I wonder if I need to read the books to really get into the show. Heck, I wonder if I’ll have the time to watch THE WHEEL OF TIME. It seems like there’s always something else to do.
6 thoughts on “The Official WHEEL OF TIME trailer.”
Comments are closed.
Eh. It might help to not read the books. From what I can see aside from diversity, they have not made too many obvious changes.
-Jordan allows for a bit of license. It looks like they are almost going for a Semitic/Arab look for the Two Rivers folk (which fits ‘Dark of hair and of eye.’) Rand stuck out like a sore thumb because he was fair, blond, very tall and grey eyed(?) Not sure they got that perfect, but nothing ever is. For my part, I always saw the Two Rivers and Andor as England, Cairhein was obviously supposed to be France, Tear and Illian Italy and Greece, Borderlands a gamut of Far Eastern and Armenian. And the Aiel, well they are like a cross of vikings, native americans, and Japanese. Seanchan are a heavy Imperial Chinese culture.
-I am not sure what to think of the prominence of Moraine. She is a mysterious figure first and foremost in the early books and you are left guessing what her motives are. Looks like they are tossing that out and going with her as a major focal point (which might not be a bad thing, as Jordan essentially juggled multiple main characters aside from the main three of Rand, Mat and Perrin. Having a bit more focus is not a bad thing, but it will massively alter the narrative if they stay that course.)
-Mat is where they will have the most trouble. It is a hard character to manufacture. Trickster, Rogue, Charming and yet also *spoilers*. Jordan managed it with him, but the characterization of Rand was only ok and Perrin was bland. How do you manufacture the most charismatic character in the entire series? Aside from a young Harrison Ford, maybe Chris Pratt (but even he would be too old by this point.)
-I am wondering about how they possibly imagine this series is manageable. The early going is fine. Then the narrative splinters between the girls and the guys. Then further between the main three dudes. Then between 4-5 of the women. By my count there are at least 8 main characters that I can think of off the top of my head and dozens of secondary but important characters. Then there are the tertiary characters.
Oh, conclusion? Not as bad as I feared- at least at first glance. I wonder how much influence Jordan’s widow is having. If she still has creative control, she will keep them from getting too squirrely.
If the series drops in the next year, you may have missed the window for starting the books in time. Unless you’re more disciplined than I am about plowing through hundreds of pages that barely move the plot and don’t develop the characters. My patience wasn’t sufficient to get through it, despite two attempts.
That was a bit much of a muchness, wasn’t it?
I don’t have any issue with making Moraine the focal point.
That said, I’m pretty sure she was blonde (in the “color-coded for your convenience” way).
That she wore her hair short, and she wore a circlet with a dangling blue gem, were both plot points, and seeing them absent bothers me.
I disagree with Aetius that Perrin is bland. He’s simple. Not stupid, but any stretch, but what you see is exactly what you get. The character radiates EARNESTNESS. It’s Samwise Gamgee as The Big Guy, wielding common sense and The Power of Heart as deftly as his hammer. He’s going to be remarkably hard to cast well.
In answer to your original question, the first book is pretty straightforward, and the next two aren’t bad. It’s when Perrin gets Put on a Bus that kudzu starts eating the plot.
How did the evil Otto Korrect turn “not by” into “but”?
The theater showed this right before my showing of Dune.
The trailer semi-convinced me to give it a look. We’ll see. There are a lot of potential pitfalls in this series, even if they don’t emulate Game of Thrones and start adding bare breasts into every episode. In particular, the Red Ajah – half of whose members are genuine misandrists – is a potential problem point given the political environment these days.
On the positive side, in the hands of someone other than Robert Jordan, it might be possible to avoid the bits where the progress of the plot seemed to slow down.