Cosmere Adaptation

[DSC01 he/him]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was pretty blown away by news from a SoS signing indicating that the entire Cosmere might be up for an adaptation. Of course, the immediate question is, how is that even done? Which properties get adaptations? How does the whole thing get tied together in a way that makes sense to viewers who have never read any of the source material?

 

And then I got an idea. What if the adaptation takes its cues from White Sand? The White Sand graphic novel isn't really an adaptation of a novel so much as it is the story. The graphic novel is the canon version of White Sand.

 

This is my idea: We get a "Tales from the Cosmere" anthology series (no, that wouldn't be the title--hopefully--as it is stupid), where each episode is like a Stormlight Archive interlude or one of the Cosmere novellas. The series would tell new stories from our favorite Shardworlds, filling in details in the overarching story of the Cosmere and dodging the problem of getting all of our favorite characters and plot details exactly right.

 

Granted, there are some hurdles to clear in taking this approach. All of the Cosmere books have the problem of explaining fairly complicated magic systems without dumping a bunch of exposition on us. It would be a challenge to do a show where each episode had to face this challenge anew.

 

I still think it could be done. The books provide good examples of how to do it--a new magic user gets lessons from an experienced one, etc. If it was done well, the show could work on a number of levels, where book readers would know exactly how the magic onscreen works, while it would just be a cool spectacle for the uninitiated.  For example, to appreciate seeing an Elantrian draw an aon that shoots out a fireball, one does not need to know all the intricacies of how it works. It's just extra cool if you do.

 

Thoughts?

[Stormgate he/him]

Good idea in concept, but I don't know how that would be implemented. However, I have as much control over these matters as a Drab trying to Awaken something. I also have metaphors worse than a Highstorm during the First Annual Roshar Card House Festival.

[DSC01 he/him]

Is your real name David? And are you from Newcago?

[Stormgate he/him]

My middle name is David. And no, I'm as close to being from Newcago as Reckoners is to being Cosmere.

[TwelfthOfSnackTime he/him]

Personally I don't  think a live action anything could properly convey the magic and worlds of the Cosmere. It would end up looking like every other two-bit b list fantasy movie out there. A good animated show or movie would do a much better job.   

[Landis963 he/him]

Personally I don't  think a live action anything could properly convey the magic and worlds of the Cosmere. It would end up looking like every other two-bit b list fantasy movie out there. A good animated show or movie would do a much better job.   

 

Oh, I don't know.  Two-bit b list fantasy movies are all D&D clones (or if we're being charitable, Tolkien clones), right down to the peasant boy coming into his power as heir to some forgotten magic or other.  E.g. exactly the sort of story that bored Brandon to tears while writing Mythwalker.  Besides, a lot of the selling power of many of Brandon's books is the fact that they don't fit the standard mold.  The Stormlight Archive, while having a lot of the trappings of a "standard" fantasy, would not be mistaken for New Zealand by a long shot, and in many cases the "Knight" characters are designed to not fit the shining armor stereotype, despite, you know, the glowing armor.  (See also: foul-mouthed, childish, and good hearted Lift, who would look like a kid playing dress-up in Shardplate)  Elantris and Mistborn have the distinction of being focused on specific cities, as opposed to standard fantasy which, by inevitable dint of the plot, must involve a grand world tour somewhere.  On those two examples, Mistborn's magic system is heavily geared toward thieves and assassins, a deviation in and of itself, and Elantris has a zombie as a protagonist.  

 

So if any future distributor wants to sell any of these properties as a movie or anything like that, they'll need to branch out a bit.  

[DSC01 he/him]

For all the corners of the Cosmere that are big and flashy and would require a huge budget to depict, there are a ton of settings that would require little more than some unusual wardrobe work. Consider Sixth of the Dusk, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, Ishikk's interlude... How about an Alloy-era story on Scadrial, out in the Roughs? It would be more or less like a Western. There are a ton of shows on television right now that depict superpowers in the vein of what most Mistings can do. An episode with Forgers on Sel wouldn't take too much. Now, sure, a massive battle out on the Shattered Plains, with Shardbearers and Warform Parshendi jumping everywhere--that would probably be difficult to pull off.

[DSC01 he/him]

I'm reviving this thread that I created almost a year ago because I realized that Arcanum Unbounded provided some information that goes right along with what I was thinking.

Rereading my original post, it seems that I didn't say anything about it at the time (I may have come up with the idea later, as I was thinking about the idea more), but I got the notion that a good way to approach a Cosmere-themed anthology show would be to follow a couple of worldhoppers, who are often in the background but are there to give some continuity to the series and would be Cosmere-aware enough to provide needed explanations through some well-placed dialogue, every now and then.

The high barrier to entry in terms of understanding what is even going on in the wide world of the Cosmere could be gotten over by having the first episode be all about those worldhoppers studying Realmatic Theory and the like in a university or something. Even a year ago, I could reasonably suppose that there must be something like that somewhere in the Cosmere, but AU basically confirms as much with the little tidbits about Silverlight. 

So my idea for a Cosmere anthology show opening in a classroom, where it wouldn't be odd to have someone explicitly explaining what is going on in this very complicated universe, now has a canonical name for its location--a place that was previously purely hypothetical.