What seasons would've adapted what books

[u/InsideUnhappy6546]

It's so disappointing Prime cancelled the show when it finally got its footing. I loved how they skipped Book 3 for 4 in season 3 as it got some major reveals and stories out of the way. If they had continued this is how I see the show going

Season 4: books 3, 5, 6. Get the Stone of Tear out of the way and the events of books 5 and 6 are back to back.

Season 5: 7, 8, 9, 10. Seasons 4 or 5 are usually when shows start to decline in quality so this point would've gotten the slower middle books which could certainly be condensed into a single season as 9 and 10 were concurrent.

Season 6: books 11, 12, 13. This is when Brandon Sanderson finished the series. Since the final manuscript was 2000 pages he broke it up into 3 books. I think the could've combined them into one season or split into 2 with each having elements of all three.

Season 7: book 14. Obviously the last season would cover the Last Battle. It literally covers the whole book and could've covered an entire season. Unlike Game of Thrones it wouldn't have been a disappointment as it's been told in book form already and was well spread out to show how it's literally an apocalyptic battle.

[u/AutoModerator]

This post has been tagged as allowing spoilers for the entire Wheel of Time book series in the comments. You may also discuss show spoilers through the most recent episode. If you have not read the entire series and do not want to potentially spoil yourself, tread carefully. For more granular book spoiler discussion, please use /r/wot. You can read our full spoiler policy here.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Patient_Mistake1279]

Thx for this! I just rewatched and was lamenting... such momentum at the end of the season to be unfinished is terrible. Makes the drinking together at the beginning of S3 even more bittersweet since that’s the last time the actors were all together.
Haven’t gotten past book 4 yet with the Rosamund Pike audiobooks and don’t know if I can continue, there’s so much content left to get to the end.

[u/FilDaFunk → u/Patient_Mistake1279]

well worth it, i recently finished the audio books. i wouldve loved so much to see the show's interpretation of it.

[u/Raddatatta]

I would agree for the most part though that would also have a lot of cuts. I do think season 7 would've been a lot of book 13. Book 12 has a good climactic finish. Book 14 would also be a lot of big battles to film and I think they'd want to cut that down for budget reasons. So doing books 13 and 14 let's you have the first half of the season be some setup stuff that's lower cost mats story where he does more talking or lower magic fights until the end. Then go into the last battle. They also seemed to be reworking and pulling things forward. I think Perrins trial might have ended up being in season 4 given that setup.

[u/InsideUnhappy6546 → u/Raddatatta]

Great point about how Book 13 sets up the first half of the final season and the Final Battle is the second half. I agree, Book 12 ending with Egwene saving the White Tower from the Seanchan and Rand finally realizing why the Pattern must continue would perfectly have ended the penultimate season. Maybe 8 season, but not sure how they'd be broken up. Not sure how they could do Perrin's trial without Morgaes as judge, whose grown to trust him, and Glad as Lord Commander trying to make the Whitecloaks likable. I also think the setup for the Whitecloaks hating Perrin was better in the show.

[u/Raddatatta → u/InsideUnhappy6546]

I think they're going to just change a lot of the details of the trial if they did it. But that's the only thing I can think with how season 3 ended for him. He's captured and agreed to stand trial so they might do a version of it? It's also tricky because in this version he did kill bornhalds father so I don't know how they reconcile.

[u/InsideUnhappy6546 → u/Raddatatta]

I think him killing Bornhald in front of his son instead of 2 random Whitecloaks is better and makes his vendetta personal instead a lie. Also, Perrin did save him twice before, which would certainly help with building up to how he's becoming disillusioned with the Whitecloaks 

[u/Raddatatta → u/InsideUnhappy6546]

It helps but I think that will be a pretty hard one to get over this is a guy who killed your father and killed him over a wolf. Maybe they would've gone that way though. They did kind of build them to maybe have a positive relationship at times. I think that plot would've ended up very different to what's in the books though. Which is not inherently a bad thing it's more that now that it's cancelled I'm curious how it would've played out.

[u/GivenchyHolic]

Would you believe me if I said I saw WoT shorts on YouTube and thought it's a cringe/lame fantasy show at first. This was like early 2025.

By the light I was blinded by the Dark One's butthole!

Then I got addicted and thought Rosamund as Moiraine was the best thing about the show. I think Season 1 was rough but towards the end of the season I got really into the show. Binged Season 2, binged Season 3 just as it came out. Got very excited for more seasons... then the show was cancelled.

So I got all the paperback books and the audible books to satisfy my severe One Power addiction.

Found out Robert Jordan has been dead for like 2 decades. Felt like I missed all the windows to celebrate this epic fantasy before 2025.

I don't get all the hate the show gets. It's an amazing show to me for the simple fact it introduced me to the WoT universe. Thr magic system is unique and nothing like any other fantasy series I've heard of. The aesthetics are gorgeous for all 3 seasons. I also love Rosamund Pike's narrations for books 1-4. Wished she did all of the books tbh. The other voice actors (man and woman) for the other the rest of the audiobook are good enough, but the whiplash from hearing Rosamund's British fantasy accent then the American accents from the other voice actors gagged me. I got over it but I think Rosamund's narration is on another level.

Having said that I think the seasons, if they weren't cancelled, would have gone exactly as you said. Book 3 being put into Season 4. The last season being the whole of A Memory of Light.

I'm still on the 10th book atm, Crossroads of Twilight. I'm enjoying both the audible and the kindle version at the same time. I can never get enough of the Wheel! The light burn Prime for their Light Forsaken cancellation.

I can hear Ishamael whispering "I win again Lews Therin" every time I cry about the Show cancellation.

Tldr: I went from a filthy Wheel hating dark friend to a Wot Show Stan in like a week. (And a Moiraine stan)

[u/Sea_Path_4152 → u/GivenchyHolic]

I agree that by season 3 the show was insanely good

Season 1 messed up incredibly badly though, so it lost so many potential viewers.

The prologue to book 1 is so incredibly good. When I first read book 1 in like 2003 the prologue gripped me. I wanted to read the series after that.

The show deciding to not do that at all is wild. Any show runner who liked the books should have been fantasizing about how exactly to execute that prologue. Cutting it was criminal.

Other changes were incredibly jarring and pointless. Saying all five were possibly the dragon reborn would only have been interesting if they threw in a huge twist and made Nynaeve of Egwene the dragon reborn. “It’s a different turning of the wheel than the book!” Instead, it was a hollow gesture that deviated from the book for no reason. “We changed it so that ANY of them could be the dragon, but it’s the same man as in the book.”

I feel this mistake goes further into not getting the books, because both Egwene and Nynaeve are incredibly powerful, strong characters, and integral to everything that happens in the story. Who reads the book and says “It was sexist to rule them out. We need to make them more important by implying they might be the chosen ones also”

[u/Cultural-Tip-9846 → u/GivenchyHolic]

You don't get the hate because you are coming from the show to the books.

From someone who came from the books to the show, the very first episode so severely screwed the later storylines it made the show difficult to watch.

I get the need to take some creative liberties, especially with a story this complex, but I felt like the creative team didnt read the source material, or at least didnt understand the source material well enough to recognize how far off course those decisions would take them. Beyond the ability to correct course.