This article contains SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time book series through book 11, Knife of Dreams.
Last week, we reported on a curious development in the ongoing story of The Wheel of Time. During the show's third season, showrunner Rafe Judkins confirmed that the show has already introduced a secret member of the Forsaken, the ancient channelers sworn to the Shadow who serve as some of the primary antagonists for the series.
"We’ve definitely laid the pieces for a few Forsaken to appear in next season who are new and maybe not so new that you will be excited to see on screen," Judkins toldThe Hollywood Reporter.
Over on The Dusty Wheel, Judkins was asked point blank if there are any Forsaken who have been introduced in the show who will "remain unmasked' through season 3. "I mean you know that there are," Judkins replied. "Listen...I don't want to give too much away. We're being very thoughtful with the Forsaken, and I think there's something potentially controversial that will happen in Episode 8 that people should keep their eyes peeled for with the Forsaken. I'm interested to see the reaction to it...but you know, we think about the Forsaken a lot. We really want them to be just as exciting in the show as they are in the books, and they're amazing in the books so that's hard to pull off."
Ever since, I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out who this secret Forsaken might be. And lately I've been mulling a theory that could mean they've been influencing our heroes for far longer than we thought.
Who is the secret Forsaken in The Wheel of Time?
As of right now, we know the identity of seven of the eight Forsaken we'll see in The Wheel of Time: Ishamael, Rahvin, and Sammael for the male Forsaken, and Lanfear, Moghedien, Graendal, and Semirhage for the female Forsaken. That leaves one male Forsaken unaccounted for. So far in the series we've met all of the named Forsaken except for Graendal and Semirhage. That means our secret Forsaken is either Graendal, Semirhage, or the mysterious eighth Forsaken.
On an Instagram AMA following the season finale, Judkins seemed to shoot down the possibility of us having already met Graendal or Semirhage without knowing it. When asked whether the show ever considred introducing them in season 3, he said, "No. We can’t give too much too fast. Each Forsaken is delicious and we’ve barely gotten enough of Moghy, Sammael, and Rahvin." I wouldn't take that as a firm confirmation that they aren't hidden in season 3 and still awaiting a proper introduction, but still, it's evidence in support of the idea that they may not be the secret Forsaken.
That leaves Forsaken number eight. Of the 13 Forsaken from the books, the two most likely candidates are Asmodean and Demandred. In addition to being a skilled channeler, Asmodean is a musician, and poses as a bard to accompany Rand out into the Aiel Waste in The Shadow Rising, the book which formed the basis for season 3. At the end of the book, Rand captures Asmodean and forces the Forsaken to teach him how to better channel the One Power. It's a very memorable part of the series, and I was surprised not to see it in season 3.
Demandred, on the other hand, serves as a key general during the Last Battle. He primarily shows up late in the series. He's also got some very memorable moments, nearly all of which revolve around big action scenes. It's hard to know which of these two Forsaken it would be easier for The Wheel of Time to cut.
That brings us around to the "controversial" event dealing with the Forsaken in the season finale that Judkins mentioned, which is obviously the death of Sammael. In the books, Sammael is a perpetual thorn in Rand's side, constantly manipulating events to throw wrenches in all his plans. There's never much doubt that Sammael would lose to Rand in a straight fight, which is why the Forsaken makes it so hard for Rand to force a direct confrontation.
Rand finally kills him during the seventh book, A Crown of Swords. The show took a very different route with Sammael by having him get captured during season 3. Moiraine then tells Sammael that she intends to have him teach Rand how to better control saidin, the male half of the One Power. That seemed to hint that Sammael might fulfill Asmodean's role from the books...except he doesn't get the chance, because he's promptly murdered by Moghedien later in the same episode.
At first blush, I took this to mean that The Wheel of Time was getting rid of Sammael and Asmodean, since it nodded to Asmodean's book storyline during Sammael's final moments. However, I'm starting to consider another theory: that Asmodean has been right in front of us all along.
Is Thom Merrilin a Forsaken in The Wheel of Time show?
Right now, I'm wondering if the secret Forsaken might actually be Thom Merrilin, the gleeman played by Alexandre Willaume. In the books, Thom is not a Forsaken or a Darkfriend or anything of the sort...but the show has already made enough changes to his storyline that we can't rule out the possibility.
There are a few pieces to this theory. The first is that, in season 1 when we first saw the statues of the eight Forsaken on the altar of Lan's Warder friend Stepin, one of those statues held a guitar. Asmodean is the only Forsaken known to play that instrument in the books, so he's the obvious guess for the identity of that statue. That supports the idea that Asmodean is in the show, even though season 3 seemingly cut his most prominent plotline from the book series. Perhaps it simply rearranged it, and will have Asmodean teach Rand about the One Power later? Maybe Moiraine's conversation with Sammael was simply to remind us that Rand will need a teacher at some point down the line, and a Forsaken is the most likely candidate?
The other side of this theory is Thom himself. In the first book in the series, Thom seemingly sacrifices himself by attacking a Fade in order to give Rand and his friends time to escape it. Later, Rand runs into Thom in Cairhien, and after that point, the gleeman stays a pretty consistent part of the story. Late in the book series, it's revealed that he had a romance with Moiraine, and they married in secret. This plays into the endgame of the series.
By contrast, the show leaned farther into Thom's death fakeout with the Fade, which happened during season 1. He didn't appear at all in season 2, and only returned in the sixth episode of season 3 when Mat bumped into him in Tanchico. We're finally getting some of Thom's important book material, like the backstory for his relationship with Elayne's mother Morgase, but he still feels much less present in the story.
As for the Moiraine connection, it wouldn't make any sense for the television show to include it. The show has spent a lot of time on Moiraine's relationship with Siuan Sanche; it's one of the central romances of the series. She literally hasn't shared a single scene with Thom Merrilin, so there's no good way the show can justify them being married unless it devotes significant screentime to them meeting each other in season 4, when Moiraine will presumably still be grieving Siuan. Plus, the television series has only ever had Moiraine show interest in women. It wouldn't make sense for a number of reasons.
Considering how much less time Thom has spent traveling with our heroes in the show, and how his late book storyline probably won't be included anyway, it would be that much easier for the show to do something drastically different with him, which would shock and delight both show-only fans as well as hardcore book readers who might not expect such a wild deviation.
The one problem with Thom being a Forsaken
There's one major complication when it comes to the theory that Thom might be a Forsaken: Ishamael only released the rest of the Forsaken aside from Lanfear at the end of season 2, before he was killed at Falme. Thom has been on the show since season 1, so how would that work?
The first possibility is that the real Thom Merrilin was killed by the Fade in season 1, and Asmodean has assumed his shape somehow. We've already seen how the Forsaken can use their magic to manipulate the minds of others, like with Rahvin posing as Lord Gaebril. It's possible Asmodean has a similar trick up his sleeve. But why would he choose to pose as Thom Merrilin, a character who would have died before he was even released from his imprisonment? Perhaps Thom did survive the encounter with the Fade, only to later run into a newly released Asmodean?
Another, and in my opinion more interesting, possibility is that Asmodean may have somehow slipped out of his prison earlier than we thought, and has been Thom all along. What if Asmodean found a way to escape decades before the start of the series, which led to his time at Andor as a court bard? This would add a lot of layers to the idea that he had a previous romance with Queen Morgase, who would have had a relationship with one Forsaken in years past only to fall into the clutches of another in season 3. It would also add extra layers to the possibility that Thom may or may not be Elayne's true father, something the books are cagey about ever confirming. If he is her father and he's a Forsaken, it could factor into how she's such an extraordinarily powerful channeler.
Then there's the song Thom sang in season 1 during his very first scene, "The Man Who Can't Forget." This song is about Lews Therin Telamon, the original Dragon who broke the world in his battle with the Dark One, went mad, and accidentally killed his own wife and children. While that could just be a cool bit of lore to include, it's also worth noting that this song is phrased in the first person, as if Thom actually knew Lews Therin. Check out some of the lyrics:
"I can still hear the way that he cried
For the ones he was missing
I can still hear the way that he cried
For the ones he had lost
He saw them in the rivers
He felt them in the rain
In dreams he heard them whisper
The truth that is his pain
He caused the whole world’s breaking
The tortured soul I met
In a prison of his making
The man who can’t forget"
This could just be a song Thom picked up somewhere...but what if it's not? What if this is actually a song he wrote about a very real person he knew, who went mad and killed his entire family as he shattered the world around him?
Part of what makes all this feel so plausible is that Asmodean does have a redemption arc of sorts in the novels. So him posing as Thom for years, learning about the world, and coming to care for it in a genuine way could be really compelling if the show explains it all well.
What do you think? Could Thom Merrilin be the secret Forsaken in The Wheel of Time, or is this theory too out there? Let us know in the comments!
The first three seasons of The Wheel of Time are all available to stream on Prime Video. Hopefully Amazon and Sony renew it soon, so we can watch season 4 and learn more about the Forsaken.
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