Oh dear.
Edit: A quick search produces the suggestion that the series is based mainly around Numenor and the 2nd Age , and presumably the creation of Gondor to tie it to TLOR for viewers who may never have bothered with the 1st and 2nd Age stories. If the series stays largely away from the 1st Age and Gondolin etc, they might get away with it
But we digress.
All major new IPs are trying to create their own metaverses to drive franchise engagement, ala Marvel. GoT prequals, Witcher prequal spinoffs, Mandalorian/Boba Fett, Foundation (?). See Riot Games for an idea of the end goal; they have been killing this area with the League of Legends IP and the idea of associated games, comics, animes etc.
The goal is to get you to consume as much extra content as you can outside the main IP to immerse you in the universe they create - that’s why you have the WoT bonus content releasing alongside the show. Amazon is even doing WoT crossover loot drops for their own MMO, New World
Pity it’s ■■■■.
Amazon’s end goal is to get more people on Amazon prime.
The changes aren’t a problem.
The story-telling decisions and chops are.
In a short season they spent what felt like forever to establish little more than warder bonds are intimate and it’s devastating when death breaks them.
That detail is not a change, its canon. And yet it was inefficient at best, and a waste at worst, to expend so much of the most precious commodity they have, on-screen minutes, on it.
I understand the instruction “show, don’t tell” but the books were at their best when much of the world was mere hint, rumour, or legend that reached the kids ears as they ventured out.
Leave the world as hints and “here be Dragons” and spend the time making the kids more likeable.
Still, I got through 4 and a bit seasons of Andromeda with Kevin Sorbo, and this is a lot better than that.
kids generally aren’t likable, let alone kids that are going to save the world. can you honestly say if you read the books for the first time now, as an adult, you would resonate with the kids?
I’m not fussed about the books.
I think it is what the show needed.
Yeah but you literally can’t do that in a TV/Movie medium. You need exposition dumps.
LotR had exposition dumps literally all throughout it (especially the extended editions), because if you didn’t, no one would have any idea about wtf is going on
controversial
I think you can.
I like exposition dumps. When they are done well.
I don’t like digressions. I feel like these are digressions.
LOTR is such a good example. Long movies but effective and efficient at condensing the text. Smart storytelling choices. Making you want to travel with the characters.
And as you said the theatrical cuts had a lot less and are as least good as the EE.
Diving into Siuan Sanche doesn’t help now.
Keep it tight. The kids, no Aes Sedai other than Moiraine, Lan, Nynaeve. Have Moiraine, Lan, and rumours talk about the rest. The WoT world works best like a horror movie villain does when shrouded in mist.
they had to include other aes sedai as we dont have the elaida at caemlyn story to instill a distrust of aes sedai
They made choices. There was no have to.
But perhaps I should be clearer and suggest that I’m less thinking about don’t show as don’t shift focus to. And certainly don’t show unless our characters are there.
A notable exception being the beginning of ep 7.
Tv audiences need to see things. Liandrin going rogue and gentling logain brings home how unsafe it is for the dragon to out themselves.
Obviously we’re not going to agree.
I think all that can be off-screen for now. I think it can be established in other ways. I think watching characters react to the mere rumour of such things can be revelatory.
I guess I don’t care if I am confused, so long as I’m intrigued.
A tv show needs to think seasons ahead. They could have left everything vague like the book, but that would have confused new viewers and made later seasons more difficult. It’s really hard to rewind the story and highlight key events that happened earlier, but you didn’t want to include them because of the book.
They made a choice to accelerate the world building. That meant shifting the protagonist from Rand to Moiraine. Because they needed the protagonist to have knowledge, rather than naivety.
There’s definitely execution issues, but for every change ask yourself what it achieved for current and later seasons and why the book version wouldn’t have worked on tv.
As a viewer if I’m being asked to consider these questions then I think we’re discussing a failure.
And I don’t think they achieved much at the cost of a lot of the watchability now.
We are talking at cross purposes a little, because the changes don’t bother me at all really in themselves. How they used their time in those middle episodes does.
It’s an astonishingly hard job and I’m sure the chaos of the past two years made it extremely difficult. I’d probably enjoy a retrospective podcast discussion by the creators about how it evolved a great deal.
I’ll eject here because I’m probably boring people. I think I’ll enjoy ep 8 if it continues at the level they reached in ep 7.
I mean at the end of the day I feel like discussing how well they did/didn’t adapt book 1 is just semantics without having any idea of what their plans are for s2.
Worldbuilding isn’t easy. Worldbuilding with the intention to adapt 14 novels is next level
Nah man. I for one enjoy the chats.
I’m convinced the extra 3 hours of content this season would have solved a lot of the issues we all have with the show. I think the structure they built the season around was the right move. But they were forced into a barebones version of that structure. I think that cut the screen time of the two rivers folks, which automatically becomes a problem for readers. If the show had more time to breath, it could have given more moments that the readers would love.
Interesting comments by Brandon Sanderson:
“ The Wheel of Time
Hey, the Wheel of Time television show is out! I don’t agree with all of the decisions made in the creation (and it includes some content that I find objectionable). However, I do like the team working on it, and I feel they’ve listened to my voice as I’ve advocated for a lot of things behind the scenes. You can read some of my spoiler-ish thoughts on the WoT subreddit here, here, and here. Overall, I think they’re doing a great job.”
Yeah sorry but if you object to gore and you let your kids play Doom, you’re an idiot
Also, gore? Wtf
