Osiris3657

...are you people serious? You can't even pronounce the names of the main characters in Wheel of Time compared to GoT or LoTR. Yes, characters in those latter series may have odd names, but at least they are pronounceable

LoTR main characters:

Frodo
Aragorn
Boromir
Merry
Pippin
Samwise
Gandalf
Legloas
Gimli

GoT main characters:
Robb
Robert
Jon
Jaime
Cersei
Dany
Jorah
Sansa
Arya
Theon
Bran
Joffrey
The Hound
Ned
Stannis
Bronn
Varys
Littlefinger
Tyrion
Samwell

Wheel of Time
Nynaeve al'Marea
Egwene al'Vere
Rand al'Thor
Matrim

Case closed.

mndtrp

When I was reading the series, I didn't have a problem with any of their names as spelled, except for Nynaeve. I just read it as Nynaveve, and moved on with life. I haven't heard if my pronunciations of Egwene, Rand, and Matrim are incorrect.

Wolf359

Rand is hard to pronounce? And Matrim is referred to as Mat 99% of the time.

dex14

The first three episodes are now up.

lwhy?

Thanks! I'll check the first episode out tonight.

GoldenJCJ

I’m sure I’m missing out on some good stuff but this is one of the primary reasons why I don’t read many fantasy books. I don’t want to spend 300-500 pages fucking up everyone’s names.

Rodney2187

I watched the first episode and was blown away. The production values look high and I was especially impressed by the soundtrack.

dex14

It didn't blow me away or get me hooked, but I will watch the rest of the season since it is only 8 episodes. The creature design and execution were pretty great.

Rodney2187

I was worried it would be something like Shannara was, but it's significantly better than that, so I guess it blew me away relative to what I was expecting.

lwhy?

I watched the first episode last night and will watch more. Everything was happening really fast. I have a question.

eXcentris

^ yes

I saw two episodes and found it... watchable. It's pretty to look at, there's some obvious CGI, but aside from Rosamund Pike's character, I find the other characters... a tad boring. This ain't no GOT or LOTR.

I agree with this:

Rodney2187

I watched the first three episodes again and was even more impressed. I think this show is a lot more than just visuals. They're just getting started with the world building and character introductions. I'm less familiar with these books having read them over 20 years ago, but I'm sure some of what seems insignificant now is actually foreshadowing for later on. The comparisons to Game of Thrones are inevitable, but I think the source material is vastly different despite the fantasy setting. It's also unfair to compare three episodes with eight seasons. Let's not forget that both could be good. One doesn't have to be great and the other garbage, but it's often easy to slip into extremes. I think the soundtrack also deserves mention. It might be my favorite aspect so far. They've been filming the second season since July. Looks like they're committed to telling this story and I'm eager to go along for the ride.

johnnysd

I think they have some issues in the first couple episodes balancing plot and character development. However I think that starts to change in Episode 4 and as the world building becomes more fleshed out the character based elements will be developed much better. There are some amazing arcs in WoT and remember that you are comparing the breadth of GoT and LOTR to the first 3 episodes of WoT

As an avid fan. I would say they are a about a 7 out of 10 for me so far. Really the first two episodes should have been an hour longer at a minimum to let them flesh out the characters and set the stage much better. A lot is unfortunately rushed, but like most shows it will take a while to find it's footing. GoT did as well, but once it did it flew (at least for a while)

I think you can see things really opening up in Episode 3 and now that much of the stage is set I think the show will improve with each episode. I am very encouraged. I understand the changes that they make, for a book reader the characters are pretty spot on and I think it looks great. People seem to always bash CGI but I thought it was quite excellent.

The story of WoT IMO is far superior than the LOTR and GoT, but it is also high fantasy and that is a more difficult sell for audiences unless it has LOTR associated with it because of how completely awful most of it has been to this point. Magic is at the core of WoT and it is not YA in any way so it will definitely need to increase it's audience over time.

As much as I can objectively rate it around a 7 so far, subjectively it is one of the best TV moments I have ever had. The stories have been a big part of my life over the last 25 years so seeing and hearing it on screen was an amazing emotional thing.

mugwump

I've only watched the first episode but found the changes from the book pretty jarring. It took me a while to stop viewing GoT through the lens of the books so hopefully I can get on board with this as well. Unfortunately, that issue aside, I found it kind of boring as a whole and I'm in no hurry to watch the next two episodes so that doesn't bode well.

johnnysd

second and third episodes are greatly improved.

Dr. DVD

Watched the first episode and some of the second and while I do enjoy the location shooting and score, the FX work and costumes look a little low rent . It's also obvious from what I've seen that they felt the need to give their name actor most of the lines and focus. I have the first book stored digitally somewhere, maybe I'll give it a shot. My understanding is that this is pretty different from the source, so nothing should really be spoiled.

johnnysd

It''s arranged differently and they are largely still hitting the main events of the books so reading it would be very spoilery. Like 100%. It is not a loose adaptation just some changes to help with exposition that is mostly in characters heads. As it goes along it will align closer and closer to the books. Don't understand the CGI and costume knocks they seemed great to me but people seem to always knock CGI.

Had some non-book reader friends watch it and the liked it more than I did so maybe DVDtalk is just a super hard audience.

mugwump

I think the fact that I spent over twenty years with the books and have a firm image in my mind's eye of what everyone and everything looks like makes it much harder to just accept what's on screen. If I hadn't read the books and just watched it as a TV show I'm sure I would like it better as well.

Xander

I've read the series multiple times and I really liked it. They are hitting all the right beats (from what I remember, it's been a few years) and I'm enjoying the cast and the production values. I never read Jordan's pronunciation guides in the books, so it's funny to hear how badly I pronounced everything in my head.

Thoughts based on book spoilers:

Dash

One of my favorite book series ever. Even though im meh about all the changes and the first episode was underwhelming I dig the show and hope the audience gives it a chance. This is probably the only shot this IP gets at adaptation. Also its pretty funny its seems like the entire WOT Reddit groups are having a meltdown over this while non book readers seem to like it.

mugwump

Finally watched the other two episodes and I'm starting to come around. I appreciate the way that they're trimming down Jordan's verbosity to just highlight what's important. The introduction of the Children of the Light made it clear in just a few scenes what they were all about instead of dragging it out over multiple books. Hopefully they'll keep that pace going.

maxfisher

Watched the first three of these with my wife and I think it has promise. I read all the Jordan books twice and the Sanderson books once and, honestly, the details are fuzzy enough that I can’t recall how much they tweaked in terms of characters, plot and timeline. Most of the casting feels right, though I think the actor playing Rand fares the worst. If they get enough viewers to do the full story and do even a halfway decent job adapting it, it will be quite the series.

I know it’s probably not going away, but I wish streamers would scrap the weekly release schedule approach. I haven’t had cable or watched shows live since 2001. Before streaming took over, I would just binge dvd/blu-ray sets of seasons when they were released, so the move to weekly episodes feels really off to me.

johnnysd

Personally I love them going back to weekly with the major. shows. It allows it to build an audience and get word of mouth and makes it exciting vto watch a new episode. If you must binge it us available for that after 6 weeks.

Reddit may be going crazy but I think the vast majority of hard core book fans of which I am one really like it, and I think it will only get better as in many ways the books get better as well.

Had a friend watch with his family of non book readers and they all loved it. I think the first 3 episodes were rushed but on a good place to sort of breathe now.

chowderhead

Episode 4 was so much better! That ending was great. I really disliked nynaeve and the sour face she always has but she totally redeemed herself here. I am in for the rest of the season.

Giantrobo

Heard of the books but never read them. So far, 3 eps in, this feels like a generic European culture based fantasy show. NOTHING stand outs and nothing seems new here. I'm a Rosamund Pike fan so I'll stick around and give it a chance....