The Wheel Of Time season 2 breaks from the books—and is all the better for it
Less copy-and-paste clone and more spiritual kin, the sophomore outing manages to surprise both TV audiences and devout readers
TV Features The Wheel of Time
That Prime Video’s streaming adaptation of The Wheel Of Time, Robert Jordan’s 14-volume-deep series of high-fantasy novels, would occasionally deviate from the course the author set on the page was to be expected. Hell, it’s right there in the word: adaptation. Things would naturally have to be modified, merged, or magnified to fit the confines—artistic, technical, budgetary, and otherwise—of the screen. But it’s just how far the show veers from the source material, and heartily so, that makes the second season not only a vast improvement on the first, but also a solid argument that the wide, wonderful world of fantasy TV doesn’t always need to be so damn faithful.
The Rings Of Power, House Of The Dragon, The Witcher, Outlander, Shadow And Bone, His Dark Materials, Good Omens—nearly all the big-budget fantasy epics that have hit streaming of late have their roots in a beloved book series. And with adaptation comes expectation: Existing IP has the benefit of a built-in audience, sure, but it’s also inevitably limited in the liberties that audience will allow. What those rabid page turners often expect is the impossible: to have every character and castle and creature and quote play out as devotedly onscreen as they did in the adaptation that thus far only existed in their minds, fantasy in its most literal form. So streaming adaptations like The Wheel Of Time are unreasonably tasked with satisfying two audiences at once: appeasing the devout without alienating the uninitiated.
And in much of the series’ first season—an eight-episode stretch that ran in late 2021—showrunner Rafe Judkins and the writing staff seemed suitably concerned with fidelity, intently unpacking the denseness of Jordan’s expansive tomes (there’s also a prequel as well as two companion books) and earnestly presenting the customs and cultures of “The World of the Wheel.” As on the page, you found Moiraine (played by Rosamund Pike), a member of a powerful all-female organization known as the Aes Sedai, on a quest to narrow down which of five young villagers was the true Dragon Reborn, the prophesied hero that would overthrow the Dark One and restore the realm.
But season two’s many departures from the novels—some pragmatic, others merely cosmetic—prove that the powers that be are now using The Wheel Of Time as less of a rulebook and more of a reference. Just look at where we pick up with our less-than-merry band of travelers in the season premiere (the first three episodes hit Prime Video on September 1, with subsequent episodes airing weekly): The second novel kicks off with our fivesome together in the city of Fal Dara, but in the TV version, each character is on their own hero’s journey.
Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) are training to become Aes Sedai at The White Tower, where, unbeknownst to them, their buddy Mat (Dónal Finn, taking over the role from Barney Harris, who departed the series after six episodes) is being held captive by Liandrin Sedai. Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) is hunting for the Horn of Valere alongside a gang of Shienarans. And Rand (Josha Stradowski)—who faked his own death in the season-one finale after the reveal that he is the Dragon Reborn—has been keeping it on the down-low in Cairhien, shacking up with an inn owner and working at the local sanitarium.
The decision for the group split was a practical one behind-the-scenes—Harris’ unexpected exit last season meant a major rewrite for Mat’s storyline—but also a beneficial one onscreen. Though Rand is the undisputed protagonist on the page, the great “champion of the Light” battling against the Dark One, the show graciously extends beyond his perspective to tap into the experiences and emotions of other characters, particularly the women, an upgrade considering the criticism of weak characterization last season.
Centering Moiraine as the entrypoint into the realm is a narrative no-brainer given how vital the Aes Sedai are to this world; it also doesn’t hurt that Rosamund Pike—here having to navigate not only the grief and confusion of Moiraine’s loss of power, but also its worrying ramifications in her bond with Lan (Daniel Henney)—is simply a far more compelling lead than Josha Stradowski, who still suffers from bouts of CW-style line delivery. The first four episodes of season two also give a greater spotlight for Robin’s Nynaeve, reactionary and defiant in her struggles to master the One Power, and Madden’s Egwene, insecure about her own abilities and vulnerable after seemingly losing Rand. The deeper insights into these women simply wouldn’t be possible if the show faithfully followed the Rand-led written tale.
Far less burdened with the busy work of world-building and the relentless rhythm of hitting familiar beats for fastidious readers, season two slows the wheel down, allowing for more human moments to pop in the midst of all the supernatural thrills. And along with giving those moments room to breathe, the expanded framework also allows space for storylines to branch off in unexpected ways, for fresh connections to form between characters who barely interact on the page. (The banter-fueled friendship between the roguish Mat and his cellmate Min this season is but one example.) The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, indeed.
The Wheel Of Time was renewed for a third season before the second even premiered, so how future episodes will further stretch from the story’s roots remains to be seen. But in leaving the obligations of the books behind—while still managing to find magic in the source material—season two has established the series as not just watchable TV, but good TV full-stop, proving that even a decades-old, pored-over tale still has the ability to surprise.
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Can you dig it, man? Time . . . it’s like . . . a wheel . . . !
You mean like a flat circle!?
Everything works in circles. Like sometimes you’re doing something, and a year later you’re back at the same point. You understand that? So circle one, is what we’re doing now, and someday we’ll probably do circle two.
On the plus side, this version of the WoT’s departure from the source material is new and exciting in that you don’t really know what is going to happen. On the other hand, I don’t feel like most of the character’s motivations are clear. Their reasons for their actions seem pretty random at time which makes a lot of them feel pretty 2-dimensional most of the time. Reminds be a bit of the end of GoT in that regard.
I like this season a lot better than the first, but I kinda agree with you, especially with regards to Perrin and Mat. It makes sense for Rand to seek out Logain, since he’s freaked out about his power and doesn’t know anyone else who could teach him, and if he shacks up with a hot innkeeper while doing that…well, that’s what guys do (or want to do). It makes sense for Egwene to want to become Aes Sedai, since she always wanted a more cosmopolitan, significant life beyond the Two Rivers, and it sort of makes sense for Nynaeve to not want to leave Egwene there alone (and she’s also probably a little bit interested in the power and prestige too, if she’s honest). Perrin, though, it seems like he joined up in the hunt for the horn, because they needed some main character to be directly involved, and they didn’t have anything else for him to do. It’s also not clear why Mat was kidnapped by Liandrin (I guess she’s trying to keep tabs on all of Moiraine’s projects?) and why he didn’t go to Egwene after being let out. But they started off behind the 8-ball with him after the issues with the previous actor. This new one at least does a better job of capturing Mat’s roguish charm.
For Perrin, I’m not sure it’s fair to say the writers had nothing else for him to do…the CHARACTER had nothing else to do. He has no place in Tar Valon, Rand is “dead”, Mat abandoned him, and a bunch of Sheinaran soldiers are like “Hey, that gleeman who apparently followed you guys here stole a vitally important artifact, wanna come on a quest to get it back?” Seems like the best of some crap options.Mat’s situation gets one line of reminder in the previouslies before 2×01—when they arrived in Fal Dara, Moiraine sent a letter to the Reds about Mat. At that point, she still didn’t know which of them was the Dragon, Mat had only just been freed from the corruption of the dagger and then abruptly bailed on his friends. Liandrin was (at least nominally) holding Mat as a favor to Moiraine because he might be dangerous.Mat didn’t go to Egwene because he’s a conflict-avoiding coward. Liandrin spent 6 months lying to him about how his friends hate him for abandoning them, how he never gets mentioned in their letters…he gets within sight of Egwene and the reality of having to apologize and explain himself hits, and it’s easier to just run away a second time.
They did cast Faile for season 3, so at that point Perrin will at least have some semblance of a story. He was always the least interesting of the Rand-Mat-Perrin trio in the books (and I really hope they figure out something better for him and Faile to do than the irritatingly long “Rescue Faile” arc from the books).
I believe that the ostensible reason for Liandrin imprisoning Mat is to make sure he’s not still tainted with the darkness from the Shadar Logoth dagger. But she actually also wanted to torment him (because she’s horrible) and eventually realized she was keeping him imprisoned for the wrong reasons. It’s weird because of the thing we find out about Liandrin later on in the books, and it’s such a big thing that I don’t imagine they’re going to change it for the show.
No, I don’t imagine they’d change it, though given that she seems to be pulling double duty as Elaida, she could be an unwitting pawn. But episode 3 made it pretty clear that she only “released” Mat so that he could be manipulated by Min, and episode 4 revealed who’s ultimately behind that plan…It’s almost a shame, because Kate Fleetwood is SO GOOD and she’s frankly a more interesting character if she genuinely believes that the way she’s behaving is for the greater good.
Perrin also has the wolf plotline playing out. This is hugely important to his character. It’s not like he has nothing going on.
Perrin’s characterization is a tough ask, though, since he was pretty aimless in the first few books. His early story is really about his fear that he’s becoming a monster with the whole wolf thing, and they’re at least building that up in the show.
Unfortunate that Josha Stradowski does feel like the weakest link so far in the cast. Hopefully he can grow into the role and not drag down this otherwise excellent ensemble cast.
I feel like the changes we’ve seen so far aren’t quite bad enough to make this a truly horrible adaptation, but they don’t really feel like an improvement. ATM the biggest sticking point for me is how the damane feel very different. In the books they were women who were indoctrinated with the idea that all women who use The One Power are abominations that need to be controlled and were kept on leashes at all times while this adaptation has shown them seemingly walking freely and treated like they have authority.Its making me concerned about how some things will play out in the future.
They’re not using a physical leash, instead the a’dam is the wide gold collar worn around the neck and shoulders (I believe the term is a “gorget”). The sul’dam is the woman in blue always standing a pace or two behind the damane wearing a long gold bracelet.
They’re gagged like animals, though, so I think it got the point across.
Looks more like a pacifier
I feel like they are meant to be readily identifiable as slaves so just being gagged doesn’t do enough to establish that.
My guess/hope is that we’re about to see Egwene captured by the Seanchan, at which point we will learn way more about just how little agency the damane truly have.
I’m loving how you thought they were literally leashed when you read those books.The gold thing in their mouths are their leashes. Their handlers can inflict intense pain on them whenever they feel like through those mouth things, which is something I’m sure the show will demonstrate in short order.
As a non-book reader, I can’t speak to the ‘adaptation’ issue. What I can say is that they probably could have used a steadier hand in the writer’s room. Each episode has had some really cool scenes, but I feel like we’ve had to wade through 45 minutes of people talking about how sad they are to get to the 5 minute pay off. If you’re going to have 70 minute episodes, that’s great, but if I’m wondering, half way through, just how long this show is, you’ve failed to engage.
Speaking as somebody who devoured the series repeatedly when young, 45 minutes of moping to 5 minutes of badass is, if anything, a generous adaptation.
I’m personally looking forward to 5 seasons where they chase after the Bowl of Winds or whatever.
Better that than six seasons of Perrin trying to rescue Faile from the Shaido Aiel.
Oh no, I had memory-holed how long that plot took. One of these days I’ll have to make a go at reading the whole series (I tapped out at the 10th book I think), but it’s tough to justify spending all that free time on WoT. Unlike commenting here.
You can pretty well skip Crossroads of Twilight. Knife of Dreams starts to resolve some things and is decent. The last three books are all very worth reading.
Is COT the one that gets to like page 400 before it catches up to the end of the previous volume?
Yep. It’s very skippable.
I would argue that the last three books are the only ones worth the time after the first 3 or 4
If that’s the one where the only thing of note that happens in the entire book is an “off-screen” battle and everyone is in exactly the same position at the end as they were at the beginning, then that was the point I gave up too.
Not to be confused with the Bowel of Winds.
Episode 4 this past week was the worst for this. I actually felt the first 3 were an improvement over last season but man did episode 4 drag down speed the story. And we’re halfway done season 2 already!
What’s a non-book? Is reading the internet like reading a non-book?
It’s kin to an unbirthday. BTW, happy unbirthday.
oh ok, back at’cha, unless it’s your birthday, but how would I know?
I read all the books as they came out but never re-read any, so my memory of them is pretty fuzzy at this point. So, I’m not too put off by changes from the source material. I appreciate that they’re not making it overly Rand-centric. I’m tired of the “chosen one” trope in fantasy at this point too, but my biggest complaint about the first season was that the final confrontation with Ishamael was a wet fart and didn’t do anything to show how powerful/dangerous the dragon can be. They need to make sure they rectify that this season, because I think that is an essential part of the story—people have to know that there’s this potentially unstable demigod among them who can remake the world for good or ill and figure out how to react to that.
I’m crossing my fingers for a big showdown Rand v. Ishamael over Falme w/ the Horn of Valere and all that.I do like that we see Ishamael kind of popping up everywhere to manipulate people. And I think the actor playing him has great presence.
There decision in the final to have five novice women beat the evil army instead of the dragon was not only a complete departure from the books, but as you said, completely neutered the dragon as some huge powerful thing to be feared. A season and a half in, if you did not read the books you would have no idea what the big deal with him is. He mopes around and is beaten by literally any women he comes across. This change from the book is fatal to me as it guts the entire main plot.
Though Rand is the undisputed protagonist on the page, the great
“champion of the Light” battling against the Dark One, the show
graciously extends beyond his perspective to tap into the experiences
and emotions of other characters, particularly the women, an upgrade
considering the criticism of weak characterization last season.
To be fair, that’s true of the books as well – after the first book, they pretty much immediately expand beyond Rand to the point where there are entire books where he basically isn’t present.
I’m loving the show so far, and binge-watched the first couple episodes. I went into it with the expectation that there would be major changes – the narrative structure of the books just doesn’t work with a live-action show, with characters like Moiraine and Rand disappearing for long segments of time.
(The banter-fueled friendship between the roguish Mat and his cellmate Min this season is but one example.)
The new actor for Mat is fantastic. I’m so glad they got him to replace Harris.
“And in much of the series’ first season—an eight-episode stretch that ran in late 2021—showrunner Rafe Judkins and the writing staff seemed suitably concerned with fidelity, intently unpacking the denseness of Jordan’s expansive tomes (there’s also a prequel as well as two companion books) and earnestly presenting the customs and cultures of “The World of the Wheel.”
Lolwhut? Look, regardless of whether you love or hate season 1, I don’t think it’s at all accurate to characterize it as “concerned with fidelity.” WoT is not holy writ, and Jordan’s writing is decidedly middling. But uh, they invented a wife for Perrin and then fridged her, invented a mystery plot to hang the season on, skipped all of Caemlyn and instead spent 1/8 of the entire season on an original story about Steppin and Kerene, changed the ending, and quite a bit more.
This was a very generous review. I’m a book reader and I admittedly have a ton of issues with what they’ve done. My disappointment aside though, my 2 non book friends watching this are not feeling the show. I can’t blame them, I think season 1 did a poor job setting up the characters, the intense loyalty they have for each other, and the impact of what Rand being the Dragon Reborn would be. Without that, it’s tough to care about them or to buy that their bonds can survive their lack of physical proximity in season 2. The show is also missing a lot of the fun of the Aes Sedai politicking and backstabbing – though the Leanne and Liandrin scene last week felt close. I’d love for them to focus on that instead of giving us more juvenile jokes about Alanna sleeping with her warders. The show did a good job with Nynaeve going through the arches, but nothing else has seemed cohesive or strong. I don’t want to hate watch this as I don’t want it to lessen my love of the books, but at this point I’m losing all hope that they’re going to pull it together.
As a long-time book reader, there are a number of changes they’ve made that I’ve quite enjoyed. (MASSIVE BOOK SPOILERS TO FOLLOW)-Getting to see Tigraine in the flesh. It makes her feel more human than she ever was in the books, and makes her story feel more tangible and tragic. Also, seeing Tam put down his sword and help her give birth tells us a lot about his character.-Mat is less of the ‘boys will be boys’ womanizing prankster, and more just a guy born into shitty circumstances just trying to get by in the world. I find him far more likeable and sympathetic than I ever did in the books.-Egwene and Rand were already in a loving relationship. In the books, I felt like he was way more into it than she was, and it meant less when they were inevitably pulled apart. It hurts far more when they both cared about each other and actually lost something in the long-term.-They have way toned down Selene’s character interacting with Rand. I know that that’s the point of who Lanfear was in The Great Hunt, but I find her utterly exhausting. Also, knowing already who she is, I just cackle with glee every time she tells Rand about how she was totally in love with this one other guy because IT’S SO CREEPY!-Focusing on Liandran and Alanna. This strikes me as very ‘Camina Drummer as a stand-in for Belters’ in The Expanse, and I think it’s a very good thing. There are just so many Aes Sedai, and it gets really hard to keep track of them. Putting emphasis on a couple of important ones, letting us get to know them, and centering them in the plot, has been really gratifying.I won’t lie and say there aren’t times where the pedantic nerd in me hasn’t been crying out at a lot of the changes they’ve made…but overall, I’ve enjoyed far more about the first two seasons than not. And like the article says, it is probably for the best at this point to use the books more as a reference guide rather than a strict template.
Agree on the numbers of Aes Sedai. There is one scene in one of the later books with 5 (IIRC), Aes Sedai plotting something, and all their names began with the same letter. I couldn’t remember who any of them were. Very frustrating.
I agree, some of the changes this season have helped clarify what’s going on. Oto, I’m watching with someone completely unfamiliar with the books, and he’s having a few wtf moments, asking “did we miss something?”, such as when Rand is suddenly in bed with someone – “where is he, who is she, and now what’s he doing?” I am far more satisfied with the show if I keep reminding myself that it’s an adaption loosely bases on the books, emphasis on “loosely”!
I get that. It’s gotten so dense already with all the plots, characters, locations, and concepts, I’ve wondered how accessible it’s been for newbies.
I commend you for stifling your pedantic nerd instincts and trying to enjoy this show as its own entity despite your knowledge of the books. The WoT subreddits need more people like you.
Assuming you’re not being sarcastic, thanks!
Let me guess — there’s been a lot of braid tugging and dress smoothing going on in the WoT subreddits since the show started…
Much like the show, this is at least an improvement over the genuinely bizarre article from a couple weeks ago, but it’s still got a lot of problems.
“(S)howrunner Rafe Judkins and the writing staff seemed suitably concerned with fidelity….earnestly presenting the customs and cultures of “The World of the Wheel.””
This explanation of Season 1 is almost as bad as the previous article’s defense. Unlike a lot of people I was initially willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Judkins, for example, to create and murder a wife for Perrin, to turn Mat into a blackhearted thug instead of someone who lives life for fun unless he’s forced into a corner, and to radically upend the book’s “customs and cultures” as you describe them. The problem was that by the end result of the season pretty much everyone had concluded that this was part of the reason why the show was a disaster. He certainly turned things upside down; it was that once he did, they weren’t anywhere close to the quality or even more important the internal consistency of what he’d stripped out.
“The deeper insights into these women simply wouldn’t be possible if the show faithfully followed the Rand-led written tale.”
First, while Rand is a big part of The Great Hunt, I wouldn’t call that book “Rand-led” (and there are later books where he has from what I remember maybe 3 or 4 chapters out of 90.) From a narrative arc perspective, TGH is where the other main characters become real main characters, so this is a really weird bit of praise.
And second, moving the focus away from Rand was something already accomplished in Season 1, especially with the really poorly done “it could be any one of you that could be the Dragon!” five headed fakeout. It was one way the main plot of was really botched, since the Dark One’s search to uncover the Dragon Reborn got replaced with essentially nothing, and it’s no coincidence that the two episodes in which Rand and Mat are being chased by Darkfiends are probably the only two of Season 1 that are consistent internally.
However, you are on to something that’s related here:
“Rosamund Pike…is simply a far more compelling lead than Josha Stradowski, who still suffers from bouts of CW-style line delivery.”
So first, one of the other problems with the Season 1 evisceration is that it left Stradowski without enough material to establish himself as the lead, and that’s shown up in his somewhat ineffective Selene arc. We don’t care enough about him as a character and don’t know enough about him from the show perspective to make his dalliance as much of a disaster as we know it’s going to be.
But I’ll go further. I’m starting to feel that *none* of the original fivesome are dominating the screen the way they should be, something I’ve been concerned about since S1 but have held off on commenting on until the writing improved a bit so they had a chance. Some of this isn’t their fault, since the White Tower arc has been so poorly done that as Sanderson put it in watching last season’s finale (and coming as close to any producer I’ve ever heard of to tripping the his non disparagement clause) that from just watching the show he had absolutely no idea why the girls would have ever headed there for teaching.
But we have examples of what good actors can do with even mediocre material. Fleetwood’s Liandrin has been an absolute revelation and has made her scenes sizzle (and dramatically outshown Madden’s Egwene and Robins’ Nynaeve when they’re up against her.) He’s not gotten anywhere close to the screen time he deserves, but Myers’ Padan Fain has stolen every one he’s been in. Pike is fine as Moiraine even if the stretching of her arc in the first four episodes (and the stalling of Lan’s) hasn’t worked until the end of Episode 4, and Coveney’s Elayne in the brief moments we’ve seen her may have real potential. Even Finn’s replacement Mat has shown far more range than his predecessor so far.
But the rest of the fivesome (and Min) have issues – not just from the material, but being able to hold their own when they’re up against capable actors.
I hope I’m wrong, but we’ll see. It’s better than Season 1, and for the first time I’ve been looking forward to seeing what they’re going to do in the next episode rather than dreading it, but it’s still got all sorts of issues.
You’ve nailed one of the reasons I didn’t like them making Moiraine the main character last season.This is supposed to be the story of the fivesome from Two Rivers. I get that having Rosamund Pike helps sell the show – but it also means that the story hasn’t really given the opportunity for pretty much any of them to shine.I really hope that, when the time comes, Stradowski is up to playing post-Dumai’s Wells Rand.
You mean the closed-off emotional rock who is basically a non-personality outside of literal first-person narration?Besides, we’re never going to see Dumai’s Wells. We’ll get season 3 ending with a big battle between Rand and Ishamael at the Stone of Tear, and then cancelation. And the WOT fandom can complain to our nurses in the old folks home about what Rafe Judkins did to our baby.
I’m enormously biased because Rand’s my favorite character, but my intended point is that Rand starts to become really terrifying and unhinged from Crown of Swords onward up until the end of TGS. (And I love the resolution of his arc in TGS.)Watching the early Harry Potter movies when they came out, I worried that Radcliffe wasn’t up to the demands of the character from Order of the Phoenix onward, but he really stepped up to it. I hope that if we do get the full run of the series, Stradowski is able to do the same.
I’m about 60% convinced we’re going to get Falme and Callandor/Stone of Tear combined at the end of this season. If anything to avoid a second Ishy death fake-out.
My biggest concern is actually Madden, who should be by now be showing signs of a spine of steel – which a decent actor can do with a performance even if the writing isn’t there. Presuming they don’t completely gut her arc (and the casting of Elaida versus just merging that character into Liandrin would probably indicate they’re keeping large parts of it), the plot isn’t going to work without her using that to serve as one of the bookends to it. Maybe she’s been directed to play Egwene this way until the Seanchan trip brings it out, but if that’s not the case, by the time they realize just how important that aspect is and how it’s missing, it may be too late to replace her.In contrast, I think if the show survives long enough to whatever Dumai’s Wells turns out to be, either Stradowski will have improved substantially or Amazon will force Judkins to boot him, probably no later than next season. Between S1 and 2, they quietly gutted the writers’ room below the EP level – most of whom Judkins had handpicked – and his complaining about the thousands of notes they sent him during S1 makes a lot more sense now. It’s just too hard to hide a weakly portrayed main character even if your showrunner can’t figure out what to do with him.
I’m really hoping that what happens with Egwene and the Seanchan will be a big turning point for both the character and the actor.
The show, is awful, it has ruined the actual story, and has left out significant plots and added in scenarios that never happened…how is that better…saw the same garbage with the sword of truth sieres. As a huge fan of the books, multiple read throughs I am absolutely appalled by the show. The characters vs the actors don’t match. It’s a joke.
I get some of the changes, as they’re trying to condense down a lot of writing into a guaranteed shorter series… my real issues are with a few things that aren’t helping the show and are hurting the narrative and presentation. 1. Changing abilities to be dumbed down simplified visuals. Min’s prophecies being more vague is half the mystery and fun of her powers… just making it a clip from a future TV show type viewing is just lame. Perrin also gets TV vision, but of the past apparently. 2. Very little context for the history of the setting, which leads people to really not knowing the issues at hand or why certain things are a big deal. I’ve had to provide a lot of backstory for my partner as she’s been pretty confused why a lot of things even matter.3. People seem to be so over the place from Season 1 to 2, and there’s not a lot of context as for why .. especially since they fragmented everyone and severely downplayed the Horn. Also… can we actually get some Matt in here?
There is a reason why the fantasy shows/movies that people love are the ones that stay more or less close to the books and why the best seasons of GoT are the ones adapted from the books. Probably because the writers of these books are much more talented than most of the script writers on TV. There are a few exceptions but most of the time, they don’t have 10% of the talent of the original writers. So we get Ring of Powers, The Witcher or this horrible series.
semi-spoilers:I was totally for massive streamline/re-write of many plotlines from the books that mean nothing or go nowhere (i think you could strip Faile, Morgase/andor story, Shaido post-Dumai’s Wells, Shara, bowl of the winds, the circus, etc etc without meaningful downgrade), but I’m a little baffled that they chose to cut or not introduce iconic visual markers/imagery early in season 1 that as of yet haven’t gone anywhere that define the 3 boys.Rand has the sword but they haven’t really talked much about him practicing with it or the heron meaning or being a swordmaster or his training/relationship with Lan etc. Perrin inexplicably still doesn’t have his axe. Obv Mat doesn’t get his spear until a later storyline, but its just baffling to me for a visual medium that you wouldn’t follow the books on this.The three boys always struck me as norse god stand-ins – Rand as Tyr with his sword (god of war), Mat as Odin with *waves at everything (god of wisdom and foresight), Perrin as Thor with his axe/hammer and general brutality issues (god of blacksmiths/thunder). Like, this is a visual medium – physically show these elements early to differentiate them easily for casuals or newcomers and to further define the archetypes for the book readers. Its just baffling choices like that that I don’t understand at all. The second season is an improvement on the first, but these are easy to implement fundamentals of both the books and the visual medium that is television. It is just so odd.
I have no idea where this idea came from that they were faithful to the books in season 1. The final sure was not and gutted the entire plot of the book, as the dragon is the one that beats the whole army, not five novice women. Rand mopes and is beaten by literally everyone he comes across in this adaption. I would have no idea what the nig deal is about his character if it was not for the books. This season is slightly better, but it is still a hash where people do things, but why is just guesswork and rose colored glass wearing by fans of the book that shrugs and says better than nothing.