People who insist they need to read the books before watching the wheel of time, I am holding your hand. Listen to me. That’s the dark one speaking.

Pleaaaaaaase just watch the show first Trust Me you will likely have a much better time, you can read the books later when you’re really invested and you’ll get more out of them when you can pick up on the early foreshadowing.

I adore these books, but the show is a much better and more accessible point of entry for most people new to the story. Even if just for ease of watching 8 episode seasons instead of reading 800 page bricks. Also the show’s gayer and has more early focus on and development of the main female characters.

also also, and this is key, I need more people to watch the show as soon as possible so it gets renewed for the five more planned seasons k thx bye

you're not being graded on how you consume the wheel of time! Just watch a fun show rather than trying to spend years reading four and a half million words that you might not even end up enjoying!

For real, this applies to ANY book or especially book series, but particularly one as long, as old, and as notorious for wasting its page count as WOT. The show gets to fix all the problems that come from the author not outlining the whole story up front (and certainly not being honest with himself about how long it would take to write) to know when he needed to establish things, and changing his mind halfway on fairly major details, and 35 years of social change besides.

Free yourself of the obligation to know the "original" story before you see any adaptation. Stop teaching yourself to be a gatekeeping purist and start letting media speak to you on its own terms.

If you are a person capable of enjoying fanfiction, especially something like a transformative narrative that’s more queer and poly than the original, but also it’s an increasingly bigger budget with better effects fantasy political character drama/metaphor for the horrors of atomic war tv show, and it condenses and improves on a 15 book series in only 8 planned seasons: You should wotch the wheel of time.

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Your mom is not the only person who had that problem, I did in season one before I really Got the show’s vision, people in my family did, people who have commented on this and other posts I have made telling people to watch the show did.

The common refrain is that if you compare the show to the books the show will come up lacking.

I think this is a problem of misplaced expectations: the show is not doing one to one adaptation. If you go in just expecting that you set yourself up for a bad time.

As I have said before and so have many others, the show is clearly intended to be post-book canon, the following turning of the third age. All the characters have slightly different character arcs which are responding to the character arcs they had in the books, but not exactly the same. Their souls have been reborn, they learned some lessons last time they don’t need to relearn. They get a chance to do a little bit better. This is explicit in s2 in the show, and it’s also a theme from late in the books.

There is an in universe justification for every change they have made, because of this. The shape of events is slightly different, character interactions and locations in the narrative change, but it’s also always responding to the events of the books, and it’s possible to point out every single scene in the books that the show referenced for each particular aspect of the show. Stuff that doesn’t get explored as thoroughly in the books gets more attention in the show, and it makes for some character moments that are only enhanced by knowing how it goes in the books, because you feel the character’s growth and increased depth across lifetimes.

There are some moments that in the show hit for me because I know the character arcs from the books, such as nynaeve’s season two arc and struggle after the rings and nearly burning out in s1, but that didn’t land as well for a friend who hadn’t read the books because it seemed to her that they just kept saying Nynaeve is powerful without delivering on it, but for me, I enjoyed the slowing down of her ability to bypass her block and the extra exploration of an event, the arches, that the effect on her is moved past very quickly in the books.

For me, knowledge of the books has been improving the show immensely because the show is so in conversation with the original text, even in the choices where it makes significant changes. The changes are being made for a reason and everything they introduce even if it’s different gets built on and paid off effectively.

The show team clearly love the books and I think if you’re willing to meet it where it’s at instead of where it isn’t all wheel of time book enjoyers can enjoy the show!!! And if you’re new to the story I honestly think reading the books afterwards will deepen your appreciation of the show as well, provided you’re aware ahead of time that the show improved a lot of the gender essentialist characterizations that Robert Jordan often emphasized. As was alluded to before, the books require a quick content warning to recommend, as a result of some of those issues. And the show has done a great job of improving things there, and making it more queer.

#wot on prime#the show vs the books#the show as entry point#trying to save this excellent post in a findable manner#in case people later on Need To Be Told @hills-of-tanchico if it helps, I'm currently working on a youtube video about the wheel of time adaptation that includes a lot of what was said in this post, so soon there will be an easier way to explain this to people :)

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My siuaraine greatest hits compilation ahead of the s2 premiere

These are so beautiful 😭😭😭😭

I do think people are jumping to some wildly unsupported conclusions by saying Siuan’s death was only to further Moiraine’s angst and her fight against Lanfear, because her death was actually very clearly used to solidify and further the ideological conflict within the tower and between the tower and the dragon, like that’s what it was About.

Yup, the Tower's atrophy and internal decay is a big theme. Suian died for the same reason Egwene made a point of saying her oath was to the light, not to the Tower. Which was echoed when Suian made a point of saying Aes Sadai are the light, not the Tower or the Seat. Overall, the theme of fighting for the Light, not power structures is just beating us over the head this season: Morgase v. Elaine, Rand and Moraine's interactions all season, etc, etc. That's why Elaida specifically calls out Suian's class and ideas about exercising power, not her sexuality or race, as the reason for Elaida's animosity.

Also, given the limited time the show has to deal with these things, her death makes sense. Suian's whole reign as Amerlyn was supposed to help the Tower shift priorities to preparing for the Final Battle. She failed in this and she lost the faith of her Sisters. A big speech followed by death is a common narrative way to 'redeem' that sort of failure. Let her have her moment.

Not a popular opinion on tumblr I know but I would argue character death is good for stories, actually, and often a death with long narrative consequences is much better use of a character than having them linger with no more important plot beats to hit.

Character death isn’t writers being mean to viewers or something characters don’t “deserve,” it’s an important part of narrative and plotting to give stories stakes and emotional beats. The work making you have an emotion is in fact the point, not something to avoid.

yall she was slated for torture and death and marrying a MAN if they went by the book. there was never going to be a happily ever after even if they removed the Gareth plotline, nobody gets that. the best anyone gets is bittersweet survival. this is a post apocalyptic story about the end of the world. and political intrigue. with murder and war.

hundreds of characters could stick around like they do in the books but there is a finite amount of screentime and a production cost to keeping this huge cast. And literally there are still so many queer and POC characters, and more to join later. This is why we need a diverse cast, so we can tell their stories with all the human emotions it comes with and not be forced to write everything perfect and wonderful happy happy in a story that isnt

yall she was slated for torture and death and marrying a MAN if they went by the book. there was never going to be a happily ever after even if they removed the Gareth plotline, nobody gets that. the best anyone gets is bittersweet survival. this is a post apocalyptic story about the end of the world. and political intrigue. with murder and war.

hundreds of characters could stick around like they do in the books but there is a finite amount of screentime and a production cost to keeping this huge cast. And literally there are still so many queer and POC characters, and more to join later. This is why we need a diverse cast, so we can tell their stories with all the human emotions it comes with and not be forced to write everything perfect and wonderful happy happy in a story that isnt

i love girls that are weird about the moon

It's her

The world is changing. We cannot stand behind these walls and pretend we still have control. The only thing we have control over is what we do. So what will you do? Will you stand behind this woman who stands for nothing? Who loves nothing but power?

SOPHIE OKONEDO as SIUAN SANCHE
The Wheel of Time 3.8 | “He Who Comes with the Dawn”

Fuck it. 80s Fantasy Movie poll.

I ran out of space. And no, there is no "more than one" option, you gotta choose.

Reblog if you wanna for more reach etc etc.