*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* The Wheel of Time

No further news so far. They have been relatively quiet.

My wife and I are almost through book 1 now. A few evenings of listening left.

 

There have been a few new things released.

Panel with Rafe and a few of the cast:


Shadowspawn video:
https://mobile.twitter.com/thewheeloftime/status/1448680091156766723


My wife and I finished book 1 yesterday and talked about it a bit afterwards.
She says she liked it so we will continue.

 

Ok, so now a LOT of promotional material and leaks are coming in, and I am soaking it all up since I don't care about spoilers.

Some awesome stuff in there. Some less awesome, and some I don't really like, but nothing that makes me less excited so far.

Here's the trailer:

 

There is also a video on YT in which the producer talks a bit about the things we see in the trailer, including explanations of why some things are displayed differently than in the books.

 

Lots of new stuff, but you have probably seen a lot of it already.
I like most of it so far, even most of the "controversial" things. At this point it is just marketing I guess. We have to see the show to really judge.

But of course the people who have an axe to grind are already on it. And as usual they don't care what it is, they see what they want to see.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are already some of them running around telling people to boycott because of some silly reason.

 

No. Rand is the Dragon.

They did a little bit of wobbling around in the promotional material to fool people who haven't read the books or are quick to jump to conclusions, and people who apparently have seen the first six episodes say that there will be some Aes Sedai Truth used by Moiraine "It is one of the four of you I am searching for", possibly to bait Egwene to go with the group.
For that purpose they made the prophecies and their interpretations a little more vague it seems.
The Dragon "could maybe" be a woman.
Of course that triggered the (often over-sensitive) woke-sensors of a few very loud people.

But he isn't. Rand is the Dragon and that seems to be confirmed by everything we as book readers recognize in the ads and trailers.
Are we 100% sure? No, we can't be until we see it.
But I for one am sure that they won't change that.

However it seems that the show did a much better job in hiding that it is Rand. They give the other Emondsfielders a lot more screen time and make the mysterious things happen a bit differently so they will keep you guessing until EP8-10 who is the Dragon, instead of RJ who played it pretty straight.

In fact it seems that the people who have either seen EP1-3 or EP1-6 don't see that as controversial at all. The bigger controversies among people following the leaks seem to be:

- Perrin's personal background story that was changed, and especially the way it was changed, since they used an overused trope many people seem to dislike.
- that Winternight is different
- that Thom plays a much smaller role
- the parts that were cut/conflated


I personally cannot wait. All I heard makes me more excited for the show, not less.

So yeah, they changed more than I thought they would, but I can see how those changes can be great if they do them right.

I might still end up disliking the show, but the more I see the less likely I think that I will.

Book purists probably will though, based solely on the fact that there are _many_ changes, even if most of them are not that big.

 

Yeah that's a good approach.

 

Somewhat good news today:

There were public screenings of the first episodes in theaters across the world, and the reactions seem to be fairly positive all around.

The most negative ones I have encountered so far seem to complain about the plot (not the production, which is described to be quite polished) in the first episode being rushed (the word several people use is "breakneck speed", which is very unlike the books but the non-readers seem to enjoy it) and some dialogues being a bit forced (for exposition).
People compare it to the first episode of Game of Thrones in that regard, it was the same there.

The big controversial things (that we know of from leaks and trailers and that were discussed up and down on reddit and elsewhere) are reported as either a lot less high profile in the actual show, or make a lot more sense when you see them.

And even the people who still hate the changes praise the acting, the music, and overall feel as well as the action and cinematography.

I remain carefully optimistic. Can't wait to see it myself and form my own opinion (most likely on Saturday. Can't watch it on Friday because I don't want to disappoint my D&D group).

 

Some more reviews by non-readers, and professional critics (whom one may trust or not, I usually don't) are coming in now and they are mixed, but rarely really negative.
Most are in the 60-80% range.

The most negative ones I have seen can be sunmed up as "this is by Bezos so it sucks" or "this is not like Game of Thrones so it sucks".

The wheel weaves as the wheel wills I guess.

 

Ok, I watched the first three episodes and I really really like it.
I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

I talked to a few other WoT fans and non-readers now, and funnily we all have different things we liked more (or less) about it. Nothing severe though.
IMO some of the changes make more sense than the way the books handled it.

Episode one was a bit weaker than the other two, but I must say I really enjoyed all of them.
The atmosphere is right there for me, it feels like WoT.

And they hid so many little details in there, nods to the books and foreshadowing. Just like RJ.

 

You can binge watch the whole season then!

 

Yep! Ep4 was the best so far.
In my book every episode was better than the one before it.