I didn’t find Witcher season one to be that polished either. They clearly saved money for the last 1.5 episodes by having those two episodes where they just wandered through scrubbush and fought a really fake looking dragon thing. I felt it was pretty uneven but Henry Cavill is so good that it works. But it was good still even with that. I only watched the first episode so far of season two and it looked pretty good, a definite step up from season one. Ofc everything was pretty small but that works for Witcher since Witcher is this small area with a lot of grunge and such. The entire area of Witcher is not that big certainly far smaller than the Westlands. One scene I did like although it was brief was when Tissaia was going in to see the infirmary and they had a panning shot of obviously CGI but it showed off some scale. Other than the shots of Tar Valon and Fal Dara we’ve been missing that kind of stuff in WoT.
I found the dragon reveal to be a little weak with all that build up. But otherwise for the most part I am enjoying it.
I haven't read the books in so long I remember certain things but not all, and have stopped trying to compare it to the books.
There are a few key scenes though that could really disappoint me if done wrong.. Dumai Wells being the main one.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Pretty solid episode last night but wished they’d have ended on one of the strongest episodes instead of a mid tier one..
For me I’d rank the episodes as:
#1: 4,7. Both high quality episodes with cool moments and little weak parts.
#2: 3,6. Both focused episodes high quality but not as good.
#3: 1,8 Both flawed episodes that had really strong points mixed with some weaker points
#4: 2,5. Five was probably a better episode but it also spent 20 minutes on time that should have been given to the main characters. Two was just kinda unremarkable in every way.
I think it’s probably better than episode 1 so fifth best maybe? Anyway really liked the Ishy/Rand stuff and that along with Fain carried the episode.
Pretty solid episode last night but wished they’d have ended on one of the strongest episodes instead of a mid tier one..
I agree, solid but a mid-tier episode as opposed to ending the first season with a high point.
(Book spoilers)
Spoiler!
Definitely lots of changes from the books in this episode, some probably for the better (e.g. giving characters other than Rand a role in the climax). Hoping they didn't really kill off Loial, if they did his character was wasted since he didn't really do much.
Ashartus you’ll probably like this link as it goes into one of your points. Also for those who didn’t know The Dusty Wheel and Brandon Sanderson did a commentary on the finale. Lots of good discussion there.
Not bad, they're definitely changing some things which is fine.
But as I think I've already said the downside of that is lazy writing. For example when Rand asks Moraine how she knows he'll channel when threatened, she says an Aes Sedai beat her until she channeled to save herself.
Which of course goes completely against the Three Oaths, which I'm pretty sure they mentioned earlier since they've said repeatedly that Moraine can't lie.
So stuff happening rather than feeding and reenforcing the worldbuilding and feeling like there's rules and risks just feels like a bunch of crazy stuff happening.
Overall I guess it's fine, but I was hoping for more. When I think back to how much impact some of GoT had this is a shadow. Hopefully it improves.
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Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
Exp:
I binge watched all the episodes over the last 2 days. It was ok, but as photon says, lazy writing. Characters also seem to be mutated from the books for no positive reason, I realize there are far too many characters in the books (even before thinking about how to make a coherent narrative in a different medium, there's 2500+ named characters in the books which is ridiculously excessive) so it makes sense to combine 3 or 4 minor characters into one that can similarly advance the narrative, like is done with "Child Valda", but some of the main characters, which shouldn't need much tweaking, are almost unrecognizable - Lan and Mat, for example - while others differ in less, but still perplexing* ways.
Lan especially is bad, without spoilering it, let's just say the only connection to his character in the books is his name and some of his backstory, as his personality and motivations have been entirely reworked - and not for the better.
Lastly, Egwene's and Nynaeve's use of the One Power is far too overpowering already considering there's supposed to be seven more seasons incoming. What are the Aes Sedai supposed to teach them when they can already heal death and destroy armies?
*"Perpetually Perplexed Perrin" is just terrible, the actor is a master at looking confused and not much else.
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Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.
Either Lan or Algemar was supposed to teach Rand how to use a sword. Well, I guess not Algemar. A woman can't teach a man to channel, so that's a pretty big gamble by Moraine. Tarwin's Gap made me sure that not enough money was spent on the series. It was well done for a director trying desperately to hide the lack of epic scope. Hoping for more cash thrown at season two, especially in CGI.
The nice character trait in Padan Fain (in the books) was just how horrible he was. The Fades followed him out of fear of how depraved and slimy he could be, not because he is slick and noble. It think that was a lost opportunity. How the hell does he have the Horn of Valere?
I'm trying to be upbeat about the series, but the writers need to up their game. It's ok for the world to have depth, and for each character to be fully realized.
Tuon hates that girl on the beach.
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"By Grabthar's hammer ... what a savings."
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The only point I'll add is the actor portraying Rand is doing this resting face, open mouth thing that I see so often recently with actors. Once you see it, you can't un-see it.
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"9 out of 10 concerns are completely unfounded."
"The first thing that goes when you lose your hands, are your fine motor skills."
My wife who has never read the books ended up enjoying the season overall. She said she would have rather the characters driven the plot, rather than the plot driving the characters. She asked me all the right questions after the last episode too, so she's getting the concepts of the world down well from the show. I would call that a success in my mind.
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I thought I was gonna just read the first few books to get ready for the show, but I've kept going. I'm on book 10 now and have some thoughts related to the show:
(Book spoilers ahead)
Spoiler!
Definitely a smart call making Nynaeve and Egwene both ta'veren, and it wouldn't shock me if other characters are also given that tag and varying strengths of it, since even between Rand/Mat/Perrin there's a differing amount of strength.
They should steal some of the later books contents about the Seanchan for season 2. It felt weird for them to show up in Book 2, disappear completely, then come back in Book 8.
On a related note, Mat being separated from the group already is a great way to get the Seanchan stuff underway sooner.
I think the show would benefit a ton by spending lots of time on the Aiel. They're the most developed culture in the books and worth exploring in the show. I'd be fine with them reducing the slog of internal politics in Tear and Cairhein to make room for it.
Get Nyanaeve and Lan to marry sooner so she doesn't do the always angry thing.
For the love of the light, please don't even mention Luca's menagerie in the show.
Perrin and Faile's relationship will need some work to not be completely cringe-worthy in the show.
I'd be fine with them keeping the forsaken more mysterious then the books do. All the bickering and losing they do takes some of the stakes away.
I would personally judge the start of the books getting too bogged down by the volume of characters by Book 8. Very little is accomplished in book 9, and the finale of that book felt rushed and abrupt. Book 10 is where you really see the glacial progress of Jordan's writing become the norm. Nothing is happening and there's a lot of extra talking with little consequence. This is where the show really has a chance to streamline and improve things.
Dumai's Wells has been mentioned in this thread as a must-see scene, but I'd also like to add a few more: Falme, Rhuidean (the trials where Rand sees the past of the Aiel, the battle with Asmodean, and the flooding afterwards), Rand vs Rahvin in Caemlyn, and the cleansing of saidin at Shadar Logoth.
Minor list of 'how are they going to reconcile this' from the end of the show :
Spoiler!
Stabbing Loial. Getting cut with the dagger of Shadar Logath in the book actually makes the person melt, like Raiders of the Lost Arc.
The non-characters of Uno and Ingtar. Ingtar in particular is a real character and in season one he is a background character.
The fighting logistics are bizarre. Tarwin's Gap makes no sense at all.
They need to introduce 'weaves' as opposed to raw power. Skill is non-existant.
Nyneave and Egwene are already way over powered. Egwene can raise the dead.
Padan Fain should have his own episode, where he is distilled at Shayol Ghul and corrupted by Mordeth, as he trails Rand. His whole character is unclear.
I don't care if the CGI is crappy, as long as it's all in there. Events seem too small.
Rand needs to learn to use the sword. Heron mark has to mean something before Falme.
Explain magic as you go. They use a Ter'Angreal to transport Moraine to Siuan, but don't explain with even a throwaway line.
Chill out on power levels for everybody.
Explain the Horn.
I'm doing a slow reread. On the Dragon Reborn right now.
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"By Grabthar's hammer ... what a savings."
I never got the sense that the people who made the show had any love for the source material. Can't imagine they had anyone who was anywhere near the equivalent of Peter Jackson running around barefoot in the snow. Just a committee of people with varying degree's of familiarity with the source material trying to get their own stories and ideas to fit within this world with really uneven results.
This kind of bottoms out my expectations for LOTR, which will probably be even more of design-by-committee monstrosity due to only having scraps of source material to lean on.
On the plus side, design-by-committee creative teams always aim to please and hopefully they respond well to the mixed feedback.
