i did not like this rushed episode. I read some of the books so the ending was so different from the ending of the first book. They made Egwene and Nynaeve overpowered. Why would they ever need to go to the white tower for training when they can revieve the dead by willing it. Lan the best swordsmen and warder needed Nynaeve to track Mouraine’s “tell” and he did nothing in this episode. Perrin also did nothing. I assume he took over for Mat with the Horn scene with Fain so fine. The editing and effects were a mess. I am going to chalk it up to covid19 interrupting filming and the actor leaving which messed up the storyline but this mess of an ending is not giving me hope for a better season 2.

This series is certainly off to a rocky start. I agree with many of the criticisms, especially the lackluster casting. Despite its many problems I'm giving the show a solid B as it was overall entertaining.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the show grows in later seasons, as I really want to see it out till the end. Maybe Amazon will see the wisdom of fleshing out the seasons with a couple extra episodes, given that pacing and a rushed plot is the No. 1 problem.

They've been filming season 2 since the summer and it's already renewed for season 3. They have plans for 8 seasons.

Finally saw the finale and I liked it fine. I know they are making changes from the books and that’s both understandable and interesting in some ways.

For example, the show runner explained that they just wanted to give Egwene and Nynaeve more to do during the Tarwin Gap battle as in the books it’s primarily Rand. I’m fine with that.

Overall I enjoyed it and look forward to Season 2!

Thought the final was rushed but I liked it. The season was great for me, I liked every episode,.

The show is ok. The young actors aren't selling it for me. I'll quote an unattributed review I read "One last shoutout to Rosamund Pike, easily the season MVP."

My favorite in this first season is Zoe Robbins as Nynaeve. Her character is a badass and she did a great job bringing her to life on screen.




I also really liked Abdul Salis as Valda. Nothing like a villain you hate. I shouted out loud when Egwene stabbed him. I was happy overall with everyone's performance. The production values and action scenes were great. The flashback to the fight on the mountaintop in the snow was exceptionally compelling to me.

^This is how I feel about this season. I haven't read the books. I like the show and will definitely tune in for season 2, but I haven't been too impressed with most of the young actors. Rosamund Pike, though, is great, and I also agree with the below about Nynaeve:

OK season, but hardly anything compelling or groundbreaking. WoT came across as a workmanlike fantasy series, overall decent but it spent too much time spinning its wheels when it needed to drive the narrative forward. Extended funeral scenes of characters we hardly knew was a tactical oopsie.

Criticisms about the casting are valid; few of the actors left much of an impression one way or the other.

I’d add the actor playing Mat was one of the few standouts, so unfortunate to hear of recasting.

I agree the season as a whole was very underwhelming. Some good elements, but the core 5 characters are really a let down and uninspiring. Plus I don’t get any sense of romance between Rand and Guwaine.

Hopefully season 2 can build on the strong points and move forward now that a lot of the basics (?) are out of the way.

Aside from the flashback and Rands previous life, I don’t think we’ve really had the concept of the wheel coming to fruition aside from people talking about it. I presume it’s the biggest idea in the books, so hopefully more of that comes out too.

Without spoiling anything, one thing I’ll say about the books is that the main characters pretty quickly move away from being small-town yokels.

After the excellent episode 6 (the best of season 1 imho) the last two episodes were a letdown to me. What's special about episode 6? You barely saw the uninspiring young wannabe Dragons. So yeah, the less you see of them the better the series is, which is obviously a problem. I'm not sure I liked this enough to keep watching.

And for a series which is supposed to have a big budget, pretty much all the battle scenes were crappy. I was expecting a Helms Deep kind of battle in this last episode and got crappy CGI masked by darkness with a few dudes shooting arrows.

You would think that they would have had at least catapults, they would have been more effective than shooting crossbows through tower slits.

I wanted more up close and personal Trolloc battles like in the first/second episode. When they raid the village and butcher everyone - that was awesome. I hope season 2 fixes that.

I haven't read the books but really had to groan at 5 nobodys taking out 20.000 trollocs while an army and general wasted themselves for no reason.
That was fucking weak and it actually puts a damper on my excitement for season 2.

I never read the books. I read Tolkien, Eddings, Alexander, Lewis, Weis and Hickman. Didn't get to Jordan, Brooks, or Martin. I watched this over a few days all together right before the finale debut.

I really tried with this series and it wasn't that great for me. Much of it - the story, the acting, the pacing - felt clunky. "Plodding" came to mind at least once per episode for me. For a show with so much death and mourning, it rarely felt like we were given the opportunity to be attached enough to the characters to either feel their deaths nor join the survivors in mourning. If characters die and I don't care, that's a problem.

I appreciated the production design and casting that reflected the Eastern cultural, theological, and philosophical framework behind the wheel of time. I don't know enough about Hinduism and Buddhism to know all of this fully, but pieces had a familiarity in these religions for me. Perhaps that's what I dug the most, a sword and sorcery story that didn't feel like it was set in Muddle Earthian western Europe.

Sounds like there are several seasons coming up. I can see myself tuning in with nothing else much to do, but as a binge as the season comes to a close, and I'd have to hear really good things beforehand.

That's a really good point now that you mention it. I wouldn't even think 5 Aes Sedai could take out that many trollocs. Moiraine struggled with the 500 trollocs that attacked during the Bel Tine festival.

I might have a reason to keep watching, she's awesome as Avasarala in The Expanse:

Shohreh Aghdashloo in talks to play Cadsuane on The Wheel of Time

I had my misgivings after the first episode and, sadly, still have them after the season finale. As a reader of the books the changes made for TV are just too jarring for me to get past and, barring that issue, the show is kind of a mess. Unless I hear some very positive buzz I don't envision watching the subsequent seasons.

Egwene and Nynaeve are extremely powerful channellers and it was only a fluke that they were there.

The producers are painting themselves in a corner with these fake out death scenes in the Logain episode and the 3 fake death scenes in episode 8. There is no drama if super Nynaeve and Egwene can heal certain death. Back to back dream sequences was also quite the trope. This is Shannara quality when it was aiming for Game of Throne.

Yep, was expecting GOT and it barely surpassed Shannara. Feel like book readers oversold this thing, but production really dropped the ball. The first 4-5 episodes are mostly a waste; just introducing the generic unmemorable characters then having them travel back and forth until the last couple episodes. Which was too little too late and unsatisfying.

Now that The Witcher season 2 is running, it low key makes WoT look kinda like a WISH Version of a fantasy show.

I prefer Wheel of Time to Witcher. I like both, but Witcher sometimes feels almost too geeky fantasy.

In terms of the story, i see no huge differences as it's all European Culture Fantasy stuff to me.. Same ole, same ole...been there a lot and done that. I mean it's all swords and monsters, witches and prophecies, Elves and dwarfves, etc. But I'm more talking about the quality of the sets, costumes, and the acting on The Witcher compared to WoT.