Television THE WHEEL OF TIME (Cancelled by Prime Video After Three Seasons, post #448)

[GergreG]

I barely made it through the first episode. They are going to ruin every male character. I can already see it.

Did you read the books? Just about every female character came across as a bitch and every male character was a dumbarse pawn for the female characters.

 

[Sycho Sid]

Saw the first episode and I am out.

What is the point of having source material, built up over decades, to just shit on it like that.

I am not even mad at making Egwene a ta'varen apparently, or aging up the characters. But jesus christ.

I did not think I would be one of those, it needs to follow the books kind of people, but they basically used the book as a wide blueprint, and went from there.

Also, why do studios hate characters named Thom? First Tom Bombadil gets left out of every version of the Hobbit/LOTR, and now Thom Merrelin, a major fucking character, is not even there.

Fuck this.

 

[ralphc1]

I just binged the first three episodes. I enjoyed it. I haven't read the books so I didn't have any expectations just like Game of Thrones. It seems that in both cases, those who read the books aren't enjoying the series.

I kind of regret watching it because now I have to wait week by week. I enjoy series more when I can binge watch the whole thing when I want. Game of Thrones was well into the third episode when I decided to start watching. Waiting a week between episodes was bad enough but then there was the 9 months between the seasons then 2 years for the last season.

I did find it curious that the 6 characters got so split up. They were all in the same place and in a matter of minutes seemed to end up in pairs seemingly many miles apart in widely varied terrain.

 

[ralphc1]

Saw the first episode and I am out.

What is the point of having source material, built up over decades, to just shit on it like that.

I am not even mad at making Egwene a ta'varen apparently, or aging up the characters. But jesus christ.

I did not think I would be one of those, it needs to follow the books kind of people, but they basically used the book as a wide blueprint, and went from there.

Also, why do studios hate characters named Thom? First Tom Bombadil gets left out of every version of the Hobbit/LOTR, and now Thom Merrelin, a major fucking character, is not even there.

Fuck this.

Apparently you are one of those! There's a Thom Merrelin in the third episode.

 

[Sycho Sid]

Apparently you are one of those! There's a Thom Merrelin in the third episode.

I said I watched the first episode only, I thought it was terrible, why would I wait for the third episode for a character to be introduced long after he should have been, and already made an impact in the original story?

 

[GearSolidMetal]

 

[ralphc1]

The Amazon reviews are currently
5 star 55%
4 star 10%
3 star 3%
2 star 5%
1 star 29%

So 5 star and 1 star are the main ratings. The 5 stars seem to be people who didn't read the books while the 1 stars are almost all people who read the books and seemed to expect the show to somehow follow the books word for word.

 

[Plebbite]

Moraine shoulda been casted by someone 10 years younger.

I don't mind Perrin or the wisdom being diverse, both seem like solid actors. Egwene is terribly cast, really needed a stunner. I don't see how she as a character will make other women jealous or men lose themselves in her presence.

Seems like the story is already butchered and this show will be a loose adaptation. 6/10 for me, feels like this show has the quality of a cw show with a larger budget.

All the backstory is shit on too,

 

[hohner]

How hard will it be to maintain an erection throughout the entire viewing?

 

[Benjamin Burton]

The Amazon reviews are currently
5 star 55%
4 star 10%
3 star 3%
2 star 5%
1 star 29%

So 5 star and 1 star are the main ratings. The 5 stars seem to be people who didn't read the books while the 1 stars are almost all people who read the books and seemed to expect the show to somehow follow the books word for word.

Im guessing the five stars are Amazon bots

 

[neverwas]

i watched half of episode 1 before falling asleep.and all i could take from it was, "here we go with the woke agenda,again". . as @Dragonlordxxxxx has said it gets better,i"ll stick with it, but at least they don't have to make books 7- 11 as they where fucking shit and add fuck all to the story,and I'm interested to see how well they can do the battle of dumas wells.

 

[Pecker123]

A true adaptation of the books is impossible.

GOT worked because GRRM was a TV writer and it was tailor made for TV being dialogue heavy with interesting characters and an episodic structure.

WOT is all worldbuilding and a lot of stuff can't be done through exposition. It's to convoluted for tv,, to expansive, to complicated and would be far to expensive to go from book to screen to stay true to the story.

It will be either very watered down (what we are seeing) or to stay true would be nine episodes of boredom followed by one epic scene every season for many, many seasons.

There is to much to explain. How can you possibly tell the story while including all the background on the one power, the dark one, age of legends, world of dreams, Seanchan, Aiel etc etc etc. It can't be done.

There are 13 Forsaken, it will be impossible to include them all. The numbers and cgi involved to recreate some of the book scenes would be mind boggling.

The Eye of the world alone is over 300,000 words and that is book one. For perspective the entire LOTR is around 480,000 words.

ASOIAF was very dialogue heavy which leant itself to TV. A lot of WOT is internal monologues where character explain the world around them which does not lend itself to TV.

This series was frustrating enough to read so I'm just going to settle for based on the Wheel of Time.

So far I find it watchable but not great, I never expected a faithful adaptation as I don't think that is even possible to do.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

Ummm have these assholes never heard of Beowulf Return to the Shieldlands?

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Ummm have these assholes never heard of Beowulf Return to the Shieldlands?

Nope, just like they had suddenly forgot about the Blade movies when they praised Black Panther as 'The First Black Superhero Movie.'

 

[Sano]

Bunch of whining in here "OH IT'S WOKE", "IT DOESN'T FOLLOW THE BOOKS". Just watched episode 1 and it was pretty good. Some of the effects were a little iffy but otherwise a very enjoyable first episode of a high fantasy series.

 

[ralphc1]

A true adaptation of the books is impossible.

GOT worked because GRRM was a TV writer and it was tailor made for TV being dialogue heavy with interesting characters and an episodic structure.

WOT is all worldbuilding and a lot of stuff can't be done through exposition. It's to convoluted for tv,, to expansive, to complicated and would be far to expensive to go from book to screen to stay true to the story.

It will be either very watered down (what we are seeing) or to stay true would be nine episodes of boredom followed by one epic scene every season for many, many seasons.

There is to much to explain. How can you possibly tell the story while including all the background on the one power, the dark one, age of legends, world of dreams, Seanchan, Aiel etc etc etc. It can't be done.

There are 13 Forsaken, it will be impossible to include them all. The numbers and cgi involved to recreate some of the book scenes would be mind boggling.

The Eye of the world alone is over 300,000 words and that is book one. For perspective the entire LOTR is around 480,000 words.

ASOIAF was very dialogue heavy which leant itself to TV. A lot of WOT is internal monologues where character explain the world around them which does not lend itself to TV.

This series was frustrating enough to read so I'm just going to settle for based on the Wheel of Time.

So far I find it watchable but not great, I never expected a faithful adaptation as I don't think that is even possible to do.

Game of Thrones used several plot devices to supply the backstory as the series unfolded like the nanny telling the children stories or Robert and Ned talking or Ned and Cat talking.

As I watched Wheel of Time, they seem to be slowly supplying the backstory using the same type of character interaction. Many books I've read use a characters inner thoughts to spin the story. Having a character's inner thoughts and things they may have seen in the past would be a narration unless they do it by one character telling another character something. There is a very short narrative at the start that sets up a few things but much is left unexplained. I don't want to discuss too much for those who haven't watched it yet but there is a scene of women on horseback chasing two men running on a road. When they catch them, there is suddenly only one man and there is nothing said about it. I don't know what we are supposed to think about the scene. How could someone on foot run away from mounted riders by running down a road? Were there actually two men or was one of the men imagining there were two because the leader of the women who caught him tell him he is alone. Moiraine and Lan are introduced and Moiraine is telling Lan that the man isn't The Dragon. I was left wondering how Moiraine can know who isn't The Dragon but can't tell who is but that sets up the story. I assume all will be revealed slowly as the series progresses.

It reminded me of the first episode of Game of Thrones with the dire wolf puppies and Jon and Theon where those of us who hadn't read the books are left wondering how they fit into the family and the story slowly comes out in further episodes. I haven't read the books but there was a lot of complaining on this forum that the show wasn't following the books because the characters were too old and certain plot details hadn't been included. Some of those came out later and some were eliminated.

The one thing that I did understand from the first episode of Game of Thrones was that Ed was an honorable man which made me doubt that Jon was his bastard son. My first thought was that Jon was his dead sisters child that he had to protect.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

Nope, just like they had suddenly forgot about the Blade movies when they praised Black Panther as 'The First Black Superhero Movie.'

I was being kinda jokey. While I did enjoy the show, people thought it stunk.

 

[Streeter]

I kept watching an it getting a little better. The actor playing Rand is terrible. Watching this guy play Rand was like watching Hayden play Anakin Skywalker. The 2 characters they had to nail down good was Moraigne and Rand they failed in casting both imo. I like Rosamund Pike just not in this.

I will keep watching bit they need to stick more to the book. There's a reason the book was so successful why can't they fucking stick to it.

 

[Pecker123]

Game of Thrones used several plot devices to supply the backstory as the series unfolded like the nanny telling the children stories or Robert and Ned talking or Ned and Cat talking.

As I watched Wheel of Time, they seem to be slowly supplying the backstory using the same type of character interaction. Many books I've read use a characters inner thoughts to spin the story. Having a character's inner thoughts and things they may have seen in the past would be a narration unless they do it by one character telling another character something. There is a very short narrative at the start that sets up a few things but much is left unexplained. I don't want to discuss too much for those who haven't watched it yet but there is a scene of women on horseback chasing two men running on a road. When they catch them, there is suddenly only one man and there is nothing said about it. I don't know what we are supposed to think about the scene. How could someone on foot run away from mounted riders by running down a road? Were there actually two men or was one of the men imagining there were two because the leader of the women who caught him tell him he is alone. Moiraine and Lan are introduced and Moiraine is telling Lan that the man isn't The Dragon. I was left wondering how Moiraine can know who isn't The Dragon but can't tell who is but that sets up the story. I assume all will be revealed slowly as the series progresses.

It reminded me of the first episode of Game of Thrones with the dire wolf puppies and Jon and Theon where those of us who hadn't read the books are left wondering how they fit into the family and the story slowly comes out in further episodes. I haven't read the books but there was a lot of complaining on this forum that the show wasn't following the books because the characters were too old and certain plot details hadn't been included. Some of those came out later and some were eliminated.

The one thing that I did understand from the first episode of Game of Thrones was that Ed was an honorable man which made me doubt that Jon was his bastard son. My first thought was that Jon was his dead sisters child that he had to protect.

Trust me all will not be revealed. There were thing in the books that were not revealed.

The scene you are describing is actually the one that really annoyed me.

Spoiler

Those women were Red Ajah. They hunt down men who can channel (use the one power like Moirane). The source, the one power has two halves. Male and female. Due to events thousand of years ago the male half is 'tainted'. It drives men mad if they use the power. That's why male channelers are hunted down. The man was being driven mad from using the one power and the other man was in his mind telling him to use it. That's why he could do what he did, he had the power but it had driven him mad and the women were there to 'still' him. Remove the power before he caused any damage. The Dragon and 100 male companions broke the world when they was driven mad. There is a lot more backstory to it all but suffice to say. The man was driven mad by using the power, those women hunt down such men. He didn't sully the power in any way though the male and female halves are separate, that annoyed me.

This will be an adaptation of the books and I hope a good one but a faithful adaptation that would please book fans is not possible with WOT.

WOT is probably adaptable to the end of book 3 and could be entertaining beyond that I don't believe a TV show can create something in any way faithful.

 

[Losfer Words]

I love the books. They nailed the cast imo. All characters felt very good and "right" in their roles. The show's pacing feels rushed. I know you cant replicate the books 100% but im missing the downtime hang out sessions from the books. Ill watch it. It was worse and better than i thought it would be. Better = the cast. Worse = the pacing and overall feel.

There is still time and thousands of pages, characters, events to deal with. I hope they get to take it all the way to the end.