Book reader here, I think some of the stuff they’ve changed are just bad choices, like Perrin having a wife who exists only to be fridged, or the mystery of who the Dragon is in S1 (everybody I spoke to predicted who it was correctly several episodes in advance), or either of Rand’s big hero moments that are supposed to happen at the end of S2 just being skipped. Apparently they just skipped the 3rd book entirely for S3, and while much of the later books will have to be cut, some of the elements set up in that book are essential to the ending.
I must be a sucker, because I didn’t know up until near the end that it was Rand. Nynaeve had so much goshdarn powet I thought she mightta been the one.
I agree that the Perrin wife thing is dumb tho. Not a great plotline
I think some book fans had dreamed for so long of an adaptation that it was never going to be good enough, but I think what ruined it for me was that it doesn’t seem to want to tell the kind of story that the books were telling.
I remember the first book as this pretty simple coming of age, fantasy adventure, but the vibe I got while watching it was that the writers really wanted it to be more like GoT. And that just felt like such a cynical decision to me, like the point was to sell more by making it more like the insanely popular thing that just ended a couple years ago.
(My relationship to the books is a kinda complicated. I was hooked as a teen, but feel a lot more ambivalent after a re-read because of the constant sexist garbage I spotted when I was more mature. Like, I’m kinda pissed that teen me was tricked into thinking the weird gender essentialism was a normal, healthy way for men and women to think about each other and themselves, and every other female character is a sexist stereotype. But the nostalgia is unfortunately pretty strong so idk, I never soured completely on it like I did with Harry Potter for instance, so it must have had some redeeming qualities.)
My relationship to the books is a kinda complicated. I was hooked as a teen, but feel a lot more ambivalent after a re-read because of the constant sexist garbage I spotted when I was more mature. Like, I’m kinda pissed that teen me was tricked into thinking the weird gender essentialism was a normal, healthy way for men and women to think about each other and themselves, and every other female character is a sexist stereotype.
me irl
imagine writing a 10k word literary critique of that gender essentialism when you were a teen and not once thinking that the essentialism was problematic, but just a faithful re-creation of the source myths. or even once considering the eurocentrist/colonial depictions of the non-whites. couldn’t be me
The only part that really feels GoTsey to me is the White Tower. All that intrigue and power play. The rest feels like a smalltown gang gets wrapped up in epoch-levrl good-and-evil struggles, like LOTR or Star Wars
I think that’s the way its supposed to feel, so that’s good It’s very possible i’m just viewing it unfavourably, or experienced the changes in tone as bigger than they actually were, just because it wasn’t what I personally wanted from the show
It’s so rare for a show or movie to be better than its book. It might well be that the.book delivers on this premise even better than the show does, and I can’t notice because I am unfamiliar with the original
I haven’t watched the show, but from what I can tell there are people who hate the show because they read the books and people who hate the show because they claimed to read the books or completely missed the repeated mentions of Morraine and Suian being “pillow friends” in magic college and think the show went woke.
one of the books written in the early 90s had a trans character lmao. they’re gender essentialist as shit and even that mormon guy that finished the series wrote better women than Jordan, but lol. lmao even.
yeah, and gendered correctly after that. Jordan shouldn’t get credit for this, and it’s not necessarily woke, he’s just cribbing norse mythology, also not woke.
but in the modern social context the books were written in, not including any jokes/misgendering of the character is notable. also notable that the character that gets this treatment is a villain, and it’s a forced feminization done by satansaitan as punishment for failure
I think part of the issue is that to faithfully translate the books to a TV show you’re looking at guaranteed 7+ seasons and there’s no way that’s gonna get greenlit off the bat so they had to do some adaptations
Not the person you responded to, but having the read the books the show is enjoyable. It barely tries to adapt anything from the books, but the little easter eggs show at least somebody in the writers room is familiar with the source material.
I have, they are a flawed masterpiece. I saw the first season, the finale was so aggravating that I only interact with the show by siphoning off other book readers anger about it.
The biggest thing I remember is that the entire gang goes into the Blight to find the Eye of the World, not just Rand and Moiraine, and their journey has some focus on just how evil a place it is, with every plant and animal corrupted by Satan to try to kill everything. IIRC it’s revealed that Lan’s entire home kingdom was taken by the Blight within his lifetime. They meet with the last treeman who isguarding the Eye, and due to his influence, a small area around it is still kept as pure nature not corrupted by The Dark One, then battle two of the Forsaken, who had been driven mostly mad. Both are defeated, but in the process the treeman is killed. The Eye of the World is a big pool of man magic that more or less awakens Rand’s ability to channel Saidin which he uses to (somehow) teleport many miles to Tarwin’s Gap and then magically nuke the trollocs and Ba’azamon. It’s also where they get the Horn of Valere and the dragon banner.
but… the Wheel of Time show sucks!
I’m enjoying it. I’m curious: Have you read the books? The book people seem to hate Wheel of Time the MOST
Book reader here, I think some of the stuff they’ve changed are just bad choices, like Perrin having a wife who exists only to be fridged, or the mystery of who the Dragon is in S1 (everybody I spoke to predicted who it was correctly several episodes in advance), or either of Rand’s big hero moments that are supposed to happen at the end of S2 just being skipped. Apparently they just skipped the 3rd book entirely for S3, and while much of the later books will have to be cut, some of the elements set up in that book are essential to the ending.
I must be a sucker, because I didn’t know up until near the end that it was Rand. Nynaeve had so much goshdarn powet I thought she mightta been the one.
I agree that the Perrin wife thing is dumb tho. Not a great plotline
I think some book fans had dreamed for so long of an adaptation that it was never going to be good enough, but I think what ruined it for me was that it doesn’t seem to want to tell the kind of story that the books were telling.
I remember the first book as this pretty simple coming of age, fantasy adventure, but the vibe I got while watching it was that the writers really wanted it to be more like GoT. And that just felt like such a cynical decision to me, like the point was to sell more by making it more like the insanely popular thing that just ended a couple years ago.
(My relationship to the books is a kinda complicated. I was hooked as a teen, but feel a lot more ambivalent after a re-read because of the constant sexist garbage I spotted when I was more mature. Like, I’m kinda pissed that teen me was tricked into thinking the weird gender essentialism was a normal, healthy way for men and women to think about each other and themselves, and every other female character is a sexist stereotype. But the nostalgia is unfortunately pretty strong so idk, I never soured completely on it like I did with Harry Potter for instance, so it must have had some redeeming qualities.)
What is with women always sniffing and tugging their braids? Am I right fellow men? Seinfeld bass line plays
me irl
imagine writing a 10k word literary critique of that gender essentialism when you were a teen and not once thinking that the essentialism was problematic, but just a faithful re-creation of the source myths. or even once considering the eurocentrist/colonial depictions of the non-whites. couldn’t be me
The only part that really feels GoTsey to me is the White Tower. All that intrigue and power play. The rest feels like a smalltown gang gets wrapped up in epoch-levrl good-and-evil struggles, like LOTR or Star Wars
I think that’s the way its supposed to feel, so that’s good
It’s very possible i’m just viewing it unfavourably, or experienced the changes in tone as bigger than they actually were, just because it wasn’t what I personally wanted from the show
It’s so rare for a show or movie to be better than its book. It might well be that the.book delivers on this premise even better than the show does, and I can’t notice because I am unfamiliar with the original
I haven’t watched the show, but from what I can tell there are people who hate the show because they read the books and people who hate the show because they claimed to read the books or completely missed the repeated mentions of Morraine and Suian being “pillow friends” in magic college and think the show went woke.
one of the books written in the early 90s had a trans character lmao. they’re gender essentialist as shit and even that mormon guy that finished the series wrote better women than Jordan, but lol. lmao even.
Was Jordan your typical “she boobed, boobily” sort of author?
more like ‘she ditzed, ditzily’. I guess it’s the same thing
Also each woman is even more beautiful and buxom than the last
One of the Forsaken gets reincarnated as a woman right?
yeah, and gendered correctly after that. Jordan shouldn’t get credit for this, and it’s not necessarily woke, he’s just cribbing norse mythology, also not woke.
but in the modern social context the books were written in, not including any jokes/misgendering of the character is notable. also notable that the character that gets this treatment is a villain, and it’s a forced feminization done by
satansaitan as punishment for failureI think part of the issue is that to faithfully translate the books to a TV show you’re looking at guaranteed 7+ seasons and there’s no way that’s gonna get greenlit off the bat so they had to do some adaptations
Not the person you responded to, but having the read the books the show is enjoyable. It barely tries to adapt anything from the books, but the little easter eggs show at least somebody in the writers room is familiar with the source material.
I have, they are a flawed masterpiece. I saw the first season, the finale was so aggravating that I only interact with the show by siphoning off other book readers anger about it.
How does it differ, the end of season 1?
The biggest thing I remember is that the entire gang goes into the Blight to find the Eye of the World, not just Rand and Moiraine, and their journey has some focus on just how evil a place it is, with every plant and animal corrupted by Satan to try to kill everything. IIRC it’s revealed that Lan’s entire home kingdom was taken by the Blight within his lifetime. They meet with the last treeman who isguarding the Eye, and due to his influence, a small area around it is still kept as pure nature not corrupted by The Dark One, then battle two of the Forsaken, who had been driven mostly mad. Both are defeated, but in the process the treeman is killed. The Eye of the World is a big pool of man magic that more or less awakens Rand’s ability to channel Saidin which he uses to (somehow) teleport many miles to Tarwin’s Gap and then magically nuke the trollocs and Ba’azamon. It’s also where they get the Horn of Valere and the dragon banner.
Whoah, that’s super different