Did The Wheel of Time just confirm two more Forsaken cut from the show?

Now that the truth about Selene’s secret identity is out on The Wheel of Time, we finally saw Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) let loose as she pursued Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) through the wilderness outside Cairhien in the show’s latest episode, “Damane.” Lanfear is one of the Forsaken, elite magic users who swore to serve the Dark One during the Age of Legends, thousands of years ago.

When the previous Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon, sealed away the Dark One, the Forsaken were trapped in stasis alongside him. But now the foremost of the bunch, Ishamael (Fares Fares), is loose, and he’s going around freeing the others. As Moiraine tells Rand, should he free them all, the forces of the light will lose the Last Battle before it even starts.

There are 13 Forsaken in The Wheel of Time book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, but we’ve been suspecting for a while now that the TV show would pare that number down. In “Damane,” we seemingly got confirmation for two of the Forsaken that were left on the cutting room floor.

The Wheel of Time will only include eight of the 13 Forsaken from the books

Prior to “Damane,” we got a soft confirmation from the official Wheel of Time show Twitter account that the series will feature eight Forsaken, as opposed to the 13 in the books. There have been a few hints of this, such as Stepin’s Forsaken statues in Episode 105.

In “Damane,” we got more hints about which of the Forsaken the show is cutting. During a scene in Tel’aran’rhiod, Ishamael asks Lanfear if she knows why he was the first of the Forsaken to be awakened by the Dark One. She replies, “Because Moghedien’s insane, Graendal’s a vain idiot, and the boys couldn’t execute a plan even if they were under Compulsion?”

In the books, there are five female Forsaken: Lanfear, Moghedien, Graendal, Semirhage and Mesaana. Since Lanfear goes out of her way to mention Moghedien and Graendal in “Damane,” and refer to the rest of the Forsaken as “the boys,” that tells us that Lanfear, Moghedien, and Graendal are likely the only female Forsaken on the TV show. It seems possible Semirhage and Mesaana have been cut.

It’s easy to see the logic on cutting Mesaana because she doesn’t appear much and is primarily involved with the White Tower; the show can just amplify the role of the Black Ajah to fill that space. Semirhage is more difficult, because she’s a particularly heinous villain who has some memorable moments in the books.

Could Semirhage appear even though Lanfear didn’t mention her?

We can’t totally close the case on Semirhage, since Stepin’s Forsaken statues in the first season seemed to show four men and four women. One of those statues recalled how Semirhage is described in the books, very tall and slender with short braids. Semirhage and Lanfear have a bitter rivalry, so it’s possible that Lanfear may not have mentioned the last female Forsaken out of spite.

Another theory could be that Lanfear is including Semirhage when she says “the boys.” The Wheel of Time books feature one male Forsaken who is resurrected in a female body, named Aran’gar. This character hasn’t aged particularly well, since the Dark One resurrects them in this manner as a punishment. Perhaps the show will attempt to do its own exploration of a trans Forsaken with Semirhage?

Or maybe plans for the show changed after season 1 and Semirhage has been dropped. We’ll have to watch and find out.

Which male Forsaken will be cut from The Wheel of Time show?

Regardless, with the new information from “Damane,” we have confirmation that Ishamael, Lanfear, Moghedien, and Graendal will all be included in The Wheel of Time show. That’s half of our eight Forsaken. What about the rest?

Since we seemingly know which female Forsaken are slated for the series, let’s run through the male Forsaken and try to figure out who’s being left out. Aside from Ishamael, the rest of the male Forsaken are:

• Balthamel
• Aginor
• Asmodean
• Be’lal
• Rahvin
• Sammael
• Demandred

Both Balthamel and Aginor feature at the end The Eye of the World, the first Wheel of Time book. Since they didn’t appear in season 1, we can safely assume they’ve been cut from the show.

That leaves at least one more male Forsaken who has to go. My best guess is that Be’lal will be cut. He primarily features in a big sequence from the third book, The Dragon Reborn, alongside one of the other Forsaken. It would be an easier place to streamline the story than with Asmodean, Rahvin, Sammael, or Demandred, all of whom play bigger roles.

Should it turn out that the show is still sneaking in Semirhage, then the next most likely to go from the list of male Forsaken is either Rahvin or Demandred.

We should have a clearer idea of which Forsaken the show is cutting once we see season 3. In the meantime, if you want to find out about Balthamel, Aginor, Mesaana and (maybe) Semirhage, there’s always the book series.

The Wheel of Time premieres new episodes Fridays at 12:00 a.m. GMT.

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