I read the books, but seeing how it was a decade+ ago since I last went through some of them, most of it is a blur and I can forgive some of the changes in favor of smoother storytelling.

While the show brought familiarity back, and season 1 was painfully bad in almost all ways, from adapting/changing characters to lore. The show was leaps better in S2 and with S3 each episode felt very cinematic and now told a more cohesive story.

So, even though it was adapted, I was looking out for each new episode and had high spirits for a good S4.

Alas, if it is not picked up by any other studio, the "unfilmable book series" will remain that way, no one will burn their hands on it again. So, those cheering its demise, take that in consideration.

In closing, Prime definitely did not do it full justice at the starting line and it was expensive to catch up to that fact ...
But the show was treated and produced better than Rings of Power, which does get another stay and money pumped into it, a choice I rather saw turned around.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 4 points 20 hours ago

Same. I am actually kind of pissed about how much neckbeardery there was around this online because the last season was legitimately getting good and I was excited to see it through, but all of the "um akshually the dagger was crimson" shit probably killed the show.

[–] LadyButterfly@lazysoci.al 1 points 22 hours ago

Yep I couldn't get through the first 2 episodes of season 1. On paper it should have been great! I skip ahead to 2 and 3 thanks 😊

[–] peregrin5@lemm.ee 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Didn't read the books until recently. It was an okay show without the context of the books. The first season was slow and confusing but it seemed pretty par for the course for the YA fantasy genre.

Lot of people hating on it here for not sticking to the books, which is fine, I guess, but I'm glad shows like this are made otherwise the only shit I'd have to watch are "The Bachelor Season 405", "Generic Cooking Competition 7", and "Real Housewives of Bumfuck City".

[–] rhadamanth_nemes@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I agree with most others in here, they ran roughshod over major character traits and plot points for no discernable reason. Wasted an episode of the first season on some random Warder.

That said, the biggest crime was the 8 or 9 out of 10 emotion and yelling in basically every scene. Wheel of Time can definitely drag on, so maybe they were trying to spice things up? Idk, it was weird.

At least this Rand fucks, though.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 1 day ago

I mean, Rand was running a harem for half of the series

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

If you want the loyal fans to watch it, stop fucking it up! Keep the source material, and let your cooky ass writers write their own shit.

Perrin having and killing his wife?

A total cut of Gaul?

Aviendha and Elayne for... some reason?

Perrin straight up actually killing geofram bornehald? Which is a WHOLE plot point by the way.

Moraine killing the shit out of seanchan at falme definitely breaking the 3 oaths?

It goes on and on. So much questionable decision making.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago

If you want the loyal fans to watch it, stop fucking it up! Keep the source material, and let your cooky ass writers write their own shit.

cough cough Halo

cough cough WoT

cough cough LotR

cough cough Witcher

They just can't fucking help themselves. Like incontinent tomcats, they've just gotta spray their stink all over everything, because "we can do it better."

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Perrin having and killing his wife?

I had to look this up, and am now even more pissed that it wasn't even Faile, which at least would have the benefit of a dead Faile.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

benefit of a dead Faile.

Made me laugh!

There's lots of ways the books could be improved, and that is definitely one. That was an exhausting character to read, in her later arcs.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Yeah, making it Master Luhan would still have fucking sucked, but at least it wouldn't have involved fridging. Plus, it would have given Perrin the overall character development they wanted, without impacting his romantic character arc in such an incredibly destructive way.

To give the showrunners some benefit of the doubt, doing this could have gone some way to help explain Perrin's overprotectivness.

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I also don't prefer her lol. I guess I should havebeen more specific.

Brando Sando commented on this. The choice was made to accelerate Perrins character development. I guess he suggested that Perrin kill Haral Luhan, but it was ultimately rejected by the writers.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

I guess he suggested that Perrin kill Haral Luhan, but it was ultimately rejected by the writers.

Wow. I assume their amendment was stated "let's just fridge some random woman, instead!"

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

It's like the Witcher. People aren't going to respect your OC by fucking up a recognizable name, they will just find you incompetent

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Glad they finally put a nail on that one. You got to stop funding projects made by people who don't even like the source material.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Bond and Dexter improved by straying from the source material (up to a point). Bourne trilogy is better for ignoring the disguise element.

But in general you are correct.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 hours ago

Good point.

I thinknwe could say those creative teams still clearly love their source material, even as they deviated from it.

A great adaptation feels like a valid alternate take on the original story, rather than expressing complete disdain for the original story.

[–] anonymouse2@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

I think to know where to deviate from source requires a thorough understanding of and appreciation for it first.

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[–] ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de 47 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’m surprised it lasted 3 seasons to be honest. I hated it.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I couldn't make it past the first episode.

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[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago (4 children)

The fate of most shows nowadays. Greedy companies don’t give a shit about telling a good story or giving it a proper ending.

All they care about is number go up.

Stop giving them your money and attention.

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[–] trk@aussie.zone 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I hated it from the first episode.

They had amazing material to work with, all they had to do was adapt it to TV.

A group of amateurs made an awesome Wheel Of Time episode with a budget of about $5 and an afternoon of shooting. Amazon should have just given them the money to do it.

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[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 day ago

Great job!!

Now do it for Rings of Power.

[–] TIN@feddit.uk 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fuck's sake, it had just started to properly settle down and get good

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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is why you wait to see if the series is going to get an ending before starting it.

[–] BarticusR@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Everybody waits to see if it gets an ending...nobody watches...cancelled after first series.

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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Meh

They screwed it up completely within the first 5 minutes of the first episode so not a big deal for anyone who's actually read the books.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 2 points 20 hours ago

I have read the books several times and mostly enjoyed the adaptation tbh. Literature and film are not the same. Stylistic choices which work in one don't work in the other.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

This was my reaction, exactly. 10 minutes in and I'm screaming "WTF?!"

[–] mriswith@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Even people who hadn't read the books, realized how rushed things were in some cases, and then dragged out filler in others.

It was obvious they had the same issue as several other recent adaptations: The showrunner wants to make original content, and think it's so good that people wont care that it differs from the source or even changes the story and characters.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah I watched the first two episodes of Foundation and immediately peaced out. And that one's even more ridiculous because the foundation books are more of an outline than an actual fleshed out story. So really, all they had to do was fill in the blanks. And they still fucked it up beyond all recognition. I'm sure it was probably enjoyable to somebody who's never read even one of the Foundation books. But for somebody who's read the entire series it was an insult.

[–] mriswith@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

I really tried for both of them, but they seem to fall into the same mistake.

The wild thing is how the Fallout show was one of the most source accurate adaptations in a while.

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