... and later on so many more. It's not a huge point for me but it is a little irritating since the area has been rather insular.

Other than that, the whole who exactly can be the Dragon. Unless I missed something in the books, that does irritate me. Again, I get wanting to make things as broad as possible, and to have some mystery about who the Dragon is... I just don't like it. As Phoenix said, the female channelers are bad ass ladies. They don't need that mystery around them. LET THEM SHINE on their own!

What I do like is the pacing of the show, a lot. They keep things going, show new perspectives from other characters... I think keeping that up will definitely be an improvement over some of the books that just got weighted down.

Now that the first season is completely out (and has been for a few weeks), and Season 2 has been greenlit... has anyone's opinions changed, and in what way?

Looking forward to the next one!

Mina - No change. I like it, and while it is close to the books in "spirit" it separates from the text in many ways that are a bit disconcerting to those who expected to see a close representation of the written series. Still I will watch season 2.

I really enjoyed it. I understand the issues they had to deal with. Big character leaves after episode 6. Covid prevented them from going to certain locations or back to some previous locations. They cut it down from 10 to 8 episodes and they had a ton of lore that had to be disseminated in a way that wouldn't bore people.

The cast wasn't what I expected to see, but I pass that off as my mental bias to what I imagined. I'm good with all of it and so far, I like them all.

Not your mental bias, Niv. They purposely contradicted the imaging (both written and art) of the characters. It is sad, but from the commentary I've seen and read it seems they did it to maintain political correctness. The Producers even mentioned wanting to make sure they added Lesbians into the series. Jordan was very much into traditional gender models and his world consisted of very isolated and homogenous communities. That sort of traditionalism doesn't fly in Hollywood anymore.

He did have a few non-traditional gender roles, like Birgitte, the Archer, and the Maidens of the Spear among the Aiel, but they were looked at as unusual exceptions by the people of the world.

Again the changes being made don't bother me, other than as being unnecessary. The story is excellent on its face and making changes simply to satisfy the whims of activism grates a bit.

I am fine with a more diverse cast/storyline, but it still is a bit annoying that the Two Rivers, which is isolated, was portrayed as a much more cosmopolitan type of place.

But, I admit I was a little sad that they did not visit Caemlyn and we were not introduced to Elayne and Gawyn yet. I was looking forward to that

Agree Mina. Also other storyline changes like why did Matt leave and why did they have Moraine 'stilled'? I am hoping to see reasons for these (perhaps to condense the epic length of the books?) in upcoming seasons.

Mat left because the actor quit. He was supposed to confront Padan Fain at Fal Dara

Ah. Well that is tough. Still would rather have a new actor step in than write him out. He is a critical part of the series, considering he is the one who sounds the Horn of Valere, becomes immune to the One Power, and is the leader of the 'Band of the Hand', so they're going to have to bring him back, or make more changes.

When it comes to casting and story I always think of LoTR here. They stuck almost religiously to casting choices that matched Tolkien's descriptions and stuck as close as possible to the written story in the books. I can count the number of differences between the books and those movies on one hand. That series managed to win all sorts of awards and make all sorts of money without making compromises.

Here's what the producers said about why Rand and Egwene were hooking up in episode one and Perrin was married (when none of that happens in the books): "To be true to the books we'd have had to make Rand and Perrin and the rest all teenagers. We wanted to broaden the audience so we made them older (20s), gave Perrin a wife, and changed the Rand-Egwene relationship to be more mature."

That is what I mean.

Oh, and Mina, I missed Caemlyn too. I also miss that they cut out all of the sword training Rand and Lan go thru. The sword forms and their references during fight scenes were one of the things I really enjoyed in the books. And it becomes critical to the story when Rand fights Isamael in the sky over Falme.

They'll bring in another actor, they just didn't have time to do it now.

Also, I get all the things you say Zeim, but 8 hours. That's what they gave us. Now, could or should they have made it longer, of course. But in 8 hours, I'd cut out Caemlyn and sword training and move things along also.

I guess, I'm just happy they're making this and if they make changes because they think it makes a better show, then I'm all for it. To do the books exactly to the letter would be nothing but a dream and we'd have nothing.

As my family says when we gather in massive numbers for vacation, "Go with the Flow".

I always take umbrage when a Producer or Director thinks they know better than the author and that their changes will 'improve' things. See my comments about LoTR as an example of doing it right.

I like the show, but every decision they made to change things diminished it. I'd have greatly preferred had they kept true to the books. I suppose everyone has a different part of the books (for those who read it) they liked, and if you were a Nynaeve fan you are probably ecstatic as her role has been greatly exaggerated. The producers acknowledged that the books are written mostly from Rand's perspective (especially the first few) and they wanted to spread things out.

If they couldn't finish the first book in 8 hours then add in the stuff they took out and end season 1 on a cliff-hanger, in the middle (perhaps after leaving Caemlyn and coming in sight of Tar Valon), and finish it in season 2. If they actually filmed it all and then post-production decided they had to remove 2 hours of stuff, I'd like to know why.

Again, I like it, but mostly I like it in spite of the decisions they made not because of them.

I'll buy that

That seems to always happen with 'movies from books' <sigh> But I =do= get it. The director is taking what 'the story' gave and molds it to fit what (s)he took away from the original story. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it fails badly. Mostly it is somewhere in between <g>

I saw the show without having read the books (I was about 50% through with the first book when I put it down). I enjoyed the show.

There is a comfort in seeing on screen exactly what you've read. I remember the first time I realized that film adaptations were not the same as the book. It was the movie Jaws. I had read the book before seeing the movie. The book was excellent and more about the relationships between characters. The movie was straight on horror. It didn't make the movie bad; it just made it different.

I'm going to read the books soon, starting over with book 1. I'm sure that I'll love it... and the show too.

Hey Nep ... ooops <points up> <weg>

So watching Season 2 and they've pretty much given up all pretense of following the books. The show now is solidly in the "inspired by the books" realm. Still like it, but have given up on expecting the plot to agree with the published materials.

So my cousin is watching and had asked me to explain bits of season 1. I did. He called after the first episode of season 2, and I was like, I can't help you with this one, sorry.

Well I am still watching but finding it a little harder to follow, probably because of the departure. But maybe not as Tusk has given up on Season 2 and he has NOT read the books!

It is so weird when a TV show or movie adapts a book and thinks "Let's change the story!" It's being adapted because it has a good enough story that it has a fanbase. I understand editing for time, but wholesale changes just because always leaves me flat.

Jim Butcher has stated that after the first TV adaptation if his Dresden books were ever adapted again, he would only agree if he had more input/control on the product. I really wish one of the major providers would pick up his books again. They are such fun. But back to Wheel... I have seen the first two episodes of season 2, and hoping it gets better.

I suspect they did it partly to compress the time. There are 14 books plus a prequel and they're all about 1000+ pages long. Additionally, by the time Jordan got to the 5th or 6th book he had so many plot threads going on simultaneously that in a 1000 page book it seemed like each plot thread got a single chapter devoted to it to advance it. By the time Sanderson took over for the last three books quite a few of those plot threads just vanished.

So I suspect they decided they were not going to get 15+ seasons to try to do 1 book each season and had to squeeze it all in. That meant compressing when things occur as well as having to choose to ignore certain things. So, "inspired by" is the best I can say. Still, its watchable as long as you can get past it not lining up with the books.