The Wheel of Time aired its second season last year, adapting the broad strokes of Robert Jordan's books The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn as our heroes Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski), Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), Egwene al'Vere (Madeleine Madden) and the rest of their friends faced off against the forces of darkness. The Wheel of Time season 2 elevated the series in some exciting ways, especially through its handling of the invasive Seanchan warriors from across the sea who sought to enslave magic users and bring the rest of the world under their imperial control.
Since The Wheel of Time finished its run last August, we've been patiently waiting for the follow-up. The show wrapped filming on its third season in March, which means we'll be watching it sometime in 2025. Two-year gaps have become pretty normal for big budget fantasy shows, but that's still a decent wait. In order to keep ourselves from going mad like we've touched the taint of Saidin, we have to come up with all sorts of ways to occupy our Wheel of Time yearning in the meantime.
Fortunately, there's always the book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson to immerse ourselves in while we wait. The Wheel of Time season 3 will cover one of the best of the bunch, The Shadow Rising, which sees Rand al'Thor set out into the arid Aiel homeland in hopes of winning their allegiance for his fight against the Dark One. There are 15 books total in The Wheel of Time saga, but The Shadow Rising is widely regarded as one of the strongest in the series. That means we've got a bunch of iconic scenes on the way — and that's not even counting any material that may get pulled in from other books.
So today, we're looking at six scenes from the books we're dying to see in The Wheel of Time season 3. There will be MAJOR SPOILERS for The Shadow Rising, and thus for the third season of The Wheel of Time below.
1. The Battle of the Two Rivers
The season finale of The Wheel of Time season 2 featured a big clash at the city of Falme between the Seanchan and the Children of the Light, aka the Whitecloaks, a group of religious zealots who strive to fight the shadow, often to the point of excess. In the books, the Seanchan take a backseat for a while after their defeat at Falme. The Whitecloaks, on the other hand, become an even more prominent threat.
In The Shadow Rising, the nefarious Padan Fain manages to manipulate the Whitecloaks into going to the village of Emond's Field in hopes of luring Rand there. Instead, Perrin shows up, determined to stop them from killing his friends and family. At the same time, a horde of Trollocs also arrives in the Two Rivers and begins wreaking havoc across the countryside.
This leads to a series of raids on the town of Emond's Field, with Perrin rising to become a leader to the people of the Two Rivers as he fights on two fronts to save them from the monstrous Trollocs as well as the callous Whitecloaks. Amazon completely rebuilt the Two Rivers set for season 3, and showrunner Rafe Judkins teased at New York Comic-Con in 2023 that season 3 would be "a really big Rand and Perrin season." The Battle of the Two Rivers is coming, and we're not ready.
2. Rand passing through the pillars at Rhuidean
Speaking of Rand, I fully believe Judkins that season 3 will be a big one for the Dragon Reborn. When last we saw Rand at Falme, he had just been proclaimed the Dragon for all the world to see, as crowds of onlookers gawked at a fiery dragon surrounding him on the highest tower of the city. Among that crowd was Aviendha (Ayoola Smart), a Maiden of the Spear who will help facilitate Rand's journey to the Three-Fold Land, also known as the Aiel Waste.
The Shadow Rising gives readers a lot of time with the Aiel; it's really where we start to learn about their culture from the inside, as opposed to all of the hearsay that "wetlanders" from outside their homeland spread. The Aiel culture is a beautiful and prominent part of Robert Jordan's books, and it's going to be thrilling to see it brought to the screen.
One of the most prominent scenes from Rand's journey happens at the mystical city of Rhuidean, which is a sacred ruin where Aiel chiefs must go to prove they are ready for positions of leadership. Since Rand is being proclaimed the prophesied Car'a'carn, or "chief of chiefs," that includes him. If he wants the Aiel to follow him, he must go through this rite.
The sequence that follows is striking, as Rand and Mat travel into the city and Rand passes through a glass column ter'angreal which gives him visions of the history of the Aiel. When Judkins referenced a big season for Rand and Perrin, you can bet that the columns at Rhuidean were part of what he had in mind. It's going to be a standout scene that a lot of fans have been waiting years to see on screen.
3. Mat goes through the door
Let's touch base with the last of our three lads from Emond's Field: Mat Cauthon. The Wheel of Time gave Mat (Dónal Finn) a huge scene at the end of the season where he blew the Horn of Valere and remembered that he'd been a hero in his past lives, fighting time and again with figures of legend. I still get a little emotional thinking about that moment where he looks at the Horn, teary-eyed, and says "I remember."
Mat's going to have an interesting road ahead of him. In the book, he travels to the Aiel Waste with Rand, goes to Rhuidean with him, and generally stays pretty close for most of the Dragon Reborn's adventures there. There have been hints that the show may be changing things slightly, since some reports have put Mat on set in Tanchico, a location he never visits in the novels. But I'd be willing to bet that even if the show is changing the details of Mat's journey, it's going to keep an important sequence where he steps through a redstone door ter'angreal, meets a mysterious race of people called the Eelfinn, and is subsequently hanged from a tree in Rhuidean. When he's rescued from the tree, he finds his memories have been altered with knowledge from the past, and the Eelfinn have gifted him a medallion which protects him from magic along with his trademark polearm weapon, the ashandarei.
Even that's a bit of an oversimplification, though. Mat actually passes through two door ter'angreals, one at the beginning of the book and one right before he's hanged, and he meets people from two different races: the Eelfinn and Aelfinn. With only eight episodes, there's definitely a question of how the show will navigate all of that. But I do think it's safe to say we'll see Mat's encounter with the Aelfinn or Eelfinn (hopefully both), and him get hanged and subsequently "reborn," as it were. The show already foreshadowed this during Mat's vision in season 2, so best start mentally preparing yourself for it now.
4. Nynaeve vs Moghedien
While Mat never visits Tanchico in the books, a few other characters spend quite a lot of time there: Nynaeve al'Meara (Zoë Robins) and Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney). The two young Aes Sedai are sent to the city to hunt down sisters of the nefarious Black Ajah, aka Aes Sedai who serve the Dark One. Rafe Judkins has spoken a decent amount about Tanchico, saying it's a "tropical" setting that's "so different than anything else you’ve ever seen on the show before." Nynaeve and Elayne's investigations there are a highlight of The Shadow Rising, so my expectations are high.
But there is a particular moment I'm more excited for than anything else from the Tanchico storyline: Nynaeve's duel against the Forsaken Moghedien. We met Moghedien (Laia Costa) in the final moments of The Wheel of Time season 2, where she spooked Lanfear (Natasha O'Keeffe). Moghedien made quite an impression, and it's going to be thrilling to watch her come more into the forefront in season 3.
In the book, Nynaeve eventually ends up crossing paths with Moghedien and is forced to fight her. And to both of their surprise, Nynaeve proves a match for the Forsaken. That scene lays the groundwork for a books-long grudge between the two. So far, The Wheel of Time show has done a great job with the Forsaken in particular, so this could be a standout moment for the series.
5. The capture of Asmodean
Moghedien isn't the only Forsaken we'll be seeing in season 3. There's also the scene-stealer Lanfear, who appeared prominently in season 2 and will no doubt return. The Shadow Rising also introduces a few other Forsaken, with an especially prominent role going to Asmodean.
Like Lanfear, Asmodean is a bit of a trickster. In The Shadow Rising, he joins Rand's traveling party in disguise, following them around the Aiel Waste while he pretends to be a simple bard. This eventually blows up in spectacular fashion, leading to a confrontation between Rand and Asmodean in the ruined city of Rhuidean. Aside from Moghedien, Asmodean is the other Forsaken I'm expecting to get a lot of screen time in season 3 — even if we don't know it's him at first.
Asmodean's clash with Rand has some massive repercussions for the Forsaken, since he's ultimately captured. In The Fires of Heaven, he starts to teach Rand some of the secrets of Saidin. The Fires of Heaven is a book I'm expecting The Wheel of Time TV series to exclude, or to at least to fold events from it into other, larger plotlines from the following books like Lord of Chaos. However, Rand's time with Asmodean is crucial, and the show has already set up the fact that Rand desperately needs a teacher to control his incredible magical abilities. That all starts with his confrontation with Asmodean in The Shadow Rising.
6. The White Tower coup
And so we arrive at the final scene on our list: the coup at the White Tower of the Aes Sedai. The Wheel of Time season 2 spent a lot of time building up the idea that there were schisms within the sisterhood of sorceresses, from Siuan and Moiraine clashing over Rand's future to the schemes of Black Ajah member Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood). When last we see the Aes Sedai in the penultimate episode of the season, Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) has been defeated by Lanfear and left wounded on the ground, with the foreboding knowledge that she has many enemies around her, even in the tower where she should be safest.
Those concerns will bear fruit in season 3. In the book, Siuan is deposed in a coup at the White Tower, and then stilled to sever her from being able to use magic. This is the single worst punishment you can give to an Aes Sedai; many would prefer death over stilling. The fact that it's all done in a barely legal proceeding orchestrated by Siuan's enemies is beside the point; the reality is that her days running the White Tower are numbered, and that number is just about up.
It's been a relatively open secret for some time now that The Expanse star Shohreh Aghdashloo is joining The Wheel of Time for its third season. She is believed to be playing the Red Ajah sister Elaida, the leader of the coup against Siuan, so bringing her into the show at this juncture is necessary. The signs are there that the White Tower coup is coming in season 3, so even if it shakes out slightly differently, it seems very likely that we'll see some dramatic events go down at the White Tower.
When The Wheel of Time season 3 premieres sometime in 2025, we'll get to see it. For now, our watch continues, and we keep throwing kindling on the fires of our excitement until the show's back on our screens. Are there any scenes you're especially looking forward to seeing from The Shadow Rising in season 3 that should have made the list? Let us know in the comments!
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