who in this bitch reads robert jordan? -- The Wheel of Time thread

One big fuckin' soap opera, though the first few books were good.

or maybe it was someone who looked like him.

1/ the whole premise of the story - the cataclysm that had happened in the very distant past, and all the repercussions at the time the story was set in was very convincing, and strange as well.

2/ the way that the way the people from the distant past lived and the nature of their society is revealed in this piecemeal manner was really very well done I thought. There was this bit where the protagonist gets a brief flash from the memories of all his ancestors, one after the other, going back to before the cataclysm. That was amazing!

3/er....other stuff as well. My memory has just stopped working properly.

However, someone I know saw what I was reading, and lent me this set of 4 books that he said was much better. er...(googles) "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe. That was really outstanding, I thought. Has anyone read that one?

Like books 5 - 9, it also is frustratingly slow until about the 2/3 mark, and just when you're about to give up and say "screw it, I gotta get out!" it starts getting good, building momentum, and you read the last third in 1 or 2 nights.

I'd really like to discuss some of the things in this one, but I'm afraid of spoilin' it for y'all.

i have been reading these books since junior high and i am now 24 - that is really depressing to realize.

I'm now 30 (going on 31). Eek.

i still have faith that the ending will (almost) redeem the series.

That said, the last two books have been the best since the first three or four, for my money -- but I didn't start reading until just before Path of Daggers came out, so I don't have the years of "what the fuck, when will you END IT, CONANBOY!" that a lot of folks have, so I might cut him more slack than I would otherwise.

(Peanut Gallery chimes in with plot outline of books 4-8.)

Yeah, but how much actually happens? He kept adding more and more subplots instead of resolving -- and sometimes instead of even addressing -- old ones.

LOOK OUT, SHOES!

if there is another book in the series where the main character BARELY FIGURES AT ALL then i may give up

SO TRUE.

I loyally read this series cos I started 13 years ago, but it's beginning to try my patience.

i need to muster up the energy to order the last one actually.

nice homage to how he made us wait for every book after no. 3 tbf, season finale will have a month gap

not great imo

holy shit re: the morgase flashback. absurd (unless you are televising a game of thrones clone)

i have a hard time believing that anyone who *hasn't* read the books has any clue what's going on + anyone who *has* read the books is wondering wtf are they doing

i do like how they've given some of the bad people background for becoming bad

i don't like what they've done with min. the first mat actor was better. their use of tropes from the books (like siuan making endless fishing metaphors) is simply awkward when they've changed more important things. as is the sex

tbf they're doing a nice job of making me care about perrin as little as i did in the books tho

I don't mind it - I think the show is doing a decent job with giving life to most of the characters, except Rand remains a non-entity, Morgase is ??? and yeah nobody cares about Perrin.

There's an "interesting" treatment of the trad-Tolkien "fantasy land = Britain" concept, with the Northern accents and lads-big-night-down-the-pub action.

I don't know who Robert Jordan is or what The Wheel of Time is, but this has long been one of my favorite ILX thread titles.

Yeah, I don't think this is all that bad. Morgase/Elaida stuff is whatever.. Found Sammael's accent kind of irritating but again, whatever. Liked seeing Mat pwn Galad and Gawyn. Really the only thing that struck me as feeling definitely wrong was Moiraine plotting w/ Lanfear.

this one was solid imo (helped by the fact that in every iteration i don't care about what perrin is doing)

oh wait i already mentioned that? nevertheless

this is from last year/last season but i think is fantastic: How ‘The Wheel Of Time’ Made Great Art Out Of Great Pain

Right, caught up with the season (going to PopCon threw off my schedule) and honestly I'm all good with it, occasional longueurs aside. This fourth episode in particular -- admittedly I'm a sucker for any moments where we go back into the past, but I thought Jorda S pulled off played past iterations of his bloodline pretty well.

Josha S, rather. You'd think I could remember his name by now!

moiraine's visions were . . . very effectively presented

Very good new episode I thought. Also, very good new interview:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/wheel-of-time-queer-universe-season-3-rafe-judkins-interview-1236173757/

Meantime, a separate great interview!

https://collider.com/the-wheel-of-time-season-3-shohreh-aghdashloo/

love Moiraine's hat

It's very practical!

tbf i think shohreh a. would have been better as cadsuane, but who knows if any of us will get that far

appreciate how the music remains corny as fuc

definitely a Getting Things Done episode, furiously ticking things off the to-do list

good: Moghedien, Bair/Melaine, Nynaeve/Min down the pub
bad: singing, Rand, lack of Moiraine's hat

appreciate how the music remains corny as fuc

― mookieproof, Sunday, 30 March 2025 03:24 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

hope you're happy

i had to fast forward through it

I’m seeing positive reactions to it — or at least earworm confessions

The singing was a definite low point. Had we even met Thom before?? Maybe I just forgot about it?

Yup, back in the first season.

I had forgotten.

I have forgotten pretty much everything about S1

Well there's this wheel see and etc.

Nice bottle episode this time out; you could sense the rushed compression pretty easily by default to squeeze everything in, but still! Bring on the finale next week...

ned, what are your thoughts on the books?

Kinda the standard ones, I guess. Jordan got too lost in the weeds before he could wrap it up, the gender binary stuff gets even more wearying with time, etc., let's all tug our braids. And yet: I admire the ambition, figuring out a way to work with the then-expected Tolkien tropes by exploding and expanding things in all kinds of directions, a whole bunch of vivid characters, it's a crazy ride. (Also still some of the best opening two pages to a whole damn series out there -- like, you read that, you like it, you're in.) I still remember when the first book came out and looking with interest at the cover at the UCLA bookstore, since I knew his name, just, and recognized Darrell Sweet's art. Of course these days I also consider that image of Lan being twice the size of Moiraine and think "Yeahhhhh far better to have Rosamund and Daniel just be, you know, them," and for all that the show has to reduce/simplify/etc things and I get where dmac and others will rightly have issues, I'll take Judkins' aim for a queer-friendly revamp and casting for the whole thing as a core central part as good showrunner input over what those two goddamn dorks are doing over at The Rings of Power, though admittedly I'm more invested in Tolkien adaptations by default.

wonderful; thank you

I enjoyed this last episode; can't help but think the finale will feel anticlimactic, but I'd like to be pleasantly surprised.

creepy pyro kids were a highlight

on the other hand, more singing

alanna has hella hit points

That final episode packed in a hell of a lot! New spoiler-heavy Judkins interview.

RIP Moiraine's hat - or not?

Episode very much about rushing through the itinerary of required plot points...I found myself leaning heavily on book knowledge to fill in the gaps, to the point where I guess a non-book person saw a very different story. What is a Panarch's Palace other than an abandoned Indiana Jones set? There were...two clans at Alcair Dal?

Other gaps I'd need to have a lot of trust in the showrunners to sign off on...did Liandrin choke on killing Nynaeve or did she forget her instaheadshot weave? What was Moiraine doing while waiting for Lanfear to turn up - clearly not setting any useful defences...

Still fun of course! Hope we get another season.

There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But in that it takes them two years to make eight episodes everyone will long be dead before anyone gets near Shayol Ghul

lol at how sassy nynaeve is to moraine

“You’ll still need my herbs, Aes Sedai, unless you’ve suddenly gained some ability I don’t know about”.

Not sure when I’ll get around to the second book but Eye of the World is indeed a fun ride.

There are 2787 named characters in the series

Yes but how many braid tuggers?

I started re-reading the books a while back but stalled after book 5 - thanks to the Tar Valon or Bust close-reading podcast, I have been able to follow the plot through the final book and not have to read them. Good podcast.

Yeah Preeti's a good sort in general too!

Yes but how many braid tuggers?

Only the ones who aren't forehead knucklers.

series cancelled

FEH. But I wasn't getting the feeling it'd get the nod.

what? nooooooo

of course right as it's getting into a great groove and more people are picking up on it, dumb decision. but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Ridiculous!!!

sucks :(