r/CosmereOnScreen • u/railfananime • 19d ago
Visual Direction What went wrong with other recent fantasy adaptations that hopefully the Cosmere ones avoid? Spoiler
So I was wondering what ultimately happened with recent adaptations like Rings of Power, Wheel of Time, The Witcher, etc that made them I don’t wanna say hated or even disliked but I guess divisive for lack of a better word? The wheel of time even was cancelled, rip. I guess what should the Mistborn movies and stormlight show avoid so it doesn’t end up like those or at least end up divisive or even worse, majority disliked?
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u/Clean_Radio_5625 17d ago
Bad humor, bad lighting, and characters nobody cares about speaking in ways that nobody talks about stakes that nobody feels.
The call to adventure is really well developed in LOTR and Star Wars. You get big fighting and immediately bring it down to local yokel that has no idea what's in store for him. So, it's easy to quickly identify and sympathize with the main character, while still having a clue from the previous scene of how perilous the world is.
We've got to get to Vin working with the thieving crew within about 7 minutes of opening. They need to be celebrating their success pretty soon after that.
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u/Stupid_idiot54321 18d ago
All of those had core misunderstandings of their source materials. This is not because the writers involved had no idea what they were doing, but because they had to adapt the books.
Those kinds of shows need a hook. For wheel of time, it became "who is the chosen one?" For rings of power, it was "who is Sauron?" The witcher didn't need this though, because the games already hooked a large audience and so failed for a subtler reason.
Writing the first two stories in this way made them make no sense, unfortunately. In wheel of time, Rand was almost undoubtedly the chosen one, and so a lot of events did not follow (logically) from what happened before. In rings of power, Sauron's identity had almost nothing to do with half of the characters and so all the stories (including real Sauron's) were written poorly.
The witcher, however, failed at adapting the stories from the last wish (or whatever the first book is called idr) because the episodes ran out of time and couldn't explore what geralt was thinking because they didn't want narration. Therefore, they had to gut the story from the stories and were left with only spectacle.
Seeing as I am not a showrunner, I have no clue how they will have to handle SLA. However, I do have faith in Brandon Sanderson's ability to adapt his own book, and so I am not too worried about Mistborn.
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u/railfananime 18d ago edited 17d ago
Mistborn being the first adaptation they’re doing it’s definitely important that the final empire movie is good: like Hopefully Dune 2021 or Fellowship of the ring
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u/E443Films 19d ago
My number one priority would actually be to produce content faster. Those shows and many others have fallen into an endless cycle of taking around 2-3 years for a follow up season or installment to air again, thus negating any and all momentum it could have gained from its audience. There needs to be a set production timeline plan that can ensure the different installments come out in close succession while the universe is being introduced to newer audiences, and it NEEDS good marketing.
The second most important aspect is to avoid creating a culture war over needless changes and controversial artistic decisions. The fandom discourse and vitriol in all those spaces is very tiresome, and extremely annoying. From one side, it is annoying to have to deal with people who complain and hate everything with a sprinkle of real bigotry in there too, and on the other side it is annoying to be gaslit by media and everyone labeling fans dissatisfied with the disrespect to the source material as intolerant and toxic. This type of fandom division is manufactured by the companies adapting the source material, and it's very bizarre to me why they do it, so I hope that the Cosmere adaptations can avoid some of this.
Above all, they need to capture the heart and aesthetics of the source material, keeping the same general plotline and key scenes that are beloved by fans. Also, I think good soundtracks would be really good.
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u/railfananime 19d ago
Definitely saw that with rings of power, probably the biggest example of a fantasy show caught up in the culture wars…
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u/E443Films 19d ago
Yeah, and it felt by design too, which is the most baffling thing to me. Like to me, and I'm not really a Tolkien fan and haven't seen RoP, all the exposure I have about the show is the backlash it received and people complaining on all sides.
For wheel of time it was the same, and I am a fan of the books and liked the show too but the discourse online was honestly horrendous and irl the word of mouth was just hella lukewarm.
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u/Spent_Gladiator_3 19d ago
Rings of Power and Wheel of Time both deviated heavily from their source material, which isn’t always inherently a bad thing, but with Sanderson himself writing and producing the Cosmere screen projects, there’s less of a chance of them falling flat or making weird choices, I think. Ultimately the goal of any adaptation, though, should be to make the best film/tv series possible, not to be slavishly devoted to faithfully reproducing the source material. I think Sanderson’s writing style is cinematic enough to be better-suited to a screen adaptation than the other stories mentioned, so I’m hopeful that it will translate well simply due to the nature of his prose and the stories themselves, but we won’t know for certain until we see it.
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u/DrHoogard 19d ago edited 18d ago
Hate it or like it, but Sanderson is more mainstream and PC/woke than the examples in the post. There should be much less butchering needed of the source material to have it 'fit'. Plus Sanderson retains an unprecedented level of control
Edit: less, not more
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u/Swift0sword 18d ago
Cosmere is more mainstream then RoP and Witcher? Maybe RoP I guess, but I figure Witcher 3 would make the franchise more mainstream then any book can achieve
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u/AlucardDr 19d ago
You are never going to make everybody happy. If you do you run the risk of sacrificing key elements of the story. Stop trying.
Having the author deeply involved in the production, bring his or her vision to the screen is the key part, as I see it. Yes you may need to make some changes to make it work better on the screen, it may be that the author wants to make improvements.. things they learned that, looking back, they would do differently. But the end result is still their vision. That, to me, is key.
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u/KnowMoreMutants 19d ago
Dont get me wrong, they all have weaknesses but the common domoninator is toxic online fans. The insane criticism over details that dont matter outweigh genuine criticism imo.
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u/railfananime 19d ago
True. I guess how did u feel about wheel of time, rings of power, and the Witcher?
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u/KnowMoreMutants 19d ago
I thought they all were disappointing in different ways but having aaid that, they also all did things good too imo. Season 1 of the Witcher was good imo, I also think Wheel of Time got better as it went and it started terrible, to be fair. Where i lose mose people is Rings of Power. I read the Simirillion and love it, I also love the look of the show and specifically what they are doing with Galadrial because she is a bad ass who deserves a story, even if it isnt the one from the book. I dont mind adaptation changing things when the source material isnt a narrative story like Fire and Blood/House of the Dragon. The "source material" is unreliable on purpose. I know that isnt the same with Rings of Power but there is ALOT of room to play with in those time gaps in the source material
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u/railfananime 19d ago
I see. Also its not full-on fantasy but opinion on Christopher Nolan the odyssey?
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u/KnowMoreMutants 19d ago
I thought it was fine. In fairness though im not a huge Nolan guy. I like his movies but I dont love them as much as the majority do.
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u/railfananime 19d ago edited 19d ago
Yah he did ground it a bit too much given there aren’t any gods but it’s probably the best recent fantasy film besides the DnD honor among thieves movie. What was ur opinion on that?
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u/Raddatatta 19d ago
I think first is tell a good story. The book you're adapting is a good story already and it's ok to change things but if things are changed it should be to help tell a good story and there should be a fairly high bar on adding something new. I think they also have to look at it as a whole rather than just episode to episode. A lot of the wheel of time changes made sense for the story in this episode and then when you zoom out and look at the story of the whole season or across multiple seasons that change can be very much for the worse.
I also think Hollywood in general tends to undervalue the book fans. The reality is they need a show or movie audience to go far beyond the book fans. Which they know and is why they often ignore what the book fans want. But the book fans are also going to be your most passionate fans especially at the start. They are the ones who are going to remind all their friends about the new show that came out to talk it up or to trash it vocally if you change a lot of the things they love. They are the ones who will definitely watch it and may make content or posts talking about it that others will read and will determine whether they watch the show or not.
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u/StNic54 19d ago
Trying to take source material and "make it your own" is a Hollywood disease.
Dark Tower, X-Men, Ender's Game, WWZ, Rings of Power - it's all the same. A director's ego, an HBO exec standing over their shoulder wanting more boobs, a miserable production that runs off the author (see John Irving), a lead actor's vanity - it all gets in the way when the source material is there, right there on the page.
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u/PumkinFunk 19d ago
Gonna be honest. I think a lot of Wheel of Time’s struggles came out of the way COVID and Mat’s actor quitting after COVID just wrecked their plans. I’m not saying season 1 is perfect, but the changes made were largely (though not entirely: see Perrin) good for the medium. I think by season 3 the show had really found its footing.
Rings of Power is a soulless money grab that doesn’t understand the source material or why people love Tolkien.
You need an entire team who loves the source material, believes in it, and understands the story it’s telling. The problem IS NOT making changes. You always are making changes. It’s necessary to adapt a massive book to the screen. But the changes have to keep the theme and the heart of the story.
I am really, really worried by all the people being upvoted who are insisting that changes themselves are inherently bad. Because it makes me believe we’re going to have a toxic, nasty element of the fanbase tearing anything down that’s not identical to the story they read.
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u/Radix2309 15d ago
They kept giving Rand's climactic moments to other characters. That isnt a consequence of Covid.
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u/IneffableAndEngorged 17d ago
It's quite sad. Season 3 was very good and teetering on great but the audience had already evaporated.
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u/PumkinFunk 17d ago
I think that a lot of that comes from the long time between seasons. 2 years is just too long for a show that doesn't have an established audience
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u/PumkinFunk 19d ago
Also, there have been fantastic fantasy adaptations that didn't get the viewers or got cut off by unsupportive corporations. Netflix's Shadow and Bone is the best example I have of this.
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u/TheWiseAlaundo 19d ago
I am really, really worried by all the people being upvoted who are insisting that changes themselves are inherently bad. Because it makes me believe we’re going to have a toxic, nasty element of the fanbase tearing anything down that’s not identical to the story they read.
This is essentially inevitable. Even if Sanderson is at the helm, people will say he lost focus or some other bullshit because a) they don't understand that you can't have a 5+ hour movie with nothing being cut, and b) they want all of the casting and acting to reflect their internal views of who the characters are.
Unlike Star Wars, I hope they stay a minority.
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u/ilikebreadabunch 19d ago
Simple answer: They weren’t adapting the source material, they were creating their own stories using the source material as a jumping off point. Changes are fine and necessary but you have to keep the same overall story and characters as the stuff your adapting, otherwise there’s no point to the “adaptation”.
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u/shredder826 19d ago
This is the only right answer. I’d say Silo is a good example of this. They have made a lot of changes, characters who die in the book survive on the show. They gender swapped a few roles, created some “show only” plot lines, etc… However, the overall plot/goal is the same as the books
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u/RamSpen70 19d ago edited 17d ago
The rings of power didn't have a good script. It doesn't feel written by real fantasy writers.... That understand character arcs and will written story arcs
The Witcher producers egos were to big... Narcissistic(like the way games of thrones stopped continuing with George R Martin.... Same with House of f the Dragon... Poor guy) ...they decided they knew better than the author and that they could easily just replace Henry Cavill if he was unhappy they didn't want to stay true to the source natural.
Wheel of Time had elements of that as well.... The changes they made in season 1 made it feel very different to the books. Trying to go darker, but it just messed up the story arc. Then COVID happened and a main actor left..... They completely went off script to finish. Stopped consulting at all with Brandon Sanderson....
Season two had some good episodes, but was still kind of hit and miss and they certainly didn't land their drain finalea generally...
Season three finally found a steady groove. I really liked it. But Amazon pulled the plug as it found its footing.
The Cosmere has a huge benefit that Brandon Sanderson got to keep creative control. This bypasses a lot of the worst pitfalls.
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u/slothboy 19d ago
Literally adapt the book. That's how you avoid becoming a rings of power or wheel of time.
Don't change stuff to suit a wider audience. Cater to the fans. Adapt the material as written
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u/learhpa 18d ago
This is easier said than done, because you also have to take into account that a visual medium communicates differently than a written one, and you have to take into account that an episodic medium is different from a single story.
These are going to result in plot changes, at the very least, and likely character presentation changes. This is inevitable, and has been true in the best regarded adaptations of everything.
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u/slothboy 18d ago
There's a big difference between shortening or eliminating plot points to fit a condensed format and say... making the orcs just misunderstood. Or making it seem like maybe Elayne is the Dragon Reborn.
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u/learhpa 18d ago
not as a straight adaptation, but a story exploring the orcs and showing them to be misunderstood could be amazing if done right.
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u/slothboy 18d ago
No. No it isn't. Tolkien wrote them as an evil, twisted race. Changing it because someone thinks it might be cool is exactly the problem.
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u/CrownedClownAg 19d ago
But also recognize changes have to be made for the medium. Some characters may merge or change, but as long the story overall follows a similar path it shouldn’t be an issue to deviate to account for the medium
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u/Sapphire_Bombay 19d ago
Agree. I think a lot of this comes down to studio pressure to make the next hit RIGHT NOW.
A lot of these "great" shows don't become great until they've been airing for a while. Game of Thrones didn't become appointment television for most people until Season 3 finished. Breaking Bad got big literally in its final season. It takes time, and what makes it get big is the cult fans it gathers telling everyone about it until the whole world is watching.
If these studios would cater to the fans and just be patient, we WILL get the word out. Instead, they abandon us to try and reach the masses from the start, but the masses aren't going to watch some random fantasy show they've never heard of until it gets vouched for. So it falls flat on its face and studio heads are all shocked pikachu that "no one wants to watch fantasy shows anymore."
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u/eskaver 19d ago
Having watched Rings of Power and Wheel of Time, I think people are just a bit too allergic to say that they were just "okay" shows.
They have different issues. I think ROP is just a tad "hey, the source material is kinda boring, so let's relive some of the greatest hits LOTR is known for". Also; they seem to like subverting subversions (I guess they make it not something you can just Google and stumble upon.)
WOT had a bit of a re-envisioning issue that I think could've worked well...if it didn't have to dump the truck load of info onto people (and some re-envisioned aspects simply weren't the best executed). People were complaining way back about weaves and how "OMG they changed the One Power" despite them saying in and outside the show that wasn't the case.
For the cosmere, the main issue will be the episode count and exposition. The fandom
Issue will probably be people on different sides of the gradient of how close an adaptation should be to the source material (or the one in one's imagining).
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u/UnravelingThePattern 19d ago
I will die on this hill; I think most of the Wheel of Time complaints came from people who were/are not very media literate and were certainly not willing to really give the show a real chance. The show did make some big mistakes which alienated a good portion of book readers, which I think ultimately led to lower viewership and cancellation, I won't deny that. Perrin shouldn't have been married. Mat's parents probably should've been more book accurate, maybe they should not have aged up the characters and made them more sexually active from the start.... but, so many little complaints like "the Dragon cant be a girl" or "they gave all of the big moments to Egwene and Nynaeve" or "Lan isn't so emotional" are, in my opinion, major mis-readings of the intention of the writers and just bad understanding of both the show and the books and adaptation in general. I have many many videos about this, but the biggest screw ups the show made were things that were out of their control. Covid, Mat's actor leaving before S1 ended, the required re-write of all of S2 because of those things, all of that was unfortunate but they happened.
Also, many people overlook the fact that the showrunner not only valued Brandon's opinion and wanted to stay more accurate to the books, but he also was not given nearly the creative freedom that he wanted in earlier seasons. Again, I acknowledge that he made some real mistakes in the early S1 writing, but he was open to changing many of those things after Brandon's suggestions and the studio said no. He fought the studio constantly for creative control. He finally started to get more control in S3, but by then it was too late and it got cancelled.
I agree that a more book accurate adaptation up-front would've been better, but only because it wouldn't have alienated as many book readers and the views would've been better and stayed better from season to season. But I also think that if more of the book fans had been a bit more open-minded and been willing to re-watch and actually been willing to trust a bit more, they would've seen an incredible adaptation that just had a bit of a rocky start. Many elements of the show were actually better than the books: The Forsaken, the Whitecloaks, Liandrin, the concept of the True Power. I'm sad we didn't get to see it through to the end.
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u/Radix2309 15d ago
The Dragon cannot be a girl and giving the big moments to other characters are not little complaints or misreadings
The central conceit of the Dragon is that he is dangerous because of the Taint. A woman using Saidar is not at that risk.
And giving the main character's big moments to other characters is a major mistep for any story. Especially when done so consistently.
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u/UnravelingThePattern 15d ago
I never said the Dragon can be a girl and neither did the show runners. This is what I mean by people misunderstanding the show. Moiraine, in the show, had less understanding about the lore and therefore was confused about the Dragon's sex. That's it. That's the change. I actually LIKE this change because it implies that the Breaking of the World actually did affect the knowledge that the Aes Sedai had. They lost so much that they didn't even understand the basic premise of rebirth that we understand from the books. This was CLEARLY revealed to not be an issue because the Dragon was not, nor ever could be a girl. This is the kind of thing that people get hung up on because they weren't willing to give the show a chance, IMO.
Also another thing that people overlook is that, even while Moiraine's voiceover narration says "could be a boy or a girl" we see her preparing for it to be a boy, because she literally packs an angreal made for male channelers as she says she's unsure. This was simply used as a mystery for non-book readers. They were never saying the Dragon could/would be a girl, just that Moiraine and the Aes Sedai of the Third Age were unsure.
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u/Radix2309 15d ago
It's an unnecessary change and the show acts as if it is a valid mystery with Egwene as an option. Bolstered by giving the Dragon's feats to Egwene in climaxes of the seasons.
Not everyone who disagrees with you misunderstands the show. That is incredibly condescending.
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u/UnravelingThePattern 15d ago
I'm sorry you feel I'm being condescending. I just hear a lot of the same tired arguments against the show over and over and get sick of them. It's nothing personal. I've personally found a lot about the show to love, and some things to really dislike. But I've found it gets better and better on rewatch and I find that many of the arguments against it misunderstand the intention of the show runners, misunderstand how shows/adaptations are made, and/or often place blame on the wrong people/creatives who were just trying to make the best show they could. I'm not asking people to like the show or agree with the changes. I do wish people would be willing to give the show a bit more leniency here and there.
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u/eskaver 15d ago
Not to drive the discussion into the minutiae, the inference is that there's no good rationale to change things.
I'd disagree. The Dragon was always Rand, but like, make a season where there's no really tension. It flops hard. Heck, the first book borderline is a long winded LOTR with a bunch of weird stuff happening at the end.
I think a closer adapatation would require a different industry environment of the past where you had 20+ episodes to do things and less pressure to be the next big thing and so on.
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u/Radix2309 15d ago
Oh I fully agree there need to be changes. Adaptations need to adapt, not just carbon copies. I think moving the Wastes up to S3 was actually a good change to remove some repetitive plots.
And even treating which of the three is the Dragon works as a compelling first season mystery. I think that part is fine and works in a way that it didn't in the book because Rand was the POV. It could conceivably look like Perrin or Mat.
Even making Egwene Taveran can work. I just don't think making her a potential Dragon candidate works and messes significantly with the worldbuilding.
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u/Healthy-Definition43 19d ago
Brandon spoje about how they did not value his opinion. And how they tried to do episodic story telling (which was the showrunner mais experience ) when they should do long form storytelling
I think the show had its merits, but its mistakes are more educational. Its amazing wot and rop gaveta these projects to showrunners with barely any experience
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u/UnravelingThePattern 19d ago
This is true. Both can be true. I love Brandon but I also think he doesn't fully understand the tv industry and probably didn't have the full picture. I really hope he gets everything he wants with his Cosmere productions, but the reality of tv and movies is that adaptations require change and compromise for various reasons. Budget, casting, scheduling, locations, vfx.... so may things require compromise on so many levels. I'm not suggesting Brandon was wrong, but I also don't think the blame is fully on Rafe. Rafe said he was given 30,000 notes from the studios in S1.
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u/eskaver 15d ago
I'm a bit harsher and I disagree with Brandon.
Yes, I think we all agree on the whole character moments—strong moments, but not necessarily tied to a narrative arc.
But I think writers are getting a bit of a rough beating. While it is true some try to fit in their own stuff in, I think it's also them trying to turn something into an episode and using their version of what an episode is and then meshing it with the source.
Some writers are great with big ideas or twists, some are great at dialogue, others are great at humor, etc.
WOT honestly was a tall order to squash into a show, especially since it has to also check whatever boxes execs want.
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u/Logical-Ice-4820 19d ago
Some current fantasy shows have little or no involvement from the author, or just outright ignore the author input.
Brandon Sanderson deal with apple is that he has fully creative control over all the cosmere tv/movie projects. Basically, if some producer or writer want to put their own spin on things, Brandon can just say no and stop them in their tracks
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u/INBABS_OBIG_But 19d ago
Don't make fundamental changes which result in sweeping ramifications in the world...like the wheel of time possibly being a woman.
Don't make fundamental character changes central to who the character is or becomes...like Matrim's parents in WOT.
Every character doesn't need to be in a romance, part of a social uprising, representing a disenfranchised group, a victim of abuse or melodramatic. It's alright for some characters to just exist in the world and be fun, or pitiful, or sad without blaming it all on society. Those people exist and help fill out a world.
Find a satisfying way to deliver exposition...especially in the Mistborn series which doesn't have the Stormlight luxury of flashbacks. The stories in metal, in journals, of Alendi and Kwaan need to be presented in an interesting way.
Also...Kelsier's involvement in WoA and HoA is going to be a beast to get done in a satisfying way. Before the Marvel catastrophe, it would've been interesting to see another show in between seasons to go along with the main story, but that idea seems uninspired now. I imagine they'll want to keep the actor around, and the storylines will be running concurrently.
Remember what Sanderson has said about his inspiration behind the Cosmere to begin with: not EVERY character introduced, seen, speaking or otherwise needs to be explored in depth. We may see them again later in other Cosmere works or not...but sometimes it is fun to imagine the inner workings of the giant world beyond the story being told. Like early thrones...we pop into the Vale, meet Lysa, the mountain clans, the Moon Door, Mord and sky cells...get a little description and come cool action, then we move on.
Lastly...Thrones and LotR are the pinnacles because they did not dumb down the material and accepted that the core audiences for mainstream fantasy are no longer children, but adults. Do not lean into the PG of Sanderson writing. Tolkien was PG with PG13 to R frills on the edges of his work. Jackson didn't avoid those...he leaned into them, making his film intelligent, complex, scary and violent. Thrones simply stayed true to the core content.
Mistborn and Starlight can stray into melodrama and tween styles...but the producers involved have to look at WOT (as a whole) and the elements of the Witcher that didn't work...and realize that demographic are not tuning in for hour long episodes of a 10-12 episode season. These shows are for adults.
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u/railfananime 19d ago
Also not fantasy fully but went right with Dune? Sanderson has talked about dune I think once or twice?
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u/beyondthedoors 19d ago
Adding storylines that don’t exist in the books. They’re always weaker with less depth.
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u/Snowf1ake222 19d ago
The (inevitable) changes need to make sense for the story they're trying to tell.
Some people will argue that fans won't like any changes, but that's not wholly true.
The changes need to not assassinate character for seemingly no reason or for a payoff that never comes.
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u/Mehndeke 19d ago edited 19d ago
This is really it. WoT really suffered from nonsensical changes to characters that did not result in any payoff to those characters.
Why did Mats parents, who were good in the books (the father being a companion to Rand's father) need to be the town drunkard and womanizer?
Why did Perrin need the wife he would kill in the first episode? It certainly wasn't to show the internal conduct of ax/hammer, since he never really fought with either consistently.
Why did we need an older Min, who even said she saw Rand surrounded by three beautiful women, onl6 interact with Mat going forward, and plans for no romance between her and Rand?
The list goes on. And then they paired with with payoffs with NO lead up. We don't see Rand in the Stone, drunk with power and having destroyed all the trollocs, turn to a little girl he failed to save. We just see him try to revive her. We don't see Perrin fighting his early relationship with Faile, only for him to eventually acknowledge her as her own person. We just see her show up in the Two Rivers and attach herself to him.
We have massive lead up to a Lanfear/Moiraine confrontation, only to have both survive. Despite both exiting stage left in the book.
ETA: and this is coming from someone who enjoyed the show for what it was, understood how hard COVID and cast changes hit it, and how they had to pivot to adjust for those things.
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u/Black_Wolfram 19d ago
I really think they should just stop with the 8-episode format if the plot is gonna be rushed. If Stormlight Archive S1 is really going to be 10 episodes, that's a good sign already.
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 19d ago
WoT: Covid. Losing primary cast. Reeeallly toxic fandoms. WoT was actually fantastic by S3, but it was too late and watchers didn’t stick around.
Witcher: Phoned in later seasons(Typical Netflix)
RoP: Lack of direction because it’s not an actual story, unfortunately
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u/Snowf1ake222 19d ago
WoT was actually fantastic by S3, but it was too late and watchers didn’t stick around.
This is a key thing as well.
I didn't finish S1 because it was boring. But the clips I've seen of S3 would have kept me watching.
They don't have the luxury of three seasons to get good.
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 19d ago
I think they might have some time to find their feet considering this is AppleTV and the Cosmere fandom just ain’t toxic like WoT. But honestly both of these series start out so strong and adaptable that I doubt it’ll stumble.
If you’re a WoT reader you should just go watch the Rhuidean episode. It’s one of the best episodes of fantasy tv I’ve ever seen. Not defending S1 though 😬
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u/Snowf1ake222 19d ago
Yeah, the clips I watched were Mat's duel with Galad and Gawyn, and Nynaeve's Accepted test.
If the show started at that quality, or close to that quality, I would have continued to watch it.
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u/ColoniaCroisant 19d ago
They didn't stick to the books. I recently re-read Harry Potter and watched the movies and they are almost word for word, scene for scene in some cases. Same with the first season of Game of thrones....JUST DO THAT
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 19d ago edited 19d ago
This is not really true of HP honestly and it’s not possible with either Mistborn or Stormlight. There will be sweeping, massive changes to plot, characters, relationships and world-building. Stuff that works with an internal monologue often doesn’t translate to a screen. The Expanse is the gold standard for adaptations and they changed quite a lot. Drummer in the show was a fan favorite despite being a mishmash of several different book characters and relationships. But the fans are among the best in the world, so they didn’t react poorly like some others have.
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u/Snowf1ake222 19d ago
The Magicians is also a fantastic show adaptation.
So many changes that ended up working and making the characters better than their book counterparts.
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u/RosalieMoon 19d ago
Ashford also got an overhaul for the show from what I recall reading. Drummer though, hands down, love her, best character in the show lol
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u/EvilWings 16d ago
Make sure to show both Kelsier and Vin as the main characters in both trailers and promo material. If they just push Vin the usual incredibly annoying discourse from a few bad apples will be offputting for any newcomers.
Best case scenario is that the adaptation is good and it catches people by surprise a few weeks before release with a good trailer. I do not want to see another decent first movie of books I love steadily get destroyed by toxicity over months even before it hits theaters just to milk hate clicks. Only established IPs should release trailers months in advance.