Revisiting Season 1 creative decisions after Season 2

[expat]

Now that we have seen Season 2, it would be interesting to revisit some of the important Season 1 creative decisions to see how they look after an additional year.  Would we have argued over them for months (and months and months) if we knew what was coming?

 

1.  Who is the dragon - this was always a Season 1 issue with no effect on Season 2

 

2. Lack of Tam and Rand's backstory - Poor to incomplete

 

It had no effect on Season 2 and we don't know what effect it will have in future seasons (if any).  TBF, Rand's anguish about not being Tam's son was pure POV that couldn't be filmed.  In neither the book nor the series did he have someone to pour his heart out to about his ancestry.

 

3.  Perrin killing his wife - Poor to incomplete

 

This had little effect on Season 2 and we don't know what effect it will have in future seasons (if any)

 

4. Mat's broken family - Good

 

I liked the story in Season 1 because I thought that EF was too Ozzie and Harriet for the time and place depicted, so I am biased.  This allowed Mat to decide to be a hero in spite of his background instead of just drifting into a reluctant hero meme.  Better TV.

 

5. Steppin - Fair to good

 

They moved Lan's missing bond arc up a couple of seasons, so there needed to be something prior to that to give it meaning. 

 

6.  Move screen time to Liandrin and Logain - Good

 

They were both great in Season 1 and 2.

 

7. Thom - incomplete

 

With everything that happened in Season 2, he might have got lost in the shuffle.  We need to see his role in later seasons to understand.

 

8. Not introducing Elayne - Good

 

Introducing her in Season 1 would have been a very static scene with a lot of other actors who won't show up again for years, so I didn't miss it.  Her introduction in Season 2 was very good and she had time and story to establish her character.  We didn't miss her meeting Rand moment becase it was handled very well in Season 2.  

 

9. Whitclocks - Fair to good

 

Season 1 established that Whiteclocks could be both good and evil.  Perrin with Dain moved that forward while still giving us a WTF moment when Perrin killed Geoffery Bornhold.

 

10. Suian - Poor to fair

 

The oath scene played into Suian's actions with respect to Rand, which I didn't like much.

 

11. Ending - Episode 8 is still bad  

[Spider Spence]

Season 2 was a lot better, but had a lot more material that fit with Amazon's edgy vibe that they could do well. The damane and the Accepted trials lent themselves well to the tone of the show, I thought, while the more Tolkienesque first book didn't.

 

1- Who is the Dragon - they really didn't commit to this in S1. There was some evidence, at least to me, that the 'girls could be the Dragon' twist came late in the writing process, like Alanna saying 'what if we let the Reds gentle him.' As if the AS wouldn't just assume that this round, the Dragon would be a woman. Or reference false Dragons who had literally come from AS ranks. S2 only referenced it when Siuan said 'we would have been so much better if you were a girl'

 

2- Ishamael - so crucial to S2 that it looks like a mistake, in retrospect, keeping him so cryptic in S1.

 

3- Mat & Perrin - agree that Mat's background has good follow-thru, especially since they were trying to fix the mess left when Barney Harris split. Perrin's background doesn't because he didn't have a chance to seem especially conflicted about bloodshed.

 

4- Thom (lack thereof), Moiraine & Lan - Jordan struggled to find stuff for them to do in TGH. In fact, Verin played the Moiraine role a lot in that book, but Jordan had the advantage of making her an unknown factor. The show cut Thom, which I still think is a bad idea (he actually has a reason to say fantasy lore) and Moiraine and Lan's plot was glacial. It would have been better to tone down some of the time spent on Moiraine & Lan in S1 given how slow their S2 plot was.

 

5- No notes for Nynaeve & Egwene. Mostly faithful to the book & the changes involving Liandrin were an improvement.

 

If you're interested in my other thoughts, I blabbered them here.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Spider Spence