Kindness ≠ Weakness

I know I’m a month late to the party but: THEY’RE MAKING A SHOW?!?! I’m super excited because I feel like Skyward is the best Sanderson story in terms of adaptability. Regardless of streaming platform (is it gonna be Netflix???), I think this story stands a good chance of grabbing the internet’s attention and exploding in popularity, especially if they are able to get the characters down. 

Idk about you guys (the 10 people who will see this 😭) but I kinda hope that, if it gets more than one season, they change things up from the books starting season/book 2 because I felt like I spent all of 2 and 3 waiting for Spensa to go back to her OG crew and that longing feeling stopped me from liking any new character she interacted with except for Hesho. Maybe they can meld the novellas into those storylines or who knows maybe they change it entirely to bring some of the cast with her. Either way, I don’t think they can replicate what the book did because it’d be too complicated monetarily to sideline all the Skyward flight actors(minus Jorgen) for two seasons. 

In terms of what the actors look like, I don’t think I’ll be too judgmental since I’ve never had a clear picture of most of the characters in my head anyway 😅 I feel like my standard is could I look at a picture and guess which character they’re portraying. That and I hope their races match up (translation: Jorgen should be a black guy not a tan white dude). Personally I’d prefer if none of the teen main characters were well known actors, but maybe that’s petty. I just hope Skyward flight has good chemistry like they do in the book, it was honestly my favorite part about the story. 

I feel like TV-14 is the only age rating imaginable for this story, I’d be severely disappointed if they went under that. The book addresses how the loss of human life takes a toll on the teens plus yknow, all the actual violence like Spensa looking right at Bim as his ship explodes or when they see Hurl’s mangled post-crash body. Also the humor can be super versatile with a TV-14 rating and I’d like that. Also, kind of a side note but I really hope they get Jorgen and Splenda’s relationship right because I really really liked it in the book. I actually was taken aback at first cause I thought after Bim died there’d be no romance but their dynamic was super captivating and the extremity to which they care about each other honestly got me through books 2-3. Plus it’s a version of enemies to lovers so that could definitely be a driving factor for popularity. 

Lastly, a kinda sad- but also interesting- dynamic of this adaptation is that significant changes will go unnoticed by most of the audience, assuming the show brings in lots of new fans, so there might be something we find borderline blasphemous while new fans just see it as the way it’s always been. I know larger fandoms end up with toxicity but I really feel like this story is meant to be experienced by more people than it’s been able to reach as a book, so that’s why I’m so excited for the show. I also think it will look stunning on screen, it’s got a militaristic style like Top Gun but also the space element like Star Wars, add in a solid musical score and it’s almost guaranteed to be golden. I’m unclear on the timeline of things, hopefully it’s not like 5 years away, but it’s kinda cool to think, if this goes well, we’ll all be the “I was a fan of this before it blew up” people, idk maybe I should get myself a shirt.