Wow. This is just terrible. There's no other word for it other than that.
Firstly, the casting is just plain awful. Diversity for the sake of diversity takes its toll yet again, with people being cast into roles with the wrong ethnicity for that particular part. This is even more insulting considering the fact that the world all of this takes place in, already has tons of diversity in it to begin with. Don't shove it in where it doesn't belong!
Storywise... ooh boy. So much has been changed. And look, I get that book adaptations need certain elements changed in order to better fit a visual medium. And some changes they made, are fine. But let me just list some things that are completely wrong:
The whole concept of the Dragon. The show opens with a very brief description of who the Dragon is. The Dragon is the reincarnation of a male Aes Sedai who broke the world in ages past. Concise, but true. Good enough. But then they go on and say that this reincarnation could be either male or female? That makes no sense at all! The Dragon has to be male, because he's the reincarnation of a male Aes Sedai, and he will break the world a second time, just like he did before.
Finding the Dragon. Nobody knows who the Dragon Reborn is. People find out because he starts fulfilling the prophecies written about him just by being born in a certain place and on a certain time. That's how Moiraine narrows it down to the Two Rivers, by finding out about some young people there that fit those criteria. In this adaptation, all Aes Sedai have some sort of spidey sense that can pinpoint the Dragon. Lazy writing at its best.
The world itself. It should be winter, due to the Dark One's grasp increasing on the world. This is a big plot point, which causes visible distress with pretty much everyone, affecting their doings and thoughts, and in this adaptation they just dumb it down to "something drove the wolves down the mountain". It's spring in this version, and birds can be heard in pretty much every scene.
Characters not acting the way they should. Nynaeve is much too serene, Moiraine isn't serene enough, Egwene is much too mature, Perrin is much too jokey, Mat isn't jokey enough and much too responsible, and so on.
Characters' backstories changed to completely change their personality even further. Mat suddenly has abusive parents. Perrin, who is consistently described in the books as a shy, awkward, careful, peaceloving guy, not only has a girlfriend in this adaptation (his finding his first love in Faile Bashere later on is also a huge plot point that they dismissed by doing this), but he murders her in a fit of blind rage. Nynaeve is suddenly a "lost child", just so they could add her to the possible list of nonsensical Dragon candidates. Because suddenly the Aes Sedai spidey sense doesn't work anymore. Rand and Egwene having a full on sexual relationship while they're supposed to be a coming-of-age story that never works out for them.
Forced edginess. Nudity and sex scenes, while sparse, are shoved in your face so forcefully that you can just tell one of the producers saw Game of Thrones and told the script writers to shove "some of that" in there.
There is a LOT more wrong with this cesspool of an adaptation in terms of story, but those are some of the big ones. Also just overall bad acting and bad CGI. The CGI looks like a videogame from the mid 2010's.
I really wanted to like this, but no amount of goodwill can save this absolute mess of a show.
@cokeabuser First of all, using "first of all" means you have more than one point to make.<br />
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Second, by your logic, you shouldn't even be talking at all since you made more grammatical mistakes in that one sentence than most people do in an entire paragraph.<br />
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And lastly, whatever else I watch has no bearing on my opinion of this show. If you disagree, fine, more power to you. But at least be an adult about it.
@treiden Thanks for this great review. As a person who didn't read the books it gave me a good view of the differences between TV series and source material. Even without reading the books I felt uncomfortable at the SJW/Feminazi narrative.
@justherefortvshows Yeah, the thing is, the books have a certain aspect of feminism as well, with Aes Sedai being all female and with male channelers being regarded as dangerous and something to get rid of. But it served the story there, so that was fine. Male Aes Sedai were the only ones impacted because the Dark One tainted the male half of the One Power, so anyone using that without the Dark One's protection would go insane eventually. And the reason the Dark One did that, was a retaliation because the original Dragon of that age thought he was powerful enough to take the Dark One on by himself. As a result of this insanity, the male Aes Sedai broke the world.<br />
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And since the prophecies concering the Dragon Reborn explicitly say that this breaking will happen again, the Dragon Reborn HAS to be male. But even so, because he's male, he'll still be shunned by a lot of people despite being the Dragon (or because of, in some cases), because of the whole insanity thing. That's what makes this dynamic between the two sexes so interesting.<br />
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This show just throws all of that out just so they can "possibly" have some female Dragons, for the sake of it being "diverse". Which is all the more ridiculous considering the fact that they'll have to pick the "right" Dragon Reborn at the end anyway, which is a man. To do otherwise is to, say, do a Harry Potter movie and say Draco Malfoy is the Boy Who Lived. So it's diversity without payoff, which makes it even worse...
@justherefortvshows Nynaeve being powerful as all hell is in the books too, but it doesn't really come into play there until after the actual Dragon Reborn is firmly established. And, more importantly, she's an awe-inspiring character even before she comes into her powers in the books. In this TV version, they rushed her character "development" (and I'm using that term very loosely in this adaptation) into a Dragonball Z type "drama scream", just so they could use that as a red herring.<br />
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Anyway, that scene just further proves my point that this diversity is just completely pointless, because they can't change who the Dragon is without basically saying "eff you" to the actual fundamental part of the story (more than they already have). I mean, I like the fact that they're trying to keep the mystery going for the viewer as to who will become the Dragon, but you could've done that without having to shove forced diversity down everyone's throat. <br />
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Hell, the books even do this themselves to an extent, because it constantly juggles between the three male leads and their importance to the Dark One as potential Dragons. And it does so without diminishing Egwene and Nynaeve's respective roles, or any other of the literally dozens, if not hundreds of important female characters that show up later. They become MASSIVELY important to the story later on, so this female diversity that the show is forcing upon the viewer, it's already in the original story, but in a much more streamlined and natural process. And it's the same with the ethnic diversity as well. For the life of me, I do not know why they had to shove it on the nose so insanely much, especially in places where it just doesn't belong.
@treiden Did we watch the same pilot? Let's see. Bear in mind I'm not going to argue with you about your clueless commentary on diversity in this particular comment, because I've sufficient to say about that elsewhere, and I don't need drama from someone like you. But the rest? <br />
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[spoiler] Mat's mother was an abusive parent, at least when drunk, in this adaptation - but there's no indication his father was one here. Cheating on his wife doesn't make him an abusive _parent_ - just a lousy husband[/spoiler].<br />
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[spoiler]Perrin didn't "murder [his girlfriend] in a fit of blind rage"; he was in the midst of defending himself from a Trolloc, someone grabbed him from behind, and he swung his weapon, being so deep into that self-defence that he obviously thought her another attacker, and couldn't pull his blow in time. That wouldn't be considered murder in _any_ reasonable court of law; it was clearly an accident.[/spoiler]<br />
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As for the last, having played video games myself for decades, there's nothing particularly bad about the CGI here, either. I can't imagine what you're comparing it to, to make such a broad claim about its quality.
@trialia We clearly didn't watch the same pilot, no.<br />
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I have to ask: you say you don't "need my drama" about the whole diversity thing, and you're not going to argue about it. Then why bring it up? Pretty ironic that you're the one making the drama while accusing someone else of doing that right out of the gate. Anyway, I'll bite: how is my commentary on the forced diversity clueless? Because nobody I've seen who watched this show can give me an _actual_ reason why it is _not_ forced in there. Oh, insults I get a-plenty. Including from you, apparently. Which is, again, ironic, because - out of the two of us - I'm _not_ the intolerant one here. <br />
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Because I'm not talking diversity like making Padan Fain black. I'm fine with that. His ethnicity has no bearing on the story. The ethnicity of the Emond's Fielders, however, does. And again, this is doubly insulting since there actually _is_ ethnicity worked into the actual story itself, and that gets blatantly ignored. But hey, if you want to dismiss facts as "drama", that's your problem, not mine.<br />
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Mat's father was a town hero, and repeatedly described as such in the books. He even plays a major part in the village's emancipation later on in the story _because_ he is looked up to as much as he is. In this adaptation, he might not be abusive in the literal sense of the word, but he is abusive in the sense that he is _not_ taking care of his family and children. You don't have to hit people to be abusive. You cherrypicking that one word out of my entire review speaks volumes of how flimsy your argument actually is.<br />
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The point there is that book-Mat is a carefree rogue that loves pulling pranks and getting up to mischief because _he has the luxury and freedom to do so_. It's why no one in Emond's Field considers him trustworthy, and that makes sense. It's his character development from that carefree rogue to the character he becomes later on that makes him such an interesting character.<br />
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TV-Mat, though, has to be a moody (because moody _sells_ !) dude because he has to be the responsible parent ad interim to his sisters. And he's a thief. The one thing book-Mat, for all his faults, isn't. It is the complete polar opposite of what his character is at that point in the story. <br />
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Book-Perrin is consistently described as careful and deliberate. He's a big dude who can easily hurt people if he's not careful, and he knows this, so he _always_ moves with that deliberate care. You're telling me that _this guy_ is going to wildly swing his axe around in defense? Again, polar opposite of what Perrin is actually about. And I don't even know why you're bringing a court of law into this, but it did make me chuckle, so good on you.<br />
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And now that I've reached your CGI comment, I know you're very biased towards liking this show, because - considering the whopping $8M budget _per episode_ - the CGI is only passable at most, but laughably bad at some parts, including the fight in Emond's Field. Trollocs were animated unnaturally. Lighting on the debris that got flung around was off, and so on. It was just a mess. And don't even get me started on the "plastic-y" look of a lot of the setpieces. The White Tower interior and the Waygates look like something they'd use on the old Doctor Who episodes. The details on the setpieces are fine, but they just don't look like the material they're supposed to represent. It's all very artificial.<br />
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By the way, you are now the second person to attack me on here for my bad review, and neither one of you could do it without throwing at least some sort of insult my way. If you like the show, good for you. I don't. Let's be adults about it, at least.
@trialia Matt's father does not stop the abuse that his wife dole's out when she's drunk, nor does he remove her from the situation. So, while not directly causing abuse nor neglect, he is still allowing it. Ergo a bad parent.<br />
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To be fair "being so deep into that self-defence that he obviously thought her another attacker," is the very definition of blind rage. Also, some places do not acknowledge self defense where serious injury or death occurs. It varies from state to state, country to country.
@treiden I can't (and won't) disagree with your review based on season 1. Perhaps via backlash from fans, perhaps learning on the job. Season 2 gets better. There are still issues but I think you'd enjoy the 2nd season much more than the first. I have written a review here encapsulating both seasons so far if you'd care for more detail.
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