The actor playing Matt left the cast for reasons not formally specified. The studio has not given an official reason; while I’ve heard COVIDish reasons speculated upon, I think the more common theory is something mental health related, perhaps as simple as realizing he wasn’t up for potentially 8 seasons of an episodic show.
The seven official ajahs are white (logic), grey (diplomats and contracts), yellow (healing), brown (research), green (battle), blue (strategic causes), and red (hunting male channelers).
The trailer looks promising, although I know that I’m in for a lot of mental dissonance caused by the show deviating from the books. At least the show seems likely to do a better job of communicating just how bad-assed the Seanchan are.
For some reason they switched from collars to gags though for the damane. I’m still excited to watch it. I’m sure within a few days there will be a bunch of videos out overanalyzing the trailer (feel free to link to those here for me so I don’t have to go look them up)!
BTW, if you do make it through the entire WoT Up video, note the pinned comment on the YouTube page where he revised a couple of his guesses based on comments made by viewers.
The first of those revisions also matches a theory posed by one of the reaction videos that are out there (which I’m not linking here because they are more reactions than analysis/detailed-guessing).
What is he guessing about? The books are all published so the story outline should be laid out. Is he just guessing at what the showrunners will streamline off of the books’ outlines to make the TV show run smoother?
It’s not like GoT where the showrunners overtook the published material and had to wrap up the entire story on their own with only a little framework from the original author. For that, there were craploads of things to speculate about. WoT, not so much.
The two guesses he revised in the comments were the location of a few scenes in the trailer. For his original assumption to be correct would have required once set of deviations from the books; the revision brings it closer to the books, but still annoyingly different (although exactly how they’re going to make it work remains to be seen).
The other guess has to do with the apparent appearance of a flaming sword in the trailer. He had speculated it was being wielded by Rand (since Rand likes to poof a flaming sword into existence in the books)…but apparently that’s not the case.
While the general story line has been laid out, there remains quite a bit of speculation (and potentially dread) over how the show will continue to deviate from the books. Ever since the series was announced, there’s been a lot of discussion within fandom over questions like “will be in the show?” or “how will they handle [y]?” The WoT Up guy’s speculation is just one manifestation of the phenomenon.
ok, so my take on your response is that your answer to my question is “yes”
I have no interest in reading the books, but I liked the show enough to continue wathcing.
Big spoiler:
Summary
double layered for your protection…
I think my take at the end of the season was that Rand is “the special guy” that the blue channeler was originally looking for, and that it won’t be as big of a mystery onthe show as it was in the books
Regarding your spoilered comment…there was a lot less mystery on the subject in Book 1 than there was in the show. While the question isn’t answered for certain in the books until a point a little after where it comes out in the show, readers who aren’t oblivious have a pretty good idea fairly early on (but since there is no certainty…you have to read on for confirmation).
Edit: If one reads the books in chronological order, starting with book 10.5 before going to book 1, the question would be answered without doubt just a couple of chapters into book 1.
But for the show, the showrunner made the call to draw out the question, as doing so was better for storytelling in episodic video format.
Probably. But GRRM said there were two more books scheduled (Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring). The last book in the series was published in 2011. He’s now 74 and said he’s not letting anyone ghost write the ending like Jordan did. Do the math.
FWIW, I just saw that someone has shared online that actor’s petition to Google to remove search results that suggest he left for antivax reasons. In it, it is observed that he left the show before vaccines were available, and that he was vaccinated as soon as it became available to him in the UK.
FYI, Amazon has released a full scene from Season 2, appending it to the end of Season 1, Episode 8 (about minute 54). Nothing too earth-shattering; it teases the “Darkfriend Social” at the start of Book 2.
Here’s one breakdown video, FWIW (spoiler warnings apply):
