Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime

[Ron]

I watched all three episodes late last night. And, just what is up with the Queen of Andor’s consort, Gaebril? In the books I remember him as a strong figure with good looks. Of course Matt was written as being a downright pretty man and that is definitely NOT the case in this series. While speaking of appearances, Perrin strikes me as having a freshened up look and Egwene seems to have a darker skin tone in the newest season, and still not a beauty.

Is it just me, or is there a lot more jumping around with the facts and timeline in the books this time around? Also, I’m not sure that the episodes are shorter or the jumps in the timeline (and poetic license being exhibited) are throwing me off.

Edited March 14, 2025 by Ron

[Jason Rimbaud]

9 hours ago, Ron said:

I watched all three episodes late last night. And, just what is up with the Queen of Andor’s consort, Gaebril? In the books I remember him as a strong figure with good looks. Of course Matt was written as being a downright pretty man and that is definitely NOT the case in this series. While speaking of appearances, Perrin strikes me as having a freshened up look and Egwene seems to have a darker skin tone in the newest season, and still not a beauty.

Is it just me, or is there a lot more jumping around with the facts and timeline in the books this time around? Also, I’m not sure that the episodes are shorter or the jumps in the timeline (and poetic license being exhibited) are throwing me off.

In the books the Queen of Andor is older, and abdicated the throne to avoid a scandal as having Gaebril for her advisor. He is almost as handsome as Galad though he's older. I haven't seen season three yet, my husband makes me wait until he can binge them all. 

Matt, either casting choice didn't seem to fit the books in terms of looks. Neither did Perrin, I do think Lan and his Aes Sedi are dead on casted right. Rand is pretty in the show, kind of ordinary in the books.

They have taken such dramatic license with this tale, I honestly don't know what is going on. They would have been better sticking to one book per season, they could have controlled the budget better and offer 10 episodes instead of eight. We really didn't need to see or hear about the white tower or the massive set they built during the first season. We got an entire episode about the Children of the Light and then they haven't been seen since. Wasted screen time. The children don't become really important until what, book four.

right now, I'm two seasons in and don't really care about any of the three rivers crew as the main focus had been on everyone else. 

I'm pretty confident, without even seeing season three yet, it won't get a season four. 

[Ron]

54 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

In the books the Queen of Andor is older, and abdicated the throne to avoid a scandal as having Gaebril for her advisor.

The abdication was much later, after having fled an unrecoverable situation. The Queen was never described as ‘Old’ but as one of those beauties of youthful years having mellowed into an appearance of fine bearing and underlying integrity — glimpsing the remembrance of youth.

1 hour ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

He is almost as handsome as Galad though he's older

Good observation. This aligns with my memory, and with a large dollop of arrogant deceit and self worth.

 

1 hour ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

The children don't become really important until what, book four.

Why, no. Due to an inversion of time and space, the White Cloaks are back doing what they’re good for doing. Um, what they’re usually up to — which is up to no good.

 

1 hour ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I'm pretty confident, without even seeing season three yet, it won't get a season four.

This is sad. 😔 Shame! Shame on you! It doesn’t matter if it’s precisely represented (is that a word?) — it’s science-fiction fantasy and we don’t get enough of it.

[Headstall]

I for one am glad they are not religiously following the books. It would not have translated well for a TV show IMO. This version works for me, covering a lot of what is necessary, but not getting bogged down in Jordan detail. So far, season three is exciting and coherent, and I think a season four is quite possible. 

[Jason Rimbaud]

1 hour ago, Ron said:

This is sad. 😔 Shame! Shame on you! It doesn’t matter if it’s precisely represented (is that a word?) — it’s science-fiction fantasy and we don’t get enough of it.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed season one until the last three episodes that Covid ruined. The introduction of Thom and Rand's mother are some of the best I've seen hands down. 

I'm saying, I don't think they stuck close enough to the source material to keep the die hards and the way they go back and forth so fast between characters, I don't think they can keep new viewers either. 

I really hope they continue, but Wheel Of Time isn't really being heralded as a great fantasy show, not like the Lord of the Rings show or even Games of Thrones prequel. No one is talking about the show. I don't think they are making enough money off it to throw more hundreds of milliions away on it. 

16 minutes ago, Headstall said:

I for one am glad they are not religiously following the books. It would not have translated well for a TV show IMO. This version works for me, covering a lot of what is necessary, but not getting bogged down in Jordan detail. So far, season three is exciting and coherent, and I think a season four is quite possible. 

I am far from being a jordan fanboy, but I still stick to my guns that they threw too many characters on the screen and didn't give the audience a reason to invest in any of them. 

Though I am hopeful season three is good after the nightmare season two was. I'll still watch it, and probably go back and watch season two again as I have forgotten much of it.  

[Ron]

Act one. Scene one.

Ron is seen finishing reading a post made by a good friend concerning the series The Wheel of Time.

He pushes his chair back as he stands, a shocked look upon his face as he looks at the computer screen. His hands clasp involuntarily to his chest, each palm flat and fingers widely splayed.

He cry’s out: “Oh, Gary!”

Ron then spreads his arms outward, shoulders wide, his hands seemingly beseeching for some unavoidable truth.

Ron speaks quietly, plaintively : “Aren’t we long-time friends, Gary? Didn’t we join Gay Authors dot org about the same time? How can you say that you don’t care for Robert Jordan’s exquisite detail? How can you say that you don’t care for chronological order?!”

Ron draws his right hand tightly into a fist and pushes it against his lips - pauses - then slowly drops his head and hands in anguish.

We are left with the visage of a man standing, illuminated in the bad lighting of his computer who thought that he knew his friend well.

End of scene.

😬

Edited March 15, 2025 by Ron

[Headstall]

9 minutes ago, Ron said:

Act one. Scene one.

Ron is seen finishing reading a post made by a good friend concerning the series The Wheel of Time.

He pushes his chair back as he stands, a shocked look upon his face. His hands clasp involuntarily to his chest, each palm flat and fingers widely splayed.

Ron cry’s out: “Oh, Gary!”

Ron then spreads his arms outward, shoulders wide, his hands seemingly beseeching for some unavoidable truth.

Ron speaks plaintively : “Aren’t we long-time friends, Gary? Didn’t we join Gay Author dot org about the same time? How can you say that you don’t care for Robert Jordan’s exquisite detail? How can you say that you don’t care for chronological order?!”

Ron pulls his right hand into a fist and pushes it against his lips - pauses - then slowly drops his head and hands in anguish.

We are left with the visage of a man who thought that he knew his friend well.

End of scene.

😬

Scene Two: Gary tries to make amends.

Sorry, Ron, and of course we are friends. I love Robert Jordan, may he rest in peace, and I loved The Wheel of Time series... for the most part. That said, I about tore my hair out at how boring and drawn out it became. It happened for me around book seven I think... around there anyway(maybe earlier), and I later learned it was mostly because he was ill while writing. 

As far as detail, he was a master in the early books, holding my complete attention with its richness. I think what threw me most were all the names of Aes Sedai etc. It was almost impossible to keep them straight, and I shuddered when I first heard there would be a TV series. I have been delightfully surprised and have found little jarring with regard to order. Of course it's been a long time since I read the books, and maybe now I wouldn't find some of the series an ordeal.

Also, your flair for the dramatic was impressive.  

Forgiven? 

[Ron]

2 minutes ago, Headstall said:

Forgiven? 

Nothing to forgive. Thanks for the compliment about my … flare. That is not something I usually get compliments for. In fact it’s something I’m not known for. Go figure?

I think everyone gets bogged down around book seven. But as I said, one must accept the unavoidable truth — one gets what they’re gonna get. We know this for a fact (we are both authors) that you can’t please everyone.

[Ron]

Have any of you read New Spring from 2004? It’s a prequel of sorts released in the middle of TWoT’s books, about the time everyone began saying the series was getting bogged down, if you will. If you’ve read it I’m sure you found it to be a breath of fresh air when it was released. It was as if Robert Jordan found that point of focus that Rand al-Thor was always trying to achieve, where everything locked in place and all of the extraneous elements dropped away. What we are given then is in fact a new beginning and a fresh perspective when returning to the trenches (so to speak).

Edited March 15, 2025 by Ron

[ReaderPaul]

14 hours ago, Headstall said:

I for one am glad they are not religiously following the books. It would not have translated well for a TV show IMO. This version works for me, covering a lot of what is necessary, but not getting bogged down in Jordan detail. So far, season three is exciting and coherent, and I think a season four is quite possible. 

I agree that Jordan put in bogging down detail.  I stopped reading the books after Book Four.  

[ReaderPaul]

13 hours ago, Headstall said:

Scene Two: Gary tries to make amends.

Sorry, Ron, and of course we are friends. I love Robert Jordan, may he rest in peace, and I loved The Wheel of Time series... for the most part. That said, I about tore my hair out at how boring and drawn out it became. It happened for me around book seven I think... around there anyway(maybe earlier), and I later learned it was mostly because he was ill while writing. 

As far as detail, he was a master in the early books, holding my complete attention with its richness. I think what threw me most were all the names of Aes Sedai etc. It was almost impossible to keep them straight, and I shuddered when I first heard there would be a TV series. I have been delightfully surprised and have found little jarring with regard to order. Of course it's been a long time since I read the books, and maybe now I wouldn't find some of the series an ordeal.

Also, your flair for the dramatic was impressive.  

Forgiven? 

The first book in the series was excellent.  Each successive book was more challenging as the detailed details derailed thoughts as they tailed off into tangential threads of tangled tree branches of trails traveled seemingly in multiple directions simultaneously.  (It might have also had something to do with the fact that I was working 60 to 80 hours a week for some years when the books came out.)

[Jason Rimbaud]

So I just watched the first two episodes of season three, and I’m man enough to admit that I am actually blown away.  
 

episode one, the first seventeen minutes was amazing.   Maybe the best depiction of magic ever on screen.  
 

season one was mostly good, season two had a lot of flat moments for me, but they might have gotten their writers room together for season three.  
 

I really hope they can continue the intensity they have started on for the remainder of the season. 
 

 

[Ron]

I just finished with episode 6 and what a doozy it is. Emotions are running low to high and back again only to return once more. It’s like ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, so to speak. The magic scenes are really powerful in their display. The show still stretches for various elements of the books and slaps you in the face with a thing in the wrong spot, but as has been established the series cannot follow the actual timeline — or it would never end, and all the actors would be old and gray.

Edited April 4, 2025 by Ron

[Ron]

I’ll just leave this here for the cognizanti. Oh, sorry. I didn’t vet the entire video so there may be nudity and that’s a no-no. Well, I guess you won’t know what you’re missing. Onward:

After watching Season three - episode seven all I can say is: Yea, Perrin! Of course, this was a must-have episode. What with Perrin’s being a ta’veren (Ha! I had to go into a book’s glossary to remind myself of the spelling), he must come into his own strength and position during this age. I think that Isabelle Bucceri who plays Faile is stunningly and absolutely magnificent in her part (she comes into her own here, too) and is an example of brilliant casting for this character.

Sadly, of course, as in every episode of this interpretative drama there are shortcomings: jumps in the timeline just to mention one of them. Even if we can’t expect better it’s worth noting nonetheless. One day - one day …

[Ron]

After that last episode of season three I can honestly say that the show has disregarded anything and everything the books had to say about anything and everything. That is not me being funny! This season has been working loose and indifferent with the canon all along, but what with this last episode the producers have gone on a tangent all of their own creation. Any expectations of a conjoining of the series with the books is off limits for this series’ writers, and it is, sadly, a deficiency of remote accuracy. Yes, I know, they don’t give a rat’s patootie for canon but characters are subjected to situations and scenarios that don’t exist in the books — and they are beyond the pale. After having watched this episode twice, I deem the end result to be a failure of monstrous infidelity.

Just my opinion.

[Ron]

Ron is sad. There are no more excuses (er, season episodes) for him to rag on for in continuity, vis a vis the original, original. Oh, woe is me. What shall I do now?

[Jason Rimbaud]

Season Three was the season I felt the writers started getting a handle on what they were doing. Yes they played loose with the cannon but they got the mix of drama, intrigue, and action down and for the first time since episode one season one, I felt emotion.

We got to see the battle Ajah in all their glory in the Two Rivers, we got to see Aiel and their history, we got a bunch of badass fights in the white tower, if they would have come out of the gate this focused instead of the jumbled mess the first two season were, I think they would have a season four coming. 

But it was too little to late. THE SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED Season two killed off what was left of the good will from the fans. And casual viewers were confused by so many characters and unrelated episodes. So goodbye Wheel of Time, I wonder how many years it's going to be before we get another attempt at bringing it to life. 

And if you are part of that team, don't do eight episode seasons, but if you must, have the story focused on a few characters instead of giving us whole episodes in the vein of villain of the week never to be seen again. 

 

Edited May 24, 2025 by Jason Rimbaud
Added Cancellation Notice

[Ron]

I hate to hear studios say that a production is financially unfeasible. Why? Instead of making a billion dollars in profit per season they instead make millions and call it unprofitable — greedy, greedy, and greedy.

Now, I definitely wasn’t on board with everything they did with this franchise. But I wasn’t disgruntled enough to want to see the show cancelled. But it seems to me that the online squawkers also had an influence on the decision to cancel the show.

Edited May 24, 2025 by Ron

[Headstall]

I am pissed! Once again, Amazon leaves us hanging. 

[Ron]

An anomalous thing is that Amazon Prime updates the thumbnail photo for the series on their app as if it were something new and exciting — which it is (sort of) in that the creators have constructed a new interpretation of an original story. But here we are again with an episodic story cancelled before it has the opportunity to garner a larger audience just when it is on the cusp of achieving that goal. Amazon muckity mucks seem to have a poor attention span for storytelling but are high on advertising. Well, you shouldn’t be surprised when advertising doesn’t meet follow-through.