Mat In Season 1

[SingleMort]

I wanted to post this because Mat is my favourite WoT character but I’m ultimately left conflicted by his character in this season. On the one hand I feel Barney Harris did a decent enough job with the material he had to work with, but what he had to work with didn’t seem to really capture the essence of Mat from the books that well in my opinion. To be honest it felt like he had gone to the dark side even before taking the dagger and I didn’t see anything roguish or charming or fun in him, which I’ve always thought were important parts of Mat’s character and is why I like him so much. 

I also notice they seem to have written Mat out of the rest of the season (I am assuming he won’t appear again?). I had known they had decided to recast the character like everyone else but had always assumed this happened after the end of the first season. Now from looking at the last couple of episodes it seems like they decided to do it in the middle of production. I don’t know the reason’s why and don’t want to speculate about the relationship of this actor with the rest of the production and I'm not trying to hate on anyone on either side but compared with other recasting in other TV and movies it does seem a little weird. If it was for a storytelling reason part of me wonders if it happened because they thought this version of the character just wasn’t working out?  
 

Edited December 18, 2021 by SingleMort

[DaddyFinn]

Barney left the production during their covid break. It was not planned. He also deleted all his social media accounts and has not been heard since.

Edited December 18, 2021 by DaddyFinn

[Sabio]

Episodes 1 -6 were filmed before they had to stop because of Covid.  He didn't come back after the break, so they had to do some creative editing and change the end of episode 6 so he would stay behind.  From the sounds of it when they took the break he was expected to return.  There has been no word what happened, just a sudden announcement Mat had been recast for Season 2.

[king of nowhere]

those who posted before me said it all regarding removing mat for the rest of the season.

 

regarding mat's character, remember that mat didn't have much of a character for the first two books, he blossomed later.

but i do agree, he miss the humor of book!mat

[SingleMort]

2 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

those who posted before me said it all regarding removing mat for the rest of the season.

 

regarding mat's character, remember that mat didn't have much of a character for the first two books, he blossomed later.

but i do agree, he miss the humor of book!mat

I didn't like Mat in the first book (even though he bacame my favourite character later) but after that I think he became a much better character even in book 2. I think his performance when he had the dagger was about right (btw why did they take it away from him cause he kinda needs it in book 2?) it's the before the dagger took him part that didn't work for me. I'd have liked them to show him lighter tone so they could show how much the dagger changed him. I always imagined Mat as a bit like Merry or Pippin from LoTR at the start of the book which is probably why I didn't like him at first because I found those two characters annoying at the start of LoTR. 

Edited December 19, 2021 by SingleMort

[futurehermit]

I strongly agree about book-Mat's personality and the contrast of the impact of the dagger being really important and powerful.  But I also enjoyed Mat throughout book 1, especially from Whitebridge onward.

[Sabio]

I just saw the episode 8 teaser and it shows Mat, so it will be really interesting what Mat being in episode 8 all entails.

[SingleMort]

1 hour ago, Sabio said:

I just saw the episode 8 teaser and it shows Mat, so it will be really interesting what Mat being in episode 8 all entails.

Really? That's interesting it really looked like that was going to be the last time we saw him this season. Can you link the video I can't seem to find an official promo for episode 8

[DigificWriter]

I feel 100% certain that, contrary to what the prevailing theory seems to be, the producers were not caught flat-footed when Barney didn't return with the rest of the cast upon the resumption of production and had already mapped out how they were going to adapt to their having been made aware of the fact that he wasn't coming back and having released him from his contractual commitment (and it's almost a guaranteed certainty that they released him from his contract since there otherwise would have been news stories all over the place about him being in breach of contract).

[DaddyFinn]

2 hours ago, SingleMort said:

Really? That's interesting it really looked like that was going to be the last time we saw him this season. Can you link the video I can't seem to find an official promo for episode 8

 

 

[RextheDog]

is that the dark ones aiel already?

 

tasty

[king of nowhere]

8 hours ago, DigificWriter said:

I feel 100% certain that, contrary to what the prevailing theory seems to be, the producers were not caught flat-footed when Barney didn't return with the rest of the cast upon the resumption of production and had already mapped out how they were going to adapt to their having been made aware of the fact that he wasn't coming back and having released him from his contractual commitment (and it's almost a guaranteed certainty that they released him from his contract since there otherwise would have been news stories all over the place about him being in breach of contract).

it's possible - likely - that barney forewarned them in advance, and they came to a sort of compromise: they agreed to cut/reduce his parts for the last episodes and to let him go, in exchange he agreed to play some smaller scene so that the character could still have a proper arc

[Ralph]

If it is true that this was not planned, but was forced upon them, then I am quite impressed that they came up with this story line to justify it instory. 

 

I know a few members suggested it here on the forum, and I am equally impressed by them. ??

 

Whether it will work or not we have to wafo 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Ralph

[Wassup]

Is it possible that Moiraine senses darkness in him because he was separated from the dagger but the connection was not severed?

[Masha]

23 hours ago, Wassup said:

Is it possible that Moiraine senses darkness in him because he was separated from the dagger but the connection was not severed?

Based on trailer, its most likely either the dagger connection is not completely severed or its an illusion at tEotW instead of Kara a'Thor. They could have used a scene already filmed with Barney when Mat was still under influence of the dagger. 

[Sabio]

The connection is severed, but I think it's more of the damage that might already have been done sort of thing.  Can you remove what the dagger already did to Mat mentally and physically?  She said he was drawn to the dagger as much as the dagger was drawn to him and the dagger was feeding on him and he was feeding on the darkness of the dagger.  So her thinking is if Mat didn't have darkness in him , then he would never have taken the dagger.  

[SingleMort]

On 12/19/2021 at 6:17 AM, DaddyFinn said:

 

 

Lol it was literally just for the one shot that's in the trailer

[MasterAblar]

I imagine that shot was heavily edited anyway. Still I'd rather that than not a single sighting of Mat. Nothing they can really do in this situation anyway.

[SingleMort]

Well now this season is over I really hope with the recast they writers have a total rethink on what they are doing with Mat just like Robert Jordan did. My hope for season 2 is that Mat can become something of his cheeky charming self from the books and that mopey emo Mat is largely forgotten about (I'm talking about the character not the actor just to be clear, not hating on the actor). 

 

[skylark joy]

they completely bungled the story line of Matt they missed out a  main villain made out the dagger can't be given back instead of can't be removed.  matt is made out to be a complete dick from the beginning. every episode i watch i dislike the series more. I dislike the  book Brandon wrote. i wish Robert had just got off his thrown and  finished it he lost his legacy. He should have asked for help.  

[TheDreadReader]

1 hour ago, SingleMort said:

Well now this season is over I really hope with the recast they writers have a total rethink on what they are doing with Mat just like Robert Jordan did. My hope for season 2 is that Mat can become something of his cheeky charming self from the books and that mopey emo Mat is largely forgotten about (I'm talking about the character not the actor just to be clear, not hating on the actor). 

 

 

I'm wondering if they are not going to include some stuff with Mat in Tar Valon between the Waygate and events in Fal Dara in season two.

 

If they don't and they keep Mat's connection/desire for the dagger active they can use that as a means to kick off the chase for Fain.  Mat follows Fain.  Everyone else chases Mat.  They end up in Falme at the end.

 

 

[SingleMort]

Question: For the sake of story and continuity would you have preferred if they had reshot the Mat scenes in season 1 with Dónal Finn (bearing in mind it's difficult to compare him at the moment as we haven't seen his version) and do you things would have changed for Mat in the season if he wasn't recast?

 

I've heard it been said that some people suspect that the scene in episode 8 between Fain and Perrin was actually supposed to be Fain and Mat because they are the ones who had previously interacted earlier in the season.   

Edited December 24, 2021 by SingleMort

[VooDooNut]

2 minutes ago, SingleMort said:

Question: For the sake of story and continuity would you have preferred if they had reshot the Mat scenes in season 1 with Dónal Finn (bearing in mind it's difficult to compare him at the moment as we haven't seen his version) and do you things would have changed for Mat in the season if he wasn't recast.

 

To answer your question simply, yes. It's always a better choice to have a consistent actor playing the role. But...surely there were too many expensive/difficult scenes including Barney that just couldn't realistically have been redone. Need to recast the actor playing Tigraine? Sure, easy peasy (I would really dislike that though). Need to recast a character that's basically in every scene from the beginning of the show? Er....

[SingleMort]

5 minutes ago, VooDooNut said:

 

To answer your question simply, yes. It's always a better choice to have a consistent actor playing the role. But...surely there were too many expensive/difficult scenes including Barney that just couldn't realistically have been redone. Need to recast the actor playing Tigraine? Sure, easy peasy (I would really dislike that though). Need to recast a character that's basically in every scene from the beginning of the show? Er....

 

Is he in that many scenes though? Most of the stuff I remember it was mostly just him and Rand. Maybe you are right and it would cost too much to redo some stuff but I think the tech is available to do it if they wanted. I remember there was a movie that came out recently where the makers had to CGI replace one actor with another who was removed from the production, and it was done really well there is no way you could tell they had done it from what was on the screen. 

[VooDooNut]

Just now, SingleMort said:

 

Is he in that many scenes though? Most of the stuff I remember it was mostly just him and Rand. Maybe you are right and it would cost too much to redo some stuff but I think the tech is available to do it if they wanted. I remember there was a movie that came out recently where the makers had to CGI replace one actor with another who was removed from the production, and it was done really well there is no way you could tell they had done it from what was on the screen. 

The scene that comes to mind for me is The Two Rivers festival and burning. They created most of that by hand and actually destroyed the town for the burning effects. Mat was in a bunch of that.  It would surely be cost-prohibitive to redo that crucial scene/set. I guess I just assume it was beyond the show runner's means because it really doesn't look good to ever have to replace an actor mid-way through.