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“The Wheel Of Time” Drops First Look Images Ahead Of Season Three

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME THROUGH BOOK FOUR: THE SHADOW RISING, AND POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON THREE, AHEAD!

The best (and most criminally underrated) fantasy series on television, Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time, is returning for its third season in less than two months, and the streamer has dropped first-look images showcasing new locations and characters, key moments from the pages of Robert Jordan’s The Shadow Rising, and a wardrobe’s worth of bold, beautiful costumes designed by the absolute madwoman (complimentary) that is Sharon Gilham. Rand al’Thor and the rest of the Emond’s Field Five feature heavily, while characters like Alanna Mosvani and Liandrin Guirale are nowhere to be seen, indicative of the series-wide shift in focus away from the Aes Sedai (including Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine Damodred) onto the younger cast led by Josha Stradowski’s Rand, happening in season three. This shift, which doesn’t occur in the books because Rand is the clear protagonist from the get-go, is something some fans have eagerly anticipated and others have dreaded, and I am very interested to see if The Wheel Of Time can achieve a healthy balance. Let’s see what we can glean from the new images.

Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, and Donal Finn as Mat Cauthon in The Wheel Of Time, standing in the common room of an inn. Rand and Perrin are leaning against a square stone pillar. Rand has short reddish-brown curly hair and wears a dark blue jacket over a lighter blue shirt. Perrin has frizzy dark hair and a beard, and wears a dark plum-colored coat over a plaid vest. Mat, out-of-focus in the foreground, has short dark brown curly hair and a patchy beard, and wears blue.
Rand, Perrin, and Mat | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Rand, Perrin Aybara, and Mat Cauthon get together for drinks, something they haven’t had a chance to do since they left Emond’s Field in season one, episode one. This shot has to be from very early in the season, because the three boys’ storylines obviously haven’t yet diverged, with Rand heading off to the Aiel Waste, Perrin returning to Emond’s Field, and Mat apparently accompanying Nynaeve al’Meara and Elayne Trakand to the city of Tanchico. Based on the architecture, the setting is probably the city of Tar Valon, which tracks with what we know (from descriptions of footage shown at CCXP in Brazil) about one of the first major set-pieces in season three, a battle between the Aes Sedai and a mutinous contingent of Darkfriends led by Liandrin Guirale that moves from the White Tower out into the streets of Tar Valon.

Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand and Ayoola Smart as Aviendha, drinking together and smiling. Elayne has long reddish-brown hair and wears a gold dress. Aviendha has long reddish-brown hair in locs, and wears a sand-brown hood made from a coarse fabric, with lightweight brown leather armor and fingerless gloves.
Elayne and Aviendha | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

In what looks to me like the same tavern in Tar Valon, Elayne and the Aiel warrior Aviendha are seen sipping drinks and staring into each other’s eyes. This image immediately caught my eye for the simple fact that I’m queer, and like many queer readers, felt that there were definite undertones between these two characters even in the books, where Elayne and Aviendha come to regard each other as “first-sisters”, an Aiel term for two women who are not of the same mother but are as close as if they were kin. In Robert Jordan’s expansive world, there are a fair number of female characters one might be tempted to categorize as canonically queer characters, although unfortunately, nine times out of ten, I feel it would be more accurate to describe these characters as overtly heterosexual women thrust into homoerotic situations by their creator for no other reason than that he was a straight man who was not particularly subtle about his fetish for women making out with each other (that, and women being spanked: there’s so much spanking in The Wheel Of Time). So in spite of all the evidence that would seem to support queer interpretations of Elayne and Aviendha’s characters and relationship, I genuinely do not think Jordan himself thought of them as anything but straight.

That being said, the television adaptation has already canonized one relationship that was ambiguous in the books, between Moiraine and Siuan Sanche. Jordan wrote that the two women were ‘pillow-friends’ during their youth — the Wheel Of Time equivalent of saying they ‘experimented in college’ — referring to a practice amongst the isolated female Novices at the White Tower of finding comfort in same-sex partners: only, Jordan emphasizes, because there are no men around. It’s understood in the books that Novices are supposed to ‘mature’ out of desiring these same-sex relationships, with those who don’t often framed as having sinister motives. Moiraine and Siuan, however, are middle-aged women in the show, and their love is portrayed as just that, love, not a ‘phase’ either woman is looking to outgrow. There are also several other explicitly queer characters on the show, both male and female. So I have faith that fans of the “Avilayne” pairing will not be let down.

Natasha O'Keeffe as Lanfear, standing in a doorway, looking over her shoulder with a slight smirk. She has short jet-black hair and dark eye makeup. She wears a black-and-white cloak or mantle, and around her ear she wears an ornament in the shape of a three-headed black snake.
Lanfear | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Although it’s hard to tell for certain where this shot of the Forsaken Lanfear fits into the timeline we’re piecing together, I’m going to put it here because the architecture in the background feels more like Tar Valon than any of the other locations we know we’ll be visiting in season three, and it would be very much in-character for Lanfear to stalk Rand while he’s out with friends. I’m gonna tell you my theory: Lanfear is keeping just enough distance between herself and Rand so as not to make her presence near him known to the other Forsaken who may be watching, but Rand notices her in this scene – and this is the moment she turns away, with an almost sorrowful expression on her face that says she could protect him from what’s coming, if he only let her back into his heart. By the time he reaches the door, she’ll have vanished, of course, leaving him shaken up. You can remind me come March if I was right or if this shot is from an entirely different scene.

Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche, throwing her arm out and channeling red and gold threads of the One Power into a spiral weave as she battles an unseen opponent. She has short dark hair under a lofty headdress made of gold lace and baubles, and wears a gilded coat.
Siuan Sanche | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai, throws out her arm and channels a complex weave using red and gold threads of the One Power in this image, which I feel pretty confident in saying is from the aforementioned battle with Liandrin and her cronies. The woman beside Siuan is Alanna (yes, I lied when I said she was nowhere to be seen, though to be fair, it is only a bit of her shoulder; but those gold epaulets are clearly the same ones she’s wearing in the teaser trailer, shown below). Siuan is channeling upwards in this shot, which leads me to believe that Liandrin is on the mezzanine encircling the round Hall of the Sitters, or has brought the roof down on their heads.

Priyanka Bose as Alanna Mosvani, weeping over someone's body. She has long dark hair covered in ash. She's wearing a green dress with gold epaulets and a gold collar.
Alanna | youtube.com
(from left to right), Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand, Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere, and Zoe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara, on horseback. Elayne has blonde hair in a bun, and wears a gauzy green dress with gold armor. Egwene has short dark hair under a gold tiara and wears gold armor over a long gold gown with a serpentine flame pattern. Nynaeve has long dark hair, and wears a padded silver vest and armor over a yellow dress.
Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

This striking image of Elayne Trakand and Nynaeve al’Meara flanking Egwene al’Vere, all three on horseback and wearing impractical armor over luxurious gowns, can only be from one of the two Accepted Tests we haven’t yet seen, Egwene’s or Elayne, and I’m gonna take a wild guess and say it’s Egwene’s based on the fact that she’s front-and-center, and dressed as the Amyrlin Seat (Flames of Tar Valon are emblazoned on her armor and embroidered on her gown; she’s also wearing a ring identical to Siuan’s; the gemstone necklace is a curious accessory, unique to Egwene but with no immediately apparent symbolism). In the books, the last of the three alternate universes Egwene enters during her Accepted Test is one in which she is Amyrlin and must preside over the trial and gentling of Rand al’Thor, a captive of the Red Ajah.

The sense I’m getting from the show’s version, or at least from this still-frame, is that Egwene and her companions are hunting Rand themselves, and will engage him in battle. Whereas in the books, this stage of the Test is built around Egwene’s fear of Darkfriends amongst the Aes Sedai, I think the show will make her greatest fear the future that awaits Rand (not to mention the whole world), if she can’t figure out how to stop him from going mad like all male channelers before him: and to that end, I think Rand will kill the alternate universe versions of Elayne and/or Nynaeve in his madness, with Egwene narrowly escaping.

Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor and Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran in The Wheel Of Time. They stand back-to-back on a mountaintop, practicing sword forms. Rand has short reddish-brown curly hair and wears a gray shirt with rolled-up sleeves and dark trousers. Lan has black hair in a top-knot. He wears a gray long-sleeved shirt and gray trousers.
Rand and Lan | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Next up, we see Rand practicing sword forms with Moiraine’s Warder, Lan Mandragoran — a scene from the first chapter of book two, The Great Hunt, that didn’t make it into season two, although Rand did pick up a few moves from an elderly blademaster in the city of Cairhien, and Lan taught him one of the better-known forms, ‘Cat Crosses The Courtyard’, before his audience with the Amyrlin Seat. Fans of their relationship will be pleased to have the sword training subplot picked up again, and hopefully afforded a little more time and space, in season three. This was one of two clips shown to the audience at CCXP (the other being a preview of the battle in Tar Valon), and descriptions of the footage place Moiraine and Egwene in the same scene, suggesting that this takes place during their journey from Tar Valon to the Aiel Waste.

(From left to right) Nukâka Coster-Waldau as Bair, Synnøve Macody Lund as Melindhra, Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran, Björn Landberg as Rhuarc, Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, and Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, standing on a rugged hilltop in a desert under a cloudless sky. Bair has long white hair and wears a white dress with a hood and shawl. Melindhra has blonde hair under a brown hood, and wears lightweight brown leather armor, a skirt of tassels, and brown pants, with three short spears strapped to her back. Lan wears a gray hood and baggy gray tunic. Rhuarc has red hair under a sand-brown hood, with brown leather armor and trousers made from a coarse brown fabric. Rand has short curly reddish-brown hair and wears a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, dark trousers, and a sword strapped to his back. Moiraine has long brown hair under a large hat, and wears a brown shawl over a sand-brown top, with a long gray dress.
(left to right) Bair, Melindhra, Lan, Rhuarc, Rand, and Moiraine | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

This reverse angle of the opening shot from the teaser trailer gives us our first look at several new characters from the Aiel Waste, including Nukâka Coster-Waldau as the Wise One Bair, Synnøve Macody Lund as the Malkieri refugee turned Maiden of the Spear Melindhra, and Björn Landberg as clan chief of the Taardad Aiel, Rhuarc. The teaser reveals that they’re looking out over Rhuidean, a city built shortly after the Breaking of the World, the ruins of which have been put to use by the Aiel as a testing ground for women training to become Wise Ones and men looking to become clan chiefs. The city is home to several ter’angreal, magical constructs with specific functions, including one that shows visions of possible directions a person’s life may take, and another that allows a person to relive historical events through the eyes of their ancestors. Rand’s journey to fulfil the prophecies of the Dragon Reborn will lead him through Rhuidean, while Moiraine will learn there what steps she must take to keep him alive until the Last Battle.

Rhuidean is widely regarded as one of the most memorable sequences in the entire fourteen-volume book series, and while I expect it to play out a bit differently in the show for a number of reasons (namely, the apparent absence of Mat Cauthon and the inclusion of Moiraine’s perspective), I hope what we get from the adaptation is similarly rich and immersive. The show has tried to simplify Robert Jordan’s complex magic system and worldbuilding for general audiences, but three seasons in, if you’re still watching, chances are you’re already invested in the story and won’t be turned off suddenly by an influx of new information.

Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, standing in a desert, channeling golden threads of the One Power into a glowing orb she's holding out in front of her. She has long dark brown hair, and a blue gemstone on a slender gold diadem sits upon her brow. She wears an intricate gold lattice-work chest-piece over a sleeveless blue dress.
Moiraine Damodred | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Moiraine channels golden threads of the One Power into a glowing sphere, potentially a miniature version of one of the two enormous crystal balls that collectively form the ‘Choedan Kal’, a sa’angreal (an object that allows a channeler to channel more of the One Power than they would normally be able to). The Choedan Kal is the most powerful sa’angreal ever made, and requires two ter’angreal to unlock it, referred to as access keys. I suspect what we’re looking at in the image above is Moiraine attempting to unlock the Choedan Kal using just one of the keys,  possibly during a confrontation with Lanfear or another of the Forsaken.

Olivia Williams as Morgase Trakand and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Elaida, walking side-by-side down a corridor in the White Tower, between rows of soldiers in red-and-gold uniforms and Novices in white dresses. Morgase has short blonde hair under a gold tiara encrusted with rubies. She wears a large white heart-shaped lace collar, and a long-sleeved white lace coat over a long dark red gown. Elaida has short jet-black hair. She wears a crimson coat over a dark red gown with a heavy gold necklace, large gold earrings, gold bracelets on both arms, and multiple gold rings.
Morgase and Elaida | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Queen Morgase Trakand of Andor and her Aes Sedai advisor Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan make their debut in this shot of the two entering the White Tower, presumably looking for Morgase’s daughter Elayne, who as far as they’re aware is still missing after being kidnapped from the Tower by Liandrin in season two and whisked away to Falme on the other side of the world. By the time they arrive, I fully expect Elayne to be long gone from Tar Valon, this time on a top-secret mission to the city of Tanchico, hunting Liandrin and her cabal of Darkfriends (more on that in a minute). The ensuing stand-off between Morgase and Siuan is only recounted after the fact in the books, but leads to Elayne giving Mat Cauthon a letter to take to her mother in the city of Caemlyn before she sets out again, which ends up being a surprisingly fun little subplot; not crucial by any means, so I won’t be shocked if it’s cut from the show, but what is crucial is the emergence of Mat’s luck (he’s essentially got the same powers as Marvel Comics’ Domino), through episodes like the quarterstaff fight with the Trakand boys, the chase across the rooftops of Tar Valon, and the encounter with Aludra the Illuminator, which are all part of this subplot.

Morgase’s advisor Elaida, an Aes Sedai of the increasingly powerful Red Ajah that oversees the systematic extermination of male channelers, is someone to keep an eye on – and not just because The Wheel Of Time was fortunate enough, speaking of luck, to nab Oscar-nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo for this role. Elaida is one of the most important characters in the entire series, a complex antagonist to Siuan Sanche who sees herself as the leader the Aes Sedai desperately need if they’re to defeat the Dark One at the Last Battle: because they’re sure as hell not going to rely on a male channeler like Rand al’Thor, not if Elaida has any say in the matter. The White Tower she’ll be returning to in the show, after years of living in Caemlyn, is one that will have just been rocked to its foundations by an attack from within. The Red Ajah, which Liandrin belonged to, will be eager to pin the blame on Siuan, but needs a charismatic representative with no connections to Liandrin to make the argument. There’s no better moment for Elaida to step in and fill that role.

Donal Finn as Mat Cauthon, Zoe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara, and Kae Alexander as Min Farshaw in The Wheel Of Time, standing in a smoky room amongst a crowd of colorfully costumed revelers, speaking to a man in a black hat who is handing them something wrapped in a cloth. Mat has short dark brown curly hair and a patchy beard. He wears an oversized frilly maroon coat over a low-collared saffron-yellow shirt. Nynaeve, standing beside him with her hand on his arm, has long dark hair in a braid and dark eye makeup. She wears a red, black and gold long-sleeved dress with shoulder cutouts. Min has black hair in a slicked-back mullet, with a black-and-white headwrap. She wears a black leather bolero over a black-and-gold top, and a gray dress with pockets. She has a throwing knife in a small scabbard on the front of her belt.
Mat, Nynaeve, and Min | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

In the books, book three to be precise, Siuan assigns Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne with a top-secret mission: following Liandrin to the city of Tear, where (unbeknownst to Siuan) Liandrin is going to try and capture Rand with the help of the Forsaken Be’lal, who is disguised as a High Lord of Tear. Mat, as I mentioned, goes to Caemlyn to deliver Elayne’s letter to the Queen, but while there, learns that the girls are walking into a trap, and makes his way to Tear in the company of the gleeman Thom Merrilin. Liandrin ends up escaping to the city of Tanchico, where Nynaeve and Elayne continue their hunt for her in book four, The Shadow Rising, with Thom as their escort, while Egwene goes to the Aiel Waste with Rand. The television adaptation is, as far as I can tell, having Nynaeve and Elayne head straight to Tanchico from Tar Valon, bypassing Tear entirely, and Mat will be joining them – though whether from the outset of their adventure or, as in book three, after realizing that they’re in danger and coming to save them, remains to be seen. There’s a very strong chance that Tanchico is where we’ll be reunited with Thom, last seen on the show in season one and presumed dead by much of the general audience, but returning at long last for season three. And obviously but rather oddly, the seer Min Farshaw is here as well.

Tanchico is the capital city of the nation of Tarabon, which in recent years has been torn to pieces by a civil war instigated and prolonged by the Whitecloaks in neighboring Amadicia, who hope to destabilize the region (in the books, the reason why the Whitecloaks are in Falme is to try and set up another vassal state north of Tarabon with which to slowly blockade the larger nation into submission). Tarabon has two rulers, a male King and an elected female ‘Panarch’, who governs from a palace complex in the hills above Tanchico. This palace houses the world’s largest museum, containing relics dating back thousands of years to before the Breaking of the World – including several ter’angreal. Is one of these the object wrapped in cloth that Mat, Nynaeve and Min are seemingly looking to purchase or barter for in the image above? And who is the man they’re dealing with, anyway? My bet’s on Juilin Sandar, the rat-catcher whom the girls hire to spy for them in Tear.

Well, that’s everything. What I’m hoping to see from the next batch of images released by Amazon is our first look at what’s going on in the Two Rivers, along with some more new characters like Faile Bashere and Gawyn Trakand, and familiar faces like Thom Merrilin, Tam al’Thor, Liandrin Guirale, Moghedien, Verin Mathwin, Dain Bornhald, and Logain Ablar. How about you? Who or what got you most hyped out of these new images and who or what are you still hoping to see before season three arrives this coming March? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

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“The Wheel Of Time” Season 2, Episode 8 Finishes Off Strong

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON TWO AND BOOKS 1 – 4, AHEAD!

I’m not gonna lie, I was worried that the second season of Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time wouldn’t be able to stick the landing. The consistently larger scale action sequences and higher quality visual effects somewhat assuaged my fears that we’d see a repeat of season one’s disappointing final skirmish between an entirely CGI army of Shadowspawn and a handful of Shienarans, but ultimately, none of that would matter if the characters weren’t handled well and season arcs didn’t reach satisfying (albeit only temporary) conclusions. And season one kinda failed on that front, too, stranding certain subplots in the weirdest places. Factor in the penultimate episode’s mischaracterization of Siuan Sanche, and going into the finale, I was justifiably stressed.

Donal Finn as Mat Cauthon in The Wheel Of Time, breaking into a run as he leads a small group of colorfully-dressed warriors into battle on a stone battlement. He is wearing a faded olive-green coat over a dirty light brown shirt and brown trousers with dark brown leather boots, and is carrying a wooden quarterstaff. He has short brown curly hair.
Mat Cauthon | press.amazonstudios.com

And for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, I remained stressed. Characters move around at a rather hectic pace as they all become belatedly aware that it’s the finale and somehow they’re not in place yet even after eight episodes. Things just start happening abruptly because there’s no time left to properly establish why, for instance, the Whitecloaks are attacking Falme today, and many crucial scenes, like the theft of the Horn of Valere, were obviously cut for time, or flow, or because scenes in earlier episodes had already been cut. But once everyone is settled down, the episode begins anew. By remaining laser-focused on specific characters throughout the rousing action, the writers (mostly) succeed at crafting an epic, high-stakes, and engaging finale that should keep viewers invested until the third season (which has nearly finished filming).

There’s a lot of moving parts in this episode, so I’m gonna go character-by-character, in no particular order, to break it all down.

Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) has never been more popular. She single-handedly holds back Ishamael (Fares Fares), the strongest of the Forsaken, and it’s of course awe-inspiring, a scene destined to make its way into every end-of-the-year tribute to women in movies and television, but it’s not even Egwene’s best moment in this episode. Placing a collar around Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones)’s neck, putting her through the same torture that Egwene suffered at her hands and letting it kill her, that’s the moment where I think Egwene comes into her own fully. The woman who stands and silently watches as her cruel sul’dam dies gasping out her name is not and never will be the same woman she was before. She is more dangerous now, more cunning, and still as capable as ever, despite all the attempts by the Seanchan to break her indomitable spirit. Those who underestimate her do so at their own risk. It’s kinda surreal to see the fandom finally come around on Egwene, when it used to be that you couldn’t admit to Egwene being your favorite character in the books without eliciting some shocked or horrified responses (why yes, I’m speaking from personal experience), but hey, at least we can all agree now that Egwene is the best.

If there’s one downside to Egwene becoming completely self-reliant this early in the story, it’s that it throws Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins)’s arc off-balance. Nynaeve is terribly underused in this episode, and I’m tired of having to explain this, but it’s not that I wanted her to magically break through her Block and overcome all her trauma because it’s the finale. What I and other fans of Nynaeve actually wanted was for her to not be benched just because she can’t channel the One Power. Nynaeve has never been a character who relied on the Power. That’s not even how she’s been depicted in the show, where she uses her wits and brute force to solve problems more frequently than weaves of earth, water, fire, air, and spirit. In The Great Hunt, she has a key role in rescuing Egwene from the Seanchan by capturing the sul’dam Seta (Jade Eleena-Dregorius), collaring her, and marching into the kennels with Seta disguised as her damane – and that’s exactly where Nynaeve’s subplot in the finale appears to be going until about halfway through, when Seta abruptly dies before they ever make it to Egwene, Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney) gets injured, and for maybe fifteen minutes Nynaeve stares blankly at her arrow-wound – until it falls to Elayne to remind her that she used to be the Wisdom of the Two Rivers, and that she can probably treat this injury in her sleep.

Apparently nobody on the production team studied how to treat an arrow-wound, however, because Nynaeve simply pushes the bolt through Elayne’s leg, fletching and all, and within moments Elayne is miraculously able to stand and climb to the top of a tower just in time for the climactic showdown with Ishamael, with enough energy left over to heal Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) from a life-threatening injury of his own. I’m sorry to have to say it, but it’s bad. It’s as if halfway through filming, the decision was made to have Egwene rescue herself and Nynaeve’s role in the finale had to subsequently be reduced to this. It’s arguably worse than when Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) ran around doing nothing in the first season finale.

Perrin, at least, has a much meatier role in this episode. He really only does one important thing – killing Geofram Bornhald (Stuart Graham) in revenge for Bornhald’s merciless slaughter of Perrin’s wolf-companion Hopper (Ka Lupinka, an incredible actor who really sells the animal’s last moments) – but it marks a turning-point in his journey towards reconciling the vastly different identities of the wolf and the man tangled up within him to form what is known as a “Wolfbrother”. And he now has Geofram’s vengeful son Dain Bornhald (Jay Duffy) to worry about heading into season three. A shame, that whole situation. Those two were were cute together, fighting back-to-back in the streets of Falme with a dexterity and speed that would give anyone the impression they had known each other for more than a few hours, at most. My only disappointment is that Perrin didn’t get a meaningful scene with Ingtar (Gregg Chillingirian) before the latter’s sudden death, which might have had a chance of resonating with viewers if a scene confirming that he was a Darkfriend seeking redemption (as in the books) had not been cut from the episode.

Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere walking alongside Xelia Mendes-Jones as Renna through a stone colonnade. Egwene is wearing a large gold collar over a long-sleeved gray dress, and has a golden disc in her mouth as a gag. Her dark hair is braided. Renna wears lightweight red-brown leather armor like the carapace of a beetle over a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. Her dark hair hangs in two long braids, and the lower face of her face is painted dark blue.
Egwene and Renna | ew.com

Ingtar at least steals the Horn of Valere back from the Seanchan, so he’s not a total waste of precious screentime in an episode that needed to be a half-hour longer, but of course it’s Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn) who eventually blows the Horn – which has a very silly design and is distractingly reminiscent of a plastic bottle of laundry detergent – summoning an equally silly troupe of Renaissance Faire-goers to fight for the Light. To be fair, some of them look pretty cool: Amaresu (Hélène Tran), mentioned in the books to be the female counterpart of the Dragon Reborn in other Turnings of the Wheel, is absolutely stunning, and I want to see more of her (I hope that her taking the Horn from Mat is an an indication that we will). But it’s hard to believe this was “probably the most expensive shot in season two”, when most of the other Heroes, including fan-favorite Birgitte Silverbow, are portrayed by uncredited extras on whom the camera lingers for only a few seconds.

To the delight of many, however, one-eyed warrior Uno Nomesta (Guy Roberts) returns as a Hero of the Horn, allowing the character – who did not die in the books – to show up again in the future. But the biggest surprise is that Mat, too, is a Hero. It’s a change, and it will have consequences, but it might not be such a bad idea. His arc has been building to this moment of much-needed catharsis, where he realizes that he is not, in fact, bound to the Dark One in every lifetime, and if having your soul cosmically linked to a musical instrument for eternity sounds only marginally better to me, it’s still huge for Mat’s character development. Since childhood, he’s been told that he’s not a good person or capable of becoming one, and everyone from his parents to total strangers have made him believe it. But there’s a goodness in Mat Cauthon that nothing and no one can suppress.

Still, though, that pesky cursed dagger he stole from Shadar Logoth tempts him, and even Mat’s solution of tying it to the end of a quarterstaff so he doesn’t come in contact with it ultimately backfires, as he tries to impale Ishamael with his makeshift weapon and accidentally stabs Rand in the stomach, fulfilling Min Farshaw’s viewing of him “killing” Rand with the dagger, albeit not quite how she envisioned. Luckily, the dagger which has corroded most of its other victims from the inside out in a matter of seconds takes its sweet time with Rand, or Elayne might not have been able to save him. In all seriousness, it’s not that big a deal, but it is a little convenient.

Rand, controversially, spends much of the episode lying glassy-eyed in a pile of rubble while his friends hold off Ishamael, shielded by Seanchan damane and suffering from the injury in his side. Between killing the High Lord Turak (Daniel Francis) and his elite bodyguards with a volley of highly precise armor-penetrating fireballs and somewhat meekly pushing his burning sword through Ishamael’s chest, he doesn’t do anything particularly flashy with the One Power, certainly nothing on the level of Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) blowing the Seanchan fleet to smithereens from miles away, and his big moment – telling Ishamael to his face that he will never serve the Dark One, because “in a thousand lives, I never have” – falls flat without the full weight of the Flicker, Flicker, Flicker sequence from The Great Hunt underscoring his words. The Wheel Of Time keeps putting off Rand’s truly epic and iconic scenes for another season, and it’s a worrisome trend.

With that said, Rand being less powerful than in the early books makes sense for where he is in the show – he’s only reached out to the True Source a few times, after all, mostly without thinking, and he hasn’t had any training outside of a single short conversation with Logain, who was cut off from the Source and therefore of very little help to Rand. But it’s worth noting that Nynaeve has had almost the exact same experience, and when she wields the One Power, the extent of her strength seems almost infinite. When Rand channels, I always get the sense that he’s holding back, using threads of the Power when he could be pulling on the very tapestry that makes up reality itself. At least he has plenty of room to grow from here, but it has to happen soon. The Forsaken are coming, and I’d rather we see actual, evenly-matched battles between them and Rand as opposed to…whatever the heck happened with Ishamael.

Ironically, Ishamael’s defeat isn’t all that different from how it plays out twice in the first three books, but if it was underwhelming then, it’s doubly so in a visual medium. Especially because the show is trying to do better by the Forsaken, and was on the right track giving them nuance, complexity, and depth to their motivations. It was refreshing to see a soft-spoken yet devastatingly competent version of Ishamael, completely unlike his snarling cartoonish counterpart from the books but far more engaging. To be fair, it’s heavily implied in the show that he went into the confrontation with Rand assuming he would die and even looking forward to it, which is very in-character for him, but he exerts too little of his power to make the charade seem believable. We’re talking about a character who could easily be teleporting behind Egwene’s barrier to catch her off-guard, and he’s standing still the whole time, firing off insignificant bullets.

I have faith, still, that this was a poorly executed but deliberate choice, and that Rand will not be able to blow through the remaining Forsaken like so much paper. Ishamael was the only one who so eagerly anticipated the Wheel of Time’s annihilation and his own along with it that he would sacrifice himself on Rand’s sword without hesitation if it could potentially result in the Dark One’s final victory over the Light and the unmaking of the Pattern. The others, with the possible exception of Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe), may fear the Dark One and at times revere him, but none would not happily betray him if they felt safe doing so. They each have an agenda. Take Lanfear, for instance. I don’t think she’s seriously considered breaking the Wheel for one moment; her goal is and has always been to win back the heart of Lews Therin Telamon (Karim Alexander), whose soul now resides in Rand’s humbler body, and to rule the world alongside him, never letting him leave her again. She won’t let the Dark One have him.

I’m curious to know what drove Laia Costa’s Moghedien to the Shadow in the first place, and what she wants now. From the little time we spend with her at the very end of the episode, I’m honestly not sure if she has a single coherent thought in her head, but the books do tell us that during the Age of Legends, she was named Lillen Moiral, and worked as an investment advisor, violating every rule of ethics in her pursuit of material power. As a relatively weak channeler, she had to master the art of fading into the background, letting her opponents walk all over her until she had gotten them to lower their guard, and then striking with deadly precision, disappearing before the body hit the floor. She uses this exact tactic on Lanfear, playing at being helpless and child-like until she suddenly has the stronger Forsaken tangled in her webs. She can’t kill Lanfear, but she leaves her with a warning to stay away from Rand: “He’s ours now. All five of them are.”

With Ishamael dead and the series caught up to the ending of The Dragon Reborn, the characters are poised to begin their Shadow Rising arcs; Rand, Egwene and Mat heading to the Aiel Waste for the kind of training they can’t receive elsewhere, Perrin returning to the Two Rivers to deal with the unresolved issue of Padan Fain (Johann Myers), and Nynaeve and Elayne hunting the Black Ajah in Tanchico, while at the White Tower Siuan will face the greatest challenge to her authority as Amyrlin Seat. The Shadow Rising is widely regarded to be one of, if not the, best book in The Wheel Of Time, so expectations are understandably high – and the third season needs to be a hit, because season four was not greenlit far in advance and the second season’s viewing numbers, while relatively strong, were obviously impacted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes preventing writers and actors from doing promotion on their social media or attending premieres and events, not to mention Amazon’s already sparse marketing (a single trailer, that’s all we got) and the gap of almost two years between seasons.

Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred and Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran in The Wheel Of Time, standing in shallow water on a beach with clear skies above them. Behind them looms a sandstone gate on a dais with steps leading up to it. Moiraine is wearing a dark blue long-sleeved gown over a knitted white blouse. She has long brown hair. Lan is wearing a gray tunic and trousers, with a sword strapped to his back. His dark hair is worn in a topknot.
Moiraine and Lan | ign.com

But The Wheel Of Time deserves to keep turning for a long time yet. The second season, even this imperfect but wildly enjoyable finale, earns the series its place alongside many of its higher-profile competitors in the fantasy genre (dare I say above most, including the more expensive but not as instantly engaging Rings Of Power). The vast world that Robert Jordan created and The Wheel Of Time‘s production designers, set designers, propmakers, costumers, hairstylists, and makeup-artists made into a richly detailed reality is one in which fans can immerse themselves for years and still discover something new. The magic system, vividly realized by the VFX artists and fight coordinators, is among the most intricate that exist, and its depths were unplumbed even by their originator. Most importantly, the characters ripped off the page and brought to life by the series’ incredible cast of actors, from established stars Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney to relative newcomers Madeleine Madden and Zoë Robins, can support at least as many stories as any of the minor historical figures mentioned in The Lord Of The Rings and A Song Of Ice And Fire who now lead movies and series’. The Wheel Of Time has reached the big leagues. In fact, it got there before the season midpoint. But whether the average viewer knows it will entirely depend on word-of-mouth as long as Amazon’s promotion continues to be nonexistent. And not to be too pushy, but I kinda need that fourth season (and a fifth, and a sixth, and so on), so, uh, go watch it maybe?

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

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High Camp Meets High Fantasy In “The Wheel Of Time” Season 2, Episode 5

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON TWO, EPISODES 1 – 5, AND BOOKS 1 – 3, AHEAD!

This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here would not exist.

I’m not sure how Robert Jordan would feel about me describing his books as campy. But that’s beside the point. His books are campy, and delightfully so. The Eye Of The World, the first book in what would grow to become a fourteen-volume series spanning decades, was published in 1990, and hailed as a radical return to the classic formula that initially made high fantasy successful after a decade of the genre being dominated by weird, esoteric science-fantasy and grim, hypermasculine sword-and-sorcery, but far from being just another tired take on the hero’s quest, The Wheel Of Time is distinctly fun, right down to the iconic, endearingly garish cover of the first book that depicts Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) as a seemingly three-foot tall woman with a beehive updo sitting sidesaddle on a white pony, riding alongside a hulking samurai. It’s a colorful blend of the poetry and profundity of Tolkien and Le Guin’s seminal works, the vividly pulpy imagery of Brothers Hildebrandt artwork from the 70’s, and the wild romanticism of McCaffrey’s Dragonriders books, rolled up into the strongest, trippiest joint you can possibly imagine.

(Left to right) a Seanchan soldier; Fares Fares as Ishamael; Karima McAdams as High Lady Suroth; Jessica Boone as Alwhin; and a second Seanchan soldier. Ishamael is wearing a black leather vest over a long-sleeved white shirt with dark trousers. He has dark hair slicked back, and a dark beard flecked with gray. Suroth is wearing a rust-red scale-patterned coat with a long train bunched up around her feet, over an orange vest and teal-blue gown. She is bald apart from a strip of dark hair down the center of her scalp. Alwhin is wearing a bronze-colored scale-patterned jacket and a long rust-red gown. She has dark brown hair neatly arranged in geometric buns on the side of her head, and her face is partially covered by a mask. They are all standing under a teal-blue and rust-red canopy in a lavishly furnished room with hanging lamps.
Ishamael and High Lady Suroth | press.amazonstudios.com

Of course, grabbing a little bit of everything encompassed by the fantasy genre means that, inevitably, a few unsavory or downright icky ingredients make it into the mix. Every book in the series is as dense as the day is long, and the lore only gets more incomprehensible the deeper you go. The rules of Jordan’s gendered magic-system are extremely dated, and he writes women like he heard about them once from fragments of an ancient, poorly-translated myth. The queer representation, even if progressive for the time, is still abysmal. It’s a difficult book series to recommend for all these reasons. But if you happen to enjoy camp, there are the fabulously-dressed, morally-ambiguous middle-aged sorceresses to consider. The eccentric and overtly queer-coded villains who throw masquerade-balls and tea-parties in their spare time, fierce young women put through the ringer both emotionally and physically, and numerous hunks with romance novel-ready hairstyles, many of them stoic and brooding and deeply repressed, are a nice treat, too.

And of course, there’s the kink and eroticism, can’t forget all the kink and eroticism.

While Amazon’s adaptation of The Wheel Of Time may not be skewing close to the plot of the books in its second season, the series has never been more faithful to the essence of the source material than it is right now, simply by being unapologetically fun, bold, and at times a little bizarre. I mean, we were straying into surreal territory already with the Trial of the Arches, but I think Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) donning a BDSM-inspired all-black leather outfit to seduce submissive farm-boy Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) in the World of Dreams might be what finally convinces the average viewer that this is not another Lord Of The Rings or Game Of Thrones, and it’s not trying to be, either. The Wheel Of Time was made for the girls and the gays. Unintentionally? Perhaps that’s what Jordan would say, but there’s no way showrunner Rafe Judkins – a gay man himself – doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Episode five is high camp from start to finish, opening on the masked High Lady Suroth (Karima McAdams) having her foot-long lacquered fingernails clipped with a sword to symbolize her fall from grace, and closing on O’Keeffe’s Lanfear debuting her dominatrix look. Every minute in between is practically dripping with the homoerotic subtext that Jordan injected into so much of his writing; somehow most palpable when Lanfear and Ishamael (Fares Fares) are onscreen together, going over their plans. While they circle each other with a hungriness in their eyes, both wearing oversized, open-collared nightshirts and sipping wine from enormous goblets, there’s one thing on both their minds, and it’s Rand al’Thor (an underrated hilarious aspect of The Wheel Of Time is the fact that Rand is Just Some Guy™ in this Age, but all these three-thousand year old entities with enormous power remember him as someone completely different, and much more impressive). The Forsaken take turns toying with each other’s emotions – and demonstrating their prowess in the World of Dreams – by conjuring lifelike images of the sheepherder lying in Ishamael’s bed, while they loom over him. Ishamael even snuggles up to him and caresses his face at one point. I legitimately believe things would have escalated further if Ishamael hadn’t been woken out of his pleasant dream by something in the real world that was no doubt far less interesting to him.

Mind you, this isn’t the first time Ishamael has shared an intensely erotic scene with one of the ta’veren boys – I have not forgotten how he force-fed Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) in episode three while making uncomfortably prolonged eye-contact with him – nor is it the last, but this is the first time in the show I think it’s unequivocally clear that Ishamael’s obsession with them has an undercurrent of sexual attraction. There’s certainly a debate to be had over whether The Wheel Of Time has enough heroic queer male characters in its cast to get away with portraying the main antagonist as a gay man, but anyone who’s watched any Disney animated movies can tell you that it’s the campy, queer-coded villains who make the strongest impression, and there’s no denying that Ishamael has been a highlight of the second season, his jovial nihilism unexpectedly endearing.

The fact that he looks and dresses like the grizzled, older, sexually adventurous wealthy businessman on the cover of a very filthy Wattpad fanfic is another point in his favor – and I don’t just mean because he’s very attractive for those who are into that sort of thing. The trope of a queer male villain besotted with a straight male protagonist is quite common. It’s rare, however, to see a queer male villain portrayed with such raw sex appeal, and that changes the whole dynamic. There is nothing loathsome or pitiable about Ishamael, nothing ineffective about his preferred tactic of seduction. He is potent, affecting everyone who comes into his orbit and leaving them shaken even if they manage to pull away. Take Perrin, for example. If he wasn’t bisexual before meeting Ishamael, he is now.

Put a pin in that, we’ll get back to it later. I’d be remiss for not first praising the scene-stealing performance of Natasha O’Keeffe as Lanfear, a juggernaut in black leather thigh-highs. She was holding back on us in the role of Lanfear’s alias, flighty, free-spirited Selene, diminishing herself and her presence to match what Rand wanted from her, but as Lanfear she effortlessly dominates the screen, a dismissive flick of her wrist the most motion required to pop a man’s skull like soap-bubbles or stitch a woman’s mouth shut with intricate needlework. She seems to take joy in doling out these and other sadistic punishments for the minor offence of existing in her vicinity, but no pride. She does not swagger or brag to intimidate those she does not see as her equals. Everything humans have built and accomplished in the last three-thousand years since the Breaking is of little interest to her, or provokes a mild disappointment. But then, even the other Forsaken who survived the Breaking, powerful as they are, earn her derision – “Moghedien’s insane, Graendal’s a vain idiot, and the boys couldn’t execute a plan even if they were under Compulsion”. Rand has her respect, because of what he is, while Ishamael has her partial attention because he stands in her way.

Lanfear is iconic, and we love to watch her on a rampage, but she would not be half as interesting if she were simply evil for the sake of being evil. While the Dark One wants to break the Wheel of Time to restore the universe to its natural state of chaos, and Ishamael believes that breaking the Wheel will end the cycle of violence and suffering, Lanfear – unsurprisingly – could not care less what happens to the world, as long as she and Rand walk away from the Last Battle hand-in-hand. She loved the last Dragon before Rand, Lews Therin Telamon, and when he left her for his eventual wife, she turned to the Dark to get him back. With all that said, I do hope the show eventually delves a bit more into who Lanfear was before the Breaking, including her work as a quantum physicist and her involvement in releasing the Dark One, because there’s more to her, too, than her relationship with that scummy dude.

The Wheel Of Time has taken an empathetic approach to many of its villains (with the notable and appropriate exception of the imperialist Seanchan); Liandrin Guirale (Kate Fleetwood) is among the most three-dimensional characters in the series, which is incredible given that Robert Jordan wrote her to be the exact opposite, a mustache-twirling minor antagonist whose schemes were repeatedly foiled by her own unamusing incompetence. Fleetwood’s Liandrin, apart from being complex and compelling, is also extremely capable. She sidesteps every trap laid for her, and does what she can, with the limited power at her disposal, to walk a fine line through the gray area between Light and Dark. She turns Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoe Robins) and Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) over to the Seanchan as prisoners, as expected of her, but frees her beloved Nynaeve just before exiting through the Waygate and stranding them there with High Lady Suroth – who is incompetent and only succeeds at collecting Egwene, letting Nynaeve and Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney) slip through her (now significantly shorter) fingernails.

Katie Leung as Yassica and Meera Syal as Verin Mathwin in The Wheel Of Time, seated next to each other on a couch, staring down at a piece of parchment. Yassica has short dark hair pulled into a low bun, and wears a brown sweater over a white blouse and a long brown dress. Verin has short gray hair, and wears a light brown gown over a white blouse. She is peering through a golden monocle on a chain around her neck.
Yassica and Verin Mathwin | press.amazonstudios.com

Back at the White Tower, the sudden disappearance of three very powerful Novices does not go unnoticed, but someone – Liandrin or another Darkfriend amongst the Aes Sedai – has already contrived a cover-story; that the girls received permission to attend Elayne’s brother Gawyn’s nameday ceremony in Caemlyn. Furthermore, the same someone used a forbidden weave of Compulsion (essentially mind-control) on the kindly Mistress of Novices, Sheriam Bayanar (Rima Te Wiata), to make her write the blatant lie into her log, breaking the Three Oaths…unless, of course, Sheriam is a Darkfriend herself? In a short amount of time, the show does a fairly good job of making the viewer feel suddenly unsure of who to trust, just as the books did when the so-called “Black Ajah” made up of Darkfriends first came to light.

I’m a little sad that Egwene and Nynaeve couldn’t participate in the investigation of the Black Ajah, as they did in the books, but I would gladly watch an entire spin-off series focused on Verin Mathwin (Meera Syal) and her fellow sisters of the Brown Ajah playing at being detectives in their stead, taking on a different Darkfriend each week. If the lovably quirky Brown Yassica seems familiar, by the way, that’s probably because she’s played by Katie Leung, best known as Cho Chang in the Harry Potter series and as the voice of Caitlyn in Arcane: League Of Legends (though as Yassica, Dundee-born Leung speaks with the strong Scottish accent she’s spoken in the past about wanting to use more frequently).

Another recognizable face in episode five is that of Will Tudor (Olyvar in Game Of Thrones, and Sebastian in Shadowhunters), who joins the ensemble cast of The Wheel Of Time as Moiraine’s foppish nephew, Barthanes Damodred, soon to be the King of Cairhien through marriage to Queen Galldrian. Moiraine’s interactions with her family continue to be surprisingly meaningful, probably ranking among her best scenes in the series despite having the least basis in the source material, though the very subtle references or allusions being made to the ruination of House Damodred during the Aiel War by Moiraine’s uncle will likely fly over most viewers’ heads, as I don’t feel the show has done enough to connect those dots. With the Aiel being introduced properly in this episode, you’d think this would be the perfect moment to expand on their lore.

But that’s why I’m here, to provide you with answers to all your questions. In short, the Aiel are a society of primarily red-haired warriors who come from the Waste beyond the Spine of the World, and follow a complex system of honor and indebtment called ji’e’toh. They are divided into several clans and subdivided into dozens of individual “septs” – Aviendha (Ayoola Smart), whom Perrin first meets as a prisoner of the Whitecloaks in this episode, is of the Nine Valleys Sept of the Taardad Aiel, for instance. She and many other Maidens of the Spear were sent west across the Spine in search of their prophesied Car’a’carn, or “Chief of Chiefs” (no bonus points for guessing who that might be). Aviendha is one of the most important characters in The Wheel Of Time going forward, and bringing her into the story at this early stage makes sense from a writing perspective, though I’m of two minds on how the writers actually went about it – lifting Aviendha out of her subplot with Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne and transplanting her in Perrin’s subplot, replacing Gaul as the Aiel he rescues from a cage, incurring much toh.

The change is logical in the short-term – Aviendha is by far the more relevant of the two characters, and needed a momentous opening scene – but in the long-run, it’s hard to believe that Perrin and Aviendha will have many more opportunities to interact, while her, Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne (colloquially referred to as the “Wondergirls”) form enduring connections in the books and share many of their greatest moments in future storylines between them. Losing Gaul also means changes to Perrin’s arc, though they might not be quite as consequential if Gaul is introduced early next season, before Perrin’s The Shadow Rising arc kicks off. And while I don’t necessarily expect anyone to take me seriously on this, it also means Perrin is missing the source of all the homoerotic tension in his storyline. Thankfully, Dain Bornhald (Jay Duffy) steps in to fill that role quite effectively.

Dain is one of these characters that got tiring to read about in the books after a while because his relationship to Perrin was just so tenuous and one-dimensional, but Dain in the show is a different story. Him and Perrin have chemistry, however you want to interpret it. Maybe they’re just totally platonic bros who share drinks by candlelight and give each other cute nicknames and bond over their trauma. I’m not sure I buy it, with the way Dain was checking Perrin out, but it’s possible. Either way, having them interact before the season finale – and the event that shapes both their futures – was a smart choice.

The Whitecloaks, of which Dain is a part, are extremely important in the finale, and I would have liked more setup for their storyline, but the episode was already juggling a large number of subplots and one more thing on top of the pile might well have been too many. We don’t even see Dónal Finn’s Mat, and still there’s a lot going on. Two scenes that definitely needed more room to breathe were the capture of Egwene by the Seanchan and the reunion between Moiraine and Rand – the former could have used an extra few minutes of action, the latter even just a few additional lines of dialogue. Of course, with more and longer episodes per season, this wouldn’t be a problem, but The Wheel Of Time is just one of many large-scale streaming series’ being undermined by time constraints for which there is no good reason. We’re past the middle-point of the season now. The people who are still watching are probably more likely to be put off by a lack screentime rather than by an overabundance of it. Amazon really needs to give its best fantasy show everything it’s earned with this incredible second season, including ten episodes (though I wouldn’t be opposed to twelve), each at least an hour and ten minutes long, and a larger budget so that the VFX isn’t spread thin and we can visit more locations.

Jay Duffy as Dain Bornhald sitting across from Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara (whose back is turned to the camera) at a table outdoors, every inch of which seems to be covered with low candles providing a slightly romantic atmosphere. Dain is wearing a brown mantle over his clothes, and black leather gloves. He has short blonde hair swept to one side and a beard.
Perrin Aybara and Dain Bornhald | press.amazonstudios.com

What the writers, directors, cast, and showrunner have done with this episode is elevate The Wheel Of Time once again to a point you don’t think can possibly be surpassed – only to top themselves again the week after. Episode four was the exception, not the rule, and although with the season now completed I can say for certain that the seventh and eighth episodes don’t quite surpass the highest highs of episodes three, five, and six, my favorites, the difference is largely a matter of which characters I believe were underutilized or misrepresented as a book reader, and not really a reflection on the show’s quality. The Wheel Of Time is an excellent adaptation, the best kind in fact: one that takes risks by making bold, purposeful changes to the source material while honoring the themes and tone of the books. Nailing the blend of unserious, delightfully irreverent campiness and drama played completely straight was probably the trickiest part, but they got it. I walked away from episode five craving more of the Forsaken, their sexually charged interactions with just about everybody, and that unmistakable queerness that is woven into the very fabric of this fantasy world.

I can’t speak for all of us in the fandom, but I know that’s what I’ve been looking for from this adaptation. The Wheel Of Time has always been high camp. It’s just finally embracing it.

Episode Rating: 9/10

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The Wheel Of Time Turns Again In Season Two Trailer

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.

Official poster for The Wheel Of Time season two. In the center stands Moiraine, wearing a dark blue vest over a white blouse with a long blue dress. She holds a short knife. Her brown hair is unbound. To the right of her are Rand, with a shaven head, coiled in orange threads of the One Power; Perrin, wearing a dark green woven leather vest over a red shirt; and Mat, wearing a dirty olive-green coat with unkempt curly hair. To the left of her are Lan, reaching over his shoulder for the sword strapped to his back; Nynaeve, wearing white and staring defiantly at the camera; and Egwene, wearing white, with blue threads of the One Power winding around her. They are all superimposed against a large gold disc on a blue background.
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, all riding in a palanquin with ornate metal railings and a canopy. Alwhin wears a rust-colored gown with frilly teal sleeves, and a mask of woven brass covering her face. Suroth, seated on a throne, wears heavier rust-colored robes with frilly teal sleeves, and golden epaulets, with a large tusked golden mask covering all of her face but her mouth. The first two fingernails on both her hands are extremely long and bladed. Ishamael, leaning on the railing, wears a gray shirt with a modern collar and high-waisted black trousers.
(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, wearing a white dress with a wide leather belt, standing framed between the stone pillars of a silver archway standing on a dais in the center of a round stone chamber underneath the White Tower. Candles burn in sconces on the far wall. Behind Nynaeve are Sheriam Bayanar, Leane Sharif, and Liandrin Guirale.
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.

Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor in The Wheel Of Time, wearing dark clothes, kneeling on the floor of a small bedroom in an inn, staring up with wide, horror-stricken eyes as orange threads of the One Power burst from his hands and curl upwards around him towards the ceiling.
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.

Fares Fares as Ishamael in The Wheel Of Time, standing in the center of a dark cave, wearing a tailored black suit with a distinctly modern cut, arms by his side, head back, eyes closed and lips slightly parted as glowing green threads of the One Power weave around him, forming widening, interlocking rings.
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.

Trailer Rating: 9/10