S1E1 "Leavetaking" -- w/ Book Spoilers

[Linkelivar Miou'Mai]

Spoiler

ok, but married Perrin? I'm not feeling it :\

Spoiler

There's a possibility that Leila? Is/was a darkfriend. Look closely at the scene where Perrin kills her. She looks ready to bash him with the hammer

 

[Azlan Marenellin]

Okay, so I just finished a closer watch of this one. First time was with my non-fan partner and she loves it at least as much as GoT (which she was a superfan of until the last season).

So, my spoiler-full opinion... Apologies.

Dislikes:
The gentled man at Liandrin's hands must be Thom's nephew. You know, Chekov's Gun and all that. There should have been fewer Aes Sedai to make it more evident later that Liandrin's of the Black Ajah, because it seemed like the Reds with her were all on board.
I'm disappointed by the lack of Quarry Road Myrddraal, but I understand.
I'm unimpressed by the unnecessary and pointless sex scene between Rand and Egwene. Hated that.
The relationship between Lan and Moiraine in the bath is... odd. At first, it felt like veiled sexuality, but after the second time watching it, it felt more like extreme comfort. I was not best pleased by the way Lan told Moiraine to heat the water up.
I was bothered by Perrin being married, but as has been pointed out, I suspect Laila was another Chekov's Gun. Both as a motivation behind Perrin's leaving, and as a Darkfriend revealed later. Possible a pressure point by Ishy.
I was outright pissed off by the implication that Perrin was either lazy, or happy to shirk work to go party. I feel like that whole situation would have been better with the Luhhans, or even just Haral. I don't like it.
I was less bothered by Nynaeve's orphan change. I don't really care, but it is an unnecessary change, IMO.
I hated that Moiraine's final barrage ended up destroying the Winespring Inn. Pointless, unless Rafe plans to use it as part of an arc later.
I am not super happy about the Cauthons, but since their contribution later is minimal at best, I can see why they changed them to add some motivation for Mat to leave.
I'm miffed that Thom wasn't in Emond's Field, and I'm angry AF that they never once refer to it as Emond's Field, but rather as coming from "Two Rivers". Pointless change.
Making Egwene a ta'veren is a reasonable change, but I dislike it because it's arbitrary and frankly pointless.

Likes:
I loved the casting. Perfect.
Rand being jumpy on the quarry road was great, and Tam being all chill and stoic. *Chef's kiss*
Bela is beautiful. Even if Archie is a male lol.
The braid scene is beautiful. I've found myself wondering about the ceremony and the river and the cut often.
I love how they set Mat up to have prodigious bad luck from the start to contrast his extremely good luck later.
I love the sets. The al'Thor farm is utterly perfect. Other than having no thatch, Emond's Field is great. Not quite how I saw it in my head, but that's to be expected.
The Trollocs. *Chef's Kiss* perfect. Exactly how I saw them in my head.
Lan's swordwork was brilliant. As was Tam's. Whoever they had for consulting on swordplay knows their stuff.
I'll say that I did NOT notice bad form by Rand in Archery, though I will say his bow /should/ be a D-bow not a flat bow. That said, if I didn't notice anything out of place, it probably means they have a competent archery technician.
The whole trolloc attack was amazing.
Costumes were excellent. I understand not having fancloth. Reasonable decision.
The Sentence. I was still apprehensive about the show as a whole until Moiraine started reciting The Sentence. It really drove home the episode for me.

Overall opinion: I do not think the Pilot episode is indicative of a solid foundation. I do, however, think the casting was spot-on, the locations and sets are great, the costumes are excellent (I appreciated the attention to detail and the highly detailed hand stitched clothes), and it is a pilot episode. I would like to watch any fantasy or sci-fi show where the pilot episode holds up as a good episode after a couple seasons. I haven't watched any yet, and this is no exception. I am prepared to grant Rafe a little grace while his cast and crew get comfortable with each other and their roles.

My partner loves it and wants to watch more, and that's honestly enough for me.

 

[Rit'koma]

There's one thing that really bugs me.

Spoiler

Tam lit a remembrance lantern with matches. Canonically, matches don't exist until Aldura invents them further on in the series.

 

[Karassa Souladrin]

oooOOOooo! Excellent point, Rit!

 

[Aratouial Delafeld]

yeah matches getting invented during the course of the series is cool ... but tbh as someone who is super annoyed by people running around thinking WoT is "medieval," I'm really appreciating all the signs they're throwing at us that this is not "medieval" and their technology doesn't correlate with our own history-- they're moving from Renaissance to pre-Industrial really quickly.

 

[Syera Faelron]

yeah matches getting invented during the course of the series is cool ... but tbh as someone who is super annoyed by people running around thinking WoT is "medieval," I'm really appreciating all the signs they're throwing at us that this is not "medieval" and their technology doesn't correlate with our own history-- they're moving from Renaissance to pre-Industrial really quickly.

Once the world had technology and wonders. The breaking reduced life back a few ages almost. Some things remain possibly, but are rare or getting found

 

[Laralelle Susandrea]

Loved so much about this episode (and if anyone can make me Marin's earrings in the scene where she first meets Moiraine, Message me please!). Honestly, the only thing I said, "No, don't like that at all" was Mat's family. Just...no.

I think both Perrin and Laila were in the heat of battle and I think she likely would have bashed him in the head accidentally if he hadn't chopped her accidentally. I personally think she had just had a miscarriage and that's why there was tension between them. That's how it felt anyway.

 

[Morrighan Daghdera]

The overhead view of the slaughtered sheep carcasses that Lan finds looks like the dragon’s fang. Pretty cool.

 

[Laralelle Susandrea]

I believe my response to that was something like "oh it's a dragon's fang! IT'S A DRAGON'S FANG!"

 

[Ilissa al'Nari]

I loved that bit. Also, realizing already that I am gonna have to do a rewatch.

 

[Merena Orithana]

I agree with you @Linkelivar Miou'Mai - that is what I was thinking too.

I love it so far - a different turn of the wheel, to be sure, but the main storylines are there. I do think that Ep 2 and 3 are my favorites so far.

 

[Tayre Isaelli]

I just got around to watching the first episode last night. First off, I have to say, the sets and the constuming were amazing, especially what I've seen so far of the Aes Sedai dresses. I was very confused on how Perrin was already married, because of the amount of time devoted to Faile later in the books, but for lack of a better term, that situation was resolved. I actually liked Matt better in the show than I did in that portion of the books, though that could be I know vaugely what's going to happen. I loved how both Moriane and Lan were portrayed, and that fight scene with the Trollocs was excellent.

 

[Linkelivar Miou'Mai]

I agree, Lan and Moiraine flow together as if they are actually Bonded. (I recently watched the behind the scenes of episode 1, and all the time they've spent training for that scene has actually given them a spacial awareness of where the other one is when they are around each other)