This article contains SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time season 3 Episode 8.
Grief is a journey, and for many Wheel of Time fans, we'll be on it for a while. The season 3 finale of Prime Video's fantasy series dropped this week, and it leaned fully into the darker parts of this sweeping tale. Nowhere was that more apparent than at the White Tower of the Aes Sedai, where the scheming Red Ajah sorceress Elaida (Shohreh Aghdashloo) led a coup against Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo). Elaida succeeds in her attempt to usurp the Amyrlin Seat, leading to Siuan being deposed, stilled, tortured, and executed. It was perhaps the most brutal death we've seen yet in the series, and many fans are deep in their feelings about it.
This is even more the case because in the book series, Siuan Sanche survives the White Tower coup. The show, however, leaves very little room for confusion. The last shot we see of Siuan is of her headless body lying on the floor of the White Tower, while Elaida sits the Amyrlin Seat.
Is this truly the last time we'll see Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche in The Wheel of Time? Not according to showrunner Rafe Judkins, who has been out discussing the reasoning for this bold choice. He told The Hollywood Reporter that Siuan and Moiraine's final meeting in Tel'aran'rhiod is "not the final scene we intend to have between the two of them."
"Part of their relationship that is important and that we tried to set up in episode five is this idea that their relationship is bigger than this life," Judkins explained. "Their relationship is bigger than what happens in this moment. There’s something really beautiful to that and something that only The Wheel of Time can do, because it’s inherent in the book series. We’re adapting that these women don’t all make it to the final battle. So it was important to us, especially with a history of lesbians being killed onscreen and knowing that we wanted to forefront this relationship from the beginning, to see that this relationship is about more than just this life to the two of them, and that relationship will continue regardless of them dying."
"I think that’s really important and beautiful. I’m wrecked by it. I mean, I sobbed the last day Sophie was on set. We all did. But I do think what’s beautiful about them is that their relationship is about something more and, if the show continues, it’s not the final scene we intend to have between the two of them. I guess I can say that much."
Why did The Wheel of Time kill off Siuan Sanche?
Siuan's death has been difficult for a lot of fans to process, especially those who were invested in the relationship between her and Moiraine. Despite the brutality of the coup, Siuan escapes in the book series and goes on to help a rebel faction of Aes Sedai in Salidar. Judkins took to Instagram for an AMA to shed some light on why the show chose to kill Siuan off, and how it will handle her later material from the books.
"Sophie and I discussed it a lot and felt this was the best time for the character to leave us. We have plans for who will take on her other main story as the books move forward. But also… it’s not the last time we will see Siuan if the show continues," Judkins said. "We have a lot planned for Salidar. There’s a cut scene we will hopefully get to show someday of Ryma, Verin and Leane leaving the White Tower with a group of Aes Sedai to 'gather on the shores of the river where Siuan was born.'"
That cut scene Judkins mentions intrigues me. Presumably, it would have taken place after the White Tower coup during the final montage of season 3, showing those three Aes Sedai heading out to start the rebel faction which will oppose Elaida next season. I really hope we get that scene at some point, because that's an important bit of set up the show will now need to do at the start of season 4.
Judkins continued to reassure fans that they will "hopefully" see Siuan again if the show is able to tell the full story. "You can probably already tell from how we set it up, but we've got plans for the Moiraine/Siuan endgame that I'd love to put on screen as it's something we can only do in The Wheel of Time."
There's another large reason that The Wheel of Time killed off Siuan: if you're going to cast a bunch of well known actors for the series, you have to give them substantial enough material to justify keeping them around. The Wheel of Time books have a sprawling cast, and often has characters fade into the background for long stretches. That's simply not as tenable for a television show.
“Robert Jordan loves his character so much that he lets them all just collect and they all go to The Last Battle – like everyone makes it there,” Judkins told The Wrap. “Which is wonderful for a book series, but is not something that’s practical when you’re casting actors. So our first and foremost focus is that when they are with us they’re doing something significant and not just standing off to the side of a scene. We can’t really do that. We have actors who are too good to do that.”
"Have everyone do their absolute best moments from the books and then we can bid them adieu instead of collecting people and taking them along for the whole ride. We’re super thoughtful about it, there’s a lot that goes into it in the writers’ room. There were other characters that were discussed as potential deaths, and we moved away from it thinking about the stories that we have to tell hopefully for the next three or four seasons. So it’s never done without extreme amount of thought."
This is the same sort of reasoning that Judkins used when explaining why the show killed off Loial, the lovable Ogier played by Hammed Animashaun, in Episode 307. It's consistent logic, and it makes sense from where I'm sitting even if I wish we had more time with these characters.
Why many fans are upset about Siuan's death
Part of the reason that Siuan's death is so controversial is because it was a high profile queer relationship at the heart of the show, and television has a history of disproportionately killing off queer characters. For The Wheel of Time, however, Moiraine and Siuan were never going to have a happy ending; that's simply not the way the books go. When asked whether he was concerned about killing off Siuan given the history of queer representation on television, Judkins had a good answer: "We knew going in we’d have to do that, so we could either not make them lesbians or see one or both of them die. I think seeing their love was the right choice."
I firmly agree with him. Moiraine and Siuan's relationship is only lightly touched on in the prequel novel, New Spring. The show made it much more of a focus, but it could never have led to a happy ending for the two, since Moiraine has her own journey to go on which would have made it impossible regardless.
That just makes the show's attention to the theme of reincarnation and the life-transcending bonds between people all the more important. However Judkins plans to pay off that idea with Siuan and Moiraine, I'll be curious to see it.
All eight episodes of The Wheel of Time season 3 are currently streaming on Prime Video. We're still waiting on a renewal announcement; fingers crossed we hear more about season 4 soon.
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