this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
12 points (83.3% liked)
Wheel of Time - TV Show on Amazon Prime
214 readers
1 users here now
This is an unofficial group for fans of the Wheel of Time TV show. Let's keep the toxicity to a minimum and just enjoy it.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I've always found "placement of background doesn't match map" complaints to be contrived in any show. It's there so it's more visible. But if we must focus on it and try to explain it, they clearly left the beaten path to avoid Shadowspawn, and we see them walking mostly on something that does not resemble a massive thoroughfare to the most epic city in Randland. Which means if you must whine about consistency, side-roads coming in from a slightly more easterly angle, ultimately entering through the Cairhien-facing gate.
Tear does not show higher in elevation, the Stone of Tear does. And that's canon. Yes, technically the location is a little off as she sails away. I reiterate the point from the above about harping on background topography like it's the most important part of the show.
There's changes I didn't agree with, but I would say each one of them either solved a problem or created dramatic value that I think defended itself, even if the change itself could have been done differently. But I'm also not an expert on writing shows, so I defer to the ones who put Amazon in the awkward position of their less expensive fantasy show outshining their Billion Dollar Baby.
Ironically, I think that's the part that's gotten to me the most, though I got over it. I've always loved the Arthurian feel to TDR, and rate it a lot higher than many readers do. I would have even taken tSR+tFOH combining to get a TDR season that ends in Tear. Maybe I'll get that later, but it's definitely not happening in S2 now that we've seen as much as we have.
Here's a better example:
Steppin goes to Nynaeve for tea to help him sleep. They joke about it being sheepstongue root. Sheepstongue root a) doesn't help you sleep and b) tastes awful. That would be fine - and we could all know that Nynaeve thinks Steppin is acting the fool. However, Steppin uses the tea to drug Lan, who presumably doesn't taste it in his wine, and it knocks him out cold. I call that an "unforced error" - they could have made up any name for the concoction and we would have accepted it, or if they were really good, they'd look up what Nynaeve gave Moiraine to help her sleep in Shader Logoth. Instead, in their eagerness to drop an easter egg, they went with something that doesn't make any sense in context.
This should be the moment where you realize you're making excuses (or others have, and you believe them), but maybe it won't. Here's the big problem. Goatstongue root is a canon sedative, mentioned in Winter's Heart, and in fact the herb (per show and transcript) that Nynaeve gives Steppin.
...by you. They picked an herb mentioned and used in the books, and it exhibited the symptoms formally assigned to it.
To reiterate... They got goatstongue root correct in the show and you are the one mistaken.
And I'm trying to be charitable to you, but I'm not going to lie. In the last 2 years, I have debunked no fewer than 2 dozen lore-adherence accusations by people complaining about the show. About half the time, it devolves into the other person hating on diversity or the role of women. It is really hard for me to see people who simply have a flawed grasp of the lore accusing the show of these utterly non-issue things and not see them as making excuses to hate the show. I'm sure you're in the 50% of haters who aren't whitecloaks, but can you see why someone on my side starts to take issue with all the silliness? I was back theorycrafting about in the mid 90's and never stopped being a diehard, yet I seem to think they did a bang up job with the show and it easter eggs.
Don't like Wotshow? Don't watch it. Seems fair to me.
Moiraine is too tall.
But really I see it as another rotation of the Wheel. Things are the same, but different.
LOL, yes she is but damn my headcanon is screwed because Rosamund Pike is now my version of Moiraine forever.
Fortunately, much of the main cast is still even taller.
I'm reading New Spring right now and it just keeps trying to drive home the point of just how small she (and Cairheinin in general) are. It described her uncle Laman as 5'11" being VERY tall for Cairheinin man. And that isn't much taller than the average man today.
Edit: I have no idea where I saw this. I did a search on my kindle. I might be hallucinating reading the numbers.
Edit: I am not crazy, but it was her father, not uncle. Chapter 10