I initially read this as "Black Ajah" and, for a moment, assumed they actually did this.

Spoiler

Dual wielding is for drow celebrities. Buckler and spear is good enough for any self-respecting Maiden of The Spear.

 

Ah, it's bad.

 

Soooo... I kinda dig it.

Like, it's so wrong, yet I love not knowing what is coming too. I also enjoy the fact that they've killed a lot more characters as I've always thought the WoT death count was far too low for all the violent shit that happens.

That being said, Rand doesn't seem nearly as important as he should be, and I have no idea what they are doing with Mat and Perrin. I'm not digging this total girl power over the men.

Chances are, I'll keep watching as it's I'm curious to see what they will do with it, as it's so fucking different, and enjoyable to me. (mind you, enjoyable to watch doesn't necessarily mean good).

But at this point, imma not think of it as WoT, but some weird version set in a similar universe.

 

Just fucking because it made me laugh. Nothing to do with the TV show

 

You know what I love about this show? How people just give up about it once they see the final episode.

The brief moments of revelation: "Oh, this is shit."

There's no long posts, arguing how it still has some promise. There's no hope for the future seasons, because everything they showed has been fucked up so thoroughly by the showrunner, there's really nothing you can expect of him to end up being good.

Also, fucking hilarious, people who point out how shit this happens to be are being called "Bookcloacks".

Basically, a guilty pleasure fanfiction for you then. Rafe just managed to convince some people to make his fanfiction a TV show.

 

@Odran

Real talk tho. It's a fun tv show and I can't wait to see how they try and unfuck it. And whether or not it succeeds

I basically want to see how much Margaret and the Jordan Estate make from it.

I'll keep watching with a fascinated detachment while re reading and enjoying canon

It's a shame that my enjoyment is now tied to how much ol Rafe fucks it up and how he tries to resolve it.

I still feel like Rand will end up the main protagonist. But...

 

What follows is a stream of thought, three hours after watching.

Spoiler

I think they're not going to have the Cleansing of the Taint. Let me explain: The eye of the world is crucial for Rand to realise it's even possible to have clean saidin. Without that foreshadowing, without that clue, the Cleansing will be even more left-field if it's done at all, and so they won't do it because it will feel out-of-place. But I refuse to accept a Rand that doesn't have the sheer arrogance to say, I fucked up the world, I will make it better.

The Seanchan reveal scene was fucking stupid. Hey y'all, we gonna make a big wave against a mountain range. Why? Heck you that's why. mfers gonna capsize their boats on the rebound smh. What's even the point of tsunami-ing a hillside? What tactical purpose does it serve?

Someone else mentioned it, but people burning out because the link-leader drew too much is directly against canon, and should be impossible. If you think about it, it is also nonsensical. Down the line there will be novices linked with full Aes Sedai. How is a person used to channeling a river on her own not going to burn out someone capable of only a trickle.

Roundabout, but did Egwene heal Nynaeve's burnout? No...

Tarwin's Gap was shit, thematically, tactically, strategically, conceptually, canonically.

In reverse order, Rand did it canonically in what everyone will agree is their favourite moment of book 1.

Why is Amalisa, a character even more useless than Abell Cauthon given so much? Amalisa is weak in the power, her even knowing how to form lightning and a lightning wave is such a stretch of canon power levels and saidar mastery that it's absurd.

Strategically and tactically. Why are the powerhouse saidin users behind the wall, defending an open plain instead of Tarwin's Gap. Why did they let the soldiers die. If Nynaeve wanted to save people, she woulda fucken gone out alone and bitchslapped the Trollocs.

Altogether, it just doesn't fit the story.

Next... The Horn being under Agelmar's throne, a prideful man who admits he was tempted to blow the Horn and raid Shayol Ghul immediately despite knowing it was a treachery of the Light without the Dragon leading the charge... It just does not fit. As if he wouldn't blow the Horn to deal with the largest Trolloc army since the Trolloc Wars. This was so fucked, I do not understand.

Moiraine figures out cuendillar was broken, she's sitting on a seal of the Dark One, and she doesn't think with all her experience in Daes Daemar that Rand was lying when he said he beat the Dark One? It looks like he broke the Seal and ran from the only person of the Light in the nearest hundred leagues.

Where the fuck is my Green Man.

Moiraine was shielded, not stilled.

No one knows how strong Rand is, even if he did destroy the army at Tarwin's Gap people would say, oh he's weak it was the sa-angreal. Mind you, Rand with a sa-angreal would be enough to swallow the entirety of the country of Tear, what fucking overkill. Also, Moiraine gave Rand a green LED because the weaves around him didn't multiply when he channeled with the sa-angreal. What a fucking joke of a reveal of the Dragon's power, what the fuck did he even do.

The Tarwin's Gap scene where the women just floppled like dealership mascots was bad.

Why did they even bother with half the scenes. They could have foreshadowed so much of the story, Robert Jordan's work is riddled with so much foreshadowing that the first book is a goldmine of content. But they put nothing except that Rand can channel reality, or the Dark One can, or that people can be permanently shielded. I dunno man, half of episode 8 was a waste. It feels fucking awful.

Anyway, people that only watch the show love it, so I guess we might go all the way to Tarmon Gaidon.

 

Please no.

Spoiler

the cleansing of the taint is the best scene/battle in the novels outside of the rings of Rhuidean[. At this point Cadsuane is gonna be super young and hot\spoiler]

 

That's the thing though, they don't see anything about this that they need to unfuck to begin with.

 

I think they'll eventually diddly-fuck themselves, and have to overcorrect

 

Honestly, that was pretty terrible. Just a hard nope on all of the Rand stuff. Also, where the fuck did he go. I did like the linking, but honestly I pretty much despised everything else.

 

I did like the fuck no bramble hell that is the blight. Can't lie

 

The worst part is I cannot even defend the show on it's own merits if the books weren't a thing.

Spoiler

The central conceit of the show is that the Dragon is a big deal. That is why Moiraine is searching for 'the one they call Dragon'. That is why Logain was a 'Candle before the Sun'. That is why Nynaeve one upping Logain was a big deal. That is why the mystery of 'who is the Dragon' is important. And now, we know who the Dragon is. It's some Rando (hah) who has been a minor player thus far, and who is totally overshadowed in his grand denouement.

That's straight up bad storytelling. It's the equivalent of seving raw chicken on Masterchef. It's not a matter of taste, it's inherently bad due to the execution.

And this theme continues! Lan can't track Moiraine? Lan. The Warder. The thing we had a whole episode about their suicidal devotion...can't do his one job. Wut.

The CGI on the Trolloc run is hanky as fuck. That's just bad. Perrin's lines are clunky. That's just bad. The lighting...things are darker than they need to be, the set design etc just doesn't fit. There is not enough to differentiate the landscape of Shienar, and don't even get me started on what they call armour!

Then introducing the Seanchan...again adding a plot to a finale which doesn't resolve enough is a deeply questionable choice. And they look vaguely 300 Persian-esque and honestly a bit racist in the little we see of them? Just why?

I did like the casting of Ishamael though. Fares looks like a crazy philosophy professor I had once who did Muay Thai at a high level. I like that.

All of this is a critique of the show regardless of the books. If I was going into that, I would be smashing my phone at this point. (With a Tods Workshop piece, that's who they should have had doing the weapons etc but he is clearly to busy with The Witcher)...

 

I hate what they've done.

 

Same. I'm fully out at this point. I genuinely don't think I can even hatewatch it, because the ratio of hate to watch to too lopsided.

What a fucking car crash of a finale. Genuinely would have preferred this show not be made. This is going to poison the well for any Wheel of Time adaptation for a decade for me.

Horrifically, judging by how high the view count is, it looks like we'll probably see a few more seasons at least.

The only thing I'm impressed by is how they actually made me even more averse to experiencing any Perrin content than I already was. I already skip most of the Perrin segments in the books, but I was beating the 10-second skip button like it owed me money any time the guy was on screen with his mouth open.

One funny detail with the Seanchan - damane have their mouths covered now? If I had to guess, it's probably because the typical damane behavior and dialogue is fairly self-hating, which doesn't gel with their empowerment schtick. One more reason not to watch - if I have to hear one singular line of damane having some sort of secret Handmaid's Tale band of resistance among them (which would entirely nullify the horror of them), I will scream in real life.

 

What a dumpster fire, there is no going back after this.

Reading the series now and loving it.

This will probably at least last 4-5 seasons or even to the end if we're unlucky since I heard some shit about this being the number one watched show right now.

Sucks that this will probably be the only adaptation for like 20 years, damn in today's day and age you probably can't do a show like the wheel of time without it turning into a woke trainwreck.

 

They've got pacifiers, because the people responsible for this claptrap are just really tall infants, and they're catering to the same.

Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't just borrow costumes from The Handmaid's Tale for the damane.

If any variation of the phrase "women's voices being silenced" is brought up in the show, in regard to the damane, I'll laugh my ass off. The sheer ridiculousness of juxtaposing such a line with the male characters getting their story moments handed to the women or excised entirely, would just be too much.

 

I’m not even gonna watch

and hope it gets cancelled so we can get a proper adaptation in 15 years.

honestly I’d love just a solid cartoon show

 

Yeah animation would probably be the best way to go, this way they can stay close to the source material and make everything as magical and large scale as in the books without any cheap excuses.

Would suggest everybody who doesn't know to watch the animated shorts on Amazon the artystle is beautiful and it perfectly captures the story. The best part by far of the whole series.

 

In case anyone still had hope this shitshow would magically get better with the next season, because as we all know killing off established characters for pure shock value is the way to go: