Thanks to your review of season 1 I recently read Shadow of The Conqueror (loved it and really hope there are more books in the works) and am now just over halfway through book 1 of TWoT and it is sooooo easy to see how much better the books are.
@@briansanders8122 Which book are you worried about? I'll describe both a little and try to avoid any spoilers for either. Wheel of Time is pretty solidly PG13 (maybe even PG, considering how gross entertainment can get these days). I started reading it when I was about 11, and would have no problem giving a copy to a child the same age myself (provided I think the kid has the patience for a 4.5 million word series). It's biggest "controversy" is having traditional beliefs about gender differences baked into the very nature of how magic functions. There are a suspicious number of spankings of attractive people, which give me an idea of what Mr. Jordan liked in the bedroom, but it's never graphic or treated in a sexual way. Similarly, some cultures have little to no nudity taboo, which makes the heroes from a very conservative area deeply uncomfortable, but there's never any graphic descriptions of anyone's body. The closest it comes to an adult scene is a passionate kiss, followed by a character reaching to undo the buttons on his jacket, then cut to another scene and not return to those characters until they're getting dressed again at the earliest. One of the later books features a character in a not-entirely-consensual (putting it mildly) relationship, and spends a decent amount of time on the emotional turmoil that causes, and one of the villains has a mind-controlled harem of models, but still nothing graphic. Violence is mostly pretty tame, too. Lots of fighting, but the gore is mostly skimmed over. It will mention a dismemberment, but so blood spraying everywhere or guts spilling out and tripping people. Shadow of the Conqueror is more intense, but still not terribly explicit. I'd have no problem reading it at work (but maybe not the upcoming graphic novel adaptation, which shows illustrations of the titular Conqueror's barely-clothed harem), or loaning a copy to a relative who was, say, 15 or so, but I wouldn't give it to a 10-year-old. It is a little political in some places, but not as ham-handed as most modern media. The communists are the villains, and the book does not try to make them any less evil than they are. There are groups who have no issue with nudity, whose bodies are not described in much more detail than WoT does, but the narration does focus a little more on how seeing the nudity makes other character's feel (one has a traumatic past and seeing/hearing anything sexual triggers some serious PTSD, while another is a reformed monster who has to repress some dark urges). No actual naughty scenes in the book. Closest is one of the heroes interrupting a grape in progress: after the perpetrator is dealt with, there's some discussion of punishments for his crime in different parts of the world, particularly focused on countries that perform, um, "intimate amputation" on such criminals. The very limited descriptions of those kinds of thing are not graphic and are mostly used to provide an emotionally-charged focus point for the themes of repentance, justice, forgiveness, and redemption that the book wants to explore. The violence is noticeably more graphic than Wheel of Time, but not a gorefest by any means.
@@briansanders8122 The controversial adult topic in WoT is usually referring to the mind-control. Periodically, there is implied or skipped-over sex and sometimes it will state that someone is nude or the like but no graphic descriptions.
God, I've been rereading the books for years, and I was so disgusted by how terrible the TV show is. I just recently saw that season 2 is dropping and couldn't bring myself to care. Enjoy the books, they're so damn good.
I have just finished 'Shadow of the Conqueror' it is a good first book form a new author some parts I like and some I did not but it does fall into the category that I want to read more. And for those wanting to know if ye can read or listen to this book at work I would not.
You would think Amazon would be like “we have one if the most beloved and popular series of fantasy novels of all time let’s do a pretty straightforward adaptation” but no they seem to think massive rewrites to the plot are necessary because reasons.
Once they screwed up mat, they were done. Without him, rand has no motivation to go after the knife, simultaneously tanking the rest of the plot and series.
Which while feeling like a side-quest, it was a key story beat to start training Rand to think more like a Lord than a farmer. That was basically the entire point of book two. Rand was given a position of authority over real soldiers and sent on a mission to teach him how to lead. They decided to just ignore all of that I guess.
@ctrlaltdebug 😂 me too. I was dumbfounded but tried to suspend my harsh judgment for an hour or two to see what they had made of our beloved tale... O.m.g. brochacos When I saw emmonds field looked like a cross section of new York city I just chortled and knew the show for what it was. Another pathetic attack in the culture war I watched a lot of season 1 but only with the help of Knight's Watch reviews lol. Then I gave them a 1 or 0 whatever the lowest was and stopped watching. Season 2 I’ll just watch these reviews to keep up with the latest shenanigans. Know thy enemy and all that
On the gendered part of the power, I can see why some people would have a problem with that part of the world building but it's a fundamental part of that world so you can't adapt the story without keeping it in. If these people have a problem with the fundamental aspects of the world WHY ON EARTH ARE THEY ON THE TEAM ADAPTING IT?
Yeah, anyone with a problem with the One Power having gendered halves is an idiot who has no business working on this project. Not only is it a vital component of the world-building, it's also the exact opposite of discriminatory. Female channelers can do amazing things with _Saidar._ Male channelers can do amazing things with _Saidin._ But their true potential is only realized when they _work together._ In fact, one of the worst things that's ever happened was a direct result of male and female channelers _NOT_ working together. The Dark One was only able to taint _Saidin_ because Lews Therin and the Hundred Companions didn't work with female channelers to reseal the Bore. One of the only things I think Jordan should have changed about channeling is that the halves should have been reversed; _Saidin_ should be the half that requires tranquility and surrender, while _Saidar_ should be the raging torrent of frozen lava that you have to continually fight to survive. Males would still channel _Saidin,_ and females would still channel _Saidar,_ but I think it would have been interesting for the two halves to be opposite of the stereotypical gender roles for men and women.
@@frocat5163 I certainly wouldn’t say people who have a problem with the power are idiots, there’s potential for a more nuanced discussion but I don’t feel like getting into it as it’s really not my fight. However if you dislike the fundamentals of a story you shouldn’t be on the team adapting because if you don’t appreciate and respect the source material you can’t create a faithful (or even decent) adaptation.
@@Nesto_ The nuanced discussion already happened. In the books. Jordan did an excellent job _IN THE TEXT_ of explaining how and why there are differences, and anyone who fails to recognize that or believes it's "problematic" is absolutely an idiot. Despite what morons want to believe today, there are absolutely fundamental differences in the way men and women / males and females _GENERALLY_ think and behave. Having this reflected in his magic system is one of the most elegant things Jordan gave us.
It's called entitlement. They don't want other people to have and enjoy things they themselves don't like. So they try to appropriate it and change it and make it about themselves. It's called a culture war for a reason, because some of these peole really think that they are warriors on a righteous crusade.
"Bayle Domon has a mustache" has got to be the simplest and most succinct way to explain the entire philosophy behind this adaptation. It's such an easy detail to get right, everyone who has ever read a single description of him can describe the facial hair style he *should* have and actually doing it right would not have caused them any additional costs, no complicated make up or costuming, no CGI, just a disposable razor... and yet they didn't. There is no benefit to changing it and keeping the correct look would've been the simplest thing imaginable, so why didn't they? The only possible explanations are that either 1. nobody in the production has read the books, 2. they did but just didn't care at all and thought that the fans don't care either or 3. they *purposefully* did it the wrong way for some inexplicable reason. No matter which one is the answer, they're all an incredibly bad look for the production.
@@donkeysaurusrex7881that’s the other problem with him. Illianers have a certain identifiable dialect/accent that would have been so easy to do. It’s crap.
So in 9 episodes they’ve done at least 7 fake out deaths. 8 if you count the only one that was supposed to happen being Thom. And 9 if you count Nynaeve going under water with the trollokc for a moment. Lan twice Loial Ingtar Uno Nynaeve basically twice Moiraine Thom Ishamael- nearly forgot this one as it’s accurate as well but I feel these should be included as it’s really compounding the problem with the sheer amount of time it’s being done in the show.
And that assumes Thom's death was still a fake-out! -- has he been confirmed to come back in the series? We know Rafe was checking (in a clumsy way) to see if they really needed to continue including him going forward.
Meme: Elyas Machera (amazon version) Rafe judkins - standing with arms crossed and one leg propped on a pile a books. Caption: I have won again Robert Jordan
Didn't think they could get any worse than S1...less than 10min into S2 proved wool-headed sheepherder I am. Creator, shelter me in the palm of your hand from this creation made by the Dark One and his minions. Fades also take on 5 seasoned, and armored Borderlanders at the same time, and win. Moiraine does it in a dress, with a dagger smaller than a kitchen knife...insert a gif of Saitama going "okay". There is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much wrong with this show, just based off of contradictions to season 1, but also the books, and the consequences their changes have...how do they not see it. And Uno surviving THE dagger from season 1, and then dying in the manner he did *throws up*. Btw, in the books the party of Sheinarans are supposed to wear heavy armor, only Ingtar and Uno wears something made of metal. Masema runs around without even a leather armor, and his arms exposed... So far, the show has ruined EVERY male character, except for Ingtar (aside from him surviving THE dagger), and I'm just waiting for them to ruin him as well. We also see Nynaeve practice with a sword long before we see Rand, the blademaster to be, practice with it. We STILL haven't seen Rand practice it...
I think the anger block is both them ripping off the force but also social stuff. The others believe they must submit to the one power, but you cant say submit now. So they’re introducing you can dominate it instead, use anger and force it to your will. Which is how the men do it, but I bet in this either can do either. Or they’re ripping off the dark side of the force…Im not sure which is worse
It's too bad Amazon took the "hold my beer" route. With Disney's fall, they could have taken over and dominated Hollywood. A direct translation of the books (minus edits for time) could easily have been their "Game of Thrones".
I'm honestly just stunned at how the showrunners have so fully and completely deviated from the books. I am 100% understanding that this is an adaptation. You simply can't fully translate a novel into a show without some changes due to the difference in medium. This is not that. Honestly, I'm wondering if any of the writers even read the books. This is C Tier fantasy with a brand name alone. The last example I can think of that did this poorly was The Sword of Truth TV show, and even then, they at least tried. Like there were some similarities and the characters felt true to their origin. This is just objectively not Wheel of Time. I don't know why TV execs keep buying known IP's to only ignore them.
Something that isn't in the show but is in the promotional material: Mat went to the white tower because he was drawn to the dagger. But Fain had the dagger in Far Dara... Also how do messages travel in the show? The white tower got Moraine's message about Mat basically as soon as she had it sent. Same about Perrin's letter to the girls.
Messages go so fast because the world has no sense of geography. Little girls paddle upstream from Tear to Tar Valon. The Seanchan invade the west, and end up in the borderlands. Cairhein is somehow under threat from the Blight...
@@briane8627 It's even more annoying, because it will negate the wonder and key worldbuilding feature of the reintroduction of travelling to the WoT world and its implications.
@@briane8627 tbf world's end in saldea is along the west coast but they landed on toman head which is in basically a DMZ between Tarabon to the south and Arad Doman to the north and ghealadan to the east.
About the poem it was Verin that translated the writing on the Wall it was written by trollocs or a darkfriend. The poem was about Lanfear being on the loose. Daughter of the Night they called her.
I listened to the first through the third book in preparation for season two and I’m currently listening to the fourth book and I can definitely see some of the problems in the show. Yeah, the people working this show don’t give a crap.
The single chapter in the final book titled "The Last Battle" is so amazing I almost consider it my favorite book lol... I'm only following the show from a morbid curiosity standpoint about how the Final Battle will be depicted and Disparu and Shad are so entertaining to watch explode...
Kinda shows the difference between RJ's liberalism and the "modern" mindset. I think something became unhinged along the way, but hard to say exactly what. Without writing an essay, at least.
i like the fact that the male's are getting emotional about how easy life used to be and now there being forced into role's were they could die .............
Am I misremembering this? The group chasing after Padan Fain and the Horn come across dead Shienaran soldiers. These soldiers betrayed them, letting trollocs and fades into the city to free Padan Fain from the dungeon. But Padan Fain in Season 1 was never captured much less freed. After the attack on Emond's Field, he covertly follows them through the Ways and steals the Horn and dagger at the end of the season. We're seeing the consequences of something that was cut out from the books and not shown in Season 1?
@@GainnNo, this is simply the result of poorly done scriptwriting. A competent writer would follow the laws of cause and effect. Although, a competent director wouldn't have made such drastic changes to a good story in the first place to necessitate this.
"We're seeing the consequences of something that was cut out from the books and not shown in Season 1?" This is exactly correct, and this might be the reason for retconning the deaths of certain people at the end of Season 1 like Igntar, Uno and Loial. (Poor Uno.....)
In the TV series, you need the power to travel the ways yet Fain was able to travel through there alone so all concepts are fked and makes no sense anyway. The list of plot holes in the series is longer than the phone books we used to have.
Does Moiraine ever stop to consider that the misery she's feeling right now is exactly what the Aes Sedai have been gleefully inflicting on male channellers for hundreds of years?
I love the WoT books as much as The Lady but I care so little about this show, I had no idea season 2 even started. But I do love watching Shad’s head explode after these episodes drop.
I never got past episode 3 of WOT and that book series is my husband's favorite of all time. He was so gutted by how terrible it was. We won't be watching, but I will definitely be watching your reviews, Shad. They are FAR more entertaining than the content itself. Thank you!
I'm hate watching the rest of Season 2 just to see how badly it's butchered (only made it 2 episodes in), but I won't be doing that for S3. Idk how this got Greenlit for a S3. I'll thank S1 for introducing me to the WoT (friend mentioned it a long time ago, but his description of it was absolutely awful and made it sound bad lol), in which I binged the books, but that's all I can really give it credit for. 2-3 chapters into Book 1 I was already annoyed at how much they changed things in the show lmao.
I kinda feel sorry for Shad since I remember he once mentioned that, for some weird reason, Amazon will occasionally put out something decent like The Terminal List or Reacher. So the stories involving modern gunplay (which I, as a red blooded American, really like) seem to be doing well under Amazon, but fantasy, which Shad loves the most, is being utterly butchered like Wheel of Time or Rings of Power. Granted, I remember my best friend telling me that it’s probably because the woke activists infesting pop culture is definitely going to be more interested in being an elf “in tune with nature” than a Navy SEAL, so the latter is more likely to have actual competent writers involved.
Woketard freaks don't like military/action stuff so they'll never touch those kinds of shows with a 100-foot pole. Especially since those don't have any "shipping" stuff and have to actually star gruff, stoic, chad-looking men
The best fantasy Amazon has is the legend of vox machina, but they don't even have control of it - it was fan funded and Amazon just went "that'll make us money" and said they could make more. They don't even have a hand it it's creation
If you dont know the books, it will bore you. If you know the books, it will infuriate you. The hacks that call themselves writers don't care either way, since Signaling their virtue is the only way they can validate their empty lives. Shad, if your book ever gets an adaptation, be careful who gets their hands on it
The costuming is hideous. Everyone looks so crisp and clean no matter what they've been doing. Even Moraine walking up a giant fucking hill didn't produce a bead of sweat.
I can answer your question about whether someone who has no connection to the books would find this good or not. No. I have a deep connection to the books. My brother loaned me the first one when I was around 9-10, I got hooked, he bought me all the books that were out by that point which was up to 8 I believe, then I loaned them back to him for something to do in the hospital before he passed. These books mean a great deal to me both from a sentimental standpoint and just being a fan of the books. I still tried to be charitable and told my husband that as someone who knew nothing about the books that it would be a tolerable fantasy show. He tried watching it and completely disagreed. He found it dull, nonsensical, and stupid. He was able to slog through Rings of Power, but couldn't get through episode 3 of Wheel of Time before dropping it.
I don't plan on watching this show so I'm getting my impressions of it directly from Shad and the missus. I have however read the books. For me, the casting of sheriam almost sounds like they took the title of "mistress of novices" and immediately pictured in their minds the headmistress of some Dickensian orphanage or children's workhouse. Further proof that either the creators haven't read the books, or if they HAVE read the books they just decided they're going to interpret things the way the author SHOULD have and not the way he DID. Definite rings of power "we are going to write the story that Tolkien never wrote" vibes. I wouldn't even go so far as to call this fanfiction, this is like an entire show made of changes to appeal to International audiences or something like that. Like the infamous changing of marketing materials for things in China, the show.
robert jordan makes an mazing story that covers 14 beloved books and these muppets turn it into neighbours with knives keep up the great work mr and misses knights watch your brilliant
And another strange thing: Why are there like 3 Myrddraals all together all by themselves? Shouldnt they have Trollocs around them?Dont they command the other Fades from the army?
My biggest criticism of this episode was Rand’s screen time. 12 seconds is just too much for the main character. Also, they could have given us another 30 minutes of Alanna describing how it feels to get railed by two guys, not sure why they kept that to ten minutes isn’t that what WoT is all about? Also, Lan could have whined and been Moiraine’s dog a bit more, not sure why the stone faced upstanding man portrayal. Otherwise it was absolute perfection! I’m so glad we got such a great writing, directing, and showrunning team for the only adaptation of my favorite book series I’ll see in my lifetime! :)
My favorite part, by far, is Perrin murdering his non-existent wife. I hope they add and kill more non characters and make sure to focus heavily on the non grief felt by all instead of the actual story.
Their been a few adaptations all terrible I remeber a wheel of time video game that basically gave you a radom asedi fighting darkspawn with little to no story and some platforming
This show is an embarrassment, how they can continue to pretend that they care anything for this source material is beyond me! There is No The Great Hunt in there Non-Adaptation of it! Rand al"Thor The Dragon Reborn gets 4 seconds of screen time in the first episode!!!! Thank you for continuing to cover this and call it out, there are few larger channels (This Channel and Disparu) That cover this abomination of a show and say the truth of what it really is! As a smaller content creators like myself and a fan of The Wheel of Time Series it is nice to know I am not alone knowing that this show is NONSENSE! Hail the Lord Dragon! Hail The Knights Watch!
Just accept that it's not WoT. This is an average fantasy with a slapped-on brand name. When you think of it like that, it hurts less to ignore it. Maybe someday we'll get some Indi animator or something make a OVA or something that is more true to the actual story.
Watch Amber over at the Pen and Shadow Reflections laugh for a good solid 3 or 4 minutes about S01E07. When even people new to the story can pick up the problems that quickly... I don't think this show will go the distance honestly. Not without major retconning.
Not only is it just annoying that Nynaeve is hero worshipped, but it destroys a huge plot point and piece of world building. Nynaeve was disregarded and pushed aside as totally unimportant a total unimportant person in the world events by almost everyone, especially the Tower, until like book 6. Her block and her being a wilder and the disdain and disregard she received because of those has huge effects on later plots, like the circle just to name the obvious one. Her being told she's important is literally the opposite of the books and incredibly stupid
Finally found a review that addressed the concerns I have. I was really hoping the backlash against WOT and ROP would bring these showrunners to tell the actual WOT story instead of hijacking its world and characters for their own agendas. This is a perversion of a masterpiece. They are already doing S3, is there ANY chance for a change in leadership that could save this series? Or is it simply too late. Damn :/ what a total disappointment.
15:00 In fairness, I think the 'canon' is that Nynaeve never died. Still a stupid scene. And if she didn't die that makes the execution even worse. But technically they didn't intend to show her dying. 15:46 Padan Fain was technically in the background in one shot in Tar Valon IIRC.
Also Ingtar is not introduced until season two. The third person who was shown killed in the dagger scene was a character named Lord Yakota. Not that you'd know that without looking up the cast list. He is correct about Uno and Loial and I think it's fair to say we see Nynaeve die, even if only briefly.
Me and my wife gave up halfway into episode 2.. just cant anymore. We love the books so much and the fact that they just take out things and replace them with mundane drama settings and sex and this .. omg cant even talk about it.. enjoyed ur review
Oh man…Shad…I’m beside myself. I did a speed run through all three, and the damage they do to Rand, Mat, and Perrin is crazy. Their character development is continuously bastardized, shoehorned and rushed, and most importantly…just not interesting. The writers were either instructed to ruin the men or they are openly misandrist. They only focus on the women in any meaningful way, and even then the pacing is off. They don’t know how to storyboard properly even when they do want to portray a character well.
on the moraine scene why would the fade sneak at all? this scene implies they know she cant channel as they were able to sneak up on her. it would be knock off horse then moraines dead not sneaking around as if shes dangerous
What's funy to me is that I had not read the Wheel of Time books, and I said "let me check out this show and see if its interesting" ... by episode 2, I was like "this is boring and sucks and isnt doing anything logically in world" and so I went to buy the first book ... as they say books better than the move/show Also on a side note; i miss the long hair Shad
Currently listening to the audio book for the second time. I think if you were to follow the books exactly, it might be the greatest TV show that would certainly surpass GOT (and have a significantly better ending). But as per usual, the industry standard is to take a great IP that millions of people love, immediately throw it all out the window and think "no, we can do better, we don't need the source material, we're much better writers, so much that we can IMPROVE the story".....and then you get garbage everyone hates, while said writers pull out all the typical excuses for their failure.
@@charlesmatheka7707 Sure it could. (GOT was at its best when it followed the book, if WOT got the same treatment it absolutely could) Nothing is perfect and a great show isn't made by a few sparse episodes. A great show is made over the entire span of it, of which Game of Thrones supremely crippled itself for nearly 3 seasons, completely destroying it's chances of greatness. Though it was well on its way, how it ended it just as important as how it started. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good any of it's episodes are, if it's joined with disaster, the entire show is marred. Because of that, more people will remember it's failure rather than the times it was great.
WoT adapted faithfully would have blown GoT so far away out of the water it would have not even turned into a footnote in the memories of people. WoT's strongest point is its system of destiny and prophecies. When it was still coming out, this generated endless fan talk analysing every little parts to try to decrypt what it was foreshadowing. Every new publication would result in people re-reading the whole thing. And every new re-read, even with the series completed, allows you to discover new hints that had been dropped throughout. I'm past my 10th re-read and I still discover things I hadn't noticed previously. And as you re-read the series, you familiarise even more with all the other elements of that wonderful world, growing the passion for it. Adapted properly, it would result in a TV series with the same potential to be watched over and over again, generating endless talk and fan engagement. With all that goes with it, including sells of goodies. GoT, particularly given its crap ending, would be long forgotten and overshadowed before S4 of WoT ended. Even LoTR could be overshadowed by WoT done properly.
I was able to stomach most of the changes in season 1. I didn't have high hopes for season 2, but I dropped the entire show the moment they announced that they race swapped Aviendha for literally no reason. That was the final straw for me. I'm sick of them shoving diversity into places where it's not called for, especially in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, which was already a hugely diverse world.
"Diversity" is just code for white erasure. When they say "diversity", they dont actually mean what the word means. An all-black NBA team is "diverse" by their standards.
@@iogssothoth666 But why? A hot, sunny desert is exactly the kind of environment that makes dark skin an advantageous trait. There is a reason why Africans are dark skinned and the Nordic people are pale. Dark skin filters out more sunlight. You get less vitamin D and less UV light, meaning you need more sunlight to have enough vitamin D but you are less likely to get cancer from the sun. Pale skin does the opposite. It lets through more sunlight so you get enough vitamin D even if the sun doesnt shine a lot where you live, but if you go somewhere where it does, you get burnt easily and you have a bigger chance of getting cancer because your skin doesnt filter out enough UV light. The tone of your skin is directly related to the kind of environment your ancestors evolved in. I dont get this modern obsession with avoiding tropes and stereotypes just for the sake of avoiding them. Why? Whats so wrong with dark skinned desert people? It certainly makes much more sense than, i dont know, dark skinned people that live in cold, snowy environments.
It's more like foefiction. Works better spoken as it can be both faux (as in fake) and foe (as in enemy), because it's utter garbage made by people who seem to hate the ip, both spellings apply equally.
I started watching this because one of my best friends wouldn't stop talking about the book series. Now I continue to watch only because I want to see how this train wreck of a series is going to end. On a side note, I fell asleep half way through watching this episode.
Just want to thank you for doing these reviews, if i'd have been left nothing but the show I would have never sought out the books, but with your passion for them and encouraging people to read it, I did, and it now sits next to Lord of the Rings as one of my favorite book series of all time. I'd heard of Wheel of Time, but never had a clue what it was, what it was about or why people liked it and the show would not have remedied that, but now that I have read them (more listened to) I'm really glad I did.
Did you listen to the Kate Reading and Michael Kramer version? Until Harry Potter came out I thought they were the best narrated books. Then they were tied. I read the first 5 books or so and then the audio books came out around the time the next book came out. So very few books were audio at that time, unlike today when almost everything is. I listened to the whole series as each book came out. Anyway, it is a great series to listen to and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. I won't get into the crazy frustration as the series continued and it seemed like Jordan was getting longer and longer winded with less and less happening each book. I was in fear of him dying. Which of course he did which pissed me off for days. Anyway, glad another enjoyed the audiobooks
I just reread all the books till 12th and it’s so amazing I’m blown away a second time. It’s mind blowing how idiotic these show runners and execs are. The problem is this book tells about strong feminine female needing and complimenting strong male characters.
I say this to people anytime they try and claim the books denigrate women. Women and men are shown to both have strengths that are often at odds but when used in complimentary fashion are the most effective. Shit even the Aes Sedai are shown to function better when combined with male casters. One of my favorite parts is when the Black tower starts allowing female Aes Sedai to bond to male and vice versa.
It goes against the idea of "equality and equity" they pretend to believe in. Men must be degenerated so they are less than worms and women must be elevated above the heavens. They are ruining stories like this in the mainstream on purpose. They hate men. It's 100% obvious and anyone saying otherwise is just trying to deceive you.
Lan, arguably the best swordsman in the world is bested by 2 shades. Maybe Moiraine should have been a red because Liandrin's line about warders being useless puppies is spot on.
Moiraine is shown to make some movement with her foot before attacking the fade, but I didn't understand what was the purpose of it. It probably was meant to be some kind of attack strategy
@@meganega123 I think the idea was that she made a noise to lure the Fade to teleport behind her, but it’s still silly since Fades should be way faster than her in terms of attack speed.
I think the series is an absolute insult to Robert Jordan and the wheel of time story! They have added and changed so much that nothing fits. The really annoying thing is, is that nothing needed to be changed! I for one wont be continuing to watch.
Is this even Shad? He seems so much more himself of old. It's nice to see. A change is as good as a rest as the saying goes. I think Shad is showing this. A calm Shad explaining his points without resorting to Angry Shad? I'm liking this. Also give us more Shad Castle Vlogs.
I have read this book series about 30 times now, and am going through it again now, so needless to say I am a fan of the source. I tried twice, TWICE!! to enjoy season 1, and still I was foolish enough to try season 2. I made it about 10 minutes before I had to bail. I think what happened is that some intern had the whole story and scripts with sticky notes on who was who and who did what, they tripped and scattered it across the parking lot, picked all back up and just handed it out to everyone and nobody fixed it.
You said, "boring, bland, and uninteresting characters." You have 3 alltime fantasy characters in Rand, Perrin and Mat. How can you make Mat boring? When his ability is freaking Luck!!!!! I saw season 1 and Rand, Perrin and Mat werent in the tv show. This feels like a dagger to the heart of Gen X male heroes. The last ditch effort to to give the middle finger to Gen X. Who grew up having a mom and dad and the Dad was an actual man.
Reposting all my comments as on consolidated list. 15:00 In fairness, I think the 'canon' is that Nynaeve never died. Still a stupid scene. And if she didn't die that makes the execution even worse. But technically they didn't intend to show her dying. 15:46 Padan Fain was technically in the background in one shot in Tar Valon IIRC. 22:00 What if the little girl from the Darkfriend meeting is the beach girl from 1.8 😂 27:45 Meh. Verin's not how I pictured her, but appearance-wise she's fine. On the scale of this show she's practically perfect. 29:47 By my aged grandmother, Bayle Domon do no be wearing a mustache. 30:35 Alanna, not Leane. Leane is Blue. 59:06 Aside from Moiraine/Lan, in the world of the show, isn't the Dragon Reborn either dead or obsolete as far as every non-Darkfriend who knows Rand is the DB is concerned? Like they think whatever happened at the Eye was it? 59:18 Fan theory on Rand's hair is the actor cut it for another role, lol (no, not Grand Turismo - timeline doesn't work). 1:06:36 The attack at Adeleas & Vandene's place does not introduce Draghkar; they're in TEOTW. But it does introduce their combat abilities. And AS/Warders can always sense Shadowspawn, it's just that they may not notice if they're sufficiently distracted.
20:00 The convocation of Darkfriends was 'in the shadow of Shayol Ghul': why is there a little girl there? 23:55 The ones stilled/burnt out lost all social standing and were seen as objects of pity by the other sisters, but I suppose the Shienarans don't necessarily have to react the same way. 25:52 I suppose one could say Lan's being emotional is the show's interpretation of the effect of the severing of the bond. 27:49 Verin: 'About 5 feet tall and plump… placid-looking & square-faced, with a touch of grey. … She looked like somebody's mother or aunt, or the cook at an inn. Her fingers were often ink-stained.' 29:49 Bayle Domon was supposed to be collecting artefacts as a hobby, as a result of which he acquired a cuendillar Seal, which was confiscated by the Seanchan Lord at Falme. Domon never even met Moiraine in the books, as I recall. 38:14 Sheriam: 'Fire-haired, with green eyes and tilted cheekbones, about 5'5", a little plump and quite pretty.' Also she is only three years older than Moiraine, even barring agelessness. 40:00 That's not Loial, that's no Ogier, that's just a bulky man with curly hair. 41:45 Elyas: 'rawboned, with greying brown hair which hung to his waist. A thick beard fanned across half his chest', 'Born in Tear, son of poor farmers.'
The TV series has worked in wanting to continue reading the book series. I'm on book 6. As soon as I realized in S2 episode 1 that all the characters were nowhere close to how I saw the book characters...I have no desire to continue the TV version, especially with hour long episodes. I didn't even completely enjoy book 2 the best, but I want to reread it over watching this.
Rand? The main character? Nah! Sure he's the main character of the books.., and sure in universe he's the main character according to the wheel of time itself, and is constantly directly woven back into the tapestry of the world, time and time again to reshape the entire world, and he reshapes events and people just by being near them even to the point of affecting OTHER taveren as though they're regular people, but come on, clearly he's not important. Barely a footnote really.
As a fellow Robert Jordan/Brando Sando fanboy, Season 1 broke the Magic system and ruined all of the core characters. I expected the 2nd season to be more of the breaking. They’ve disrespected the source material throughout the first season, so expecting a change in season 2 would simply be naive. I refuse to watch it anymore.
What they did to Matt, was the final straw for me. They could "tweak" the story a little, miscast actors, even move scenes around to give the show a better flow, but they pulled a "Jake Skywalker" on Matt. So, nah, I'll not watch season 2. I just need to get updates on the show from reviewers and I'm good.
@@danieln6700 Watching him go "Dark" and betray his friends is even worse. But, yes, that scene was freaking awesome and to have the hacks at amazon throw that away in favor to change Matt into their corrupt version, is a sin.
I never heard of the books until I watched season 1. I wasn't a fan of season one, but I could see there was something special underneath so I started to read the books. Wow I love the books, I'm happy season 1 leaves so much out I could read the first book as if it was something different. By now I am in book 5, and I love the series. But oh boy, season 2 really doesn't look promising, on the contrary. How amazon decided to spend millions on shit like the rings of power and keep the budget and everything so tight here is one of life's big riddles. They could have made this into something special. They didn't.
I have not yet read the books but I know this: They lie again, from the first minute on. Once more they imply the One Power is only for women, that men make it "filthy" by touching it, even though women and men use Saidin and Saidar (the two halves of the One Power) and not the same halves. There are even Yin-Yang logos visible in the show itself, yet they keep lying to put men down even more. This show truly _hates_ men. Edit: And at 6:08 you yourself even mention my point! Ha, was typing this when the video reached that part.
huh.. Shad Missed a Violation of the Three Oaths at the end there.. at 1:05:58 .. the one Aes Sedai sets her Warders Sword on Fire.. this is "Creating a Weapon with the Power for one Man to Use" this Does Count as a Violation of the Oath because after she "enhances" the Weapon in the Scene she can't snuff it out fast enough if he were to turn the Blade on someone other than the Fade.. in the Books the Aes Sedai have never and would never use the power in such a way.. even knowing the Weave would be enough of an offense to Still her.. that's why it was such a big thing when the.. er.. not gonna spoil things.. but those who know, know..
They imply that The Dragon can be female, which makes absolutely no sense. That would mean that women can use both Saidar and Saidin which is impossible. They ruined it right from Season 1 Episode 1; watching any more of it, unless you've never read the books, is pointless....
So... you're saying the dagger is just as effective as a lightsaber is in Disney "star wars"? I didnt expect anything less from this abomination of a show.
Did anyone actually think that Wheel of Time Season 2 was going to be anything other than garbage? If you did. You should probably get your head checked out for worms.
Watching howls moving castle last night highlighted how studio ghibli would have made an amazing adaption. The scenes with suliman and the witch of the waste make it clear how we would have seen aes sedai and forsaken 😢
It is frustrating to finally get Wheel of Time in live action and it's NOT Wheel of Time! Why, why, why, do they think the source material needs to be that altered? It is infuriating! I'm hoping for a faithful adaptation in anime at some point. Thanks for venting on my behalf.
I'd rather watch that original live action series that they tried. Please forgive me, whomever made that, for every unkind word I ever said about it. At least they tried to be faithful to the story.
Comparing this to the one piece live action is a night and day difference. They both made major changes everywhere, but the changes in one piece actually work and make sense (mostly). It sets an example of what "changes necessary for live action " actually means. You can tell one was done by fans of the manga and other was adapted by people who have no respect for the books.
I'll admit that neither adaptation was perfect; but at least the one piece live action was still enjoyable, made sense in world (mostly), and was less of a massacre of the source material.
I am currently halfway though reading the shadow rising. I am so frustrated with how this show has destroyed the first few books. Mat and Lan are two of my favorite characters! Both gave been destroyed by the show. Its pathetic
“Ageism is a real problem in Hollywood where older female actors are unfairly discriminated against because of their age…. So because Aes Sedai are powerful, we’ll have more powerful female representation by casting an aged woman.” -modern Hollywood
- How frustrating would it be to be obsessively drawn to a magical dagger that's less lethal a nonmagical dagger ? - 22min - I thought the little girl was an untransformed monster and thats why she wasnt scared of the monster. lol More likely just a girl backed up with poor writing. - 30min 3some - Sex continues to contribute to absolutely nothing to characters. if you can touch The Power, it makes you want to touch everyone else? - 47min discovery of Fade trackers - so much fear from a creature that die from a neck knife wound? i didnt get it. i came here for answers but you have all the same questions i do (like all the dead characters that are revived without explanation)
My lady and I recently read Michael livingston's origins of the wheel of time, talking about Jordan's life, the composition of the series, as well as the mythology, lore, and research that Jordan put into writing it. There are some crinjy, pandering moments (probably included at request of some bitchy editor at tor books), like the bit about "jordan not including transgender characters, , but for the most part it's a great read, particularly because you can clearly see Jordan's thought processes at work. What is fascinating, is you can also see how important ideas like male and female power being different, the inherent need of men to protect, the struggle of men who've been through war are to the series. Hell, Jordan himself details some stories about his own experiences in Vietnam, in combat, that pretty much mirror Rand's own descent into paranoia, and recovery. The biggest thing we took away from the book is, Jordan would've hated! the tv series with a passion! and likely would've ripped Judkins a new one! Here's hoping this disgusting mess gets cancelled, but in the mean time, thanks for watching so we don't have to. Tai'Shar Jordan! Something I can say with certitude!
@@ctrlaltdebug That's why I'm fairly sure the discussion about "transgenderr", was entirely at the instigation of some editor at tor books. If you know anything about tor, you know they're the wokest woke wankers that ever woked! It doesn't even fit with the rest of what Livingston says, since Jordan was (as is obvious from both the cosmology of the series, and the way Jordan wrote characters, cultures and interactions), heavily concerned with the innate differences between men and women, and how the world goes extremely wrong when the power balance between masculine and feminine goes out of whack, a very! important lesson for today methinks. I'll say, one problem with Jordan is his subtlety. Jordan is a writer where so many nuances, interactions, ideas and small gestures mean a hell of a lot. This is equally true with his gender depictions, indeed, I have found myself growing a lot more sympathetic to some of Jordan's ideas about inherent male and female differences since getting married, married I might add to a massive WoT fan girl, who I partially bonded with over our mutual love of Jordan, as well as other fantasy fiction. If one approaches Jordan already believing either that there are no differences, other than social conventions between men and women, or that women are inherently superior, then one is going to miss a lot of the more complex interactions. indeed, I first read Jordan expecting a simplistic, adolescent conan the barbarian style, manly farm boy saves the world and beds a hole lot of big bosomed women type of story, boy was I wrong!
@@ctrlaltdebug You're wrong about that. The hard left has tried to mutilate men into women for over a hundred years now. A name to look up in that context is Magnus Hirschfeld.
Technically there is a character you COULD consider trans. Though it wasn't by choice and "she" still channels the male half because his soul is male. So it's a stretch at best.
@@The_Friendly_Fire As I said in the above reply, I actually am surprised there is all of this nonsense about Wheel of time being supposedly anti trans. A world where people's souls determine their gender? and where the one character we see, Aran'gar, is someone whose soul is deliberately stuffed into the wrong gender body by the dark one as a punishment? Heck, even his/her name is apparently derived from the term "anger", at the state he/she is forced to endure, at least according to Michael livingston. I would have thought That would relate very well To the real idea of people suffering gender disforia who actually believe themselves to have been born in the wrong body. then again, part of the inherent nihilism of wokeness is the express destruction of gender as a concept, reducing male and female to no more than empty preference choices, where as WoT is based heavily on the real, fundamental differences between men and women. that's why I suspect the likes of Ralfe Judkins are literally incapable of understanding WoT. Heck, there are aspects and interactions between the male and female characters in WoT which I did not understand myself on first reading, simply because there are character relations which just did not make sense to me before I was married myself.
When I originally started watching season 1, I didn't like it because it was so different than the books. Then I said "maybe it will be good as it's own thing" and I watched a few more episodes while pretending it had nothing to do with the books. It was still mediocre at best. Then I said "maybe it gets better and they're just slow settling up the good stuff." So I watched a few more episodes and it just got worse. I was almost done with season 1, but I still only finished it so that I could enjoy the knights watch reviews. I rated the show as low as possible and amazon still insisted on notifying me multiple times when season 2 was out. I won't be watching season 2. Unfortunately this means I'm not going to watch the knight's reviews either since I didn't watch the season. I'm almost tempted to watch just to join in listening to the reviews, but I refuse to support that show further.
Watched season 1 and 2 and felt the story lacked too much. So I decided to read the books. Wow...... all I can say fire hollywood and its writers. Let Ai take their jobs. We want the true source and only Ai will produce it. I am so tired of woke culture changing everything.
Agreed on the Moiraine fight scene, in the book Lan wouldn’t even attempt to fight a Fade unless he had no choice but they had Moiraine fight 3 of them on the show 😂 Moiraine & Lan (still with one power, angreals & ter’angreals in her possession) gathered up the boys & egwene to leave the two rivers in book 1 because a Fade was seen in the area. 1 fkn fade… Even if you haven’t read the books the show is full of logic plot holes that make zero sense. Like weren’t the blades of a Fade poisonous due to where & how they were forged?
One of many flaws with the launch of the story. Fade-blades are essentially Jordan's take on the "black-blade" trope, like Stormbringer (sans the sentience), or the Morgul-knife of the Middle-earth, just as the Fade is a play on the "cursed soul" trope, like a revenant whose purpose is bent to master, or a wight turned to hunting dog, or Ring-wraith. The threat is implied in their nature. Of the Shadow, corrupted and evil. Irredeemable. And exceedingly deadly to the living...so lets have a woman with minimal martial training and no magic kill one with a single thrust to the throat, but her Warder gets melted like butter in the pan. It's pure girl-power fantasy that highlights the media of every dying civilization as it is destroyed by matriarchy. It's just this iteration, unlike the Greek, Romans, Sumerians, Han, et al... they have a widely known "oppression narrative" to use as a bludgeon. Just another cycle closing, another "spin on the Wheel."
They shat all over my childhood. The book series that made me WANT to read. The one that I started as a child and finished as a working man. I've never felt this much disappointment in a work of ... Whatever this is
One woman, the right one, will respect your right to peace and quiet as long as you respect hers. The man who marries three women will never know peace and quiet. This is a man to be pitied.
I cancelled my Prime membership because of this show. Granted my wife still has her membership. I might actually force her to watch it and make her tell me theres no agenda
Is there supposed to be something in this show that I recognize as The Wheel of Time? Because I don't unless you count the names. I couldn't even tell you that Rand is the main character if the only thing I knew was the show
I will say costumes, acting, cinematography, etc. are all NOTICEABLY better, but it's basically impossible to save the writing they already fucked it up so badly. Throughout the episode, I was like "Is Moiraine stilled? I don't remember that." This show is a fucking travesty, as Wheel of Time is my favorite series, and this show will make people think it's written like shit.
As someone who tapped out after Episode 3 of Season 1, thanks for taking one for the team and watching this abomination. If you have not read the books, please save yourself from this garbage show and read the books.
I just started the books a little while ago, about 1/4 of the way through book 4 - ngl at first i was like "ah man every dude in this book is a simp" then i got about half way through book two and i forget which chapter it was but it was moiraine as the focal character and she was bitching to either egwene or nynaeve about how she had never had such a difficult time finding custom in a village as she did with them and yeah i think it must have been nynaeve she was talking to because she's proper sassy - she responds with something like "Two Rivers men aren't deceived by a pretty face - they won't be moved by beauty or gold, you've as much luck of blocking out the sun - two rivers women learned before the breaking of the world." And then it's like - and again, im only up to book 4 - but the 2 rivers was Menethren, whatsisface Artur Hawkwing's(?) fallen kingdom and then you've got Perrin and Matt who are both like descendants of that kingdom and dude, yeah, i'm geeking out typing this lol im genuinely enjoying the series that much; zero interest in watching the show though - it'd just ruin it for me, especially because again, book 4 they're all still only about 15-16yrs old at the moment i think - i fully expect a timeskip but there hasn't been one yet longer than about a week and a half, by my reckoning they only left 2rivers like 18months ago, max.
Thanks to your review of season 1 I recently read Shadow of The Conqueror (loved it and really hope there are more books in the works) and am now just over halfway through book 1 of TWoT and it is sooooo easy to see how much better the books are.
Is it safe for work? I read somewhere that it brings up a VERY controversial adult topic, and I don't know how far it goes.
@@briansanders8122
Which book are you worried about? I'll describe both a little and try to avoid any spoilers for either.
Wheel of Time is pretty solidly PG13 (maybe even PG, considering how gross entertainment can get these days). I started reading it when I was about 11, and would have no problem giving a copy to a child the same age myself (provided I think the kid has the patience for a 4.5 million word series). It's biggest "controversy" is having traditional beliefs about gender differences baked into the very nature of how magic functions.
There are a suspicious number of spankings of attractive people, which give me an idea of what Mr. Jordan liked in the bedroom, but it's never graphic or treated in a sexual way. Similarly, some cultures have little to no nudity taboo, which makes the heroes from a very conservative area deeply uncomfortable, but there's never any graphic descriptions of anyone's body.
The closest it comes to an adult scene is a passionate kiss, followed by a character reaching to undo the buttons on his jacket, then cut to another scene and not return to those characters until they're getting dressed again at the earliest. One of the later books features a character in a not-entirely-consensual (putting it mildly) relationship, and spends a decent amount of time on the emotional turmoil that causes, and one of the villains has a mind-controlled harem of models, but still nothing graphic.
Violence is mostly pretty tame, too. Lots of fighting, but the gore is mostly skimmed over. It will mention a dismemberment, but so blood spraying everywhere or guts spilling out and tripping people.
Shadow of the Conqueror is more intense, but still not terribly explicit. I'd have no problem reading it at work (but maybe not the upcoming graphic novel adaptation, which shows illustrations of the titular Conqueror's barely-clothed harem), or loaning a copy to a relative who was, say, 15 or so, but I wouldn't give it to a 10-year-old. It is a little political in some places, but not as ham-handed as most modern media. The communists are the villains, and the book does not try to make them any less evil than they are.
There are groups who have no issue with nudity, whose bodies are not described in much more detail than WoT does, but the narration does focus a little more on how seeing the nudity makes other character's feel (one has a traumatic past and seeing/hearing anything sexual triggers some serious PTSD, while another is a reformed monster who has to repress some dark urges).
No actual naughty scenes in the book. Closest is one of the heroes interrupting a grape in progress: after the perpetrator is dealt with, there's some discussion of punishments for his crime in different parts of the world, particularly focused on countries that perform, um, "intimate amputation" on such criminals. The very limited descriptions of those kinds of thing are not graphic and are mostly used to provide an emotionally-charged focus point for the themes of repentance, justice, forgiveness, and redemption that the book wants to explore.
The violence is noticeably more graphic than Wheel of Time, but not a gorefest by any means.
@@briansanders8122 The controversial adult topic in WoT is usually referring to the mind-control. Periodically, there is implied or skipped-over sex and sometimes it will state that someone is nude or the like but no graphic descriptions.
God, I've been rereading the books for years, and I was so disgusted by how terrible the TV show is. I just recently saw that season 2 is dropping and couldn't bring myself to care. Enjoy the books, they're so damn good.
I have just finished 'Shadow of the Conqueror' it is a good first book form a new author some parts I like and some I did not but it does fall into the category that I want to read more. And for those wanting to know if ye can read or listen to this book at work I would not.
Stabbed by a Star Wars lightsaber: Barely an inconvenience.
Stabbed by a Wheel of Time cursed dagger: Hold my beer.
Eww a Budlight!
Min betraying the boys for Ase Sedai.....?!?!
Wheel of Time, Rings of Power/LOTR, The Witcher. I think this is proof we should be reading more books
That's a pretty good argument.
Agreed, but GoT is still proof of how incredible an adaptation can become.
@@stefan1924 right up until they ran out of book and the show jumped off a cliff, set it's self on fire , into a pit a blades
@@ealtar True, but the good seasons exist nevertheless and that's what we can look at if we want to know what a good adaptation is.
@@stefan1924 Even seasons 1-4 are mediocre at best IMO. Seasons 5-8 are a dumpster fire.
You would think Amazon would be like “we have one if the most beloved and popular series of fantasy novels of all time let’s do a pretty straightforward adaptation” but no they seem to think massive rewrites to the plot are necessary because reasons.
Once they screwed up mat, they were done. Without him, rand has no motivation to go after the knife, simultaneously tanking the rest of the plot and series.
Which while feeling like a side-quest, it was a key story beat to start training Rand to think more like a Lord than a farmer. That was basically the entire point of book two. Rand was given a position of authority over real soldiers and sent on a mission to teach him how to lead. They decided to just ignore all of that I guess.
After I saw the opening scene in Season 1, I knew the show was doomed.
@ctrlaltdebug
😂 me too. I was dumbfounded but tried to suspend my harsh judgment for an hour or two to see what they had made of our beloved tale... O.m.g. brochacos
When I saw emmonds field looked like a cross section of new York city I just chortled and knew the show for what it was. Another pathetic attack in the culture war
I watched a lot of season 1 but only with the help of Knight's Watch reviews lol. Then I gave them a 1 or 0 whatever the lowest was and stopped watching.
Season 2 I’ll just watch these reviews to keep up with the latest shenanigans. Know thy enemy and all that
Massive character assassination on Mat. Brilliant bit of foreshadowing though
All I can say Shad, this show may not bring you fun and joy, but your family and audience will.
On the gendered part of the power, I can see why some people would have a problem with that part of the world building but it's a fundamental part of that world so you can't adapt the story without keeping it in. If these people have a problem with the fundamental aspects of the world WHY ON EARTH ARE THEY ON THE TEAM ADAPTING IT?
Yeah, anyone with a problem with the One Power having gendered halves is an idiot who has no business working on this project. Not only is it a vital component of the world-building, it's also the exact opposite of discriminatory. Female channelers can do amazing things with _Saidar._ Male channelers can do amazing things with _Saidin._ But their true potential is only realized when they _work together._ In fact, one of the worst things that's ever happened was a direct result of male and female channelers _NOT_ working together. The Dark One was only able to taint _Saidin_ because Lews Therin and the Hundred Companions didn't work with female channelers to reseal the Bore.
One of the only things I think Jordan should have changed about channeling is that the halves should have been reversed; _Saidin_ should be the half that requires tranquility and surrender, while _Saidar_ should be the raging torrent of frozen lava that you have to continually fight to survive. Males would still channel _Saidin,_ and females would still channel _Saidar,_ but I think it would have been interesting for the two halves to be opposite of the stereotypical gender roles for men and women.
@@frocat5163 I certainly wouldn’t say people who have a problem with the power are idiots, there’s potential for a more nuanced discussion but I don’t feel like getting into it as it’s really not my fight. However if you dislike the fundamentals of a story you shouldn’t be on the team adapting because if you don’t appreciate and respect the source material you can’t create a faithful (or even decent) adaptation.
@@Nesto_ The nuanced discussion already happened. In the books. Jordan did an excellent job _IN THE TEXT_ of explaining how and why there are differences, and anyone who fails to recognize that or believes it's "problematic" is absolutely an idiot.
Despite what morons want to believe today, there are absolutely fundamental differences in the way men and women / males and females _GENERALLY_ think and behave. Having this reflected in his magic system is one of the most elegant things Jordan gave us.
Why? Because they see it as wrong and they want to "fix" it.
It's called entitlement. They don't want other people to have and enjoy things they themselves don't like. So they try to appropriate it and change it and make it about themselves.
It's called a culture war for a reason, because some of these peole really think that they are warriors on a righteous crusade.
"Bayle Domon has a mustache" has got to be the simplest and most succinct way to explain the entire philosophy behind this adaptation. It's such an easy detail to get right, everyone who has ever read a single description of him can describe the facial hair style he *should* have and actually doing it right would not have caused them any additional costs, no complicated make up or costuming, no CGI, just a disposable razor... and yet they didn't. There is no benefit to changing it and keeping the correct look would've been the simplest thing imaginable, so why didn't they? The only possible explanations are that either 1. nobody in the production has read the books, 2. they did but just didn't care at all and thought that the fans don't care either or 3. they *purposefully* did it the wrong way for some inexplicable reason. No matter which one is the answer, they're all an incredibly bad look for the production.
They read the books even less than the team that did the Starship Troopers adaptation.
He do be having a mustache.
@@donkeysaurusrex7881that’s the other problem with him. Illianers have a certain identifiable dialect/accent that would have been so easy to do. It’s crap.
@@donkeysaurusrex7881Aye, that he sure do.
I would no watch this travesty of a show even if my own aged grandmother did beg me to do so. Fortune prick me if I would
So in 9 episodes they’ve done at least 7 fake out deaths. 8 if you count the only one that was supposed to happen being Thom. And 9 if you count Nynaeve going under water with the trollokc for a moment.
Lan twice
Loial
Ingtar
Uno
Nynaeve basically twice
Moiraine
Thom
Ishamael- nearly forgot this one as it’s accurate as well but I feel these should be included as it’s really compounding the problem with the sheer amount of time it’s being done in the show.
And that assumes Thom's death was still a fake-out! -- has he been confirmed to come back in the series? We know Rafe was checking (in a clumsy way) to see if they really needed to continue including him going forward.
Mystery box reveal: The Dragon was Moiraine all along!!
This is literally what I am thinking they are going for
Maybe the dragon is the friends we made along the way
That would be an abomination.
@@Jezza_One Oh, we are already far into abomination territory.
Meme:
Elyas Machera (amazon version)
Rafe judkins - standing with arms crossed and one leg propped on a pile a books.
Caption: I have won again Robert Jordan
Didn't think they could get any worse than S1...less than 10min into S2 proved wool-headed sheepherder I am. Creator, shelter me in the palm of your hand from this creation made by the Dark One and his minions.
Fades also take on 5 seasoned, and armored Borderlanders at the same time, and win. Moiraine does it in a dress, with a dagger smaller than a kitchen knife...insert a gif of Saitama going "okay".
There is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much wrong with this show, just based off of contradictions to season 1, but also the books, and the consequences their changes have...how do they not see it. And Uno surviving THE dagger from season 1, and then dying in the manner he did *throws up*.
Btw, in the books the party of Sheinarans are supposed to wear heavy armor, only Ingtar and Uno wears something made of metal. Masema runs around without even a leather armor, and his arms exposed...
So far, the show has ruined EVERY male character, except for Ingtar (aside from him surviving THE dagger), and I'm just waiting for them to ruin him as well.
We also see Nynaeve practice with a sword long before we see Rand, the blademaster to be, practice with it. We STILL haven't seen Rand practice it...
I think the anger block is both them ripping off the force but also social stuff.
The others believe they must submit to the one power, but you cant say submit now. So they’re introducing you can dominate it instead, use anger and force it to your will. Which is how the men do it, but I bet in this either can do either.
Or they’re ripping off the dark side of the force…Im not sure which is worse
Oh dear, you might be right.
Can't wait to watch you tear this apart!
It's too bad Amazon took the "hold my beer" route. With Disney's fall, they could have taken over and dominated Hollywood. A direct translation of the books (minus edits for time) could easily have been their "Game of Thrones".
I'm honestly just stunned at how the showrunners have so fully and completely deviated from the books. I am 100% understanding that this is an adaptation. You simply can't fully translate a novel into a show without some changes due to the difference in medium.
This is not that. Honestly, I'm wondering if any of the writers even read the books. This is C Tier fantasy with a brand name alone. The last example I can think of that did this poorly was The Sword of Truth TV show, and even then, they at least tried. Like there were some similarities and the characters felt true to their origin.
This is just objectively not Wheel of Time. I don't know why TV execs keep buying known IP's to only ignore them.
Similar issue two they cut the important stuff only to replace it with filler
Something that isn't in the show but is in the promotional material: Mat went to the white tower because he was drawn to the dagger. But Fain had the dagger in Far Dara...
Also how do messages travel in the show? The white tower got Moraine's message about Mat basically as soon as she had it sent. Same about Perrin's letter to the girls.
Messages go so fast because the world has no sense of geography. Little girls paddle upstream from Tear to Tar Valon. The Seanchan invade the west, and end up in the borderlands. Cairhein is somehow under threat from the Blight...
just like with starwars (disney) travel time has no effect
@@briane8627 It's even more annoying, because it will negate the wonder and key worldbuilding feature of the reintroduction of travelling to the WoT world and its implications.
@@briane8627 I missed the part about Cairhien being under threat by the blight. That or it was so stupid that I just blanked it out.
@@briane8627 tbf world's end in saldea is along the west coast but they landed on toman head which is in basically a DMZ between Tarabon to the south and Arad Doman to the north and ghealadan to the east.
About the poem it was Verin that translated the writing on the Wall it was written by trollocs or a darkfriend. The poem was about Lanfear being on the loose. Daughter of the Night they called her.
So Lanfear is going to be black.
I listened to the first through the third book in preparation for season two and I’m currently listening to the fourth book and I can definitely see some of the problems in the show. Yeah, the people working this show don’t give a crap.
It's the witcher but worse hahaha
Hahahaha😂
The books are soo epic... every book its kinda the buildup for the ending thats 100% epic.
The single chapter in the final book titled "The Last Battle" is so amazing I almost consider it my favorite book lol... I'm only following the show from a morbid curiosity standpoint about how the Final Battle will be depicted and Disparu and Shad are so entertaining to watch explode...
I love that they felt the need to girlboss an IP that was already feminist in the first place.
It was the wrong kind of girl power, they needed to correct it.
Kinda shows the difference between RJ's liberalism and the "modern" mindset. I think something became unhinged along the way, but hard to say exactly what. Without writing an essay, at least.
If you aren't following the most recent Twitter trend, you aren't feminist enough!
@@blodguizerthey have Aiel maiden warriors & females bossing ruling Kings. Even hereditary Queens what more did they need? Good God
i like the fact that the male's are getting emotional about how easy life used to be and now there being forced into role's were they could die .............
Thank y'all for facing this show mid-vacation. May you see some pristine machicolations soon to make up for it.
Am I misremembering this? The group chasing after Padan Fain and the Horn come across dead Shienaran soldiers. These soldiers betrayed them, letting trollocs and fades into the city to free Padan Fain from the dungeon. But Padan Fain in Season 1 was never captured much less freed. After the attack on Emond's Field, he covertly follows them through the Ways and steals the Horn and dagger at the end of the season. We're seeing the consequences of something that was cut out from the books and not shown in Season 1?
It does feel like there's something missing between S1 and 2. Did they put out some web-only content or something?
It's jarring.
@@GainnNo, this is simply the result of poorly done scriptwriting. A competent writer would follow the laws of cause and effect. Although, a competent director wouldn't have made such drastic changes to a good story in the first place to necessitate this.
"We're seeing the consequences of something that was cut out from the books and not shown in Season 1?" This is exactly correct, and this might be the reason for retconning the deaths of certain people at the end of Season 1 like Igntar, Uno and Loial. (Poor Uno.....)
In the TV series, you need the power to travel the ways yet Fain was able to travel through there alone so all concepts are fked and makes no sense anyway. The list of plot holes in the series is longer than the phone books we used to have.
Does Moiraine ever stop to consider that the misery she's feeling right now is exactly what the Aes Sedai have been gleefully inflicting on male channellers for hundreds of years?
I love the WoT books as much as The Lady but I care so little about this show, I had no idea season 2 even started. But I do love watching Shad’s head explode after these episodes drop.
I never got past episode 3 of WOT and that book series is my husband's favorite of all time. He was so gutted by how terrible it was. We won't be watching, but I will definitely be watching your reviews, Shad. They are FAR more entertaining than the content itself. Thank you!
I feel his pain. One of my favorite series and I was dead inside by the end of the first season.
I'm hate watching the rest of Season 2 just to see how badly it's butchered (only made it 2 episodes in), but I won't be doing that for S3. Idk how this got Greenlit for a S3.
I'll thank S1 for introducing me to the WoT (friend mentioned it a long time ago, but his description of it was absolutely awful and made it sound bad lol), in which I binged the books, but that's all I can really give it credit for.
2-3 chapters into Book 1 I was already annoyed at how much they changed things in the show lmao.
I kinda feel sorry for Shad since I remember he once mentioned that, for some weird reason, Amazon will occasionally put out something decent like The Terminal List or Reacher. So the stories involving modern gunplay (which I, as a red blooded American, really like) seem to be doing well under Amazon, but fantasy, which Shad loves the most, is being utterly butchered like Wheel of Time or Rings of Power.
Granted, I remember my best friend telling me that it’s probably because the woke activists infesting pop culture is definitely going to be more interested in being an elf “in tune with nature” than a Navy SEAL, so the latter is more likely to have actual competent writers involved.
Woketard freaks don't like military/action stuff so they'll never touch those kinds of shows with a 100-foot pole. Especially since those don't have any "shipping" stuff and have to actually star gruff, stoic, chad-looking men
The best fantasy Amazon has is the legend of vox machina, but they don't even have control of it - it was fan funded and Amazon just went "that'll make us money" and said they could make more. They don't even have a hand it it's creation
If you dont know the books, it will bore you.
If you know the books, it will infuriate you.
The hacks that call themselves writers don't care either way, since Signaling their virtue is the only way they can validate their empty lives. Shad, if your book ever gets an adaptation, be careful who gets their hands on it
This show hurts me beyond measure. Glad I'm not the only one.
The costuming is hideous. Everyone looks so crisp and clean no matter what they've been doing.
Even Moraine walking up a giant fucking hill didn't produce a bead of sweat.
I can answer your question about whether someone who has no connection to the books would find this good or not. No. I have a deep connection to the books. My brother loaned me the first one when I was around 9-10, I got hooked, he bought me all the books that were out by that point which was up to 8 I believe, then I loaned them back to him for something to do in the hospital before he passed. These books mean a great deal to me both from a sentimental standpoint and just being a fan of the books. I still tried to be charitable and told my husband that as someone who knew nothing about the books that it would be a tolerable fantasy show. He tried watching it and completely disagreed. He found it dull, nonsensical, and stupid. He was able to slog through Rings of Power, but couldn't get through episode 3 of Wheel of Time before dropping it.
Thanks for your sacrifice. I'm definitely not going to put myself through this again first hand.
I don't plan on watching this show so I'm getting my impressions of it directly from Shad and the missus. I have however read the books. For me, the casting of sheriam almost sounds like they took the title of "mistress of novices" and immediately pictured in their minds the headmistress of some Dickensian orphanage or children's workhouse. Further proof that either the creators haven't read the books, or if they HAVE read the books they just decided they're going to interpret things the way the author SHOULD have and not the way he DID.
Definite rings of power "we are going to write the story that Tolkien never wrote" vibes. I wouldn't even go so far as to call this fanfiction, this is like an entire show made of changes to appeal to International audiences or something like that. Like the infamous changing of marketing materials for things in China, the show.
38:00 they can’t portray Sheriam with Asian features because [spoiler] and all such characters need to be White.
robert jordan makes an mazing story that covers 14 beloved books and these muppets turn it into neighbours with knives keep up the great work mr and misses knights watch your brilliant
Neighbours with knives lol.
“Neighbours with knives” A more apt description has never been written for a tv show like this.
Thank you good sir 😆😊👍🏻👌
And another strange thing: Why are there like 3 Myrddraals all together all by themselves? Shouldnt they have Trollocs around them?Dont they command the other Fades from the army?
In the books they have trollocs, some darkfriends, and human prisoners
My biggest criticism of this episode was Rand’s screen time. 12 seconds is just too much for the main character. Also, they could have given us another 30 minutes of Alanna describing how it feels to get railed by two guys, not sure why they kept that to ten minutes isn’t that what WoT is all about? Also, Lan could have whined and been Moiraine’s dog a bit more, not sure why the stone faced upstanding man portrayal.
Otherwise it was absolute perfection! I’m so glad we got such a great writing, directing, and showrunning team for the only adaptation of my favorite book series I’ll see in my lifetime! :)
My favorite part, by far, is Perrin murdering his non-existent wife. I hope they add and kill more non characters and make sure to focus heavily on the non grief felt by all instead of the actual story.
Their been a few adaptations all terrible I remeber a wheel of time video game that basically gave you a radom asedi fighting darkspawn with little to no story and some platforming
This show is an embarrassment, how they can continue to pretend that they care anything for this source material is beyond me! There is No The Great Hunt in there Non-Adaptation of it! Rand al"Thor The Dragon Reborn gets 4 seconds of screen time in the first episode!!!! Thank you for continuing to cover this and call it out, there are few larger channels (This Channel and Disparu) That cover this abomination of a show and say the truth of what it really is! As a smaller content creators like myself and a fan of The Wheel of Time Series it is nice to know I am not alone knowing that this show is NONSENSE! Hail the Lord Dragon! Hail The Knights Watch!
Just accept that it's not WoT. This is an average fantasy with a slapped-on brand name. When you think of it like that, it hurts less to ignore it. Maybe someday we'll get some Indi animator or something make a OVA or something that is more true to the actual story.
Season 2 is excellent. Some book readers won’t ever be happy
Watch Amber over at the Pen and Shadow Reflections laugh for a good solid 3 or 4 minutes about S01E07. When even people new to the story can pick up the problems that quickly... I don't think this show will go the distance honestly. Not without major retconning.
Not only is it just annoying that Nynaeve is hero worshipped, but it destroys a huge plot point and piece of world building. Nynaeve was disregarded and pushed aside as totally unimportant a total unimportant person in the world events by almost everyone, especially the Tower, until like book 6. Her block and her being a wilder and the disdain and disregard she received because of those has huge effects on later plots, like the circle just to name the obvious one. Her being told she's important is literally the opposite of the books and incredibly stupid
Finally found a review that addressed the concerns I have. I was really hoping the backlash against WOT and ROP would bring these showrunners to tell the actual WOT story instead of hijacking its world and characters for their own agendas. This is a perversion of a masterpiece. They are already doing S3, is there ANY chance for a change in leadership that could save this series? Or is it simply too late. Damn :/ what a total disappointment.
15:00 In fairness, I think the 'canon' is that Nynaeve never died. Still a stupid scene. And if she didn't die that makes the execution even worse. But technically they didn't intend to show her dying.
15:46 Padan Fain was technically in the background in one shot in Tar Valon IIRC.
Also Ingtar is not introduced until season two. The third person who was shown killed in the dagger scene was a character named Lord Yakota. Not that you'd know that without looking up the cast list.
He is correct about Uno and Loial and I think it's fair to say we see Nynaeve die, even if only briefly.
Me and my wife gave up halfway into episode 2.. just cant anymore. We love the books so much and the fact that they just take out things and replace them with mundane drama settings and sex and this .. omg cant even talk about it.. enjoyed ur review
Oh man…Shad…I’m beside myself. I did a speed run through all three, and the damage they do to Rand, Mat, and Perrin is crazy. Their character development is continuously bastardized, shoehorned and rushed, and most importantly…just not interesting. The writers were either instructed to ruin the men or they are openly misandrist. They only focus on the women in any meaningful way, and even then the pacing is off. They don’t know how to storyboard properly even when they do want to portray a character well.
My favorite fantasy series of all time and it's media debut is ruined because of woke garbage and show runners thinking they know better than Jordan.
on the moraine scene why would the fade sneak at all? this scene implies they know she cant channel as they were able to sneak up on her. it would be knock off horse then moraines dead not sneaking around as if shes dangerous
What's funy to me is that I had not read the Wheel of Time books, and I said "let me check out this show and see if its interesting" ... by episode 2, I was like "this is boring and sucks and isnt doing anything logically in world" and so I went to buy the first book ... as they say books better than the move/show
Also on a side note; i miss the long hair Shad
Currently listening to the audio book for the second time. I think if you were to follow the books exactly, it might be the greatest TV show that would certainly surpass GOT (and have a significantly better ending).
But as per usual, the industry standard is to take a great IP that millions of people love, immediately throw it all out the window and think "no, we can do better, we don't need the source material, we're much better writers, so much that we can IMPROVE the story".....and then you get garbage everyone hates, while said writers pull out all the typical excuses for their failure.
Cant beat game of thrones,cant actually beat some eps in game of thrones
@@charlesmatheka7707 Sure it could. (GOT was at its best when it followed the book, if WOT got the same treatment it absolutely could) Nothing is perfect and a great show isn't made by a few sparse episodes. A great show is made over the entire span of it, of which Game of Thrones supremely crippled itself for nearly 3 seasons, completely destroying it's chances of greatness. Though it was well on its way, how it ended it just as important as how it started.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good any of it's episodes are, if it's joined with disaster, the entire show is marred. Because of that, more people will remember it's failure rather than the times it was great.
WoT adapted faithfully would have blown GoT so far away out of the water it would have not even turned into a footnote in the memories of people.
WoT's strongest point is its system of destiny and prophecies. When it was still coming out, this generated endless fan talk analysing every little parts to try to decrypt what it was foreshadowing. Every new publication would result in people re-reading the whole thing. And every new re-read, even with the series completed, allows you to discover new hints that had been dropped throughout. I'm past my 10th re-read and I still discover things I hadn't noticed previously.
And as you re-read the series, you familiarise even more with all the other elements of that wonderful world, growing the passion for it.
Adapted properly, it would result in a TV series with the same potential to be watched over and over again, generating endless talk and fan engagement. With all that goes with it, including sells of goodies. GoT, particularly given its crap ending, would be long forgotten and overshadowed before S4 of WoT ended. Even LoTR could be overshadowed by WoT done properly.
Killing fades in the books had meaning. In one of the finals books a guy killed 3 i think because he was already dead and has no more fear of death
I was able to stomach most of the changes in season 1. I didn't have high hopes for season 2, but I dropped the entire show the moment they announced that they race swapped Aviendha for literally no reason. That was the final straw for me. I'm sick of them shoving diversity into places where it's not called for, especially in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, which was already a hugely diverse world.
Oh it’s just the Aiel, only the single race that are absolutely explicitly huwite.
As soon as I saw Dark Mole Egwene, I knew the show was going to be a dumpsterfire.
And designed so especially on purpose by the author who wanted to avoid the "black desert dwelling fighting people" trope.
"Diversity" is just code for white erasure. When they say "diversity", they dont actually mean what the word means. An all-black NBA team is "diverse" by their standards.
@@iogssothoth666 But why? A hot, sunny desert is exactly the kind of environment that makes dark skin an advantageous trait. There is a reason why Africans are dark skinned and the Nordic people are pale. Dark skin filters out more sunlight. You get less vitamin D and less UV light, meaning you need more sunlight to have enough vitamin D but you are less likely to get cancer from the sun. Pale skin does the opposite. It lets through more sunlight so you get enough vitamin D even if the sun doesnt shine a lot where you live, but if you go somewhere where it does, you get burnt easily and you have a bigger chance of getting cancer because your skin doesnt filter out enough UV light.
The tone of your skin is directly related to the kind of environment your ancestors evolved in. I dont get this modern obsession with avoiding tropes and stereotypes just for the sake of avoiding them. Why? Whats so wrong with dark skinned desert people? It certainly makes much more sense than, i dont know, dark skinned people that live in cold, snowy environments.
It is basically a completely different story at this point. set in a similar but alternative universe from the book.
I have treated the show as a bad fanfiction, and hearing this, I am further sure in my opinion.
To make fan fiction, you have to first be a fan. If you are changing fundamental aspects of a work, can you really be considered a fan?
It's more like foefiction.
Works better spoken as it can be both faux (as in fake) and foe (as in enemy), because it's utter garbage made by people who seem to hate the ip, both spellings apply equally.
Obviously Egwene's AOE heal in S1E8 hit everyone in the castle too.
I started watching this because one of my best friends wouldn't stop talking about the book series. Now I continue to watch only because I want to see how this train wreck of a series is going to end. On a side note, I fell asleep half way through watching this episode.
Just want to thank you for doing these reviews, if i'd have been left nothing but the show I would have never sought out the books, but with your passion for them and encouraging people to read it, I did, and it now sits next to Lord of the Rings as one of my favorite book series of all time.
I'd heard of Wheel of Time, but never had a clue what it was, what it was about or why people liked it and the show would not have remedied that, but now that I have read them (more listened to) I'm really glad I did.
Did you listen to the Kate Reading and Michael Kramer version? Until Harry Potter came out I thought they were the best narrated books. Then they were tied.
I read the first 5 books or so and then the audio books came out around the time the next book came out. So very few books were audio at that time, unlike today when almost everything is. I listened to the whole series as each book came out. Anyway, it is a great series to listen to and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
I won't get into the crazy frustration as the series continued and it seemed like Jordan was getting longer and longer winded with less and less happening each book. I was in fear of him dying. Which of course he did which pissed me off for days.
Anyway, glad another enjoyed the audiobooks
I just reread all the books till 12th and it’s so amazing I’m blown away a second time. It’s mind blowing how idiotic these show runners and execs are. The problem is this book tells about strong feminine female needing and complimenting strong male characters.
I say this to people anytime they try and claim the books denigrate women. Women and men are shown to both have strengths that are often at odds but when used in complimentary fashion are the most effective. Shit even the Aes Sedai are shown to function better when combined with male casters. One of my favorite parts is when the Black tower starts allowing female Aes Sedai to bond to male and vice versa.
@@nerdinfantrymanj1733
Yup, what's that ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai again? Oh yea, the yin-yang
It goes against the idea of "equality and equity" they pretend to believe in. Men must be degenerated so they are less than worms and women must be elevated above the heavens. They are ruining stories like this in the mainstream on purpose. They hate men. It's 100% obvious and anyone saying otherwise is just trying to deceive you.
gotta love the irony.
if only it didn't hurt the fans so much
@@Abayas.They are doing it on purpose. They know exactly what they are doing.
Moiraine gets the jump on a Fade even though Fades are meant to thrive in the shadows…
Lan, arguably the best swordsman in the world is bested by 2 shades. Maybe Moiraine should have been a red because Liandrin's line about warders being useless puppies is spot on.
@@SalinzI don’t think anyone fights one on two Fades at the same time in the book.
Fades use shadows to travel, not to fight.
Moiraine is shown to make some movement with her foot before attacking the fade, but I didn't understand what was the purpose of it. It probably was meant to be some kind of attack strategy
@@meganega123 I think the idea was that she made a noise to lure the Fade to teleport behind her, but it’s still silly since Fades should be way faster than her in terms of attack speed.
I think the series is an absolute insult to Robert Jordan and the wheel of time story! They have added and changed so much that nothing fits. The really annoying thing is, is that nothing needed to be changed! I for one wont be continuing to watch.
Is this even Shad? He seems so much more himself of old. It's nice to see. A change is as good as a rest as the saying goes. I think Shad is showing this. A calm Shad explaining his points without resorting to Angry Shad? I'm liking this. Also give us more Shad Castle Vlogs.
Well he is on a campaign to take over UK with a "contingent of 20 soldiers in medieval mail."
@@Raximus3000 we really need it, Hail King Shad, First of his name!
I have read this book series about 30 times now, and am going through it again now, so needless to say I am a fan of the source. I tried twice, TWICE!! to enjoy season 1, and still I was foolish enough to try season 2. I made it about 10 minutes before I had to bail. I think what happened is that some intern had the whole story and scripts with sticky notes on who was who and who did what, they tripped and scattered it across the parking lot, picked all back up and just handed it out to everyone and nobody fixed it.
I'm not shocked it's terrible. I'm shocked it happened.
You said, "boring, bland, and uninteresting characters." You have 3 alltime fantasy characters in Rand, Perrin and Mat. How can you make Mat boring? When his ability is freaking Luck!!!!! I saw season 1 and Rand, Perrin and Mat werent in the tv show. This feels like a dagger to the heart of Gen X male heroes. The last ditch effort to to give the middle finger to Gen X. Who grew up having a mom and dad and the Dad was an actual man.
Reposting all my comments as on consolidated list.
15:00 In fairness, I think the 'canon' is that Nynaeve never died. Still a stupid scene. And if she didn't die that makes the execution even worse. But technically they didn't intend to show her dying.
15:46 Padan Fain was technically in the background in one shot in Tar Valon IIRC.
22:00 What if the little girl from the Darkfriend meeting is the beach girl from 1.8 😂
27:45 Meh. Verin's not how I pictured her, but appearance-wise she's fine. On the scale of this show she's practically perfect.
29:47 By my aged grandmother, Bayle Domon do no be wearing a mustache.
30:35 Alanna, not Leane. Leane is Blue.
59:06 Aside from Moiraine/Lan, in the world of the show, isn't the Dragon Reborn either dead or obsolete as far as every non-Darkfriend who knows Rand is the DB is concerned? Like they think whatever happened at the Eye was it?
59:18 Fan theory on Rand's hair is the actor cut it for another role, lol (no, not Grand Turismo - timeline doesn't work).
1:06:36 The attack at Adeleas & Vandene's place does not introduce Draghkar; they're in TEOTW. But it does introduce their combat abilities. And AS/Warders can always sense Shadowspawn, it's just that they may not notice if they're sufficiently distracted.
20:00 The convocation of Darkfriends was 'in the shadow of Shayol Ghul': why is there a little girl there?
23:55 The ones stilled/burnt out lost all social standing and were seen as objects of pity by the other sisters, but I suppose the Shienarans don't necessarily have to react the same way.
25:52 I suppose one could say Lan's being emotional is the show's interpretation of the effect of the severing of the bond.
27:49 Verin: 'About 5 feet tall and plump… placid-looking & square-faced, with a touch of grey. … She looked like somebody's mother or aunt, or the cook at an inn. Her fingers were often ink-stained.'
29:49 Bayle Domon was supposed to be collecting artefacts as a hobby, as a result of which he acquired a cuendillar Seal, which was confiscated by the Seanchan Lord at Falme. Domon never even met Moiraine in the books, as I recall.
38:14 Sheriam: 'Fire-haired, with green eyes and tilted cheekbones, about 5'5", a little plump and quite pretty.' Also she is only three years older than Moiraine, even barring agelessness.
40:00 That's not Loial, that's no Ogier, that's just a bulky man with curly hair.
41:45 Elyas: 'rawboned, with greying brown hair which hung to his waist. A thick beard fanned across half his chest', 'Born in Tear, son of poor farmers.'
The TV series has worked in wanting to continue reading the book series. I'm on book 6. As soon as I realized in S2 episode 1 that all the characters were nowhere close to how I saw the book characters...I have no desire to continue the TV version, especially with hour long episodes. I didn't even completely enjoy book 2 the best, but I want to reread it over watching this.
Rand? The main character? Nah!
Sure he's the main character of the books.., and sure in universe he's the main character according to the wheel of time itself, and is constantly directly woven back into the tapestry of the world, time and time again to reshape the entire world, and he reshapes events and people just by being near them even to the point of affecting OTHER taveren as though they're regular people, but come on, clearly he's not important. Barely a footnote really.
I can't believe the show writers are such racists that they would cast a diverse woman of color as a sister of the dark. Tisk tisk tisk 😂
As a fellow Robert Jordan/Brando Sando fanboy, Season 1 broke the Magic system and ruined all of the core characters. I expected the 2nd season to be more of the breaking. They’ve disrespected the source material throughout the first season, so expecting a change in season 2 would simply be naive.
I refuse to watch it anymore.
Should they rename it "The Breaking of the WoT World," then? 😉
@@pookysgirl7535 😂
I won't watch this season, but I'll watch every episode review you make for this season.
What they did to Matt, was the final straw for me.
They could "tweak" the story a little, miscast actors, even move scenes around to give the show a better flow, but they pulled a "Jake Skywalker" on Matt.
So, nah, I'll not watch season 2. I just need to get updates on the show from reviewers and I'm good.
Not having him do the 1v2 staff vs swords was disappointing
@@danieln6700
Watching him go "Dark" and betray his friends is even worse.
But, yes, that scene was freaking awesome and to have the hacks at amazon throw that away in favor to change Matt into their corrupt version, is a sin.
I never heard of the books until I watched season 1. I wasn't a fan of season one, but I could see there was something special underneath so I started to read the books. Wow I love the books, I'm happy season 1 leaves so much out I could read the first book as if it was something different. By now I am in book 5, and I love the series. But oh boy, season 2 really doesn't look promising, on the contrary.
How amazon decided to spend millions on shit like the rings of power and keep the budget and everything so tight here is one of life's big riddles. They could have made this into something special. They didn't.
Not with the people they hired 😞
Isn't it neat how two things with the same name can have absolutely nothing common? XD
Amazon continues to twist the blade for Wheel in Time(book series) is peak storytelling for Shad and this show is an insult.
Here just after FNT, let the rending of this show commence 🤜⚡🤛
Hail!
Samsies. Idk this channel existed. I usually watch Shadiversity.
@@dudeguy8686 Hail Mate! 🤜⚡🤛
@@vidman5000 Well welcome dude, I have been following Shad for years now, great to see his channel grow.
I have not yet read the books but I know this: They lie again, from the first minute on. Once more they imply the One Power is only for women, that men make it "filthy" by touching it, even though women and men use Saidin and Saidar (the two halves of the One Power) and not the same halves. There are even Yin-Yang logos visible in the show itself, yet they keep lying to put men down even more. This show truly _hates_ men.
Edit: And at 6:08 you yourself even mention my point! Ha, was typing this when the video reached that part.
huh.. Shad Missed a Violation of the Three Oaths at the end there.. at 1:05:58 .. the one Aes Sedai sets her Warders Sword on Fire.. this is "Creating a Weapon with the Power for one Man to Use" this Does Count as a Violation of the Oath because after she "enhances" the Weapon in the Scene she can't snuff it out fast enough if he were to turn the Blade on someone other than the Fade.. in the Books the Aes Sedai have never and would never use the power in such a way.. even knowing the Weave would be enough of an offense to Still her.. that's why it was such a big thing when the.. er.. not gonna spoil things.. but those who know, know..
They have no prohibition against using the power as weapon or using it to make weapons against shadows pawn or darkfriends.
They imply that The Dragon can be female, which makes absolutely no sense. That would mean that women can use both Saidar and Saidin which is impossible. They ruined it right from Season 1 Episode 1; watching any more of it, unless you've never read the books, is pointless....
So... you're saying the dagger is just as effective as a lightsaber is in Disney "star wars"? I didnt expect anything less from this abomination of a show.
Less effective, at least you stay stabbed when you're run through by a light sabre 😂
Did anyone actually think that Wheel of Time Season 2 was going to be anything other than garbage? If you did. You should probably get your head checked out for worms.
Watching howls moving castle last night highlighted how studio ghibli would have made an amazing adaption. The scenes with suliman and the witch of the waste make it clear how we would have seen aes sedai and forsaken 😢
Studio Ghibli adapting WoT... that would have been absolutely incredible.
The Asylum would have made a better adaptation than this.
Every character is mistreated. Even the one power is just fireballs and shields being tossed about inelegantly.
It is frustrating to finally get Wheel of Time in live action and it's NOT Wheel of Time! Why, why, why, do they think the source material needs to be that altered? It is infuriating! I'm hoping for a faithful adaptation in anime at some point. Thanks for venting on my behalf.
I'd rather watch that original live action series that they tried. Please forgive me, whomever made that, for every unkind word I ever said about it. At least they tried to be faithful to the story.
Comparing this to the one piece live action is a night and day difference. They both made major changes everywhere, but the changes in one piece actually work and make sense (mostly). It sets an example of what "changes necessary for live action " actually means. You can tell one was done by fans of the manga and other was adapted by people who have no respect for the books.
I'll admit that neither adaptation was perfect; but at least the one piece live action was still enjoyable, made sense in world (mostly), and was less of a massacre of the source material.
I love the books, and I gave up after the third episode of season 1. It’s very cathartic to see someone tear this trash to shreds.
I am currently halfway though reading the shadow rising. I am so frustrated with how this show has destroyed the first few books. Mat and Lan are two of my favorite characters! Both gave been destroyed by the show. Its pathetic
They thought 'Aged' instead of Ageless.
“Ageism is a real problem in Hollywood where older female actors are unfairly discriminated against because of their age…. So because Aes Sedai are powerful, we’ll have more powerful female representation by casting an aged woman.” -modern Hollywood
- How frustrating would it be to be obsessively drawn to a magical dagger that's less lethal a nonmagical dagger ?
- 22min - I thought the little girl was an untransformed monster and thats why she wasnt scared of the monster. lol More likely just a girl backed up with poor writing.
- 30min 3some - Sex continues to contribute to absolutely nothing to characters. if you can touch The Power, it makes you want to touch everyone else?
- 47min discovery of Fade trackers - so much fear from a creature that die from a neck knife wound? i didnt get it. i came here for answers but you have all the same questions i do (like all the dead characters that are revived without explanation)
My lady and I recently read Michael livingston's origins of the wheel of time, talking about Jordan's life, the composition of the series, as well as the mythology, lore, and research that Jordan put into writing it.
There are some crinjy, pandering moments (probably included at request of some bitchy editor at tor books), like the bit about "jordan not including transgender characters, , but for the most part it's a great read, particularly because you can clearly see Jordan's thought processes at work.
What is fascinating, is you can also see how important ideas like male and female power being different, the inherent need of men to protect, the struggle of men who've been through war are to the series.
Hell, Jordan himself details some stories about his own experiences in Vietnam, in combat, that pretty much mirror Rand's own descent into paranoia, and recovery.
The biggest thing we took away from the book is, Jordan would've hated! the tv series with a passion! and likely would've ripped Judkins a new one!
Here's hoping this disgusting mess gets cancelled, but in the mean time, thanks for watching so we don't have to.
Tai'Shar Jordan!
Something I can say with certitude!
Transgender wasn't even a thing in the 90's when the story was started. It would be more cringe to somehow shoehorn it into the story.
@@ctrlaltdebug That's why I'm fairly sure the discussion about "transgenderr", was entirely at the instigation of some editor at tor books. If you know anything about tor, you know they're the wokest woke wankers that ever woked!
It doesn't even fit with the rest of what Livingston says, since Jordan was (as is obvious from both the cosmology of the series, and the way Jordan wrote characters, cultures and interactions), heavily concerned with the innate differences between men and women, and how the world goes extremely wrong when the power balance between masculine and feminine goes out of whack, a very! important lesson for today methinks.
I'll say, one problem with Jordan is his subtlety. Jordan is a writer where so many nuances, interactions, ideas and small gestures mean a hell of a lot.
This is equally true with his gender depictions, indeed, I have found myself growing a lot more sympathetic to some of Jordan's ideas about inherent male and female differences since getting married, married I might add to a massive WoT fan girl, who I partially bonded with over our mutual love of Jordan, as well as other fantasy fiction.
If one approaches Jordan already believing either that there are no differences, other than social conventions between men and women, or that women are inherently superior, then one is going to miss a lot of the more complex interactions.
indeed, I first read Jordan expecting a simplistic, adolescent conan the barbarian style, manly farm boy saves the world and beds a hole lot of big bosomed women type of story, boy was I wrong!
@@ctrlaltdebug You're wrong about that. The hard left has tried to mutilate men into women for over a hundred years now. A name to look up in that context is Magnus Hirschfeld.
Technically there is a character you COULD consider trans. Though it wasn't by choice and "she" still channels the male half because his soul is male. So it's a stretch at best.
@@The_Friendly_Fire As I said in the above reply, I actually am surprised there is all of this nonsense about Wheel of time being supposedly anti trans.
A world where people's souls determine their gender? and where the one character we see, Aran'gar, is someone whose soul is deliberately stuffed into the wrong gender body by the dark one as a punishment?
Heck, even his/her name is apparently derived from the term "anger", at the state he/she is forced to endure, at least according to Michael livingston.
I would have thought That would relate very well To the real idea of people suffering gender disforia who actually believe themselves to have been born in the wrong body.
then again, part of the inherent nihilism of wokeness is the express destruction of gender as a concept, reducing male and female to no more than empty preference choices, where as WoT is based heavily on the real, fundamental differences between men and women.
that's why I suspect the likes of Ralfe Judkins are literally incapable of understanding WoT.
Heck, there are aspects and interactions between the male and female characters in WoT which I did not understand myself on first reading, simply because there are character relations which just did not make sense to me before I was married myself.
When I originally started watching season 1, I didn't like it because it was so different than the books.
Then I said "maybe it will be good as it's own thing" and I watched a few more episodes while pretending it had nothing to do with the books. It was still mediocre at best.
Then I said "maybe it gets better and they're just slow settling up the good stuff." So I watched a few more episodes and it just got worse.
I was almost done with season 1, but I still only finished it so that I could enjoy the knights watch reviews.
I rated the show as low as possible and amazon still insisted on notifying me multiple times when season 2 was out. I won't be watching season 2. Unfortunately this means I'm not going to watch the knight's reviews either since I didn't watch the season. I'm almost tempted to watch just to join in listening to the reviews, but I refuse to support that show further.
Verin is unrecognizable because they combined her with Vandeen.
Watched season 1 and 2 and felt the story lacked too much. So I decided to read the books. Wow...... all I can say fire hollywood and its writers. Let Ai take their jobs. We want the true source and only Ai will produce it. I am so tired of woke culture changing everything.
Agreed on the Moiraine fight scene, in the book Lan wouldn’t even attempt to fight a Fade unless he had no choice but they had Moiraine fight 3 of them on the show 😂
Moiraine & Lan (still with one power, angreals & ter’angreals in her possession) gathered up the boys & egwene to leave the two rivers in book 1 because a Fade was seen in the area. 1 fkn fade…
Even if you haven’t read the books the show is full of logic plot holes that make zero sense. Like weren’t the blades of a Fade poisonous due to where & how they were forged?
One of many flaws with the launch of the story.
Fade-blades are essentially Jordan's take on the "black-blade" trope, like Stormbringer (sans the sentience), or the Morgul-knife of the Middle-earth, just as the Fade is a play on the "cursed soul" trope, like a revenant whose purpose is bent to master, or a wight turned to hunting dog, or Ring-wraith.
The threat is implied in their nature. Of the Shadow, corrupted and evil. Irredeemable. And exceedingly deadly to the living...so lets have a woman with minimal martial training and no magic kill one with a single thrust to the throat, but her Warder gets melted like butter in the pan.
It's pure girl-power fantasy that highlights the media of every dying civilization as it is destroyed by matriarchy.
It's just this iteration, unlike the Greek, Romans, Sumerians, Han, et al... they have a widely known "oppression narrative" to use as a bludgeon.
Just another cycle closing, another "spin on the Wheel."
38:12 Aaand the obligatory gingercide, you can't make a show if you don't sacrifice some gingers to the gods
This is the way.
Shad's thumbnails are always so intense in a funny way.
Actually showed this thumbnail to my fam as an accurate reaction to this show
At this stage I haved removed the A and I and just call him 'Lol'.
The only good thing about this show was finding this channel to rip into it 😂
They shat all over my childhood. The book series that made me WANT to read. The one that I started as a child and finished as a working man. I've never felt this much disappointment in a work of ... Whatever this is
In the book i was very jealous of rand, getting Min, Aviehnda and Elaine... I ain't jealous anymore. Don't know why.
The true fear of becoming the Dragon
One woman, the right one, will respect your right to peace and quiet as long as you respect hers. The man who marries three women will never know peace and quiet. This is a man to be pitied.
I cancelled my Prime membership because of this show. Granted my wife still has her membership. I might actually force her to watch it and make her tell me theres no agenda
Is there supposed to be something in this show that I recognize as The Wheel of Time? Because I don't unless you count the names. I couldn't even tell you that Rand is the main character if the only thing I knew was the show
After the first season I swore I would never watch another episode. It kills me how they have butchered such an amazing story. Thanks for the review
I will say costumes, acting, cinematography, etc. are all NOTICEABLY better, but it's basically impossible to save the writing they already fucked it up so badly. Throughout the episode, I was like "Is Moiraine stilled? I don't remember that."
This show is a fucking travesty, as Wheel of Time is my favorite series, and this show will make people think it's written like shit.
I am not hate watching this series anymore, so glad the Knights are on top of it!
As someone who tapped out after Episode 3 of Season 1, thanks for taking one for the team and watching this abomination. If you have not read the books, please save yourself from this garbage show and read the books.
I just started the books a little while ago, about 1/4 of the way through book 4 - ngl at first i was like "ah man every dude in this book is a simp" then i got about half way through book two and i forget which chapter it was but it was moiraine as the focal character and she was bitching to either egwene or nynaeve about how she had never had such a difficult time finding custom in a village as she did with them and yeah i think it must have been nynaeve she was talking to because she's proper sassy - she responds with something like "Two Rivers men aren't deceived by a pretty face - they won't be moved by beauty or gold, you've as much luck of blocking out the sun - two rivers women learned before the breaking of the world."
And then it's like - and again, im only up to book 4 - but the 2 rivers was Menethren, whatsisface Artur Hawkwing's(?) fallen kingdom and then you've got Perrin and Matt who are both like descendants of that kingdom and dude, yeah, i'm geeking out typing this lol im genuinely enjoying the series that much; zero interest in watching the show though - it'd just ruin it for me, especially because again, book 4 they're all still only about 15-16yrs old at the moment i think - i fully expect a timeskip but there hasn't been one yet longer than about a week and a half, by my reckoning they only left 2rivers like 18months ago, max.
In the book Rand, Mat and Perrin are all 20 and Egwene is 18.