Wheel of Time Season 3

[halfhand]

So it looks like it will be premiering March 13 with 3 episodes.

Season Trailer (show spoilers obviously)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk0D4OV95bQ

Extended sneak peak (cold open)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvvHJMWmD3Q

I think there has been a lot of disappointment with both season finale but we will see if they can find the right spot. I am fine with changes that work in the context of the story, the problem is that a lot of things haven't worked.

It looks like the budget is better. Some of the indoor sets (like the Hall of Sitters) still seem pretty claustrophobic and too small and poorly lit for what it's supposed to be. The CGI and some of the choreography looks better, but some of it still blocked kinda awkwardly and makes the non-Black Ajah Sisters look incompetant (Liandrin taking like 5 seconds to power up, Black Sisters just walking up casually and then starts murdering unprepare Sitters).

Story wise, they're obvious accelerating (and changing) a lot of things like the Black Ajah storylines. Looks like skipping Tear and going straight to the Aiel Waste and Rhuidean. Perrin going to the Two Rivers early? Didn't see much of Mat, but what might be his famous dual with the warder bros. A version of Flicker Flicker donated to Moiraine time. There is a lot of potential there, but I hope they actually nail them this season.

[Kiltwich]

I think there has been a lot of disappointment with both season(s)

Removed the extraneous word to make that more correct. The finales were bad, yes, and generally the most butchered and botched segments of the adapted work; but, I would argue that fixating on the grand spectacle failures of the show misses the mark as there were a very large amount of story failings and disappointments that occurred during the season to get us to that finale. To such as extent that the finales have been "par the course", just with stakes a touch higher.

The changes to the weaving CGI in the 2nd season look like they are getting a touch more refinement for the 3rd season. When one character is on screen weaving, it looks impressive. When multiple people are on screen weaving, it looks like a clusterduck of unfocused garbage clogging the screen -- following in the footsteps of Harry Potter's latter movies with the wizard fights.

It just makes me say to myself:
"oooh, aaaah, CGI fight where masonry gets destroyed, yet nobody is covered in concrete dust. The ground is ripped apart and thrown everywhere, but nobody gets a spec of dirt on them. A blast that nearly kills somebody knocking them 50 ft away isn't strong enough to mess up the starched ironing lines on their outfit. joy"

That said, overall the season trailer is much better than the previous two. Not sure if they actually pulled their heads out of their rears, or if it's just a fluke, or if the folks who made the season two trailer got deservedly sacked. In any case, it is nice to see our main man with hair on his damn head. The surprise bald thing that was not once addressed in any way throughout season two felt like a practical joke played on the audience.

[Chloro]

I am an avid book reader, by far Wot was my favorite series growing up. I actually think the way they did the first two seasons was kind of brilliant. If you look at Game of Thrones, their first two seasons were also kind of lack luster, the real fun didn't start till season three. I do think not having Elaida in season 1, and the Queens blessing was a mistake but who knows, maybe they will make up for it.

I do have to give massive credit to them for the cold open though, Jordan only glanced on that moment in the books, and now we get to see it fully play out. The weaves, the gore, the "You’re not leaving this city alive". Loved the whole thing, including Siuans surprised face that there were more blacks in the hall.

I am kind of glad they took it slowly with showing weaving, it’s a completely different system of magic than most people are used to, being non book readers. It gave them one season to see different strands coming together, season 2 we touched on the elements, now season three they took off the training wheels and its sink or swim. Out of the cold open I loved Siuans weaving the most, I still want to know what weave she used to make Liandrin cough blood, that was a nice touch!

Also, as a side note, season 1, they dealt with the start of the covid shut downs, season 2 filmed during the writers strike, season three they had none of those. Given how poor the rings of power turned out for season 2, I think we got the better end of the deal.

This was purely from the Sedai persepective, the boys need work, Rand has the whiney part down. I am kind of dissapointed in how they chose to change Perrin, I see all the slowness but none of the strength he had in the books. Also think the original Mat had much more the ferret qualities Mat had in the books.

[Kryyg]

It is terrible. Season 3 will be terrible.

I will still watch either excitement.

[Eol]

I recently sat down and finished season 2. I had turned it off forever ago when it came out after seeing Rand and Selene together. I'm old enough now to know that book to show conversions are almost always a disappointment so I set low expectations. I don't lose sleep over the loss of the entire adventure of traveling to rescue the horn, interactions with Verin, etc. I shrug at Seanchan disrespecting Ogier, Lanfear acting afraid of Moghedien, Egwene standing up to Ishamael, Logain still being able to see weaves. I tried to find positives like Perrin and Dain being a much better developed dynamic - Dain seems like an actual person, the CoL less of a footnote. I recognize that in fact the first 3 books each contain a sequence that is somewhat more mythical than the later "rule following" channeling ie. Rand's 3 confrontations with Ishamael at the Eye, in the clouds over Falme, and in the Stone and therefore these scenes are potentially difficult to demonstrate on screen. Doing this allows me to draw some measure of enjoyment in seeing characters I've loved on screen.

That said. What really got to me was the "Dragon" that Moiraine made at the end of Falme. Just bizarre. You take a little detail like a banner that didn't make it in because you butchered the entire first season and you get stuck doing clownshoes special effect that look awful and are stupid.

That said. Ready for season 3 Hope it brings some people back.

[krul]

Season 3 is so appallingly bad. It can barely be considered to be Wheel of Time at this point. I know season 2 dipped heavily into fanfic territory but this is just a whole new level, I can barely even see traces of the original world in there. What an embarrassment.

[halfhand]

Finished watching the first 3 episodes. I think as far as a fantasy TV series, it is fine. There was some good spots, some bad spots, but always have the vibe of missed potential.

The new characters and actors are good. Morgase is casted well. I always thought Shohreh would have made a much better Cadsuane than Elaida, but it looks like they're going to make some needed character change to Elaida that may use her gravitas better. Moggy is a very much different character, so we'll see how it plays out.

A lot of HBOization most of which is expected. I get what they're going with Avindha and Elayne soon to be thrupple where they are basically HBOing all the subtle "pillow friend" subtext (like with Siuan and Moiraine).
The fights are pretty good and correographed. But we really don't need Aes Sedai doing flips and leaping over fireballs. It makes no sense even for a Green Ajah.
The Black Tower fight was a good sequence, but if you actually think about the implications, it didn't make much sense, makes the White Tower seems really incompetent.
Matt's fight was pretty good, and much awaited. It just seems that it just didn't hit like the books. His moment of awesome is witneseed by no one except Nynaeve, and they don't even get to the quotable parts of the book ("Who was the greatest blademaster of all time"...). I'm not a purist, but if you want to do an awesome scene, just lean into it all the way, and not half ass it.
Matt is silly, but he isn't dumb. Why is he and everyone (exept Siuane) treating the Horn like a toy.

It looks like of the 8 Forsaken we have seen Ishamael, Sammael, Rhavin, Lanfear, Moghedian. I suspect we will still see Asmodean.


Speaking of missed potential and opportunities, on a Wotmud note, it is a little disappointing that we've made no effort to try to capitalize on the TV shows with tied ingame events or storyline advancement during the seasons to try to capitalize on new players or old players coming back for potentially new experiences. Most MMO games would absolutely have major promotions or in-game elements due to the cross-media popularity bump. This show isn't setting the world on fire, but still are a major boost for any related games that is essentially 0 capitalized on in a stagnant population.

[Katherine]

So it looks like it will be premiering March 13 with 3 episodes.

Story wise, they're obvious accelerating (and changing) a lot of things like the Black Ajah storylines. Looks like skipping Tear and going straight to the Aiel Waste and Rhuidean. Perrin going to the Two Rivers early? Didn't see much of Mat, but what might be his famous dual with the warder bros. A version of Flicker Flicker donated to Moiraine time. There is a lot of potential there, but I hope they actually nail them this season.

I have accepted the rewrites of the plot were necessary for the sake of brevity. There are so many minor characters and subplots and just plain "paid by the word" chapters that it would be impossible to fit it all in within a series budget. Also I think audiences that never read the books would just lose track of things, but that being said, I read the books twice and I'm definitely losing track of things in the accelerated screenplay plot.

The rewrites that bother me are the ones that are just gratuitous. For example, the writers are apparently obsessed with sex and sexual reference, and what's more, they are really bad at it. Its like those parts, which apparently make up like 1/4th of each episode, were written by a 13 year old boy who got his hands on some Playboy magazines for the first time. Its a sorry substitute for actual character development. I am no prude, and I enjoy a little spice as much as the next person, but if it lacks any significance towards understanding the characters better then its just a waste of film and audience attention especially when there is so much more interesting detail from the books that did not make the cut.

Here are the highlights of what I liked through Ep 3, for whatever its worth

- the fight between Matt, Galad and Gawyn though the "Mat is a badass" was probably a little over the top. Also like the casting of Galad of Gawyn, but I expected Galad to be taller. Gawyn and Galads characters seem to blend for me. I hope they differentiate them better in later episodes.
- the casting of Faile is right on the nose (uh, no pun intended)! Love this choice. Its like she just stepped out of the pages of the books and I found myself looking forward to watching scenes with Perrin finally.
- Elaida finally enters the plot and the obvious set up towards the coming events in the Tower. I wont spoil that for anyone, but this is what I hated about Season 2 more than anything else. What Elaida does is *the real existential problem* that Aes Sedai were dealing with since TSR (not darkfriends like the show set up in S1/2) and that conflict is super important for one of our Two Rivers heroes down the line.

There's a lot to dislike, but I will just add one thing that I feel is still missing which really takes the color out of the story and that's the internal battle of sanity inside Rand's head as he wrestles with his own soul in the form of Lews Therin. Trying to do insanity from the outside looking in is really hard and they are failing miserably. (oh, Moiraine, the power just feels so good, I just dont want to let go, ohhhh!!---wtf is that?? that's basically every novice). Insanity is better explained from the inside out otherwise all we ever see is "angry Rand". What they did is a cheap cop-out from writing some good internal dialog in favor of a scene where Mat cant sleep because Elayne's brothers are having sex in adjacent rooms. This schism in his mind plays an actual important part of his development by setting the stage for his catharsis in a later book and adds a necessary connection from the time of the Breaking to the current day.

[Katherine]

It looks like of the 8 Forsaken we have seen Ishamael, Sammael, Rhavin, Lanfear, Moghedian. I suspect we will still see Asmodean.

It is possible we have seen them but did not know. Not sure I would give the writers that much credit since they have no sense of intrigue in their writing, but who knows?

[Evee]

Rhavin's timeline feels wrong. Didn't the newer batch of forsaken get released at the end of season 2? Yet Elaine and Rhavin act like they've known each other for some time.