THE WHEEL OF TIME TV Show: The braid tugs, as the writing wills [BOOK SPOILERS]

[The Anti-Targ]

23 hours ago, SansaJonRule said:

 I think the Sea Folk should be cast with black people, or Indian would be great too (as in from India).

 

I mean why not Pasifika people? When considering the Sea Folk you can almost imagine that RJ had heard about the Tongan empire https://www.livescience.com/46954-tonga-was-seafaring-empire.html though it seems unlikely RJ would really have known anything about it. Still, it seems like RJ's imagination has similarities to actual history.

[dooog]

Gareth Bryne MUST be played by Gabriel Byrne.  He's got the seasoned look and reading it as a teenager it's always how I envisaged Gareth, I guess because of the similar name

[dooog]

On 6/30/2019 at 4:15 AM, SansaJonRule said:

There is stuff that can be cut that will make the show better than the books in a lot of places, and I'm sure the producers are well aware of that. One thing I could do with less of is the women always saying "men are always doing such and such" and the men saying the same of women. I realize that even in our more "enlightened" age, we still do that, but it is excessive in this series.

I would say that most of the cast are very young is an overstatement. That is really only true of the super boys and girls. The Aes Sedai can't be old, certainly, but professional make up artists can do miracles, so I'm not concerned about that.

You can't compare it directly to GoT. Sansa was only 12 or 13 at the beginning of the series, whereas the super boys and girls in WoT are about 18 and 16, respectively. That's a big difference when you're talking about development of acting ability. Of course, they could always just age everything up about 3-5 years, such as the age people begin to channel. That would allow them more flexibility with casting the younger actors.

A lot of people seem overly concerned with racial diversity in the WoT tv, or more specifically, the lack of it. There is SO much diversity in Jordan's world, there is room for all. In season one, they'll be in Shienar. I don't know what the Companion book says, but I don't see why they can't be Asian or Eurasian. And I know that just because Tear is supposed to be influenced by Spain doesn't mean the people there have to be Latina, but it would fit well. (I have a Cuban friend who is very dark when she's tan.) I think there should be more difference between Tairens and the Sea Folk than just their clothes.

 

By most of the cast I meant most of the main cast. Rand, Matt, Perrin, Egwene, Elayne, Min, Aviendha are all around 17 or younger. The other "main" characters being Moiraine and Nynaeve. Those are the guys who will be the centre of 90% of the scenes and their actors will need to be up to it. As someone mentioned above, they could cast teenage characters with actors in their late 20s or 30s as is fairly common in movies. Trouble there is when they're finishing up season 5 or 6 and the teenage character is now an actor in their late 30s / 40s. The GoT comparison was about the actors being blatantly too old for their character, like Bran for instance in the last several seasons.

Aging up everyone could work but it breaks down a lot of things too, particularly book 1. Couple of examples.  Egwene and Rand having their young fleeting love thing, if they were older they'd likely be married in that world. Or the justification of Nynaeve tagging along when the group leave Emond's Field in the first place, she's this young matriarch concerned over a bunch of teenagers under her care leaving with a couple of strangers... if Rand etc were all fully grown adults that makes no sense.

[Werthead]

Canonical ages of characters at the start of the series (in spring 998 NE):

Rand, Mat & Perrin: 19 (all born in the final month of 978 NE)

Egwene & Elayne: 16 (born in 981 NE, later said to be almost two years younger than Rand)

Nynaeve: 24 or 25 (born in 973 NE)

Moiraine: 41 or 42 (born in 956 NE)

Lan: 44 or 45 (born in 953 NE)

Min: unknown, but likely early 20s (she was 18 when Moiraine became aware of her powers; she is said several times to be several years older than Rand)

Aviendha: 17 or 18 (born in 980 NE)

Thom: unknown but likely early to mid-50s (so no, Sam Elliot can't do it)

On 6/30/2019 at 4:48 AM, Darth Richard II said:

Did Asoiaf finally outsell WoT? I guess that’s a wert question since he’s the sales expert.

Yes, last year, ASoIaF hit 90 million sales. A few months later, WoT also hit 90 million sales. But obviously ASoIaF has way, way more readers (since 90 million / 5 books means more readers than 90 million / 14 books).

 

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I think it's a shame Emma Thompson is already doing a series. I love her and I think she'd be a great Aes Sedai, like Vandene or Adelas.

Hell no, if you're going to get Thompson, you get her to play Cadsuane.

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I doubt it. Individually, yes, as a series, not. The last info was that ASOIAF is on 60 million, and that WOT is on 100. 

Wholly incorrect.

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Judkin’s comment about diversity in Randland (like how America would looks in hundreds of years) made me wonder if he’s saying that it is America of the future.  I’d always thought it was future Europe with Seanchan being America.  But maybe the breaking of the world switched them around.  Or it was just a random comment.

RJ said that the Sand Hills of the Two Rivers are based on the real Sand Hills of South Carolina, which are located close to Charleston (which has two rivers running through it). I think some people took that to mean that they're physically the same place, with the eastern Westlands being new lands pulled out of the ocean. However, I think RJ was speaking in terms of inspiration.

The only 1:1 match between landmasses is Australia. The rest are all broken up, with some lands sunk to the bottom of the ocean and others raised out of it.

[Mladen]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Yes, last year, ASoIaF hit 90 million sales. A few months later, WoT also hit 90 million sales. But obviously ASoIaF has way, way more readers (since 90 million / 5 books means more readers than 90 million / 14 books).

Jesus... I totally forgot about 90 million benchmark. I remember now reading your article about it. I thought it was still on 60 million or something like that.

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Hell no, if you're going to get Thompson, you get her to play Cadsuane.

Amen.

 

[Astromech]

7 hours ago, Werthead said:

Canonical ages of characters at the start of the series (in spring 998 NE):

 

 

Thom: unknown but likely early to mid-50s (so no, Sam Elliot can't do it)

 

Wholly incorrect.

RJ said that the Sand Hills of the Two Rivers are based on the real Sand Hills of South Carolina, which are located close to Charleston (which has two rivers running through it). I think some people took that to mean that they're physically the same place, with the eastern Westlands being new lands pulled out of the ocean. However, I think RJ was speaking in terms of inspiration.

The only 1:1 match between landmasses is Australia. The rest are all broken up, with some lands sunk to the bottom of the ocean and others raised out of it.

Yes he can

 

Not surprising since Jordan was from Charleston. I can't say I ever pictured the Two Rivers as South Carolina. Always pictured them more as  the Midwest.

[Darth Richard II]

Damn, Nynaeve was that young? My young self always pictured her as a mean old lady.  

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Damn, Nynaeve was that young? My young self always pictured her as a mean old lady.  

How old were you when you started reading? And perhaps RJ did a good job of conveying that impression through the eyes of Egwene and the Two Rivers boys. To teens 25 is old.

[Darth Richard II]

13 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

How old were you when you started reading? And perhaps RJ did a good job of conveying that impression through the eyes of Egwene and the Two Rivers boys. To teens 25 is old.

Oh, lemme do some quick math

I think I was 12. So, yeah.

[The Anti-Targ]

2 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Oh, lemme do some quick math

I think I was 12. So, yeah.

I was 30-something, so to me Nynaeve was more like my idle fantasy, with woman roughly my age. I don't think I thought of her being in her 20s though. And of course in pre-industrial "European" village times if you were 25 and not married with at least a couple of kids you were an old maid and well past your prime.

[fionwe1987]

Emma Thompson is now officially my headcanon Cadsuane. What a brilliant pick, and I cannot fathom why it didn't strike me before. She'd be perfect. 

 

Wert, about the aSoIaF sales: is there any kind of per book sales breakdown? Based on what I've seen, a lot of people purchased the first book when the got hooked on the show, and most still haven't read it. If 60 of those 90 million sales are for book 1, that puts a different spin on the readership numbers, though obviously, it's probably closer to balanced than that.

[Darth Richard II]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I was 30-something, so to me Nynaeve was more like my idle fantasy, with woman roughly my age. I don't think I thought of her being in her 20s though. And of course in pre-industrial "European" village times if you were 25 and not married with at least a couple of kids you were an old maid and well past your prime.

Yeah, thinking more I may have been 13ish, but I remember book 3 had just come out in paperback. I should look up dates.

[David Selig]

13 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Damn, Nynaeve was that young? My young self always pictured her as a mean old lady.  

Nynaeve would have been very happy if she could read it, she hates how young she looks. She wanted to cry and was deeply distressed when she learned she'd stay young looking for centuries.

[karaddin]

On 7/2/2019 at 2:06 AM, Werthead said:

The only 1:1 match between landmasses is Australia. The rest are all broken up, with some lands sunk to the bottom of the ocean and others raised out of it.

I'd just like to make the point that while the landmass may line up, we are not the land of madmen

[Werthead]

12 hours ago, karaddin said:

I'd just like to make the point that while the landmass may line up, we are not the land of madmen

Not sure what you mean here. RJ said - with affection - that the Land of the Madmen continent is a post-breaking Australia, and the continent least adversely transformed by the Breaking (which doesn't entirely make sense because male channellers still live there, but whatever).

[Corvinus85]

Very likely the people of the land of madmen are fighting for scraps of a foul smelling liquid that allows their frightening looking carriages to move at great speeds without horses.

[SpaceChampion]

Now my headcanon is that RJ for sure for sure named the Land of Madmen to allude to Mad Max.  I refuse to believe otherwise.

[David Selig]

Rafe Judkins answered some questions about the Rosamund Pike's casting on Twitter today - http://www.thedailytrolloc.com/2019/07/rafes-rosamund-casting-q.html

Probably the most interesting answer was:

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Question 3:

How much emphasis will the writers and showrunners place on actor's physical traits with the characters? For example, Rosamund is significantly taller than Moiraine. Will the show use angles and gimmicks to show Moiraine as being short, or will we just let Rosamund be Rosamund?

Rafe:

 

I’m of the belief that my most important job is to bring the truth and heart of these characters to life. I’m much more concerned about acting than physicality. I remember being a kid and seeing Hugh Jackman would play Wolverine and was furious - he’s 6’3” and Wolverine is 5’3”!!

To me, it was against the very core of the character that he would be tall. But the truth is, when I saw X-Men — of course Hugh Jackman was Wolverine. It’s so much more important to me to get someone high caliber who embodies the character than a perfect physical match.

Plus there’s a lot we can do with wigs and dye and lighting to still achieve the “iconic looks” of the WoT characters.  I think #Twitteroftime will be happy when they see it

 

[Rhom]

16 minutes ago, David Selig said:

Rafe Judkins answered some questions about the Rosamund Pike's casting on Twitter today - http://www.thedailytrolloc.com/2019/07/rafes-rosamund-casting-q.html

Probably the most interesting answer was:

 

It’s like he’s been reading our Fox X-men thread for the last few weeks!  

[red snow]

3 minutes ago, Rhom said:

It’s like he’s been reading our Fox X-men thread for the last few weeks!  

It certainly does! They'll be poaching some of the actors we mentioned next. Tormund giantsbane is our sabertooth - hands off