[TV] The Wheel of Time

[Beloren]

As a male, I would never have picekd up the wheel of time books if this:

Set in an epic fantasy world, The Wheel of Time follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young villagers, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn... the one who will either save or destroy humanity

Was the series description. As soon as I see all female - i just think cheesy Charmed or the 100 of other craft shows where it's all about chicks doing fancy magic and men are just arm candy

meaning, this is not for me, it's a female show.


And I wouldn't have been interested in it. I don't have anything against those, that sort of thing is for some folks, just not me (differnt folks, different strokes, right? The actual series though was not marketed as that, and it appealed to me as a male as I'm sure it did to most females. I just feel the way they've marketed it will turn turn a lot of the male population away needlessly.

They've made it largely for women... this will never be as successful as the book because of this. You have to appeal to both sexes, not just one.

[Kreuger]

Funnily enough, I actually thought GoT was a pretty good adaptation - while it was actually based on existing books. The second that stopped it went into a tailspin FAST.

I also thought the Harry Potter films did a good job overall. And as much as I personally dislike the LotR film, they're about 80% there I'd say. But those are movies. Not sure about TV series adaptations of books that did well... Then again, big-budget book series TV adaptations are a somewhat recent phenomenon.

If we exclude the last seasons of Got as you said I could agree, it was good enough.

Expanse has done it great, only one ive watched that has managed the adoption.

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I think it is more that there haven't been many in genres that appeal to members on this board. There have been plenty that have been good in other genres.

Should have stated adaptions that ive watched. Shouldnt have generalised

[jonnysensible]

As a male, I would never have picekd up the wheel of time books if this:



Was the series description. As soon as I see all female - i just think cheesy Charmed or the 100 of other craft shows where it's all about chicks doing fancy magic and men are just arm candy

meaning, this is not for me, it's a female show.


And I wouldn't have been interesting. I don't have anything against those, that sort of thing is for some folks, just me. The actual series though was not marketed as that, and it appealed to me as a male as I'm sure it did to most females. I just feel the way they've marketed it has basically turned large portions of the male population away.

They've made it largely for women... this will never be as successful as the book because of this. You have to appeal to both sexes, not just one.

'heres a show that i haven't watched and 1 big reason im a massive neckbeard'

just watched the first ep, alright bit slow.

[Shadowferal]

From the dragonmount forums, someone posted that they made Lan a bumbling idiot...and the person couldn't finish watching the 2nd episode...

[PACOX]

They played the first episode on twitch after the football game. Couldn't finish it. It was like someone thought if you just put people in in fantasy costumes and give them English accents that the show will be considered 'good'. Might give it another chance later when I'm prepared to see it.

[molliewoof]

first episode was awful, like a nine year old had written it, things like 'a woman is always alone, but a woman is never alone' 'there was a woman with eyes so white she couldnt see, but she could see well enough', poorly acted, even rosumund pike who is generally very good imo.

small spoiler



Did i here David Bowie sing 'you remind me of the babe' in the middle of the battle?

i hope episode 2 is better

bloody hell ... 'forget what you know about blah blah because they will be all of those things and none of them' last one i promise

[dwightyo39]

I will say the first 3 episodes have not hooked me the way the first season of GoT did. Then again, the book series for WoT was something I had to grind through, unlike GoT, Malazan, First law, etc.

Still, the wife and I enjoyed it well enough. Nothing special but worth an hour of our time every week.

[druchii5]

I was pretty intrigued by this show originally, even though I'm unfamiliar with the book series. Nonetheless, the books always seemed like a pretty cool fantasy setting. Just watched the first episode of this and...well, it's giving off one of those "young adult" vibes, like those CW shows that Winter Blossom already mentioned.

[VinceVega]

It's... ok...
Trailers did paint a wrong picture qith focusing only on the female characters.
I like all the characters and actors. I don't get the Perrin change tbh. Why? What does it add?

Overall the pacing is a bit off and the aesthetics are sometimes a bit cosplay-y... (Remember legend of the seeker) it doesn't look real half of the time. Like a show at disney world. And then it gets very good again. Attack on two rivers looked really good. Then the last scene of the thrid episode... looked like plastic. Everything is too... clean i guess? Take GoT. It really looked like a living world. This looked half the time like a set... and i wonder why... they had so much money thrown at them...
Sadly i don't think thsi will caputre people who are not allready fans of the book. And with how some people reacted to the changes i don't think they entirely will be able to capture the existing fans either. 2 Seasons and it will probably be axed.

Standouts for me have been Nynaeve, Rand, Lan and Moiraine. I was really suprised about Nynaeve. She did a good job capturing her.
Perrin was just sad tbh... nothing like i imagined him in the books. But i don't think the actor is the fault rather the direction they take with the character.

I will watch the rest of the season. I would give it a 6/10 for now. but it only has been the first three episodes.

[Ragedaug]

Not going to weigh on this being more "progressive" or not...but women are asked to go naked in film and TV far more often than men are. That's not to say men aren't also expected to look their best as well...but there is an imbalance when it comes to actual nude scenes.

I don't believe the solution to that is "make men get naked more" though. The solution is to not add gratuitous nudity just for the sake of it... but, as they say, sex sells. So, if there is going to be gratuitous nudity, I guess making it equal is fair.

I don't know that that's true. I see men's bare chests way more often than women's bare chests in movies. And almost never see female genitalia. As far as butts go...eh? I dunno, seems pretty even.

So it seems we are being told that because we see bare female chests, it's only fair to see exposed male genitalia...regardless of the fact that we see more bare male chests already.

Otherwise I agree with you, I would prefer much less nudity in the TV shows/movies I watch. Focus on the story.

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For those arguing or wondering about nudity in the books, I seem to recall quite a bit more female nudity, however there's definitely male nudity as well, like when Jordan has the whole squad of female guards striping and bathing Rand.

[Smallfruitbat]

Struggled through episode 1. I'll give 2 and 3 a try. I don't love it.

The Mat and Perrin changes add nothing, nor does aging up the characters as for the Womens Circle -that was just embarrassing. It felt like a YA series, they should have kept with the original ages IMO. Just another generic fantasy series in a cosplay world. Seeing the trollocs puts me in dread of seeing Loial on screen -I'd say 'I hope they don't fuck it up' but, I suspect that ship has sailed.

I suspect the lamps were supposed to be poignant and emotional at Beltine -I just found it whiny. Too early in the series and I didn't care about the characters enough to be engaged. Zoe is bang on for Nynaeve and the actress playing Liandrin has the character spot on. Perrin is just a sad sack but I blame the writing for that, Mat shows promise.

[Shadowferal]

first episode was awful, like a nine year old had written it, things like 'a woman is always alone, but a woman is never alone' 'there was a woman with eyes so white she couldnt see, but she could see well enough', poorly acted, even rosumund pike who is generally very good imo.

small spoiler

Did i here David Bowie sing 'you remind me of the babe' in the middle of the battle?

i hope episode 2 is better

bloody hell ... 'forget what you know about blah blah because they will be all of those things and none of them' last one i promise

Lol...those lines...puerile and sententious all at once.

[molliewoof]

Lol...those lines...puerile and sententious all at once.

agreed, its like the screenwriters listened to an all saints song and then thought 'fuck it lets give wheel of time a go'

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the third episode was a lot better i thought, except that woman at the end but she was awful at the start.

[Theangryone]

My god, I knew it. Minor spoilers


No Lews Therin, no showing the breaking, magic was only meant for men, evidently men were not AES Sedai, characters don’t act the same from scene to scene. Perrin is not the apprentice blacksmith doing everything for people, he’s a married blacksmith and let’s his pregnant wife do the work while he goes drinking. And you get Lan and Morraine taking a bath together.

I didn’t have high hopes but when I read the interview where the show runner said there were times he didn’t listen to Sanderson when he said things they wanted to do were not going to work I didn’t want to believe it. Now I do.

[Graeham]

From the dragonmount forums, someone posted that they made Lan a bumbling idiot...and the person couldn't finish watching the 2nd episode...

That's unforgivable if true.

I'm so tired of the recent allergy to competent, stoic male characters.

[Beloren]

My god, I knew it. Minor spoilers


No Lews Therin, no showing the breaking, magic was only meant for men, evidently men were not AES Sedai, characters don’t act the same from scene to scene. Perrin is not the apprentice blacksmith doing everything for people, he’s a married blacksmith and let’s his pregnant wife do the work while he goes drinking. And you get Lan and Morraine taking a bath together.

I didn’t have high hopes but when I read the interview where the show runner said there were times he didn’t listen to Sanderson when he said things they wanted to do were not going to work I didn’t want to believe it. Now I do.

Did they change the lore there or just not show the opening scene from the book now.. it could always come later - sometimes it makes sense to move some of those things about.


Another option we've explored is that Moiraine could not know the Dragon reborn was male till later on, maybe they want to pull the experience of hte prophecy into the running narrative.. almost like a combination of the prequel and the first book, but pull the events into the first book timeline.

I can't judge how good a decision it is without watching it, and I shall see it with my boyfriend later.

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That's unforgivable if true.

I'm so tired of the recent allergy to competent, stoic male characters.

I wioiuld also agree this is unforgiveable if true, although I wouldn't judge till I see it myself, afterall, views can be very subjective.

[Rennadrel]

We know it's set before LotR, we know preciously little about what it'll be about precisely - and how it'll be told.

Even if it was a direct adaption of one of the many pre-LotR materials, most of those are told more like chronicles than direct action. It's not the same style as LotR, and gives only rudimentary info on events, with little scenic detail. There's a TON of room for interpretation there - something many fans are quite afraid of.

I recall reading somewhere that one of the narratives of the show would involve Hobbits, despite it being set several hundred years before Hobbits even existed in Tolkien's work. Not to mention Hobbits that are not ethnically homogenous, even though that too is also a part of Tolkien's established lore. So it's basically gonna be a diversity driven disrespect for the creators works.

[hulkgor]

Having a fun time reading the reviews, IGN giving it a 9/10, then having it beeing called bland and weak from another reviewer.

It's actually very frequent for any form of media to have such disparate reviews... some love stuff, others hate it, whilst another lot finds it bland.

[Biomega]

Not to mention Hobbits that are not ethnically homogenous, even though that too is also a part of Tolkien's established lore. So it's basically gonna be a diversity driven disrespect for the creators works.

Honestly I couldn't care less about black or Asian-looking hobbits. Doesn't really matter. They have more to distinguish themselves as a species than skin color, so what if they're PoC actors they can still be short and have hairy feet and have a pleasant demeanor and tbh that's all that's important to the story.

Changes like that are entirely fine with me, because they don't really affect anything of substance.

[Corvus]

After the initial 10/10 review bombing, ratings are drifting down as expected. IMDb has dropped to 7.7 and rotten tomatoes is at 84% (though it calculates a little unusually).

Fully expect it to drop some more yet as the more realistic viewers come on board.