• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Wheel of Time

Hari Seldon

Member
Ain't nobody got time for that. The opening few scenes either showed everybody (in a Middle Ages style tavern mind) fresh from the laundrette. Either that or the wardrobe dept.

GoT won loads of awards for costume, this stuff looks like BBC's Merlin budget in comparison.

What I'm saying is that this is not the middle ages lol. Think more along the lines of Three Musketeers for the costumes. And this is not game of thrones where the fashion is just generic clothing and is not really a part of the story. There are long and lengthy passages in the books regarding fashion and being able to purchase nice wool and/or silk, etc.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Well tug your braids and smooth your skirts everyone! This looks... no great? I can't put my finger on it, but the camera work and quality feels CWish.

Still, I'll check it out. Hopefully my initial impression from this trailer is misplaced.
 

Burger

Member
What I'm saying is that this is not the middle ages lol. Think more along the lines of Three Musketeers for the costumes. And this is not game of thrones where the fashion is just generic clothing and is not really a part of the story. There are long and lengthy passages in the books regarding fashion and being able to purchase nice wool and/or silk, etc.

That's nice, but do you not think that GoT (which face it, Amazon wants this to be as successful as GoT) has set a certain look? And that audiences will reject this?

It's only a trailer - but this looks like Netflix's Cursed - which flopped and then was cancelled. This is already filming series 2 so it's not going to get cancelled soon but that trailer was poor.
 

thefool

Member
Prime could use a good show.

A1bHBAnXwPL._RI_.jpg


Best tv show when it aired.
 
Last edited:

Ballthyrm

Member
I think that modern critics are going to love it. The entire series takes place in a Matriarchal society. This isn't for woke points, it is a central part of the plot. As for the general audience, it hits the same political notes and ultra deep plot as GoT (probably even deeper), but without the torture and rape. But this is a product of its time, it invented most of the fantasy cliches in use today. So lots of hero ass heroes and not so many Tyrion Lannisters which is what made GoT so great.

I really hope they don't water down the Matriarchal part of the WoT.
The women in it are often dismissive of better men than they are, they are petty and forceful.

I would very much like to see how the general public react when the roles are reversed.
Robert Jordan did a fantastic job of making a world as it would be if the most powerful people were women.

He created a lot of deeply flawed characters that often pay for their behavior.
 

Catphish

Member
Fucking hyped.

I read the first 3 books in the late 90s, and loved them, but life took over and that was that. I've always wanted to go back to them, especially knowing that the series is finished (and apparently finished well by Sanderson), and this trailer has inspired me to do exactly that. I'm in the middle of the prequel book now, will re-read book 1 before the show drops, and have every intention of reading all 15 books.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Amazon dropped the full official trailer today. The version they dropped on youtube is some 360 version so I'm linking the 2d version that IGN posted:



Looks great but the "It is one of the 5 of you" line really rubs me the wrong way. That would make a large part of the story make no god damn sense at all.
 

FunkMiller

Member
I've said this before, but I remember reading the first book... and a guy called Rand being the main character? Not the witch lady? Is that right? Seemed like a pretty standard hero's journey tale to me, but they seem to be completely ignoring that here.

To be honest, this looks a little cheap too me, but I might give it a go as it's on Prime.
 
Last edited:

Hari Seldon

Member
I've said this before, but I remember reading the first book... and a guy called Rand being the main character? Not the witch lady? Is that right? Seemed like a pretty standard hero's journey tale to me, but they seem to be completely ignoring that here.

To be honest, this looks a little cheap too me, but I might give it a go as it's on Prime.
All of the characters in the first book are actual real "main characters". It is like the inverse of GoT when all of the main characters start out disparate and eventually come together. In WoT they start together and eventually disperse into separate plot lines.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
I've said this before, but I remember reading the first book... and a guy called Rand being the main character? Not the witch lady? Is that right? Seemed like a pretty standard hero's journey tale to me, but they seem to be completely ignoring that here.

To be honest, this looks a little cheap too me, but I might give it a go as it's on Prime.
Well, sort of. Moraine is totally key of course in the early stuff so I think she should be extremely important. I always compare her to gandolf in that sense (if you understand my viewpoint). It seems like the are framing Egwene as the "hero" when if anyone should appear to be it early on it wouldnt be her. It will be interesting how they manage the heron.

I am cautious optimistic... The Perrin and Rand casting is terrible though. I'm sure the actors are fine actors but the differences are actually very important.

Ive crushed through most of the series since the last time and im hopeful...
 

Wildebeest

Member
Something about it makes me think more of BBC production than the HBO production of Game of Thrones. But there is also something about it which reminds me more of a Chinese wuxia production than some unrealistic leather armour and beard oil western fantasy. But I'm sure the costume department is going to lean on that leather real hard. I'm sort of into it.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Never read the books. I planned to get to it one day, but..........

That trailer did nothing for me and actually put me off reading the books. Looks like cheap, paint by numbers fantasy. I'll be giving this one a miss unless the reviews are mind-blowing.
 

Fbh

Member
I'm not really sure what it is, if it's the make up, color grading, the digital enhancements, the art direction, the costume design or a mix of everything. But a lot of these new shows like this, the Witcher, Cowboy bebop, etc all have this aggressively fake look that really kills the suspension of disbelief and just makes it look like people in costumes on sets.
 
Even the logo desperately wants to be Game of Thrones.
WoT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> GoT

Never read the books. I planned to get to it one day, but..........

That trailer did nothing for me and actually put me off reading the books. Looks like cheap, paint by numbers fantasy. I'll be giving this one a miss unless the reviews are mind-blowing.

WoT is the best fantasy series of all time next to Hobbit/LOTR, your loss.
 
Last edited:

Hari Seldon

Member
I'm not really sure what it is, if it's the make up, color grading, the digital enhancements, the art direction, the costume design or a mix of everything. But a lot of these new shows like this, the Witcher, Cowboy bebop, etc all have this aggressively fake look that really kills the suspension of disbelief and just makes it look like people in costumes on sets.
I get what you are saying. I think that this trailer looked a lot better than the teaser. I think the problem is the young unknown actors that these shows are using. Everything looks clean when you have mostly attractive 23 year old kids as the main cast, which is most fantasy tbh.

The costumes though... I will die on this hill. This is 1000% part of the story. Taking away the colorful clothing would be neutering the plot to such an extent that it would be analogous to taking the dragons out of Game of Thrones. Like I'd rather them not make the show than change that. This is not Game of Thrones where everyone except a handful of lords wears rags. This is much more realistic in the sense that you can have a wealthy farmer and someone who is wealthy doesn't want to dress like a dark age peasant.
 

Fbh

Member
I get what you are saying. I think that this trailer looked a lot better than the teaser. I think the problem is the young unknown actors that these shows are using. Everything looks clean when you have mostly attractive 23 year old kids as the main cast, which is most fantasy tbh.

The costumes though... I will die on this hill. This is 1000% part of the story. Taking away the colorful clothing would be neutering the plot to such an extent that it would be analogous to taking the dragons out of Game of Thrones. Like I'd rather them not make the show than change that. This is not Game of Thrones where everyone except a handful of lords wears rags. This is much more realistic in the sense that you can have a wealthy farmer and someone who is wealthy doesn't want to dress like a dark age peasant.

I think the costumes work in the first part of the trailer, when they are in some sort of royal court setting.
My problem is more when you see characters out in the wilderness or characters that are supposed to be peasants in some small village but it's some attractive 20-something, with makeup, perfect hair and brand new looking clothing.

It has this weird cosplay look.
It looks like this:
Attack-on-Titan-mikasa-Ackerman-Cosplay-Costume-414707-2004975.jpg



Which is like yeah, it follows the design of the manga, but I don't buy that she has just spent a week running through dirty streets fighting giant monsters
 
Last edited:

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
WoT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> GoT



WoT is the best fantasy series of all time next to Hobbit/LOTR, your loss.

That's a bold statement. I doubt it's as good as ASOIAF. In fact, next to LOTR, nothing has come close to ASOIAF.

The trailer looks like generic fantasy. Hasn't sold me on the show and kind of put me off the books. However, as the books are always better, I'll still give the books a go one day.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I'm not really sure what it is, if it's the make up, color grading, the digital enhancements, the art direction, the costume design or a mix of everything. But a lot of these new shows like this, the Witcher, Cowboy bebop, etc all have this aggressively fake look that really kills the suspension of disbelief and just makes it look like people in costumes on sets.
I think this is a video vs film effect. Go watch some slapdash low budget fantasy from the 80's like Barbarian Queen or Deathstalker. They STILL look better than these things, it's hard to explain why. GoT must have spent a lot of time on cinematography to avoid this effect.
 
That's a bold statement. I doubt it's as good as ASOIAF. In fact, next to LOTR, nothing has come close to ASOIAF.

The trailer looks like generic fantasy. Hasn't sold me on the show and kind of put me off the books. However, as the books are always better, I'll still give the books a go one day.

I read both series and was bored to tears by A Dance with Dragons.

WoT is x3 the number of books and there wasn't one time I had to "slog" through it. But to each their own.
 

Wildebeest

Member
That's a bold statement. I doubt it's as good as ASOIAF. In fact, next to LOTR, nothing has come close to ASOIAF.

The trailer looks like generic fantasy. Hasn't sold me on the show and kind of put me off the books. However, as the books are always better, I'll still give the books a go one day.

I don't think you understand the book market. Harry Potter is bigger than Lord of the Rings by a very large margin. Wheel of Time and Discworld are both bigger than Fire and Ice. If you are talking about quality, then that is entirely subjective. There are other series that are darker, more epic, more complete, better written, and so on.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I think the costumes work in the first part of the trailer, when they are in some sort of royal court setting.
My problem is more when you see characters out in the wilderness or characters that are supposed to be peasants in some small village but it's some attractive 20-something, with makeup, perfect hair and brand new looking clothing.

It has this weird cosplay look.
It looks like this:
Attack-on-Titan-mikasa-Ackerman-Cosplay-Costume-414707-2004975.jpg



Which is like yeah, it follows the design of the manga, but I don't buy that she has just spent a week running through dirty streets fighting giant monsters
That is fair but I will have to see it in action I guess. Maybe it is the incongruity of these sweeping LoTR style mountainous shots in the trailer, but it is not LoTR and they are all clean and dressed well.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
WoT is x3 the number of books and there wasn't one time I had to "slog" through it. But to each their own.

I heard the later books of WoT are pure filler. Pages and pages of Jordan describing a room of people with no actual plot development. Even the die hard WoT fans I know say the later books that Jordan wrote were difficult to get through.

However, I'll judge it when I read it.

I don't think you understand the book market. Harry Potter is bigger than Lord of the Rings by a very large margin. Wheel of Time and Discworld are both bigger than Fire and Ice. If you are talking about quality, then that is entirely subjective. There are other series that are darker, more epic, more complete, better written, and so on.

I understand the book market. I was talking about my own personal opinion of the quality of the work.

I'm in the mood for more fantasy. What are these books that are darker and more epic than ASOIAF?
 

Liljagare

Member
I am not seeing it from the trailers. The world is really deep in the books, and the descriptions are rather deep. This, looks like a cheapo Scifi channel show, seems almost disconnected from the books. It's like they had skipped the entire trip to Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings crap.

There is nothing in the trailer that shows the world from the books.

Wake me up when they finally make a decent Dragonlance show. Or, a show about chronicles of The White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldsson.
 
Last edited:

Wildebeest

Member
I'm in the mood for more fantasy. What are these books that are darker and more epic than ASOIAF?
Depends on what you want. Michael Moorcock was an early example of someone writing darker fantasy stories, though more heroic journeys than multi perspective family political dramas. China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels have a more industrial and weird/horror theme. Steven Erikson's Malazan novels have a huge setting and are often excruciating. Glen Cook's Black Company is said to be responsible for the grimdark trend, but I've not read too much of it. I did read the Thomas Covenant novels by Stephen Donaldson as a teen, though I don't know how well they have held up. At the time, they took fantasy in a gritty direction.
 
Man.....wish I would've started WoT before Malazan - I had originally planned to finish both before the WoT show came out but I've been slowly trudging through Malazan and now the WoT show is here. Fuck me.

I don't think the show looks cheap per se......but something like the color grading/saturation seems "off" to me? Idk can't put my finger on it. I'll be checking it out either way.
 

Trunx81

Member
Loved the teaser but the trailer is giving me some Shannara Vibes. Hope they’ll nail it with a good script. Still like the actors (Rand fits perfect to my imagination of him).

The scenes with the man in white must be from the prologue.

CGI “monsters” look reeeaaally bad, though.
 

NahaNago

Member
I read this series
I've said this before, but I remember reading the first book... and a guy called Rand being the main character? Not the witch lady? Is that right? Seemed like a pretty standard hero's journey tale to me, but they seem to be completely ignoring that here.

To be honest, this looks a little cheap too me, but I might give it a go as it's on Prime.
The budget seems bigger than I was expecting it to be. I was thinking it was just going to be a sci-fi level tv show. My response to a lot of decisions of late is that this is 2021 so of course they are going to change things around. I read the series but barely remember the main storyline. I 'm pretty sure all of the guys were suppose to be white based off of the covers. Fans of the books set your expectations low and simply enjoy the ride. I think I'll buy the 1st book digitally since I sold all of my books last year.
 
I am glad The Lord of the Rings came out before streaming. It has a look that makes it look authentic. The sets, the costumes - they all look they could be real. These new shows on streaming services - everything looks clean and like a set. The costumes look brand new and not lived-in.-
 

Brian Fellows

Pete Carroll Owns Me
I am glad The Lord of the Rings came out before streaming. It has a look that makes it look authentic. The sets, the costumes - they all look they could be real. These new shows on streaming services - everything looks clean and like a set. The costumes look brand new and not lived-in.-

The same problem I've always had with Network TV.
 
I am glad The Lord of the Rings came out before streaming. It has a look that makes it look authentic. The sets, the costumes - they all look they could be real. These new shows on streaming services - everything looks clean and like a set. The costumes look brand new and not lived-in.-
i really hope they do justice to the books/lore with the LOTR show next year.
 

evolvaer

Banned
This looks like shit. Like a low budget game of thrones tv show rip off.

Read the original books around 20 years ago. I think I got as far as 7 or 8 books in and lost interest when the author would take a whole page to describe a god damn sea breeze hitting the sail of a ship and introduced another new side character.

I said, no thank you, and went on with my life.
I think the books were great in the 90's when I read them as a 12 year old, not sure how they would stack now.

More to the point tho, this trailer looks like a generic, derivative copy of the GoT tv show. It's hitting beats that aren't as relevant today as they were 20 years ago, because we've seen them played out so many times since. And we become blind to things we see repeatedly.
 

I_D

Member
The first book of the series is definitely more whimsical than the others. I'm hoping that's what we're seeing here in terms of the art style.
It should become pretty clear how gritty the show actually is fairly early on, which is good.

It definitely has a campy look to it. The exceptionally-average CG doesn't help. I'm optimistic, but I'm not expecting something of GoT's early-quality.
 

Durask

Member
I gave up on the books after reading book 6 I think (or maybe 7) - to me they felt draggy. Then I just read the spoilers on the wiki page. :messenger_grinning:
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I gave up on the books after reading book 6 I think (or maybe 7) - to me they felt draggy. Then I just read the spoilers on the wiki page. :messenger_grinning:

That's my worry with starting this series. I get it's a fantasy classic, buy I've heard, even from die hard fans of the series, that the middle of it drags.

I wouldn't mind watching the series if it's good, but I've been looking into it and some of the vibes I'm getting from the show runners raises a red flag.
 

Catphish

Member
I’m heading into the last few chapters of The Great Hunt. I’m so friggin amped for this show I can’t stand it.

*bounce bounce*
 

Ballthyrm

Member
WoT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> GoT

WoT is the best fantasy series of all time next to Hobbit/LOTR, your loss.

lotr-so-you-have-chosen-death.gif


I think you got a serious case of nostalgia glasses.
In 14 books there is barely any character development apart from Rand.
Characters end where they started, they barely change either their motivation or their behavior.

Sure with all that space, he has time to build them up quite well but he never does anything with them.
The plot advance at a glacial pace and then all of sudden stuff happens and it's gone in a chapter.

He keep explaining the same thing over and over and over.

Sure it's a classic and has done a lot of good for the fantasy genre and expanded what people thought was possible.
But compared to the books we get today, It really doesn't hold up. Not like LOTR does.

I would put any of the popular series out right now above the WoT, The Stormlight Archive, First Law, Realm of the Elderlings, Malazan, The Witcher.

As for GoT, many got their opinion permanently tarnished by the TV show, but you really shouldn't.
Sure the last book set up a lot of plots and we don't really know where they lead yet but that doesn't mean they will end up being useless.
If GRRM dies and never finish the books then sure, until then, I will keep myself from judgement on the whole series.
 
Top Bottom