How Game of Thrones influenced The Wheel of Time show

Nudity where there was no nudity before

The Wheel of Time books are…the polite word might be “modest,” but I wouldn’t blame anyone if they said “prudish” instead. There just isn’t much sex, especially in the early going. And it’s not that Jordan was trying to make the books kid-friendly; there’s plenty of violence, gambling, and complicated politics to wade through. It feels more like he was skittish about the subject. Rather than including actual sex between any of the many adult characters, the eroticism seeped out in other ways, like the books’ off-putting preoccupation with spanking as a punishment. (Seriously, look it up; it’s weird.) And I don’t even wanna touch the polygamy stuff right now.

This is in contrast to Game of Thrones, which had lots of sex and nudity right from the start, some of which was important to the story (Bran seeing Jaime and Cersei go at it, for instance) and some of which felt gratuitous and exploitative, especially in the early seasons. The Wheel of Time seems to have picked up both habits. The five lead characters from Emond’s Field have been aged up a bit, and we find out in the first episode that Rand (Josha Stradowski) and Egwene (Madeleine Madden) are in a sexual relationship, whereas in the books it’s more of an innocent flirtation. That I didn’t mind; they’re grown, have fun.

What was weirder was the scene where Moiraine and her Warder Lan (Daniel Henney) bathed together naked in a hot tub in the Emond’s Field inn. This was nudity for nudity’s sake, which is a very early season Game of Thrones move. It reminded me of the scene from the first episode of Game of Thrones where Daenerys strips down and descends slowly into a scalding bath, the camera leering at her naked body in an uncomfortable way.

I guess you could argue that The Wheel of Time scene served a purpose in that Moiraine heated up the bathwater and thus showed us that she had magical powers? But there are plenty of ways to show that which don’t require being bareass naked. Come to think of it, the Daenerys scene clued us in to Dany’s heat resistance, but again, it’s all about how the shows choose to convey this information.

I’m glad the show will be more mature about sex than the books, but I can do without the gratuity.