Wheel of Time eps 1-4
Dec. 3rd, 2021 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnSo I really do not have the time for this, and yet somehow I seem to be watching Wheel of Time? This is of course J's fault, and then amplified by D being interested in watching it too once he saw I was trying it out, which is hilarious because although we've watched a number of movies, etc. together, we've actually never ever watched a TV show together (because we both watch TV rarely enough, and are willing to commit swathes of time to watch TV rarely enough, that it's doubly rare there's something that we're both interested in at the same time). But it's fun to watch something with him, especially as he was a bigger fan of the books than I was, and/or has a better memory, so he actually remembers stuff and can explain it to me (whereas I remember people's names and random things about the worldbuilding but almost zero about the plot, and anyway noped out somewhere around book 7 or so when everyone was going nowhere fast).
tl;dr: I was generally entertained by Eps 1-3 but Ep 4 was where I actually got invested!
I didn't think to write anything up about Ep 1 (I suppose I wasn't convinced I'd keep watching) but here are some thoughts on Eps 2-4. Obviously spoilers; also spoilers for the books, I guess.
Ep 2:
-Whitecloaks are super creepy but also I feel like their swooshy pants aren't all that practical if they ever have to fight? (Now I want a battle scene where they trip over their swooshy pants...)
-that ferry bit was, ouch. And very powerful as to what it says about Moiraine.
-...though I think Moiraine was splitting hairs with the Three Oaths? Like, you don't KNOW that the Trollocs would have come over on the ferry (and that you wouldn't be able to stop them) and so you don't KNOW that it was okay to kill Random Ferryman, I feel like you could justify killing quite a lot if you were like "well see it seems reasonable that X would happen next and then Y would happen after that..."
-The Manetheren song was really cool (and they're quite good singers for random farmkids!) although yeah, as J mentioned to me, TV!WoT is much slower than movie!LotR, which would never have slowed down for a song and then explanation of the song without any additional graphics. I think it's great, I'd be up for more of that! but I could see how other people might be bored. It was definitely sort of a ?? moment for me even so, since I've been conditioned by things like movie!LotR.
-Moiraine: "You have to be both transparent and opaque, like this gem."
Me: Gems don't... work... that way. Unless you're talking about an opaque inclusion inside an otherwise transparent gem? But the gem you're showing Egwene isn't like that, it's transparent all the way through. Maybe she meant the idea of total internal reflection, but that is a really confusing way of saying it --
D: *laughs at me*
J: *also laughs at me*
-Shadar Logoth was very creepy and interesting and pretty, in a creepy way
-though I laughed when Lan was all "Don't touch anything!" and everyone then immediately started wandering around and touching things
-That poor horse! :( I did think it was weird that two of the horses just were kind of hanging out there calmly after that, I mean Doylistically it was necessary for them to have a horse for Lan and Moiraine, but still.
Ep 3:
-D saw the credits (he didn't for Ep 2) and pointed out the weaving/Aes Sedai colors to me, which was neat
-okay, I could not get over how apparently Shadar Logoth has the ability to... create multiple kind of random different biomes around it?? Like how do Rand&Mat and Perrin&Egwene get dumped in two entirely different-looking pieces of terrain despite escaping from the same city?? And then after hiking for a day (?) Rand&Mat end up in another completely different-looking place with mines?? And also how do the two pairs come across completely different sets of people AND terrain even though they're both heading east?? (D said that in the books one pair ends up on a river, which makes at least somewhat more sense.)
-Rand: "All roads lead to the White Tower."
Mat: "...that's not how roads work."
Me: You are right and you should say it!
-aww, I liked Thom!
-though I didn't like his song all that much, D and I were like "you know, in real life no one would stop talking in a bar to listen to that"
-I definitely got the impression that someone who works on WoT was the kind of person (like me!) who was all "there should Totally have been more canon songs in the LotR movies and gosh darn it I'm going to make sure there are SONGS in this series" (which I like! I totally agree! but I also think it's hilarious)
-the bit where Dana is all "I super don't judge what Rand and Mat are doing in the privacy of their own room" was hilarious
-and then when she turns out to be a Darkfriend that was super creepy and I liked it (and both D and I were blindsided, lol)
Ep 4:
-I think I'm old enough now that YA coming-of-age narratives are sort of boring to me. So the whole Egwene-Rand-Mat-Perrin thing in previous eps was okay but not particularly interesting -- Moiraine and Lan were definitely the most interesting parts of eps 1-3, but they didn't get that much screen time.
-Relatedly: things I have to say about Egwene, Rand, Mat, Perrin in this episode: nothing. Oh no, wait, I was so bummed because the instant the farmer family was nice to them I was all "I hope they don't die!" because of course I could tell they were Marked for Death. Kid giving Mat her dolly, same, there was clearly going to be an Angsty Camera shot on that doll at some point, and lo. "Is she gonna die?! She better not die!" Of course they all died. GAH.
-But in THIS episode, with Logain and the whole Aes Sedai camp and them being presented even at first as having factions and relationships and rivalries...! That was really really interesting!
-Although I kinda agree with Liandrin that their plan to bring Logain to the White Tower was a bit not well thought out if they had to have two Aes Sedai sitting in chairs in a cave to keep hold of him -- I would think that would be a lot harder if they were trying to actually transport him?
-I absolutely loved all the warders, and my favorite was the scene with Lan and the other warder as they were doing their exercises together.
-Although I'm super annoyed about, umm *looks up names* Kerene? and Stepin? They were by far my favorites, and then of course they had to go die, which on one hand I guess makes sense because I don't remember them from the books (I suck at names so I didn't really catch their names to begin with) but on the other hand I really liked them >:( So clearly they should have been continuing characters even if they're not in the book :)
-That whole sequence with Logain at the end was riveting and I loved it. Although there was that bit where Lan's throat got slit and Moiraine looked like she was a goner too and I was like, "okay, I know my memory of this series is not the greatest but I'm pretty sure this did NOT happen in Eye of the World," and D was all, "well, I did hear they were going to go AU with this..."
-And then with Nynaeve being super powerful (like a sun!) and healing everyone (why not also Kerene and Stepin :PP ) I was all, hmm, they are really leaning hard into this whole "guess who the Dragon Reborn is" thing! (Would it even be possible for Rand not to be the Dragon Reborn in this series?)
-And then the Aes Sedai all banding together and gentling Logain, that was amazing. Give me women working together doing spectacular magic any day for winning my heart, even if it's ethically-dubious magic. Maybe especially then :D
-Afterwards I was like "wow, I don't remember that whole scene happening in the books at ALL" and D was like, "yeah, that's because... it doesn't really happen in the books, certainly not on-stage like that."
tl;dr: I was generally entertained by Eps 1-3 but Ep 4 was where I actually got invested!
I didn't think to write anything up about Ep 1 (I suppose I wasn't convinced I'd keep watching) but here are some thoughts on Eps 2-4. Obviously spoilers; also spoilers for the books, I guess.
Ep 2:
-Whitecloaks are super creepy but also I feel like their swooshy pants aren't all that practical if they ever have to fight? (Now I want a battle scene where they trip over their swooshy pants...)
-that ferry bit was, ouch. And very powerful as to what it says about Moiraine.
-...though I think Moiraine was splitting hairs with the Three Oaths? Like, you don't KNOW that the Trollocs would have come over on the ferry (and that you wouldn't be able to stop them) and so you don't KNOW that it was okay to kill Random Ferryman, I feel like you could justify killing quite a lot if you were like "well see it seems reasonable that X would happen next and then Y would happen after that..."
-The Manetheren song was really cool (and they're quite good singers for random farmkids!) although yeah, as J mentioned to me, TV!WoT is much slower than movie!LotR, which would never have slowed down for a song and then explanation of the song without any additional graphics. I think it's great, I'd be up for more of that! but I could see how other people might be bored. It was definitely sort of a ?? moment for me even so, since I've been conditioned by things like movie!LotR.
-Moiraine: "You have to be both transparent and opaque, like this gem."
Me: Gems don't... work... that way. Unless you're talking about an opaque inclusion inside an otherwise transparent gem? But the gem you're showing Egwene isn't like that, it's transparent all the way through. Maybe she meant the idea of total internal reflection, but that is a really confusing way of saying it --
D: *laughs at me*
J: *also laughs at me*
-Shadar Logoth was very creepy and interesting and pretty, in a creepy way
-though I laughed when Lan was all "Don't touch anything!" and everyone then immediately started wandering around and touching things
-That poor horse! :( I did think it was weird that two of the horses just were kind of hanging out there calmly after that, I mean Doylistically it was necessary for them to have a horse for Lan and Moiraine, but still.
Ep 3:
-D saw the credits (he didn't for Ep 2) and pointed out the weaving/Aes Sedai colors to me, which was neat
-okay, I could not get over how apparently Shadar Logoth has the ability to... create multiple kind of random different biomes around it?? Like how do Rand&Mat and Perrin&Egwene get dumped in two entirely different-looking pieces of terrain despite escaping from the same city?? And then after hiking for a day (?) Rand&Mat end up in another completely different-looking place with mines?? And also how do the two pairs come across completely different sets of people AND terrain even though they're both heading east?? (D said that in the books one pair ends up on a river, which makes at least somewhat more sense.)
-Rand: "All roads lead to the White Tower."
Mat: "...that's not how roads work."
Me: You are right and you should say it!
-aww, I liked Thom!
-though I didn't like his song all that much, D and I were like "you know, in real life no one would stop talking in a bar to listen to that"
-I definitely got the impression that someone who works on WoT was the kind of person (like me!) who was all "there should Totally have been more canon songs in the LotR movies and gosh darn it I'm going to make sure there are SONGS in this series" (which I like! I totally agree! but I also think it's hilarious)
-the bit where Dana is all "I super don't judge what Rand and Mat are doing in the privacy of their own room" was hilarious
-and then when she turns out to be a Darkfriend that was super creepy and I liked it (and both D and I were blindsided, lol)
Ep 4:
-I think I'm old enough now that YA coming-of-age narratives are sort of boring to me. So the whole Egwene-Rand-Mat-Perrin thing in previous eps was okay but not particularly interesting -- Moiraine and Lan were definitely the most interesting parts of eps 1-3, but they didn't get that much screen time.
-Relatedly: things I have to say about Egwene, Rand, Mat, Perrin in this episode: nothing. Oh no, wait, I was so bummed because the instant the farmer family was nice to them I was all "I hope they don't die!" because of course I could tell they were Marked for Death. Kid giving Mat her dolly, same, there was clearly going to be an Angsty Camera shot on that doll at some point, and lo. "Is she gonna die?! She better not die!" Of course they all died. GAH.
-But in THIS episode, with Logain and the whole Aes Sedai camp and them being presented even at first as having factions and relationships and rivalries...! That was really really interesting!
-Although I kinda agree with Liandrin that their plan to bring Logain to the White Tower was a bit not well thought out if they had to have two Aes Sedai sitting in chairs in a cave to keep hold of him -- I would think that would be a lot harder if they were trying to actually transport him?
-I absolutely loved all the warders, and my favorite was the scene with Lan and the other warder as they were doing their exercises together.
-Although I'm super annoyed about, umm *looks up names* Kerene? and Stepin? They were by far my favorites, and then of course they had to go die, which on one hand I guess makes sense because I don't remember them from the books (I suck at names so I didn't really catch their names to begin with) but on the other hand I really liked them >:( So clearly they should have been continuing characters even if they're not in the book :)
-That whole sequence with Logain at the end was riveting and I loved it. Although there was that bit where Lan's throat got slit and Moiraine looked like she was a goner too and I was like, "okay, I know my memory of this series is not the greatest but I'm pretty sure this did NOT happen in Eye of the World," and D was all, "well, I did hear they were going to go AU with this..."
-And then with Nynaeve being super powerful (like a sun!) and healing everyone (why not also Kerene and Stepin :PP ) I was all, hmm, they are really leaning hard into this whole "guess who the Dragon Reborn is" thing! (Would it even be possible for Rand not to be the Dragon Reborn in this series?)
-And then the Aes Sedai all banding together and gentling Logain, that was amazing. Give me women working together doing spectacular magic any day for winning my heart, even if it's ethically-dubious magic. Maybe especially then :D
-Afterwards I was like "wow, I don't remember that whole scene happening in the books at ALL" and D was like, "yeah, that's because... it doesn't really happen in the books, certainly not on-stage like that."
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Date: 2021-12-03 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-07 04:30 pm (UTC)