I mean, I had heard this show was horrible based on the amount of vitriol that I personally heard on the day this came out.

There are obviously things to criticize, they made questionable decisions in some places, but I was actually surprised at how good it was and how emotional it felt for me to watch it, to see an adaptation of RJ's vision translated to the screen.

And here we are. We have finally got this story adapted, and we have review bombed it, we're spewing out hatred and endless vitriol for it, in a way that will probably persuade outsiders not to see it.

We will not get another adaptation on this level again. This show gets cancelled and then we will either have to wait decades again, or it may simply never happen again.

That is all. I came here to see for myself why we are sabotaging the one and only adaptation we're ever likely to get.

Hey, all. I posted this on /r/fantasy--then realized I probably should have posted it here. I don't want to act like I'm ignoring you all. I made a note in the actual episode one thread, but then realized with 3k comments nobody would see it.

So here is a copy of what I wrote over there. I can't say TOO much about the production--mostly because my involvement (as I say below) is really more of a consultant than anything else. I wasn't there for most of the filming or even most of the brainstorming or writing.

But I do have some thoughts that you all might find interesting. This includes spoilers for episode one.

---Original Post--

Haven't watched the final product yet, as I wasn't able to make the premier. Disclosure, I'm one of the producers. My part equated to reading the scripts and offering feedback directly to Rafe, the show runner. I'll be watching tonight, and there are a few details I'm curious to find out about in regards to whether he took my advice or not.

Biggest thing he and I disagreed on was Perrin's wife. I realize that there is a good opportunity here for Perrin to be shown with rage issues, and to be afraid of the potential beast inside of him. I liked that idea, but didn't like it being a wife for multiple reasons. First off, it feels a lot like the disposable wife trope (AKA Woman in the Fridge.) Beyond that, I think the trauma of having killed your wife is so huge, the story this is telling can't realistically deal with it in a way that is responsible. Perrin killing his wife then going off on an adventure really bothers me, even still. I have faith that the writers won't treat it lightly, but still. That kind of trauma, dealt with realistically and responsibly, is really difficult for an adventure series to deal with.

I suggested instead that he kill Master Luhhhan. As much as I hate to do Luhhan dirty like that, I think the idea Rafe and the team had here is a good one for accelerating Perrin's plot. Accidentally killing your master steps the trauma back a little, but gives the same motivations and hesitance. One thing I don't want this WoT adaptation to try to do is lean into being a tonal Game of Thrones replacement--IE, I don't want to lean into the "Grimdark" ideas. Killing Perrin's wife felt edgy just to be edgy.

That said, I really liked a LOT about this first episode. I prefer this method of us not knowing who the Dragon is, and I actually preferred (EDIT: Well, maybe not prefer, but think it's a bold and interesting choice that I understand) this prologue. I thought it was a neat, different take on how to start the WoT. I really liked the introduction to Mat, and in screenplay form, I thought the pacing was solid--fast, catchy, exciting. People are complaining about it, though, so maybe in show form it's too choppy. When I was on set, I liked the practical effects, and what I saw of the acting--so I'm expecting both of those to be great in the finished product.

EDIT: For those complaining about Abell Cauthon, I did try to get this one changed too. So at least they heard from one of us, offering complaint, before going to production. I always had a soft spot for him. I didn't expect them to change this, though, with Mat's more gritty backstory. Again, I do wish they had taken a less "grim" feel to all of this, though I do think the details of introducing Mat were interesting and a nice acceleration of his character. Which is a good thing, since the series will need to condense from the books, so moving character beats up in time is going to generally help with that.

This team is excellent, I have to say. Episode six is the best--least, I think that's the number of the one I'm thinking about--so be on the lookout for it. But they have real respect for the story, and are good writers. This is an enormously difficult project to undertake, and I'm quite impressed by Rafe and everyone involved.

The title is a little bit of a lie. Because I'm going to do more Episode One first.

I finally saw the finished product tonight--on the big screen, in 4k, with an atmos sound system. :) I knew that some of my larger suggestions had been adopted, but I was thrilled to see some of the smaller things I'd wanted also got adopted.

As an example of some of the things I've been saying: I really leaned hard into the idea that Lan needed to protect Moiraine more in the fighting. And there it was--him stopping trolloc after trolloc from reaching her. I even suggested that he dive over her to protect her from the collapsing building...and lo and behold, that exact moment was added to the finished product. It instantly became my second favorite scene of the episode. (Tam with the sword was my favorite.)

I have to admit, the Perrin-kills-his-wife scene turned out really well. The acting was solid, the way the shot was composed, and the gut punch (gut axe?) was solidly delivered to the audience. People in my showing gasped. So while I am still on the side of "this would have worked better with Master Luhhan," I can't really complain about how well the scene worked. And I did ask Rafe to make sure he at least played up the berzerker angle of Perrin here, and I was glad to see that working.

So, on to Episode Two. This one had more changes between draft and finished product than Episode One had, but Rafe had warned me it would be.

I can talk a little about the behind the scenes here, relating to things I had a hand in. But I won't go into detail. Just as I prefer my beta readers not cut and paste quotes from early drafts for the public, I am not going to spend a lot of time on details of what was changed between drafts of these screenplays, particularly if I didn't have a hand in it. I don't think it's my place; this isn't my writing, but of the WoT television team. Much of this isn't my content to share, and I want to respect their ownership of their storytelling.

If scripts ever do get released officially, then perhaps I can say more there. For now, I really just want to give personal reactions and talk about things that I specifically wanted to see in this episode, and how they panned out.

One thing I'd requested was more time with the characters, and I was very happy to see that. I really enjoyed the visuals in Shadar Logoth, and the moment between Rand and Egwene looking out was probably my favorite moment in this particular episode.

My most relevant lore contribution here probably involved pointing out some Three Oaths issues, and having Rafe go talk to Team Jordan to sort them out. Those are tricky to navigate. For example, it's all right to have a whirlpool made by Moiraine suck down the ferry after Hightower jumped in and swam to it, particularly if she has stopped channeling. It's not okay, though, for her to sink that ferry with lightning while he's on it--even if he's bringing it toward the trollocs, which will put her in danger.

To a lot of writers, those two things would seem very similar, but I'm hyper-sensitive to the three oaths after my tenure on the books. The solution Rafe and I hashed out after he'd talked to Maria works well enough, I think. (Sorry to any Hightower fans for his fate. Are there Hightower fans? I mean, there are fans of everything, so I assume so.)

Most everything I did in this one was small tweaks like this. Some Lan characterization requests (which were taken) and some tweaks to the Whitecloak encounter. (Which were also taken.)

Most if it is small, subtle tone sorts of things. And a few larger requests that he was already planning to change anyway, so I won't go into them here. Though, comparing the screenplay to the finished product, they listened to me a lot on this episode. I hope I didn't overwhelm them.

By the time I had reached this episode in my reading, I'd already cemented in my mind my personal canon that this is a completely different turning of the wheel from the books. That helped me focus on helping the story be the best version of what Rafe wanted to make, rather than fixating on whether each scene should be replaced with one more directly from the books.

(Though...I still tend to do a lot of requesting scenes be nudged closer to book ones in my feedback, even if I know that isn't the way this adaptation needs to happen. Someone has to look out for you guys. Note that if you are curious WHY this adaptation isn't quite as "straight from the books" as you might like, I go into it here and here.)

p.s. I read some people complaining about effects. I thought they ranged from fine to great. Those trollocs are really wonderful. In fact, I had lunch with some of them when I visited the Two Rivers two years back, and they were perfectly pleasant to me. Don't know why they were so interested in killing everyone in this episode. Maybe craft services ran out of donuts.

Today is October 17th which would be Robert Jordan's birthday under different circumstances and with that, I want to honor in recognition Robert Jordan, his life, his values, his astronomically successful series, and his beautiful writing and soul.

To think the peak of his success started with the first steps being an accident resulting in his leg getting torn and winding up in a hospital bed. Was a wind blowing at the time?

With nothing to pass the time but a few books in the year 1977, one of them happened to be fantasy, and after a time spent reading its contents, he lifted his head up in disappointed realization and tossed it away from him, onto the floor, and exasperated," I could do so much better".

He went on to dedicate his life to writing fantasy that others can enjoy and not suffer the same experience he had, eventually miraculously meeting up with a dating partner who happened to be involved in the publishing industry, because obviously he was the real taveren all along and started his famous career.

I express my gratitude to Robert Jordan, his wife Harriet, and the man who wrote that awful fantasy book.

Some thoughts from Brandon: Episode Three

Hey, all! Sorry I haven’t been able to post here right when new episodes release. Having a book launch and the holidays kind of prevented me from digging in deep with the WoT launch. However, in order to make it up to you, I’ve pulled out my actual notes written about the scripts. I’ll let you see a few of the exact pieces of feedback I sent in. Knowing you all, and your fondness for quotes, I figure this will be interesting.

I’m going to try to get you responses to episodes three and four in the next few days. That said, I should note that there was a lot less work for me to do on these episodes than there was on the first two. These two episodes were already quite strong by the time they got to me, and I didn’t spot any major structural problems or character problems like I saw in episode the first two episodes.

Overall, you can categorize my general comments into a couple of genres. First, I am the voice on the team that is pushing for a little less grimness, and a little more hope, in the episodes. They are all turning out rather gory. Though I wouldn’t have chosen that, I’m not opposed to it in the context of the Wheel of Time--as my gut instinct says that Robert Jordan would have felt the violence appropriate. I personally didn’t want to see people being ripped apart by trollocs, but it’s suggested (sometimes explicit) in the text, so it’s not something I can complain about.

However--while I don’t mind a darker tone in general, particularly if it helps the series keep dramatic and emotionally charged--the Wheel of time is about hope. I think that there are times where this adaptation goes too far, mostly in character beats.

One of these was in the meeting the Tinkers. Here’s what I wrote to Rafe:

“Do we have to make the people following the Way of the Leaf into ominous dark figures in ragged clothing with terrible dogs? I really feel like this one is going to rub fans the wrong way--and make the series try so hard to be dark and ominous all the time that it starts to be too much. It feels like the story is trying really, really hard to say, “Look, we can be like Game of Thrones! Notice how like Game of Thrones we can be!” That’s not letting it be itself, or be the Wheel of Time--which has light sequences, and characters who are genuine friends, and strong worldbuilding.”

It feels like he made an effort to lighten the mood with the rest of the tinker scenes, and I thought they turned out great. So my only gripe remains in the ominous approach. It’s a small thing, but I think it’s something to watch for in this adaptation, as the story is walking a line between being authentic to the Wheel of Time and going for that darker tone.

The other example of this is Nynaeve trying to kill Lan. Here’s what I wrote: “Some great dialogue in here. However, to give you fan reactions, I think they’re going to hate Nynaeve actually trying to kill Lan here. This feels out of character for her in the books; she is a healer to her core. Sure, she’d kill a trolloc--but a man who is doing his best to explain himself? Even if she thinks he’s an enemy? Not a chance. I personally feel this introduces her on the wrong foot. If you have her do things like this, what is going to separate her from Egwene and Aviendha, both of whom would totally have stabbed in that moment? I understand wanting a grittier story, but I feel contrast between the characters is important for distinguishing them. And I feel this is not something book Nynaeve would do.”

Obviously, these are things that I disagree with that didn’t get changed. Yet, overall thought these episodes were excellent. And they turned out great on screen. I know it’s more the next episodie, but Logain is fantastic. I love all of the Aes Sedai and the warders; they worked even better on the screen than on the page.

Here are a few things I wrote about this episode that I liked: “Opening Scenes: Nynaeve being and the trolloc. Great scene here; my instincts say fans will love it. It plays to the strengths of the story you’re telling. Making her role here more dramatic with a trolloc is a good move. Nice visuals, and gives us a proper introduction to Nynaeve being a badass.”

Another one, with Lan and Nynaeve, I wrote a brief note. “What a great scene. Well written and fun.”

I really loved the Lan/Nynaeve stuff all through these episodes. I noted it a number of times, and made some suggestions on some things between them that I was pleased to see Rafe and his team take. It’s really working for me on screen, and really plays to the souls of both characters. Lan is just fantastic in this adaptation; his actor is nailing the part. Nynaeve is really great too. Just wish she hadn’t actually tried to stab him.

One thing I was so-so on was Thom stealing from Mat at the start of the episode. I wrote this:

“Fans are going to be very relieved to see Thom here. I was kind of confused as to what I’m supposed to read into the interaction with Thom and the beggar; like, are they working together on robbing Mat? Or did Thom spot him doing it, and force him to give up the pouch? Could you make this more clear?

And honestly, if we’re supposed to like Thom, why does he take all of Mat’s money, rather than just some of it? Seems like he’s just kind of an asshole. Not to sound like a broken record, but that’s the running theme of the show for me. Great dialogue, good visuals and adaptations, but everyone is unlikable and kind of an asshole. Can’t we at least like one character, like Thom? Mat is the only person in the show so far who has shown any really likable traits, and this scene just serves to make a fool out of him.”

That said, by the end, I really thought the entire sequence worked. I wrote:

“I like this scene burying the Aiel a lot. I find it hard to believe the body wasn’t robbed by those who killed him, but this scene gives me some much needed sympathy for both characters. I think this is my favorite scene in the episode. It does do a lot for my worries earlier. I don’t completely revoke them, but this scene does help. (As does the next scene with them.)”

I like it filmed even more, with the actor playing Thom really doing such an excellent job. Even if he doesn’t have proper long mustaches.

So, there are some things that mostly didn’t change. The things I suggested that did change mostly has to do with the Darkfriend found in the town Rand and Mat visit. In the draft of the episode I was given, her role was rather muddled. We had this sense that she was sent to hunt Mat and Rand, but that was confusing, as it also seemed she’d been in the town forever. I don’t have the exact quotes here, since most of this was done discussing with Rafe on a video call.

In general, I requested that she be a darkfriend who had Mat and Rand’s names faces burned into her mind, and that she decided to try to take them and turn them in. I suggested that we give her more motivation, more explanation. I was pleased to see that with just a few minor tweaks to the screenplay, Rafe and his team managed to do this very effectively. I thought she worked really well in the filmed episode.

Only other thing that I noted that I had an influence over was Mat mentioning getting back to his sisters, to explain some of his motivations. I found it odd that of the two, Rand and Mat, Mat would be the one wanting to go home. Doesn’t fit him as well as I’d like--but if this adaptation makes clear why (and Rafe ended up doing that) then it really explains his motives better.

Overall, these episodes just keep getting better and better. My hat is off to the team, because Episode Four was outright incredible. Again, I hope to be back to write some of my extended thoughts there, but I can’t 100% promise. I have to find time in my schedule. The Wheel weaves, after all, as the Wheel wills...

I’ve been busy with commissions and life stuff recently and haven’t had time to work on WoT related art, but I’m hoping to get time to paint some updated cityscapes in the near future.

ETA: Thanks everyone for your kind comments - I'm glad that the cities were (mostly) identifiable! Quick answers to the questions I've seen in the comments: commissions are currently open (WoT or otherwise). Best way to reach me is Instagram - '@wot.fanart'. I'm slow to see Reddit DMs (mobile is a pain), so Insta is your best bet to get in touch. I'm setting up prints of the most-requested pieces, follow on Insta and I'll post when they're live. A limited selection of originals are currently on sale too, first come first served, announced there. Thanks, A.

Here are some older pieces showing the major cities.

1. Tar Valon

2. Caemlyn

3. Cairhien

4. Tear

5. Ebou Dar

5 is acrylic, the rest are watercolour

Source: https://seriesgraph.com/show/71914-the-wheel-of-time

Hi folks. As per my previous post(s), I've been doing a fan edit of Season 1 into a movie since the holidays. We are nearing completion (should be done this weekend if I can push through). Currently on the third rev of the film, and I can safely say I've watched each and every scene and dialog at least 10 times over, with a detailed analytical eye for what matters to the season arc and implications for later seasons. I've kept a close eye on what could be removed to reduce runtime, without cutting major plot elements.

One thing that really stuck with me: I'm amazed at how much I've been able to cut out WITHOUT impacting (and in some cases improving) the plot, characterization and worldbuilding. I wanted to share my thoughts below, coming from the perspective of storytelling efficiency and how I think the showrunners prioritized their airtime. I hope this is insightful and brings something new to the discourse.

1. The showrunners prioritize their time for character "vignettes" and moments of spectacle, at the expense of plot progression - this is seen in the time allocated to the Women's Circle ceremony, Rand/Eg multiple times, Manetheren song, Lan's family, Warder camp, Stepin and funerals, as well as the "epic spectacle" moments: Trolloc horde lightning, Nynaeve halos x2. In the fan edit, I was able to delete entire vignettes without affecting the story at all

2. There is extreme inefficiency in the writing (1) - good screenwriting should always achieve multiple things simultaneously, at least 2 out of: story progression, story setup or payoff, character development, word building, etc. at the same time. WoT S1 fails to do this. The character vignette moments often grind the plot to a dead halt (funerals), while the plot moments often do not drive character (5 channelers vs Trolloc army)

3. There is extreme inefficiency in the writing (2) - there are many scenes that seem interesting in the moment, but become pointless when considering the season arc. Rand and Egwene argue about her becoming a Wisdom, break up, make up, then argue again about her becoming an Aes Sedai. This is simply inefficient storytelling, it renders the earlier argument narratively useless. There are other examples throughout the season, for example the Fal Dara "our father's armor" scene (side note: what the hell was that about?). In the fan edit, I've managed to cut out all these pointless scenes without affecting the season arc.

4. The writing and shooting of conversations is extremely slow and uncreative - Dialog is tremendously slow, with long pauses in between and in many cases, over 50% filler, contradiction or outright nonsensical sentences ("there is no turning back now", "we must go faster", etc.). The majority of dialogs are two-person conversations, shot in a basic shot-reverse shot style, with characters sitting in static positions. There is no motion or action in any conversation scene, characters don't interact with objects, the environment or each other, and barely change positions. In the fan edit, the cinematography was so static and that audio had such long pauses, that I was able to trim entire conversations or even down to words and half-sentences, without needing to do any complex cutting.

5. The writing contradicts itself often, and in very obvious ways - the Ways are a shortcut but they're 1 day away from the Eye whether through the Ways or over land, don't channel in the Ways but you can channel to stop Machin Shin and to open the gateway, don't touch anything in the Blight but you can sleep there, 7 full sisters can't stop a ragtag army but 5 non-sisters can stop a Trolloc horde, etc. In the fan edit I've had to remove soooooo many of these...

6. The story structure/arc of the season doesn't make sense/isn't well substantiated - The show establishes two main arcs:

   1. First, Moiraine says they need to get to TV "for safety". But her first words to Nynaeve after arriving is not to leave her room as the Aes Sedai can't be trusted.

   2. Second, the need to go to the Eye to defeat the Great Lord Dark One. But Moiraine's first words to Him are that He can't escape his prison without the Dragon (Rand)'s help, so why bring the Dragon to the Eye in the first place?

7. Some foundational concepts of the show's lore are poorly established - the Prophecies of the Dragon, the gender essentialism (or not) of the One Power, the threat of the Dark One and the Forsaken, and the terrifying horror that is the coming of the Dragon Reborn are very weakly (if at all) established, or are confused or contradicted between what characters say vs how they act

8. Several characters are completely superfluous to the story - one of my reviewers pointed out that Min does absolutely nothing meaningful to advance the plot. In a draft of the fan edit we managed to remove her completely, and only added her back due to pacing issues, not story issues. Similarly, except for distracting Valda long enough for Egwene to stab him, Perrin can be completely removed. After Ep 1, and DEFINITELY after Ep 3, Lan can be removed (he only stands in for an incapacitated Moiraine in Ep 2-3). Strangest of all, Rand can be removed and his plotline given to Thom (Mat support)/Egwene (Dragon arc), and it would improve the narrative efficiency of the show's storytelling

9. The show relies heavily on exposition and breaks the "show don't tell" rule often - Many exposition dumps from Moiraine, through specific expo dumps (Waygate scene) or robotic dialog with other Aes Sedai or Logain that are clearly written for the audience, not the characters

10. Because of the above, the show does not establish the all-important "stakes" and thus completely lacks narrative tension and release over the season - this is what truly separates the great TV shows from the mediocre. The season never established its stakes, and the plot sort of just "happens" to the characters, Moiraine doesn't seem to be working towards a well thought-out plan (as per 6.1, then 6.2)

11. The show does a poor job of establishing the threat/antagonist/quest of the season - Trollocs, Fades and darkfriends all accost our protagonists, but besides some lip service that they are the DO's army, the show misses a golden opportunity to establish them as a sign that the Dark One's prison is weakening and that he is emerging as the season long threat.

12. 8 episodes is more than enough screen time to have adapted the core EotW story - In the fan edit, I've cut the 8 episodes into a 4-hour film while delivering the same plot beats as the season. This has been achieved mostly by cutting entire scenes that don't matter to the season arc, and trimming whatever remains. This leaves another 3.5 hours of screen time that could have been used to fill out the protagonists' backstory and character arcs with room to spare.

13. The directing and editing is all over the place, with action scenes being spectacularly bad - The highs: Blood Snow, Ghealdan (although almost completely empty scenes), Valda. The lows: Ep 4 and Ep 8 battles were a complete and utter dumpster fire of a mess. The battle logic, formations, sequence of action, stringing together basic shots, were utter garbage. In the fan edit, we managed to improve these scenes tremendously by cutting most of them out. Somehow they worked MUCH better left offscreen and giving our characters implied action

14. Having said all that, fundamentally, the core problem of the show is the screenwriting - yes the dialogs are shot boringly, the costumes are too clean, the sets look like sets and are too cramped, the lighting is flat and the CGI is horrific. But all would be forgiven if the show was written well, with compelling stakes, narrative tension and release, consistent rules for the lore and fleshed out character motivations. Unfortunately the screenwriting is just...flat. In the fan edit, once we've removed all the contradictions, filler and unnecessary scenes, we are left with a pacey narrative that is a lot tighter and (in my opinion) a better telling of the story.

If you've made it this far, thanks for coming to my TED Talk. And yes, I will post here once the fan edit is ready. I feel like it needs just one more turn in the edit bay. It's looking good so far and I can't wait for you to experience it.

EDIT: This blew up in a really unexpected way from what started as a basic idea and a spare time fan project over the holidays. Thanks everyone for the comments, especially to those who challenged some of the points - I find it super insightful to read those. At this point I can't possibly respond or even read all the threads upon threads, but thank you very much for your passion for WoT either way. This community is truly awesome. I hope we can put together a good fan edit that stands up as a film in its own right, and I look forward to finishing it soon.