"Leavetaking" early script

[Thalia]

For anyone curious, this has been doing the rounds on social media: http://tvwriting.co.uk/tv_scripts/2021/D...gPMi9pk0HY

It's an early script (2018) for the pilot.

After reading that I'm really glad we saw a different part of the women's ceremony -- I wonder how much they filmed of it, since we've seen Egwene and the paint. I've also seen something that looks like the badger convo, so maybe we'll get deleted scenes in the future (or an extended cut, that would be awesome). What's with the lamb though?? That felt very not WoT to me. There are some things I wish they had kept (like the rider glimpses; it certainly adds more tension to Lan's first appearance), but it's interesting to see the evolution, and it makes more contextual sense of some of the scenes that stayed in. Glad they decided to go the way of implied sex, two pretty explicit scenes in the opening episode would have set it on a very GoT path tonally I feel. Also glad someone must have pointed out that there's no way Egwene would eat a raspberry that had been sitting in Rand's pocket all day. Because gross XD

I liked the extra bits to the battle here, which I imagine were trimmed for time (that Mat fights and Egwene goes to find Moiraine because she realises an Aes Sedai is the only one who can help) and I also MUCH preferred the actual leaving scene. I can't remember if Moiraine says "if even one of you stays they will come for you" in the actual episode, I think she didn't but it was my least favourite scene so I might be remembering it wrong. I wish they'd kept that phrasing -- it's much more powerful than "one of you is the dragon reborn" because it plays so much on doubt; it doesn't matter if Moiraine is wrong or crazy, they can't take the chance. Perrin's resignation, Mat's "fuck me", Egwene's determination to do the right thing, and Rand's promise to come back all flowed better imo. At least on the page. Moiraine's speech seemed less cheesy (since she didn't have to explain the dragon prophecy, because we already saw Gitara's vision), and I liked that she gave it while Lan was organising the horses rather than that awful jump cut to just being on them lol. Also thought the fact the kids' families were all busy was a better touch rather than they all stood around and stared while Moiraine just absconded with their children. 

I wonder why they decided to change the cold open.

[Jay Carpenter]

*opens link to skim it over.
*reads first few paragraphs out of bizarre fascination for the weird women's circle ceremony - Yes, the show version was better than the weird lamb paint mess.
*Keeps reading a few more sections.
*an hour later finishes the whole thing instead of writing a post.

If this is real (assuming it is), it was overall pretty good.

[Thalia]

Aside from the braid part, the whole women’s circle ceremony is totally bizarre. The cliff jump we actually saw wasn’t so bad, it felt like it could conceivably be a throwback to some ancient saidar related thing that has lost all meaning (it didn’t look THAT dangerous). But this script makes it seem like they just surprise yeet women off a bridge and into a waterfall, and, like… hope for the best? If some women don’t survive the second rapids why the fuck do they do it?!

Other than that you can definitely see what might have been if amazon okayed a bit more time though.

Assuming it’s real, haha.

[Marcus DuBois]

this guy says it's legit:
https://youtu.be/qq1e5oVyYSk?t=645

[Thalia]

Thanks ck. It felt genuine to me, which is why I shared it here, but I didn't want to posit random social media find as fact. I'm gonna keep an eye out for his discussion of the changes

[Marcus DuBois]

here you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bv7w6RBOk4
If they had done this stuff, it would have been better.

[Ascendancy]

Thanks for sharing the video. I agree with many of his statements except two: the paint scene over Egwene - I was never a fan of that from the trailer either (although Egwene looked beautiful), I wasn't one of the fandom who was looking forward to the paint scene. Second, I disagree with the Mat/Danya scene and am very glad it was cut.

[Mikhail]

I liked the paint scene itself. The colors and all. But the ceremony with the sheep and such... yeah, that's odd.

And I'm glad they cut the sex scenes. Not cuz I don't like them, but because it would have felt forced and out of place. The world of wot certainly has a sexual element, but it was...doled out in small doses. And in general (aside from all the nude ceremonies and spankings) was pretty tastefully done. The scenes described felt like they were trying to be sexual but in an Anti GOT fashion. The focus on female pleasure and agency and will and all that. Which is a good thing, of course. But at the same time, at this point in the story, would have felt gratuitous and completely unnecessary.

An earned love scene- Lan and Nynaeve, for example- would have felt more organic. I do love Rand and Egwene and their relationship being physical works very well. There's more to them here than in the books, which I love. But we didn't need a sex scene to convey that.

So it was a good call.

But damn, changing the cold open to gitaras foretelling and death....that would have been so much better than the opening scene we got. Perhaps they would have felt it was too clichéd. Maybe. Maybe that's why they cut it.

The cutting of the cloaked rider was a huge mistake. It would have colored the rest of the scenes in the TR with an overlay of tension. Throw in the arrival of Moiraine and Lan, and it would have raised the stakes (esp if they had not revealed she was AS until the attack.)

Which us pretty much how the books opening chapters did it. :-p

Still, it is interesting.

Wotup had some casting news and it appears Lanfear will be in season 2. Mildly curious as what direction they take her

[Thalia]

Thanks CK.

I thought the paint scene we saw in the teaser was beautiful, but the women's ceremony in this script feels unnecessary. It doesn't really add anything. I'm fine with what we got there.

I agree with you both about the sex scenes.

Most of the other cuts I imagine were due to amazon not allowing extra time. Some of it would have been nice to see, but ultimately it doesn't make that much difference -- people seem to have stuck with the series as far as the released stats and things show, and that's what amazon will care about. I'm fairly certain I remember Rafe giving something like that as the reason amazon wouldn't okay the longer pilot he wanted -- like it literally came down to audience retention and reactions from test groups. I feel like the final cut was probably geared more towards retaining viewers who haven't read the books which is why things like the black rider sighting was left out; the build up doesn't matter because there's no real time for it, but the gist is still there. I don't think it was a huge mistake. I would have preferred it left in though. I would love to see an extended cut one day. I hope they do that at some point rather than just release the deleted scenes.

Not that we'll ever know, but I wonder if it's possible the whole "who is the dragon" spin came out of discussion over how to make the script fit into the hour slot. You can definitely see Egwene as a potential in this version, but Rand is in no way hidden. It's pretty obviously him by the time we get to the fever dream.

Another possibility as to why they cut Gitara might be that it generally confused test audiences? Assuming they even filmed it. Gitara's monologue is heavy on the kind of abstract philosophy that makes thematic sense if you know WoT but would just be heavy waffle if you don't. And it explains nothing about who or what the dragon is. Maybe the overly graphic nature (a distressing birth scene and Gitara's painful seeming death) turned audiences off from watching more. Could be as simple as that. My money's on it being cut due to a bit of both those reasons -- it's essentially a "shock" scene with little to no context.

I thought the rumoured actress was Selene rather than Lanfear (though it also looks to me like they will probably keep the same actress for both). I reckon she'll be one of the first people Rand meets now he's off on his own.