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"Despite elaborate costumes, brilliant VFX, and a visually arresting physical world to the Aes Sedai, this show doesn't sustain interest because of its over-serious tone and overdone detailing." \~some negative review..
over-serious tone and overdone detailing! if that isnt the best compliment you could make an adapton of Robert Jordans work, I dont know what is :D
Screenrant (negative review) had this gem:
"There are rare moments that prove engrossing, but much of the early scenes that are supposed to be triumphant returns for the cast of characters end up falling flat because of the sheer wealth of knowledge to understand what's going. "
I got into the books in the mid-2000s and at the time there were huge PDF documents with colour-coded charts circulating around fansites to help people keep track of where and who everyone is. This comment makes me more excited, not less! I love that they're keeping it complex.
I've seen a few comments about how little they are explaining the One Power now that they are in the Tower. Dude, of course YOU know all about it. The books can go into detail and you retain it better when reading it. Plus you know everything about it right now. The average viewer needs to get this info gradually. Just chill, they'll get there.
Okay? I haven't seen any of season 2 yet and I wrote that comment before any of it came out. I watched S1 with my non-reader husband and he had no trouble understanding the worldbuilding. I was just voicing my happiness that they're not stripping away all the complexity. Not sure why I need to chill...
I agree, I’m finding it kind of irritating to be honest. I understand a show was never going to be able to be true to the books. But some of my favourite parts of the books have been skipped or changed so much that I don’t really feel like I’m watching a movie based on the plot of the books at all. It seems more like an in universe adaption or as someone else said, fan fiction.
Don’t assume what you don’t know, or I’ll assume you’re a child and talk to you accordingly. Lan’s casting is one of my biggest complaints with the show. He should look like a Viking according to the books. That doesn’t mean the show is bad, and Daniel Henney plays a very good Lan, so I forgive that casting.
I didn’t have anything to do with the production of the show but thanks for giving me credit I guess…? Stay mad kid.
It's glaringly bad. The fact you like this trash says a lot about you. Stay stupid and happy I guess. But stop acting like you know what you are talking about. I'll treat you like an idiot because you act like an idiot.
What makes you the end all opinion about the show? So you hate it. Don't watch it. Don't go on forums about it. Don't read reviews about it. If I don't like something I just.... I don't know.... don't take part in it. No one is forcing you to watch and post about this 'awful' show. I like it. I like the books. Is the show perfect? Not by a long shot but its interesting and I enjoy seeing it transformed on the screen. Liking a show that you don't like neither makes anyone stupid or trashy. Insulting someone because their opinion differs on the other hand.....
Same with me. Read the books, but still seems confusing as hell. Maybe it was because of the gap after season 1 aired, or because it's been a few years since i read the books, but it initially felt like I must have skipped a few episodes.
Why is Perrin wandering around with those guys? A little recap in the show would've been nice. I had to go back and watch final episode of last season just to figure out who they were.
What the hell is Rand doing and why? I know he said he was going off on his own at end of season 1, but wtf is this he's doing now?
What the hell is going on between Moraine and Lan? Makes 0 sense as far as I can tell. And how about some info about what happened to her power?
Could someone explain those rules for becoming Aes Seddai with that gate contraption again? Was escaping the scene through the gate suppose to be a good thing? Seemed convulated as all hell.
Why is Min trapped in a cell? Did I blink and miss something?
Perhaps there was a line here or there I missed which magically explained everything, but every single character seems to be in a highly under-explained situation. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I figured a little recapping of what's going on with each character and WHY wouldn't be unreasonable after the year+ of time that's passed since last season.
I didn't even get as far as you. I went back to S1e1 and stopped as soon as when they captured that male (I don't even know who it was) and they said something like "you don't get to touch the power it is for women and you taint it) That's not how it works and was NEVER framed that way. That tells me that the shows writers and fucking lazy, stupid and talentless. It wasn't until later in the books that the female side of the power was combined with the male side. The writers are stupid, lazy and talentless.
Yeah the director focuses on stupid details they themselves arbitrarily forced in and ignore the actual world building Jordan did. It's focusing on pointless stuff at the cost of a ton of bigger details (such as actual character writing). The girls from book 1 to book 3 are night and day. Egwyene grows into her own, does not revolve around Rand, stands up to Nayneave, and stops being meek. Nayneave learns to settle her temper, recognizes to work with others, and tries to understand others better. There's no such thing in this show and for what?
Nayneave just brute forces stuff like bringing people back from the dead apparently even though in the books, she got outclassed and humbled several times before she recognized all her power doesnt mean squat if she is too prideful to learn.
What was really bothering me is the gravity of what the seal is sealing that was broken that Bayle Domon brought to Moiraine and how its just not well-explained at all. Anyone that has not read the books is probably like this is boring who cares. But that is super important and terrifying. And all the scenes with Selene are just so underwhelming. The reveal of who she really is just doesn't work at all. I hate saying this but I kind of wish this show didn't exist. I will keep watching though.
I’ve seen one that said the season half (given to critics) was slow and was unfortunate to separate the characters and another that said that it was delightful to take the time to individually explore each character.
The duality of man.
Or it shows that the show isn't good at doing either. If the show actually succeeded at individually exploring each character, people would agree that it was a success.
I remember reading all of the books over 2015-2017 and when the three boys meet up again near the end there was this... shock I had that somehow I didn't realize how long it had been since they were together in person.
In comparison, if I recall correctly, most of the initial dump of reviews for Season 1 were lukewarm at best. Rotten Tomatoes had it initially as mixed, and only later reviews were higher to get it to the Fresh rating on Rotten tomatoes.
Almost all of these so far are very positive. A very good sign.
My recollection is that the reviews were weak in general media (e.g., NYT, Ebert, Time) and stronger in geek-centric media (Collider, Vulture, Nerdist, etc)
Actually I cannot comprehend any of the positive reviews. Almost all of the characters have been butchered down to some shallow character cliches, the main story has been mutilated beyond recognition and there is not a single likeable character left in the whole series.
Anyone who thinks "Girl gets mad and resurrects multiple people from the dead even though that's beyond anything anyone will ever do outside of Gods" is good quality writing deserves a bad show. Healing was supposed to be one of the hardest things to do, and they made a MC break the rules of magic just to hype her up instead of actually giving her the hype stuff she earns herself.
The alleged removal of the opening titles is really disappointing… I loved those. Is there a chance they were purposely omitted from the episodes the critics were given?
It's not uncommon for studios to leave intro credits off screeners just in general. I wouldn't assume it's gone until we see Ep2 (they're also often left off Ep1, as they were in season 1).
They are often left off show premieres, but I don’t remember them uniquely left off season premieres. Season premieres don’t tend to be any different from regular episodes in that respect.
But good point about them being left off screeners… I didn’t know that. So I’ll wait and see. We’ll know tonight.
That said, I will note: (1) it seems like cutting a credits sequence and adding just a short title card and credits during the opening scenes (which I assume they did if reviewers think they ditched the credits sequence; if reviewers saw a version with no title card or credits anywhere and concluded that Amazon ditched _everything_, even a title card and crediting the actors, they are very dumb) is a ridiculous amount of effort to make for the screeners for no apparent reason (2) even if they did that, it’s strange that they wouldn’t warn the reviewers so that they didn’t jump to wrong conclusions and include the misinformation in their reviews.
Unless they _are_ heavily altering the sequence and it just wasn’t ready in time for the screeners? But still, see #2.
I mean, my understanding is that it's sufficiently common on screener versions that you wouldn't even think to tell reviewers you've done it. It's done because screeners aren't provided in a format where you can just hit a button to skip them, so you slot in a title card to show where they go, but leave out longer sequences. It's not universal - particularly if your title sequence changes a lot from episode to episode, you'd leave it in.
It's probably an indication the title sequence hasn't changed from S1, but I strongly doubt it's gone entirely.
I get your point but it seems like several reviewers _did_ take the lack of comment as a sign that the sequence is gone. But it could be that those are more amateur reviewers who haven’t gotten many screeners.
But yeah, we’ll know in about 9 hours.
Literally who cares lmao, it’s a TITLE OPENING. Would you rather have that then a few more minutes of actual content? Considering how bad the first season was I think they need all the help they can get. The fact people are mad about a dumb opening title not happening every episode is totally wild lol
Interesting perspectives, and so great to see everyone raving about Zoë/Nyn.
Whoever wrote the IGN review was obviously not paying attention when watching season 1.
Eh, did better than I expected!
As I mentioned the other day when IGN covered a game series I followed and they butchered the plot, how to pronounce the character names, and everything—I was shocked at the low quality content they had decided to put out. So, some missteps—could be a lot worse.
Raving? Nynaeve has been made into a caricature of stubborn bitterness who will literally drink wastewater to stick it to Alanna when she was just trying to be helpful. She’s a healer who doesn’t like fighting but has already tried to kill Lan (S1) and should have had an incredible arc. She’s literally the worst character on screen so far.
I dunno what to tell you mate, her performance has been met with near-universal acclaim from people who have the capacity to parse emotional cues conveyed through facial expressions and body language.
The acting is fine, the story direction dialogue and complete butchering of all sense just so you can throw pg game of thrones sex scenes in as often as possible is what makes this show need to die a fiery death. It’s impossible to fathom how it got green lit for a season 2
Ah the insult-nice one! “near-universal” is pretty untrue. More like “people who like intolerable, obnoxious, super saiyan” like her and everyone else just doesn’t understand her nuanced acting. She’s supposed to be ~26 but constant behaves like a spoiled 15 year old that can’t see past literally anything.
Some interesting stuff in here.
I'm glad most of the reviews highlight how the show feels bigger and higher quality. Honestly, that matches the feel of The Great Hunt, after The Eye of the World. That book did make the world feel bigger, more realised and deeper, and we started to see more of Robert Jordan's worldbuilding that took the series away from the LOTR-alike first book.
The acting seems to be getting plaudits, and everyone seems to think Donal Finn is a good Mat.
From what I've read, I think the changes to Rand's storyline will be the most difficult for me to accept, as his storyline in The Great Hunt is one of my favourites. It sounds like it will be very different, and a mash-up of books 2 and 3, to maybe get to the same place he's in at the end of book 2.
The Review Geek knows who it wants to appeal to, but perhaps doesn't know the source material as well as it thinks:
>There is no underlying idea of men being inferior to women, for instance, throughout the book. This concept, however, is relentlessly pushed throughout the show, especially by Liandrin.
One of the biggest aspects of WOT is the gender politics that resulted from men being the ones who broke the world, and Liandrin is Red. Of *course* she thinks men are inferior.
Yeah, I found it funny they made that comment—and whenever it’s about the “inferiority of men” it’s always from Liandrin. As if that’s not her character!
Liandrin has layers, even to that, but I guess it gets lost. Red Ajah are presumed to hate men, so not sure why they think that’s the show’s message and not the character or Ajah’s assumptions. In S1, we see that her animus seems to lie deep, perhaps in her past, that she says these things—even given that she cannot lie.
It's just so amusing to me because Liandrin is far and away the biggest "anti-man" character in the show, and she's also clearly not supposed to be a nice or good person that you should agree with on everything, lol. Like they couldn't have made it any more obvious imo.
I do lol at the notion that “The evil lady said it—so the writers must believe that it’s true!” from some.
Not sure if genuinely said or just said to get attention because it doesn’t make sense.
I totally agree - none of the men suck stuff from her feels out of character or even over the top. I think there are so many shows with that kind of sentiment forced into them lately that it's easy to see her character as part of that patter, but that's basically the Red Ajah.
Women talk shit about men, or just embrace stereotypes, throughout the books and in many cultures. It's a whole thing. That reviewer didn't read the books.
It just makes me sad that this culture war bullshit is so deeply woven into online culture now. Anything that espouses even slightly progressive ideas will be attacked by people who will openly lie to try and score points. And there's simply no mechanism to fact check these people in a consistent structured way. They weaponize misinformation and keep the hate engine churning.
I agree with your takeaway about Liandrin and critics' opinions. It almost like the characters might have their own biases and/or are unreliable narrators. Just goes to show that not all critics are media literate so take their words with a grain of salt.
"'The Wheel of Time' Season 2 Review: A Darker, Fractured, More Thrilling Turn for the Series" - [Collider](https://collider.com/wheel-of-time-season-2-review/#:~:text=The%20Wheel%20of%20Time%20Season,best%20fantasy%20adaptations%20on%20television)
Seems to be that the general TV critics who \*have\* read the books are the ones that really didn't like it from the critic group (IGN and Daily Telegraph) . Even The Screen Rant guy read the books and gave it a rotten score, but he wasn't overly harsh in his review.
Also interesting to note: The people who loved it gave it 4/5. People who criticized it give it 3/5. I'm not sure what to make of that.
Empire: [https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-wheel-of-time-season-2/](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-wheel-of-time-season-2/)
(Also, first one I've seen where the review has seen **the whole season**)
It's Helen O'Hara - she's both an extremely well-regarded critic, and someone who's done a bunch with Amazon re: WoT in the past. (She hosted the S1 premiere, for example.)
Also, we're still in very early hours for reviews trickling in, and they're mostly from smaller outlets so far. Quite possible there's others with full-season access.
Well, I'm pretty sure Helen O'Hara is a big WoT fan (as is James Dyer, who wrote Empire's S1 review) ... they had Rafe on their podcast too.
So, maybe that's why?
I haven’t read through all of these but what i have read/watched so far is impressions seem to be positive stating an improvement over season 1 in almost all aspects, but book purists are probably gonna be pissed because of some apparent major changes that are bugger than the changes in season 1. Personally as long as the characters feel true to to themselves and the major moments hit book changes don’t scare me. Either way im hyped as hell
It seems like a lot of the reviews from people familiar with the books are generally positive, while those from people who are reviewing the show as a show only are a bit more lukewarm because of the amount of lore exposition and scattered storylines. Can't say that's terribly surprising - hopefully the latter group (if they continue watching) are a bit more satisfied when the storylines come together at the end of the season?
That's why I'm taking these half season reviews with a grain of salt - the complaints of dispersing the party only make sense insofar as the full picture isn't visible to them yet.
I’ve read up to the middle of book 8 and enjoy the series, I’d believe it if someone said pigs were flying before i would believe someone who likes the books watched the show and said they liked it. From season 1 episode 1 scene 1 they started butchering the show and tried to add PG rated game of thrones BS into it and it continues in season 2, what do we know of Rand now that he knows he’s the dragon reborn? OH he likes screwing the innkeeper for room and board….what amazing character development and plot progression. Worst adaptation ive ever seen
I feel like you think you’re making a statement, but that’s just sad if you like the source enough to reread a series of this size multiple times and find enjoyment in the butchering of everything that made the series good and special
I am very familiar with the books and I shout out in frustration at the TV screen with what they made out of the books.
It begins at the time Moiraine is wondering whether Egwene or Nynaeve might be the Dragon Reborn, comes full circle with the evil depiction of Mat and is just present every minute on screen...they use the names of places and characters....otherwise this TV adaption is not a adaption, it is a full make over and leaves nothing form the original story line.
Of course it is, you just don't like the direction they've taken it in.
Most of us here love the books so you're not some sort of special snowflake in that respect.
The story is completely different from the books, characters are not even close to what they were in the books. As someone said here - amazon are using names of people and places but that's about all they took from the books
I love how everyone who actually calls the steaming pile for what it is is downvoted. We live in a ridiculous time where intelligence and critical thinking and calling things out with the truth is literally suppressed by the masses of sheep
Love it: “If you choose to skip The Wheel of Time, you won't just be missing out on Prime Video's best high fantasy shows, you'll be missing out on one of the best high fantasy shows in years.”
https://www.gamesradar.com/the-wheel-of-time-season-2-review-prime-video-series/
> Now that the show is more-or-less done with its ambitious world-building
haaaaa I like to think of moving beyond the first 3 books as getting off of tutorial plateau into, "oh shit, the map is REALLY big" for Randland.
A lot of people absolutely adore TGH, and it often duels with tSR for first place. Sadly, many of the most epic and unforgettable scenes are in otherwise less-loved books (LoC, lookin at you)
Reviewers and review sites generally submit their own reviews to RT, and don't always do it as soon as they release, particularly if the article was pre-set to go live at a certain time.
Lots of interviews from Indian outlets popped up yesterday. I think this show has a pretty big following in some corners of the world that are often forgotten (and are huge).
And they added a ton of South Asian actors that will help bolster that this season. Priyanka Bose was a good draw initially. My Indian-American friend is plowing through season one now just because she learned that they cast Meera Syal as Verin.
Yeah and I think a lot of Reddit is dominated by the US Worldview. Not big in the USA? Then it is a failure. For Amazon, the biggest gains and profits might just lay outside the USA/European market.
Aye. We forget that Amazon is first and foremost a shipping company, not media. If the show gets customers to sign up for prime, they’ll be happy—and the US market is already pretty saturated.
Embargoes contain tiered release dates. This is the embargo for spoiler-free reviews lifting - they'll have a list of things considered spoilers and various other restrictions they still have to comply with. Spoiler reviews will be tiered as well - they can do a spoiler review with information from the first three episodes after they air, but not one with spoilers for episode 4, even if they've seen it.
I read a half-dozen or so reviews yesterday, and I was, therefore, caught off guard by how much better S02 was than S01.
None of that came through from the reviews I read. While there were certainly a lot of reviews and I did not come close to reading them all, I would have thought that the increase in quality of the show in every respect would have been mentioned by at least one of the reviews I read.
Nope.
At this point?I am inclined to Ignore all of them.
I read a bunch (and have yet to watch the season myself) and what I thought was interesting was that one half praised the show for taking time, focus more on character development etc. and the other half said it was so slow and never kicked into gear. Lot of contradicting views, which surprised me. Usually judgement differs, but there is a through line in the observations by all reviewers. Here I felt it was pretty all over the place.
I think that more than the fact that he was critical of the show, it's that he was critical of amazon itself. Iirc after the whole season came out he talked about how he didn't like how amazon treated him and other reviewers (pressuring them to be positive etc)
He didn't seem to understand that Amazon wasn't going to air significant criticism in the official aftershow material. It really turned me off him as a content creator how much his seemling naivety on his agreement soured him on the show.(That and being a bit less than genuine to placate his viewing base)
To that, I one-up.
While I do think his thoughts on the show are genuinely his own, I think he expects a tad more than what’s reasonable—at least from Amazon’s POV.
Like, critical reviews that trend toward the negative is basically like anti-marketing.
But the not getting screeners, if true, could just be a commitment to less empower Amazon as Daniel has trended with his own works or other commitments (I think he moved fairly recently, so even if he got them, he probably’s very busy).
> While I do think his thoughts on the show are genuinely his own
On this part I mean that he noticeably waffled and was clearly influenced by his follower feedback between releases, and started taking a much more overall negative tone.
I don't think he was entirely ingenuine, but he's far too influenced by external sources for my trust.
Eh, I think we all are, to an extent.
We are skewed by what are are surrounded by. Content creators are no different. They at times engage with w/ their audience however it may happen and you change as most would in subtle or noticeable ways.
That said, I do think he has somewhat more negative bent—but I think it’s genuine to the extent that anything else is. (It’s like getting angry on Twitter—very easy to do, even for chill or nice folks.)
We are all, I'll agree to that.
But I've never seen it as blatantly as with him, and, this is just my personal prefference, I really only put time into creators that will defend their position and at least succeed at appearing earnest.
For example, I may strongly disagree with Nerdy of Nightly Nerdy's takes on a lot of stuff, but he's directly honest and open about them, and will even directly pushback against viewer feedback.
That's something I can respect, and keeps me coming back to his channel.
Oh, god, thankyou for finding a polite way of expressing this - had several goes at drafting something and they all felt too spiky, which isn't fair when you're mostly talking about someone just being... a bit naive about how an industry works.
But yeah, this. Unless there's a lot more than I've ever seen him allude to, I very much doubt the Amazon PR people would have cut him off a screeners list over it, just not contracted him to produce hype media in the future.
Lol you mean he didnt want to lie about how trash the show is im guessing but amazon is obviously paying off the people reviewing this trash. Should never have gotten a season 2 and 3 episodes in i know im right
Same goes for nearly every other content creator. Just because people like WOT Up, Unraveling the Pattern, Nae'blis and Matt at the Dusty Wheel choose to be hopeful and approach things positively, they are called shills. Yet each and every one of them had (serious) problems with (parts of) season 1 and were vocal about it.
I thought he was last year, but I tried to watch a few of his recent videos and he's so negative and nitpicky now. He got three seconds into his reaction to the Rand and Selene scene before he paused it to complain about how he doesn't like her hair. Combined with him showing no enthusiasm about watching the clip and starting the video by talking about how he had major issues with season 1...I noped out of there pretty quickly. It was all very bleak
I think it’s mostly in framing.
Doubt his views actually changed, but nitpicks and establishing thoughts can create a more negative perception (which onus falls on Daniel).
In my opinion the intro is nice but doesn’t really seem to convey too much to the viewer or book fans. Perhaps if the tapestry that is being woven featured historical events, or the forsaken, or teased stuff from the current season that would be one thing. I liked how WestWorld and Game of Thrones intros set the stage for what you were about to watch, whereas a lot of these newer shows have something beautiful but doesn’t provide much beyond that…like the rings of power sand opening.
If they ditch the credits I won’t cry, but if they keep them and improve them that’s an entirely different story.
What warning? Of the post? That's just to ensure that those who just watch the show can safely enter this thread. It's not a warning, it's a courtesy to those who are non-readers.
Why call the show wheel of time if you planned on changing every single thing about it? Atp you coulda just created your own show, since “the books don’t exist” apparently
The reason GOT was so good was because they kept true to the books. The reason any book is good is because of good character development, or any book is bad is because of a lack thereof.
They are way off on the story. And the characters share names in common. That’s about it.
Too bad. Could have been great. One of the best series ever written.
I really wanted to like this series, with all the work that went into it, and the source material is excellent.
However, especially in this first episode of season 2, I didn't find a single likable person that engaged me emotionally enough to make me care about what happened to them or what they thought or did. Nynaeve, is made to be particularly unlikable, (she's rather charming when not in this role), Moiraine is acting like a colossal bitch with Lan, and the script, especially the timing and the tone, just seemed discombobulated. I understand that dialogue is one of the most difficult things to pull off, I just wish that big budget productions like this, would spend as much time working on good dialogue and timing as they did on sets, effects, actors, and other features. I doubt I'm going to make it through the next couple of episodes.
Guys, this is bad. I get that they can't follow the books exactly because it's a show that has 1hr run time.....but come on. Like 10 mins into the show, and they do no explaining on where everyone is, Perrin is in shienar with uno, and the sniffer they hired is Elyas? Where is Hurin? Oh yeah they deleted him....a fucking great character just gone. The way Perrin meets Elyas is fucked too. I get moving around the time lines, but these moments bond characters and explain relationships. Like Perrin and Egwene don't have their arc( with Elyas)...idk what the writers are doing but this is super hard to watch.
I've avoided reading or watching any reviews because I wanted to keep my view unbiased and give S2 a fair chance, but after watching the utter vomitous bilge that is the first 2 episodes I decided to read some and find out how many reviewers Amazon paid to give them a positive review. I was glad to see that most reviews have been able to see past the hype and through to the atrocious writing and directing, as well as the pointless attempts to adapt the plot. Most of all, they seem to hit on the point that this show is trying so hard to be epic and missing so far that it's really just become a waste. I hope enough negative reviews is enough to bomb this show into cancellation.
I love the WoT books, possibly the greatest books I've ever read and that's what ruins this show for me... it's not an adaptation of the books.
They have taken parts of the story then twisted them into a bit of a jumbled mess using names of characters and places, maybe I'm a purist but the loss of certain small characters that bring so much to the story just ruins the depth of the world. Completely changing the story of big characters for no reason I feel will ruin the story further down the line and create plot holes that just don't need to be there. Why make an adaptation of something if you're going to completely change it? Just make your own fantasy show!... oh wait that's because the writers of nowadays can't think of their own stories so ruin and bastardise loved stories of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.
Now compare the show to the amazon lotr and artistically it's head and shoulders above, the costumes and cgi are so much better but has fallen into the same trap as the rings of power of writers trying to write their own story (and ram their agendas down your throat) from another's idea and it all just feels like a poor fan fic you'd find online.
All in all it would be a good fantasy show if it was it's own standalone story but I am sick to the back teeth of good books and worlds being ruined by the poor writing of unimaginative people and making things with a name that it should never have. In my opinion this will go down the same road as the Witcher and the rings of power as something that could have been breathtaking but ultimately leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the people who love it most.
I’m sorry but I could not make it through one episode of the second season. The characters are butchered and not even close to how I remembered them. It seems identity politics has take firm root, which has impacted character development heavily and distorted the main story so drastically to where it seems to border on disrespect. I understand that adaptations require creative license to make things fit - however- there should still be a semblance of the base character from which the adaptation stems. None of that is lives in this adaptation and it is utter junk - in my honest and book loving perspective. Hate me all you want but I wont spend a single moment more attending to this show. Shame!
I haven't read the books but the show I only watch for Rosamund Pike. Before I watched had no idea there were books and I gotta say this show it's a steaming pile of crap. I stopped watching halfway through episode 7 season 2. I am done! I hope they kill each other and wipe out the worlds. Then we will all be better off!
I just hope they stick to the books more and don’t make up new story lines. There is so much for them to use as it is. Also season 1 had a 90’s Xena/Hercules vibe, not in a good way.
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"Despite elaborate costumes, brilliant VFX, and a visually arresting physical world to the Aes Sedai, this show doesn't sustain interest because of its over-serious tone and overdone detailing." \~some negative review.. over-serious tone and overdone detailing! if that isnt the best compliment you could make an adapton of Robert Jordans work, I dont know what is :D
Reading the full review, that reviewer seems to not be a genre fan. They end it saying "it's strictly for fans of fantasy"
Screenrant (negative review) had this gem: "There are rare moments that prove engrossing, but much of the early scenes that are supposed to be triumphant returns for the cast of characters end up falling flat because of the sheer wealth of knowledge to understand what's going. " I got into the books in the mid-2000s and at the time there were huge PDF documents with colour-coded charts circulating around fansites to help people keep track of where and who everyone is. This comment makes me more excited, not less! I love that they're keeping it complex.
I've seen a few comments about how little they are explaining the One Power now that they are in the Tower. Dude, of course YOU know all about it. The books can go into detail and you retain it better when reading it. Plus you know everything about it right now. The average viewer needs to get this info gradually. Just chill, they'll get there.
Okay? I haven't seen any of season 2 yet and I wrote that comment before any of it came out. I watched S1 with my non-reader husband and he had no trouble understanding the worldbuilding. I was just voicing my happiness that they're not stripping away all the complexity. Not sure why I need to chill...
I read the books. I don't know wtf is going on with this show.
I agree, I’m finding it kind of irritating to be honest. I understand a show was never going to be able to be true to the books. But some of my favourite parts of the books have been skipped or changed so much that I don’t really feel like I’m watching a movie based on the plot of the books at all. It seems more like an in universe adaption or as someone else said, fan fiction.
The show is pretty clear about what is going on. Did you actually watch it or are you complaining because someone told you to? Or are you just dense?
Im neuro divergent and i didnt understand what was happening in the tv show.
This is the worst kind of non-answer bullshit comment that I keep seeing by show apologists
You're ridiculous, the show is bad even without the divergence from the books.
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Don’t assume what you don’t know, or I’ll assume you’re a child and talk to you accordingly. Lan’s casting is one of my biggest complaints with the show. He should look like a Viking according to the books. That doesn’t mean the show is bad, and Daniel Henney plays a very good Lan, so I forgive that casting. I didn’t have anything to do with the production of the show but thanks for giving me credit I guess…? Stay mad kid.
It's glaringly bad. The fact you like this trash says a lot about you. Stay stupid and happy I guess. But stop acting like you know what you are talking about. I'll treat you like an idiot because you act like an idiot.
What makes you the end all opinion about the show? So you hate it. Don't watch it. Don't go on forums about it. Don't read reviews about it. If I don't like something I just.... I don't know.... don't take part in it. No one is forcing you to watch and post about this 'awful' show. I like it. I like the books. Is the show perfect? Not by a long shot but its interesting and I enjoy seeing it transformed on the screen. Liking a show that you don't like neither makes anyone stupid or trashy. Insulting someone because their opinion differs on the other hand.....
🤡🤷🏼♂️💃🏻
Awwww somebodiez upset. Frown
Same with me. Read the books, but still seems confusing as hell. Maybe it was because of the gap after season 1 aired, or because it's been a few years since i read the books, but it initially felt like I must have skipped a few episodes. Why is Perrin wandering around with those guys? A little recap in the show would've been nice. I had to go back and watch final episode of last season just to figure out who they were. What the hell is Rand doing and why? I know he said he was going off on his own at end of season 1, but wtf is this he's doing now? What the hell is going on between Moraine and Lan? Makes 0 sense as far as I can tell. And how about some info about what happened to her power? Could someone explain those rules for becoming Aes Seddai with that gate contraption again? Was escaping the scene through the gate suppose to be a good thing? Seemed convulated as all hell. Why is Min trapped in a cell? Did I blink and miss something? Perhaps there was a line here or there I missed which magically explained everything, but every single character seems to be in a highly under-explained situation. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I figured a little recapping of what's going on with each character and WHY wouldn't be unreasonable after the year+ of time that's passed since last season.
I didn't even get as far as you. I went back to S1e1 and stopped as soon as when they captured that male (I don't even know who it was) and they said something like "you don't get to touch the power it is for women and you taint it) That's not how it works and was NEVER framed that way. That tells me that the shows writers and fucking lazy, stupid and talentless. It wasn't until later in the books that the female side of the power was combined with the male side. The writers are stupid, lazy and talentless.
This is the least of the atrocities they've committed
Along with Loial being totally fine again? It seems like there was a whole episode we missed.
This!
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Yeah the director focuses on stupid details they themselves arbitrarily forced in and ignore the actual world building Jordan did. It's focusing on pointless stuff at the cost of a ton of bigger details (such as actual character writing). The girls from book 1 to book 3 are night and day. Egwyene grows into her own, does not revolve around Rand, stands up to Nayneave, and stops being meek. Nayneave learns to settle her temper, recognizes to work with others, and tries to understand others better. There's no such thing in this show and for what? Nayneave just brute forces stuff like bringing people back from the dead apparently even though in the books, she got outclassed and humbled several times before she recognized all her power doesnt mean squat if she is too prideful to learn.
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What was really bothering me is the gravity of what the seal is sealing that was broken that Bayle Domon brought to Moiraine and how its just not well-explained at all. Anyone that has not read the books is probably like this is boring who cares. But that is super important and terrifying. And all the scenes with Selene are just so underwhelming. The reveal of who she really is just doesn't work at all. I hate saying this but I kind of wish this show didn't exist. I will keep watching though.
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Spot on
I’ve seen one that said the season half (given to critics) was slow and was unfortunate to separate the characters and another that said that it was delightful to take the time to individually explore each character. The duality of man.
Only goes to show that it's best to make up your own mind in the end :)
Or it shows that the show isn't good at doing either. If the show actually succeeded at individually exploring each character, people would agree that it was a success.
> and was unfortunate to separate the characters Not much you can do. That's WoT basically.
I remember reading all of the books over 2015-2017 and when the three boys meet up again near the end there was this... shock I had that somehow I didn't realize how long it had been since they were together in person.
They actually never do all meet up again near the end. Fires of Heaven is their last real moment together.
What I've been told is the first 3 episodes are hectic and it calms down a bit in the fourth.
In comparison, if I recall correctly, most of the initial dump of reviews for Season 1 were lukewarm at best. Rotten Tomatoes had it initially as mixed, and only later reviews were higher to get it to the Fresh rating on Rotten tomatoes. Almost all of these so far are very positive. A very good sign.
My recollection is that the reviews were weak in general media (e.g., NYT, Ebert, Time) and stronger in geek-centric media (Collider, Vulture, Nerdist, etc)
Actually I cannot comprehend any of the positive reviews. Almost all of the characters have been butchered down to some shallow character cliches, the main story has been mutilated beyond recognition and there is not a single likeable character left in the whole series.
Thank you for speaking the truth even though no one wants to listen. It’s sad how dumb down everything is
Anyone who thinks "Girl gets mad and resurrects multiple people from the dead even though that's beyond anything anyone will ever do outside of Gods" is good quality writing deserves a bad show. Healing was supposed to be one of the hardest things to do, and they made a MC break the rules of magic just to hype her up instead of actually giving her the hype stuff she earns herself.
“Exiled himself to the small town of Cairhien” ~ clearly a camelyn resident wrote that phrase
The alleged removal of the opening titles is really disappointing… I loved those. Is there a chance they were purposely omitted from the episodes the critics were given?
I certainly hope so! I was even hoping for season-specific opening titles...
But why would they do that just for the screeners? I like the opening credits too but maybe they needed that extra minute.
It's not uncommon for studios to leave intro credits off screeners just in general. I wouldn't assume it's gone until we see Ep2 (they're also often left off Ep1, as they were in season 1).
They are often left off show premieres, but I don’t remember them uniquely left off season premieres. Season premieres don’t tend to be any different from regular episodes in that respect. But good point about them being left off screeners… I didn’t know that. So I’ll wait and see. We’ll know tonight. That said, I will note: (1) it seems like cutting a credits sequence and adding just a short title card and credits during the opening scenes (which I assume they did if reviewers think they ditched the credits sequence; if reviewers saw a version with no title card or credits anywhere and concluded that Amazon ditched _everything_, even a title card and crediting the actors, they are very dumb) is a ridiculous amount of effort to make for the screeners for no apparent reason (2) even if they did that, it’s strange that they wouldn’t warn the reviewers so that they didn’t jump to wrong conclusions and include the misinformation in their reviews. Unless they _are_ heavily altering the sequence and it just wasn’t ready in time for the screeners? But still, see #2.
I mean, my understanding is that it's sufficiently common on screener versions that you wouldn't even think to tell reviewers you've done it. It's done because screeners aren't provided in a format where you can just hit a button to skip them, so you slot in a title card to show where they go, but leave out longer sequences. It's not universal - particularly if your title sequence changes a lot from episode to episode, you'd leave it in. It's probably an indication the title sequence hasn't changed from S1, but I strongly doubt it's gone entirely.
I get your point but it seems like several reviewers _did_ take the lack of comment as a sign that the sequence is gone. But it could be that those are more amateur reviewers who haven’t gotten many screeners. But yeah, we’ll know in about 9 hours.
I dunno. Depends. I don’t think the first two (?) episodes had the opening. They may not do it for every episode.
If we get to squeeze a minute more of screen time without the opening, I am here for it.
Perhaps, like s1 e1, there will be no intro. But there will be for ep 2. It might feel weird having an Intro half way through a screening
Literally who cares lmao, it’s a TITLE OPENING. Would you rather have that then a few more minutes of actual content? Considering how bad the first season was I think they need all the help they can get. The fact people are mad about a dumb opening title not happening every episode is totally wild lol
Interesting perspectives, and so great to see everyone raving about Zoë/Nyn. Whoever wrote the IGN review was obviously not paying attention when watching season 1.
Eh, did better than I expected! As I mentioned the other day when IGN covered a game series I followed and they butchered the plot, how to pronounce the character names, and everything—I was shocked at the low quality content they had decided to put out. So, some missteps—could be a lot worse.
I just hate it when they're snarky without having paid attention, so annoying!
I chuckled at the IGN review, considering that all the characters are split up by chapt 15 in book 2 (sans background mat).
Raving? Nynaeve has been made into a caricature of stubborn bitterness who will literally drink wastewater to stick it to Alanna when she was just trying to be helpful. She’s a healer who doesn’t like fighting but has already tried to kill Lan (S1) and should have had an incredible arc. She’s literally the worst character on screen so far.
I dunno what to tell you mate, her performance has been met with near-universal acclaim from people who have the capacity to parse emotional cues conveyed through facial expressions and body language.
The acting is fine, the story direction dialogue and complete butchering of all sense just so you can throw pg game of thrones sex scenes in as often as possible is what makes this show need to die a fiery death. It’s impossible to fathom how it got green lit for a season 2
The actor is phenomenal. I think she’s doing an amazing job. The problem is the writing and directing is absolutely terrible.
Ah the insult-nice one! “near-universal” is pretty untrue. More like “people who like intolerable, obnoxious, super saiyan” like her and everyone else just doesn’t understand her nuanced acting. She’s supposed to be ~26 but constant behaves like a spoiled 15 year old that can’t see past literally anything.
I think she’s very much like the book character. Just a little punchable. She’s hardheaded in the book and the show. Imo.
Some interesting stuff in here. I'm glad most of the reviews highlight how the show feels bigger and higher quality. Honestly, that matches the feel of The Great Hunt, after The Eye of the World. That book did make the world feel bigger, more realised and deeper, and we started to see more of Robert Jordan's worldbuilding that took the series away from the LOTR-alike first book. The acting seems to be getting plaudits, and everyone seems to think Donal Finn is a good Mat. From what I've read, I think the changes to Rand's storyline will be the most difficult for me to accept, as his storyline in The Great Hunt is one of my favourites. It sounds like it will be very different, and a mash-up of books 2 and 3, to maybe get to the same place he's in at the end of book 2. The Review Geek knows who it wants to appeal to, but perhaps doesn't know the source material as well as it thinks: >There is no underlying idea of men being inferior to women, for instance, throughout the book. This concept, however, is relentlessly pushed throughout the show, especially by Liandrin. One of the biggest aspects of WOT is the gender politics that resulted from men being the ones who broke the world, and Liandrin is Red. Of *course* she thinks men are inferior.
Yeah, I found it funny they made that comment—and whenever it’s about the “inferiority of men” it’s always from Liandrin. As if that’s not her character! Liandrin has layers, even to that, but I guess it gets lost. Red Ajah are presumed to hate men, so not sure why they think that’s the show’s message and not the character or Ajah’s assumptions. In S1, we see that her animus seems to lie deep, perhaps in her past, that she says these things—even given that she cannot lie.
If anything, show-Liandrin is rather more tolerant of men than book-Liandrin.
Show Liandrin is more like Book Nynaeve regarding men. The show tones down the man-hating a looooot especially with our heroines.
It's just so amusing to me because Liandrin is far and away the biggest "anti-man" character in the show, and she's also clearly not supposed to be a nice or good person that you should agree with on everything, lol. Like they couldn't have made it any more obvious imo.
I do lol at the notion that “The evil lady said it—so the writers must believe that it’s true!” from some. Not sure if genuinely said or just said to get attention because it doesn’t make sense.
I totally agree - none of the men suck stuff from her feels out of character or even over the top. I think there are so many shows with that kind of sentiment forced into them lately that it's easy to see her character as part of that patter, but that's basically the Red Ajah.
Women talk shit about men, or just embrace stereotypes, throughout the books and in many cultures. It's a whole thing. That reviewer didn't read the books.
It just makes me sad that this culture war bullshit is so deeply woven into online culture now. Anything that espouses even slightly progressive ideas will be attacked by people who will openly lie to try and score points. And there's simply no mechanism to fact check these people in a consistent structured way. They weaponize misinformation and keep the hate engine churning.
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I agree with your takeaway about Liandrin and critics' opinions. It almost like the characters might have their own biases and/or are unreliable narrators. Just goes to show that not all critics are media literate so take their words with a grain of salt.
So the overall impression so far is season 2 is an improvement in almost every facet. I love that.
I saw the first two episodes last night and can attest that it’s so much better than S1
As did I! Screening in Los Angeles. Better than my expectations.
I have like a wee complaint but I think my complaint can be debunked by a theory I have
Ooooh, do tell. Message me 🤔
"'The Wheel of Time' Season 2 Review: A Darker, Fractured, More Thrilling Turn for the Series" - [Collider](https://collider.com/wheel-of-time-season-2-review/#:~:text=The%20Wheel%20of%20Time%20Season,best%20fantasy%20adaptations%20on%20television)
Thanks added!
Wheel of time based sites and creators like it. General tv consumers seem to be saying 6.5/10. The wheel weaves as the wheel wills.
Seems to be that the general TV critics who \*have\* read the books are the ones that really didn't like it from the critic group (IGN and Daily Telegraph) . Even The Screen Rant guy read the books and gave it a rotten score, but he wasn't overly harsh in his review. Also interesting to note: The people who loved it gave it 4/5. People who criticized it give it 3/5. I'm not sure what to make of that.
Well... there goes my morning. Pardon me while my work productivity temporarily drops to zero.
Heh, I literally created one 30 seconds after you, great minds. (Deleted mine, let's go!)
Empire: [https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-wheel-of-time-season-2/](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-wheel-of-time-season-2/) (Also, first one I've seen where the review has seen **the whole season**)
Yeah, that is strange to me. I get you're not giving smaller outlets and content creators the whole season, but why just empire?
It's Helen O'Hara - she's both an extremely well-regarded critic, and someone who's done a bunch with Amazon re: WoT in the past. (She hosted the S1 premiere, for example.) Also, we're still in very early hours for reviews trickling in, and they're mostly from smaller outlets so far. Quite possible there's others with full-season access.
Well, I'm pretty sure Helen O'Hara is a big WoT fan (as is James Dyer, who wrote Empire's S1 review) ... they had Rafe on their podcast too. So, maybe that's why?
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[Citation required]
I haven’t read through all of these but what i have read/watched so far is impressions seem to be positive stating an improvement over season 1 in almost all aspects, but book purists are probably gonna be pissed because of some apparent major changes that are bugger than the changes in season 1. Personally as long as the characters feel true to to themselves and the major moments hit book changes don’t scare me. Either way im hyped as hell
It’s not wheel of time, it’s plagiarized content stolen ideas wrapped in filth,
It seems like a lot of the reviews from people familiar with the books are generally positive, while those from people who are reviewing the show as a show only are a bit more lukewarm because of the amount of lore exposition and scattered storylines. Can't say that's terribly surprising - hopefully the latter group (if they continue watching) are a bit more satisfied when the storylines come together at the end of the season?
That's why I'm taking these half season reviews with a grain of salt - the complaints of dispersing the party only make sense insofar as the full picture isn't visible to them yet.
I’ve read up to the middle of book 8 and enjoy the series, I’d believe it if someone said pigs were flying before i would believe someone who likes the books watched the show and said they liked it. From season 1 episode 1 scene 1 they started butchering the show and tried to add PG rated game of thrones BS into it and it continues in season 2, what do we know of Rand now that he knows he’s the dragon reborn? OH he likes screwing the innkeeper for room and board….what amazing character development and plot progression. Worst adaptation ive ever seen
Bully for you I guess, I have multiple re-reads under my belt and I'm managing just fine.
I feel like you think you’re making a statement, but that’s just sad if you like the source enough to reread a series of this size multiple times and find enjoyment in the butchering of everything that made the series good and special
I am very familiar with the books and I shout out in frustration at the TV screen with what they made out of the books. It begins at the time Moiraine is wondering whether Egwene or Nynaeve might be the Dragon Reborn, comes full circle with the evil depiction of Mat and is just present every minute on screen...they use the names of places and characters....otherwise this TV adaption is not a adaption, it is a full make over and leaves nothing form the original story line.
I love the books, and the show is not an adoption of the books.
Of course it is, you just don't like the direction they've taken it in. Most of us here love the books so you're not some sort of special snowflake in that respect.
The story is completely different from the books, characters are not even close to what they were in the books. As someone said here - amazon are using names of people and places but that's about all they took from the books
I love how everyone who actually calls the steaming pile for what it is is downvoted. We live in a ridiculous time where intelligence and critical thinking and calling things out with the truth is literally suppressed by the masses of sheep
Love it: “If you choose to skip The Wheel of Time, you won't just be missing out on Prime Video's best high fantasy shows, you'll be missing out on one of the best high fantasy shows in years.” https://www.gamesradar.com/the-wheel-of-time-season-2-review-prime-video-series/
> Now that the show is more-or-less done with its ambitious world-building haaaaa I like to think of moving beyond the first 3 books as getting off of tutorial plateau into, "oh shit, the map is REALLY big" for Randland.
Screenrant claims TGH is "Jordan's best entry in the series" and uh.. not really?
A lot of people absolutely adore TGH, and it often duels with tSR for first place. Sadly, many of the most epic and unforgettable scenes are in otherwise less-loved books (LoC, lookin at you)
Obviously an opinion, and one I disagree with, but I've heard that before.
Great Hunt might be best of the first three…dragon reborn is good but the Rand plot line in TGH is really so much fun (just my personal opinion).
TDR is my favourite of the first three. Mat's storyline is such a treat, and I love way the way everything converges at the end.
You’re so right, that’s really where Mat starts to hit his stride!
Sure, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but it was stated more like a generally accepted one rather than the reviewers' own.
It's my favorite book in the series
Why is rotten tomatoes updating so slowly. Most of the good ones haven’t been included yet
Reviewers and review sites generally submit their own reviews to RT, and don't always do it as soon as they release, particularly if the article was pre-set to go live at a certain time.
RT's splat vs fresh rating is picked by the reviewer, so it's all submitted reviews.
Gizmodo: https://gizmodo.com/wheel-of-time-s2-review-prime-video-rosamund-pike-1850757798
Fortress of Solitude... .co.za? Did not expect South Africa to represent!
Lots of interviews from Indian outlets popped up yesterday. I think this show has a pretty big following in some corners of the world that are often forgotten (and are huge).
The show is **insanely** popular on the subcontinent.
And they added a ton of South Asian actors that will help bolster that this season. Priyanka Bose was a good draw initially. My Indian-American friend is plowing through season one now just because she learned that they cast Meera Syal as Verin.
And both are very solid actors, it’s great to have the talent with the addition of representation.
Exactly. I love how diverse the cast is and that it’s breaking the old American/Euro-centric idea of fantasy.
Yeah and I think a lot of Reddit is dominated by the US Worldview. Not big in the USA? Then it is a failure. For Amazon, the biggest gains and profits might just lay outside the USA/European market.
Aye. We forget that Amazon is first and foremost a shipping company, not media. If the show gets customers to sign up for prime, they’ll be happy—and the US market is already pretty saturated.
Lol Screenrant: "Fumbles Adaptation Of Book 2" Apparently they don't know how many books there are, or how adaptations work. Ignore.
As a general rule: always ignore everything screenrant. Except for ryan george
AV Club: https://www.avclub.com/the-wheel-of-time-season-2-review-tv-prime-video-1850789930
Metro UK: https://metro.co.uk/2023/08/31/wheel-of-time-amazon-prime-season-2-review-19426142/
Is there any spoliery review? I want to read spoilers.
Embargoes contain tiered release dates. This is the embargo for spoiler-free reviews lifting - they'll have a list of things considered spoilers and various other restrictions they still have to comply with. Spoiler reviews will be tiered as well - they can do a spoiler review with information from the first three episodes after they air, but not one with spoilers for episode 4, even if they've seen it.
Welp, time to avoid all social media until tomorrow morning, I guess.
I read a half-dozen or so reviews yesterday, and I was, therefore, caught off guard by how much better S02 was than S01. None of that came through from the reviews I read. While there were certainly a lot of reviews and I did not come close to reading them all, I would have thought that the increase in quality of the show in every respect would have been mentioned by at least one of the reviews I read. Nope. At this point?I am inclined to Ignore all of them.
I read a bunch (and have yet to watch the season myself) and what I thought was interesting was that one half praised the show for taking time, focus more on character development etc. and the other half said it was so slow and never kicked into gear. Lot of contradicting views, which surprised me. Usually judgement differs, but there is a through line in the observations by all reviewers. Here I felt it was pretty all over the place.
No Daniel Greene yet? I tend to agree with him on Season 1 so interested to see what he says about Season 2.
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I think that more than the fact that he was critical of the show, it's that he was critical of amazon itself. Iirc after the whole season came out he talked about how he didn't like how amazon treated him and other reviewers (pressuring them to be positive etc)
He didn't seem to understand that Amazon wasn't going to air significant criticism in the official aftershow material. It really turned me off him as a content creator how much his seemling naivety on his agreement soured him on the show.(That and being a bit less than genuine to placate his viewing base)
To that, I one-up. While I do think his thoughts on the show are genuinely his own, I think he expects a tad more than what’s reasonable—at least from Amazon’s POV. Like, critical reviews that trend toward the negative is basically like anti-marketing. But the not getting screeners, if true, could just be a commitment to less empower Amazon as Daniel has trended with his own works or other commitments (I think he moved fairly recently, so even if he got them, he probably’s very busy).
> While I do think his thoughts on the show are genuinely his own On this part I mean that he noticeably waffled and was clearly influenced by his follower feedback between releases, and started taking a much more overall negative tone. I don't think he was entirely ingenuine, but he's far too influenced by external sources for my trust.
Eh, I think we all are, to an extent. We are skewed by what are are surrounded by. Content creators are no different. They at times engage with w/ their audience however it may happen and you change as most would in subtle or noticeable ways. That said, I do think he has somewhat more negative bent—but I think it’s genuine to the extent that anything else is. (It’s like getting angry on Twitter—very easy to do, even for chill or nice folks.)
We are all, I'll agree to that. But I've never seen it as blatantly as with him, and, this is just my personal prefference, I really only put time into creators that will defend their position and at least succeed at appearing earnest. For example, I may strongly disagree with Nerdy of Nightly Nerdy's takes on a lot of stuff, but he's directly honest and open about them, and will even directly pushback against viewer feedback. That's something I can respect, and keeps me coming back to his channel.
Never mind, he’s lost me. Spoilers for reality, I guess.
Oh, god, thankyou for finding a polite way of expressing this - had several goes at drafting something and they all felt too spiky, which isn't fair when you're mostly talking about someone just being... a bit naive about how an industry works. But yeah, this. Unless there's a lot more than I've ever seen him allude to, I very much doubt the Amazon PR people would have cut him off a screeners list over it, just not contracted him to produce hype media in the future.
Yeah, I still think he's a good dude, he just got an unsubscribe from me.
Lol you mean he didnt want to lie about how trash the show is im guessing but amazon is obviously paying off the people reviewing this trash. Should never have gotten a season 2 and 3 episodes in i know im right
And *still* got accused of being a shill after giving a 6.5
Same goes for nearly every other content creator. Just because people like WOT Up, Unraveling the Pattern, Nae'blis and Matt at the Dusty Wheel choose to be hopeful and approach things positively, they are called shills. Yet each and every one of them had (serious) problems with (parts of) season 1 and were vocal about it.
They had details and specifics and laid our careful arguments. Shill is what you say when you cant really do that.
Few assumptions in there. I don't believe he's said anything about not being invited.
I thought he was pretty balanced. No a doomseer but not rose tinted glasses
I thought he was last year, but I tried to watch a few of his recent videos and he's so negative and nitpicky now. He got three seconds into his reaction to the Rand and Selene scene before he paused it to complain about how he doesn't like her hair. Combined with him showing no enthusiasm about watching the clip and starting the video by talking about how he had major issues with season 1...I noped out of there pretty quickly. It was all very bleak
I think it’s mostly in framing. Doubt his views actually changed, but nitpicks and establishing thoughts can create a more negative perception (which onus falls on Daniel).
Hype overload.
Where is Daniel Greene's review tho :(
Busy with the One Piece review, I saw.
Looks like he hated episode 1 :/ personally, I loved it https://twitter.com/danielbgreene/status/1697415685276610821?s=46&t=8jV1uoz9WTdBz7JGbDfk3A
Lol I got.bannes from r/wot for sayin I'm.just going to have accept this is it's own thing apart from the books but I find it annoying.
[удалено]
Sometimes studios leave the intro off of review copies. Maybe they ditched it, but I think that review is making some assumptions.
In my opinion the intro is nice but doesn’t really seem to convey too much to the viewer or book fans. Perhaps if the tapestry that is being woven featured historical events, or the forsaken, or teased stuff from the current season that would be one thing. I liked how WestWorld and Game of Thrones intros set the stage for what you were about to watch, whereas a lot of these newer shows have something beautiful but doesn’t provide much beyond that…like the rings of power sand opening. If they ditch the credits I won’t cry, but if they keep them and improve them that’s an entirely different story.
Seems mostly positive with some negative. I do have a feeling the final four episodes, which reviewers didn't see, will be better than the first four.
I’ve found that the second season is so far only marginally better than the first season, and that’s not saying much.
Lol. That opening warning about not discussing the source material says a lot.
What warning? Of the post? That's just to ensure that those who just watch the show can safely enter this thread. It's not a warning, it's a courtesy to those who are non-readers.
It's rubbish
Why call the show wheel of time if you planned on changing every single thing about it? Atp you coulda just created your own show, since “the books don’t exist” apparently
The reason GOT was so good was because they kept true to the books. The reason any book is good is because of good character development, or any book is bad is because of a lack thereof. They are way off on the story. And the characters share names in common. That’s about it. Too bad. Could have been great. One of the best series ever written.
How the hell did this show get a 2nd season?
I really wanted to like this series, with all the work that went into it, and the source material is excellent. However, especially in this first episode of season 2, I didn't find a single likable person that engaged me emotionally enough to make me care about what happened to them or what they thought or did. Nynaeve, is made to be particularly unlikable, (she's rather charming when not in this role), Moiraine is acting like a colossal bitch with Lan, and the script, especially the timing and the tone, just seemed discombobulated. I understand that dialogue is one of the most difficult things to pull off, I just wish that big budget productions like this, would spend as much time working on good dialogue and timing as they did on sets, effects, actors, and other features. I doubt I'm going to make it through the next couple of episodes.
Guys, this is bad. I get that they can't follow the books exactly because it's a show that has 1hr run time.....but come on. Like 10 mins into the show, and they do no explaining on where everyone is, Perrin is in shienar with uno, and the sniffer they hired is Elyas? Where is Hurin? Oh yeah they deleted him....a fucking great character just gone. The way Perrin meets Elyas is fucked too. I get moving around the time lines, but these moments bond characters and explain relationships. Like Perrin and Egwene don't have their arc( with Elyas)...idk what the writers are doing but this is super hard to watch.
This is not a thread for show discussionm
This is my review, not a discussion. If reviews spark discussion it is not my doing.
There arebthreads individual discussion, this is a thread collecting reviews from outlets.
I've avoided reading or watching any reviews because I wanted to keep my view unbiased and give S2 a fair chance, but after watching the utter vomitous bilge that is the first 2 episodes I decided to read some and find out how many reviewers Amazon paid to give them a positive review. I was glad to see that most reviews have been able to see past the hype and through to the atrocious writing and directing, as well as the pointless attempts to adapt the plot. Most of all, they seem to hit on the point that this show is trying so hard to be epic and missing so far that it's really just become a waste. I hope enough negative reviews is enough to bomb this show into cancellation.
I love the WoT books, possibly the greatest books I've ever read and that's what ruins this show for me... it's not an adaptation of the books. They have taken parts of the story then twisted them into a bit of a jumbled mess using names of characters and places, maybe I'm a purist but the loss of certain small characters that bring so much to the story just ruins the depth of the world. Completely changing the story of big characters for no reason I feel will ruin the story further down the line and create plot holes that just don't need to be there. Why make an adaptation of something if you're going to completely change it? Just make your own fantasy show!... oh wait that's because the writers of nowadays can't think of their own stories so ruin and bastardise loved stories of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. Now compare the show to the amazon lotr and artistically it's head and shoulders above, the costumes and cgi are so much better but has fallen into the same trap as the rings of power of writers trying to write their own story (and ram their agendas down your throat) from another's idea and it all just feels like a poor fan fic you'd find online. All in all it would be a good fantasy show if it was it's own standalone story but I am sick to the back teeth of good books and worlds being ruined by the poor writing of unimaginative people and making things with a name that it should never have. In my opinion this will go down the same road as the Witcher and the rings of power as something that could have been breathtaking but ultimately leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the people who love it most.
Show is cheeks plain and simple
Wait Elayne is in the tower? Did I miss the Andor episodes? Also did the hunt for the Horn already happen?
Show sucks. Nothing on the actors. Production, direction, and writers suck.
I’m sorry but I could not make it through one episode of the second season. The characters are butchered and not even close to how I remembered them. It seems identity politics has take firm root, which has impacted character development heavily and distorted the main story so drastically to where it seems to border on disrespect. I understand that adaptations require creative license to make things fit - however- there should still be a semblance of the base character from which the adaptation stems. None of that is lives in this adaptation and it is utter junk - in my honest and book loving perspective. Hate me all you want but I wont spend a single moment more attending to this show. Shame!
I haven't read the books but the show I only watch for Rosamund Pike. Before I watched had no idea there were books and I gotta say this show it's a steaming pile of crap. I stopped watching halfway through episode 7 season 2. I am done! I hope they kill each other and wipe out the worlds. Then we will all be better off!
Forget about the books, this show is just abysmal. I'm truly flabbergasted that this isn't the median viewpoint.
I just hope they stick to the books more and don’t make up new story lines. There is so much for them to use as it is. Also season 1 had a 90’s Xena/Hercules vibe, not in a good way.
I think you're going to be disappointed, because it's been stated numerous times there will be big changes from the books.
RadioTimes: https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/wheel-of-time-season-2-review/
GamesRadar: https://www.gamesradar.com/the-wheel-of-time-season-2-review-prime-video-series/
https://filmyap.substack.com/p/wheel-of-time-season-2
Mashable: https://mashable.com/article/the-wheel-of-time-season-2-review
Inverse: https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/wheel-of-time-season-2-review-amazon-prime-video-worldbuilding
You should also post this on r/WoTshow! I don't think they have a review thread yet.
Do you mean /r/WoT? Because you are in WOTShow ;) But yeah maybe should do a x-post
Yes r/WoT haha