Amazon's Wheel of Time Is A Frustrating Failure

[@darktenor4967]

Jordan wrote a story about the importance of having equality between men and women, working together and respecting gender differences. Judkins wrote a story about how women are perfect, powerful and infinitely better than men, and how men need to be belittled, demeaned and controlled. Not only does the series not deserve the name "wheel of time", but the philosophy it's peddling is actively toxic and harmful! My lady; who really is a massive WoT superfan, and I looked forward to the series, and really wanted to like it, but honestly watching each episode became a weekly torture, and we have no desire to go back for season 2. We both hope the series gets cancelled at this point.

[@UnraveledDreams]

My biggest problem with the show. Was when moirane gives rand a "Sa angreal" (essentially calandor). Then all he's able to manage using this item that enhances his power 100X is a mildly bright light and disintigrating 1 man. Meanwhile we have the "tower trained accepted" Amalisa forming a circle with 3 other women and killing 20k+ trollocs. Nynaeve somehow able to absorb Egwene's flows into her self. Then Egwene somehow reviving her. WTF I am dumbfounded by this. They have masterfully written source material and they butcher it to appeal to who? Not fans of the books... People who defend this travesty are just too afraid to point out the real reason this is happening. Google "Pluralistic ignorance".

[@jonahdav9589]

appeal to who? gender studies classes. Intersectionality human resource training manuals. People who have gender dysphoria. Marxists.

[@badgerdad6690]

It’s a real shame, you can tell they have the ability to adapt brilliantly on a scene to scene level (the Thom/Rand scene about his nephew was sublime). If they did it at scale like the early GOT seasons, it’d be brilliant and would capture both audiences - no one is asking for a page by page adaptation, we just want an adaptation that’s not fan fiction.

[@Peregrin3]

Actually, it's even worse, Amalisa at least in the show is not an accepted, she never made it past novice and was sent away from the White Tower because she was too weak, I think it even says in the show she can barely light a candle, in fact, because she was so weak she would never have been trained to form a link in the first place and it's even dumber still because if they had gone to the wall they could have destroyed all the Trollocs in the pass and saved their entire army but they just stand there like a bunch of morons and wait for the Trollocs to destroy their entire army and then come all the way to them before they do anything.😤

[@qmulus1]

@@Peregrin3 I had Battle of Winterfell flashbacks watching it.

[@Osyrous]

Like literally what we’re supposed to believe is that is rand x100. That’s word for word what the show told us. Are we supposed to believe that was balefire? Blue fire? Magic light ? Cause I have a feeling Rafe is gonna scrap the whole thing where balefire burns your thread off in pattern.

[@hammerofscience534]

Yah Rafe said he didn't like a "gendered" magic system, so right there he destroys the show.

[@badgerdad6690]

There are so many fantasy series, WHY do WoT if you don't want to embrace what makes it so interesting? Backwards.

[@blueeyed5074]

@@badgerdad6690 Because of the NAME. This would almost have "Legend of the seeker" kinda viewership if it didn't have the NAME.

[@JohnnyZenith]

He said that?! Jesus.

[@BCPvideo]

​@@badgerdad6690 Because the books were decidedly not "woke". The very idea that men and women have different strengths and weaknesses is anathema to Critical Gender/Race Theories. Their "praxis" requires them to corrupt and destroy anything/anyone that isn't sufficiently aligned with their narrative. WoT is just the latest example, and we know pretty much for certain that the LoTR series will be as well. Someone (I wish I could remember who, maybe James Lindsey) observed that woke will "kill your favorite thing and wear it like a skin suit", and it's happening all over the place.

[@UnraveledDreams]

So... men go crazy by channeling the same power woman can channel... so... the corruption is just in all men somehow. Id be interested in seeing how they explain that and then rand cleansing... all the men? instead of the power? lmao so stupid.

[@Jkirk3279]

This isn’t “Wheel of Time”. It’s Legend of the Seeker, only worse. Imagine this guy got the job making the LOTR TV show. You’d have to expect Black and gay Hobbits. Female characters blaming Gandalf for starting the war with Sauron. Female characters getting all the bravest scenes. The character of Ssmwise changed into a thief. Because that’s what they’ve done to Wheel of Time.

[@badgerdad6690]

Exactly why I’m real concerned about the new LotR show…it’s such a blank slate where they are drawing on I’m 99% sure they WILL do that

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

more like The Woke of Time

[@longlastnamae]

Don't worry, they will gender swap Gandalf

[@sheepsky]

Harfoot Hobbits in Amazons LoTR are going to be black.

[@PAZATRONVEGAS]

You are spot on. Not a joke. That really would happen.

[@nidgeot9968]

Great review Also Jordan explained the magic system in great detail to specifically avoid it being a deus ex machina. Most fantasy writers use magic to get the characters out of trouble. Jordan used it to get them into it; there were obstacles for the characters to overcome (the block, a’dam etc) The show throws all of that away at every opportunity

[@badgerdad6690]

Thanks, great point. That Rafe publicly wanted to write the show 'as if Robert Jordan were writing in 2021' showed just how little he understood the revolutionary and thoughtful approach RJ had for his magic system. It was soft enough to retain the wonder (not quite sure exactly where the ceiling cap, Nynaeve learning how to 'fix' gentling, etc), but hard enough you it rarely felt like deus ex machina as the rules were for the most part very clear.

[@IamVendel]

@@badgerdad6690 For example, linked women cannont draw more of the power then they are capable of handling. Episode 8 on the other hand.....

[@BW022]

The magic system in TWoT was unique and key to the entire thing. That men were more powerful, had different elements tied to them, couldn't link... and were tainted make everything about the series important. I've seen so many fantasy magic settings and Jordan's take was brilliant -- it embodied fear, tension, a race for time, conflict between factions, etc. The idea that the writers 'speed things up' to save time is BS. So much of what they put in was just to 'elevate' the female characters. The entire "women can be the dragon" (requiring a nerf of magic system) was a big nothing. I knew Rand was the DRB fairly soon in TEotW, but so? It was still great to see it. Worse, I could have predicted what they'd cut out and junk that added. Ethnically diverse village and cast (even in a remote middle-ages era society), more times spend on female characters, romance turned on its head -- strong women sleeping around in a 500 person village, the "who is the dragon" waste of time, missing key scenes, given women lots of action scenes (which never existed), etc., etc. My wife was completely confused and honestly I couldn't help her. Jordan's EotW did a great job telling us about the world because we saw it exclusively through the view of the young adults leaving a small village.

[@Syaniiti]

They also somehow managed to make both Egwene and Nynaeve less competent than the book versions by making them Ta'veren, being special and achieving great things < being average and achieving those same great things. Ofc that's a tiny problem in comparison to all the characters being complete tosspots with the women getting infinite power and thus removing all the stakes from the show. Why worry about death when a character with no talent in healing (Egwene) can just resurrect the dead. If she could only resurrect writing talent too.

[@badgerdad6690]

Worse, where can they grow as characters? Most of their growth in the books comes from their struggle to learn and use the one power, and how/where to use it. Nynaeve's first personal growth arc is learning how to channel without becoming angry, she needed to learn self control. Here they just abandoned that line...and Egwene had 5 minutes of training and can channel complicated fire weaves? heal nearly dead people in seconds? What's the point of going to the tower to train, and how can they make it believable? Her early channeling and lessons were interesting in the book because she was so new to it. My guess is they'll focus away from the magic (truly soft magic system based on feelings and convenience) and focus almost entirely on politics in the tower ala GoT.

[@Syaniiti]

Well, yes, the show is dead already but it just doesn't know it yet. Hopefully it'll get cancelled after s2 and some generation after me can get a reasonable adaptation.

[@MattGelgota]

@@Syaniiti Sadly, the sooner it’s canceled the better. I’d love to see a Peter Jackson level attempt to bring this series to screens. It’ll take decades for the stink to wear off.

[@adelelokker5249]

@@badgerdad6690 Haven't been able to actually watch it - it'll just ruin the perfection that Jordan painstakingly laid out for us... So Eqwene is the healer! that's a strange direction the writers took, burn my soul! But I love this comment! Has made me grateful this garbage has not polluted the real characters in my mind! After all, who care about the Dragon Reborn, right? Maybe Egwene will heal herself in the Last Battle and face the Dark One herself LOL :D

[@redbeard365]

I have watched countless videos about the Wheel of Time during, before and now after the season and this has to be the best take on the show. Rafe Judkins should be fired immediately along with his writing team. This show will fail. Not because book fans are outraged. But because anyone watching this show will disengage due to its terrible, awful writing, pacing and edit. No one knows why Barney Harris left the show and I do respect his privacy in that decision. But for some reason I feel like he’s the only one that saw the train wreck and decided to get off the tracks. Good for him.

[@badgerdad6690]

Watching the behind the scenes, it really did seem like a cult of personality. Clearly put together by a team that was aligned with Rafe's approach. In LotR behind the scenes you had a number of actors and experts on Tolkein go back and forth with Jackson when they were straying outside the books, and it helped challenge Jackson (who was actually a true LotR book fan himself). Here it feels like the writing team is rudderless on a cohesive story and character...but united in the ideological messages they want to promote, and which characters they need to empower. Need to have people around you willing to challenge you on things that won't work, or you can't see the forest for personal trees.

[@redbeard365]

@@badgerdad6690 Well said. Subscribed!

[@PAZATRONVEGAS]

You are right. The minute someone leaves a show it sends up a big fat ugly red flag. It really does come down to crap ass writing. I like to call it lazy writing but maybe they were just over their heads and just threw up their hands and gave up.

[@MattGelgota]

Absolutely. Leaving politics aside, the fundamental problem is the writing. Everything wrong with production-the fake looking costumes, poorly lit sets, bad CGI-could all be overlooked if the characters and story were engaging.

[@redinthesky1]

An excellent explanation of this show's failures ! Who the fuck spends 80+ million dollars without checking the showrunners writing skills ? Embarrasing.

[@badgerdad6690]

Peter Jackson spent 3 years and sold LotR on his incredible knowledge of the books. He then brought on multiple professionals who knew Tolkein even better than him to challenge him and keep him on track. Further his own actors were given room to push back (Christopher Lee and Ian Mckellan especially). There are small moments of brilliance, which make me want to find who wrote that scene and say 'hire them' (e.g. Thom and Rand discussing Owen). But you can see the writers room was largely at Rafe's caliber (mediocre) and ideologically aligned in what mattered to them about the story. Sad.

[@SevenThunderful]

Amazon and netflix will always do this, because they have been commanded by their overlords to promote homosexuality, sexual perversion and the dismantling of the Western heroic tradition. Any thing that promotes marriage, family and self sacrifice among heroic male leaders will be quashed. This is the evil of today's left.

[@01srob]

I think that you are correct, 98% of the problems in this adaptation boil down to the writing, its just bad. I honestly only wanted 4 things visually fixed, 1. The world needed to be dying in the first season in EOTW everyone on their travels noted that winter was lasting well beyond what it should and they were worried about crops. 2. The Heron marked sword is such a vital part of Rand's story. It was described in excellent detail in the books and the show runners didn't ever try to match the books description. 3. Loial's costume is absolutely appalling, Im not even sure anyone bothered to look up a description of the character. 4. The swirling wind shit that is the one power is terrible CGI, I would have rather had nothing at all.

[@badgerdad6690]

Appreciate the comment, if I had made an in depth video on all the things that bugged me, it would be much MUCH longer.

[@Psycrow11]

Watched the show as book reader fan and with my non book reading wife and son. I started out as you did seeing some concerns but giving it the benefit of the doubt but by episode5 I was out and my wife and son were so confused by so much. So They managed to tick off a book fan and failed to appeal to 2 non book readers. Stuff like the opening of episode 8 is as you said a prime example. It ticked me off as it make no sense in context to the book and my wife and son were like who are these people and what are they talking about. Sad thing is the writers knew the audience would be confused and tried to relate it by calling Lews Theron the Dragon “Reborn” that was an intentional change and one manny non bookreaders probably missed anyways.

[@badgerdad6690]

Thanks for the comment. The fact that Rafe Judkins would publicly say 'this isn't for book fans' when the books have sold close to 100 million copies is unbelievable. You have a strong, built in audience. They will get you through the rating of season 1, even if it's a little clunky. Can't understand, I work in marketing, did they not do ANY market research and pre-screening with test audiences? There is no way a 'generic' fantasy fan is going to be as devoted and willing to overlook the inevitable flaws of a first season.

[@joshcowart2446]

That whole argument of appealing to non book readers is the dumbest argument. I don’t even know what this argument means. The best steel man I can do is they want to make it simple and not get bogged down in lore. That to me though is what an adaptation is supposed to do. Did game of thrones throw out a song of ice and fire to appeal to non book readers. The books are popular for a reason. Had they kept the characters and world building the same, they’d have attracted non book readers and not discarded book readers in the process. Though they make a bunch of excuses that make no sense. Another one is this is just another turning of the wheel. That makes no sense. The in world explanation is each turning of the wheel has different characters but operates on the same mechanics. However how far are they willing to go with this. If they’d have made a sci fi show that takes place on mars but with the same magic and character names would that be acceptable because it could still be said to be another turning of the wheel. The other argument I hear is a straw man. They said book readers are just mad because it’s not a page for page adaptation. I’ve yet to see anyone actually argue for that. However we want the characters and world building to be the same. They can cut/add plots and change little lore things if it works better for television but other than that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

[@IamVendel]

@@joshcowart2446 Make the show for non-book fans. Have to be a fan of the book to know what the hell is going on.

[@joshcowart2446]

@@IamVendel I’m not sure what you’re saying. Are you saying they need to make it for non book readers otherwise only book readers will know what’s going on? If that’s what you’re saying then you misunderstood my entire point. My point was a proper adaption is for book fans but also cleans everything up so non book fans understand. Why do they have to completely contradict the books just so non book readers will understand it. That makes no sense. Look at both early game of thrones and lord of the rings. Non book readers understood those just fine. Yet book readers also liked them because the basic story was the same and the characters acted like their book counterparts would.

[@SapperRJMorgan]

I couldn’t agree more. You nailed it. As a fan of the genre and some amazing writers and directors this show falls super short. This seems to be the failure of modern storytelling on screen.

[@badgerdad6690]

Worse, hearing about Season 2, Rafe is doubling down and I'd be very surprised if there is improvement. I'm expecting it to get worse as they are drastically changing major plot arcs from the books.

[@superninjapirate19]

Non-book reader here and I quit after 5 episodes. It was a big pile of nothing and tried so desperately to appeal to the lowest common denominator GOT and LOTR fans. I hate to say it, because it’s so prevalent in media now and has been beaten to death, but the constant shoehorned agenda was so fucking ridiculous. I don’t have a problem with diversity but when it’s forced and the story is perverted in order to fit the political agenda of the Hollywood writer it never works out. Hollywood writers remain the biggest narcissist to ever exist. I guess they think Jordan was hack and they could do better

[@badgerdad6690]

It's why I had to make an Arcane video next - that's a show with plenty of diversity and even some of the standard political tropes, yet it effortlessly keeps them in the background and makes sure to land the story and characters it needs to in the 9 episodes it has.

[@sdube001]

The problem is, is that the books already have a ton of diversity. Different countries, cultures, races, preferences, strong women, it's all there, but not written as part of an agenda. It's written more in terms of rural people who must travel a much wider world.

[@PAZATRONVEGAS]

I think that’s correct. They thought they could do better than Robert Jordan. Idiots is what they are. They made a mess.

[@XiongGou]

@@sdube001 My sentiments exactly! This show tried to take everything that is already there in the books and pretend it wasn't. Yet, in the show's approach to topics of culture, race, gender and power differentials it removes literally all the subtly and becomes a bludgeon for their identity politics. This rather than telling a compelling story about disparate cultures, races and men and women learning to come together for the common good.

[@kingofmalkier7301]

I don't have a problem with diversity either,yet one does not cast actors because they are white, black, yellow or purple with green stripes. you ccast them if they can act. Most of them can't. As if they saw it all, done it all and are so bored that they can' t wait for the movie to end.

[@gator7082]

Turly disappointed. I'm surprised at the number of "bookreaders" that defend this nonsense. My guess is they read the first book or never made it past the so called "slog." I certainly will not wear rose colored glasses just because I want to like like it, defending this show will just create more bad content like it.

[@badgerdad6690]

During the season, I was forgiving because I wanted to give benefit of the doubt. There are excellent moments that highlight what potential there is. I really do think the raw material is there (actors, costuming, etc), it's how they are being used that is my issue. Now that they've delivered, how else will they improve what they are adapting without constructive critique?

[@jonahdav9589]

@@solarydays bought influencers, then made sure the influencers would parrot the talking points, "Rafe is a fan." When after watching the show I do not detect that Rafe has anything but hatred for Jordan. Even stabbed Loial who is Robert Jordan placed into the books.

[@thescribla]

@@badgerdad6690 the costuming kinda sucked, compare it to his dark materials, GoT, or Walking dead and it does not hold up. It was low point in the show for me

[@anonymouslyopinionated656]

these very same people would not have supported this dumpster fire had it been made in 2012

[@gregmartin2455]

Rafe Judkins should never be allowed to do anything again. I wouldn't trust him to make coffee.

[@jonahdav9589]

Showrunners loyal to source material more often then not will equal a success. Peter Jackson's LOTR, first 4 seasons of GOT because RR Martin was involved, Arcane showrunners, those loyal to Rodenberry, Godfather, prob even Harry Potter. Those disloyal to the source material like Rafe Lerooooy Jenkins and Rian Luke Hater Johnson both murder and character assassinate IPs.

[@badgerdad6690]

Firmly agree, if the goal is ADAPTATION there are many great fantasy adaptations to look at and learn from by now. No excuses.

[@far2ez539]

Yours is one of the better reviews I've seen, but I contest one point. Around 4 minutes in, you're saying that RJ set up a world where Men and Women must work together in harmony and balance. You're right. But that isn't apparent nor does it meaningfully happen in book 1. It's a lesson that's hard-learned over 10+ books, with their refusal to work together culminating in events like Dumais Wells. The problem with the show wasn't that it leaned into the idea that men were pitted against women (they _were_ at this point in the story). The problem is that the script leaned into it LIKE IT'S A GOOD THING, and that it SHOULD BE that way. They portrayed LTT as an incompetent, arrogant oaf of a narcissist rather than a commander who did his best under a bad situation. They portrayed women of his Age as making undeniably correct and thoughtful predictions (to the exact nature of how Shaitan would taint Saidin which is.. absolutely not something they could have even considered remotely possible in the books). Men and women both had different ideas in the books but one was never set up to be purely correct and thoughtful while the other was set up to be purely arrogant and incompetent. That's the thing. The books leaned into the idea that men and women need harmony and balance because they improve each other's weaknesses. The shows lean into the idea that men need women because they're idiots. Although both involve a gender conflict in book 1, only one of the two shows one of the genders as inherently _inferior_ as opposed to just _different and misunderstood_.

[@badgerdad6690]

You're right, I could've set that up clearer, appreciate your thought out point. I initially thought that first scene with Moraine was intentionally melodramatic to show how childish and simplified the Aes Sedai view is, and that they would complicate it over the season when questions of 'if we need the Dragon and he's a man, what do we do?'. They could've also shown how that first scene (maybe started with 'the history we know' or some such) could've been a fine way to simplify the issue in episode one and build a compelling arc over season 1 and 2 (challenging with Rand as the Dragon in Season 1 and the Ashamen concept in season 2, say by having Rand come up with the idea and start to debate with Moraine on the topic). Instead...it went nowhere. Worse, that they have the non-Aes Sedai save the day in Faldara and not Rand further shows, who needs men? certainly not the dragon, we don't need him to help us defeat 10s of thousands of trollocs!

[@TheAstilesus]

The tone was completely different in the books. Yes, there is a woman circle vs. the village council, but the rivalry between them is not acrimonious. In the books, the tone was more like, "Men...what are you going to do with them." Or. "Women...can't live with them, can't live without them." There was no blame of "men" for the breaking of the world or tainting the One Power. Specific individuals, Lew Therin and the Dark One were blamed. There was distrust of Aes Sedai, but it wasn't solely because they were all women. It was because they were manipulative women. And even most Aes Sedai realize the value of men, hence the existence of Warders. I think we can all agree that the series got it very wrong. And I think we all know why. The best way they could have started this series was a modified version of the scene of Rand's mother on Dragonmount (modified to be more believable). Then fade to black and focus on teenager Rand working of the farm. Then just follow the plot of the book. No need for contrived exposition, just show the story. By the way, the Eye of the World was almost entirely from a male point of view. In the series, the protagonist seems invisible.

[@AbbyGoldsmith]

Exactly. They should have hired a show runner whose claim to fame was something better than "I survived Survivor."

[@zaxx]

Wow! That was spot on! To your point about pacing specific to Steppin. Rafe is in a SERIOUS romantic relationship with Taylor Napier, who plays the Warder Maksim. One of Allana's 2 gay warders. All that time wasted with sad Steppin makes more sense now, huh? AWESOME review!

[@badgerdad6690]

Interesting...did not have that context. I had a feeling that presenting the polyamorous nature of warders with such emphasis had a reason behind it (it's in the books, but overall pretty downplayed in how relevant it is to the story)

[@zaxx]

@@badgerdad6690 I'm good with the representation and the polyamoury. I'm just frustrated with all the precious time that was wasted on a storyline that was filler (at best). Just tell the story Rafe.

[@badgerdad6690]

@@zaxx That's where my pacing issues come in, with 8 episodes they needed to be lazor focused on their characters and where they were going and the stakes. World building out the details could come second. But episodes like #5 were a grinding halt, and are not even relevant for this season! why set up long term payoff in season 1 when you have so little time? With more episodes, maybe, but 8?

[@zaxx]

@@badgerdad6690 My thoughts exactly. The Nynaeve-Lan tracking lesson bothered me as much as it bothered you.

[@neiltaylor513]

Yep, agree, totally spot one, put other big name (who shall remain nameless) reviewers to shame

[@rbtsubs]

Don't forget the Big Gaudy rings. Never thought of the serpent rings would look like cheap costume jewelry

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

The only thing for me was to discover the novels that I had never heard of before the Amazon show arrived. I quit watching this dumpster fire of woke race swapping trash and reading novels. Finished first book EOTW that was excellent and amazing how bad the Amazon show was in cutting major plot arcs, removal of key locations and characters. Where is Queen Morgase and Camelyn? Where is Elyas wolf bro?

[@badgerdad6690]

Not including Elyas (strong male mentor, doesn't put up with BS) really hurt Perrin's arc (esp. of coming to terms with grief). I think they plan to do Camelyn next season, but we'll probably lose the innocent 'Rand in the palace garden' intro that was so well done.

[@Psycrow11]

@@badgerdad6690 that’s it tho isn’t it. If they are going to do Camlyen next season why not have done it this season and start next season with the Tar Valon they did by moving the Suian’s introduction in TGH from Fal Dara. Could have given us Elyane Morgase and Elias instead of sad warder. Most of the non tower scenes in Tar Valon could have been left as Camlyn really and not added any more screen time. Nah they messed with stuff just to mess. They think they can write a better story than RJ.

[@mattmatthewmatchuu]

@@badgerdad6690 what??? Perrin is a vegetarian hippy now, his arc is fine

[@joshcowart2446]

They didn’t have time to do all that stuff, duh. They needed the screen time to spend a whole episode on a random warder and aes sedai who dies

[@SevenThunderful]

@@Psycrow11 This is the crux of the problem with the woke far left screen writers. They think they are so amazing that anything they add or alter to an original story will make it "better". The arrogance of this is appalling. They have no idea how difficult it was for the writers to develop plot arcs and character backgrounds and how often they have to rewrite scenes to make something work. I think Patrick Rothfuss has spent nearly a decade writing and rewriting his novels, honing them to perfection. These showrunners aren't fit to write lines for 2nd rate cartoons let alone epic fantasy. I fear outside of Peter Green, our favorite fantasies will always get poor screen adaptations. Especially when they have this compelling objective to glorify cultural Marxism.

[@jmtv1963]

I was excited for the series as a great fan of the books. My daughter, who did not read the books, watched with me to see why I loved the books so much. I was not only disappointed, I was outraged at the travesty that unfolded. My daughter was confused because there was no way to understand the who and the why of what was going on and from what I watched she never would. So much character assassination not to mention the plot assassinations. The only way to watch this is to think of it as the third age come around again and our favorite characters existing but living new lives doing things differently and even dying off before you even know who they are and why they were in the story in the first place. So sorry that they let someone who was not immersed in the complete story handle this epic tale; no substance, no point, just visual fluff.

[@supernaturalawesome1]

As a non-book reader, I didn't really enjoy the show. Things were not explained and it felt like stuff was, just happening. They definitely sidelined the male characters in an attempt to "empower" the female characters. All in all, I don't know who the show is for. Non book readers like myself will be lost and book readers, from what I've seen, are frustrated by all the changes. Hope it gets better 🤞

[@badgerdad6690]

Thanks for sharing, Rafe says he is aiming at nonbook readers but this season has so many bits and nods to book readers while confusing the rules of the world and not developing the main characters enough, I’m surprised how many nonbook readers I’ve heard thought it was fine. I’m a book reader and I was confused when they changed their own rules!

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

that is how I felt and ended up reading the books and quit watching the show. Books are superb fantasy. The Amazon woke Rafe disaster tv show is not.

[@neiltaylor513]

It has made me pick up and start reading the books

[@jeffcampbell6701]

Fucking destroyed it. I came in with a huge open mind and was absolutely heart broken. The heart and sole of the story are lost. He killed it.

[@JoelAdamson]

Yep. If they'd focused on Rand it would have been great. They could have deviated far from the books if they'd just kept the lore intact and focused on the actual characters. What they've got instead of a story is just a sequence of flashy events. It's amateur writing.

[@badgerdad6690]

I think even newer viewers would have preferred slower plot but better character and depth. We jumped all over the place for spectacle, and end result is weaker characters and complete mess and confusion of the story and world.

[@MattGelgota]

@@badgerdad6690 How could they entrust such a gigantic budget to a clown that doesn’t already know that the human story and connections are what matters in any narrative, not the events themselves? Now an epic fantasy property has to go on cooldown for 20 years until the industry forgets what a disaster this was and tries again, hopefully with a Peter Jackson rather than a another Judkins.

[@danielmennel4565]

If they have followed Rand or even the Two Rivers group as the main character(s) it would have made it easier to introduce the wider world to them and explain thing about it they need to know. This would also give them a chance to explain it all to the audience. By making Moiraine the main character it undercuts all this leaving the audience in the dark as to what's going on half the time.

[@badgerdad6690]

Exactly, I think they lost the fact that it was Rand's POV that opens up the world, and then we expand. Like Froda in Lord of the Rings. It was a Game of Thrones move, and not for the better.

[@badgerdad6690]

@@MattGelgota It's a fascinating point - before Lord of the Rings, no one looking at Jackson's work would've thought he could do LoTR, he was a B horror movie director! Similarly, Judkins was not inherently a bad choice out the gate (politics on display not withstanding). He really sold his knowledge into the Hollywood machine, and it sounded good in a lot of early interviews. However, his early script writing released after the fact shows his politics have been even from the beginning the priority, and so the show was not about Robert Jordan's work (unlike Jackson who made it clear their focus was on being as faithful as possible to the material and Tolkein's vision). And even with Jackson, he was willing to listen to fans unlike Judkins (e.g. Arwen battle warrior scene removed as an example)

[@Osyrous]

“What growth can they have when they do these amazing things without any training” dude you hit the nail on the head. The character Assassination is just everywhere. I tried so hard to “get over” lan crying or Eggy stopping Valda effectively stealing Perins catalyst. but the show just kept doing it over and over. WHY CALL LEWS THE DRAGON REBORN. It’s a travesty these actors were this good though. I thought the cast killed it at these characters especially Zoey and Matt.

[@0heck]

4) Inability to separate personal views and agendas from their job doing an adaptation of another man's lifes work.

[@badgerdad6690]

A chronic problem in modern hollywood

[@oftheborg]

Having watched the intro again after the nonsensical AOL scene.... Moiroine says the women were 'left to pick up the pieces.' But Latra specifically caused them to have to. :P

[@badgerdad6690]

They could've used that first scene to show the bias and closemindedness of the aes sedai, and complicated the issue for the new viewers by showing it and then showing how the prophecies and Rand as Dragon are a necessity. What do Aes Sedai do now when we learn their history is wrong and they are blind? It would humanize Moraine and help the viewer realize the world is more complicated. That was how I envisioned where that scene was going. But as you noted...it's nonsensical because it DOESN'T go anywhere. And that makes it feel like ideological attack on men, as it's there with no other purpose.

[@oftheborg]

@@badgerdad6690 Yep. Man, I hate this show with a passion. lol I can't understand how ANYONE would remotely think that this is in any way capturing the 'essence' of the story. But then again, I've watched people throw all logic and continuity of thought out the window the last 20 years.

[@Richardwalsh00]

11:44 the fact they took one of the coolest reveals in the series (that we're in the collapse of a once great civilization) tossed it into the cold open with two characters we don't know or care about or understand the significance of, is a crime.

[@Dhowlan]

This show is simply dreadful. It's entirely based on Judkins' woke views. It is 99% unconnected to the books, other than character and location names. That's pretty much it.

[@badgerdad6690]

Either make up your own thing or treat the work your adapting with respect

[@Thulgore]

WoT was a problem from the beginning..........because the money people just wanted another GoT. It doesn't work that way. Both are fantasy, they aren't focused on the same things at all. I got into a massive argument with a buddy in the late 90's over THIS EXACT issure. On screen GoT's brilliance was in relationships/drama. WoT's glory is in inner thought/spectacular effects. WoT is a nightmare to transfer from book to screen. It will never work to the source.

[@badgerdad6690]

Never be as good, granted. But I think there is absolutely a better show to be done than they gave us here

[@matthewblankenzee5452]

I just have to disagree it can't work. I know of someone who wrote a 5 film series of the first three books. Each script was about 2.5 hrs long and very close to the source material. It's not that it can't be done. It's that those with power to greenlight are choosing bad storytellers.

[@scire105]

Yeap, fully agree. Specially with the amount of episodes. A lot of people trow around that "If the just got some more episodes". More episodes doesn't fix bad writing. Hell, on the contrary it probably would make it worse. Imagine if those extra episodes were written by rafe himself. It would be even worst. On thing that i think is worth noting is that the first three episodes are the only one that got feedback from Sanderson. He wrote a few reddit post talking about his feedback. I think they are worth reading for some more insight into the show. Keep in mind while reading them that he has made clear a lot of time (not recently, mostly in is recorded classes and podcast) that he prefers to not talk about bad entertainment, if he doesn't have a positive opinion, he just doesn't talk about it. Reading there we find that the single scene in the first episode (and full series) where Lan actually does something he had to push for that. And after episode 3 he basically went radio silent except for the last episode live watch, and oh god his face was pain.

[@badgerdad6690]

That's a great point, didn't want to touch much on Sanderson cause he doesn't have much of a role in this whole production. Once they made clear they could care less what he thinks, I stopped following his reddit posts and interviews on it.

[@Vonklieve]

The poor quality actors, deliberately politically correct actors. The omission of the Forsaken...Tar Valon in the first few episodes...The crap script, poor CGI, the making the Dragon potentially anyone when we know it is Rand Al thor, who has no chance against the girls. Forget the Dark One, Rand can barely beat the girls in this series. Essentially reverse sexism. Men shown as incompetent, useless and the series is uninteresting to 50% of the audience.

[@Eyazinho]

We'll done, Badger!!! One of the most clearly spoken explainations of why this show is a travesty, both on the screen and to RJs books.

[@badgerdad6690]

Thank you! I had such hopes (another Lord of the Rings possibility!), it’s a shame where they took it.

[@PAZATRONVEGAS]

As a person who has also read the books several times and I am now reading book 1 again, for a 4th time I think, I agree 100% with everything you said. In fact, I couldn’t articulate my thoughts properly as to how horrible this screen adaptation is until you described everything they did with the characters. Very illuminating analysis. There was so much material to choose from and instead they went in a totally different direction. I also was prepared to give it wide latitude thinking some important items would be left out but they’d follow the books as best they could. However, to completely just go off on their own was egregious, lazy and ill executed. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE screen adaptation. They violated the spirit of the books and the family of Robert Jordan should never have let that happen.

[@badgerdad6690]

I'm glad you liked it - there are major fundamental changes, and while they did say they are plotting the entire shows arc so the changes will land, I don't trust where they will land because of the choices they made here in season 1. I'm as shocked as you that Harriet and Brandon were ok with this, but then again, neither are christopher tolkein.

[@thtadthtshldntbe]

The absolute worst singular scene in the whole show was the flashback open to episode 8. That scene was pure character assassination of LTT.

[@badgerdad6690]

Watching behind the scenes, Rafe was SO proud of himself that he wrote that scene. All the choices there are 100% him, and helps you understand the difference between D&D from Game of Thrones (who had tremendous respect for the source material) and Rafe - scenes D&D wrote before they ran out of written material showing stuff not in the books felt like they WERE from the books. Here, it just felt like fan fiction and undermined one of the most important characters in the series.

[@zk116]

@@badgerdad6690 that scene was probably one of the worst character assassinations in the entire show. LTT is apparently was an arrogant moron who didn't listen to the advice of a fanfic "Tamyrlin seat" character who somehow knew the Dark One would taint the one power. They even refer to LTT as "The Dragon Reborn" for some idiotic reason. I'm not sticking for season 2.

[@robwalsh9843]

It was unintentionally funny when Mat refused to walk through the gate. Supposedly the actor was a fan of the books, but was dealing with issues and didn't enjoy the production. His uninterested expression is the audience's at that point.

[@johntheibert9105]

Good Things: I did not read the Wheel of Time Books, yet, but this series makes me want to read them now. This series feels like a trailer for the books to me. Bad Things: They said that if anyone went with the Dragon to the Eye of the World they would die. Nope. They said that the Dark One would be defeated for 3000 years if the Dragon did the right thing. Nope.

[@andrewmize823]

If you paid attention while reading the novels, you might have noticed that all of the societies presented in the story are matriarchal. From the Women's Circles having de-facto legal authority at a local level, to the international influence of the Aes Sedai, to the fact that even the Aiel chieftains have to submit to the authority of the Wise Ones, Robert Jordan's story hypothetically examines matriarchy with a critical eye--and current societal discourse simply would not permit even the slightest suggestion that such a society could be flawed in any way. In the WoT novels, those matriarchal societies suffer from the exact same forms of corruption and the exact same abuses of power that plague the assumed patriarchy of the real world. The writers and producers were well aware of the fiasco this would have caused on social media had they dared to address it, so they neutered the story and sacrificed some of its most important elements on the altar of wokeness to avoid controversy. At least that's my theory as to why the show is so bad--I might have missed other important examples, but I think I'm at least partially correct. It's kind of a pointless debate for me, since I stopped watching ten minutes into episode 5.

[@Jsa460]

It's telling that rather than acknowledge that they had major issues with the show's writing, pacing, direction, CGI, consistancy etc, they're going for the old chestnut of "book readers wanted a 1:1 adaption in the show and now they're hating on it for that reason only so their crit is invalid on all levels". Lost any respect for the show runner at this point. He just wants to put his own stamp on the show because in his words he thinks he's writing what Jordan would have written if he was alive today. Pure arrogance and refusal to listen to others that have valid points to end up make something that will backfire and cause show's downfall. Kind of ironic when you consider what Rafe did to Lews is actually a reflection of himself.

[@badgerdad6690]

This is a problem throughout modern hollywood, we see it all the time as an excuse. They know exactly what they are doing, and we know what they are doing and they know we know what they are doing. That's why the minute you see them attack those who adore the books, you know. Dr. Who, Marvel, Star Wars, and many others, it's narcissim and a belief system that refuses to admit they could have done something wrong. Worse, it's projection, like a child who takes a cookie and then blames everyone else for the action.

[@jeronimocruz3131]

This show is an abomination. The original story was abandoned in favor of wokeism. Thanks for your honest review.

[@badgerdad6690]

Appreciate it, thanks!

[@kl8455]

was interesting how frustrating and angry this show made me. such a shame to take a massive dump on Jordan's work. maybe someday the WoT will be made that actually follows the story.

[@Taveren]

Character assassination is fucking accurate

[@spiffyh]

Just found this series on a non Amazon channel. I thought the TV adaptation of the Sword of Truth series was bad due to the way they departed from the books. This series was far, far worse. My assessment is the writers skim read all the books in about an hour, and then created a brand new story from the bits the could remember. Or maybe they tore all the pages out of the book, cut the pages into pieces, tossed them into the air, and created a new story from the contents of a few dozen pieces of the text. The only way anyone could possibly enjoy this series is if they had never read the books. There is one phrase that I thinks sums up this series nicely - FUBAR. At least the locations they chose for the show were often beautiful. . .

[@paulspillman9413]

Your criticisms are on point, but I was willing to make allowances because I liked the story and wanted to see it adapted. But this show isn't an adaptation of the books ... it's a cannibalization of the books. They lost me permanently when they stole the experiences of one character and gave them to another character because the showrunners want to change character arcs but the writers aren't talented enough to write new experiences. This is bad fan fiction. Really bad fan fiction. Of all the people I know who were looking forward to this show only one person liked it and is eager for season 2. But I won't be watching. I don't know these characters and I don't care what happens to them.

[@badgerdad6690]

Agreed, and honestly until episode 8 I would've been willing to let it slide as 'mediocre season 1 that maybe they'll improve in season 2'. That last episode drove home that adaptation is not the purpose here, and that's where this video came from.

[@scottpriddy1417]

I've seen many raves and rants about WoT, and this hits the nail on the head. Well done!

[@badgerdad6690]

Thank you!

[@Taveren]

Egwene being a ta'veran is incredibly idiotic. She defies them she goes against what they want and it gets to the point where even the wheel has to cut her out of existence in order to stop it from changing too much from the way it wants to weave. Shes the only one who effectly fights against the tugging of a ta'veran, making her ones turbs her into a willing puppet of the wheel itself

[@DarylBenson]

Awesome analysis, and significantly kinder than it probably deserves. Excellent review.

[@badgerdad6690]

Thanks, I finished and was so frustrated it took me a bit to simmer and distill what I was most frustrated with. I don’t think it’s unsalvageable, but as their filming season 2 already I’m concerned the feedback won’t be enough to fix season 2 (even if they WANT to fix it which I don’t think they do)

[@quarksbar3265]

caving to toxic fan feedback tends to ruin series pretty quick these days so I'm pretty glad these guys are already filming season 2 untarnished

[@far2ez539]

@@quarksbar3265 Untarnished of any influence from the books, that's for sure.

[@quarksbar3265]

@@far2ez539 I have a friend who decided to re-read the books after watching the show and I literally just got off a phone call with him raving about how good a job the show does at pulling all the little elements from EotW and making them fit into 8 hours, but hey people always gonna find a way to cry and complain on the internet.

[@thedungeon1578]

This show was terrible. The characters were not developed. This was one of the biggest issues. They were trying to hide Rand for most the season, so we never got crucial parts of his backstory until the end, when they should have been there from the start to help us care about the character. Perrin's wife was just dumb; there is enough going on with him in the early books, we didn't need some throw away wife character that never existed in the books. They never got around to really introducing the wolves. Yes, we see them. Yes, they kind of hang around and help him. But we never meet Hopper, and as a result the whole "prison break" from the Whitecloaks scene was stupid. Perrin has no reason to really hate the Whitecloaks other than because they're Whitecloaks, and they have no reason to hunt Perrin, other than because he was with Egwene and had yellow eyes for a second. It was stupid. Mat... I mean, they lost the actor half way through, that wasn't their fault. But even still, Mat is a fun character pre-dagger, always playing pranks and joking around. They turned him into this depressing thief who steals from even his friends. The girls were written to be "amazing", but IMO they got done dirty too. The sex was dumb. The 2 Rivers is a conservative backwater where if you slept with a girl one time and people found out, her entire extended family would show up with torches and pitchforks to make you marry her that night. Instead, we get Rand and Egwene having sex. Nynaeve and Lan having sex. The problem is, that when you make everyone have the same attitudes, no one stands out. The Aiel have a completely different outlook on sex, so when Rand meets them in the books, there's a huge culture shock. Lan and Nynaeve should have been a slow burn story; that would have been closer to the books, but also more interesting for readers. A "will they/won't they" type thing with him being stoic and stubborn, and her being annoying and stubborn. Just like the books. The world felt generic. They also didn't explain the magic system. They never gave us the prologue. They changed vital parts of the lore by saying the Dragon could be a woman. If only the men go mad, but the Dragon can be a woman, then why be afraid of her? The whole point is that the promised saviour is also destined to go crazy and destroy the very world he's trying to save. That's what makes the promised one narrative from tWoT different and more interesting than many others. The CGI was pretty bad. The final battle was terrible. Their tactics were non-existant. Like you mentioned, if 5 untrained people can destroy the biggest army of Trollocs seen in generations, why not just send 13 Aes Sedai to the Blight? Form a circle, maybe bring a bunch of angrael and sa'angrael, and just level the place to the ground. Destroy every Fade and Trolloc in the entire Blight. I mean, why not? If 5 untrained people can do all that, imagine 13 trained sisters, all linked and using angrael. I could go on forever about how terrible it was. But TLDR; I agree with everything you said in this video and 1000 other problems on top. It was awful.

[@Valeria-th3ms]

It was so painful to watch this "adaptation", I'm sad and disappointed

[@badgerdad6690]

It's a shame, luckily there are other shows like The Expanse that are top notch. Check it out if you haven't and like science fiction.

[@MaryBennett]

I am afraid I have a rather more cynical take on this trainwreck. My theory is that the creator of the series, Rafe?, simply could not believe that a group of kids from farms could do the things that Jordan had them doing. So, I suspect, this Rafe guy rewrote the story the way he thinks it should have been, a high urbanite vanity porn project with (he imagines) really cool special effects. I also think he counted on enough readers watching because they love the books, right, so that way he would get his audience. I know some movies and series have done justice their source books (Holes) or even been better than the book (Ivanhoe), but surely it is time makers of series and movies be expected to either respect source material or write their own stories.

[@meriadocbrandybuck2868]

It is one of the worst on screen adaptions of any written work ever.

[@badgerdad6690]

could certainly have been better

[@DrakeDark18]

The book is about the DRAGON reborn, about the nature of balance, male and female, dark and light, evil and good... this nationality and that nationality, this blood-line and that blood line, power and weakness, character and fate - sovereignty and destiny... They throw all that out the window, the very flight from Emmonds Field sees Rand channeling to keep Egwene's pony going. Sigh, it seems to me that rather than let a man take the absolute power centre, and be opposed by a thing pretending to be a man but is actually darkness incarnate, and the exploration of that concept, they shoe-horn in this pitiable modern passing cultural nonsense. It no longer has the feel of historic bindings and weaving but a modern social commentary set against a backdrop of these things I grew up loving and wanting to be apart of. They throw away every prophecy and title that goes along with being the Dragon Reborn, The Chief of Chiefs, The Car'Acarn, He Who Comes with the Dawn... it's no longer the story of the Alpha and his Captains, the Trilogy of Men and I am willing to bet dollars to donuts the whole Rand and his Trilogy of females isn't present. Where is Rhuidan and the largest Sa'Angreal ever created? They made out like it was men's fault for trying to seal the dark one back in his prison (a prison formed of Saidin and Saidar) when the Forsaken bored a hole in the fabric of his cage. Why is it men's fault instead of the Dark Ones? They call it the One Power and then make no mention of Saidar and Saidin. They turn the whole medi-evil European feeling into a racial mixing pot. Which disables the concepts of racial tension, hell the Aeil were supposed to be desert warriors and the lady I saw was white as hell and I just don't get it. The worst part, the worst is that they get away with it by saying "it's based on the books" no, it's inspired by. Make a series and call it the Two Rivers, or The Breaking of the World... make it from the same world but at a different time, in a different village, in a different vein and then you can do whatever the hell you want with the World of the The Wheel of Time, but if you're going to tell the story of the Dragon, you tell the story of the Dragon and as important as the other characters are to the nature of the weaving (and they are), it is the Dragon that is the lynch pin, and the absolute focal point of the story, and if you're going to start the story in such a condensed fashion, you had better respect that. It is the Dragon that binds everything and everyone on the side of light to battle the darkness. It is he who takes the darkness within himself and sacrifices to free Saidin of the Taint... and I don't give a F#$% about how hard it is to convey the bubbling madness within and the way the dark-one whispers to them through their dreams, or how sexist it might seem to focus on the three Ta'Veren to start, that is the nature of the first 3-5 books and to be untrue to that core guiding story arc is just to depart completely from a story about the Dragon and to fail as a series. Bitterly disappointed by this series.

[@DrakeDark18]

Where was Elyas, where was The Green Man? Where was Lan teaching Rand the sword? Where was Thom Merrilin teaching them to play instruments for their supper and throw knives for their defence? Where was Rand running naked with a sword through the women's quarters of Shainar?

[@DrakeDark18]

Before release: (Source: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aF65gWaIm7OifNU) "You just happen to make what we in this business call a real piece of shit. So you're not going to release it? Normally a movie like this, we'd just eat it and it would die. But since it's you, we're going to release it and we're going to make the money back. I don't care if it ruins your careers, it's Dethklok in the movies." After release: (Source: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6fLnoutetKHedk) * Remember "Shit sandwich, tastes great."

[@badgerdad6690]

From what I've seen on Reddit and KZbin, this series is pretty divided and not just along book reader vs non lines. What did you think of this? Do you trust Rafe Judkins to deliver season 2?

[@jonahdav9589]

No. Rafe opened the show skipping what Jordan used to open the books denying the viewer any understanding of the terror/importance/scope of the dragon being reborn. Add in 1000+ changes to lore, characters, wokeness, location, and plot and this is a garbage fire.

[@badgerdad6690]

Initially I could see maybe they were trying to simplify and then would complicate that opening through Logain and Rand channeling and show the AES Sedai POV is seriously biased. But as we saw, that quickly went nowhere

[@bidossessi]

I'm willing to even ignore the source material. But the show needs to make internal sense. The dragon mystery was a gimmick that was never investigated in-show, by *any* character (not even Moiraine!) until the sudden reveal in ep7. Season 1 ended and we still don't know the stakes. EPs 5 and 6 brought nothing to the story. People keep talking about COVID and the actor that left. But that only affected the last 2 episodes. The show itself went south at the very 1st episode.

[@badgerdad6690]

@@bidossessi Great points!

[@step4018]

Given season 2 is already filming, 4+ episodes probably done and all the scripts finalised before any viewer feedback I can't see how they will do better. Two books in 8 episodes with lots more characters to introduce before they have even allowed the EF5 to develop would have been a challenge anyway but with the writers they have... The Expanse as you mention is vastly better. Sticking to a medieval setting The Last Kingdom does everything much better too, in terms of fight sequences, pacing, character development, the general level of acting, quality of the picture... As folks say, where did the $10m an episode go?

[@highborn18]

It came off as more of a vanity project for Rosamund Pike!

[@Taveren]

When the female I saw die during the age of legends attempting to kill the dark one with the Choedan Kal. There's such an arrogance in the way this is written to essentially prop up this men are dumb and women are genius and that's why we got to where we were when in Reality it was a difference of approach and quite frankly they both were being really risky and really bold in their Ideas and implementation of those ideas

[@andrewchutkhan5151]

So true. Thank you

[@TehReasoning]

At episode 5, I'm starting to have concerns so I decided to retract the story and lo behold I was right. Why are all women getting the best moments and scenes? Why is women only doing stuff so far? "Women are superior,men are the problem" That when I figure they changed the story for wokeness from characters to the story itself. I don't understand why we can't just follow the story and get the writing right. Problem with this modern age is they ruin everything to promote wokeness in movies and series, it just ruins it and everything Coming from person of African ascent myself, full well race swap and quite changed couple of characters as they dont even match author description and depictions of the book,it's absolutely hilarious and garbage as I despise race swappin, please leave the character as intended. Not even going to get started on sexual scenes.

[@SuperGurrier]

The show is trash and i can't watch more than 5 minutes without almost dying of cringe. What particularly annoyed me was the burning out in a circle thing, in the books this is impossible as the people in the circle are buffered from it

[@cameronpetie8318]

Thank you for doing this video. More people need to understand the more detailed issues woth the show, not just that it is bad. The beautiful balance between men and women is taken away in the first monologue. Jordan would be turning in his grave.

[@Jezza_One]

The TV series is an appalling rewrite of the source material.

[@badgerdad6690]

could've been much better for sure

[@teamMrShawn]

Bailed on this show at ep 3 as it fell of a cliff in the first episode & never recovered. What I don't understand is there has been a number of tv shows & movies within the fantasy genre. But the writers clearly did not pay attention to what works & what does not!

[@odaizoh]

i watched many reviews and yours was the closest to what I felt when watching the series

[@badgerdad6690]

Glad to hear you enjoyed!

[@MrKevmomoney]

The show feels like a rushed school project!

[@badgerdad6690]

Definitely rushed (esp. the last few episodes), you'd think with 3 seasons 'funded' before show even launched they would've spent a chunk of preproduction sorting and planning out the seasons.

[@Asturiau]

I read some of the books and enjoyed them. However, I did not enjoy this Amazon version of WoT. I feel like it was rushed, not well put together, and tried to make it like GoT. It was soo bad and left me with soo many questions, why they even tried to make a tv series to begin with. It left me confused, including how they visualized the Blight being less scary looking like a forest from Snow White. Might as well add in sleeping beauty into it as well. They should of discontinued it, we now know who the Dragon is and he didn't much anyways so Season 1 ended...

[@cm24624]

After the Rings of Power travesty I've gone back to revisit what made Wheel of Time so bad. Great overview.

[@clivewhitely4315]

Finally, I have heard someones who has been able to put to words how I feel. Not so somany of the others who have found this series so underwhelming

[@uglycaveman4732]

Spectacle vs Character driven Adventure is an argument at least as old as George Lucas vs. Gary Kurtz. Thats why we got a new death star + space battle + ewoks instead of something more like Empire strikes back. The argument that this is not for fans of the books but non-readers or people who have read it a long time ago and have forgotten is not true. I read this book in the middle 90s and I would have loved something that reminded me of the book instead of something that has the character interaction of a low level reality show, with the bad guys making it obvious from the first scene, what took me years of reading to unravel.

[@MrMutterbug]

Rafe is a self proclaimed feminist. Explains much if not all of his choices..

[@neiltaylor513]

I distrust (men) who declare themselves as feminists. I have loads of strong willed women friends, many in charge, managers etc. I’ve never heard one call themselves a feminist.

[@MrMutterbug]

@@neiltaylor513 Male feminists tend to be creeps in my experience..

[@carrained]

@@MrMutterbug in mine too. why would he even add the burning of aes sedai, that’s a really odd choice instead of just going with the punishments and awful scenes already in the books.

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

One of the benefits of being a fan of grimdark fantasy is I don’t have to worry about my favorite series getting ruined because most of them are too graphic and explicit for television lol.

[@firefield28]

Heard the one about potentially female Space Marines in the Warhammer 40k universe?

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

@@firefield28 I haven't haha. I was referring to grimdark in general, not just warhammer. The only warhammer series I've read are Gotrek and Felix, Malus Darkblade and some Drachenfels books.

[@efeozdural1857]

First of all, the show is going to get cancelled before we get season four, or during season four. The production team will see to that. There isn't any hope that the show will actually get better, it can only get worse.

[@firefield28]

The only other thing I got from the show, apart from your excellent points, is that men are the problem, women the solution. It was so steeped in the need to make this so PC that it's fallen flat on its face with fans.

[@bobross1829]

This season really incapsulated everything wrong with modern adaptions. Not only did they change surface things for "modern audiences" (which can at least be put aside if the story is still good) BUT they actually changed the story for it, which is unforgiveable. I did not read the books but know of the plot and this show basically wore its agenda on its sleeve that women were good and should do every good thing in the plot, and men were all evil or dumb. That is not The Wheel of Time, at all. What is more egregious is the actual story already had more than enough female characters doing awesome things and were strong, and that somehow was not enough for them. That is truly astounding. As a non-book reader, even I could see something was very off about five untrained women destroying a large evil army where others also have pointed out, logistically made no sense. (so all the army died for ? reason? Why was the city even preparing for battle if five women could do this?). The power displayed was clearly meant for the dragon, anyone could see that. But that would mean an icky guy (who is only the most important character in the whole story) would be seen as doing something awesome. And the rest of your criticism is also 100% on. The bottle episodes about nothing the lack of development for characters not named Morraine, it was all just terrible. The flashback to 3000 years before showing a perfect Eden was basically saying that this dude just torched the world because he was an idiot. It was very insulting.

[@guymatthews9389]

An utter butchering of the books by an arrogant showrunner who has less story telling skill in his entire being than Robert Jordan had in his little finger. Shame on Amazon for facilitating this mess, shame on people for streaming it and giving Amazon reason to keep going.

[@badgerdad6690]

As long as people watch, they'll keep making it no matter how bad it gets. How a showrunner for a series like this could publicly diss the fans repeatedly and think that's acceptable...it's like Dr. Who when the ratings fell and they blamed the 'misogynist fanbase'. So self righteous in echo chambers, they have no idea how they sound.

[@alexross1816]

I find it weird. Yes, the Dark One was able to fuck with mens' magic because of their arrogance, but the whole point was not because men are inherently arrogant, but because they decided they no longer needed to work together. One of Jordan's biggest, least subtle messages is how only by men and women working together can the world truly become better. One of my favorite conversations was between Egwene and Moiraine, when Moiraine defended saidin users, saying they were ill, not inherently evil.

[@vortex_g1460]

I watched all of the 1st season except I basically stopped watching on episode 8 after the Eye Of the World battle. I might of had 10 minutes left and just stopped because of how disgusted I was.

[@tratzum]

Excessive male bashing makes me think it was written by angry feminists

[@badgerdad6690]

That's cause it was...though it was worse than angry, it was calculated with intent. That they downplayed the male/female dynamic core to the story is not an accident.

[@terryrogers8304]

I tried to get people to quit watching this travesty after 3 episodes, when it became apparent that the adaptation was not going to tell Robert Jordans story, but some Hollywood version of what those wanted the story to tell in some modern revisionist version. My contention was that if enough people watched this crap, then it would get another season and once it had 2 seasons or more, no one would ever make the effort to do a better version. I failed and people watched it. Now, we are doomed to never getting a proper adaptation. We will be stuck with this junk. It will not attract new readers unless they read reviews like yours and realize that the books were so much better. HBO or some other creator with large pockets will never come along and have someone do this correctly, because Amazon has already tried and failed.

[@badgerdad6690]

It's a shame they already announced season 3 when 2 had so little input from fans. Given how episode 8 went...I'd be surprised we see this improve :(

[@adelelokker5249]

I came here for the comments - I cant even bring myself to watch this video, despite having little doubt I'll agree with every sentiment. These books got me through such a dark period in my life, I'm honestly afraid this travesty will ruin rereading the greatest epic fantasy ever written - built on the world of the greatest fantasy ever written. The build up to its release and theatrical trailers filled me with such disappointment. I still struggle to get the face of the actor they chose for Rand out of my head. Glad the true fans reflect the same feelings. And on a sardonic last note: Moiraine shouldn't look like she needs a walking stick to get across a room :D

[@PantheraOnca60]

Dead right on. I've read the book series more than once -- the first several volumes at least a half dozen times -- and what they've done with this story is an atrocity. A four million word saga is going to need some serious adaptation, but that is no excuse for shoddy storytelling. All three of your hermeneutics hit the nail squarely on the head. It's a bad show, which is a disappointment, since I was looking forward to seeing it brought to the screen.

[@FiliusFidelis]

You mentioned a big budget several times, just what kind of budget are we talking about? Because at no time did I get that impression watching it, if anything it often felt rather low budget. And also it is def not Wheel of Time, it is inspired by them, all too often EXTREMELY loosely inspired.

[@wolfereignowns1154]

Given the total money they had for the season it averaged out to about 10 mil an Ep.

[@badgerdad6690]

They threw the ~$10mm/episode around to build hype, I never saw clarified that those dollars were just for the show and not part of the marketing. Further, a big budget doesn't mean much if they aren't managing their resources. That shows with smaller budgets have landed in much better visual shape is not something easily brushed aside. And now while they are saying they have more money for season 2, with inflation and questions about season 1, I'm not optimistic. We'll see in 2022.

[@ElwoodPDowd1970]

@@badgerdad6690 Hard to say, but I believe the $100 million, with a qualification. Amazon had to make available to the public the amount of money they spent in the Czech Republic to qualify for a tax break/subsidy for filming there. They apparently spent at least the equivalent of $75 million in the Czech Republic alone. You can find articles about this document via a quick google. I'd post links but I never know when KZbin eats them or allows them. Contra that, Amazon also built their own studio from the ground up in or maybe near Prague, which will in all likelihood be useful to them long after Wheel of Prime is done. The costs of that studio would likely have inflated the show's budget if that's how they allocated it. Yes, it is useful for the show, but no, it is not something most shows do. And it doubtless has a useful life of at least ten, probably 20 or more years.

[@dominiquecharriere1285]

Didnt see it, wont see it because it seems the causes of the failure are very similar to those of the witcher: zero respect for the material source and political agenda: ultra-feminism (when the story should have been men+women alliance to win), ridiculous diversity that makes the set up of the story hard to follow (every settlement looks the same and more diverse than today's central Paris!). Thanks for your video, you saved me a lot if time!

[@richydraws]

well said bro Taishar Manetheren

[@petmensan]

I think you are being way to kind.

[@MattGarZero]

Rafe: I wanna tell RJ's story Also Rafe: StEpIn

[@jamesalexander958]

Not defending this terrible show, but Robert Jordan did create a world where men and women are divided, opposing each other. The white tower has been abusing power for thousands of years, and women think the one power sets them above everyone else. The worst sin of the show is a lack of stoic manliness, which is in defiance of the imbalance. Lan crying was pure assassination

[@tomb6617]

When wokeness is the goal, the story will always suffer

[@derylminnich2489]

Well said. Show was a total failure. Sad, with all that source material and budget.

[@flankspeed]

One way you might judge a TV show or a film might be, "Will it bring people to the books?" I haven't read the books, and this show hasn't convinced me that those books are worth the not-inconsiderable investment of time. The characters are unmemorable; the dialogue, and what should be *very* world-specific language, is utterly mundane : for example, undercover agents of evil are called, what, "dark-friends"? WHAT?!? Well, I'm sorry, but any inquisition of the sort running around in any fleshed-out world would come up with another more unique name for them, probably after the thousandth case of mistaken identity, so they weren't wasting their time on the dark-skinned, -haired, or -eyed proportion of the populace, which appears to be at about 99%. The casting and/or direction is hilariously bad. The 5 riverlands people are constantly supposedly recognised in-show by other characters because, 'their accent marks them out straight away'. HA!! 😄 The five of them sound *less like each other than most people they meet!!* The one bloke who's soooo unusual because he has red hair, compared to the ethnic smorgasbord in their one, tiny village? This stuff is brutally, unintentionally funny. It's clearly just words on a page with not much thought having gone into how societies form, or organisations work, or what accents even are. And the magic is unforgiveably boring. Somebody waves their arms about and some whitish glitter moves about. Yeah, big wow. That's all the imagination this author has? Ah, no wait: in the books it's different 'threads' of glitter in some prettier colours. Great, all the visual impact of the product of a sewing-machine. They are in a FANTASY WORLD, but they just plod about using the sort of modern language you'd hear at a Whole Foods shop, with the sole exception of Moraine's hilarious, pornstar-level propensity for the imperative "Come!" , which is so out of place that I turned it into a drinking game after 4 episodes: every time I or someone else sniggered, we had to take a shot 🥂 The entire thing sounds and looks like a bad high school D&D-knockoff game that somebody inexplicably threw $80 million-worth of CGI at.

[@WarpedLord]

Alternate Title: Amazon's Wheel of Time S1 is an Aggressively Mediocre Show with an Shockingly Inept and Terrible Final Episode.

[@thelestrangelair]

They let a no name write it with hardly any experience, considering what he's taking on. Lies about how much he likes the series. All these wokes who ruin shows lie then seem surprised when people are enraged. The books were amazing, the Amazon show dull, boring, bad writing, not good characters and Where are the Chosen! Hardly mentioned and Ishamael rides in at the end on a dark horse of Meh. Very depressing as he's so wonderful to behold and so much more could've been done. Badgers rule, btw. Very bad rad! I'd have played a fantastic Semirhage, btw. (evil cackles_ Bellatrix L

[@askabulov]

I agree with everything. Good video

[@badgerdad6690]

Thanks!

[@mattmatthewmatchuu]

Sorry badger dad, i followed this shit 2 years only to see garbage. Made me restart eye of the world for a 4th time however

[@badgerdad6690]

Always have the books, they can't take those.

[@mattmatthewmatchuu]

@@badgerdad6690 well book burning is a thing

[@PAZATRONVEGAS]

Same here. I had to start reading Eye of the World to get the stench of this screen adaptation off me. Feel so much better.

[@StjepanKralj]

I think ,for a non reader, the biggest problem is the poor acting and the costume design which is too clean and fake looking.

[@oliveremmettknox7776]

Amazon Prime's Wheel of Time is better than Seda's adaptation of Wheel of Time'TV adaptation of Winter Dragon (2015).

[@DLeeSwagger]

It really is sad they messed this up.

[@elanmorintedronai9562]

Great video, you nailed it.

[@badgerdad6690]

Glad you liked it, another coming next couple of weeks.

[@travisroth4759]

Your so right!! The writing destroyed the film.

[@badgerdad6690]

It's unfortunate, and nothing Rafe has said recently makes it sound like anything will change. Given this show is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it's incredibly frustrating.

[@ErnestasR-gx3nx]

Stupidest thing was racial divercity in isolated village...that village seemed like modern New York. American shows have big budgets, but small woke minds. Lots of money down the drain

[@customsongmaker]

Only 8 episodes, but they managed to add 12 new scenes of women being abused

[@badgerdad6690]

And remove at least 3-4 major scenes where a man does something vitally important. The worst was the final episode, where they stole away Rand's chance to finally show what the Dragon can be, just to make Egwene and Nynaeve have yet ANOTHER super saiyan 'only women can do important things' scene.

[@annamiau8116]

Even from someone who hasnt read the books; this was uba trash. So bad writing. One of the last episodes just literally nothing happens and it suddenly is some teen soap opera. It is interesting in its failure.