Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios
- The first three episodes of Amazon's "Wheel of Time" adaptation are out now.
- The original book series inspired George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones," which later became an HBO show.
- However, this new series has a lot more magic and diversity than the HBO hit series.
Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios
Like most fantasy tales, the series starts with a special hero hidden in a lowly village.
Moraine Damodred ( Rosamund Pike), a legendary Aes Sedai, which is the name given to those who can channel magic from a well of power called the "One Power," comes to the village, the Two-Rivers, to find the chosen one.
Instead, she finds multiple candidates who could be the chosen one called the Dragon Reborn: a blacksmith called Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford), a sheep farmer called Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski), and the town's prankster Mat Cauthon (Barney Harris).
The Amazon series differs from the books in that it changed the number of options for the chosen one to five instead of three, adding Egwene Al'Vere (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve al'Meara (Zoë Robins), who can both channel the "One Power."
"The Dark One," a deity and the series' main villain, is able to sense that one of these characters is the Dragon Reborn and sends his evil forces after them.
The original Dragon was the only one who was able to seal the deity in its prison the last time the deity tried to escape it. It's why Moraine and her trusty swordsman sidekick, Lan Mandragon (Daniel Henney), must protect the chosen ones, forcing them to leave their village to try and find a safe haven until they can figure out who will be able to stop "The Dark One" for good.
Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios
The main difference to the series from most fantasy stories is the way magic works.
The well of power the Aes Sedai use originates from the Wheel of Time, which literally controls the passing of time, or at least the passing of periods of time called ages. In addition, only women can use this power.
Whilst the original Dragon was a man who could access it, the well of power has since been corrupted on the male side so male users become insane when they attempt to use it.
This means that women are given significant standing in society, even those without the ability to channel "One Power."
Aes Sedai is also feared with many in the land believing they actually work for "The Dark One."
Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios
Although Amazon's series is coming out years after the success of the "Game of Thrones" TV adaptation, "Game of Thrones" author George R. R. Martin was heavily inspired by Jordan's book series and previously told Entertainment Weekly that "GoT" would not have been successful without "The Wheel of Time."
"[Jordan's] own work really made my series possible," Martin said when asked about how the death of Jordan, whose real name is Jim Rigney, in 2007 affected him.
"Jordan essentially broke the trilogy template that ["The Lord of the Rings" author J. R. R.] Tolkien helped set up. He showed us how to do a book that's bigger than a trilogy," he added. "I don't think my series would've been possible without 'The Wheel of Time' being as successful as it was."
However, "The Wheel of Time" differs greatly from "Game of Thrones." The series is a lot more magic-based and less politically focused.
Plus, the Amazon series seems to have more race and gender diversity. For years, the TV adaptation of "Game of Thrones" was criticized for not including enough diversity and often objectifying people of color.
Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios
The showrunners and cast have addressed the "Game of Thrones" comparison with Pike telling The Independent that the series isn't trying to be "the next 'Game of Thrones" because they are something different.
"['The Wheel of Time'] is a lot more female-centric," she said at "The Wheel of Time" premiere earlier this week. "It's a lot more diverse. It shows this vision of female power, which is just really cool and incredibly modern for the 1990s when Robert Jordan was writing."
"It's a world that strives for balance and female power and male power. You need both to make a stable world," Pike added.
Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios
The Amazon series has only released three episodes, but fans of the book will have already seen several differences from the original books.
For starters, the series puts Moraine as the main protagonist rather than the Two-River villagers, who have been aged up to be young adults instead of teenagers. They have also added more people to the list of suspects to be the chosen one, giving the story more mystery than the books.
Stradowski, who plays Rand, told The Metro however that the cast and crew want to do "the books justice."
"We do want to do the books justice, and especially [showrunner] Rafe [Judkins] who grew up with 'The Wheel of Time.' He knows the heart and the soul of these characters so we talk about that," the actor said in part.
The series is not adapting the books in order either. Judkins told Twitter that the first season adapts most of the first book, but also includes storylines from the second and third and will leave the end of the first book for future seasons.
—The Wheel Of Time (@TheWheelOfTime) September 2, 2021
The showrunner told Deadline that he sees the show going on for eight seasons so fans will see how much of the book's storylines end up in the adaptation.
Judkins told RadioTimes.com that he knew fans may "hate" the changes, but he feels "good about the decisions."
'The Wheel of Time' has been compared to 'Game of Thrones.' Here's what it's about.
Source: Kalayaan News
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