Wheel of Time: TV show - (Books in spoilers).

[chriscase]

I always thought of it as an amalgam of fantasy worlds. The Aiel in particular (at least as a trope) seemed lifted from the Fremen of Dune.

[Halie Satanus]

A'yup. I can see that.

[alhoon]

I wouldn't call it Brazil, but I agree that Jordan more picked-and-mixed things from here and there (history, areas, fantasy) to make his world. About the Aiel/Freemen, while I really believe they were an influence I also think they have a common root: The Bedouins.

[alhoon]

Pretty much put an end to the 'culture/ethnicity' issues...

Comment1: For good or for bad, I have seen some very smart and well educated... racists. Not all racists are uneducated savages.

Comment2: I totally agree with those that say: Emon's field is isolated, they would all be darkish-skinned, as they're described in the books.
Homogenization wouldn't be complete but there wouldn't be as much diversity as a NYC pre-covid19 parade. While it would take thousands of years to reach "complete" non-diversity, it would take like five generations to get a "mostly non-diversity" level. Some would be darker, some would be lighter, but they would be more homogenous.
I.e. From what we see in rural areas in Europe and what I have seen in research here and there, nooope, that video argument is wrong. It would take just 100-150 years to reach a "comfortable" level of homogeneity. Not perfect balance, but far less diverse.

Comment3: People thought Cairhien is France? Really?! It is clearly influenced by Byzantine Syria. With the backstabbing and the short people with the dark hair and all the next-to-the-desert kind etc. I doubt France even got in the equation of things he lifted. Sure, sure, the French had cavalry. So what? So did everyone else.

Comment4: See? Moraine is 5' 1" !!! She's also brunette and darker skinned.

Comment5: Egwene is white? That's news to me. I thought she was dark-skinned like the rest of them. But if she is white, why did they pick the darkest-skinned actress for her role? There are enough dark people in the show without miscasting.

Comment6: Man, do they spend a lot of time dispelling that Emon's Field is not "all white" and no time at all proving that they are not all "various shades of light brown". The problem here is that the colors are all over the place, while they should be a few shades of brown.

Comment7: I agree that Jordan didn't care much about race. So trying to shoehorn in diversity to appease to Hollywood standards when there's already tons of diversity in sexual orientation (which other book has a polyamorous protagonist and his harem!?), skin color and strong females is weird and bad.

Comment8: After proving that Egwene is white, while she's played by the darkest actress... you can't go and say that there has not been miscasting. And let's not forget short, brunette Moraine vs the tall white actress.

[chriscase]

I wouldn't call it Brazil, but I agree that Jordan more picked-and-mixed things from here and there (history, areas, fantasy) to make his world. About the Aiel/Freemen, while I really believe they were an influence I also think they have a common root: The Bedouins.

Well, everything I know about the Bedouins I learned from Dune, so... basically I’m saying I don’t know much about the Bedouins.

[Halie Satanus]

Books 5 and Six (90% through).

Lockdown had an adverse effect on my reading. Largely because I stopped riding a bus to work (bought and E-Bike) so reading time was cut down a lot.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I get what some commented on about women being badly written and characters appearing and not being mentioned again. I'm not sure if the female characters are just badly written or just annoying characters doing annoying things. Thier hunt for the Black Ajah was interesting, until they just left it.

At the moment my biggest gripe is the cliff hangers that aren't resolved for 300-400 pages, if at all. The issues with pacing (between characters) have become an issue again, especially for Perrin who defended Emond's field in book 5 and I can't recall being mentioned since. Rand and Mat are by far the strongest characters, plot wise, but appear sporadically between long chapters of the girls doing very little other than avoiding doing anything outside their own little world. Even the fall of the White Tower happened really quickly while the aftermath has dragged on for most of book six.

Not sure I have the motivation to go past book six, if there's even a hint of resolution in the next 100 pages I might have to call it a day.

[chriscase]

I tend to skim the intervening books until Knife of Dreams.

[conon394]

female characters

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I tend to come don on that side. All too often we seem to have a mix of High School relationships levels and issues with maternal authority done poorly. Although I'll admit for the first couple books the level whinny from the key 3 male characters from the village is about as bad.

[Halie Satanus]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I tend to come don on that side. All too often we seem to have a mix of High School relationships levels and issues with maternal authority done poorly. Although I'll admit for the first couple books the level whinny from the key 3 male characters from the village is about as bad.

Aye.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

WoT seems to go for a lot of teen drama tropes, all a bit cringe-full and a drag. On the other hand you have the Chosen are depraved in every way imaginable, their brief appearances are generally more interesting than the good guys. Matt at least seems to have some fun and Rand has his moments, the rest are all a bit prim.

[Gaidin]

4,5,6 is when he did his style shift to something more political. Though, nevermind some of the major trouble certain characters got into that timeline wise demanded they disappear for an entire book while things settled down(I'm looking at you Perrin). But yea. If you thought the first three were good, or merely good, you're going to have issues with the rest of the series. You need to like some thing about the world to keep you hooked. Because about every three books Jordan has a distinct style shift in the storytelling. So you can't just stick to a particular type of fantasy story with Wheel of Time.

Yes, later on he gets...wonky in certain things. When you see them you'll know them. And when the BATTLE starts the battle starts.

But right now you're in the story.

[Gaidin]

In the third Rand just seemed whinny and bit of dick to his companions by bugging out

I'm not sure you know what Rand is doing in the third book.

[conon394]

Was wrong - not favorite books and I did not look it up. But I suppose I meant the 4th but even in the 3rd he is whinny and rarely makes an active decision, rather than a forced one.

[Gaidin]

Was wrong - not favorite books and I did not look it up. But I suppose I meant the 4th but even in the 3rd he is whinny and rarely makes an active decision, rather than a forced one.

Well the third book they got attacked in the valley and he damn near burns everyone to death. All along he's now being worshipped for being the Dragon Reborn while he's not quite sure yet if he is or not. So he decides to make a beeline for the Stone and do one of the few things that can prove to himself if he is or not. Take Callandor. Among all this he himself doesn't know the prophecies as well as Moraine who's spent her entire life steeped in them who probably knows five dozen little things he's done that proves he is. He's just a 19 year old powerful channeler, harrassed by someone who one way or another to him is the Dark One, that he just fought a major battle with over Falme.

Nah. He makes a beeline to one thing he knows will prove it. Let the dice fall where they may. The story's not his. It's about the others trying to figure out what to do about this. It's about Moraine and Perrin following. It's about Mat getting healed and then escaping the Tower before fully recovering. It's about Egwene and Elayne and Nynaeve getting back to the Tower and then being recruited in one of the crazier moves to go after the Black Ajah I've seen this side of....anywhere.

Rand is just the macguffin.

[King Athelstan]

After an almost year period of not reading a single page of any book, this week I've finally got myself back into it and I'm nearly done with a Crown of Swords - With this interval, do ya reckon I'll finish the series before the series launches?

[Gaidin]

I think you'll finish it before they film whatever book you happen to be on at the time. Right now you have at least 8 years to get done with Path of Daggers. Nevermind what follows.

[Halie Satanus]

The actress playing 'Leane Sharif' has already been shooting scenes. If I recall correctly, she doesn't appear until book 3 (Dragon Reborn), though does appear in 'New Spring (Prequel).

So either the first season squashes the first three books into one season, and there's plenty of speculation they at least make it into book 2 in the first 5 episodes. Or New Spring is incorporated into season 1.

[Gaidin]

Strict timeline has her in New Spring. Her "first appearance" is in Great Hunt. Though, tv shows are known to take amusing liberties to keep schedules with them. They have to. It's not like they're movies and they've contracted them for specific movies and time frames. They don't know what she'll be available for and what they'll even be doing in the future. So things will be fenangled. Picture how they added Earth politics into Season 1 of The Expanse when it never came in until Book 2. I imagine they're adding Tower Politics and maneuvering in the tv show from the beginning. Why? Because the show will have viewers that don't know the world. What better way to define it than to use what's there.

[alhoon]

About the book 4,5,6 and cliff-hangers not resolved for 300+ pages.

Yeah, the good old times that things were resolved within the same book... ahhh, the nostalgia.
There are things that start in the 7th book and end in book 9 or 10.

[alhoon]

Well the third book they got attacked in the valley and he damn near burns everyone to death. All along he's now being worshipped for being the Dragon Reborn while he's not quite sure yet if he is or not. So he decides to make a beeline for the Stone and do one of the few things that can prove to himself if he is or not. Take Callandor. Among all this he himself doesn't know the prophecies as well as Moraine who's spent her entire life steeped in them who probably knows five dozen little things he's done that proves he is. He's just a 19 year old powerful channeler, harrassed by someone who one way or another to him is the Dark One, that he just fought a major battle with over Falme.

Nah. He makes a beeline to one thing he knows will prove it. Let the dice fall where they may. The story's not his. It's about the others trying to figure out what to do about this. It's about Moraine and Perrin following. It's about Mat getting healed and then escaping the Tower before fully recovering. It's about Egwene and Elayne and Nynaeve getting back to the Tower and then being recruited in one of the crazier moves to go after the Black Ajah I've seen this side of....anywhere.

Rand is just the macguffin.

+

Rand is already getting crazy. Book 3 is where I started to clearly see signs he's going cookoo.

[alhoon]

The actress playing 'Leane Sharif' has already been shooting scenes. If I recall correctly, she doesn't appear until book 3 (Dragon Reborn), though does appear in 'New Spring (Prequel).

So either the first season squashes the first three books into one season, and there's plenty of speculation they at least make it into book 2 in the first 5 episodes. Or New Spring is incorporated into season 1.

A good analysis could be found here:
https://dragonmount.com/news/tv-show...eason-1-r1141/

They are adding a new plot where they capture Logain and thus some characters that are introduced later in the series will be there.


Speaking of that, for reasons I cannot yet explain I am glad they are adding material instead of chopping it down.
Nope, that doesn't make me more optimistic, it makes me less pessimistic about it. Gives me a reason to watch this thing now aside of filling in the gaps for friends of mine that are too impatient to read the real thing and wonder why the hot mess this will probably be was a good book series.