Thoughts on "The Wheel of Time"
Recognizing the challenges and celebrating the sheer ambition of it all
It’s finally here! The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time dropped on Amazon Prime last night and to the surprise of absolutely no one who knows me and the kinds of books I read and shows I watched, I viewed all three episodes more or less immediately.
I think the initial reaction seems to be good- if you dig into the subreddits devoted to the books, however, the results become decidedly mixed and I’m not sure why. This is a 14-book series and they weren’t exactly quick reads either. A page-to-screen, letter-perfect adaptation of these books would be a hot-ass mess, to be quite honest. You can admire Jordan’s worldbuilding, you can even admire his attention to detail and his characters, but there are also parts of his writing that are quite frankly, annoying.1
What I was looking for and I think what anyone should be looking for in adaptations this ambitious and expansive is simple: does the portrayal of the characters stay true to the essence of the characters in the books? (So far, it does, in my opinion.) If they make changes to the book, are these changes done in a way that stays true to the essence of the narrative itself? (So far, they do.)
If you can get over those two humps, you have to immediately tackle the third hump and that’s The Eye of the World itself. The first volume of the series, if you read it and see a lot of Tolkein in it, you wouldn’t be wrong, but it also doesn’t piss about (unlike other books in the series) and really is little more than an extended chase scene (which seems to be what they’re digging into three episodes in).
I saw some complaints about the special effects, especially in the first episode and I might go back and watch that one again to be sure, but they didn’t bother me all that much. I think the inherent problem with the magic system of The Wheel of Time is going to be it involves so many ‘weaves’ of the ‘one power’ and you have to figure out a way to illustrate that for the screen- which might be something that evolves over time during the season- but it didn’t bother me. (What I did love about the entire sequence was the way it showcased the relationship between Moiraine and Lan and the Aes Sedai/Warder dynamic. It completely tracked to me that Lan would be around her like a whirlwind, keep Trollocs away while she did her thing.)
At the end of the first three episodes, I will say this: the cast is amazing, my quibbles are minor and I hope this show keeps leaning away from the Grimdark of GoT where it can because it feels different and I like that. (I also saw some complaints about production values and costuming which I thought was weird. Not every fantasy TV show has to be gritty and grimdark, I think this looks beautiful.)
Before I get into specific, spoiler-y things, I’m going to say this: don’t just watch the first episode- watch all three and then decide how you feel about it. Like Foundation, I think this might be one of those series you grade by Season rather than by episode. The amount of source material they’ve got to work with is insane and almost overwhelming- they’re never going to be able to get 100% of it onto the screen and make it the transition from page to screen work seamlessly.
Okay, spoiler-y things. Stop scrolling… now.
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Still here? Okay, you’ve been warned.
The biggest change to me: Perrin’s and Mat’s respective backstories. The former has a wife, whom he accidentally kills in the heat of battle when he’s rage-killing a Trolloc. This isn’t entirely out of character for Perrin- I’d have to dig it up, but I know at some point in a later book when Faile is berating him about constantly holding back, he tells her why and I think he accidentally killed a kid or beat him up something? I can’t remember- the point is: Perrin’s whole thing with the wolves is a series-long struggle between his humanity and the ‘wolf/animal’ inside him. This wouldn’t have been a choice I made this early on, but it accelerates his plot development right out of the gate and when (one hopes and assumes) Faile comes in down the line, it’s going to make their relationship that much more challenging, I think. So, I’d say it was an odd choice. I think you could argue they did him a little bit dirty making him a wife-killer, even if you could argue it was an accidental/reflex/rage of the moment thing but, I also see why they made that choice and can sort of get a sense of what they’re aiming at with a character arc for Perrin, but hopefully, they can pull it off. (Like most of the rest of the cast: Marcus Rutherford is just about perfect as Perrin.)
Mat too gets a tweak— he’s more of a ne’er do well/scoundrel than the rascal/scoundrel than he seems to be in the book. His Dad is a womanizer (not sure how I feel about that, but in the books, Abel is a relatively minor character) and his home life is something of a mess, but… man, I don’t know. I see this as doing the same thing as Perrin’s character arc- it accelerates his arc a bit and should make his redemption/evolution more pronounced as a result. I saw some commentary from Brandon Sanderson on Reddit sort of lamenting this change as he felt it lent too much into the grimdark tone of Game of Thrones and I could buy that, but again- Perrin’s probably the biggest change that threw me a bit, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. Neither was this one.
Other random things I noticed/liked:
The Whitecloaks. So, so, damn good. So damn sinister.
I wasn’t sure how to feel about the introduction of Thom Merillin, but by the end of the episode, he had started to grow on me a bit. His knives are on point, however.
The Aiel In A Cage: some nice groundwork/foreshadowing, but I liked the subtle touch of the Stone Dog (he’s a Stone Dog! Just like Rhuarc, I think?)
Shadar Logoth was excellent as well- made me think of the cover to A Crown of Swords.
Padan Fain: excellent casting
Liandrin: excellent casting (though admittedly, she hasn’t done much yet)
Tam Al’Thor: damn near fucking perfect casting
Nynaeve: excellent casting
Egwene: excellent casting
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to feel about Josha Stradowski as Rand- at first- but by the end of the second episode, I was all in.
The Trollocs and the Myrdraal: excellently done!
The ambition is there, the casting is excellent and as of right now: I’m all in and then some. I’ll say it again: don’t just watch the first episode. Watch all three and then decide how you feel about it- I think you might be surprisingly okay with how things are going by the time you’re done.
The one that springs to mind is that when every female character (and there are a lot of characters in this series) gets annoyed, they cross their arms beneath their breasts. Also, braids are tugged. Many, many times. And although the show is a way out from this part of the series, there’s at least a 2-3 book stretch, where one character takes baths. A lot of baths.