Last year, the Dailywire announced that they would be adapting The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead into a series on Dailwire+. Me being the fantasy nerd that I am was very excited to hear that and now that I am reading the books am even more excited to watch the show. Now that Dailywire has begun filming it and has the production diaries out right now on YouTube, here are my thoughts and theories about what we’re going to see when the show comes out.
#1: Timeline
Based off of what I’ve seen from the production diaries, I think season 1 is going to mainly focus on books 1 and 2 (Taliesin and Merlin), which while I am excited to see how that plays out on the screen, I do have some concerns about the timeline. Both Taliesin and Merlin take place over several years, with Taliesin mostly focusing on the titular character’s early years, Atlantis’s fall, Morgian’s (better known as Morganna) motives for becoming evil, and the later love story between Taliesin and the princess of Atlantis, Charis. It sets up the family trees, the political atmosphere and the rift between the Atlanteans who want to keep to the old ways and the ones that want to adapt to their new home and become Christians, etc. Meanwhile, Merlin takes place several years after the events of Taliesin and is (in my opinion) the book that really gets the main story going. Taliesin is dead at this point, the Atlanteans are dying out, Merlin is trying to pave his own path in life, Rome is falling and the Britians are left to their own devices, Catholicism is taking hold, and the coming of Arthur is aluded to.
While these two very different timelines can work well together if done in the form of flashbacks (which is what I suspect might end up happening based on what I’ve seen of the show’s production), I do think that it would make more sense if Season 1 was only a few episodes long so the events of the first book could have more time to sink in and be explored more. However, I can also understand why the producers wouldn’t want to do that because the books take place over several years, though that will mean that there will be a lot of flashback scenes and the timeline could seem a bit jankety.
#2: Character Designs
Because Jeremy Boring is a huge fan of Stephen R. Lawhead and the Dailywire isn’t woke, we’re not going to have to worry about having a race-swapped Arthur in a story based on Arthurian legend. So far, everyone looks like how they should in the books and some of the variations are forgivable. While it is a pet-peeve of mine that Merlin doesn’t seem to have amber-colored eyes except in the promotional pictures and some of the clothes are not super accurate, you still know that the person you’re looking at is Merlin, or Morgian, or Charis.
#3: Action sequences
The battle scenes in the show seem to all be accurate with the books and look like they will be fun to watch, especially once everything has been edited.
#4: The Love Story
One thing I really hope the producers don’t screw up is the two main love stories that we’re most likely going to see, which are those of Taliesin and Charis, and Merlin and Ganieda. These love stories are on par with stories like Beren and Luthien and Pride and Prejudice with how cute and healthy they are. In some ways, I would say that the story of Merlin and Ganieda is even better than Beren and Luthien in terms of how funny and cute the characters are. It would just be awesome to see their relationship be acted out on screen, especially since Ganieda is played by YouTuber Brett Cooper who seems like the perfect person to play that character.
Until next time,
M.J
The Tanuki Corner 
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