Adam’s Review
So. This is how Season 1 ends. The culmination of a season of questionable decisions turns out to be the weakest episode since the first. The hardest part to watch was the dumbing down of so many characters to explain the ignorance needed for such a massive departure from the book.
News flash: If you have to make a character dumber to allow the story to make sense, it’s not a good story. The fact this happened despite having the source material for reference shows me the source material is treated as whisper and not an inspiration.
Worst of all, all the changes weren’t needed. They didn’t add anything. They made each character’s arc significantly worse and as a whole makes far less sense than the source material.
Making Moiraine this ignorant on shielding versus stilling is baffling. Having Moiraine and Siuan Sanche’s plan be so incredibly wrong takes any credibility away from two characters that need to be our source of truth. All to give us a garbage “twist” and have yet another red herring “trick” the viewer and the characters.
Changes from the book are inevitable. These changes though? This is a clear misunderstanding on how to tell a story.
Rating: On a scale of Superman 64 to Ocarina of Time, this was No Man’s Sky (during release)
Garrett’s Review
You turn on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, load up the Hangar. Millencolin’s No Cigar plays as you hit all the barrels and collect all the S-K-A-T-E letters. You drop into the half pipe after hitting the third hang time gap, and from a fs noseslide + kickflip + nose manual + varial heelflip + 720 stiffy…you plunge into concrete face first and lose your killer fucking combo bonus. How the fuck did this happen?
Rating: On a scale of desert to ocean, this was the Great Lakes
Fei’s Review
I was so hyped up last episode. We were finally getting somewhere! The story line was coming together, and I couldn’t wait to see how things were going to get resolved in the last episode of the season.
Well, I definitely did not foresee that. To say that Rafe handled that like a steaming pile of dog doo doo would have been to put it kindly. This episode felt entirely too rushed. We were trying to get a season finale that felt almost like a series finale, and once again we are met with red herrings everywhere (drink!).
I almost want to ask why we could only have 8 episodes and why they didn’t green light this season for 10 if this was what they were going to do. Everyone’s storylines seemed to be fast forwarded to the point where if you didn’t read the books, you would have absolutely no idea what was happening. Where did the trollocs come from? What is the Horn of Valere and why does Padan Fain steal it? Did Rand actually fight and defeat the dark one? Is Moraine stilled?
And most importantly, why do we as the watchers care, and what do we have to look forward to in the second season? These were all the questions I was asking myself as I watched even though I HAVE read the books. I can only imagine the confusion non-readers are going through.
Rating: On a scale of WTF to OMG, this is definitely a WTF is F’ing going on.