The Wheel of Time turns, someone make it stop
Written by Thomas Grønvoll
The Wheel of Time fantasy novels by Robert Jordan has been an important part of my life since the 90’s. I picked up part 1 of the Norwegian translation of the Great Hunt (which was split into two parts for Gods know what reason), and a few weeks later I picked up The Shadow Rising in English, as I had gone past the available Norwegian translation. I was hooked.
[…] a few weeks later I picked up The Shadow Rising in English, as I had gone past the available Norwegian translation. I was hooked.
After being caught hook, line and sinker, I came to be a member of a small fan forum on the borderline of roleplaying that we eventually turned into a huge community with over eleven thousand members.
I’ve read the books numerous times, and in some cases I am on my third or fourth edition that has been retired for honorable service.
To say that I was looking forward to the show was an understatement, but I also knew that it would be something quite different than what I wanted. The characters that I have grown up with, who live in my mind’s eye, are not the characters of the show. And they never could be.
The Wheel Of Time – Official Teaser Trailer | Prime Video
I am a literary scholar who’s studied cross-medial translation, I know the needs and the struggles involved in translating a story between different mediums. What works in literature, does not necessarily work in film, and vice versa. You cannot tell a story in the same way, and the tools for establishing characters differ (wildly, in some cases). I expected it to be different, and I wanted it to be different. I didn’t hope for my version of the story brought to life. That has lived comfortably in my mind for decades now.
No, I hoped for a fresh take on the story and the characters, but what we got was…a let down. What we got was a version that used the characters and the elements of the story, but didn´t like the characters or the story. If it hadn’t been for the use of the same signifiers, I could easily have mistaken this for any other generic fantasy story post-Game of Thrones. I don’t want to be negative to this show, I’ve tried to love it. Warts and all. But my impression is that the show has merely used the names and the setting for the brandvalue, neither understanding the characters nor the story.
And just to be open about it, there are numerous issues with the novels that I would live to see adressed in the show, but the answer from the show has been changes to things that will be important plotpoints further down the line.
This notion tells me that there is some baggage from the novels I can’t leave behind, and that I have trouble disconnecting the two in my mind. But shouldn’t the major themes, characters and plotpoints of a novel be present in the adaptation? If not, why not just make something else?
Though I assume that the shows’ creators know that they’ll never have enough seasons to finish the story. I’ll be surprised if they get to finish the second season.
Which is a fitting segue into another point.
The show is impatient, extremely impatient. Like a young man trying to figure out the mysteries of a bra for the first time, wanting to get into the juicy action without setting the mood properly. It doesn’t devote the time to tell us who the characters are, the show just demands that we care about these characters, who quite frankly all are unpleasing assholes.
The Wheel of Time novels have their dark moments, but nobody would label it as grimdark. Yet this is the tone decided on for the show. The charming rogue, always with a smile and a joke at the ready, has become a paranoid corpse looter. There is a major plot point in the novels where he becomes a paranoid bastard, but here that is the starting point.
I’m not looking forward to the story hitting that point. They’ll probably turn him into a puppy-eating monster. Blood and ashes… and the rogue is not alone in this treatment. The religious zealots have become worse in the show, than most of the darkest monsters in the novels.
Impatience is at the core of the show, not devoting the required time to build the universe nor the characters. It is storytelling by an oversized sledgehammer. The show wants to be the next Game of Thrones, or even The Witcher, but it doesn’t understand how the magic of either show happened. This is a pro forma adaptation of the Wheel of Time novels, because someone said «hey we need the next grim-serious series to fill the void», and there was no care for what that would be.
This is a pro forma adaptation of the novels, because «hey we need the next grimserious series to fill the void», and there is no care for what that is.
I, sadly, know that this show isn’t for me. I am not the target audience, despite being a big fan of the source material. I am not the target audience, but it makes me sad to see the source material treated in such a manner.
To see it adapted through such poor craftsmanship and respect and appreciation for the source material. Game of Thrones and The Witcher proved that you can make really good adaptations of fantasy novels, that can both stay true to the source material and become its own thing.
The Wheel of Time tv-series needn’t have adhered strictly to the books, it needn’t have been the same. It is good that it has become its own thing. But, the one thing that it should have been, and that it is not, is good. Plotting, pacing, characterisation. These things must be done well, no matter if the show is faithful to the source material or not
I had hopes for the show, since it was an adaptation of my favorite books as a young adult (and still are amongst my favorites), and it makes me sad that this is what we got. Because this is the shot it had as a tv-series. Too much money has been poured onto this pile of dung for it to have second chances at the hands of others.
We live in an age of great television, and this will sadly just be a blip on the radar that is forgotten. The show has bled viewers with each episode, though the numbers still appear to be quite good.
(All images from The Wheel of Time tv-series courtesy of Amazon Studios)
Written by Thomas Grønvoll
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