Current Events > Wheel of Time reviews are starting to come in.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_wheel_of_time/s01

First review I actually saw:
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-wheel-of-time-premiere-review-episode-1-3 (lol IGN and all of that)

Who is hyped? I've started the series on and off over the years and currently am working my way through it. Almost done with book 7. I really need to stop starting from Book 1 ever time I try to get through the whole thing.

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Yay

Maybe it'll not suck ass

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I can't help but feel like I'll be disappointed, but I'm excited anyway. On book 11 of my current read-through.

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Gonna watch this sucker.

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Simp posted...

I can't help but feel like I'll be disappointed,

Not gonna lie, I'm seeing more and more reviews come out and there's some "meh" ones out there now. I'm as excited for this as I was for Y The Last Man to come out and I couldn't even bring myself to watch Y yet because of how bad everyone says it is.


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Im watching episode 1 now. As someone who just finished the first bookit does seem like theres little actually from the book so far but Im still enjoying it.

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47 seconds in and already loling

we don't know if he was reborn as a girl or a boy

what

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WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

I really need to stop starting from Book 1 ever time I try to get through the whole thing.

I've never made it to the end without biting.

Wait, sorry, I mean without it biting. It really gets to be a slog around book 6 or so when it starts to feel like one exciting thing happens per book and it's all buildup to that and then everyone independently reacting to it. And it takes forever because there's a million characters and I remember a third of them. Oh, right and between that he describes a bowl of fruit on a table and what the table is made of and what kind of tablecloth the bowl is on with the exact same level of detail as every other part of the story until it becomes impossible to tell what's actually important.

But shit when the big events happen they're so damn awesome it always makes me want to try again.

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Simp posted...

47 seconds in and already loling

we don't know if he was reborn as a girl or a boy

what

You're joking?

The Dragon Reborn is always male. The current iteration is Rand al'Thor. This series has tons of powerful women characters what are they even doing if they gender swap the main character

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Ilishe posted...

You're joking?

The Dragon Reborn is always male. The current iteration is Rand al'Thor. This series has tons of powerful women characters what are they even doing if they gender swap the main character

yea, it's definitely, uhhh ... different from the source material
in lotsa ways, going to have to try to turn off that critical part of my brain to enjoy this one I think

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5 minutes in and i cant watch this. the actors are just so unattractive.

it's a seemingly small change that has the potential to spiral into something disastrous or be completely forgotten by the end of the next few episodes. Souls not being unchangingly gendered is only truly important 1 time in a million or less. for now, i'm going to attribute this change to some unreliable narrator trope, and hope it works itself out down the line. i don't think it was in any way necessary, but it's not unsalvageable, either.i feel the same way about Perrin being married. It works okay right now, but it's going to be pretty awkward when Faile shows up after just a few months.

otherwise, most of my gripes are minor, and i generally enjoyed it after the first 15 minutes. I really hope that channeling gets a lot more colorful in the very near future. that is an easy fix and the viewers absolutely deserve better than what we've gotten so far.

also, am i the only one who wants to live out the rest of her life in those mountains? holy shit the scenery was gorgeous.

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I'm only up to the attack on the town on the first episode. There's for sure some changes. Some right away strike me as weird or worrying but i'm willing to give them a chance. Some just make sense for a "modern telling" like Rand and Egwene banging.

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yeah this isn't WOT. This is something else.

Rayman2943 posted...

yeah this isn't WOT. This is something else.

Thats actually good for me, never got around to reading the books so now I can watch the show without worrying about doing that first.

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Watched the first ep. My expectations have been low this whole time but I greatly enjoyed it.

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watching this show made me realize that medieval fantasy isn't for me.

...I might still keep watching, though.

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g0ldie posted...

watching this show made me realize that medieval fantasy isn't for me.

...I might still keep watching, though.

what about post-apocalyptic renaissance fantasy?

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It was... Okay. If I wasn't such a big fan of the source material I probably wouldn't bother continuing tbh.

It'll probably get a lot better, but just not feeling it right now.

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Simp posted...

what about post-apocalyptic renaissance fantasy?

now you're talking

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I watched part of the first episode, honestly it just felt like a generic cardboard copy of Tolkienin terms of writing, at least. I thought the sets and costumes and stuff looked very cool.

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Shablagoo posted...

I watched part of the first episode, honestly it just felt like a generic cardboard copy of Tolkienin terms of writing, at least. I thought the sets and costumes and stuff looked very cool.

I disagree. The shire scenes from LotR felt a lot more of a natural start to the story. This felt shoehorned in (not Robert Jordan's fault; it worked in the books iirc).

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Thats what I mean, its like someone tried to copy Tolkien and did it poorly.

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Some of the changes are just yikes. Rand has to be the Dragon. Here's no ifs ands or butts. It's not exist. Men can not channel that is factual. Women hold the power. Why are they even implying a Woman could be the Dragon? Are they high?

Shablagoo posted...

Thats what I mean, its like someone tried to copy Tolkien and did it poorly.

First novel is a generic rip off. It gets way better and stand alone as it goes on.

It's pretty obvious that no one at all working on this ever actually read the books. Or give a shit about them in the slightest. I mean this show really is nothing more then "Hey what if we did a show about The Wheel of Time, but then literally changed everything about it except the names."

You can tell the people that like the show never actually read the books let alone like them. No true fan of this series could like whatever the hell this shit is. This show is an insult to Robert Jordan's memory.

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Gamerguymass posted...

It's pretty obvious that no one at all working on this ever actually read the books. Or give a shit about them in the slightest. I mean this show really is nothing more then "Hey what if we did a show about The Wheel of Time, but then literally changed everything about it except the names."

You can tell the people that like the show never actually read the books let alone like them. No true fan of this series could like whatever the hell this shit is. This show is an insult to Robert Jordan's memory.

well that's a little extreme, but there certainly are some clunkers
rumors of 4 ta'veren in the Two Rivers lmao

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Balnazarr posted...

Some of the changes are just yikes. Rand has to be the Dragon. Here's no ifs ands or butts. It's not exist. Men can not channel that is factual. Women hold the power. Why are they even implying a Woman could be the Dragon? Are they high?

Exactly. There are plenty of strong women in this series that they didn't need to fuck up the lore just for equal representation. Rand, Mat, and Perrin are the three that could be the Dragon, and Egwene and Nyneave go along because Moraine sensed they were strong in the power.

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Is this something I can watch with the kids?

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BeyondWalls posted...

Is this something I can watch with the kids?

You see a man's ass and a bunch of people get stabbed and chopped through various parts of the body.

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Rayman2943 posted...

yeah this isn't WOT. This is something else.

Brandon Sanderson said he sees it as like another turning of the Wheel, rather than a retelling of the same one

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Simp posted...

well that's a little extreme, but there certainly are some clunkers
rumors of 4 ta'veren in the Two Rivers lmao

tbf I always wondered why Egwene wasnt considered taveren. At least early on before weird shit started happening around taveren.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

tbf I always wondered why Egwene wasnt considered taveren. At least early on before weird shit started happening around taveren.

oh, making Egwene ta'veren doesn't bother me in the slightest, her arc is suggestive enough of that already
it just seems like such a lazy throwaway line, like who the hell is spreading rumors of ta'veren? who even goes to the Two Rivers to begin with? how on earth do they know all 4 are ta'veren? why has nobody else thought to check this out before now? it just made me laugh when I heard it

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Balnazarr posted...

Some of the changes are just yikes. Rand has to be the Dragon. Here's no ifs ands or butts. It's not exist. Men can not channel that is factual. Women hold the power. Why are they even implying a Woman could be the Dragon? Are they high?

First novel is a generic rip off. It gets way better and stand alone as it goes on.

I was considering watching this but not after reading this. If they change that just for pc bullshit I have no interest.

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Watched the first episode.

I don't like them giving Perin a wife just to have him kill her in the first episode. Like I totally knew she'd have to die for later things to work, but that just felt super pointless.
Them pretending the Dragon Reborn could possibly be a woman is annoying because it isn't something that will happen, so it just comes across as very fake on behalf of the show writers. At the end of the first episode, they reduced the candidates down to Rand, Mat, Perrin and Egwene. Nynaeve would have been the only one who could possibly have been rewritten into the Dragon Reborn, but she was eliminated from the pool of potential Dragon Reborns.


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Watched the first three eps and enjoyed 'em so far, although the editing can seem a little...choppy at times. I read the first book ages ago, but didn't remember anything besides a swordsman helping Rand flee the first town. Totally forgot about the witch, Rand's buddies, etc. haha. Could've sworn that they were chased by a flying monster instead of dudes just running at them, but maybe my brain's playing tricks on me. Wish they'd just released all the eps at once so I could do a right proper binge.

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Shotgunnova posted...

Watched the first three eps and enjoyed 'em so far, although the editing can seem a little...choppy at times. I read the first book ages ago, but didn't remember anything besides a swordsman helping Rand flee the first town. Totally forgot about the witch, Rand's buddies, etc. haha. Could've sworn that they were chased by a flying monster instead of dudes just running at them, but maybe my brain's playing tricks on me. Wish they'd just released all the eps at once so I could do a right proper binge.

They were chased by both in the first book so youre remembering partially right!

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First ive heard of it

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Shotgunnova posted...

Could've sworn that they were chased by a flying monster instead of dudes just running at them, but maybe my brain's playing tricks on me.

both. or, first one and then the other.

Shotgunnova posted...

Wish they'd just released all the eps at once so I could do a right proper binge.

we had one good year of this, then everyone started to bitch that they didn't have time to bullshit about things. so now we're back to the inferior technology.

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Finished episodes 2 and 3. Starting to like it. Thought Thom's introduction was great. Rather liked his song.

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I never read the books, can anyone tell me why everyone is so against the idea of the Dragon-born potentially being a woman? What in the books makes the role so gender-specific?

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Shablagoo posted...

I never read the books, can anyone tell me why everyone is so against the idea of the Dragon-born potentially being a woman? What in the books makes the role so gender-specific?

In this case I kinda understand. Men who channel are doomed to go insane due to the Dark One fucking up the male half of the Power. Making the Dragon Reborn a woman completely eliminates a ton of important plot points from the books.

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MC_BatCommander posted...

In this case I kinda understand. Men who channel are doomed to go insane due to the Dark One fucking up the male half of the Power. Making the Dragon Reborn a woman completely eliminates a ton of important plot points from the books.

But since we know it's not going to end up being a woman, does it really change anything?

Shablagoo posted...

I never read the books, can anyone tell me why everyone is so against the idea of the Dragon-born potentially being a woman? What in the books makes the role so gender-specific?

It has to do with how the Pattern and souls work. The Dragon is a specific soul that is reborn into the Pattern every so often. Souls are gender specific, as is demonstrated later in the series.
I don't actually remember if the word "soul" is used or not, but that's the basis of it.

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lolife67 posted...

But since we know it's not going to end up being a woman, does it really change anything?

Ultimately, no. It's a throw away comment that ultimately means nothing given we know how it ends up. By itself it's not really that "concerning", but as others said it would mean the whole issue of the saviour going insane simply isn't a plot point anymore.
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lolife67 posted...

But since we know it's not going to end up being a woman, does it really change anything?

Definitely not lol, if people are mad at the fact that Moirane says it could potentially be a woman then they're getting bothered for no reason

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lolife67 posted...

But since we know it's not going to end up being a woman, does it really change anything?

I'm bothered because it feels like it is definitely not going to happen and everyone will have the same major roles they had in the books even if the minor details are different so pretending that it was ever a possibility feels wrong.

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Shablagoo posted...

I never read the books, can anyone tell me why everyone is so against the idea of the Dragon-born potentially being a woman? What in the books makes the role so gender-specific?

The entire point of the Dragon being male is that at the end of the last cycle the dark one used his last bit of power to corrupt the male half of the power so that all the men who channel it go mad and die. Since the dragon is always male this all but ensured the dark one's victory this time around. That was the whole purpose of the corruption.

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ScazarMeltex posted...

The entire point of the Dragon being male is that at the end of the last cycle the dark one used his last bit of power to corrupt the male half of the power so that all the men who channel it go mad and die. Since the dragon is always male this all but ensured the dark one's victory this time around. That was the whole purpose of the corruption.

But given we know Rand is the Dragon Reborn, and male, it ultimately doesn't matter that much. It just means the Dark One was banking on the Dragon Reborn reincarnating as male (or assumed they were always male incorrectly and just got lucky this time) so it doesn't really change anything.

Yes, it's a silly thing to add and they probably shouldn't have, but it doesn't actually detract in the end.
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