Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For me the opening sequences is what told me all I need to know about the show and the direction it is taking. It seems obvious (and I really hope I am wrong because I want to want to watch this show), is that the One Power is not split between Saidar and Saidin, instead it seems it is going to be more like the True Power (that is the Dark One's power) in that it is not gender based in that male channeler's can only touch Saidin and female channeler's only touch Saidar. I am driven to this conclusion that 1) the dragon reborn can be a female and the 2) the comment that Liandrin made to that male channeler about polluting the source. This destroys the main themes of Jordan's works and is unforgivable. The entire series is driven by the duality of the One Power. It is what drove - at least in part - Mieren Eronaile (later to be known as Lanfear) to "drill" the Bore to that source of power which allowed both women and men the ability to tap into it. Anyway, the duality of the One Power...the fact that women and men are different but still equal in their own way, is a major theme throughout. Also, related to this, is that men and women are capable of so much more working together than by working alone. Instead this aberration of Jordan's work veers hard left and boxes the genders into men bad/incompetent women good/powerful. And it is so very unnecessary. The books are chock full of strong female characters (Egwene, Nynaeve, Moiraine, Min, Elayne, Aviendha...the list is long and amazing) and while some may feel that Jordan only wrote women one way (I don't agree, but I see some merits to this argument), this is where no one would argue - even us passionate book readers - a change to these strong female characters giving them more depth. And you don't have to belittle men to do it or shove certain characters like Egwene and her opening scenes which weren't part of the book, to do it. That is the fundamental issue with this show. That same argument can be said about the ridiculous heterogeneity in Two Rivers. It makes that logical part of my brain go "WTF?!?!" when all I want to be is immersed in the story. I have heard some say that only Rand's race/genetics is plot driven...okay, sure, but the point of the books is that Rand is different from the folks of Two Rivers. It is mentioned constantly and consistently in the books from Thom mentioning he looks like an Aiel to when he is in Caemlyn and they (Morgase et. al) question the veracity of his statement that he is from Two Rivers. Now, with Two Rivers looking like Time Square on New Year's Eve, that plot device, that driver to Rand's story arc is gone. And it is so unnecessary to do this, because Jordan painstakingly built and incredibly complex, deep and diverse world full of varying cultures, races and societies. And more to the point these various cultures drive so much of the story!!!