Rodney2187

I'm loving this show. I like what they've done here with Wheel of Time much better than what was done to Foundation.

JasonF

The showrunner did an AMA on Reddit and basically said "Look, we can use makeup and practical effects and have the character appear as much as he does in the books, or we can use CGI and use the character a lot less because of budget constraints." I agree that it would have been cool to see a more non-human looking Loial, but given the realities, I think they made the right choice.

maxfisher

I agree that changing the character’s look is preferable to reducing his role, but that feels a little bit like a cop out. For example, looking at what the Harry Potter movies did with Hagrid nearly 20 years ago, I have a hard time buying they couldn’t have gone practical makeup on the actor, but then used a variety of techniques to make him appear considerably larger than the other characters. Again, it’s been a long time since I read the books, so maybe I’m misremembering, but in my head, his size fed a lot into his character and how he interacts with the world.

Superman07

I’ve watched all 5 episodes so far, and have not read the books. My feelings to this point:

• So far not much has happened. Definitely a lot of traveling and camp fires.
• The main young “dragon” characters are mostly boring and don’t gel well together. I think partially because they don’t seem to have a lot of acting experience.
• There seems to be large political and perhaps philosophical/religious(?) differences between the colors of the women in the tower, but I don’t think they’ve explained the distinctions too well. Maybe there was something in the opening ceremony and I missed it.

For me, Lan and Mat are the most interesting characters. The wandering minstrel was pretty cool too. Everybody else seems bland or just whines all the time.

Episode 4 definitely picked things up, but then 5 was a lull. I do know it’s based on a book series, so I understand the need to develop things before the story and pace can find it’s grove. I’m definitely in for the rest of the season, but hope to see improvements.

Oh, and I assume red head is the chosen one. If so, I hope he steps into his own soon.

johnnysd

There is a lot of foundational and world building info that needs to happen in Season 1 and I think they are doing a good job with it, as the way they have chosen will help the rest of this season and future seasons. The last 3 episodes should be greatly "picked up" for you.

lwhy?

I finished the most recent episode last night and here are my thoughts:

I wish they had cast a few more name actors in the series. Rosamund Pike is the only actor that I have seen in anything before. The actors cast as the five potential "dragons" are pretty weak. If they're paying $10 million an episode, they should have been able to cast better actors especially the actress playing Nynaeve and her constant RBF.

I agree with another poster that they spent way too much time on funeral scenes for characters that we haven't spent much time with on the show.

One of the favorite characters that they introduced so far was the gleeman and then they possibly killed him off after two episodes....

I really like the shooting locations and episode 5 was the first episode that I've watched in 4K on my new 4K tv and it looks great. I like the Loial character that they just introduced. I also like the Child Valda character, especially since he's not bland like most of the other characters/actors on the show. I'll finish this season. I hope they pick up the pace a bit though. It's been a bit of a slow go except for the battle in episode 1 and 4. I'll give it a 7/10 so far.

johnnysd

Very minor spoiler for you but still a spoiler for future seasons:



Giantrobo

While i admittedly dont know the character as i have not read the books....I reeeeeaallly hated the way the actor portrayed "Child Valda". I mean talk about a cartoony villain. Maybe they wanted Child like that and the actor didnt have the tools/presence to pull it off? I don't know...

Either way, i was glad to see him get stuck even if he isn't dead.

lwhy?

I'll take cartoony and over the top compared to the bland acting from the rest of the cast.

Giantrobo

Do You, Bro...

Cartoony Child Valda made me want to skip past all the scenes with him in it.

lwhy?

I prefer his character to the possible five "dragons", but we each can have differing opinions. I like him, you don't. Most of the acting is bland and I'll take an over the top villian.

Giantrobo

I don't disagree on the others being Bland. Like i said earlier in here, so far this series has been a big bland generic European culture fantasy piece. This has nothing new, nothing in it stands out, and though im hoping things will get better, i can't see how any of that will change. That said, I do like Rosamund Pike; so im sticking around for her...but even then, her scenes outside of the battles/Magic stuff have been kinda meh.

But im not so bored that ill give Child/his actor a pass. That's where we split...

lwhy?

I just don't understand if they're spending $10 million an episode, why didn't they cast better actors instead of a bunch of unknowns?

lwhy?

Question for the book readers. Should I wait until I finish watching season one before I start the first book? It's over 700 pages, so I won't get too far in before I finish season one.

Josh-da-man

I hope this doesn't bode ill for Amazon's Lord of the Rings series...

But considering what they paid the Tolkien estate for the rights, I'd hope they wouldn't cut corners on the production.

Brian Gentz

I read the books after the adaptation was announced, I wouldn't consider myself a super fan or anything... glad I read them but I don't think it's something I'll read again.

So this may be my prior knowledge of the characters skewing my opinion but I think the 5 main young cast are fine and playing the characters as they are supposed to be (sheltered country people thrown into a whole new world), we'll see how the acting goes as the characters evolve. My favorite book character is Mat and I've enjoyed his portrayal the most so it's a bummer that he's been recast.

As a non super fan there's really nothing that I HAVE to see adapted and I can't see any changes bothering me. The visual of Loial casually pulling giant books out of his pockets would have been cool, but oh well.

For anyone that has read more recently/remembers better, was the mystery of who the potential Dragon was a thing for this long in the books? The way I remember Moraine had the belief it was that person when they left the Two Rivers.

DeFan

It's not my job to remember the characters names. It's the show's job to make them memorable and they are failing.

GoldenJCJ

I watched the first two episodes. So far I’m loving it. I have no prior knowledge of the books so I don’t really know who anyone is or what’s going on but i’m having fun watching it all unfold.

maxfisher

That sucks on the recasting of Mat. I’d say he and actress playing Nynaeve were the only two of the Two Rivers five that really felt like they were nailing the characters.

Draven

As a book fan, I went and looked at the last three episode titles - and based on that…holy shit they are blasting through the first book

Overall I think a lot of the changes makes sense. The books spend chapters inside these characters heads. Perrin doesn’t have a wife in the books but is racked by guilt and you only know that from knowing what’s in his head. So having him accidentally kill is wife gets the same thing across in a fraction of the time. I get it.

It’s pretty entertaining watching the series, hearing a small detail and knowing that that eventually becomes a huge thing in the books.

For example - there are some major flashbacks that happen in the books and explain more about what the previous “age” was like. They haven’t done that at all here. So it’ll be interesting to see if those things eventually come up.

As for “purists” - I never get that. Just go read the books again. I’m a big fan of the series but I know this is an adaptation. It would have to be the longest series in history to fit everything in.

PS. Nyaneve somehow has RBF in the books too, so it works here She’s dead-on for her character.

leeta

I haven't seen her pull her braid once. 😄

Draven

I want to say she did it in Episode 1 but yeah, it should be every other minute if it follows the books.

Koby

Do we still not know why the recasting happened?
I did a search but couldn't find anything definitive.

mugwump

I can't stand the current portrayal of Mat so I'm all in favor of the recasting. His path throughout the books is one of the few things that kept me interested in reading through that slog so seeing him played as a slobbering, charmless, whiner is a real let down.

JasonF

I don't think it's definitively established until the end of the first book, but it's pretty well telegraphed long before then. By the point in the story the show is at, there's no real mystery any more in the books, especially if you take into account which characters' viewpoints we're seeing more of.