Legend of the Seeker TV series Vs. Wizards' First Rule book series

It's happened before; the TV or movie remake of a book is planned, implimented, carried out, and then put to air. Disasterously.

Seriously! You like "Legend of the Seeker", but the inconsistancies from the original books is enough to make a fan like me reel with disbelief!

This lens is not about how good the television series "Legends of the Seeker" is. Rather about how good it ISN'T. An adpatation from a novel series is one thing, and I can think of a few more that I would dearly LURVE to see done, but it's something that shouldn't be done lightly, and above all, needs to be done RIGHT.

The original Richard Cypher (later Richard Rahl) was never the idiot the tv series has portrayed him, not even for a moment.

Richard was one of those glowing characters whose perfection as a person was flawed by naivete, impulsivness, and a generosity of spirit that was often turned against him. Wise beyond his years, skilled at herb-lore and hunting, Richard grew up in Westland with his brother Michael and adoptive father George, without any knowledge of magic or the lands beyond the Boundary. His mother was killed in a house fire when he and Michael were very young, which is later revealled as Darken Rahl's work.

Intuitive and friends with everyone, the original Richard was a "rare person".

This Richard seems plagued with stupidity, stumbling along with the Mother Confessor and First Wizard as parent figures in a story line that has strayed so far from the original storyline you wonder it's even the same characters.

Get better educated on this series. Buy yourself the original books.

but they aren't all brothers and sister!

Darken Rahl was not brunette - he was white-blonde with startling blue eyes, who had been badly scarred on one side of his body as a child by the Wizard's Fire the First Wizard sent through to D'Hara to kill his father, Panis Rahl, before the Boundary went up.

He was also FATHER to Richard and Jensen, not brother. Darken Rahl raped Richard's mother (Zed's daughter) before the boundary went up, and Jensen's mother was one of the many Darken Rahl used and abused over his years.

Jensen Rahl was always one of the supremely ungifted, that much they got right. But that seems to be about all the got right about her, from what I've seen. She was strong, confident, and very intelligent. This one seems like a real push over.

In fact, he is the reason Darken Rahl was able to capture Richard in the first place.

Michael Cypher grew up believing that Richard was his blood brother, but other than shared parentage, the comparisons stop there. Where Richard was kind and generous of spirit, Michael was greedy and selfish, thirsting for power.

The moment in the book when Richard figures this out is quite cleverly written; he is under a spell of Darken Rahl's that makes his friends see him as their greatest enemy, and his enemies see him as himself. In order to seek Michael's urgently needed assistance, Richard recalls a game they played as children, and the "Loser's Salute" that Michael insisted Richard present when the former beat the latter. Dropping to his knees in front of his older brother, Richard smiles and performs the salute, only to have Michael frown and ask him what he's doing on his kness...

Michael DID end up dead, this much is consistant with the books. However, Michael Cypher was executed by Lord Rahl as a traitor to the People of Westland, the Midlands, and D'hara.

So, NOT a hero intent on helping the Seeker free his people.

Now, I'm not actually knocking Xena and Hercules. I used to adore both shows, and am in the process of building my DVD collection to include them.

But given the leaps and bounds in film and computer technology, why does it look just the same as it did 10 odd years ago? I realise they're probably filming in the same locations (New Zealand, my hat off to you, the scenery there is hard to resist), but the costumes, the camera techniques....was there a sell-out on old props?

Now, this isn't what you'd call a marshalled offensive against the very broad poetic license that has been taken in turning Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series into what some people only know - and love - as Legends of the Seeker. In fact, it's not.

The books themselves started brilliantly, but I gave up trying to follow the plot about halfway through "Naked Empire". What started as a good fantasy adventure series turned into a vehicle for Goodkind to explore his ideas on theology. (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when that takes over the story, you've lost the plot in a number of ways).

By the way, I happen to ENJOY discussion theology. I think there's alot of valid belief systems out there.

But I don't like my fantasy adventure novels to turn into someone's personal gospel on how to live.