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Post by Scott on Nov 19, 2021 22:59:13 GMT -5
Game of Thrones and LotR might have set the bar too high. The Wheel of Time is kind of like part old SciFi channel series and part MTV makes a Wheel of Time series inspired by 5E. I can't imagine many WoT fans liking it. The feel is off, the characters are really off, the story is close. I've watched a lot of bad fantasy movies/series, and really liked them. Maybe if I try to disassociate it from the books it won't grate so badly.
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Post by GRWelsh on Nov 20, 2021 8:04:34 GMT -5
I like Rosamund Pike. Was she at least good as Moraine? I had the feeling from the trailer she would have to carry this series, at least initially.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first few books, especially the world building. It was distinct from other fantasy worlds. The One Power having the male aspect tainted, the portal stones, the eyeless Myrddraal... Lots of cool stuff. My problem with the series after the first few books was the pacing. It started to feel like one false climax after another, with them accomplishing less and less over time. I was on board for the originally planned six book series but got disgusted when the series was extended and so quit after LORD OF CHAOS (1994). That book was 997 pages long in the paperback format and would have made a good finale... Jordan should have been able to wrap it up at that point.
With DUNE in mind lately, I just noticed that Rand al'Thor was probably heavily inspired by Paul Muad'Dib and the Aes Sedai by the Bene Gesserit... There are many similarities: the Dragon Reborn and the Kwisatz Haderach, a male able to draw power from both sides, similar prophecy, the Fremen and the Aiel, etc. That was probably obvious to everyone else, but I just noticed it for the first time.
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Post by geneweigel on Nov 20, 2021 8:33:52 GMT -5
Robert Jordan goes back to my brother in the 80's doing the same "anything that contradicts Gene's opinion is good" with claims that the Jordan Conan series was superior to straight Howard. By the time that WOT came out, I had to be convinced to read through the paper weight having had enough Jordan. Honestly? That was not a good read so there is no way that I could even begin to watch a show based on that.
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Post by Scott on Nov 20, 2021 11:24:20 GMT -5
Rosamund was not bad, but they haven't given the characters much depth yet. WoT is more high magic than LotR or GoT, and there are moments where the special effects are sub par. Gary, my experience was similar to yours, I was a big fan of the series at first and then got disgusted and gave up on it.
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Post by Scott on Nov 27, 2021 17:12:19 GMT -5
anybody else watch this yet? When compared to Game of Thrones this is really loose with the story and the characters. I might like it better if I wasn't familiar with the books. One thing did strike me though, with the diversity in the cast I imagine it's a lot like what the post-migration Flanaess would be like.
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Post by geneweigel on Nov 28, 2021 0:01:44 GMT -5
I just had a bad flashback of playing a Robert Jordan adventure and I was like WTF was that? The 3rd "1985 CONAN RPG" adventure called "CONAN TRIUMPHANT" from the same year. It turns out it wasn't by Jordan but it was based on the 1983 Jordan novel of the same name.
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Post by Scott on Nov 28, 2021 0:26:50 GMT -5
I read some Jordan Conan back in the early 80s. I didn’t hate them. I was young and reading Conan comics, and stories by different authors, and Jordan didn’t seem bad at the time. Later on the differences in style started to become more apparent. Jordan just couldn’t grasp the pulp feel. You could see the long winded, over quantified style of Wheel of Time in his Conan stories and it was a terrible mix.
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Post by Scott on Nov 29, 2021 18:51:46 GMT -5
I imagine this is what a D&D series would look like. There's no pinch of dung, etc. but the spell casting is pretty close to what you'd see: lightning bolts, fireballs, curing, etc.
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Post by maximus on Dec 4, 2021 20:37:43 GMT -5
This was like a bad wreck I couldn't look away from; being a glutton for punishment I watched all the episodes. The Trollocs were well done, and I liked the way channeling was portrayed. The rest was garbage, particularly the Children of the Light. Plainly created for a younger audience, this series seemed to worry more about checking off the appropriate boxes rather than staying true to the books. Disappointing, but not surprising.
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Post by Scott on Dec 4, 2021 21:40:10 GMT -5
I gave up on it being a good Wheel of Time adaptation after the 2nd episode, and I think I ended up enjoying the 3rd episode more because of it. The diversity comes off as forced in the setting, and almost more of a priority than the story at times, but as I said earlier, it's probably what the Flanaess would look like. As a Wheel of Time adaptation it is very disappointing. Doing my best to separate that expectation, and treating it like some random show I'd find on the sci fi channel, I enjoyed it.
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Post by maximus on Dec 5, 2021 7:28:10 GMT -5
Interesting thought about the migrations, I had never really considered much about the specifics, although the Folio does go into some detail on the various races. I wonder if anyone has ever based a campaign in that era? It certainly would be different than the typical 576 era campaign like mine.
I'm considering modeling a Church Militant of Pholtus after the Children of the Light from the novels. Still trying to figure out how to incorporate. It might put an interesting twist on things.
I've always had trouble separating the books from the movie or tv adaptations. It for the most part ruined the LOTR for me. Definitely the Hobbit, which was awful. In contrast, my son absolutely loved the LOTR, not having read the books prior. To each his own I guess.
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Post by Scott on Dec 5, 2021 13:12:54 GMT -5
Even in 576 CY that's how I imagine many areas of the Flanaess. With the more Nordic Suel, Celtic/Frankish/etc. Oeridians, and Turkish/Arabic Baklunish migrating into darker skinned Flann territory, with different degrees of integration the Flanaess would be a very diverse place. I liked Fellowship of the Ring, and it went downhill from there, getting progressively worse. It seemed like with each movie Jackson got more comfortable adding more Jackson to the series. After FotR I didn't think they were good adaptations or movies. The Children of the Light/Pholtus association is a natural one, but I think a lot of what the Children do would be on the evil side and too extreme for the LG/LN Photos, but definitely a good inspiration for some of the more zealous LN followers.
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Post by maximus on Dec 7, 2021 19:55:15 GMT -5
Yea, I think the middle part of the Flanaess would be pretty cosmopolitan, especially in the cities. It would get less diverse toward the far East and West as Oeridian and Baklunish would respectively dominate those areas.
A lot of what the Children did seemed evil in the name of the greater good. You also had some dark friends influencing from within as well. I might be able to make something of that. Will have to balance them against the other existing knightly orders.
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