Put down those pitchforks and lower the torches please, I’m not here to talk shit . . . well, not exactly. But as the title suggests, this thought experiment will be covering Netflix’s Arcane and Amazon’s Wheel of Time, specifically focusing on their respective female-centric characters, through the lens of my own biases. So, apologies for a few paragraphs of self-indulgence and spoiler warning for both shows.

via GIPHY

- My Personal Biases

I wasn’t a fan of the Wheel of Time books, not in the beginning. When The Eye of the World was published in January of 1990, I was a typical fantasy reading 14-year-old dork. I saw the Jordan books in the bookstores but ignored them. Mostly due to the cover art (I know, I know) despite my friends swearing that they were good. It wasn’t until mid-1998, two years into my Air Force career and stationed at a joint Air Force/Army detachment, that I started reading the series. My Army supervisor was reading book seven, A Crown of Swords, and offered to let me read book 1. I burned through all seven books in time for #8, The Path of Daggers. I was a fan ever since, both the highs and lows of the series.

See, it wasn’t the fantasy element that’d hooked me. It wasn’t the Tolkien rip-off (heavily) “inspired” elements of book one. And it wasn’t the classic Joseph Conrad Hero’s journey arc of Rand ‘al Thor. No, it was the multi-cultural, masculine/feminine dynamic of the story. That push/pull, yin and yang, which drove the story for me.

Many critics, professional and amateur, have praised/damned Jordan for either being progressive or doggedly sexist in his gender norms. I grew up firmly in the “battle of the sexes” era of child-rearing. Men were from Mars, girls were from Venus. Girls were sugar and spice while boys were frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails. It took time for me to deprogram myself from that rhetoric to really understand the impacts of nurture v. nature. But, years spent in martial arts taught me that a girl can kick you in the face, or the nuts, as well as any guy. Once you’ve been (metaphorically or literally) choked out by a better opponent, you don’t give a shit about what is/is not between the legs. You just wanna breathe.

But it was my time in the military that really shaped me. Over my 20 years of service, from age 20 to 40, I’d had the distinct pleasure of having led, and have been led by, amazing humans that were of every race, sexuality, gender identity, economic upbringings, religious affiliations, and several different nationalities. And during this time, I learned that our differences give us perspective, and our unity through diversity gives us the power to get the job done. And that is what the Wheel of Time books meant to me. When the characters from all over the world set their ideologies and dogmas aside: Shit. Got. Done.

When 4th wave feminism rolled out around 2012, we saw a growing change in our fiction. We saw a steady decline in the super-guy action dude trope. Underrepresented people were pushed into the spotlight. More female-led action shows/movies/video games/books gained attention. And I said: “Cool.” Because that was the world I already knew and believed in. Many “progressive” ideas were things I’d come to know as standard in the military. We were paid by our rank and time in service, not by our gender, while housing, healthcare, and hunger were covered by either financial allotments or on-base facilities.

Now, did I roll my eyes when some voices came off as pandering to look righteous online? You’re goddamn right I did. For I had known/worked beside/cherished far too many strong “minorities” who did the job some loudmouth--Left or Right--couldn’t or wouldn’t do. But I digress.

- Amazon’s Wheel of Time

I was excited for the Wheel of Time show while being naturally nervous. The book series is huge and has a rabid fan base. And when the first few eps dropped on Amazon Prime … man, I was pretty underwhelmed. As the show continued, it fell firmly in the “it’s fine” bracket of television. It had some high points and more than a few lows. But it never really had its own voice, seemingly a visual blend of Game of Thrones, Shannara, and The Witcher. Nothing unique. And that irked me.

When Rafe Judkins set out to adapt Wheel of Time, he had this quote in Polygon: “[…] there’s no way to bring a carbon copy of fantasy author Robert Jordan’s expansive world to screen.” He also added, “I feel a special burden laying me down, crushing me, of just wanting to deliver for this thing that I love, and my mom loves, and so many of the women in my family love.”

As I mentioned before, the initial arc of the Wheel of Time books was a textbook example of Joseph Conrad’s Hero With a Thousand Faces. Rand al’ Thor was the central character, the pastoral chosen one, and according to this WoT Fandom Page breakdown, the POV for 44 of the 53 chapters in Eye of the World. But the showrunners opted to remove focus from Rand and placed it firmly on the talented shoulders of Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine Damodred Sedai character, thus altering the fundamental flow of the story. But, that’s not a bad thing. By restructuring the format, the mystery of the Dragon Reborn allowed Moiraine to play detective. The show even altered the story so that the Dragon could be male/female and all five of the kids, Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nyneave, were ta’vereen, chosen ones, and potential Dragons. The show continued to make changes, adding scenes that weren’t in the book. Such scenes (which were actually my favorite parts of the show) included: Moiraine/Siuan’s love, Siuan’s backstory, The Warder encampment, the Warder funeral. They even opted not to open on Rand as the first kid from Emond’s Field, but rather Egwene and Nynaeve at Egwene’s hair braiding ceremony (also not in the book), where they delivered that banger line “To be a woman is to be always alone and never alone.”

But when you step back and look at it as a whole, that’s when the threads unravel and weave falls apart. The episodes loosely followed the plot of the book, running from spot to spot, dumping exposition, getting into/out of dangers, pausing only to let the new material (not book material) breathe. And by choosing to focus on Moiraine for the heavy lifting, with assistance from Madeleine Madden and Zoe Robbins’ Egwene and Nyneave respectively, the show has something of a feminist slant, possibly something to do with Mr. Judkins wanting to provide something the women of his family would love. And you know what? That was kinda cool. Sure I grumbled a bit. But from what the show was (seemingly) developing, I was hoping for a change in the narrative, something different from the books. But that didn’t happen, did it?

Cut-away edits were tricksy, like the bathtub scene which cut to Egwene after Lan asked who Moiraine thought the Dragon was. The amazing explosion-of-healing-power moment by Nyneave in the cave w/Logain (which made me eat my words in THIS post of mine) made me wonder if she could be the Dragon. Especially considering she was the only one of the five to kill a trolloc by herself on the night they invaded Emond’s Field. But no, at the end of the day, The Dragon Reborn was still Rand, the show’s least developed character. Ginger Pale, Sad-Boy McPouty Lips was the real chosen one. And frankly, that sucked. It sucked that the show used every storytelling technique to present the audience one thing, then pull the rug out from under you. And not in a “subversion of expectations” bullshit kind of way. In a way that hurt. JK Rowling feelings aside, imagine if the story of Hogwarts had been reframed to focus on Hermione doing her brainy thing, overcoming adversity, and defeating challenges, just to have Harry step up and be the chosen one? Stings, doesn’t it?

Side note: making Egwene and Nynaeve ta’vereen was a mistake. Full stop. In the books, these characters like the aforementioned Hermione didn’t need to be deemed worthy by some supernatural force. Both Egwene and Nynaeve achieved nigh-impossible feats by their own wit, guile, grit, and merit. Not because they were born special. Quite the opposite in fact.

And at the end of the show, when I looked back, I was left with the conclusion that the plot drove the characters, not the other way around. And that is the worst kind of storytelling. Plot happens and the WoT characters react. Rinse, repeat, and sigh. Just like the final seasons of Game of Thrones. And the changes made, while sometimes brilliant, felt bolted on and not integrated into what could have been a brilliant show. Maybe things will be better in WoT season 2? I do hope so. I haven’t given up, but my expectations have been lowered.

- Arcane on Netflix

After the success of WandaVision on Disney+, specifically the stellar performances by Elizabeth Olsen as the troubled and tortured titular Wanda/Scarlet Witch (my all-time favorite MCU character) and Teyonah Parris’ strength as Monica Rambeau, I was hoping for more quality, female-led fiction programs. I do have a soft spot for flawed-yet-enduring female characters which I try to showcase in my Hammer of Witches novels.

So when the nine episode animated Arcane came out of nowhere it blew me away with it’s visuals, storytelling, and social themes. Why? Simple, these near perfect characters, with their incredible connections, heart-breaking relationships, and difficult choices, drove/affected the plot. If you have not watched the show, I cannot recommend it enough. This is how storytelling should be.

Set in the video game League of Legends universe, Arcane is, at it’s core, the story of two sisters, Vi and Powder who love one another, but are torn apart physically and emotionally. Orphaned during a class-warfare revolt led by a man named Vander, Vi and Powder are then adopted by said Vander, who throws down his weapons and chooses to focus on protecting, not destroying. But the wake of Vander’s revolt, the villain Silko was created. Raised in the slums of Piltover, Vi and Powder do what they must to survive. And those actions have consequences. While in the erudite district of Piltover, a young scientist named Jayce, pushes for his advancements in magic and technology to help society. But, are these advancements for all, or just those with money/power? Denied his chance and stripped of his title, Jayce stands over a figurative and literal precipice, wondering if jumping is the best solution. A helping hand at a moment of personal low is all that spares Jayce’s life.

Vander does his best to maintain the tenuous peace between the two sides of Piltover, but Silko is waiting in the shadows to usurp his one-time friend and rule the under city through fear, power, and drugs. During the emotionally-fueled confrontation at the end of the first arc, the might Vander falls, Vi blames her sister, and Silko embraces the now emotionally/mentally broken Powder.

Moving into the second arc, the show then jumps a few years. Powder, now Jinx, is an unhinged-if-brilliant mechanical/chemical engineer and Silko’s daughter. Vi is a convict, released by the unerringly upbeat police marksman Caitlyn in order to track down the ones responsible for a series of heists. Although agreeing to help, the physically powerful Vi is still a broken girl who only wants her sister back. Vi will go through anyone to get to Powder. But, is Jinx still Powder? Jayce has become the herald of the new age, thanks in part by his partner Viktor, and the ever-plotting councilwoman Mel Medarda. Silko, now troubled with the burden of knowledge, comes to understand the late Vander’s ideals, that keeping the peace is its own kind of war. I dare you to watch this scene, even out of context, and not want more. (turn the music up!)

Season one culminates in the third arc, where conflict between all the cast members comes to a head in all its cinematic yet heart-breaking glory. And I cannot wait for season 2.

- Conclusion

Both shows, Wheel of Time and Arcane, have incredible representation and diverse peoples. Both shine a light on inequality, exploring what those with less are willing to do, while those with more fight to maintain control. Both shows reportedly had a writer’s room with unique voices and people. So why did I herald one’s brilliance while bemoaning another for floundering to find itself? Because one (accidentally or brilliantly) focused on telling a unique story that for me, allowed the characters to be flawed, beautiful, broken, kind, and cruel. Said characters created/drove the plot of their respective show. The other show, to me, seemingly aped the CW’s style of brooding drama and non-romantic romance while the plot moved unerringly onward, regardless of choices made. It reached for greatness, gained notoriety, but fell into middling popcorn entertainment. I’ll let you figure out which was which.

As with all my critiques/reviews, let me caveat the above with this: don’t let me yuck your yum. If you loved Wheel of Time, then great! Don’t let some asshole on the internet tell you differently. Love what you love.

Special kudos to WoT’s attempt to create his own “Toss a Coin To Your Witcher” song. Hope they sold a few downloads with Thom Merrilin’s “The Man Who Can’t Forget.”