I'm a mildly reasonable person that loves the books and likes the show. AMA!
Growing up with the books and then watching the WoT series on Prime sure has been a wild ride. For me personally, the emotional casserole in watching each new season and episode has a lot of layers:
- Excitement and hope that they'll get it right. Please please please don't f\ck up Rhuidean next week!*
- Anxiety that they'll get it wrong, or that I won't have a chance to see my favorite moments play out on screen at all.
- A loop of dissonance and acceptance as every episode airs when it plays out differently from how I imagined it, then I unpack my feelings about what's happening to separate out my meaningful reactions from knee jerking.
- Honest critique and praise for each episode, which I'm usually only able to piece together after I've unpacked my feelings over the course of a rewatch or two.
- Satisfaction that even if the show is imperfect, it's obviously being made by people who do want to do their best to adapt the Wheel of Time as a television series.
Overall, I like the adaptation, but more importantly I'm really glad it exists and I hope we get to see the series take us all the way to Shayol Ghul. While the show has been disappointing to me at times, I've also been really happy with some of the choices in the adaptation that have heightened and added a more relatable human dimension to some of the flatter moments and characters in the books.
Like the books, the show is a mixed bag... but what I don't understand is the venom among "fans." Every time I see an ad or a post pop up in one of my feeds, I click on the comments to check in on the fandom, and I gotta say that y'all have me worried about you. Are you okay? Because every comments section is flooded with reactions like this show is the worst thing that's ever happened to anyone.
I try to convince myself that these comments are coming from bots, or maybe it's just a small and vocal and maybe-slightly-psychotic segment of the audience... but part of me suspects that these comments are coming from actual people that somehow have the opinions that they're saying they have.
So hey, if you're one of those people that's left a hyperbolic comment like I described above, I'd honestly love to invite you for some (polite!) discourse. Ask me anything! Let's talk about the show and the specifics! Maybe I can point out something enjoyable about the show and help you work through the 5 steps I listed above, and maybe you can help me understand how a middling-at-worst adaptation could have evoked such strong feelings of loathing from you.
(And to everyone on both sides, please be kind! I'd really like to keep this a discussion in good faith if we can)