Prime Video's other sweeping fantasy epic returns with more good vs. evil action

Release schedule:

Friday, September 1: Episodes 1-3 “A Taste of Solitude,” “Strangers and Friends,” and “What Might Be”
Friday, September 8: Episode 4 “Daughters of the Night”
Friday, September 15: Episode 5
Friday, September 22: Episode 6
Friday, September 29: Episode 7
Friday, October 6: Episode 8

  •  maegul   ( @maegul@lemmy.ml ) English
    8•10 months ago

    As someone who has not read the books (started but never finished book 1), I’m enjoying not having to worry about how the show is “ruining” the books.

    The first season was clearly a bit clumsy, but also completely drew me into the world … I’m definitely going to want to check out season 2!

    But also … to all the book-readers … my sympathies.

    •  dreadgoat   ( @dreadgoat@kbin.social ) 
      8•10 months ago

      I’m a huge book fan, and I have to say that book purists are the worst.

      The show has made some changes that I don’t love, and some of the characters aren’t portrayed as I imagined, but for the most part it has been wonderful to see one of my favorite fantasy series brought to life, and to be able to enjoy this world with new fans. I always expect screen adaptions to make creative changes, since things that work in a book just don’t work on screen sometimes, and I’d say the changes and presentations have been pretty sensible for the most part.

      For every change I dislike there’s at least one I appreciate, and all of the actors are killing it (with what they are given at least, looking at you weird Lan funeral scene). I’m looking forward to how they handle the story going forward!

      •  kras   ( @kras@fanaticus.social ) English
        3•10 months ago

        I hate all the instant hate and the martyrs out there crying about the changes they made. I feel like most of them were necessary. The actors are killing it. And book two onwards will have a far better story than the first book which in my opinion is one of the worst ones. Very excited for this season

      •  wjrii   ( @wjrii@kbin.social ) 
        3•10 months ago

        Book purists in general are at least the definition of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. I think my “favorite” group is Halo fans. For some of them, you’d think their multiplayer centric FPS franchise and work-for-hire pulp tie-in novels were some glorious combination of Frank Herbert and James Joyce. The show was a bit silly and the plotline on the desert planet took WAY too long to say only a little, but it’s a perfectly acceptable space opera show that took the aesthetics and basic setting of Halo and kept it completely recognizable.

        •  MattBoySlim   ( @MattBoySlim@beehaw.org ) English
          1•10 months ago

          Agreed. I love the Halo games but their stories unedited wouldn’t make a great TV show. The TV show we got wasn’t great either…it could’ve been better, but it was fine overall. The action scenes were particularly good, I thought. That’s when it felt the most like Halo. Probably because Halo is primarily a guy in a big suit shooting aliens.

          The desert planet stuff with what’s her name was way too much though, definitely need much less of that if there’s a season 2.

        •  ursakhiin   ( @ursakhiin@beehaw.org ) English
          1•10 months ago

          I hadn’t read the books when Season 1 came out and didn’t really care for the show because I thought it felt like a rushed story. There characters didn’t really feel complex enough and the Aes Sedai felt like a joke of a community to me.

          Not having read the books I didn’t understand why they were so popular after watching the series. It felt pretty generic to me.

          Since then I’m through 11.5 of the books and I can understand why it felt rushed. Many of the characters were changed for the worst. Rand just accepting his fate early on is what I would consider a major change in the overall theme of the early character.

          Honestly Moiraine and Lan are the only characters I felt didn’t get wrecked.

          I understand condensing parts of a story to fit it in, there’s plenty of filler in the book that is just world building that could be removed. But the first season just felt poorly sequenced to me even before reading the books. I think LotR is a pretty good example of the pacing in the movies being an overall improvement for the big screen.

    •  SokathHisEyesOpen   ( @Anticorp@lemmy.ml ) English
      5•10 months ago

      But also … to all the book-readers … my sympathies.

      Thank you. The show was a colossal disappointment for me. I couldn’t even finish the season. It was so boring, and had a very different tone than the books.

  •  kae   ( @kae@lemmy.ca ) English
    7•10 months ago

    I’m really struggling to take this show as it is. I’ve read the books multiple times and can accept that things need to change for the screen, but some of the decisions the writers are making here are making are baffling.

    Fundamental changes to the core systems of the world. Major character motivations and events.

    I find myself asking, “What?” More then being sucked into the world. People are having things happen to them at such a breakneck place it’s a little hard to comprehend.

    We’ll see if they can pull it together.

    •  teft   ( @teft@startrek.website ) English
      1•10 months ago

      Same. I’m willing to give season two a shot but I’m not sure how far I’ll watch since they did in my boy Uno. That man is supposed to be at the last battle, not suck starting a golden rhino horn.