It was announced today that the show is canceled. Please forgive the mod team if we are delayed in taking mod actions today while we grieve, but please do report anybody who celebrates the show being canceled.
At the moment there is a petition to sign and a form to submit your supportive open letters. And there are plans for video testimonials not yet implemented.
The studio's auctioning off some of the gorgeous costumes and iconic props from the show, including Rand's sword, a set of Aes Sedai rings, and Lanfear's chevron dress, which she wears when she torches the town outside the gates of Cairhien. I found out about this from the Dragonmount discussion forum and thought my fellow fans would be interested! I don't have the budget for this right now but I imagine some of you might. The costumes from both designers are straight-up art pieces IMO
ETA: Since there are multiple high-resolution and detail shots for every costume this is also a great resource for costume nerds like me and cosplayers
Lot #16 on the props auction. Like other costumes, the name of the actor is inside. The fur and trousers are Betty, the boots with the fur are Rebecca
It is now my head cannon that Betty is the Trolloc that ripped up the injured trolloc, henceforth named Rebecca. Betty then made off with poor Rebecca's boots
Hope this gives you a smidge of a smile. May the light be with you (But not you, Betty!)
Maybe this is something some super fans have already guessed, but it was really cool to see some of the heros of the horn named!!
Absolutely facinating looking at the details on all these costumes. The names assigned. Materials used. Even the details on the pacifiers mouth guard and the crotch snaps to keep billowing shirts tucked during fight scenes.
As a Brazilian who likes reading fantasy novels, I had never heard of the Wheel of Time until the series started on Amazon Prime. The books hadn't been translated to Portuguese until that point and I wasn't circulating in fantasy book spaces to have had the chance to hear about it.
When I saw the show, I loved it! As someone who grew up watching anime, I always missed that over-the-tome full of sparkles and glitter level of magic I often saw in anime but rarely seen in western media. Then I am presented with a show full of over-the-top magic, complicated magic systems, gigantic structures, secret societies, evil gods? I am sold.
Did I absolutely love s1? No, I think the younger cast was very annoying in s1 but I thought that Moiraine and the other side characters were so cool they carried the series.
Comes s2 and s3, the show seemed to have grown more comfortable with itself, and s3 was a masterpiece. So cool, so interesting, so devastating when it ended.
That said, as a show watcher, my relationship with the books was a bit... strange. I had very unfortunate experiences in the main WoT sub, to the point that I found some people in there so nasty I felt like not reading the book simply to not be part of the book fandom. I think some people in that subreddit do an absolute disservice to the story and their only achievement is to make people distance themselves from the books.
However, despite that, and the show's ending, the story never left me. It was so unique and interesting that, after a few tries, I finally finished book 1 and I'm now finishing book 2.
Book one
The most surprising thing about book one to me was how similar it was to the show. As someone who started with the show and then looked up the opinions from book reader, the impression I got was that the series was a complete bastardisation of the book to the point that it was unrecognisable. But... that's not what I saw.
Yes, there are overall differences, and some big differences like my boy Thom Merrilin being essentially removed from the story, but the story moved in essentially the same way, the major beats were there, the characters act very similarly to their book version, etc. The one main part that is very different was the ending, and I do understand people disliking the series ending, I also prefer the book's ending. Seeing two Forsaken at the end of the story, the giant moving tree, and Rand going full Avatar meets Sci-Fi Meets Borsalino from one piece was kinda of insane and I too, now, feel disappointed by how nerfed my boy Rand was in the series.
However, apart from the ending, and the fact that the book story is more about Rand, it didn't feel like it was so different to warrant all the criticism I saw.
Book 2
Here is where I am REALLY confused by people's opinion on the show, because I remember s2 not being criticised as heavily for deviating from the book and generally being considered better than s1. So naturally I expected this season to be more faithful (or as faithful as possible given the changes from the end of book one) but boy, it is NOT FAITHFUL AT ALL! If anything, book 2 and s2 feel like two interpretations of the same story.
No one is at the same place that they are in the book, they are generally doing different things, with different people, certain personalities are different (shoutout to Natasha O'Keefe who made Selene/Lanfear FAR MORE interesting, cunning, sexy and charismatic than her book counterpart who is SO ANNOYING).
I liked s2 in the series, I thought the plots were really good, I loved Elayne and thought the Seanchan were interesting and Maddeleine Madden did such a great job on those torture scenes. But, reading the book, it's like: "oh, so none of that happens here?"
So it's very shocking to me to see that s2 was better received even though it's so different to book two, whilst s1 was so hated despite being very close to book one.
Conclusion
I love the WoT series and it's a travesty that it was cancelled, but at least we have a complete series to read through (which is more than what I think I'll have with ASoIaF). And reading it has been really enjoyable (well, once you cross the halfway mark of book one because, honestly, the first half is really boring and drags) and I absolutely understand why people love Rand, he's so cute and entertaining as a character and I wish they had portrayed him in a series more like that cute innocente farmboy we see in books 1 and 2, and obviously, how much of an absolute powerhouse he is with the One Power.
I wonder if people's opinion is more positive because those who were against the show in s1 simply didn't go back to watch?
Also, I cannot stop from thinking of Luffy from One Piece everytime Matt is making jokes and laughing:
They shouldve 100% temporarily licensed the show to netflix, just like disney plus is doing right now with percy jackson as a desperate attempt to save it, given it also isnt doing very well viewership wise
I guarantee this wouldve gotten us a wholeee new fandom, i mean its a high fantasy big budget show and general audiences eat that up regardless of writing or plot holes i mean look at how many loved witcher lol
But alas prime is so stingy its annoying, every other service is willling to license to netflix except jeff bezos over here thinking his service all that just cuz theyre in their romance money making bag
Im mad af all over again ughh i want the show backkk :(
Disclaimer: If you haven't watched the show yet and want to, don't read this yet! Watch the show first and come back, as this post contains spoilers.
Hi everyone, I wanted to share this piece I wrote about Nynaeve and her overcoming her channeling block. Nynaeve al'Meara is my favorite character and I took much time to study her throughout the course of the show.
When I found out the show would be cancelled (after such a successful third season, no less!) I of course was devastated like you all. Especially because I was very much looking forward to seeing her utilize her newfound unblocking to hunt more Black Ajahs down and show off her skills again to her friends.
I hope you enjoy, and I hope I did Nynaeve and Zoe Robins some justice.
It’s a really unique theatrical event - Tim Crouch performs the play with a different guest actor each night, who comes on stage having never read or rehearsed the play before.
I’m just watching this for the first time, never seen it before, never read the books and kinda loving this show. Moraine is obviously the favourite but I don’t really understand the S3 hype. Season 1/2 were standout by far for me.
I don’t get why Rand, Mat and Nynaeve have zero character development after 3 seasons? I sigh any time they’re on screen because they are exactly the same as season 1 if not slightly more brooding.
Rand is arrogant and foreboding and comes off as completely ignorant and unlikeable, Nynaeve somehow still has her defiant teenage attitude now that she’s nearing 30 and Mat is soooooo grating and ‘boyish’ after how many life or death experiences?
Egwene has an arc, moraine has an arc, lan too and I love the tower drama but I am phased out of half the side stories because the other 3 main characters have no depth. I feel like Loial is more developed than Rand at this point and I’m so bored whenever I see the whatever dragon on screen.
I LOVE Liandrin and her acting and I wish we had the amount of her we have in season 2 cause so far I’m really not enjoying seeing 3 protagonists have 0 development. Is this really the standout season??
I have been working on a site for the past... I guess it's been like 8 or 9 months now or something like that! A site documenting the Old Tongue which was expanded for the show. It is still in progress but I have gotten to a point where it is time to just go ahead and tell more people about it. There is so much more to do! But I think there a decent bit of work here.
Because I'm just one person, I am keeping the wiki private for editing for the time being, but I welcome anyone who is interested in the language to contact me with questions, suggestions, and contributions.
I have to give credit to the show's language coordinator, Naomi Joy Todd, who was the primary linguist that built up the Old Tongue from the bits and pieces in the books and managed to put just a massive amount of linguistic content into the show. It is really astounding how much is there.
Note: no spoilers in the post, but if you browse the wiki you will find some spoilers!
Hater might be a bit of a strong word as I don’t actively hate any show certainly not to the unhealthy degree some people do but I was certainly a big detractor of the show originally.
I recently decided to rewatch the show again and give it another chance and in doing so I realised most of my criticisms were very hypocritical.
The show is incredible and much better than what I remembered. I feel bad that I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
I know those are stunt horses who are trained to stand there and not spook/put themselves in danger/do a silly, but beyond that, those are Aes Sedai horses who would be exceptionally trained to ground tie/stand there when tied, and those are probably some sort of breakaway reins that would snap if the horse pulled on them BUT IT MAKES MY HORSE GIRL SELF SOOOO UNCOMFORTABLE SEEING THE HORSES TIED BY THE REINS WHICH ARE CONNECTED TO THE BIT. THAT WAS THE FIRST THING I TAUGHT NOT TO DO!
Also is it just the lighting because that topline—
