I still remember exactly where I was when the tragic news reached me about his passing. This man's lifework defined my teenage years as well as my young adult life and it still remains a big part of who I am today. I still can't thank Brandon Sanderson enough for taking it upon his shoulders to bring Jordan's epic to a close and for how masterfully well he did it, with the help of Harriet and Jordan's extensive notes. Tai'shar Rigney!
He is the only “public figure” whose death truly made me grieve like I knew him. It was like loosing him and all the characters he would have wrote more about. “May the last embrace of the mother carry him home.” “Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.”
RJ was very transparent with his illness, and I was a big reader of the forums etc...I have never grieved for someone I didn't personally know like I did for him. I'm so glad this tragedy led us to Brandon Sanderson but the loss of Jordan and what could have been is incalculable. "He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone."
I can relate in a different way. I had no access to forums on the internet for many years. I had an opportunity to get online on day and when I saw he had passed, I was absolutely heartbroken. I am also a lifelong fan of Sanderson, he isn't the Creator, but he's doing something else which is also amazing and beautiful.
I've recently gotten into reading The Wheel of Time before I started watching the show. What Brandon Sanderson says about Robert Jordan is very similar to how I felt about Anne Rice and I only messaged her once on her Facebook page thanking her for her books, but I never submitted any of my questions. Obviously this video and hearing him talk about missing the opprotunity to talk to Jordan is hitting me extremely hard with her passing this week.
Same thing here. I was hoping to go to the Vampire Ball in New Orleans that her fan club had every Halloween. She would always be there if she could, and I was so hoping to go and possibly meet her next year. The Vampire Chronicles has meant a lot to me throughout the 30+ years I've been a fan of the books and Anne, and I've been just as sad about her passing as I was when I heard that Mr. Rigney passed. It really hurt when he passed, not just because I was and am a huge fan of the books and they were unfinished at that time, but because, like my grandpa, he was a Vietnam veteran who died earlier than he should've from cancer. I wonder if he was exposed to Agent Orange like Grandpa was. He wrote some of the best battle scenes I've ever read, and I know that had to come from experience.
@@creativename6126 I read in order like a relatively sane person. I read book 1 twice because I loved it and wanted to catch some things I may have missed before moving to book 2 and I'd completed that reread before the show started. Clearly the show is more than just an adaptation of The Eye of the World because there are definite hints from The Great Hunt and I've been told by other readers that there are moments mentioned that were clarified in New Spring and a later moment pulls from as late as one of Sanderson's books according to the man himself when he appeared on The Dusty Wheel.
@@creativename6126 I'm sure there are those that would call The Eye of the World "book 2", but given that New Spring is the prequel story and Daniel Greene recommends people read it after book 5, I'm going to do that.
Robert Jordan crafted one of the best, if not the best, story arc in modern high-fantasy. Sometimes he lost himself with side stories and too many details, but I feel that no other fictional World ever felt so alive like Jordan's. The wheel of Time is a long journey, but it's worth every minute spent there as a reader, from the most epic moment to the calm moments when you see the storm gathering far away.
I agree. Unlike so many other epic stories which all have their flaws, The Wheel of Time's flaw was not that it was missing or lacking in anything. Its flaw was that it had too much. What a wonderful flaw to have!
My son has the entire library of the Conan the Barbarian books, which is a vast number of books written by five or six different authors after the creator, Robert E. Howard, died. Most people don't know that before he began The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan was one of those authors; he authored seven of the Conan books. I knew when I read those books that he was one of the very best fantasy writers of his time, and that The Wheel of Time was going to be a stellar fantasy story. He didn't disappoint me. I thank God that Harriet had enough of his notes and other information to find an author to complete her husband's work, and that Brandon Sanderson was available and willing to finish the series. I think that Brandon is one of the few authors that could step in and make enough sense out of Jordan's notes to finish the job, and he did so admirably.
I was scared of the series never finishing when I found out he had his condition. Then I realized I was so heartless to forget this was a man with a wife who deserved honor and respect. When Brandon took over I was scared he couldn't live up to Robert Jordan's skill and he didn't but he was good in his own way.
@@samuelwallace2782 It's doing Mat dirty, and every other character, and Robert Jordan, and the book fans, and the TV viewers, and the concept of storytelling, and the belief in good against evil. In making a TV show, they have complete control over an imaginary world. They choose to make it disgusting and irredeemable, which is how they make the real world to the extent of their power.
Robert Jordan was an absolute genius and am so glad that Harriet chose Sanderson to finish the series. I wonder if the fans who have not read any of the books of Sanderson realise how big of a deal he is for fantasy. He might very well become our generation’s Tolkien.
I for one didn't realize until a few years back, when I opened one of his books that wasn't WoT. Then I quickly realized that Sanderson's own works are incredible.
I loved his first 28 books that I've read, but the last 3 have too many they/them gender-neutral pronouns which make certain sentences incomprehensible. It's sad to see him sell out and ruin everything he built, taking Amazon's money to lie and tell the public the tv show is good.
@@customsongmaker Boo fucking hoo. Anyway, he actually has it in his contract that he's free to bash on the series all he wants. And he's openly critiqued a lot of the choices made. Just watched episode 7 now - the show has it's up and downs, but whoever directed this episode better get a raise and more episodes in the following seasons.
@@balluse only people on the autism spectrum can think this show is good, because they don't notice that normal people don't talk or act the way these characters do.
_Interesting material from Wikipedia_: Jordan was a history buff and enjoyed hunting, fishing, sailing, poker, chess, pool, and pipe-collecting. He described himself as a "High Church" Episcopalian and received communion more than once a week. He lived with his wife, Harriet McDougal, who works as a book editor (currently with Tor Books; she was also Jordan's editor) in a house built in 1797.
He was a master at his craft. Especially with world building and his magic system. Wish he was here to see this but the wheel weaves as the wheel wills.
I have some feelings about the series, and this seems a good place to put them down. To begin, I didn't watch past the second episode, and I don't regret it. It seems like it's going to be a great show, and will probably gain a following similar to Game of Thrones. It has great production value and a good story. But I couldn't keep watching. I love the books, and I could tell that the show was going to deviate significant, and I chose to stick with what made me happier, so I'm just re-reading the series again. There are a lot of people criticizing the series in a fairly toxic way. By no means does the show deserve the one-star ratings it's getting. Robert Jordan's works are not sacred and any adaptation was going to have to take artistic liberties. No adaptation can be wholly faithful. There are infinite turnings to the Wheel. Amazon's version takes place in one of those shadow worlds beyond the portal stones. HOWEVER, There is a lot of dismissiveness towards fans of the book who felt crushed. For starters, the showrunner said in interviews that he was striving to be faithful towards the source material. So when the first episode claims the Dragon Reborn could be male or female, and the power doesn't have a male and female half, that statement is immediately false. I think it's pretty disingenuous to say "we're going to be faithful to the books" and then when people criticize you for straying, you just call them toxic. Critics of the show have also been sneered at for taking the changes personally. Some of that is fair, but at the same time, if a story you love is changed, and dozens of articles are written claiming "Here's how the show fixes ___", it's easy to feel like people are saying "the thing you love wasn't good enough." Bottom line is that everybody needs to cut each other some slack. Being a Nerd means unironically loving something that isn't necessarily broadly appealing. We'll always have strong opinions. If you like the show, cool. If you don't and think the books are vastly better, you're objectively right, but let people enjoy the series. Final thoughts: the Wheel of Time should have been an animated series with art similar to Avatar the Last Airbender, and gore like Invincible, and that is the hill I'll die on.
The poor man would weep to see what has been done to his masterpiece. A work of art dashed on rocks. It's as if someone wanted to remake the Mona Lisa but was blind and using water colors.
Thank you so much for your work Robert - WoT meant a lot to me growing up. Hopefully someday your books will get an adaptation instead of a “modern reinterpretation”.
I am so upset that Amazon is using this to grab our heartstrings after so willfully taking a steaming dump on the characters, world, and lore of WoT. I defended all of the changes until the finale, but after that garbage, I am done with this show. Hopefully, in a few decades, someone will come along that will do this masterpiece justice.
The amount of people coming on here to speak for RJ regarding the show and talking about disrespecting his legacy is insane. Unless you are Harriet, I don't think any single one of you has any right to come in and justify your dislike of the show by projecting your views in Jordan's name. That's more disrespectful than the show could ever be. Let Harriet speak on his behalf if she wishes. You don't need some holier than thou reason for not liking the show, so just dislike the show as you have every right to do and stop being disrespectful. If Harriet doesn't like what the show is doing I'm sure she'll stop getting involved and she'll say. 🤷🏻
It's obvious to anyone who has read the books that Amazon is not exactly portraying his story as written in the books. However, I understand the restrictions placed upon the production by a budget and other technological hurdles, and as long as they don't change any major plot flows in the series, I am okay with it and will continue to watch it. It's not so much that they are changing what Jordan wrote as they are adding scenes in areas of the plot that Jordan never filled in himself in the books. They are areas that he left to the imagination of the reader to decide for themselves what was happening. I am a little concerned that they are leaving some characters out of the series completely, such as Elyas Machera, who has quite a bit of page presence in the books. We will see whether it causes any ramifications down the road.
How can you defend yourself? This show IS disrespecting his legacy! Its absolute trash! Anyone who reads a book, say a book by Robert Jordan, from beginning to end, and puts the book down and thinks about it as a whole and says "that was a good story!" KNOWS the elements of a good story! This series does not have the elements of a good story! If you need 50 examples I will be glad to give them to you. The series is NOT strong on story writing. It just isn't. Jordan is turning in his grave!
@@allenburton7681 Then just enjoy the books and move on. No need to spend any of your energy criticizing something that has no impact on your enjoyment of Mr. Jordan's work.
They world that RJ created is diverse, but in a smart way, not the stupid way of the show. There is a different feel to each country. There are also some gays and lesbians. Still, for me how they depicted diversity is one of the minor problems in the show. Arcane for example is a great show with diversity done right.
Read his books, better than this interpretation on screen. And before people throw me to the wolves, no pun intended, I like the cast and acting is pretty well done, the story being told is confusing and straying too much from the books. Hoping i will be pleasantly surprised with eps 7 & 8.
Since the show has dropped, book sales have gone up. Of course the books are better than the series. But the series has led a lot of people to pick up the books when they would not have without it. My family included. I agree with you that the adaption is not perfect and I would have done it very differently, but we are getting more WoT content and that is great.
It's a pity that Amazon created such a horrible adaptation of Robert Jordan's work. Its the best fantasy series of all time but turned into a CW show when Amazon got its hands on it.
Hey Amazon Prime Video. Is there any more footage of these interviews with Harriet & Brandon? I'd love to hear more from them. Enjoying the series, albeit a bit trying at times. Episode 7 (Tigraine) was THE. BEST!
Shame Amazon butchered the 1st series. It's a cup of mothers milk with added fish guts. The RU-vid channel "books with Bianca" does very balanced and fair reviews of this series and is well worth watching to see why book readers have such issues, without ranting like the prophet of the dragon channel. I don't know how the 2nd series can be saved with all the lore changes. You will need Mattrim Cauthons luck for that.
All they had to do was look at a few pictures and perform a few camera tricks (that have been performed in other movies since the 1930s), and loial would be a decent character... and what's with his literal cameo appearance so far in the series? Where is his backstory? Why didn't he open the way gate the way it was intended? What is his purpose following the group around at this point? So many screw ups. Dropped the ball indeed!
True, but I'm not sure any other author possessed the qualities needed to take Jordan's extensive notes and recordings and finish the series like Sanderson did.
With this adaptation Robert Jordan died for the second time. It's such a shame that one of the best epic mankind has happened to experience was treated in such unprofessional way. Defenders of this garbage keep on saying that the story is long and complex and this is just an adaptation. The story is indeed long and complex, but the first book was just the beginning, so we don't have too much of complexity there yet. The fellowship of the ring is 700 pages long (circa) whereas the Eye of the World is 800 pages long. Why a 3 hours movie is more faithful to the book than a 8 hours TV "adaptation"? You could've produced the best fantasy series of all time and instead, in all of you arrogance, you thought that you could do better than Robert Jordan. You know, to do better you need talent. Go figure
@@anonvegeta well, maybe I've compared two different editions (formats) of the books, my bad. Infact, if we look at the words count you are right: fellowship is 187k whereas the Eye of the world is 300k. The point still holds though. For a 187k words book they made a 3 hours movie that was as faithful as possible to the source material. For a book twice that length Amazon has developed a 8 hours first season (that's about 2.6 times the length of the fellowship movie ) that is deviating from the source material from the first episode.
@@maestercraig3990 I cannot agree with you. This is not a thing about me and my selfish desire to see the books faithfully represented on screen. It's about respect. Respect to an epic that influenced all the fantasy that came after it. Respect to the author. He dedicated his life to this masterpiece. What I see here is just marketing. Amazon is using the IP, the name of the wheel of time, to attract the fanbase hoping that the show can be as successful as game of thrones. That's it. The thing you are saying about enjoying more the world I love but in another fashion is nonsense. A lot of people don't know the wheel of time and this show is presenting them, quote: "a 12-16 years old teenager drama". This is what some people think about the Amazon show and we very well know this is not the case. Not for the wheel of time. I don't need a show "inspired" by the wheel of time. It is also unrespectful to me as a fan of the books. They've used the names, the IP just for the prestige it has. If they wanted to do something new they could've very well came up with a new story, with another name and other characters. I'd rather see this show cancelled than seeing it butchering the memory and the prestige of the author in the name of marketing. It's not about being open and mature in order to enjoy some more time in the world that Jordan created. It is not. You are suggesting the idea that a thing as low quality as it is, it should be enough for us to enjoy. It's not how open and mature, let alone intelligent people, need to be treated. This is an insult on the intelligence of the fanbase. It's like saying that if I cannot make love with my life-long partner, it can be also nice to go with prostitutes. We, as a fanbase are - well, maybe it's just my opinion - not just cash-mongering cattle. Again. I can read the books, for sure. No harm done you say. Well, what about the name and prestige of an author like Jordan? It's like saying: look we've done a reeindition of the Divina Commedia (by Dante Alighieri) but we've decided to adapt it in a way that is more "interesting". We have SpongeBob as the main character and instead of the hell / purgatory and paradise, he will visit Disneyland. It's not about being open an mature. It's about respect to the work and to the author
@@maestercraig3990 so it's not my job to defend Jordan work in the name of RESPECT, but it's your job to defend Amazon work? This is nonsense. You see? You said I've chosen darkness because I am critic about this show, but the truth is that is the opposite. I am criticizing a TV show because it is unrespectful to the author. Respect, you know is a good feeling to have and to stand up for people respect is a good thing. Whereas, you keep on telling me how you will feel bad about not having more fantasy to watch on TV. This is a selfish desire, don't you agree? For you it is better to have something to watch rather than having nothing, even if this means to be unrespectful to the author - a person - that devoted his life to that work. Who's chosen darkness? Not me. Not me. And, for the record... Sanderson said in an interview that when he was presented with the screenplay, he wanted to change something but it was too late. They gave him the screenplay when it was too late to change anything.
Wow! I'm surprised you are capable of acknowledging Robert Jordan, considering how little you trust his writing in your adaptation. The characters, pacing, dialogue, etc. are so malnourished of the soul of the original story, if you didn't tell me it was the wheel of time, I would've thought it was just a mediocre fantasy show!
Whoosh to that first reply LMAO. I'd give it at least until Red Eagle and Amazon have nothing to do with it, and the answer to that will probably be an unfortunate never.
What’s with bringing Harriet and RJ into this video after stealing the names (book and characters) and using them to create total crap? Stop filming season 3 and shelve season 2. Please kill your version of the story at episode 8 and let someone else do it properly and do it right.
This exactly! Get Rafe Judkins out of being the show runner for this series. He is destroying the wheel of time. So sad that Robert Jordan isn't here to defend his own work.
Too bad Rafe Judkins decided that the books were trash and he could write it better. Why praise Amazon(Sony, Radar Pictures, and Red Eagle) and the garbage they made, when they exlucded almost everything RJ wrote. Want to honor his memory? Demand Amazon fire Rafe and team or cancel the series.
Wonderful video! Such amazing thoughts from the people who helped Robert Jordan in his journey to bring his characters to life. Incredible to see the next generation of fans be introduced to his world and live long past the original fans with The Wheel of Time taking a proper place in the adapted fantasy genre.
The show turned every single man into a pathetic loser turned every woman into a supermary Sue. Nothing about that is even remotely close to Robert Jordan's legacy
It has taken every single historical and cultural difference between women and men (not to even mention the dynamic presented in the books) and turned it on its proverbial head, at the sacrifice of a REALLY good story. It's a train wreck. I stopped watching after episode 6. I just can't support this anymore.
@@colejohnson4376 what is there to be afraid of? The truth is that the Show is a mess. Rafe disrespected Robert Jordan's legacy and made WoT into another political statement. What a disappointment! Imagine what we could've had on TV. Something that could have rivaled GoT or even surpassed it considering that last season from GoT. Now, we have a terrible generic fantasy with an agenda to deliver some kind of message that has nothing to do with the books.
@@colejohnson4376 Don't be back-handed condescending to people, and if you have a point to make then make it. But to answer you, RJ did not stand for amateurish CW budget tv-level plot-hole ridden writing that destroys his world mechanics and lore whenever convenient for the sake of moving undeveloped caricatures around poorly constructed environments. Seriously, some of you must exist in an alternate reality to, I will assume of you, enjoy this show. Try watching Books with Bianca's reviews if you are having trouble understanding why this show is terrible.
Its crazy you had this much access to input, yet still butcher this story and thereby, his legacy. I truly hope you get your crap together for season 2... but you've already managed to taint so many future story lines.
