If These YA Books Were TV Shows // The Raven Cycle

…. and if I was to direct them, I’d be immensely happy.

Let’s be honest, we’ve had a long and awkward (um, more like, angry?) relationship with book to movie adaptations. We’ve had some good ones but more often than not, it’s disappointing (*cough* Percy Jackson *cough*).

it just be like that sometimes

However, watching the story that was completely imagined and ingrained in your head as an actual movie with characters and dialogue and setting is thrilling, whether good or bad. Of course, it also supports the author, publicizes the said books and makes our nerdy community grow even further and wider. That being said, I think we all collectively agree that books are better off being adapted into TV Shows than movies. Especially fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian…. any book that is not a standalone contemporary.

Okay, I’ve thought a lot about some YA series being turned into shows. I’ve literally imagined the aesthetics, the season-by-season plot, casting characters…

It’s pretty wild.

In this post, I’ll be talking about The Raven Cycle but I have more posts coming up with The Foxhole Court edition (I am unapologetic) and Six Of Crows edition. I have so many things to say that my mind is basically just !!!.

*SPOILERS FOR THE RAVEN CYCLE AHEAD*

The Raven Cycle as a TV Show

The Gods have actually shown mercy on us in this case because this is actually going to be a real thing! At some point, we will get a TRC show! I’m still salty about the fact that we know literally nothing about what’s going on with this, though.

*nudges Maggie Stiefvater* Sooo about the TRC sh-

Maggie: OOH MYSTERY MYSTERY THE SHOW IS HISTORY. not. lol jk but you still won’t get to know anything about it.

Things I Want From The TRC TV Show-

• The casting actors to not be 35, for starters. That would be very helpful. I also hope they cast new, fresh faces for no reason except the show will feel  more organic and exciting (even if it might be bad for the publicity).
• Everything should be immensely aesthetic and pretty. And it should be the right aesthetic, too.
• By which I mean, starting with the characters: I want Blue to dress exactly like she does in the books, with mismatched hand altered clothes with pins and trash and weird buttons; Gansey with his wire rimmed nerd glasses, boat shoes and his Aglionby Rowing sweatshirts; Ronan with his leather clothes and tattoos; Adam with his very put together and neat but worn out, rough appearance and the coco-cola shirt (!!) and Noah just being the softest glittery marshmallow ever;
• I want Henrietta to be this small, quirky, colorful town and Nino’s to be this bustling, noisy pizza place with neon banners and loud boys and I want lots of greenery everywhere. I want 300 Fox Way to be exactly as it’s described in the books- a hot mess with so many women, you cannot possibly know all of them and it’s all phones ringing at random times and someone yelling to get the phone and people running around eating toast and just. You know what I mean.
• Hell, I want Monmouth Manufacturing to be this boyish masterpiece from WeirdoMart- It needs to actually be a building with high ceilings and Gansey’s bed right there in the open with his Henrietta miniature model made out of cereal boxes and books everywhere. I want Ronan’s bedroom door to be covered in speeding tickets (like in the books) and I want the Kitchen/Laundry/Toilet room to exist.
• the wardrobe needs to be good.
• you know which scene I’m really hyped about? The one where Blue is really anxious and she calls Gansey and he comes to pick her up in the Pig and they go on a long drive across the town in complete silence and then Blue takes over and drives and they have the, “I wish you could be kissed, Jane” conversation. Imagine that scene with almost no dialogue but some intense and soft music and glittery town lights and just. I need to direct this scene.
• Also, the fucking fight between Ronan and Robert Parrish with some badass background music, holy shit.
• I want that scene with Blue and Noah where they’re alone at Monmouth Manufacturing and they jump on made up beds and look at book spines upside down and sideways and crab-walk and it needs to be really light and montage-y.
• Blue and Ronan’s bromance where they call each other “bro” and “man”
• I NEED all the 2 am orange juice runs
• I don’t want the show to make a big deal out of Adam and Ronan’s sexualities. I want it to normalize the fact that they’re bi and gay just as if they were straight- like in the books.
• THE MURDER SQUASH SONG OMG. I need that song to be a running joke throughout the season. AND THAT SCENE WHERE RONAN THROWS NOAH OUT OF THE WINDOW. OH MY GOD. Also, the one where the two of them are banging their heads and singing SQUASH ONE, SQUASH TOO.
• the “murdered murdered remembered” scence.
• literally all the death puns that Noah makes
• The characters’ love stories with their cars: Gansey and The Pig and how he loves it because- not despite- it keeps breaking down, Ronan and his BMW and how much he loves the shit out of high speed, Adam and his Toyota(?) and how it’s nothing but “it’s Adam Parrish’s nothing.”
• The soundtrack!! I want the soundtrack to be varied and diverse. Heavy bass and EDM music for all of Ronan-Kavinsky car scenes (and that dragon scene), swelling orchestra for the Adam-Cabeswater scene where he sacrifices himself, soft acoustics for Blue-Gansey scenes, some ominous 80s song for the first graveyard scene.

Trailer Talk-

Okay, now imagine this. Before an official trailer is out, a couple of individual 10 second snippets are released as teaser trailers, each focusing on one character. I actually got some inspiration for this from Tumblr but I shook it up.

The first trailer would be for Blue. She’s leaning against 300 Fox Way’s wall outside in the garden, holding a bunch of tarot cards which she tosses up in the air and they all fall down on the grass, unexposed sides up except for one card which says, “Death.” The scene cuts to Blue walking towards a tree when she looks back at the camera, the screen flickers and she disappears, almost as if she disappeared into the tree. The screen blacks out and displays just the date on which the show will be aired.

The next trailer would be for Noah. He’s wearing his Aglionby sweater and you can actually see the glitter in his hair and skin. He looks pretty and pristine. He’s leaning against a wall and smiling softly at the camera when the scene cuts to a split second long shot of a broken, destroyed car in the woods with “murdered, murdered, murdered” written on it and then the scene cuts back to Noah- but this time, the glitter is gone along with his smile, his sweater is torn, he looks smudgy and unkempt and faded and he just stares at the camera as a skull replaces his face for a second and the screen blacks out with the displayed date.

For Adam’s trailer, he is lying down on the grass in his Coco-Cola shirt. The camera pans out to show a quick span of the forest (Cabeswater), a drop of water falls into a puddle and creates ripples, a raven flaps its wings, thunder in the sky, a drop of blood slides off a leaf and then the scene cuts back to Adam lying on the ground. The grass and the weeds around him slowly grows over him and swallows him up as the screen goes black.

In the next trailer, Ronan is sitting on a chair in the middle of the hall of an abandoned house with his eyes closed like he’s sleeping, his tattoos and black leather clothes on full display. There’s soft music in the background. The camera slowly starts zooming in on his face- as the music starts building up- until it gets very close and we see and hear just the flap of a wing in the background. The camera then starts zooming out  and the music gets more intense as more and more ravens appear and fly around Ronan, circling around him until he just fades into them, his eyes still closed, and the screen blacks out.

Then the last teaser trailer would be released for Gansey. He’s standing in the middle of the road, wearing nice clothes and looking like his usual Gansey self, except a golden crown with bees and wasps clinging to it sits crookedly atop his head. He doesn’t look bothered, he just stares at the camera with a calm expression, even as the bees start attacking him. He falls down to his knees and closes his eyes, as the bees and wasps start engulfing him, and the last thing you see is the golden crown- now free of the bees- falling on the road as the camera slowly zooms in on it and then a raven swoops down and grips the crown in its beak as it flies directly into the screen and it fades to black.

Okay, I don’t actually have anything planned for the actual trailer (yet), but I want it to start with a quick montage of everyone telling Blue as she’s growing up that she’ll kill her true love with a kiss and then the last scene of the montage would be Blue opening the door to welcome Neeve and her saying, “This is the year you’ll fall in love.” The trailer ends with either the quote, “Is that all?” “That’s all there is.” or ” I’m ready, Blue. Kiss me.” as the screen goes black.

Can you tell that I really, really want to direct the hell out of this show?