 Okay, so Wheel of Time, it's a very good series, very popular series, it's no secret by now that I'm a fan of it, and I think it's a good series, but it is deeply flawed at times, and in certain ways. Like it is, there are just some serious, serious issues that it has, despite what certain members of the fandom will tell you when they'll say things like, no, we needed those 18 chapters of Egwain wandering from room to room and thinking about how other people are trying to undermine her position and she's trying to think about how she can undermine their position. We needed all that, which I guess shouldn't be that surprising when you consider that this series is so long that most of the people who would be into it are people who can tolerate really long stretches of boringness and maybe they can tolerate it by just finding something to celebrate in there, I don't know. The point is, I have some opinions here which are not shared by a lot of the fan base. They are hot takes, as the kids call them these days, and well, since the show is coming out relatively soon, I mean, as of the time of this recording, they haven't announced an official, or an exact date, they've just said it's in November sometime, so I don't know, we'll see when it comes out, but in honor of the show coming out soon, I've decided, hey, let's voice some of these hot takes, some of these unpopular opinions. Now, some of these are going to be things about the series that I like, that others dislike, some of it will be things that others dislike that I like, and some of it will be things that I wish that the series had changed, and I'm not necessarily saying that the show should make these changes, because some of them are just a little too big and would fundamentally alter what the series is, but some of them, yeah, I do kind of wish that the show would make those changes, and obviously, spoilers ahead for the entire series, so don't get upset with me if you hear something that you didn't want to hear. This is the introduction song, it's not very good, but it's not too long. All right, first up, I actually like early series Matt. Now, that's not to say that he's better than late series Matt, like late series Matt is ten times better, he's just a more interesting character, a more entertaining character, a more fun character to watch, just, you know, basically everything about him is better, but early series Matt really does feel like a kid, you know, he feels like a teenager who got shoved into this sudden life or death situation where there's a whole lot riding on his shoulders and he doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing and he's kind of just trying not to die the whole way through. He, you know, he really feels like a kid who got caught up in something bigger than himself. And yeah, at times he just kind of felt like the main character's best friend, but it almost felt like, oh, he's just a normal dude who is almost an audience surrogate in this. And as the series went on, he obviously got better, as I said. But still, early series Matt does not get nearly enough credit for what he does well. Next up, Robert Jordan could not write romance for shit. Like basically every romance in the series is just, oh, they met and then insta-love, like they might not admit it to themselves for a while, but sooner or later they will come right out and say, yeah, I was, I was always in love with that person. Like, some of the most annoying ones are Elaine and Rand, where Elaine literally just meets him after he's injured and then helps patch him up and then later she says, yeah, I knew from that moment I was in love with him, which is just stupid. Or my personal least favorite would be Swan Sancha and Gareth Byrne or Brian, I actually forgot which, but whatever. Gareth, like, she literally just bonds him as a warder and then she can instantly tell, oh, he's in love with me. And like, that's the only hint that we've ever even gotten of this. Like, and the thing is this wouldn't be quite as bad if it didn't happen all the time, but that is basically every relationship in this series. And I mean, runner up for the worst one has to be Matt and Tuan because Matt basically just falls in love with her because Prophecy, which I don't like that as an excuse in general, but for this is, this is even worse. So just, yeah, Robert Jordan could not write romance for shit. That is one thing that hopefully in the show they'll improve upon, but, you know, we'll see where that goes. Now, it is not a hot take to say that the series is too long. What I think is a hot take is that genuinely around 30 to 40% of it could be cut. Like, it does not need to be there. This is 14 books long. It could probably have been like seven, maybe eight. And that each individual book could have been shorter as well. Like, pretty much all of the traveling that they do, at least outside of Eye of the World, because Eye of the World, the fact that they're traveling the whole way is kind of the point. And even if that could have been tightened up a bit, I wouldn't say, oh, just cut all that out and say, okay, we arrived at the blights. Like that would defeat the purpose of a lot of it. But most of the traveling throughout the series where characters spend hundreds upon hundreds of pages or even multiple books, just sort of walking down the road, that could almost all be cut. And most of the politicking as well, like I said earlier, with Egwayne just wandering around thinking about things, or Elaine just wandering around thinking about things. Because she has to actually fight for the Throne of Andor, even though she's the heir to the Throne of Andor. And really she should just get the crown, shouldn't she? But no, they have to spend like four books going over that. And the whole time she's just complaining about how she's not getting any decent food because she's pregnant. And ugh, that could basically be cut down to a paragraph, I think. Pair and rescuing fail, that one is... I don't know how much of an unpopular opinion that one is, because most people seem to really hate that storyline. But still, the point is that could almost entirely be cut, if not entirely be cut. And the series would not lose out on much. And really just, there's certain storylines that had no business lasting for multiple books. And even ones that didn't last multiple books, a lot of times go longer than they needed to. So I'll repeat it again, 30 to 40% of the series could go away and we would not miss anything. Next, Lan should have died after his duel with Demondred in the final book. The thing is, Demondred had already defeated two extremely good swordsmen before it got to that point. And when Lan was fighting him, he was realizing, oh man, this guy's really good, I don't know if I can beat him. The only way I can beat him is by sacrificing myself. And so he lets him stab him, leaving himself open, then he kills Demondred himself. And that was the coolest moment in that book for me. Like, oh shit, Lan is dead. This character who's been around since the beginning is gone. But, whoa, he died in one of the most badass self-sacrifices ever. And then it turns out a little bit later, that Lan survived. Which just, it just cheapens the sacrifice. You know, it cheapens that moment. Like, I should think back on that moment and that should be one of the highlights of the series. And it still kind of is. But the fact that he doesn't actually die and it just tricks you into thinking that he's dead for a little bit, like, that just, I don't know. I didn't like that. I didn't care for it. The Shido arc should have ended with Dumai's Wells. That one is pretty straightforward, I think. Like, the Shido don't really add anything or contribute anything of value to the story after Dumai's Wells. They're just a nuisance. And like I said, with parent and fail, like, if we cut them out, then we cut out that storyline, which is good. And just, I don't know, what else can I say? Like, the Shido don't add anything after that point. So why are we keeping them? Like, just to have it so that they all die at Dumai's Wells or most of them die, the rest scatter or surrender or something. Just anything other than what we got. Gelad is the best leader in the series. Now, I don't just mean this in purely a military tactical sense, although that's part of it. But Gelad is, he's just the best leader overall. Like, you know, he is in charge of a group of people and he actually does a decent job of it, but at the same time, it's not just through luck or anything. Like, what I mean by that is that, well, one, he's been through combat and he knows what it's like and he's not going to just throw people's lives away for no reason. Like, even though he's the leader of the White Cloaks, like, and we as readers don't really care about them, because they're all assholes, he, I mean, he's not going to sacrifice his men for no reason. Like, these people put their faith in him and so he is not going to try and start wars or conflicts of any sort without good reason to do so. And he follows the White Cloak's ideology, yes, but he isn't blinded by it. You know, he isn't a zealot who cannot comprehend of any way the world might work outside of this very narrow range. Like, he is a little bit of a hard ass, I suppose is a good word for it. I don't know if that's the right term, but he's willing to see reason, basically is what I'm getting at. And he knows that he's there to lead men. You know, he knows that him being in charge and guiding them along the correct path is for the good of everybody. He knows it's his duty and his responsibility. He doesn't think of it as his right or as a privilege. You know, he's not just there to abuse people and take a bunch of privileges and wealth and yada yada. Like, he's not there for that. He understands what it means to be a good leader. And so that's why he is a really good one. And then some of the other leaders from the series, like Matt, Matt is a great tactician, but that's kind of, that's about it. And a big part of that is just because of his ridiculous luck. And like, think about it, the band of the Red Hand forms basically by accident and outside of battle he barely leads them. They just sort of follow him around and he, at first he's kind of going, leave me alone. And they go, ah, no, we'll come with you anyways. Rand, Rand is insane for most of the series until he becomes Jesus Rand. And then, even then, that's similar to Matt's issue where it's just insane luck and divine intervention gets him all of his good results for things. Like, so just overall, Galad is genuinely a really good leader. He's a fair leader. He's a competent leader. He knows what he's doing, so he's better than pretty much anyone else in the series. Oh, and Lan, can't forget about Lan, because that dude straight up brought a bunch of his followers to commit suicide along with him, right on the eve of the last battle, but for basically no reason other than pride. Like, that was, that was really stupid. And that's another plot point I think could have just been cut out. Like, Lan trying to kill himself for no reason near the end of the series was just odd. I didn't like it. Moradin should have been a different character than Isha Myle. Now, what I mean by this is that originally, Isha Myle is kind of just an evil dude who pretends to be the dark one for the first couple of books until Rand kills him, but then he's brought back in a different body and they give him a different name and they kind of pretend that he's a different person for a while until the main characters and the audience realize like, oh, okay, that's just Isha Myle in a different body, okay. But the thing is Moradin is a better character because that's when we get more insight into who he is as a person and his philosophical justifications for siding with the dark one and some of his regrets and such that he's had in the past and his connection with Rand and how they're almost mirrors of one another in some ways. Like, overall, Moradin is just a much more interesting character than Isha Myle even though they are the same person and I'm just thinking, if you're going to have it be the same person, then you shouldn't do the death fake out because that, I don't know, I just, that feels like it cheapens things and it also makes him seem like less of a powerful overwhelming force like the Forsaken are supposed to seem like. And so if we just got rid of that death fake out and had it be Isha Myle all along or if we genuinely did kill off Isha Myle and then Moradin was just a newcomer who, for whatever reason, had decided to join the dark one and probably the same reasons we see here but it just, it would have been a lot more interesting. The Shang-Chan should have been in much more of the series. Like, again, there's supposed to be this huge threat and when they first show up that's what they seem like and you realize like, oh, these guys are united, they're powerful, they're trying to conquer the whole continent and they might actually be able to do it. What are we gonna do? And then they disappear for half the series and they come back and a lot of their conquering just happens off-screen. It's like, yep, now we're in charge of this huge area and I mean, okay, what now? Well now we're gonna side with you guys against the forces of the dark one at least temporarily and granted Rand has to, Rand has to wrangle them a little bit to do that but just, I don't know, they didn't really feel like a huge threat anymore after that point which was a little disappointing and I just think that if they had been a major plot point at least in part of the series, then, well, I guess they were a major plot point but if they had been a bigger plot point earlier on in the series and the truce with them came a little earlier, I think that just would have been a lot cooler. It would have made the Shang-Chan seem like, you know, more of a threat, like I keep saying. And we might have actually gotten a little bit more of an opportunity to follow them and learn more about their culture and stuff and I don't know, just if we had to keep in a lot of politicking and plot threads that don't really go anywhere, I think that would have been a more interesting source of them. This one is pretty simple and I don't think it would be all that unpopular really now that I'm voicing it, but they should have used more varieties of Shadow Spawn because, you know, in the first book we had Trollux and we had Merdral and, you know, they were these terrifying forces but as the heroes get stronger and stronger they just become fodder and so that's not as much fun and they introduce a few other types but it's hinted at that there are a bunch more Shadow Spawn especially living out in the Blight and it's hinted that some of them are extremely powerful and I just... I mean we should have brought in some more of those, you know, especially during the last battle, you know, this is supposed to be the dark one pulling out all the stops to try and win like imagine if all of a sudden we had giant worms or something because like pretty sure they mentioned worms at some point but we don't really ever get to see them like, you know, things like that just that would have added a bit more to the world would have been cooler and it would have made the last battle seem even bigger and more epic than it already is Mazrim Tame should have been evil from the start now it is a bit ambiguous as to whether Tame was genuinely power-hungry and evil from the beginning and he only helped Rand out to try and get close to him and then screw him over later or if he over time decided, you know what? I'm gonna become one of the Forsaken and just did that near the end it's a little ambiguous but I just think Tame kind of similar to the Shan Chan he should have been a very upfront threat from earlier on in the series because we really only get like two books with him being a full-on villain and I think he's kind of a fun villain as well but it also just makes him seem stupider because he gives Rand one of the seals to the dark ones prison when they first meet and well that was dumb of him you know if he was gonna be a bad guy he should have kept that hidden or something you know just I don't know Tame being evil from the beginning would have been cooler and finally last one the series should have had more fantasy landscapes now what I mean by that is that most of the landscapes and architecture and stuff from the series is stuff that could just have been from the real world you know like they got oh big forests okay that's kind of neat and you know rolling planes and oceans and stuff like that that's all fine and dandy but you know this is a fantasy series take take advantage of the fantasy aspect you know have like oceans that are made of blood or like in the second to last book Towers of Midnight when Matt goes to rescue Moiraen they go into a tower which is actually a different dimension and the walls like fold in on themselves and there's impossible architecture and stuff like that like that that's kind of neat they should have done some more stuff like that to really hammer home that yeah this is a fantasy world this is really weird and mysterious I mean there's stuff like the Stormlight Archive which does a better job of this you know you have Yorathiru which is like a tower the size of a mountain which can hold multiple cities worth of people or the shattered planes which are just a giant plateau with a bunch of canyons running through it but it's all symmetrical and stuff you know stuff like that that it reminds us that this is fake this isn't the real world but it's still really cool and you want to learn more about it you know just I don't know things like that and that is that is the last hot take on Wheel of Time I have for today if you have any hot takes of your own feel free to put them down below and argue about them and call me names and send me death threats I suppose like I don't need to give you permission you're probably going to do that anyways but you know I I am interested in hearing other people's thoughts I haven't talked about Wheel of Time all that much even though it's one of the things that got me into epic fantasy and the show is coming out soon so I don't know we'll see I'll see you later bye tobacco crow tom beanie they victim and of course all the other names listed here you guys are great without you I wouldn't be able to do this if you want to get your name put up here then consider becoming a patron you get stuff like early access to my videos and if you don't want that then how about maybe just becoming a channel member or dropping me a tip over on PayPal or just you know sharing this video I just you yeah you get the picture goodbye bye