5 hours ago, Mike_B_SVT said:

TIL: Robert Jordan had a "copy" of Rand's Heron-mark sword created and it is on display in a permanent exhibit at the Daniel Library of The Citadel in Charleston, SC.

http://archives.library.cofc.edu/findingaids/mss0197.html

^way down near the bottom under #5 Marketing & Promotional items -> Artifacts.

Looks like they also have Perrin's axe, among other cool goodies.

 

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any pictures to compare with the Amazon version.  Maybe someone else's Google-fu will prevail.

So this was the replica I knew of, which was approved by Jordan, though I don't think it was meant to be Tam's sword, but rather the one from like the map logo. http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=500058

It has it's own issues, but is closer to how they're described (and uses more elements from historical sources, other than just the katana, which makes sense to me as Randland is a fusion of physical cultures).

18 hours ago, Mike_B_SVT said:

I didn't really expect a katana.  I always pictured the "heron mark" to actually be stamped into the blade.  Really, anything glued onto the blade (especially near the hilt) is going to be knocked off - or severely damaged - in the first sword fight.  Maybe that's what happened with the one sitting on the work bench in the picture?  LOL!

Maybe, maybe not. Some swords have had stuff like that as decorative elements, but I too pictured it as engraved into the blade. Also, is it not supposed to be present on the hilt? I mean he gets the heron's burned into his palms...sigh. There are lots of things that will have to be, and perhaps should be, altered for adaptation. But sticking to tangible and clearly described images, and symbolism of objects in the world should be one of the easy things. Like, you don't have to get the outfits right, or what colour cloak someone has, but an iconic sword? That should be right, y'know? 

On 12/2/2020 at 6:05 PM, Tamaska2000 said:

Such a disappointment 

Agreed. They highlight the text from the book, then ignore the line which mentions it has short braided quillons, ("Short quillons, worked to look like braids, flanked the hilt.") not a tsuba. As I recall it's also meant to come to a point, more like a Swiss sabre than a katana (at least that's how it's always been drawn). This is hardly unique, and though it looks pretty enough, it's just a katana, there are a billion of these, and most of them are generic knock off crap. Tam's sword was a more unique design, simply because you don't see crossguards on a slightly curved blade, with a long hilt. It's a more rare conformation of sword elements, and it suggests something more of another world than just y'know a famous Japanese sword design (even though it's really just a Swiss sword design, it's a rare one). I mean there have been illustrations of the damn sword in books for years! This should have been one of the easy things to get right. Sigh... 

I still think animation is the way to go. The kind of effects that are needed to really sell the magic in WOT are magnitudes larger in scale than what was at play in GOT. And that's just the magic, the armies are bigger, the enemies are stranger (Trollocs, Fades, the entirety of the Seanchan's beasts) and more numerous, the scale of things (cities, the Tower, the World of Dreams) is just huge. Even with animation, it is a massive undertaking, but it's doable. And more importantly, it's doable at high quality. It's certainly possible to adapt WOT in live action, but I'm not sure it's possible to do it well (right now). Though we are closer than we've ever been before.