Online Series: The Wheel of Time (Prime Video, Nov 22)

[Jussi]

They’re pulling from some of the best book plots.
If they do it justice they’ll get renewed for s4.
And if they can get s4 (which should end w book 6) they should be able to finish.

I think season 4 has already been confirmed? Edit: the showrunner has only teased that the show could last for 6-7 seasons. Season 4 probably wouldn't be out until 2027. It's apparently #2 show on Prime Video now.

 

[Jussi]

Agreed. Book readers are still struggling with all the changes but, despite myself also being a book reader, I'm mostly ok with them. Some changes kinda frustrated me. For example, Mat in particular. Some of Mat's changes aren't the showrunners fault (original actor was an anti-vax moron) but some are just perplexing to me (memories are via horn, really?). But then again some are awesome such as I don't feel like someone needs to smacking Nynaeve upside the head for the first half of the story like I did in the books.

"Chewing the scenery" was a constant observation of Aghdashloo's character Elaida in the books. It's a master class in casting and looks to be execution so far, IMO. They've leveled Elaida up from the books, and she was a great character in the books. They've are given her more depth and honestly skills than she ever had in books. Can't wait until her arc really starts to ramp up.

I was questioning them skipping book 3, but honestly it does make more sense for Rand to head to the waste before Tear. I'm just disappointed Mat didn't go with them. I'm hoping they'll repurpose his storyline in Tanchico but I guess we'll see.

I'm sure I'm gonna be called crazy but Faile is a favourite character of mine. So I was super excited to see her show up her in S3, and so far I'm liking the characterization.

I have to say I like the personal tensions between the Forsaken. Clearly not a unfied group. The spider lady is creepy as hell.

 

[IDvsEGO]

I have to say I like the personal tensions between the Forsaken. Clearly not a unfied group. The spider lady is creepy as hell.

have you read the books?

 

[IDvsEGO]

Agreed. Book readers are still struggling with all the changes but, despite myself also being a book reader, I'm mostly ok with them. Some changes kinda frustrated me. For example, Mat in particular. Some of Mat's changes aren't the showrunners fault (original actor was an anti-vax moron) but some are just perplexing to me (memories are via horn, really?). But then again some are awesome such as I don't feel like someone needs to smacking Nynaeve upside the head for the first half of the story like I did in the books.

"Chewing the scenery" was a constant observation of Aghdashloo's character Elaida in the books. It's a master class in casting and looks to be execution so far, IMO. They've leveled Elaida up from the books, and she was a great character in the books. They've are given her more depth and honestly skills than she ever had in books. Can't wait until her arc really starts to ramp up.

I was questioning them skipping book 3, but honestly it does make more sense for Rand to head to the waste before Tear. I'm just disappointed Mat didn't go with them. I'm hoping they'll repurpose his storyline in Tanchico but I guess we'll see.

I'm sure I'm gonna be called crazy but Faile is a favourite character of mine. So I was super excited to see her show up her in S3, and so far I'm liking the characterization.

I'm hoping that they don't change the core of Elaida too much. The concept of Elaida is a really good one.

The memories via the horn is okay-ish. I'm more annoyed about him not going to the waste, mostly because how does he get to where he needs to be in b5. His b4 plotline basically ends half way in.


If they do Rand justice here.
Rand is in my opinion one of the best characters in all of fantasy. Well written, dark, intelligent, and oh my god what an arc he has.

 

[Jussi]

have you read the books?

Nope as I said before.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

I'm hoping that they don't change the core of Elaida too much. The concept of Elaida is a really good one.

The memories via the horn is okay-ish. I'm more annoyed about him not going to the waste, mostly because how does he get to where he needs to be in b5. His b4 plotline basically ends half way in.


If they do Rand justice here.
Rand is in my opinion one of the best characters in all of fantasy. Well written, dark, intelligent, and oh my god what an arc he has.

I'm gonna move this into spoiler tags, just for show only watchers. You did good, but I'm gonna have trouble here, so yeah anyone not wanting book spoilers, do not click below

Spoiler: Book Spoilers

Agreed. But in the books we never really find out how she rose to such prominence, she must have had some skill at Dae's Daemar to have maintained such standing as to have the political capital to be elected after Alviarin's plots. Figurehead or not she had some skill with it. We never saw it in the books really. Yeah strength in the power played a part but it wasn't everything. Here we see her setting it up. So it's going to make her fall out so much worse when we've already seen her at her devious best. She legitimately is the hero in her own head, her problem was just being such a control freak and just overall poor leader.

Yeah I suppose so. But I've been holding out against hope that they weren't just going to KO the finns out of the story. But it's looking more and more like they will. How that will impact Moraine/Lanfear thing as well as the Mat/Thom/Noal thing, idk but also I always doubted star Rosamund Pike was going to sit out multiple seasons. And the dagger as part of Ashendrei (sp? lol) just doesn't make sense to me either long term, even though the showrunners did confirm that wasn't his spear after S2 finished so we'll see I guess.

And 100%. The success of the show ultimately will ride on that. Obviously they are going have to significantly shorten grumpy Rand that lasts from b3 even he starts showing it until the end of b12, but hopefully they don't pull up too much on just how dark it gets. He has it so much rougher than anyone, and b12 there gets dark. It gets really hard to cheer for him, even as he was one of my favourite characters. But it feels so realistic, despite you knowing this is high fantasy it will always turn out alright always sometimes it really didn't feel like that with him. And to me it was so so easy for b13-14 Rand to come off cheesy, but it really didn't to me (except maybe the very first scene with him walking down the mountain). But if we get to the point of discussing THAT, the show will have already been a success really.

 

[The Marquis]

Agreed. Book readers are still struggling with all the changes but, despite myself also being a book reader, I'm mostly ok with them. Some changes kinda frustrated me. For example, Mat in particular. Some of Mat's changes aren't the showrunners fault (original actor was an anti-vax moron) but some are just perplexing to me (memories are via horn, really?). But then again some are awesome such as I don't feel like someone needs to smacking Nynaeve upside the head for the first half of the story like I did in the books.

"Chewing the scenery" was a constant observation of Aghdashloo's character Elaida in the books. It's a master class in casting and looks to be execution so far, IMO. They've leveled Elaida up from the books, and she was a great character in the books. They've are given her more depth and honestly skills than she ever had in books. Can't wait until her arc really starts to ramp up.

I was questioning them skipping book 3, but honestly it does make more sense for Rand to head to the waste before Tear. I'm just disappointed Mat didn't go with them. I'm hoping they'll repurpose his storyline in Tanchico but I guess we'll see.

I'm sure I'm gonna be called crazy but Faile is a favourite character of mine. So I was super excited to see her show up her in S3, and so far I'm liking the characterization.

I like Faile because she’s the type of person I could never get along with. My first impressions of the character in the show are exactly that, so I’m glad. She also looks exactly like I pictured the character, which would be the only one so far.

 

[IDvsEGO]

I'm gonna move this into spoiler tags, just for show only watchers. You did good, but I'm gonna have trouble here, so yeah anyone not wanting book spoilers, do not click below

Spoiler: Book Spoilers

Agreed. But in the books we never really find out how she rose to such prominence, she must have had some skill at Dae's Daemar to have maintained such standing as to have the political capital to be elected after Alviarin's plots. Figurehead or not she had some skill with it. We never saw it in the books really. Yeah strength in the power played a part but it wasn't everything. Here we see her setting it up. So it's going to make her fall out so much worse when we've already seen her at her devious best. She legitimately is the hero in her own head, her problem was just being such a control freak and just overall poor leader.

Yeah I suppose so. But I've been holding out against hope that they weren't just going to KO the finns out of the story. But it's looking more and more like they will. How that will impact Moraine/Lanfear thing as well as the Mat/Thom/Noal thing, idk but also I always doubted star Rosamund Pike was going to sit out multiple seasons. And the dagger as part of Ashendrei (sp? lol) just doesn't make sense to me either long term, even though the showrunners did confirm that wasn't his spear after S2 finished so we'll see I guess.

And 100%. The success of the show ultimately will ride on that. Obviously they are going have to significantly shorten grumpy Rand that lasts from b3 even he starts showing it until the end of b12, but hopefully they don't pull up too much on just how dark it gets. He has it so much rougher than anyone, and b12 there gets dark. It gets really hard to cheer for him, even as he was one of my favourite characters. But it feels so realistic, despite you knowing this is high fantasy it will always turn out alright always sometimes it really didn't feel like that with him. And to me it was so so easy for b13-14 Rand to come off cheesy, but it really didn't to me (except maybe the very first scene with him walking down the mountain). But if we get to the point of discussing THAT, the show will have already been a success really.

Full book spoilers.

Spoiler: Book Spoilers

Elaida - She was popular with the reds, we see in books 2/3 that there's some oddness with political factions as Suian points out that reds and greens were aligning against her which literally made no sense.
Remember that Alviarin gets Elaida elected only by virtue of having the minimum number of sitters at the election, and at least 1 was a DF.

The core of Elaida's plot that I want/need is that not all shitty people in this world are DF's. That you can be trying to do good, and still be a shit person. See Aridhol. See Whitecloaks.
It ties into the lesson Rand doesn't learn till the end...

The finn's are absolutely not KO'd. We get a hanging vision. We got snakes and foxes board game. We're getting finns. Location of the door might be different.
There was a Behind the scenes with Shohreh Aghdashloo and her braclet has snakes and foxes on it.

Rand needs to go dark. The plot demands it. The depth he needs to sink is what makes this series. It's what allows you to accept the actual ending. That the story ends with him, and he deserves his rest.
The punch after punch he needs to take. The thing thats bothering me already is that the show hasn't even started to hammer home, Rand being told "you have to do this", we got the first hints of "i want to go home", but not the "I hate this shit, I do it because I must, but I hate this shit"
We haven't even really gotten that Rand's fate is to die. That needs to be hammered home. Over and Over again.
But if we get 1 more season, we get Dumai Wells. And Dumai Wells done properly, gets you the end of this series.
That would get a bigger reaction than battle of the bastards.

 

[RandV]

I'm hoping that they don't change the core of Elaida too much. The concept of Elaida is a really good one.

The memories via the horn is okay-ish. I'm more annoyed about him not going to the waste, mostly because how does he get to where he needs to be in b5. His b4 plotline basically ends half way in.


If they do Rand justice here.
Rand is in my opinion one of the best characters in all of fantasy. Well written, dark, intelligent, and oh my god what an arc he has.

I've only caught the first episode of season 3, so haven't gotten to Elaida yet. But my audio book re-read of the series the other year I found without gettng into spoilers Elaida went from a strong character to a sort of bumbling caricature of a powerful woman. I feel like things will have to change because Shohreh Aghdashloo is too good/strong an actor to go down that root. When I heard she was cast I first assumed she'd be playing Cadsuane.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Episode 4 might be the most book accurate episode to date. One of the best they've also done so far. Great episode. This was a tough sequence to pull off and I think they did well. I thought the sequence with Moiraine was well done as well in adding her journey, that is off screen in the books.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Episode 4 might be the most book accurate episode to date. One of the best they've also done so far. Great episode. This was a tough sequence to pull off and I think they did well. I thought the sequence with Moiraine was well done as well in adding her journey, that is off screen in the books.

it was very book accurate down to the exact wording.
It was almost a bit too sunny though.
Josha acted his ass off though.

 

[IDvsEGO]

I've only caught the first episode of season 3, so haven't gotten to Elaida yet. But my audio book re-read of the series the other year I found without gettng into spoilers Elaida went from a strong character to a sort of bumbling caricature of a powerful woman. I feel like things will have to change because Shohreh Aghdashloo is too good/strong an actor to go down that root. When I heard she was cast I first assumed she'd be playing Cadsuane.

Spoiler: Book Spoilers- Elaida

Elaida is not a bumbling caricature. Elaida is an intelligent person who knows they're intelligent, who has a massive blindspot that they're not aware of, and what happens when someone is so over confident that it costs them everything. Elaida is part of the repeating theme that "not all that's bad in the world is the Dark One'.

 

[Jussi]

Episode 4 might be the most book accurate episode to date. One of the best they've also done so far. Great episode. This was a tough sequence to pull off and I think they did well. I thought the sequence with Moiraine was well done as well in adding her journey, that is off screen in the books.

Looks like the episode won over the book readers, 9.5 rating on IMDB with around 3K votes and book readers written reviews saying how it surpassed expectations.

"Das Rad der Zeit" The Road to the Spear (TV Episode 2025) - User reviews - IMDb

"Das Rad der Zeit" The Road to the Spear (TV Episode 2025) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...

www.imdb.com

 

[Jack Straw]

Just finished season 1, is Rand the Dragon Reborn or young Jan Ullrich reborn?

 

[Jussi]

Can someone kill Mohgedien already?! What an episode. A bit long at around 1 h 5 minutes before credits began rolling. Also, Ceara Coveney's going to be a star.



Found it really funny how the song is basically about boobs, or "the hills"

 

[IDvsEGO]

Can someone kill Mohgedien already?! What an episode. A bit long at around 1 h 5 minutes before credits began rolling. Also, Ceara Coveney's going to be a star.



Found it really funny how the song is basically about boobs, or "the hills"

The song was perfect! Absolutely in the spirit of the books.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Is Sammael dead? I gotta think not but Rand did drop a damn building on him.

A direct assault on Rand like that is very out of character for book Sammael, but I think they are combining character traits among the forsaken as they've cut the number to 8 from 13. So I'm fine with that.

Love the way Rand calmly snuffs out his attack then juxtaposed by the horror of the collatoral damage. Details a little different from books but for his character arc this will one of the most critical moments for him.

Not much to say about Tanchico stuff other than it was pretty awesome and Laia Costa is nailing it as Moghedien.

 

[Jussi]

Is Sammael dead? I gotta think not but Rand did drop a damn building on him.

A direct assault on Rand like that is very out of character for book Sammael, but I think they are combining character traits among the forsaken as they've cut the number to 8 from 13. So I'm fine with that.

Love the way Rand calmly snuffs out his attack then juxtaposed by the horror of the collatoral damage. Details a little different from books but for his character arc this will one of the most critical moments for him.

Not much to say about Tanchico stuff other than it was pretty awesome and Laia Costa is nailing it as Moghedien.

There are honestly actors in this show I've never seen before, that are, to quote Remy Lebeau, making a name for themselves. Laia Costa, Isabella Bucceri, Ceara Coveney, Josha Stradowski etc.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Is Sammael dead? I gotta think not but Rand did drop a damn building on him.

A direct assault on Rand like that is very out of character for book Sammael, but I think they are combining character traits among the forsaken as they've cut the number to 8 from 13. So I'm fine with that.

Love the way Rand calmly snuffs out his attack then juxtaposed by the horror of the collatoral damage. Details a little different from books but for his character arc this will one of the most critical moments for him.

Not much to say about Tanchico stuff other than it was pretty awesome and Laia Costa is nailing it as Moghedien.

sammael doing a direct assault with faulty intelligence is fairly accurate.

As for him being dead , not sure but doubtful- Im Thinking he’s gonna take the roll of a different forsaken from book 4/5.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

sammael doing a direct assault with faulty intelligence is fairly accurate.

As for him being dead , not sure but doubtful- Im Thinking he’s gonna take the roll of a different forsaken from book 4/5.

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it seems to me they hammered home in the books that Sammael's key strength was defensive warfare. I think he sent some attacks Rand's way, I think contributed from a distance during

Spoiler: Book spoiler

Seige of Cairhein,

but never put himself at risk unless he could control the environment.

Spoiler: Book spoiler

Part of the reason, iirc, Rand even went to Aiel waste from Tear was that he knew attacking against Sammael in Illian was madness, had to find a way to end around him than let Sammael fight defensive.

But again maybe I'm wrong idk. I think it works fine in the show.

Spoiler: Book spoil

With no Asmodean in the show I'm curious as to how this season ends. IIRC Fires of Heaven ends with a big battle between Rand and Asmodean in Rhuidean after the failed proclamation of Rand as Car'acarn. Probably just expand out on the Shaido v Aiel stuff at summit and Moghedien vs Nynaeve duel.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it seems to me they hammered home in the books that Sammael's key strength was defensive warfare. I think he sent some attacks Rand's way, I think contributed from a distance during

Spoiler: Book spoiler

Seige of Cairhein,

but never put himself at risk unless he could control the environment.

Spoiler: Book spoiler

Part of the reason, iirc, Rand even went to Aiel waste from Tear was that he knew attacking against Sammael in Illian was madness, had to find a way to end around him than let Sammael fight defensive.

But again maybe I'm wrong idk. I think it works fine in the show.

Spoiler: Book spoil

With no Asmodean in the show I'm curious as to how this season ends. IIRC Fires of Heaven ends with a big battle between Rand and Asmodean in Rhuidean after the failed proclamation of Rand as Car'acarn. Probably just expand out on the Shaido v Aiel stuff at summit and Moghedien vs Nynaeve duel.

Spoiler: Full Book spoiler

We haven't established anything about sammael yet except according to the show "hes the weakest forsaken. Alot of us assumed they'd merge him and demandred since they overlap a ton.

He didnt go to the waste in the books because he knew fighting sammael was a bad idea, he went to the waste because he needed a lure for asmodean + he needed an actual army. He knew sammael was in illian, but didnt want any head to head confrontations between forsaken except for asmodean.

And I'm assuming that episode 7 will be the turning of sammael, episode 8 will be al'cair dal + shaido + aiel breaking. Nyn vs moggy will also be ep 8 and it should be amazing. ep 7 is titled goldeneyes... so that should probably be an entirely perrin episode. I am amazed we haven't gotten tinkers yet though. Maybe we don't, that plotline never went anywhere decent.

 

[NyQuil]

Finally caught up.

It’s good, they’ve obviously had to make changes given how sprawling this epic is, and I think they’ve made fair trade offs for the most part.

Casting has been excellent. Aghdashloo (who was so good in the Expanse) was a great choice for Elaida.

A few scenes I was looking forward to, especially Mat’s duel with the Trakand boys and the blowing of the horn were well done. Rhuidean was suitably spooky and ominous (reminiscent of Tarkovsky’s Stalker, where everything is a little weird). The battle with the Black Ajah at the White Tower was great.

The horror of the relationship of the damane and sul’dam was well done as well.

I’ve also liked the Lanfear characterization. Egwene is getting a lot to work with this season.

They’ve done a good job with using obscuring fog and darkness to hide excessive CGI in large set piece scenes.

Nynaeve is just as annoying as she is in the books.

I find it easier to distinguish between the Forsaken in the visual format than in the books, kind of like the dwarves in the Hobbit. The Hobbit was not very good but it did a good job of differentiating between the many dwarves.

It’s hard to adapt something like this and they’ve done a fine job.

 

[NyQuil]

I've only caught the first episode of season 3, so haven't gotten to Elaida yet. But my audio book re-read of the series the other year I found without gettng into spoilers Elaida went from a strong character to a sort of bumbling caricature of a powerful woman. I feel like things will have to change because Shohreh Aghdashloo is too good/strong an actor to go down that root. When I heard she was cast I first assumed she'd be playing Cadsuane.

Elaida is a hammer that sees everything as a nail.

She's kind of like the female equivalent of the Children of the Light.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Elaida is a hammer that sees everything as a nail.

She's kind of like the female equivalent of the Children of the Light.

That’s an interesting way to think about her,