As I recall, the Aes Sedai use hand gestures a lot - "throwing" fireballs and so on. The Wise Ones and the damane, IIRC, don't need to do it and are befuddled when they see the Aes Sedai doing it.

I'm gonna go "nerd" on this, my apologies, but the reason they don't use gestures is to avoid said gesture becoming part of the weave. If a channeler needs to wave their hand or wiggle their fingers in order to complete a weave, then all you need to do is bind their hands and they won't be able to channel. No need to shield them from the source, or even be able to channel yourself, just render their hands/arms useless. If I was a better "nerd" I'd reference the exact chapter wherein this is mentioned, but I'm pretty sure it was in relation to Egwene/Elayne/Nyneave's preparation for entering the rings...

I always thought the magic in WoT would be tricky to do. IMO there's a high potential for it looking silly.

My concern exactly. My fear is that weaves and the art of weaving will only be word of mouth and not explicitly shown. If Rand weaves a gateway, all we will see is the gateway, no matter if the scene is from his perspective or Mat's. That would stink, mainly because one of the ways we've learned to judge a channeler's strength is by their formation of weaves and the amount that they can maintain at once.

@Werthead Avatar elemental forms would be cool but like you said, not WoT. Hand gestures are mentioned throughout the books, but always said to be frivolous and akin to a mental block and frowned upon, right? Novice and Accepted would be ridiculed if they had to perform a physical gesture to create a weave. The best example I can think of how weaving should work in live action is "Tuning" in Dark City, but with far more detail and color obviously.

I definitely expect some creative license when it comes to weaving, just hope it doesn't suck.

A simple POV device. If your POV character in a scene is a channeller, we can see stuff from their viewpoint, complete with colours swirling around and so on. If they're not, then you just see the effects of the weaves, not the weaves themselves.

 

 

 I get the POV device, but my concern is more about how to make some of the confrontations between channelers compelling to watch. Take for example, a beautifully choreographed kung fu scene, then compare that to 2 static combatants weaving the one power. You can see the challenge of creating an epic fight scene, to choreograph a dance of weaves to rival Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema, that's what I want        

Script/ screen adaptation is another big concern of mine. GoT season are only 10 episodes long, and that seems to be the going rate on all major series from Netflix, Amazon, USA, AMC etc. The season will have to be longer than 10 episodes right? I realize there' a lot of meat dedicated to detailed descriptions of people, places and concepts that will translate directly into what we see on screen, but there's still a whole lot of story telling as well.  

How will weaving the one power be acted out? Remember the battle between Nynaeve and Moghedion in Chachin? At one point during their fierce battle it is said that if anyone had entered the room all they would see is 2 women glaring at each other, hands to their side. As the reader, we know there's in fact a maelstrom of weaves being cut and countered around two critical weaves of spirit, one from each combatant, to shield the other from Saidar. IMO, this is one of the best 1v1 bouts in the whole series, how do you recreate the same intensity in a live action format? When so much of what made that confrontation intense comes from the thoughts racing through Nynaeve's mind? 

First things first. Robert Jordan was a white (a huge red flag), heterosexual (an even bigger red flag) male (the biggest red flag ever). Adapting his series is just another form of oppression.

 

Seriously, WoT is not racist, I repeat, racism does not exist in WoT, and it's a F A N T A S Y. (A few thousand years do not matter to skin colour anyway.) There are characters with "white"/coppery/olive/dark/etc skin.

 

http://wotfaq.dragonmount.com/node/164

My apologies if you consider my comment offensive. I understand its "F A N T A S Y" but RJ put a lot of work into defining the people of Wheel of Time, you can't just disregard extremely specific characteristics. I would never cast a white actor for Black Panther, you can't do it, he's a Wakandan. Race matters when you're casting a character or people, no matter if it's fiction. All Aiel are always described as bronze skinned (not fair or dark) with reddish hair, blue/green eyes. Only deviations ever mentioned are Sevannah's blonde hair, some wise ones with white hair, and one wise one that was a "standout" brunette.

These books, peoples, characters have lived in our heads for so long. RJ took a lot effort to describe them fully to us. If they cast a white actress as Tuon, I'll be extremely upset. If they disregard the specific features of one of the most important races in the books (Aiel) I'll be disappointed. There is so much detail in Jordan's novels you shouldn't have any problem getting the basics right. By all descriptions, Athan'an Miere should all be of dark skin ethnicity, shouldn't have a fair skin person on that boat, unless they have bartered for passage with the Wave Mistress. I can't stress enough RJ's work at defining all the people of this book, it's what makes them so good! For me at least, because of RJs abundant detail, I really experienced the difference between Cairhienen and Andoran, Arafellan and Saldean. 

If I'm painting a bowl of fruit, bananas will be yellow, oranges orange, strawberries red etc. It's not racist to paint RJ's world as it was described.

@Egeanin I mentioned that same page, it's definitely not legit, like OWB said. I ripped it for the most part, even though there are some good pairings, for the most part I don't like it. Some that I truly dislike are Lanfear and Gaul. Lanfear/Selene is exquisitely beautiful, and while I think Eva Green has a unique beauty fitting of an Aes Sedai, I wouldn't call it breath taking. Just my opinion, but I would love her as Moraine. 

As for Gaul, sorry to play race card, but you can't cast an actor/actress of African descent as an Aiel. The Aiel might be the most galvanized race in the Wheel of Time aside from the Atha'an Miere, and they have a very distinct appearance with very little deviation. You just can't do it. Beyond that, Gual's description is given throughout the novels, and Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje doesn't come close. To continue racial profiling, I'm not familiar with Clive Standen, but I agree he would need to get a tan. Border Landers across the board are described as bronze/tan complected with dark hair. I've always imagined them resembling Turkish or Persian / Mediterranean vibe, just me though.

All in all, very sketchy list.

Hello friends! Can't believe its taken me this long to join this forum, but now seems like a good time. When I first saw the news about Harriet's announcement, I couldn't contain my excitement, I actually dropped the F bomb on my mother. Well, it was more like an F rainbow more profound than the Amrylin's stole, but yeah, she didn't care cause she was hyped too when I broke the news. Anyway, I hope, hope, hope Netflix is the "major studio", and for the love of the Light, please employ a better casting director than the creator of the IMDB "HBO cast" that is currently posted. There are some absolute terrible suggestions on that page, from a supposed fan of the book...Ramsy from GoT as Perrin? Really? Enough said, anyway, can't wait for this "studio" to reveal itself, exciting times indeed!