Season three of The Wheel of Time is only days away, but before the first three episodes drop, it might be helpful to go back and remember just where we were when the sweeping arc of season two ended.
It began, of course, with Rand’s friends believing that he died at the confrontation at the Eye of the World. Scattered in different directions, Nyneave, Egwene, Perrin, and Mat had to find their way through dangerous places, traps, emotional struggles, and new enemies; Rand followed his own path; Moiraine and Lan struggled with their relationship and their hunt for the truth about who was released from the Eye of the World.
But the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and by the end of season, all our heroes were drawn to Falme, and into a great battle against the Seanchan and Ishamael. Here’s where the season left each of them:
Rand
Rand bribed the imprisoned Logain to teach him to channel, and began a relationship with a woman named Selene. When Selene’s true identity was revealed to be that of the Forsaken named Lanfear, Rand was rescued by Moiraine. Eventually he ended up a prisoner of the White Tower, where he learned that Siuan and her Aes Sedai intend to use him as a weapon in the Last Battle. In a dream, Rand asked Lanfear to rescue him, and Lanfear took him to Ishamael, ostensibly so that he could rescue Egwene from the Seanchan, but actually so that Ishamael could attempt to turn him to the Dark. Rand’s friends found him in Falme and helped protect him from Ishamael’s attack, and when Rand was wounded by Mat’s poisoned dagger, Egwene’s new roommate, Elayne, healed him. Rand was able to stab Ishamael using his sword, apparently killing him.
Egwene
While grieving for Rand, Egwene studied as a student in the White Tower until she learned of Nynaeve’s intention to leave and help Perrin. Following Nynaeve led to Egwene being captured by the Seanchan. Chained as a damane, she engaged in a battle of wills against her sul’dam, Renna, and eventually proved the stronger, killing Renna and reuniting with Rand, helping to protect him during his fight with Ishamael.
Moiraine
Throughout the season, Moiraine struggled with the fact that Ishamael took away her ability to channel. Despite this, however, she stayed true to her goal of protecting and guiding Rand, even when it brought her into conflict with her own family, and then with Siuan. Lan was able to discover that she hadn’t been stilled but merely shielded by Ishamael, and Moiraine’s ability to channel was restored. After being separated from Rand by Lanfear, she and Lan ended up on a beach outside of Falme, where the two repaired their strained relationship. Moiraine used her Power to sink the Seanchan ships, stopping the damane from attacking Rand, and then conjured the symbol of the Dragon over the city, declaring the identity of the Dragon Reborn.
Nynaeve
As a student in the White Tower, Nynaeve struggled with the inability to channel at will, and was also courted for the Red Ajah by Liandrin. After a traumatic experience in the Accepted Trials in which she saw a future she will never have, Nynaeve was lured away from the White Tower by Liandrin telling her that Perrin was in danger. After Egwene was captured, Nynaeve and Elayne teamed up to try to rescue her, reuniting with Perrin and Loial in Falme. Nynaeve was present at the confrontation between Rand and Ishamael at the end of the season, but was unable to channel to Heal Elayne when she was injured, or to Heal Rand.
Perrin
Hunting for the Horn of Valere with Loial and some of the Shienarans landed Perrin in trouble with both the Whitecloaks and the Seanchan. He also learned more about his abilities as wolfbrother, and made friends with Aviendha, an Aiel warrior he saved from imprisonment. While fighting the Seanchan in Falme, Perrin’s wolf friend, Hopper, was killed by Geofram Bornhald, causing Perrin to pick up an axe for the first time since Laila’s death and kill Bornhald with it. He helped Egwene shield Rand against Ishamael’s attack and witnessed Ishamael’s defeat.
Mat
After being imprisoned by Liandrin, Mat escaped with fellow prisoner, Min, only to end up being delivered by her into Ishamael’s hands. Ishamael taunted Mat with his failures and gave him a strange tea that caused Mat to see many of his other lives. Left alone with the ruby-hilted dagger from Shadar Logoth, Mat was able to resist its call and use the dagger to escape without touching it. Mat and Loial retrieved the Horn of Valere. Unable to get it to Rand in time, Mat blew the Horn himself, summoned the Heroes of the Horn to help in the battle, and discovered that he himself is one of them. Later, he tried to stab Ishamael with the ruby-hilted dagger, but was tricked into stabbing Rand instead.
Siuan
When she learned that Moiraine had been stilled by Ishamael and was hiding it, Siuan believed she had no choice but to take over the guardianship of Rand al’Thor. She had him imprisoned and kept shielded by Aes Sedai, intending to keep him safe until he could be used as a weapon in the last battle. But she was betrayed by Alanna and Verin who, along with their Warders, helped Rand, Moiraine, and Lan escape. Siuan confronted Moiraine after seeing her channel to open the Waygate, and used the oath Moiraine swore on the Oath Rod to compel Moiraine’s obedience, until they were interrupted and attacked by Lanfear. Siuan was left behind, unconscious or dead, and her fate is uncertain.
Ishamael
Ishamael spent much of the season scheming to get Rand to a place where he might be susceptible to being turned to the Dark, using Rand’s friends as pawns to this end and spending a lot of time discussing a sort of existentialist philosophy about how the cycle of reincarnation only leads to human suffering. He also released Lanfear from her imprisonment, despite not trusting her, and let her go after Rand. Ishamael’s manipulations were nearly enough to defeat Rand, but Lanfear’s treachery and the strength of Rand’s friends won the day. Suspecting that Lanfear would betray him, Ishamael released the other members of the Forsaken from their imprisonment before his confrontation with Rand and apparent death.
So that’s where all the main players have landed! Whose journey are you most excited to follow in the upcoming season?
Reading trough that list I don’t think there is a single character that I am happy with what the show has done with them. I will never understand why Rafe and his team felt the need to make such large changes to the story and the characters. Even simple things like peoples ages has been drastically changed, in the books Moiraine is around 40 having dedicated her entire time as an Aes Sedai to making sure that the Dragon Reborn succeeds, in the show she is at least twice as old for no good reason. She breaks the three oaths by attacking the Seanchan ships and the whole thing about her not knowing whether she was shielded or stilled was so annoying.
They try to make someone like Liandrin sympathetic and turn Min into a dark friend in all but name, having her work for Ishamael. Rand has such an important journey in the Great Hunt, learning about responsibility and leadership, it shapes so much of his choices going forward. The show chose instead to make him shack up with some woman he just met and leave everything behind. Book Rand says that he will do go into hiding, but his honor and sense of duty wont let him, that is what makes him a great character. Mat is much the same, he will complain and sneak away from small troubles, but when it matters he is there. Book Mat would never in a million years walk away from Egwene sitting on a bench crying, to write him doing so is character assassination.
They don’t seem to respect or understand the rules of channeling. Logain is able to instruct Rand when he is gentled, how? He can’t see the weaves anymore. I can’t remember a single time in the entire show where they spoke about the two halves of the source a fundamental and essential part of the world building of the books. The whole thing about how Egwene saving herself from the A’Dam was another example of how they don’t seem to respct the rules of the world they are working in. A damene feels what a Sul’Dam feels only more so up to and including death. If Renna dies then Egwene should have died as well. The scary thing about the A’Dam is that there is no escape without help, that iis why Egwene spends 11 books being completely freaked out about it and why her overcoming that fear in the end is so powerful. The show has lost that possibility now and for what? A brutal killing of a hateable villain?
I’m sorry for the long rant, but I love these books so much and I have wanted a show about it for so long. The show that we have gotten has none of the things I love about the books and it just frustrates me. I hope that there are book fans out there that are getting enjoyment from this show, but for me watching it is painful. I will continue to do so in order to have an informed opinion when discussing it, but I can’t see a world where the show becomes what I want it to be.
As an adaptation of the source material, The Wheel of Time was always doomed to failure. With the books consisting of fourteen doorstop volumes and a buttload of interwoven subplots and a cast of hundreds if not thousands, even the most knowledgeable gang of fanboys would struggle to pare it down to something reasonable and keep the tone intact without causing it to unravel like a cheap sweater. Having said that, the assemblage of writers for the show were ill-suited for the job. In retrospect, perhaps they should have considered Richard Matheson and his reaction to The Omega Man. IIRC he said to the effect that all the changes made from his novel didn’t bother him because it was so unrecognizable as I Am Legend that, combined with the different title, there was no way to connect the two. In that light, perhaps it would have been better change all the character and geographical names and retitle it The Awesomely Awesome Adventures of [Egwene] and [Moiraine].
I don’t buy the idea that it is impossible to do a faithful adaptation of the Wheel of Time. Yes you have to cut things, but it is all about where you make the cuts. The issue with the Wheel of Time is the scale of the conflict and the number of characters. I belive that you solve this by narrowing the focus to just the ta’veren trio and the super girls. 6 young people trying to save the world. Naturally you need the Aes Sedai, whitecloaks, Aiel and the other groups, but you can spread their introductions out across the seasons and always keep in mind that they are there to serve the main plot and the main characters.
The show tried to do to much to fast and spread their focus way to much. Now they are just tossing in cool moments from the books in places where they don’t make sense in order to desperately try to get book fans back on their side.
From what I can see online this show has not been a huge success in terms of viewership and that is a shame, the story of Robert Jordans Wheel of Time is one of the best fantasy stories of all time and this adaptation feels like a wasted opportunity.
Yes, the Wheel of Time is huge and a LOT needs to be removed in any adaptation. The problems are different-
BTW, did anybody who has not read book 2 even know what the Horn was till the season finale.
And if the writers want to believe that their watchers are predominantly book fans, then they need to treat the series with respect.
I agree. There are a LOT of little things they could have done to make the series make more sense.
Things like training montages of Rand learning the sword from Lan. This could have been spread throughout S1 and taken up to a minute in the whole season but shown that he is learning how to use the sword. You could have thrown in the sheathe the sword conversation, now you are at maybe 5-7 minutes for the season.
Instead, they spend WAY more time on random warder death, saying that the Dragon can be female, Moiraine/Siuan love story… and about a million other things that don’t match the books and don’t matter to the plot. When I ask those that haven’t read the books none of them felt that Rand, Matt, or Perrin were the main characters of the TV Show.
There is a TON of stuff that I think could have been cut or skimmed over from the books, while still keeping the core story of the books.