Wheel of Time TV Series In The Works

[cubby]

(Nothing to do with that crappy, 1am, BS Red Eagle did earlier.)

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/whee...ny-1202390897/

I'm so excited, I can't wait to see who they cast as Mat

How can they hope to take 17 enormous volumes and turn it into a tv series? It would be take 20 years. Don't get me wrong, I hope they nail it. But the odds are not in their favor.

I mean, how many episodes would the first book have to be?

[mickybrighteyes]

How can they hope to take 17 enormous volumes and turn it into a tv series? It would be take 20 years. Don't get me wrong, I hope they nail it. But the odds are not in their favor.

I mean, how many episodes would the first book have to be?

They'd just cut a lot of side shit and only focus on more of the important shit.

Less fucking around with building up tertiary characters and likely blobbing their shit into another main character. I'd bet they wouldn't even bother with Min and just meld her character in with one of the other girls who does more than just 'see things'

[Tackhisis]

I'm fairly certain that Rand was physically the son of random Aiel

Rand was a son of Janduin, a clan chief, and a descendant of Lewin, one the first Aiel, and Tigraine Mantear, the queen of Cairhien, Andor, and who knows what else.

[Deleted]

Rand was a son of Janduin, a clan chief, and a descendant of Lewin, one the first Aiel, and Tigraine Mantear, the queen of Cairhien, Andor, and who knows what else.

yeah, that would be like all Aiel.
Because the ones who didn't join him, became Tuatha'an or however that's spelled.

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They'd just cut a lot of side shit and only focus on more of the important shit.

Less fucking around with building up tertiary characters and likely blobbing their shit into another main character. I'd bet they wouldn't even bother with Min and just meld her character in with one of the other girls who does more than just 'see things'

I would much rather they scrap Elayne and Aviendha.
Min is a much better character.

[Klaiden Potugye]

Fantasy worlds are usually populated with real humans, horses, dogs, chicken, trees, wheat, maize, etc. etc. They cannot be different from our world, and if something makes no sense in our world, it is also out of place in a fantasy setting. As soon as you introduce the human race, it limits your fantasy. Even earlier authors realized that and used humans-but-not-humans to circumvent this.

Now I understand where you coming from.

There is a reason it is called fantasy.

[f3llyn]

To be completely honest, I wouldn't bother. One of the best series ever written until Jordan died and Sanderson took over and shat all over it.

Weird you say this because from what I've read and my own opinion on it is that he held pretty faithful to what Jordan wanted. He wrote most of it from Jordan's notes after all and Jordan's wife also had the final say.

[Orby]

I loved the Wheel of Time books. well for the most part at least.

I think a TV series is the best route to take with this too.

[f3llyn]

Rand was the son of Tigraine (princess-heir of Andor) and Mandwin (chieftain of an Aiel clan). He inherited the ancient skill of the Aiel Treesong that way (what he uses at the start of MoL to create a Great Tree). As a channeler he has immense potential (though still his pure power is nearly matched by multiple forsaken sans some augmentation yet he uses an angreal almost constantly in the later books) and has peerless skill with Traveling weaves though no exceptional skill with other weaves (though pure power allows him far more options than most channelers have).
Calling a Messianic figure that is constantly struggling with psychosis, goes through a period of catatonia a Gary Stu seems disingenuous. The one thing that possibly makes Rand a Gary Stu is the ridiculous marriage with three gorgeous women (though imo it is always painfully obvious that if he had to choose, he'd pick Min; he always picks Min). Keep in mind that the other two are not really willing to sacrifice anything for Rand (Elayne especially often feels like she is after a very strong political marriage with a very hot guy she would not mind fucking with).

The channeling system is a magical system. It has a lot of internal consistency, as does the True Power (and there is are multiple reasons why Rand can wield the True Power; resonance from intersecting balefire with Morridin on the final battle of book 7 but most importantly the fact that the Dark One WANTED him to use the True Power against Semirhage). There are many other talents but almost all of them are recorded skills that are rarely possesed.

As for plot armor and the way plot goes forward; that's the very basis of the Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time is about fate conspiring to keep history intact against all outside forces and about how struggling against fate is meaningless and embracing fate allows you far more leeway to guide it than struggling against it. Being ta'veren does not save the main characters, it is a plot tool; only Rand gains some control of it during the final book and even then he doesn't control what happens.

That's actually false. Rand was supposed to have exceptional skill with fire weaves. He always said he could do those without having to think about it too much.

At least that's what I remember. It's been a few years since I last read the books.

[f3llyn]

True, he always used fire weaves early on before learning to use offensive traveling and balefire. But I think this was not so much about Rand but rather about men vs women; he was talking to female channelers (who are strong with water and air and weak with earth and fire) and they found the ease with which he used fire compelling (when it was likely because he was male and had reverse elemental synergies).

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You cannot really even skip Min. Min is Rand's most important confidant, the only person he agrees to travel with. His interactions with Min define him emotionally far more so than anything else in the series and whatever Jordan has him say, it is clear that he loves Min differently and quite more deeply than the other two. I doubt they'd be true to Min though in a series; remember than Min is a decade older than Rand after all and I am not sure they'd stay true to that.
The stories that dragged too long imo was Faile's imprisonment (which can be dealt with scenes scattered across at most 6 episodes), Morgase's arc could easily be cut (she could still be around among the retinue simply for completeness but creating all the additional sets seems costly with no reason) as can Galad (he never even met his brother, that was a huge shame; he was only there as a foil for Gawyn who was only there to give Egwene a man to berate)

That was one of my biggest disappointments with the books. I wonder if Sanderson just ran out of pages in his quest to finish the series or if Jordan never intended for them to meet?

Either way it was a let down.

[Deleted]

"Sign" I hope it will be good. But i feel like, the books are to big to make into a show.

I mean If we just do 1 book = 1 season, that it will hit 14 seasons just seem to long. And They would have to cut so much if they want to make multiple books into 1 season they will probaly cut so much.

[Deleted]

You cannot really even skip Min. Min is Rand's most important confidant, the only person he agrees to travel with. His interactions with Min define him emotionally far more so than anything else in the series and whatever Jordan has him say, it is clear that he loves Min differently and quite more deeply than the other two. I doubt they'd be true to Min though in a series; remember than Min is a decade older than Rand after all and I am not sure they'd stay true to that.
The stories that dragged too long imo was Faile's imprisonment (which can be dealt with scenes scattered across at most 6 episodes), Morgase's arc could easily be cut (she could still be around among the retinue simply for completeness but creating all the additional sets seems costly with no reason) as can Galad (he never even met his brother, that was a huge shame; he was only there as a foil for Gawyn who was only there to give Egwene a man to berate)

As far as i'm concerned the books would have been better sans Perrin and consequently Faile.
And while it would cut alot, pretty much everything Andor related could be cut, most of it really isn't important.

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That was one of my biggest disappointments with the books. I wonder if Sanderson just ran out of pages in his quest to finish the series or if Jordan never intended for them to meet?

Either way it was a let down.

yeah, they should have met at least once.

[Kallor]

"Rafe Judkins is attached to write and executive produce. Judkins previously worked on shows such as ABC’s “Agents of SHIELD,” the Netflix series “Hemlock Grove,” and the NBC series “Chuck."

They need better writers than this if they want it to be good.

[Deleted]

Nah they most definitely do not need to do 1 book = 1 season. The first five books could be a season each and then imo 6-7, 8-10, could each be abridged into two seasons. I could even imagine doing that for 2-3 and 4-5 if you are willing to cut some scenes (though they are the best books by far. So 14 seasons would never happen but 10 seasons could. Of course if it did not have at least as much success as Game of Thrones then there is no point even doing it.

And well that is my Point. I would "want" 14 seasons, i dont want a lot to be cut, but fact is, I am haveing a hard time to imagine anything getting game of thrones level of succes. and that is requires to that many seasons if you want high fanatsy epic story telling, which would be requires

[Deleted]

I mean as readers many were excited when we made the link between Rand and Galad (and it seemed so important for both of them that they actually had a blood relative alive!) only for Galad to just learn about it a few minutes before he went off to die like a champ against Demandred.

And yes the Perrin arc and Andor arcs were easily the worst parts of the book. Mostly because the characters just lacked any charm. Perrin was boring and Elayne was the one character I would very much like to balefire out of existence.

yeah, the only interesting Perrin arc, the defense of the Two rivers one, could just have gone to Mat a book later or so.
And while most of Elayne's arcs are fine, but the entire 'Andor Civil war' is like, Why do we give a shit?

[f3llyn]

I mean as readers many were excited when we made the link between Rand and Galad (and it seemed so important for both of them that they actually had a blood relative alive!) only for Galad to just learn about it a few minutes before he went off to die like a champ against Demandred.

And yes the Perrin arc and Andor arcs were easily the worst parts of the book. Mostly because the characters just lacked any charm. Perrin was boring and Elayne was the one character I would very much like to balefire out of existence.

I never minded Elayne for the simple fact she's probably one of the only female characters in the entire series who supported Rand and never thought she needed to control his every move. Unlike certain other female characters that were close to him... looking at you Egwene.

But yeah. Elayne's story arcs were definitely some of the least interesting.

[Deleted]

THe thing is, the entire Andor Civil war arc can be resolved fairly fast. Keep the action scenes, cut the rest.

So much better.

Also you can't cut Perrin. He has several cool scenes. The Two Rivers part is fun, that part when he chops an Aiel's hands off would be awesome, the forging of a magical weapon will be 5 minutes of pure hype. The first book would be really weird without him and Mat and Rand's dynamic need Perrin to work properly.

yeah, he does work well as a part of the group while they are together, its when he goes away that things go boring.

I don't know, I like ELayne because she regularly passes the Bechdel test, sure Rand is the Messia but Elayne was always the hero of her own story and noone else came before her. And that's good about her; she is in love with him but she is not going to drop everything to support him like Min does.

My problem was always that i didn't really care about her story.

But at the same time she is too fucking snooty and after all they go through in the first few books I'd expect that part to have been beaten out of her; she never actually gains even a smidge of humility even against people like Nynaeve who is so overwhelming more capable than her (both in channeling and in actual ability to empathise with people).

yeah, her redeeming quality was always Nynaeve, its funny, first time i read the books, i was, 13-14 and I disliked her character (Nynaeve) but later she grew on me (or maybe i grew up), She is my favorite character now, after Mat.

I also cannot understand her relation with Aviendha at all; in all honesty that sounds like a male writer trying to write a woman and failing; I cannot imagine two women going that far to be with the same man and it's the weakest part of the story for me.

yeah, this would have made a lot more sense if it was Egwene instead, because her and Elayne really didn't spend that much time together to begin with.

But the main problem is that her story in Caemlyn is so arduously slow. The only reason I would never cut Elayne down is because she is needed for Nynaeve's arcs and if you cut Elayne you cut foul-mouthed Brigitte that likes to fuck ugly dudes!

yes, so much this.

[Shadowferal]

And well that is my Point. I would "want" 14 seasons, i dont want a lot to be cut, but fact is, I am haveing a hard time to imagine anything getting game of thrones level of succes. and that is requires to that many seasons if you want high fanatsy epic story telling, which would be requires

*nods* Trying to squeeze more than 2 books in a single 23 episode season by cutting out characters will turn this series into shit quick. And cutting Perrin? WTF? The one that truly masters Tel'aran'rhiod? Oh hell no! His arc with the wolves and mastering the dream realm was pivotal.

[Deleted]

*nods* Trying to squeeze more than 2 books in a single 23 episode season by cutting out characters will turn this series into shit quick. And cutting Perrin? WTF? The one that truly masters Tel'aran'rhiod? Oh hell no! His arc with the wolves and mastering the dream realm was pivotal.

Wait wait. I never said anything Perrin. Him in the last books with Tel'aran'rhiod is fucking epic. But I mean there is stuff of the more "filler" that can be removed. I am right now in relisening for Lord of chaos. and well there is clear parts that i would be like"yeah you COULD remove some of the WAY to much filler in the 2nd tower.

[Scathbais]

Wait wait. I never said anything Perrin. Him in the last books with Tel'aran'rhiod is fucking epic. But I mean there is stuff of the more "filler" that can be removed. I am right now in relisening for Lord of chaos. and well there is clear parts that i would be like"yeah you COULD remove some of the WAY to much filler in the 2nd tower.

Agreed, I thought it was pretty awesome when Perrin brushed aside the "deadly" balefire and left whatshername flabbergasted.

Basically to make the TV series successful: keep almost everything in books 1 to 5, eliminate/gloss over every other book written by Jordan and then go full throttle into the last three written by Brandon Sanderson.

[Redwyrm]

Book 1 could easily fit into one season.

Ep 1 - Farm to Village (Day)
Ep 2 - Farm to Village (Night) & Escape
Ep 3 - Travel to and stay in Baerlon (Nynaeve, Min, White Cloaks)
Ep 4 - Shadar Logoth

And here is where it get tricky. Because the journey from Shadar Logoth to Camelyn is split into three parts and there is a lot of filler that could be cut (half of Rand/Mats walk)

Ep 5 & 6 - Lan/Moraine/Nynaeve, Mat/Rand/Thom, Egwene/Perrin interwoven stories on getting to Caemlyn. Can be split or mixed together.

Ep 7 - Camelyn introducing several key characters (Elayne, Elaida, Loial and Logain)

Ep 8 - The Ways

Ep 9 - Fal Dara arrival and preparations

Ep 10 - Travel to the Eye

Ep 11 - Battle at the Eye and Aftermath