I'm a series watcher first, and I finished book 1 and I'm 90% through book 2, here are my thoughts
Introduction
As a Brazilian who likes reading fantasy novels, I had never heard of the Wheel of Time until the series started on Amazon Prime. The books hadn't been translated to Portuguese until that point and I wasn't circulating in fantasy book spaces to have had the chance to hear about it.
When I saw the show, I loved it! As someone who grew up watching anime, I always missed that over-the-tome full of sparkles and glitter level of magic I often saw in anime but rarely seen in western media. Then I am presented with a show full of over-the-top magic, complicated magic systems, gigantic structures, secret societies, evil gods? I am sold.
Did I absolutely love s1? No, I think the younger cast was very annoying in s1 but I thought that Moiraine and the other side characters were so cool they carried the series.
Comes s2 and s3, the show seemed to have grown more comfortable with itself, and s3 was a masterpiece. So cool, so interesting, so devastating when it ended.
That said, as a show watcher, my relationship with the books was a bit... strange. I had very unfortunate experiences in the main WoT sub, to the point that I found some people in there so nasty I felt like not reading the book simply to not be part of the book fandom. I think some people in that subreddit do an absolute disservice to the story and their only achievement is to make people distance themselves from the books.
However, despite that, and the show's ending, the story never left me. It was so unique and interesting that, after a few tries, I finally finished book 1 and I'm now finishing book 2.
Book one
The most surprising thing about book one to me was how similar it was to the show. As someone who started with the show and then looked up the opinions from book reader, the impression I got was that the series was a complete bastardisation of the book to the point that it was unrecognisable. But... that's not what I saw.
Yes, there are overall differences, and some big differences like my boy Thom Merrilin being essentially removed from the story, but the story moved in essentially the same way, the major beats were there, the characters act very similarly to their book version, etc. The one main part that is very different was the ending, and I do understand people disliking the series ending, I also prefer the book's ending. Seeing two Forsaken at the end of the story, the giant moving tree, and Rand going full Avatar meets Sci-Fi Meets Borsalino from one piece was kinda of insane and I too, now, feel disappointed by how nerfed my boy Rand was in the series.
However, apart from the ending, and the fact that the book story is more about Rand, it didn't feel like it was so different to warrant all the criticism I saw.
Book 2
Here is where I am REALLY confused by people's opinion on the show, because I remember s2 not being criticised as heavily for deviating from the book and generally being considered better than s1. So naturally I expected this season to be more faithful (or as faithful as possible given the changes from the end of book one) but boy, it is NOT FAITHFUL AT ALL! If anything, book 2 and s2 feel like two interpretations of the same story.
No one is at the same place that they are in the book, they are generally doing different things, with different people, certain personalities are different (shoutout to Natasha O'Keefe who made Selene/Lanfear FAR MORE interesting, cunning, sexy and charismatic than her book counterpart who is SO ANNOYING).
I liked s2 in the series, I thought the plots were really good, I loved Elayne and thought the Seanchan were interesting and Maddeleine Madden did such a great job on those torture scenes. But, reading the book, it's like: "oh, so none of that happens here?"
So it's very shocking to me to see that s2 was better received even though it's so different to book two, whilst s1 was so hated despite being very close to book one.
Conclusion
I love the WoT series and it's a travesty that it was cancelled, but at least we have a complete series to read through (which is more than what I think I'll have with ASoIaF). And reading it has been really enjoyable (well, once you cross the halfway mark of book one because, honestly, the first half is really boring and drags) and I absolutely understand why people love Rand, he's so cute and entertaining as a character and I wish they had portrayed him in a series more like that cute innocente farmboy we see in books 1 and 2, and obviously, how much of an absolute powerhouse he is with the One Power.
I wonder if people's opinion is more positive because those who were against the show in s1 simply didn't go back to watch?
Also, I cannot stop from thinking of Luffy from One Piece everytime Matt is making jokes and laughing:
