king of nowhere

so, you guys can't tell for sure if specific figures are male or female, but you can tell they are the main characters? i ask with genuine curiosity, because i have difficulties recognizing faces, and i'd like to understand the normal people perspective.

as a high school teacher, i met a lot of almost-20-years-old, and I can say that they have a lot of variety. some act like children all the time. some keep doing it even in their old age. some are basically adults already at 15. and of course you have all shades in between. so, the notion that a character is too immature or too mature for his age is moot. people are different. that said, people tend to mature faster in a society where they are expected to help their elders with work before age 10 and to marry before they are 20.

mat is not a scumbag, at least it's not his core. in S1E1, during the attack, he goes out of hiding to look for his sisters. the hero that complains a lot, swears he's no hero, then goes doing heroic things, is quintessential mat. rand being romantically innocent is not an important side of his character, and neither are perrin's issues with manhood - they are shadowed by his conflicts about leadership and his relation with the wolf inside.

i don't want to argue on the general merit, or lack thereof, of the tv show, nor on the general work of rafe &co, nor am i interested in whom to blame in the long list of people with power to write or dictate or in any way influence the plot. but i have to express disagreement on that paragraph. none of the things you mention is even remotely important in the large scale plot - except perhaps perrin having a wife that dies shortly after, which is mildly important at best. by "not important" i mean, if you were tasked to write a one-page summary of the wheel of time, it wouldn't mention any of that stuff.

i don't recognize any of the faces, i see them blurry even at top resolution. even knowing who they are supposed to be, i can't tell. i don't know how you guys manage. the guy crawling on the ground is rand then? yeah, in that case it's clearly a vision

moiraine mentions she has to die to save rand, so maybe they kept that part. perrin is kissing a girl, he finds faile? what's the scene in the ways? so far it looks goood, but teasers always do.

there have been several productive discussions. however, it's been over a year since the show premiered. we exhausted the meaningful discussions months ago.

i'm not going to debate the general point on "too different", on some levels it is. but mentioning elaine is actually a prime example of a justified change. namely, why would the tv show need to devote a lot of screen time - after already cutting a lot of important plots - to something that has no real consequence? you can cut away the early caemlyn sequence and it has absolutely 0 impact on the plot, everything that happens afterwards works the same. you recognize the importance of cutting something, that's one of the first things you can cut. besides, there are problems with hiring actors for an early cameo. you hire elaine for season 1, now you have an actress for her, which you'll need in season 2. except that maybe she'll be hired for other projects and she won't be available, so you have to pay her extra to gain the right to call her. and morgase, and gareth bryne, and elaida. you have to hire a bunch of actors, and pay them to turn off future contracts. it's a big cost, and a big hassle. those early cameos for characters that would be important later worked great in the books, where the characters wouldn't need to be paid. in tv format, it's terrible. add in the need to cut stuff, and how they were already short in characterization... that was a good change.

frankly, the more time passes without announcements, the more i expect the show will be canceled after season 3 or 4. they can't go on with a season every 2 years anyway. the protagonists will be 40 by the time it's done

yeah, it's not like you actually need rafe's assent to say "the books are canon"