I actually looked up who played her as I thought it was Björk at first.Someone on Reddit called her “Evil Bjork”
Television The Wheel of Time | Thread for the TV show - book nerds shoo
- Thread starter SmashedHombre
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If it wasn't for Natasha O'Keeffe being smoking I'm not sure id continue to watch this.
Just watched Episode 4 and it was really good, probably the best so far in the show.
I thought that season 3 finale was excellent, one of the best episodes of the entire series.
I was fully expecting Moiraine and Lanfear to die and I'm kinda disappointed they didn't which feels weird to say because they're my favourite characters by far. Then again, they did both get critical wounds from a one power wrought sword so. It would be funny if the first episode of season 4 was just them having died off screen.
Very enjoyable episode but as is the problem with this show, Amazon really isn't giving them enough time considering how many characters and storylines they're dealing with. But they still do the most with the time they're given. Enjoyed them mixing up Siuan in the tower and Moiraine's fight with Lanfear. Enjoyed the stuff with Lan and that blonde woman.
Very enjoyable episode but as is the problem with this show, Amazon really isn't giving them enough time considering how many characters and storylines they're dealing with. But they still do the most with the time they're given. Enjoyed them mixing up Siuan in the tower and Moiraine's fight with Lanfear. Enjoyed the stuff with Lan and that blonde woman.
Good season overall but i kinda felt that the second season was better story wise...Actually this one was a bit slow season tbh..not much happened..
Really good season, overall. Episode four probably rhe stand out one. Acting seem to have gone up a level or two on some of the main characters. Moiraine and Rand are much improved at least.
Yeah, Rand has certainly improved. And whomever said in whichever thread Natasha O’Keeffe could’ve been Yennefer in The Witcher was spot on; in a more perfect world she’d have that role and Cavill would still be Geralt. Alas…we’re living in far from a perfect world.
I had to turn on subtitles to keep track of names and places, but it’s still a better watch than Rings of Power.
I had to turn on subtitles to keep track of names and places, but it’s still a better watch than Rings of Power.
Just finished the season. I think it was definitely the best season so far.
I still think that the new cast is not that good. Lanfear was definitely the best in the season, with Moiraine, Alanna, Siuan and Elaida being good too. Girls definitely keeping the show.
Natasha O'Keeffe would have been a great Yennifer, for sure. But for some reasons, they cast a kid in that role (who did an overall good job still).
I still think that the new cast is not that good. Lanfear was definitely the best in the season, with Moiraine, Alanna, Siuan and Elaida being good too. Girls definitely keeping the show.
Natasha O'Keeffe would have been a great Yennifer, for sure. But for some reasons, they cast a kid in that role (who did an overall good job still).
Perrin and Rand are good too. I preferred old Matt and I don’t like the casting of Thom.
Cancelled after 3 seasons:
https://deadline.com/2025/05/the-wheel-of-time-canceled-prime-video-1236409657/
Just as it was starting to hit its stride. Streaming services just can't be trusted with anything good.
https://deadline.com/2025/05/the-wheel-of-time-canceled-prime-video-1236409657/
Just as it was starting to hit its stride. Streaming services just can't be trusted with anything good.
That sucks the last season was much better.
Guess I will wiki the hell out of the remaining story - not reading all those books.
She's only done 4 so far, but Rosamund Pike's narration of the audiobooks is fantastic.
That's a shame, the last season was very good.
feck Amazon btw.
feck Amazon btw.
I read the books and decided to give this a miss ultimately as it was clear the showrunner was diverging heavily from the story and front what I gather it could only really continue to diverge.
I get that it’s super long form and compromises needed to be made but you’ve got one of the great epic fantasy stories and it’s pure arrogance to thing you can rewrite it.
I get that it’s super long form and compromises needed to be made but you’ve got one of the great epic fantasy stories and it’s pure arrogance to thing you can rewrite it.
Disappointing that they made such a mess of it. Yes, there were some decently entertaining bits in the last series but they totally botched so much, wasted run time on made up characters and plots, while complaining about lack of episodes and barely scratched the surface of some of the key characters.
Don't see another WOT adaptation any time soon, what a waste
Don't see another WOT adaptation any time soon, what a waste
if you have to fit a 14 book story with a billion characters into 8 seasons with 8 episodes each which was the original plan, you're gonna have to change and cut and condense stuff. Good luck with that.
Jordan created an interesting world and concepts but ultimately that's the most interesting part. The show already did a better job with relationships and the villains despite the limited time which is saying something.
It also makes me laugh when people act as if season 1 is that much worse than book 1 which is just the same shit over and over again while theyre travelling around, the show at least added some stuff with the warders and aes sedai, that's more interesting than village number 45983 with yet another dark friend aka Mat and Rand's storyline through book 1. Clearly the final two episodes have a lot of issues but considering they got completely fecked by covid and a main actor leaving, I can grant them some leniency.
Anyway, a damn shame, was a lot of fun to watch. Not everything needs to be prestige television to be enjoyable.
Damn, that sucks.
Fully deserved, atrocious on almost every level with the exception of some of the cast putting in performances better than the script deserved.
It's a bit like the fantasy version of Raised By Wolves: a fever dream of its genre that I was never fully sold on but was just starting to have fun with before it was canned.
The Amorim Seat
Sucks to hear it, the third season was quite good, comfortably better than Rings of Power and the Witcher (but still not as good as House of Dragon).
Gutted - third season was brilliant (compared to the first two). Such a shame
I enjoyed it but with the introduction of so many new characters it was getting hard to follow. Would have liked to see it to its conclusion though.
it was watchable, but also a bit shit at the same time. it was always closer to Xena than to a serious, ambitious show with real actors, so I'm not surprised it's been canceled.
Well that's wank.
Well it was shit. I know people say it picked up after Season 1, but Season 1 was so utterly diabolically bad that I couldn't even bring myself to give it another shot. It's not just me being a book fan or having particularly high standards being the problem either. My parents who watch a mix of average to great TV shows said it looked like "made for TV" and "the acting was horrible". Now they aren't exactly TV critics but even they can recognize poor writing and wondered where all the budget went.
Funnily enough I'm re-reading the books now and when I think of what it could be it's rather depressing. Rafe Judkins is an utter shitstain for his complete disregard for the source material and his bullshit "let's make this for modern audiences" approach. (Are Studios still so easily sold on this? Do they not see how this never goes well?) I'm actually glad this bombed and maybe another studio will have the sense to put actual talent behind this project next time.
Funnily enough I'm re-reading the books now and when I think of what it could be it's rather depressing. Rafe Judkins is an utter shitstain for his complete disregard for the source material and his bullshit "let's make this for modern audiences" approach. (Are Studios still so easily sold on this? Do they not see how this never goes well?) I'm actually glad this bombed and maybe another studio will have the sense to put actual talent behind this project next time.
There were maybe 2 really good episodes in the entire run, and shockingly both of those were closest to the book material. That first season was just diabolical, the second still below average, the 3rd alright but still a mess.
They did Rhuidean quite well, will give them that, but so many other great scenes and character moments botched, complaining about lack of run time and then wasting time on shit like Steppin/Maksim, Linandrin family drama, Moiraine's made up family nonsense, all the rest.
I mean shit, 3 season and they didn't include the opening to The Eye of The World, a critical world building slam dunk of a scene that is one of the most impactful openings to any fantasy work.
They did Rhuidean quite well, will give them that, but so many other great scenes and character moments botched, complaining about lack of run time and then wasting time on shit like Steppin/Maksim, Linandrin family drama, Moiraine's made up family nonsense, all the rest.
I mean shit, 3 season and they didn't include the opening to The Eye of The World, a critical world building slam dunk of a scene that is one of the most impactful openings to any fantasy work.
Is this really a streaming service thing, though? I know the common rhetoric is that it is, but folks are forgetting that network TV has done the exact same thing for decades.
This is surely not exclusive to Netflix, or Amazon, considering that AMC, ABC, HBO and FOX has been cutting short shows (even shows finding their stride) for a long time.
I honestly cannot remember at this point, I've been detached from cable TV for so long. There's the famous example of Firefly for sure. Rome on HBO maybe?
What might be different is streaming services snapping up beloved franchises left, right, and center and still managing to blow it. The Tolkien world, Witcher (with Henry Cavill), Star Wars (outside of Andor and Mando)...all easy tap-ins that they managed to fluff their lines on.
As sad as that cancellation was (of Rome), and I was utterly inconsolable at that decision, I think that each episode of Rome cost more to make than Game of Thrones at its peak, and then factor in that they were paying early 00's money, that's a lot more than even GoT budget. It's no surprise that got the can...............that being said, I'm still pissed about it, so f**** them.
But yeah.
The Flashforward and Jericho cancellations stung. This one is also up there.
Networks are shite too.
I don’t pay for Sky because I can’t understand paying someone a huge monthly fee so they can sell adverts at my eyeballs for 20 minutes an hour. Streaming services promised an alternative to that but they’ve turned to shite as well.
Netflix nerfing Mindhunter is one of the worst decisions ever made in media. Then they butchered the Witcher and it’s a long time now since they turned to quantity over quality while raising prices year on year.
Amazon has always been a bit shite if we’re honest. It’s just handy that the video service is bundled in with Prime which I use for shipping and for Audible and Kindle and when they announced massive deals for LotR and WoT I hoped they might have turned a corner and done them properly.
Disney and Apple have been better so far, but they’re both newer to the party and I’m sure they’ll follow suit in a couple of years.
Yeah, really annoyed about that cancellation. What really is mystifying about it is that Netflix is the definitive home of true crime documentaries. No one made true crime more contemporary and popular than Netflix and their commitment to the genre, so then they get a drama hit based on that genre and cancel it. They was setting up the BTK killer too!
That was doomed from the beginning. They cast a perfect Geralt in an actor who is an absolute Witcher lore nerd too, but then shot themselves in the foot by letting it be helmed by people who held the book and the game in contempt. Crazy.
Apple were very shrewd about branding themselves around sci-fi. They've got no competition in that regard. Their hit rate for good sci-fi is tremendously high.
Oh wow, Flashforward. Almost forgot that. What a show.
What would you say were the most egregious changes from the 3 seasons? As a non-book reader, I'm curious to hear what they altered.
I'm thinking I'll start reading the books now, as I can't see anyone else adapting it from scratch any time soon. Probably my next series after I'm caught up on Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Could see this coming a mile away, it was slow, boring, some of the acting was shite and far far to many side quests, couldn’t finish the last season.
I'm not sure where to start here
I have purged most of the show from my mind, but I remember a fair few things that irked me -
1. Perrins dead wife - Perrin wasn't married or in a relationship in the books, but they threw in a wife to give the first episode that "shock" factor. The only thing is, a dead wife isn't something you just kill off for shock value. That should have long term effects on his character that should shape him for basically the rest of the story. Instead, it felt like once his wife was dead you never really saw or felt the effects of it deeply. It was so obviously tacked on and I knew from the start we were in for a bad time.
2. Matt Cauthon - In the books Matt is a happy go lucky mischievous character from a good family. He is your classic immature trouble maker who grows in maturity with the series but always has that cheekiness to him. The show just darkens his whole character from the start and that felt completely unnecessary to me.
3. Who is the Dragon? - The Dragon is a man, always. It can not be a woman and never will be. A small and harmless change to pretend it can be a woman, but an example of "modernizing" something for no reason whatsoever.
4. Siuan and Moiraine lovers - In the books they are friends from when they were apprentices in Tar Valon. In the show they are lovers. Why? I'll get to my thoughts on that in a bit...
5. Perrin fancying Egwene - Not in the books. Perrin has no romantic attraction to Egwene whatsoever. This "forced" love Triangle between Perrin, Egwene and Rand is another example of bad writing.
6. Everyones shagging eachother - Sex exists in the books, but a lot of people (not all) have more conservative values. The show has none of that and everyone shags fairly freely.
7. Tarwins Gap - This is meant to be Rands demonstration of power as we see he is the Dragon Reborn, instead his big moment is split between the female cast (sigh). It's like the show doesn't believe or understand the strength of the female characters in the books, so instead of needs to do things like pretend they can be the dragon and give them some of the male casts moments. What about the fact that the men in the books are reluctant heroes? They all want to go home but they can't because they are bound to the pattern of the wheel and "Destined" to be heroes. The females however CHOOSE to go with them and make themselves heroes. Does the show believe that making that choice shows even more character or strength than being destined? Probably not, that would require depth and quality of writing to get that point across. Just let the women makes things go boom, that'll show us their power is equal to the men!
Also, Egwene dies and comes back in the show, this never happens in the books. And how shit a trope is it to kill someone and bring them back in the same episode?
8. Moiraine loses her powers at the end of Season 1 - This doesn't happen in the books. Not sure where they went with this or what the impact on Season 2 was because I hated it to much to bother continuing. But I would guess she gets them back fairly quickly leaving people wondering what the point of taking them away even was.
As you can tell I basically hated everything!
But really, the main issue is that vibe of the show was completely wrong. WoT is mostly wholesome. It is very Lord of the Rings for the most part. In fact the first book was purposefully wrote to be rather "Shire-esque" in it's first few chapters, and the rest of it definitely has a LotR feel to it. The violence and horror of evil is there, but it's restrained in it's detail. Sex is real and people have it, but they are more conservative about it. The TV show so obviously wants to be GoT and they think the best thing they can do to any source material is 1. Make violence as graphic as possible, 2. Make everything darker in terms of character and 3. Sex, sex, sex
Also, homosexuality in shows. If you are going to make references to this that don't exist in the source material you need to be mature about it. In GoT attitudes towards homosexuality is represented in different ways, it is widely considered a sin with some people being forward thinking enough to not mind it. If you are going to add something about homosexuality that didn't exist in the books then at least put some complexity to it. In the show the subject of homosexuality is completely aligned with modern values and that is just such rubbish writing. I don't think the show would even dare have one of the main characters show some kind of uncomfortableness with such a thing, it's like everyone there is from 2025.
Lastly, the show felt so small and clean. Every big set piece felt tiny. Everyone looked like they grabbed their outfits fresh out of the wardrobe before shooting.
When I think of the two best adaptions of Fantasy ever you have LotR, which was truly lightning in a bottle. It completely embraces the source material and felt so grand and epic. GoT early seasons was truly great TV and managed to appeal to people who never read a fantasy book by having great casting, and incredible dialogue mixed in with political intrigue and character based conflict.
Wheel of Time TV Show basically took a grand LotR story, tried to make it GoT, lost it's grandeur and spectacle, didn't have the writing to back up how "smaller" it felt, and somehow managed to scrape 3 seasons by adding enough sex, violence and shock to keep enough fans wanting more until eventually it was rightly binned for being shit!
Right, back to the books and loving every moment of it!
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4 - strongly hinted in the books that they were lovers when they were novices. But not anymore, of course.I'm not sure where to start here
I have purged most of the show from my mind, but I remember a fair few things that irked me -
1. Perrins dead wife - Perrin wasn't married or in a relationship in the books, but they threw in a wife to give the first episode that "shock" factor. The only thing is, a dead wife isn't something you just kill off for shock value. That should have long term effects on his character that should shape him for basically the rest of the story. Instead, it felt like once his wife was dead you never really saw or felt the effects of it deeply. It was so obviously tacked on and I knew from the start we were in for a bad time.
2. Matt Cauthon - In the books Matt is a happy go lucky mischievous character from a good family. He is your classic immature trouble maker who grows in maturity with the series but always has that cheekiness to him. The show just darkens his whole character from the start and that felt completely unnecessary to me.
3. Who is the Dragon? - The Dragon is a man, always. It can not be a woman and never will be. A small and harmless change to pretend it can be a woman, but an example of "modernizing" something for no reason whatsoever.
4. Siuan and Moiraine lovers - In the books they are friends from when they were apprentices in Tar Valon. In the show they are lovers. Why? I'll get to my thoughts on that in a bit...
5. Perrin fancying Egwene - Not in the books. Perrin has no romantic attraction to Egwene whatsoever. This "forced" love Triangle between Perrin, Egwene and Rand is another example of bad writing.
6. Everyones shagging eachother - Sex exists in the books, but a lot of people (not all) have more conservative values. The show has none of that and everyone shags fairly freely.
7. Tarwins Gap - This is meant to be Rands demonstration of power as we see he is the Dragon Reborn, instead his big moment is split between the female cast (sigh). It's like the show doesn't believe or understand the strength of the female characters in the books, so instead of needs to do things like pretend they can be the dragon and give them some of the male casts moments. What about the fact that the men in the books are reluctant heroes? They all want to go home but they can't because they are bound to the pattern of the wheel and "Destined" to be heroes. The females however CHOOSE to go with them and make themselves heroes. Does the show believe that making that choice shows even more character or strength than being destined? Probably not, that would require depth and quality of writing to get that point across. Just let the women makes things go boom, that'll show us their power is equal to the men!
Also, Egwene dies and comes back in the show, this never happens in the books. And how shit a trope is it to kill someone and bring them back in the same episode?
8. Moiraine loses her powers at the end of Season 1 - This doesn't happen in the books. Not sure where they went with this or what the impact on Season 2 was because I hated it to much to bother continuing. But I would guess she gets them back fairly quickly leaving people wondering what the point of taking them away even was.
As you can tell I basically hated everything!
But really, the main issue is that vibe of the show was completely wrong. WoT is mostly wholesome. It is very Lord of the Rings for the most part. In fact the first book was purposefully wrote to be rather "Shire-esque" in it's first few chapters, and the rest of it definitely has a LotR feel to it. The violence and horror of evil is there, but it's restrained in it's detail. Sex is real and people have it, but they are more conservative about it. The TV show so obviously wants to be GoT and they think the best thing they can do to any source material is 1. Make violence as graphic as possible, 2. Make everything darker in terms of character and 3. Sex, sex, sex
Also, homosexuality in shows. If you are going to make references to this that don't exist in the source material you need to be mature about it. In GoT attitudes towards homosexuality is represented in different ways, it is widely considered a sin with some people being forward thinking enough to not mind it. If you are going to add something about homosexuality that didn't exist in the books then at least put some complexity to it. In the show the subject of homosexuality is completely aligned with modern values and that is just such rubbish writing. I don't think the show would even dare have one of the main characters show some kind of uncomfortableness with such a thing, it's like everyone there is from 2025.
Lastly, the show felt so small and clean. Every big set piece felt tiny. Everyone looked like they grabbed their outfits fresh out of the wardrobe before shooting.
When I think of the two best adaptions of Fantasy ever you have LotR, which was truly lightning in a bottle. It completely embraces the source material and felt so grand and epic. GoT early seasons was truly great TV and managed to appeal to people who never read a fantasy book by having great casting, and incredible dialogue mixed in with political intrigue and character based conflict.
Wheel of Time TV Show basically took a grand LotR story, tried to make it GoT, lost it's grandeur and spectacle, didn't have the writing to back up how "smaller" it felt, and somehow managed to scrape 3 seasons by adding enough sex, violence and shock to keep enough fans wanting more until eventually it was rightly binned for being shit!
Right, back to the books and loving every moment of it!
For the other points, I agree with most but felt that you exaggerated some. However, I quite agree that it felt like characters had the mindset of people living in 2025.
To be fair I wouldn't be surprised if I've got a couple of things because it was several years ago since I've seen it and I'm not bloody watching it again just so I can complain about it properly