The Battle of the Two Rivers
Our next image shows Perrin, looking ridiculously badass in his armor, as he examines a spiked barricade near the Two Rivers. "We don't win battles with politics and prophecies. We win with armies," Alanna says. She's wearing that cool white facepaint again and sounds pretty fierce:
I'm expecting a pretty big arc for Alanna this season. She has a very dubious choice to make down the line in the books, and it'll require her to go on quite a journey to get to the point where it makes sense for her character as she's depicted in the show.
She's undoubtedly delivering this line to Perrin, and it will hit on a core idea of the books: Rand is a mythic reincarnated hero, but he can't win the Last Battle without the military might of the world behind him. We're going to see that start to manifest in the Two Rivers and in the Aiel Waste this season.
Lots of battle shots of Two Rivers folk preparing to fight:
Alanna's warder Maksim shouts for the archers to loose their arrows at an oncoming horde of Trollocs. And in among the archers is none other than Faile (Isabella Bucceri), a new romantic interest for Perrin we'll be meeting this season:
Like Elaida and Morgase, Faile is another character book fans have been dying to see onscreen. It's happening! Here's the proof!
The next shot of battle reveals that it won't just be Trollocs attacking the Two Rivers; there are people mixed in with the beastly creatures as well:
We also see Loial, Bain, and Chiad charging through the forest...
...and Perrin fighting at night, with some Whitecloaks in the background:
Something to note is that all three of the battle scenes in the last images take place at different times of day, in seemingly different settings. In the book, the Battle of the Two Rivers is a prolonged siege that spans hundreds of pages and multiple clashes. It seems like the show will reflect that.
Here's an explosion of the One Power from four Aes Sedai at the White Tower, I'm guessing during Liandrin's escape:
Next we have someone weaving the One Power over a dark, foggy forest.
It's hard to tell who this person is, but the clothing and hairstyle looks like a match for Alanna. If so, whatever's happening probably happens in the Two Rivers.
From the Two Rivers we had back to the Aiel Waste, where a woman wearing a veil weilds a flaming sword and blade of air made of the One Power:
This person is wearing the same clothing Egwene had on in a previous scene. My guess is it might be some kind of garb that trainees under the Wise Ones have to wear. That makes me think this is an Aiel. It doesn't look like Ayoola Smart to me, so I don't think it's Aviendha, but it's hard to be certain with the veil. Whoever she is, you don't want to mess with her!
Harvesting the land
Next we see a group of people standing in a row, harvesting the land. We'll come back to them in a second:
Here's a shot of a crowd of Aiel, watching something from the top of a sand dune. Perhaps the Car'a'carn is emerging from Rhuidean?
Now we see Rand...or at least, someone who is played by Josha Stradowski, but has totally different clothing, bleached blond hair and a beard:
He's in the same field as that row of people reaping wheat; it's without a doubt one of Rand's visions in Rhuidean. I don't want to discuss more spoilers, but suffice it to say he'll learn a great many shocking details about how the Aiel culture developed into what it is.
Here's another shocker: Lanfear dressed for the Age of Legends:
The color palette and clothing kind of matches the shot of Rand we saw earlier, when he was wearing a black vest over a white shirt in a Rhuidean vision. Is he going to see characters like Lanfear and Ishamael, but in the past?
Nynaeve and Lan share a kiss:
Elayne gives Rand some advice:
"Make them believe in you, and they will follow you to the ends of the earth," she tells the Dragon Reborn. Elayne isn't in her novice white here. She won't be going with Rand into the Aiel Waste, and we've already seen images of her at the White Tower and in Tanchico, so this must be pretty early in the season.
Speaking of the ends of the earth, here's Perrin, Bain, Chiad, and Loial walking across a beautiful landscape, probably on their way to the Two Rivers:
Moiraine is having a rough time in the three rings of Rhuidean...
..and Alanna is having a rough time in the streets of Tar Valon:
Remember how I said Alanna will need to have a big arc? Well, I think it's pretty telling that we only see her warder Maksim in the Two Rivers, and her other warder Ihvon is nowhere to be seen. I think that has something to do with why Alanna is screaming here.
Back to the Two Rivers, where Faile runs through the carnage to give Perrin a smooch:
Lan lifts Moiraine, who's sobbing:
Moiraine is wearing the same outfit we saw when she was getting strangled by Lanfear. Maybe she wears it in the real world as well as in Tel'aran'rhiod? Or maybe Lan will make an appearance in Moiraine's vision? He looks like he's been in a fight, with the bloody nose and all.
Back to Rand, who's standing in the desert and proclaiming "This is what I was born to do":
Cut to Rand, obliterating the mirror men with the One Power:
We saw this scene in the teaser, and it almost certainly lines up with an early book scene where Rand is attacked by a supernatural force while resting on his laurels at a fortress called the Stone of Tear. We don't know if the Stone of Tear will appear in the show this season, but the scene itself looks to have made the leap to the screen.
And here's the final shot of the trailer, showing Rand al'Thor standing amidst the swirling vortex of his own magic power. It's laced with darkness, because the male half of the One Power drives men mad:
The Wheel of Time approaches, and soon it will be time, time, time to watch it. Season 3 premieres March 13 on Prime Video.
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