User Reviews

Now that we are six episodes in I feel conflicted about this series.

Positive sides are the cast and the way the characters are portrayed. The creators seem the understand the world and clearly a lot of effort has gone into the show.

The scenery and visuals are often amazing, but on other times things look cheap. The costumes are pretty poorly done (It's just too clean to look realistic) and the CGI is sometimes lacking.

My main concern rests with the way the story is devoloping so far. A lot of changes have been made too the foundations of the original story, and although sometimes on itself it's good (episode 4 for example), I am afraid this will result in weak build-up for the upcoming seasons.

Let's just take the Aes Sedai as an example. In the first book we only meet two Aes Sedai (Moiraine and Elaida). Both of them seem powerful, mysterious, threatening and impactful.

This gets you interested in the Aes Sedai overall and when we meet more later in the story this often makes you wonder about them and their motives. So far, because of the many changes in the series, the Aes Sedai don't seem that interesting or powerfull. Moiraine would have basically died twice already if it wasn't for help of others and Liandrin's personality is all over the place, making her look weak and stupid. Stuff like this takes the wonder and 'magic' away from the Aes Sedai away in general.

I find this an issue in many of the big changes they made. A lot of important things for the long term story remain underdeveloped, yet many other things that are unnecessary for now are explained at length. A few examples of things they really should not have left out:

• Longer build-up in the Two Rivers so we get more connection with the main characters
• Ba'alzamon speaking to them in their dreams so we understand a bit of what he wants and make him more threatening
• Caemlyn, just to give us more connection to the overall world.

All in all I will continue watching the show and hoping for two amazing last episodes, yet if they want to see this show run for 8 or more seasons quite some changes have to be made.

I guess now its clear that this is another turning of the Wheel. This is certainly not Robert Jordan's WOT.

I don't know what to make of this story. The episode was entertaining and well acted, on its own it was great. But the eye of the world is now the dark ones prison, the horn sounder has refused to join the road trip to get the horn, and all 5 of them could be dragons? I sure hope the show runners know what they are doing. I hope they have written the script of all the seasons and all the loose ends tie up in the end and make sense. Otherwise they risk destroying a great story where all the various threads come together beautifully in the end to make one coherent pattern that is WOT.

We have waited 3 decades to watch the wheel of time translate into the visual medium. This isn't it. Rafe's WOT is a different turning of the Wheel, a different telling of the story. I am enjoying it for what it is, but the inconsistencies are starting to creep in due to the massive tampering with the story, and it is starting to ruin the overall plot and world building. For eg:

Moiraine kept telling the kids that lets go to Tar Valon where the sisters will keep them safe. Then when they get to Tar Valen, she hides all of them from the sisters and runs away from the Tar Valen to keep them safe. It doesn't make any sense. This problem wasn't there in the books coz the story is different.

This is just one of the many examples I can give of how they are creating more and more problems for themselves by tampering with the story. Many of these changes will make future storylines make no sense. Its almost like the writers are making up this story on the fly. Which is sad considering the fact that they have such rich source material at their disposal.

A wasted opportunity.

Anyone who's had even a sliver of experience of stories being adapted from books to film will know that liberties will be taken. Good adaptations can take the basic elements, infuse some liberties, and make them work (Lord of the Rings and GOT for example). Others ignore the basic story altogether and still find a way to make it work (The Bourne films, which barely have anything to do with the books).

But there are adaptations that not only ignore the story but also infuse liberties that make absolutely no sense and do nothing to enhance the film at all (Harry Potter films, to some degree).

The Wheel of Time series teeters from one side to the other; liberties that make you go, "Okay. That's not in the story, but it works" and other liberties that make you go, "What was the point of that?! It added nothing. If anything, it detracts." A good screenwriter knows how to do the former rather than the latter.

This episode wasn't bad. It wasn't great either. We're given a back story of Siuan Sanche (???) because, for some reason, the writers felt we needed this kind of introduction (we didn't). An obvious close and intimate relationship is created between Moiraine and Sanche (not in the books, but it didn't hurt the characterizations either). We're given more insight into the politics of Tar Valon, and it's obvious that the writers are going to ignore the "youthful appearances" of the Aes Sedai due to their connection to the One Power (not a big deal either in the long-run).

However, the story remained mostly stagnant going back to the last episode. We spend an entire episode on Tar Valon (which would have been better covered in the previous episode) with hardly any focus on the plot or the main characters. In this episode, the Wheel continues to turn at an alarmingly slow pace. And if there is one thing that has hurt this series immeasurably, it's the pacing (sometimes lightning fast, and other times slowed to a crawl). There is no consistency at all. The writers can't make up their minds about what to include and what to leave out; how much time to spend on one set of characters, and how much to spend on another. GOT (Game of Thrones) did a masterful job with the pacing as well as sticking to key plot elements with the characters. This series mostly fails at both.

Had I not read the books, I would still feel the same. Perhaps it wouldn't be so noticeable if GOT hadn't come out first. But it did. And as unfair as it might be to compare this series to that one, it's still the reality of a superior series to an inferior one, no matter how different the story is. You either have writers who can successfully adapt a book and those who obviously cannot.

The only thing that has saved this series from being a colossal failure is that there have been times when the writers have gotten the pacing and liberties right. Not as many as those that they haven't, but there have been some.

We'll find out if the writers get things on track or not. But six episodes in, I don't have much confidence in them to do that.

Great character development episode and plot pusher at the same time! I honestly wish there was even more aes sedai politicking. Much better than the last episode. I wish this episode was representative of very episode. Exposition didn't feel awkward like in ep1-2. I'm not quite sure how people won't like this episode honestly. Can't wait for the next one in the ways!!!!

The Wheel of Time episode 6 is significantly better than its predecessor and arguably the best episode of the series thus far.

The good:

Great opening scene. I love the actor for Siuan's father and their house being burned down/dragon's fang etc. Nicely sets up Siuan's motivations to travel to the White Tower and become an Aes Sedai. This scene also helps expand the world just by showing us a new location, well done.

Very good scene with Mat's dagger. Appropriately creepy.

Daniel Henney really, really gets Lan right down to his boots even if he isn't always given the best script (episode 5). His stoic attitude and 'serious look' is very on point. Good interactions with Moirane too.

Decent plot. Plenty of Aes Sedai politics which go down in a similar to manner to the books (scheming, backstabbing etc.) and also provide motivations for things that are happening on screen.

The waygate looks extremely cool. Beautiful CGI.

The hairstyles and costuming is improving. Things look more lived in/dirtier and I have to say Rand Al'Thor really looks like Rand Al'Thor. I think he's going to grow on me the more we see of him.

We see more of Tar Valon. Still not as much as I would like, but what I do see is frequently gorgeous and well designed.

More worldbuilding, finally. After multiple episodes that felt like a frantic rush from one plot point to another we get multiple scenes with characters talking about the world, what's going on in the world, what people are doing etc. It makes it feel more real and lived in than before.

Loial is a pleasure as always - even if he is a bit short and has the funny looking wig.

Nynaeve's character is finally coming through. She's a stubborn, difficult person as she is in the books, which is good and I hope we see this attitude continue to be expressed as it was there.

Siuan's actress is quite good and comes across similar to how she did in the book.

The dialogue is finally true to the books with 'the Light' and 'bloody/bloody ashes' and 'fish guts' invoked multiple times. That's how people talked in Robert Jordan's world!

Merciful lack of overtly corny moments and bad writing which has been a problem in previous episodes. Hopefully this continues to be the case.

Moiraine was given more personality in this episode and it gets you more invested in her character.

The bad:

I did not like how Moiraine and Siuan have a relationship. It felt very random and not particularly relevant to the plot.

I still want more time with our main cast of actors but I am sure we will get more of this soon.

The episode drags at times but the main plot and subplots were interesting enough to keep me watching.

Some shots, like the slo-mo of Moiraine bowing, are really random and unnecessary.

I am a big fan of these book. I have enjoyed the TV series and I feel I have given it a lot of slack so far. Perrin's married? Sure. Warders are gay? Alright. Five potential Dragons? That's fine.

This episode, however, was an absolute travesty.

One of the most compelling scenes in the beginning of the story is when Rand meets the Amyrlin Seat. The sense of awe surrounding the woman is transferred to the reader, and Rand's dismisal of her potential interference is incredible character growth. It's a huge part of why I liked him in the beginning of the books.

That scene was deleted in favor of a lesbian relationship that didn't exist. In the books, Robert Jordan mentions that novices have pillow friends. The reason it's only mentioned is because people did not read the story for lesbian sex scenes. The feeling of awe that surrounded the Amyrlin is lost due to the director trying to humanize her in a way that felt out of character.

I thought they had nailed the actress, and in every other scene, she shined as Siuan. Both she and Moraine felt out of place during their lovefest, and while that whole conversation was more or less drawn straight from the book, it was not done with sultry gazes in a bed.

While that was a large gripe, it wasn't wasn't only thing wrong with this episode. The Oath Rod being used because they felt like it? Moraine's Traveling? Both things that invoked story lines farther on in the books were put here because it felt convenient.

All in all, it's sloppy writing from people that feel they can please the masses with some women kissing. My wife has never read the books, and she was incredibly disappointed. She said she doesn't know how the story can continue to be about the Dragon, when she doesn't know a thing about the three main characters from the books. She knows that Perrin is linked to wolves, Rand is a puppy dog for Egwene, and Mat likes kids. She is bored and ready to stop watching.

This is lazy writing. You couldn't make it compelling enough for someone who hasn't read the books, and you've taken too many liberties for those who have. You've failed, which is hard to do when you had so much source material, and plenty of people who wanted it put on screen.

The episode overall is not bad. But I don't think it's as good as the ones before either. It feels rushed, sometimes characters don't seem to be given enough time to react properly. All the plans are suddenly changing seemingly on a whim, making the arrival to Tar Valon have little importance on the story and I can't help but wonder what even was TV series Moiraine's plan by this point.

The direction of the acting is questionable, sometimes the Aes Sedai try to conceal their feelings, other times they emote more than the common people. Even in this series alone they were introduced as powerful mysterious women, but now they don't seem like that anymore. I understand it would be boring to have their faces being hard to read most of the time, like in the books, but they could be more subtle regarding their feelings in a way the audience can understand. They even had Moiraine being sad by herself right before facing the other Aes Sedai, and then she got teary eyes again anyway... why not hide her feelings in the second scenario, like an Aes Sedai would? Or at least don't have her say obviously compromising information out in public! But she's just lucky no one seems to pay attention when she says something suspicious, I guess...

Ogiers not only look awful, but they feel unimportant and not special at all. Loial feels more annoying than likeable because they don't give his scenes enough time and he rushes every line so his character building lines are unconvincing. They could have as well just cut him out of the story like they did with other characters for how much meaningful screen time he had - which is 0 so far.

I don't expect a 1:1 adaptation of such a huge story, but I expected something better than this. I understand skipping over a lot of things from the books and changing some of the story bits so you get some payoffs much faster, but this is not how you do it. They cut out very important parts to save time, but then they add nice, but pointless scenes like the one with Siuan at the beginning of this episode. They also added some sexy time between Moiraine and Siuan because... well, my guess is that they wanted more drama fuel for when Moiraine has to leave the tower. Their love scenes are fine and they have decent chemistry, but should that really be their priority when they are already struggling so much to fit their own script into the series?

They really should have settled for adapting just half of the first volume. Instead they are now rushing the arrival to the Eye of the World and... the start of a solo story for Mat which really shouldn't happen at the same time anyway for many reasons. The way they chose to adapt the story doesn't feel very professional at this point, which is a shame because I was starting to have some faith into this series since the previous episodes were pretty good.

Love that we saw Siuan Sanche past and didn't wait 3 seasons for it, is part of the books and her story - from daughter of a fisherman to Amyrlin Seat is so cute.

I suspected that the picture window in Moiraine room was some kind of ter'anreal and an entrance to the world of dreams / Tel'aran'rhiod and I am so happy I was right.

The relationship between Siuan and Moiraine is as described in books they are friend since girls even their romantic relationship.

We saw the politics of the White Tower in all its glory te part with Logain and Moiraine punishment was very strong.

Moiraine is actually trying to cure Matt in Caemlyn so this part was also very good played and leaves the story of Matt with the dagger open for Season 2.

And finally we saw the roads, and they are just as scary and gloomy as they are described in the books.

Concerning the prison of the dark One and the eye of the world let us wait and see. Just because Suian says they're the same thing doesn't mean she's right.

For everyone who has read the books it should be clear that many things are not at all like Aes Sedai think they are.

I don't understand why it's so hard to be accurate when telling Robert Jordan's story. I don't recall Moraine being a lesbian with Suane. Completely unnecessary addition. Not sure if they are trying to be "woke" but it sure feels like it.

On top of that, they completely change Mat's story as well as how the Ways are opened. Also, Loial looks like a complete joke. Although his voice is fairly accurate. PLEASE stop veering away from the books. They are popular for a reason.