Adapting Books to Screen - Ramblings of an ADHDer

Beware of light spoilers for both book and show 

I like a lot of book-to-screen adaptations. There's Lord of the Rings, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Hobbit (the first 2 movies). Some examples of adaptations that, in my opinion, hit the spot when it comes to telling the story written in the books properly. As a reader/watcher, I find it important for film directors to follow the source material and stick to what people love and cherish from the stories. That is not to say that they can't deviate from it a little and bring in their own creativity to the adaptation, mainly so it can translate to the screen better. What I mean is that they should not change details that are crucial to the story, details that have meaning to the development of characters.  

An example of this is in the adaptation of The Wheel of Time - spoilers coming for people who have not read the books yet. I have a special connection to this series; I was 16 or 17 when I first started reading The Wheel of Time and it got me through some dark times in my life. I will focus on two of the main characters: Perrin and Mat. I could write a whole blog series on the things they did wrong (in my eyes) on this show. I can't, in all honesty, understand why they decided to change their backstories to such a big extent.  

Firstly, Perrin doesn't have a wife in the first book. HE. DOES. NOT. HAVE. A. WIFE. Why did the writers and director feel the need to add in a character, only for her to be killed in the first 10 minutes of the show? Yes, Perrin is hard to capture on screen. He internalizes a lot of his thoughts in the books, but to try and show it in this way was not a good idea. For Perrin there is no character development whatsoever in the show; in the books it takes MANY books for him to get to the point, which he reached in the show after killing his wife. It dramatically changed how we see Perrin, how he behaves and feels as a character. Perrin is a quiet, shy boy. He knows nothing about women, and this is a subject that is KEY to his personality. 

Secondly, Mat. Oh boy, they did him dirty. In the books Mat is my favorite character. I dare say, he is a fan favorite (for book readers). In the show, however, he is one of my least favorite. In the show, they portray him as a young adult dealing with an excruciating family situation: A drunk and abusive father (RIP Abell Cauthon, who is actually a magnificent father in the books), so he turns to gambling and drinking and comes into debt as shown in the first episode, following his da's footsteps. In the books he is just a teenager, with a great relationship with his family. He likes to gamble a bit, but not so much that he is in debt. He can't wait to get out of his small town, explore and have an adventurer’s life; gambling and drinking, yes, but for fun, not because some unresolved family trauma. Overall, he is someone who likes to goof around. That's it. He just wants to have fun.  

But why did they want to make everything so incredibly dark? The books are high fantasy, and even though it has a tint of darkness, it progressively evolves to that darkness. It is not shoved down the throat of readers in the first 3 chapters. To me it feels that the director and writers were very out of touch from the source material and just gave their own twisted interpretation of events, with characters that look the same and have the same names. I am not blaming the actors for the way the show ended, because they acted out the characters they were given very well. 

Now, to make it more relatable, I will give another example: Game of Thrones. The first 4 to 5 seasons were great. Yes, there were some changes in details, that make the story more cohesive but having George R.R. Martin there to guide the directors and screenwriters was a blessing. One of the better adaptations there was at the time. From season 6 onward they did not have any source material, because the books were not out, and still aren't Shaking my fist angerly so it is understandable that they had to come up with something. Adding to it, it didn't help that George R.R. Martin wasn't very involved after season 5. He did leave notes, but it was up to the writers to make the rest of the show fit the previous 5 seasons, although having the writer of the books dropping out makes it a lot harder. I think that the characters started to feel less like themselves the longer the show went on. So much that by the final season it was like we were watching a different show with characters who happen to have the same names and are the same actors. Also, the ending felt very rushed, like they just wanted it to be over.  

For me a good example of a concession that Peter Jackson has done with Lord of the Rings is the story of Saruman. He has a very different ending in the books. An ending that I like very much and I am sad that it's not in the movies. But it does not take anything away from or change the flow of the story. Another example (hi this is Ana writing now) is Twilight. Great adaptation. Pretty much the same as the books. Although as a teenager I was very angry that they casted Robert Pattinson as Edward, he was not how I pictured him, and I hated him soooo much (Ana out). 

All this is not to say that I don't understand. I think it's hard for a writer or director to adapt a book to the screen without putting their own creativity into it. I'm not saying that they should give it up, but they do have to make concessions.  

Anyway, I just wanted to vent about how Hollywood ruined my favorite book series of all time by making a shit show that, in all honestly, I stopped watching after season 2. The Wheel of Time is my comfort series. When I feel down, I want to re-read all 15 books and join my book friends again on their epic adventure, each time discovering new secrets and reading things I missed before.