[TV] The Wheel of Time

[Ihavewaffles]

is that critics or viewer scores??

[ProphetFlume]

Odd choice to have Lan as an aisan. I always thought of the Sharan's as aisans. The Cairhien access to through the aiel lands felt like a nod to the silkroad of our own history.

Lan’s people are definitely based on Mongolians. There are a lot of Asians in the books. I think even nynaeve is mentioned as having those “tilted eyes.”

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Seems to me like it's the standard trap of adaptations with a big fanbase: they're trying to make it appealing to people who've never read the books, so they change stuff to be more in line with "expected" TV tropes; as a result, the actual fans of the show hate it, because it takes away some of the power the original material had in drawing them into things in the first place; and now because you've changed things to be more generic the show loses some of the unique appeal the original material had, and fails to actually draw in as many new viewers. Congratulations, you've driven away the old crowd, and failed to hook enough of a new crowd. Hope you're proud.

We've seen this SO. MANY. TIMES. And yet they somehow refuse to learn.

If they wanted their own GoT they should’ve taken notes on how faithful the first 5 seasons are, that’s why it was so successful.

[Corvus]

is that critics or viewer scores??

Critics. They gave GoT season 1 90 on RT and 80 on metacritic in comparison.

[Biomega]

Lan’s people are definitely based on Mongolians. There are a lot of Asians in the books. I think even nynaeve is mentioned as having those “tilted eyes.”

But what are the chances we'll get actual red-haired Aiel? I'd bet anything they'll do the same thing any other film/series has done and immediately jump to "desert people = Middle-Eastern/African-looking actors".

[Corvus]

Lan’s people are definitely based on Mongolians. There are a lot of Asians in the books. I think even nynaeve is mentioned as having those “tilted eyes.”

Culturally they are Nepal/Tibet influenced, but not physically. Lan is, repeatedly, mentioned to have blue eyes and every bit of artwork prior to the show has him as caucasian. RJ liked to mix things up in that regards - Seanchan was a mix of things like Imperial China and the Byzantine Empire, but they spoke with a Texan accent ('Y'all bow down to the Empress, y'hear?'). And the Aiel are physically Irish but culturally a mix of things like Zulu, Apache and Bedouin.

[Ihavewaffles]

Well, hopefully this leads to other book series becoming shows (better quality than this one seems to be otherwise don't bother..

serpentwar saga


or this series


What other book series should become a show??

[Corvus]

The Belgariad, Riftwar, Malazan Book of the Fallen, Elric of Melibone, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Wizard of Earthsea, Memory Sorrow and Thorn, Dragonriders of Pern. There are plenty out there, and popular too, but Wheel of Time was truely massive in comparison. The only things bigger than it in book sales have been Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings/Hobbit and Narnia.

[bledgor]

Sadly I think a lot of the stories I would want to be made into movies/shows I would rather they not for the time being, or in some cases not live action at least. So many bad adaptations, and only a few that did good.

[Rennadrel]

Why would rand and egwene have sex?

She kinda is his love interest early on in the story, truth be told. But his destiny, along with her's, makes them not right for one another.

[Shadowferal]

What other book series should become a show??

It took several decades to get lotr made into something that most finally see as feeling "right." And still...there are critics.
Harry Potter is a love-to-hate fest. The first two movies were near perfect book to movie. But what followed was a mess.

I don't think I want anymore book to movies.

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She kinda is his love interest early on in the story, truth be told. But his destiny, along with her's, makes them not right for one another.

So...bang her then leave her...sounds like Rafe thought that through. Another reason for Gawyn to hate Rand...assuming Rafe put the character in his little interpretation.

[Corvus]

No sign of him or Elayne yet. They skipped the whole Caemlyn part of the first book, including meeting Elaida. Given her importance to the story and reaction to Rand, not having her is odd.

Rand's adventures in Caemlyn are among my favourite parts of the first book, especially the throne room scene. Sadly Elayne and Gawyn go downhill after that.

[ProphetFlume]

She kinda is his love interest early on in the story, truth be told. But his destiny, along with her's, makes them not right for one another.

Yeah but that went as far as dancing. Maybe some mentioned kisses?

No sign of him or Elayne yet. They skipped the whole Caemlyn part of the first book, including meeting Elaida. Given her importance to the story and reaction to Rand, not having her is odd.

Rand's adventures in Caemlyn are among my favourite parts of the first book, especially the throne room scene. Sadly Elayne and Gawyn go downhill after that.

First book I was down on Egwene and high on Elayne, I've never experienced such a flip in a series. Started hating Elayne after book 2 shockingly fast, and Egwene had some of the best character progression in fiction, slowly becoming a favorite.

[Redwyrm]

What other book series should become a show??

While I love MS&T from Tad Williams. I think his Otherland series would make a better movie series.

[Aphrel]

What other book series should become a show??

Tbh, i think most of Sanderssons books would translate rather well to cinema. Not that huge a cast of characters in most of his books, and his magic system already plays out like a highpace action scene in the readers head.

Ofc highest on my wishlist would be the Malazan books, but even thou every fiber of my being wants to see the Siege of Pale and Anomander rake on the big screen, but i know they could never come close to pull of that universe.

[Skizzit]

If they wanted their own GoT they should’ve taken notes on how faithful the first 5 seasons are, that’s why it was so successful.

Game of Thrones had just as many changes from the source material as this appears to, it was just that most people had not read the books then.

While I love MS&T from Tad Williams. I think his Otherland series would make a better movie series.

It's not often I see another Otherland fan in the wild. For years, I always thought an Otherland adaptation would be impossible, but with the way CG is today I could see it being done. I doubt anyone would want to sink the amount of cash it would requite into it however. Especially after Ready Player One...

[Biomega]

Dragonriders of Pern

Good luck with that one! A movie/TV series for Pern has been "in development" on probably a dozen occasions over the last few decades and never did anything come of it.

I'm not even sure what series would be good to adapt. A lot of fantasy is highly detail-oriented and very involved, and that's often the bane of serial adaptations. They want straightforward, easy-to-get-into stuff - which, usually, is the hallmark of BAD fantasy writing rather than good.

And maybe it's my SF bias talking, but I haven't even read a good fantasy book in a long time. A lot of the popular recent series I found dreadfully boring and often quite generic. I'd struggle hard to think of the last good fantasy book I read (not counting "recent" parts of older series like the last WoT books, or SoIaF). Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls, maybe? And that's close to 20 years old now...

I guess GoT left a hole people are scrambling to fill. They want that recipe of blood & boobs to strike gold again, but that's really not how most fantasy works. In fact I'd wager a lot of fantasy authors AND readers would be offended by the notion that the genre is reducible to that. But studio execs look at HBO with longing in their eyes and apparently "give me something like THAT!" is how we end up with a showrunner that doesn't actually love the books, like it seems to be the case here.

[Redwyrm]

Game of Thrones had just as many changes from the source material as this appears to, it was just that most people had not read the books then.


It's not often I see another Otherland fan in the wild. For years, I always thought an Otherland adaptation would be impossible, but with the way CG is today I could see it being done. I doubt anyone would want to sink the amount of cash it would requite into it however. Especially after Ready Player One...

Surprisingly, Otherland was published before the first Matrix was released. And I think Otherland would take less CG than adapting MS&T. Not by much, but sci-fi can usually done more practically than fantasy.

[Skizzit]

Surprisingly, Otherland was published before the first Matrix was released. And I think Otherland would take less CG than adapting MS&T. Not by much, but sci-fi can usually done more practically than fantasy.

Interestingly, I think it would actually be the early parts of the book that would require the most CG, the Net is way more abstract than the Otherland network. But yeah, much could be done practically and thankfully, we have moved beyond the years of "lets do everything in CG" in hollywood.

Never actually read MS&T. Read Otherland way back in the early 00's but never got into fantasy until pretty recently. I should check it out.

[Surfd]

So...bang her then leave her...sounds like Rafe thought that through. Another reason for Gawyn to hate Rand...assuming Rafe put the character in his little interpretation.

Yeah, that seems like a really, REALLY odd twist in their relationship.

Like, the entire point of their relationship development over the book series was that they start off as "kids from random backwater small town, who 'see themselves as being destined for each other' simply because their backwater small town is literally all they have ever known". However, once they are out in the world, they quickly realize that there is SO MUCH MORE out there, and the whole 'destined to be together' cause we were 2 frogs stuck in a well falls away.

Absolutely no reason to force the puppy love relationship of their "backwater town" setting to be anything more than that.

Like, to be honest, "randomly banging the chick" seems like something you would expect out of Matt's character, and seems even more odd out of Rand considering how it's pretty fairly established in the books that that kind of behavior would have had the whole town basically turning out to force marry the couple caught fooling around. The people of Rand's home village were kind of prudes when it came to messing around out of wedlock if i remember right.

[Egomaniac]

What other book series should become a show??

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels



Short Novels (<500 pages).

Would make for a good series. Each book could be a short season without them having to add or subtract much to work in the TV format