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by bigstrat2003 638 days ago
WoT was very much not well received by fans, mainly because it is so disrespectful to the source material that you would think the showrunner actively hates it. You asked for specifics, so:

* Rand and Egwene's relationship going from "they like each other but are kind of hesitant" to "sneaking away to have sex in the woods". Not only is this completely unnecessary, it's completely at odds with the moral values of Two Rivers culture for them to be doing that.

* Perrin being married (WTF), and then killing his wife by accident (WTF squared). In the books Perrin is very careful to not accidentally hurt people as he is conscious of his strength.

* In general, trying to change the Two Rivers to have the diversity of modern day NYC. A region so far off the beaten path that even their de jure queen doesn't remember they exist is simply not going to have a broad selection of races. This isn't as big of a sin as the character changes, but it's also completely free to have this bit of worldbuilding via character casting. There is no good reason whatsoever to give it up.

* Generally changing relationships in ways that just aren't supported by the books. Like, Siuan and Moiraine aren't in a sexual relationship at that point in the story so it's idiotic to depict them as such.

* Trying to act as though the Dragon could be any of the Emond's Field kids is against the very metaphysical foundations of the WoT universe. The Dragon could only be a boy, and Moiraine would know this damn well. And while we're at it, Moiraine had no idea that there were ta'veren in the Two Rivers at all, certainly not more than one, unlike what the show claims.

* Aging up Min severely and making her a Darkfriend. Just WTF.

* At one point Nynaeve heals death, which is again completely impossible in this universe.

* The damane costumes... so bad it's laughable. What on earth were they thinking? How could they get it so wrong? How you go from collars (in the books) to ball gags in the show is utterly beyond my ability to even imagine.

Those are the main things I can think of, and that's just season 1. I didn't even bother trying to hate read about season 2 after how bad season 1 was, but from what I heard it wasn't better (like apparently Rand bangs Lanfear, which he absolutely would never do). I understand that adaptations need to change things. But the changes they made to WoT aren't necessary, and often make the story worse than what Jordan wrote.

It all shows a grave disrespect for the source material, contrary to the staff's claims that they love the books so much (bullshit). As far as I can tell, Rafe didn't want to do an adaptation of Jordan's story, he wanted to tell his own story. Which is fine, but then tell your own fucking story, don't take a massive dump all over someone else's work which many people love.