A little bit of groundwork on how this is going to work, I am going to talk about stuff generally, plot, what worked, what didn’t work and some final thoughts. Then I am going to jump into spoilers. I will say that this is a show that I’m enjoying. It’s not perfect to completely true to the book, but that is okay, it’s worked well for television thus far.

Leavetaking

Things in Emond’s Field are not great this year, it’s been a tough winter, but winter ends when Bel Tine comes around. Rand and his father, Tam, come into town to bring mead and drinks for the celebration. They aren’t the only exciting things coming for Bel Tine. Moiraine Sedai and her warder Lan, and along with them a peddler, Paden Fain. Everyone is ready for a night of celebration when creatures of the dark one attack Emond’s Field.

Moiraine and Lan manage to drive back the Trollocks, but are not able to save everyone in the town. They have an idea as to why the Trollocks and dark ones might be attacking, but that requires that some of the Emond’s Field young adults need to go with them. This includes, Rand, Perrin Aybara, Mat Cauthon, and Egwene Al’Vere.

What Didn’t Work

This is an interesting episode, and I’ll talk about a few more thigns that didn’t work in the spoiler section, because somewhat by necessity they needed to change a bit of it because of how long the book series is. They can’t do everything in this series that the books do. On the flip side, some of the changes were a little bit rough.

All the main kids are older, and I won’t say that didn’t work, but they made some interesting choices with the level of relationship with Rand and Egwene and an interesting choice with Perrin. I can get both of them, though, the one with Rand and Egwene gave it more of a Game of Thrones feel, and I know it’s a fantasy book series so it’s going to get compared to Game of Thrones, but Wheel of Time should not be Game of Thrones, and while I don’t think it’ll try completely, they will give nods to that style I’m sure.

I do think they rushed some of the story. Now, I get that they are doing a 9 episode season which I’m guessing is all of the first book. But this is Amazon. 12 episodes and the pacing would have been amazing. 15 episodes and it probably would have been perfect. This is an epic fantasy series, don’t rush it too much. To go back to Game of Thrones, we know what happened when they rushed the end. I think just a few more episodes could have made this first episode better.

What Did Work

First off, the tone of the show is very good. Emond’s Field felt like Emond’s Field. The Aes Sedai feel like Aes Sedai from what we see of them. They set-up some important things early on for how the magic of Aes Sedai works and how the male side is tainted.

But to go along with the tone, the casting on this is amazing. I am not going to list off everyone because, well, everyone is great from Tam, Rand, Mat, Egwene, Perrin, Lan, Moiraine, and Paden Fain. Honestly, all the main cast are good. I think that we didn’t see enough of Nyneave to know if that casting is great, but the rest of them are very good. And I think as we get to see more of Nyneave her character will be more interesting. I don’t think I can overstate this enough, the casting might be the best I’ve seen for a show period.

Leave Taking Final Thoughts

I have some issues with this episode. Now, I don’t have major issues with this episode because it sets the right tone, it sets up the world well, and there is clear strength in the casting. My issues come from the pacing. This episode felt rushed. They packed too much into it, they packed some extra things into it, and it just wasn’t needed at times.

That said, this is going to be different from the books. Any adaptation of any book is going to be different because it’s a different person interpreting it than the writer or the reader. So this has the right feel and the right actors, if they can keep close enough to the story line it is going to be very good.

Overall, this is a series, and honestly most series are this way, give yourself three episodes with it. This first one sets the town correctly, but isn’t amazing. The second one I liked better, but I’ll talk about it tomorrow.

Have you watched the show, what do you think of it? Is it one you’ll continue watching the new episodes when they come out?

SPOILERS

Now, let’s get into a few small gripes, why they don’t matter that much, or maybe why they didn’t work for me. Spoiler, obviously ahead, let me repeat that, spoilers, obviously, ahead.

In the show they age the main characters up. This is not actually a big deal to me. However, they use it to make one interesting choice and one heavy handed choice. With Rand and Egwene hooking up, that felt too Game of Thrones, granted the characters are older, but it’s a bit odd to add into the story. Does it add drama, yes, is that drama really needed, no.

The second thing was Perrin being married. Again, this makes sense if they are older, and if any of them were to be married it’d 100% be Perrin. He’s the most responsible of the three boys. And I get what they did, I just don’t like it. Perrin killing his wife rushes along the storyline of how Perrin doesn’t like his axe. He wants to throw it away because he doesn’t like killing. He gets talked out of it and is told to throw it away if he ever doesn’t hate it and if he is ever not hesitant to use it. Him killing his wife is just too heavy handed for my taste.

And finally this isn’t a negative or a positive at this point, but Thom Merrlin isn’t in the story yet. He’s one of my favorite characters from the books. He is there in the books for Bel Tine and the Trollock attacks. And he joins with the group for a reason, now I’m sure that reason will still exist, I’m just going to be curious to see how they tie it in. The attack at Bel Tine was a good kicking off point for their friendship.

With the exception of the Perrin thing, the rest are nitpicks. I think that Egwene and Rand thing is fine. I get it, it’s a bit of Game of Thrones and a bit of them being older. The Perrin one is what stands out to me as I wish they had more time to build it out or taken that time. Though, it’s Perrin, so it’s harder to explain since a lot of it was in his head.

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What Is The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time is a series that was written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson from 1990 to 2013. Robert Jordan passed away before he could finish writing the series. Knowing that he wasn’t likely to, he took notes and planned it out so someone else could. Brandon Sanderson, writer of things like the Stormlight Archives and The Reckoners was tasked to do that.

The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series following a main group of characters, that grows and changes as the series goes. It mainly focuses on a group of kids/young adults from Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers, and their adventures as they go out into the larger world after they fall under the eyes of the dark one. And their lives are spun into the Wheel of Time.

That’s very general idea of the plot. Without going too deep into it, there is magic, there is darkness, there is romance, back stabbing, and wolves. There’s high adventure, legends coming to live, and a very involved world which you’d expect from a series with 14 books or 15 if you count the prequel. There is even a character sent on a mission that never comes back because there are so many characters.

What is the Show?

So the show is going to be an adaptation on this series. Thankfully the series takes place over quite a long period of time in the world. That means that as the show spans years and actors get older it is going to work. This is almost a bigger scope, I’d say, than something like Game of Thrones, but it’s generally going to be on that scale. This is going to be more of an epic adventure with political intrigue kind of in a backdrop.

Key Wheel of Time Players

Rand al’Thor

From the Two Rivers and Emond’s Field, Rand grew up on the farm with his father. His mother is an outlander and Rand stands out a bit from everyone. He’s one of the characters who the Dark Lord takes note of. The story and the Wheel of Time spin around him more than most of the other characters, though they all have their moments to shine.

Perrin Aybara

Perrin also comes from Emond’s Field. The blacksmiths apprentice, he is slow to speak but very quite smart, just not ready to rush in. He has some interesting times as he meets up with some wolves that influence and change his life. His path leads him back to Emond’s Field more often, but still travels and explores the world.

Matrim Cauthon

The final of the boys from Emond’s Field. Mat is the light hearted one. He plays jokes, he is impulsive, and that often gets him into trouble. It really changes him early on in the series when he comes cross something as they leave Emond’s Field to escape the Dark Lord.

Moiraine Damodred

Moiraine is an Ais Sedai from Tar Valon. They are the magic users, the female half of the one power, which has not been tainted by the dark one. She comes to Emond’s Field, drawn by the weaving of the wheel of time and the hope for saving the world from the Dark Lord. She is the one who helps the boys on the run with her warder Lan

Lan

Moiraine’s Warder. He is very stoic and while a caring man, he doesn’t show emotions. As a Warder he is connected with Moiraine and when she dies, he will die, not immediately, but soon. He helps train and protect the boys and the others from Emond’s Field.

Egwene el’Vara

Egwene is the daughter of the Mayor. She’s head strong and loves adventure. When the boys are slipping out of Emond’s Field, she follows them and joins their adventure. While she is not as tightly wound into the wheel of time, she plays an important role in helping them complete their missions and it wouldn’t be possible without her. She never loses that sense of adventure but does mature throughout the series.

Nyneave al’Meara

Nyneave is the wisdom of Emond’s Field. The wisdom is basically a herbalist and healer of the town. They are considered to be wise in those arts and generally considered to be a stable force in the town. Generally they lead or are an important part of the women’s circle. Nyneave is young and a bit hot headed to be a normal wisdom. She doesn’t join the group immediately but is a major player.

Now, there are many more players in the Wheel of Time. In fact, there are too many to really talk about, because like I said, it’s 14 books. Not all 2782 of them are throughout the whole story though. These characters are all important, through most of the story if not all of it. But like Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time is not always shy about killing off characters.

What Are My Thoughts on the Books?

I am not going to do any spoilers here. I could, but I think it’s more useful to have an idea of the feel of the series and my thoughts on that. The series is interesting, I am not going to call it great, and I am not going to call it bad. It does a few things that are fairly standard for a lot of these epic fantasy stories coming from that time. And the story is very long.

I think the audiobooks, not counting the prequel story are going to take about 400 hours, which is very long. Needless to say with me listening to it now, I’ll maybe be on book two or three when the series starts. I think that the show is going to be quite good. There is a ton of information and story to use in the show. I hope they cut it down a long ways, and I think they will. The first book with everything that happens could be feature length movies and probably five of them.

Normally I want a story to stay true to the story. And with Wheel of Time I do want it to stay close. But I want it to tighten up the story. The story is epic, the characters are interesting. A few things need to change because it gets too long and too repetitive. Now that I have all of it on Audible audiobook, I can imagine that I will come back to these books often.

Have You Read The Wheel Of Time Series?

Let me know your thoughts on the series? Do you think this will be a good show? What do you think of the trailer?

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