*braces self* *takes deep breath...*
so, i've been reading these books since middle school, so, late 1990's. i have a really deep connection with them and love them to pieces, hence my forum name and the sword of truth tattooed on my left wrist (sleeve work in progress for that arm and other tat's planned) but anyway, there's my background with the books.
i heard the series was being made at least a year ago and was already skeptical. i mean, in my eyes, there isn't really anyone in existence that matches any character from those books. they're so detailed and intricate, it would be hard for anyone to match the characters or come close to telling the story accurately in movie form, much less a tv show. so there was that. then they posted the cast listing and i almost died. no one was even remotely close.... then came trailers and more disappointment, but at that point, it was just funny. frustrating, but funny. i knew this was gonna be bad from the start, but wow...
watching the first episode... that was painful. i think the only thing they used from the books were the character names and some place names. other than that, they took it upon themselves to re-write the entire story. and to include a million things that didn't happen and were completely unnecessary. like eve-fiance said, kahlan has green eyes. GREEN. how hard is that? it's called contacts... among other things, they f-ed up her dress even though the books describe it countless times, her hair isn't long enough, nor the right color. that's just the tip of the iceberg on all they've screwed up in the show. plus, the acting is awful. typical of those shows, but still. to have the name "wizard's first rule" or "sword of truth" associated in any way is sickening... i hope goodkind didn't actually approve of this and have anything to do with it. seems he would be the type to want any film adaptation to stick to the original story as close as possible.
*deep breath* yeah, sorry, this is long, but this series is so near and dear to me that i could probably write a novel length rant about this *sigh* so, eve-fiance and i are watching it every week just for laughs, though it is still frustrating. you know it's bad when the special "making of" is hosted by the chick that played xena... anyway, there is much more to be said, but to sum it up, the show is awful and i feel such regret for anyone watching it who hasn't read the books; they're going to think the story is terrible and never pick up a book in the series, which is unfortunate.... eve-fiance and i actually have thought about making a web site filled with all the discrepancies and such between the books and the show to try to encourage the reading of the books and the ignoring of the show. *sigh* sorry for the long reply -end rant- ... for the moment...
