Predicting Character Rank In the Show

[Spiritweaver1]

Some of these threads are getting a bit stale so  I thought I would post up a new angle.  That would be how we think characters are going to shake out as the show goes  forward.  This thread was inspired by all the keystrokes devoted to discussions regarding the super girls and Matt especially.  So I would like to solicit feedback on which of our characters will rank highest.  I would propose a two component ranking system.  One component is simply screen time and off screen discussion about the character.  The other is the glory of the deeds done.  So by that standard Nyn is winning as she healed a whole bunch of people who should have been dead.  Moraine is probably winning from the first perspective.  As a side question I think we should consider what minor character might rise from relative obscurity because they are interesting or the show thinks they can make some point about.  We obviously can't predict a totally new character like Stepin.  

 

 

Here are my picks in order.

Nynaeve - She is already off to a hot start with her miracle healing and advanced love affair with Lan.  Assuming the show makes any effort to follow the books she has a lot of big moments to come.   She out ranks Rand because this is a feminist show.

 

Moraine - If the show followed the books she would be done next season or early in the third.  However she is arguably your best actress so I think she may go in a different direction that  I can't possibly predict.  I view this as my shakiest pick.

 

Egwene - She is behind Nyn at this point and probably will stay there.  Rand may edge her out.  Egw is one of my favorites but a lot of her screen time would be beatings and useless work.  I do hope she gets to fight off the Seanchan raid.  

 

Rand, from a practical perspective, tied with Egwene.  In a normal adaptation you would expect him to be near the top but the show trend is obvious in detuning the men and upscaling the women.  It may be that Rand doesn't really get much development time except for a few key moments each season.  It is an ensemble show after all.  

 

Matt - Matt is hard to judge against Perrin.  The show has altered the arc's of both characters perhaps irretrievably.  I give Matt the edge mostly due to his generalship and dying and being resurrected with a new actor.  Remember his boast showdown with Rand in the books. 

 

Ishamael/Moridin - You gotta have a bad guy and he is it.

 

Perrin - Perrin may get demoted further than his position on my list.  So far he has been totally lame and lots of what happens in the books (Wolf Dream, lots of internal dialog) don't lend themselves to the shows strengths as demonstrated so far.  Nope, sadly I don't expect much from Young Bull in the show.  

 

Avienda - I think she will be the token Aiel, followed by Sorilee and Rhuarc.  I expect to see some made up stuff for her to demonstrate her might.  

 

Minor Character Rise Up

Cadsuane -   Cadsuane is an interesting one and I think the show could expand her role significantly.  

 

Anyway hopefully this will prime the pump.  Note to all the book cloaks this is not a place to dump on the show particularly.  It is a place to extrapolate show trends, integrated show staff comments and your own biases and have an interesting discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wastingtime]

Not sure if it's a direct answer, but even though I don't know how (and I don't have 100% faith in the show teams skill to do it), I do reckon we are going to eventually get Rand, Mat, Perrin & Egwene all being pretty much who they are in the books (in term of power/action/achievements, if not character & nuance).

I agree that super Nynaeve may end up even more central next season.

Moiraine/Lan are obviously still going to need something to do to attract screen time given who the actors are.

Min, Avienda & Elayne will have stuff to do next season as well, though if Rand is off wandering around/pretending to be dead/exploring his roots etc in the wilderness, their screen time might not involve him until towards the end of the season.

I'm guessing we are going to get some high ranking Darkfriends - either AS, Seanchan or Nobility - who get a lot of story time/actions.

Ishammael will be back, but which other Forsaken are introduced and which never make it to the screen at all will be interesting.

I figure Tuon will be introduced and get some time.

Wouldn't be surprised if Siuan got a lot of focus throughout the first 2/3 of the season before getting Ned Starked. 

[EmreY]

Didn't someone post a lengthy analysis of screen time somewhere, as well as character interactions?  Perhaps a re-post would be in order.  IIRC the Stoic Hero was ranked first.

 

 

[Cauthonfan4]

1 hour ago, EmreY said:

IIRC the Stoic Hero was ranked first.

he was ranked first in time on screen, but that just goes to show how badly they used his time on screen, a majority of the non book readers I spoke with who watched the show, were absolutely surprised at his reveal as the dragon due to

1) how uninteresting he was this season.

2) how little character development they gave him this season.

3) how much they built up nynaeve throughout the season.

 

[EmreY]

2 hours ago, Cauthonfan4 said:

he was ranked first in time on screen, but that just goes to show how badly they used his time on screen, a majority of the non book readers I spoke with who watched the show, were absolutely surprised at his reveal as the dragon due to

1) how uninteresting he was this season.

2) how little character development they gave him this season.

3) how much they built up nynaeve throughout the season.

 

 

It doesn't show anything of the sort.  It just makes him enigmativ, though perhaps excessively so.  And overall there is too much waffling about character development nowadays.  It's a very peculiar world where the characters of adults develop over the course of two or three years.  And, yes, they focused more on Nynaeve.

[Cauthonfan4]

1 hour ago, EmreY said:

And overall there is too much waffling about character development nowadays.  It's a very peculiar world where the characters of adults develop over the course of two or three years.

we don't expect them fully developed after 2-3 years, or even 1 season, but these characters have less development after 1 season then they did after book 1, and that says something.

I mean for the love of god, Stepin got more development then some of our main characters.

 

character development is absolutely essential for people to be invested into our cast.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Cauthonfan4

[AdamA]

I don't see it changing much at the top. Rand unites (most of) the Aiel, conquers half the countries we ever hear about, kills a bunch of forsaken, cleanses saidin, ultimately forces everyone to fight together and wins. He's obvious #1 by a big margin unless they drastically change the entire story for no good reason.

 

Egwene is a pretty obvious #2. Her rise and journey is the only one comparable to Rand's.

 

After that, I'd rank Perrin and Mat about equal in the books, but I suspect Perrin's stuff is more likely to get cut, as the wolf dream and Slayer stuff will be really hard to translate and the fight against the Shaido to recover Faile is prime late season chopping block material. So probably Mat at #3, though I wouldn't be surprised to see the Moiraine rescue get cut.

 

Nynaeve and Perrin after that. Nynaeave has most of her greatest moments pretty early and then largely fades behind Egwene and Elayne for a long time. Elayne probably ends up about equal to these two overall.

 

I don't think Aviendha really does much most of the story except complain and be mean to people. Deciphering ter'angreal and undoing weaves should have been bigger deals but were not. Even if they give Moiraine Cadsuane's entire story as well, unless they invent a bunch of new stuff, she's barely a noticeable character after the first four books.

 

After the top 6, I have no idea. Arguably, Taim accomplishes more than anyone else, but does it mostly in the background.

[Cauthonfan4]

17 minutes ago, AdamA said:

I don't see it changing much at the top. Rand unites (most of) the Aiel, conquers half the countries we ever hear about, kills a bunch of forsaken, cleanses saidin, ultimately forces everyone to fight together and wins. He's obvious #1 by a big margin unless they drastically change the entire story for no good reason

Did you watch season 1? They have no problem yanking stuff from Rand and drastically changing stuff for no good reason. 

 

[Wassup]

I think Logain and Fain will have their moments of offscreen discussion.  It will probably not be enough to move them up the list, but they have potential to surprise some people.