How Game of Thrones influenced The Wheel of Time show

White Walker deja vu

Okay, this one is really nit-picky but I couldn’t not mention it. Remember how on Game of Thrones the White Walkers had a habit of arranging corpses in unsettling shapes, as in the picture above? Am I the only one who got serious deja vu when Lan wandered into the woods near Emond’s Field and found that the Trollocs had arranged a bunch of sheep corpses in a weird way?

And before you say it, yes, I know that’s the Aes Sedai symbol, so it’s not like this doesn’t belong in this world. Like I said, this one is nit-picky; it’s possible that two shows came up with the same creepy idea. Maybe this is less about being a ripoff than it is about the collective fantasy show unconscious.

Still, Game of Thrones has not been off the air that long, and I have not forgotten the White Walkers’ artistic pretensions. I maybe would have gone in another direction.

So those are some of the ways The Wheel of Time is borrowing from Game of Thrones, whether it means to or not. I think an important caveat to mention is this isn’t about whether the new show is good or bad or better or worse. Things influence other things; that’s the way it works and there’s nothing wrong with that. The Wheel of Time has a lot to offer, and to be fair I thought the next two episodes did a better job of finding their own groove. I’m looking forward to watching more!

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