WHEEL OF TIME tv show: Go on,tug my braid!

[Mladen]

I am really curious about Aes Sedai aesthetics. In my head, it was always like Sisters of the Dark from "Legend of the Seeker" TV show, only with robes in different colors. I understand that Aes Sedai don't necessarily wear colors of their Ajah, except IIRC, Blues wear blue stockings while in Tar Valon. So, I am rather interested in seeing how that will work out.

Also, WoT will offer abundance of merchandise. If done right, the Aes Sedai shawls can become a thing (like Claire's cowl from Outlander). Then we have coins, angreals, symbols, swords... In comparison to ASOIAF, I feel as if WoT offers more in this department, but it will be interesting to see how well it will be received and whether people will be interesting to buy those things.

[fionwe1987]

1 hour ago, Risto said:

I am really curious about Aes Sedai aesthetics. In my head, it was always like Sisters of the Dark from "Legend of the Seeker" TV show, only with robes in different colors. I understand that Aes Sedai don't necessarily wear colors of their Ajah, except IIRC, Blues wear blue stockings while in Tar Valon. So, I am rather interested in seeing how that will work out.

Aes Sedai don't wear robes. If they want to stick to the books, they'll have to show Aes Sedai wearing everything from fairly simple dresses to elaborately cut and embroidered gowns. Think Renaissance ball gowns for a sense of the style RJ was going for.

Aes Sedai don't HAVE to wear the colors of their Ajah (though the rules vary by Ajah), but they tend to, and as the series progresses, this becomes more pronounced. Moiraine, for instance, almost always has a blue gown, with green being the second most associated color with her. We almost never see her wearing red. Elaida almost always wears red, or sometimes grey. We never see her in blue, if I remember right. 

In fact, of the main characters who are "good guys" and not of the Red Ajah, the only women to ever wear a red gown are Nynaeve when she's in the circus, and Egwene, when she rides into Tar Valon. Elayne never wears a fully red gown despite it being a major part of Andor's colors, if memory serves.

[Mladen]

8 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

Aes Sedai don't wear robes. If they want to stick to the books, they'll have to show Aes Sedai wearing everything from fairly simple dresses to elaborately cut and embroidered gowns. Think Renaissance ball gowns for a sense of the style RJ was going for.

Yeah, I get that... Even when final confrontation between Aes Sedai, the point was made that Egwene was wearing red in order to have Red Ajah represented in the rebels camp.

8 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

Aes Sedai don't HAVE to wear the colors of their Ajah (though the rules vary by Ajah), but they tend to, and as the series progresses, this becomes more pronounced. Moiraine, for instance, almost always has a blue gown, with green being the second most associated color with her. We almost never see her wearing red. Elaida almost always wears red, or sometimes grey. We never see her in blue, if I remember right. 

The clothing rule between Blues and Reds had something to do with the animosity between 2 Ajahs, IIRC, when in Tower, Reds wear only red, while Blues are forbidden to wear anything red. 

Also, due to schism in Tar Valon, Blacks and distrust among Ajahs, I think that when Egwene is captured, she understands how Tower is divided. All Aes Sedai are wearing shawls and dresses in colors of her Ajah, never socializing with sisters outside of it, 

I was never too invested in the details in WoT (as much as I have been with LOTR, HP and ASOIAF), so apologies if I misremembered something... But the show, obviously being  visual medium, I was thinking about this  

[Werthead]

The casting for Wheel of Time will reflect book descriptions (the Asian tint to the Borderlands, the ginger-haired tendency in the Aiel etc) but will also take advantage of the worldbuilding, which basically states that in the Age of Legends people from anywhere in the world could live and work anywhere else and in the Breaking everyone was thrown together in random collections of refugees, so essentially they're not going to turn down excellent actors on the basis of ethnicity or skin colour.

Seems reasonable. RJ described the people of the Two Rivers as "dark" (which I always took to mean Mediterranean), enough for Rand to stand out as an oddball, Andor has had black queens and the ethnic makeup of other bits of the continent are a bit all over the place, not to mention the fact that Randland is in the northern tropics anyway, so it's nothing to get too bent out of shape about.

[fionwe1987]

On 8/29/2018 at 10:58 PM, Werthead said:

The casting for Wheel of Time will reflect book descriptions (the Asian tint to the Borderlands, the ginger-haired tendency in the Aiel etc) but will also take advantage of the worldbuilding, which basically states that in the Age of Legends people from anywhere in the world could live and work anywhere else and in the Breaking everyone was thrown together in random collections of refugees, so essentially they're not going to turn down excellent actors on the basis of ethnicity or skin colour.

Seems reasonable. RJ described the people of the Two Rivers as "dark" (which I always took to mean Mediterranean), enough for Rand to stand out as an oddball, Andor has had black queens and the ethnic makeup of other bits of the continent are a bit all over the place, not to mention the fact that Randland is in the northern tropics anyway, so it's nothing to get too bent out of shape about.

I'm very glad for this. This can be a strength of the show where they don't even have to depart from the books much to achieve it.

I hope this also ends up meaning major characters are drawn from all ethnicities. There's no reason Min, who comes from Western Andor where dark skinned people are common, needs to be white, for instance. Sure, that won't match the book description of her, but who cares?

And they should definitely take advantage of Siuan being a Tairen commoner and make her dark skinned. 

[Rhom]

13 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

 Sure, that won't match the book description of her, but who cares?

You have been away from online fandom for a while, haven’t you?

[fionwe1987]

14 hours ago, Rhom said:

You have been away from online fandom for a while, haven’t you?

Fair point. Let me put it this way: I don't care about the morons who would care about this.

[A True Kaniggit]

23 minutes ago, fionwe1987 said:

Because Rand having a sword wouldn't make any Myrdraal pause one bit. It would just come at him and he'd be dead in seconds. 

Besides, Narg smart, ok?

Eh. I say get around this by only having a Myrdraal show up at the farm, while Tam is upstairs. Rand doesn't need to kill him. After a short talk Tam al Thor, blademaster, kills the Myrdraal, but gets wounded in the process. Same result but without talking Trollocs.

Narg, may have been smart. But is he smart enough?

[fionwe1987]

55 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Eh. I say get around this by only having a Myrdraal show up at the farm, while Tam is upstairs. Rand doesn't need to kill him. After a short talk Tam al Thor, blademaster, kills the Myrdraal, but gets wounded in the process. Same result but without talking Trollocs.

Narg, may have been smart. But is he smart enough?

But why would the Myrdraal talk with Rand at all? If Tam is upstairs, he would come down to find Rand dead.

Granted, this would be a great way to solve all the budget issues. Say this is an alternate turning of the Wheel, claim you've adapted Wheel of Time, and call it a day.

Not sure I'll watch such a version though!

[A True Kaniggit]

41 minutes ago, fionwe1987 said:

But why would the Myrdraal talk with Rand at all? If Tam is upstairs, he would come down to find Rand dead.

Granted, this would be a great way to solve all the budget issues. Say this is an alternate turning of the Wheel, claim you've adapted Wheel of Time, and call it a day.

Not sure I'll watch such a version though!

Not so much a way of solving budget issues (though I guess in this instance it would save money) but a way to reconcile some of the inconsistencies of the first novel with the later ones.

Like Moraine using her staff as a "focal point for the power". It happens in the first novel, but never again. This will have to be resolved too.

And as for why the Myrdraal would talk. Maybe he just wanted to gloat? He could go on about how the other Myrdraal guessed wrong (one attacking village) and how now he would be getting all of the credit. Just enough dialogue to establish that Rand is a target.

[fionwe1987]

1 hour ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Not so much a way of solving budget issues (though I guess in this instance it would save money)

I was being tongue in cheek, saying that Rand dying would end the world soon after, and so the budget on the show would be saved. 

Quote

but a way to reconcile some of the inconsistencies of the first novel with the later ones.

Like Moraine using her staff as a "focal point for the power". It happens in the first novel, but never again. This will have to be resolved too.

And as for why the Myrdraal would talk. Maybe he just wanted to gloat? He could go on about how the other Myrdraal guessed wrong (one attacking village) and how now he would be getting all of the credit. Just enough dialogue to establish that Rand is a target.

Moiriane's staff is definitely worth axing (except for the purpose it might serve in making clear to those with thick skulls that she's basically Gandalf). But I'm not sure how Narg in any way contradicts later stuff.

[A True Kaniggit]

3 minutes ago, fionwe1987 said:

But I'm not sure how Narg in any way contradicts later stuff.

Maybe not contradict. But this is the only instance where we see a Trolloc actually speaking English. In 13 main novels (and one side) it never happens again. Why establish that then?

Unless they actually have Trollocs speaking throughout the series. Which would work just as well as not having them speak at all.

[fionwe1987]

5 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Maybe not contradict. But this is the only instance where we see a Trolloc actually speaking English. In 13 main novels (and one side) it never happens again. Why establish that then?

Unless they actually have Trollocs speaking throughout the series. Which would work just as well as not having them speak at all.

But don't you get it? Narg was smart. And so he spoke some English. The rest are not smart. Hence, no English, or rather, the Common Tongue.

[Mladen]

On 8/30/2018 at 5:58 AM, Werthead said:

The casting for Wheel of Time will reflect book descriptions (the Asian tint to the Borderlands, the ginger-haired tendency in the Aiel etc) but will also take advantage of the worldbuilding, which basically states that in the Age of Legends people from anywhere in the world could live and work anywhere else and in the Breaking everyone was thrown together in random collections of refugees, so essentially they're not going to turn down excellent actors on the basis of ethnicity or skin colour.

Seems reasonable. RJ described the people of the Two Rivers as "dark" (which I always took to mean Mediterranean), enough for Rand to stand out as an oddball, Andor has had black queens and the ethnic makeup of other bits of the continent are a bit all over the place, not to mention the fact that Randland is in the northern tropics anyway, so it's nothing to get too bent out of shape about.

This is going to be interesting to see in practice. I agree with them and it would be amazing to see WoT being as inclusive as possible. However, I have always struggled with the races of people in Randland. Jordan was a bit all over the place with descriptions. It was sometimes very difficult to pinpoint one nation as a source. It is some weird mix of a lot of nations. To this day, I can't make a sketch of Lan in my head. Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn just creeps in, whenever I read WoT.

[fionwe1987]

3 minutes ago, Risto said:

This is going to be interesting to see in practice. I agree with them and it would be amazing to see WoT being as inclusive as possible. However, I have always struggled with the races of people in Randland. Jordan was a bit all over the place with descriptions. It was sometimes very difficult to pinpoint one nation as a source. It is some weird mix of a lot of nations. To this day, I can't make a sketch of Lan in my head. Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn just creeps in, whenever I read WoT.

I suspect this was intentional. I always saw the Two Rivers crowd as brown skinned, to match mine, and there are no moments in the books where you're forced to question that, and several that support the idea that they're darker skinned than the Nordic looking Aiel.

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

30 minutes ago, fionwe1987 said:

I suspect this was intentional. I always saw the Two Rivers crowd as brown skinned, to match mine, and there are no moments in the books where you're forced to question that, and several that support the idea that they're darker skinned than the Nordic looking Aiel.

 

I think the Aiel are celtic-based, red hair, pale, playing pipes, related to the Tuathain (sp).

[Corvinus85]

I am currently re-reading The Great Hunt, and I wonder if they are going to have Chinese people play Cairhienin. The fashion of Cairhienin soldiers is inspired by Qing dynasty fashion styles, with the top half of the head shaved, but the back allowed to grow long. Other stuff, like the general fashion, the food, and even court politics is reminiscent of Chinese culture throughout history. So it would be interesting if Moiraine is played by a Chinese (or at least Korean) actress. 

Alternatively, they could cast white people, but still have the same fashion as in the books. 

[Myrddin]

I hope the fashions are a mash of all cultures (real and imagined) and not just "matching up" to the actor's ethnicity. 

That said, casting a main character like Moiraine with an East Asian actress would be a great choice.  Or Indian. Or Middle Eastern. Or... hell. Don't care. Just have a nice range of actors on the screen.

Start with open casting for the perfect Moiraine. Then wrap Cairhienin people around her. Same with Lan. Pick the guy who embodies Lan and spin out the ethnicity of the Borderlands around him.

[fionwe1987]

4 hours ago, Corvinus said:

I am currently re-reading The Great Hunt, and I wonder if they are going to have Chinese people play Cairhienin. The fashion of Cairhienin soldiers is inspired by Qing dynasty fashion styles, with the top half of the head shaved, but the back allowed to grow long. Other stuff, like the general fashion, the food, and even court politics is reminiscent of Chinese culture throughout history. So it would be interesting if Moiraine is played by a Chinese (or at least Korean) actress. 

Alternatively, they could cast white people, but still have the same fashion as in the books. 

Huh. Barring the shaved forehead, Cairhein always screamed France to me. But the kesiera is clearly more Indian inspired. The Cairheinin are described as short and pale. Their dress, especially of the nobility, always seemed very French to me. And they aren't described as having the "tilted eyes" the Saldaens have, so I guess China never entered my head. I'd be fine with an East Asian actress playing Moiraine, though.

As for Lan, I've always fancied Ken Watanabe as Lan. He doesn't have the height, but otherwise, he kind of fits the description. Generally, Malkier always screamed Tibet, to me. If they could actually find a Tibetan actor to play Lan, I'd be really really happy.

 

[Corvinus85]

7 minutes ago, fionwe1987 said:

Huh. Barring the shaved forehead, Cairhein always screamed France to me. But the kesiera is clearly more Indian inspired. The Cairheinin are described as short and pale. Their dress, especially of the nobility, always seemed very French to me. And they aren't described as having the "tilted eyes" the Saldaens have, so I guess China never entered my head. I'd be fine with an East Asian actress playing Moiraine, though.

As for Lan, I've always fancied Ken Watanabe as Lan. He doesn't have the height, but otherwise, he kind of fits the description. Generally, Malkier always screamed Tibet, to me. If they could actually find a Tibetan actor to play Lan, I'd be really really happy.

 

But Lan also has blue eyes. Personally, I always thought Lan was a mix of Aragorn and Conan, but now quite as big as Conan. (And Jordan wrote a few Conan stories and you can see his Conan is a bit like Lan)

Really a lot of the peoples of Randland seem to be highly mixed. So I think for most roles, anyone would be fine as long as they meet the character's personality. 

The only physical aspect that would annoy me slightly is if they don't find some tall guys for Rand and the Aiel. They really should find tall guys for Aiel extras, as they could use them for Trollocs, too. And Perrin looking like he could actually swing a blacksmith's hammer unlike another young blacksmith we've seen on TV, *cough* Gendry *cough*