 It's kind of hard to dramatically sit in a chair when it's so low to the ground and it just feels awkward but anyways, yeah, so the second season of Wheel of Time just ended a couple of days ago as of this filming and Whatever else we may say about it, whatever else we may think Most people have been saying and I happen to agree that it's a massive step up from season one Like just in terms of quality it is not leagues better, but it is a lot better. This is the introduction song It's not very good, but it's not too long and in a weird way It follows the exact same pattern as the books because what I mean by that is that yeah The show does change a fair amount from the source material, but the thing is season one overall enjoyable But it had plenty of issues like there there was just some weird lines Some of the sets in costuming were a little strange actors were overall solid But some of them hadn't quite gotten into their roles yet And the writing was a bit clumsy because you're just trying to introduce everyone to this and the first book in the series I have the world is kind of the same You know, it's bad in some different ways But it is still very clumsy and weirdly put together because like some characters that are major characters Just don't have personalities yet. You're trying to be introduced to the world But there's just so much stuff that you need to know that a lot of the stuff in the first book doesn't make sense until much later Like the prologue of the first book does not make sense without hindsight at the time you read it. It is weird and incomprehensible and the ending of the first book as well is also very strange But then once you get into the second book the great hunt, that's where the series really starts to find its footing and It's just a lot better in almost every way. Like the story is more focused There's a lot less time wasted The characters are more well-defined and have stronger personalities and stronger motivations and such And their arcs really begin as opposed to them just being introduced as yeah, here's this person and They get like one or two things about their personality that we know and then season 2 again is pretty much the same Like now that everything is set up in a bit more solidified It is just a lot better than season one So where we left off last time Rand and Moirain went to the eye of the world They supposedly defeated the dark one and sealed him back away But Rand faked his death and then ran off somewhere far away And now everyone else is just trying to deal with the fallout of that However, it's pretty obvious from the start and we learned very explicitly later on that they did not defeat the dark one at The end of the first season at the eye of the world like they didn't the guy they were fighting was actually not the dark one It was Isha mail who is essentially his lieutenant You know, he is the leader of the Forsaken who were his most powerful servants and he's literally thousands of years old He is an insanely powerful Chandler like how could they ever possibly stand against him and he was just pretending to be the dark one which is exactly what happened in the books, but Again, I just need to take a second to say this people who have read the books stop spoiling shit in the comments really Because again, there's a lot of stuff that happens early in the story that doesn't make sense until you have later context But people who have read the books seem allergic to acknowledging that sometimes Because so many of them just refuse to acknowledge that. Oh, yeah, we didn't know that at the time So by me saying this right now that would be spoiling stuff because there were tons of people who when talking about season 1 We're referring to the dark one as Isha mail and I'm like guys We didn't know he was Isha mail at the time We didn't find that out until the third fucking book like in the show. We find it out a little sooner, which I Think is fine. I don't think it really makes a difference one way or the other But either way we find out much sooner that oh, okay, that wasn't really the dark one But that out of the way it is kind of hard to explain this story in a lot of detail At least without getting into spoilers and even with getting into spoilers It's hard to explain the story of season 2 too in a lot of detail because there's a lot of different plot lines that it follows and they are of greatly varying quality, let's say and That is kind of a shame because the second book again is where the series starts to find its footing and the story is much More focused. It's a pretty basic or maybe basic isn't the right word for it But it is a quest fantasy You know you have to go to this place to either do a thing or find a magical object to save the world or whatever like that And while there are some diversions it is almost entirely focused on that whereas Season 2 of the show does the same thing a lot of television does nowadays where they just have a lot of different storylines all going on at once and it's not immediately clear how they tie together and Sometimes they're all good, but most of the time some of them are good some of them are bad And it just I don't know man. It goes up and down and that is an issue with the Wheel of Time season 2 like a pretty big issue actually like Matt's storyline starts off pretty good like he's not in the first episode much, but then we see him and like okay, he's imprisoned at the White Tower and it has to do with like all the Stuff you have with that evil magical dagger from the last season and then After a couple episodes it just stops being interesting and they aren't it seems like they're not sure what to do with him up until The finale where he comes in and then his storyline becomes good again and then same with Perrin's storyline which is Fine at the beginning and then in the middle it's like they it's not bad necessarily, but it's like they aren't sure what to do with him because He's just kind of wandering around Meeting some new people and getting prepared for again the finale and then in the finale his storyline becomes good again And then Rand's storyline starts off really really weak But then it ramps up and gets better about halfway through and by the end of the season again It's very very good. Moiraine's storyline is kind of iffy up until the end. I'll be honest like Sometimes it's good sometimes it's bad, but there's there's like a lot of up and down in her storyline That's I don't know what to make of it to be honest, but then by the end it becomes solid But like basically the only storyline the only character storyline who I would say is solid throughout the entire season is Egwains Because she starts off training in the White Tower and we get to see that that's nice seeing her make new friends and Seeing her actually learn about the one power so that the people who haven't read the books can learn more about it and how it works and then Gets into some trouble and then her storyline gets really really dark in the last couple episodes like it is Brutal the kind of shit she goes through and then at the end it again becomes really good really triumphant And so her storyline is solid throughout the season But everyone else's is kind of up and down now the good news about that is that usually at the times where? One or two storylines are kind of dull and not then they weren't grabbing me the others were good And while those other ones were kind of bad the other ones were good So it's that I don't know if I worded that super well but basically when one is good the others are bad, but I would prefer if they were all good if at all possible and The reason that I think this wound up being so weird and clumsy is because it is a fair Bit different than the book because again the book is mostly just focused on one storyline with a couple of smaller Diversions whereas this they had characters all split up all over the place and Having different characters split all over the place all doing their own thing and not really connecting to each other that well and Not always being that interesting and I was just sitting there going Okay, let's get back to the cooler characters with their own storylines because those are better That was reminding me of the later books in the series And that's not a good thing because the later books in the series are really really weak Like if you haven't read them the first couple are flawed but solid and then once you reach about the halfway point of the series like Book six or seven that's where things take a steep decline and the pacing just slows to a crawl and then the last couple books It picks up again, but yeah This was reminding me of those points in the books where we had like 30 page chapters And it's just characters walking from room to room and we're following their thoughts. It's like it's not great However, I will say that this worked out in its favor in one way And I don't know if this was intentional or not But basically there is a big theme in this season of characters trying to protect their loved ones by pushing them away and then realizing by the end that That's wrong and they can't do that like you can't protect your loved ones by pushing them away You have to stick by them like the most obvious example of that is Rand who again He faked his death to get away from his friends because he was afraid that By being a man who can channel he would go crazy and kill them all sooner or later So he just didn't want to be near them when that happened And then we also have more rain trying to push away land who even though he's trying desperately to help her and obviously There's Matt who ran away from his friends near the end of season one That's also partially because of like issues outside of the show shows control But you know like that is what he did and then later on in this season He also kind of abandons his friends at least for a little while, but basically it's these characters Realizing, okay I was pushing my loved ones away to try and protect them But then I realized they're in trouble and I was not there to help them out when they were in trouble So I need to stay by my loved ones in order to protect them and that Actually works really well not only on its own But as an adaptation because that's gonna be a big part of Rand's character arc going forward not gonna Spoil too much about that, but those who've read the books know what I'm talking about and last season while again It was overall enjoyable the finale was a pretty big letdown for me because it felt like the Build-up to all the events was really good and really solid But then the actual events themselves were pretty lackluster and underwhelming so I wasn't really not into the finale of the first season Granted it's trying to adapt to the finale of the first book Which is really odd and confusing or not even odd But it is confusing and hard to follow But it's also like epic and has a lot of stuff going on whereas season one didn't really have that But anyways season 2 finale did not have that problem It is properly built up to and then the climax is very very enjoyable It's great Like it feels like the characters are not in control of the entire world like not everything revolves around them But they are still very powerful and very important to the world and the final battle is a lot of fun There's a whole lot of stuff going on seeing the characters all come back together to fight evil is great And I hope that they stick together a little bit more going forward because again That's a huge issue with the books and I'm hoping the show At the very least won't make that problem worse Like I'm thinking going forward into season 3. I'm hoping there's like Three storylines that they follow and they don't try to split it more beyond that like without going into spoilers I'm hoping they follow Rand's storyline as he goes off traveling places Perrin's storyline as he has to travel somewhere else and then the white tower storyline and those who've read the books know Exactly what I'm talking about once again. If you're gonna put spoilers mark them, but story-wise. Yeah, this season Was uneven. I think is a good way of putting it, but it was still a step up from season one overall On top of that the production values from this season have shot up quite a bit And I didn't dislike the production of season one, you know, I didn't dislike the way channeling looked I didn't dislike the costuming of the set design or anything But in this season, it's a big step up Like you can see a whole bunch of different very distinct cultures all over the place throughout the whole season Just in people's dress and the architecture like it's very very distinct from place to place Like the architecture of foam is very very different than the white tower Which was very different than Cheyenne R from season one or I shouldn't say white tower I should say tarval on which is different than Cheyenne R or the two rivers or anywhere else from season one and the way Characters dress is very similar like the Shanchan both their outfits and their ships are Really weird-looking compared to everything else And I loved all of that because it really helps this show look different than other fantasy shows You know, it doesn't just look generic medieval European It actually looks different and also it's not just Totally drab and colorless like a lot of stuff tries to be nowadays, you know It's actually there's colors and like I said the channeling does look better than before You know like characters doing different things does look distinct as opposed to just random blobs of energy coming out of them And you see them do a little bit more with it like there's one scene where swan Summons a whole bunch of knives made of air around her head because she thinks Somebody's about to attack her and then she relaxes and they all just disappear like for instance Just just one instance. Okay, again, it's kind of hard to talk about some of this without going into spoilers That'll be later But basically we see a lot more stuff you can do with the one power and that's great I also felt that the acting was a step up again Acting was solid enough in the first season. There were one or two kind of weak performances Like the actor who plays Perrin was kind of weak and in this season I would still say he is the weakest of them all but he's Improved a bit like he seems more comfortable being Perrin and same with all the other characters Because this is where their performances get a little bit tricky season one was really just introducing us to these people and letting us know Yeah, here's how they are here's who they are. They're pretty simple at this stage But they exist make them kind of likeable and then season two is where they really start to go on their journeys where they go through a Lot more stuff like they go through good things bad things They have some horrifying traumatic experiences and they really start to change So this is where they start to develop and become much much a deeper and more complex characters now the real standouts in terms of performance are Egwayne and Matt's because Egwayne as I said nice enough girl. She seems like just a Regular girl from a small town who wants to see the world at first and then over the course of season one We see like okay, there's a bit more to her and then season two Again, she goes through horrifying shit and we realize by the end of the season. Okay. She's She's kind of a bad person. She does some pretty unpleasant stuff It's arguably justifiable, but she does some pretty unpleasant stuff and being able to Remain sympathetic and likable while you're doing that is very difficult But it is a line that a lot of characters in Wheel of Time managed to walk And then we also again have Matt who his actor wound up getting changed out between seasons for Reasons the public has never been made aware of but honestly while I thought that the original actor for him was really good I think the new one is a step up Like you know he adds in a lot of humor like his jokes and everything Land pretty well. He just seems like a really nice likable dude But also you can tell that that likable exterior is hiding all some really low self-esteem and some serious depression Anxiety that sort of thing he doesn't really have a lot to do until the finale But that is an issue that's carried over from the books because in the books Matt has no personality for the entirety of the first two books other than kind of being an ass Occasionally and thinking that he's really funny, but not really being that funny But then at the end of book two in the finale He finally gets his big moment and you're like yes cool Matt gets to do stuff and then from then on he Develops and changes and becomes a much better character. He's my favorite in the series as well It's a lot of other people's and the show does something kind of similar He doesn't have a lot to do but once he gets his big moment you realize, okay Yes, this guy is capable of being a hero and I want to see him do more stuff. The fight scenes are great, too Don't don't have a lot to say there They were good in season one and they're good here. There's only a couple of big ones, but they're all they're all really fun I think it's a little strange to see just how superhuman some of the characters are sometimes but if that's the tone they want to go for then alright, that's the that's the tone they want to go for and That's About it, you know At least for the non-spoiler stuff like I the only major issues I have are like again the structure of the story is really weird and kind of clumsy at times and Just results in an uneven season where there's some parts which are amazing and some parts which are much less Amazing as opposed to having it be smoother That is that a real word really for in this scenario, whatever. There's also a couple of really weird moments Like in the first episode there's a moment where Egwayne walks in on some characters having a threesome, which I'm not saying that you can't put that there, but like Why? I don't get it and there are just other moments like that throughout the season which were kind of weird took me out of it and I just wasn't into them and that's Yeah, that's about it, but overall again season two Good watch. I enjoyed it if you weren't a fantasies and one I would recommend at least checking this one out because now it feels like a proper fantasy epic and I do need to take a moment to mention that I Don't like all of the changes they're making from the books You know not not all of them and I mean you have to judge it like as its own thing and as an adaptation And as an adaptation I don't like all of the changes, you know Some of them are good changes. Some of them are fine Just kind of a lateral move don't make much difference But then there are plenty of bad ones too and they are like weird or Clumsy or just stupid for example most of the storyline about Matt and the dagger like in the book He just took this magical dagger from a cursed city Which was stupid of him and then it wound up forming a bond with him and he started dying from it And they weren't able to break the bond right away And at the beginning of the second book the dagger gets stolen So he has to go off and grab it because if he's separated from it for too long Then he'll die and also they need to have the dagger with them in order to break the bond between them And so they'll get better again Whereas in the show they've already broken the bond with it But he's still tempted by it and like he wants to get it again it's it's almost like a drug of some sort that he's addicted to and he's trying to kick the habit and I'm not sure where they're going With this storyline to be honest because in the books like at the beginning of the third book He's just healed and then you're done And also if you were unaware this season is basically combining books two and three together which works Alright overall, but yeah at the beginning of book three Matt is just healed from his problem with the dagger and then it Doesn't really come back again after that and in the show I'm not sure where they're going with it like he's still trying to kick the habit He's still an addict I guess so I Guess I can't judge it too harshly if I don't know how it ends up But still it is a weird choice another change that I just didn't like was how the Horn of Valir is barely focused on in the Show whereas like in the books they you see it and you're like Oh, this is a really big deal that we found this thing because this is going to blow at the last battle And it'll summon the heroes of the horn and then they are gonna come in and save everybody whereas in the show They barely mention it and then it gets stolen and then some characters have to go off and grab it and get it back But they don't really explain why it's important and by the finale we do understand why it's important But that moment isn't really built up to and we do understand by the end of the season that it's important But it's just weird that we don't get that information until much later But that said a lot of the hate about this as an adaptation is just pure culture worship, you know It's people just making comments and complaining that oh man This woman character got the spotlight in a scene where she also got the spotlight in the books or oh my god Black people exist like that there was a subreddit called r slash white cloaks Which was created as soon as they announced some of the casting for the show many years ago And it was dedicated solely to complaining that non-white people exist in this story which had non-white people to begin with and Then that subreddit got shut down around the time season one ended because They were just constantly brigading other subreddits to try and cause trouble like again Not everyone who hates this show or has any issues with this show is doing it just for culture war points But that is where a lot of this comes from and that's what makes it annoying to talk about like I Said it in my review of the first season But the Wheel of Time books would get canceled by the right today if they came out today like because the series is Not entirely about but largely about how Hey gender norms are kind of shit and how living in a matriarchal society is just as shit is living in a patriarchal one Like there's a lot of points reading where when I was younger I went Oh, is that what that's like from the opposite direction well Okay, I can see why women would hate that now and Robert Jordan was unabashedly a feminist like he was a Second-wave feminist which is a bit different than modern ones But he very much was like you can cry about that all you want, but that's what the books are Like the only reason that a lot of you are upset with that is because I'm using the word feminist and You have been trained like a dog to react negatively when you hear that But that's about all for non-spoilers like I said season 2 solid watch has issues in it But I'm hoping those can be smoothed over in the future and it is a big step up from season one So whatever the case check it out and let's go into spoiler section now And this is gonna be not spoilers for the whole book series But spoilers for this season of television and the books up until this point Okay, so first thing I need to talk about is Celine slash landfier like she is this woman that Rand is just in a relationship with at the beginning of the season and If you haven't read the books then you're probably thinking hey something's off about her. She seems kind of suspicious and While the way she's introduced is different in the show than in the books It's a pretty similar feeling you're instantly thinking. Yeah, this lady suspicious and then a couple episodes later It turns out. Oh shit. She's one of the forsaken. She's a servant of the dark one and I got to say her actress Steals every single scene that she is in like she does a phenomenal job she might be one of the best in actors in this entire show so far because Every time she's on screen. She just feels evil but also very tempting and seductive at the same time I don't know how to explain it exactly But like you just know that she's not gonna hurt you for no reason But as soon as you get on her bad side, you're in serious trouble And yet she does care about Rand in a weird way, which again that lines up with her character in the books like she is Weirdly in love with him, but she's evil So it's like a weird possessive love and then of obviously there's Isha mail who is the only other forsaken we see up until the final scene of this season and His performance is also great. You know, you can tell that While he does evil things he himself isn't really evil He just he genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing and he wants to end suffering Like that that's basically his idea is to free the dark one destroy the world and then all suffering will end He's I don't want to compare him to Buddhists because that might reflect poorly on Buddhists But in a weird way. Yeah, he's like taking that ideology in a strange direction But it's also clear that again, he's doing this just because he wants to die He wants to cease existing and if you didn't understand that then in the first scene of the finale He just comes right out and says I want to die. Please kill me. So like it's literally coming out and telling you That's what he wants. And so that's why the final battle works pretty well because yeah You you would think that the characters fighting him like Egwayne would not be able to stand up to him for any length of time Really, but he's also clearly not trying that hard You know what I mean? Like he's very very powerful, but he also just wants this shit to be over with so In a weird way He's like allowing Egwayne and the others to kill him and again It's like a moment where Egwayne and parent and them all come together and work together to fight against the bad guy And while land fear and Isha Mayel are both terrifying They're also not super good at their jobs Which again that fits in perfectly with the Forsaken from the books and in the last scene where we see Makadeon Again, she's terrifying, but we'll see you going forward that you know what? Maybe maybe people who devote their lives to evil just aren't the best at doing things Maybe they're incompetent and at the end of last season there was a moment where it seemed like Moiraine got cut off from the one power like she was stilled and she can't channel anymore and that leads into a Weird storyline this season. I don't even know if I'd call it bad necessarily But it is weird because I was pretty sure while watching last time that she wasn't actually stilled She was just shielded meaning she can't access it and because the Magic that men use and the magic women use are totally different She can't actually see the shield that she is shielded with and so we spend most of the season with her being shielded But thinking that she's actually stilled and just trying to go through and help Rand and help the world without being able to use her powers and then near the end Lan actually has a talk with Loghain who was the false dragon from the previous season who did get cut off from the one power permanently and Loghain tells him like oh, yeah, she's not stilled. She is just shielded and so Lan has a moment where he talks to Rand he's like hey, uh, maybe you can break through that and then he breaks through it and Like again, I don't know if I'd call this storyline bad necessarily But it is weird and it goes on longer than it probably should but I will say a lot of people Were complaining that Lan is able to tell Rand this and I'm like why? You know, again, it's not like he figured all this out on his own He was told by somebody else who has more knowledge about the subject and also it's not weird that he would know the basics of channeling You know, he's been around I said I for literal decades. It's not strange that he would understand some of this stuff You know everyone who has read the books You cannot channel and yet you understand the basics of them because you've read about them like It's not strange. You also had some people claiming that Rand does nothing in the final battle and that's not true He does some stuff, but not as much as in the book You know like he does have a moment where he comes out and kills the leader of the shan chan Who who fucking cares about his name? Like I don't no one cares his name He just comes out and he kills him and in the book It was Stupid because that guy was a blade master and ran was able to fight him Sword fight him and then win even though he's only been training for like six weeks at that point Whereas in the show It's actually a very amusing moment Like it's like that moment in indiana jones where he takes out a sword and swings it around He's like ha ha come at me bro And then he just pulls out a gun and shoots him and ran just kills him with a fireball like it's it's amusing And he does land the final blow on isha mail at the end, but That's about it a lot of the heavy lifting is done by his friends And I get that the story isn't about him. It's about everybody and he has a multi page long monologue at the end Where he's like, hey, I couldn't have done it alone. It wasn't about me. It was about everybody But still it is kind of underwhelming because in the books We had a giant battle in the sky where he fought against isha mail who at this point was still pretending to be the dark one And then he defeated him and like that was the moment everybody realized Oh, shit, the the dragon really is reborn that that this is for real Holy shit, and that was kind of the moment where he had accepted like, okay. Yes. I am this is who I am And in this version, it's just Kind of underwhelming You know, like again, it's a good climax to good final battle and everything But as the dragon reborn, he needs to be more impressive, you know, he needs to do Something more than this and I'm hoping in uh further Seasons we will get to see more of that so we can actually see. Yes. Okay. Rand really is a force to be reckoned with because It I don't know in this version. He just doesn't seem like the world Shattering power that he's supposed to be and one final change I want to mention real quick is that they're bringing in the black aja Much earlier than in the books like it's clear from the beginning that okay Yes, there are isidae who are evil and who are serving the shadow and we get to see a lot of that Not only do we get them played much more sympathetically like we understand. Okay. Yes, they they're turning evil Not because they're just evil for the sake of it But they have actual reasons for it, which is kind of nice like again It reminds me of isha mail who is a fantastic villain in the books at least And still a good one in the show so far And because he's one of the only evil characters who isn't evil just for the sake of it He he genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing. And so seeing the black aja appear earlier and seeing how they are screwing over everybody and how they are A rot within the organization is great You know that that's one change that I am I am 100 behind other than that I don't really know what to make of various changes until later on because we won't see their full effects until later on but Yeah, uh That's about all like my spoiler filled thoughts like I don't know. I feel like I'm in agreement with the general consensus here I thought that aguein getting captured by the shan chan and tortured for days or weeks at on end was appropriately horrifying and the moment where she killed rena was Again horrifying, but like you kind of get it and you're realizing. Okay, aguein's kind of a bad person Uh, the final battle like I said was a lot of fun I like that we're seeing rand go away from being like just a nice farm boy into being a much darker and More hardened character because of the stuff he's gone through like he's just now starting that journey, but Trust me. It'll get much worse as time goes on I like that more reign has a bit more to do than just guide the characters now Like her showing up in the final battle and destroying some of the shan chan ship shan chan ships was really great and Overall just yeah, it's enjoyable like there are Some bits of information that I kind of wish Would be in the show that were in the books at this point like we don't know exactly who the shan chan are at this stage, but Whatever overall like I keep saying it's a step up from season one. It's enjoyable television overall so Yeah, check check it out. Those are those are my thoughts kind of scattered, but overall The this season is scattered. Hi everyone. You watched to the end You're probably familiar with the patron names that are on screen right now You know you you understand the concept right like these are all the people that send me money once a month over on patreon If you want to get early access to videos as well as some other goodies and get your name up here Then consider donating or don't you know, I'm not a cop. I can't force you and especially huge Thanks to all of my ten dollar and up patrons who are oppo Savalainen, olivia reyan, brother santotes, buffy valentine, carolina clay, chib zahoy, dan ancilliovich, dark king Dio, echo, flax, james m, karkat kitsune, lexie delorm, lyza rudakova, lord tiebreaker, microphone, mist boy, mitzimona, peep the toad, roby reviews, sad martigan, psych xs, sillier the vixen, stone stares, tesla shark, bay victus, vimex zool, and Wesley who could ever possibly forget about Wesley? Anyways, you're all great. If you don't want to donate then just like the video comment on it Subscribe to my channel share it around do do whatever You know again, I can't I can't force you but I I appreciate it. Have a lovely day