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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 Faile; Aiel Warriors, Wise Ones

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME THROUGH BOOK FIVE, THE FIRES OF HEAVEN, AHEAD!

Wheel Of Time Wednesdays are back! And according to Amazon, they’re here to stay, at least until the premiere of The Wheel Of Time‘s third season on March 13th, a little less than two months away. We still don’t have a full trailer for the fast approaching season, but we have been receiving casting announcements left and right over the last couple of weeks: Shohreh Aghdashloo and Olivia Williams are among those joining the epic fantasy series’ sprawling ensemble cast, which also boasts Oscar-nominees Rosamund Pike and Sophie Okonedo. And today, Amazon welcomed five more cast-members — Isabella Bucceri, Nukâka Coster-Waldau, Salóme Gunnarsdóttir, Björn Landberg, and Synnøve Macody Lund — all of whom will play significant roles from the pages of Robert Jordan’s saga. As has been the case with every casting announcement thus far, all five of these actors and actresses were already known or rumored to have been cast in the series, and some, like Bucceri, had already been linked to the characters they’re actually playing, but there are also some interesting new details tucked away in Amazon’s press release that hint at changes fans could not have predicted.

Black-and-white image of Isabella Bucceri, wearing a black leather jacket. She has long black hair.
Isabella Bucceri | Twitter @WoTUp5
Image of Björn Landberg. He has short white hair with dark eyebrows and wears all black.
Björn Landberg | filmmakers.eu

While there are over 2700 named characters in The Wheel Of Time, and it’s extremely easy to get them mixed up, no one who’s read the series will need to be reminded of Faile Bashere, the character Isabella Bucceri will portray in season three: everyone has an opinion on the sharp-tongued Saldaean adventurer who becomes Perrin Aybara’s love interest, and those opinions range anywhere from “love her, would die for her” to “hate her, please die” with people like myself falling somewhere in the middle; I generally like Faile individually, but her and Perrin together are unbearable to read about for more than a few sentences, in large part because the book versions of their characters are, like, sixteen, seventeen, and incapable of having a conversation without Perrin putting his foot in his mouth because he inadvertently ‘smelled’ Faile’s emotions (one of the drawbacks to having heightened senses) and confidently misinterpreted them, causing her to get angry, in turn causing him to get angry, and for them both to storm off, the one mumbling that ‘women are so confusing’ and the other grumbling that ‘men are such idiots’. I have to trust that one of the reasons for aging up the characters in the show was to avoid the mind-numbingly repetitive teenage angst that The Wheel Of Time is unfortunately notorious for, but then again, there was a random (and mercifully short-lived) love-triangle subplot between Perrin, Rand, and Egwene in season one, so anything’s possible.

In Amazon’s press release, as in the books, Faile is described as a Hunter for the Horn whose search for the artifact has led her to the Two Rivers. This presumably means we’ll lose the bit where Perrin tells Faile to stay in the city of Tear while he goes to check on things back in the Two Rivers because it’s too dangerous for her to go, she’s just a woman, blah blah blah — advice which she ignores. But otherwise, her description reads the same. Faile is introduced as a Hunter for the Horn in book three, The Dragon Reborn, and interestingly, tells Perrin about her theory that the Horn could be found in the Two Rivers amidst the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Manetheren. In the books, the Horn is already on its way to Tar Valon for safekeeping by that point, but the show made a subtle but potentially significant change when they had Amaresu, one of the Heroes of the Horn, take the Horn from Mat Cauthon at the end of season two: meaning that for the time being, it is somewhere in Tel’aran’rhiod, the World of Dreams, and not in the physical world.

Speaking of the World of Dreams, the next two characters — Bair (Coster-Waldau) and Melaine (Gunnarsdóttir) — are both ‘dreamwalkers’: women with the ability to enter the World of Dreams at will, and to an extent navigate its ever-changing paths. The ability to dreamwalk does not only manifest in women who can channel the One Power; Melaine cannot channel, while according to Amazon’s press release, Bair can (an odd change from the books, where it’s the other way around). Both women belong to the red-haired, desert-dwelling Aiel people, and hold positions of great status in their respective clans. They are called ‘Wise Ones’, and their words hold equal weight to those of their clan chiefs. There are many Wise Ones with the ability to channel and/or dreamwalk (likely outnumbering the Aes Sedai) but some can do neither and still be held in high esteem. Whereas Novices training to become Aes Sedai often spend years preparing for the perilous Accepted Test that decides whether they can advance any further, women who seek to become Wise Ones are immediately expected to pass a test very similar in structure, which involves entering a ter’angreal in the ruins of the city of Rhuidean that will show them the possible routes their lives may take.

A similar test awaits Aiel men who intend to become clan chiefs. With permission from the Wise Ones, these men will enter a separate, inverse ter’angreal in Rhuidean which forces them to relive events from their ancient history through the eyes of their direct ancestors. In this way, they will learn the truth of the ‘Sin’ that led to the Aiel becoming a patchwork of warring clans banished to the Wasteland beyond the Spine of the World. Few men return from the ter’angreal, fewer still with their sanity intact, but those who do come back bearing a dragon tattoo on their arm that marks them as their clan’s new chief, and are forbidden to speak of their experiences in Rhuidean. The current chief of the Taardad clan is Rhuarc (Landberg), an experienced warrior who has two wives, both Wise Ones. You’ll see more of the Taardad Aiel in the show than any other clan (besides the especially violent Shaido), as the Taardad are the clan to which Rand al’Thor’s parents belonged, and in which he would have been raised if he hadn’t been born on a battlefield and adopted by Tam al’Thor of the Two Rivers. Aviendha is also a member of the Taardad Aiel, though her friends Bain and Chiad belong to the Shaarad and Goshien Aiel, respectively.

Black-and-white image of Synnøve Macody Lund. She has short blonde hair and wears a long-sleeved top with black pants.
Synnøve Macody Lund | imdb.com

Probably for simplicity’s sake more than anything, the show has also chosen to make the character of Melindhra (Macody Lund) a member of the Taardad Aiel rather than the Shaido, but that isn’t even the biggest change that’s been made to this Maiden of the Spear’s backstory. The press release describes her as a Malkieri refugee who was taken in by the Taardad, setting her up to have a very different role in the show than in the books, where she’s romantically involved with Mat Cauthon for a short while. While there’s no evidence that Mat will go to the Waste in season three, we know that Lan Mandragoran, faithful Warder to Moiraine Damodred and heir to the lost throne of Malkier, will go there alongside Moiraine, Rand, and Egwene al’Vere. It seems obvious that, with Melindhra being a former citizen of Malkier herself, the two will bond. The question is: will their relationship be purely platonic, or is The Wheel Of Time overlaying Mat and Melindhra’s romance onto Lan and Melindhra? And if they do go that route, what does that mean for Lan’s ambiguous relationship with Nynaeve al’Meara? And what is Mat doing in season three if he’s not going to the Waste, where much of his character development occurs in the books?

I’m very curious to see how The Wheel Of Time answers these questions when the series returns, but in the meantime, I’d love for you to 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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10 Things To Get You Excited For “The Wheel Of Time” Season Three

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON TWO AND BOOKS ONE THROUGH FOUR, AHEAD!

The Wheel Of Time recently aired its second season finale, and fans of the epic fantasy series are eagerly looking forward to season three, currently filming in South Africa. So I thought I’d put together a list of the top ten things I’m most excited to see in season three, based on the fourth book in the original series of novels by Robert Jordan. The Shadow Rising, which picks up roughly around the same point in the narrative where the second season ends, is widely considered Jordan’s best book, features some of the most iconic scenes and sequences for which the series is known, and gives nearly every character a strong arc. Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Cover artwork of The Shadow Rising, book four in The Wheel Of Time series, by Darrel K. Sweet. A woman in a blue dress and a few men in brightly-colored coats stand around a fire in a landscape of strange stone pillars jutting into the sunset-streaked sky.
The Shadow Rising cover art by Darrel K. Sweet | dragonmount.com

10: Gawyn and Galad and Morgase

Whether due to time constraints or a deliberate choice by the writers to avoid attracting comparisons to Game Of Thrones, The Wheel Of Time has only briefly touched on the complex political situation in the Westlands, going no further than vaguely referencing nations and their monarchs: but politics become increasingly important as the book series progresses, particularly for Elayne Trakand and her family, who have for generations ruled the largest nation, Andor (which encompasses the Two Rivers region, where the story began). In the first book of the series, The Eye Of The World, it’s in the Andoran capital city of Caemlyn, rather than in Tar Valon, that Rand al’Thor reunites with his friends after being separated in Shadar Logoth, and there he meets for the first time Elayne, as well as her brothers Gawyn Trakand and Galad Damodred, and her mother Queen Morgase Trakand (and Morgase’s Aes Sedai advisor, Elaida; more on her later). In season three, with civil war brewing in Andor, these characters will become crucial at long last. They’re low on my list, however, because I detest Gawyn (shocking, I know), I have no strong feelings towards Galad whatsoever, and while I like Morgase, it’s evident that Robert Jordan never figured out exactly what he wanted to do with her, and both he and his successor Brandon Sanderson kept her pointlessly meandering about for a ridiculously long time. Hopefully the show can do better by all three of them.

9: Return of Thom

You probably wouldn’t guess it from how the adaptation has handled his character, but Thom Merrilin, the grizzled traveling bard or “gleeman” that Rand and Mat Cauthon briefly traveled alongside in season one, is one of the main characters in the books. After seemingly being killed by a Fade in The Eye Of The World, Thom reappears in Cairhien during the events of The Great Hunt, shares a few scenes with Rand, and dips out of the story to assassinate King Galldrian for reasons of his own, unintentionally plunging Cairhien into a civil war of its own. It may be that Thom was supposed to do something similar in season two, which would explain why Galldrian was name-dropped several times only to never actually appear, but whatever happened there, Alexandre Willaume ended up having scheduling conflicts with the now-canceled Netflix series 1899. Season three, for which he will finally return to the role, should find the gleeman in his The Shadow Rising storyline, escorting Nynaeve al’Meara and Elayne to Tanchico.

8: Faile

The hunt for the Horn of Valere was very nearly a wasted subplot in season two, but at least now the groundwork has been laid for the introduction of the most famous Hunter for the Horn, Faile Bashere. The thrill-seeking runaway princess of Saldaea first appears in The Dragon Reborn, traveling with a party of Hunters each hoping to win fame and glory for themselves by being the one to recover the fabled Horn and bring it to Illian. Perrin Aybara runs into her in the same small town where he frees an Aiel from a cage and makes an enemy of Whitecloaks, but seeing as that scene already played out quite differently in season two, the setting and circumstances of their meeting will obviously have to change in the show. Faile is a complex and flawed character who, by a supremely unfortunate accident, is presented to the reader from Perrin’s point-of-view before her own. He, like so many of Jordan’s male characters, regards all women as exasperatingly incomprehensible, and treats her with a kind of patronizing affection that only enrages her, leading him to become more confused, and so on and so forth. Their inevitable romance is not much fun to read about. I hope and pray with all my heart that the show does away with most of the miscommunication between them, including every instance of Perrin trying to figure out what Faile is thinking or feeling by smelling her. Ick.

7: The Battle of Emond’s Field

Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara in The Wheel Of Time season one, standing in the Two Rivers with wooden houses behind him and a mountain vista. He is wearing a leather apron over a green-blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He has short dark curly hair.
Perrin Aybara | winteriscoming.net

Having just put book Perrin on blast, let me clarify that show Perrin has done nothing wrong in his entire life, and behind Egwene al’Vere and Nynaeve al’Meara, he is indeed my favorite of the Emond’s Field Five (technically, that holds true for the books as well, but book Perrin trails the two women by a much larger margin and it says a lot about how much I don’t care for either Rand or Mat in the books that they’re still behind him despite that). Reaching and maintaining a balance between the wolf and the man within himself has been Perrin’s greatest challenge. He first wanted nothing to do with the wolves, perceiving them as manifestations of his worst instincts, and that resulted in failure. In season two, he took steps to learn about and embrace being a Wolfbrother, which led to the death of Geofram Bornhald at his hands. He needs to make peace with himself, and that will only happen when he finally comes to terms with what happened to Laila, his wife, in season one. Returning home to Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers will provide him with that necessary closure, and it just so happens that’s exactly where his The Shadow Rising storyline takes him (and Loial, Faile, Bain and Chiad). Much has changed there since he left, however, and Perrin will find himself reluctantly leading an uneasy coalition of Two Rivers folk, Whitecloaks, Tuatha’an, and Aes Sedai to repel an army of Shadowspawn led by the mysterious “Slayer”, an amalgamation of souls bound to the Dark One, in the Battle of Emond’s Field. If done well, this could be what ensures a fourth season for The Wheel Of Time all on its own – it’s that epic.

6: The Aiel Waste

Though his destiny does not lie in the Two Rivers, season three will be a homecoming of sorts for Rand as well. At the beginning of The Shadow Rising, he learns that he must go to the Three-fold Land (called the Waste by outsiders) beyond the Spine of the World, and there reconnect with his heritage as a long-lost son of the Aiel, the nomadic warriors who have lived in the Three-fold Land since the Breaking of the World, adopting a unique and complex system of honor and debts called ji’e’toh that informs nearly everything they do. Rand, like the spear-maiden Aviendha introduced in season two, belongs to the Taardad Aiel, one of twelve clans further divided into dozens of individual “septs” – his the Iron Mountain, hers the Nine Valleys. Each clan has a chief and a governing body of Wise Ones (the Aiel equivalent to the Aes Sedai of the Westlands), and to become either of these things means venturing alone into the ruins of Rhuidean, a city built shortly after the Breaking of the World by the now-extinct Jenn Aiel, glimpsing visions of the past through the glass columns ter’angreal, and returning burdened with the knowledge of where the Aiel came from, who they were, and what they did to become what they are now. Men who pass the test (and only men, because…sexism, mostly) come out bearing a dragon tattoo on one arm. As you can probably guess, Rand will have to undergo this test and experience for himself what awaits in the glass columns.

5: The Sea Folk

While I know I’ll hear some grumbling about their placement on this list over the Aiel and the Battle of Emond’s Field, I absolutely adore the Sea Folk, and I was overjoyed to learn that showrunner Rafe Judkins evidently does as well, from how he excitedly teased their introduction in season three at New York Comic-Con. The Sea Folk, or Atha’an Miere, are a seafaring people (obviously) who live on ships in the Aryth Ocean, making landfall in the Westlands very rarely except to trade their priceless porcelain and goods from the land of Shara in the east. Their elected leader is named the Mistress of the Ships, and rules alongside a Master of the Blades, often her consort. When the story opens, the Mistress of the Ships is Nesta din Reas Two Moons. Among the Atha’an Miere, most women who can channel do not go to the White Tower to become Aes Sedai but instead act as “Windfinders”, using secret weaves of Air and Water to calm the oceans, alter the weather, and turn the winds in their favor, propelling their peoples’ ships further and faster around the world. As a rule, the Atha’an Miere do not allow Aes Sedai passage on their ships for fear that their Windfinders will be found out. However, in The Shadow Rising, Nynaeve and Elayne negotiate with the Sailmistress Coine din Jubai Wild Winds to take them and Thom to Tanchico onboard the raker Wavedancer, and the two women cross paths with the Atha’an Miere regularly after that.

4: Elaida’s Coup

Shohreh Aghdashloo as Avasarala in The Expanse, striding through a snow-covered field wearing a fur-lined crimson cape with a hood over a jacket of the same color and mustard-yellow trousers. She has fur gloves, large earrings, and a silver belt.
Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Expanse | Twitter @PrimeVideo

I told you we would circle back to Elaida eventually. Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan of the Red Ajah is one of The Wheel Of Time‘s great antagonists, more enduring and more efficient – if only by sheer accident – than any of the Forsaken in the books, dividing the White Tower against itself at a time when it needs to be whole, and driving a wedge between Rand and the Aes Sedai. In The Shadow Rising, Elaida discovers evidence of collusion between Siuan Sanche and Moiraine Damodred to secretly assist the Dragon Reborn, something so antithetical to the Red Ajah’s entire philosophy that Elaida has no choice, as she sees it, but to orchestrate a coup against Siuan and ascend to the Amyrlin Seat herself, in a last-ditch effort to save the world. The fact that she genuinely believes she’s doing the right thing makes her all the more dangerous, because there’s no reasoning with her. Of course, in season two, Siuan was uncharacteristically written to share many of Elaida’s opinions on how to handle the Dragon (seemingly, at least), and the Aes Sedai all saw her try to shield and cage Rand before he escaped with Moiraine, so Elaida will have a much harder time convincing them that Moiraine and the Amyrlin are working together, but that will hopefully only make Elaida even more compelling, if she’s positioned as the underdog. The Wheel Of Time is lucky to have Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (unofficially) onboard to play this phenomenal character in season three and beyond.

3: Black Ajah

One of the major plot twists in season two involved the so-called “Black Ajah”, a faction of Aes Sedai that, far from being loyal to the Amyrlin Seat, are secretly sworn to the Dark One and have strived for decades to destabilize the institution of the White Tower from within. I will say that the early books in the series did more with the Black Ajah than the first two seasons of The Wheel Of Time, and I would have liked to see some reference to how they carried out the assassinations of various Aes Sedai over the years, including the Amyrlin Seat before Siuan and every other searcher for the Dragon Reborn besides Siuan and Moiraine (not for lack of trying). But the Black Ajah will have a more prominent role in season three, as antagonists to Nynaeve and Elayne in the coastal city of Tanchico. In the books, Liandrin brings her Darkfriends there to steal a version of the Seanchan a’dam designed specifically for male channelers, hoping to use it on Rand. Seeing as that particular storyline kinda goes nowhere in the books, it’s entirely possible the circumstances will change, but either way Rafe Judkins has assured us that from the get-go, we’ll know what Liandrin and the Black Ajah have been up to.

2: Tel’aran’rhiod

Tel’aran’rhiod, the “Unseen World” or “World of Dreams” as it is more often called, refers to the infinitely vast, intangible yet treacherous labyrinthine dimension accessible through dreams, which encompasses and connects all of the alternate realities brought into being over the course of the Wheel of Time’s turnings. It was the setting of some particularly memorable sequences in season two: Nynaeve stepping through a stone archway ter’angreal into a version of the world where she left the White Tower to be with Lan; Ishamael and Lanfear casually infiltrating each other’s dreams, and exerting their mastery over Tel’aran’rhiod to manipulate the environment around them; Lanfear taking Rand to see Egwene while they were both asleep, with hundreds of miles between them. It’s a place where the protagonists are immediately out of their depths and at a disadvantage compared to their centuries-old opponents, but that’s all about to change in season three. Egwene and Perrin are both “Dreamwalkers”, and equally powerful there as any of the Forsaken, though their two paths could not be more different. Egwene is on her way to the Waste to learn from the Aiel Wise Ones, while Perrin will delve into the Wolf-dream, where wolves dead and alive congregate (whether the wolves will talk in Tel’aran’rhiod, as they do in the books, remains to be seen). However, it’s Nynaeve, not a Dreamwalker, who will soon face the greatest opponent lurking in the World of Dreams.

1: Moghedien

Laia Costa as Moghedien in The Wheel Of Time, sitting in a chair before a fireplace in a dark room. She is wearing an oversized white dress-shirt, and wide black trousers. Her fingertips are blackened. She has short black hair in a bowl-cut with a topknot in the back.
Moghedien | Twitter @dailylaiacosta

Coming in at number one on my list is Moghedien, which might be confusing to some as she is widely regarded to be the weakest of the Forsaken in physical strength. But this small and slight villain, played by Laia Costa in the final minutes of season two, takes her name from a species of inconspicuous spider with a fatal bite discovered during the Age of Legends, and uses similar tactics, silently stalking her prey from the safety of Tel’aran’rhiod, waiting until their guard is down before delivering one decisive strike and retreating back into the shadows whence she came. In the World of Dreams she is more experienced than any of the Forsaken, even Lanfear, and to challenge her there, on her territory, is nothing short of suicidal. Her sprawling webs ensnare even the wariest Dreamwalkers, and once you’re tangled up in them, there’s no escape.

Well, that’s my totally subjective ranking of the top ten things I’m most excited to see from The Wheel Of Time season three. What’s yours? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!