re: The Wheel of Time -- Season 2 coming in September -- Wise Ones Thread (Book Spoilers)

quote:

---

Babble is the worst kid of racist. At least Klansmen are honest about their hatred and we know where they stand. Babble and her ilk are the ones who try to veil their racism in the guise of casting her own on everyone else in order to sneak out her evil thoughts. She's a coward

---

You are assuming my ideology and beliefs because I don’t think the characters’ races matter?

It’s just honestly frustrating having a conversation about this show on here because the color of a character’s skin is so irrelevant compared to the plentitude of problems the show has. Id say the awful dialogue, shoddy production, rushed pacing, and inconsistent FX are much more glaring and what are causing the show to not live up to its potential.

Stop viewing everything in your life through the lens of whatever ideology you follow because it is not a significant issue. It doesn’t matter.

quote:

---

You are upset because the cities and villages are racially diverse.

This is what you typed.

---

You say this, then quote me, in which I in fact did not do what you accused me of.

You are a true believer. It's rather obvious.

Let me let you in on a little hint. Perrin is black, Nyn is black, Egwene is black. I'm ok with that. Rand being a red haired white boy actually fits. So I expect Emond's Field to be mostly black with the outlier Rand. That would fit the story perfectly. I'd applaud that. But that's not what we got.

We got the perfect ratio of ethnicity and skin color based on current woke criteria. x number of whites, x number of blacks, x number of yellows, x number of tans. Perfect ratio, to make sure they hit the perfect woke ratio. In all villages. In all cities. Over and over. The one place I expect it, the white tower, it's glossed over. Funny that.

But you can't see that. Because to you, everything is filtered through "white people are bad."

Racist pieces of shite like you are what ruins stories like this, and are ruining everyone around them. You filter all your life through racist lenses, because deep down you are a racist piece of shite.

Some final thoughts on Season 1.

I'm disappointed on the final episode, left me with way more hesitancy regarding direction of the show than going in. Haven't re-watched it yet, but will probably at some point soon - and I typically have enjoyed things more on the re-watch. Overall, I think it was a solid opening start for season 1 but definitely hoping for improvements in season 2. Its a long series that didn't really find its footing for a couple books and nothing that season 1 did felt catastrophic or like it broke anything.

It is a challenging thing to set up the world and book series as well as tell a cohesive story for season 1, they took some chances that worked and some that didn't for me. Casting switches mid-season and massive disruptions definitely played a role, but it is also a creative decision in terms of wanting to set up the world, what is to come in Seasons 2 and 3 as opposed to trying to treat each season as an individual story that pieced together tells the overall story. They didn't find the right balance there.

I really haven't liked their massive power draw scenes thus far aesthetically unfortunately. Nyn in Episodes 4 and 7 (I think) and then the circle. I know it is a difficult thing to translate but just lots of loud screaming and bright energy beams really isn't working for me.

The action sequences have been pretty hit and miss, they seem to be really good at small action fight scenes and not very good at the big battle / army sequences thus far. And again, the sort of big magic / power sequences haven't been great for me.

As discussed by many others, something about the filming style, lighting, etc. also isn't working for me. It very obviously isn't cheap, has pretty awesome, intricate sets and spent a lot of money, but looking at the behind the scenes footage - they built a lot of large sets for very short filming time frames, Two Rivers, Brene's Spring, Shadar Logoth, etc. Maybe that money could have been scaled back, spent elsewhere or spent more time in those locations.

They hit well on a lot of (but not all of) the main characters IMO. The EF5 suffered from lack of time together for some development and bonding. I really did enjoy a ton of the sort of primary secondary characters introduced and appreciate the fleshing out of the surrounding cast which cost this season but should be beneficial for Season 2.

Overall, Season 1 was a mixed bag but still see a lot of potential as many of the above complaints are aesthetic. I thought most of the writing was fairly strong - but the bad parts got really bad in certain places. Even though final episode was a bit of a dud, there was lots of stuff throughout the season that I really, really liked. For me the departures, consolidations, etc. were mostly done well and based in what we know about the books / world - some did not work for me though.

quote:

---

That made me remember that there was a red Aes Sedai that was wearing a hijab. Is there a culture in the books that wore hijabs, or did they throw in a Muslim person even though that religion isn't in the books?

---

Not gonna lie. I saw this and my eyes almost rolled out of my head. Oh rafe.

No to my knowledge I do not know of anything resembling a hajib in the books, although I could be wrong. the closest thing I can think of is the Aiel.

There are multiple cultures that wear veils, so they could be doing this to differentiate. There was a different sister in the tower with a head covering as well.

quote:

---

What about Lan wearing Ronin-style clothes and the top knot

---

I always took the Borderlands to be Asian-like from the books. Fal Daran men are described as having top knots with shaved heads on the sides. Lan was born in Malkier but raised in Fal Dara So, that doesn't bother me as much.

Right and wrong, actually.

You were right and I was wrong about the top knot. But clothes in the Shienar were Victorian in nature.

LINK

Seanchen were all notably asian in dress and custom. . .but were pretty much all black.

To be fair, Rand Land is Earth, and the world we live in now is 2 or 3 turnings of the wheel ago from the perspective of the story.

Some of the best clues are in the first book, with Thom describing his mental library of ancient tales he could tell, including references to Ann Landers, the cold war, and space flight. Later, in the museum at Tanchico, Nyn finds a Mercedes hood ornament.

So the story having somewhat familiar cultural similarities with today is not entirely unexpected

Yes, they also find a Mercedes symbol at one point I think near the spine of the world.

You also have similarities in names for certain things that are more than just a nod.

This isn't canon - as Jordan loved for fans to theorize and interpret - but the idea is that turning influence myth and legend in later turnings. So perhaps Artur Hawkwing inspired legend of King Arthur in a future turning at the time of our current age.

Jordan said he never lifted entire people's or cultures, but combined different elements of things from earth with stuff he made up, or thought about how may have developed given this initial starting point, these basic concepts, etc.

Another hint, as Rand is watching the heroes of the horn approach, he recalls them as individuals and remembers having known them in a former life, under different names (and I am paraphrasing) Michael instead of Mecca, Joseph instead of Jory, and other clearly modern English names juxtaposed with their Rand land version

It’s a pretty essential aspect of the series, alluded to many many times.

It’s not outright said so I get it.

The Mercedes’ symbol is a pretty big give away though