The Wheel Of Time (Amazon Prime) TV Show • Page 19

Loial really feels like a victim of the rushed pacing at this point in time. We've seen pictures of deleted scenes with things like him and Moraine looking at maps in Tar Valon, so you know there was at least a little bit more of him in there. He kinda feels like a convenient plot device right now, like he just showed up to help with The Ways and then they dropped him like a bad habit.

The show has totally won me over with their version of the story that they are telling. All of my complaints at this point are down to *this story* being told too quickly and feeling far too rushed. We're positively blowing past so much of the great interaction between the characters so we can hit the plot beats.

I will say though that, for the most part, the characters where they do slow down for a moment and take a beat with them have been wise choices, with the exception of Stepin. Devoting almost 1/8 of the total runtime of this series so far to Stepin feels like a huge mistake to me. Using Lan as the storytelling way into explaining Warders and their bond and everything that goes along with that would have been the much stronger choice.

 

Loial and Moiraine do look at maps in episode 6. That scene wasn’t deleted, though it probably was hyper condensed/glossed over. But, yes, we deserve more Loial. And Loial and Min should have a scene together.

I think I know *why* they chose the Stepin storyline, but it would majorly spoiler the entire series… but I don’t want to put it even behind spoiler tags just in case. Feel free to message and ask, though.

 

I must have completely missed that. I remember Lan and Moraine walking in, with Lan's great line about Loial being "upbeat", Moraine & Loial greeting each other and her saying The Wheel seems to have presented a solution to her obstacle, and then that's it. I don't remember them planning or anything at all together, but apparently that's my bad.

I believe you that there's a long-game reason why they so heavily featured Stepin - but I just want to say that, at this point, I honestly believe that storytelling decision is falling prey to what so many big-budget studio blockbuster movies fall prey to: setting up future instalments at the expense of the story you are currently telling. Ideally, you would get to Season 4 or 7 or whatever the case may be, because your Season 1 was so strong that viewers fell in love with your show, not just because Jeff Bezos in insanely rich and apparently loves to throw ungodly amounts of money at as yet untested and unproven shows.

I do recognize that Rafe Judkins had an almost impossible task and was in a situation where he had far, far too many plates in the air so-to-speak in getting this first season out, but that's also the job. I really feel like if you know you only have 480 minutes of screen time total to tell this story, you have to look at how many you spend on a character like Stepin versus Rand or Egwene of really any of your main characters.

I also think this plays into something else about tv shows that usually bothers me as opposed to movies. Most tv shows have multiple directors working on the season for all sorts of reasons, whereas something like True Detective season 1 had one director handle the entire season. I tend to find an entire season directed by one person to be more satisfying on the whole, and a more balanced story. A director working on one episode is making sure that episode is as great as it can possibly be but really isn't concerned with things like whether their episode heavily features a bit character.

 

I'm sorry what show are we talking about here

 

I don’t disagree at all. And I think it’s setting up something that doesn’t need set up yet for… awhile.

Yeah, this is a near impossible task, but I’m thankful a book lover is doing it AND keeping Harriet and Brandon involved.

I think they’re doing the GoT method where 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 are the same, right? A singular vision would be pretty cool.

 

I read back over my post and I think in over elaborating I came off a bit more negative than I meant to. The show is really great, and I think almost all of my complaints can be chalked up to things where Rafe was overruled and simply told how it had to be vs. me having gripes with their creative vision and/or choices.

 

My biggest personal hangup with the show hasn't been struggling with changes from the books or anything like that - it has been me having to get over the fact that I know Jeff Bezos greenlit it. He has more money than god, so in my head I roll my eyes when they say something like they can't make Loial 10 feet tall for budgetary reasons, because I know they could if they felt like it. But that's not fair to Rafe because he absolutely had insane parameters being set for him and it sounds like Amazon* was not willing to budge on some very arbitrary things, like the series premiere - the episode that serves as the foundation for the entire expansive endeavor you are about to undertake - not running over 60 minutes.

* I say Amazon here because I don't know exactly who Rafe was answering to, but it sounds like he had an insane number of studio notes that he had to work with and also some very strict mandates that they absolutely would not budge on. He did not have access to all of Jeff Bezos' money, and I do know this in my brain.

 

I think IGN just missed a few things as I felt it was all handled well and was reasonable with how the certain character came to the certain conclusion.

I really don't have any major complaints about this season and I my consensus is somewhere between really liking it and loving it.. It's not the books, but as we've arcing towards the end of the season, I don't think we have strayed or betrayed too much of the books. I am interested in how Mat will be tied back into events that he needs to be a part of, and how characters will be introduced that were skipped, and how more of the end game and last battle (the forsaken) will be brought to the forefront, but I think all the changes they made, have resulted in more exciting and compelling TV. This last episode was a bit melodramatic, but I think it was supposed to/needed to be with the black wind beginning. It got in their heads so of course there'd be some emotional conversations and miscommunications after.

With out spoilers though, it's so hard to imagine all the things that are to come and how we're going to get to it all. So much was hinted at with Min that I am excited that a lot won't be cut (Rand's aura and Egwene especially), and the Seanchan have been hinted at by the blue sister in the bath house, but there's just so freaking much that happens in this series. I am watching it with my wife and it's impossible to have conversations sometimes as the places these characters end at compared to the beginning are just massive changes. I am tending to not conversate so much but tell her which scenes she should rewatch and listen to so she gets all the breadcrumbs to theorize (I like listening to some of the idea's she had, some are way off but not without merit, and somethings she's surprisingly close to, more so than I would be if I didn't read the books).

I am also super happy and it makes me giddy when I hear from friends that they have run into friends that are talking about it and it's not super fans blabbing to everyone. I think Amazon will do a HUGE marketing push for season 2 and I hope it goes from 80 something on rotten tomatoes to near unanimous praise to get more season.

When do we expect season 2 to be out? This same time next year or will it be as far out as Spring 2023? They have the boys season 3, more invincible and there's a few other big IP's they're rumored to be getting into. Part of me hopes it's even earlier and summer/fall of 2022 but I doubt it. I'm also worried covid shut downs may cause filming delays again if they are still filming in Europe.

 

I agree. I think the most non spoilery answer is that Stepin was needed to display the warder/Aes Sedai bond as there will be more important characters bonds that are pushed to the limit later (it also was to show that Lan is not a complete emotionless robot which was very nice, as while in the books, he does not have any displays as near emotional as in the show, I think they are nailing his character, and he is probably the only one that I feel is improved. By far the best casting and portrayal).

 

They’re already filming it, so my guess is that it’ll start the week after the Lord of the Rings prequel series ends season one, which that starts in September so it’d be roughly the same timeline. If they balance The Boys and Invincible in early 2022 and LOTR/WOT in late 2022, they can control large parts of the market for swaths at a time. I think they also have another Mrs. Maisel season coming next year (summer, maybe?). Amazon has quietly built an excellent counter-model to Netflix, though it is pretty similar to the HBO model now that I think about it.

 

Mat’s in the season finale trailer they just released.

 

Nice, the teaser looks good, watched it a few times already. I am hoping for a longer episode but since the pilot got cut down, I doubt this will be any longer than an hour and 5 minutes.

Perhaps a slight spoiler (I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAG) but I think it's been said by Rafe that this season won't feature the ending of book 1 so I'm wondering where we'll leave off that is a clean break but also leaves people wanting more.

 

[ spoiler ] remove the spaces [ / spoiler ]

Maybe the battle with Baalzamon over Tarwin's Gap is being removed for the one over Falme? Because it definitely looks like that battle is happening in this episode. The final shot of the season is probably going to be the ships of the Seanchan coming over the sea.

 

Nice, i like your theory about the ending shots. That would be awesome. And thanks, now I know.

 

Ok, I have like a hundred pages left in Eye Of The World. I wanted to read before watching the show. Does this season stick with book 1 material or go beyond it? I am going to read the Great Hunt next but I don’t want to have to get through another 600+ page book if I can start the show sooner!

 

As of episode 7 (of 8), it's all material from EotW (and some from the New Spring prequel novella), with a fair chunk of EotW's middle cut out.

 

It's stuck arguably closely to book 1 but does cover elements up to book 3, theres also things missing from books 1-3 that won't be covered until season 2.

Personally, you'll be fine to start the show after book 1 :)

EDIT: Rafe said up to book 3 but i've yet to confirm that.

 

Thanks! Then I’ll likely be doing some back reading of this thread once I knock out the last pages and dive into the show!

 

Maybe it'll change a bit in the finale, but I can't honestly pinpoint that much from books 2 or 3 yet.

 

I remember Rafe stating it was books 1-3 but you're right. Nothing has really stood out as after book 1, if i remember rightly.

 

holy shit

 

This is so awesome.

 

That's roughly 20 million hours of viewing in 3 days. If 20 million people are watching every episode in the first three days... we may just see the full story of Randland indeed.

 

I just rewatched the penultimate episode, and it's really really really effing good, and this entire time I have been wishing that we had more episodes this season, but I do have to say that there has been remarkably little fat on this season. I can think of shows where they spend entire episodes really just wasting time and spinning their wheels, and there has been none of that here. I do still wish the premiere had been longer though. I think this story justified an extended premiere episode to set a solid foundation.

Why only 6 animated origin shorts for an 8 episode season though...??

 

well that was something