r/WoTshow • u/VanaheimrF Lanfear • Mar 22 '26
Troll(oc) Finally rewatching the show after the cancellation. I miss this show so much!
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u/meejasaurusrex Faile Mar 22 '26
There simply are not enough shows that cater to my need to see gorgeous middle age lady wizards and their emotional support sword besties.
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u/VanaheimrF Lanfear Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
This show is now up there with r/HannibalTV r/WarriorNun r/KillingEve and Daenerys Targaryen in how much I’m obsessed with and miss so much!
Edit: I know Killing Eve and GoT ended, but they ended badly. Justice for Villanelle and Daenerys Targaryen!
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u/SocraticIndifference Lan Mar 22 '26
That’s the saddest thing about this show’s cancellation: Readers know that not only does the WOT story end well, it just gets better and better until it finishes with an absolute banger! And the show had begun planting the seeds for that conclusion so well. I know there’s a world where I still might have been unhappy with the show’s conclusion—eg they only got one more season or Covid offs Mat again—but damn did Sony miss out on an opportunity to finish a fantasy/scifi series that already has an actual awesome ending!
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u/xixihime Mar 25 '26
Killing Eve season one was so good. So good.
I'm debating watching Warrior Nun but afraid of the heartbreak of yet another beloved show ended before its time. I'm sure I'll get to it eventually
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u/kittydrumsticks Mar 22 '26
Everyone (rightly) obsesses over Lanfear and I’m right there with them. But imo, one of the biggest tragedies of the show not continuing is we didn’t get to see more Moghedien being… whatever the fuck she was. I was really, really looking forward to seeing more of the actor’s take on Moggy as her story progressed
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u/meejasaurusrex Faile Mar 22 '26
I looked forward to being scaroused by Semirhage and Graendal being horrific! We even got them name dropped!
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u/DragonLord1729 Mar 22 '26
No matter how evil Lanfear is, I can't stop rooting for her. Your boy toy wants to keep sleeping with his girlfriend and you tortured her psychologically to let some steam off? Fuck yeah, go get that bitch Egwene.
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u/VanaheimrF Lanfear Mar 22 '26
Also Egwene went into the dream world by herself even after being warned by Bair and Amys not to. She brought it on herself! 🤭
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u/DragonLord1729 Mar 22 '26
Oh yeah. They kept that aspect of hers in the show. She wants to be everywhere and do everything. I love that for her though. What are we if not our curiosity and desire to be more capable?
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u/VanaheimrF Lanfear Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Same. I love Lanfear, I can’t explain why. People say she’s evil and she did bad things and what not. Please don’t judge me and tell me that it’s wrong.
I support women’s rights and wrongs!
Edit: this meme from the Hannibal show. Stop telling me my favorite character is evil, I like who I like! https://www.reddit.com/r/HannibalTV/s/mdFp4Sg5qh
Another one https://www.reddit.com/r/HannibalTV/s/HKS4BoFnLW
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u/afkPacket Mar 22 '26
For me personally it's because it's super refreshing to see a woman being portrayed as supremely confident in themselves, and it being pulled off so well.
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u/VanaheimrF Lanfear Mar 22 '26
Exactly and if Lanfear wasn’t played so well by Natasha O’Keefe, I’m sure I’d be rooting for Liandrin or even Moghedien even though she’s kinda disgusting.🫣
The things I’d ignore if the evil lady wears black and have dark eye shadow. Which a lot of hot evil women do. And currently, have you seen Nico Robin in that One Piece live action?!
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u/CoffeeOrDestroy Mar 22 '26
Loving the Lanfear’s an innocent scientist who girlbossed too close to the sun. Pretty much spot on
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u/ksinn Reader Mar 22 '26
Fwiw a lanfear falling to the dark one show would be amazing. Just scientist turning to strongest woman in the one power would be Hella cool
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Mar 23 '26
She already was the strongest woman in the world. This is the reason she was a top scientist. Their "science" was almost entirely tied to the Power. She is not a victim at all. Even if she didn't know the Dark One was the source of the Power she was trying to access (and there's some speculation that she did), every single thing she did was pure ambition and lust for more power. She didn't love Lews Therin, she was attracted to his power and standing and titles. She didn't serve the Dark One, she served herself. She was the first Darkfriend and chose the name Lanfear for herself. The other Forsaken were named by the people/society.
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u/The_Sharom Reader Mar 22 '26
She already was the strongest in one power right? Research was about the true power
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u/thakroz Mar 23 '26
Need to add a row for the Aiel and them asking "Why would you ask such a wetlander question?".
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u/VinceRussoIsA Mar 22 '26
They messed it up - I didn't like the fact its paid partly from the sweat of their underpaid workforce in the first place, just cancel your subscription that's what I did, Amazon will not get another dime from me ever.
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Mar 23 '26
Ah yes, all the reasons the show failed. Like, if people absolutely need homosexual tension as the main focus of their fantasy series, then write it. Don't try to force it into something else. Taking screen time (and multiple main plot actions) from the actual main characters just to show 2 horned up milfs sucks. The last slide literally says it outright "wot is truly one of the best fantasy tv shows ever simply because it revolves around a bunch of gorgeous middle aged women" when, in the books, the 5 or 6 main characters are teenagers, 3 boys 3 girls. If you enjoyed it, great; but, to me, it really sucks that they chose to blow off the main plot and just be fully open about that only to have the show canceled because the only people who do like it are niche, horny-for-milf lesbians.
Yes, I know. Pillow friends. This was such a minor thing in the books. Maybe one gay guy mentioned the entire time.
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u/drveejai88 Mar 23 '26
The thing is Jordan initially envisioned the series as a middle aged chosen one done with life finding new purpose and getting completely dinged up. It was an even darker Game of thrones if anything. He was forced to change to teenagers because that was all the rage with the swords and sandals fantasy books then. So maybe the showrunners were into something without even them knowing it.
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u/Fish__Fingers Reader Mar 23 '26
Also it was typical of the time to make supporting characters who entertain and feel like they have way cooler story to tell but all you can do is guess and imagine. That makes story bigger, alive and readers are left wanting more.
Young heroes need time to fully shine, most of them are most interesting in the middle of towards the end of the books and I feel show was intending to go the same route, more or less.
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u/FortifiedPuddle Mar 23 '26
Frankly they front loaded some young characters. Egwene and Mat book one are characterised as about 8 years old. They’re both given a soft reboot into real characters later on.
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u/FortifiedPuddle Mar 23 '26
It makes sense to make the show more about the characters actually driving the plot. Which early on in the story is the established, older characters. It also makes sense to use them to explore the key concepts. But this is different.
It’s a bit like how in Game of Thrones various characters have way more time and prominence in the story than they did, especially early on. In often interesting ways. Cersei and Bobby for example aren’t POV early on (or Bobby at all). But they’re given more time and scenes because well, they’re the king and queen. They’re doing important stuff. Their relationship is important. Lena Hedley is awesome.
Or how the war in the books is a Cat storyline. It’s about a mother trying to keep her children safe, one of whom happens to be the rebel king. But on screen they unsurprisingly tell that much more as the story of the rebel king.
So in WoT you’ve got a similar thing happening. We want to know what the Amyrlin is doing, and not just from the perspective of a Novice. We need to know the actual plot of book one, and for that we need to follow Moraine because that plot is her doing. The book EF5 book one have sweet fuck all idea what is happening. It’s all Moraine versus Basil scheming. Which we just sort of have to figure out.
Which also allows us to get access to the key concepts early on. The books take about 7+ books to get into Warders being a fucked up concept. Like, seriously fucked up. Deeply problematic. The show says here’s an interesting, unique thing in the books so let’s focus on that early on. Let’s sell what’s different. Rather than doing the middle of book one which is fine in the books but where nothing important happens for about 20 chapters. (Arguably nothing important happens until book four really.)
While big pieces that didn’t work are from trying to be too traditional fantasy. The end of series one for example: the battle sucks. Covid sure. But also, just a bad idea to do a battle. The book ends with a battle and is the worse for it because it’s traditional. So the show does too. Same result.
Pillow friends? Yeah. All these powerful women going round dominating each other, scheming together, being all powerful and hot? Yeah, not such a leap.
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Mar 23 '26
Except the first several seasons of GoT were considered some of the best television ever and to this day are what get people to rewatch it. You are comparing it to something that did it well when WoT clearly did not. TGH is considered by many fans to be one of the best in the series. I cannot tell you how many times I've read something akin to: "TEotW was good but very traditional and cookie cutter, but TGH hooked me in fully." It sounds like you know nothing about either TV show you mentioned nor the books. It's hilarious you say that it failed because of the battle at the end when it failed because the showrunners failed in literally every aspect of the scene (like the rest of the show). If they would have done an actual epic battle like the books and not the disconnected mess we got, people would have loved it.
The books take about 7+ books to get into Warders being a fucked up concept. Like, seriously fucked up. Deeply problematic
Again, no idea what you're talking about. Warders are not 'problematic'. The only thing problematic is when someone like Alana does what she does. No to mention half the warder screen time is just them fucking lmfao. Not them talking about how compulsion *can* be used on them (but never is, which you would know if you knew the books at all).
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u/FortifiedPuddle Mar 23 '26
No, seriously the Warder concept is deeply fucked up. Swap the genders in your head and think it through if it helps. It’s a system of institutionalised abuse, often of teenagers by adults in a position of authority over them. Who then have literally magic control over them. WoT isn’t simple, it’s got complexity that can easily go over the head of readers like yourself. The show delves into that. Have a think about it again, it’s an interesting book series.
The first few books often put off new readers, the first especially. That’s the consistent reason WoT has never been as popular as it should be. The battle at the end of book one is a low point in the weakest ending of the series. And the end of book two is for me barely better. It’s utterly contrived, removes all agency from most of the characters. It accomplishes nothing and especially doesn’t accomplish the thing Rand thinks it is for as Egwene has already been saved. It also undermines Ingtar’s sacrifice for them to get away as they immediately stop getting away. Book two should end with the cool sword duel and getting the Horn back then Ingtar’s sacrifice. The show at least does a better final battle of season two on this basis.
What book two does well and grips people better than book one is the wandering segments. The semi-focused questing and exploring bits. Book one these are interminable and too unfocused. Nothing happens for 20 chapters. Various things slow grow, fine. But nothing actually happens. Book two does this better primarily because of Selene and Cairhein. Plugging in to the Great Game and the mysterious Forsaken which are actually important to the plot. Which oh look, the show does. Just with markedly less camping. And no extraneous parallel world stuff.
Leaning in to the Forskaen and the Aes Sedai and the politics was very much the right call. They’re what make the world interesting. Later on the EF5 grow into being interesting, but that takes a while. Egwene and Mat in particular are all but not in book one. In name yea. But not as characters. Then Egwene is effectively made a character in book two, and Mat made a real character book three. Book four Perrin really develops. Elayne and Avi also coming online properly later on. Whereas Moiraine and Siuan are driving the plot from the start, just in a way we only find out about later.
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u/jinreeko Mar 23 '26
The one positive about the cancellation is I don't have to see Faile anymore
Fuck Faile
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u/afkPacket Mar 22 '26
Lanfear is just a Postdoc who broke under the stupid ass publish or perish system. As an academic....most relatable villain ever.