5 Things The Wheel Of Time Show Did Better Than The Books (& 5 It Did Worse)

5 Things The Wheel Of Time Show Did Better Than The Books (& 5 It Did Worse)

Along with Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, The Wheel Of Time is one of the most beloved works in fantasy. How does the adaptation compare?

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First released in 1990, Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World was the beginning of a series that would go on to span fourteen massive novels. With Jordan’s unfortunate passing in 2007, the last three books of the series were completed by author Brandon Sanderson, with the final book released five years later, nearly a quarter of a century after the first book was published.

The first season of Amazon’s The Wheel of Time show aired in late 2021, adapting the events of the first novel into ten episodes. The show was a relative success, though adapting such a vast and nuanced story created many challenges, some of which were navigated better than others.

10 Better: The Show Wastes No Time Getting To The Action

The first novel begins by setting the scene of an event known as the Breaking of the World, where the previous Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon, goes mad after attempting to confront the Dark One, thus dooming humanity for a thousand years and more. The story then transitions to Rand al’Thor, the young farm boy of Edmond’s Field, preparing for the Bel Tine celebrations to come.

The show favors a much quicker approach, omitting the prologue and moving events ahead much more quickly than they felt in the novels. While they hold to the original premise of the book’s call to action, the pacing in the show’s first few episodes works very well, setting up the conflict and getting quickly to action, as the first episode ends with a spectacular battle and the beginning of an epic journey.

9 Worse: Certain Popular Characters Don’t Make An Appearance

With dozens of characters making an appearance and often playing important roles in the story, the size of the novel’s cast swells to enormous proportions. It was only natural then that certain characters wouldn’t make the cut in the show, which has a much tighter focus.

While some of those characters may make their appearance in later seasons, such as the Trakands, many fans were disappointed with the lack of Elyas Machera, Bayle Domon, and Lord Ingtar. While some of these characters will almost certainly have a role to play in the future of the show, their absence makes a big impact on how the characters develop in Season One.

8 Better: It Avoids Filler For The Sake Of The Main Plot

Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time is a vast series spanning fourteen massive novels, each one densely packed with deep characterization, lore, and a large cast of characters that even the most avid fans would struggle to keep up with.

While getting invested in such a deep story is part of the charm of the books, many parts can feel like a slog to get through. The show instead focuses on one main point and moves towards it with purpose. While some elements are cut for the sake of this, overall, the pacing of the show suits the medium much better than the slower pace of the novels.

7 Worse: It Struggles To Capture The Grand Scope Of The World

For a show that features exquisitely shot cinematography, setting the journey of the main characters against a backdrop of snowcapped mountains, deep forests, and vast plains, it fails to capture the sheer vastness of the world Robert Jordan created.

One major contributing factor to this is the quickened pace of the show. In the books, it was clear at every step of the journey just how out of their element the youths from Edmond’s Field were, considering even the small town of Baerlon to be a city, only to be in awe when discovering places such as Caemlyn and Tar Valon. Much of this is left out in the show and makes the world feel smaller than it did in the books.

6 Better: It Features A Diverse Cast

It was often quite typical for fantasy novels of the past to default towards white, male characters as a basis, especially for main characters. While Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time did indeed feature a vast world full of many different ethnicities and cultures, from which many important characters came, the protagonists for the most part fell into the previous category.

Amazon’s adaptation did away with this practice. Not only were most characters excellently cast, but they also reflected the diversity of the world the author created, a world built upon the legacy of ancient civilizations and the deep history held within.

5 Worse: It Has A Very Narrow Focus

Perhaps paradoxically, while the show’s avoidance of filler and faster pace are advantageous for a small-screen adaptation, in some instances, the show goes too far, sacrificing some of the excellent worldbuilding and small, personal moments that helped make The Wheel of Time novels great.

Many of those elements left on the cutting room floor contribute deeply to the books, and while some of the tangents the novels go on can be tedious, others lead to moments of great characterization. Now that the important elements and characters have been established in the first season of the show, further seasons may have the chance to delve more into these missed moments from the novels.

4 Better: Relationships Are Developed More Quickly

The relationships between the characters in The Wheel of Time novels, especially the romances, are the epitome of “slow-burn.” Many of them don’t even come to fruition until several books deep into the series, which can often be frustrating for fans shipping their favorite characters.

Amazon’s series looks to avoid that, notably by establishing the romance between Rand and Egwene before the show begins, as well as developing Lan and Nynaeve’s relationship much more quickly than in the novels.

3 Worse: Certain Elements Lack The Nuance Of The Books

Condensing a novel the size of the first book in the series The Eye of the World into a ten-episode season was naturally going to mean certain parts of the story would need to be glossed over or removed entirely.

While some cuts and changes made perfect sense from a production standpoint, others, such as the infamous nature of Rand’s heron-marked blade, his training with Lan, and the development of his friendship with Loial would have gone a long way towards developing his character, in addition to being sorely missed by fans of the books.

2 Better: The Show Appeals To A Broader Audience

The sheer popularity The Wheel of Time novels had among readers of fantasy cannot be understated, and it stands alongside the works of Tolkien and George R.R. Martin as one of the most well-known series in the genre.

However, fantasy was still somewhat of a niche genre when the books were first released. Now, with shows like Game of Thrones and The Witcher bringing the genre into the mainstream, fantasy has a chance to appeal to a much broader audience than in the past.

1 Worse: Some Characters Were Changed To Their Detriment

As far as adaptations go, HBO’s Game of Thrones stands as a shining example of sticking to the source material, at least until that source material ran out. Amazon’s The Wheel of Time does maintain such a rigorous standard, instead opting to capture the essence of the story rather than adhering to every detail.

While some of these were welcome changes, others were more unfortunate. Introducing Perrin’s wife only to have her immediately die by Perrin’s own hand and changing Mat from a lovable rogue into a dour criminal were just some of the changes that were made at the characters’ expense, though others such as Moraine and Nynaeve are very accurate to their book counterparts.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/the-wheel-of-time-amazon-adaptation-comparison-better-worse/

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