Why do Perrin’s eyes turn yellow in The Wheel of Time?

The Wheel of Time is well underway now, and we’re getting to know the main cast. The lot of them seem to have special abilities. Mat may be able to channel, Nynaeve used the One Power to heal a roomful of wounded people, Rand busted somehow busted through a heavy door, Egwene is taking to her Aes Sedai training, and Perrin has yellow eyes and some kind of connection with wolves.

Take the ending of the most recent episode, where wolves attacked the Whitecloak camp where Perrin and Egwene were being held prisoner, allowing them to escape. And that’s just the latest of several examples. Just what is going on here?

Perrin is a wolfbrother in The Wheel of Time

In the books, there’s a section before Perrin and Egwene meet the pacifistic Tuatha’an people where they travel with a man named Elyas Machera, who has yellow eyes and seems to connect to wolves in a way similar to how Perrin does. Elyas is a wolfbrother, who have been around for millennia. In fact, there have been wolfbrothers (and wolfsisters) since before the One Power; their abilities are not connected to channeling, although some Aes Sedai suspect they are.

And what are these abilities? As a wolfbrother, Perrin has a sharpened sense of sight and smell. He can sense when wolves are nearby and communicate with them mentally, which can cause trouble when he starts to embody the wolf too much and becomes savage, something he struggles with. He can also get prophetic dreams.

Perhaps the show will introduce Elyas Machera at another time so we can get some more information on wolfkin, or maybe they will give us that exposition in another way. But this aspect of Perrin’s character is here to stay.

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