Winter Dragon

When I saw the description of this episode tucked away in an obscure time-slot on an obscure channel I was both excited and concerned. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is deeply significant in my life. Even in the start of this episode, you can immediately feel the collective disappointment of Wheel of Time fans worldwide as the quality was low and dull in the extreme. As it went on I began to understand just how offended one can get by blasphemy or mockery to something well loved... This poorly handled grab at retaining rights nearly physically hurt me with how disgusted I felt.

This is an utterly horrendous attempt at a crap studio to keep film rights they never should have had. Every aspect of this spits on the work it is supposedly derived from.

Still better than Amazon's version of the story. This phoned in recreation of the first few pages of the first book are a more true to source material than the entirety of that abomination that Amazon has poured millions of dollars into. I give it a 8/10 just for being a truer version of Robert Jordan's written work.

I only wish the Amazon series was as good as this. This actually captured the heart of Robert Jordan's story, and if you look at it as a first draft (It was rushed out in order the renew the rights to the series) and not a finished product, it's quite good.

Understanding the circumstances of this Short, created in a tight deadline to retain the rights to the story, is key to appreciating its value. It is a stylistic portrayal of the series prologue and fully stands alone as a short. The remaining 13,000 pages aren't needed to explain this short, and the characters and actors in this short aren't needed to create a TV series which would likely skip the prologue completely.

I thought the directing and writing was a very good adaptation and really captured the spirit of the prologue.

I found it entertaining. If you're expecting a 'Game of Thrones' type of pilot, don't watch.