Amazon’s ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 1 – Five Changes From the Books That Made Things Worse
Sometimes you have to rework things to make a book adaptation work, these Wheel of Time changes aren’t that.
Amazon’s The Wheel of Time is getting closer to its second season coming out. We reviewed both the first and second halves of the first season, and it was a pretty mixed bag. They did have some things going for it. Overall the cast was great and they delivered good performances. Visually, while some parts seemed unfinished, they did have some good-looking locations. In the end, however, my overall reaction is pretty negative. However we’ve now got a second season upcoming, and it’s worth looking at where the first went wrong and hope they can do better.
As with any adaptation, it was compared to the books it was based on. Adaptations make changes, they have to, especially when going from one medium (books) to another (the screen). Some of Wheel of Times changes were good, but a number were baffling or outright bad. Here are the five worst.
**WARNING MAJOR BOOK AND SHOW SPOILERS**
5. Changing Thom Merrilin
The show made a ton of changes to Thom and his role in it, and I’m not really a fan. In the books, Thom is introduced right off the bat and travels with the gang until his seeming death around halfway through. He’s a pretty major part of the early book. Thom is also a gleeman, a traveling bard dressed in a bright cloak, who sings, dances, and performs tricks. He mentors both Rand and Mat for part of the story. He’s also super important in later books.
The show chooses to wait till episode 3, with this seeming death coming in the very next episode. It also removed his colorful persona, in favor of a very drab-looking costume (he’s also lost his famous mustaches). Rather than juggle and do mixed performances we get a single sad kind of country-western song out of him, and that is.
I get that they might have felt introducing him at the start would have crammed too much into the first episode, and to be fair he is not integral to the plot of the first book, but this reduction in his role makes it unclear why he is even in the show. He has very little impact. This is also confusing as he would have been a great person to have delivered exposition early on. I think his changes make the show less colorful and rich. Not everything needs to be dark.
4. Weakening Moiraine
In the books, Moiraine is the driving force behind the plot of the first book. She finds the Dragon and his companions and puts things into motion. She’s powerful and mysterious and always trying to be in control. Even when she’s not really, she projects the image of being in control and is working to take control. She can be manipulative, but she’s also brilliant. She has hidden friends and allies, backup plans, and reserves of power and is a force to be reckoned with. Moiraine dominates large portions of the book.
The show apparently felt this would be too much or something. So it has her get injured in the first episode. She then spends two episodes out of commission and never really does anything impressive the rest of the show. Moiraine never projects the air of control I’d expect of her.
She is still a compelling character, but not one that seems to have much of a plan. The last few episodes have her taking a group of kids to fight the Dark One hoping that one of them will turn out to be the Dragon Reborn, she even loses one along the way. Earlier when the party is separated she doesn’t even attempt to find the others. She’s also beaten by the “Dark One” with basically no fight. She’s a shadow of who she should be. Maybe this will play into the next plot in season 2, but it’s still not great.
3. The Final Episode
via Amazon
Pretty much everything in this episode was bad and a deviation. I’ll just list a few:
- Egwene can heal the dead? This is a major change and lowers the stakes of the series.
- The Fal Darans suck at everything. They are supposed to be like super badass Trollic fighters, instead, they go down like punks. This looked bad and made everyone seem like idiots.
- The Horn of Valere has just been sitting around in Fal Dara? This is a super legendary artifact that is constantly being searched for.
- The Blight is something you can just walk through with ease I guess.
I could go on but it is really just a mess. You can read my full review for more.
2. Shifting the Focus Away From the Emond Fielders
via Amazon Studios and EW
The Eye of the World is at its heart about the young people from Emond’s Field going out into the world and having an adventure. It’s really about Mat, Rand, and Perrin and their bonds, with Nynaeve and Egwene also being important if somewhat less so. While the books balloon out from this, the story is really focused on them and their feelings, struggles, and changes.
The show decides to majorly refocus this. It’s much more about Moiraine and Lan’s adventure than anything else. Major elements from later books, such as Warder relationships and Tower politics are pushed front and center. The five Emonds Fielders are generally pushed to the back (with the exception of Nynaeve). Roughly half of one of only eight episodes is devoted to a Warder we don’t know and will never see again, who doesn’t have any effect on the lives of the five Emond’s Fielders.
via Amazon
The show wants to be a big show, and it wants to introduce things to the audience early. I get this. But this came at the expense of getting to know the most important people in the show. Rand is the central character in the whole story and I don’t really feel that I know him. I don’t really feel the bonds between the characters. I think Rand and Nynaeve had maybe 2 scenes together. Are Rand and Perrin friends or just romantic rivals? I don’t know. The first season should have focused on developing this. It didn’t.
A Note on Mat
One of the big changes from the book is what happens to Mat Cauthon towards the end of the book. However, this is one change, while it was for the worse, that I won’t and can’t blame the show for. Barney Harris, who played Mat, had to leave the show rather suddenly and unexpectedly. The show and Barney have chosen to keep the reasons for this private, though there are rumors of some sort of family emergency.
This was during the height of Covid. While it hurt the show, this was both unforeseen and unavoidable and isn’t really anyone’s fault. In fact, I think the show handled it as well as they could, and it’s not something you should blame them for.
1. Perrin’s Wife
Perrin’s wife. Sigh. This is just… really bad. By far the worst change. For some reason, the show decided to give Perrin a wife named Laila. During the Trolloc attack in the first episode, Perrin accidentally kills her in battle, thinking she is another Trolloc attacking him. This is a major change from the books, where Perrin does not have a wife (at least not at the start) and does not kill anyone in this way.
On a basic level, this is a pretty clear act of fridging. A female character was created just to be killed off and used as motivation for a male one. It’s bad and hamfisted.
In the books, the main Two Rivers people are effectively kids. Though they are all 20, or close to it, they act a bit younger. None of them have really come of age and all still live with family. The characters are archetypical farm boys and pretty blank slates. They’re all bad with and a bit unconformable with women, but especially Perrin. All of them are people who are going to be changed by the adventures facing them.
This Change Ruins So Much
Giving Perrin a wife fundamentally changes him. What is he going to experience that is more traumatic than killing his own wife? He’s no longer a wide-eyed village boy, but a grieving widower. On top of all that, since she was inserted for no real reason (he would have left without her existing) not only does her death not motivate anyone, but the characters barely react to it. Perrin looks sad about it a few times. The rest of his friends mention it once or twice and that’s it. No one acts like their friend’s wife, and we assume also their friend, was murdered the other day. It’s bizarre. But don’t just take my word for it. Brandon Sanderson, who wrote the final three books in the series, was also not a fan.
By the end of the Season, his wife has just had basically no impact. The showrunners however decide to double down and make things even worse. It’s revealed that Perrin has feelings for Egwene. They also imply that Perrin only married his wife because Egwene and Rand got together (not mind you that they were also married, just dating). Perrin, it’s hinted, even wanted his wife dead because he was in love with Egwene. This pretty much makes Perrin out to be a horrible person who only married his wife out of spite, and never loved her and now isn’t even sad she is dead. I just can’t with this. Make it stop.
via Amazon
Let us know what changes you thought were the worst, down in the comments!
