Post by Marek MercuryPost by ***@WorkOoh, hadn't noticed that! Just been following assorted Twitter and YouTube
https://hatboy.blog/2019/12/05/latest-wheel-of-time-news/
Had a quick read. Cool. I'll have to return semi-regularly.
Excellent! I've mostly been reposting the Steal on there for the last few months after the TV series news went into full swing. But I also post stories and previews and stuff of my own work, and other stuff like political rants and movie reviews that sometimes turn into political rants.
Speaking of political rants, I hope you're doing okay and are not on fire. Did you say you'd moved to Perth? Seems slightly better than over east.
Post by Marek MercuryI found my old Wheel of Time Character Archive website and zipfiles that can
be downloaded and used at home. I don't have anywhere to publish it online,
and I built it mostly with 3.6 HTML, so it's very old. I have one for Path of
Daggers, and one updated for Crossroads of Twilight in 2002. Unfortunately, I
didn't think to save each book's version as I completed them at the time. The
last update was December 2002 for Crossroads of Twilight, and there were 1761
characters. I planned to continue updating but then I got a life. Whoops!
Holy shitballs. And they're adding new ones?
Post by Marek MercuryFew characters have skin color mentioned - only 'light features', 'dark
features', etc - so there were only my own biases and experience to suggest
otherwise. Many of the Two Rivers folks were suggested as having 'dark
features'. I kind of remember Caihrienen being described as dark haired
(powdered) and pale skinned, Tairens being described as dark like ebony, some
northerners having high cheekbones, and Andorians with their red hair.
Right, that was my thought as well. I seem to recall the Sea Folk are mentioned as being dark too. But I do really like the way it just doesn't matter, and yet people have found other shit to hate about each other (because they're humans).
I still don't get how the Aiel are blonde and red-haired, but let's see how it all shakes out. I do like the idea that everything was scrambled up in the Breaking of the World, and the Age of Legends was high-tech (or high-magic) so there were people of all colours and creeds all over the place because travel was easy. Sort of like now, the latitude at which you and the thousand generations of ancestors before you doesn't necessarily dictate your genetics.
It also occurred to me that Ebou Dar, with its constant festivals and colourful traditions, was basically India. Never really thought about it before. I'm sure it's been mentioned many times.
Post by Marek MercuryInterestingly, Padan Fain is described as pale, but like you, I really don't
care as long as the actor is good. In the end, it won't matter who looks
similar to whom as its fantasy and all can be explained with the breaking of
the world.
Agreed, and exactly.
Post by Marek MercuryThat said, I've been in two minds about the Two Rivers casting. The actors
look great, and I am quite excited by an Aboriginal Australian as Egwene. My
only thought relates to source material noting a backwater people cut off for
2000 years with few additions from "outsiders". But then, as was argued to
Margaret Atwood for Handmaid, given most of the main characters are from the
Two Rivers, having all of them from similar backgrounds would be obvious and
odd the long run.
Right.
Post by Marek MercuryFinally, height. This was important to RJ. Rand is supposed to be around 2m
tall, 6'7" and very Aiel looking. The fella they have for him looks like an
ordinary vaguely slavic European and is 6'2". How will they find Aiel that
all look like him? How will he look with bright red hair?
Yeah, maybe they'll just downplay that.
Post by Marek MercuryAs for Moiraine, she's supposed to be short. Very very short. It's part who
her character is. Rosamond Pike is 5'8.5"(174cm). That's above average.
Not necessarily vital to her character, although "the little wee person who is super powerful" is a fun concept to play with.
Post by Marek MercuryAll the other characters look good to great. I don't know their work so who
knows. Except for Thom. From my old site: "Tall, lean and long limbed with a
stoop in his shoulders, he moved spryly, but not so much since a Myrddraal
left him with a limp. He has shaggy white hair and thick snowy mustaches that
sometimes quiver. His blue eyes can drill into a person, and are below bushy
white brows on a gnarled face." And he can do backflips and juggle nine
balls. I don't really see this in square jawed and swarthy Alexandre
Willaume. Still, that's that I guess.
Yeah, they're going for "mature but still capable of convincing us he can do backflips". Difficult line to walk with live action.
Post by Marek MercuryPost by ***@WorkPost by Marek MercuryDoes anyone else remember a character named Maksim?
I'm 99% sure there was no character named Maksim. May be a random added guy
but why the Hell would you *add* characters to this?
There isn't. I checked. I thought maybe he was a warder to Alanna, the Green
Aes Sedai. But her warders are Ihvon (also cast) and Owein (not listed).
Maybe he replaces Owein for whatever reason? He looks like a Green Ajah Warder.
Post by Marek MercuryGood point. Some of my favourite early WOT writing was Mat and Rand's travels
from Whitebridge to Caemlyn, but that could be done fairly quickly in an
audio visual. And RJ's chapters describing dresses and hair and sniffing will
be background. Perrin's transition to wolf and experience with Whitecloaks
will take longer if properly written. I'm still really hoping they have
learned to show not tell - something they seemed to figure out slowly in the
Witcher.
Yep. Budget limitations will probably mean there's not quite the depth of sets and wardrobe as Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, but a lot of it can go there (not that the first books were as guilty of padding as the later ones). Add in a few lines of doomy gloomy into text at the start to set up what's happened to the world, and you're good to go.
***@w
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