Timewaster's Guide Archive

That's where a good screenwriter comes in.  Besides, when you do any sort of filmed production you can't be 100% faithful to the book.  There's always something that gets cut or bridged over because it wouldn't transfer well to the screen.  That's why the book is almost always better than the movie.

I agree that movies can not be 100% faithful and can in fact be better if done correctly. However, with Way of Kings, I think that the major character arcs for both Kaladin and Shalan are to introspective to adapt well to the big screen. It can certainly be done, but unless the screenwriter is REALLY good it would likely not work out compleatly

As an example, Kaladin goes through quite the emotional roller coaster during the book, with a lot of internal questioning of who he is, what he can and can't change, and if the path he is trying to follow even exists. This can be shown via external narrative but works much better internally

Still, all of my points don't change the fact that if a movie were made I would likely be in the seats on opening night, probably wearing 3-D glasses

This post contains spoilers

As far as a movei goes, Way of Kings is a bit of a mixed bag. One the one hand, a lot of the cool Shardblade fights and stormlight usage by Szeth and Kaladin would work really well. The sceen where Kaladin charges the Parshendi to save Dalinar is very cinimatic and the entire thing would work great as a word for word scene adaptation

On the other hand, Kaladin and Szeth are also very introspective and quite a few scenes are just internal head talking. Kaladin had Syl to bounce off of but this leaves Szeth either very silent or talking to himself a lot, neither of which would work in the movie. Shalan has the same problem with her more internal scenes of moral conflict.

All in all, it would be a mixed bag of good and bad. On an unrelated note, I always pictured the movie as being animated, though that is more of a personal disposition. I've always felt that Fantasy and SF were better suited to animation since their are far fewer limitations. Plus Roshar has a lot more weird locations and fauna that require a lot CG anyway

So as I reread The Hero of Ages I was struck with an odd though concerning The Lord Ruler and Ruin. TLR knew that Ruin would try something to get at the well and was on the lookout for such plans. The idea of the Skaa rebels actually succeeding in killing him never crossed his mind. So I thought, what kind of plan did?

The fact that Vin was the person the Inquisitors were looking for seems a little to convenient, especially when you consider how mush effect Ruin had on her life. My idea was that the Inquisitor hunt for Vin was something of a front to keep her alive in Kredek Shaw where she could possibly get to TLR. But Ruin isn't something that just lets a plan like this go to waste. What if the Inquisitors running the church was Ruins backup plan if Vin failed. TLR thought that he could control the Inquisitors, so he really had no need to fear them. Ruin could have used their control of the church as a tool for inciting more rebellion, perhaps a full noble revolt due to being forced to put up with the much more deadly Inquisitor rather than the obligators.

Thoughts

I wonder if Szeth's lack of a spren has to do with his Shardblade. We know that the blades changed after the knights gaave them up, since Dalinar said that he saw a light leaving them. Plus Syl said that she didn't like the blade and thought that Dalinar was better without it. So what if Szeth's lack of spren is due to the fact that he hold a "cursed" blade?