5 best changes The Wheel of Time show has made from the books

Moiraine's family

Perhaps the most controversial change in The Wheel of Time season 2 was that the Aes Sedai sorceress Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) loses her powers. Moiraine does get them back late in the season in a way that I personally found satisfying, but the fact remains that this was a rather large deviation from the books, where Moiraine never loses her powers.

We could debate all day about whether that was a good choice or not. However, to my eye there is a side effect of Moiraine's story that stood out even more: we got to know her family, through her own eyes.

Moiraine is a Damodred, a scion of a noble house of Cairhien. We know this in Jordan's novels, but we don't ever really see Moiraine mixing it up with her family members on the page. Her sister Anvaere (Lindsay Duncan) is hardly even mentioned in the novels, and certainly doesn't serve an important role in the story like she does in the show. But by introducing her, the show gives us a glimpse into an important part of Moiraine's life which hadn't previously been explored. It's interesting to see Moiraine verbally spar with a family member at a time when she's at her most vulnerable.

This also made the ultimate reveal that her nephew Barthanes (Will Tudor) was a Darkfriend hit even harder than it does in the books, where we never even see Barthanes and Moiraine together; instead, we see him interact more with Rand, eventually revealing his nature as a Darkfriend before he's killed off-screen by another agent of the Shadow.

Anvaere and Barthanes are wonderful additions the show made to give Moiraine more complexity, and it was a smart change.