CASTING: Whether you read the books or not, you can’t really tell whether the actors/actresses are good at their chosen craft since the writing, story design and dialog is such incomprehensible drivel, such that no one, not even Oscar winners could spout out the words from this script and make it award winning prose. There is no way to judge whether any of the cast is good/bad. However, you can judge the casting from looking at the cast, especially if you have read the books. You should be able to discern blatant casting problem issues.

WOKENESS: Let’s get this out of the way so that you can find out the real spoilers for the show.
Yes it is true, that RJ in his infinite wisdom (nothing like a true Wisdom in the Two Rivers), casted one of every race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, religion, etc., (“REGSR”) to show that he’s not like old Hollywood. RJ & his merry band selected the very best person to cast for each role based on their REGSR (don’t upset the “Me Too”, etc., movement [“MTM”]), regardless of their talent. If this was the best person, you got to wonder how bad were the ones that were not picked. Casting should be blind & the person picked should be the best at the craft for the role (regardless of their REGSR). They should not be picked because they can tie both shoes at the same time. Casting should be done based on the source material, of which TWOT had a great detail of source material. Casting should be done because the actor/actress brings the character to life, & you believe that they are: Moiraine Damodred; Rand al'Thor; Perrin Aybara; Nynaeve al'Meara; Matrim Cauthon (“Mat”); Egwene al'Vere; a’Lan Mandragoran! Who did not think that they were watching Ben Kenobi, & not Alec Guinness? Because he made you believe he was Ben Kenobi! Didn’t you feel you were watching Rosamund Pike (“RP”)reading lines?

Despite efforts by RJ to be in accord with the MTM, he failed miserably for so many reason. Hollywood always favors sex over good quality production. So what does RJ do, someone is having sex everywhere. Done solely to satisfy Hollywood’s prurient interest.

Hollywood favors bloody gore. There are a lot of bloody battles in TWOT book series, but the battles, blood & gore were not done merely to add “shock & awe” to the screen. Many think that the trollocs were exceptionally done in the show, but in reality, the CGI/VFX was reminiscent of DOOM or QUAKE. Each episode had $10,000,000.000 (TEN MILLION DOLLARS) to create the CGI/VFX+, & yet most of that was spent on 25 producers. Really, what does a producer do, & why do you need 25 of them to ruin a show? If you spent less on the producers & more on the CGI/VFX — well you get the picture, yes you see - (are you thinking Leader of the Pack?). If you wanted to have really good battles, & not only blood & gore for the sake of visceral shock, RJ should have used ILM or maybe Weta FX, or anyone else who did not create special effects that were more for video game software.

At the end of the day, to mollify the MTM,& not create a good show, RJ moved future forward in TWOT, where women are really good & men are really bad, except for Abdul Salis, (a British actor, son of Ghanaian parents), & made him a really, really, bad, sadistic man, & Johann Myers as Padan Fain, with a goofy, evil sadistic side that will be demonstrated more much later.

In the books, like in the real world, there are good women & bad women, & good men & bad men. Will RJ show the good men & the bad women? NO!, because that won’t gel with his woke story line. How is RJ going to deal with Liandrin,Semirhage, Lanfear, Mesaana, Graendal, Moghedien, Galina, Merean, Sheriam, Alviarin, Delana, Elza, & Katerine - these are some really bad women, -- Black Ajah/Forsaken. I guess they will be syrupy sweet.

It should also be noted that there are seemingly 2 opposite camps of reviewers/watcher that:
1) Excuse RJ from following the books since the books have such laborious detail to the point of boredom, that no one could ever make a episodic show that could remotely follow the book (and claim that no book has ever been followed), or,
2) Excoriate RJ for failing to follow the books even in a minuscule manner, including changing the plot by adding things that did not even happen in the books, adding new characters that aren’t even in the books, killing the new characters or killing ones who did not die in the books, or, the creator forbid, leaving out very important characters or minimizing the impact of characters in the books, all to the ruination of the world set out by author of TWOT (think Elayne, Min, Elias, Thom, etc., etc., etc.). RJ: “May you shelter in the palm of the Creator's hand, & may the last embrace of the mother welcome you home.”

It is not true that a book can’t be followed & still telling a good story in the short time allowed in episodic television or the theater. Think: “Hunt For Red October”. It not only followed the book, but it had an actor who was great at his craft: James Earl Jones. A lion, a submarine captain, Darth Vader & more, without being type cast because of his wokeness, as he continually mastered his craft. That is not say that Clancy’s later “books to movies” did not suffer from Hollywooditis (“HWI”) of the worst kind, Indiana Jones.

TWOT suffers from HWI of the worst kind. Instead of hiring an over paid action adventure actor to “carry” the rest of the day, RJ selected a woman, RP. RP is one of the over paid producers, & takes on the role of Indiana Jones. Moiraine engages in all action adventure whether they were performed by her, other women, men, children, trollocs, horses, wolves, & she saves the day, until a man humbles her & blocks her from the source. Still had to get that HWI in about women – can’t overcome obstacles without the help of a man. RJ, spreading his MTM wokeness all over the series could not help himself by engaging in yet another failure of Hollywood in using tired overused plot devices to move the story along, rather than using one scintilla of innovative creative writing to move the story along.

If this was 1964, Potter Stewart’s famous words apply to RJ’s TWOT: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], . . . . But I know it when I see it, & the motion picture involved in this case is not that.” In 2021-2022, TWOT is just that, hard-core pornography. There’s no reason for the sex! But HWI mandates that the only way to make episodic TV watchable: patently offensive, appealing to the viewers’ prurient interest, & of no redeeming social value. The TWOT complies as the original source material didn’t contain these blatant, highly descriptive sex scenes. RJ stoops to clichés, worn out sex scenes to attempt to move the story along, rather than using imaginative writing. What next? Aes Sedai(“AS”) humping children, horses, goats, dogs, Trollocs. Is there any level of sex scenes too low for RJ to stoop?

For reviewers who did not read the books, & think that those who did & complain, should get over themselves, this is for you. For reviewers who read the books & can’t stand what RJ did to trash the source material & failed miserably to produce a series that was true to the source material, this is for you. For those who read the books or not, & can’t understand why others are so mad, this won’t help you al all.

KELVIN TIME LINE (“KTL”) – MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS

RJ did not produce TWOT that is based on the books written by Robert Jordan and/or Brandon Sanderson. What RJ did was a riff on Star Trek, more precisely the J J Abrams Star Trek.

In the KTL of TWOT, things are very different. In fact, not only can a woman or man be the Dragon Reborn, but the Dark One is really a woman as well – Ilyena Moerelle Dalisar. Ilyena was not killed by Lews Therin Telamon (“LTT”)in the Age of Legends, but she’s the one that was imprisoned by the seal of the Bore by LTT (since she’s the Dark One). Ilyena’s true goal is to escape the Bore & punish all those really bad men (who represent her husband LTT) & punish any good woman (or even bad women -- think Verin Mathwin), who doesn’t help her escape..

Just look at RJ’s take on TWOT in the KTL, disregard everything you heard, read & committed to memory from the books, & visualize the true landscape of RJ’s TWOT. Gobbledygook! In the KTL, RJ tried to adhere to the woke MTM, but could not give up those Hollywood traditions that were meant to demean women & put them in their place.

Imagine the casting call: Seeking actresses for a new fantasy episodic production, one of every kind, pink, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, white, purple, indigo, red, all sexual orientations (main cast), but only one of each, & some whinny men of the same qualifications.

Think about Egwene. Throw her in a stream, & if she survives, only then can she be a Wisdom (how demeaning to woman to have a great, strong woman thrown into the river to sink or swim by other women). Witches were believed to have spurned baptism, it was thought that the water would reject their body & prevent them from submerging. Logically, an innocent woman would sink like a stone, but a witch would simply bob on the surface. Egwene survived the swimming trial, so she much be a witch. If she’s a witch, Hollywood = BAD WITCH. Robert Jordan did not have the trial by “swimming test” in his books - but I digress, this is, after all, the KTL & RJ had to make up a lot of flummery to create 8-40 minute episodes..

How about Moiraine – she’s supposed to be a very diminutive woman. strong in the power & intelligent & not that easily to be taken over by a man. RJ gave her the Hollywood treatment for women & had a man overpower her & cut her off from the source leaving her to cry her eyes out since she can’t touch the source (Here come a flock of wah wahs). Hollywood views women as poor simpering ball babies who must be rescued by another man – & who comes to the rescue – Lan! Typical Hollywood rescue for this poor helpless, hapless woman -- a man. RJ, couldn’t you have at least given her Bette Davis Eyes & ringlets? (When she arrives in Emond's Field she’s described as having dark hair, hanging in ringlets.) As you did not read the books or even base it on the books you could not do that to this poor, simpering, hapless female.

Then, there is Laila Abaya née Dearn, a hard working strong woman, who performs the tasks of a blacksmith (like Perrin) & makes tools (not weapons) (a woman is too genteel to make weapons – even in the KTL) & then, as Hollywood demands a tragedy, Laila is killed by her husband, Perrin (to move the story along) & don’t forget he murdered their baby too! RJ, if you were really trying to change your evil Hollywood ways & not go around murdering women on screen at the drop of a hat (or in this case an ax) did you really need to put in Laila only to kill her off? How about some other creative story writing instead of Hollywood clichés & plot contrivances?

Another HWI demonstrated by RJ’s inability to free himself from plot contrivances – Black man bad: at the Children's camp, Eamon Valda is served a rare bird dish for his victories while he’s sitting before an AS of the Yellow Ajah tied to a stake (imagine --a woman tied to a stake). As he eats the dish, he taunts the woman, telling her that there is a brutality to the dish, as the bird's beak & feet cut the inside of one's mouth enough to bleed, & then he chuckles. He takes her ring from her severed hand, & mockingly tells her that sometimes, brutality is the only path to mercy, as the woman begins to burn alive (clearly an age old reference to the burning of women witches at the stake -- regurgitated in Hollywood plots over & over again, ad nauseum) . When writers, producers & directors have no imagination they reach back & recycle bad plots that show dominance over women or degrade women & put them in their proper place in society. Good job RJ & all your writers, producers & directors (I hope that you can recognize sarcasm, as that attaboy {or attagirl} was dripping with sarcasm & disdain). Not only is the black man bad, but he’s cruel & sadistic. Thus, RJ is carry on the typical stereotype of the Hollywood tradition, that: black = bad, & in this case really, really, really, bad, & white (not the Whitecloaks & their white cloaks) = good. There’s no cure for this tired, old worn out Hollywood tradition & MTM is not even enough to overcome HWI with RJ.

While the scenery is pretty & the music is melodious & mellifluous, both can only improve the episode if it adds to the storyline. RJ has fallen down & drowned out the lack of a good story with some pretty scenery & a pleasing melody that does not make the scenes memorable, nor actually move the story along. Perhaps it would have been better just to play the music & show the scenery, without the action. Or, perhaps a better composer to do the score: John Williams, perhaps? Hans Zimmer? Harold Faltermeyer?

SETS: If it is too dark to see what is going on, well then your are in sync with HWI. If you have a bad scene, then you make it so dark that the audience has to turn up the brightness to see what is going on. Why even bother?

MAGIC: In the book, the magic is left to the imagination. Women can sense women who can channel Saidar, & men can sense men who can channel Saidin, but not vice versa. In the KTL, the magic is visible, & not left to the imagination – because, really, RJ lacks any real imagination. It is streaming little cloud-like magic that encircles you & in some cases kills everything in its streamy little path. Well, & then there is the lightening, bombs & killing of all those Trollocs & fire & brimstone. Just enough HWI of blood & guts to satiate the mob.

The Ways, White Tower, Two Rivers, Shadar Logoth, & many more places, fell flat in their screen presentation. These are places that would be shown over & over again. Except for that pesky KTL. Presumably, RJ is simply burning through places & cities & buildings, as he moves the story from one flit to the next. More like time in a portal stone or a trip to Rhuidean, or perhaps RJ taking a trip on LSD. Really need to work on the sets for the places, cities & buildings, & not make them so incredibly laughable & unbelievable.

In the KTL, main characters are killed off on screen (only to be brought back next season??) – Loial, Uno, & Ingtar; everyone who was killed by the Red Ajaj (too many to name); Stepin (who was he really); Kerene (who was she really); Nynaeve (oh, she’s back already); & Rand (who wants everyone to know he’s dead (since he can’t handle the truth).

In the KTL, the main characters aren’t truly developed so that the audience will care about them. The places aren’t truly developed so that you know anything about them, & what’s good or bad – Did you learn why Shadar Logoth is a place to fear going to? Did you learn that it was once a wonderful place? Did you learn why the Two Rivers is the way it is? Why was Moiraine doing a long monologue for us to weep for Manetheren? Did you even get any feelings about any of the characters, that made you want to root for them or want them out? Did you fear the AS? But still root for them? Did you fear the White Tower but find it strangely beautiful, compelling you to want to watch it to the bitter end? Not really, because this KTL was done poorly – (THINK -- Walter Donovan: Which one is it? Grail Knight: You must choose. But choose wisely, as the true grail will bring you life, & the false grail will take it from you. (Elsa chooses the grail for Donovan, & he shrivels away to nothing. Grail Knight: He chose poorly.) RJ – chose poorly!

WHAT IS NEXT? In the KTL, Moiraine & Siuan Sanche will marry, have children (only girls), exceptionally gifted & the girls become AS, but who is their father? Gareth Bryne!

Rand is alive & he made a deal with Ilyena: she will stay in the Bore, & not convert any more women, men, children & wolves to evil, & he will start a house of worship with Ilyena as the Mother Goddess & they will be taught to love horses & other animals, support all women, keep the men in line for fertility purposes, & continue with circle of life. Elayne Trakand, Min Farshaw, & Aviendha continue to share Rand as their mate, & all live in Camlyn. Elayne is the Queen of Andor, Min is her seer, & Aviendha is the Captain General (just in case). The Dark One’s followers: Chosen, Black Ajah, Dark Friends, become disciples & followers of the Mother Goddess. Shadowspawn (trollocs, Myrddraal, Darkhounds, Gray men, gholam, Jumara, Draghkar, & the like), all vanish.

Queen Nynaeve & King Lan marry & rule the kingdom of Malkier. People make a pilgrimage to Maklier to receive the blessings from the Queen & King; health & fertility; & blessings for springtime & harvest. Egwene & her husband, Gawyn Trakand, lead the festivals of Samhain, Beltane, Imbolg & Lughnasadh; celebrating all over the world to honor the Mother Goddess. Fortuona Athaem Devi Paendrag (“Tuon”), Empress of Seanchan & Mat, rule the Seanchan provinces, & hold daily sessions as people petition to the Empress for her guidance, wisdom & healing (Tuon is a great healer), & separate sessions so that Mat can embue his counsel to the people on games, sports, & other daily life necessities. Zarine ni Bashere t'Aybara (“Faile”), Lady of the Two Rivers, & Queen of Saldaea & her husband, Perrin, Lord of the Two Rivers, spend their time between the Two Rivers & Saldaea. The people live prosperously & grow crops & raise many chickens & share their foods at the giant markets held daily at the Field of Merrilor. Crops & food are transported by gateways to the market on a daily basis. People travel to the market through gateway & skimming, services provided by the White Tower AS, including the Amyrlin Seat, Verin. Perrin continues to visit with his wolf brothers in Tel'aran'rhiod to verify the status of the world & and to also keep in contact with Rand & Mat & Egwene & Nynaeve.

Peace remains in the world, but each person must train & learn the skills of healing, the sword & bow, to assure that peace will last forever. The True Power still exists & both women & men use it for the good of the world. The One Power is no longer necessary; there is no evil left.

“The Wheel of Time. Ages come and go and come again as the Wheel turns.”

I watched all 8 episodes, I read the books, I read reviews, good, bad, indifferent, written by people, bots & paid critics, I read episode by episode reviews, & to fully appreciate the show, you have to start with a mind set that RJ was going to create a really good, watchable show, that is going to have great writing, great casting, & not fall back on clichés to move the story along. That is what I was expecting & that is what I should have been able to watch. Watch it if you must. But do not expect the greatness of an episodic television show that will make you want to binge it over & over again, for years to come.

For those of you who think that this show is the greatest show since slice bread, just remember (if you live in a free society) you are entitled to your opinion, just like all of those die hard book fans are entitled to their opinion. They may not agree with your opinion, & they do not have to embue their brains with your opinion, just because you believe you are right & they are wrong. If you do not live in a free society, just wait awhile & the Dragon (or the Dark Lord) will soon enter your brain & give you their opinion - & that will be that - Beware the Dream walker, Emperor Jagang – he might have already taken over your brain! And, most importantly, I am entitled to critique & criticize & praise TWOT however my opinion flows out of the perception pen, even if you do not like it.
It gets 2 stars because they tried

Amazing series Rosamund Pike is my favorite actress and the rest of the cast is fantastic as well.

Couldn't ask for anything more. No its not the books, but the books are impossible to adapt without having 30 seasons. We have the best completed fantasy series being adapted to the screen, the cast and producer are all huge fans of the series, and so far they are staying true to the characters. Keep it up, this is an amazing adaptation!

Not even close to the series and with 41% percent of the people viewing saying it sucks my bet is it won’t last long. Welcome to our new world people of twisted garbage. Well I for one don't like it and won’t watch it and it makes me want Amazon dismantled even more than I already did. All they do is destroy everything they touch. Next thing you know men who cant compete with other men will say their woman just to be able to win at something. Oops never mind we already have that to.

Ready for an injection of forced political wokeness then take that book you loved as a child as watch how they changed it from a very ahead of its time book to a liberal arts class on wokeness.

This book was amazing when I was a teenager and Amazon took everything good about it and ruined it.
Get ready for rings of power because it's shaping up just like this.

I can't wait until the next episode comes out.

I was introduced to WoT by an old flame, 15 years ago. I did my best to read EoTW but it didn't hook me at all even after half of it. For more than a decade, I've stumbled upon the World of WOT book (I bought the copy out of curiosity, thought it would make me interested in the lore), and I even have the full audiobook series by 2015 thanks to friends. My own DnD/Dragon Age TTRPG group hounded me to start reading the series. And I tried countless times to immerse myself in this world but I never got the spark.

Then the show was announced and finally, I decided to give it a try. I thought the first episode was quite sluggish but the pace became better in the subsequent episodes. I wish they gave the show more episodes than it got. Everything felt crammed in and though seeing a new city or landmark every episode was cool, it just all felt so...vast yet empty. The exterior shots were very impressive but when it came to interior scenes, claustrophobic halls didn't do those exterior shots justice. The costumes of each culture are really interesting and seem well-designed at least. Good pay-off seeing the ruins of an old city at the start and seeing it in its old glory but the last! The CGI trollocs in the latter episodes aren't very good, unfortunately.

The series has a beautiful cast and everyone acted really well. Rosamund Pike is so good in this role. My favorite is Perrin, a sweet bulky guy that's a little too scared of his own shadow. Some of my friends are crying foul for Mat's interpretation, I thought he was cool too but he seemed a little trope-ish being the chaotic-neutral rogue for the group. Rand is...the chosen one and he embodies all the tropes of being the chosen one and the show didn't hide that very well despite saying the prophecy calls for a woman or man dragon reborn. Mat fell for a trap by a shadow, Perrin is too scared, Egwene is a damsel in distress, and Nynaev is too old (her power seems to be a red herring tbh). Rand? He is brave, has justified anger and is a really good archer; he was a safe bet.

To see if it differs anything from the books, I finally found myself listening to EoTW and finally understanding how this world works! Needless to say, I am enjoying the book more but I am thankful for the show for introducing me gently to WoT's world better than any other media. Rating it 7.5/10 hence the 4 stars.

I never read the book series, so I didn't have any readers antipathy going on, but I have issues with how you've played games with the audience. In this story, when you switched timelines, why did you switch language (I'm presuming that happened, but don't know for sure, because I couldn't understand what was being said, nor were there English subtitles.)

I liked the English episodes but the three Spanish episodes ruined it for me. I couldn't understand the storyline anymore, since the Spanish episodes were smack in the middle! It made me feel that you were wasting my time.

That brings me to another observation. Why not warn people in advance that you're imposing global language lessons, so they can choose a different, less taxing series, where the viewer can actually relax and follow the story. Why not offer the options (under any films settings which you make) of choosing the languages of audio and subtitles independently, so the viewer can choose to hear and see it in their own language, or select differences to facilitate learning, whichever they should choose to do ... rather than force them by suprise.

And why not work on your subtitles and close captions MUCH MUCH MORE, since they generally are a pitiful shambles, only vaguely sounding like English, where NO phrases or sentences are EVER finished, leaving us guessing what was said. (You've got series like Zero Zero Zero which NEED an English dub, because your subtitles are so bad, I can't suffer through it again ... and I like that series.)

The series itself is good, but your presentation of it, especially language and subtitles issues, ruin everthing, because it leaves the viewer feeling like you snuck three foreign language film episodes (completely unrelated to the film you start out with and end up with) into the middle of this series. It's crazy-making!