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Sweetleaf
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27 Nov 2021, 4:47 am

Anyone else watching it? I like it a lot so far...

But for sure seeing the show I do remember at least reading the book the show is following now, back when I was in highschool. But yeah super cool show, and from seeing it I do now recall reading some of it but never got a chance to read the whole series which I guess there are like 14 books, so that is a lot.

At least one thing to be happy about these days, is now they can make pretty awesome adaptations of fantasy stories without it ending up just looking like a laarp fest of people in crappy costumes.


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MaxE
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27 Nov 2021, 11:41 am

I have mixed feelings about this. I read all the books but I would never re-read the series. BTW some of the books have been criticized for doing little to advance the plot and even avid fans have criticized them.

Robert Jordan (RJ) was a great story teller and great developer of characters, but I hold to a minority view that his world-building was less than ideal. I wouldn't know whom to cite as a better world-builder but I could point some things out:

1.) He never really develops the whole concept of history occurring in repeating cycles. When he gets down to specifics, he basically identifies the age in which most of the action takes place, the preceding age, and what preceded that. Some of what is said on that last point doesn't support the "cyclical" view of history very strongly. I will avoid further detail out of concern for spoilers.
2.) Everybody speaking the same language. Supposedly they spoke a different l language in the previous age and now only nobility, scholars, etc. know that language, but wherever the characters go it's the same language. Even in Seanchan they speak the same language. After 3000 years that can't happen. A well-built world should have many languages, even if we're only exposed to a handful. I am totally OK with having a lingua franca that most people learn.
3.) Accents. I'll let you Google it yourself but in the 3 Rivers they would more likely have something like an Irish accent and Moiraine would have a French accent, not the posh London accents used by all the main characters (in the Amazon show). This also contributes to some of the dialog not being anything like what I would have expected Jordan to write.
4.) Jordan created this huge world but then had 90% of events take place in the subcontinent usually called Westland or Randland. By this I mean that the Final Battle and events leading up to it seems to only happen there (and in the Waste). In contrast, nothing related to that really seems to happen in Seanchan, and then you have Shara, the "Sea Folk" islands, etc. where I see no evidence that people are ever aware of these events, before or after. It seems that Jordan came to realize he couldn't build a story that encompassed all those areas so basically ignored them, instead writing scores of chapters detailing a glacially evolving relationship between Rand and a couple of prominent Aes Sedai (or least that's how I remember it). George RR Martin definitely outperformed Jordan in this area as the different parts of his world all seem to have some importance for the events.
5.) I wasn't all that blown away by the ending. Jordan/Sanderson needed a huge battle at the end, but it wasn't clear what had really changed. I can imagine how people in a place like Tremalking might never have been aware that the Age in which they had been born had ended. Same old same old for them. I expected more. Which reminds me that there were a few flash-forwards to the next Age along the way, but in the end they seem pointless because they didn't actually foreshadow anything.
6.) A lot of concepts were introduced that were never wrapped up. We learn a great deal about the One Power, but what about that thing that keeps people out of Shadar Logoth, or the Machin Shin, or the Eelfinn and the Aelfinn, and that silver tower (I forget the name) or the Wolf brothers, or the dagger that Padan Fain carries around (yes I get that it's supposed to remind us of Gollum and his Precious)? Or the Portal Stones? A lot of that just seems like random stuff that got thrown in but didn't contribute to the resolution of the plot.
7.) Also some key concepts were nebulous. Do we ever get a clear sense of what a Ta'veren is? How exactly is the Dark One "imprisoned" and what was involved in the breaching of that Prison (apart from the One Power, d'uh!).

OK well I don't expect many to agree with me. I AM watching the show and we'll just see where it goes.


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27 Nov 2021, 12:10 pm

I was not a fan of the first episode and will not be continuing. The story felt rushed and disjointed, and the character development was lacking. Furthermore, it seemed like the creators were more focused on sparkly, over the top fight scenes rather than depth and REAL content.


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Panuru
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27 Nov 2021, 5:20 pm

I am withholding judgement until the whole series runs, as I've seen plenty of series that take a while to get going or else fall apart after the first few shows. I am looking forward to how the story comes across with some semblance of editing, unlike the books.



MaxE
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29 Nov 2021, 10:12 pm

I have now seen the first 4 episodes and am starting to like it better.


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angelofdarkness
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23 Dec 2021, 8:19 pm

i'm not sure if i want to watch this or not yet


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cyberdad
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23 Dec 2021, 8:46 pm

It's starring and produced by Rosamund Pike so at least we know she's a fan of the books.



Udinaas
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01 Jan 2022, 10:06 pm

It's not good. I was forgiving of how rushed the beginning was because of how few episodes they were given but they made so many unnecessary terrible choices and the last episode killed any hope I had for the series.

Loial is either dead or survived being stabbed with the cursed dagger and I can't forgive the show either way.

It's pretty ironic that the show leaned so much into feminism yet gave Perrin a wife just to kill her because they couldn't let him be sensitive without a tragic backstory,and added drama by making Moraine wounded and dependent on Lan and then losing her powers at the end.


I've only read the first three books and I have mixed feelings about them but more positive than negative.