I’m tired of fantasy shows that copy Game Of Thrones, but it’s exactly what Stormlight Archive’s adaptation needs

As tired as I am of fantasy shows trying to replicate Game of ThronesI would like to see The Stormlight Archive take the right lessons from the HBO series. In the following years Game of Thrones’ ending, several streaming platforms tried to imitate its successand as often happens when Hollywood tries to materialize a product in this way, none of the sequels met expectations. With more great fantasy series like Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive books as potential candidates for future adaptations, I would like to hypothesize what that might look like.

The Stormlight Archive is one of my favorite ongoing fantasy sagas, and I’m truly counting down the days until Wind and Truth release. Like many fantasy lovers, I have mixed feelings about recent adaptations like The Wheel of Time and The wizard who brought to life universes I love in ways that don’t necessarily appeal to me. I would like to see The Stormlight Archive avoid your mistakes and the best model for fantasy television is Game of Throneswhether we like these comparisons or not. But it is important to indicate what the right lessons are.

Game Of Thrones Is A Realistic Model For A Fantasy TV Series (But Difficult To Replicate)

Game Of Thrones started with a low budget and focused on writing and casting

It’s interesting to see the reception Dragon House Season 2, with some viewers feeling ripped off by the show only having one big dragon battle. About that, Game of Thrones The first season’s battle took place off-screen for budgetary reasons and was praised as groundbreaking television that paved the way for the biggest show of all time. The main reason for this, which I commonly cite as a similarity between George RR Martin and Sanderson, is that the characters are incredibly written and have very tangible, easy-to-consume arcs that still offer nuance.

It is important to highlight that Game of Thrones It’s a low-magic fantasy. THE Minimal CGI in the early seasons allowed for a much larger budget for production quality in set design, costumes, wigs, etc.all elements that show programs with a lot of CGI, like The Rings of Power or even Dragon House were criticized. Instead of a studio spending hundreds of millions on the project for excessive CGI, Game of Thrones proved its worth by bringing the right talent to the production value, assembling a talented cast that fit the characters, and nailing the script part.

Even more important, with regard to The Stormlight Archiveand that Game of Thrones it required much more CGI later in the series, and the budget expanded quickly. Characters and plot, the foundations of Martin’s world, are the hook, leaving dragons and epic battles as the payoff. Finding the right production team and casting the right actors is not an easy task, but it is much more critical. than spending too much on CGI. Having an absurdly high CGI budget just means a higher chance of premature cancellation.

Why The Stormlight Archive Should Be a TV Series (Not a Movie)

The Stormlight archive is too dense to be adapted into films

Given that Brandon Sanderson is interested in doing Born from the mists like a movie, something I disagree with, I’ll explain why The light of the storm File being a TV series is fundamental, again using Game of Thrones as a model. George RR Martin has spoken candidly about why he chose HBO to adapt his book series, as the studios pitched him ideas to bring A Song of Ice and Fire to life as films, which would result in significant parts of the narrative being cut. The chart below shows the word counts of some of his novels.

A Game of Thrones is easily Martin’s most directly adapted novel, with its 292,727 words fitting neatly into a ten-hour season. A Storm of Swordswhich is 414,604 words long, had to be split into two seasons for HBO. The minimum for Sanderson books must be ten-episode seasons with hour-long episodesor a large part of the narrative would have to be cut. Slow-burn character arcs are the core of The Stormlight Archive.

The Stormlight Archive Needs to Learn the Right Lessons From Game Of Thrones

It’s not about CGI and epic battles; It’s about intelligent storytelling and well-drawn characters

An important distinction between the two series is that The Stormlight Archive it involves a lot more magic and unique world-building, so there would inherently be more CGI. However, with the Knights Radiant absent from most of books 1 and 2, there would have been time to increase the budget gradually, possibly even featuring the climactic battle of The Way of Kings. Instead of focusing on the epic aspect of Game of Thrones’ later seasons, getting the fundamentals right of what made the first four seasons some of the best television ever made.

Point-of-view characters like Kaladin and Shallan are immensely relatable despite their essentially alien world. By focusing on its arcs and offering some political intrigue on the Alethi warfields, an adaptation of The Way of Kings could be done on a relatively low budget. Roshar’s lavish costumes and unique setting can be brought to life with on-site locations and talented artistswhile the writing must prioritize finding the appropriate rhythm for a narrative that encompasses a wide cast of characters, involving the viewer in their lives.

There are valuable lessons to be learned Game of Thrones This could lead to a phenomenal fantasy adaptation, which I believe The Stormlight Archive deserves it. $250 million per season CGI budget is not needed; it doesn’t need unnecessary sex scenes or grotesque blood; he just needs to focus on the fundamentals of character-driven storytelling.