Wheel of Time (Amazon)

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118340153#Comment_118340153

With a guy called Donal Finn, who I'm claiming as Irish wherever he's from😋

Im caught up now

Ive enjoyed the last two, agree about the perrin/egwene/rand stuff

The problem with condensing everything so much is that things have to come up as huge challenges, then get resolved fairly easily, by the same two or three characters- again and again. Consequently it feels like a small-stakes, small-world show.

This isnt, before anyone starts, a book/tv show gripe- its a criticism of the tv show as a tv show- theyve had time to allow things to breathe and to show scope and theyve used it poorly (warder grief porn episode, dawdling around tar valon)

Egwene, mat, nynaeve, moiraine, lan all developed well so far, rand a wet blanket, Perrin frankly a disaster.

Nb i still like it and am enjoying it

Slydice

12: This episode was called The Dark Along the Ways...

but an alternative title could easily have been The Absolute Thirst of Nynaeve 😂😁

Spoiler Warning

Something very off about Rand thinking he's channelling. All seems to be falling out of the voices that got into his head in the Ways.

The Ways.. by the way.. seem to be very much like hyperspace in Babylon 5 😀 Fantasy needs it's shortcuts just as much as Science Fiction I guess 😁

The Blight being a densing packed swampy looking woodland is a cool idea.

Wonder if it'll be like the ole Don't get distracted or you get lost idea.

This market dude showing up from the earlier episodes. Feels odd. Kinda shoehorned. If he's a big baddie, then it feels like it's gonna be a bit underwhelming unless they give him some backstory. Maybe ok if he turns out a Rogue like Aragorn or something.. I dunno.

Rands mother and father! Now that was a backstory! What a fight at the start! Felt crap when got stabbed.. but it was starting to get a bit odd if she was gonna take out much more soldiers.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118341636#Comment_118341636

Or The Fellowship of the Ring rebooted

that journey through The Ways was like a carbon copy of The Mines of Moria

And while we're on LOTR, is having the big faceoff between the dragon reborn and the Dark One at this stage not like having Frodo destroy the ring about one tenth of the way through LOTR? Or is there even bigger stuff to come in later series?

Well i mean we'll just have to see eh

Mr.Nice Guy

I'm enjoying it for what it is but I can't shake the feeling that this is a Saturday evening BBC fantasy series except with a bit more gore.

I'm disappointed they made short use of that Logaine character as he has interested me the most. I like the concept of a powerful false prophet that needs to be stopped. No idea how the books dealt with this but a showdown between him and the other main characters built over several episodes would have intrigued me. As it is, the viewers don't really know much about the 'big bad' heading into the final showdown.

Ishmael

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118342300#Comment_118342300

Tolkien set the template for most modern fantasy. If you read pretty much any fantasy written in the last few decades, you'll find stuff taken from his work and re-imagined.

As for the battle with the dark one. It's kind of like what you say but the wheel wills as the wheel will :). There is absolutely amazing things to come, hopefully in the next episode and the coming seasons. What has happened in the show so far is the tip of the iceberg with what could be made from the book material. What will actually make it to the screen is a different story i guess.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118342809#Comment_118342809

Well i mean we'll just have to see eh 😎

OwaynOTT

WAFO

Raoul Duke

Spoiler Warning

Did Egwene channel at the same time as Rand in the Ways? If she didn't, why did she apologise for channeling?

Slydice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118343823#Comment_118343823

I'm 90% sure that

Spoiler Warning

she was the only one channelling, it looked like Rand is under the influence of whatever the voice was that came at them in the ways and just imagined it all.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118342809#Comment_118342809

Same here, though I've always enjoyed BBC stuff though. That said TV quality these days can be excellent. More gore and they've spiced up the romance aspects. But not entirely unexpected.

After watching the show maybe read the books it's sounds you might like the ideas. The writing isn't always great, but it's a good tale.

The TV show is enjoyable enough.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118342907#Comment_118342907

Fingers crossed. I liked the last episode.

The blight I imagined as a desert or was that the aiel waste or something.

Mitch Connor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344068#Comment_118344068

Spoiler Warning

Egwene may have, but rand also did. The scenes of him being shown to Channel happened as they were shown, as you could see the black channeling too. Eg, he did channel to break through the door, the dark friend had said that door would withstand 3 men. All those scenes were the points that tell rand he is the DR. not his mind being messed with. Along with the ramblings from tam about him being found on dragon mount.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344068#Comment_118344068

Roll on Tomas Covenant...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344283#Comment_118344283

Blight is full of corrupted plants and animals

Ishmael

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344297#Comment_118344297

Something i thought was kinda interesting:

In an earlier ep. Logain sees Mat and Rand on a ledge and laughs wildly, although, it's not clear if that happened in reality or it was only something Mat imagined. I did think that it would be turned on it's head to be Logain laughing at the sight of Rand with him being the Dragon reborn and Logain being the only one able to see what Rand truly was. Maybe it has some other significance instead.

The show has somewhat established that there are different sources of channeling power for males and females. Saidin and Saidar. I don't recall it being explained in the show yet but there are some things to understand about the power.

Book stuff that might be spoilery below. Fair warning:

Spoiler Warning

First is that normal people who are unable to channel cannot see the flows when someone channels. They would be able to see the result of the channeling though. So if Moraine creates a fireball in her hand for example, they would see the fireball but not the flows that created it. I think the show is going out of it's way to show the flows.

Women who can channel can see other women channeling. If they are experienced enough with channeling themselves, they may even be able to see the flows. This is how they learn in Tar Valon. Women who can channel can also detect the ability to channel and even measure the potential capacity to which they can channel. Men can do the same for male channeling.

Women who channel cannot detect the ability in men or even detect when a man is channeling and vice versa. So, if they are keeping that same mechanism in the T.V. show, Egwene, Moraine and Nynaeve would have been unaware that Rand actually channeled at all.

twinex

I have to give credit where it’s due, that opening scene was excellent. Brilliant and unexpected. It also gave a glimpse of how dangerous Aiel can be, more so those about to give birth.

The rest of the episode was more of the same. It had good and bad scenes, a little bit of character development, a nothing love triangle. Plus more clean clothes and bad lighting.

Glad Nynaeve got her leg over. She was going to burst.

Mitch Connor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344497#Comment_118344497

Yeah, I think the login bit will come back and it will be rand he was looking at, and the shot in the episode was misdirection.

twinex

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314972#Comment_118314972

Got round to watching it. That one hits the nail on the head so hard they should hire her on as a consultant for season 2

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344850#Comment_118344850

Same here just watched it.

Couldn't disagree with any of it.

twinex

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118345022#Comment_118345022

She resoundingly exposes the squandered potential of season 1…

…..but I have sincere hopes for the seasons to come. The story has so much more to offer.

Slydice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118344297#Comment_118344297

I'm open to the idea. The show feels like it's playing it vague on purpose.

Spoiler Warning

While the power of the Dragon Reborn or 'the dark one (TM)' hasn't really gotten across to me.. the mystery of the who the Dragon Reborn is has been building up well. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe it's a captain planet effort .. by their powers combined .. or something like that.

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118340153#Comment_118340153

Barney Harris as Mat is probably the highlight of the series for me thus far. He's been superb, and one of the few that truly nailed their character. And from reading online and talking to the few people I know watching this, I'm far from the only one to think so.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118345373#Comment_118345373

Mat in the TV is mostly miserable. you'd think they'd have developed his character more.

fritzelly

Series is ok for me but damn the actors, bar some of the seasoned ones, are so damn wooden it puts me off the show

Currently binging the second season of The Witcher and it's like night and day with the acting

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118345404#Comment_118345404

Oh I think they've butchered the character, particularly shat on him in the last episode, but I think the actor has been a highlight.

Flinty997

I seem to remember that Aes Sedai are meant to be unreadable and ageless. Not that they have stuck to the books.

I've warmed to the actor playing Rand.

That all the actors seems to "acting" the same way, the same style makes me wonder is it how they are being directed.

Love the Witcher. There's a dry humor in it that's great. It's a far better made show than WOT.

Flinty997

That scene with Rand's mother was decent nothing wrong with that in terms of production.

OwaynOTT

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118345694#Comment_118345694

Everyone is delivering their lines in a kind of breathy manner.

An awful lot of smelling the fart going on too