After having watched the new Wheel of Time trailer a couple times as well as the breakdown featuring one of the show-runners, I have been even more convinced as to the fact that this show will not be a faithful adaptation of the books. Considering we are now one week away from the release date I thought today would be a good day to upload my thoughts on the matter.
The trailer focuses heavily on Moiraine, the enigmatic lady who visits the Two Rivers for an unknown reason. That was the book version of Moiraine, someone who had one point of view chapter in the entire book, and that chapter was in the epilogue. Throughout the whole of the book there was always an air of uncertainty about Moiraine from the other characters, you were unsure about her motives, her methods, what her end goal was and what exactly she was willing to do to achieve that goal. This was fostered by the mystery surrounding the Aes Sedai in general and the fear, caution and uncertainty the general populace had about them. They are spoken of as witches, as the people who broke the world in ages past, as manipulators scheming and plotting for some nefarious end, as potential servants of the Dark One. And yet despite all of this, because we are introduced to her as just a lady, and no one knows that she is an Aes Sedai, we are first given an introduction to a gentle and kind woman who takes an interest in the people around her, who everyone (bar Nynaeve for a particular reason) likes. The revelation of her being an Aes Sedai then makes the decision to flee Emond’s Field a more challenging one to make for the boys (Rand, Matt and Perrin). They have to weigh their mistrust of Moiraine with the evidence that has been placed before them about their current situation.
Speaking of the boys and their role in the story, why did Moiraine say that any one of the five of the Emonds Fielders have the power to destroy the Dark One? The prophecy that drove Moiraine to the Two Rivers in the first place was a very specific prophey about a child being born. It related to that year. All three of the boys were born within a week of each other, whereas Egwene is a couple years younger and Nynaeve is much older. Nynaeve makes constant remarks in the books about how she would look after the others as children, in order to do this “babysitting” she is at least four years older than the boys, while Egwene is two to three years younger. Moiraines mission in the books is to look for a very specific age, in the show the child she is looking for has possible age range of seven years. She discounts multiple boys in the books because they are born in the wrong month yet in the show she can’t even get the year right. The show might counter this by having all five of the Emond’s Field folk be the same age, yet that completely alters the dynamic of their interpersonal relationships. And this is a story that, much like the Song of Ice and Fire series, thrives off the character interactions. So if they have altered the characters ages to make this prophechy make sense, then they will have completely altered the dynamics between all of them.
Not to mention the complete alteration of character motivations in leaving the Two Rivers because of that statement. The boys in the books have to be convinced to flee because they are the ones that are being targeted by the Trolloc attacks. They become determined to leave, both to save themselves but also to stop any further attacks from happening to the village and the surrounding areas. Egwene chooses to go with them because of a desire for adventure. This is both a display of her immaturity but also about her intelligence and observation, she notices Matt and Perrin trying to sneak about the village doing unusual things, taking and hiding stuff etc and puts the pieces together that they are leaving the village. She doesn’t need to be convinced, in fact Rand tries to convince her not to come because of the dangers involved. But the stubbornness of the Two Rivers folk wins out and Egwene manages to convince them to let her come along.
Nynaeve doesn’t even leave at that point in time. In fact she surprises them all later in the book after tracking them down, which is an impressive feat due to Lan’s efforts to hide the groups traces. She tracks the group down in order to drag the boys (and Egwene) back home and is willing to face off against an Aes Sedai to do so. For both of these characters having them join in from the very beginning just ruins their character progression and character arcs and just makes them bland. Nynaeve showing up well after the group has left provides an abundance of opportunities for character development, character interactions and a spot of relief for the four villagers who left initially. Despite their often vocal displeasure of having to deal with Nynaeve, the four youths have a deep respect and affection for Nynaeve so her presence actually feels like a weight is lifted, and that is Nynaeve’s character taking a share of the burden of others (whether they want to share or not).
Speaking of destroying a character, what is with Lan’s bizarre scream and cry? He is the epitome of stoic self denial. Refusing to allow anything to affect him he fights on through bitter pain and exhaustion without a single word of complaint. Yet here while Moiraine seems to have a stoic moment of barely holding back tears, (which is accurate to the books, she is also a fairly stoic individual) Lan cries out in pain and anguish over some unknown distress.
The other factor in this trailer that confuses me is the seeming high volume of action scenes. There is not much in terms of action truth be told in the first book of the series. Most of the action in the books is based around suspense rather than active conflict, this brings out the psychological reactions by the characters and pushes them into stressful relations with each other. And when there is an action scene, it is all about escaping, or surviving until the characters can get away, after all even with the One Power at Moiraine’s disposal, and with Lan’s fiercely competent capabilities, everyone else is just a regular old small village untrained individual up against a large number of beastly foes. Which then begs the question of why Moiraine is part of the party fighting Logaine, the false Dragon. She is trying to keep her wards away from danger, which is the exact opposite of going into an active warzone. Also keep in mind Logaine has a large following of people, he has a full army. This is again nonsense for the show, a small little group of untrained, scared villagers being taken into a battle against an army? Absolutely no sense. Even if they join up with the Aes Sedai and the united forces fighting against Logaine, that is completely stupid. Remember Moiraine’s mission is to find the Dragon Reborn, escort him IN SECRET to Tar Valon, and the only people who know of this mission is Moiraine herself, Lan her warder, and the Amyrlin Seat the leader of the Aes Sedai. No one else was to know about this dangerous task as so many would want to kill the Dragon, or to still him to perpetually cut him off from the One Power.
I would also like to mention a few other things that bothered me about this trailer and what they revealed. The Ways, or rather the Waygate that was revealed looks pretty stupid here, just a couple pillars sticking up out of nowhere. In the books they were walls decorated with immaculate carvings of leaves and vines etc. and would open up with the appropriate touches. They were also completely neglected for centuries and overgrown with flora in the wilderness or built up around in the cities, not just sitting out in an open plain where anyone can see them from miles around. That is a more minor quibble but nonetheless shows a lack of concern for the source material again. The showrunner saying that only some women were allowed to access the One Power is purely false, only some women are capable of accessing it. Some women access it without any training and often unknowingly access it, which can lead to some problems. The fact of the matter is that there is a biological component to it, a genetic inheritance where that ability to channel and the power with which one can do so is tied directly to ones bloodline. This is made abundantly clear in later books, but the showrunners comment of allowing people to access it once again shows a fundamental misunderstanding (willfully or otherwise) of the source material. The scene of Nynaeve tugging her braid in, as the showrunner puts it, defiance is also an irritating moment. It was put in there purely as an attempt to appeal to the fans, but is again a sign of the showrunner completely misunderstanding the source material. Nynaeve tugs her braid in irritation and anger, and it is an unconscious gesture revealing the deeper flaw and restriction of her capabilities with the One Power.
Nothing in this show seems to make sense according to the books. The flashy set pieces look pretty average, the action scenes look pretty mediocre. And on top of it all, the characters, their motivations and their dynamics with each other seem to have been heavily altered. This is a series of books that people loved because of the characters and how they came to life on the pages, this show has made them all bland in their pursuit of a foolish attempt to “modernize” the story. I advise everyone to give it a miss, it is going to be absolute trash.
Well that is about it for now there is so much more I would like to go into on this but time is limited and I had to cram this all out in a half hour or so of keyboard mashing. I have been far more occupied with things this term than anticipated but I had to give my thoughts upon seeing this trailer. I will likely try to watch the show for at least a few episodes and I will give my thoughts on each episode I do manage to watch but that will likely be all I can manage with the blog for the next few months. PhD applications, PhD funding applications, along with MA funding applications are all taking up valuable time along side the TA work and the course work, I barely have much time to actually work on my own MA at the moment so once more I have had to sideline this whole blogging project.
Anyways, God bless, and all the best, if you disagree with anything I have said let me know and lets have a conversation about it.
-DPJ Miles
Gadfly Fiction 