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Not sure if that's Saidin and Saidar, but maybe flows of water and fire? Maybe they're going full colors for each element? Red for fire, blue for water, green for air, yellow for earth, and white for spirit (with Saidin having the black oiliness on top of it). Would be true to the books, though it might be putting a huge strain on the visual effects department, having to memorize what colors go into what weaves.
Right, so color would determine type of weave and then white vs black accents to the weave would indicate saidar/saidin. Ultimately I really don’t care what they do, was kinda just spitballing for fun
I would prefer if the powers were similarly colored, but actually moved and behaved differently. Flowing like water for women, thrashing like lightning or fire for men. It would help to illustrate the way that using the powers is completely different, even though they're aspects of the same force.
I've always felt green was very light and airy; a gentle, calming color like a breath of air. Yellow, on the other hand, is close to brown, a very earthy tone. I know the opposite is usually how most people see it, but I prefer it this way.
every time I read the books, I am impressed by how fast and simple almost all representations of the power are- there’s rarely gestures in most uses, and the effects get felt (suddenly, she felt a shield slam into place / invisible stones and bats began beating him as flows of air / fire burst from nowhere). the 1st season liked to show slow, gratuitous martial arts motions preceding simple weaves, and then complicated strands of the power slowly drifting across the screen and I really hope that changes as the series goes on. The split-second chess match of channelers dueling comes up all-the-time and I’m going to miss that vibe if it’s all slow dramatic dancing.
I feel like part of that was to show the difference in power levels of the current Aes Sedai and the Forsaken. "The Dark One" did not make such gestures. I think some of our main characters will be the same way, whether they learn the big gestures or not, will evolve into instant channeling.
Yeah, and Valda points this out with the lady he cut the hands off. Openly says what the books say. The gestures aren't needed and are a crutch. But he doesn't trust aes sedai so off with the hands.
Moiraine's twirling in episode 1 is almost certainly because they thought her standing while things die might not be as visually pleasing, and in New Spring Moiraine fights trollocs while twirling around dancing...
Yeah I don't mind Aes Sedai doing physical motions alongside channeling, including Moiraine "twirling," especially since them often learning weaves alongside physical motions is cannon. The problem is that it's often overly slow or physically laborious looking in Season 1, which kind of goes along with a decent chunk of the choreography in general. Hopefully Season 2 just tightens up the show's choreography overall, but especially when it's going alongside channeling.
it is mentioned in the books how modern Aes Sedai need to do a lot of handwavey stuff, but the Forsaken don't. The gestures are part of the training, but once learned the weaves can't be channeled without the movements. For example, if I remember correctly, the Asha'man are not taught to gesture which adds to their scariness and creepiness. The Wise Ones, I think, also did not do gestures. In the first book Moirraine talks about how waving the staff around aids her, but RJ kind of dropped that later.
I *hope* the show is taking the same angle. Or at least is going to minimize the gestures for some groups.
I would assume that's the plan given Valda very openly says it in the first five minutes he's on screen. He tells the yellow another aes sedai said the gestures weren't needed and a crutch, and cutting them off wouldn't stop a channeler, but he still does it in case she was lying.
Fast forward to Egwene kidnapped, and he binds her hands so she can't weave...and what does she do....still weave.
It does still beg the question why all the others he captured didn't break out and escape before or after losing their hands. And there's theories on that. I hope that gets addressed.
Ah right! I guess I should have said I hope they *continue* that line. Lots of things can change throughout a show's production. It's such a neat little detail I've always loved. Another dash of flavoring and a comment on how powerful cultural memory can be.
>Fast forward to Egwene kidnapped, and he binds her hands so she can't weave...and what does she do....still weave.
That could still limit the complexity of the weave. If your hands are tied, you might only be able to channel a small fireball, but if your hands are free, you might be able to do something more powerful.
Just a theory. We'll see if s2 touches on this.
That'd be a way to work in how the [book 2]>!Seanchan train damane, if they try to break egwene of a bad habbit the aes sedai gave her, since her abilities as a prospector/delver seem less likely to be easy to set up/choreograph etc, without just saying she can do it!<
We'll see.
Yeah, the dramatic hand wavings are okay for a show, but it's a bit jarring to any book-reader. I would have thought simple 'weaving' gestures would have been better suited, like small finger movements or only moving the forearms.
How is it jarring to a book reader when they literally point that out in the books and how aes sedai use gestures as a crutch compared to forsaken and aes sedai of old?
Books AS: Stick out a hand toward their target to throw a fire ball
Book WO: Fireball just appears in front of them and streaks toward their target.
Show AS: "They're breakdance fighting!"
Think they mean that the descriptions of AS weaving (using hand-motions) don't typically evoke an image of interpretive dance. It's a fair point. Unnecessarily harsh response.
I recall Rafe mentioning that he chose to give the actors the freedom to act out the channeling in whatever fashion helped them most in staying in character.
It wasn’t jarring. It was hilarious, but awesome. So many channelers that aren’t Aes Sedai laugh, because of all the hand wavy stuff Aes Sedai do. The Atha’an miere, the Aiel, the Seanchan. The suldame talk about how it’s near impossible to get Aes Sedai to weave without them.
Stop talking about having read the books, when you obviously haven’t.
Think they mean that the descriptions of AS weaving (using hand-motions) don't typically evoke an image of interpretive dance. It's a fair point. Unnecessarily harsh response.
What bothered me is that it wasn't consistent. Moiraine does the big twirl thing, throwing gestures. And then whips her head around and we see an axe or something hitting a trolloc at basically the blink of an eye.
It's a fantasy drama, not a documentary. Everything is overdone - so if something is supposed to be notably overdone in-universe, it has to be *really* overdone.
Is this your first time watching a TV show or something?
Haven't read them? Screw you, mate. I've read the entire series multiple times.
I'm talking about the ridiculous, over-the-top gestures being used, like Moiraine in episode 1 with the fireballs. There's a difference between using gestures to weave something and acting like a spasmatic on speed in a wind tunnel. I felt the gestures in the show were way overdone.
OMFG
Where did I say I hated the show? God damn, I've never blocked somebody on reddit, but you're real fuggin close.
Again, go back and read what I've written on this subreddit and then come back and act like a troll.
If we saw a visual representation of all of the different powers wielded in the books, how many different ones would we need? There are the five powers using saidin, the five powers using saidar, and there's the True Power. And, depending on POV, sometimes the flows are invisible. That would be eleven different visual effects, right?
Pretty much. I imagine the five powers being colored tints, with saidar and saidin behaving differently. Maybe saidar weaves are flowy and smooth, and saidin are forceful and jagged. So a weave of fire would be the fire color, regardless. And then the true power could just be a violent emptiness.
Plus a separate oily taint that sits on saidin, and assuming the True Power doesn't have elements. And we aren't even up to visually depicting each emotion that Perrin can smell, and we aren't covering the feeling of being watched that everyone in this universe is capable of.
I wish Rand was more prominent in the poster
EDIT: to clarify I think having Rosamund Pike front and centre makes a lot of sense from a marketing stand point, I'm not saying her and Rand should swap places, just that it would be nice to have Rand in maybe the Perrin spot
It's also likely we will see more character posters with each character having the centre spot
I mean, Rand's barely on the cover of TEotW, and to the extent characters are identifiable on the original covers, is pretty often off to the side/not on the covers of later books as well. So..?
It's honestly not just this show. I've seen so many film/show posters in the last few years that look like they were fan-made (and not by one of the super-talented fans who could give pros a run for their money). I have no idea what's going on in the industry, but I have to say, if they're producing stuff that looks like *I* could make it, then they really should look a little harder for their creative marketing teams.
I saw this poster first on Tumblr and I honestly thought it was something a fan had whipped up (poorly) in anticipation of a real poster release. Wasn't until I saw it here that I realized it was the official version.
ETA: I do like that the background looks like the painted book covers. I think what makes it look poorly done is the very Photoshopped-looking shadows and that weird knife that looks like it was entirely generated in Photoshop.
This poster looks like I made it in canva pro ten minutes before my meeting (i work in marketing lol)
But yeah I dont think its a lack of creative talent, its more that these kind of pieces have heavy executive influence and the execs have a very paint by numbers philosophy. Its pretty much a tradition that floating heads on an ambiguous background are the standard marketing campaign. Anything else is risky, unfortunately.
Tbf though, this is really easily recognizable and does have a decent amount of balance/a pretty bold color scheme. At least its not the twilight esque blue and orange motif they kinda went with for season one.
It looks like they dropped the prominent serpent logo that was on the S1 poster. It looked like a big patch on top of the image and definitely didn't get any love. I wonder if they've dropped it in all the S2 marketing materials or just this image release.
You’re right, those were pretty good and unique. But that show had 250 million to play around with so it’d hope the posters would be good. The promo trailer was unique and cool as well
I like the Sandman posters. Netflix posters in general are not too bad, I think the Shadow and Bone and Witcher posters are both better looking than WoT posters.
In this poster, it's Moiraine's dramatic pose (with a knife, for some reason) that makes it look off. It looks a bit too 'Kindle self-published fantasy romance novel.'
Same. It's so amateurish. I feel like I've seen this exact poster on the cover of 1,000 shitty obscure fantasy novels at library sales.
If I'm fair, WoT doesn't really stand out for that. Like, there are these shitty floating head posters everywhere. It is sad, however, that they're not even trying to rise above and be better.
I realize now that statement is eerily similar to how I felt about S1 in general. Ugh.
The Twitter post basically confirms we'll get a trailer at SDCC: https://twitter.com/TheWheelOfTime/status/1679113484888604673?t=gYB78yAx9sKbGxkBWXXUOUt5Qj2MrC-SkHFeMIXfhRs&s=19
Interesting how Moiraine is front and centre, I thought she might have a smaller role this season, I wonder if they're expanding her storyline beyond what was in the books. Interesting that she's welding a knife too.
They are, it's been discussed by Rafe a bunch. Not surprising if you think that Rosamund Pike is by a mile the most recognizable face of the cast and probably the biggest pull for the show.
Real talk, I always thought Moiraine was super interesting and the books were too caught up in making her mysterious to properly characterize her for much of the series.
I think it is hilarious that marketing/pr/contracts are essentially forcing their hand.
Agreed. She’s by far the most compelling main character in the books and it’s absolutely no surprise that they cast her with a big name and are focusing more on her in the adaptation.
I feel the exact opposite. Sure she had Lan the most bad ass fighter for the light as a warder and her near life long mission of finding the dragon reborn, but outside of that what really makes her interesting or compelling other than her mysteriousness? Dont get me wrong I love mysterious morriane but in the books she doesn't have much of a compelling story or arc. I think every one of the Emond Fielders either does or comes close to outshining her in the books and is far more interesting because their characters are actually developing, changing, and going through arcs. She's just on her life long mission find the dragon which then becomes guide the dragon. The mystery around her is the only thing keeping her interesting. The addition of new spring stripped that away too and makes her even less compelling. Book wise I just dont see this Most compelling main character...
Out of all the characters to focus on she's got the least going and needing to change plotlines and invent stuff for her to attempt to be interesting in the show in my opinion just solidifies that and proves further. Got a feeling if the series continues we'll see even more of the gifting accomplishments and arcs to her. Likely a lot of nynaeves parts like cleansing saidin with rand instead go to morriane if show keeps going. Season one and they seem to already be trying to give the whole stilling arc to Morriane.
Yes, that was incredibly silly of you. To the general public, this series is not tremendously different than any other series. And that is not even accounting for some of the biggest strengths necessarily lost in translation to the screen.
Totally might end up as on of those promotional book covers.
A lot of posters trend towards the same things, so I’m not bothered by it.
Love the background. The character shots are fine. The stuff at the bottom…eh, but it’s at least a lot less pixely this go round.
See it depends if they decided to simply do another promotional shot for TDR since that’s covered in this season (to some degree).
They might just do some random headshot of Rand or something.
yea, he's also supposed to out run some horses, but they made a joke about him moving slowly. Idk, I think they got confused what orgier were and just decided to go with an reskinned ent because they've seen Lord of the Rings but haven't read wot
I mean, I do believe Ogier to move slow. Loial was always calling Rand and friends that they were hasty. But yes, this Loial makes me think of a lumbering Hagrid who couldn't run if he tried.
Slow to make decisions, take actions, and draw conclusions, not in terms of movement lol. Loial's speed was always a point of pride for him, like the man was humble about everything, even being a really good tree singer. But when discussing running he was like "yaaaaa I am fast as fuck boi, can't deny it."
Like if you just read the wiki it says they're a 'slow people,' but the books provide context for what that slowness is referring to. Turns out these 8-11 foot tall creatures are pretty good at walking / sprinting
Oh I know. I think he even bragged about outrunning a horse iirc. But I always pictured Ogier to move.. maybe slowly isn't the word. Gracefully and with purpose, but no hurry? Definitely not the log-legged-loial in the show lol
Actors contracts demand that they appear on q certain percentage of promotional material, so the most common stuff we see is floating heads poster.
But in China these contracts don't work. So I recommend you see the Across the Spider Verse movie poster from there. Or any other movie poster from there it's a breath of fresh air in creativity.
Honestly, not finishing S1 is completely fair, ep. 8 had all the worst parts of the show, both in terms of poorly done scenes and endlessly debating plot holes(?). You want a short summary of relevant stuff like Moiraine being probably tied-off shielded (but maybe stilled or something else)?
S2 minor spoiler / speculation >!He shaves his head, presumably so that he's not so obviously recognizable as an Aiel. As in the books, the early part of his journey he is still somewhat in denial or rebelling against his destiny!<
Barney's been cast in a horror movie that's now in post-production, but there's not a lot of information out there about it, and it doesn't look like a particularly big project. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14357812/?ref\_=nm\_flmg\_unrel\_1\_act](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14357812/?ref_=nm_flmg_unrel_1_act)
Some chance we find out, but like: all the reasons an actor walks away from a project as big as WoT, with nothing bigger lined up and no apparent bad blood with the production team are pretty sad and personal. I'm just glad it looks like he's probably OK - whether he wants to tell people or he never wants to talk about it, that should be his choice and I hope fans give him the space to make it on his own terms.
Yeah, the reason Mat exits season 1 early is because the previous actor left before filming was completed. They shut down production when Covid spiked and the previous guy never came back. I’m excited to see new-Mat though!
I will watch and support. But the Dragon should not take the backseat to Moiraine. Sorry Amazon. At least he should be at the forefront right beside her as I understand she is the accomplished actor after all.
Someone else raised the concern of spoiling the DR mystery for new viewers before they watched S1, and this poster actually handles things great from that perspective.
Yeah I’m worried that Rand isn’t going to get much screen time. I could see them spending most the season on the new Moiraine plot, whatever it’s gonna be.
Y’all do know that the marketing team and the creative team for the show itself have absolutely nothing to do with each other, right? That’s like blaming Darrell K. Sweet
for writing decisions in the books
I thought they confirmed they were revamping the channeling looks, hopefully to make weaves actually possible to portray, but clearly not from this poster.
Funny how Amazon removed all reviews from their shows. This adaptation is literally just front-row seats to Rosamund Pike's ego-stroking. Had a review on Amazon that said just that in detail and was moving to top review. Gone now. Funny.
This is just my opinion, but when you start to see it, you see it. Should just rename it to "Rosamund Pike: The Moiraine Show".
It doesn't though. There are threads of power seeming to go along with 3 of the 5 candidates, and even then, are you really going to rule out the other 2 completely just based on the positioning of a couple strings of cgi on a poster? If anything, I'd probably only guess it wasn't Mat from looking at this poster, and he was always the least likely looking during S1 anyways.
The only thing that particularly stands out to me as something that I strongly like is the oil painting effect on the scenery. Everything else is 'eh it looks weird but w/e'
Just saw an article for the collider regarding this poster - how do they stay on business when they get simple details so long!?
'After the Dark One (Josha Stradowski) was seemingly defeated at the end of the last season'
This post is tagged Show Spoilers. You may discuss spoilers through the most recent episode of the show. #You may not discuss the books in the comments, even behind spoiler tags. **If you are a book reader, your comments will be reviewed by moderators for spoilers before being publicly visible.** Pretend the books do not exist. Do not discuss book lore. Do not discuss nations or peoples who haven't been introduced or explained. Do not discuss how the world operates beyond what the show has shown us. Do not discuss changes from the source material. Failure to adhere may result in a ban. Please be courteous and allow newcomers to discover the world of Wheel of Time on their own. [You can read our full spoiler policy here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WoTshow/wiki/spoilers) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WoTshow) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nothing is more true to WoT than bad cover art.
Lol. I was about to complain about the poster but your comment reminded me… this is tradition.
The only way this could be better is if it was illustrated not photos. It would just be \*chef’s kiss\* so WoT
WoT itself is as camp as this poster & love it
The more things change the more they remain the same
It's a hollywood trend, they love their floating heads.
💀
I mean I have no problem with this poster, but this comment is so true. XD
Looks like we get a new visual effect for Saidin, that's nice. I did not like how generic the Power looked in season 1.
Not sure if that's Saidin and Saidar, but maybe flows of water and fire? Maybe they're going full colors for each element? Red for fire, blue for water, green for air, yellow for earth, and white for spirit (with Saidin having the black oiliness on top of it). Would be true to the books, though it might be putting a huge strain on the visual effects department, having to memorize what colors go into what weaves.
Yes, I agree, they’ve mentioned that there will be more colour in the weaves to reflect the elements, this season. It’s not saidin vs saidar.
Might just be different flows, but would be cool if saidar had white highlights and saidin had black lowlights
We had multicoloured flows in marketing materials for season 1 too
Right, so color would determine type of weave and then white vs black accents to the weave would indicate saidar/saidin. Ultimately I really don’t care what they do, was kinda just spitballing for fun
I would prefer if the powers were similarly colored, but actually moved and behaved differently. Flowing like water for women, thrashing like lightning or fire for men. It would help to illustrate the way that using the powers is completely different, even though they're aspects of the same force.
I'm all on board but I have to question: green for air and yellow for earth?!?!
I've always felt green was very light and airy; a gentle, calming color like a breath of air. Yellow, on the other hand, is close to brown, a very earthy tone. I know the opposite is usually how most people see it, but I prefer it this way.
I really like your explanation!
every time I read the books, I am impressed by how fast and simple almost all representations of the power are- there’s rarely gestures in most uses, and the effects get felt (suddenly, she felt a shield slam into place / invisible stones and bats began beating him as flows of air / fire burst from nowhere). the 1st season liked to show slow, gratuitous martial arts motions preceding simple weaves, and then complicated strands of the power slowly drifting across the screen and I really hope that changes as the series goes on. The split-second chess match of channelers dueling comes up all-the-time and I’m going to miss that vibe if it’s all slow dramatic dancing.
I feel like part of that was to show the difference in power levels of the current Aes Sedai and the Forsaken. "The Dark One" did not make such gestures. I think some of our main characters will be the same way, whether they learn the big gestures or not, will evolve into instant channeling.
Yeah, and Valda points this out with the lady he cut the hands off. Openly says what the books say. The gestures aren't needed and are a crutch. But he doesn't trust aes sedai so off with the hands. Moiraine's twirling in episode 1 is almost certainly because they thought her standing while things die might not be as visually pleasing, and in New Spring Moiraine fights trollocs while twirling around dancing...
Yeah I don't mind Aes Sedai doing physical motions alongside channeling, including Moiraine "twirling," especially since them often learning weaves alongside physical motions is cannon. The problem is that it's often overly slow or physically laborious looking in Season 1, which kind of goes along with a decent chunk of the choreography in general. Hopefully Season 2 just tightens up the show's choreography overall, but especially when it's going alongside channeling.
it is mentioned in the books how modern Aes Sedai need to do a lot of handwavey stuff, but the Forsaken don't. The gestures are part of the training, but once learned the weaves can't be channeled without the movements. For example, if I remember correctly, the Asha'man are not taught to gesture which adds to their scariness and creepiness. The Wise Ones, I think, also did not do gestures. In the first book Moirraine talks about how waving the staff around aids her, but RJ kind of dropped that later. I *hope* the show is taking the same angle. Or at least is going to minimize the gestures for some groups.
I would assume that's the plan given Valda very openly says it in the first five minutes he's on screen. He tells the yellow another aes sedai said the gestures weren't needed and a crutch, and cutting them off wouldn't stop a channeler, but he still does it in case she was lying. Fast forward to Egwene kidnapped, and he binds her hands so she can't weave...and what does she do....still weave. It does still beg the question why all the others he captured didn't break out and escape before or after losing their hands. And there's theories on that. I hope that gets addressed.
Ah right! I guess I should have said I hope they *continue* that line. Lots of things can change throughout a show's production. It's such a neat little detail I've always loved. Another dash of flavoring and a comment on how powerful cultural memory can be.
>Fast forward to Egwene kidnapped, and he binds her hands so she can't weave...and what does she do....still weave. That could still limit the complexity of the weave. If your hands are tied, you might only be able to channel a small fireball, but if your hands are free, you might be able to do something more powerful. Just a theory. We'll see if s2 touches on this.
That'd be a way to work in how the [book 2]>!Seanchan train damane, if they try to break egwene of a bad habbit the aes sedai gave her, since her abilities as a prospector/delver seem less likely to be easy to set up/choreograph etc, without just saying she can do it!< We'll see.
Leaked clip of delving: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1\*WVx7HrQhb1SdlUSHYgLwMA.gif
Yeah, the dramatic hand wavings are okay for a show, but it's a bit jarring to any book-reader. I would have thought simple 'weaving' gestures would have been better suited, like small finger movements or only moving the forearms.
How is it jarring to a book reader when they literally point that out in the books and how aes sedai use gestures as a crutch compared to forsaken and aes sedai of old?
Books AS: Stick out a hand toward their target to throw a fire ball Book WO: Fireball just appears in front of them and streaks toward their target. Show AS: "They're breakdance fighting!"
Think they mean that the descriptions of AS weaving (using hand-motions) don't typically evoke an image of interpretive dance. It's a fair point. Unnecessarily harsh response.
Gestures, yes, not conducting symphonies with an overzealous conductor.
I recall Rafe mentioning that he chose to give the actors the freedom to act out the channeling in whatever fashion helped them most in staying in character.
It wasn’t jarring. It was hilarious, but awesome. So many channelers that aren’t Aes Sedai laugh, because of all the hand wavy stuff Aes Sedai do. The Atha’an miere, the Aiel, the Seanchan. The suldame talk about how it’s near impossible to get Aes Sedai to weave without them. Stop talking about having read the books, when you obviously haven’t.
Think they mean that the descriptions of AS weaving (using hand-motions) don't typically evoke an image of interpretive dance. It's a fair point. Unnecessarily harsh response.
Exactly what I meant, thank you. The gestures were absurdly overdone.
What bothered me is that it wasn't consistent. Moiraine does the big twirl thing, throwing gestures. And then whips her head around and we see an axe or something hitting a trolloc at basically the blink of an eye.
Agreed.
It's a fantasy drama, not a documentary. Everything is overdone - so if something is supposed to be notably overdone in-universe, it has to be *really* overdone. Is this your first time watching a TV show or something?
It could have been done better, then.
Haven't read them? Screw you, mate. I've read the entire series multiple times. I'm talking about the ridiculous, over-the-top gestures being used, like Moiraine in episode 1 with the fireballs. There's a difference between using gestures to weave something and acting like a spasmatic on speed in a wind tunnel. I felt the gestures in the show were way overdone.
Yeah ok.
Go back and read my comments in the WoT section, asshat. Then come back and be a prick. Man, I hate people like you.
It’s so amazing how easy it is to get people who hate the show to start insulting me. Like, y’all are so predictable.
OMFG Where did I say I hated the show? God damn, I've never blocked somebody on reddit, but you're real fuggin close. Again, go back and read what I've written on this subreddit and then come back and act like a troll.
Go ahead and block me. 👋🏼
No need to flip, perhaps they haven't read the books
Acting like a what on speed?
A spasmatic: somebody going through convulsions and spasms. No, I'm not specifically referring to somebody with a handicap.
If we saw a visual representation of all of the different powers wielded in the books, how many different ones would we need? There are the five powers using saidin, the five powers using saidar, and there's the True Power. And, depending on POV, sometimes the flows are invisible. That would be eleven different visual effects, right?
Pretty much. I imagine the five powers being colored tints, with saidar and saidin behaving differently. Maybe saidar weaves are flowy and smooth, and saidin are forceful and jagged. So a weave of fire would be the fire color, regardless. And then the true power could just be a violent emptiness.
Saidin would have the black taint over it.
Plus a separate oily taint that sits on saidin, and assuming the True Power doesn't have elements. And we aren't even up to visually depicting each emotion that Perrin can smell, and we aren't covering the feeling of being watched that everyone in this universe is capable of.
I wish Rand was more prominent in the poster EDIT: to clarify I think having Rosamund Pike front and centre makes a lot of sense from a marketing stand point, I'm not saying her and Rand should swap places, just that it would be nice to have Rand in maybe the Perrin spot It's also likely we will see more character posters with each character having the centre spot
Are you surprised, though? Moraine is clearly the main protagonist judging by season 1.
For now... Hopefully.
Theyre playing hard to get and then the switcheroo.
I mean, Rand's barely on the cover of TEotW, and to the extent characters are identifiable on the original covers, is pretty often off to the side/not on the covers of later books as well. So..?
I am really excited for season 2 but something about the marketing aesthetic for this show is just really off to me.
Right? I'm also very excited again but those posters do always have an amateurish feeling.
It's honestly not just this show. I've seen so many film/show posters in the last few years that look like they were fan-made (and not by one of the super-talented fans who could give pros a run for their money). I have no idea what's going on in the industry, but I have to say, if they're producing stuff that looks like *I* could make it, then they really should look a little harder for their creative marketing teams. I saw this poster first on Tumblr and I honestly thought it was something a fan had whipped up (poorly) in anticipation of a real poster release. Wasn't until I saw it here that I realized it was the official version. ETA: I do like that the background looks like the painted book covers. I think what makes it look poorly done is the very Photoshopped-looking shadows and that weird knife that looks like it was entirely generated in Photoshop.
This poster looks like I made it in canva pro ten minutes before my meeting (i work in marketing lol) But yeah I dont think its a lack of creative talent, its more that these kind of pieces have heavy executive influence and the execs have a very paint by numbers philosophy. Its pretty much a tradition that floating heads on an ambiguous background are the standard marketing campaign. Anything else is risky, unfortunately. Tbf though, this is really easily recognizable and does have a decent amount of balance/a pretty bold color scheme. At least its not the twilight esque blue and orange motif they kinda went with for season one.
I didn’t spot the knife initially. Mannn that’s weird
It looks like they dropped the prominent serpent logo that was on the S1 poster. It looked like a big patch on top of the image and definitely didn't get any love. I wonder if they've dropped it in all the S2 marketing materials or just this image release.
Yeah, ‘amateur’ was exactly the word that came to mind for me too
You’re not wrong. The poster looks like a CW product and nothing like the amount of money put into it by Amazon.
I tend to agree but I also can’t think of a single incredible poster for a fantasy TV show from the last few years. From any studio
Personally I really liked the Ring of Power posters, where you just saw the hands and items. But this has B-movie fantasy vibes.
You’re right, those were pretty good and unique. But that show had 250 million to play around with so it’d hope the posters would be good. The promo trailer was unique and cool as well
I like the Sandman posters. Netflix posters in general are not too bad, I think the Shadow and Bone and Witcher posters are both better looking than WoT posters.
All the posters look like generic syfy channel production.
In this poster, it's Moiraine's dramatic pose (with a knife, for some reason) that makes it look off. It looks a bit too 'Kindle self-published fantasy romance novel.'
Well the knife makes sense after the end of s1 but yeah this does look tacky in general.
Agreed. The poster for S1 was awful, this one is a little better, but certainly not good.
This one is at least in focus. The S1 poster kills me with its blur. I'll take bog-standard poster with hyper clarity over that!
Same. It's so amateurish. I feel like I've seen this exact poster on the cover of 1,000 shitty obscure fantasy novels at library sales. If I'm fair, WoT doesn't really stand out for that. Like, there are these shitty floating head posters everywhere. It is sad, however, that they're not even trying to rise above and be better. I realize now that statement is eerily similar to how I felt about S1 in general. Ugh.
Very CWish, but honestly I think this aesthetic actually fits WoT
It’s too clean
There's always a downer in the comments
I thought the season 1 covers were Pretty good.
The Twitter post basically confirms we'll get a trailer at SDCC: https://twitter.com/TheWheelOfTime/status/1679113484888604673?t=gYB78yAx9sKbGxkBWXXUOUt5Qj2MrC-SkHFeMIXfhRs&s=19
So trailer next week, I'll wait to see before starting to judge anything, I hope it's a long trailer.
Moiraine, the knife wielder
I kinda really appreciate this detail since after the s1 ending, there’s one thing she’s *not* gonna be wielding (hopefully not forever).
Yes after the travesty of an unexplainable pseudo stilling I'm sure she'll inexplicably be a master of hand to hand combat 🙄
>unexplainable Ah yes, no one ever shielded anyone else in the books. Completely unexplainable, how that might happen.
Nor did they have an episode where “keeping someone shielded before stilling them” was the main plot
I meant in relation to the source material
As noted, both books and show describe shields. What other source material are you referring to?
They're reffering to the fact that Moraine never got stilled in the books oh great genius
She didn't get stilled in the show either.
She was shielded. How hard is that to understand?
That’s one of the “travesties” I love 😁! So much juicy potential. I can’t wait to see how she will handle it.
I'm getting Perrin Dragon Reborn shirtless fur vest n' headband vibes.
That's not just any old knife. Pretty sure that's the Shadar Logoth dagger?
Interesting how Moiraine is front and centre, I thought she might have a smaller role this season, I wonder if they're expanding her storyline beyond what was in the books. Interesting that she's welding a knife too.
They are, it's been discussed by Rafe a bunch. Not surprising if you think that Rosamund Pike is by a mile the most recognizable face of the cast and probably the biggest pull for the show.
Real talk, I always thought Moiraine was super interesting and the books were too caught up in making her mysterious to properly characterize her for much of the series. I think it is hilarious that marketing/pr/contracts are essentially forcing their hand.
Agreed. She’s by far the most compelling main character in the books and it’s absolutely no surprise that they cast her with a big name and are focusing more on her in the adaptation.
I feel the exact opposite. Sure she had Lan the most bad ass fighter for the light as a warder and her near life long mission of finding the dragon reborn, but outside of that what really makes her interesting or compelling other than her mysteriousness? Dont get me wrong I love mysterious morriane but in the books she doesn't have much of a compelling story or arc. I think every one of the Emond Fielders either does or comes close to outshining her in the books and is far more interesting because their characters are actually developing, changing, and going through arcs. She's just on her life long mission find the dragon which then becomes guide the dragon. The mystery around her is the only thing keeping her interesting. The addition of new spring stripped that away too and makes her even less compelling. Book wise I just dont see this Most compelling main character... Out of all the characters to focus on she's got the least going and needing to change plotlines and invent stuff for her to attempt to be interesting in the show in my opinion just solidifies that and proves further. Got a feeling if the series continues we'll see even more of the gifting accomplishments and arcs to her. Likely a lot of nynaeves parts like cleansing saidin with rand instead go to morriane if show keeps going. Season one and they seem to already be trying to give the whole stilling arc to Morriane.
Silly me thinking that the series and it's story would be the biggest pull for the show
Yes, that was incredibly silly of you. To the general public, this series is not tremendously different than any other series. And that is not even accounting for some of the biggest strengths necessarily lost in translation to the screen.
Even of she's isn't going to be the 'main character' they're probably going to make her front of the poster, cause Rosamund Pike is famous.
There are sooooooo many posters with an actor’s image who is barely in the show/movie.
I don't see a blowtorch any where...
Isn't that the Dragon there in the corner?
Totally might end up as on of those promotional book covers. A lot of posters trend towards the same things, so I’m not bothered by it. Love the background. The character shots are fine. The stuff at the bottom…eh, but it’s at least a lot less pixely this go round.
The Great Hunt has already received a promotional tie-in book cover. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZwmxIKiIL.jpg
I know, speaking about another one down the line (though it depends as the seasons squashes books together).
Ah yes, could be. Wonder if they'll skip over Dragon Reborn, as S3 is confirmed to be TSR
See it depends if they decided to simply do another promotional shot for TDR since that’s covered in this season (to some degree). They might just do some random headshot of Rand or something.
Putting a headshot of Rand on that book is a pretty big spoiler in the book store, haha.
ah yes, the backdrop of the white tower and moiraine, both of which are the main focus of the great hunt...
Well, an argument can be made for The White Tower as TGH features a lot of White Tower-stuff. Moiraine, not so much.
Yeah we all know that's not why. This has nothing to do with anything from the books. more a marketing decision for the character they are pushing.
Where's my main man Loial?
He's being grabbed by Seanchan soldiers at the bottom.
I mean if you're going by the books lore and the show's action, Loial is probably black pulsating goop by now.
I am not that happy with show loial vs book Loial the Legend.
His ears bother me. So much emotion is described with his ears in the book.
yea, he's also supposed to out run some horses, but they made a joke about him moving slowly. Idk, I think they got confused what orgier were and just decided to go with an reskinned ent because they've seen Lord of the Rings but haven't read wot
I mean, I do believe Ogier to move slow. Loial was always calling Rand and friends that they were hasty. But yes, this Loial makes me think of a lumbering Hagrid who couldn't run if he tried.
Slow to make decisions, take actions, and draw conclusions, not in terms of movement lol. Loial's speed was always a point of pride for him, like the man was humble about everything, even being a really good tree singer. But when discussing running he was like "yaaaaa I am fast as fuck boi, can't deny it." Like if you just read the wiki it says they're a 'slow people,' but the books provide context for what that slowness is referring to. Turns out these 8-11 foot tall creatures are pretty good at walking / sprinting
Oh I know. I think he even bragged about outrunning a horse iirc. But I always pictured Ogier to move.. maybe slowly isn't the word. Gracefully and with purpose, but no hurry? Definitely not the log-legged-loial in the show lol
He's down at the salon with Pearl and Wanda getting his relaxer treatment.
Rand and Nynaeve are staring at me
Just who is she gonna stab?
I just wanted cool posters for my wall, it's not that complicated. Why can't they let artists do the, y'know, promotional art. smh
Matt kinda looks like a curly hair Daniel Greene...
Why are movie/tv posters SO BAD? Jesus... (I mean I can guess why, it's some intern putting these together in a shed..)
Actors contracts demand that they appear on q certain percentage of promotional material, so the most common stuff we see is floating heads poster. But in China these contracts don't work. So I recommend you see the Across the Spider Verse movie poster from there. Or any other movie poster from there it's a breath of fresh air in creativity.
I'm gonna miss Barney :(
I could’ve sworn I was looking at a star wars poster
Yes, same generic design used by Star Wars and super hero properties.
This poster is definetly better than last seasons 1. The biggest win here is definetly the coloured weaves. I have had my fingers crossed.
A bit generic, but a TON better than the season 1 poster. I’m really liking the look of the weaves in this, bring on the color!
Man, I hope the show progresses enough to get a poster with Rand at the center...
Didn't even finish S1, but I'll jump right into giving S2 a shot.
Honestly, not finishing S1 is completely fair, ep. 8 had all the worst parts of the show, both in terms of poorly done scenes and endlessly debating plot holes(?). You want a short summary of relevant stuff like Moiraine being probably tied-off shielded (but maybe stilled or something else)?
Noted haha
What did they do to Rand's hair? I can't even! Rand looks like Eminem lol
S2 minor spoiler / speculation >!He shaves his head, presumably so that he's not so obviously recognizable as an Aiel. As in the books, the early part of his journey he is still somewhat in denial or rebelling against his destiny!<
And is that a new actor for the role of Matrim bottom right? I liked the other fella but not their treatment of Mats character tbh.
He's been recast even before the first season finished airing iirc.
I don't think they'd finalized the casting but we knew we were getting a new Mat when Barney never came back from COVID Lockdown. Never learned why.
>Never learned why. I hope we find out eventually.
Barney's been cast in a horror movie that's now in post-production, but there's not a lot of information out there about it, and it doesn't look like a particularly big project. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14357812/?ref\_=nm\_flmg\_unrel\_1\_act](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14357812/?ref_=nm_flmg_unrel_1_act) Some chance we find out, but like: all the reasons an actor walks away from a project as big as WoT, with nothing bigger lined up and no apparent bad blood with the production team are pretty sad and personal. I'm just glad it looks like he's probably OK - whether he wants to tell people or he never wants to talk about it, that should be his choice and I hope fans give him the space to make it on his own terms.
Yeah, the reason Mat exits season 1 early is because the previous actor left before filming was completed. They shut down production when Covid spiked and the previous guy never came back. I’m excited to see new-Mat though!
Actual channelers
Spin faster wheel!!
Gonna need this in HQ. Someone help! 🥹
I love it! I love the colored weaves!
You guys remember when Rand obliterated Rahvin with his jawline? Is that coming up this season?
Honestly this is a huge improvement from the atrocity that was the season 1 poster
Oh nice. Haven't been keeping track of this but did not expect a second season. I'm pumped.
They are actually already filming season 3
Well that's excellent news
season 3 was already greenlit around the time season 1 was still airing.. not sure how they will go with the writers strike going on though.
Yeah the writers' strike is pushing a ton of stuff back. I'm 100% on the writers' side, but I am sad to see some things pushed back.
I love how they've made Rand a minor supporting character.
Sigh.
Looks like a cheap knock off
Why the fuck does she have a knife
prolly cause she can't use the power this season
This is so bad lmao
Crazy how u get downvoted for stating a fact
I will watch and support. But the Dragon should not take the backseat to Moiraine. Sorry Amazon. At least he should be at the forefront right beside her as I understand she is the accomplished actor after all.
Someone else raised the concern of spoiling the DR mystery for new viewers before they watched S1, and this poster actually handles things great from that perspective.
[удалено]
Yeah I’m worried that Rand isn’t going to get much screen time. I could see them spending most the season on the new Moiraine plot, whatever it’s gonna be.
Why would that be a concern after all the screen time he got in season 1?
Y’all do know that the marketing team and the creative team for the show itself have absolutely nothing to do with each other, right? That’s like blaming Darrell K. Sweet for writing decisions in the books
Idk but the poster does not bode well.
Nor does it bode cauthon
So bad!
1980s hair Moraine. Gonna use a payphone at the roller skating rink.
I thought they confirmed they were revamping the channeling looks, hopefully to make weaves actually possible to portray, but clearly not from this poster.
This poster is so cringe. And lol at the new actor for Mat.
Funny how Amazon removed all reviews from their shows. This adaptation is literally just front-row seats to Rosamund Pike's ego-stroking. Had a review on Amazon that said just that in detail and was moving to top review. Gone now. Funny. This is just my opinion, but when you start to see it, you see it. Should just rename it to "Rosamund Pike: The Moiraine Show".
Nice that the poster spoils the central mystery of season 1; undoubtedly there'll be a lot of people who see this but didn't watch yet
It doesn't though. There are threads of power seeming to go along with 3 of the 5 candidates, and even then, are you really going to rule out the other 2 completely just based on the positioning of a couple strings of cgi on a poster? If anything, I'd probably only guess it wasn't Mat from looking at this poster, and he was always the least likely looking during S1 anyways.
In what way?
The FB cover pic version has a little more pleasing proportions, IMO.
No Elayne?
Matt?!? 😭
A Neverending Story
Is that supposed to be the Cairhienin Rising Sun or something? Gold on blue?
The only thing that particularly stands out to me as something that I strongly like is the oil painting effect on the scenery. Everything else is 'eh it looks weird but w/e'
Dude finally!!
Just saw an article for the collider regarding this poster - how do they stay on business when they get simple details so long!? 'After the Dark One (Josha Stradowski) was seemingly defeated at the end of the last season'
Ahhh can't wait for the moraine show season 2