THE HYPE REBORN - Wheel of Time, Episode 7 Discussion

The big reveal is here! Show-only peeps, is it who you thought it would be?
Book readers..please avoid spoilers if I "missed" them. 90% chance I glossed over things to avoid losing tension in the coming episode/seasons.
Please keep in mind that this rating is meant to be on a potential series spectrum, not for the season! Long term I think there will be so many great, outstanding, and masterpieces that even a solid one like this could pale against.

[@100Companions]

Kevin to Kevin. That Blood Snow fight is one of the greatest fight scenes I've ever watched. Absolutely spectacular. The actress/stunt actor who did that is named Magdalena Sittova.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

Was happy to see her interacting with fans on ToT yesterday!

[@breese42]

There is a deleted scene with Padan Fain holding a leaf when he comes out of the ways. I get they're building the mystery about him but this scene would have answered a lot of questions book readers have about the Ways. But I still have to say this is up there with episode 4 as my favorite, and this comes from someone who's read the books five times.

[@tbakke125125]

I'm sure we get Padan's explanation next Ep how he did everything

[@Kevinbaconator_]

I'm episode 5,7,4 in order of favorites currently. 5 is just above 7 but im sure is subject to change

[@Kevinbaconator_]

I have predictions but obviously not spoiler free. 🙄 poop

[@alananimus9145]

The Mat being darker was actually something from book 1 but it came from Ba'alzamon. Jordan changed the direction of Mat later.

[@jlovell40831]

All signs pointed to Rand. Having never read the books, and knowing that there have been some changes for the show, I found the reveal somewhat anticlimactic in a way. That said, it worked. That opening sequence though. Awesome! Plus the overall storytelling is quite well done. I particularly enjoy the way the show is directed in the quiet moments with the subtleties of movement and expression telling the story as much as the action and dialogue. I'm enjoying the ride. There are some clunky bits but it really doesn't take away from the journey. Kinda cool if you ask me.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

Thanks for the non reader perspective. Please feel free to share your opinions on each episode in comments!

[@justin-md4xm]

My favorite episode so far. Tons of worldbuilding and character building in one episode Loved it.

[@alananimus9145]

Thanks for the review. long term hard core fan who loves this show. It's nice to see book readers that get it. Looking forward to your episode 8 review. It's actually become my favorite since I first I have rewatched it about a dozen times (seen every episode that much at least). For me over time the fact that the episode feels like such a rushed hot mess, it just makes it feel more like tEoTW. Even when it's fixed storyline wise it should still feel like a hot mess.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

appreciate it. working on throwing the edit together tomorrow. 8 wasn't my favorite tbh, but I definitely understand they were facing a lot of inconveniences trying to get it completed, and also there's a lot of set up we won't understand until s02 or s03.

[@alananimus9145]

@@Kevinbaconator_ for me this was the impossible season. There were so many hard decisions to make and so much to setup. The thing that bothers me is how disconnect book reader reactions are compared to non book reader's. I cannot wait for the Warder episode payoff early next season. Two words. Alanna Sedai

[@Grumpy_Rabbit]

It doesn't necessarily bother me if the show asserts X, Y or Z, provided the books don't contradict the show. Conversely, it doesn't necessarily bother me if the show asserts X but the books assert not(X): It's not impossible for a contradiction between the books and the show to be an improvement over the books. It's just that if it's not an improvement, and not clearly justified by the necessary differences between a TV show and a book, then it will bother me.

[@Grumpy_Rabbit]

Seems I've missed comments by characters in every episode so far. Often, it's only by watching reviews/reactions that I can become aware of what I've missed.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

I always turn subtitles on for my rewatch. There's a ton of dialogue I miss without them.

[@matslarsson6919]

The love triangle scene was indeed very annoying. We have had so few scenes with (almost) all the Two Rivers folk together, so this scene felt like such a waste. Many show fans rank this ep very high but for me it was just ok. Not enthusiastic about the finale to be honest. The season has felt very disjointed and weirdly paced. Rosamund Pike is the main reason it kind of works at all. I hope they step up their game in the next season, otherwise I have a hard time seeing this show lasting to the finish line. I don't think I will get another WoT adaptation in my lifetime so I hope they succeed. What makes me somewhat hopeful is that there are a lot of epic stuff happening in the story after book 1. The first book is mostly setup. If the show lasts to the awesome events of books 4-6... then the hype could get bloody real!

[@Kevinbaconator_]

I do believe this is primarily a world building season, but unfortunately I barely care about our core characters. they did a good job introducing the world and the tower and some of the systems, but seem to have forgotten to make me care about rand, mat, egwene (perrin and nynaeve have gotten some love) and I feel like that may take away from some of the events that happen in season 2, or books 2&3. on the bright side, i think its making money regardless, so they have time to iron things out. My rankings are based on what i consider the potential for this series to reach. 10 would be the absolute best moments in the wheel of time being nailed perfectly. So I really couldn't go above a 6 on this one. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't that level of outstanding that I am hoping for next week.

[@katarein3243]

Perrin having a thing for egwene was menchened breafly in book one.. i believe it was around the time they were with the tinkers.. it was never talked about again of course.. but that much was in the book.. But yes.. its annoying there not giving us a reason to like the main charaters... theres barly any charater building.. and you learn alllmost more about the show by reading amazons prime info then you do watching the show.

[@justin-md4xm]

I have a feeling Min won't show up much more.

[@trevorsinclair3425]

6! Harsh!

[@bidossessi]

The reveal puzzled me. As far as the show goes they haven't established that the dragon reborn has to be Aiel, has to be a man, has to be born on Dragonmount. They've not even made channeling a requirement, just to keep the "mystery" going. So now the reveal falls flat, because as far as we know, none of the "clues" Rand remembers have ANYTHING to do with being the 🐉... Unless... you've read the books. So they fix that by having Min and MashinShin infodump it out loud. Really underwhelming.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

Valid criticism. The scene when moiraine argues with siuan about the validity of the foretelling they heard ads in to this too. To me it's not worth it to try and fool new fans.

[@WESTERNSandWizards]

They didn't establish channeling was essential to the DR? Lets see, in the very first scene Moiraine says, and I'm paraphrasing, men with great power broke the world and the man responsible they named Dragon. Mat, in EP 2 asks, "The dragon, reborn? The most powerful channeler to ever live? Then there's the whole Logain plotline of ep 4. In particular, Alanna wonders if they might end up gentling the Dragon before Tarmon Gaidon, not to mention Moiraine says to Logain, your power will be a trickle compared to the power that will be the DR. Plus, right before entering the waygate M says she's taking the DR to finish what what was started in the DR's previous life. I mean, what more do u want? Should they have broken the 4th wall, have M look directly into the camera, and say, " psst, the DR will need to be able channel"?

[@bidossessi]

@@WESTERNSandWizards Moiraine to Egwene in episode 6: "There is much we don't know about the dragon reborn, What shape she or he will take, what power they will wield." So yeah, I stand by what I said.

[@WESTERNSandWizards]

@@bidossessi I interpreted that to mean she didn't know what powers, in addition to being a channeler, the dragon would have, but u make fair point, and i could see where there might be some confusion. I guess I never thought much of it because the non book readers that I know, coworkers, family, and social media people, didn't seem to have a problem drawing the conclusion that the DR would be a channeler. And u do know make a good point about the part of the prophecy regarding the baby being born on dragonmount. I don't know how they get around that one.

[@OnlyInRushville]

Anyone else starting to get annoyed with the series depending on readers and bonus content to fill in the information for shitty editing and cuts?

[@Kevinbaconator_]

This is a topic I've been writing up for after the season is over. I shouldn't have to go to Amazon's web page bonus content as a new viewer to know what is going on.

[@bidossessi]

@@Kevinbaconator_ Really interested in that topic. I see a lot of people acting as if its expected behaviour, and it's got me confused and irritated really.

[@childrenoftolkien]

What hype? This show is awful. At least Witcher doesn't bore me with teen angst.

[@TheAutoimmuneDad]

Why do you even watch a review and comment on it? Just go have fun watching The Witcher.

[@OnlyInRushville]

@@TheAutoimmuneDad It's called fragile male ego. They can't handle others enjoying something they dont. So they go around screaming their impotent rage into the void trying to darken everyone's day. They really just make me laugh cause they are so obviously betas.

[@matslarsson6919]

@Dovie Andi you don't understand! They are freedom fighters waging righteous war against the world spanning conspiracy that has megacorporations forego their profit incentives to instead waste billions of dollars on political propaganda that is intended to atrophy all male reproductive organs, destroy people's childhoods and set fire to the cultural treasures that are the foundation of civilization. The proof? Just you wait! Amazon will go broke any day now.

[@Kevinbaconator_]

they're literally teenagers in the books, and JUST outside of that in the show. They're brats for the better part of the beginning of the series.

[@fredrikhansson9439]

Why are u still watching a show u think is awful?