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AnEdgelord posted:you should really get around to reading the last three books, Sanderson's writing has a much brisker pace I mean, I do like Sanderson style more and he has very good short stories and novellas. I consider Emperor's soul and Legion stuff one of the better modern fantasy works. It's just that I also hate his more serial stuff, like the Stormlight archives.
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Feb 13, 2022 19:42
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Just finished this series and liked it. The ending was a bit lame but I remember the book ending being a gonzo mess that was retconned immediately. I read the books and loved them when I was a teenager but I'd never recommend them now. They are SLOW and get slower and slower with each one until Sanderson picks it up. There are entire books that you can just skip, or only read the first and last chapters, and be totally fine. These dense 14 books could make a great 3-4 season series, and that's about how much real material is in them.
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Feb 17, 2022 07:40
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adhuin posted:That's like your opinion, man. I don't quite agree but I definitely am closer to agreeing than not. The first 3 are significantly better than any of the rest, for all kinds of reasons
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Feb 17, 2022 08:08
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The first 3 to me are probably some of the weakest.
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Feb 17, 2022 08:16
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I would say Book 4 is second best in the series behind the last one and WAY ahead of the rest of the series, seriously Shadow Rising was such a breath of fresh air when I got to it
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Feb 17, 2022 08:36
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Yeah, I loved the first 4 more than anything I'd ever read before when I first started getting into them in high school in the early 90s, and books 2-4 were always what compelled me to keep going any time I started a re-read well into my 20s, enough to keep me going through sheer momentum through the next 6, but I never actually read books 11-14 until I watched this show and then binged all 14 audiobooks in the last 2 months. I'm not sure I agree with the last one ranking so high, it was exhausting for me to get through because it felt like the intensity level was at 11 through the whole book and then it hit THAT chapter and I just felt really drained. If I ever re-read the series again I'll see if my opinion changes. If I do, I'll probably read a paper copy instead of listening. Book 11 was great though, and as of now Book 13 was my favorite of the Sanderson ones. Pretty sure book 4 is my favorite. St0rmD fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Feb 17, 2022 |
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Feb 17, 2022 11:07
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Mr. Prokosch posted:Just finished this series and liked it. The ending was a bit lame but I remember the book ending being a gonzo mess that was retconned immediately. I'm working my way through the series again now after having reading the first 10 or so books when I was a teen, and am just about to finish book 5 and I like the slower pacing personally. I know it frustrates the gently caress out of some people, but I generally like slower paced stuff because it's often a slower pace on plot development because the show/book/whatever is focusing on world building or character development. I love the world the show takes place in, the history and detail almost everything has and how much the characters change in response to various events and even now, 5 books into a 14 book series a lot of the main cast are hugely different people compared to how they were introduced. I also feel like a lot of the changes or events wouldn't land nearly as well for me if the pacing was sped up so the whole thing was done in a 4 books or whatever. There's a lot of foreshadowing that'd have to be ejected to squeeze the content down to that number of books, and a lot of the character development would just be "x happens, then y happens, then z happens" with almost no time for the cast to actually explore what that means to them.
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Feb 17, 2022 18:25
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Also, the series works a lot better now that it's complete than at the time when you were waiting 1-2 years between books. Even the infamous "Slog" is much less sloggy when you can pick up the next book immediately, instead of two years later.
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Feb 17, 2022 18:42
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AnEdgelord posted:I would say Book 4 is second best in the series behind the last one and WAY ahead of the rest of the series, seriously Shadow Rising was such a breath of fresh air when I got to it Not to get into spoilers but is book 4 where one character who was considered kinda crap and lower tier up to that point becomes the best character?
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Feb 17, 2022 22:07
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jng2058 posted:Also, the series works a lot better now that it's complete than at the time when you were waiting 1-2 years between books. Even the infamous "Slog" is much less sloggy when you can pick up the next book immediately, instead of two years later. This was absolutely the problem for me. I made it to book 7 or so as they came out but with the number of characters and plot threads involved I had to re-read the whole shebang when each new one released and that just became too much of a mountain to climb.
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Feb 17, 2022 22:31
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Jimbot posted:Not to get into spoilers but is book 4 where one character who was considered kinda crap and lower tier up to that point becomes the best character? If it's who I am thinking of, then no, that happens in book 3. But you're probably better asking in the book thread so you can get a definitive answer.
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Feb 17, 2022 22:33
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ONE YEAR LATER posted:If it's who I am thinking of, then no, that happens in book 3. But you're probably better asking in the book thread so you can get a definitive answer. Talking about the books in the book thread? I never!
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Feb 17, 2022 23:58
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books are for NERDS
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Feb 19, 2022 08:00
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Omnomnomnivore posted:Who the dragon is is very obvious to readers unless they were dumb unperceptive teenagers on a first read (Hello!)
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Feb 19, 2022 16:37
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th3t00t posted:On my first read I thought it was obvious right away that Rand was the "chosen one for the good guys". But it wasn't obvious that The Dragon and "Chosen one for the good guys" were the same person. There's tons of misinformation thrown at the reader about The Dragon, is he a good guy? Is he a darkfriend? Is he the dark one made flesh? I kinda thought Rand was gonna be the guy who fights The Dragon and saves the world. On that note, I've just finished the show (never read the books), and that's one of my main gripes with it currently. I liked how the seasons mostly focused on the whole group of them fairly equally, and how it (briefly) flirted with the idea that the Dragon may have been reborn into several people at once. But nope, it turns out there can be only one, and of course it's the least interesting motherfucker of the lot who had "Designated Protagonist" stamped on his forehead the whole time.
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Feb 20, 2022 16:39
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Perestroika posted:On that note, I've just finished the show (never read the books), and that's one of my main gripes with it currently. I liked how the seasons mostly focused on the whole group of them fairly equally, and how it (briefly) flirted with the idea that the Dragon may have been reborn into several people at once. This is why the whole idea of playing "who is the Dragon?" was such a bad idea. It was never going to be anything other than disappointing unless you completely change things up from the books. Let the obvious protagonist be the obvious protagonist and just be better about depicting the other characters.
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Feb 20, 2022 17:39
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I finally got around to finishing the last two episodes and it was an overall meh. I didn’t hate it but it still took me two months to finish the last two episodes because I just didn’t care enough. I’ll probably watch season two though because I am interested in where the story goes. I should probably read the books too. What I did hate though was Amazons absolute dog poo poo streaming quality. Like this is supposed to be a premiere show for them and they can’t even up the bit rate. Don’t get me started on the quality of you download it to a device. UHD my rear end. Also I dunno what they spent the budget on but lol this did not look like a super expensive show.
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Mar 15, 2022 06:11
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A lot of the budget went to setting up production studios overseas and not to the show itself. Hopefully season 2 is a bit better looking.
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Mar 16, 2022 04:58
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The Wheel of Times budget per episode is only 10 million. In 1987 Star Trek TNG had a budget of 2 million an episode, which is about 5 million in todays dollars. I think WoT did pretty well for the limited funds they got. I do wish they got some of that Lord of the Rings money though.
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Mar 16, 2022 10:34
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Now that all the foundational bits have been sorted like y'know, building a TV studio, season 2 should have a decent bump in production value and then it'll get even better for season 3 as they can raise the budget to reflect the show's success. I hope they grow out the White Tower a bit more, I'd love to get a full sense of scale for it
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Mar 16, 2022 10:49
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Season 3 is offish
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Jul 22, 2022 23:23
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I’m still a little worried about how they will handle the story going on, but ultimately I liked the first season, and it’s good to know that Amazon has enough faith in them to already renew it.
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Jul 22, 2022 23:34
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There was some other news from the recent cons too (San Diego Comic Con?); which is that the animated Origins thing will have a season two that isn't tied to episode releases of the main show from what I gather and instead will air short episodes on it's own schedule or something. They showed off one episode at the con, which focused on Lan and Malkier, his birth nation. There's also a teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9OKqDS_MC4 It's behind the scenes footage cut into a trailer of upcoming moments and so on, rather than a full on proper trailer, but someone might appreciate it and it's not going to spoil anything major. I re-read the first 9/10 books during the last year since the first season finished too, and then read the rest of them, finishing the series (bar the prequel novel I don't have) for the first time, so I've been able to dip into the main thread over on the book subform. As such, Rafe Judkins, the show's director, also did a short AMA style thing on Twitter while waiting around during the con that's been posted in the main book thread, which I can sanitize of spoilers and post if people want. I can't even remember if there's much of interest in it if you remove spoilers off-hand, but it was a thing too; so I'll offer at the very least.
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Jul 22, 2022 23:43
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St0rmD posted:Yeah, I loved the first 4 more than anything I'd ever read before when I first started getting into them in high school in the early 90s, and books 2-4 were always what compelled me to keep going any time I started a re-read well into my 20s, enough to keep me going through sheer momentum through the next 6, but I never actually read books 11-14 until I watched this show and then binged all 14 audiobooks in the last 2 months. 6, 5, and 4 are my personal 3 favorites in that order.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:34
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Maybe they're gonna do just enough adaptation of the good books to drive book sales for people who are left hanging.
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Jul 23, 2022 21:14
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Looks like we'll be getting some origin stories in the next week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEBcfvHMzC0&t=163s Edit: They lied pik_d fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 1, 2022 |
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Aug 24, 2022 20:27
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Bumping this in case you don't also read the Book Barn thread: https://twitter.com/TheWheelOfTime/status/1578490041348792321?s=20&t=BPmfBgz4VoyDd9qd_TSuLA No release date for season 2 yet, but I'll try ans make a new thread once there's more solid info.
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Oct 8, 2022 00:25
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i didn't realize there wasn't even a release date yet. i guess 1.5 year seasons are now the minimum standard?
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Oct 8, 2022 01:34
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i say swears online posted:i didn't realize there wasn't even a release date yet. i guess 1.5 year seasons are now the minimum standard? It's not a good enough show to lose THAT much momentum. Show doomed.
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Oct 8, 2022 01:37
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Hughmoris posted:It's not a good enough show to lose THAT much momentum. Show doomed. yeah not great!! welp, i was expecting it to come out next month lol
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Oct 8, 2022 01:40
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i say swears online posted:i didn't realize there wasn't even a release date yet. i guess 1.5 year seasons are now the minimum standard? Yeah, I hate this crap. Shows nearly always do better with regular, yearly, release schedules. People just forget otherwise (unless they pump a ridiculous amount into marketing, which, euuugh).
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Oct 8, 2022 02:31
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Jeez I'll finish reading the whole series before season 2 is out.
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Oct 8, 2022 02:42
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Bezos spent like five billion dollars (or so) on Lord of the Rings, so I guess that took over the fantasy top billing line at Amazon. I wonder how it’s doing compared to WoT. God knows I am seeing staggeringly more advertising for Rings of Power than I recall seeing for WoT season 1, so clearly Amazon is pushing that way harder. Maybe by season two of WoT they will trust that there is an audience for fantasy and promote accordingly.
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Oct 8, 2022 02:45
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Grundulum posted:Bezos spent like five billion dollars (or so) on Lord of the Rings, so I guess that took over the fantasy top billing line at Amazon. I wonder how it’s doing compared to WoT. God knows I am seeing staggeringly more advertising for Rings of Power than I recall seeing for WoT season 1, so clearly Amazon is pushing that way harder. Maybe by season two of WoT they will trust that there is an audience for fantasy and promote accordingly. I used to think that Bezos pushed the talented writers to LoTR and left WoT with the dregs but having now seen 90% of LoTR, I'm not so sure. Amazon messed up both shows with their choice of inexperienced show runners and lifeless writing rooms.
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Oct 8, 2022 02:49
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Hughmoris posted:I used to think that Bezos pushed the talented writers to LoTR and left WoT with the dregs but having now seen 90% of LoTR, I'm not so sure. Amazon messed up both shows with their choice of inexperienced show runners and lifeless writing rooms. They did and they didn't -- I suspect hiring inexperienced writers without a strong vision is the entire point of this exercise, since it means that the writers won't get in the way of the people actually running the show in the boardroom. Even more experienced writers get a lot of pushback -- Mike Flanagan talked recently about Netflix notes pushing for more and more jump scares, to the point where he decided to shove a (literal) world record amount of them into a five minute period in an attempt to destroy their credibility entirely. And then Netflix asked for more.
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Oct 8, 2022 02:58
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Grundulum posted:Bezos spent like five billion dollars (or so) on Lord of the Rings, so I guess that took over the fantasy top billing line at Amazon. I wonder how it’s doing compared to WoT. God knows I am seeing staggeringly more advertising for Rings of Power than I recall seeing for WoT season 1, so clearly Amazon is pushing that way harder. Maybe by season two of WoT they will trust that there is an audience for fantasy and promote accordingly. yes, but! disjointing them like this is not the answer; it's like thinking you're giving a boost to jimmy fallon by switching seth meyers to the 3am timeslot. audiences follow, and probably want to get into a week-to-week habit. WoT's best chance for season 2 was for it to debut in two weeks when rings of power is done.
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Oct 8, 2022 03:01
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amazon's probably in a unique spot where they can have a year that's pretty frontloaded and not have to constantly compete for eyeballs like other services, since Prime Video is just a bonus for possibly the majority of prime account owners
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Oct 8, 2022 03:03
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My read from seeing 7/8 of the 1st season of RoP is that Amazon went to the Tolkien estate prepared to compete against the other competitors' "experienced TV writers" pitches, by using a couple of guys who were not superstar TV writers but were deep-lore Tolkien nerds. People who listen to weekly 2-hour podcasts about all the footnotes and developmental details and philosophical underpinnings of the books. The result is a show that, while playing fast and loose with a few things like historical timelines for the sake of drama, namechecks all kinds of intensely esoteric little fanservicey lore details — but really kind of fails to do engaging character arcs or tell a good and coherent narrative. It brings up third-order-nerd questions like "are Orcs sentient? Should they be treated with dignity as Children of Ilúvatar?" while leaving the viewer cold as to whether Galadriel or Elrond takes up the water-cooler brain-space of Walter White or Homelander. If they'd hired "experienced TV writers" it would have been a way better TV show probably, at the expense of lore stuff that pleases fans like me immensely but probably nobody else was really asking for. And I feel like WoT was constructed sort of the same way. Interesting idea on Amazon's part, but ... mixed results at best
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Oct 8, 2022 03:24
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and even then, WoT source material contains strong character arcs so new showrunners could paint-by-numbers and come up with something that resembles characterization but that blueprint just isn't there for RoP. at least the dwarves are fun
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Oct 8, 2022 03:33
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Honestly, I like Rings of Power more so far than Wheel of Time. RoP has a much bigger budget and is working on a basic enough story that they can do what they want. WoT was hurt by covid and other stuff, so I can accept the faults of the first season. But things are only going to get bigger from now on, and the show will have to seriously step up.
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Oct 8, 2022 06:49
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