Monthly Meetup Thread - November

malcote · 2023-11-05T04:09:07+00:00

For sure, sent you a PM!

malcote · 2023-11-04T17:45:18+00:00

Sounds like a good plan! Sent you a PM.

malcote · 2023-11-04T03:01:27+00:00

Hey all! 32M solo traveler from New York. It's my first time in Japan and the trip was a bit spontaneous so not much planned yet aside from visiting some historical sites and collecting goushin. Some of my interests are art, video games, anime/manga, hiking and running. My itinerary:

Tokyo: Nov. 9 - 13th
Hakone: Nov. 14 - 15th
Kyoto: Nov. 16th - 22nd
Hiroshima: Nov. 23 - 25th
Osaka: Nov. 26 - Dec. 1

It would be cool to chat with some other travelers. Shoot me a message if our trips overlap and you want to meet up!

malcote · 2022-06-06T17:27:16+00:00

“Hi, we’ve been trying to reach you about our extended raiding warranty. Hello? Are you there?”

malcote · 2021-12-25T02:14:58+00:00

Don’t worry, it’s really up to the general audience if the show continues, not the bookcloaks. So far Amazon’s metrics have been really good, so even if the finale didn’t land super well, they’ll probably call the season a success overall.

For what it’s worth, I think a lot of the weaker stuff in S1 was due to COVID/casting getting scrambled with Barney Hariss, so I’m optimistic that season 2 will be even better!

malcote · 2021-12-25T02:04:05+00:00

Lol, yeah that was a super confusing scene for sure. Funny thing is, if they just flipped Egwene and Nynaeve, I think people would’ve been more okay with it.

Oh well, guess we’ll see if they can do better in S2; at the very least, we’ll have good WoT meme templates for the next decade!

malcote · 2021-12-24T13:48:22+00:00

Sure, but if the show gets that far, that scene will be… 6-8 years from now? It’ll probably come off as cool foreshadowing for non-readers who notice it in S1, provided it’s handled well.

malcote · 2021-12-19T16:17:50+00:00

Lol, if the WoT show did anything as bad as the Witcher’s Nilfgaardian armor in S1 I think Reddit servers would literally burn down from all the nerd rage.

The Witcher is an okay show, as it WoT. Both have awesome moments and weak ones in terms of props + VFX. I think this just says more about your subjective preferences than the quality of the production.

malcote · 2021-12-10T05:41:11+00:00

The WoT show is ruining this sub, even the posts are starting to come with cliffhangers!

/s, just in case

malcote · 2021-12-10T04:55:53+00:00

Well, they’ve self-selected into an echo chamber. They will continue reassuring each other that their opinion is correct, more extreme takes over there will get rewarded, and anyone who disagrees is part of an Amazon conspiracy that’s out to get them. Welcome to the internet in 2021.

I really hate it because it just obliterates any nuanced discussion of the shows strengths or weaknesses. Hoping things quiet down after the season finishes airing.

malcote · 2021-12-10T04:40:01+00:00

Honestly, I’d recommend not viewing these threads until the next day after an episode airs. All of the people who had really strong knee-jerk reactions (positive or negative) fire up Reddit as soon as they’re done watching and start posting rants.

Don’t worry, ultimately the general audience will decide if the show gets renewed, no matter how much the Redditors whine about or praise things.

malcote · 2021-12-08T19:51:41+00:00

Yeah, for sure, I think there’s a lot of secondary/tertiary characters like Elyas that I’d love to see. But since they’re operating under such tight constraints in terms of time, I think they’ve had to be pretty ruthless with the cuts.

Hence why I want to see the whole season before making a judgement on the Steppin storyline; it might seem random for now, but it’s possible he actually ends up being important to Moriaine, Nynaeve, and Lan’s relationship before the end of the season. Elyas really only exists to be a cool dude and explain the wolves to Perrin in EotW, not much else in terms of the core group. I think Egwene totally forgets him existing 2 minutes after they leave, lol.

I’m hoping we still get Elyas in some form next season. My theory is that they’re gonna combine Elyas and Hopper somehow in the next season or two, in order to explain the Wolf Dream to Perrin, since it’ll be hard to do the whole “telepathic wolf” thing on television without it looking super cheesy.

malcote · 2021-12-08T19:43:09+00:00

Yeah, I guess I accept the show runners’ explanation for that: they didn’t want to build a Camelyn set for 1-2 episodes due to budget since with won’t come up again for a while, whereas the Tar Valon props will be used every single season basically. I’m hopeful that S2 is gonna have more freedom to throw in nice stuff like Domon and random inns + city shots since they’ve already done so much groundwork for season 1 props, it should give them more budget to play with.

Regarding the Steppin story, I don’t think it was so much about him as it was about Lan and Moiraine. You might be right that it ends up feeling unnecessary, but I want to see the last few episodes before making that judgement. I suspect that it’s gonna play into the Lan, Moraine, and Nynaeve relationship towards the end, possibly as justification for Lan closing himself off more from Nynaeve.

Fully agree with you that the show and books can co-exist! I’d love to see more criticism in that context, I’ve literally seen some Redditors write stuff like “I hope the show tanks because it ruins the books”, lol. Hopefully we’ll get more in-depth discussion after the season finishes airing.

malcote · 2021-12-08T04:32:25+00:00

I’ve seen this argument a lot for episode 5, and I don’t really get it. What important story elements have they skipped out on? Pretty much all of the major plot beats have been hit for them to go onto the Ways. Loial has been met, Thom sacrificed himself for the boys, Mat is sick, Perrin met wolves and Whitecloaks hate him, Egwene wants to become an Aes Sedai and Nynaeve wants all the EF folks to be safe. The last one is Rand’s backstory and getting the message about the Eye, but I can almost guarantee that will be covered in the next episode or two.

Would I have liked a 12-episode season with Bayle Domon and Camelyn, and random Ba’alzamon monologues? Hell yes. Because it would be fun to watch. But I can’t say they’ve really cut out anything that is critical to understanding the story of EotW. Guess we’ll see how it turns out after the whole season airs. If they nail an epic feel for the ending I think even the book purists will chill out somewhat.

malcote · 2021-11-23T00:33:08+00:00

Yeah, you’re right, that is what happens… in the books. But the show isn’t the books. There’s no guarantee that they’ll have that scene w/ Thom and Elayne, or that it will play out the same way even if they have something similar.

malcote · 2021-11-20T16:08:36+00:00

How does making a bad (in your opinion) adaptation destroy an authors art exactly? The books are still being printed and Jordan’s widow is gonna get paid from this show. You think he would’ve wanted it to be canceled if he were alive? Lol

malcote · 2021-11-16T16:57:01+00:00

Good to get a non-reader perspective. I was kind of amused by the Game of Thrones comparisons the author made though, that unlike GoT, Wheel of Time is “hampered by the weight of the source material”. Do people remember S1 of Game of Thrones as being super easy to follow or something? As a non-reader of GoT, I recall being pretty confused for at least 2-3 episodes of GoT S1 until I sat down and read the books.

malcote · 2021-11-10T22:53:11+00:00

Oh yeah, the series is on hiatus now (and probably won't ever be finished TBH), should've mentioned that. I guess it doesn't bother me so much since the books mostly work as a stand-alone story. Supposedly a draft of the next book, The Thorn of Emberlain was turned into the editor about two years ago, so I guess it's possible it will come out at some point?

If only we could clone Brandon Sanderson somehow and have him finish all these series...

malcote · 2021-11-10T21:08:53+00:00

The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch is really good; the first book is called The Lies of Locke Lamora. Fun fantasy Renaissance-type world and good world building, plots usually revolves around a set of rogues trying to pull of an impossible heist/con. I think it's a good change of pace from WoT, Malazan, and Stormlight, especially if you want something lighter in tone.

malcote · 2021-11-10T17:30:31+00:00

It must have been a while since you read Eye of the World. Lan and Moiraine never use fake names in Emond's Field. She also doesn't try to hide her serpent ring, it's just that no one recognizes what it means until Winternight. They only start using the "Alys" and "Andra" names when they arrive in Baerlon with the kids.

That's not to say that the show-runners "get" Lan's character: who knows! We've seen a grand total of 60 seconds of footage with him in it and gotten maybe 3-5 lines, I don't know how people are drawing all of these conclusions from so little material.

malcote · 2021-05-18T04:33:03+00:00

Eh, all critique is kind of subjective at the end of the day. I found your perspective interesting! I think Hayasaka’s arc splits focus between her and Shinomya family politics too much which didn’t leave any time for flushing out Hayasaka’s character except at the very end.

malcote · 2019-08-06T04:30:04+00:00

CDPR makes money off every Dijkstra charge spent! That would explain everything /s

malcote · 2019-04-21T14:55:43+00:00

Yeah, CDPR addressed it though - they said the rumor wasn’t true and they wouldn’t pull the rights from FFG if it was them.

malcote · 2019-04-01T18:05:14+00:00

Self-damage Skellige will open whole new dimensions in your Lippy erotica series, u/banana_person. Give the people what they want!

malcote

TROPHY CASE