No "previously on" skit this time! I actually filmed one but didn't have time to edit it for this video, however, I'll be posting a full skit video soon that will basically be a goofy summary of season 1. Let me know your thoughts on this finale!
Not just the finale, but the whole show was genuine trash, and the fact that people were covering for it so much, had me questioning whether I was living in a parallel universe seeing a different version of WOT. The pacing, the dialogue, the sets, the lighting, the camera angles, all trash. I don’t even care that it was so unfaithful to the books, Legend of the Seeker was so different from the books it basically had only the name, yet it was a far superior show in every way (13 years ago).
The reason the dragonmount prologue isn't given is because it spoils the end of book 3. Also Jordan said several times Lews Therin's plan would not work. Both plans would have failed.
Tactical my ass if magic is always just going to look like different colored wind because in the books it talk about weeds and patterns so it was way more than just white and black wispy winds so if you're going to hate on the show when all adaptations are going to be this way because I like The Witcher show the people that played the game or read the books hate the show so that's the same argument, adaptation is always going to be different you can't make it the same but if you did not show how great warriors are or how intricate the magic system is you messed up that's where Rafe Judkins and Brandon Sanderson are going to burn in a special place in hell
@@willgriff I suggest you actually re-read the books. Magic doesn't actually have a color and it isn't actually woven. For example in the age of legends they described it as spinning rather than weaving. Just like Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Spirit isn't actually earth, air, fire, water and spirit. It's an analogy used to help conceptualize what it is. The fire powers are actually solid, liquid, gas, friction, psyche.
I thought it was cheap enough when Nynaeve spontaneously healed Lan and all the Aes Sedai from bleeding out. But Egwene bringing back Nynaeve from what looked like death was simply ridiculous.
It's the laziest way possible to stablish that Egwene is waaaay more powerful than Nynaeve. Still cheap and dumb as fuck, but looking forward to season 2
this is part of what I don't understand. As a non WoT reader, I felt that clearly the writers wanted you to feel like Egwene and Nynaeve, especially Nynaeve had all of the power. Perrin was even made to feel like he has power coming to him. But, it's the Dragon that actually has power? The one character that they made you feel like he only has "some" power. It's hard for a non reader to understand who's the character to focus on. The 2 females are bringing people back from near death while the Dragon is more of a background character.
I mean she did fight machin shin. I don't think anyone even rand has been able to do that lol. Now shadar logoth dagger wounds can be healed it seems and takandar blade wounds don't need circles of full sisters to heal if uno and ingtar are to be healed lol
Totally agree with what was said about why do you even need a “dragon” when 5 untrained channellers can destroy 20k trollics fairly easily. Implies that 5 fully trained sisters could win any battle alone…. Also as a non book reader I was shocked Rand was basically the main character, felt like he had the least screen time overall, I had to google to see if it was a change from the books it seemed so out of place..
Agree. Seems to be following the modern overused trope that white men must be less so others can be more. The power of friendship to bring person back from dead was dumb.
@@jackgeary6928 especially when the inability to bring people back from the dead results in one of the most haunting and character defining moments in the series later on. But Egwene just cries a bit and therefore can resurrect people with no training, even though healing was never her strong suit
@@adc1222 Pretty much, yeah. The excuse I saw going around is that Nyn wasn't really dead, just injured, because she and Egwene didn't fully commit, they stopped before it was too late. But, if that was the case, the VFX team did a poor job of relaying that information to the viewer, because it completely look like she was really dead. And the ominous vision Min had before the battle didn't help at all
Trollocks and even fade are not the main problem, the Channelers fighting for Shadow ( Forsaken, Black Aja, Ashaman darkfriends and Redveiled Aiel ) are. It is the main reason that how many shadowspawn the AS can destroy does a little matter. The WT neads allies and the Dragon is key for other level counterstrike - vs the Dark One itself.
Fun fact: Rand had like 90% of the point of view chapters in the first book. It was a book all about him and viewed from his perspective. The other characters were mostly side characters that Rand had to react towards.
If someone had told me a year ago that Amalisa of all fucking people would steal Rand's thunder at Tarwin's gap I would have gone "Wait, who is that?" And then after googling her name I would have laughed my ass off. But here we are
@@jackgeary6928 the books are amazing and you're in for a real treat. Every inconsistency in plot/worldbuilding and all weird character moments in the show are absent from the books
@@adc1222 That’s definitely a glossing over the many, many problems and inconsistencies of the books (especially when Sanderson took over), but yes, the show is so terrible, the books are a piece of art in comparison.
Rafe wrote a hate you letter to Robert Jordan by changing the very plot, character, location, and message of the books. Rafe started with cutting out the Lews Therin, Ishmael, and Dragonmount which denied viewers the scope of the show. Turned Matt, our fun prankster, into a dour broken family thief. Perrin, our beloved thinking strong man, into a brooding third wheel. Lan our stoic champion, to a emo lovestruck teenage boy. Hire the Arcane showrunners and fire Rafe and the current WOT showrunners.
Finally, someone says it! I don't hate the tv series, it is what it is, but to change Matt's backstory and arc is almost criminal. I learned and practice the bo staff, and enhanced my knowledge of knives because of my love of that character. And I don't see a way to make Matt like the books, or even close to that guy. smh Yeah and I loved the Arcane show, even though I had never even heard of it.
Maybe it’s me but the book EoTW was perfectly fine by me, Rand was basically super powered by the pure saidin of the eye and did insane things that he couldn’t do otherwise, but at the end of the day it demonstrated how powerful he could be and why people should be afraid of him when he slowly loses his mind.
I'm just fresh off a re-read after a looong time, and I thought this as well. The ending made more sense to me now than back then, or maybe I just got older.
Yep. Another way to look at it is, they had 8 hours to adapt 1 book which had 782 pages. They had complete source material and dialogue, and this is what he came up with🤦🏽♀️
They had eight hours, the rough equivalent of the entire LOTR trilogy, plenty of time to do justice to the source material. Rafe chose not to do WoT, but something else. The problem is that Rafe Judkins feels he's a better writer than Robert Jordan, and he is not.
Yeah the writing on this show is a head scratcher at best, production quality also trash. I did enjoy it to a certain extent, but it left me very scared if they continue down this path haha. They barely covered anything and already blatantly screwing things up.
After watching this season what I am getting from it is that all 5 are still being treated as if they are collectively “the Dragon Reborn.” It’s like a millennial basketball game where everyone gets a trophy. Judkins is trying way to hard to be “woke” in this show at the sacrifice of major story elements. It is disappointing to watch to say the least. As another comment said, think about what was done with Harry Potter and LOTR. You have one job. Stay true to the story.
And Jordan’s not even that good of a writer. Technically he sucks. So much fluff and shit in his books with EXTREMELY poor pacing. I love slow books but Jordan’s aren’t “slow burns” they’re just slow. His worldbuilding and long character arcs are exceptional, but Erikson does better wordbuilding and Hobb far better characters. WoT could’ve easily been 9-10 books with nothing much of substance cut. That’s not even mentioning how by book 5 more than half the POV’s suck. The girls POV are so terrible and the Aes Sedai chapters after fhe first 3 books are insufferable
Lol on “they must really hate that little girl” by sending the tidal wave at her. I’m surprised they didn’t make the new bad guys more evil by having the girl have a puppy too.
It was impressive but in the books the Seanchan aren't scorched earth invaders. If you swear to the impress you can even join their army. If you're noble and swear they might even make you high blood.
I wanted to like it and I understand changes are necessary in any adaptation, but using the one power to bring someone back from apparent death breaks something fundamental about Robert Jordan’s world, imo. Still hopeful for improvement in season two.
Exactly! How does ANYONE die in this world, if untrained novices can bring anyone back? Jordan created the world to state that the grave was the Dark Ones domain. Only he could bring anyone back. In the books, failure to do so was one of Rand's most traumatic experiences! It helped shake his mental state and his great fears over the death of women. Nope, let's give it to random White Tower washouts because 'REASONS'.
They had the time to do better with 8 episodes. Start with Logain cold open, give Moraine 3 more sentences about the Dark One and the 7 seals right afterwards. Definitely show the breaking in episode 8. Have Moraine mention the broken seal in episode 8 not just an unknown material. Don't heal death. More world building & Two Rivers character time instead of Stephan. Don't confuse the 2 halves of the power. Keeping Rand a mystery was a good idea for new viewers, but he needed a wow moment.
So true to not mix the two halves. It's so important thematically that they don't keep them visually distinct is the first problem. (Rand uses white strands the same as Moiraine and randomly black as well). The whole Jungian anima/animus that underlies the concept is destroyed not to mention the unification of them i.e. pulling or pushing the wheel as opposing forces is lost and other antagonistic concepts fall through such as the conflict between male and female, Yin Yang, matter Vs anti-matter and good Vs evil. Losing duality destroys so much of the story and loses the importance of unification and ultimately the return of harmony.
I think they want to avoid talking about 2 halves, because it can lead to ideas of binary genders and it will offend their target audience. I have a feeling that they are trying to shift the the Taint from the source itself to male channelers, and make the source unified. But have to wait to season 2 for confirmation.
I did like Stephan as a character and the actor was great. His arc should have ended in a berserker charge when he fell his Aes Sedai die. Then some of the mourning could have taken place, while giving them more time for other elements. The lack of duality is troubling, because it is fundamental to the entire structure of Jordan's world. His fantasy world is not our modern world. The acting was almost always superb. I will mention if actors without sufficient weapons training are put in slow motion instead of using stunt people, it looks much worse than at regular speed.
Maybe also remove the bit where that one dark friend apparently knows that the dark one will break the wheel. Pretty sure the dark ones MO was promising people power and immortality, it would be a fairly major upset if it got out he plans to make both of those rather short lived.
Hopefully they follow GoT in that it had very average 1st season, with sex and violence the only selling point, but got much better writing as the seasons went on.
I coudn't possibly agree more with your review. I know they had a hard time with Mat's actor leaving and COVID restrictions and all, but still, this episode was such a let down for me :( I too felt that the opening scene was a wasted opportunity and didn't do justice to Lews Therin. And that "dragon reborn" name drop had me wincing. The jarringly bad VFX and over the top gestures when channeling I can forgive, but I completely agree that the power scaling in the series is completely off the charts. That scene with the five "Aes Sedai" was just... silly. Completely stole Rand's thunder. Not to mention the excessive fake deaths. Also, I feel like they butchered Lan this episode. And what's with that "Moiraine has a tell" bullshit? That felt like a cheap excuse to get Lan to the Eye. And then we don't even get to know whats the freaking tell! We're just supposed to accept it, because Nynaeve is a super-human at this point. And why would Lan even need to know that in the first place? He absolutely knew where Moiraine was headed to. And how did he slip past the giant army of Trollocs and Fades in the way? All that to get to the Eye and do... absolutely nothing. At this point, Moiraine could have just taken Nyn to the Eye and have her one-shot Ishy right then and there, and it would probably be more believable, given what the show has displayed so far. On a side note, that sick burn at 12:22 tho, oof... and this 10/10 thumbnail... you're on FIRE man. Hope you escape the Darkfriends anytime soon!
Rafe can't touch the true source sums it all up 😅😅. I really don't like the fact that Rand has been degraded to his current status in the series, totally agree with all the points mentioned. Maybe season 2 will better showcase the true power of the dragon reborn. Thanks for the great video
Enjoyed these videos of the show. There were some moments of optimism, but in the end this has been a disappointing series overall, with a train wreck of a finale. Compare three accepted + two wilders destroying 15,000 Trollocs with seven full Aes Sedai + warders being unable to hold off a few hundred of Logain's men in episode 4. Yikes. Rand can't even have a single moment, they even had to make him overcoming Ishamael about Egwene. This show has some deep and fundamental issues.
Shit, I didn't even have the realization to compare the Tarwin's Gap battle to the Logain army showdown. This REALLY puts in perspective how much Rafe just completely threw the power scales off the window in this show
He didn't actually overcome Ishamael... he simply resisted the temptation. Ishamael was SMIRKING... and he's not supposed to be the "happy loser" type... so either he IS a "happy loser" now (unlikely, even by these idiots) OR he didn't lose. Most likely, what happened is that he SUCCEEDED in tricking Rand into breaking that seal.
Yeah, people say good words about the reason he opposed Ishamael in the show and I can see where they are coming from, it's a decent motivation and within Rand's character. But I personally like the one in the book more, where he just wanted this terrible, dangerous situation in which him and his friends were suddenly thrown in to end already. A desperate wish like that felt more appropriate to me for a "final" battle than respecting your loved one enough to not destroy the whole world and recreate a brainwashed copy of them afterwards. But again, that might be just a matter of preference.
Jay, I've gotta say man. I'm a non-reader of the WoT series and didn't quite understand why all of the hate towards this series that I enjoyed to an extent. But, after you've now explained everything that I feel I "should" have seen, I completely get it and I 100% agree with your take and suggestions on what could have been done different. And you're exactly right, I still don't understand the power that "the Dragon" has, honestly I didn't think he had much until you pointed out that he does. I've known about this series of books for A LONG time and completely thought, once I heard that this series was being made, that they'd put in the necessary episodes that it MUST have to make it worthy, aka GoT style.
There is still hope that they found their footing and narrative of the last episode took the hit fdom covid-related production issues 🤞 Myself I very much disliked the last episode, but im hoping they get on the right track in season 2... If you have a luxory of not having expectations, its probably better for your enjoyment if you dont read to much on "what should have been" from book fans :D i think on its own it was an okay / acceptable first season of a tv show, and I think its an envyable position xD
You really gotta have higher standards. There was almost nothing good about the show. Everything considered "good" is just passable or acceptable at best.
@@merc9nine yeah I agree. To even compare it to GOT quality at this point is fanciful. I did enjoy some aspects of the show. But yeah at best some moments were passable/good.
It's not an important book spoiler but the eye is a pool of untainted saidin in the books. One way they show Rand's power level is 2 Forsaken show up, both men. One starts to take the saidin in the eye when Rand does also. The Forsaken is stronger than any Aes Sedai and has the knowledge of the age of legends but in trying to take as much power as Rand ends up burning himself to ash. They could've done that to show someone burning out and Rand's power in the show but didn't. You should definitely do the books. The audiobooks are awesome.
If ppl enjoy something, then more happiness to them! But, I think we should demand more from those who would take control of our myths and warp them to such an insulting extent. No one is asking for a one for one retelling, but don't just appropriate something and then destroy it for your own ends and even worse...do so poorly! That's disrespectful.
The final episode was brutal. The story/plot was nonsensical and no set-up or explanation. What did Rand do? Why? What happened? No idea. Rafe needs to be replaced or the series is doomed.
@@fluffypenguins There are some seriously "woke" aspects of the books, even though I don't think wokeness had even been invented when they were written. So maybe that's what makes Rafe a fan of the books.
@@mybalcony4066 No. That's not what I meant. What I meant is that the Aes Sedai, and especially the Red Ajah are very misandrist. And misandry is a key aspect of wokism. Also, one aspect that I really disliked about the books, is that all women see all men as stupid beasts who need the guiding hand of women, and thus they make decisions for these men without even informing them about it. And at the same time, all men see all women as fragile beings that needs to be protected from the bad things in this world, and thus they make decisions for these women without even informing them about it. The first thing is also a key aspect of wokism, and the second thing can be construed to be misogynistic, which of course is an important excuse for the misandry of wokism. I'm not saying that Robert Jordan was woke. I'm just saying that there are aspects of his books that can be grasped by wokism in order to claim that his books were woke. And that might be what Rafe is focusing on.
@@Tjalve70 You are FOS. The books are mildly sexist from a modern perspective. They do have some strong female characters which was ahead of its time. Misandry is not part of wokeness. Are you insecure little boy?
For me, episode 8 was horrible, but episode 5 being awful had a bigger impact on my experience. Going into episode 5 I wasn't sold on a lot of what they had done, but I was still willing to see where they were going with it. By episode 8 I knew full well that it was going to be awful. They constantly undermined the tension, they never built the stakes, they didn't explain enough of the world or context, they barely had any subtext, they removed the positive qualities of all of the main characters, they made all of the characters dumb and unlikable, The characters didn't have established motivations, they took agency away from the male characters, the plot lacked justification and was delivered to the audience as bad exposition, they broke their own rules, the pacing and editing were awful, they messed up the setups, they rushed the transitions, the sets looked cheap and empty, the effects looked unfinished, the emotional beats flopped, none of the characters did justice to the source material, the message was twisted, and they had 3 episodes of filler in an 8 episode season and then claimed they didn't have time to do the main story justice. What were the good qualities supposed to be again?
I am not against feminism or anything, but from episode 1 it was obvious that it would all be woman are the strongest and that everyone else is week. So, the ending makes sense with this vision: untrained woman can kill the biggest army, and all man surrenders to the power and become evil. End of history. And all the other episodes were mere fillers with weak romance tension or stupid fights.
As a superfan of WoT, and someone who was very excited when the show was announced, it feels weird that I am rooting for it to fail, and quickly. That's were I'm at right now. Say what you want about later GoT seasons, the first few seasons were much more faithful to the books than...this thing is to WoT.
I'm basically having the same problem. I went in knowing something's would be left out or changed and up until about episode 5, I was dealing with it. But to dedicate so much time to a character that doesn't exist, or if he does, is a name said in passing, could have been time better spent on the real WoT story. I can't even stomach the phoney Rand, Egwene, Perrin triangle garbage. The Eye of the World was underwhelming. Five women saving Fal Dara after all the men on the front died, when you realize they could have done the same by going with the men in the first place. The stabbing of Loial, the death of Agelmar, one of the 5 Great Captains were all unnecessary time that could have been spent on what really happens in the books.
The big problem is the production quality which is appalling. Didn't Rafe ever see LOTR and GOT? I mean, there's the blueprint for quality fantasy right there.
Yeah I feel like they are taking attention away from rand and giving it to the girls. Nynaeve and egwene both have plenty of badass moments in the books, I don't see why we need all these displays of power at the expense of the male characters.
There's such a gargantuan amount of source material to pull inspiration from that it's baffling to me why they made so many unnecessary and ridiculous changes
The responsibility ultimately lies with Rafe. He can't be a real book fan in my opinion. His vision for this story is absolutely garbage. The studio should put someone else in the driver seat.
It’s weird…It almost seems like there’s some sort of ideology that would have influenced the decision to take away Rand’s moments and give them to Egwene and Nyneave. What would give Nyneave two super saiyan moments throughout the series, take away the Tarwin’s Gap battle from Rand to be given to Egwene and Nyneave, and have Rand overcome Ishamael’s temptation by affirming Egwene’s dreams? I can’t think of what might have influenced these decisions. Probably something that would cancel me if I just said the word.
The honest shame is both the girls had an episode where they were the heroes. Nynaeve actually had 2 where she saved everyone. And they still had to give Rand's one big moment in the entire book to them.
You mean the ideology of "maybe entertainment shouldn't just be about white men and their stories, white women should be pretty and let's ignore POC as much as possible, that's been done by Hollywood for a 100 years, let's change that" How dare they!!! Arsehole.
@@catherinemckeown2746 yeah and best way to change that is to take story centered around male protagonist strip him of his power and make the side characters overpowered mary sues instead of creating female centered stories or using one as their source material.
Awesome review! I absolutely agree with the points you made. In my opinion, the lack of character development and stakes affected the storytelling. The beauty of the prologue in the LOTR trilogy was that the power of the One Ring and the influence of Sauron's evil was clearly depicted before the story even begins. When the hobbits set out on their journey, the dread of the bigger conflict follows them. Showing Lews Therin's emotional turmoil just like in the book would have set such a great precedence for character journey, and the overall stakes of the conflict in the WOT world.
Calling him the Dragon Reborn may well be my least favorite part of this episode. Which is saying something, because I abhored this episode. But that is such an insane oversight that I don't understand at all how it slipped through the cracks.
I guess they wanna stress the fact that all this has happened many many times before. In a cyclical understanding of time the wheel does not have beginnings or ends. Thus there is no „first“ dragon - he has always been and will always be someone who gets reborn each time the pattern requires him to. So they settled on Dragon Reborn. I don’t like it either, but I am able to understand their way of thinking. 🤷🏻♂️
@@ProfSpencerTV that's actually a pretty good perspective. I think that makes sense; to me it felt more like mistake that made its way into the episode, but if it was deliberate and they have an explanation for it, I can be more understanding.
@@ProfSpencerTV No, that still doesn’t makes sense. In the books “The Wheel” is a predetermined timeline comprised of ages guided by the Pattern. Each turning of the Wheel is a *separate timeline* following a similar but different Pattern. Every turning it cycles through all the ages until completion, then that timeline ends. People are reborn between _Ages_ not timelines. There is no Dragon “before” Lews Therin in the Age of Wonders, because that’s when the Dragon breaks the world, so there’s nothing to be “reborn” from. It only happens once per timeline. Like I said, they either don’t care about or don’t understand the source material at all.
Everyone on social media is all "Lews Therin is The Dragon Reborn because it's nor the 1st turning." But they don't know what happens in other turnings. How do ppl not get that.
Bro…. You are on point on everything!!!! I never read the books didn’t know anything about the show… but I binge it… left a bad taste in my mouth… and you just gave voice to all I was feeling … NAILED IT!!!!!!! Look fwd to more of your input. Happy New Years bro…
Like the show shows us what Morraine can do then it tells us the dragon is infinitely stronger than that and they give Rand a 100x power increase and the best thing he can do is blow bubbles essentially.
In the books the most Egwene could heal was a papercut so I'm not seeing how with no training again she could just heal Nynaeve just like that. This reminds me of how in the force awakens Rey is just out of nowhere able to use the force and a light saber also with no training. They're overpowering the female characters to showcase the power of women I guess but power just for the sake of it really cheapens the whole thing imo.
I’m new to the series, I did not realize that the Foresaken was different from the Dark One. Totally missed that. They made a big deal about the Dragon binding the Dark One and then Rand left like he thought the Dark One was taken care of? I would not have understood any of this background if you didn’t cover it
If I remember right from the book, Rand did think that he fought The Dark One at that battle. And only later did Moiraine inform him that he had only fought Ishmael. So this is a point that I totally accept that they didn't want to spoil now. I am sure that the first episode of season two basically starts with Moiraine finding Rand, and telling him that he only fought Ishmael. It's one of the few points where I completely agree with the producers of the show.
They don't connect Ish'amael to Ba'alzamon until the midway through the second or third book. So Rand in the book also believes he's defeated the Dark One
"The show having supersonic pacing and no time to explain anything" I disagree. The show had many moments where it dragged. Pretty much anytime Rand or Moiraine spoke. How can characters talk so much and say so little? In Game of Thrones when characters spoke we listened. Their stories were important to the overall plot. They provided backstory, foreshadowing or other important content. So much of this show is hit or miss. Some good CGI, some bad CGI, some really cringy CGI. It is that way with so much of this show. But, nothing is worse than turning the Two Rivers gang into a bunch of whinny millennials. They have little to say but get most the lines. Meanwhile Moiraine is supposed to be quite and mysterious but is left with most the dry expedition dumps. You can't have it both ways. There is so much that could have been better with this season. But fix the conversations and it will be easier to overlook other parts. Or find ways to have the conversations help fix other problems - like how confusing things are to those who haven't read the books. or watched all the bonus content.
They could have easily made the implications of the ending more clear with a chain of flashback scenes after Rand takes out Ishamael: a continuation of LTT confronting Ishamael, calling him a servant of the DO, demonstrating he is NOT the DO the scene of Stepin saying Ishamael, the father of lies then Siuan saying she saw a vision in her dreams, which we are then shown are manifactured by Ishamael Time constraints arent even an issue since we had that useless scene between Agelmar and Analisa, who seemingly both die later in the episode.
I think the flashbacks you described would have been perfect, and would be a quick way to explain some of the things that new viewers are confused about. It really sucks that season 1 had so much filler and pointless scenes when they had so much to work with
To put the incompetence of the writing in perspective, the runtime of the entire Lord of the Rings TRILOGY was only an hour longer than the runtime of this season. So there was plenty of time to tell the story of the book, 8 episodes is no excuse.
Apparently Rafe is in a relationship with the actor who plays the Warder Maksim. Which is why they wasted so much time with Stepin. It wasn't to build anything, except for a resume.
There is no comparison, this show is nowhere NEAR Game of Thrones, quality it just isn't. It could have been, but they pooped the bed, lets be honest. It's pretty bad. You want' GoT level? Throw the whole thing out, start over. Get better writers who will stay a little more true to the actual books (I don't need word for word adaptations, but you don't need to change the whole book just for change's sake), get better actors, get better visual effects, get better editors. Really, dump the whole thing and start from scratch. S1 is a total disaster. The first season is the bedrock on which you build the entire series...and this show doesn't have anything to build on. Even if the subsequent seasons turned it around and were good, it can't succeed now, because a huge portion of the potential audience is not going to watch past S1.
having read the books several times over, there was a LOT that went awry in this series... Rand was supposed to be going to the eye with the whole group and rather than fighting Ishamael/Baalzamon at the eye, he was supposed to be fighting Balthamel and Aginor (sorta), still hadn't admitted to himself he was the Dragon Reborn or channel yet. The horn should have been found at the eye (which was in a cave, not in a pit), with the seal and the dragon banner... so much to be disappointed in. REALLY REALLY disappointed in the tarwins gap fight as well, there was a lot that could have been done to make it a LOT better... Egwene healing Nynaeve when she had very little skill in healing and the idea of them burning out that kills the channelers when it isn't supposed to kill them... UGH
Book one only has a "not the best" ending the first time through. On reread, even though EOTW was not as polished as later installments, it still makes a lot of sense. I am fine with changes to a story if they make sense but that changes for the sake of taking someone else's story and making it yours, that's not the same thing as adapting.
I thought even disregarding the changes from the book that episodes 1-6 where mediocre at best. I really enjoyed episode 7 and it gave me hope for the future of the show... After episode 8 I'm tempted to say that Dragonball Evolution was a better adaptation.
If I hadn't googled it beforehand and just watched the show I wouldn't have known that Rand is the main character. I read the book after the season was finished and I would like to be able to say that I'm surprised, but I'm not. Not after most of the things in the sci-fi and fantasy fandom get made for "fans" that don't seem to have any love for the source material. I'll keep reading the books.
Hi this is the first video of yours I have seen, I am glad you gave it a fair review. One thing I disagree on is that they needed more time to develop characters and such, throughout the series so far a ton of time seems to be spent with minor characters and interactions that do not develop anyone. This got to such a ludicrous degree that some of the minor chiropractors ended up getting more development than loyal/Tom. If they actually committed the time to the main characters who knows what would have happened. Also for a fantasy book with frequent action (which I thought made it perfect for adaptation) you would never guess that from watching the show. Will the real dragon reborn please stand up
I enjoyed the season overall, however the final episode was deeply disappointing. I didn't think they could do worse than the original Eye of the World ending, but somehow they managed. One can only hope that it was a result of last minute cast changes and pandemic restrictions that will not happen again.
Thank you for this great review. You have a new subscriber. I've never read the books, but I did enjoy the series despite its flaws, and I have started reading the books because of it. Definitely looking forward to more of your content now.
A friend of mine in high school put me onto the books back in the 90s and I've read them all. Part of me felt that after about book 5 the story began to drag a bit until Brandon Sanderson took over and the pace picked up again - but that's my opinion. This vid is first real look at the TV series and already it's making me not want to watch it as I don't want to have memories of a great series in my youth ruined.
5:28 Yeah it's the same ruin, But that's not make sense. The futuristic city is near the actual Tar Valon. Lews Therin's home in now the DragonMont. But the ruins we saw a the beginning of the show is actually located at Two-Rivers... incoherent easter egg 😑
I really tried to be open minded watching this series, but the investment I had in the characters in the books was just missing in this adaptation. It think my thoughts were "you can mess around all you like but the key moments need to be there" and they weren't. Great video.
I am completely new to the series. I thought the person Rand fought at the end was the dark one and from what I can tell many others who are new to the series thought that too. I think that is a major problem. I also laughed at the wave going to the empty beach and only knew these people were a problem because book readers said they were. It felt weird and tacked on. The whole pacing of the eye of the world felt weird. I hated that Naneve was healed so quick, it felt cheap. I had felt that the show was getting better with every episode and I even bought the first 3 books to start reading. But this ending has me questioning if I want to watch season 2.
If I remember right from the books, Rand also thought he was fighting The Dark One. And I believe the intent of the creators of the series also want the viewers to think so. Just like they left it a question in the beginning who the Dragon Reborn was. But since you have already discovered from the comments here, he actually fought Ishmael, whom I believe is the weakest of the Forsaken.
@@krontaur Ok, then I remember wrong. Fair enough. I read the books 10+ years ago, and I was sure I wouldn't get all of it right. My point still stands, that Rand thought he was fighting the Dark One. I am very certain that is correct, although I can't remember exactly when Moiraine told him that wasn't correct.
@@Tjalve70 oh that would make sense then. I guess season 2 will open with that explanation? Except Rand has gone off on his own. I feel like that would have been a good reveal there at the end so we understand that and it sets it up for the next season. The only people who won't know are the pure show only watchers that don't watch content like this.
After being initially disappointed (but not surprised) I still watched to whole season. I tried to get past sadness and anger into maybe a wry humor and laugh at what else they ruined. However the more I watched… the angrier I became. I honestly loved these books too much to watch it anymore… I really hope this show is stopped and in 15 years an animated show is created.
Spoilers: The fact that there is no gender difference in the One Power, completely ruins the entire story line. Lanfear and Co. were researching for a power source that did not have any gender difference, so that both male and female aes sedai could channel it. They found that power source and it lay outside of the Pattern, in their excitement and hubris they tore a hole in the Pattern to "see"/ learn about the power and discovered it to be the True Power (Dark One) which has no gender difference. This tearing of the Pattern is what created the Bore through which the Dark One entered the Wheel and started the entire issue in the first place. LTT sacrificed himself and his 100 men to through a makeshift seal over the Bore and keep the Dark One outside the Wheel. The makeshift seal eventually wore off and Rand was needed to repair the Pattern and heal the Wheel to "permanently" keep the Dark One. But if the show decides there is no gender difference in using the One Power, the motivation that resulted in the Dark One's invasion disappears.
If you realize they're trying to make all the guys look as bad or weak as possible, it sadly makes sense. It happens to literally every male character except Tam. It's sad bc it's a complete violation of the books and just sloppy dumb and predictable writing.
This is something I've noticed as well, and even the finale didn't attempt to fix this in any way. I don't know why they feel the need to dumb down the male characters in order to make the female characters shine more... when they could just make both the male and female characters well rounded and both have their own badass moments. Perrin hardly did anything the whole show. Mat and Rand were chased through a town like scared rabbits by a woman with a sword in ep 3. Lan is overly emotional which is just an odd direction to go with his character when he specifically is meant to be like a stone. Idk, honestly I hope they have a new director and writers for season 2. I still enjoyed several parts of the show (ep 2 I thought was great), but the amount of bad decisions and overall poor writing far outweighs the good.
@@CapturedInWords I hope they switch things up too. Jordan's world deserves a wider audience and respect! It's particularly upsetting because his original work, by no means perfect (as if any one person's can be), I think naturally fits a more reasonable outlook in regards to bringing forward diverse views and persons that heretofore have not had the public's attention. Jordan's world and female characters are awesome and full of believable and interesting cultures and persons. Instead we get a WoT tainted with narrative from the Dragon to the Dragon Reborn and everyone in between. A broken magic system, inconsistencies intra...let alone interepisodes...and sloppy writing and lane story telling to boot. If the same director is at the helm...I just can't watch such a fantastic piece of art desecrated. But, for those who enjoy it, or want to keep giving it a chance I understand. But we should demand better from our cultural high priests!
They nerfed Tam too, he couldn’t beat a single Trolloc, show Tam must have stolen that heron sword off someone’s corpse. Also he just smiled and waved after Moiraine tells him his son might be the Dragon, she’s taking him to Tar Valon for God knows what and he may never return home. Sounds great, have a good time son!
Well, Jay. I was skeptical from the beginning that Rafe Judkins and his crew of misfits could put together a proper tribute of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy tale, but I was willing to give them a chance. Now that I have watched the entire first season, I know that my fears were warranted. This series is not The Wheel of Time. From what I can see, it's The Wheel With a Flat Tire, because this story is going nowhere. If they wanted to purposely sabotage RJ's story, they couldn't do a better job. Thank God that I've read the books; at least I know what the plot line is supposed to be. If I was a nonreader, I would be totally confused by now. No background information, no continuity, and absolutely no adherence to Jordan's books. That scene with the five women stealing Rand's place at Tarwin's Gap? Totally ridiculous. The whole point of Jordan's Tarwin Gap scene was to reveal to the world that Rand al'Thor was the Dragon Reborn and to show the extent of his power, even though he was untrained. The only possible reason I can think of for that scene is that Rafe has a Kathleen Kennedy type feminist on his staff that insisted that the women have to have the most power in the story, and that the male Dragon Reborn must be downplayed. What do you want to bet? I'll watch the first episode of the second season, and if they don't quickly get this story back on proper track, I won't watch another one. The one thing I hate more than almost anything else is for an epic masterpiece of a story to be butchered when transferred to a movie or small screen.
It solidified me to read the books for now (I gotta know what happens to Moiraine and Lan!), and come back if the show makes it to season 4. The editing has been rough all season but this episode alongside the cgi was just a mess.
We also don't get enough screen time establishing the story and characters because they're too busy destroying the source material and replacing it with their agenda-driven, bastardized version, as well as adding unnecessary characters and side plots invented for their own ridiculous narrative. Did we need to see Logain on action? Not really. We didn't see it in the books. Did we need Perrin to have a wife that never existed in the books? No. Did we need an episode and a half dedicated to Stephan, another character who wasn't in the books, who did in the most non-heroic manner possible? Absolutely not. Did we need cry baby Lan? I don't think so. Did we need a barmaid chasing Rand and Mat through the streets like a couple of cowards? No. Did we need a subplot that transformed Abel Cauthon into a sleaze bag, and Mat into a dirty thief? Absolutely not. Did every episode need a cold open that reduces the amount of time available for the actual narrative? No! The book had one cold open. That's all we needed. The story in the books is not broken. Rafe and Amazon did not need to "fix" it. I know how they could improve this with season 2 with two options. 1. This was all a bad fever dream and were gonna start from scratch with the story told in the books. 2. Cancel the show before season 2.
Books: Here's an epic fantasy with so many amazing details. It's popular world-wide and a lot of fans are excited to see it on screen. Amazon: Cool, let's change everything
I actually don't have a problem with them changing a lot of things. The Wheel of Time is special in the sense that we KNOW that this has happened countless times before, and will happen countless times again, and that each time might be somewhat different. When they made Game of Thrones, you could complain that they made changes. Since that's ONE story. But if they had wanted to make a version of The Wheel of Time where it's the female part of the One Power that is corrupted, and all of the Aes Sedai are male, and you have the Red Ajah hunting down channeling women, and the Dragon Reborn is a woman, that would not have been a problem for me. It has probably happened in one of the many turnings of The Wheel of Time. What I DO have a problem with, is them making it so similar to the original, and still changing important parts of it. Especially when these parts don't make sense, or directly conflict with the world. In a way, it would have been better if they had changed more. Since then it would have been more obvious that this was a different version.
I have to believe that The actor playing Matt ,viewed this train wreck up close and was like "I'm out" . Can you imagine what sort of travesty would have happened if Matt had been there.
In the cold open, it's not just that she calls him 'The Dragon Reborn', he in turn calls her the 'Tamyrlin Seat'. Though over time it's clearly where Amyrlin came from, there was no such title in the Age of Legends, the original prologue mentions 'bearing the ring of Tamyrlin', but it's as one of Lews Therin's honors, so it's doubly wrong. It feels like a lack of trust in the audience to be able to figure things out on their own.
I was explaining my wife the hole story after last episode and she said the same thing - with only 8 episodes non readers don't have any chance to get involved. Story is just too complex and all relations between characters are not believable.
I think the cold open with a sane and paternal LTT is setup for when we eventually get the prologue cold open, which they may be saving for when the DR’s madness becomes more of a salient point in the show.
Rafe already said he can't wait to upset readers by killing off characters who shouldn't die. This tells me everything I need to know about the future of this show...
That is actually far from the worst he could do. As long as he doesn't bring them back from the dead, of course. Killing characters in the show that didn't die in the books, simply shows that this is a different turn of The Wheel. Changing rules of how the world works, and making nonsensical changes that has no purpose, that's something that should not be done.
Do you know if the books ever describe the new hilt Rand has put on Laman’s Blade? Is it a katana styled hilt like on the cover of Knife of Dreams? Or is it a more typical medieval European styled hilt?
Thank you for your thoughts and humor!! I have enjoyed your coverage of the series. I am not a fan of the show at all. My family that arr non book readers don't enjoy it as well. But to each their own. I hope those who like the show continue to enjoy it.
The battle at Fal Dara felt like a battle scene in xena warrior princess or a handful of other cheesy 90s fantasy shows. Amazon better improve the visual effects for season 2
I did not read the books and I didn't understand half of the last episode. Seals are not explained, I thought that this guy at the end is the Dark one, turns out he is not.... I don't know what they were digging up at the castle..... Total confusion...
there's a reason they didn't explain it. It's where they leave the viewer guessing and then later on explain it. I actually do hate when shows do that but I understand why. I'm sure Moiraine will talk about the seals next season and they will reveal more information. Sucks but that is how shows are nowadays.
Another banger analysis. I really want this show to take off not cut WOT is my fave series (that would be Song of the Lioness) but because I want more fantasy content to go mainstream so we can get better adaptations. Every flaw I found you mentioned, keep it up
Your analysis of the cold open was incredible, I knew it was bad when I watched it, but with the source material so rich with the stakes that are the impending doom of the world, it's baffling that they chose to instead focus on a bad conversation in a made up language. D ;
Book 1 was the one book they could have adapted most faithfully even in 8 episodes. Book 2 maybe. The books thereafter will be where they need to make drastic changes and condense a lot. My person thoughts. They needed someone with more experience and skill as the show runner/writers. The internal inconsistencies and failed set ups/payoffs lead me to believe a lot of people on this project we’re either sloppy or just didn’t know what they were doing. Also, I wish I could look at changes they made or characters they added early and use my many times reading the books to have a good idea where they are going. I do not recall a single moment like that.
I agree, the first book has a pretty simple storyline overall. Less characters, no real intricacies. Including Tar Valon was a mistake, it took 2 precious hours away from the real plot, especially since they had already introduced the Aes Sedai in ep 4. We could have had more time in Shadar Logot and the Ways, more time with Thom and Loial. Many book readers, including me, were perfectly fine with making changes when it came to the Eye, but i wouldn't have expected the show to make a worse finale out of it.
This show is irredeemably crap. They've already changed far too much to ever get back to the essence of the story. They've broken the logic of the world as it was written, despite having 14 books and thousands of pages to work from. Robert Jordan created one of the greatest fantasy epics of all time. And in Rand, subtly deconstructed the hero archetype, led him down the dark path, to his eventual 'rebirth'. I knew he'd be relegated in this adaptation to a side character in his own story. Because the writers of this show are hacks. One example of that. They gave a whole episode about the grief experienced by a Warder on their Aes Sedais death. But Morraine makes the monumentally stupid decision to NOT take her Darkspawn killing machine, born and raised around the Blight, in order to protect him...despite the show revealing he'd die of his grief anyway if anything happened to her! This is the Wheel of Time if was fanfic by a 12 year old.
Jay, I don't know if this was your goal when filming your great reviews for all these episodes but you've finally convinced me beyond doubt: I'll stick to the books we're buddy-reading and will not watch any of this series.
If it's the worst episode than by definition it is completely terrible. since the best episode, if there is one is also 100 percent completely terrible.
wow i haven't read the books so I didn't know about the differences but even I was disappointed by the final battle between Rand and the "Dark One". You are right in that it just seemed veryyyyyy underwhelming... like this whole season we have been hearing about the Dragon and how powerful he is and yet his power seemed like nothing. The final episode did feel flat unfortunately
Men bad, dull, boring and badddd, Woman strong, good, powerfull and flashy on everything they do, it would not surprise me if Rand was not the dragon but a non binary woman, since after all they mention that the dragon can be a boy or girl and the arrogance of men lead to the breaking.
I know this is a book thing but I disagree that if the female Aes Sedai had helped Lews Therin it would have prevented the dark one's counterstroke. I once believed that but the last book changed my mind. Don't want to get into spoilers but if you think about what Rand did in the final book to seal the dark one, the mechanics of it, you will see that I'm right.
Jordan confirmed in an interview that should the female Aes Sedai have been involved in LTT's plan, they would have tainted both sides of the one power. The whole world would have been doomed.
I think that perhaps if they had the 10 episodes (preferably with extended first and last episodes) then it would've been fine. But with only the 8 and how much they needed to cover in this season I feel it should have been lesser and/or moved to s2/3
@@bpolitical1 Really? It's been 10+ years since I read the books, but I kinda remember that Siuan meets Moiraine and the gang, possibly in Caemlyn. I think she had the ability to detect ta'veren, and was able to confirm to Moiraine that all four of them were ta'veren, and that Rand was the strongest one. And I am pretty sure this happened in Book 1. But since it's so long since I read the books, I could be wrong.
@@Tjalve70 finished rereading book one two days ago. The final words of book one are implying Moiraine using the power to send a message to someone. Book 2 starts with the amyrlin arriving at Fal Dara to meet them
The flashback labelling Lews Therin as Reborn, blows a hole in the books when the Dark One revealed to Rand that there's been a line of Dragons stretching back to infinity. Lews Therin never knew he was a reborn soul. This show is hopelessly bad.
@@michaelmooney5246Not even that. Lew's Therin Telamon is "The" Dragon. No reborn in it. After he created Dragonmount, then his soul is spun out again as the wheel weaved as Rand Al'Thor. Rand is the Dragon Reborn. All others before him have been false Dragons. If you'd read the books you'd have known this. Smh,🤷🏿♂️
@@wolflordbradley7353 Every turn of the Wheel has a Dragon. So I think you misunderstand what @Michael meant when he said there has been a line of Dragons stretching back to infinity.
Imo there could have been 50 episodes and it would be crap, because their writing and story lore are crap, imo Amazon knew it at the start, if the show runner thought it was good he would have claimed it as his own work and not hyped “Robert Jordan’s Wheel of time” story and lore which in this story only exists in the show title and character names - not the story in the script.
I didn't read the books. The show looked really lackluster for me. Characters felt for the most part empty and very one dimensional. The CGI looked bad, even in the first episode the CGI was stiff and ugly. The world seems deep but I don't know if I got that impression by watching the show or by listening to youtubers tell me that it's deep. It's sad because I wanted a new great fantasy show. At least I got Arcane.
Not sure why, but this keeps coming up. If the Female channelers went with the 100 companions both sides of the one power would have been corrupted. They needed the DO True Power to shield against the DO backlash.
Wait, that guy Rand fought at the end wasn't the Dark One? I've never read the books, and the characters in the show literally called him "the dark one". So, I'm really confused now
My best advice is: Try to forget you know this. If I recall correctly from the books, neither Rand nor Moiraine knew that this was not the Dark One. They both thought it would be. And it's only in the beginning of book 2 that Moiraine has found out that this was just a Forsaken. So this is actually one of the few things the TV show did right. Making us believe it was the Dark One, and then starting season 2 by revealing it wasn't.
First seasons are usually bad and get better they get a good footing. Didn't like some elements, and also understand the problems they faced. But hey, there are worst adaptations out there. Sincerely, A Dresden Files Fan
I like the Dresden file show when it cane out. Didn't know the books. Listened to them all a couple years ago. Went back to the show and was like "oh this is bad."
I had higher hopes but alas no dice... They have gone so far off the source books I see no hope for S2... Some good bits BUT they really blew the strongest points.😔
I do not want to bring up torches (Or maybe I do) But I think Rand and the Dragon in general is so underwhelming, because they simply do not want Rand as the protagonist. They would rather have Egwene or Nynaeve as the protagonists. The next season they will KEEP downplaying Rand, while giving the other two the big moments.
Speaking to them knowing that Saidin will get tainted by the Dark one. I think that by doing that they remove alot of the depth of that decision. Human kind is desperate and losing, but the female aes sedai think its a bad idea and LT think its the only way. If they kept it like that, the audience can debate what was the right thing to do, but by changing it like they did it seems like it was clearly the wrong thing to do. I think it simply fies the decision and the plot and i think that is something they have done through out the season. Its like they are telling us upfront what to think and what the right thing is right away. People want to speculate and go back seasons and realize what happened, not getting it served up for you.
I disliked the way they wasted their time with the whole "who's the dragon" bit and side stories and characters. It took away Egwenes incredible act of forcing her way onto the team, Thoms character, Mat is a gloomy thief from the start, Rand is a nothing that becomes season 8 John Snow "but she's my queen", Lan is a hit it and quit it type that cries......honestly Moraine is the only one that comes out half decent and they even tried to butcher her character but Rosamund Pyke is a badass and makes it work.
No "previously on" skit this time! I actually filmed one but didn't have time to edit it for this video, however, I'll be posting a full skit video soon that will basically be a goofy summary of season 1. Let me know your thoughts on this finale!
Not just the finale, but the whole show was genuine trash, and the fact that people were covering for it so much, had me questioning whether I was living in a parallel universe seeing a different version of WOT. The pacing, the dialogue, the sets, the lighting, the camera angles, all trash. I don’t even care that it was so unfaithful to the books, Legend of the Seeker was so different from the books it basically had only the name, yet it was a far superior show in every way (13 years ago).
The reason the dragonmount prologue isn't given is because it spoils the end of book 3. Also Jordan said several times Lews Therin's plan would not work. Both plans would have failed.
Tactical my ass if magic is always just going to look like different colored wind because in the books it talk about weeds and patterns so it was way more than just white and black wispy winds so if you're going to hate on the show when all adaptations are going to be this way because I like The Witcher show the people that played the game or read the books hate the show so that's the same argument, adaptation is always going to be different you can't make it the same but if you did not show how great warriors are or how intricate the magic system is you messed up that's where Rafe Judkins and Brandon Sanderson are going to burn in a special place in hell
@@willgriff I suggest you actually re-read the books. Magic doesn't actually have a color and it isn't actually woven. For example in the age of legends they described it as spinning rather than weaving. Just like Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Spirit isn't actually earth, air, fire, water and spirit. It's an analogy used to help conceptualize what it is. The fire powers are actually solid, liquid, gas, friction, psyche.
This review is full of book SPOILERS.
I thought it was cheap enough when Nynaeve spontaneously healed Lan and all the Aes Sedai from bleeding out. But Egwene bringing back Nynaeve from what looked like death was simply ridiculous.
Couldn't agree more!
It's the laziest way possible to stablish that Egwene is waaaay more powerful than Nynaeve.
Still cheap and dumb as fuck, but looking forward to season 2
this is part of what I don't understand. As a non WoT reader, I felt that clearly the writers wanted you to feel like Egwene and Nynaeve, especially Nynaeve had all of the power. Perrin was even made to feel like he has power coming to him. But, it's the Dragon that actually has power? The one character that they made you feel like he only has "some" power. It's hard for a non reader to understand who's the character to focus on. The 2 females are bringing people back from near death while the Dragon is more of a background character.
I mean she did fight machin shin. I don't think anyone even rand has been able to do that lol. Now shadar logoth dagger wounds can be healed it seems and takandar blade wounds don't need circles of full sisters to heal if uno and ingtar are to be healed lol
@@atari-qz8iq yea, kinda like an else world story or a what if story
Totally agree with what was said about why do you even need a “dragon” when 5 untrained channellers can destroy 20k trollics fairly easily. Implies that 5 fully trained sisters could win any battle alone…. Also as a non book reader I was shocked Rand was basically the main character, felt like he had the least screen time overall, I had to google to see if it was a change from the books it seemed so out of place..
Agree. Seems to be following the modern overused trope that white men must be less so others can be more. The power of friendship to bring person back from dead was dumb.
@@jackgeary6928 especially when the inability to bring people back from the dead results in one of the most haunting and character defining moments in the series later on. But Egwene just cries a bit and therefore can resurrect people with no training, even though healing was never her strong suit
@@adc1222 Pretty much, yeah. The excuse I saw going around is that Nyn wasn't really dead, just injured, because she and Egwene didn't fully commit, they stopped before it was too late. But, if that was the case, the VFX team did a poor job of relaying that information to the viewer, because it completely look like she was really dead. And the ominous vision Min had before the battle didn't help at all
Trollocks and even fade are not the main problem, the Channelers fighting for Shadow ( Forsaken, Black Aja, Ashaman darkfriends and Redveiled Aiel ) are. It is the main reason that how many shadowspawn the AS can destroy does a little matter. The WT neads allies and the Dragon is key for other level counterstrike - vs the Dark One itself.
Fun fact: Rand had like 90% of the point of view chapters in the first book. It was a book all about him and viewed from his perspective. The other characters were mostly side characters that Rand had to react towards.
If someone had told me a year ago that Amalisa of all fucking people would steal Rand's thunder at Tarwin's gap I would have gone "Wait, who is that?" And then after googling her name I would have laughed my ass off. But here we are
Exactly! This side character should not have stolen Rand’s moment, escpecially when it's the BIG FINALE
I’m disappointed to hear about these changes but my interest in the books has started nonetheless and will start reading the books
@@jackgeary6928 the books are amazing and you're in for a real treat. Every inconsistency in plot/worldbuilding and all weird character moments in the show are absent from the books
@@adc1222 That’s definitely a glossing over the many, many problems and inconsistencies of the books (especially when Sanderson took over), but yes, the show is so terrible, the books are a piece of art in comparison.
Amalisa is a dark friend. Literally. Book 2 early reveal
Rafe wrote a hate you letter to Robert Jordan by changing the very plot, character, location, and message of the books. Rafe started with cutting out the Lews Therin, Ishmael, and Dragonmount which denied viewers the scope of the show. Turned Matt, our fun prankster, into a dour broken family thief. Perrin, our beloved thinking strong man, into a brooding third wheel. Lan our stoic champion, to a emo lovestruck teenage boy. Hire the Arcane showrunners and fire Rafe and the current WOT showrunners.
Finally, someone says it! I don't hate the tv series, it is what it is, but to change Matt's backstory and arc is almost criminal. I learned and practice the bo staff, and enhanced my knowledge of knives because of my love of that character. And I don't see a way to make Matt like the books, or even close to that guy. smh
Yeah and I loved the Arcane show, even though I had never even heard of it.
Rafe is the Dark One :) He destroyed the Wheel and remade the world in his image :)
You captured them better that I could which was to lump them all into whiny millennials.
Rafe said that he is going to have fun killing characters that book fans like when they shouldn't die.
No, keep the Arcanetards away too,
Maybe it’s me but the book EoTW was perfectly fine by me, Rand was basically super powered by the pure saidin of the eye and did insane things that he couldn’t do otherwise, but at the end of the day it demonstrated how powerful he could be and why people should be afraid of him when he slowly loses his mind.
Same. There was only 1 thing I would argue needed to be changed from the book scene...just remove the CAPS LOCK STUFF and it's fine.
I'm just fresh off a re-read after a looong time, and I thought this as well. The ending made more sense to me now than back then, or maybe I just got older.
Same. But it's been awhile since I last read EotW. On book 5 atm of my rereads. I mean unless your nitpicky then maybe yea.
Agreed. I always thought the end was pretty bad ass.
Its fashionable in the Internet age to rip on EotW for some reason. It's a great book. Set up an entire world for a fantasy epic to be built on.
Saying they only had eight episodes is a really lame excuse for such a poorly executed season.
Yep. Another way to look at it is, they had 8 hours to adapt 1 book which had 782 pages. They had complete source material and dialogue, and this is what he came up with🤦🏽♀️
They had eight hours, the rough equivalent of the entire LOTR trilogy, plenty of time to do justice to the source material. Rafe chose not to do WoT, but something else. The problem is that Rafe Judkins feels he's a better writer than Robert Jordan, and he is not.
The bigger problem is that he clearly is not.
Rafe LeRoooy SJW Jenkins!!!!
Yeah the writing on this show is a head scratcher at best, production quality also trash. I did enjoy it to a certain extent, but it left me very scared if they continue down this path haha. They barely covered anything and already blatantly screwing things up.
After watching this season what I am getting from it is that all 5 are still being treated as if they are collectively “the Dragon Reborn.” It’s like a millennial basketball game where everyone gets a trophy. Judkins is trying way to hard to be “woke” in this show at the sacrifice of major story elements. It is disappointing to watch to say the least. As another comment said, think about what was done with Harry Potter and LOTR. You have one job. Stay true to the story.
And Jordan’s not even that good of a writer. Technically he sucks. So much fluff and shit in his books with EXTREMELY poor pacing. I love slow books but Jordan’s aren’t “slow burns” they’re just slow. His worldbuilding and long character arcs are exceptional, but Erikson does better wordbuilding and Hobb far better characters. WoT could’ve easily been 9-10 books with nothing much of substance cut. That’s not even mentioning how by book 5 more than half the POV’s suck. The girls POV are so terrible and the Aes Sedai chapters after fhe first 3 books are insufferable
Lol on “they must really hate that little girl” by sending the tidal wave at her. I’m surprised they didn’t make the new bad guys more evil by having the girl have a puppy too.
It was impressive but in the books the Seanchan aren't scorched earth invaders. If you swear to the impress you can even join their army. If you're noble and swear they might even make you high blood.
I hope she kicks their ass. That would be the only way to save this miserable show.
Yes, but it seems they're afraid to have the damane on physical leashes. Too problematic for the audience.
@@steveo7265 They would've needed trigger warning..
Not to mention that they are sending this giant wave onto a beach with cliffs. There is nowhere else for the water to go except but back to the ships.
I agree this episode was such a let down after the show starting to show some positive momentum. Rafe not being able to touch the source, I lol'd.
Positive momentum? Lmao this show has only gone down hill (with one exception) since it’s start.
I wanted to like it and I understand changes are necessary in any adaptation, but using the one power to bring someone back from apparent death breaks something fundamental about Robert Jordan’s world, imo.
Still hopeful for improvement in season two.
Exactly! How does ANYONE die in this world, if untrained novices can bring anyone back?
Jordan created the world to state that the grave was the Dark Ones domain. Only he could bring anyone back. In the books, failure to do so was one of Rand's most traumatic experiences! It helped shake his mental state and his great fears over the death of women.
Nope, let's give it to random White Tower washouts because 'REASONS'.
They had the time to do better with 8 episodes. Start with Logain cold open, give Moraine 3 more sentences about the Dark One and the 7 seals right afterwards. Definitely show the breaking in episode 8. Have Moraine mention the broken seal in episode 8 not just an unknown material. Don't heal death. More world building & Two Rivers character time instead of Stephan. Don't confuse the 2 halves of the power. Keeping Rand a mystery was a good idea for new viewers, but he needed a wow moment.
The whole logain thing is a confusing side show. I would have cut it.
So true to not mix the two halves. It's so important thematically that they don't keep them visually distinct is the first problem. (Rand uses white strands the same as Moiraine and randomly black as well). The whole Jungian anima/animus that underlies the concept is destroyed not to mention the unification of them i.e. pulling or pushing the wheel as opposing forces is lost and other antagonistic concepts fall through such as the conflict between male and female, Yin Yang, matter Vs anti-matter and good Vs evil. Losing duality destroys so much of the story and loses the importance of unification and ultimately the return of harmony.
I think they want to avoid talking about 2 halves, because it can lead to ideas of binary genders and it will offend their target audience. I have a feeling that they are trying to shift the the Taint from the source itself to male channelers, and make the source unified. But have to wait to season 2 for confirmation.
I did like Stephan as a character and the actor was great. His arc should have ended in a berserker charge when he fell his Aes Sedai die. Then some of the mourning could have taken place, while giving them more time for other elements. The lack of duality is troubling, because it is fundamental to the entire structure of Jordan's world. His fantasy world is not our modern world. The acting was almost always superb. I will mention if actors without sufficient weapons training are put in slow motion instead of using stunt people, it looks much worse than at regular speed.
Maybe also remove the bit where that one dark friend apparently knows that the dark one will break the wheel.
Pretty sure the dark ones MO was promising people power and immortality, it would be a fairly major upset if it got out he plans to make both of those rather short lived.
I felt most of the season was mediocre to be honest. Some strong episodes but overall nothing that impressive
Yeah that's pretty much my overall thoughts too
Mediocre if it was an original story, but as an adaptation it’s absolutely horrendous unfortunately.
Hopefully they follow GoT in that it had very average 1st season, with sex and violence the only selling point, but got much better writing as the seasons went on.
Not even strong episodes, just a few strong scenes - and those sometimes contradict the books.
Yeah it felt like they were playing it really safe
I coudn't possibly agree more with your review. I know they had a hard time with Mat's actor leaving and COVID restrictions and all, but still, this episode was such a let down for me :(
I too felt that the opening scene was a wasted opportunity and didn't do justice to Lews Therin. And that "dragon reborn" name drop had me wincing.
The jarringly bad VFX and over the top gestures when channeling I can forgive, but I completely agree that the power scaling in the series is completely off the charts. That scene with the five "Aes Sedai" was just... silly. Completely stole Rand's thunder. Not to mention the excessive fake deaths.
Also, I feel like they butchered Lan this episode. And what's with that "Moiraine has a tell" bullshit? That felt like a cheap excuse to get Lan to the Eye. And then we don't even get to know whats the freaking tell! We're just supposed to accept it, because Nynaeve is a super-human at this point. And why would Lan even need to know that in the first place? He absolutely knew where Moiraine was headed to. And how did he slip past the giant army of Trollocs and Fades in the way? All that to get to the Eye and do... absolutely nothing. At this point, Moiraine could have just taken Nyn to the Eye and have her one-shot Ishy right then and there, and it would probably be more believable, given what the show has displayed so far.
On a side note, that sick burn at 12:22 tho, oof... and this 10/10 thumbnail... you're on FIRE man. Hope you escape the Darkfriends anytime soon!
Moiraine's tell: she has a bad habit of carving her initials in trees when Lan is not looking.
@@tmur3403 That must be it! I wondered why she was always pulling that knife out so much.
I’ve really gotta say, this was so anti climactic. I expected so much more from the finale
I agree, I really wish this finale was much better
Rafe can't touch the true source sums it all up 😅😅. I really don't like the fact that Rand has been degraded to his current status in the series, totally agree with all the points mentioned. Maybe season 2 will better showcase the true power of the dragon reborn. Thanks for the great video
Enjoyed these videos of the show. There were some moments of optimism, but in the end this has been a disappointing series overall, with a train wreck of a finale. Compare three accepted + two wilders destroying 15,000 Trollocs with seven full Aes Sedai + warders being unable to hold off a few hundred of Logain's men in episode 4. Yikes. Rand can't even have a single moment, they even had to make him overcoming Ishamael about Egwene. This show has some deep and fundamental issues.
Shit, I didn't even have the realization to compare the Tarwin's Gap battle to the Logain army showdown. This REALLY puts in perspective how much Rafe just completely threw the power scales off the window in this show
He didn't actually overcome Ishamael... he simply resisted the temptation.
Ishamael was SMIRKING... and he's not supposed to be the "happy loser" type...
so either he IS a "happy loser" now (unlikely, even by these idiots) OR he didn't lose.
Most likely, what happened is that he SUCCEEDED in tricking Rand into breaking that seal.
Yeah, people say good words about the reason he opposed Ishamael in the show and I can see where they are coming from, it's a decent motivation and within Rand's character. But I personally like the one in the book more, where he just wanted this terrible, dangerous situation in which him and his friends were suddenly thrown in to end already. A desperate wish like that felt more appropriate to me for a "final" battle than respecting your loved one enough to not destroy the whole world and recreate a brainwashed copy of them afterwards. But again, that might be just a matter of preference.
Jay, I've gotta say man. I'm a non-reader of the WoT series and didn't quite understand why all of the hate towards this series that I enjoyed to an extent. But, after you've now explained everything that I feel I "should" have seen, I completely get it and I 100% agree with your take and suggestions on what could have been done different. And you're exactly right, I still don't understand the power that "the Dragon" has, honestly I didn't think he had much until you pointed out that he does. I've known about this series of books for A LONG time and completely thought, once I heard that this series was being made, that they'd put in the necessary episodes that it MUST have to make it worthy, aka GoT style.
There is still hope that they found their footing and narrative of the last episode took the hit fdom covid-related production issues 🤞
Myself I very much disliked the last episode, but im hoping they get on the right track in season 2...
If you have a luxory of not having expectations, its probably better for your enjoyment if you dont read to much on "what should have been" from book fans :D i think on its own it was an okay / acceptable first season of a tv show, and I think its an envyable position xD
You really gotta have higher standards. There was almost nothing good about the show. Everything considered "good" is just passable or acceptable at best.
@@merc9nine yeah I agree. To even compare it to GOT quality at this point is fanciful. I did enjoy some aspects of the show. But yeah at best some moments were passable/good.
It's not an important book spoiler but the eye is a pool of untainted saidin in the books. One way they show Rand's power level is 2 Forsaken show up, both men. One starts to take the saidin in the eye when Rand does also. The Forsaken is stronger than any Aes Sedai and has the knowledge of the age of legends but in trying to take as much power as Rand ends up burning himself to ash. They could've done that to show someone burning out and Rand's power in the show but didn't. You should definitely do the books. The audiobooks are awesome.
If ppl enjoy something, then more happiness to them! But, I think we should demand more from those who would take control of our myths and warp them to such an insulting extent. No one is asking for a one for one retelling, but don't just appropriate something and then destroy it for your own ends and even worse...do so poorly! That's disrespectful.
The final episode was brutal. The story/plot was nonsensical and no set-up or explanation. What did Rand do? Why? What happened? No idea. Rafe needs to be replaced or the series is doomed.
Apparently he is a big fan of the books, I do not believe that
@@fluffypenguins There are some seriously "woke" aspects of the books, even though I don't think wokeness had even been invented when they were written.
So maybe that's what makes Rafe a fan of the books.
@@mybalcony4066 No. That's not what I meant.
What I meant is that the Aes Sedai, and especially the Red Ajah are very misandrist. And misandry is a key aspect of wokism.
Also, one aspect that I really disliked about the books, is that all women see all men as stupid beasts who need the guiding hand of women, and thus they make decisions for these men without even informing them about it. And at the same time, all men see all women as fragile beings that needs to be protected from the bad things in this world, and thus they make decisions for these women without even informing them about it.
The first thing is also a key aspect of wokism, and the second thing can be construed to be misogynistic, which of course is an important excuse for the misandry of wokism.
I'm not saying that Robert Jordan was woke. I'm just saying that there are aspects of his books that can be grasped by wokism in order to claim that his books were woke.
And that might be what Rafe is focusing on.
@@Tjalve70 You are FOS. The books are mildly sexist from a modern perspective. They do have some strong female characters which was ahead of its time. Misandry is not part of wokeness. Are you insecure little boy?
For me, episode 8 was horrible, but episode 5 being awful had a bigger impact on my experience. Going into episode 5 I wasn't sold on a lot of what they had done, but I was still willing to see where they were going with it. By episode 8 I knew full well that it was going to be awful.
They constantly undermined the tension, they never built the stakes, they didn't explain enough of the world or context, they barely had any subtext, they removed the positive qualities of all of the main characters, they made all of the characters dumb and unlikable, The characters didn't have established motivations, they took agency away from the male characters, the plot lacked justification and was delivered to the audience as bad exposition, they broke their own rules, the pacing and editing were awful, they messed up the setups, they rushed the transitions, the sets looked cheap and empty, the effects looked unfinished, the emotional beats flopped, none of the characters did justice to the source material, the message was twisted, and they had 3 episodes of filler in an 8 episode season and then claimed they didn't have time to do the main story justice.
What were the good qualities supposed to be again?
At least the scenery is nice ....
@@mandarinicar no it isn't. the sets are cheap and the CGI is terrible
I think this is an eloquent way to express exactly what I felt but couldn't explain after watching.
I am not against feminism or anything, but from episode 1 it was obvious that it would all be woman are the strongest and that everyone else is week. So, the ending makes sense with this vision: untrained woman can kill the biggest army, and all man surrenders to the power and become evil. End of history. And all the other episodes were mere fillers with weak romance tension or stupid fights.
As a superfan of WoT, and someone who was very excited when the show was announced, it feels weird that I am rooting for it to fail, and quickly. That's were I'm at right now.
Say what you want about later GoT seasons, the first few seasons were much more faithful to the books than...this thing is to WoT.
At least the later seasons of GOT compensated with amazing cinematography, production value, CGI, and Emmy worthy performances. WOT is basically CW.
I'm basically having the same problem. I went in knowing something's would be left out or changed and up until about episode 5, I was dealing with it. But to dedicate so much time to a character that doesn't exist, or if he does, is a name said in passing, could have been time better spent on the real WoT story. I can't even stomach the phoney Rand, Egwene, Perrin triangle garbage. The Eye of the World was underwhelming. Five women saving Fal Dara after all the men on the front died, when you realize they could have done the same by going with the men in the first place. The stabbing of Loial, the death of Agelmar, one of the 5 Great Captains were all unnecessary time that could have been spent on what really happens in the books.
The big problem is the production quality which is appalling. Didn't Rafe ever see LOTR and GOT? I mean, there's the blueprint for quality fantasy right there.
Yeah I feel like they are taking attention away from rand and giving it to the girls. Nynaeve and egwene both have plenty of badass moments in the books, I don't see why we need all these displays of power at the expense of the male characters.
There's such a gargantuan amount of source material to pull inspiration from that it's baffling to me why they made so many unnecessary and ridiculous changes
Because they didn’t like the source material. In their minds they’re literally “fixing” it.
@@hckytwn3192 making it more "feminist" he said
The responsibility ultimately lies with Rafe. He can't be a real book fan in my opinion. His vision for this story is absolutely garbage. The studio should put someone else in the driver seat.
4:53 she's not the Amyrlin, there is no Amyrlin yet, there's is only the ring of Tamyrlin, held by the leader of the Aes Sedai, which the dragon has.
I have watched enough reviews to make the rational decision to not watch this show. I’ll stick with the books.
It’s weird…It almost seems like there’s some sort of ideology that would have influenced the decision to take away Rand’s moments and give them to Egwene and Nyneave. What would give Nyneave two super saiyan moments throughout the series, take away the Tarwin’s Gap battle from Rand to be given to Egwene and Nyneave, and have Rand overcome Ishamael’s temptation by affirming Egwene’s dreams? I can’t think of what might have influenced these decisions. Probably something that would cancel me if I just said the word.
Best comment here 😆. It’s like saying the Dark One’s name.
The honest shame is both the girls had an episode where they were the heroes. Nynaeve actually had 2 where she saved everyone. And they still had to give Rand's one big moment in the entire book to them.
You mean the ideology of "maybe entertainment shouldn't just be about white men and their stories, white women should be pretty and let's ignore POC as much as possible, that's been done by Hollywood for a 100 years, let's change that" How dare they!!! Arsehole.
@@catherinemckeown2746 yeah and best way to change that is to take story centered around male protagonist strip him of his power and make the side characters overpowered mary sues instead of creating female centered stories or using one as their source material.
@@catherinemckeown2746 Literally no one is saying that. The OP certainly didn't. 🤥
Awesome review! I absolutely agree with the points you made. In my opinion, the lack of character development and stakes affected the storytelling. The beauty of the prologue in the LOTR trilogy was that the power of the One Ring and the influence of Sauron's evil was clearly depicted before the story even begins. When the hobbits set out on their journey, the dread of the bigger conflict follows them. Showing Lews Therin's emotional turmoil just like in the book would have set such a great precedence for character journey, and the overall stakes of the conflict in the WOT world.
Calling him the Dragon Reborn may well be my least favorite part of this episode. Which is saying something, because I abhored this episode.
But that is such an insane oversight that I don't understand at all how it slipped through the cracks.
Just more evidence they really didn’t read or “get” the books at all.
I guess they wanna stress the fact that all this has happened many many times before. In a cyclical understanding of time the wheel does not have beginnings or ends. Thus there is no „first“ dragon - he has always been and will always be someone who gets reborn each time the pattern requires him to. So they settled on Dragon Reborn. I don’t like it either, but I am able to understand their way of thinking. 🤷🏻♂️
@@ProfSpencerTV that's actually a pretty good perspective. I think that makes sense; to me it felt more like mistake that made its way into the episode, but if it was deliberate and they have an explanation for it, I can be more understanding.
@@ProfSpencerTV No, that still doesn’t makes sense. In the books “The Wheel” is a predetermined timeline comprised of ages guided by the Pattern. Each turning of the Wheel is a *separate timeline* following a similar but different Pattern. Every turning it cycles through all the ages until completion, then that timeline ends. People are reborn between _Ages_ not timelines. There is no Dragon “before” Lews Therin in the Age of Wonders, because that’s when the Dragon breaks the world, so there’s nothing to be “reborn” from. It only happens once per timeline. Like I said, they either don’t care about or don’t understand the source material at all.
Everyone on social media is all "Lews Therin is The Dragon Reborn because it's nor the 1st turning." But they don't know what happens in other turnings. How do ppl not get that.
Bro…. You are on point on everything!!!! I never read the books didn’t know anything about the show… but I binge it… left a bad taste in my mouth… and you just gave voice to all I was feeling … NAILED IT!!!!!!! Look fwd to more of your input. Happy New Years bro…
The show made the ending of EotW even worse and holy shit this was a terrible finale.
Rafe’s adaptation is so cringe dude. I hate it. Also love your videos too btw
@@michaelokeke4976 Thanks! Yeah I don't agree with a lot of Rafes choices.
I'm not sure why I'm seeing people hope they do better in season 2. I think at best it will be like J.J. Abrams "fixing" what Rian Johnson did.
Like the show shows us what Morraine can do then it tells us the dragon is infinitely stronger than that and they give Rand a 100x power increase and the best thing he can do is blow bubbles essentially.
In the books the most Egwene could heal was a papercut so I'm not seeing how with no training again she could just heal Nynaeve just like that. This reminds me of how in the force awakens Rey is just out of nowhere able to use the force and a light saber also with no training. They're overpowering the female characters to showcase the power of women I guess but power just for the sake of it really cheapens the whole thing imo.
I’m new to the series, I did not realize that the Foresaken was different from the Dark One. Totally missed that. They made a big deal about the Dragon binding the Dark One and then Rand left like he thought the Dark One was taken care of? I would not have understood any of this background if you didn’t cover it
If I remember right from the book, Rand did think that he fought The Dark One at that battle. And only later did Moiraine inform him that he had only fought Ishmael. So this is a point that I totally accept that they didn't want to spoil now. I am sure that the first episode of season two basically starts with Moiraine finding Rand, and telling him that he only fought Ishmael.
It's one of the few points where I completely agree with the producers of the show.
They don't connect Ish'amael to Ba'alzamon until the midway through the second or third book. So Rand in the book also believes he's defeated the Dark One
"The show having supersonic pacing and no time to explain anything"
I disagree. The show had many moments where it dragged. Pretty much anytime Rand or Moiraine spoke. How can characters talk so much and say so little? In Game of Thrones when characters spoke we listened. Their stories were important to the overall plot. They provided backstory, foreshadowing or other important content.
So much of this show is hit or miss. Some good CGI, some bad CGI, some really cringy CGI. It is that way with so much of this show. But, nothing is worse than turning the Two Rivers gang into a bunch of whinny millennials. They have little to say but get most the lines. Meanwhile Moiraine is supposed to be quite and mysterious but is left with most the dry expedition dumps. You can't have it both ways.
There is so much that could have been better with this season. But fix the conversations and it will be easier to overlook other parts. Or find ways to have the conversations help fix other problems - like how confusing things are to those who haven't read the books. or watched all the bonus content.
They could have easily made the implications of the ending more clear with a chain of flashback scenes after Rand takes out Ishamael:
a continuation of LTT confronting Ishamael, calling him a servant of the DO, demonstrating he is NOT the DO
the scene of Stepin saying Ishamael, the father of lies
then Siuan saying she saw a vision in her dreams, which we are then shown are manifactured by Ishamael
Time constraints arent even an issue since we had that useless scene between Agelmar and Analisa, who seemingly both die later in the episode.
I think the flashbacks you described would have been perfect, and would be a quick way to explain some of the things that new viewers are confused about. It really sucks that season 1 had so much filler and pointless scenes when they had so much to work with
To put the incompetence of the writing in perspective, the runtime of the entire Lord of the Rings TRILOGY was only an hour longer than the runtime of this season. So there was plenty of time to tell the story of the book, 8 episodes is no excuse.
Apparently Rafe is in a relationship with the actor who plays the Warder Maksim. Which is why they wasted so much time with Stepin. It wasn't to build anything, except for a resume.
Wait for real?!
@@Funilesh yup
There is no comparison, this show is nowhere NEAR Game of Thrones, quality it just isn't. It could have been, but they pooped the bed, lets be honest. It's pretty bad. You want' GoT level? Throw the whole thing out, start over. Get better writers who will stay a little more true to the actual books (I don't need word for word adaptations, but you don't need to change the whole book just for change's sake), get better actors, get better visual effects, get better editors. Really, dump the whole thing and start from scratch. S1 is a total disaster. The first season is the bedrock on which you build the entire series...and this show doesn't have anything to build on. Even if the subsequent seasons turned it around and were good, it can't succeed now, because a huge portion of the potential audience is not going to watch past S1.
"And judging by how Season One is going, neither can Rafe Judkins."
💀💀💀💀
having read the books several times over, there was a LOT that went awry in this series... Rand was supposed to be going to the eye with the whole group and rather than fighting Ishamael/Baalzamon at the eye, he was supposed to be fighting Balthamel and Aginor (sorta), still hadn't admitted to himself he was the Dragon Reborn or channel yet. The horn should have been found at the eye (which was in a cave, not in a pit), with the seal and the dragon banner... so much to be disappointed in. REALLY REALLY disappointed in the tarwins gap fight as well, there was a lot that could have been done to make it a LOT better... Egwene healing Nynaeve when she had very little skill in healing and the idea of them burning out that kills the channelers when it isn't supposed to kill them... UGH
Book one only has a "not the best" ending the first time through. On reread, even though EOTW was not as polished as later installments, it still makes a lot of sense. I am fine with changes to a story if they make sense but that changes for the sake of taking someone else's story and making it yours, that's not the same thing as adapting.
I thought even disregarding the changes from the book that episodes 1-6 where mediocre at best. I really enjoyed episode 7 and it gave me hope for the future of the show... After episode 8 I'm tempted to say that Dragonball Evolution was a better adaptation.
If I hadn't googled it beforehand and just watched the show I wouldn't have known that Rand is the main character. I read the book after the season was finished and I would like to be able to say that I'm surprised, but I'm not. Not after most of the things in the sci-fi and fantasy fandom get made for "fans" that don't seem to have any love for the source material. I'll keep reading the books.
The next Game of Thrones? I'm still waiting for the real Wheel of Time.
Hi this is the first video of yours I have seen, I am glad you gave it a fair review. One thing I disagree on is that they needed more time to develop characters and such, throughout the series so far a ton of time seems to be spent with minor characters and interactions that do not develop anyone. This got to such a ludicrous degree that some of the minor chiropractors ended up getting more development than loyal/Tom. If they actually committed the time to the main characters who knows what would have happened. Also for a fantasy book with frequent action (which I thought made it perfect for adaptation) you would never guess that from watching the show.
Will the real dragon reborn please stand up
I enjoyed the season overall, however the final episode was deeply disappointing. I didn't think they could do worse than the original Eye of the World ending, but somehow they managed. One can only hope that it was a result of last minute cast changes and pandemic restrictions that will not happen again.
We all need to accept that the TV show can't be considered an adaptation of the Book series. It is almost an entirely different beast.
Okay ... I haven't read the books as of yet, and I was fully convinced, that this fiery eyed man is the Dark One himself o.O
Thank you for this great review. You have a new subscriber. I've never read the books, but I did enjoy the series despite its flaws, and I have started reading the books because of it. Definitely looking forward to more of your content now.
A friend of mine in high school put me onto the books back in the 90s and I've read them all. Part of me felt that after about book 5 the story began to drag a bit until Brandon Sanderson took over and the pace picked up again - but that's my opinion. This vid is first real look at the TV series and already it's making me not want to watch it as I don't want to have memories of a great series in my youth ruined.
5:28 Yeah it's the same ruin, But that's not make sense. The futuristic city is near the actual Tar Valon. Lews Therin's home in now the DragonMont. But the ruins we saw a the beginning of the show is actually located at Two-Rivers... incoherent easter egg 😑
I really tried to be open minded watching this series, but the investment I had in the characters in the books was just missing in this adaptation. It think my thoughts were "you can mess around all you like but the key moments need to be there" and they weren't. Great video.
Mine too
I am completely new to the series. I thought the person Rand fought at the end was the dark one and from what I can tell many others who are new to the series thought that too. I think that is a major problem. I also laughed at the wave going to the empty beach and only knew these people were a problem because book readers said they were. It felt weird and tacked on. The whole pacing of the eye of the world felt weird. I hated that Naneve was healed so quick, it felt cheap.
I had felt that the show was getting better with every episode and I even bought the first 3 books to start reading. But this ending has me questioning if I want to watch season 2.
I thought so, too. They didn't make things clear enough for newcomers at all.
If I remember right from the books, Rand also thought he was fighting The Dark One.
And I believe the intent of the creators of the series also want the viewers to think so. Just like they left it a question in the beginning who the Dragon Reborn was.
But since you have already discovered from the comments here, he actually fought Ishmael, whom I believe is the weakest of the Forsaken.
@@Tjalve70 Ishy is the second most powerful forsaken and i believe the third most powerful channeler in the entire series :)
@@krontaur Ok, then I remember wrong. Fair enough. I read the books 10+ years ago, and I was sure I wouldn't get all of it right.
My point still stands, that Rand thought he was fighting the Dark One. I am very certain that is correct, although I can't remember exactly when Moiraine told him that wasn't correct.
@@Tjalve70 oh that would make sense then. I guess season 2 will open with that explanation? Except Rand has gone off on his own. I feel like that would have been a good reveal there at the end so we understand that and it sets it up for the next season. The only people who won't know are the pure show only watchers that don't watch content like this.
After being initially disappointed (but not surprised) I still watched to whole season.
I tried to get past sadness and anger into maybe a wry humor and laugh at what else they ruined.
However the more I watched… the angrier I became. I honestly loved these books too much to watch it anymore… I really hope this show is stopped and in 15 years an animated show is created.
Spoilers: The fact that there is no gender difference in the One Power, completely ruins the entire story line. Lanfear and Co. were researching for a power source that did not have any gender difference, so that both male and female aes sedai could channel it. They found that power source and it lay outside of the Pattern, in their excitement and hubris they tore a hole in the Pattern to "see"/ learn about the power and discovered it to be the True Power (Dark One) which has no gender difference.
This tearing of the Pattern is what created the Bore through which the Dark One entered the Wheel and started the entire issue in the first place. LTT sacrificed himself and his 100 men to through a makeshift seal over the Bore and keep the Dark One outside the Wheel. The makeshift seal eventually wore off and Rand was needed to repair the Pattern and heal the Wheel to "permanently" keep the Dark One.
But if the show decides there is no gender difference in using the One Power, the motivation that resulted in the Dark One's invasion disappears.
You're entirely correct. And my guess is that the producers will just ignore this.
@@Tjalve70 the female Aes Sedai leader in the flashback called Lews the Dragon Reborn but he’s the original Dragon…
They ruin lore and don’t care.
If you realize they're trying to make all the guys look as bad or weak as possible, it sadly makes sense. It happens to literally every male character except Tam. It's sad bc it's a complete violation of the books and just sloppy dumb and predictable writing.
This is something I've noticed as well, and even the finale didn't attempt to fix this in any way. I don't know why they feel the need to dumb down the male characters in order to make the female characters shine more... when they could just make both the male and female characters well rounded and both have their own badass moments. Perrin hardly did anything the whole show. Mat and Rand were chased through a town like scared rabbits by a woman with a sword in ep 3. Lan is overly emotional which is just an odd direction to go with his character when he specifically is meant to be like a stone. Idk, honestly I hope they have a new director and writers for season 2. I still enjoyed several parts of the show (ep 2 I thought was great), but the amount of bad decisions and overall poor writing far outweighs the good.
@@CapturedInWords I hope they switch things up too. Jordan's world deserves a wider audience and respect! It's particularly upsetting because his original work, by no means perfect (as if any one person's can be), I think naturally fits a more reasonable outlook in regards to bringing forward diverse views and persons that heretofore have not had the public's attention. Jordan's world and female characters are awesome and full of believable and interesting cultures and persons. Instead we get a WoT tainted with narrative from the Dragon to the Dragon Reborn and everyone in between. A broken magic system, inconsistencies intra...let alone interepisodes...and sloppy writing and lane story telling to boot. If the same director is at the helm...I just can't watch such a fantastic piece of art desecrated. But, for those who enjoy it, or want to keep giving it a chance I understand. But we should demand better from our cultural high priests!
They nerfed Tam too, he couldn’t beat a single Trolloc, show Tam must have stolen that heron sword off someone’s corpse. Also he just smiled and waved after Moiraine tells him his son might be the Dragon, she’s taking him to Tar Valon for God knows what and he may never return home. Sounds great, have a good time son!
You are absolutely spot on with all your criticisms.
Well, Jay. I was skeptical from the beginning that Rafe Judkins and his crew of misfits could put together a proper tribute of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy tale, but I was willing to give them a chance. Now that I have watched the entire first season, I know that my fears were warranted. This series is not The Wheel of Time. From what I can see, it's The Wheel With a Flat Tire, because this story is going nowhere. If they wanted to purposely sabotage RJ's story, they couldn't do a better job. Thank God that I've read the books; at least I know what the plot line is supposed to be. If I was a nonreader, I would be totally confused by now. No background information, no continuity, and absolutely no adherence to Jordan's books. That scene with the five women stealing Rand's place at Tarwin's Gap? Totally ridiculous. The whole point of Jordan's Tarwin Gap scene was to reveal to the world that Rand al'Thor was the Dragon Reborn and to show the extent of his power, even though he was untrained. The only possible reason I can think of for that scene is that Rafe has a Kathleen Kennedy type feminist on his staff that insisted that the women have to have the most power in the story, and that the male Dragon Reborn must be downplayed. What do you want to bet? I'll watch the first episode of the second season, and if they don't quickly get this story back on proper track, I won't watch another one. The one thing I hate more than almost anything else is for an epic masterpiece of a story to be butchered when transferred to a movie or small screen.
WoT = Waste of Time.
It solidified me to read the books for now (I gotta know what happens to Moiraine and Lan!), and come back if the show makes it to season 4. The editing has been rough all season but this episode alongside the cgi was just a mess.
We also don't get enough screen time establishing the story and characters because they're too busy destroying the source material and replacing it with their agenda-driven, bastardized version, as well as adding unnecessary characters and side plots invented for their own ridiculous narrative. Did we need to see Logain on action? Not really. We didn't see it in the books. Did we need Perrin to have a wife that never existed in the books? No. Did we need an episode and a half dedicated to Stephan, another character who wasn't in the books, who did in the most non-heroic manner possible? Absolutely not. Did we need cry baby Lan? I don't think so. Did we need a barmaid chasing Rand and Mat through the streets like a couple of cowards? No. Did we need a subplot that transformed Abel Cauthon into a sleaze bag, and Mat into a dirty thief? Absolutely not. Did every episode need a cold open that reduces the amount of time available for the actual narrative? No! The book had one cold open. That's all we needed. The story in the books is not broken. Rafe and Amazon did not need to "fix" it.
I know how they could improve this with season 2 with two options. 1. This was all a bad fever dream and were gonna start from scratch with the story told in the books. 2. Cancel the show before season 2.
Books: Here's an epic fantasy with so many amazing details. It's popular world-wide and a lot of fans are excited to see it on screen.
Amazon: Cool, let's change everything
I actually don't have a problem with them changing a lot of things.
The Wheel of Time is special in the sense that we KNOW that this has happened countless times before, and will happen countless times again, and that each time might be somewhat different.
When they made Game of Thrones, you could complain that they made changes. Since that's ONE story.
But if they had wanted to make a version of The Wheel of Time where it's the female part of the One Power that is corrupted, and all of the Aes Sedai are male, and you have the Red Ajah hunting down channeling women, and the Dragon Reborn is a woman, that would not have been a problem for me. It has probably happened in one of the many turnings of The Wheel of Time.
What I DO have a problem with, is them making it so similar to the original, and still changing important parts of it. Especially when these parts don't make sense, or directly conflict with the world.
In a way, it would have been better if they had changed more. Since then it would have been more obvious that this was a different version.
I have to believe that The actor playing Matt ,viewed this train wreck up close and was like "I'm out" . Can you imagine what sort of travesty would have happened if Matt had been there.
In the cold open, it's not just that she calls him 'The Dragon Reborn', he in turn calls her the 'Tamyrlin Seat'. Though over time it's clearly where Amyrlin came from, there was no such title in the Age of Legends, the original prologue mentions 'bearing the ring of Tamyrlin', but it's as one of Lews Therin's honors, so it's doubly wrong. It feels like a lack of trust in the audience to be able to figure things out on their own.
I was explaining my wife the hole story after last episode and she said the same thing - with only 8 episodes non readers don't have any chance to get involved. Story is just too complex and all relations between characters are not believable.
I think the cold open with a sane and paternal LTT is setup for when we eventually get the prologue cold open, which they may be saving for when the DR’s madness becomes more of a salient point in the show.
You know when a good time for a prologue is?
The very beginning, before the main event.
They did that scean in the xray bonus feature
@@DameTara Then not only was it not the opening, but it also wasnt even part of the show and most people will never see it.
So, Any news from Kingkiller adaptations ?
Rafe already said he can't wait to upset readers by killing off characters who shouldn't die. This tells me everything I need to know about the future of this show...
That is actually far from the worst he could do. As long as he doesn't bring them back from the dead, of course.
Killing characters in the show that didn't die in the books, simply shows that this is a different turn of The Wheel.
Changing rules of how the world works, and making nonsensical changes that has no purpose, that's something that should not be done.
Do you know if the books ever describe the new hilt Rand has put on Laman’s Blade? Is it a katana styled hilt like on the cover of Knife of Dreams? Or is it a more typical medieval European styled hilt?
I'd imagine its a katana style hilt. Isnt that what Tam's sword looked like? Would make sense he makes Laman's blade more like the one he trained with
@@stephengrant4841 Tam’s sword was more like a katana blade on a medieval European hilt.
@@thechadnerd8562 Ahh, I knew the blade was like a katana so I always thought the hilt was supposed to be like one too.
@@stephengrant4841 most people do
They stab loial, but we've seen so little of him that it really doesn't matter. Now if he survives the Dagger then they killed the Dagger instead
Yeah I really don't understand their reasoning for stabbing Loial with the dagger from Shadar Logoth.... why did they need to do that!?
I think that the money of Amazon they put in youtubers, tweeters, pull rotten tomatoes reviews and marketing instead in make a good show.
Thank you for your thoughts and humor!! I have enjoyed your coverage of the series. I am not a fan of the show at all. My family that arr non book readers don't enjoy it as well. But to each their own. I hope those who like the show continue to enjoy it.
Nice to find someone who respects others opinions.
Thanks for watching!
The battle at Fal Dara felt like a battle scene in xena warrior princess or a handful of other cheesy 90s fantasy shows. Amazon better improve the visual effects for season 2
I did not read the books and I didn't understand half of the last episode. Seals are not explained, I thought that this guy at the end is the Dark one, turns out he is not.... I don't know what they were digging up at the castle..... Total confusion...
Yeah... unfortunately there's a lot that wasn't explained too well or even explained at all
there's a reason they didn't explain it. It's where they leave the viewer guessing and then later on explain it. I actually do hate when shows do that but I understand why. I'm sure Moiraine will talk about the seals next season and they will reveal more information. Sucks but that is how shows are nowadays.
Another banger analysis. I really want this show to take off not cut WOT is my fave series (that would be Song of the Lioness) but because I want more fantasy content to go mainstream so we can get better adaptations. Every flaw I found you mentioned, keep it up
Your analysis of the cold open was incredible, I knew it was bad when I watched it, but with the source material so rich with the stakes that are the impending doom of the world, it's baffling that they chose to instead focus on a bad conversation in a made up language. D ;
I really didn't get that the man was Ishamael. I thougt he was the Dark One, so I thought it was done... I didn't get how there could be 14 books.
Book 1 was the one book they could have adapted most faithfully even in 8 episodes. Book 2 maybe. The books thereafter will be where they need to make drastic changes and condense a lot.
My person thoughts. They needed someone with more experience and skill as the show runner/writers. The internal inconsistencies and failed set ups/payoffs lead me to believe a lot of people on this project we’re either sloppy or just didn’t know what they were doing.
Also, I wish I could look at changes they made or characters they added early and use my many times reading the books to have a good idea where they are going. I do not recall a single moment like that.
I agree, the first book has a pretty simple storyline overall. Less characters, no real intricacies. Including Tar Valon was a mistake, it took 2 precious hours away from the real plot, especially since they had already introduced the Aes Sedai in ep 4. We could have had more time in Shadar Logot and the Ways, more time with Thom and Loial.
Many book readers, including me, were perfectly fine with making changes when it came to the Eye, but i wouldn't have expected the show to make a worse finale out of it.
This show is irredeemably crap. They've already changed far too much to ever get back to the essence of the story. They've broken the logic of the world as it was written, despite having 14 books and thousands of pages to work from.
Robert Jordan created one of the greatest fantasy epics of all time. And in Rand, subtly deconstructed the hero archetype, led him down the dark path, to his eventual 'rebirth'.
I knew he'd be relegated in this adaptation to a side character in his own story. Because the writers of this show are hacks.
One example of that. They gave a whole episode about the grief experienced by a Warder on their Aes Sedais death. But Morraine makes the monumentally stupid decision to NOT take her Darkspawn killing machine, born and raised around the Blight, in order to protect him...despite the show revealing he'd die of his grief anyway if anything happened to her!
This is the Wheel of Time if was fanfic by a 12 year old.
Jay, I don't know if this was your goal when filming your great reviews for all these episodes but you've finally convinced me beyond doubt: I'll stick to the books we're buddy-reading and will not watch any of this series.
Haha well you can't go wrong with the books! 👍
If it's the worst episode than by definition it is completely terrible. since the best episode, if there is one is also 100 percent completely terrible.
Let's be real here, Ep.8 was indeed that bad. You can say it, we all know it to be true.
wow i haven't read the books so I didn't know about the differences but even I was disappointed by the final battle between Rand and the "Dark One". You are right in that it just seemed veryyyyyy underwhelming... like this whole season we have been hearing about the Dragon and how powerful he is and yet his power seemed like nothing. The final episode did feel flat unfortunately
Men bad, dull, boring and badddd, Woman strong, good, powerfull and flashy on everything they do, it would not surprise me if Rand was not the dragon but a non binary woman, since after all they mention that the dragon can be a boy or girl and the arrogance of men lead to the breaking.
I haven’t watched the show yet because I wanted to finish the book first. The show looks so much different from what I expected
I know this is a book thing but I disagree that if the female Aes Sedai had helped Lews Therin it would have prevented the dark one's counterstroke. I once believed that but the last book changed my mind. Don't want to get into spoilers but if you think about what Rand did in the final book to seal the dark one, the mechanics of it, you will see that I'm right.
Jordan confirmed in an interview that should the female Aes Sedai have been involved in LTT's plan, they would have tainted both sides of the one power. The whole world would have been doomed.
I agreed with most everything you said. And that episode all about Steppan still makes me mad
I think that perhaps if they had the 10 episodes (preferably with extended first and last episodes) then it would've been fine. But with only the 8 and how much they needed to cover in this season I feel it should have been lesser and/or moved to s2/3
@@bpolitical1 it was totally irrelevant to this season. And so was Siuan actually.
@@bidossessi yeah, hence why I say it would be okay to move it to later seasons. And Siuan isn't in book one, she first shows early book 2
@@bpolitical1 Really?
It's been 10+ years since I read the books, but I kinda remember that Siuan meets Moiraine and the gang, possibly in Caemlyn. I think she had the ability to detect ta'veren, and was able to confirm to Moiraine that all four of them were ta'veren, and that Rand was the strongest one. And I am pretty sure this happened in Book 1.
But since it's so long since I read the books, I could be wrong.
@@Tjalve70 finished rereading book one two days ago. The final words of book one are implying Moiraine using the power to send a message to someone. Book 2 starts with the amyrlin arriving at Fal Dara to meet them
The flashback labelling Lews Therin as Reborn, blows a hole in the books when the Dark One revealed to Rand that there's been a line of Dragons stretching back to infinity.
Lews Therin never knew he was a reborn soul.
This show is hopelessly bad.
Everybody knows that they are reborn souls.
However, Lews Therin doesn't know that he's the reborn DRAGON, since he was given the title Dragon.
@@Tjalve70 I wasn't clear. I meant to say Lews didn't know he was specifically a Dragon Reborn. Yes, common knowledge that souls are Reborn.
@@michaelmooney5246Not even that. Lew's Therin Telamon is "The" Dragon. No reborn in it. After he created Dragonmount, then his soul is spun out again as the wheel weaved as Rand Al'Thor. Rand is the Dragon Reborn. All others before him have been false Dragons. If you'd read the books you'd have known this. Smh,🤷🏿♂️
@@wolflordbradley7353 Every turn of the Wheel has a Dragon.
So I think you misunderstand what @Michael meant when he said there has been a line of Dragons stretching back to infinity.
Imo there could have been 50 episodes and it would be crap, because their writing and story lore are crap, imo Amazon knew it at the start, if the show runner thought it was good he would have claimed it as his own work and not hyped “Robert Jordan’s Wheel of time” story and lore which in this story only exists in the show title and character names - not the story in the script.
I didn't read the books.
The show looked really lackluster for me. Characters felt for the most part empty and very one dimensional. The CGI looked bad, even in the first episode the CGI was stiff and ugly.
The world seems deep but I don't know if I got that impression by watching the show or by listening to youtubers tell me that it's deep.
It's sad because I wanted a new great fantasy show.
At least I got Arcane.
Not sure why, but this keeps coming up. If the Female channelers went with the 100 companions both sides of the one power would have been corrupted. They needed the DO True Power to shield against the DO backlash.
…I’m never going to be able to unsee the Aes Sedai as power rangers now…thx for that lol
crying wardens, old looking/gay Aes Sedai, clean brand new clothes for everyone, cringe dialog. best book parody ever lol
Wait, that guy Rand fought at the end wasn't the Dark One? I've never read the books, and the characters in the show literally called him "the dark one". So, I'm really confused now
My best advice is: Try to forget you know this.
If I recall correctly from the books, neither Rand nor Moiraine knew that this was not the Dark One. They both thought it would be. And it's only in the beginning of book 2 that Moiraine has found out that this was just a Forsaken.
So this is actually one of the few things the TV show did right. Making us believe it was the Dark One, and then starting season 2 by revealing it wasn't.
First seasons are usually bad and get better they get a good footing. Didn't like some elements, and also understand the problems they faced. But hey, there are worst adaptations out there.
Sincerely,
A Dresden Files Fan
I like the Dresden file show when it cane out. Didn't know the books. Listened to them all a couple years ago. Went back to the show and was like "oh this is bad."
I had higher hopes but alas no dice...
They have gone so far off the source books I see no hope for S2...
Some good bits BUT they really blew the strongest points.😔
I do not want to bring up torches (Or maybe I do) But I think Rand and the Dragon in general is so underwhelming, because they simply do not want Rand as the protagonist. They would rather have Egwene or Nynaeve as the protagonists. The next season they will KEEP downplaying Rand, while giving the other two the big moments.
Speaking to them knowing that Saidin will get tainted by the Dark one.
I think that by doing that they remove alot of the depth of that decision. Human kind is desperate and losing, but the female aes sedai think its a bad idea and LT think its the only way. If they kept it like that, the audience can debate what was the right thing to do, but by changing it like they did it seems like it was clearly the wrong thing to do. I think it simply fies the decision and the plot and i think that is something they have done through out the season. Its like they are telling us upfront what to think and what the right thing is right away.
People want to speculate and go back seasons and realize what happened, not getting it served up for you.
I disliked the way they wasted their time with the whole "who's the dragon" bit and side stories and characters. It took away Egwenes incredible act of forcing her way onto the team, Thoms character, Mat is a gloomy thief from the start, Rand is a nothing that becomes season 8 John Snow "but she's my queen", Lan is a hit it and quit it type that cries......honestly Moraine is the only one that comes out half decent and they even tried to butcher her character but Rosamund Pyke is a badass and makes it work.