Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime

[Daddydavek]

Episode 7 was up early and I watched it tonight.  The opening is startling and violent and isn't really explained until almost the end of the episode.  The story is galloping along and so far I'm enjoying the ride as it takes liberties with the original text...

I also must admit that I had a love-hate relationship with the books as the plot meandered from pillar to post and find this much more direct story telling more to my liking. 

[Carlos Hazday]

18 hours ago, Daddydavek said:

Episode 7 was up early and I watched it tonight.  The opening is startling and violent and isn't really explained until almost the end of the episode.  The story is galloping along and so far I'm enjoying the ride as it takes liberties with the original text...

I also must admit that I had a love-hate relationship with the books as the plot meandered from pillar to post and find this much more direct story telling more to my liking. 

The books drove me nuts. I gave up after 3 or 4 because the jumping around and multitude of characters made me crazy. Which is funny considering some readers could say the same thing about my big series. At least I've tried to spin off characters to tell their individual stories instead of rambling even more in the main series.

I'm enjoying the TV adaptation.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Carlos Hazday

[wildone]

Correct me if I'm remembering wrong, but isn't the journey into the Blight the end of Eye of the World? Or did they make it to the Eye by the end of that book?

I totally forgot about how Rand came into the world  

[Headstall]

23 hours ago, Daddydavek said:

Episode 7 was up early and I watched it tonight.  The opening is startling and violent and isn't really explained until almost the end of the episode.  The story is galloping along and so far I'm enjoying the ride as it takes liberties with the original text...

I also must admit that I had a love-hate relationship with the books as the plot meandered from pillar to post and find this much more direct story telling more to my liking. 

Totally agree, Dave. I just watched episode seven and I love how the story is moving along. In my mind that dark wind section took forever in the book, but it was done with quickly here. I loved that first part of this episode and how it connected to the end of it. I don't enjoy saying I'm liking a TV series better than the books, but I am.   

[Headstall]

27 minutes ago, wildone said:

Correct me if I'm remembering wrong, but isn't the journey into the Blight the end of Eye of the World? Or did they make it to the Eye by the end of that book?

I totally forgot about how Rand came into the world  

That beginning was so cool! Yeah, it seemed like forever to get to the Blight in the books.   I'm remembering more and more as the series goes along and there is still soooo much left to cover, but at this rate....

[Ron]

I did enjoy episode seven though it's very disjointing for me. Well, everything has been. But there is so much missing and the gaps will be hard to fill for those who remember the books well. I mean things are heavily condensed.

Here's The Eye of the World Wiki. This gives us a synopsis of the first book as a reminder. There are characters that I had forgotten but now remember as being important and recurring characters, as they are scattered throughout the books.

[Carlos Hazday]

10 hours ago, Ron said:

There are characters that I had forgotten but now remember as being important and recurring characters, as they are scattered throughout the books.

I think I read the series had over 4 thousand named characters. If they pare them by say half for TV, I'm still gonna have issues keeping track of them.

[Ron]

1 hour ago, Carlos Hazday said:

I think I read the series had over 4 thousand named characters. If they pare them by say half for TV, I'm still gonna have issues keeping track of them.

I understand, Carlos. The glossary at the end of the books was at times helpful to me. Perhaps the writers and director(s?) will include some of the missing characters in a different sequence and in diverse ways as the series moves along.

[Ron]

The Wheel of Time recap from the AV Club online.

This recap/review/opinion piece captures a fair amount of what I've been thinking and adds more to the mix. It's a good examination of the most recent episode. I'll watch episode seven again. But that will be after I watch the newest episode (2) of The Expanse, which promises to be just as good as the previous seasons; a show to watch if you like great Science Fiction.

[Headstall]

2 hours ago, Ron said:

The Wheel of Time recap from the AV Club online.

This recap/review/opinion piece captures a fair amount of what I've been thinking and adds more to the mix. It's a good examination of the most recent episode. I'll watch episode seven again. But that will be after I watch the newest episode (2) of The Expanse, which promises to be just as good as the previous seasons; a show to watch if you like great Science Fiction.

I watched Episode 2 of The Expanse last night. Truly great Science Fiction.  

[Ron]

On 12/17/2021 at 8:49 PM, wildone said:

Correct me if I'm remembering wrong, but isn't the journey into the Blight the end of Eye of the World? Or did they make it to the Eye by the end of that book?

They did make it to the Eye of the World (the dark one’s prison) but the circumstances in the last show of the series differs from the first book. It was indeed the “first battle” of the current age but not the end, in the first book or the series. One might actually call it the first foray.

Amazon is playing loose and fast with this series, glossing over relatively important things in the service of their storytelling. In the books, to the best of my recollection, Rand faced two of the Foresaken and one of them (a male who is reincarnated in a female body later in the books) was killed by the Green Man (didn’t happen in the series), and the dark one remained imprisoned. So far the Foresaken have only been mentioned by way of religious symbolism as carved figurines belonging to one of the Aes Sedia warders.

[Daddydavek]

I saw the last episode of season one over the weekend.  I guess the next season will deal with Seanchan as the boats are arriving from the east...

I continue to think the series is well photographed, acted and scripted if only vaguely following the story by Jordan.  Again I'm not surprised that the script takes a lot of liberty with the book as a faithful rendition would have involved hours upon hours.

[Headstall]

1 hour ago, Daddydavek said:

I saw the last episode of season one over the weekend.  I guess the next season will deal with Seanchan as the boats are arriving from the east...

I continue to think the series is well photographed, acted and scripted if only vaguely following the story by Jordan.  Again I'm not surprised that the script takes a lot of liberty with the book as a faithful rendition would have involved hours upon hours.

I saw the final episode too, and am really looking forward to more. It would have been impossible to include everything, and quite frankly, I remember thinking a lot that was in the books wasn't necessary. Those books contained a wonderful premise and great storytelling for the most part, but really could have used a vicious edit. 

[ReaderPaul]

21 minutes ago, Headstall said:

I saw the final episode too, and am really looking forward to more. It would have been impossible to include everything, and quite frankly, I remember thinking a lot that was in the books wasn't necessary. Those books contained a wonderful premise and great storytelling for the most part, but really could have used a vicious edit. 

Gary, you are right.  The books drowned me in details, and some others were also drowned by all the minutiae.  While it all fit together, some compactness would have been helpful at times when I was working 60 to 80 hours a week.

[Ron]

5 hours ago, ReaderPaul said:

I was working 60 to 80 hours a week.

I don't know how you read any of the series working those hours.

[Carlos Hazday]

On 12/25/2021 at 10:12 PM, Ron said:

Amazon is playing loose and fast with this series, glossing over relatively important things in the service of their storytelling. In the books, to the best of my recollection, Rand faced two of the Foresaken and one of them (a male who is reincarnated in a female body later in the books) was killed by the Green Man (didn’t happen in the series), and the dark one remained imprisoned. So far the Foresaken have only been mentioned by way of religious symbolism as carved figurines belonging to one of the Aes Sedia warders.

I read an article in which someone claimed they were combing through the books trying to decide what to include in Season 2. I think the producers are playing loose with the order of events and with characters in order to make the show more appealing to a larger audience. After all it's all about the Bejamins and the more eyes on screen they can get.

[Timothy M.]

I've seen the first season now, and I'm impressed.  I'm all for them axing a lot of the book content in the future seasons in order to make a better story, especially if they manage to get rid of the boring and annoying stuff.

[Daddydavek]

A link to Yahoo detailing their take on all the differences between the book and the series on Amazon through season one. 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/59-ways-wheel-time-show-054603752.html

[G90814]

For those who want to read the rest of the series but don't want to wade through the actual books, there's a 'cliff notes' version on Tor.com that summarizes the books and gives a list of 'what happened'. Very handy if you want to refresh your memories and actually read to the end.

https://www.tor.com/series/wot-reread/

[Daddydavek]

The latest buzz is that Amazon's Season 2 of the Wheel will start sometime in 2023...

[Thirdly]

@DaddydavekI hope so!

[Daddydavek]

Amazon dropped the trailer for season 2.  It starts September 1st.

[LemonSoda]

oh man, count down time, I'm hyped. The first season was everything that my teen self would have wanted except for the lack of Gawyn, so I hope he's in season two. I know. I know. "Everyone who reads the books hates him" I found out as an adult. When I finally talked to other human beings. I still hope Amazon includes him. 

[Drew Espinosa]

4 hours ago, LemonSoda said:

I know. I know. "Everyone who reads the books hates him" I found out as an adult.

Tbf, I liked him in the first three books.

[Ron]

I just watched the trailer for Season 2 and it seems like we’re in for a dynamic season.