Nynaeve al'Meara from The Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time was a bit of a mixed bag for me, though one thing could not be denied: its array of dynamic female characters with depth, agency and drive. Every time you think the show has reached its surplus, they add five more.
Without knowing hardly anything about the source material, I knew that Nynaeve was the one who was constantly tugging on her braid, a characteristic that drove most book readers up the wall. On screen, she fares much better. Seemingly held up as a foil to the sweeter, more naïve Egwene, with whom she shares a sweet older/younger sister rapport, Nynaeve has a spiky and suspicious personality.
She’s a teacher and a healer to her village (known as the Wisdom) and is initially disqualified from the candidacy of being the Dragon Reborn on account of her age – though it soon becomes clear that there’s something special about her.
After she goes toe-to-toe with a monstrous Trolloc and defeats it with little more than her wits, she’s off on a self-directed journey to track down her friends, believing that they’re in mortal danger. Yes, she goes after them by herself. In a word: tenacious.
I enjoyed that she was neither too trusting nor too hostile toward the likes of Moiraine and Lan, instead refusing to take anything at face value until she had the chance to figure things out at her own pace. She listens and observes, she processes information, and then she draws her conclusions. When you think about it, this type of parsing of intel before the passing of judgement is a rare thing to see in fictional characters. Nynaeve doesn’t necessary always make the right decisions, but it was fascinating to watch her gradually overcome her preconceptions without ever fully letting her guard down.
And in the midst of all this, I only spotted one braid-tug. I’m assuming book readers are relieved.
So I may be on the fence about the show as a whole, but I indisputably enjoyed all of Nynaeve’s material and am looking forward to where she’s headed next.
Yay! I had a different favourite character each time I read through this series, and the third and most recent time, it was Nynaeve. She is not an easy character to adapt because (like Mat) a huge part of her lovability, at least to me, is the substantial disconnect between how she sees herself and how she actually is, and that's a hard thing to adapt.
ReplyDeleteReally glad that she's coming across as interesting to non-book readers!