The Wheel turns, and adaptations come and pass. In this age, called the 21st Century by some, we're currently watching a television show based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time books. Thus far, The Wheel of Time has aired two seasons on Prime Video, and the reception has been somewhat divisive; there are plenty of things the show does well, as well as plenty of others that have raised the ire of diehard fans.
We're currently in the long wait between seasons, which means we're still dreaming about The Wheel of Time and whiling away the days. When will season 3 be out? Who knows, but maybe if we all just keep talking about this show, it'll come along sooner than we expect.
Last week, we went through some of the more frustrating changes The Wheel of Time show has made from the books by Robert Jordan (and finished by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death in 2007). Today, we're diving into some of the things it's done right — nay, some of the things it's done even better than the books.
There will be SPOILERS below for the TV show, as well as for the first few Wheel of Time novels. After all, we need to be able to talk about...
Lanfear, Ishamael and the Forsaken
The Forsaken are a key part of The Wheel of Time. In the books, there are 13 of these villains, and you always know things are about to get interesting when they show up. The television show may have trimmed that number down to eight, but what Forsaken we are getting have been improved dramatically.
Season 2 makes this crystal clear by giving both Lanfear (Natasha O'Keeffe) and Ishamael (Fares Fares) ample screen time. We get to know them far better at this point in the TV show than we do at the same point in the books.
Don't believe me? By the end of book 2, The Great Hunt, we've only seen Lanfear in disguise as Selene, except that she shows up at the very end of the book to taunt Min Farshaw by revealing her true identity and her ties to the Dragon Reborn, whom she loved in his previous life as Lews Therin. Rand doesn't find out that Selene is Lanfear for quite some time after, and it's even longer before she's acting like the chaotically radiant villainess we saw during season 2 of the show.
Ishamael, meanwhile, spends the first three books as a fiery-headed apparition named Ba'alzamon. It's only after Rand dispatches him that we learn he was Ishamael, and even longer before this important Forsaken gets enough development to feel like a fully fleshed out character.
The show essentially compressed the Forsaken so that they feel more like their late-series book counterparts from the jump. I don't think anyone who enjoyed season 2 will argue that Lanfear wasn't a huge highlight; O'Keeffe absolutely commanded the screen, so much so that I would argue she is the stand-out villain of the season. And Ishamael is much closer to the way readers would come to know in the latter parts of the book series.
Adjusting the role that the Forsaken, and especially Lanfeaer, play in the story has been a tremendously enjoyable expansion for the television show.
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.
The torture of Egwene al'Vere
So far we've talked about places where the show filled in gaps in the source material, or polished things up to bring early book content more in line with the tone of the later novels. But with Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Renna (Xelia Mendes-Jones), the show improved something which was already great in the books.
Late in season 2, Egwene is captured by the Seanchan, an empire of conquerors who enslave women who can channel. These slaves, called damane, are then given to a handler — a sul'dam — who "breaks" them like they're less than animals until they can no longer resist orders. Egwene becomes the property of a sul'dam named Renna, who tries her hardest to bend Egwene to her will.
All of this happens pretty much the same in the novel...except that we don't actually see the worst of Renna's attempts to break Egwene. Instead, we see Egwene get captured and initiated into the ways of the damane, and then pick up with her a few chapters later after she's already so broken that she's contemplating ending her own life just to escape her situation. It's heartbreaking, but what the show did was even more so.
In The Great Hunt, there's a single paragraph where Egwene explains how Renna used a pitcher of water to torture her into submissoin. The show took that paragraph and expanded it into an entire episode centered on Egwene's torture. Much more so than the book, the show puts us into Egwene's shoes as she goes through the absolute worst of her imprisonment. As a result, we got arguably the best episode of the entire series to date, "Eyes Without Pity."
The TV show also made Egwene and Renna's relationship even more f**ked up and complicated by making Renna far more earnest in her desire to gain Egwene's friendship, while Egwene has to war with her own innate desire for recognition, which was denied to her as an Aes Sedai novice but which Renna is more than willing to dole out as a reward for good behavior. It's messed up. It's compelling. It's impossible to look away from. Of all the adjustments The Wheel of Time has made from its source material, the larger focus on Egwene and Renna's time together might be one of the best.
Moiraine and Siuan's relationship
Before, we mentioned how Moiraine's relationship with her family got a much larger focus in the show, but that isn't the only interpersonal affair the Aes Sedai has going on. We also spend plenty of time with her and her lover Siuan Sanche, who also happens to be the Amyrlin Seat, the leader of the Aes Sedai. Their long-running love affair has been kept secret from the rest of the White Tower.
Siuan and Moiraine did have a canonical romance in Jordan's books; we learn about it in the prequel novel, New Spring. However, it's left somewhat nebulous. We mostly learn about Moiraine and Siuan's time together through the odd bit of coded language and suggestive statements. It's nowhere near the passionate, complex coupling we see in the show.
This resulted in another of the show's best episodes in season 1, "The Flame of Tar Valon," where Siuan banishes Moiraine from the White Tower at Moiraine's own request. By this point in the books, it seems pretty clear that Moiraine and Siuan are no longer together, which becomes cemented a bit more by some other details about Moiraine's love life that we learn much later in the series. But by centering the Siuan-Moiraine relationship, the show is able to give it a lot more weight.
On the whole, I think adding more material for this relationship has been a good choice for the series. It has come with some casualties though; by the end of season 2, Siuan has become a much grayer character after trying to capture Rand and use Moiraine's oath — which she gave to her lover in good faith — to force her to obey her commands. It's heartwrenching stuff, but also fundamentally changes Siuan's character in some huge ways.
So we'll call this one a good change that comes with complications. Which feels just about right for Moiraine and Siuan's complex secret affair.
The Blood Snow
The seventh episode of The Wheel of Time season 1 begins with a cold open set on the snowy slops of the Dragonmount, where a pregnant Aiel woman fights off soldiers while going through labor. This is a hugely important event in the mythos of The Wheel of Time known as the Blood Snow. That woman? That's Tigraine Mantear, an Aiel warrior who gives birth to none other than Rand a'Thor, the Dragon Reborn.
Despite the importance of the Blood Snow, this is another one of those moments that we never actually see in the books. It remains a lore touchstone, referenced many times even as the story charges ahead to bigger and more important events. But the show has given us an actual scene to ground the mythic nature of Rand's birth in our memories.
I think this was a great decision for a few reasons. First, it lets us actually meet Tigraine, played by Magdalena Sittova, and see how Rand's foster father Tam al'Thor (Michael McElhatton) came to start caring for him. It also serves as our first real introduction to the Aiel. We spend more time with them in season 2 and will be spending even more in season 3, but there's something cool about the idea that the first time we see an Aiel warrior in action, it's Rand's mother. There are layers to this scene! And because it didn't feature in the books, it's an important addition to the overall story of The Wheel of Time that the show has made.
Plus, it's just a banger of a scene. Watching Tigraine slaughter soldiers while struggling through labor is something which stands out in the memory; I don't know that I've ever seen another scene like it. The Wheel of Time has made some interesting changes from the books, but the Blood Snow is one of the more flawless additions.
The Wheel of Time is currently filming its third season. We expect we'll be watching it sometime in 2025.
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