The Wheel of Time - streaming on Amazon Prime Video

[SHIELD Agent 47]

The first three episodes of the first season adapting the late Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time high fantasy novels began streaming on Amazon Prime Video yesterday 19 November 2021. Any readers or viewers here?

Teaser trailer:

Full trailer:

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw the three eps. I didn't read the books so I don't know anything.

There's barely any humor until ep3. Cool for the horror.

Character I like is Mat, friend to children, driven by greed. I HOPE he's the Dragon Reborn.

Rand can go fall in a ditch with his pining, bleh.

Perrin is a friend to woofs. One was eating his guilt. He's ok.

The woman, eeeh.

---
Question, did Mat trigger the disintegrator in ep2? It wasn't clear to me.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

The books were my absolute favorite thing for many years. Probably read the whole series 4 or five times as it was coming out. Maybe more. They have some flaws, but I still love them a lot.

I havnt gotten to watch the show yet. Hoping it's at least good.

-ZacWilliam, will report back in after I have the chance.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

Watched the first episode.

They changed some fairly big things, but almost all in a way that illustrates or heightens the character's themes/storylines for TV, and not in a way that bothers me or really breaks anything imo.

I find the changes interesting if nothing else. A lot of them feel like an aging up of the main cast. In the book they felt like teens who were still halfway kids at the very start. This they position them all firmly as adults, if young adults, and age their portrayals up accordingly.

Honestly the change that actually bothers me a little is silly and small. Warders are supposed to have magic cloaks that constantly blend into the background behind them and while I can see leaving it out for budget reasons I miss that bit of obvious magic to them.

I'm interested to see what else gets changed/adjusted going forward.

-ZacWilliam, my wife hasn't read the books but was saying that she wants to now by the end of the first episode, so that's a vote in favor.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

I haven't read the books but how young were the four in the original? Like, were they still of age enough to have conjugals? (Cuz show Rand and Eg'wene were messing around already).

Episode 4 is out and I'm wondering if I should continue watching. I heard they went off the book but I don't know if that's good or bad.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

The Two Rivers main cast (except Nyneve) are all about 19 at the start of the story. They are all written to feel more like teenagers than in the show though.

Rand and Egwene have a "everybody expects them to marry someday" thing going on but are considered too young to do so yet, and are definitely not sleeping together.

Perrin is not married. His wife is made up for the show. He's an apprentice Blacksmith living with his Master's family.

Mat is a troublemaker of the sort who avoids work, plays dumb pranks on people and acts like a brat and generally immature, but he's not an actual theif of anything more than maybe an apple.

The show feels like the same characters pretty much but portrayed as older and more adult.


-ZacWilliam, so far I'm only one episode in but it has deviated mainly in details and intensity and kept the important things and I don't mind the changes this episode. (Ok Perrin is not what I would have done, but I see why they did it). If it goes further afield from the books in later eps that's not necessarily going to be horrible, it just depends if it's done well. We shall see.

 

[Covert Agent Rodimal]

Perrin's wife was not made up for the show. Him being married to her was, but she was a bit character from the books that he "probably would have married" had he stayed in the village has per the show runners. She was the girl he had a crush on. Her part and fate was made up for the show, but she existed in the book.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Thanks for clarifying the ages and sleeping together bit. When folks said they were acting like teens in the books, I thought they were 15-16.

Book Mat is bratty? Huh. I liked show Mat the most of the four, due to him caring for his sisters and generally being driven, even by greed. Maybe I won't like him as much if I read the books.

(Should I read the Wheel of Time books? I'd say David Edding's Belgariad and Mallorean were the most fun to read of the fantasy books from, er, the 90s? Witty characters and great adventure for a chosen one type. Lord of the Rings and Shannara were pretty serious. )

 

[Stepwise]

Taking your tangent and running with it until someone tells me off...

I love the Belgariad. The Mallorean is okay, but it gets repetitive toward the end. The Belgarath and Polgara books were pretty good, though.

 

[Covert Agent Rodimal]

The Belgariad and Mallorean are my absolute all time favor book series. I used to read them once or twice a year. Yes they are a bit repetitive toward the end, but that was also by design, same meeting over and over again through the ages, certain things had to happen again and again.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Say, why hasn't there been an adaptation for Belgariad anyhow? It's more traditional than the Elenium (and less controversial, what with Sparhawk's May December romance, haha).

Saw the Wheel of Time 5th ep. Rand better become more interesting soon cuz the other guys are much cooler. Mat did nothing this time though but they're going wild with Perrin.

Are Warders in relations with their Witches (am I getting the terms right?). The hot tub scene in the first ep raised my eyebrow but from the comment in this ep, it was just the two Warders.

 

[Exatron]

I've never read the books before. My wife read them back when they were coming out though, so she'd been really excited for the show to come out. It's been a long time since she's read them, and she never got to read the last few books due to real life time issues, so she can't necessarily remember all the details from the books and what all has been changed for the show.

Anyway, we've been enjoying it so far. I get the feeling she would prefer it if the show could slow down some and spend more time on some of this early material, but it's something like 15 books long, right? Even if the show is really successful and goes seven or eight seasons, that's still averaging 2 books per season. I can't imagine it's at all feasible for them to have any hope of covering the whole story and not feel rushed in comparison. If anything though, from my perspective, it feels like it's an awful lot of worldbuilding that I hope and expect will pay off later, but it just feels a bit slow-paced so far.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw the 7th ep. The intro with the pregnant woman and the killing was brutal.

Was all this lust in the books? Haha.

Man, I hope they do a twist with the chosen one cuz it's be boring otherwise.