Data Graham posted:

The dagger contains potassium benzoate

Sab669 posted:

To be fair it's Matrim, not actually Mat.

Also I can't help but read/hear Rand Al'Thor as Randal Thor

Data Graham posted:

Still can't get over that there's a Madison Cawthorn in congress and he actually signs his name Cauthon

Data Graham posted:

Still can't get over that there's a Madison Cawthorn in congress and he actually signs his name Cauthon

Data Graham posted:

For that matter I could swear I knew of someone with the last name Cauthon when I was growing up. I seem to recall wanting to call him "cough on"

But I can't find any reference to that name online aside from Mat. So I can't tell whether Jordan fully made it up or not.

Jedit posted:

Possibly. Perrin is a real name, though - it's an uncommon unisex variant of Peter.

tsob posted:

The really baffling thing to me is that the X-Ray feature is available when viewing shows through the website, but not the dedicated app.

Tortilla Maker posted:

X-ray shows up for me on both my Apple and Android devices.

buffalo all day posted:

are they putting out trailers or anything for the next ep? a week is too long...

Nail Rat posted:

Amazon apps are all developed separately, so features take a long time to propogate across everything unfortunately.

Rafe Judkins posted:

Q: One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen regarding the premier is the pacing of episode 1. It’s been reported that you wanted/expected a 10 episode season and a 2 hr pilot, so it’s understandable why it had to be so cram packed when cut down to only 1 hour. Is there any possibly of a JudkinsCut being released later on?
A: Ha, I wish. But the JudkinsCut never really made it out of script form. And to Amazon’s credit, a real focus in streaming nowadays for all of the networks is “pace” and “bingeability”. Anecdotally (and apparently statistically now), tons of non-book fans made it through the first episode and right into the series without stopping down or turning it off. Maybe in the next turning of the Wheel, there’ll be the two hour season premiere featuring unlimited scenes of smithing, Coplins, Congars, and more.

Q: Why are you not using any of the WOT swears? Every time the characters use modern colloquialisms it completely throws me for a loop. Those phrases mean a lot to me.
A: Blood and ashes, give us some time. It’s coming.

Q: So, I love the bonus content, from the animated minis, to the interviews, the preview with Logain today, but why under the light are they so flaming hard to locate? Please just have Amazon put everything under a separate tab so the masses can see this content and appreciate it like it deserves!
A: It’s so great! I don’t even know how to watch it. I make them send it to me in my email. Ha. Big shoutout to Rammy Park and Mike Weber who put those together with Jakub Chilzuk in our VFX Department!!

Q: We heard from Marcus Rutherford on Inside The Wheel of Time that you are a prankster. Any favourite pranks committed (by you or others) during the show that you would like to share with us?
A: A true prankster never gives up his secrets.

Q: Are we going to see you at JordanCon?
A: I was supposed to come this year, but then covid. So hopefully nothing gets in the way next year!

Q: My question is: The swordfighting in WoT was one of my favorite parts of the series; what was your approach to incorporating sword fighting and forms considering how important it is to the plot?
A: We have an actual swordmaster working on the show developing the different sword styles and you get to see a few of them named on screen as well in S2!

Q: I’ve heard episode 4 is when things really kick into gear. What are you most excited for us to see this Friday?
A: There’s A LOT coming on Friday. Personally, for me, I think it’s just amazing to see the Aes Sedai actually coming to life on screen. Kate Fleetwood and Priyanka Bose are going to blow your minds. And don’t get me started on the Warders…

Q: I love the use of characters singing so far. Are there plans to continue that?
A: Yeah, song and recited poetry played such a big part in the books, we really like finding ways to weave it into the show too

Q: So far the series has shown a lot of beautiful cinematography, with the landscapes of Slovenia, Czechia and Croatia beautifully depicting West Andor. If you had no budget/logistical constraints, what’s a location you dream shooting The Wheel of Time at?
A: LOFOTEN ISLANDS.

Q: It looks like you did a lot more filming in the Two Rivers than we saw in episode 1. Assuming we won’t see that content in future episode flashbacks, are there any thoughts/plans to release some of that footage as bonus content at some date TBD?
A: Yes! I think there are a few deleted scenes headed your way in the coming weeks

Q: This show is exceeding my wildest dreams, and so is Moiraine specifically!!! Please use this space to gush about how incredible Rosamund Pike is, and tell us what your favorite part of working with her is!
A: THERE IS NO SPACE LARGE ENOUGH FOR THAT TASK. She’s truly an incredible actress, producer, partner, friend, she’s everything you could ask for in a Number One on the callsheet and above all else, she’s the Moiraine we all wished we could have.

Q: What is your opinion on a book to series adaptation taking too many liberties in regards to story? Can a book be too closely followed, or is that what the fans really want, to see their book come to life on screen, just like most of them pictured it?
A: You can never make something that’s like “most” of them pictured it. That’s the beauty of books, we all have our own personal vision of it in our heads, and it gets broken down a bit by watching it adapted. For me, though, I prefer an adaptation that tries to utilize its medium to tell the story best. Like, I prefer Azkaban to the first couple Potters.

Q: Do you have an overall structure to the series envisioned in terms of number of seasons and which books will overlap in which season? Totally understand if you can’t get into specifics, I am just fascinated by the process and would love to hear more about it!
A: Yeah, I have an overall idea, but that’s affected in a big way by a couple key things — 1. episode number per season and 2. actor availability. A lot of the changes we’ve had to make to my initial plan for the show have been based on those two things.

Q: When you decide something can’t make it into the show where it was in the books how do you approach bringing it to the show later in some form?
A: There’s actually a bunch of stuff in Book 1 that we hit in Season 2 already, and things from Books 2 and 3 that we have plans to hit later if we’re lucky enough to get there. I think when you’re adapting it as a series and have so many production/budgetary constraints, you have to be prepped to remix things a little. It’s sadly rare that we can do a scene from the books with the same characters in the same place saying the same lines at the same moment in the books. Often one of those things has to be swapped out

Q: Which outfit would you be most excited about taking home with you? Are there secret photos somewhere of you rocking the body of a Trolloc and Moiraine’s kesiera?
A: I’m not gonna lie. I was Rand Al’Thor for Halloween in 2019. And I was so much skinnier then that I actually FIT in Josha’s costume.

Q: I am curious as to why the ruby was moved from the pommel to the crossguard on the dagger. There have been several changes, almost all of which I can understand why, but that one I’ve not been able to put my finger on a particular reason.
A: We tried it there actually at first, a whole bunch of different versions, but it was never reading on camera. So we just wanted to make sure people could see it.

Q: Was a big fan of yours on Survivor: Guatemala. Do you still watch the show?
A: Sometimes. But I’m more hooked on Aus Survivor now. Feels more like the original game to me. It basically feels like US Survivor is now a competition of who’s good at looking for hidden things in the woods vs. who’s good at throwing things at things in challenges.

Q: Brandon Sanderson has said you and him have agreed on most of the changes to the show except one. Can you tell us what that is?
A: I think there’s more than that! Ha. But Brandon’s been amazing through this whole process. He’s such a great collaborator, and I will be dead honest when I say that I do more of his notes percentage wise than any other single human being involved with the show.

Q: What is it like to work with the white ninja steel power ranger Zoe Robins?
A: Zoe is incredible. Her emotional and physical commitment on set are just INSANE. She steps onto set and she just IS Nynaeve. It’s incredible to watch.

Q: Who will you be cosplaying as next Halloween?
A: Watch out, Maddy Madden.
Note: Maddy Madden is Egwene.

Q: Which character or characters did you most immediately relate to or appreciate when you first read the book series? For me, it was Egwene and Perrin, and I’m really loving how they’re being portrayed by Madeleine and Marcus!
A: SAME! Those were the chapters I was always checking forward to to see when they came up next.

Q: Are you able to share what the budget for season 1 was?
A: YES. After much secrecy, Amazon has decided that I can reveal it here, in question 2746 of my Reddit AMA. No, sadly, ha. But I can say it’s big, but not big enough. The money always runs out eventually. It’s the nature of TV, ha

Q: How do you manage your mental health while doing such a huge project?
A: I sat in silence for like 30 long seconds after reading this question. It is a good one. Haha.

Q: A lot of folks who are fans of the book series were expecting a true adaptation of the books to film. And yet said fans got something totally different than the books. Why was it not stated upfront that this would be a retelling of the tale and stating that this was another turning of the wheel? Fans would have been more accepting of this had it been known upfront that these changes would occur if you and others in the know had addressed this up front. The turning of the wheel, differences between the turns of the wheel are set into the actual story, and would have actually supported these changes had they been addressed up front.
A: We may have said 1000 times that this is not a 1-for-1 adaptation and another turning of the Wheel. It simply is. I hope that you still enjoy though, or that if you don’t, you can go back to the books and read again. They make for a great re-read.

Q: Why CGI went up and down? Will be they fixed in the next episodes?
A: COVID was actually very tough on our VFX department because they couldn’t review things as they normally would.

Q: Hey, you guys started shooting season 2 months before the first season premiere, so I would expect a short turn around, but after that, do you expect that if the show gets a third season green lit, it will have a big gap between it and the release of season 2?
A: We are trying to always keep the gap between seasons reasonable. It’s a big priority at Amazon and internally on the show.

Q: Was there any ad-libbed scene that made it into the final cut? Something that was just too good to leave out?
A: Yes! We have one in Episode 107.

Q: What is it like to film in New Zealand?
A: I have no idea, but I hear it’s gorg.

Q: Whose idea was it to have Perrin be married in the first episode? I think the choice was a smart one, but I’m curious as to how that decision came about.
A: Well, firstly in the longer version of the script I’d had Perrin being the apprentice to the town blacksmith, who he then accidentally killed during the Trolloc attack. It really was important to me that he have an iconic moment of violence in the first episode that would underpin his journey with violence. So I’d made that blacksmith his mom. But as we had to trim a bunch of page length down in the scripts, it became a simpler story to tell it as his wife, and also felt natural that if these characters were in their early 20s in a small mountain village, that one of them likely would be married. There’s a scene in the books where Perrin talks about if he’d stayed in the Two Rivers he might’ve married Laila Dearn, and voila, Laila was born. My only sadness is we couldn’t have seen more of her. Helena Westerman who played her was AMAZING

Q: Bran is skinny!!! How can you sleep with yourself, he is an inn keeper!
A: Bran is skinny will always be a regret. But Michael Tuahine was just too much Egwene’s dad to not choose him.

Q: How did you assemble the writing team for this show? What qualities about these writers let you know that they were the perfect fit?
A: Tried to find a group of diverse thinkers for it — people who’ve read all the books, people who read some of the books but dropped out eventually, people who loved fantasy but not Wot, people who don’t even know fantasy at all. Also, people who write differently than me, so that they could strengthen the overall scripts. It’s such a great group, I’d go to war for any of them.

Q: What is your favorite episode?
A: It’s in S2.

Q: What ended up being the most unexpected expensive thing about production or post?
A: The hidden costs are the worst ones. Wig fixes. The millions of dollars that go to wig fixes make me cry at night.

Q: What is your favorite episode of the season?
A: Genuinely as we wrapped each one, I felt like it became my favorite. So right now it’s 108.

Q: What’s your favorite Wheel of Time book, and what other fantasy series are you a fan of?
A: TSR. I love so many series — LoTR, ASoIaF, Earthsea, right now I’m reading Malazan and Divine Cities.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration for the series, and why is it the Weekly Wheel News?
A: It’s my inspiration, my nightstand read, my first-thing-in-the-morning-phone check, and more.

Q: I recently read the article where you speak on how much you had to fight to keep the Weep for Manetheren scene in; are there any other scenes with a similar weight of significance you fought for? Vague details are fine.
A: There’s a Nynaeve/Lan scene that I fought literally every human being on the show and at the network for, so I hope book fans like it, hahaha.

Q: I want to ask how you’re balancing all the feedback you’re getting with your own vision. Was reading Brandon Sanderson how he has given a lot of feedback, and while not all of it was incorporated, he always felt heard and that you had valid reasons for not listening to some of it. From the outside, it looks like you’re balancing it really well, but curious on your insight.
A: I think the worst showrunners are either insecure or oversecure. You’ll either not listen to anything at all or you listen to absolutely everything. I feel relatively secure, so I try to really listen to and value the people around me and their artistic input, but then also stick true to what I believe is the right way to pull this off long term.

Q: I sense a lot of foreshadowing in the show so far. Are there things that we are missing and should we be paying closer attention? Also, very well done surprising book readers with Dana! I know you won’t answer this one but was can you officially confirm that Nynaeve kept the trolloc blade to threaten Lan? It is a very Nynaeve move and I fully support it.
A: Yeah, I’m actually surprised how many little Easter eggs a lot of the hardcore fans have still missed. Although, I don’t have visibility into a lot of the boards, so I’m sure people somewhere have found them. She obviously used that Trolloc blade on Lan. You can see it matches.

Q: Can you talk a little about the processes you use to figure out how current changes will affect future seasons?
A: I have Sarah Nakamura (our incredible WoT goddess) talk me through the long-term ramifications of any changes so that we know what’s going to happen. Sometimes to drive her crazy I will send a casual email that’s just like — “Hey, can you work up a long-term ramifications list for if we kill X character?”. And just keep going like it’s a totally normal day as she collapses as a human being. Then tell her we’re not going to kill them. I think it helps keep her on her toes, but she probably disagrees, haha.

Q: My biggest concern for the series is that it will move too fast just how GoT season 8 did. Do you have a plan to make sure that the seasons will feel fully fleshed out by the time they end and not rushed? Also by the time the series end do you have an idea of how to end it in a fulfilling way?
A: Yeah, it was certainly a worry of mine that the show moves too fast, but I think that hopefully that will help give momentum to non-readers as they get through some of the stuff that is more similar to other fantasy projects and start to get to dip into the really unique WoT stuff. Throughout S1 as well, we do always try to find times to stop down and check in with the characters emotionally, as that’s the most important thing to understanding the show.

Q: Are there plans to provide closed captions/subtitles for the bonus content, specifically the animated shorts? The three that have been released so far is some of my favorite WoT lore and history, however the audio quality and the way it was mixed, it was legitimately impossible for me to actually understand the Warder video in particular. I know bonus content doesn’t usually get subtitles for Reasons™, but it would be great to be able to get all of the deep dive content and have it be accessible to those like me who don’t have perfect hearing.
A: Yeah, I’ll let Amazon know if you don’t have that as they’re usually really good about accessibility stuff, thanks for flagging it!

Q: Is the CGI we saw while Moiraine was channeling how it’s going to stay through the whole series, or will it change and progress with time?
A: We have to use the One Power to do all kinds of things on the show, so you’ll see it progress and change in how it’s used throughout.

Q: Rafe make sure you get enough sleep. Don’t burn yourself out.
A: WHAT WHY WOULD I DO THAT COFFEEEEXISTS

Q: Are you aware of the large amount of negative reviews from top critics, and what their main critiques are? What have you learned from them and what are you doing to resolve these complaints for future seasons? Putting aside the ones who are comparing it to game of thrones or just hate fantasy, many of them complain about pacing being too fast, packed with too many plot points in each episode, and most importantly, the character development is lacking and viewers are not invested in them (making key events less impactful).
A: Yeah, I think it’s always important to hear people as they take in the show and comment on it, but not be chasing approval. If you try to make a show that EVERYONE likes, you’ll have an actual pile of trash at the end. Better to make a show that some people truly love (even if others think it’s a pile of trash ha). In terms of pacing, it’s a balance you have to strike. We as creatives are always wanting more time to intro the characters, spend time with them, understand their emotions, etc. And the network will want the show to be brisk and pace-y so that no one ever has a chance to turn it off. Both things are valuable, and maybe Amazon was right about pace as the first three episodes of WoT have one of their highest completion-rates in history, which is perhaps the most important single piece of data on a tv show today.

Nail Rat posted:

Amazon apps are all developed separately, so features take a long time to propogate across everything unfortunately.

withak posted:

Is there an easy way to tell where the xray stuff is in the apple tv app? The only way I can find it is a few clicks deep in the pause menu.

Data Graham posted:

For that matter I could swear I knew of someone with the last name Cauthon when I was growing up. I seem to recall wanting to call him "cough on"

But I can't find any reference to that name online aside from Mat. So I can't tell whether Jordan fully made it up or not.

Mr Beens posted:

Q: A lot of folks who are fans of the book series were expecting a true adaptation of the books to film. And yet said fans got something totally different than the books. Why was it not stated upfront that this would be a retelling of the tale and stating that this was another turning of the wheel? Fans would have been more accepting of this had it been known upfront that these changes would occur if you and others in the know had addressed this up front. The turning of the wheel, differences between the turns of the wheel are set into the actual story, and would have actually supported these changes had they been addressed up front.

Tell me that you have no idea how adaptations are made without telling me you have no idea.

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

Rand is obviously the Dragon Reborn because with all the diversity in casting he's still the most Anglowy Saxon who ever saxed.

ONE YEAR LATER posted:

Pham Nuwen posted:

I think Mr. Stradowski might dispute that point...

eke out posted:

maybe that poster just thinks dutch-polish people are anglo-saxons

Mr Beens posted:

2 questions from that AMA made me laugh

"Q: I am curious as to why the ruby was moved from the pommel to the crossguard on the dagger. There have been several changes, almost all of which I can understand why, but that one I’ve not been able to put my finger on a particular reason."
or "I mad as hell about all the changes and can't actually understand any of them, but I want an answer about one of them, so I'll pick the most anal insignificant one as that might get picked if I sound respectful.

Q: A lot of folks who are fans of the book series were expecting a true adaptation of the books to film. And yet said fans got something totally different than the books. Why was it not stated upfront that this would be a retelling of the tale and stating that this was another turning of the wheel? Fans would have been more accepting of this had it been known upfront that these changes would occur if you and others in the know had addressed this up front. The turning of the wheel, differences between the turns of the wheel are set into the actual story, and would have actually supported these changes had they been addressed up front.

Tell me that you have no idea how adaptations are made without telling me you have no idea.
And no, these fans wouldn't have been more acceptable with being told that there would be changes in some wanky "in universe" language, and they were in fact told many times that it wouldn't be a direct page->screen conversion.

Turin Turambar posted:

Forget about not knowing how adaptation are made, they also didn't follow the development, because they in fact said a few times that it wasn't going to be a super faithful adaptation. Condensed books, merged characters, etc. So it's pretty galling to come now and say "Fans would have been more accepting of this had it been known upfront that these changes would occur " when that was exactly what happened!

tsob posted:

The really baffling thing to me is that the X-Ray feature is available when viewing shows through the website, but not the dedicated app. But yeah, there's quite a bit on X-Ray between bonus animations, trivia (i.e. any world building they can't fit comfortably into an episode's exposition), character bios (i.e. any character details they can't fit in) and actor information. Honestly, it's kind of silly it isn't available external to a given episode in the general show page.

Turin Turambar posted:

Forget about not knowing how adaptation are made, they also didn't follow the development, because they in fact said a few times that it wasn't going to be a super faithful adaptation. Condensed books, merged characters, etc. So it's pretty galling to come now and say "Fans would have been more accepting of this had it been known upfront that these changes would occur " when that was exactly what happened!

Niwrad posted:

I couldn't get into the books at all, but I'm really digging this show. Only 3 episodes in, but the pace seems great and at least for me, they've done a great job at explaining some really complex stuff so far. Production quality is top-notch and I like the kind of weird sci-fi western feel parts of the show has (reminds me of Firefly a bit).

My only gripe would be acting. Rosamund Pike is so much better than anyone in that show that I genuinely feel bad for anyone in a scene with her. Mat and Nynaeve are terrific. But everyone else has been underwhelming so far. Not sure what they're like in the books, but Rand has negative charisma in the show and whatever emotion Perrin is trying to convey is just not hitting.

Is there a website available with the show? I remember Netflix built one for their show Dark where you could follow along with each episode and it did a great job at explaining who the characters were to that point as well as background. I'm scared to look anything up and spoil something.

Turin Turambar posted:

Forget about not knowing how adaptation are made, they also didn't follow the development, because they in fact said a few times that it wasn't going to be a super faithful adaptation. Condensed books, merged characters, etc. So it's pretty galling to come now and say "Fans would have been more accepting of this had it been known upfront that these changes would occur " when that was exactly what happened!

Mr Beens posted:

His reply to that question was great (posting here in bold as the original was behind spoiler tags:
A: We may have said 1000 times that this is not a 1-for-1 adaptation and another turning of the Wheel. It simply is. I hope that you still enjoy though, or that if you don’t, you can go back to the books and read again. They make for a great re-read.

Johnny Joestar posted:

i think it's a personal failing on rafe judkin's part that they didn't airdrop leaflets advertising wheel of time everywhere while saying it's going to be mildly different than the books