"The Wheel of Time" Season 1 Short Review

 I wanted to mention a few more points that wouldn't fit into my micro-review tweet...

Screenshots from the Amazon Prime TV show for illustration of this review (fair use).

Fantasy is not my cup of tea, so I started watching with fairly low expectations. Friends who'd read the books were enthusiastic, so I checked it out, just in case it's the new Game of Thrones (GoT). It was alright - sufficiently well made to be watchable. Somewhat interesting, if more for it's cultural links.

It seems like Amazon would certainly like it to be the new GoT. The show logo has a similar feel and the dialogue explicitly talks about a human "dragon" who will "break the wheel". But the character building and human intrigue is more simplistic. 

It is probably better likened to Lord of the Rings (LotR): the magic and monsters have significant visual similarities and are unleashed right from the first episode. So, without the huge budget of those movies, this looks only OK. There's some stilted acting amongst the core cast, coupled with very awkward production in one instance, at least. So, overall, suspension of disbelief is greatly reduced compared with GoT. It's show about magic stuff in a pretty medieval setting.

My first episode initial impression was that it was trying to be a feminist take on GoT/LotR. Although I later Googled that Robert Jordan published the first book in 1990 [Wikipedia], 6 years before George RR Martin's first in the series. 

Given that these books are some of the best selling fantasy (since LotR), it makes me wonder about their culture influences on other media I've consumed. E.g. if the 4 most prominent colours of "Aes Sedai" groups (red, green, blue, yellow) inspired for the 4 wizards in Magicka (a favourite PC game blogged back here). Apparently these groups are termed "Ajah" and there's actually 7 (or 8) colours in the literature (which I'm trying to avoid digging into ahead of the show, or in general).

The elemental "channelling" is more obviously similar to Avatar: the Last Airbender. Magic tendrils are woven through the air with intricate hand gestures, very much like (water) bending. Also, the statement that the (female) Aes Sedai can't see the tendrils of male channelling, made me think of Elfen Lied (anime). They have invisible arm "vectors" as the basis of their telekinesis. I don't know how much of this visual detail is described in the books.

Anyway, back to feminist themes: right at the beginning of episode one, the tone is set with a rabid man being hunted down like a witch, for channelling magic, by an all female band of Red Aes Sedai zealots. Only women are allowed to become official magic wielders. 

So all the Gandalfs are women, effectively. The plot central one being "Moiraine Damodred", played well by by Rosamond Pike (who is also a producer).

Then, as the episodes progress, we learn about the nuanced and respectful relationship between these mages and their (usually) male "warder" warriors, who are emotionally bonded to protect and serve them. Cinematographically, there's no female cast nudity, either, but we see some juicy man butt first episode.

This is all refreshing enough, and the casting is far from whitewashed, too; there's a full melting pot of skin tones. No technical explanation for this, within their world. But it dovetails with the Eastern religious influences and scenery setting of dramatic vertical cliffs from South Asia. 

Hinduism was apparently Jordan's main influence behind the cyclical history at the core of his take on the common Indian religious concept of the wheel of time. The concept that history endlessly repeats itself, through eras or rises and falls, is (I think) bleak. Childish nonsense that fits more easily into a naïve steady-state-society mindset. That's common in most sci-fi works, too, where we usually see space faring humanity, inexplicably stultified.

Cyclical history is, of course, anathema to those (like me) who proscribe to extropian views (of indefinite progress). 

It's essentially the concept of the eternal return. Something that I always think about being described at a very dangerous idea, by Frank J Tipler in his 1994 "The Physics of Immortality". Where he explains his (Christian) conception of an Omega Point Singularity. He wrote that this cyclical history was central to the Nazi belief system. (Hitler famously appropriating the swastika from Eastern traditions.) That, in the absence of open ended progress, one can only strive for perfection within finite constrains. Thus justifying promotion of a master race, etc (I think; not sure if explicit on this specific).

Above: A tantalising glimpse of the sci-fi looking past of the Wheel of Time world. Maybe they could work in a rigorous physical basis for all their magic powers, like I hopped GoT might hint towards, but ultimately didn't (or turn out to be set on a ring world, or something space opera-ish).

In summary: I'll certainly watch a season 2 of Wheel of Time. But I don't feel like it'll enjoy sufficient success to televise the entire book series (far longer than GoT). The critical review scores seem reasonable, with 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience impression more tepid, perhaps due to many ardent book fans not seeing their conceptions of the source material being brought to life as they'd expected. But perhaps the books needed (and benefited from) updating [Polygon].