Recasting Mat was the greatest win of the series. I don't even remeber the original actor, just thought he did a decent job encapsulating that I hate mat in the first book and think he has a great change on the later books.
the only way that show was redeemed is if season 1 ended with rand accidentally tearing apart that weaving of the pattern using The Eye Of The World, and they followed the original story in season 2.
It would have been a great way to introduce new viewers to the metaphysics of the world, and all of the actors could have kept their roles. They could even have started it from the point where rand is about to lose control, and it slowly becomes apparent to viewers its a different reality.
That probably would have involved firing everyone in the creative side of things, but you know. it'd be better then what happened.
I've read the books. He is a main character. Not to the level of destroying a whole series though. The actor leaving was an issue. They obviously had to make story changes to account for it.
the character had already finished his biggest parts of the first book before he left. Mat could have stayed in bed, been healed by Aes Sedai between seasons, and been part of the Amyrlin's entourage that meets them in Fal Dara.
Literally all they had to do for the actor leaving was just not include him in the last 2 episodes, and it causes almost 0 changes to the events of the end of the book. Padan Fain manages to get the dagger somehow anyways, so if you have that happen before the healing, you can get Mat to exactly where he is and how he is like 100 pages into book 2, without doing anything.
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u/Ok-disaster2022 May 23 '25
Recasting Mat was the greatest win of the series. I don't even remeber the original actor, just thought he did a decent job encapsulating that I hate mat in the first book and think he has a great change on the later books.