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Wheel of Time Season 2 (Sept 1 Amazon Prime)


The Gnat

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I’ve seen rumors that this show was supposed to have a two hour premier and 10 total episodes.  It needed that. It needs better characterization. And better writing. It should have been that Fade that hurt Moraine in episode one. Dana shouldn’t have known Egwenes name or explained her motives.  IMO. Ugghh. Episode 4 was pretty good. But we know little about the bad guys and only a little more about the prophesy and the dragon candidates. So now it has to hit a home run or a grand slam in the final two episodes. We’ll see I guess. 
 

Edited by SMashMouthMike
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7 hours ago, SMashMouthMike said:

I’ve seen rumors that this show was supposed to have a two hour premier and 10 total episodes.  It needed that.

Two hour premier likely helps, but not a big thing. What it really really really needed was a full 10 episodes and a lot more development on the characters. Some people view stuff like that as filler, but it's vitally important to make you care about the characters instead of rushing from one crisis to the next and your whole view of the characters are just how they respond to the crisis of the week. The reason why episode 4 has far and away been the best of the 5 is because they took a little time to let you know the characters.  We get a little more of this in episode 5, but really only for Moiraine.

Edited by THE DUKE
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On 12/15/2021 at 7:37 AM, THE DUKE said:

Two hour premier likely helps, but not a big thing. What it really really really needed was a full 10 episodes and a lot more development on the characters. Some people view stuff like that as filler, but it's vitally important to make you care about the characters instead of rushing from one crisis to the next and your whole view of the characters are just how they respond to the crisis of the week. The reason why episode 4 has far and away been the best of the 5 is because they took a little time to let you know the characters.  We get a little more of this in episode 5, but really only for Moiraine.

Yeah. The FOTR had a big info dump about the ring and the dark lord and Galadriel’s prologue which summed up things nicely. 

 The GOT showed a WW killing a few watchmen and wildings, 3 kingdoms, a possible assassination, an execution, and Bran’s injury. It’s near flawless, A+. It’s terrifying, and intriguing. Great writing and dialogue too. Those were home runs.

this show’s opening...not very good imo, and didn’t explain much. The opening prologue was not great, and the epilogue was worse!

Edited by SMashMouthMike
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16 hours ago, SMashMouthMike said:

Yeah. The FOTR had a big info dump about the ring and the dark lord and Galadriel’s prologue which summed up things nicely. 
 The GOT showed a WW killing a few watchmen and wildings, 3 kingdoms, a possible assassination, and more. It’s terrifying, and intriguing. Those were close to home runs  .

this show’s opening...not very good imo, and didn’t explain much. The opening prologue was not great, and the epilogue was worse!

I actually thought the Trolloc attack on the town was nice, even with the occasional CGI inconsistency.

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It was. But it could have been so much better if Lan killed that fade after IT injured moraine. Then the audience(and the villagers/kids) would know something about the fades. Lan would shine here. It would make their leaving the 2 rivers more believable to me, and the kids would be less skeptical later on. Oh well. On to episode 7. 
 

Ive also heard that Covid messed up their filming so there’s hope that this show improves moving forward. It had a lot of momentum after episode 4, now it has to get it back. 

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Episode 7 was solid. Not a homerun IMO, but it’s good. Lead off double or something idk. Character motivations seemed good. Writing, lighting and dialogue seemed improved. Only a few things bugged me I guess...

Spoiler

I didn’t care for the Perrin Egwene thing. Maybe they’ll come back to it later, but I certainly hope that was a red herring.

WTH happened to Loial? He disappeared. 
 

 

Love how this show ends right before thurday night football too. 
 

liked the opening a lot too. 

Edited by SMashMouthMike
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One of my favorites so far. Really, really well done and the opening fight scene was top notch.

Question: So they focused on Lan and Moiraine more throughout the first season - rather than the Two Rivers 5 - in large part to create the Dragon Reborn reveal a mystery (it really wasn’t in the books). Was the payoff worth it to those of you new to the Wheel of Time?
 

We haven’t got as much character development of the TR5 yet, and I think that’s hurt the series a bit but i did like this episode quite a bit.

Edited by Oregon Ducks
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2 hours ago, Oregon Ducks said:

One of my favorites so far. Really, really well done and the opening fight scene was top notch.

Question: So they focused on Lan and Moiraine more throughout the first season - rather than the Two Rivers 5 - in large part to create the Dragon Reborn reveal a mystery (it really wasn’t in the books). Was the payoff worth it to those of you new to the Wheel of Time?
 

We haven’t got as much character development of the TR5 yet, and I think that’s hurt the series a bit but i did like this episode quite a bit.

Spoiler

Not for me. I spoiled it for myself early and already guessed it early on. I would have rather them build up the kids from 2 rivers. Although this episode was good (except for the Perrin-Egwene allusion), i did like that Moraine was more human and that the kids doubted her and the prophesy. Still think we need a home run next week. 

 

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5 hours ago, Oregon Ducks said:

Was the payoff worth it to those of you new to the Wheel of Time?

I don't think it was. I don't think the mystery was much of a focal point in the narrative either, which I know is weird to say. It was more getting to certain places. The who of it all didn't seem important until THIS episode and while the character work was good in this one it needed to happen sooner. 

 

That being said, Warrior mom was the best sequence in the entire series so far IMHO

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3 hours ago, Deadpulse said:

That being said, Warrior mom was the best sequence in the entire series so far IMHO

Yes it was. Choreography was great. Loved her weapons. I could have done without the cape jump though. That was freakish to me. 
 

And I agree that argument/fight should have happened in episode 1 or 2. But I get they raised the stakes for the ones NOT being the DR. I still wish we knew more about these bad guys and dark forces. They help explain why our protagonists do what they do, set up the lore, and drive the plot. We don’t know anything about them really! You would think Lan would would be teaching them how to use weapons and explaining what a fade does. They got lucky old Thom was around for the fade encounter episode and for Dana. 

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The first half in Moria, I mean the Ways, was pretty lackluster, but the second half of the episode was the best content this series has produced so far.

If Rand as the Dragon was the big reveal, then yeah, they would have been far better served focusing less on "who will it be?" and focused a lot more on "who these people are".

I still contend that for all the content they put in season 1, it should have been two seasons, and season one should have focused mostly on character development with the occasional action set piece every other episode.  Could have spent more time on the white cloaks, more time at the White Tower, another episode on the road, etc....  The frenetic pace of this series is its biggest downfall.

Considering the next episode is the season finale, I expect there won't be much more development, but at least we got this episode to build up the characters a little more for the forthcoming CGI action set piece.

Side note, A swing and a miss on The Blight, that design needed a little more thought put into it.

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