Casting Choices - Thoughts?

[Guire]

3 hours ago, SinisterDeath said:

I saw this side-by-side on twitter with one of her pictures & some artwork of Faile. I had to recreate it, as I can't find that twitter post atm.

Granted, covers, official art, fan art are hardly cannon, and if she is Faile, she doesn't have that same nose. But hey, if she can Act. ? 

 

I think it is a pretty good choice if true.  After discussion of nose I did a generic search for south Asian actresses.  No bold noses to be found.  They all had nose jobs I assume.  

[Dozer]

On 7/8/2021 at 7:25 AM, SinisterDeath said:

People in Two Rivers don't all share the same grandparents, and definitely aren't the result of generational incest. The "homogeny" argument is tired, and that word is never used in the books. ? 

If you want to go along the route of which actor doesn't look like they could share an ancestor, that goes to Madeleine Madden as she is of Indigenous Australian descent. Some of the earliest Indigenous Australians ancestors diverged from East-Asian populations 54,000 years ago.

So what I guess I'm saying is; it's easier to suspend disbelief, then to focus to hard about an actors genetics.

 

  

Imposing book Lan, comes down to how he looks at people, not his physical stature.

A lot of Fan Art cast Aragorn as Lan.

Interesting fact, Viggo Mortensen is only 5'-11". Daniel Henney is 6'-2". That makes him easily a handwidth taller than Viggo.

This is a picture of Daniel next to Hugh Jackman back in 2010. (Supposedly Hugh is 6'-3")

I think the image of Henney not big enough is due to the fact that Moiraine is not small enough.  Book descriptions have her of much smaller stature but with an imposing presence (Cairheinen style) 

[Dozer]

Seeing a lot of replies claiming that the atmosphere and physical appearance shouldn't change anything in the story or questions asking what does it change.  It changes everything!  

The story is written for the audience.  The story is designed to capture the audience.  Atmosphere and physical appearance creates the world that captures the audience.  Regular fiction exists in our world of Terra and can be adapted to different appearances for transition sake.  But in fantasy fiction the world is WHOLLY created by the author and every aspect is designed to amaze and delight the audience from the pattern of the rugs to the braids and shaved heads.  Add to that, the character development, in the context of world shaking missions and powerful confrontations, the physical descriptions between an Aes Sedai and her Warder become paramount to drawing in the reader and holding them to the story.

 

So to answer the question : It changes EVERYTHING

 

Especially the dynamic of a young ta'veren suddenly being married and killing his wife when his character development doesn't occur until he finds his future wife 

[10g1k]

There were illustrated books (e.g. The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, by Teresa Patterson, 1997) approved by RJ which showed what the characters looked like.  He also specifically wrote about the physical characteristics of people from different regions.

 

Here's a tip: In a world with limited movement of large numbers of people, it is very unlikely to miraculously find a village with one person from every possible ethnicity.

 

I fear that this show, like Foundation, has fallen victim to the producers who think they will automatically win awards by making social justice twitter cult points, rather than winning awards for making a good show.

Edited November 21, 2021 by 10g1k

[Meskell]

I don’t know why I had these pictures in my head but when reading I had the general areas pictured more as:

 

Andor - Northern English, moving to Southern English closer to Camelyn

Cairhien - Chinese

Bordelands - Japanese

Tear - Spanish

Ebou Dar - Middle Eastern

Domani - Indian

 

I’m not hugely wedded to the above, just how I pictured the general feel for the continent. I’m happy enough with the casting, except for one, I just would’ve preferred a homogenised look for each location. Again, I don’t care which homogenised look you go for i.e. West African look for Andor, just a way of keeping areas distinct and helping people stand out as ‘foreign’. 
 

Appreciate a lot of this may be picked up in dress or attitude as we go on but just where I am starting from. 
 

The only casting choice I’m not 100% on board with is Moiraine. Her being very short felt like an innate part of her character, with people underestimating her and being so much like a Cairhien. Rosamund Pike to me is just too physically imposing and her acting is very much coming across as bored. 
 

Two actors I hope will improve are Rand and Perrin. 
 

Rand sounds like he is breathily narrating everything and Perrin, whilst I understand is probably trying to express grief, appears to have some sort of speech difficulty and sounds a bit like Lenny from of Mice and Men. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Meskell

[KakitaOCU]

On 11/20/2021 at 8:42 PM, 10g1k said:

There were illustrated books (e.g. The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, by Teresa Patterson, 1997) approved by RJ which showed what the characters looked like.  He also specifically wrote about the physical characteristics of people from different regions.

 

Here's a tip: In a world with limited movement of large numbers of people, it is very unlikely to miraculously find a village with one person from every possible ethnicity.

 

I fear that this show, like Foundation, has fallen victim to the producers who think they will automatically win awards by making social justice twitter cult points, rather than winning awards for making a good show.

You're quoting the big book of bad art are ya?  RJ did not fight the book, how much approval he had is another story, same with the cover arts.

Going off the text alone, all that is ever said of the Two rivers is a focus on Dark eyes and Dark Hair.  Which leaves it wide open for anything.

Also, your genetics argument is flawed.  The timeline is too small for what you want to argue.  The AoL was very melting pot.  From what I can see, so was Manetheren

That means it's been 2000 years give or take that Emond's Field has been "Isolated"  so maybe 60-100 generations...    Plenty of time for old diversity to still be in force.

Edit: My math was off by a factor of 10.  Correcting.

Edited November 24, 2021 by KakitaOCU

[MasterAblar]

26 minutes ago, KakitaOCU said:

That means it's been 2000 years give or take that Emond's Field has been "Isolated"  so maybe 6-10 generations...    Plent of time for old diversity to still be in force.

 

I'm fine with the casting but that said... what kind of long ass generations is that?

[Meskell]

2 minutes ago, MasterAblar said:

 

I'm fine with the casting but that said... what kind of long ass generations is that?

Agreed. Since I’ve been born there have already been Millenials, Generation X and Generation Z. That’s within 30 years!

 

There have probably been close to 100 generations in a 2,000 year period. Considering intermingling and cross contamination of close-ish family relations in a very small, very remote village, the likelihood is that the Two Rivers at least would have homogenised by this point. 

[MasterAblar]

I'm not sure that's actually true. I'm no expert on the subject but a number of people have pointed out it doesn't necessarily work that way.

 

Regardless Robert Jordan didn't always do what made sense, he sometimes just did something cause he thought it was funy or cool or whatever (see ginger irish people in a desert).

[JenniferL]

I always find it interesting that people can accept magic and monsters, but complain that certain skin colors are unrealistic. It’s a tv show based on a series of fantasy novels I read in middle school. I’m not looking for realism. 

[Deadsy]

I pictured the TR folk as white.

I also think people who are still obsessing over the races of the cast might be racist. The casting was announced over 2 years ago. Maybe I'm being unfair to people who never saw them until Friday. I suppose I can give them a couple weeks to get used to the horror that has been inflicted upon them.

[Deadsy]

On 11/20/2021 at 6:15 PM, Dozer said:

Seeing a lot of replies claiming that the atmosphere and physical appearance shouldn't change anything in the story or questions asking what does it change.  It changes everything!  

The story is written for the audience.  The story is designed to capture the audience.  Atmosphere and physical appearance creates the world that captures the audience.  Regular fiction exists in our world of Terra and can be adapted to different appearances for transition sake.  But in fantasy fiction the world is WHOLLY created by the author and every aspect is designed to amaze and delight the audience from the pattern of the rugs to the braids and shaved heads.  Add to that, the character development, in the context of world shaking missions and powerful confrontations, the physical descriptions between an Aes Sedai and her Warder become paramount to drawing in the reader and holding them to the story.

 

So to answer the question : It changes EVERYTHING

 

Especially the dynamic of a young ta'veren suddenly being married and killing his wife when his character development doesn't occur until he finds his future wife 

 

 

You're going on and on about appearance and then you talk about Perrin killing his wife. What?

[KakitaOCU]

4 hours ago, MasterAblar said:

 

I'm fine with the casting but that said... what kind of long ass generations is that?

I lost a factor of 10 in my math, 60-100 generations.  I stand by my point, but I apologize for my not checking my math.

[Dozer]

2 hours ago, Deadsy said:

 

 

You're going on and on about appearance and then you talk about Perrin killing his wife. What?

You're right.  I did meander off at the end.  Will keep on point