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Wheel of Time
- Thread starter AJUMP23
- Start date
Watching it right now and it's pretty slow and uninteresting so far. A bit distracted by the immense multi cultural society a tiny little medieval village in the middle of nowhere has managed to cultivate though.
I wish they'd stuck to one ethnicity to at least try to make it believable, but instead they opted for everything. I swear, every single person I've seen so far seems to be from a different place on thr planet.
Yeah , welcome to modern casting. The witcher does it, even though they leave in stuff like folks recognizing someones country (how, if every country has the same mix of ethnicities?) and Shadow & Bone did it yet still kept all the ethnic distaste. The lead girl is constantly shamed for her mixed ethnicity while in a crowd of folks who are just like her. The casting seriously underminds the scriot in these shows.
Hari Seldon
Member
I watched the first episode last night. My summary review is that it is significantly different than the books (which as a huge book fan I'm fine with, it is now its own thing) and isn't as terrible as some of the reviews made it out to be.
The bad:
It moves waaaaaaaay too fast in the first episode, should have rolled things out much slower
Some of the changes it has made have huge implications down the line (Perrin being married, Matt's dad being an asshole)
Cinematography inexplicably sucked. Not sure how it is possible to fuck this up.
The Good:
Pleasantly surprised at the quality of the young actors. Especially the girls which is probably most hard to get correct.
Despite bad cinematography, the sets and location shots are great, even the costumes looked good live.
Trollocs were great
WoT Lore seems mostly intact except for the Dragon being a women thing. The scene where the Red's capture an insane false dragon was pretty cool.
I'd say after Episode 1 I want to watch more, despite some dubious changes and bad cinematrophy.
EDIT: The dragon might be a woman according to the show. I doubt they are going to seriously change who the dragon is lol.
The bad:
It moves waaaaaaaay too fast in the first episode, should have rolled things out much slower
Some of the changes it has made have huge implications down the line (Perrin being married, Matt's dad being an asshole)
Cinematography inexplicably sucked. Not sure how it is possible to fuck this up.
The Good:
Pleasantly surprised at the quality of the young actors. Especially the girls which is probably most hard to get correct.
Despite bad cinematography, the sets and location shots are great, even the costumes looked good live.
Trollocs were great
WoT Lore seems mostly intact except for the Dragon being a women thing. The scene where the Red's capture an insane false dragon was pretty cool.
I'd say after Episode 1 I want to watch more, despite some dubious changes and bad cinematrophy.
EDIT: The dragon might be a woman according to the show. I doubt they are going to seriously change who the dragon is lol.
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FunkMiller
Member
Reviews seem to indicate this feels cheap, despite Amazon budget. One compared to a modern Xena Warrior Princess 
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What is the tone of the show? YA melodrama heavy, light and campy, grimdark serious but without the TV-MA content , or is it full on GoT/Witcher level adult?
I'm rewatching witcher s1 and it is gonna be REALLY hard to transition to a YA show right away, i'd need a palate cleanser first.
I'm rewatching witcher s1 and it is gonna be REALLY hard to transition to a YA show right away, i'd need a palate cleanser first.
Hari Seldon
Member
The books are more YA, they made the show more adult. Mainly by making all of the characters a few years older so they can immediately go into sex scenes.
Fbh
Member
Reviews seem to indicate this feels cheap, despite Amazon budget. One compared to a modern Xena Warrior Princess
After everything went dark and gritty with stuff like GOT and t he Witcher I guess we could use some more:
Hari Seldon
Member
Reviews seem to indicate this feels cheap, despite Amazon budget. One compared to a modern Xena Warrior Princess
There is something inexplicably fucked about the cinematography. I'm not sure wtf happened. Like they hired the equivalent of that Rust Gun Girl to do it lmao. BUT the on location shooting helps make up for this. And the acting is a huge step up from Xena which helps sell everything.
nightmare-slain
Member
the visual effect/cgi definitely look cheap at times. the lighting on moiraine when she's doing her magic shit looks off. rand in shadar logoth it stands out like a sore thumb you can quite easy tell where the set ends and the green screen starts. the trollocs are not too bad but some close up shots are. it feels like amazon cheaped out on the visual effects which is surprising cause i thought they wanted this to be their GoT. or maybe that's the LOTR show....or maybe they are just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. i did feel a bit concerned if this is how they are gonna treat the LOTR show. LOTR is far more popular so hopefully they do put more care into it.
i'm quite enjoying it so far but the pacing is a bit weird. i know it can't be 100% faithful to the book but it feels like it's going too quick. 2 episodes in and the party already splits up. i don't know how many episodes there are but it feels a bit too quick. i wish they had spent a bit more time introducing the characters and getting to know them.
anyway i'm just happy to see it on screen. unless it turns out really bad then can't see myself giving up on it. i do wonder if i will manage to keep the attention/interest of people who haven't read the book though.
i'm quite enjoying it so far but the pacing is a bit weird. i know it can't be 100% faithful to the book but it feels like it's going too quick. 2 episodes in and the party already splits up. i don't know how many episodes there are but it feels a bit too quick. i wish they had spent a bit more time introducing the characters and getting to know them.
anyway i'm just happy to see it on screen. unless it turns out really bad then can't see myself giving up on it. i do wonder if i will manage to keep the attention/interest of people who haven't read the book though.
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GreenAlien
Member
What? How does that even make sense? The whole series doesn't work if the Dragon is a women. It screws up the foundation of the world-building, character motivations, the magic system...
This seems to be an adaption on the level of The Last Airbender or Dragonball Evolution. I have prime, but I am reluctant to tune in after reading about his.. I could forgive the casting, but this is.. wtf.
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Hari Seldon
Member
Sorry, the dragon "can" be a women in the lore of the show. I'm sure they won't change who the dragon actually is, but it is stupid that it is even possible because the lore makes no sense in this regard. However Moraine mentioned 4 Ta'verene, which actually does make sense and should have been so in the books.
Croga
Member
sankt-Antonio
:^)--?-<
Watched the first episode for 5min. Grainy fucking mess, on the visual front. Looks cheap as hell. After "These powers are for women only" ---> nah dog, I'm out.
Wildebeest
Member
The first episode was enjoyable, but the last thing I watched was a huge mess of the last Dr Who episode, so my expectations were calibrated. It does move at a pace and some things look a bit more goofy than you might hope for. But I thought all the actors were doing a good job. The shots of scenery looked good to me. The image details were quite sharp and HDR/ultrarealistic looking, but that worked for me. I don't need everything to look like it was shot on antique movie film from 1960.
Pilgrimzero
Member
I loved it. Yeah its got a lot of differences, some that seem pointless to change but it's FUN.
FunkMiller
Member
WoT’s just about the only big fantasy epic I’ve never read, so I’m coming in to this series blind. And boy, is it not creating the best first impression, judging from the first episode.
The art direction and cinematography are so flat and unimaginative. It’s making the whole thing look so cheap and ‘TV’. As is the poor CG. And the acting is mostly poor. As is the dialogue. All cliched high fantasy speech.
Is the whole thing going to be about how men are awful? I don’t have the patience for that.
What part of this world is the village supposed to be? North? South? There’s people from all over in it. Is that from the book? I can’t place anything culturally or geographically.
Trollocs? Why not just call them trolls?
They look very silly too.And casting Roose Bolton was a mistake. Makes the all too obvious comparisons even more glaring. GoT felt like a show for adults. This feels like a kid’s show, trying to be adult.
Hasn‘t come out of the gate well.
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Why would they have to age anyone up to have sex scenes? Good grief, its like the entire genre of high school sex comedies has been erased from existence. Anyone remember the film "Kids"? Or "American Beauty"?
'Sides, pretty sure all the WoT characters were of an age to bang.
Batiman
Banned
Nah they’re pretty old in the books. I’m not even sure they mention their age but they’re older than they seem at first
sw0mp_d0nk3y
Member
About to check it out. I read the first 5 books as they came out 30 years ago, then tried again when Sanderson was finishing it, but still ended up stopping after book 4 for some reason. Hoping for the best on this show. I'm going into it expecting it to be a bit cheesy/CWy, but I actually thought the Witcher was pretty cheesy as well, and ended up enjoying it anyway.
haxan7
Volunteered as Tribute
That’s the only way to tell whether a show is good or not. I like to just tune out after I make a mental checklist of making sure I saw all the levels of diversity I was expecting or not. At that point I tell my friends whether the show was good or bad tomorrow based on the checklist. I try to pay a little attention to what’s going on in the background so I can drop a few plot points in when I’m saying how good or bad the show was based on diversity.
off duty ninja
Member
This show is straight trash and has taken a ton of liberties in the name of wokeness. Robert Jordan is probably rolling over in his grave.
Batiman
Banned
Matt was always a dick. Didn’t watch it yet though. Maybe he’s a bigger dick….
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JBat
Member
Book Matt was someone you could understand why Rand and Parren are friends with him. Show Matt only has one redeeming quality. even then it comes across as more of an excuse
EDIT: The dragon might be a woman according to the show. I doubt they are going to seriously change who the dragon is lol.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah I read up to book 8 or 9 and my wife hasn't read any of them and had a bunch of questions about a bunch of things last night and this one I told her not sure why they put this forth other than to maybe keep people guessing who have not read the books? I can't see them changing this.
Nynaeve's attitude in the show is everything I thought it would be lol
[/QUOTE]
Yeah I read up to book 8 or 9 and my wife hasn't read any of them and had a bunch of questions about a bunch of things last night and this one I told her not sure why they put this forth other than to maybe keep people guessing who have not read the books? I can't see them changing this.
Nynaeve's attitude in the show is everything I thought it would be lol
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I can't get on board with poor effects and bland acting. I'm just going to read the books.
Can't say much about the casting, but I thought WoT fans were happy with the casting options?
Catphish
Member
I haven't read any of the impressions in this thread yet because I've only seen the first two episodes so far but, at this point, I love it.
I'm biased, of course, because I love the books and the characters, and am just giddy to see it in live action, but I really do think it's a solid show in its own right.
Had I not been completely spoiled by GoT, I probably wouldn't even have the criticisms I do have, which largely revolve around the quality of the special effects, but they are serviceable, and mostly convincing.
And I fully expected the story to be significantly truncated, which it is, but it's hitting the major beats, and it's doing it with respect to the source material and obvious commitment by the cast.
So, yep, so far, loving it.
I'm biased, of course, because I love the books and the characters, and am just giddy to see it in live action, but I really do think it's a solid show in its own right.
Had I not been completely spoiled by GoT, I probably wouldn't even have the criticisms I do have, which largely revolve around the quality of the special effects, but they are serviceable, and mostly convincing.
And I fully expected the story to be significantly truncated, which it is, but it's hitting the major beats, and it's doing it with respect to the source material and obvious commitment by the cast.
So, yep, so far, loving it.
macfoshizzle
Member
Anyone recommend the reading order to start on the books? I heard it doesn’t as get good until Sanderson?
Start at book 1. Book 5 is my personal favorite but your milage might vary.
Yeah the forced diversity is distracting.
While it is mostly shite there is enough to keep me watching. I like how they totally crap on the concept of ethnicity yet rand is the ONLY redhead..... yet again the gingers are the disposable heroes of media
Egwene REALLY needs to cut off that mole on her nose though, or at least get shot from her right side. She's cute but that thing is all
Egwene REALLY needs to cut off that mole on her nose though, or at least get shot from her right side. She's cute but that thing is all
CrikeyGeno
Banned
This show is so damn corny, feels like a CW version of Xena or something. $10 million to make the first episode? What a waste of money.
DragoonKain
Neighbours from Hell
The special effects and acting in this outside of a couple characters was eesh. But I'm a sucker for fantasy so I'll continue.
Spaceman292
Banned
Try starting with the first one. After that, go for the second one. Then the third. And so on. I know it can be confusing.
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I'm shocked at how bad the production is, and I'm not even a fan of the books. It just looks so cheap. I've been told that the books are a lot better, so I'm just going to start those.
It's made me concerned about the Middle Earth series. I'm hoping that series has the budget it deserves and is respectful to the source material.
FunkMiller
Member
I'm now fucking delighted they never went ahead with The Dark Tower show, to be honest. If that had ended up looking as cheap and nasty as this does, it would have been heartbreaking.
To be fair, not all series are that linear, and isn't one of the WoT books a prequel? I fell off around book 7 or 8 so I'm not sure.
Anyhoo, the first WoT book (Eye of the World) is pretty good and that is what is being adapted for the show so definitely start there.
ClanOfNone
Member
WoT starts out great, I thoroughly enjoyed the first 4 or 5 books. I think I finally gave up around book 10. Too many primary character with dozens of tertiary ones and a billion different plot threads, it just became a convoluted mess. The books coming out years apart didn't help either, I was having to read synopsis just to remember what the hell was going on.
BadBurger
Is 'That Pure Potato'
The first book on Audible is great. I forget who the narrator is but he does a great job.
Party McHardy
Member
It’s been a long time since I read the books and I’m enjoying what I’ve seen so far. But I’m not seeing GoT production values, they need to throw lots of money at this. Also, inclusiveness? Box checked!
Cyberpunkd
Member
I mean - the Witcher books start right from the sex scene, and that was 30 years ago. Once again Sapkowski was right.
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