Well, do you consider the covers as source? The WOT Companion? They both have the Edmond's Field gang as white in the renderings. But even if you don't consider that canon, there is still the actual novels. Rand is described as pretty gingerish. And Elaida had to get a peak of his untanned skin to tell he was lighter skin toned than the typical Edmond's Field native. So pretty obvious they weren't black. So, no, these actors don't actually fit the source material.

mpl35 said:

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Well, do you consider the covers as source? The WOT Companion? They both have the Edmond's Field gang as white in the renderings. But even if you don't consider that canon, there is still the actual novels. Rand is described as pretty gingerish. And Elaida had to get a peak of his untanned skin to tell he was lighter skin toned than the typical Edmond's Field native. So pretty obvious they weren't black. So, no, these actors don't actually fit the source material.

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Typically, authors have little to no control over cover art, with it done by the publisher for marketing purposes. So no, I don't usually see cover art as canon, just another artist interpretation.

The books also mention that Aiel get fairly tanned from living in the Wastes, which means Rand is more than capable of having darker skin. Saying that his untanned part is lighter than the rest of them still says nothing about what color the typical Emond's Field resident is. If anything, saying that his untanned skin is lighter than typical says that the actual natives are of a darker tone, though obviously it would be up to interpretation of whether that's more of a Mediterranean look, black, or even southeast Asian.

But yeah, I mean, if it really upsets you that much, don't watch it. It doesn't fit my personal head canon, but I don't see that as something to get bent out of shape over like a lot seem to be. I'm certainly not going to let that prevent me from enjoying the series (assuming it's well made).

"We know that two rivers are similar to Andor due to them being confused with or passing for Andoreans a few times. The main difference between the two is that there is lighter hair in andor and dark in two rivers. They might be tan from out door Work but I don't think it's more than that.

The Aiel are based on Irish. They are said to be tanned from the sun by the two rivers girls a few times and rand too but are still pale in non sun touched areas. As a tanned Irish person is still quite pale and without that sun, rand would have the pale colours of the Irish. Only his hair and height are commented on, so his skin colour is similar to two rivers and then andor at large. Aka their white. Cuz Irish are white and no one comments on rands skin being different."

Egwane, Nyneave, Perrin, and Matt are all described as Brown hair and Brown eyes.

Rand is Red-headed with Grey-Blue eyes.

by these descriptions you could easily have the 4 be almost ANY race they just all need to be the same. and rand is different. But did they really do that in the casting?

Sarduakar said:

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Egwane, Nyneave, Perrin, and Matt are all described as Brown hair and Brown eyes.

Rand is Red-headed with Grey-Blue eyes.

by these descriptions you could easily have the 4 be almost ANY race they just all need to be the same. and rand is different. But did they really do that in the casting?

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Rand is described as slightly lighter skinned - but have to check the untanned skin to be sure. Rand is part Aiel. They are based on the irish. You don't get red headed latino or black people. You can see our different races as is...so changing that is odd.

It isn't a huge deal, but a needless change.

My expectations are a low 4 on 10 scale for this and I am a huge fan of the series that won't finish the last book because it will make me sad. I need to power thru on the book.

GoT was great until Duche&Bag had to provide the finish. Shannara and Sword of Truth series were both awful television.

The last book was great, you really should read it through. After 14 books it needed to end and Brandon did a fantastic job.

AtlAg05 said:

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The last book was great, you really should read it through. After 14 books it needed to end and Brandon did a fantastic job.

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My current plan on my rereads is to read 1-6, read summaries of 7-10, then 11-13. I have never read "New Spring" is it worth the read?

I'm 38% thru Eye and enjoying the heck out of it.

Yes! The last chapter is the Final Battle and I believe it's 100 pages long. Just be sure to read it all in one sitting because you will not want to put the book down.

Edit, oh thought you meant the last book. It's been a while since I read New Spring, honestly don't remember much maybe that speaks for itself!

MaroonStain said:

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My expectations are a low 4 on 10 scale for this and I am a huge fan of the series that won't finish the last book because it will make me sad. I need to power thru on the book.

GoT was great until Duche&Bag had to provide the finish. Shannara and Sword of Truth series were both awful television.

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Read it, but the final battle crushed me. I'm still sad.

CapCityAg89 said:

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MaroonStain said:

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My expectations are a low 4 on 10 scale for this and I am a huge fan of the series that won't finish the last book because it will make me sad. I need to power thru on the book.

GoT was great until Duche&Bag had to provide the finish. Shannara and Sword of Truth series were both awful television.

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Read it, but the final battle crushed me. I'm still sad.

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That is what I was expecting and also expecting that the tears will be flowing.

I started the series in 1998.

KidDoc said:

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AtlAg05 said:

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The last book was great, you really should read it through. After 14 books it needed to end and Brandon did a fantastic job.

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My current plan on my rereads is to read 1-6, read summaries of 7-10, then 11-13. I have never read "New Spring" is it worth the read?

I'm 38% thru Eye and enjoying the heck out of it.

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I think I'm going to do this too and finally knock this out.

MaroonStain said:

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CapCityAg89 said:

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MaroonStain said:

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My expectations are a low 4 on 10 scale for this and I am a huge fan of the series that won't finish the last book because it will make me sad. I need to power thru on the book.

GoT was great until Duche&Bag had to provide the finish. Shannara and Sword of Truth series were both awful television.

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Read it, but the final battle crushed me. I'm still sad.

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That is what I was expecting and also expecting that the tears will be flowing.

I started the series in 1998.

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After 14 books, I was freaking invested in those kids. I'm not sure I've ever been that emotionally punched by a book. Brandon Sanderson is simply the best fantasy author on the planet right now. Read it and come back. I want to chat.

I started in 1991 after the Dragon Reborn was out. I actually read it first, went "wtf", and then started at the beginning. I still have the WOT as one of my top 5 series of all time.

Same sentiment here. Such a great story I became invested in. And a great finish.

Lan has been cast: Daniel Henney

A bit younger than I would have imagined, but otherwise seems like a good choice.

He looks younger than I expected but I just looked up his and Moraines ages.

Lan is 45 and Moraine 42 at the beginning of the books. This guy and Rosamund Pike are 40. If they just make him seem more "rugged" than this pic it would fit my view of him.

Not bad. He is almost 40. Will be when they film. Lan was ~45 when the books start. So a bit young, but I like this choice.

Harry Potter was the first book-to-film adaptation I really cared about, and I learned then to appreciate the movies even though they differed from the books.

WoT isn't going to follow Robert Jordan's vision on the small screen. It's going to be that vision filtered through the showrunners' eyes. As long as they keep the heart and themes of the series, superficial changes aren't going to bother me. The books aren't changing. I'll always have them. I'm excited to see this new interpretation, and I like the casting choices so far. Plus, there's lots they can do with costuming, hair and makeup to bring these characters to life as they were in the books.

Now, it still needs to be quality film making, but that's another topic altogether.

I do like seeing it brought to life in a different way, but I also agree with some of the sentiment that certain differences among people should definitely be reflected on screen. Some of them are integral to not just understanding the world that was built by Robert Jordan, but to the story itself.

I understand it to a point. Rand needs to look like an Aielman and different enough from the Emond's Fielders to be noticeable. I don't think there's any debating that.

But I also think differences between peoples can be conveyed clearly enough through their clothing, accents, dialects, cultures, etc. I always felt that was at the heart of WoT as opposed to the colors of each character's skin. Sure, race is part of the story, but Aiel humor, Andoran propriety and Saldaean tempers can all come through in the show without that.

I'm not saying I love that they're changing things like this (I'd love a word for word adaptation), but I'm willing to give them a chance, and I realize that even the best adaptations change things from the source material. So far, in my opinion, the changes have been fairly minor.

If people are already frustrated with this, how will they react when they alter a major storyline? You can bet that's going to happen. I just don't see their choices to this point as something to take up arms over.

But I can respect everyone being protective of the source material.

CastleRock said:

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IIRC, Lan is weathered and Robert Jordan describes him as something like "not traditionally handsome".

Also I think he had a ponytail. Definitely not getting Lan vibes from this guy. Seems like another WOKE casting choice.

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Racially I pictured Lan as white, not that that matters, but in terms of characters he reminded me a LOT of Ujio from The Last Samurai, who is one of my favorite badass characters.

Chase McGuire said:

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I understand it to a point. Rand needs to look like an Aielman and different enough from the Emond's Fielders to be noticeable. I don't think there's any debating that.

But I also think differences between peoples can be conveyed clearly enough through their clothing, accents, dialects, cultures, etc. I always felt that was at the heart of WoT as opposed to the colors of each character's skin. Sure, race is part of the story, but Aiel humor, Andoran propriety and Saldaean tempers can all come through in the show without that.

I'm not saying I love that they're changing things like this (I'd love a word for word adaptation), but I'm willing to give them a chance, and I realize that even the best adaptations change things from the source material. So far, in my opinion, the changes have been fairly minor.

If people are already frustrated with this, how will they react when they alter a major storyline? You can bet that's going to happen. I just don't see their choices to this point as something to take up arms over.

But I can respect everyone being protective of the source material.

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I agree with a lot of this. There are plenty of ways to still show regional cultures and whatnot. I think its very important that the Aiel they cast all have similar traits to Rand. As someoen else mentioned, that Perrin character needs to take some serious steroids before the show films.

I like the Lan casting.

And Perrin looks kind of like Mike Evans to me.

Tanya 93 said:

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CastleRock said:

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IIRC, Lan is weathered and Robert Jordan describes him as something like "not traditionally handsome".

Also I think he had a ponytail. Definitely not getting Lan vibes from this guy. Seems like another WOKE casting choice.

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He is a really talented actor.

You just want to use woke because he isn't your image of what the character should look like.

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Or how he was described in the books?

I'm fine with it but understand people's frustration.