Wheel of Time on Amazon - SPOILERS

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Unnecessarily long response post…

The Greens have a rep of being romantically involved with their warders. None of the others necessarily do, but theoretically could. This is hinted at pretty well, but not explicitly stated in the show.

Nah. He has a thing with the wolves though…you know this explicitly by now in the book, and there are multiple scenes to imply it in the show. He still hasn’t really figured out how to do it right though. A character that explains it has been skipped in the show to this point.

Fair question. I don’t actually remember. Maybe they both weren’t sure who actually did it either?

Mostly, though the Two Rivers kids were actually just teenagers in the book and are made to seem much older in the show. Matt’s been recast already for season 2, so if that’s your gripe then there you go!

I don’t think this is true going forward? Can’t think of anything off the top of my head at least.

You make a good point. There’s history between Lan and Stepin (longtime friends kinda thing), and with Lan being a major character it is the focal point I guess. A big part of this was to show that Lan has an emotional side. The book makes him appear much harder a person, so the dichotemy isn’t as notable in my opinion on the show. Also it makes Nynaeve feel for him…more…if you haven’t picked up on that yet…

All good questions here. Differences in the ajahs will become apparent later.

Stay tuned.

They exist. That none were in the Logain hunting party is more of the political stuff between ajahs. Not really their jam. Not important so far.

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Ha, sorry, didn’t mean it like that. I meant it more as step on each other’s toes or make someone else look bad or take the blame for mistakes. Things like that. Aes Sedai can’t kill with the One Power (the three oaths).

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Regarding Egwene and Perrin’s escape from the Children…take a look at Perrin’s eyes, and consider some of the odd interactions he’s had that the other characters had not, especially in the context of what else is going on in camp at that time.

Egwene gets free by burning her ropes, but Perrin freed himself with sheer strength. Unless the series is excessively deviating from the books, Valda isn’t dead.

Regarding the casting…when the Emmonds Field five were announced, there was a significant amount of criticism because many characters didn’t look like the fan-art-inspired head cannon of many folks. However, going back and looking at the character descriptions in the books…they work. The main characters introduced in Episode 1 do a good job, I think, in capturing the essence of the book characters…although the portrayal of Lan in the series isn’t quite as stoic/“force of nature” as Lan is in the books.

Thom in the series is quite a bit different from Thom in the books in both attitude and appearance…but I think the series portrayal works despite the deviation.

The tinkers in the series are not as flamboyant as they are described in the books…but I don’t think the book description would have been viable on TV. I do like how the series has handled the Way of the Leaf…but I wonder if the deviation from the books’ descriptions might cause them problems later in the series, when the Tinkers’ origins come up.

Loial in the books is bigger than Loial in the series…but I think the book image of Loia might have been difficult to pull off on screen without a bigger SFX budget.

I think the difference in the depiction of Stepin’s funeral vs Kerene’s funeral was the showrunners’ attempt to portray the downside of the bond. In the books, warders completely lose it when their Aes Sedai die. In the books, most warders’ reactions are more…dramatic than what was portrayed in the series for Stepin.

The mean girl vibes is presumably the series’ introduction to the factionalism that exists among the seven ajahs. The Aes Sedai are known as plotters and schemers, and the later books go into a lot of detail on the politics among the ajahs and sisters.

FWIW, the Lindarin in the series is extremely different from what I pictured Lindarin in the books. The difference is probably the one that has been most distracting for me…but knowing what’s up with Lindarin in the books, I think I get what the showrunners are doing, and I suspect it’s going to work well.

I’m waiting to see what’s up with the purported conflict between the Amyrlyn Seat (I can’t spell that term…) and Moiraine in the series. In the books, they were besties as novices, but they maintain some separation as Aes Sedai for reasons that will become clear later.

As far as the lack of blues… I suspect the explanation within the series is that the White Tower dispatched some Reds (known for seeking out and gentling men who can channel) and Greens (the Battle Ajah, also the only Ajah where Aes Sedai have multiple warders and where the Aes Sedai sometimes marry their warders). Blues are more into gathering real-world information and looking into politics, etc. Moiraine’s out on a blue-like quest, but blues aren’t the sort who would have been dispatched to bring in Logain.

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I can only think of one outright suicide attempt among the major characters (a character not yet introduced in the series; leads to the first sex scene in the books and an introduction to folks living on the other side of the ocean), but there are more than a few senseless deaths, and the world of the Wheel of Time is a postapocalyptic one, where humanity is fading…with conditions that deteriorate through the series.

That being said, there are several instances in the books of characters engaging in acts of self-sacrifice, and the books do have a couple of particularly gory acts of violence. I think more than a few of us familiar with the books are going to be interested in how they depict the charnel house of Dumai’s Wells.

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When my wife watched episode 4 with me, one of her comments was that the tinker’s clothes were too well coordinated lol

Slight book spoiler about their relationship: I thought at this point in the books the two had staged a rough relationship so no one would suspect they were still friends

I believe Blues choose a cause/mission that they will dedicate the rest of their lives to. That cause usually takes them out into the world more. Their mission is not always something they tell others about.

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Much better explanation than mine. Thanks.

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So there is a lack of coordination in regards to the day to day jobs of the Aes Sedai? There’s no Jedi Council of Masters that kind of control who does what? Who decides who gets the begin teaching the padawan Nynaeve?

And what about that horcrux that Mat found, you know, the Valyrian steel dagger? Someone’s got to figure out that the horcrux has gotten him into bad shape.

And at this point of watching 5 episodes, I have no doubts about who the real Dragon is. spoilered prediction: Mat is too crazy/sad sack. Perrin has his own warging thing with the wolves. Nynaeve and Egwene will become Aes Sedai. So that leaves the pretty boy Randal Thor - I didn’t read the books, and that is how he introduced himself to the Ogre dude… My name’s Rand. Randal Thor. If you are going to make a character super powerful, isn’t it a little obvious to name him after a Norse God? The only question is how he gets the white swirlies (T1P) without losing his marbles

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This website gave me some background on the colors

It helped a little, and it explained that certain colors are sympatico (blue and green) while others always butt heads (blue and red)

Be careful, though, the website does have a big spoiler that I shouldn’t be knowing about yet: the 8th color: the black ajah

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:rofl:

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someone said earlier that you cannot see the white swirlies (T1P) unless you are able to make your own white swirlies. If you cannot “touch the one power” yourself then all you see is the magic, not the swirlies.

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Oh, they definitely have their own Jedi council. The Amyrlin seat sits at the head. She is known to make kinds bend to her will. In the books I think it basically says to the public she is the white tower. Then there’s the hall of sitters - sometime soon we’ll see that I think (based on pictures I’ve seen). That’s where each ajah has a couple sisters representing them. The hall is like congress - they can override the Amyrlin if necessary, but the have to mostly agree on things to do that.

I was talking more about day to day activities. As long as you don’t have the attention of the women in power telling you to perform certain tasks, Aes Sedai can go about and do as they please.

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Yup, that’s definitely coming up.

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:oh_noes: If you mention that to a sister, she will most vehemently deny its existence, at least at this point in the books, and for quite a while still.

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Oh right! Blanked on that one. Seems like we’re pretty in line with what’s happening so far.

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The Amyrlin Seat is the leader of the Aes Sedai, but she is supported by the Keeper of the Chronicles and the Hall of the Tower. The Hall is made up of three sitters from each ajah (I suspect we’ll meet the Hall in the next episode), and each ajah has its own leadership structure. In the books, the day-to-day activities of individual sisters is governed by the leadership of their ajahs. Inter-ajah activity is driven by the Hall and the Amyrlin.

In the books, the identity of the Dragon Reborn was obvious very early on. I appreciate how the showrunners are trying to make it less obvious.

Re “The only question is how he gets the white swirlies (T1P) without losing his marbles”…who says that he won’t lose his marbles? :wink:

Re teaching Nynaeve…in the books, women who go to the tower to learn are novices. They live in dorm-like quarters, have classes, and are generally overseen by the Mistress of Novices. Once they’re in the Tower, they aren’t supposed to leave until the Tower is ready for them to leave (there are serious consequences for running away). After a point, they go through an initiation rite and become Accepted, and gain some ability to choose their own studies. Only later, after additional training do they get to be raised to full Aes Sedai and choose an ajah.

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Also re: book, men can’t see women channel and women can’t see men channel. This is sortof ambiguous in the series at the moment. When shielding Logain, they could ‘feel’ his strength, but there was nothing to suggest they couldn’t see his black swirlies (there’s also no talk of the swirlies’ color in the book…it appears to either be good vs evil, or women vs men in the show so far…I can’t really tell yet).

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I parsed the interaction as being the indication as their being unable to see his swirlies.

Note also that the show depicted his wielding of the power as white swirlies; the blackness we’ve seen around him was madness or the Dark One’s taint on the power.

[Edit: This is wrong. See my next post.]

We have also seen in the series one use of the One Power where they didn’t display any swirlies (presumably as part of not making it obvious).

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I definitely thought I picked up on his always being black (I could definitely be wrong). I’ll rewatch at some point.

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Liking the conversation in general. For sure some stuff I’ve missed or don’t remember. They’re pretty dense books after all.

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I just took a quick re-watch of Logain’s interaction’s with the King at the start of Episode 4…and it wasn’t what I remembered. The flows do look black there, but I still suspect that’s just how the show is depicting the taint/madness (the taint sits on top of the male half of the one power).