I didn't remember much from S1 and the first half of S2 faced the same dull pacing. The acting and characters remind me of Shadow and Bone, regrettably meh. Having said that, the last 4-5 eps have been decent to good. I can start to see why the bookreaders think highly of the series for the most part. It's good they confirmed a S3 and I might actually remember details now that they're beginning to hit their stride.
this show has absolutely nothing in common with books. The people who created the show clearly hated the books.
To be fair season 2 was a major improvement over season 1. Never book level quality but I've seen worse adaptations.
I enjoyed it. It wasn't great but watchable. I thought the season's final confrontation was a little campy as the Two Rivers Five form Captain Planet and combine their powers to fight Ishamael. Perrin and Nynaeve were absolutely useless like Ma-Ti.
Is it? I have no idea on the source material. I don't read books. The only connection I know of the series is I used to be in a clan for a medieval FPS named "the White tower".
Finally got through season 2. I feel like they deviated from the books a LOT, but it's been a bit since I read them (especially the early books) so I'm not sure I can trust my memory on that. Overall, I probably liked it about as much as season 1. There were some individual moments that were outstanding (the unexpected head pop and Rand eviscerating Turak were fist pump moments), but I think overall the show is suffering a bit from not having cast all that well. Did it seem really strange to anyone that they cast a ginger as Elayne Trakand? I mean, in a world where having red hair seems to tip off EVERYONE that you are Aeil, how do they justify that? People literally call Rand out for it even when his head is buzzed down, so it's not like it's something the showrunners decided to ignore from the books. If they really liked that actress (and to me she was just meh), then have her dye the hair or wear a wig or something. I'll spoiler the next bit as it talks about things that seemed different from the books: Spoiler One of the things I was really excited about from season 1 was the casting of Padan Fain. That actor seemed so creepy and I was excited to see him slowly turn into this free agent of evil chaos that seemed to serve no agenda but his own. But in the show it seems he is just another darkfriend. The Padan Fain I remember would have NEVER put that dagger in front of Mat just because Ishamael asked him to. What little they showed of the Aiel was pretty awesome. In the books they are not only badass warriors but basically supernaturally strong/fast. I know the reasoning is always that they grew up in the Waste and that's what made them so strong (kind of like Selusa Secundus from Dune), but there's no way that just growing up in a desert wasteland can somehow turn a regular person into someone that can run as fast as a horse for hours on end. They seem to have ignored that part of the books so far, which is good because it always felt ridiculous. Was the idea of tying off a weave really something that was forgotten in the books? I know there were lots of things Egwene, Elayne, Nynaeve and company learned from the Foresaken or from their own ingenuity, but I feel like tying off weaves was something the Aes Sedai had not forgotten in the books. Might be mistaken there. The final battle against Ishamael felt kind of silly. You've got Ishamael, one of the strongest Foresaken, just standing in one place throwing blunt force attacks at Egwene for seemingly minutes without trying any kind of other approach. You've got Moraine miles away on a beach, not really sure what's going on but is somehow able to single-handedly summon up enough power to just decimate an entire fleet of ships (similar to the end of season 1 when 5 Aes Sedai decimated a huge army of Trollocs). Then you have Seanchan soldiers on the beach, miles away from the actual conflict in the city that just show up and attack so Lan can have something to do while Moraine sits there and concentrates. I get that budget drives decisions sometimes, but I feel like the army of Heros of the Horn was MUCH bigger in the books than the show. Like army level. And killing off Uno just to bring him back as a Hero of the Horn felt kind of stupid. Shouldn't we have been introduced to Faile by now? Or is that later. I seem to recall she was a Hunter of the Horn so she got introduced in book 2 but might be mixing things up. I'm worried they are just going to have Aviendha romantically linked to Perrin and remove Faile from the show. I like the new actor for Mat. The actor for Perrin has grown on me a bit. Hopefully that continues to blossom because if they can nail those two characters it will go a long way for my enjoyment of the show. Anyway, that was a lot of word vomit. I'll keep watching but I feel like they are deviating from the books a good amount and within a few seasons it's gonna feel like a totally different thing. But I might just be sensitive since I really did love the books.
Legit criticisms. Still, I think S2 was better overall, and if this show is canceled no one will ever try to adapt it again, so hoping it keeps getting better and better.
Finished season 2 a couple weeks ago. I liked it, overall. I will watch season 3. That said, there are some things I don't like: The actor for Perrin. He's not good. Sorry. The character is interesting, but the breathy actor mumbling through the lines annoys me. Characters I don't like: Nynaeve. I don't like her character. Her constant helplessness and moping is also annoying. I realize she's powerful AF and will eventually turn it around, but by the time she does I doubt I will care. She was too chicken **** along the way. Liandrin. Her moves don't make a ton of sense. Lan. What a b****. He took soooo much **** from Moiraine, and then blamed himself for it. What a sad punk. I think my issue with all 3 is that they're just floating around, doing nothing to establish themselves and their importance. They're all damsels in distress. It bores me. In strong contrast to those three is Egwene, who is far and away my favorite character. Great actress portraying her and a great story that I care about. If Lan, Nynaeve, Liandrin, and even Perrin died off, I wouldn't care at all. If Egwene dies off, I'm probably quitting the show.
Wow, Season 2 was substantially better than Season 1. The Season 1 finale was straight up bad. In Season 2, I kind of felt like every episode was better than the last. (except maybe episode 7, but that one just seemed like they were setting themselves up for a big finale) Lanfear was amazing. I think a lot of "book only" people have lots of complaints. This is a very entertaining show, my whole extended family started a group chat about it.
As a book person I agree, my expectations for what it should be are higher. It feels like watching Superhero movies in the 80s and 90s, like mixed bags overall and none got it right until Marvel got involved. That being said, I try to temper it with the realization TV budgets are not great, but I just wish the GOT showrunners would do it justice instead of Rafe Judkins. Edit: Here, the coauthor of the book series feels the same, like most books fans. https://winteriscoming.net/2023/11/...s-a-better-adaptation-than-the-wheel-of-time/
