The Trakands on TV [UPDATED]

[Elder_Haman]

When goofing around with my own amateur adaptation, the Trakand clan always seems to present the most difficult problems. From when to introduce Elayne to whether to keep Morgase to how to eliminate Gawyn (kidding!), the Trakands always seem to present problems. Here are a few guesses about how things might play out for our favorite royal Andorans:

 

• Maria Doyle Kennedy is Morgase. [UPDATED]

This is just a guess based on casting information that we have right now. Most speculation about Kennedy's role has focused on Siuan, Elaida, Verin, and even Cadsuane. I propose another possibility: Morgase Trakand. With Keira Chansa being cast as a young Siuan, Kennedy is likely not going to be Siuan. Verin is also an unlikely role as it seems doubtful to me that the Hunt for the Horn will leave from Fal Dara prior to Season 2.

 

While Doyle-Kennedy would be excellent as Elaida, she would make an equally good Morgase with acting chops worth investing in over the long term. Morgase's story arc is underappreciated in my opinion - Doyle-Kennedy could really bring weight and depth to the character.

 

[UPDATE] Maria Doyle Kennedy has been announced as Ila the Tinker. So if you're counting I'm 0-1 on my official predictions. 

 

• Elayne Won't Appear in Season One

First - no casting announcement. That's a fairly big clue. Unless Amazon is trying to hide a "big name", there would be no reason to keep this information secret.

Second - like I've argued about Min in other posts - Elayne's introduction in the book, while memorable (it is one of my personal favorite scenes from the whole series), is too fleeting to be worth filming. And for pacing purposes, it makes more sense to have the focus be on Rand's encounters with Logain and Elaida. 

Third - keeping her introduction back will add some anticipation for season two. Egwene's arrival at the Tower is a perfect place to bring her into the story.

 

• Daryl McCormack is Gawyn (or Galad) (or Tallanvor) (or Galawynvor)

There is some discussion of McCormack as Aram. That would make sense too. 

It would also make too much sense to get rid of or combine some of these characters. I personally loathe Gawyn and find him the least likable character in the series. Losing him entirely would make loads of sense. Galad's arc could remain the same. And as I mentioned earlier, I feel like the Morgase-Tallanvor-Lini-Lamgwin-Basil story line is underappreciated. McCormack seems like a great choice for either Galad or Tallanvor. 

 

What do y'all think?

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Elder_Haman
Updated to include new casting information.

[mistborn82]

Saving Elayne could work since they can't shoehorn everything into Caemlyn.

For Gawyn, you keep him alive until Mat kicks the crap out of him and Galad and then you kill him in the Tower fighting, giving Galad even more of a reason to be a whitecloak. My only guess is RJ had bigger plans for Gawyn that got sidetracked as he's basically useless. I also think they play up the connection between Rand and Galad since it's essentially glossed over in the books. As for the 2nd appearance of Morgase, I think you drop that entirely as it really goes nowhere. You might also speed up Elayne pregnancy if it gets that far so she gives birth before the Last Battle and can fully participate in it.

[Elder_Haman]

16 minutes ago, mistborn82 said:

As for the 2nd appearance of Morgase, I think you drop that entirely as it really goes nowhere. 

 

I disagree. Morgase negotiates the peace between Perrin and the Whitecloaks. 

 

I used to think about it the same way you do. The last time I went through the series, I focused on her story. It's pretty compelling and does have a payoff.

 

I'd understand if they cut it though.

[mistborn82]

I think the connection can be solved by playing up the connection between Rand and Galad.

[Thrasymachus]

I don't know that you could cut out any of the Trakands (or the Damodreds) too much.  Some of their POVs would be fine to cut. 

 

But for Morgase, you gotta keep her basic story of going to the Whitecloaks for help after she escapes Rahvin, to demonstrate the limitations of Compulsion.  Gotta keep her being abused by Valda and subsequent escape from them during the Seanchan invasion, to show the Whitecloaks at their lowest point and motivate Galad later on.  Gotta keep her meeting up with Perrin and her role in mediating the meeting between the Whitecloaks and Perrin to set up their, and Galad's, redemption.

 

For Galad, you gotta keep him for the scene where he and Gawyn get their butts kicked by Mat, gotta keep his joining the Whitecloaks so he can kill Valda and take over.  Gotta keep him in charge of the Whitecloaks during the negotiations with Perrin.  And I think you gotta keep his confrontation with Demandred at the Last Battle, and slow-burn play up his half-brotherhood with the Dragon Reborn.

 

For Gawyn, I know everybody hates him, but that's what makes him such a good character.  I think you gotta keep him more or less intact as well.  His arc of trying to live up to his destined role, that's he's known about and prepared for since birth, that makes him make all the wrong choices at nearly every turn and in doing so destroying that destiny for himself, is a good contrast with Rand, especially, who has his destiny thrust upon him and who fights against accepting it and even when he does, still tries to avoid or manipulate the Prophecies to avoid their evil portents, only to end up fulfilling them. 

 

You could certainly cut his POVs, though.  We don't need to see his perspective leading the Younglings, and we can drop Sherlock Gawyn and Dr. Sleete in the Case of the Bloodknives.  But I think you have to keep him in his role of supporting Elaida's coup, then letting Suian escape.  I think you have to keep him in charge of the Younglings and part of Rand's escort so he can meet Egwene in Cairhein and develop their relationship a bit, (which should really have started during their time in the Tower together back in book 2) and learn a bit about how he feels about what's going on since we'll be dropping any scenes where he plays a starring or central role.  I think you gotta keep his desertion to the rebels after Egwene's capture by the White Tower loyalists, so he can play his role in her rescue.  We can keep his rescue of Egwene from bloodknife assassins so he can score those ring ter'angreal and a bit of character redemption, but we don't need his angsty investigation of the murders.  And ultimately, all that so you can keep his role in dying during the Last Battle to Demandred and how that plays into Egwene's victory and death.

[Carebear Sedai]

2 hours ago, Thrasymachus said:

But for Morgase, you gotta keep her basic story of going to the Whitecloaks for help after she escapes Rahvin, to demonstrate the limitations of Compulsion.  Gotta keep her being abused by Valda and subsequent escape from them during the Seanchan invasion, to show the Whitecloaks at their lowest point and motivate Galad later on.  Gotta keep her meeting up with Perrin and her role in mediating the meeting between the Whitecloaks and Perrin to set up their, and Galad's, redemption.

 

I don't see why it's necessary to keep Morgase's basic story. All those points can easily be resolved with a few narrative changes. 

• Lots of forsaken use compulsion leaving many opportunities to test its limits.
• It's not essential to keep Morgase's rape plot by Valda. If we're being honest, Galad avenging his step-mother's rape is not the most inspired storyline. Valda can offend Galad's sense of right vs wrong in a thousand different ways leading to the duel.
• They can find a much less convoluted way to have Galad make peace with Perrin.  

I'm not a book purist though, so I expect there will be all kinds of changes to streamline the story and minimize the massive cast list. 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by Carebear Sedai

[mistborn82]

@ThrasymachusI realize Gawyn is the destiny denied because he's an idiot subplot but after the Tower fighting, he really has no purpose and I don't know if you can get an actor for the full 8 seasons, if it goes that long, especially when he disappears for most of the series. I suppose you can film all his seasons before, let him go and just stick them in where appropriate.

@Carebear SedaiI think the best Galad solution is bring his connection to Rand forward.

 

[Elder_Haman]

I get the importance of Mat kicking Galad and Gawyn's asses is important for Mat's story. But there's no reason it has to be Galad and Gawyn. He can kick the crap out of any "blademaster" type.

 

Of the two, Galad's story is definitely the better written. I'd lose Gawn altogether and actually play up the tension between Galad wanting to find his mother and being in love with Egwene. 

 

Galad can leave the Tower to return home to Morgase. Gaebril poisons Galad against the Tower and convinces Morgase to send him off to find Elayne (probably hoping he will die). The rest plays out like the book.

 

Gawyn can be replaced by "leader of bad guy Warders #1" and "reformed Warder I now trust" for the rest of the show.

[SinisterDeath]

3 hours ago, Elder_Haman said:

I get the importance of Mat kicking Galad and Gawyn's asses is important for Mat's story. But there's no reason it has to be Galad and Gawyn. He can kick the crap out of any "blademaster" type.

 

Of the two, Galad's story is definitely the better written. I'd lose Gawn altogether and actually play up the tension between Galad wanting to find his mother and being in love with Egwene. 

 

Galad can leave the Tower to return home to Morgase. Gaebril poisons Galad against the Tower and convinces Morgase to send him off to find Elayne (probably hoping he will die). The rest plays out like the book.

 

Gawyn can be replaced by "leader of bad guy Warders #1" and "reformed Warder I now trust" for the rest of the show.

Mat kickin' their asses is the butterfly flapping it's wings in Japan, causing a Tsunami.

That one event, directly led Gawyn helping Elida dispose of Suan, and Galad joining up with the Whitecloaks.
Those events, subsequently cause several power shifts between the two organizations, that ultimately all for a convergence of light over dark.

As far as side-characters go, keeping them is relatively important to keeping the plot cohesive. It creates a dynamic of their distrust/hatred for Rand, but their love of their sister to help them see reason.

[Thrasymachus]

I think you have to keep the Trakands because they help humanize the nobility fairly effectively, very early on, and they provide a window into the tumult the ruling classes are thrown into, with the arrival of the Dragon.  They're the first nobility Rand or the audience really meets (not knowing, of course, that Moiraine is a Damodred or what that means).  And they're just generally nice people.  Elayne tends to Rand's bumps and scrapes, while Gawyn engages him in pleasant conversation and isn't haughty or arrogant as we might expect from a pampered Prince.  Even Galad, though intent on doing his duty and reporting Rand's presence to the Guard, isn't mean or cruel about it, he's just concerned about this strange man who showed up in his family's private garden, and wants to make sure everything's on the up-and-up. 

 

It sets us up to trust Agelmar in Fal Dara, and sympathize with Colavere, listen to Lord Bashere and understand Lord Darlin, because we can understand them to be regular people doing the best they can and what they think is right, underneath all the pomp and circumstance.  It also sets us up to be a bit wary of them, and others, especially Aes Sedai, in terms of their knowledgeability and motives, because they are, after all, just people.

 

By following Morgase's story, we not only get a window into the humanity of nobility, but we also get a window into the fall of perhaps the single most powerful monarch in Randland, to the position of serving-girl.  How she adjusts to her new reality, and how big a deal it is that such political turmoil follows the rebirth and return of the Dragon.  This isn't just Rand's story, or just the story of the Emond's Field gang and their hangers-on.  It's the story of the world and the people in it, how they contribute, and are changed by the return of the Dragon and the Last Battle, as well.

[alakhai]

3 hours ago, Thrasymachus said:

I think you have to keep the Trakands because they help humanize the nobility fairly effectively, very early on, and they provide a window into the tumult the ruling classes are thrown into, with the arrival of the Dragon.  They're the first nobility Rand or the audience really meets (not knowing, of course, that Moiraine is a Damodred or what that means).  And they're just generally nice people.  Elayne tends to Rand's bumps and scrapes, while Gawyn engages him in pleasant conversation and isn't haughty or arrogant as we might expect from a pampered Prince.  Even Galad, though intent on doing his duty and reporting Rand's presence to the Guard, isn't mean or cruel about it, he's just concerned about this strange man who showed up in his family's private garden, and wants to make sure everything's on the up-and-up. 

 

It sets us up to trust Agelmar in Fal Dara, and sympathize with Colavere, listen to Lord Bashere and understand Lord Darlin, because we can understand them to be regular people doing the best they can and what they think is right, underneath all the pomp and circumstance.  It also sets us up to be a bit wary of them, and others, especially Aes Sedai, in terms of their knowledgeability and motives, because they are, after all, just people.

 

By following Morgase's story, we not only get a window into the humanity of nobility, but we also get a window into the fall of perhaps the single most powerful monarch in Randland, to the position of serving-girl.  How she adjusts to her new reality, and how big a deal it is that such political turmoil follows the rebirth and return of the Dragon.  This isn't just Rand's story, or just the story of the Emond's Field gang and their hangers-on.  It's the story of the world and the people in it, how they contribute, and are changed by the return of the Dragon and the Last Battle, as well.

 

Damn, that was a good post! You summed up their importance perfectly! (and Mat kicking their asses is my second most anticipated scene after Dumai Wells:) )

 

Didn't Rafe also say he wouldn't cut or merge any of the main characters?

[Thrasymachus]

While Elayne, I think, definitely counts as a major character, I have a harder time seeing Morgase, Galad or Gawyn as major characters.  They're more on the level of major secondary characters, like Domon and Egeanin and Suian and Leane, etc.

 

Honestly, this is such a sprawling epic of a series that a TV adaptation will have to make some major cuts, and to some major characters.  I'm not at all opposed to the discussion of such cuts, and I have myself suggested that Egeanin and Domon could be cut, without significant thematic loss to the story.

 

Really the only reason I'm pushing back some on the idea of cutting up the Trakands family too much is because I get the impression that a lot of it just stems from the same sort of shallow dislike for Gawyn that a lot of fans also have of Egwene.  Egwene and Gawyn are tragic characters in the literary sense.  They have deep flaws that they struggle even recognizing, and that they cannot grow beyond, which leads to their dooms.  And a lot of people don't like tragedies or tragic characters, they want growth and redemption, culminating in triumph and ending in closure and a sweet, rather than bittersweet, denouement.  

 

The tendency to want to cut Morgase, I think, stems from her most lengthy appearances being in the Faile-Malden arc, which is probably the weakest arc for Perrin, who spends most of that whole time brooding.  Nevermind that it's an arc of immense growth for Faile, a lot of people don't like her either, understandably, as she is the spoiled brat princess we would expect to come from pampered nobility, even if it takes us a while to learn of her provenance.  As I don't think Faile can really be cut, she's too important for Perrin's arc, I don't think it would be wise to cut her most significant arc of character growth either, even if the only thing that really comes of it is that she becomes a more effective adminstrator.  (Though that effectiveness also leads to her possession of the Horn, and getting her group out of the Waste)  Malden is better fixed by cutting out Perrin's parts and condensing them.  A little bit of angsty brooding, that culminates in his throwing away the axe in favor of the hammer, is fine.  But we don't really need to spoil Faile's arc with too much Perrin-angst.

 

The other part of Morgase's contribution is with facilitating the reconciliation with, and ultimate redemption of, the Whitecloaks.  And this ties into Galad, who runs away to join them.  I think that a lot of people, myself included, feel like the Whitecloaks don't deserve redemption.  And that Galad serves better as the tragic character than Gawyn, because his flaws, his rigid belief in black-and-white morality, are more obvious and clearly deserving of tragedy, than Gawyn's difficulties of submitting to change and adapting.  And there's the fact that Galad, for all that he's the Dragon's half-brother, doesn't really do much.  He starts a war in Ghealdan to help Elayne and Nynaeve escape.  And the next we see him, he's taking over the Whitecloaks, in preparation for their redemption arc.

 

But I think the fact that the Whitecloaks don't deserve redemption, but get it anyway, and that Galad's well-deserved tragedy is averted, is itself a powerful story.  It drives home that adage, "No man can walk so long in the Shadow that he cannot return to the Light." The Whitecloaks are a deeply "shadowed" organization when we meet them, and have been for some time.  Not only are there actual Darkfriends in their ranks, but even the non-Shadowsworn commit horrific atrocities.  And by surviving his tragic encounter with Demandred, where Gawyn did not, it reinforces the growth he had, when struggling with his moral world-view at Perrin's trial.  He begins to grow and adapt; faced with the fact that others don't see or appreciate the world in the way he does, he questions himself and makes room for the validity of those other world-views.  For that, he deserves to live, even if maimed.

 

Gawyn never does.  Frustrated by Egwene's not accepting his point of view on her rescue from the White Tower, and dismissing hers, he sets out to basically change the subject, in solving the Bloodknife murders, and succeeds when he saves Egwene from them.  But that success prevents him from needing to do the introspection needed to grow as a person.  Where Galad ultimately accepts that he needs to change and make room for everybody else, for Gawyn, it's everybody else that needs to change and make room for him.  And so, he deserves his death.

 

Can the subtlety and complexity of those themes be satisfactorily captured in the TV adaptation?  I honestly don't know.  Complete faithfulness to the story as written would have actors play bit parts for an episode, only to disappear for whole seasons, and then rise to prominence later.  It's much more common for actors to want bigger roles up front, then come back later for cameos and bit parts, than the other way around.  The contracts to do it as-written would be a nightmare.  Things will absolutely have to be cut, condensed and changed.  But I wouldn't want those changes to be made based on a shallow dislike of some of the characters.  We need characters to dislike, as much as we need characters to root for.  We need characters to tragically fail, as much as we need characters to triumphantly succeed.

[mistborn82]

@ThrasymachusI see Gawyn as a tragic figure, someone trained for something their whole life, being denied a normal life and then it all disappears because of Rand. Gawyn should've been killed in the tower fighting and probably won't go the full TV show but I understand him.

Egwene as written is bad and will probably be changed in the show to a greater degree than others because her motivations are largely glossed over. She's too perfect, getting things too easily, unlike Nyneave, who has to work for her power. We also never see Egwene's PTSD for her horrific treatment by the Seanchan, we know it's there but we never see it.

[Carebear Sedai]

1 hour ago, mistborn82 said:

Egwene as written is bad and will probably be changed in the show to a greater degree than others because her motivations are largely glossed over. She's too perfect, getting things too easily, unlike Nyneave, who has to work for her power. We also never see Egwene's PTSD for her horrific treatment by the Seanchan, we know it's there but we never see it.

 

I would say this is most true of Elayne than anyone. At least with Egwene there's her time as a Seanchan damane and being imprisoned and beaten at the Tower. 

 

20 hours ago, Thrasymachus said:

I think you have to keep the Trakands because they help humanize the nobility fairly effectively, very early on, and they provide a window into the tumult the ruling classes are thrown into, with the arrival of the Dragon.  They're the first nobility Rand or the audience really meets (not knowing, of course, that Moiraine is a Damodred or what that means).  And they're just generally nice people.  Elayne tends to Rand's bumps and scrapes, while Gawyn engages him in pleasant conversation and isn't haughty or arrogant as we might expect from a pampered Prince.  Even Galad, though intent on doing his duty and reporting Rand's presence to the Guard, isn't mean or cruel about it, he's just concerned about this strange man who showed up in his family's private garden, and wants to make sure everything's on the up-and-up. 

 

That may actually work against them. The narrative about the good and just nobles is unlikely to fly with modern audiences who are well aware of concepts like exploitation and privilege of the elite. If the show is aiming for an adult audience instead of a teen, those kinds of portrayals of nobles will come off as silly and old-fashioned. 

 

I actually wonder if they will make the most changes with the Trakands, making them all more brutal and calculating. Gawyn, for example will become less of an idiot and incidental "tragic hero" (in quotations because I personally believe him to be a badly written retcon to his early iteration), but rather an example of a overprivilaged spoiled brat who blames Rand for changing the world order and putting in laws where nobles can be punished for mistreating peasants. Maybe Morgase can be more brutal herself and the turmoil in Caemlyn at the beginning of the series could be due to her class exploiting the peasants. Even Elayne can be chasing Rand for her own power and political ambitions rather than a crush. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Carebear Sedai

[Thrasymachus]

I dunno, there's plenty of elite exploitation of the lower classes, especially in Tear and Cairhein, that it doesn't really need any piling on.  As with any form of government, aristocracy has its good points and its bad, and there have been good aristocracies and bad ones.  It would be an interesting break and subversion of expectations to have the first introduction to an aristocracy be a pleasant one.  And I think having the Trakands be more machiavellian would do a disservice to the original story.  These aristocrats aren't bad, and don't deserve the terrible things that happen to them.  Morgase is a just, and mostly beloved ruler.  I think that contrast, of good aristocrats and bad, is also necessary, both to do justice to the original characters from the books, and to demonstrate the turmoil that the Dragon causes, and the indiscriminate nature of that turmoil.

[mistborn82]

I think Egwene will be a more sympathetic character her obvious PTSD is shown since that would human her, something the books fail miserably at.

Elayne just needs more even character development, as is, she bounces all over the map.

Gawyn will die in the Tower fighting or get substantial edits because no matter what anyone does or doesn't think of him, he won't work as is in the show.

[Carebear Sedai]

3 hours ago, Thrasymachus said:

I dunno, there's plenty of elite exploitation of the lower classes, especially in Tear and Cairhein, that it doesn't really need any piling on.  As with any form of government, aristocracy has its good points and its bad, and there have been good aristocracies and bad ones.  It would be an interesting break and subversion of expectations to have the first introduction to an aristocracy be a pleasant one.  And I think having the Trakands be more machiavellian would do a disservice to the original story.  These aristocrats aren't bad, and don't deserve the terrible things that happen to them.  Morgase is a just, and mostly beloved ruler.  I think that contrast, of good aristocrats and bad, is also necessary, both to do justice to the original characters from the books, and to demonstrate the turmoil that the Dragon causes, and the indiscriminate nature of that turmoil.

 

I would disagree with all these points, especially regarding the piling. There are many good aristocrats in the series: Moiraine, Faile and her whole family, the Shienaran royal family, Lan (every single borderlander noble house), Berelaine... The only bad nobles are the background characters. Regardless, the main issue is how the Trakands are written as a Disney version of aristocracy. If this was the 90s and the show was written for a teenage and up audience, I wouldn't see a problem. However, given where we are as a society and the general mood towards the elite, writing the Trakands as these inherently good, just and noble Disney type aristocrats will seem outright juvenile. 

 

It's easy to write the turmoil the dragon causes regardless of how the Trakands are portrayed. By the way, Morgase is not a beloved leader according to her own people (read TEOTW again and how unpopular she is in Caemlyn), but even if she's shown as a version closer to Cersei (extreme example) what happens to her with Rahvin will still be captivating and garner her sympathy. 

 

3 hours ago, mistborn82 said:

I think Egwene will be a more sympathetic character her obvious PTSD is shown since that would human her, something the books fail miserably at.

Elayne just needs more even character development, as is, she bounces all over the map.

Gawyn will die in the Tower fighting or get substantial edits because no matter what anyone does or doesn't think of him, he won't work as is in the show.

 

I rather he dies sooner, say around Dumai's Well. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Carebear Sedai

[mistborn82]

I mean him dying in the fighting that overthrows Suian in book 4 I believe because like I said a tragic, destiny denied character like that won't work in the show.

[Carebear Sedai]

I could see that too. He can get killed during the fighting, or after, when Min/Siuan/Leane are trying to escape. One of the ladies can surprise him with a dagger to the back. 

[johnnysd]

Rafe has said that he's not cutting Elayne or Min or Aviendha (though it will be polyamorous not polygamist)

 

I struggle with what they might do with Gawyn, Galad and Morgase. If you have Elayne than you sort of need them for her arc plus Galad is half brother to Rand. They might think of merging the two boys but I dont think that would work well.

 

They have cast Valda so it's quite possible they keep Morgase plotline relatively intact too.

 

Really not sure where they do. I do think they are changing the Caemlyn sequence though

[mistborn82]

You keep Elayne and Galad and make the future lord captain connection to a man who can channel much more important. You kill Gawyn during Elaida's rebellion because for multiple reasons his character won't work on TV. I think you keep Morgase until Rahvin and then either actually kill her or only have cameos.

[Thrasymachus]

You keep saying that Gawyn wouldn't be able to be adapted to TV, but I haven't seen any convincing reason given for that.  Just that you don't like him and don't think his story is worth telling.  Shows need characters that the audience loves to hate, as much as they need characters they love to root for, and even better when they can split the audience in terms of hating/loving a character.  Nothing draws eyeballs like drama in the fandom.  Gawyn's a great character to hate.

[mistborn82]

You're not going to get an actor to commit to 8 seasons, if all goes well when said character disappears for great stretches of time and a character who does few things that will interest the audience. To be an antagonist, minor or major, you have to be in the show, which Gawyn is not. It doesn't matter whether I like him or not, it doesn't matter whether you like him or not because you won't get any actor for that long unless they're a superfan or you shoot all his stuff beforehand. That's the last I'll say since you seem to be dismissing my feasability argument, irregardless of anything else.

[Elder_Haman]

20 hours ago, mistborn82 said:

I think you keep Morgase until Rahvin and then either actually kill her or only have cameos.

 

I think you keep Morgase's entire story line. For all the reasons Thrasymachus mentioned above.

 

On 7/21/2020 at 8:10 PM, Carebear Sedai said:

 Regardless, the main issue is how the Trakands are written as a Disney version of aristocracy. If this was the 90s and the show was written for a teenage and up audience, I wouldn't see a problem. However, given where we are as a society and the general mood towards the elite, writing the Trakands as these inherently good, just and noble Disney type aristocrats will seem outright juvenile. 

 

It's easy to write the turmoil the dragon causes regardless of how the Trakands are portrayed. By the way, Morgase is not a beloved leader according to her own people (read TEOTW again and how unpopular she is in Caemlyn), but even if she's shown as a version closer to Cersei (extreme example) what happens to her with Rahvin will still be captivating and garner her sympathy. 

 

I think this is both correct (Morgase is not a beloved leader at the beginning of the story needs to be portrayed as imperfect in the tv series), and incorrect in that the Trakands are not portrayed as a "Disney version of aristocracy". 

 

They all have pure intentions, but that doesn't make them "Disney". All of the Trakand arcs deal with the real world obstacles to their pure intentions and the sacrifices and choices necessary to maintain those intentions. 

 

13 hours ago, mistborn82 said:

You're not going to get an actor to commit to 8 seasons, if all goes well when said character disappears for great stretches of time and a character who does few things that will interest the audience. 

 

This seems dead on to me. The things Gawyn does can all be done by other characters. In terms of Trakands as antagonists, both Morgase (threatening her support for the tower unless they can produce Elayne) and later Galad (because he's Galad) make far better ones.

 

I could be wrong (I have been a lot recently ?) but I see Gawyn being cut entirely with his role as First Prince given to Galad, or combined with Tallanvor who is some sort of buddy to Galad / warder in training and comes back to become the only voice of sanity in Morgase's crumbling court under Rahvin.

 

If any major Trakand story line gets cut entirely, it's all of the wrangling over the throne of Andor in CoT.