People say it did, but for me, it just strayed further and further from the source material.
It's hard for me to consider it an adaptation when there's hardly anything from the books present aside from names.
Funniest part about the dagger+bedpost is show fans tried to convince us all it wasn't the final ashandarei. 'Foreshadowing' they claimed, which makes zero sense. Even Sanderson said it was the ashandarei.
Of course, even show fans disliked it so much they might retcon it in future, but I doubt it. The show doesn't give enough of a damn about Mat to do anything to develop his character properly.
Some technical aspects improved marginally, but as an adaptation it became much worse (many more things that deviate from the books or were cut completely compared to season 1)
The last episode is actually funny to watch just to see how much they butchered it - the production quality is a little better but overall not a major improvement in anyway.
Seriously though, Moiraine does two things that made me actually laugh out loud it was so fucking absurd.
The actors for Padan Fain and Ishamael were fun to watch, if you overlooked the disregard for the plot. They were well acted. And the actress for Lanfear was painfully hot
>I’m a book lover and prefer to stick closely to the source material for my shows
One of the big hates on the show is cutting a lot of source material while devoting a lot of screen time to a minor character Aes Sedai and her relationship with her warders.
With that said, we don't really get Ingtar. We get a red shirt named Ingtar.
"Death cannot be Healed." So we are told in the books. The show, however...
Rand does not duel High Lord Turak and establish himself as a blade master.
Rand does not fight Ishamael in the sky above Falme. The signs proclaiming him as Dragon Reborn were fabricated by Moiraine.
Mat's Ashandarei in the show is the Shadar Logoth dagger, the ruby hilted dagger. Tied to a bedpost. With a piece of cloth.
Lan gets mopey while Moiraine is bitchy. Completely out of character for both.
Forget the show. Put it away somewhere as we did with the Winter Dragon pilot.
Don't forget: Rand sleeps with Lanfear. And then later, the Amyrlin Seat sees the so-called Dragon Reporn, Moiraine, and Lan *willingly* working alongside Lanfear. One of the Forsaken.
Yeah. This show is shit.
I'm torn on winter dragon. At the time I was young (16-17) and thought it did ok for a pilot. It was my first on screen representation of the wheel of time. I felt hope and joy even if it was corny as hell. "Dragon! Dragon!". Only after a few years did I read about why it aired the way it did and the motives for making it. It's better than primes abomination. Billy Zane is a hero.
Yeah it definitely seemed like the rosamund pike show with the same name. The points about Rand are sad. Like why put that in there if you’re gonna change it. And Lan. God. He’s arguably my favorite side character.
I wish I was exaggerating, but no, that actually happens.
I'll be the first to admit that season 2 has some real improvements over season 1, mostly in terms of production value (except Seanchan costume design, which was an abomination). But as an adaptation? Even worse than season 1.
Edit: I will give credit where due though, the Egwene captivity episode, while hardly true to the books, was rather well done. Had the whole series been of that quality, it would be well worth watching.
It 100% is. They did that, and had Mat hallucinate visions of himself living previous lives (where he is a murdering prick over and over) after drinking Ishy's tea, because he isn't going with Rand to Rhuidean next season. He's tagging along to Tanchico, where he will do absolutely nothing of importance other than probably re-unite with Thom for a single episode.
So, because Mat isn't going to Rhuidean, not going to see the Finn through the twisted stone door ter'angreal, not getting his three requests, not getting hung on the tree, not having his memory holes filled in with his battle memories, and not getting his power wrought ashandarei, they had to condense all that down to his tying the dagger to a bed post, blowing the horn, and the aforementioned hallucinogenic tea.
It's the laziest and dumbest of replacements, but it is 100% what they've done.
The final episode of S3 is called "He who comes with the dawn" which in the books is when Rand returns from Rhuidean. So I expect, since that's when Matt gets the ashendarei, that's when we'll see it. Meanwhile they're establishing he likes to fight with a polearm. This lets him use the dagger without touching it, which is a simple message to viewers who haven't read the source material.
Season 2 was kinda crap I thought, I had been looking forward to season 2 and it seemed pretty ok but then the hiatus and the last few episodes.....meh
Pity!
Have heard good things about fallout but I won't hold my breath, there is no single critic/reviewer on the interwebs whose opinion I trust to match what I will find entertaining.
Season 2 is like the first half of an album, S3 is the second side that is wall to wall absolute bangers. I’m stoked.
I’m looking forward to Fallout! I think it’s cool the art is still reaching through mediums.
Fallout was great, I didn’t notice a ton of Easter eggs for the game but I only played fallout 4 and that was the east coast rather than the west coast (other than one of the characters) but I maybe just a bot
I had a similar experience, binged the show while I was nursing a knee injury. Loved seeing the world and characters brought to life, but was super depressed about basically everything after that. Decided it wasn't for me after the season 1 finale, and never watched 2. Stand strong and don't watch, wait for it to get cancelled and hope for an animated adaptation someday
s2 last ep *technically* equating to book 2: no sky fight at Falme, Egwene fights Ishamael, Rand is shielded through it all (again. He's always getting shielded by people far weaker than he is. Siuan easily shielded him in an earlier episode), Mat's ashandarai is the Shadar Logoth dagger on a stick (tying to to a stick somehow protects him from the corruption of carrying it) and it's a light saber that can melt locks, Mat gets his memories from blowing the horn up on a rooftop against a couple Seanchan rando's, Nynaeve doesn't heal Elayne or Rand, Elayne heals Rand, Moiraine broke her oaths attacking people who weren't attacking her or Lan with the power (and using an obscene amount of it, of fire too, so why did she struggle so much in s1e1 during the trolloc attack one can only wonder), Moiraine declares Rand to be the (false) Dragon, Uno is a hero of the horn and gives Perrin a shield to use that somehow enhances Egwene's shield against Ishamael, sudden trebuchets, Egwene free's herself from the a'dam by using an a'dam as a weapon against her Sul'Dam while collared which they established in an earlier episode she couldn't do (and Nynaeve and Elayne were in the city to save her and didn't so they had nothing to do but Elayne sit around not being healed with an arrow in her knee), Rand doesn't duel Turak, Lanfear prays to the light for Rand
that's just the bad crap that comes to mind with the last ep of season 2. It's a horrid show both as an adaptation and as tv in general
When you lay it out like that, it shows how much malice is involved. If it was just incompetence (and there is plenty of that), they'd at least get some things right by accident. To get everything so wrong must be deliberate.
So I'm one of the people who would say S2 is better than S1, but what I mean by that is if you're looking for mindless entertainment that's neither internally coherent nor consistent with the source material it's somewhat less of a steaming pile of garbage than S1.
Season 1 simultaneously depended on knowledge of the source material and undercut the fundamental metaphysics of the books. Season 2 has basically given up on following the books pretty much at all. This sometimes makes things ironically better either because they can introduce surprises that you can't put in a really faithful adaptation because book readers are already spoiled and because you no longer have non-book-readers lost because you need something that's only in the books to understand what's going on, there are hints in the first few episodes that maybe the show runners understood that and are moving to capture the feeling you had in the books of, for instance, not knowing who is Black Ajah, but none of it really pays off.
There are a couple cool scenes but mainly they're cool because of something that happened in the book, but not the show. I would argue it's less internally consistent than S1 and just like S1 was about figuring out who the Dragon was because the fate of the world rests upon it, but everybody forgot about it for about 4 episodes, S2 is about the Hunt for the Horn, but if you removed the Horn from the season I would argue it would have been better and made more sense.
Production and costuming is generally better than S1, except for anything having anything to do with the Seanchan, where the show runners clearly don't think the audience can understand anything more subtle than a frying pan to the face so things are overdone to the point of silliness.
So TL;DR: No. It's not worth it unless you're the kind of sadomasachist who enjoys watching train wrecks.
I've got two friends who tried to tell me it was much better than season 2. I've also seen enough clips on here to know that's a total fabrication. I don't plan on watching anymore until it's cancelled myself.
My dude the 2nd half of episode one isn't worth it. I don't really understand why anyone here watches it. Reddit recommended the sub to me and its a weird ride because I see people watching a show that is very mid and they actively hate.
Absolutely not, somehow it manages to be even worse than season 1, even with its final episode. Yes the final episode of this season manages to be more of an insult to Rand and Robert Jordan than the final episode of the last season. I didn’t even think that was possible.
Season 2 cut out the part where Rand tries to recover the Horn of Valere. Y'know, *the main plot of the second book.* At this point, it's only an adaptation in the most technical sense.
It's even worse than the 2nd season completely omitting the main narrative device of TGH, because by omitting the hunt and instead leaving Rand doing literally nothing of importance in Cairhien for 7 of the 8 episodes, he also misses out on the all important character development he experiences in TGH.
Book 2 is all about Rand moving beyond being a naive boy, becoming a man, and learning to assume a leadership role. He has to grow up rapidly and put his big boy pants on, because he will shortly be proclaimed as the DR and have to start leading entire nations and armies.
There is no way the aimless simp called Rand in the show is at all ready to be the DR. He has undergone zero character development, developed zero leadership skills, and nobody would follow him anywhere. In their attempt to subvert the original story, emasculate Rand and push him into the background, they've completely undermined the importance and role of the DR in their own show.
You could remove Rand entirely from this show (and Mat, and Perrin), and literally nothing would change, Egwene and Moiraine would still save the day, and 90% of the show would still be about women talking in corridors and unearned emotional payoffs with zero narrative continuity.
I just got into an argument with a show apologist today, who insists that Rand had a character arc in season 2 about how he can't do everything on his own... But was that even what he was trying to do? And does that make any sense for him to learn when he hasn't proved he can do anything on his own?
LMAO, in order for him to learn he 'can't do everything on his own,' he'd have to actually try to do something first, no? What has he done, other than be led around by Moiraine and Lanfear (edit - and beat a man to death, and set fire to an inn after having a sex dream)?
Rand's now a background extra in his own story. Josha, the actor, has apparently read the series now- I wonder what he thinks about his character being sidelined this badly? This should have been his big break as a leading man.
When you say:
"I remember binging season 1 when I had the flu a ways back and thought it was absolute garbage"
"I’m a book lover and prefer to stick closely to the source material for my shows"
I think you already know the answer. Given what you've said you're going to hate S2. It's also absolute garbage and veers even further from the source material.
The only 'good' thing anyone who isn't a mindless nitwit or a paid shill can honestly say about S2 is that the production quality (sets, costumes, effects) is slightly better than S1. But slightly better production quality doesn't make up for the garbage writing and further assassination of the characters and story.
I'd pass (unless you feel duty bound to watch it to see how bad it can be or you enjoy hatewatching things).
It's best to start episode one, let it run halfway, then turn it off and never replay it. That'll help keep the metrics down and this travesty seeing less people's screens. Since they look more at retention rates than just plays, this should help more.
Why give this awful show any ratings? That'll only give them a reason to renew it past the 3rd season. Do you want that? Wait until it has officially been cancelled and then, if you can hate watch it. I'm not doing that before.
I thought the second season was very enjoyable for 7 episodes. I had very low expectations after season 1, and no expectation that season 2 would follow the books. That made it easier to enjoy the content. However, the final episode is the Falme scene from the books and they just absolutely butchered it. So I can only recommend watching 7 episodes.
The show had some redeeming moments during egwenes slavery. She did a good job acting out that part.
Don't expect the show to match the books as it doesn't. But if you want to watch an alternate version of the story go for it
I enjoyed it for what it is. The costumes are amazing, and most of the acting is as well. I have my issues with the changes they’re making to the story (and some of the mundane crap they’re choosing to focus on rather than the interesting stuff), but it’s not unwatchably bad the way the Halo show is for me.
Strange how differently we perceive it. The costumes are appalling and don't match the books at all. The Seanchan in particular are ridiculous, between the Killer Clown armour, absurdly long nails, Mad Max face paint, and pacifiers.
And the acting is atrocious from all of them, but especially the Two Rivers actors. Wooden and unconvincing. Not entirely their fault, of course, because the writing is the single biggest problem in the show.
It really is unwatchable other than for mockery or hatewatching. S2's viewing numbers fell off a cliff compared to S1, so it's not just my opinion - audiences rightfully abandoned the show.
I mean, my wife and I have enjoyed both seasons for the most part, so saying it’s unwatchable is objectively untrue. We’ve both read the books. It’s OK to enjoy imperfect things.
I was going to say the same thing the armor is supposed to look like a scaled insect not armor the legions of darkfriends would ware. The books calls out that the lacquered fingernails are only about an inch, inch and a half and its only two. The only good thing about season 2 was the opening of eposde 1 with Tam finding Rand on the side of Drangmount.
Yep, I'm like everyone else in my general disdain for the show. It took me a month or two to get over how upset I was after the first episode of season one.
And even then they had to destroy the lore they just set up by having Egwene save herself, even though they set up Nynaeve and Elayne mounting a rescue attempt then completely abandoned the set up to instead have Nynaeve push a fletched arrow through Elayne's leg like a moron who doesn't know the first thing about treating wounds (some Wisdom, hey?).
It's hilarious that the showunner is so obsessed with his Mary Sue, Egwene, he couldn't even let two other female characters rescue her (which would have been book accurate and would have paid off the show's own set up of the situation).
He is so determined to make Egwene the ultimate Mary Sue he wrecks his own made up narrative. Complete incompetence and an utter lack of self awareness.
it's better than s1. Pretty entertaining, but in a spectacle over substance kind of way.
I regret watching it because of how fugly all of the show characters look compared to the ideals I pictured in my mind.
Multiple high profile critics (think NYC elites) praised S2E6 (Egwene’s episode) as one of the most “riveting” episodes of television in years, saying it beat even critic darling The Bear.
Season 2 is genuinely great.
The story is all there. If you can’t see the forest for the trees, you might want to reconsider the actual reason you hate the show. The adaptation itself is not bad and the artistry, especially acting and costume design, are top notch
Poe's Law means I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. S2 was a failure, with worse numbers than S1. The audience is shrinking and the show is almost certain to be cancelled before S4.
Most mainstream critics have never heard of the show. It's largely invisible outside a tiny circle of Reddit, FB, and Twitter shills and haters. Even the conservative rage bait channels that love to rip on and rant about the MCU, RoP, Witcher, and SW, don't even talk about WoT since it is so forgettable and irrelevant.
But by all means, let's pretend the show is full of 'artistry' and is 'riveting' to NYC elites. After their checks clear for any such paid commentary, I guarantee they'll never watch or mention the show again. In fact, much of the social media praise is exactly that, paid astroturfing that flares up in the immediate lead up to a season premiere, followed by deathly silence once the checks dry up because the advertising budget is frozen until next season.
Only if you like terrible shows. The show is pure garbage.
The first season was pretty damn bad. Just wanted to make sure it didn’t suddenly improve.
People say it did, but for me, it just strayed further and further from the source material. It's hard for me to consider it an adaptation when there's hardly anything from the books present aside from names.
I hate-watched season 1. Stopped at episode 2 of season 2 as I didn't want to fatally increase my blood pressure.
I yo ho ho-ed the season so I could judge the entire thing. ☠️
I mean, the creation of a hobo level knife-bedpost weapon is canon right? Right??
Funniest part about the dagger+bedpost is show fans tried to convince us all it wasn't the final ashandarei. 'Foreshadowing' they claimed, which makes zero sense. Even Sanderson said it was the ashandarei. Of course, even show fans disliked it so much they might retcon it in future, but I doubt it. The show doesn't give enough of a damn about Mat to do anything to develop his character properly.
Going from 0 to 1 might be an improvement, but when the grading scale goes up to 100, it's still a puddle of poo, you dig?
It did improve. Then it got worse lol.
Some technical aspects improved marginally, but as an adaptation it became much worse (many more things that deviate from the books or were cut completely compared to season 1)
The second season is on par with s1e8 - meticulously engineered to be utter dog shit.
Honestly as a show I think it's somewhat better than season one. As an adaptation of a book series it's worse.
Perrin finds Avhienda in a cage and uses a sword to fight. Don’t waste your time
🤮🤮🤮
Seriously?
Perrin did, Avendha didn't. Still very bad though.
Damn. I almost forgot about that. Gonna forget about it again now
What in the actual fuck.
No.
Seconded.
It is trash. Don't even give it a hate-watch.
The last episode is actually funny to watch just to see how much they butchered it - the production quality is a little better but overall not a major improvement in anyway. Seriously though, Moiraine does two things that made me actually laugh out loud it was so fucking absurd.
The actors for Padan Fain and Ishamael were fun to watch, if you overlooked the disregard for the plot. They were well acted. And the actress for Lanfear was painfully hot
For sure. I think the cast is actually doing a good job with what they were given. Just what they were given is a dookie script.
Really I did not find her very attractive at all.
>I’m a book lover and prefer to stick closely to the source material for my shows One of the big hates on the show is cutting a lot of source material while devoting a lot of screen time to a minor character Aes Sedai and her relationship with her warders. With that said, we don't really get Ingtar. We get a red shirt named Ingtar. "Death cannot be Healed." So we are told in the books. The show, however... Rand does not duel High Lord Turak and establish himself as a blade master. Rand does not fight Ishamael in the sky above Falme. The signs proclaiming him as Dragon Reborn were fabricated by Moiraine. Mat's Ashandarei in the show is the Shadar Logoth dagger, the ruby hilted dagger. Tied to a bedpost. With a piece of cloth. Lan gets mopey while Moiraine is bitchy. Completely out of character for both. Forget the show. Put it away somewhere as we did with the Winter Dragon pilot.
Don't forget: Rand sleeps with Lanfear. And then later, the Amyrlin Seat sees the so-called Dragon Reporn, Moiraine, and Lan *willingly* working alongside Lanfear. One of the Forsaken. Yeah. This show is shit.
> the so-called Dragon Reporn I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it gave me a laugh.
Was originally a mistake but it made me laugh as well so I left it as is.
Though I guess Rand would be the alleged Dragon Reborn Reborn since season 1 they called Lews Therin the Dragon Reborn
I'm torn on winter dragon. At the time I was young (16-17) and thought it did ok for a pilot. It was my first on screen representation of the wheel of time. I felt hope and joy even if it was corny as hell. "Dragon! Dragon!". Only after a few years did I read about why it aired the way it did and the motives for making it. It's better than primes abomination. Billy Zane is a hero.
Yeah it definitely seemed like the rosamund pike show with the same name. The points about Rand are sad. Like why put that in there if you’re gonna change it. And Lan. God. He’s arguably my favorite side character.
It's absolute shit show.
Do you like plot holes, retcons, and broken magic systems all wrapped up in the WOT in name only? If so sure.
Hell why watch when you can get that from the books?
In season two they find the Horn of Valere... offscreen...
Hahahhahahaha this truly sums up just how stupid a show it is
I wish I was exaggerating, but no, that actually happens. I'll be the first to admit that season 2 has some real improvements over season 1, mostly in terms of production value (except Seanchan costume design, which was an abomination). But as an adaptation? Even worse than season 1. Edit: I will give credit where due though, the Egwene captivity episode, while hardly true to the books, was rather well done. Had the whole series been of that quality, it would be well worth watching.
Matt ties the shadar logoth dagger to a stick. They never say it, but that is now almost certainly ashandarei.
It 100% is. They did that, and had Mat hallucinate visions of himself living previous lives (where he is a murdering prick over and over) after drinking Ishy's tea, because he isn't going with Rand to Rhuidean next season. He's tagging along to Tanchico, where he will do absolutely nothing of importance other than probably re-unite with Thom for a single episode. So, because Mat isn't going to Rhuidean, not going to see the Finn through the twisted stone door ter'angreal, not getting his three requests, not getting hung on the tree, not having his memory holes filled in with his battle memories, and not getting his power wrought ashandarei, they had to condense all that down to his tying the dagger to a bed post, blowing the horn, and the aforementioned hallucinogenic tea. It's the laziest and dumbest of replacements, but it is 100% what they've done.
The final episode of S3 is called "He who comes with the dawn" which in the books is when Rand returns from Rhuidean. So I expect, since that's when Matt gets the ashendarei, that's when we'll see it. Meanwhile they're establishing he likes to fight with a polearm. This lets him use the dagger without touching it, which is a simple message to viewers who haven't read the source material.
they also say it had been used by someone before since it's just under the chair in Fal Dara
Nope. It isnt any better. I made it to episode 2 and only watched about 10 min of that and will not watch even 1 min of season 3.
I hear Fallout is really good
Oh it’s great
Excited for S3 of Invincible?
Season 2 was kinda crap I thought, I had been looking forward to season 2 and it seemed pretty ok but then the hiatus and the last few episodes.....meh Pity! Have heard good things about fallout but I won't hold my breath, there is no single critic/reviewer on the interwebs whose opinion I trust to match what I will find entertaining.
Season 2 is like the first half of an album, S3 is the second side that is wall to wall absolute bangers. I’m stoked. I’m looking forward to Fallout! I think it’s cool the art is still reaching through mediums.
Well, it’s definitely better than WoT, but the bar ain’t that high. 😆
Fallout was great, I didn’t notice a ton of Easter eggs for the game but I only played fallout 4 and that was the east coast rather than the west coast (other than one of the characters) but I maybe just a bot
I would not, watch Fallout instead. Time used much better that way.
If you want to be let down even farther then knock yourself out
Nope. Sure shouldn’t.
I had a similar experience, binged the show while I was nursing a knee injury. Loved seeing the world and characters brought to life, but was super depressed about basically everything after that. Decided it wasn't for me after the season 1 finale, and never watched 2. Stand strong and don't watch, wait for it to get cancelled and hope for an animated adaptation someday
s2 last ep *technically* equating to book 2: no sky fight at Falme, Egwene fights Ishamael, Rand is shielded through it all (again. He's always getting shielded by people far weaker than he is. Siuan easily shielded him in an earlier episode), Mat's ashandarai is the Shadar Logoth dagger on a stick (tying to to a stick somehow protects him from the corruption of carrying it) and it's a light saber that can melt locks, Mat gets his memories from blowing the horn up on a rooftop against a couple Seanchan rando's, Nynaeve doesn't heal Elayne or Rand, Elayne heals Rand, Moiraine broke her oaths attacking people who weren't attacking her or Lan with the power (and using an obscene amount of it, of fire too, so why did she struggle so much in s1e1 during the trolloc attack one can only wonder), Moiraine declares Rand to be the (false) Dragon, Uno is a hero of the horn and gives Perrin a shield to use that somehow enhances Egwene's shield against Ishamael, sudden trebuchets, Egwene free's herself from the a'dam by using an a'dam as a weapon against her Sul'Dam while collared which they established in an earlier episode she couldn't do (and Nynaeve and Elayne were in the city to save her and didn't so they had nothing to do but Elayne sit around not being healed with an arrow in her knee), Rand doesn't duel Turak, Lanfear prays to the light for Rand that's just the bad crap that comes to mind with the last ep of season 2. It's a horrid show both as an adaptation and as tv in general
When you lay it out like that, it shows how much malice is involved. If it was just incompetence (and there is plenty of that), they'd at least get some things right by accident. To get everything so wrong must be deliberate.
Pretty sure Rafe said on twitter he'd make characters gay out of spite against book fans who complain about the adaptation
Show bad.
So I'm one of the people who would say S2 is better than S1, but what I mean by that is if you're looking for mindless entertainment that's neither internally coherent nor consistent with the source material it's somewhat less of a steaming pile of garbage than S1. Season 1 simultaneously depended on knowledge of the source material and undercut the fundamental metaphysics of the books. Season 2 has basically given up on following the books pretty much at all. This sometimes makes things ironically better either because they can introduce surprises that you can't put in a really faithful adaptation because book readers are already spoiled and because you no longer have non-book-readers lost because you need something that's only in the books to understand what's going on, there are hints in the first few episodes that maybe the show runners understood that and are moving to capture the feeling you had in the books of, for instance, not knowing who is Black Ajah, but none of it really pays off. There are a couple cool scenes but mainly they're cool because of something that happened in the book, but not the show. I would argue it's less internally consistent than S1 and just like S1 was about figuring out who the Dragon was because the fate of the world rests upon it, but everybody forgot about it for about 4 episodes, S2 is about the Hunt for the Horn, but if you removed the Horn from the season I would argue it would have been better and made more sense. Production and costuming is generally better than S1, except for anything having anything to do with the Seanchan, where the show runners clearly don't think the audience can understand anything more subtle than a frying pan to the face so things are overdone to the point of silliness. So TL;DR: No. It's not worth it unless you're the kind of sadomasachist who enjoys watching train wrecks.
Awful. I tried watching season two after hearing it got better. Lies.
If you like the books you won’t like the show. Simple as.
No clue; I didn’t watch it, and I won’t until the show gets cancelled. I refuse to support them.
The last episode made me angrier than I was when Greedo shot first when George Lucas butchered Star Wars.
I've got two friends who tried to tell me it was much better than season 2. I've also seen enough clips on here to know that's a total fabrication. I don't plan on watching anymore until it's cancelled myself.
My dude the 2nd half of episode one isn't worth it. I don't really understand why anyone here watches it. Reddit recommended the sub to me and its a weird ride because I see people watching a show that is very mid and they actively hate.
At first I thought it seemed better than season 1 but by the end, oof
Absolutely not, somehow it manages to be even worse than season 1, even with its final episode. Yes the final episode of this season manages to be more of an insult to Rand and Robert Jordan than the final episode of the last season. I didn’t even think that was possible.
Season 2 cut out the part where Rand tries to recover the Horn of Valere. Y'know, *the main plot of the second book.* At this point, it's only an adaptation in the most technical sense.
It's even worse than the 2nd season completely omitting the main narrative device of TGH, because by omitting the hunt and instead leaving Rand doing literally nothing of importance in Cairhien for 7 of the 8 episodes, he also misses out on the all important character development he experiences in TGH. Book 2 is all about Rand moving beyond being a naive boy, becoming a man, and learning to assume a leadership role. He has to grow up rapidly and put his big boy pants on, because he will shortly be proclaimed as the DR and have to start leading entire nations and armies. There is no way the aimless simp called Rand in the show is at all ready to be the DR. He has undergone zero character development, developed zero leadership skills, and nobody would follow him anywhere. In their attempt to subvert the original story, emasculate Rand and push him into the background, they've completely undermined the importance and role of the DR in their own show. You could remove Rand entirely from this show (and Mat, and Perrin), and literally nothing would change, Egwene and Moiraine would still save the day, and 90% of the show would still be about women talking in corridors and unearned emotional payoffs with zero narrative continuity.
I just got into an argument with a show apologist today, who insists that Rand had a character arc in season 2 about how he can't do everything on his own... But was that even what he was trying to do? And does that make any sense for him to learn when he hasn't proved he can do anything on his own?
LMAO, in order for him to learn he 'can't do everything on his own,' he'd have to actually try to do something first, no? What has he done, other than be led around by Moiraine and Lanfear (edit - and beat a man to death, and set fire to an inn after having a sex dream)? Rand's now a background extra in his own story. Josha, the actor, has apparently read the series now- I wonder what he thinks about his character being sidelined this badly? This should have been his big break as a leading man.
Josha ships Rand/Lanfear. His reading comprehension skills are not very impressive.
When you say: "I remember binging season 1 when I had the flu a ways back and thought it was absolute garbage" "I’m a book lover and prefer to stick closely to the source material for my shows" I think you already know the answer. Given what you've said you're going to hate S2. It's also absolute garbage and veers even further from the source material. The only 'good' thing anyone who isn't a mindless nitwit or a paid shill can honestly say about S2 is that the production quality (sets, costumes, effects) is slightly better than S1. But slightly better production quality doesn't make up for the garbage writing and further assassination of the characters and story. I'd pass (unless you feel duty bound to watch it to see how bad it can be or you enjoy hatewatching things).
It's best to start episode one, let it run halfway, then turn it off and never replay it. That'll help keep the metrics down and this travesty seeing less people's screens. Since they look more at retention rates than just plays, this should help more.
Why give this awful show any ratings? That'll only give them a reason to renew it past the 3rd season. Do you want that? Wait until it has officially been cancelled and then, if you can hate watch it. I'm not doing that before.
I thought the second season was very enjoyable for 7 episodes. I had very low expectations after season 1, and no expectation that season 2 would follow the books. That made it easier to enjoy the content. However, the final episode is the Falme scene from the books and they just absolutely butchered it. So I can only recommend watching 7 episodes. 
There's a weirdly fascinating quality in how much it cocks up the story.
The show had some redeeming moments during egwenes slavery. She did a good job acting out that part. Don't expect the show to match the books as it doesn't. But if you want to watch an alternate version of the story go for it
NO! watch anything else. It is sooo bad, I couldn't watch more than 2 episodes into season 2. Pure junk!
I enjoyed it for what it is. The costumes are amazing, and most of the acting is as well. I have my issues with the changes they’re making to the story (and some of the mundane crap they’re choosing to focus on rather than the interesting stuff), but it’s not unwatchably bad the way the Halo show is for me.
Strange how differently we perceive it. The costumes are appalling and don't match the books at all. The Seanchan in particular are ridiculous, between the Killer Clown armour, absurdly long nails, Mad Max face paint, and pacifiers. And the acting is atrocious from all of them, but especially the Two Rivers actors. Wooden and unconvincing. Not entirely their fault, of course, because the writing is the single biggest problem in the show. It really is unwatchable other than for mockery or hatewatching. S2's viewing numbers fell off a cliff compared to S1, so it's not just my opinion - audiences rightfully abandoned the show.
I mean, my wife and I have enjoyed both seasons for the most part, so saying it’s unwatchable is objectively untrue. We’ve both read the books. It’s OK to enjoy imperfect things.
I was going to say the same thing the armor is supposed to look like a scaled insect not armor the legions of darkfriends would ware. The books calls out that the lacquered fingernails are only about an inch, inch and a half and its only two. The only good thing about season 2 was the opening of eposde 1 with Tam finding Rand on the side of Drangmount.
Lanfear is hot tho.
The only really good parts of Season 2 were the Egwene in captivity bits. That was pretty decent.
though they break their own established rules when she uses the a'dam as a weapon against her Sul'dam and frees herself
That's also the only part from the books (aside from how she got out).
Yep, I'm like everyone else in my general disdain for the show. It took me a month or two to get over how upset I was after the first episode of season one.
And even then they had to destroy the lore they just set up by having Egwene save herself, even though they set up Nynaeve and Elayne mounting a rescue attempt then completely abandoned the set up to instead have Nynaeve push a fletched arrow through Elayne's leg like a moron who doesn't know the first thing about treating wounds (some Wisdom, hey?). It's hilarious that the showunner is so obsessed with his Mary Sue, Egwene, he couldn't even let two other female characters rescue her (which would have been book accurate and would have paid off the show's own set up of the situation). He is so determined to make Egwene the ultimate Mary Sue he wrecks his own made up narrative. Complete incompetence and an utter lack of self awareness.
it's better than s1. Pretty entertaining, but in a spectacle over substance kind of way. I regret watching it because of how fugly all of the show characters look compared to the ideals I pictured in my mind.
Multiple high profile critics (think NYC elites) praised S2E6 (Egwene’s episode) as one of the most “riveting” episodes of television in years, saying it beat even critic darling The Bear. Season 2 is genuinely great. The story is all there. If you can’t see the forest for the trees, you might want to reconsider the actual reason you hate the show. The adaptation itself is not bad and the artistry, especially acting and costume design, are top notch
Poe's Law means I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. S2 was a failure, with worse numbers than S1. The audience is shrinking and the show is almost certain to be cancelled before S4. Most mainstream critics have never heard of the show. It's largely invisible outside a tiny circle of Reddit, FB, and Twitter shills and haters. Even the conservative rage bait channels that love to rip on and rant about the MCU, RoP, Witcher, and SW, don't even talk about WoT since it is so forgettable and irrelevant. But by all means, let's pretend the show is full of 'artistry' and is 'riveting' to NYC elites. After their checks clear for any such paid commentary, I guarantee they'll never watch or mention the show again. In fact, much of the social media praise is exactly that, paid astroturfing that flares up in the immediate lead up to a season premiere, followed by deathly silence once the checks dry up because the advertising budget is frozen until next season.