[TV] Wheel of Time series

[Archinerd]

Amazon seems pretty happy with how the show is being received so far:

Also in the same article:

One of the company’s newest hopefuls in the arena is Mass Effect. Amazon Studios is nearing a deal to develop a series based on the best-selling sci-fi video game franchise from Electronic Arts.

Brace yourselves for the mouth-breather outrage when they announce it will be a 'Lady-Shep'.

[Blackhawk]

Also in the same article:

One of the company’s newest hopefuls in the arena is Mass Effect. Amazon Studios is nearing a deal to develop a series based on the best-selling sci-fi video game franchise from Electronic Arts.

What's J. J. Abrams up to? The man knows his lens flare. Just add some extra film grain and vignetting and he'd have the look down pat!

[RunningMn9]

Rosamund Pike is just slightly too detached and cold for me.

I think this will change. They've gone out of their way to demonstrate just how cold and detached she is, which signals to me they're setting up a character arc of her slowly warming up to the kids under her protection.

It also aligns to how it worked in the books.

I mean, I just finished reading Eye of the World again, and I don’t agree that this aligns with how it worked in the books. She certainly grows warmer and more attached over time, but she isn’t nearly this cold and detached, straight murdering the ferryman.

Moraine is on a mission, and she is wholly committed to that mission - but she’s not a robot.

Rosamund Pike is more robot. In fairness, I feel that about most characters that she plays. It’s not specific to Moraine.

I just read through the AMA on Reddit with the show runner and it made me slightly less fearful of what they are planning.

[$iljanus]

Sigh I decided to dive back into the book series. Unfortunately I read 1-5 when they were first released then gave up and since my original copies are long gone I decided to buy an omnibus Kindle copy which covers the first 5 books. It’s gonna be a long road…

I am enjoying the Amazon version so far though. It’s a good time to be into all things nerd!

[malchior]

Rosamund Pike is just slightly too detached and cold for me.

I think this will change. They've gone out of their way to demonstrate just how cold and detached she is, which signals to me they're setting up a character arc of her slowly warming up to the kids under her protection.

It also aligns to how it worked in the books.

I mean, I just finished reading Eye of the World again, and I don’t agree that this aligns with how it worked in the books. She certainly grows warmer and more attached over time, but she isn’t nearly this cold and detached, straight murdering the ferryman.

Moraine is on a mission, and she is wholly committed to that mission - but she’s not a robot.

Rosamund Pike is more robot. In fairness, I feel that about most characters that she plays. It’s not specific to Moraine.

I saw it more as hard and closed off. She does try to stop him but once he seals his fate she quickly realizes it is out of her control. She had already taken the to be fatal action before he jumped in the water. There is room for distance of feelings of responsibility there.

I agree about the mission commitment. I think they had that scene with Egwene to show that she is all about 'mission first' which is very much Moraine from the books. Still could she be a little more broken up? Sure but it gets into nitpicking pretty quickly.

[Zaxxon]

I'm with malchior.

[RunningMn9]

It’s ok for other people to not agree with how I feel about the portrayal.

[Max Peck]

Amazon seems pretty happy with how the show is being received so far:

Also in the same article:

One of the company’s newest hopefuls in the arena is Mass Effect. Amazon Studios is nearing a deal to develop a series based on the best-selling sci-fi video game franchise from Electronic Arts.

Brace yourselves for the mouth-breather outrage when they announce it will be a 'Lady-Shep'.

Henry Cavill was teasing something Mass Effect related back in February, so I'm expecting that we have a good idea who will be playing the lead character, whether that happens to be Shepard or someone else.

[RunningMn9]

I thought episode 4 was *outstanding*.

It’s only been a few short episodes, but where it excels for me is when it focuses on scenes that aren’t in the books.

Spoiler:

I really am going to miss this Mat. I appreciated that the let the horror wash over me over what that dagger is doing to him, and then giving me enough to just let me believe it was the Fade.

An excellent way to let us know about Owen and why it’s important to Thom to help, and justify him taking on the Fade to let them escape.

The battle at the Aes Sedai camp. I was really starting to get bothered by just how little those ladies were respecting the three oaths, but the final scene in the caves, and the moment of Nynaeve al’Meara’s unleashing of her power. I thought it was outstanding.

That said, if anyone ever pronounces Tar Valon like that again, I’m done watching the show. I had no idea that’s how Robert Jordan pronounced it and I hate everything about it. How can RJ have pronounced it like that, but the audiobooks don’t?

[Blackhawk]

That one I haven't noticed yet. How are they pronouncing it?

[RunningMn9]

TAHR vuh-LON

Edit: Aram says it and I wanted to turn my TV off.

[Blackhawk]

TAHR vuh-LON

Edit: Aram says it and I wanted to turn my TV off.

That's pretty much how I pronounced it. Did yours rhyme with 'tar talon'? The official glossary... really needs to learn the phonetic alphabet: (TAHR VAH-lon)

And while we're at it:

[Jaymann]

I like it when things are pronounced the way they look. That's how I read it, so that works for me.

[RunningMn9]

That's pretty much how I pronounced it. Did yours rhyme with 'tar talon'?

Yes. I have all 14 books through Audible and have listened to them all more than once. I didn't think that my pronunciation was weird because it's the same pronunciation used in all of those Audible books.

[Jaymann]

That guy trying to pronounce Nynaeve was hilarious. Usually when a name has too may vowels (or consonants) my mind just picks out a few so I don't have to keep thinking about it. For example I see/hear that as NEV-weg.

[malchior]

That guy trying to pronounce Nynaeve was hilarious. Usually when a name has too may vowels (or consonants) my mind just picks out a few so I don't have to keep thinking about it. For example I see/hear that as NEV-weg.

A worthy series. It's important to see how he pronounces Aviendha and Aiel.

[RunningMn9]

Less talk about pronunciation, more talk about episode four.

Edit: actually my pronunciation rhymes more with “pollen” than “talon”.

[Hamlet3145]

So, I watched the first couple of episodes and really like it, but I found myself quite conscious that there must be a ton of world building and character development that I'm missing out on from never having read the books. So I asked myself, do I really want to watch this before reading them?

Answer: no.

So, here I am now about 200 pages deep into The Eye of the World. And I'm really glad that I have as this all obviously starts years before the events of the TV show. Really digging it so far, though I can already tell how slowly things will progress. That's fine--I am in no rush and Jordan's pacing definitely serves to flesh out the world (which is fascinating so far, though I've mostly just been learning about the Aes Sedai).

One neat thing having seen the show a bit is that I now know that Lan will apparently become Moraine's warder and I'm really curious about the events to lead to that.

Okay, I'll be back to this thread in a few years when I finish the series.

[dbt1949]

Episodes 1 & 4 had lots of action. Good. Episodes 2 & 3 had lots of talking. Bad.
And that's my review so far as someone who's never heard of this before.

[Blackhawk]

So, here I am now about 200 pages deep into The Eye of the World. And I'm really glad that I have as this all obviously starts years before the events of the TV show. Really digging it so far, though I can already tell how slowly things will progress. That's fine--I am in no rush and Jordan's pacing definitely serves to flesh out the world (which is fascinating so far, though I've mostly just been learning about the Aes Sedai).

One neat thing having seen the show a bit is that I now know that Lan will apparently become Moraine's warder and I'm really curious about the events to lead to that.

And now I'm really confused. From what I remember, the Eye of the World (which I've read half a dozen times, although it's been four or five years, admittedly) starts off with a prologue that takes place years (millennia) before the show, but the book itself starts at pretty much the same place the show did, with Randal Thor heading to town for Bel Tine. I don't recall any point at which Alan Man Dragon wasn't MoreAnal's Warder.

Sorry, those pronunciation videos got stuck in my head. You get the point, though. Is this some sort of special prequel edition?

[Blackhawk]

Episodes 1 & 4 had lots of action. Good. Episodes 2 & 3 had lots of talking. Bad.
And that's my review so far as someone who's never heard of this before.

Don't watch Game of Thrones.

[Hamlet3145]

So, here I am now about 200 pages deep into The Eye of the World. And I'm really glad that I have as this all obviously starts years before the events of the TV show. Really digging it so far, though I can already tell how slowly things will progress. That's fine--I am in no rush and Jordan's pacing definitely serves to flesh out the world (which is fascinating so far, though I've mostly just been learning about the Aes Sedai).

One neat thing having seen the show a bit is that I now know that Lan will apparently become Moraine's warder and I'm really curious about the events to lead to that.

And now I'm really confused. From what I remember, the Eye of the World (which I've read half a dozen times, although it's been four or five years, admittedly) starts off with a prologue that takes place years (millennia) before the show, but the book itself starts at pretty much the same place the show did, with Randal Thor heading to town for Bel Tine. I don't recall any point at which Alan Man Dragon wasn't MoreAnal's Warder.

Sorry, those pronunciation videos got stuck in my head. You get the point, though. Is this some sort of special prequel edition?

Oh, holy crap--I'm not reading the Wheel of Time. I'm reading the prequel novel New Spring.

Guess I'll just go with it.

[RunningMn9]

Unless he started with A New Spring, there is never a time in the books before Lan was Moraine’s warder.

[Hamlet3145]

Unless he started with A New Spring, there is never a time in the books before Lan was Moraine’s warder.

Yep. Was not paying attention.

Edit: Just to explain how on earth I managed to do this, I bought the Wheel of Time complete edition on Kindle and it apparently also includes the prequel novel which it puts right at the beginning. I just assumed I was reading The Eye of the World. Oops.

[Smoove_B]

TAHR vuh-LON

Edit: Aram says it and I wanted to turn my TV off.

How has this never come up in 20+ years? I said it in my head exactly like they do on the show. I wasn't influenced by audio books, so I read it and that's how I heard it.

I liked Ep4. Was not expecting things to escalate so...quickly. I think I can see now why the actress playing Nynaeve was cast for that part after the latest episode. I would be very curious to hear from someone that has no familiarity with the source material as I think they're being intentionally dodgy about the lore of the Dragon Reborn and really implying it's someone other than the person we all know it is.

[dbt1949]

Episodes 1 & 4 had lots of action. Good. Episodes 2 & 3 had lots of talking. Bad.
And that's my review so far as someone who's never heard of this before.

Don't watch Game of Thrones.

Only saw a view of them.

[Blackhawk]

Episodes 1 & 4 had lots of action. Good. Episodes 2 & 3 had lots of talking. Bad.
And that's my review so far as someone who's never heard of this before.

Don't watch Game of Thrones.

Only saw a view of them.

Lots of talking. Lots of walking (at anything from afternoon stroll to supersonic speeds, depending on what the plot needs.) The action is punctuation.

[RunningMn9]

TAHR vuh-LON

Edit: Aram says it and I wanted to turn my TV off.

How has this never come up in 20+ years? I said it in my head exactly like they do on the show. I wasn't influenced by audio books, so I read it and that's how I heard it.

I mean, I pronounced it the way the glossary told me to pronounce it (TAHR VAH-lon). I didn’t think any more on it when the audiobooks matched what the glossary told me.

[dbt1949]

Episodes 1 & 4 had lots of action. Good. Episodes 2 & 3 had lots of talking. Bad.
And that's my review so far as someone who's never heard of this before.

Don't watch Game of Thrones.

Only saw a view of them.

Lots of talking. Lots of walking (at anything from afternoon stroll to supersonic speeds, depending on what the plot needs.) The action is punctuation.

I did like following Arya tho. Maybe I'll find a character to follow in this one too.

[JCC]

Unless he started with A New Spring, there is never a time in the books before Lan was Moraine’s warder.

Yep. Was not paying attention.

Edit: Just to explain how on earth I managed to do this, I bought the Wheel of Time complete edition on Kindle and it apparently also includes the prequel novel which it puts right at the beginning. I just assumed I was reading The Eye of the World. Oops.

Starting with New Spring is fine.

[Blackhawk]

I did like following Arya tho. Maybe I'll find a character to follow in this one too.

Of the characters you've met in the show, I enjoyed Perrin's story the most.

[Blackhawk]

From another thread:

As with Wheel of Time this one is getting pretty slow.

To be fair, the Wheel of Time is 4.4 million words (approximately the equivalent of reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy nine times) told from the viewpoint of 147 characters. It devotes huge amounts of time to world building, tertiary characters, descriptions. Too much, to be honest - it would have been better with about 20% shaved off. Still, it's a huge story. They've trimmed it down massively for the show. I'm guessing they're getting the early, establishing elements out of the way quickly so that they can devote more time to the core of the story, although that is going to leave some people scratching their heads over why certain things matter. It's a huge project, and they're trying to cram about a quarter of it into the first season. It's going to be... dense.

FWIW, for people who haven't read the books, the deal with being named a Dragon Reborn is (spoiler tags for courtesy, although it's for stuff that isn't really explained in the show, and would be established in the very beginning of the novels, so isn't hidden knowledge...)

Spoiler:

Magic has two parts, male and female, shown as the ying-yang symbol. The part of 'magic' (the Source) that males can use is corrupted, and it makes it unusable. Having a penis and using magic is essentially a guarantee of insanity and destruction.

Using magic is a prerequisite of being The Dragon.

Claiming to be the Dragon Reborn means that you're going to become an incredibly powerful, utterly insane, uncontrollable cult leader/murder tyrant who is going to throw whole regions into war if he retains his senses long enough, and will just cause mass destruction if he doesn't. It's akin to naming yourself a witch during the Inquisition. Having it suggested in private that you are is both terrifying and deeply insulting, and naming somebody else Dragon out loud in public is likely to get them dragged off and murdered to death on the spot. We're not just talking a few angry villagers - armies will march to murder you. False Dragons (people claiming the title) pop up from time to time, and entire wars have been fought as a result.

So Moiraine calling out the three of them as potential Dragons Reborn in the village square, and having the three of them shrug it off with 'well, gosh' is just... odd. She didn't even mention the possibility for the entirety of the first book, save for the final chapter. And then she only spoke it to herself in private.

It's a huge deal.

For the Wheel of Time universe, the Dragon actually being reborn is akin to Jesus returning (in magnitude - the implications are quite different.) It would immediately flip the world in its ear if it were to ever happen.

[dbt1949]

It gets a little confusing as I am Dragonborn.

[Isgrimnur]

All right, Spartacus.

[dbt1949]

No, Dragonborn.

[hepcat]

Wait…not Goatborn?

[Freyland]

Make it a lion-threesome and he's Chimeraborn.

[dbt1949]

Goatbarn

[RunningMn9]

To follow up on Blackhawk’s post about the implications of being the Dragon Reborn.

Everything he said is correct from the standpoint of the books, and it made my brain hurt in the pilot. After seeing a bunch of commentary from the show runner, I understand a little more about the direction the are taking.

The issue isn’t that Bela is possibly the Dragon Reborn or anything insane - it’s that these prophecies are thousands of years old and people don’t really know much about them or believe them. They don’t KNOW that the Dragon Reborn has to be man. Sure, there’s an old ass book that says he is, but so what? It’s just an old book and no one knows if it’s correct.

[Jaymann]

Maybe culturally it's like saying Elvis is still alive or some random guy is JFK, Jr. The claim is so outrageous that no one heeds it.