The Wheel of Time is a preeminent series of books written by the late Robert Jordan and, later, Brandon Sanderson. It stretches over fourteen books, most of them the size of doorstoppers. The sheer volume of source material suggests that any adaptation would have to pick and choose which elements it should keep and which it should discard. It’s hard to say that Amazon’s The Wheel of Time adaptation is the best possible adaptation or even the worst possible one, but if season one is anything to go by, it shows promise despite a multitude of changes that have left book readers crying foul.
Three thousand years ago, the Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon (Alexander Kalim) tries to imprison the Dark One with his army of male channellers. In the present, Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) of the Aes Sedai comes to the Two Rivers to find the Dragon Reborn, who is fated to defeat the Dark One or join him. As the village gets attacked by an army of trollocs, she and her warder, Lan (Daniel Henney) find four youths, Rand (Josha Stradowski), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) and Mat (Barney Harris) and sets off with them to Tar Valon, the seat of the Aes Sedai’s power. Along the way, Egwene’s mentor, Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) also joins them on their journey.
The first few episodes of the season don’t get off to a great start, but as the series peppers in worldbuilding, it gets progressively better.
As a non-book reader, I am fascinated by the Aes Sedai, their different types or ajahs, their relationship with their warders and also the bond between Moraine and Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo), the Amyrlin Seat and ruler of the Aes Sedai. The way the magic is portrayed, through white weaves, is unique to this series. This magic is also quite potent, although power levels do vary wildly throughout the season.
The characters, on the other hand, don’t fare as well. Some of them are fleshed out with backstories, and we get to see romantic relationships that either didn’t happen in the books or happened off-screen. Characters like Moiraine, Lan and Nynaeve get the best and most meaningful screen-time. Egwene and Rand also get a decent amount of attention, but Perrin and Mat are almost abandoned three-fourths into the season.
As for the significant changes to the source material, perhaps not all of them lead to a better viewing experience.
For instance, in the finale, five women, with only one experienced channeller, managed to defeat an army of 20,000 trollocs, while in an earlier episode eight Aes Sedai women barely held off hundreds of men. The show is still packed chockfull of subplots and characters and factions, and that doesn’t always work out. One fan favorite character, Thom Merrilin (Alexandre Willaume) appears in an episode and promptly disappears in the next one. The show’s cinematography might also turn off some viewers, as it doesn’t easily convey the scale and scope of the series.
If you are looking for another fantasy epic, then The Wheel of Time might just quench your thirst. Hopefully, the next season can cram in a few more episodes so that all the plot threads can breathe a little easier. Can this be a Game of Thrones substitute? That’s hard to tell, as this is a story that wears its fantasy influence on its sleeves much more readily than Game of Thrones did, which was more about flawed characters trying to survive in a harsh world.
Hopefully, The Wheel of Time can stand on its own legs and become a great story in due time.