The many, MANY things I did not like about Wondla's tv series
● Eva's characterisation. All her flaws, fears and clear growth are completely gone or exaggerated to 11. She feels like every other adorkable female protagonist who is super clumsy and awkward but is suddenly capable when the plot demands it. Show Eva is so much more bland as a character compared to her book counterpart
● The show ruins Eva's relationship with both Rovender and Muthr. I've already talked about my issues with Rovender's characterisation here and how it hurts his relationship with Eva. Muthr and Eva did bicker and disagree on things in the book, but it was never dragged out. Their relationship in the show feels like every other "teen girl argues with her parent" trope. They even have Eva do the whole "you're not my real mother" stick
● The complete bastardisation of Eight's character and arc. Again I go into more detail here, but taking one of the most tragic characters in the story and turning her into a genocidal maniac just so you can make her the big bad of the finale is honestly the worst change the story could've made
● Almost all the characters have their nuances and moments of humanity scrubbed away just so they can make them the typical "good guy or bad guy." Specifically Besteel, Ojo, Caruncle, Zin, Loroc, Cadmus and Eight
● Not diving into Redimus and Besteel's backstory or even relationship. They set up Redimus being angry at Eva for killing his brother, but don't do anything with it
● Removing the fear and threat factor of the villains. Cadmus, Loroc and Besteel go down so easily or even become dumber just so Eva can get away more easily. If book Eva tried to willingly give herself up to book Besteel, he would go "fuck no" and give her a head start so he can capture her himself
● The comedy. Most of the attempts at humour either ruined a tense scene or just were painfully unfunny
● The show tries to add new characters (ie Eight's team and Azura) which while not inherently bad, felt really pointless and only served to bloat the cast. Azura especially felt like you could've removed her and the story would remain the same
● The pacing. I understand that a lot of it was due to the series having only 20 episodes to cover 3 books that are almost 400 pages each. But the rushed pacing is what really hurts the story
● Redimus was done so dirty in this series. Not only is his backstory and relationship with Besteel left unexplored, but all the things that made him such a complex and interesting character are gone. It honestly feels like he was just there as a punching bag
● Gen having her role diminished and being done even more dirty than Redimus
● EVERYTHING about what they did to Queen Ojo and Otto
● Dumbing down the series themes from "needing to accept change but not losing our connection to the natural world and others" to "ALL HUMANS AND TECHNOLOGY IS EVIL AND ONLY SERVES TO DESTROY EVERYTHING!!!!"
● Not giving Hailey consequences for betraying the group like in the book
● The series sanitizing the darker elements and themes. Because god forbid a series aimed at kids actually has you think or actually puts the characters in peril
● The general art style and character design. The books had such a unique, almost retro art style and featured so many alien designs. Meanwhile, the show replaces all the charm of the designs with "Disney but not actually Disney" I understand some designs needing to be simplified for animation and budget reasons, but I really doubt that there wasn't a way to do so while keeping the charm intact
● John Lasseter working on the series....do I need to say more?