WHEEL OF TIME book reader thread (spoilers)

[CloseYourEyesAndSee]

Anyone in?
Spoilers allowed up to book 14
My first views are that I don't know why Perrin needed to be married then kill his wife??? He doesn't need a back story to becoming lord goldeneyes. Getting faile back becomes his motivation later on. Also why make Mat have an abusive family? He's meant to be light hearted and all about fun to create the contrast with the effects of shadar logoth.

I thought Mat's new backstory explained some of his character, but I too would have preferred a more light-hearted, silly and innocent starter Mat.

@CloseYourEyesAndSee in your previous fan site, was there any discussion about the parallels between WoT and LoTRs? I'm guessing the idea is that they are different turns of the wheel, but it always felt so lazy to me.

The biggest change I want to see is Rand not having multiple wives

I’m in! I think I was too excited in ep 1 and didn’t even realise Perrin was married. I’m assuming they did that scene to “show” why he is so afraid of his strength as they can’t have his inner monologue - but surely that could have been achieved without the need for him being married?

Maybe Mat’s backstory is to make it more inspiring for viewers - he becomes a hero and not every hero needs a happy supportive family? Just a thought - maybe they’re giving them a bit more of a diverse background than in the books.

@Ubiquery god I would be so happy if he doesn’t have multiple wives! Hopefully he just doesn’t get married to avoid the weirdness.

I’m glad actor Rand is completely gorgeous as that should help with how annoying he gets in the books.

Yes, it all turned in to a bit of a male author fantasy for me.

Thanks CloseYourEyes.

Mat's family really bothers me, but I do like Allsorts' suggestion for why they've made the change.

Definitely agree with hoping they don't give Rand three wives/partners. That was one of the worst things in the books.

Re the parallels with LotR: IIRC, Jordan did that deliberately in the first book, and then set out to undermine it. Whether he achieved that I don't know. There was definitely discussion of LotR being an earlier Age, and also of the Westlands being a post-apocalyptic Earth (Mosk and Merc throwing fire at each other across the sky, from one of Rand's visions, I think.)

There are some nice set-up moments for things that happen later in the books (like Egwene's fate). I'm going to try to keep track of them as a way of knowing what storylines they're keeping and which are going.

I watched a YouTube video (wotup) where they said that Perrin's marriage was to show his impulse to be cautious and avoid hurting people without the internal monologue that the books benefit from. I suppose that's possible.
He also had a theory that Layla was trying to kill Perrin when she approached him as she had her axe raised despite the trolloc being dead. She may have been a dark friend...

Ooh, that's interesting. I might have to rewatch that scene, though it was pretty horrible.

One thing I've been wondering is whether they'll include Tylin and her predatory behaviour with Mat.

There was a reference to Mat liking older women (I think?!) which could be a set up for Tylin. It's such a problematic storyline though - it wasn't written as such, Jordan referred to Mat having an "amusing incident with pink ribbons". I'm interested to see if/how it's approached. It would fit in with the women and power theme?

As long as all the spanking is cut I'll be happy 🤢

Oh yes. The tylin storyline was awful. Sexual coercion and imprisonment played for laughs. They could have a sexually confident older woman storyline without all the sexual abuse bits!

I've been thinking of watching this...Is the action any good?

By action @babypounds do you mean fighting etc? If so there's not been that much yet - a solid 10+ minutes of villagers getting hacked about by big nasties with some Power weaving and a bit of fancy sword waving thrown in. Plenty of running too! The CGI is quite cool and works I think well on a small screen.
I'm looking forward to some of the bigger stuff which should come in the next few episodes.

@babypounds

I've been thinking of watching this...Is the action any good?

So far I would say so! This is a spoiler thread though so if you do start watching it I would hide this thread!

I liked it. Definite shades of LOTR. Season 2 has been commissioned so that's a big plus (Cursed was cancelled as so season 1 felt like a wasted watch). Loved the mountain and nature scenes - big vistas.

Can I join?

I’m reading the books again (up to book 4 so far) and also watching the show.

I actually liked Mat’s portrayal in the show because it added more depth to his character.
I don’t like Perrin’s portrayal but neatly done with the death of Laila.
I don’t like Nynaeve - the dynamic with moiraine seems off but it goes some way to explain her attitude 😂

Reading the books again properly probably isn’t the best move 😂

Nynaeve was a total cow to moiraine though. It seems very in character to me!

@NynaeveSedai

Nynaeve was a total cow to moiraine though. It seems very in character to me!

Yes but I don’t think they quite got it right. Maybe too soon to judge!

Have now read the other thread AND this one.

I was a bit annoyed about the Perrin/Matt changes but actually, Perrin's one makes sense now because of course all the inner dialogue is a bit tricky so this neatly ties that up. I'm still not wild about Matt. I think they could have gone with him being extremely poor/constantly having to use wits and luck to survive, but the extreme of the portrayal meant that he doesn't seem light at ALL. If you hadn't read the books you'd have no idea.

Rand and Egwene shagging and so in love didn't work for me. I know he'd always expected to marry her but in the books my sense was always that it was an expected thing and they were good friends ,not a major love affair.

I didn't like the idea of Rand's 3 wives in the books but I loved all three characters and their relationship with him so I sucked it up. I'd choose Aviendha if I had to choose just one!

I think Nynaeve is 100% true to character, including her loathing and complicated relationship with Moiraine.

The only thing for me is that for some reason, I always had her in my head as as sort of buxom blonde whose skills, steely determination etc was in direct contrast to how people saw her at first glance. Was that just me or did I actually get that from the book!? Perrin's casting is brilliant. Rand is not bad but he's a smidge geeky - but I can totally see him in his dragon uniform in a few seasons so.... Rosamunde is doing a surprisingly good job except that in the books it was so easy to think in the early ones that she didn't care, while it's clear that she does in episodes 1-3.

Possibly I've given all of this too much thought so far? My main thing is it's making me want to reread the series. For all the length of the books is challenging, I always loved the detail which you just can't get in a tv show.

Also thinking about a WoT name change!

Nynaeve definitely had dark hair and she wore sensible non revealing clothes but I think she was meant to be very attractive, which she downplayed because she wanted to be taken more seriously. She definitely wasn't blonde though.

@NynaeveSedai

Nynaeve definitely had dark hair and she wore sensible non revealing clothes but I think she was meant to be very attractive, which she downplayed because she wanted to be taken more seriously. She definitely wasn't blonde though.

I think that's more accurate. Very attractive so that at first glance she wasn't always taken seriously. For some reason that translated into buxom blonde in my head (to be clear, I always had her as sensibly dressed, downplaying her attractiveness etc. Just not in the way the actor playing her is attractive - although she is!)

Well I don't think many of us imagined nynaeve as black or any of the other Edmonds fielders but I am very happy with diverse casting, I am happy to change my head cannon :)

@NynaeveSedai

Well I don't think many of us imagined nynaeve as black or any of the other Edmonds fielders but I am very happy with diverse casting, I am happy to change my head cannon :)

True. I do like it when they challenge our inbuilt assumptions! It's also m making me really try to remember what I thought about Nynaeve's looks. And I think the actor is more athletic. I think I always sort of thought that if Nynaeve wanted to go undercover she should wear revealing clothing that showed off lots of curves! . Having said that, of all the characters Nynaeve seems the one who is most like the book character in terms of personality. She's really nailed the anger, the slightly complex feelings about her role in the world/Aes Sedai etc.

Although Perrin feels so 100% right to me maybe I did slightly?

Also can't wait to see who plays Aviendha. Who is my favourite character.