What Is The Wheel of Time?

Like I said, it’s an epic 14 book series. It is heavy fantasy driven with a fairly standard epic fantasy setting, though some good tweaks on things like magic so that it isn’t just the normal setting. The main things that you need to know about the world going in is that time works on a loop, hence a wheel of time. Where heroes are reborn into the world, but because of a breaking of the world, there is a Dark One, and he wants to rule it all.

Rand Al’Thor and the kids of Emond’s Field live a normal quiet farm life. But when Moiraine Sedai shows up, their world starts to change. One of them is going to be the Dragon Reborn. They will either be the one to save the world, or join the Dark One and doom the world. But from Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nyneave, and Rand, Moiraine and her Warder Lan don’t know who it is going to be.

Thoughts on The Wheel of Time Season One?

I enjoyed the series. I am someone who read 13 of the 15 books. Yes, I said there were 14 books, and there are in the series, then there is a prequel which deals with Moiraine’s backstory. I do want to read that one as well eventually. And I am working my way through the series again now. The television series departs, pretty quickly, from the book series. And for some book readers, that departure, and the number of them might be shocking.

Even for myself, especially the first episode, seemed like a drastic step away from the books in terms of an adaptation. Now, that was closer, in some ways, than the series got as it went along. It ended up being more a pacing issue in the first episode and that they aged up the characters from the books. With that said, they generally always got the tone and feel right. When I look at an adaptation, that is what I want to see. I want it to give me the same feeling as the book. And I want it close enough to my minds picture that it’s easy to jump into the story.

I’d also say that the story is still strong in what they are doing. In some ways, because they had to cut down some fat from 14 books, and they really mainly touched on the first book, it works for television. There are parts that were cut out that I definitely missed, but that’d kind of be a spoiler. And there are other parts that remind me of how the Lord of the Rings trilogy completely cut out Tom Bombadil. Some characters, side quests, or plot points might be interesting, or fun, but less needed.

Spoilers For Wheel of Time Ahead

Clearly, we are getting into spoiler territory now. I recommend if the series interests you to stop now. If you have read the books but haven’t watched the show yet, feel free to continue. It might help clarify some choices that were made. Or lessen some surprises on changes that happened.

And if you want to catch up on my episode by episode reviews, you can find the one for the finale here. And links for other reviews in there.

What Didn’t Work?

A few things don’t work for me in the series. Let’s start at the very beginning. The pacing of the first episode and the heavy handedness of the first episode don’t work for me. One detail you need to know is that the characters in the show are older. This is not a bad change. I think it is needed because this is a long series and kids might age up too fast. Also this is an intense series, so I think slightly older works better.

Aged Up Characters

But the pacing was rushed on the first episode. Some of what makes The Wheel of Time a great series is that it has this writing style of slow, big moment, slow, big moment, a consistent rising and falling. The series gets to that, but it takes a little while. But Perrin is married, know that going in. And in order to get Perrin to dislike his axe, he accidentally kills his wife in the Trolloc attack. It is rushed and forced.

Who Is The Dragon?

They also play a guessing game as to who is The Dragon reborn. In the books, we get a fever dream from Tam Al’Thor, Rand’s father, about how he isn’t actually his father in the first quarter of the book. Here this was the second to last episode that we get that. It’s meant to keep the audience guessing, I get that. Bur, unfortunately, they telegraph it. They hint that everyone could be the Dragon except for Rand.

This can work if you are don’t pick up on it. But they generally lay it on pretty heavily. Every time that they were around both Mat and Rand, since they did spend a lot of time together, it always hinted that it was Mat. Every other character from Emond’s Field as well could be the dragon, except for Rand. I get that it creates a sense of mystery, but it is more interesting, when done well, as in the book, for Rand to try and come to terms with being the dragon. And that his father isn’t who he thought he is.

What Did Work?

Generally, I think that they did a good job in making things work for the show. This might be a bit less on the story front of things and more along the line of the aesthetic and acting. But let’s talk about the acting.

The Acting

The casting for this show is as perfect as I’ve seen for any show. Especially for an adaptation it is amazing. They manage to get the feel of every character right. Even an aged up Mat still has that playful side to him or trickster side from the books. Plus they give him more of a reason to lean into the darker side of the character. Perrin also really stands out to me. He has that slow, lumbering element to him. And while they change his story a lot, he still feels right.

I honestly can’t come up with any character that I didn’t think was a great casting. Min, maybe, wasn’t as how I pictured her in my mind. But she was good in it. And Lan might be a bit slighter of frame than I thought, but Daniel Henney does a very good job in the role. Again, he feels like Lan Mandragoran even if he doesn’t look the part perfectly. And in an adaptation, I care more about the feel than my minds picture.

Where They Meet

One of the more drastic changes, or two really, were skipping over Baerlon and Caemlyn. Instead, they took the whole group to Tar Valon, which doesn’t happen that early in the books. However, the whole Caemlyn plot and Baerlon plots, they more flesh out the story. They add in some new characters and new things that are important, but generally can be done anywhere.

This also saves on the story from the second book. Fal Dara storyline is interesting, but they massively tighten it up with going to Tar Valon first. Again, this is an adaptation, there are going to be some losses to story. But there are also going to be some casualties, but also some ways that the story is tightened up a lot. No Padan Fain being arrested, he just shows up. No going to the Eye of the World and coming back with the Horn of Valere.

We can immediately get into the chase for the horn and the Great Hunt. Though, we need to see how that is going to work as there are pieces who aren’t there right now.

What I Missed?

Let’s talk quickly about what I missed from the series. Honestly there is only one thing I truly missed. And that is what we haven’t met Elayne yet. And that means that Rand didn’t climb up the wall and fall into the castle grounds in Caemlyn. Is that scene extremely important, I’m not sure, honestly, no it isn’t. But it is one of the moments of just fun from the series.

The Wheel of Time has a lot of adventure to it. It is generally a pretty dark series. The Caemlyn scene is a lot of fun. And just in general Elayne is one of my favorite characters, both her and Min. So I am curious when she gets into the show how we’ll be. I don’t know much about the actor playing her, so I’ll have to see.

I also missed, as I talked about, the fever “dream” that Tam tells Rand. We get it later, but I would love to instead see the story play around with Rand’s questioning of everything. Maybe that is too internal, but I think seeing that one scene would improve the story for me.

Wheel of Time Final Spoiler Thoughts

I really liked the series. I thought with the characters they did such an amazing job that it stands out as unique and better than most things. There are a few elements that I really need to see what happens with them. How is Elayne introduced? Where is Rand going away to and when will he come back? What is Mat up to? How will the story change now that Moiraine has been stilled?

Those are massive massive changes, but in terms of story I still think that it works. How it will work long term, and how much it’ll diverge I’m very curious about. I still definitely love the series, though, will all the changes. It reminds me of Lord of the Rings where most of the changes have been done for the good. And I am really curious to see what is coming forward.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

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.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.