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This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Every day from now until September 1st, fans waiting with bated breath for the release of The Wheel Of Time‘s second season can seemingly expect to be treated to a full scene from the first three episodes being released on social media, each one focusing on a different member of the series’ large (and ever-expanding) ensemble cast. Yesterday, it was a conversation between Rand al’Thor and Logain Ablar, Dragons true and false, in the “sanatorium”, described by Josha Stradowski in interviews, where Rand will be working, undercover, to help male channelers gentled by the Aes Sedai. It was a good scene, very well-written and well-acted, but today’s scene is more special to me personally. The Accepted Test of Nynaeve al’Meara is not only one of the most iconic sequences from The Wheel Of Time‘s second book, The Great Hunt, but from the entire width and breadth of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series, which spans fourteen volumes and a prequel novel.
Nynaeve al’Meara | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime
And The Wheel Of Time‘s showrunner, writers, and actors have actually done it justice; evidence alone, if you ask me, of why they deserve everything the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have been asking for, because this was no easy feat. Although not every line of dialogue has made it into the show’s version of this scene, all but a few of the actresses’ lines are lifted either directly from the book, or with only the most minor tweaks. The scene opens with Nynaeve, wearing Novice-white (because in the show, I believe she does choose to train as a Novice for Egwene’s sake), warily approaching the three silver arches standing on low daises arranged in a semicircle in the White Tower’s basement. She asks what they are, just as she does in the book, and receives a similar, arguably more informative, answer from Sheriam Bayanar, the Tower’s Mistress of Novices, and Liandrin Guirale of the Red Ajah, who has taken a suspiciously active role in Nynaeve’s training. Below, I’ve quoted the passage from the books, and highlighted in bold the parts that made it into the show, with original dialogue in parentheses. Please forgive my rather, uh, messy presentation.
“Ter’angreal do many things, child. Like angreal and sa’angreal, they are(from before the Breaking, made during a time when women could create objects from the One Power itself) remnants of the Age of Legends that use the One Power, though they are not quite so rare as the other two. While some ter’angreal must be(are) made to work by Aes Sedai, as this one must (like this one), others will do what they do simply with the presence of any woman who can channel….We don’t know why they were made. We dare use only a handful of them, and the ways in which we do dare to use them may be nothing like the purposes the makers intended. Most, we have learned at our (great) cost to avoid. Over the years, no few (Many) Aes Sedai have been killed or had their Talent (been) burned out of them, learning that.”
– The Great Hunt: Chapter 23; The Testing, by Robert Jordan
As you can see, with just a few tiny alterations, excisions, and additions here and there, that entire passage has made it into the show. And with just one new line of dialogue, the show not only clarifies what ter’angreal actually are for general audiences (without sacrificing any of their mystery in the process), it also subtly establishes that the art of creating ter’angreal is lost to the Aes Sedai of the present day, as well as signaling to attentive viewers that Liandrin is a highly unreliable narrator (possibly Jordan’s favorite writing-device), because her implication that only women ever created ter’angreal is, well, totally in-character for her but simply untrue. That’s good writing right there.
Nynaeve is taken aback by the mention of women burning out, having almost experienced that fate worse than death in the first season, and asks if they expect her to just walk into the arches after that. Leane Sharif of the Blue Ajah, who was not present for this scene in the books, responds to her with a line borrowed from Sheriam, to say that they know how the arches work; entering them brings a woman face-to-face with her greatest fears, which Nynaeve can keep secret to her grave, if she wishes. Dividing the dialogue between these three women helps to break up what would otherwise be a very long and exposition-heavy monologue from Sheriam, giving the scene a little more dynamism, and providing Leane with screentime she was sorely lacking throughout the first season. It’s Sheriam, however, who still delivers some of my favorite lines in the scene.
“Two things I (we) will tell you now that no woman hears until she is in this room.The first is this. Once you begin, you must continue to the end. Refuse to go on, and no matter your potential, you will be very kindly put out of the Tower with enough silver to support you for a year, and (but) you will never be allowed back.”
Liandrin Guirale (center) and members of the Red Ajah | arstechnica.com
I genuinely did not expect most of this detail to make it into the show, but I’m so glad it did, because the rock-solid worldbuilding of The Wheel Of Time is one of many reasons why it’s considered a fantasy classic, and while the first book had to be slimmed down a great deal to work as a season of television, with much of that rich detail subsequently being shed for the sake of new fans and casual viewers, the second season won’t suffer from those same limitations and is free to delve deeply into Jordan’s world and mythology. But of course, these words aren’t merely decorative. They hold great relevance for Nynaeve, as she has been looking for an escape-route from the Aes Sedai, and now one is being dangled right in front of her. And at the same time, this entire scene is quietly setting up future storylines involving certain characters who actually took that escape-route.
“Second. To seek, to strive, is to know danger. You will know danger here. Some women have entered, and never come out. When the ter’angreal was allowed to grow quiet, they – were – not – there. And they were never seen again. If you will survive, you must be steadfast. Falter, fail, and…” Her silence was more eloquent than any words.
These lines are intriguingly delivered by Liandrin in the show; further evidence that she is beginning to care for Nynaeve, or have concern for her well-being at least, something that never occurred in the books. I’m all for this change, if only because it gives the phenomenal Kate Fleetwood much juicier, more compelling material to dig into as an actress, if her character isn’t innately cold and callous, as seemed to be the case throughout the first season. Obviously, she’s Aes Sedai, and Red Ajah at that, so there’s a lot of calculating going on behind her eyes, but the Aes Sedai are still human at the end of the day, and they ought to have human vulnerabilities. I look forward to later scenes between Nynaeve and Liandrin that build off this dynamic.
“This is your last chance, child. You may turn back now, right now, and I will put your name in the novice book, and you will have only one mark against you. Twice more you will be allowed to come here, and only at (on) the third refusal will you be put out of the Tower. It is no shame to refuse. Many do. I myself could not do it, my (the) first time here.“
Leane steps forward to speak these words. Again, I can’t help but marvel at the fact that so much of this monologue made it from page to screen. I don’t care in the slightest that it’s Leane in the show, not Sheriam, who declined to take her Accepted test once. It’s never going to be relevant again, I suspect, but what it does is it gives viewers a little bit of background information about Leane that they can use to start forming an attachment to her, which is important because she’s important, more so than Sheriam I’d argue.
Finally, Liandrin comes back with the one and only line in the entire scene that’s completely new, as far as I can tell. “If you are doing this for someone else, you will fail,” she tells Nynaeve, with an expression of genuine compassion once again flitting across her steely features. “Do this for you, or not at all.” Is she…trying to protect Nynaeve? After all, if Nynaeve passes the Accepted test, she comes one step closer to being “raised to the shawl” and made a full Aes Sedai, and with her raw power and status as ta’veren (able to bend the weavings of the Wheel of Time around her) there is nothing the Dark One and his minions will not do to prevent the White Tower from weaponizing her. It also sounds like this is a continuation of some conversation Nynaeve must have had with Liandrin earlier, where Nynaeve must have revealed (or Liandrin must have discerned) that Nynaeve came to the Tower primarily to protect Egwene, though she herself is still opposed to the Aes Sedai and distrustful of her own abilities. Again, it’s surreal that it’s Liandrin bringing this up, but I’m not at all upset.
Nynaeve al’Meara | vaguevisages.com
Silence falls after she speaks, and the camera lingers on Zoë Robins’ Nynaeve, in whose dark, expressive eyes you can catch glimpses of all the emotions swirling within her – fear, frustration, curiosity – before they finally coalesce into steady determination, and she speaks the words that start the trial: “I’m ready”. She’s passed the point of no return, and now we must wait until September 1st to follow her into the arches. But hopefully we won’t have to wait that long for the next clip from The Wheel Of Time! If the pattern holds, tomorrow we could see either Egwene, Perrin, or Mat, followed by Moiraine and Lan, and then perhaps Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. On the one hand, I don’t want to see that many scenes from the first few episodes before the season premiere, but on the other hand…I kinda do, and I definitely won’t be able to resist watching them if they’re out there. Who are you hoping to see next? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME, BOOKS ONE THROUGH THREE, AHEAD!
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
There’s no particular reason you should be aware if you aren’t obsessed like I am with The Wheel Of Time, but last night, Amazon Prime Video quietly released a full scene from the epic fantasy series’ upcoming second season, attaching it to the very end of the season one finale as a sneaky surprise for fans rewatching the series. The scene in question is an iconic one from the prologue of The Great Hunt, the second book in Robert Jordan’s original fourteen-volume series of novels. Over the years, fans have taken to calling this scene the “Darkfriend Social”, as it depicts a group of cloaked, hooded, and masked Darkfriends mingling in a remote manor as they await new orders from Ishamael, leader of the Forsaken, following his confrontation with the Dragon Reborn at the Eye of the World.
Trollocs attend the Darkfriend Social | ign.com
In the book, this scene is viewed exclusively through a keen pair of eyes belonging to “the man who called himself Bors”, a Darkfriend we learn by the end of the chapter is a Whitecloak Questioner. The adaptation takes a different approach, turning the camera on a young girl who is playing by herself in the courtyard, but rushes back inside after encountering Trollocs and scurries under the table around which a multitude of Darkfriends are seated silently, wearing veils to conceal their identities yet still unconcernedly (some might say carelessly) giving away clues as to their ethnicities and social standing through the shifting of black silk to reveal the long lacquered fingernails of Seanchan Blood, or a Great Serpent Ring on a black-gloved hand, or the brightly-colored skirts of a Tuatha’an woman. The man who called himself Bors is seemingly also present, unless a pair of distinctive white gloves belong to another member of his zealous organization. And the peddler Padan Fain, in brazen defiance of Ishamael’s instructions, actually uncovers his face.
A few of the Darkfriends seated around the table might just be extras to fill out the scene, but most will reappear later in the series as antagonists. The Seanchan noblewoman is a character we’ve already seen hanging out with Ishamael in the trailer for season two and in various promotional stills, High Lady Suroth Sabelle Meldarath. The man wearing the black hawk of Shienar on his clothes is almost certainly [redacted], and the black-ringed Aes Sedai, though unidentifiable from a close-up shot of her hand alone, is probably [redacted]. I’m sorry to have to censor the names, but I’m doing it for your own good. As for the man who seems to be the man who called himself Bors (can I just call him Bors from now on? Does anyone mind?), I expect him to turn up again fairly soon, when the Whitecloaks invade Almoth Plain in season two. I’m oddly most interested in the nameless, faceless Tuatha’an Darkfriend, whom the little girl refers to as “Mum” while tugging on her skirt. She’s technically a character from the book, but not one that we ever see again:
“Merchant and warrior, commoner and noble. From Kandor and Cairhien, Saldaea and Ghealdan. From every nation and nearly every people. [Bors’] nose wrinkled in sudden disgust. Even a Tinker, in bright green breeches and a virulent yellow coat. We can do without those come the day.”
– The Great Hunt; Prologue: In The Shadow
There’s never any reference to Darkfriends among the Tuatha’an that I can remember from the books, and it’s hard to imagine what a Tuatha’an Darkfriend could even accomplish with that peaceful people that would help the Dark One. My out-there theory is that she’s some version of the extremely minor character Leya, a Tuatha’an woman killed in a Trolloc raid in The Dragon Reborn, who in this Turning of the Wheel will actually be responsible for leading the Trollocs to the Dragon’s location at some point. Or perhaps she was already responsible for arranging the confrontation between the Whitecloaks and Tuatha’an in season one, which resulted in Egwene and Perrin being captured and nearly killed.
(left to right) Egwene al’Vere, Perrin Aybara, and Aram | dragonmount.com
Ishamael overhears the girl trying to get her mother’s attention and interrupts the meeting to crawl under the table and speak with her, telling her not to be afraid of Trollocs. He then takes her by the hand and brings her back outside to play, while the Darkfriends sit in awkward silence, all presumably glaring at the Tuatha’an mother from behind their veils. I don’t necessarily expect the girl to have any significance down the line, but it’s not inconceivable that she grows up to be the young Darkfriend assassin Mili Skane, whose small role in the first book was given to the original character Dana. Though I’d still prefer if Dana was simply resurrected and merged with Mili going forward, I wouldn’t mind this alternate backstory for the villain, who actually has an intriguing connection with Ishamael in the books. Either way, I wholly approve of Ishamael having an unpredictable paternal affection for some of his Darkfriends. He could be The Wheel Of Time‘s version of Silco from Arcane.
The scene ends on a strangely sweet yet suspenseful moment where Ishamael invites the girl to reach out and pet a Trolloc, which had me fearing the entire time as she caressed its face and bloody tusks that her hand would be bitten off, or that Ishamael would leave her there and lock her out. I appreciate that he didn’t, that he actually wants to prove to her that he meant it when he said Trollocs aren’t monsters for being part-human and part-animal, any more than he can reasonably be called a monster for existing in the space between good and evil. Ishamael in the books wouldn’t ever do that, because he’d be too busy running around yelling that he’s gonna crush the Dragon like a worm beneath his heel and then dramatically failing on three separate occasions to do so in just the first three books:
“”The place where you stand lies in the shadow of Shayol Ghul.” More than one voice moaned at that; the man who called himself Bors was not sure his own was not among them. A touch of what might almost be called mockery entered [Ishamael’s] voice as he spread his arms wide. “Fear not, for the Day of your Master’s rising upon the world is near at hand….soon the Wheel of Time will be broken. Soon the Great Serpent will die, and with the power of that death, the death of Time itself, your Master will remake the world in his own image for this Age and for all Ages to come. And those who serve me, faithful and steadfast, will sit at my feet above the stars in the sky and rule the world of men forever. So have I promised, and so shall it be, without end. You shall live and rule forever.””
– The Great Hunt; Prologue: In The Shadow
See what I mean? That’s just an excerpt, but that’s how he talks all the time, unnecessarily capitalizing every other word. It’s exhausting. In the show’s version of events, Ishamael comes across as more cool-headed and patient, less interested in killing the Dragon than in manipulating him into fighting for the shadow, which I think is a smart choice. There are plenty of other Forsaken whose job it is to be campy and over-the-top evil.
Ishamael | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime
Where are the other Forsaken, anyway? The large stone discs standing on pedestals in the courtyard outside the Darkfriend Social likely represent the seven seals on the Dark One’s prison that hold him and the Forsaken captive, with the one broken and lying on the ground being a miniature version of the actual seal broken by Rand al’Thor at the Eye of the World that released Ishamael into the world. On it is carved an ornate eight-pointed star containing symbols of the eight Forsaken in the spaces between its points: what looks to be a spider in a web for Moghedien, something that could be a moon for Lanfear, a guitar for Asmodean, and then a lot of squiggles and shapes whose meaning is still unclear. I believe that with one seal broken and the rest weakened, Ishamael will be able to release the other Forsaken into the world, starting with Lanfear, Daughter of the Night, and that will be the catalyst for much of what happens in season two.
Now you tell me what you think! Have you watched the new scene? Or are you saving the experience for when the season premieres? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memory that becomes legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a trailer dropped. The trailer was not the beginning; there are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
The Wheel Of Time | escapistmagazine.com
And what a beginning. The first official trailer for The Wheel Of Time season two doesn’t pull any punches. With how long it’s been since the first season aired on Prime Video (and how much fantasy television has come out since then, including HBO’s House Of The Dragon, Prime’s The Rings Of Power, and two seasons of Netflix’s The Witcher), the aim of this marketing campaign is to be as big, bold, and distinct as possible, practically slamming the viewer with epic visuals, dynamic action, thrilling drama, and iconic moments lifted straight from the pages of The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, the second and third books in Robert Jordan’s best-selling series of high fantasy novels, supplemented in the show with enough new material to keep even veterans of the source material on the edge of their seats.
Of course, it would be significantly easier to promote the series with assistance from The Wheel Of Time‘s showrunner and actors, but that can’t happen until the AMPTP agrees to pay writers and actors what they’re worth. Until then, SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are both on strike, and The Wheel Of Time is just one of many upcoming releases that will have to rely heavily on its existing fanbase for the foreseeable future (all the more reason for fans to stay informed and stay wary, because Prime Video and other AMPTP member studios could very well approach you with offers to advertise struck work for them, and accepting such a deal at this time would be crossing a picket line). As long as you’re not being paid by a studio to do any of the following, then by all means, go ahead and make fan-art, fan-edits, fan-fiction, fan-covers of Wheel Of Time‘s music, and cosplays.
Cosplaying certain characters might be tricky for the average fan, though, with how ornate and elaborate the costumes have become in season two. I am on record as having been critical of costume designer Isis Mussenden’s work in the first season: I did not think the glory and gracefulness of the Aes Sedai was ever reflected in their brightly-colored but otherwise dully unostentatious clothing; Ishamael’s suit was shabby and poorly-tailored, hardly fit for a man posing as the Dark One himself; and the Seanchan to me looked like they had just walked off the set of a 1980s B-movie. Sharon Gilham (Jamestown, The Nun) replaced Mussenden as costume designer on seasons two and three – which started filming earlier this year in Prague – and although Mussenden’s designs are still the basis for some of what we see in season two, it is Gilham who has raised the bar for The Wheel Of Time, and for the fantasy genre in general, with the extraordinary wardrobe of high camp regalia she’s assembled for the Seanchan nobility and the Aes Sedai.
(left to right) Alwhin, High Lady Suroth, and Ishamael | polygon.com
A few of my favorite costume details include the breastplate of woven bone forming a many-pronged pair of jaws around High Lord Turak’s head, the tusked golden latticework mask and crescent-moon headdress worn by High Lady Suroth, the frighteningly long bladed fingernails that mark them both as members of the Blood, and their pleated scale-patterned gowns in shades of teal and rust and vivid orange. Liandrin Guirale looks phenomenal in a red dress similar to one she wore throughout the first season, but darker, with a patterned leather harness. Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat, dons a new gilded shawl, a coat made of small gold discs, and a crown that I’m almost positive was made entirely from the kinds of beautiful debris you can pick up off the floor of an arts-and-crafts store: a smorgasbord of fabric flowers, metallic leaves, gold lace, and silver baubles that look magnificent when stitched together and placed on Sophie Okonedo’s brow. But of course, it’s Moiraine Damodred who makes the strongest impression, wearing a beautiful shirt of tight-knit white fabric under a blue silk robe with a bejeweled diadem in her hair, now hanging in loose ringlets after the fashion of Cairhien.
I could ramble on about the costumes and hairstyling for far longer than anyone would care to listen, so let me pivot real quick to locations, of which there are several. A time-jump of a few months means that very little time, if any, will be spent in the keep of Fal Dara where the first season ended, and it may be that the second season opens with Rand al’Thor already hiding out in the Foregate of Cairhien, with Moiraine and al’Lan Mandragoran hot on his heels, while the hunt for the Horn of Valere is already well underway, whisking Perrin Aybara and Loial off to the eastern boundaries of the known world, and Egwene al’Vere and Nynaeve al’Meara have begun their training at the White Tower, where Mat Cauthon is already a prisoner of the Red Ajah (there are some shots in the trailer that indicate Nynaeve may arrive at the Tower slightly later than Egwene, but unless she first spends time traveling with Moiraine and Lan, I can’t imagine why that would be, or why it would even make sense for an adaptation that’s trying to streamline the narrative as much as possible).
As much as I love Rand and Perrin and Moiraine, the few chapters of The Great Hunt that deal with Egwene and Nynaeve’s White Tower training have always been my favorites, and rereading the book recently (for the first time in years) reaffirmed that for me. Whenever the book jumped to Rand’s perspective or Perrin’s, I found myself impatiently yearning to be back at the Tower, exploring its nooks and crannies, learning about the One Power, or the differences between ter’angreal and sa’angreal, or the seven different Ajahs that make up the Aes Sedai. I love a story of political intrigue with magic involved, and that’s really what the White Tower arc boils down to – hundreds of morally dubious sorceresses scheming against each other. And the show being more of an ensemble piece than the early books means we can hopefully spend more time there, with the characters that make this world so unique.
Nynaeve al’Meara | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime
The scene I’m looking forward to the most, that I hope is expanded on, is Nynaeve’s Accepted test. Novices at the White Tower typically study for several years, sometimes even decades, before they are deemed strong enough to take the test (and some never make it that far, or turn down the opportunity when it is offered) but those who survive earn the title of “Accepted” as well as a Great Serpent ring, and are put on the path to becoming Aes Sedai. Nynaeve’s power is so great that, in the books at least, she is rushed into her Accepted test before having any time to train as a Novice, and with only a vague understanding of what the test entails. The test takes place in the White Tower’s basement, where three silver arches stand on a dais, forming a massive ter’angreal that transports the user to alternate dimensions in which they must face literal manifestations of their worst fears and deepest desires. We see Nynaeve stumble out of the ter’angreal covered in blood, a reference to what Sheriam Bayanar only warns could happen in the book, that “some have come out bearing the actual wounds of hurts taken inside”.
At one point in the trailer we also see Egwene, still wearing the white uniform of a Novice, standing alone in the doorway to the testing room, channeling threads of the One Power as if she intends to unlock the ter’angreal. There’s a chance this is part of Nynaeve’s test (perhaps, instead of confronting the Forsaken Aginor as she does in the book, she must fight and kill a version of her friend, hence the blood on her hands?), but I think Egwene might just be reckless enough to try and take the test by herself, without guidance, after months of washing dishes and scrubbing floors as a Novice without learning anything she can use to help her friends who are in danger. Obviously she doesn’t succeed (because she’s still wearing Novice robes in later scenes), so maybe she gets lost in Tel’aran’rhiod, the World of Dreams, and has to rely on the sleepweaver ter’angreal given to her by Verin to escape? Just a theory, but it’d be a neat introduction to some concepts that will become extremely relevant in the next season.
There are a few other interesting shots of Egwene throughout the trailer, where you can see her wearing a gray tunic and golden collar, with bloodshot eyes and blood on her face, but I can’t say too much about what I think is happening there without spoiling one of The Great Hunt‘s most shocking twists, so I’ll just leave you with that piece of information to mull over instead. For similar reasons, I must refrain from sharing my theories as to what Liandrin is doing, hurrying through the streets of Tar Valon at night in a cloak and hood, or my many thoughts on the beautiful dark-haired woman hovering over Rand’s shoulder as he channels the One Power. If you know, you know.
Rand al’Thor | nerdist.com
But as I mentioned, there’s some material in the trailer that’s not derived from the books at all. Moiraine and Siuan, the latter notably wearing blue (rather than Amyrlin gold), steal a kiss in a scene likely set prior to the birth of the Dragon Reborn, inspired by events covered in the Wheel Of Time prequel novel, New Spring. In the present day, Rand meets Siuan, not in Fal Dara where the two cross paths in the early chapters of The Great Hunt, but in what appears to be the Sun Palace of Cairhien; and in this version of events, Siuan has apparently brought the False Dragon Logain, still a prisoner of the Aes Sedai, to meet Rand and mentor him. Moiraine, shielded by Ishamael at the Eye of the World last season, sits miserably in a bath, unable to do so much as heat the water to her preferred temperature with the One Power (a poignant callback to an instantly iconic scene from The Wheel Of Time‘s first episode). And most controversially, Aviendha seems to take the place of Gaul, but I can’t even be mad about it because she looks so good dancing the spears.
While we’re on the subject, the fight choreography is another area where The Wheel Of Time has indisputably leveled up since the first season, and it’s a good thing too, because the finale did not (and arguably could not, due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time) deliver the brutal battle of epic proportions that was teased all season; and various smaller-scale action sequences earlier in the season, like the skirmish between the Aes Sedai and Logain’s rebels in episode four, while passable, never stood out for being particularly suspenseful, intense, or even clever on a conceptual level. With the introduction of the Seanchan and their army of brainwashed channelers called damane, weapons to be wielded in battle by handlers called sul’dam, that is unlikely to ever again be an issue for the show. The quick glimpses we’ve caught of both damane and sul’dam are equal parts horrific and fascinating.
Even with the Seanchan in the game, however, The Wheel Of Time‘s primary antagonist is still Ishamael, the mysterious man whose name is practically synonymous with that of the Dark One. His handsome face no longer hidden behind a CGI silken mask, actor Fares Fares seems to be making the most of this opportunity to be both delectably evil and suave as he hosts social gatherings for Darkfriends and Forsaken – a rogues gallery of ancient villains with colorful personalities, whittled down in the show from thirteen to just eight of the most significant. Ishamael is their leader, but second behind him in all the horror-stories that survived the Breaking of the World is Lanfear, Daughter of the Night, and it’s probably her bloody naked body we see rising stiffly from the floor of a cave in the trailer. Few things would give me greater joy out of this adaptation than a genuinely nightmare-inducing depiction of Lanfear, who has been mischaracterized as a cartoonish “crazy ex-girlfriend” archetype for so long that I think Jordan at some point started writing her like that, and fans have all but forgotten she’s responsible for drilling a hole in the fabric of reality and releasing the Dark One in the first place.
Ishamael | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime
I have high hopes for this season to be better than the first and better than the book(s) it’s based on by a substantial margin, which is exactly what I predicted when I wrote that the season finale was only as messy as it was so that season two wouldn’t have to be. After momentarily steering off-course in the wake of Barney Harris’ departure and the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wheel Of Time is back on-track to be mentioned in the same breath as House Of The Dragon and The Witcher season three as some of the best fantasy television on the air (The Rings Of Power deserves to be up there too for its visuals, score, and excellent performances, but that series’ writing needs refinement in its own highly-anticipated second season). Hopefully they can keep that momentum going and get the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth seasons that we’ll need to finish this epic story, because this? This is just a beginning.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
As I’m sure most of my readers are well aware by now, SAG-AFTRA recently joined the WGA in a historic dual strike as a result of every major studio in Hollywood refusing to protect or even pay their actors, and therefore the cast and showrunner of Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time will not be in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con to promote the fantasy series returning for its second season this September. The release of the season’s first full-length trailer, likely originally scheduled for Thursday to coincide with the now-canceled SDCC panel, has now been moved to Wednesday, and now Nerdist as well as Entertainment Weekly have been given permission to share official screenshots from the trailer and the new season.
Egwene al’Vere and Elayne Trakand | nerdist.com
But before we proceed, I want to acknowledge that there has been a great deal of confusion amongst fandoms over how to support the strikes while still hyping up new releases, because while the WGA did not ask for non-union members to halt promotion and discussion of upcoming struck work, SAG-AFTRA is asking for union ‘Influencers’ – and Influencers who plan to join the guild one day – to refrain from doing official promo for any of the AMPTP member studios. What constitutes ‘influence’ and ‘promo’ became the subject of unnecessarily heated discourse on Twitter yesterday and the day before, when in fact SAG-AFTRA has a definition of ‘Influencer’ posted elsewhere on their site, and it very clearly refers to “popular content creators who have amassed a social media following that they capitalize on by making deals with advertisers to promote brands through the Influencer’s creative content which they distribute through their social media feeds [emphasis mine]”. By this definition at least, neither I nor the vast majority of fans using social media to talk about The Wheel Of Time (for example) are Influencers. If you’re still wary, trust the actual members of SAG-AFTRA and the WGA who have had to go online and clarify that there is absolutely nothing wrong with fans discussing struck work, cosplaying characters from struck work, or making fan-art and fanfiction of struck work, as long as you are not accepting advertising deals with AMPTP studios to do so at this time (if you’re already under contract with one, SAG-AFTRA is not telling you to break that contract).
Of course, you can decide not to talk about or engage with struck work in any capacity; just keep in mind that at no point has SAG-AFTRA asked for fans to organize a media blackout as a show of solidarity with the strike, and they have explicitly encouraged audiences not to boycott new releases, so you won’t be a better or worse person whatever you choose to do. That said, you can actually help SAG-AFTRA and the WGA by raising awareness about the strikes on your social media platforms and on your blog/podcast/channel if you have one; donating to the Entertainment Community Fund if you can; and joining actors and writers on the picket-line if you’re able.
Now, back to the new images from The Wheel Of Time. There are six in total, and three are either different angles of shots we’ve seen before. This includes Lan riding a horse through a forest (does he spend all season on his horse?), Perrin brooding, and Ishamael riding with High Lady Suroth and her masked attendant on a Seanchan palanquin. The one that immediately caught my attention depicts Egwene al’Vere standing in a tropical forest, channeling golden threads of the One Power to form a levitating hoop around her, as she faces down an unseen enemy. Book readers should be able to guess what’s happening in this scene adapted from The Great Hunt, but if it’s not immediately clear, note that both Egwene and Elayne Trakand, standing in the background, are wearing their White Tower Novice robes, even though they’re obviously not in the Tower, and Elayne is turning to run away. Yep, this is THAT scene. I don’t want to spoil anything for fans who haven’t read the books, but let’s just say that Madeleine Madden is about to become a star off this scene in particular and I am ready for it.
Can we also take a moment to appreciate how much more visually appealing the One Power looks this season? I didn’t even mind the threads being white throughout the first season, partially because Rosamund Pike’s interpretation of channeling was so elegant and beautiful that quite frankly I hardly noticed, but now that I’ve seen Egwene encompassed in spun gold, I understand at last what we were missing. I want every action sequence from now to include Aes Sedai wielding all the colors of the rainbow (or at least as many colors as there are Elements in the world of The Wheel Of Time, those being fire, water, earth, air, and spirit). And remember, this is just a glimpse of the redesigned female half of the One Power, saidar. The male half, saidin, ought to look completely different because it’s been tainted by the Dark One’s touch…no less colorful, but perhaps more sickly? However it looks, I’m just excited for the show to delve deeper into the Robert Jordan’s complex magic system.
Nynaeve al’Meara and Alanna Mosvani | ew.com
I think that’s exactly what’s happening in the image above, which shows Nynaeve al’Meara and Alanna Mosvani of the Green Ajah meeting in the White Tower kitchens. The only reason Nynaeve would be doing chores there, wearing the same plain gray apron sported by Egwene in a previously-released image, is if she’s still a Novice in this scene, but in The Great Hunt Nynaeve is rushed into her Accepted test almost immediately after arriving at the Tower, before she has time to become a Novice. My theory is that in the show, Nynaeve will initially try to avoid taking the Accepted test for two reasons: firstly, to stay close to Egwene and protect her, but secondly, because the thought of becoming an Aes Sedai, of becoming a stranger in the eyes of the Two Rivers folk she’s tried for so long to fit in with, still terrifies her. And so, even as she begins training with the Power, the ‘block’ she first developed unconsciously as a child to prevent herself from channeling will grow stronger, more indestructible, and seriously impede her progress…which I’m sure is why Alanna is here, to try and nudge Nynaeve along, maybe even to see if her block can be broken down with empowering assurances that she’s stronger than she knows, destined for greater things than being a Wisdom (and it’s a smart choice to build a relationship between these two characters, given that they share a crucial scene down the line).
There’s also the distinct possibility that Alanna is scouting on behalf of her Ajah. In season one, Liandrin Guirale expressed interest in recruiting Nynaeve for the Red Ajah, to which Moiraine Damodred (herself of the Blue Ajah) responded by pointing out that the Wisdom’s extraordinarily powerful Healing weaves might make her a better fit for the Yellow Ajah, but I’m sure that every woman in the White Tower will be vying for her time and watching carefully to see which Ajah she gravitates towards, because any one would benefit immensely from counting her amidst its ranks, while all the others would stand to lose. Never before has the Tower been so weak or so divided against itself that the arrival of one woman, even with potential as great as Nynaeve’s, could incite a conflict between Ajahs for ownership of her allegiances, but that’s just how things are done now. It’s another sign that the Last Battle is coming, and nothing built to last will be left standing in the wake of that long-awaited cosmic duel between the Dark One and the Dragon Reborn.
Speaking of the Dragon Reborn, Rand al’Thor has acquired some nice new clothes and shaved his head since his confrontation with Ishamael at the Eye of the World in season one, presumably to avoid being recognized by Darkfriends or mistaken for an Aiel in his hiding-place of Cairhien, a kingdom still recovering from invasion by mysterious red-haired warriors who came across the Spine of the World one day to take vengeance on Cairhien’s former king for a crime he never knew he had committed, and returned by the way they had come once he was dead and his city lay in ruins. In the years since, though the Aiel seem to have no further interest in what happens there, Cairhien has not ceased to be used as a battlefield in the complex interplay of swords and subtlety that the Cairhienian nobility call Daes Dae’mar, the Game of Houses, a dangerous game where ulterior motive and hidden agenda is applied to every person’s actions and words, however trivial, and all the Houses respond in turn with assassins.
Rand al’Thor | ew.com
Rand has no understanding of how the Game works when he first enters Cairhien wearing a fancy coat that accidentally marks him as a lord, but in the books he’s accompanied by Hurin, a Shienaran sniffer conveniently well-versed in the rules of Daes Dae’mar. Because Hurin is less of a fully fleshed-out character than he is a walking encyclopedia spouting exposition, I don’t expect to see him in season two, and it will almost certainly be Moiraine who acts as Rand’s mentor in his place, which only makes sense seeing as she actually belongs to one of Cairhien’s noble families, played the Game of Houses frequently as a girl and still relies on the skills she picked up there even now, as an Aes Sedai of the surveilling Blue Ajah, and remains to this day a potential contender for the kingdom’s throne. Ruling Cairhien is the last thing on Moiraine’s mind, I’m certain, but having been shielded by Ishamael and exiled from the White Tower, she is in desperate need of allies heading into season two, and House Damodred would be happy to welcome her back if she could lead them to believe that she was sent by the White Tower to facilitate their conspiracy against the current king. That’s where Rand comes in, I’m sure, lying for her (because even shielded, she’s still bound by the Three Oaths), and maybe even using the One Power to cover for her.
What do you think of the new images, and what do you hope to see in season two of The Wheel Of Time? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
