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Wheel of Time new season is so peak (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/movies@hexbear.net
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They nailed the characters, the story beats, the villains, costumes, everything. I was skeptical after season 2 though I'm not a book purist, but they really know what they're doing. Even constrained by the stupid 8 episode per season limit by Amazon.

And that episode this season is probably one of the best episodes of fantasy television.

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[–] 13 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I really wish I had watched what you did. What I saw was not that. Glad you are enjoying it though.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 1 year ago* (7 children)

    Curios what you didn't like this season? For myself, I went with the expectation that it's not gonna match the story/character beats from the book 1:1 and they're not gonna be able to incorporate many characters from the books for brevity's sake. What I did care about was if they would be able to preserve the soul of the main characters and villains and how compelling is their development. I have not found a single main character or villain (heck even some side characters) that is not hitting it out of the park in that respect. I see Lan, I see Siuan, I see Egwene, I see Lanfear, I see moggy etc. My mind fully accepts these are the same characters I read in the books. Some even enhanced.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I guess I just see it differently. I keep on saying that I have to view this as a separate turning of the wheel, where everyone has been sniffing paint.

    I don't really feel that anyone encompasses the character they are portraying, maybe if we are really lucky they take the most obvious surface level characteristic and make that the entirety of the character. They are so busy cutting content out to make door stopper books fit in less than 8 hours of TV while cherry-picking the exciting scenes that there is an increasing amount of disconnection and disjointed story telling. Instead of deliberate action the characters are just stumbling around having things happen.

    It feels to me like they are adapting from chapter summaries not the books. Which would maybe be acceptable back in the 1990s/2000s but these days we have stellar adaptations like the Expanse to show how it can be done correctly.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I feel like we didn't read the same book. I never felt that the character had any depth in the books. I never felt that actions were a thing in the books. I never felt that the books were adaptable also, because they are so full of ... nothing? most of the time.

    To be fair, i dislike how Jordan wrote. I know it's very vivid and full of details for some peoples but it feel very flat to me... And I did read and loved Malazan Book of the Fallen...

    So to say, I prefer the TV version to the books, mostly because the books are written in a way that do nothing for me...

    Where was I going with all of this ?

    Nowhere, like book 4-5-6 ... I kid, I kid!

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I had the same opinion as you when I first started the series. I felt like I was missing something about the characters but couldn't pin it down. I was taking what was happening on the pages at face value (and rushing thru it a bit tbh). The overly descriptive writing didn't help. But then I stumbled upon a liveblog of a person reading through the series and sharing their thoughts. Just reading a few chapters of the blog unlocked a whole new layer of depth for the characters and the story for me that I had been missing. So much so that the infamous 'Slog' didn't faze me at all and I prolly had some of the most fun reading WoT during that time. All because I was able to read between the lines of what Jordan wrote.

    Now is it a knock against WoT that an external source was needed for me to understand it fully? I don't think so. Plenty of great works sometimes need a guiding hand to be fully appreciated. But that's just me. I'm bringing this all up in case you ever wanna get back into reading the books again. This will surely help enhance the reading experience and maybe make it actually enjoyable.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Honestly, I just dislike his writing style. I don't think the pages sings with his words like other authors do. I feel that it's wordy for the sake of using words and has absolutely no sense of rhythm.

    I know a lot of people like it but it just does nothing for me. I'd rather read anything by pascal quignard than jordans.

    I also dislike Tolkien's writing style... I know, I know... To be fair it's mostly a me problem

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I always felt drawn in by the world, and honestly the imagery in the first season had me excited. The remains of buildings and other links to the past were compelling.

    spoiler

    Now... We visit the Panarchs palace and it is a few dimly lit rooms and some corridors with what 5 - 6 guards. Instead of watching Nynaeve prove that when she is mad enough she is a force of nature. She gets thrown in the lake and the voice of her dream child makes her sad enough to channel.

    Instead of Elayne being in control and showing how poised someone who is raised to rule can be we have her trying to best Jaskier in the fantasy series earworm stakes.

    Instead of Moiraine being the ultimate enigma who always has an angle and is revealed to be a master manipulator who has been pulling everyone's strings she makes a deal with Lanfear and acts like the worlds oldest emo.

    Siuan Sanche gets blindsided and deposed by Aes Sedai who scheme about as well as the current US administration and almost as subtly. I seriously don't know why they even mention Gareth Bryne when we seem to have effectively written out the other half of that plot thread.

    All the shit they did to and with Loial.

    I think they read Mat as someone who inspires everyone to punch him repeatedly in the face until he shuts up... That's not roguish charm to me.

    I'm sorry, I like the books and my main problems with the characters are Jordan's insistence on repeatedly recycling the same mannerisms over and over (tugging on braids) not the way they are written on a mental or emotional level.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    You might be right! In fact that's a good point. But they still did not do anything for me... But ai get your point, we got several very good moments amputated, and tbey decided to cut a lot of fun characters too...

    I think their choice was mostly pragmatic... They needed to make 8 episodes that would convince the studio to produce a fourth season.

    In a non capitalistic art world, your vision would have been the right answer I think...

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    From where I am (was) sitting, my partner watched it straight through and I enjoyed sampling. Each scene appeared to be largely identical from a plot-delivery perspective. Just a bunch of people sitting around some table (or other appropriately sff contraption), talking about what characters who aren't present were/are doing, and never showing those characters doing the things. Everyone seemed to be constantly looking for someone else, whether in dreams or futures or what have you, and it felt like the opposite of compelling.

    Granted, I'm sure that it's better than seasons 1&2... but those are extremely low bars.

    To dig deeper, it sounds like this is a season where people who read and liked the books got to see their favorite characters not making fools of themselves. As this is rare enough in drama these days, I'm loathe to critique the sentiment (looking at you Netflix Witcher).

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