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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” Casts Four Andoran Royals

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME THROUGH BOOK FIVE: THE FIRES OF HEAVEN, AND POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON THREE, AHEAD!

This morning, The Wheel Of Time announced through their official social media channels that Olivia Williams, Luke Fetherston, Callum Kerr, and Nuno Lopes had joined the cast for the upcoming third season of Amazon Prime’s epic fantasy series. This came as a surprise to absolutely no one who’s been following the production for any length of time, because the folks over at wotseries.com reported on Fetherston’s casting all the way back in May of 2023, Kerr’s in July 2023, Lopes’ in October 2023, and Williams’ in November 2023 – and were able to additionally confirm or make highly educated guesses that Fetherston was playing Gawyn Trakand, Kerr was playing Galad Trakand (yes, I know it’s Galad Damodred in the books; we’ll get to that), and Williams was playing Queen Morgase Trakand.

Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand in The Wheel Of Time, lowering a golden crown encrusted with rubies and pearls onto her head. She has long golden hair and wears a long-sleeved white dress.
Elayne Trakand | youtube.com

What did come as a shock to some of us this morning was the reveal that Fetherston was in fact playing Galad, and Kerr playing Gawyn, with an accompanying press release indicating that their canonical ages relative to their sister Elayne Trakand had been swapped, complicating the entire timeline and causing Discourse™…only for The Wheel Of Time to repost the casting announcement an hour later, corrected to show Fetherston playing Gawyn and Kerr playing Galad, as originally reported by wotseries.com. How the heck this happened is frankly beyond me – to mix up two fairly similar names in a tweet is one thing, but to simultaneously release an inaccurate press release to all of the Hollywood trades is extremely weird, and for Amazon to not immediately notice and amend their mistake is even weirder.

Here’s where we stand currently, assuming they haven’t issued another correction in the time it’s taken me to write this post: Luke Fetherston is Lord Gawyn Trakand; Callum Kerr is Lord Galad Trakand; Olivia Williams, currently starring in the HBO Max limited series Dune: Prophecy, is Queen Morgase Trakand; and Nuno Lopes is Lord Gaebril. Together with Elayne Trakand played by Ceara Coveney, they make up the royal family of Andor, one of the largest and most powerful nations in the Westlands. Andor is notable for having an unbroken line of female rulers dating back for centuries, although there have been several Wars of Succession, the most recent of which resulted in Morgase’s ascension to the Lion Throne of Caemlyn.

Morgase Trakand, Queen of Andor and High Seat of House Trakand, became Queen at a very young age, after the death of her close relative Queen Mordrellen Mantear and the disappearance of Mordrellen’s only daughter, Tigraine Mantear. In the books, Morgase’s claim to the Lion Throne was clear enough that she was able to gain the support of most of the noble Houses and seize power with very few casualties, but the character description released by Amazon describes this event as a “brutal war” and seems to imply that Morgase has the blood of rival claimants on her hands: “She has sworn ever since to shield her daughter and heir, Elayne, from ever having to endure what she did – and do what she did.”

Olivia Williams in Dune: Prophecy. She has dark hair pulled back in a low bun and wears a long-sleeved black dress.
Olivia Williams in Dune: Prophecy | latimes.com

In the books, Morgase solidified her claim by marrying Lord Taringail Damodred, the husband of the former Daughter-Heir Tigraine Mantear, and adopting their son, Galad Damodred. She had two children with Taringail, Gawyn and Elayne Trakand, before Taringail died under…very suspicious circumstances. His death, in which Morgase is widely believed to have had a hand, is potentially one of those morally ambiguous actions The Wheel Of Time is implying she had to take to protect herself and her daughter: although I’d be a little surprised if the show had time to get into any of this, especially since Galad hasn’t been said to be Morgase’s step-son or Elayne and Gawyn’s half-brother, and his character description refers to him as the “first-born son”.

But if Galad is in fact Morgase’s son in the show, that creates some complications, as Galad would be “First Prince of the Sword”, a title belonging to his younger brother (but Morgase’s eldest son) Gawyn in the books. That title and the responsibilities that come with it weigh heavily on Gawyn’s shoulders, and are one of the main reasons why he’s…like that. As a toddler, he had to swear an oath to protect Elayne with his life, and has been hardwired to literally throw himself in front of her at the first sign of danger. And as an adult, it shows. He doesn’t stop to think things through before jumping to conclusions and acting on his impulses – which has consequences, really severe ones, when you’re the commander of the Andoran military by virtue of blood rather than merit. Unsurprisingly, Gawyn is one of the most hated characters in The Wheel Of Time.

Galad is also pretty divisive, but somewhat less so than Gawyn – which says a lot about Gawyn, because he’s not the brother who enthusiastically signs up to be a Whitecloak and go around persecuting Aes Sedai, that’s Galad, and yet the majority of fans, if asked to pick between the two, would probably choose Galad. It undoubtedly helps that Galad is described as tall, androgynous, and exceptionally beautiful in the books, while Gawyn has more boyish features. Looking at Luke Fetherston and Callum Kerr, I have to be honest, it’s hard to visualize Fetherston as Gawyn and nigh on impossible to see Galad in Kerr. They’re both attractive men; I’m not disputing that. But the statuesque Fetherston has a beauty that is ironically more suited to Galad than Gawyn, while Kerr’s ruggedness doesn’t really fit either character. And Fetherston strongly resembles another actor on the show that it would make sense for Galad to look like, but not Gawyn.

As for Lord Gaebril, the male consort and influential advisor to Morgase is a nobleman from western Andor – the area that encompasses the Two Rivers. He has a consequential role to play, maybe not this season but certainly in the next, and that’s…all I can say on the matter without getting into some seriously spoilery territory.

Luke Fetherston, sitting in front of a gray background, wearing a white t-shirt and black pants. He has short reddish-brown hair.
Luke Fetherston | pop-culturalist.com

Conspicuously absent is the character of Gareth Bryne, Captain-General of the Queen’s Guard and to Morgase what Gawyn is to Elayne, her First Prince of the Sword. This could mean that Bryne has been cut; it could also mean that he’s still in the show but in a much smaller role, making a casting announcement for his character unnecessary; or it could mean that he’s still in the show and in a significant role, just not in season three. In the books, Bryne is dismissed from service shortly after Lord Gaebril’s arrival at court, so it’s entirely possible that this has happened already in the show and that Bryne is in Kore Springs throughout season three. We’ll have to wait and see.

What do you think of the casting announcements? Who are you most excited to see in The Wheel Of Time season three? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

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Moiraine Must Die In “The Wheel Of Time” Season 3 Teaser

SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME BOOK FOUR: THE SHADOW RISING AND BOOK FIVE: FIRES FROM HEAVEN, AND POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON THREE AHEAD!

Moiraine Damodred has been prepared to meet a violent end since The Wheel Of Time season one, when she accompanied Rand al’Thor to the Eye of the World expecting to be “ground to dust”, as she put it, between the opposing powers of two cosmic enemies; Rand himself, a.k.a. the Dragon Reborn, and the Dark One. In so doing, she hoped to bring about a quick end to what would otherwise escalate into a large-scale conflict between armies, in which thousands would die and chaos would reign. Given that there are eight seasons of The Wheel Of Time planned, adapting a series of fourteen extraordinarily dense novels, it should go without saying that that is not what happened. Instead, and to her great dismay, Moiraine had to pick herself up after a crushing defeat and keep fighting, for the sake of the world rather than for herself. Throughout season two, which additionally saw her wrestling with the triple-fold loss of her ability to channel, her relationship with her Warder, and the trust of her lover, Moiraine rose again: because the world needed her to.

And now the world needs her to die.

Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor and Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred in The Wheel Of Time stand, accompanied by a group of Aiel warriors and at least one Wise One, at the edge of a cliff, looking out over a barren valley filled with fog and the ruins of ancient skyscrapers encircled by a tall wall. Rand has short reddish-brown hair and wears a white shirt and brown trousers, with a sword strapped to his back. Moiraine wears a hat, and a long dress. The Aiel warriors carry spears and wear lightweight sand-brown leather armor, while the Wise One is swathed head-to-toe in white fabric.
Rhuidean | youtube.com

The first teaser trailer for The Wheel Of Time season three follows Moiraine on a trippy journey through “a thousand thousand futures”, stalked and toyed with by the Dark One’s most powerful minions, as it’s revealed to her that across an infinite number of possible realities, one thing remains constant: either she dies, or Rand dies. And Rand is the Dragon Reborn, the only person in the world capable of defeating the Dark One at the Last Battle. He must survive until then, no matter the cost. For Moiraine, therefore, there is no choice to be made. She will die. She doesn’t know when, where, or how – though we see alternate versions of her being strangled and stabbed to death by Lanfear in different scenarios and settings, including one in which Lanfear has seemingly turned Rand and his friends to the dark. She only knows that when the time comes that both their lives hang in the balance, she will see to it that it is she who perishes and Rand who lives to fight another day.

Ironically, the person who probably stands to fare worst out of everyone here is Rand. The best possible outcome for him is the one in which he miraculously makes it to the Last Battle and saves the world before he dies, but death is as much a guarantee for him as it is for Moiraine, and he already knows exactly how his will transpire, as all male channelers inevitably succumb to madness. But even if he makes it that long, and it’s a big “if”, there’s a decent chance he loses to the Dark One and has to watch the world burn because of his failure in his final moments. And if the madness takes him before the Last Battle, it’s not only possible but likely that he’ll end up destroying the world on his own, without the Dark One having to lift a finger. Some of the Aes Sedai sorceresses would happily “gentle” him, permanently removing his ability to channel, but of course, Rand can’t go up against the Dark One without the One Power at his fingertips. And now, on top of everything else he has going on, Moiraine is gonna go and die, burdening him with the pressure that will come from knowing that she did so to save him so that he might save everyone else? I too would run off into the desert if I were Rand.

But for Rand, the solitude of the Waste only offers more grisly ways to die, and I’m not just talking about the harsh weather and living conditions. Rand has deep connections to the Waste and to the people who live there, red-haired warriors known as the Aiel. They have their own set of prophecies about him, distinct from the prophecies of the Dragon Reborn, and to fulfil them, Rand must enter the ruined city of Rhuidean and brave the “glass columns”, a labyrinth of shimmering pillars that allow a person to relive crucial events from the Aiel’s ancient history through the eyes of their own ancestors. The paradigm-altering truths revealed there are too much for some to bear, and they go mad and die inside, which probably explains the veritable forest of spears standing outside the walls of the city in the image above – the spears of all those who entered and did not return. The glass columns of Rhuidean are the setting for one of the most vivid sequences in the entirety of the Wheel Of Time book series, a sequence we can see glimpses of in the images below:

Close-up blue-tinted image of Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, with a bright light shining behind him. He has close-cropped reddish-brown hair.
Rand in the Glass Columns | youtube.com
Blue-tinted wide shot of a tree with a thick trunk and sweeping boughs with moss hanging from them. A bright light shines behind it.
Avendesora | youtube.com

That tree is Avendesora, which grows at the center of the glass columns and is sacred to the Aiel, who gifted a sapling from Avendesora to the people of Cairhien to repay an old debt. The tree that sprang from that sapling, Avendoraldera, was later cut down by Moiraine’s uncle, King Laman Damodred, and its precious wood used to build him a larger throne, resulting in the Aiel War during which a coalition of the Aiel clans left the Waste, sacked Cairhien, killed Laman, and left, but not before one Aiel Maiden of the Spear gave birth to a son, Rand himself, on the blood-soaked slopes of Dragonmount. I know, I know, I just threw a lot of lore at you, but you’re here for a trailer breakdown, aren’t you? Let’s not even get into the fact that Avendesora isn’t technically a tree but a unique organism genetically engineered with the One Power…

While Rand peruses AielAncestry.com, Egwene begins learning from the Aiel Wise Ones how to “Dreamwalk” – enter the World of Dreams at will. The World of Dreams, or Tel’aran’rhiod, is the nebulous realm humans unconsciously enter when they sleep. The Wise Ones have mastered the ability to navigate this realm and manipulate it to a degree, though not to the level of someone like Lanfear, who considers herself the Queen of Tel’aran’rhiod, or Moghedien, whose power there is even greater. But Egwene in season three has just endured weeks or possibly months of imprisonment at the hands of the Seanchan and the appropriation of her own powers by a sadistic captor whom she brutally murdered. She is a very different woman than she was before that experience, and if Lanfear or Moghedien think they can toy with her in the World of Dreams, they’ve got another think coming. Let me remind you all that Egwene was able to single-handedly hold off Ishamael, the strongest of the Forsaken, for several minutes while beaten up and bruised in the immediate aftermath of the aforementioned murder.

Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere and Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, lying on their backs side-by-side on the floor of a tent, with pillows and rugs underneath them. Egwene has short dark hair and wears a gray top with baggy sleeves over a white tunic dress. Rand has short reddish-brown hair and wears a sand-brown coat over a partially unbuttoned off-white shirt.
Egwene al’Vere and Rand al’Thor | youtube.com
Out-of-focus close-up image of Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere. She has short dark brown hair.
Egwene al’Vere | youtube.com

We see Egwene and Rand lying next to each other in a tent, hands not quite touching, possibly indicating that they’ll Dreamwalk together, or perhaps belonging to a scene in which the two finally agree to end the untenable romantic relationship that was already on the rocks back in season one, even before Rand faked his death and ran away in an effort to protect her from himself. There are not many “Randgwene” shippers out there, but I am one, and I know that Wheel Of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins is another because the doomed love between Rand and Egwene has been a focal point of both season finales and a major factor in important decisions both characters have made, even though they technically called it quits in the very first episode, and Rand was briefly in a sexual relationship with Lanfear (a relationship that Lanfear is intent on rekindling, based on the trailer). But now, with Rand and Egwene starting down diverging paths, there has to be some kind of closure there before either character begins actively pursuing their eventual love interests.

Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, seated on a bed, with Isabella Bucceri as Faile on his lap, kissing him. Perrin has frizzy dark hair and a beard, and wears a sleeveless white shirt. Faile has short dark hair and wears a long-sleeved black jacket.
Perrin and Faile | youtube.com
Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, in battle. He has frizzy dark hair and a beard. He's wearing a steel breastplate and pauldrons over a shirt of woven leather rings like chain-mail. His face is covered in blood, sweat and grime. His eyes are gold.
Perrin Aybara | youtube.com

Love is in the cards for at least one of our main characters, though, as Perrin Aybara is shown kissing a dark-haired woman whom we can safely assume is Faile, the Hunter for the Horn who follows Perrin back to the Two Rivers in book four, The Shadow Rising, when he goes home to help liberate his people from an army of Whitecloaks under the command of his archnemesis Dain Bornhald. Perrin and Faile have a…tumultuous relationship in the books; I’ll be curious to see how The Wheel Of Time adapts that, especially with the significant change they’ve made to Perrin’s backstory, giving him a wife whose death he is directly responsible for, and whose memory still haunts him. Speaking of closure, Perrin’s return to the “scene of the crime” in season three will provide him a much-needed opportunity to put Laila to rest amidst everything else going on in the Two Rivers. There’s no sign in the trailer of Dain Bornhald himself, the peddler Padan Fain, or the mysterious Lord Luc, all key players in Perrin’s The Shadow Rising arc, but we do see Perrin leading the defense of the Two Rivers, so they’re around somewhere.

Wide shot of the Hall of Sitters in the White Tower. A woman in a long red gown is sitting on the Amyrlin Seat, with a dark-haired woman in a white dress sitting on the armrest at her left hand.
The Amyrlin Seat | youtube.com

Also conspicuously absent is the character of Elaida, one of The Wheel Of Time‘s most important antagonists, expected to be played by Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, who joined the cast after playfully engaging with fans and showrunner Rafe Judkins on social media who were fan-casting her as a different character, Cadsuane Melaidhrin. I thought we might have seen her briefly (see the image above), because what other Aes Sedai from the Red Ajah would be so brazenly enthroned on the Amyrlin Seat with a dark-haired woman in white at her side, but I’ve since been informed that the women in the image are more likely Liandrin Guirale and Lanfear, during some kind of dream sequence. You have to zoom in really close, but the woman on the throne does appear to have blonde hair and Kate Fleetwood’s distinctive cheekbones.

Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin Guirale, standing in a dark hall amidst a throng of masked and costumed revelers. She has long blonde hair and wears a long-sleeved crimson gown with a lace veil. She holds the edge of her veil up to her mouth with her left hand, which also sports a gold ring with a dark red gemstone set in it.
Liandrin Guirale | youtube.com

Liandrin is also shown unveiling herself at some kind of costume party (probably at the Panarch’s Palace in Tanchico, where she hides out in The Shadow Rising), speaking to the Forsaken Moghedien, and dueling Alanna Mosvani of the Green Ajah (potentially killing one or both of her Warders, based on a shot of Alanna sobbing over someone’s body) in the streets of Tar Valon itself, where violence is practically unheard of, let alone violence between Aes Sedai. But of course, Liandrin is no ordinary Aes Sedai: she may be Red Ajah, but her true loyalties lie with the Black Ajah, a faction of sorceresses sworn to the Dark One, whose existence was a closely-guarded secret. In the books, Siuan Sanche is able to cover up Liandrin’s betrayal because it happens within the White Tower, behind closed doors, but if the show has her and Alanna blowing up large swathes of the city, that obviously won’t be possible, and there could be ripple effects: maybe the people of Tar Valon will begin to feel unsafe in the shadow of the Tower, and Elaida’s attempts to undermine Siuan’s authority will center around fanning the flames of this growing dissent.

Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere, Jennifer Cheon Garcia as Leane Sharif, Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche and an unidentified fourth woman standing before the silver arches in the basement of the White Tower. Egwene has short dark hair and wears a white shift. Siuan has short dark hair and is wearing a silver coat and is channeling white ropes of the One Power with the assistance of Leane and the other woman, who wear blue and white, respectively.
Egwene’s Accepted Test | youtube.com

Something that I personally find very relieving is the fact that we see Siuan at the White Tower, specifically during what looks to be Egwene’s Accepted Test. You may remember that when season two was airing, I was…very vocal about my displeasure with how The Wheel Of Time was characterizing Siuan. I don’t feel like rehashing it all right now (you can read what I wrote then here) but one of my points was that Siuan being offscreen for most of the season and her long absence being hand-waved away, especially while Novices were being kidnapped from the White Tower, was not going to help endear her to audiences who still barely know her as a character in her own right, separate from Moiraine, with whom she shares nearly every scene in which she’s appeared and who is usually the viewpoint character in these scenes. It would be one thing if season three wasn’t adapting the events of The Shadow Rising, but if you’ve read that book, you probably know what I’m referring to when I say it’s about to be really important that audiences know Siuan and care about Siuan (again: separately from Moiraine!), and that’s a lot more difficult when she’s hardly ever around! And when she DOES show up, it’s to try and imprison Rand and abuse the Oath Moiraine swore to her…sorry, sorry, I said I wouldn’t rehash my issues with that episode. Let’s just say, I’m very happy to see her.

Zoe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara. She has long dark hair pulled back in a braid. She's wearing a long-sleeved white dress with a narrow oval cutout in the front.
Nynaeve al’Meara | youtube.com

I’d have loved to have seen a little bit more than one frame each of Nynaeve al’Meara, Mat Cauthon, Aviendha, and Min Farshaw. Nynaeve, because Zoë Robins has top-billing after Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney, and it’s a little weird to not see that reflected at all in the marketing, but also because Nynaeve had by far the least to do out of the Emond’s Field Five in the season two finale (I wholeheartedly believe that the plan up until the last minute was for her to rescue Egwene from the Seanchan kennels as she does in the books, and when the writers decided they were gonna have Egwene break herself out of captivity, they had no idea what to do with Nynaeve, and pulling an arrow out of Elayne’s leg for twenty minutes was the best they could come up with on a tight schedule and budget). I really need season three to remind people that she is not helpless without the One Power.

And Mat, well, I just want the poor guy to have some screentime this season. Though it’d sure be nice if he could have his long-awaited quarterstaff fight with Gawyn and Galad (who I suppose I should mention does appear in the trailer; there, I mentioned him). To be fair, Mat did get temporarily written off the show after the original actor abruptly dropped out midway through filming season one, requiring a recast and major rewrites, so he had to play catch-up throughout season two, but now that his storyline is pretty much back on track, I’m hopeful that season three will do more with him and with actor Dónal Finn.

A few stray observations: the cinematography has massively improved, and the budget looks much bigger, though I don’t have the exact numbers to state that with certainty. The VFX for the channeling is more seamless, the weaves more complex and more colorful, the digitally rendered environments and armies more expansive. I notice a lot of costumes from season two making a reappearance, but equally as many gorgeous new designs, with Alanna Mosvani’s gold-spangled green dress, the alternate reality Emond’s Field Five fits, and the head-to-toe white lace garments of the Wise Ones being particular favorites of mine already. And while I would never think to juxtapose the subject matter of The Wheel Of Time with “Hazy Shade of Winter” by The Bangles, I’ve gotta admit…it does work weirdly well. I mean, doesn’t hurt that it opens with the refrain “time, time, time”.

But now I want to hear what you think? What was your favorite part of the trailer? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

The Wheel Of Time returns for its third season on March 13th, 2025

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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