re: Wheel of Time TV, Full Trailer Oct 27, show premieres Nov 19

I agree Fun. The finished product will speak for itself.

This is by far my all-time favorite fantasy series. My bias is toward re-creating the original work as faithfully as possible. Any changes should reflect limitations of filming in real life, rather than attempting to "improve" a "flawed" work.

I would just refer those interested to the message boards at tor.com, the publisher of the books. Official representatives of that publisher have written some pretty interesting statements about the project, including defense of changes seen to date and of those to come.

The most striking is by a long–time WoT "re-read" blogger for tor who submitted a defense making the following points: LINK /

Changing another author's characters race from white to anything else is how a creator demonstrates that they are "bold and forward thinking"

If you thought the Two Rivers was racially homogeneous just because that is what the story explicitly said, over and over, you have an "unwittingly narrow view" that was "wrong"

Social justice demands that changes be made to right such wrongs whenever they are found in original source material

Stories with white people are just boring

If you disagree with any of her arguments, you are the one who is promoting "racist gate–keeping exclusionary bull shiz"

Comments are invited if you agree with her, but any disagreements are declined, because they violate their hate policy.

You will have to take my word for it, I guess, but I would be equally offended for all the same reasons if every character was replaced with a white male, especially if it was being done overtly and with the explanation that it was done to improve an otherwise inferior/flawed product.

And if, as a fan of this series and/or a believer in a color-blind ideal, you can read the following official Tor-sanctioned essay that should be titled "confessions of the guilty white person", without having reservations about the whole project, you are a better (lesser?) person than I LINK /

As I said, the finished product will speak for itself. The first hurdle is creating something that does not have the cheesy feel of xena and subsequent knock offs of the Shannara and the wizards first rule series. The second will be incorporating their world view without so twisting the original product that they offend fans from the left and right alike. I am very hopeful and excited, but not optimistic.

I do not mean to temper any enthusiasm. I sincerely hope that I am wrong. Thank you for letting me get this off my chest. I hope that all of my subsequent posts are able to reflect pure fan-boy giddy excitement and satisfaction