How Game of Thrones influenced The Wheel of Time show

In 2017, then-Amazon Studios president Roy Price revealed that Amazon chief Jeff Bezos had essentially told his division to bring him the next Game of Thrones. Bezos, who is not known for thinking small, saw how HBO’s fantasy hit was dominating the conversation and wanted the same for himself. It’s no coincidence that, a few years later, Amazon has not one but two giant fantasy shows on deck: The Wheel of Time, which released its first three episodes the other day; and The Lord of the Rings, which is due out next September.

Now, before I get accused of saying that The Wheel of Time is just a copy of Game of Thrones, obviously it’s a lot more complicated than that. The first book in The Wheel of Time series, The Eye of the World, came out in 1990, six years before A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. However, we’re not talking about the books. We’re talking about the show, and the TV version of The Wheel of Time is most definitely influenced by the TV version of ASOIAF.

And sometimes the influence is pretty obvious, particularly in the premiere episode. Let us count the ways.

The Wheel of Time goes full Battle of the Bastards

The first big action scene in The Wheel of Time occurs towards the end of the premiere episode, when Trollocs (orc-like monsters working for the malevolent Dark One) descend on the sleepy village of Emond’s Field, killing anyone they see. It’s a pitched battle that lasts a long time, ended when the Aes Sedai sorceress Moiraine uses the One Power to obliterate the Trolloc hordes…for now.

This event is pulled from the books by Robert Jordan, with one key difference: on the page, we don’t see it happen. Instead, we follow Rand as he and his father Tam are attacked by a Trolloc at their farmhouse. Tam is hurt, and Rand struggles to get him to town. He wanders into the aftermath of the battle and finds the town in ruins, which is when we hear about what happened.

Why did The Wheel of Time choose to depict this fight onscreen rather than follow the text? Well, conventional wisdom has it that people like action, so why not serve some up? But it wasn’t that long ago that no TV show could ever pull off a battle of this magnitude, especially not this early in its life. Game of Thrones got viewers used to using epic battles on the small screen, from the Battle of Blackwater to the Massacre at Hardhome to the Loot Train Attack to the Long Night. Kicking off its new series with a similar skirmish seems to be Amazon’s way of saying that they’re up to the task.

There was even one moment during the attack on Emond’s Field that reminded me directly of Game of Thrones: there’s a bit where the camera follows Mat (Barney Harris) as he runs through the chaos, all in one unbroken shot. Game of Thrones made a habit of this sort of thing, starting with Jon Snow’s pitched rush through the Battle of Bastards and going back to the well a few more times after that.