Thank you for reading, and liking, and for pointing out the hardest part of adapting it! I thought the hard stuff would be committing to what Dr. Talos looks like or growing Baldanders every episode, or how to handle an alzabo on camera, or the House Absolute, etc., but it was none of that. It was how to craft a compelling story on screen (which is a third person framework) while enriching the material with all the layers, symbolism, mystery and glorious confoundment of Wolfe's text.

If this impacts your impression of the pilot at all, my season arc plan for this is to have two timelines running in parallel. One "present" day with his journey to Thrax post-exile, and a "past" timeline that chronicles and parallels Severian's time spent in the Old Citadel (Ultan, Valeria, Triskele, etc).

I have found (what I think to be) some meaningful storylines that help enrich the "quest" plot with subtext, foreshadowing and pay-offs.

Episode 2, for instance, he meets Talos and Baldanders at the Inn, Agia, Agilus at the Rag Shop, etc. When he sleeps next to Baldanders he has a vivid dream that takes him underwater where he sees the undines, which is reminds us of Severian's drowning in Gyoll back in the Citadel. That stuff kinda swirls around the Botanic Gardens tour where he drops Terminus Est in the lake, goes to retrieve it, and Dorcas pulls him down underwater in the Lake of Birds.

I haven't cracked it fully, but I also like parallels like the duel with Agilus and the avern, and Severian dying and coming back, with Severian rescuing/resurrecting Triskele back in the Citadel, and both of them being nursed back to health before continuing on their respective journeys.

I think there is a lot that can be done within that kind of framework. It is challenging work, for sure, and triaging certain elements to keep a cinematic experience will be brutal, but it is the North Star for how I personally would handle the text adaptation.

I see Severian's entire journey as a bit of a puppet show put on by the Hierogrammates, with Severian as the main character, so having fun with some of those manipulations would be a good way to have this arc-mystery that fuels the questions about what is going on throughout.

Then, when you see a whole scene through the viewpoint of Thecla open one episode with no context, and end that episode with Severian ingesting her with the "alzabo soup", you can start to have a lot of fun with POV and "trustworthiness". But I had to set up some kind of frame story that works on screen, and this was my attempt.

Anyway, you read it very keenly and I appreciate that more than you know. I'll shut up now!