#but what they did to mat and perrin...those weren't my boys

[thesporkidentity]

started reading wheel of time again from the beginning (i swear i'll finish this time, i'm gonna do it!) and oh, it's so good to see mat again after what they did to his characterization in the show. like. it's my boyyyyyy! i missed you!!!! i am kissing your sweet little trouble maker cheeks my darling <3

[9or10allgood]

Okay. Thoughts on the first three episodes of "The Wheel of Time".

Here be spoilers.

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(I apologize. I'm doing this on my phone, and if there's a way to manage a "break" this way, I don't know how to do it.)

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Overall, I liked it. Most of it, I actually loved. RJ's world-building was there. The Two Rivers looked just like I thought it would. Shadar Logoth's eerie atmosphere was suffocating, and was a promise of the nightmare to come. (It gives me hope for how the Ways will be portrayed - even if the actual Waygates apparently won't look anything like they're described in the books.) In fact, as a whole, the series has captured the atmosphere of the books. So far.

There are quite significant differences. Out of necessity, events have been telescoped, compacted. My Kindle isn't fired up right now, so I can't give a page count for how long it took to get from page one to our heroes fleeing the Two Rivers, but it was a chunk, and they couldn't practically cram that into one fifty-five-ish minute long episode. So liberties were, indeed, taken. Moiraine did not conceal that she was an Aes Sedai. There was no fractious meeting between Nynaeve and the village Council. Padan Fain was a bit creepy, but a non-reader might consider him something of a throwaway character for all the attention he received from anyone but Mat. Until the Trollocs arrived, anyway.

Thom Merrilan was not there.

Rand, Perrin, Mat, and Egwene have definitely been aged up. Rand and Egwene are in an intimate relationship. And here are the two things that are, for me, the most problematic (and, seriously, SPOILERS here!): (1) Mat's family life/circumstances are pretty bleak, and (2) Perrin is married and his wife dies during the Winternight attack. I won't say how. I don't understand why either of those stories was necessary. Sure, Mat's father was a canny horsetrader and a gambler, but nowhere in the books do I recall anything about him being a womanizer. Nor do I recall that his mother was a drunk or crazy or both. I realize that their characters weren't fleshed out as much as Rand's in the beginning, and maybe the writers were trying to get all three boys on a level emo-playing field to further conceal who was going to be the Dragon Reborn. Still, those backstories took it too far, I thought.

On the other hand, Moiraine and Lan in a hot tub... nothing romantic or sexual - but I will say that Lan has a nice, um, posterior.

The Trolloc attack was horrific. It opened with a very shocking scene and then ran with it. The way that Moiraine and Lan fought was epic. We'd all seen glimpses in the trailer, but the whole was better than I imagined. The depiction of saidar was breathtaking. Also, the Women's Circle taking on a Trolloc was all kinds of awesome!

The non-reader was left with a cliff-hanger when Nynaeve was dragged off by her braid by a Trolloc. It made her reappearance at the end of episode two all the more dramatic.

Moiraine's telling of the story of Manetheren took place on the road, rather than to the village at large. While I've always thought that hearing their history was part of what spurred the Two River folk to rebuild in such a way that they were ready for Perrin's eventual return, again, time was an issue. The next wave of Trollocs was rolling down the mountain, our heroes had to skedaddle, so story time was relegated to the road.

There was no Draghkar. Pity that.

The fate of Master Hightower at Taren's Ferry was, well... I'm sure his sacrifice for the sake of drama is appreciated. Perhaps, under his cloak, he was wearing a red shirt...

Sorry.

The dreams were troubling, and a bit gross. Perrin's first interaction with the wolves was cautiously friendly, and a bit gross.

Moiraine leading Egwene through her first touching of saidar was almost straight from the text, which underscores, I suppose, my overall point. Troublesome backstories, drowning ferrymen, no Draghkars aside, the bones of the story have remained intact. The Dark One is returning. The Dragon is Reborn. The Aes Sedai stand in the breach. And four young people are cast into the whirlwind to meet their fates.

Moving on...

Yes, Thom makes his entrance. He saves Rand and Mat from a Darkfriend. Perrin and Egwene meeting the Tuatha'an was almost what I expected; the missing element was Elyas. I hope he won't be sacrificed to expediency, but my gut says he will.

Mat and Rand and the Darkfriend... I'll confess that I just started my re-read yesterday. Partly because I've been on a Dresden Files re-read for the last month, partly because I kinda want to experience the series without differences between the books and the show constantly jumping out at me. So, I have a vague recollection (from *mumbles* years ago) of Rand and Mat encountering a Darkfriend woman on their journey but I don't recall exactly where it was in the timeline - was it before they met up with Bayle Domon, or after? And the dead Aiel in the cage - I thought that was a Perrin encounter? Anyway, for purposes of the narrative, it doesn't really matter.

Nynaeve finding Lan and Moiraine, with the latter in bad shape from a wound she'd taken in the village battle, was very good. Too soon to say sparks were flying, but there was... discombobulation. (I'm pretty sure Moiraine wasn't wounded in the book. There was a reference somewhere to Lan nearly riding a horse to death carrying her to Myrelle for healing, once upon a time, but that was it. But, hey, dramatic effect, right?)

I love the music.

Oh, and I'm fully invested in despising the Children of the Light just on principle!

...and that catches us up.

There are quibbles. Of course, there are. The Aes Sedai rings look nothing like I thought they would. Way too elaborate. This apparent always dressing in the colors of one's Ajah seems rather on the nose. All in all, the special effects are quite good, but the running-on-four-legs beasties that are tracking for the Trollocs - something about them doesn't work. If you're a "Doctor Who" fan, think back to the Slitheen chasing the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet Jones through 10 Downing Street. These beasties moved like that. A bit too obviously CGI. Okay for the BBC, but you expect something more for the money Jeff Bezos is paying.

And, apparently, "bastard" is another word for "woolhead".

Anyway, that's all I can remember at the moment. Yes, I am invested in this. If it wasn't as good as it is - and it is very good! - I would still be invested because I started reading the books in 1992 and they have been a huge part of my life. Seeing them on screen has been a dream for years.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch them again.