I mean this is the thing, it’s an adaption. The books aren’t a screenplay. If we want to nitpick every change they make over the course of 14 books of source material then what’s the point in watching it
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Here’s the thing. You have 8 episodes to get from the two rivers to the eye of the world. You need to show (not tell) the threat of gentling. You need to introduce Logain, or else you can’t use him in future seasons. You also need to show the audience how epic Nynaeve is.
I think that combination of characters worked really well to hit key story beats visually and efficiently.
I know this isn’t the structure of the book. The book is great. The book is an awful structure for a tv series. Reality is that this will be an 8 season series. Shortcuts are needed. Whole arcs will be cut or morphed. Characters will be culled or combined. It can’t be a scene by scene faithful copy of the books.
If you can frame the changes in terms of where it takes the story, rather than what was lost, I think you’ll enjoy it more. If you grieve for every lost book chapter, you’ll have a really sucky experience.
All that being said, your experience is your experience and you have every right to be frustrated with the adaption.
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I don’t believe I’m nitpicking…small changes are fine…major deviations from the storyline annoy me.
GoT had small changes but overall kept fairly faithful to the books (until they went past the books)
LoR was the same.
Heaps of people (including many on Blitz) got quite peeved with The Hobbit movies because they changed the story so much.
I’m following that line of thinking.
This series is probably my all time favourite and I don’t think it’s too much to expect the writers to remain reasonably faithful to what is excellent source material.
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Something that will be interesting, especially in books 1 & 2, is that the story was told with super unreliable narration. Rand knows next to nothing, so everything he sees is deliberately portrayed confusingly and misunderstood in the text.
Key events that happen off screen are explained in comments by characters in later books.
That won’t work for tv. They’ll need to show things clearly, as they actually happen rather than how the characters think they happen.
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Yeah that’s fair. I’m just working with the assumption that the changes were made for a good reason, and maybe we’ll realise that by season end, maybe we won’t.
That being said, I’m sure we can agree that changing things like the “Dark One’s taint” are probably for the better
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I’ve loved some of the things they’ve done so far…showing the weaves, the way that they’ve portrayed the Tuatha’an and their Way of the Leaf to name some.
I got the change to Perrin’s story, understood why they hinted at Rand & Egwene sleeping together.
I just hated that Logain scene where they just plonked characters down and made up a whole storyline.
I’ll keep watching in the hope that either I get over my obsession with accuracy or the story captivates me enough that I can just enjoy it for what it is
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I admit I didn’t like him breaking out of the shield, wasn’t the whole point of shielding that they couldn’t touch the power
Edit: except for the Forsaken?
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episode 5 spoiler
Loial’s appearance caught me off guard in the latest episode but his voice instantly brought me back. big fan of Hammad
edit sorry swoodley, Meant it as a general reply.
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Can’t read that as I haven’t watched episode 5 yet…I have to wait for my daughter to come around on Monday night 
Edit: no sweat @Lefty…I sometimes forget that I’ve read the books so many times that I have a pretty good grasp of the story
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It was interesting that Sanderson clashed with Judkins about a key story point. Judkins explained what the change enabled down the track, that it was critical for setting up the future narrative.
I don’t know which episode that was about, but it stuck with me. That the writers need to be thinking many seasons ahead so that they have the critical threads laid down.
I think that was the Perrin change.
Sanderson said it should have been Master Luhan instead of adding a wife just to fridge her, but Rafe and Sarah (resident book expert on the team) have a plan for the story down the line
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you need a circle of 13 to properly contain someone with shielding
he wrote a big reddit post that basically ended with this is rafe’s interpretation of the story and his attempt to live up to jordans canvas, which matches what sanderson says in the extra clips you see called legacy.
First episode down, really enjoyed that, think I’m going to like this series.
It’s slowly coming back to me. I pictured the main characters differently. Suppose that’s the magic of great storytelling in books, we all picture things differently.
But gee they really nailed Moiraine with Rosamund Pike. And I think I’m going to like Lan alot.
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i kinda dont like pike as moraine, kinda think they need someone shorter with more gravitas.
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Hey this show is pretty cool, halfway through ep1. I got Amazon Prime on trial for ordering stuff with free deliveries for Christmas and didn’t realise there were all these other freebies included. Count me in.
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Glad that people are enjoying it and hope they continue to. I am a bit surprised though as I’ve found it fairly poor and haven’t been able to continue watching.
On the story side; I understand they’ve had to make some narrative changes and can appreciate some, while others are just annoying.
Have found the writing pretty poor though, they’re trying to rush an epic far too much.
The actors are largely good, although not on board with the Moiraine casting, but the dialogue’s not great.
On the production side the scale is all wrong, the camera seems to just rush through all the time and the score makes the drama seem forced rather than really dramatic. All in all it seems fairly low budget.
Lol my Mrs got Amazon Prime and didn’t say anything, she didn’t realize either. Was just happy getting her deliveries fast.
By the time she told me and I worked it out, almost a year had passed.
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Just off topic while we’re talking about Amazon Prime…Reacher starts in February for those who have followed that series of books
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It’s not perfect, but I think it’s improving after a rushed start. I agree that the scale feels too small at times. I’m wondering if budget was saved for the finale.
Im finding my frustrations lessening into eps 4 & 5. Hopefully that trend continues. Overall I’m enjoying it, but I can empathise with those that get put off.
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