Winter Dragon

Red Eagle has been sitting on this great trove of modern mythology for a decade or so. They've had plenty of time to do something amazing. And if anything, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, should have spurred them to REAL action.

Instead, these clowns produced a junior college quality abortion of a film with wooden acting and cartoon costumes. They literally sneaked this dog onto the air at like 1AM, probably so that no one would watch it. Why? Two reasons: First, these Turd World Refugees knew it would suck. Second: It was a greedy, desperate attempt to hold on to the rights of a story they didn't invent, and haven't done a damned thing worth mentioning with for ten years.

If it were a perfect world, Rand al'Thor and the Asha'man would show up at Red Eagle's offices and Balefire them right of the Pattern of this Age.

Do Not Watch This.

There is absolutely no excuse for this garbage. If you are a fan of this series then my heart goes out to you and as a fellow fan I share in your disgusted opinion of this disaster. This a perfect example of why they should have the rights to this potentially epic fantasy series stripped from them. The fact that fans of this series have to resort to saying "well they shot it in 4 days so its good considering that" should be a glaring red flag for anyone who was hoping for a well done pilot. It is so evident that no one involved in this pilot cares about the series other than to control the rights to it. Highlighted by the casting choice of Billy Zane as Ishamael this was doomed from the start. Read the books if you have not yet and for those of you who have and are just discovering this brown stain of a pilot...there are no redeeming aspects of this pilot. Furthermore, it is brutal people are actually trying to give pros and cons to this piece of tragic TV history. As a fan I award you no points and you should be stripped of the rights to this asap.

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.

Why. Why would you deliberately sabotage an entire series with this travesty. Wheel of Time has the potential to be an outstanding television series, with engaging plots and strong characters- male, female, people of color- it has it all and you did this. We know you did it in order to hold on the film and TV rights, however you just shot yourself in the foot, because if this is what you have to show people interested in making a show, you have no idea how badly you have screwed up. It was nice (and incredibly lazy) of you to incorporate so much of the book's original dialog, but that won't save the kindergarten level acting and complete disregard for basic plot elements- like, I dunno- never naming the Dark One? Ever? It's a thing? You did actually read more than the prologue, yes?

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.