Gorefest, on 05 June 2019 - 03:23 PM, said:
I apologise for being contrary in this thread, but after having read the first three books back in the late nineties and losing interest, I again tried it this year. I am currently on the 10th or 11th book (who can keep track) and to be honest, it is a bit of a slog. I'm persevering because I got this far and there definitely are some interesting story threads, but dear gods there is a lot of unnecessary filler and repetition in this series. Half the time I feel as if I'm reading some young adult fiction due to the painful amount of superficial puppy love and nudity hints (hihi boobs). I cringe more heavily every time that one of the Special Ones (Rand, Perrin, or Matt) muses on how much more the other two know about women than they do. There is a bizarrely high level of spanking and whipping that takes place throughout all layers of society (cuz, you know, spanking/whipping is appropriate punishment, especially for women.....really?) that especially the girls/women in the series seem more than happy to be subjected to. The amount of times that we see the likes of Egwene and Elayne think that they deserve their naked punishment runs or extra floggings is bordering on the perverted (mister Jordan?). The whole series is also tropey as fuck, but I can appreciate that WoT is itself the creator/'populariser' of a lot of those tropes, so that is probably an unfair judgement when reading it 20 years after its inception.
Nevertheless, it is enjoyable enough and there is enough merit in the world building and concepts that I want to slog it out until the end. But I would hope that a TV series would cut out a lot of the dead wood. Seven or eight seasons, like GoT, it really doesn't need. As I said, I haven't finished the series yet by a long way, but I imagine you can easily do without all the Seanchan conquest/return stuff, several of the Forsaken, the whole kinswomen subplot, the tiresome sea folk and the elusive weather bowl, most of the city uprisings and tedious politicking (give Elayne the Caemlyn throne already FFS) and those pesky Shaido Aiel. Pffffff. It just goes on and on and on and on without an ending in sight. My understanding is that I am getting to the stage where the Sanderson crew takes over, so I am hoping that it will pick up the pace a bit and actually works towards a convergence instead of just throwing more unnecessary plot threads into the mix. But yeah, a TV series sounds interesting but it will need a firm script-writing/editing team on board.
I'm in the same boat, read the first few several years back now I'm trying to tackle the series once and for all. I'm only on book 4 though, so I only half-read your second paragraph through squinted eyes. But that's pretty much the best summary of my biggest issue with the series so far. The Elayne-Egwene-Min love story stuff, the "I don't get girls", women and men are unknowable to each other, and the 'women are naggy' stuff. Ugh, it just skeeves me out. I haven't got to the whipping and spanking yet though ... though the fact that you're bringing up all these issues means they don't go away as the series progresses. I would have thought the whole "Rand is better with girls" thing would get old pretty quick.
I feel like I'm reading bad teen fan fiction sometimes. It does have its redeeming moments though. And a good friend of mine insists it's the best ending to a Fantasy series of all time. I haven't convinced her to read MBotF yet.
Help
