Fifteen Thoughts on The Wheel of Time‘s “A Taste of Solitude,” “Strangers and Friends,” and “What Might Be”

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the great recap pages of Multiversity Comics. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

Today, we will look into the first three episodes for season 2 of The Wheel of Time, “A Taste of Solitude,” “Strangers and Friends,” and “What Might Be.”

Rather than structuring this recap by scene, it feels better to do so by location and plot line. There will be some overlap in the points made, so it is best to have seen the three-part premiere before reading here. At the end, we will address some of the major changes as well, with minimal book spoilers for context.

There are systemic differences in this take on the series, from things as seemingly mundane as hair color to the six-month timeskip (as opposed to 21 days in the source), but we will avoid bringing them up too much unless it becomes apparent within the story itself.

1. Call Him Ishamael

We open on a little girl named Niko running away from a Trolloc into an odd, six-pointed-star-shaped building. There, hidden under a table, she hears a meeting amongst the Friends of the Dark (hereafter called Darkfriends, including Padan Fain) and the man we originally called the Dark One, all discussing the emergent Dragon Reborn, Rand al’Thor.

He notes that Rand “freed” him at the Eye, but if he were truly the Dark One, that would mean the end of the world (and the series) in the first installment. Therefore, this person is clearly not the Dark One, but someone passing himself off as that being who is an ancient male channeler. Yes, the official subtitles and credits still insist on calling him “the Man,” but solicitations from Amazon of the episodes use his true identity.

As for who he is? That takes some reminders. Back in “A Place of Safety”, the Darkfriend Dana mentioned a man named Ishamael, one who brought the Dragon to the Dark One in the Age of Legends. In “Blood Calls Blood”, the Warder Stepin mentioned Ishamael, calling him the “Father of Lies” he was using a religious ritual to ward off in order to see the truth.

In talking with the little girl and trying to calm her (and manipulate her), the mysterious man notes that others call him by many names, among them “Father of Lies” and the “Betrayer of Hope.” The first is also one of many terms for the Dark One in the books, but had already been identified with the man known as Ishamael before. The latter, on the other hand, is (at least in the source material) a literal translation of “Ishamael” into the Old Tongue of the Age of Legends.

Ishamael calls himself and the other most powerful servants of the Dark One “Chosen” instead of Forsaken, noting that the general populace calls his compatriots such terrible names to instill fear, but that he is no monster and neither is the Trolloc outside. Of course, he probably is pretty bad to be able to make a Trolloc not attack him on sight, but the girl doesn’t know that.

2. Darkfriend Social

This “Darkfriend Social” is important in that it not only is a fairly standard villain opening scene to a property, but it also showcases some ways the plot will differ due to Ishmael having been the one to meet Rand at the Eye, and not the two other Forsaken who were there in the novels. Instead of telling the assembled people to watch Matrim Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, and Rand al’Thor just in case one of them is the Dragon Reborn, he already is relatively certain of the identity. Further, he has decided not to try and kill Rand just yet, but to watch him develop into the Dragon for the time being.

Unlike the prior season, he does not seem to exclusively use the term “Dragon Reborn,” but also the more general “Dragon.” This approach, also closer to the books, fits much better when considering not everyone would be considered the “reborn” when there had to be some kind of baseline.

Of further note regarding this “Darkfriend Social,” we have the other known participants. We know about Niko’s mother (one of the Traveling People), Padan Fain, and Ishamael, but others are identifiable only by distinctive clothing. There is one in white clothing of the Children of the Light, one with distinctive long nails of the Seanchan (possibly Suroth, see below), one with an Aes Sedai ring who likely belongs to the fabled Black Ajah, and someone who has clothing bearing the black hawk of Shienar. Some identities may be considered, but the idea seems to be that the Darkfriends can be anywhere. Or, as the book prologue stated, “Merchant and warrior, commoner and noble. From Kandor and Cairhien, Saldaea and Ghealdan. From every nation and nearly every people. Even a Tinker…”

3. Country Life at Tifan’s Well

Moiraine is living in the countryside with her fellow Aes Sedai, Verin and Adeleas. As a note on Adeleas, she is identified as Verin Mathwin’s sister here, but that is not the case in the books, where she, Adeleas Namelle, instead has a different sister named Vandene who is a much more minor character. Further, she is the first Aes Sedai not seen wearing primarily the color of her Ajah.

Moiraine is still working to try to help the Dragon Reborn, having at least twenty visitors from far off places that she does not even explain to Lan. The latest is Bayle Domon, a trader from the land of Illian, who she converses with behind closed doors about a broken piece of heartstone, the same material at the Eye that is supposed to be in unbreakable, but was found as a shattered moon dial (likely for phases of the moon given the name) a few months back in the recent spring

Bayle says that there was a poem written in blood on the moon dial in Old Tongue, which she purchases from him, only to realize he is being followed by two Fades. Panicked, she gives far more money (ten times the amount she was paying for the poem, and a fifth as much as he had proposed for the heartstone) to get provisions and told him to get as far away as he possibly could, knowing the Shadow was on to her.

Verin eventually deduces that Moiraine has found the Dragon Reborn after years of searching, and that she intends on serving him no matter what it takes. To help, she says she will find books about the Prophecies of the Dragon in the White Tower, such as ones about Toman Head, “battles in the sky”, and “a sword of flame and the branded hand that wields it”. She also explicitly says that the Dragon had to have been one of the boys she brought to Tar Valon, implicitly saying that only a man could have been the Dragon (which makes sense, given there would be little to no danger if a woman who could channel was in that position, compared to the madness of men).

4. Power Loss and Depression

Following the encounter with Ishamael at the Eye, Moiraine is still unable to embrace the One Power after he tied off her connection, requiring her to do work by hand instead. The ordeal has made her depressed, understandable given it would likely make her feel as though a piece of herself had been removed. Or as Verin puts it, it comes across as not dissimilar to sexual assault: “When a woman who can channel is cut off from the One Power, it feels like the most brutal form of assault. Your body no longer feels like your own. Your mind reliving the trauma again and again, remembering what you once were and what you’ll never be again.” While most women die in their despair, it is a testament to Moiraine’s strength that she keeps living and moving forward despite her anguish.

Moiraine decides to set out to continue her plans on her own, only to be attacked by three Fades. For someone who is supposed to be very intelligent, that decision was very, very poorly thought out on at least three different levels. First, she has no powers, and thus no way to defend herself. Second, her Warder is not with her at first (only coming to her aid a bit later), meaning her bodyguard is not there to keep her safe either. Third, she knows there are Shadowspawn out in the world who would seek her out to kill her, especially as she encountered a major agent of the Dark. She is lucky that she and Lan were merely wounded in the struggle, rather than outright killed before Verin and Adeleas could show up.

The only logical reason that seems apparent is that, locked off from the One Power, Moiraine set out alone as an attempted suicide.

After the Trolloc attack, Moiraine is intent on returning to the White Tower, despite being exiled (at her own request) by Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat, in the previous season. Upon finding Green Ajah Alanna Mosvani (who had left the Tower to aid Moiraine), she grants Lan to her, having other Warders escort him to the Tower under the pretense of him being unable to protect her any longer. The fact that she has no powers of her own besides reputation and words makes the decision seem hollow, as if, much like her earlier decision, she just wants to die, not as directly dedicated to helping the Dragon Reborn as Verin deduces.

5. Novices in Training

Egwene and Nynaeve are undergoing their first stage in becoming Aes Sedai: being novices, essentially interns learning minor skills while also being taught a bit of channeling between them.

Egwene in particular seems to chafe at the lack of praise for her work, not to mention the carnal activity that happens in rooms right next door to where she is cleaning by hand. It seems Alanna Sedai has little use for privacy in her relationship with her Warders, which is both humorous for the audience and annoying to Egwene, especially when Alanna talks about sex with her Warders later after misunderstanding Egwene’s question about her lessons. That said, Alanna’s lesson about things being messy before they get better, how “nothing worthwhile is neat and tidy,” seems to follow well.

When Alanna is explaining the use of weaves of the five threads of the One Power (Air, Earth, Fire, Spirit, and Water), she notably brings up the idea of taking strands of Water and Earth from existing parts of the environment around her when filtering a glass of water. Considering the nature of the other three, it seems unlikely those are dealt with the same way, given Air is so omnipresent, Spirit is inherently mystical, and Fire is a form of energy rather than matter.

Egwene and Nynaeve are both considered exceptionally strong in the Power, able to embrace enormous quantities without burning out or dying. While Egwene is already strong, Nynaeve is explicitly stated to be far stronger than even her. This is even true with the latter’s block, which has led her to train in swordsmanship with the Warders (doing quite well).

It seems that Egwene and Nynaeve both are unaware of what exactly happened to the Two Rivers men. In particular, they do not know that Mat (played by a new actor) is being held in the Tower as a prisoner, or that Rand is even alive.

6. Power Block

While Egwene can channel relatively well, Nynaeve can only do so when sufficiently stressed, specifically by anger or fear. She clearly is capable of learning, such as copying Liandrin’s weave after seeing it just once, but actually using the One Power is difficult for her.

It is not too uncommon for channeler to have some kind of mental block on their abilities (hereafter referred to as a “block”). For clear reasons, we have more examples around the women, with Nynaeve’s block being particularly prominent and important to her character development.

Nynaeve’s block is different in the show versus the books. In the latter, she only was able to channel when angry until the block was dealt with, and it was channeling when terrified that was a big change. How does this mean her character arc will change going forward? Does it have to do with the Warder Maksim’s question about why Nynaeve even wants to be an Aes Sedai in the first place?

It may also relate to Liandrin’s claim that she needs to learn how to be an Aes Sedai differently, a claim that has some basis in fact, such as auditory versus visual learners.

7. Egwene’s New Friend, Elayne Trakand

Egwene has made a new next-door friend in the Tower, a newer novice named Elayne. More precisely, she is Lady Elayne of House Trakand, Daughter-Heir (Crown Princess) to the throne of Andor, the nation that includes the Two Rivers. Elayne tries to be as nice as possible, but sadly the throne made her believe her more lavish lifestyle is what is meant for people, not that she does not try to bridge the gap the best she can, including giving Egwene a shoulder to cry on when she believes Nynaeve dead in her test.

Interestingly, Egwene barely reacts to hearing she is a royal subject. Perhaps being so far out in western Andor means she does not even fully register she is part of a larger kingdom, or perhaps she just feels the status does not matter within the Tower.

Elayne also mentions some names of note, but the most prominent is likely Cadsuane Melaidhrin, who may be important far down the line.

Elayne’s appearance is chronologically very different from the source material. In the source material, she showed up first in the books to Rand falling into the garden at her home, around the same time Logain was being brought into the city. She then was brought to the White Tower before Egwene and Nynaeve. Odd changes, but nothing major.

8. The Mysterious, Cruel Liandrin Sedai

Learning of Nynaeve’s block, Red Ajah Liandrin Guirale offers to train her, though apparently a student died in her care in the past (something she shows very little concern or shame for and blames on the One Power being dangerous). Her cruelty also extends to her treatment of the imprisoned Mat, to whom she reads a letter by Perrin and deliberately excludes the sentence mentioning his name to make him think he is being forgotten or ignored.

As part of her attempt to begin training Nynaeve, Liandrin pushes for her to undergo the testing to become an Accepted (the unusual elements mentioned further down this page), which causes Alanna to leave the Tower in protest to help Moiraine instead.

Liandrin’s show of power to Nynaeve, making a sword of Air, is similar to a scene from the books (albeit with a different person demonstrating), but readers may notice a discrepancy of particular interest. Aes Sedai are bound by the Three Oaths: to speak no word that is not true; to make no weapon with which one man may kill another; and never to use the One Power as a weapon except against Darkfriends or Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme defense of her life, the life of her Warder, or another Aes Sedai. By her words, Liandrin claims she could use a sword, a weapon of the Power, to attack men, something that in the comparative scene was stated as impossible to even begin doing, even to create said blade, if that was the intended purpose in the books. If she cannot lie, then how can she bypass the second and third oaths in this way, especially as she did not indicate her own life would be in danger?

Particularly odd, Nynaeve witnesses Liandrin caring for a sick, elderly man (named Aludran by the behind-the-scenes information) after following the Red Aes Sedai through a secret passage in the Tower. Usually, this kind of behavior would not be out of the question for the benevolent White Tower, but the Red Ajah are notorious as misandrists, even beyond their charge of stopping men who can channel. Is this the man she was visiting in Northharbor? She seems extremely distraught at having actually been leaving him in pain with her administration of improper medication as Nynaeve explains, and given her words of Alduran being “[her] boy,” it seems he is her son, unaffected by the same agelessness as Aes Sedai. The implication that she had a son also seems to imply that she was not always as misandrist as she has been as a Red Ajah Aes Sedai, but how that happened is unclear.

When volunteering to train Nynaeve, Liandrin also mentions another false Dragon declared in the land of Saldaea, one who Grey sister Joiya Byir says is rumored to be even stronger than Logain Ablar; another later calls this man Mazrim Taim. A plot thread to consider later, as is the fact that Joiya seems to have been the only one of the assembled Aes Sedai to agree with Liandrin at all.

9. Test of the Silver Arches

Nynaeve’s test to become Accepted and begin official training is extraordinary. Most women remain novices for years before being deemed ready, with their apparent level of strength in the Power deciding how long it will take. According to the original books, the average sister is not ready until around ten years of being a novice, with some stronger ones (for example, Alanna and Verin) being fast tracked for six years, Siuan and Moiraine remaining for three, and other very strong ones remaining for less than a year. Nynaeve’s strength is so unusual, so great, that in the source she skipped being a novice entirely and was tested as an Accepted immediately on coming to the White Tower.

While her being a novice briefly is a bit of a downgrade, it makes a good balance between being shown as better than grunt work and being far stronger than her peers, and also accounts for how her block would make the idea of sidestepping being a novice a bit ridiculous.

Nynaeve seemingly fails her test to keep going past her loved ones and keep heading toward life as an Aes Sedai, the silver arches (just called the “Arches”) ter’angreal (magical artifact) functioning a little differently. Instead of showing fears of the past, present, and future, it seems to be a temptation instead to test in they would leave their quest to become official channelers.

However, she did escape her trouble, fighting off a Trolloc attack when trying to have a simple life with an illusion of Lan, emerging to a shocked Egwene who had been grieving her assumed demise.

10. Mat and Min

At Moiraine’s request, likely due to a combination of the ruby-hilted dagger and his nature as ta’veren, Liandrin has had Mat held imprisoned in Tar Valon, and has been for the past six months (conveniently also giving a vague time frame for how long it has been since the first season). Min Farshaw has also been locked up by Liandrin, and sees a new vision around Mat (one original to the television series) of him stabbing Rand. However, she keeps it to herself, even as he befriends her while in captivity and they both try to scrape away at the bricks to free themselves.

As part of her strange behavior, Liandrin releases Mat from his captivity during Egwene’s emotional breakdown over Nynaeve’s assumed death in her test. However, while she seems to have done this in the hope that he would offer Egwene comfort (something he opts not to do), she also releases Min to keep an eye on and follow him.

While this sequence is original to the television series, Mat and Min have enough in common that it feels perfectly natural anyway. Further, while there was a change in actor for Mat (from Barney Harris to Dońal Finn), the new actor does a great job of maintaining his personality, even with the script glossing over/ignoring how he was last seen going back to Shadar Logoth in the prior season.

11. The Hunt for Padan Fain

Perrin and Loial are going after Padan Fain in the hopes of getting him and retrieving the Horn of Valere, even “knowing” that Rand is dead. Among them are an intriguing cadre, some of which are famous for later work more than current events in the series.

On the one hand, we have the Shienarans, with Uno Nomesta being joined by Lord Ingtar Shinowa and Masema Dagar, Shinowa being in charge of the hunt. All three of these characters have potential roles to play down the line, so it is best to remember them. Ingtar in particular seems rather kind to Darkfriends, giving a Shienaran traitor a proper burial and offering that maybe Fain had a good reason for his actions.

On the other hand, we have Elyas, a “sniffer” who seems not unlike Perrin and is rather interested in him. Perhaps he can explain the connection to wolves better, and how to use it? More on him to follow below.

Speaking of Padan Fain, the group find a Fade nailed to a door, the positioning cruciform. It is heavily implied that Fain was the one to do so, while the Fade was still alive. How he would be so strong as to do so, coupled with why he would kill an agent of the Shadow, is unclear, but seems to indicate his priorities are not necessarily those of the Dark One.

In the case of the source, Rand and Mat were with Ingtar’s party during this sequence (their plots still seem to be moving, but at very different paces), so we can expect some major changes.

12. The Seanchan

Ingtar’s group come to a small village to rest before continuing the search, which is attacked by a foreign force in the night. This group, as is explained shortly after, is the Seanchan, a nation from across the sea that uses channeling women as slaves. The Seanchan take pride in descent from the forces of Luthair Paendrag Mondwin, son of Artur Paendrag Tanreall, a.k.a. Artur Hawkwing, the series equivalent to a combination of King Arthur and Alexander the Great. The leader of this assault, High Lady Suroth, has come with Ishamael himself, implying she is either a Darkfriend or manipulated by them.

Perrin and the Shienarans are commanded to swear fealty to the Seanchan, and they surrender after Uno Nomesta is executed for refusing.

This entire sequence of events is unique to the television series. Perrin’s plot line did not deal with the Seanchan as a primary focus all that often, and never met Suroth. His interactions with Ishamael were primarily in dreams, with the Forsaken abandoning him once it was clear Rand was the actual Dragon Reborn (something he seems to already be fully aware of). Most notably, Uno did not die here, and in fact lived much, much longer, which gives grave implications for Eamon Valda’s grievous injury in the first season.

13. Sniffers or More?

The “sniffer” Elyas is rather intriguing. He can seemingly command a pack of wolves (similar to what happened with the Whitecloaks and Perrin) to save Perrin from the Seanchan, and has golden eyes like Perrin did when using his odd abilities. Perhaps in getting aid from Elyas, Perrin can learn to control his “inner beast” so to speak, as Ishamael wanted him to unleash?

Perrin’s abilities seem to be changing, with his senses almost working like psychometry (finding information on the past through psychic imprints). He seems to be having visions as well, far beyond that of a wolf, and definitely different from them. So powerful are Perrin’s abilities that he can hear the voices of people long dead, and see their deaths so vividly that he briefly is unaware a house is empty but for blood and rotted food, only seeing it after the fact.

In the source, the “sniffer” was not Elyas, but a separate character named Hurin (the only known sniffer shown in the entire series) who could literally smell violence or its residue, enabling the tracking of an increasingly unstable Padan Fain and his Trollocs. Whether this means he will not show up at all is uncertain, as Hurin was far more tied to Rand’s story than Perrin’s. However, it seems that the abilities of a sniffer are being folded into those of Perrin, likely for simplicity’s sake. Seeing as the source had Perrin’s sense of smell gradually become fine enough to notice danger, this merger of abilities is not too bad, especially as Hurin was a fairly minor character who only showed up in a few key sequences, with no other sniffers shown in the entire series.

Furthermore, while Elyas’s backstory has him as a Shienaran soldier, he never actively worked with the Shienarans, primarily working just with Perrin himself to develop his abilities. In general, his presentation seems a way to more fully integrate him into an overarching plot instead of just being Perrin’s mentor.

14. The Dragons and the Moon

Rand has been having nightmares of Ishamael laughing at him after Rand had killed all of his friends. He wakes up at an inn in the town of the Foregate, Cairhien, beside his new lover, the innkeeper Selene. He is apparently in hiding as he wished, trying to start a new life and move on from Egwene for her safety.

Selene mentions how she once loved someone, and how when he left, she was “shattered.” She does say that said man still has her whole heart, which is odd given how close she is to Rand, who she claims she pretends is the man she loved. The two are very close, and when Rand goes to a party for Cairhien nobility in order to secure a bottle of wine to bribe Logain Ablar (as mentioned below), she comes along as well. Speaking of that meeting, it is afterwards that Rand accidentally sets the inn he stays in on fire with the One Power, showing he is not in control of his abilities and is potentially a danger to her as well as himself, just in a different way from his predecessor.

As a consequence of him not being part of the hunt for Fain as well as of his age and the series’ take on sexual relationships, Rand’s meetings with Selene are very different from those in the novel. Unlike in this episode, he met her on the road (in another plane of existence to boot) with Hurin (mentioned above), they spent their time on the road in general instead of settling down, and she spent her time trying to get close to him, with him reluctant despite her beauty due to feeling he is “promised” to Egwene. Granted, the slower, more reluctant approach to romance is true for all of the Two Rivers party (for instance, Perrin did not have a wife at the start, and Rand and Egwene rarely physically showed any affection they had), but this change feels particularly notable. Furthermore, they only traveled together for roughly a week, rather than the implied months-long relationship here.

15. Dragons, False and True

As his job undercover, Rand has been working at a mental institution, a position he took in order to get close to the false Dragon Logan Ablar, one of the resident patients. He eventually manages it, attempting to get the male channeler to teach him how to control the One Power without going mad as so many male channelers do. Toying with the young man, Logain only agrees to help if he is given a bottle of Ghealdan wine (from the same country where Logain was attacking in his introduction, as well as being Logain’s country of origin).

Even with the bottle, Logain notes he could not have taught Rand to control the One Power, as that power cannot be controlled at all, likely the case for men more than women due to the nature of the magic system.

And there you have it, the three-episode second sesaon premiere of The Wheel of Time. Do you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns? Feel free to leave comments below. See you next week!