The Wheel of Time co-author Brandon Sanderson harshly criticizes season 2 finale

Brandon Sanderson bemoans the loss of the Hunt for the Horn of Valere

Back to things Sanderson

hated

disliked: the way the Whitecloaks just waltzed right into Falme without coming up against any sort of defenses. “They didn’t get the gate closed?” he asked in confusion when the Whitecloaks stormed past the Seanchan guards and into the city. Which is pretty fair. Someone dock those guards’ pay.

Sanderson took issue with a lot of logical leaps like this. He was visibly piqued when Loial showed up with the Horn of Valere later in the episode, since we never see him retrieve it onscreen. “I tried, guys,” he said.

“We basically lost the hunt for the Horn…something had to go. I don’t know, I was pretty sad to not have the actual hunt for the Horn,” Sanderson said. “All of Great Hunt the book…it’s a travelogue trying to get the Horn, get to the Horn, find the Horn. So it means when the Horn gets  used, it’s been a centerpiece…it’s been the MacGuffin the entire book.” It’s true that the Horn did not get much focus on the TV show.

What is Rand’s arc in The Wheel of Time?

Another element Sanderson was sad to see left out of the season was Rand’s journey to becoming a blademaster. In The Great Hunt, Rand uses lessons from Lan (Daniel Henney) to train for months while he’s out searching for the Horn of Valere. By the time he faces High Lord Turak during the climax, he beats him in a duel, proving he’s good enough to carry a heron-mark sword, which are reserved only for blademasters.

In the show, Rand obliterates Turak and his guards with a terrifying display of magic. As Greene points out, the show went for an “Indiana Jones” moment, referencing the iconic scene where Indy shoots a guy who tries to sword fight him in Raiders of the Lost Ark:

“I don’t really like it. It’s a cool shot,” Sanderson said. When Greene and Hatch argue that the change works for the show, opining that Rand becoming a blademaster felt too fast to them in the books, Sanderson disagreed. “He’s taught by the best swordsman in the world. In the books, he gets taught to be a blademaster by the best swordsman ever.”

Before anyone gets too sad, we are still going to see Rand train with Lan and become a proficient swordsman. Showrunner Rafe Judkins has confirmed this storyline is “still coming,” but due to the way the cast was split up for season 2 it didn’t make sense for this point in the show. Thus, Rand kills Turok with a magical blast rather than a sword stroke.

“Here’s my problem: what is Rand’s arc in this season?” Sanderson continued. “What is Rand’s arc? What is Moiraine’s arc?” He describes how in The Great Hunt, Rand’s arc revolves around finding something to fight for. In The Dragon Reborn, Rand’s arc is basically that he tries to go off on his own, realizes he can’t do everything himself, and then ultimately has to accept help from others. That sounds pretty similar to what the show did with Rand in season 2, though it’s more detailed in the books. Although he read the scripts, I wish Sanderson had actually watched the season in order to be able to really discuss what the show did with Rand throughout.

Sanderson clearly cares a lot about character arcs, and what happened in season 2 has him nervous for the show’s future:

"The show is doing a lot of things fantastically, and it’s really good at scenes. But one of the things I keep arguing for is, ‘What are the arcs’? What is the theme? And arc and theme seems to fall by the wayside for cool scenes quite a bit, and that worries me. Particularly going into book four, where its the strongest Wheel of Time book and that’s partially because of themes of self-sacrifice and things like this."