![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wheel of Time response, mostly squee
Beneath the cut!
- Moiraine, my beloved: I was nervous about how they’d handle her, especially with giving her so much centrality, but she’s everything I hoped—steely, intelligent, elegant, powerful, resolute. She could carry the whole show for me. Even when she’s in a coma.
But she doesn’t have to!
- Lan is incredible. He’s not a character I cared enormously about in the books, though I like him, but the performance is so compelling: intense but not humourless, charismatic but quiet and subtle, skilled but not ridiculously so, devoted to Moiraine yet full of dignity.
(I love their relationship so much, y’all.)
- Rand is … fine. A bit meh when he’s not being endearingly cute, but in an extremely true to the books way.
- Egwene is wonderful. I love the combination of innocence, thoughtful intelligence, promise, and forcefulness (and that she’s a ta’veren!). She’s another one of my faves from the book, so it’s a pleasure to see her executed so well.
- Perrin: good performance, unfortunately weighed down by the awful choice to fridge a character for his pain.
- Mat: knowing the actor is leaving is somewhat distracting. At points, I really like the performance, while at others, it’s a bit much for me.
- Nynaeve: handled wonderfully IMO. The combination of her defiant short temper, respect-worthy knowledge, and real caring and sense of responsibility is just very deft—she’s a character who could easily cross the line into grating, but never does, without feeling watered down to me.
In general, I liked the other performances too, particularly the Darkfriend (whose name I’ve forgotten), but even including my nemesis Thom (still unworthy, but more compelling than in my first impression of him in the books).
It’s also beautiful, which I really appreciated—the scenery, the opening credits (DAMN the opening credits are great), the One Power (I know some people don’t like it but I DO), just … yeah, wow.
The beginning (and some other points) was a bit reminiscent of PJ’s LOTR, but the parts that I most respect—the opening that basically just asks you to sit down and wait while we explain things, the ferry crossing, while it even reminded me of LOTR the book in the quieter parts of eps 2 and 3 (the song of Manetheren with the history of it, the story of Shadar Logoth) in between the action, the lingering on the festival before the Trolloc attack… even with the uneven pacing, I like how dedicated it is to its wider story and setting.
So as of these episodes, I’m super excited to see how the handle what comes next :)
- Moiraine, my beloved: I was nervous about how they’d handle her, especially with giving her so much centrality, but she’s everything I hoped—steely, intelligent, elegant, powerful, resolute. She could carry the whole show for me. Even when she’s in a coma.
But she doesn’t have to!
- Lan is incredible. He’s not a character I cared enormously about in the books, though I like him, but the performance is so compelling: intense but not humourless, charismatic but quiet and subtle, skilled but not ridiculously so, devoted to Moiraine yet full of dignity.
(I love their relationship so much, y’all.)
- Rand is … fine. A bit meh when he’s not being endearingly cute, but in an extremely true to the books way.
- Egwene is wonderful. I love the combination of innocence, thoughtful intelligence, promise, and forcefulness (and that she’s a ta’veren!). She’s another one of my faves from the book, so it’s a pleasure to see her executed so well.
- Perrin: good performance, unfortunately weighed down by the awful choice to fridge a character for his pain.
- Mat: knowing the actor is leaving is somewhat distracting. At points, I really like the performance, while at others, it’s a bit much for me.
- Nynaeve: handled wonderfully IMO. The combination of her defiant short temper, respect-worthy knowledge, and real caring and sense of responsibility is just very deft—she’s a character who could easily cross the line into grating, but never does, without feeling watered down to me.
In general, I liked the other performances too, particularly the Darkfriend (whose name I’ve forgotten), but even including my nemesis Thom (still unworthy, but more compelling than in my first impression of him in the books).
It’s also beautiful, which I really appreciated—the scenery, the opening credits (DAMN the opening credits are great), the One Power (I know some people don’t like it but I DO), just … yeah, wow.
The beginning (and some other points) was a bit reminiscent of PJ’s LOTR, but the parts that I most respect—the opening that basically just asks you to sit down and wait while we explain things, the ferry crossing, while it even reminded me of LOTR the book in the quieter parts of eps 2 and 3 (the song of Manetheren with the history of it, the story of Shadar Logoth) in between the action, the lingering on the festival before the Trolloc attack… even with the uneven pacing, I like how dedicated it is to its wider story and setting.
So as of these episodes, I’m super excited to see how the handle what comes next :)
no subject
Oh, cool!
I never quite finished the series, but I did read a number of them in my teens and early twenties, and imprinted hard on Moiraine in particular (though I like a lot of the other female characters, too—I scoured the early 2000s Internet for fanart of Egwene, Nynaeve, etc). And they definitely were a strong influence on me as a fantasy writer.
Lan and Moiraine are definitely the highlights so far for me.
Hard same.
(the Darkfriend's name was Dana, btw)
Oh, thanks! I pulled a total blank.
no subject
So I'm very here for beautiful magic (the CGI is so good!) and getting to learn who all these characters are and why the series is so beloved.