This week, the fourth episode of The Wheel of Time season 3, entitled "The Road to the Spear," aired to critical acclaim; as of this writing, it has a score of 9.6/10 on IMDb, easily the highest of any episode thus far. It featured sequence beloved by fans of The Wheel of Time book: the Trials of Rhuidean, where Rand, Moiraine, and Aviendha enter the sacred Aiel city and experience visions. Rand sees visions of the past while Moiraine and Aviendha peer into various futures which may or may not come to pass. These sequences were stunning, and along with the three episodes released last week, continue the trend of this season being easily the best yet. The show has really come into its own as one of TV’s premiere fantasy series.
While Rand is force to experience generations worth of collective trauma, Moiraine sees futures where she either dies over and over again, or where Rand dies over and over again. Interestingly, we did not get to see Aviendha’s visions in Rhuidean, so her possible futures and her perspective on them remain a mystery. But I don’t think I’m the only one to notice that Aviendha was eyeing Rand very strangely after she came out of her trance.
So, what did she see in Rhuidean that had to do with Rand? Beware SPOILERS from The Wheel of Time novel series below!
The complicated love life of the Dragon Reborn
If Aviendha’s visions in "The Road to the Spear" showed her what happens to her in the novels by Robert Jordan, she will have seen herself become a major love interest for Rand, something neither of them would have expected the day before she entered Rhuidean. But she won’t only have seen herself interested in Rand. If the show is going where the books go, this is going to get wild.
As with any high fantasy story, romance plays a major part in The Wheel of Time, adding a layer of interpersonal intrigue amid the world-ending apocalypses, the battle between good and evil, monsters, magic and the rest. As with everything else in this series, the romances are numerous and on a large scale scarcely seen elsewhere in the genre.
Rand’s romantic interests in The Wheel of Time novels are the most complex and varied. His ostensible “first love” is Egwene Al’Vere, just as it is on the show. She is the driving romantic force for Rand in the first three novels of this 14-book series, and he retains a strong emotional connection to her throughout. The Amazon series has doubled down on this relationship, having the characters sleep together in the first episode of the series. At this point in the show, that still seems where we are, although the relationship appears to be dwindling.
However, as the series goes on and Rand becomes more and more powerful, the Dragon Reborn becomes something of a hot item on the dating scene, and many people become attracted to him and romantically involved with him. Notably, the Forsaken Lanfear tries to seduce him to the dark side, just as she does on the show. A character named Berelain, the monarch of a small country, tries to seduce him for her own political ends; she hasn't turned up on the show yet. And Aviendha has visions of three more love interests for Rand, who somewhat scandalously have to share him in a polygamous relationship that not all of them are initially very happy with.
In The Shadow Rising, the book on which season 3 is based, Aviendha goes into Rhuidean and sees that she is one of these three women. She is, to put it mildly, quite angry, incensed that her future is not only to fall in love with a “wetlander” but also to have to share her future lover with non-Aiel women. From the very moment she has this vision, she knows that one of the other three will be a character we've already met: Elayne Trakand.
A big question that book-readers have had for awhile was how the show will handle the romantic network. Asking mainstream audiences to be onboard for a polygamous quadrangle is not out of the question (I mean we all were rooting for Jon and Danaerys on Game of Thrones or Rhaenyra and Daemon on House of the Dragon and those couples are extremely related to each other), but it could be a bit tricky. Showrunner Rafe Judkins has hinted that they'll be changing Rand's romantic life for the show. But halfway through season 3, it seems like they are at least flirting with the idea.
Polyamory vs polygamy vs The Wheel of Time
Wheel of Time fans exploded last week after watching the season premiere, which featured Elayne Trakand and Aviendha hooking up, something they do not do in the books. This takes place while Rand and Egwene are hitting a road bump in their own relationship after Egwene’s vicious treatment while in Seanchan captivity. So we now have a faltering relationship between Rand and Egwene and a new romantic connection between Aviendha and Elayne.
This is very interesting, because when Rand first sees Elayne in the season 2 finale, the visuals clearly indicate that he sees her as special; she's bathed in sunlight, giving her a halo around her head. Many people, including myself, took that scene to mean that the showrunners had decided on Elayne as the main romantic interest for the Dragon Reborn in order to simplify the plot and not risk audience members gasping at a polygamous relationship. Now though… could the show really being going where I think they are going?
In the novels, the third woman involved with Rand is Min Farshaw, who at this point in the TV series is in a drastically different place both mentally and physically than she is in the books; she hasn't shown any particular interest in Rand. It’s possible that she will be cut out of the relationship with Rand while Elayne and Aviendha are included. "Let’s just say I’m much more interested in polyamory than polygamy," Judkins once hinted. Perhaps there will be three romantic connections but they will be balanced between Elayne, Rand, and Aviendha.
What happens next is anyone’s guess, but did you see the look on Aviendha’s face this week! The word ‘startled’ does not begin to cover it.
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