Let’s bookend this like my eps. 1-3 post- general thoughts for the season as a whole, episode thoughts, and then full book thoughts (which will go all the way through A Memory of Light starting at the Foretelling the Future section, so my apologies to friends who are part way through the series- feel free to comment or start a side chat but do mention where you’re at so I can scale appropriately!)
Season 1 Thoughts
Upfront, getting this out of the way: I liked season 1 as a whole, and to me it’s a 7/10. It feels very true to the series as a whole which is important when working 14 books + novella into approximately 8 seasons. My episode order is 7>4>6>5>3>8 or 2>1, and even though 1 is at the end for me there’s still plenty I like about it. When reading a lot of the detractor critiques, it feels very focused on either specifics from Eye of the World, or from characters as we know them after spending 14 books with them. Readers have the benefit of hindsight (and Wheel is a series that pays dividends on rereads with foreshadowing) so some of these takes confuse me as we end season 1 placing everyone where they need to be for books 2-3 (which I suspect will be combined in season 2, already being filmed). I’ve loved these books since I was 14 and while they are international bestsellers, it’s very hard to convince your friends that they should also read an extremely long series, especially during that point in time where we weren’t even sure it’d be finished. (I found Warbreaker an easier sell because it’s standalone, or Mistborn which was just a trilogy at the time). The show is an approachable entry point for those who don’t have the time to sit and read or listen through (the audiobooks are also good, if that’s more your thing). I feel aiming for this demographic was a smart decision given how many people I’ve seen watch and talk about it OUTSIDE of my usual nerd book circles. If you are a skeptic reader, I recommend watching reactions like the Everyday Negroes who perceptively pick up on seeds planted. The Wheel of Time has reach, and this turning allows me to talk about the thing I love with more folks. I really am reminded of theorycrafting on the forums between books again!
I decided to rewatch the entire series before writing this. I’m glad it went week-to-week because we got weekly discussion and buzz- Cowboy Bebop also debuted the same week, but I didn’t hear much after the second week (and evidently neither did Netflix, as they axed it after dismal numbers). But, if you’ve been waiting for it all to be out and binge, go forth and do so!
Some Things I Liked
In no particular order (or honestly probably chronological because I’m writing this while rewatching):
The Wheel of Time: Origins animation, which after half the season were FINALLY brought out of X-Ray and listed instead as bonus episodes (which is better because they actually have closed captions and not hidden away where most users wouldn’t find it).
The long tracking shot following Mat during Winternight as he goes to look for his sisters.
NARG (the trolloc who attacks the al’Thor farm, lacking in lines in this turning unfortunately). Also, the practical effects for trolloc costumes in general.
Whitecloaks are legitimately a threat!
Casting- everyone feels like who they are. If I spent only a couple minutes watching any given part, I could immediately pick out who’s who. I was going to list standouts and then realized I’d just be listing the cast.
Additionally, casting is global and doesn’t assume white as default in a fantasy setting! The story takes place far in the future, long after a utopian society so our era’s assumptions shouldn’t carry over (and in-world, cultural differences are barriers, not physical attributes).
The opening sequence! Threads of dark and light come apart before they explode, forming the Age Lace weaving the Pattern. (also, TIL the same company did the opening credits for the new Bebop.) The giant loom also gives flexibility if they decide future seasons show different Weavings by the Wheel…
Moiraine’s demonstration of how exact verbiage matters in episode 2 re: the Three Oaths and meeting said Whitecloaks.
Weep for Manetheren
The soundtrack, which has four albums so far. The first contains leitmotifs with Old Tongue lyrics that then get reworked as episode music depending on what happens.
The Darkfriend, great example of showing not telling and consolidating a number of DFs
Bringing the Aes Sedai forward, storywise. This reminds me of how season 1 of The Expanse introduced Avasarala as a character even though she doesn’t appear until the second book because we need that Earther perspective.
Expanded Logain story because again, showing instead of infodumping about men who can channel.
Retaining the relationship from New Spring for that bisexual representation (but also not sexposition as GOT would’ve done it).
Expanded Lan-Nynaeve relationship- I appreciate more time with them on screen, always since she’s my favorite character.
Ila’s speech about the Way of the Leaf
Tar Valon, and sets in general- really strong design aesthetic for everything.
Episode 5 does a lot of work for the Aes Sedai/Warder bond which will be super important when we get to mid-series.
Warder culture, and retaining mourning white from the books while also expanding to include designated mourner from real world cultures- a duty truly heavier than a mountain.
The Blood Snow cold open is my favorite of the cold opens. Can’t wait to see more of the Aiel.
The Ways were creepy, and Machin Shin’s personalized threats work better for me than mutterings about blood and flesh ripping.
Gimme MOAR
There’s a number of sequences we didn’t actually see- Egwene rising up out of a pool covered in paint (based on context clues, my guess is that it’s the pool Nynaeve was cleaning from the Women’s Circle ceremony in episode 1), a line about badgers in a bag that the boys snickered about, this image of Lan & Moiraine looking at a map with Loial in the White Tower, Padan Fain holding a trefoil leaf token as he walks out of the Waygate… maybe in the editing room they thought episodes needed to be tighter for timing, but I really feel like streaming allows for irregular episode times, and we needed more time to breathe with these characters. It’s impractical to expect a 1:1 adaptation, especially when there’s so many internal thoughts (and separating out how what a character thinks is different from their actions- looking at you, Nynaeve, every time you call yourself a coward while doing the bravest actions!) so give us more time to show. Perhaps we’ll get deleted scenes but I’m not sure how that works on streaming…
Episode 8 Thoughts
Hooboy. You can really see how they scrambled to put something together after Barney Harris’s departure and COVID impacts (reviewing GeekyEri’s block analysis he DID arrive back in Prague right before Block 4 covering eps 7 and 8 started shooting so it must’ve been abrupt). Originally these were supposed to be shot in Marc 2020, but were delayed to September 2020, with another pause at the beginning of November and had to resume in spring of 2021. Productions of this size can’t easily be paused- can’t hold cast and crew in limbo for months while you work out rewrites and a new Mat, so what can be cobbled together with what we have? This is most obvious with Padan Fain in Fal Dara, as previously he had interactions with Mat so this would’ve been a good bookend to their interaction in episode 1. I imagine Amazon was breathing down their necks to get the show out by 2021 with the Second Age LOTR show coming in for winter 2022. In Episode 5 of Inside the Wheel of Time, VFX editor Julian Parry talks about how they couldn’t go to the Canary Islands to film the Blight, and they also couldn’t bring back the trolloc crew for the fight so that all had to be digitally done.
What keeps this episode from being at the bottom of my episode list is the cold open and Rand’s battle at the Eye. The cold open is worked from the short story The Strike at Shayol Ghul (which can be found in 1997’s Illustrated Guide to the Wheel of Time, affectionately known as the Big White Book of Bad Art by fandom though it’s recently been republished in hardcover) and I love that we’re not shying away at ALL from how the Age of Legends, the age between ours and the one our characters live in is straight up science fiction, with skyscrapers and flying cars. Alexander Karim has magnetic charisma as Lews Therin Telamon, and of all the named characters in the series I’m surprised to see Latra Posae Decume on screen!
Rand’s confrontation with The Man at the Eye parallels something from the last book, and I’ll discuss further in my next section. But for those who are show-only, know that I also appreciated a confrontation with a Big Bad that’s not straight punchy punch power struggle, that this was a temptation which our messiah figure rejects because he recognizes that it is not what Egwene would want. Rand thinks he’s killed the Dark One, but Moiraine recognizes this is just the opening volley in the march to the end.
I dislike having additional death fakeouts, though as Twitter of Time points out, the description of Nynaeve collapsing could be taken literally from the ending of Eye of the World. Behind the scenes describes her makeup being less burnt out than Amalisa’s crispiness, but I don’t know that that was necessarily clear to the viewer. This did show the culmination of the warnings to Liandrin about drawing too much of the Power in episode 4, though. For Loial, I’m going to assume he has a very thicc book in his pocket keeping him alive… that, or that’ll be the reason Perrin needs to go after Padan Fain.
The stinger is EXACTLY what I thought it’d be. Bring on The Empress, may she live forever y’all.
Full Book Thoughts
Arguing on the internet
~cracks knuckles~ it’s been a salty bloodbath in some of the places I frequent, and as a Brown sister nothing gives me greater pleasure than pointing to places in the books where assertions are wrong, such as those who assume Lan/Nynaeve moved too fast when the “I will hate the man…” speech is from the last fifth of the Eye of the World, when the party camps in the Blight (and feels out of nowhere because we’ve spent the book in Rand’s head mostly, and he’s not going to pay attention to other people’s relationships while figuring out his identity crisis).
I’m baffled by the people who think this should be cancelled because they somehow think someone else will pick up the IP away from Sony Pictures/Amazon, or will attempt another adaptation so soon. I saw an argument the other day saying Dune had multiple adaptations but that would be 1984, 2003, and 2021- it’ll be decades before another turning of the Wheel to the 3rd age if that (consider how Peter Jackson’s LOTR is the definitive version of the moment, and the 1978 Bakshi version fades further into myth).
Furthermore, I could make a crack about reading comprehension levels among book fans, but the more charitable take is that we all focused on different things. When speculating about the final episode with bookreader friends IRL, they’d completely forgotten about the Green Man, so I’m not surprised he was written out like Tom Bombadil in the LOTR adaptation. I think when people feel like this adaptation “butchered/destroyed” WOT, it’s because their preferred focal points (the boys, typically, but also Thom (who also had a fakeout death in EotW) or Elyas which are related to the boys) didn’t have as much time. Even if Rand is the Dragon Reborn, the Wheel of Time is an ensemble piece. The series would’ve been much shorter if we didn’t go into everyone’s perspective, and as Rand tells the Dark One at the last battle,
“Here is your flaw, Shaitan, Lord of the Dark, Lord of Envy, Lord of Nothing, here is why you fail. It was not about me. It’s never been about me.”
[cutting the specific sections out to paraphrase]
”It was about them all.”
For my fellow book readers, here’s a thread discussing changes and how the overall beats are the same which I found an interesting read.
EotWisms
The Eye of the World has a lot of quirks. Things that we’ve shed that also didn’t make an appearance later:
Moiraine’s staff
Moiraine stepping over the gate at Baerlon (arguably she could’ve used Mask of Mirrors and walked through the gate while everyone was watching Big!Moiraine but ehhhhhh)
Affinity to people you’ve healed before (Nynaeve is connected to Egwene when they’re tracking them post-Shadar Logoth)
The “cords” of power Rand wrestled with at the Eye of the World
Rand just… teleporting from the Eye to Tarwin’s Gap, or at least fighting in the sky (maybe this is just Weird Ba’alzamon Nonsense
It’s absolutely okay to cut these.
Foretelling the Future
I predicted that we’d see the Seanchan at the end, and sure enough! Didn’t see Maigan get collared but maybe that’s a season 2 thing, actress availability be willing. Leashes would’ve been a fine line to walk to avoid getting into fetish territory, but it appears we still have a collar and a cuff that match (the muzzle is more aesthetic choice, I feel).
In various interviews, Rafe mentioned that Moiraine loses access to the One Power at the end of this season so she has something to do in season 2 (I lean towards her being shielded, not stilled because we’ve seen both weavings in episode 4). In The Great Hunt, she visits Vandene & Adeleas to do research on the Dragon but maybe it will double for trying to eliminate her block. I think she’s shielded in the same way Asmodean was by Lanfear- a shield tied tightly in the opposite gender’s power so you can’t see it, possibly inverted.
Rand’s confrontation with Ishamael definitely reminded me of his philosophy-off with the Dark One during the Last Battle. I appreciated pulling elements from Egwene’s Accepted test (which makes me wonder if we’ll see it again when she goes through the rings), and having Ishamael be more on the less-mad Moridin end makes him a smarter villain.
I really liked episode 5 for what it did- it’s a shallow read to take it at face value, that it was about Stepin when really, this is showing us what Moiraine and Lan are concerned about if they lose each other during the quest to find the Dragon and preserve him for the Last Battle. I’m thinking we might see Moiraine talk about bond transfer to Alanna (combining her with Myrelle) in case of emergency.
And of course, I am thrilled to see buzz around getting Shohreh Aghdashloo into the Wheel of Time. Cadsuane doesn’t appear until book 7 though she does have an appearance in New Spring. Since we expanded Logain, could we maybe introduce her hunting Mazrim Taim?
All in all, I feel quite hopeful about where Rafe Judkins and the team is taking us with various elements in play (the peeks at the Stone of Tear in young Siuan’s cold open make me wonder how that’ll look, and given how striking Tar Valon was I’m thinking we’re in good hands). I feel reenergized for talking about this series and with a wider group of people than before! This is a golden age to be a sci-fi/fantasy fan.