The Wheel of Time
Looked at one way, it's a lesser Game of Thrones. Looked at another, it's a show about governance and social power in the absence of contemporary governmental institutions.

The Wheel of Time, Amazon's adaptation of Robert Jordan's high-fantasy book series of the same name, is not entirely successful: Too often, it plays like a lesser version of HBO's Game of Thrones, with more magic but less drama, more monsters but less suspense.
Still, the show's mythological world-building manages to make compact sense of the series' complex lore. Some of that world-building is focused on mysticism, but much of it is about self-organized clans of believers, working together and against their rivals.
Like Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time is most interesting when it's a story about not-quite-official governance enforced by various communal organizations—witch orders and witch hunters, dark and light followers, and even just local barrooms and bards. Like so much high fantasy, it's ultimately a show about governance and social power in the absence of contemporary governmental institutions.
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FJB
Haven't seen any of this and I am fine
This is about as substantive a review as if Suderman had read the Amazon description of the series and maybe watched a trailer.
Peter is ill today and can't finish his book report.
signed Peter's mom
+1 Juan Epstein
lol.
The show unfortunately deviated from the books to fit checkboxes rather than let it evolve as it does in the story organically. Too much worry early and a giant mess where as just one example you ruin a main later story line to make moraine and siuan sanche a thing.
I felt Matt had the most interesting story in the book and they seem to be completely sidelining him.
Usually you do a series so that you can explore all the characters. But that only works if you aren’t deciding to ignore the main characters to focus on others or make shit up.
Yeah the whole Shadar Logoth seemed off and so did the Horn of Valere (sp?) a whole book they seem to be just ignoring or changing to get it out of the way quick .
It's really a sad adaptation because of this.
I think you guys are right about the pacing and focus. I got maybe 4 or 5 episodes in and .. stopped. I literally didn't care about ANY of the characters. Honestly, I can't remember anything they DID of interest, only what the show told me I was supposed to think about them. That's not compelling. I disliked the production, too, but it really seemed like tons of stuff happening to total strangers who weren't interesting or well liked.
Also, It felt a lot more like propaganda for the matriarchy than anything else. Just boring. Jordan wrote complex characters and had a great pacing. All lost here.
it's a story about not-quite-official governance enforced by various communal organizations—witch orders and witch hunters, dark and light followers
So, a sci-fi/fantasy HOA.
The Dark Knight Karen on a quest to make sure your front door is the correct color of baby-shit brown.
Yeah, there's a parody to be had here. But it'd be like the office, I'd never watch because those people annoy me in real life, I don't need to be so annoyed when watching the entertainment.
At first I was rolling my eyes but it grew on me so by the end I was rolling my eyes but less so.
I read the series a long time ago. They were good books. I'm not planning on watching the TV adaptation.
Ditto for the new Middle Earth series. Ditto for most series. Imagine if LOTR were given the GoT treatment.Nothing happens until halfway through the first book, and that's just suspense not action sequences. There's gotta be Hobbit-on-Hobbit nudity going on, along with a big Hobbit battle with warbadgers and shit. Or the audience just won't stick around. Sex and gore, can't have a series without it.
Fuck. I literally just spit on my screen.
If by adaptation you mean butcher and corpse-fuck, then sure. They decided to blow up the central story and world building for woke ideology conformance and to stuff in black and brown bodies where logically they cannot be.
I wondered... Thanks for confirmation, not gonna touch it. Maybe I'll finish the series someday.
I figured the picture told me all I needed to know - - - - - -
No, don't. Jordan, like many aspiring sci-fi and fantasy authors when they hit rich per-word and huge advance success, got really self-indulgent, and gave over developing what had appeared to be a well-crafted and huge overarching story for maximizing income instead.
I quit several books from the end (after a 400 page diversion that achieved NOTHING story-wise and character-wise). I later went to B&N, ordered a coffee and skimmed the last several chapters of the last book to confirm what I'd thought would happen (note: Rand's wounds on palms and brow and side, the 3-day resurrection, etc., were NOT coincidental)
But the book series started great, with an interesting magic system, attractive characters, and a conflict of ever-expanding scope. The first four or five books almost rivalled Tolkein.
I DID like the casting of Rosamund Pike as the strong-but-care-worn Moiraine. I also liked the casting for the heroic Lan, and the gal they cast as head of the Red faction in the tower. What a remarkable case of Hyper Resting Bitch Face!
But the three boys from Two Rivers, the protagonists? Bad casting all around. And they turned the Mat character into a weak, sleazy, half-evil nothing. The early female leads? One brownwashing might have been okay, if inexplicable given Two Rivers isolation. But both? And neither especially attractive? I gave it three episodes. The books already had a female v. male subtext, but clearly didn't come down on one side hard enough for the producers. F Hollywood.
Yeah that was my point above too; those all develop in his writing organically and didn't need to be forced right off the bat in small mountain town two rivers. The whole Seanchans do a great job of bringing in differences and would have happened relatively quick for a series
Yes, the series was a complete disaster. They just ripped apart the whole lore of the World Building. It really didn't bother me about the actors and actresses they chose as far as skin color, I can look past that. But there was so much cringe, and outright character changes that just was completely unnecessary.
I didn't read the books, it was *alright*. started out *really chickish* but got better. could have been developed into much more.
Wheel of Time, 1990-2013 in 14 volumes.
Game of Thrones, 1996-present in 5 published, one pending volumes.
And having read most of the series, it bears no resemblance to what is described.
HBO GoT added to the books, mainly by actually finishing the story, which commie GRRM wouldnt do. Amazon WOT so far has taken away, by changing the characters, plots, details, and having poor writing and acting.
As a huge WoT fan, I was cautiously optimistic about the series. Then I heard development details and got my skeptical. I have it two episodes and swore I’d never touch it again.
Don't mince words: the adaption is trash.