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 ending. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.
Today, we will look into episode eight, the season finale of season 2, “What Was Meant to Be.”
1. The Fall and Fall of the Betrayer of Hope
Having a cold open in the Age of Legends seems to be standard by now.
The scene is of Ishamael’s sealing. Lews Therin Telamon is in what appears to be the Eye of the World, before a kneeling Ishamael. They seem to have once been best of friends alongside Lanfear, or at least Lews Therin thinks so. Perhaps Ishamael does as well, as he calls Lews Therin by just his first name (middle names are a status symbol), much like Lanfear. Such a decision is known to fans to be indicative of an insult, familiarity, or both. Notably, Lews Theron does not call Ishamael any names at all, meaning he likely would call him Elan (from Elan Morin Tedronai).
Notably, while Lanfear (formerly Mierin Eronaile) was in love with Lews Therin (or rather, with his power) in the source, Ishamael never had a personal connection to Lews Therin by contrast in the same, being a philosopher who turned against the light but not with any personal association beyond being in charge of opposing armies.
While Lews Therin seems sad, his decision to individually seal away the Forsaken and leave them alive and conscious but not quite aware seems far less merciful than he probably intends by not killing them. Given Ishamael’s death wish, it is even worse on his end.
Lews Therin also mentions two other Forsaken: Mogheiden and Sammael. The former shows up in the final moments, but the latter is for down the line, as is the also mentioned Graendal (who herself might make this show somewhat less safe for work).
According to his discussion with Padan Fain, Lanfear, presumably Ishamael, and likely the other Forsaken are all immortal, granted “eternal life” by the Dark One. Whether this means they cannot die by any means or are simply un-aging and difficult to take down is unclear, and it may have been better to just leave that line out entirely given what happens. The idea of these people being completely immune to age (rather than it just slowing) makes the urgency of the prophecies completely evaporate, either way.
Regardless of what he says, Lanfear bringing Rand straight to Falme definitely rattles Ishamael, to the point that he makes serious mistakes. Among them, there is believing wholeheartedly in Mat being Rand’s killer, while ignoring the rest of the prophecies that have yet to come to pass. In his haste to get rid of this version of the Dragon so he could manipulate a different one in ages to come, the Betrayer of Hope moves fast and incautiously, setting aside any alternative battlefields in favor of the current one, which leads to his possible downfall.
When he receives the ruby-hilted dagger again courtesy of Padan Fain, Mat refuses to touch it, instead fashioning a spear out of it, able to melt metal with ease, and escaping custody. Compared to the source, this will result in numerous changes all at once. After he lost it, he never took the dagger again, and in fact it became the main connection point between himself and the increasingly deranged Padan Fain. He did eventually wield a spear, but he did not even get said spear until the fourth book, and the weapon itself was very different, completely disconnected from Shadar Logoth or any other sources of evil, though also had some elements of a “key” of sorts.
The context of the duel between Rand and Ishamael is extremely different, not in the least because Ishamael is in full control of his mental faculties instead of being a raving madman. However, the important points are that they fought each other alone, literally transposed to the sky with their duel synchronized with the fight between the Heroes of the Horn (Rand) and the Seanchan (Ishamael) losing or gaining ground based on who was advancing or retreating. By the end of the fight, Ishamael had seemingly been killed (as opposed to not even fighting in the first book), and Rand was not only scarred in his side by a Dark spear, but branded with the mark of the heron on both of his hands, as stated in the prophecies: “Once the heron, to set his path. / Twice the heron, to name him true.”
Continued belowIn the series, by contrast, the fight is joined by multiple people. A collection of strong damane hold a shield on Rand as Ishamael tells of how Lews Therin drove him and his friends to the Dark (implying he was close to the others as well), blaming him for Ishamael turning out how he did. By this point in the show, only one of the heron marks is there, though Tam’s heron-marked blade has been melted into nothing by channeling Fire through it.
The wound Rand received from Mat accidentally was originally one imposed intentionally by Fain several books down the line, and the wound explicitly cannot be fully healed by any means, plaguing his body for the rest of his life. In terms of wounds, the one he was to receive here was instead from Ba’alzamon (the alias used at the time by Ishamael), using a True Power-infused spear when Rand deliberately opened himself up to an attack to deal a fatal blow himself, across which the aforementioned dagger wound would be drawn, also incapable of healing. Due to how the power of Shadar Logoth was wrought of a desire to fight the Shadow, these two wounds end up essentially competing with one another for the ability to kill him. The un-healing nature is likely still in effect to some degree, as there is a blackened scar where the wound came in the show, enough to keep him from dying immediately but not to keep it from getting worse again.
The actual final blow, once Rand is released from his shield, is extremely anticlimactic. Rather than an intense fight, he just… walks through the powerful attacks, superheats his sword for seemingly no reason, and slowly pushes it into Ishamael’s chest, ruining the blade in the process. It was not even a drawn out fight, just Ishamael standing there and taking it. Not only does this ignore any combat ability Rand and Ishamael may or may not actually have, but it means Rand destroyed the weapon he received from his adoptive father Tamlin for no reason. By contrast, the book’s equivalent scene had the fight even enough, sword to spear, that Rand had to lure his opponent in to make a strike that would potentially kill them both, effectively sacrificing himself for his friends.
Ishamael’s response to being impaled, on top of his near complete lack of any attempt to move away from the guy just coming at him with a sword, would make sense with his death wish, as would his calm reaction to seeing the “nothing” as he dies as beautiful, but for some key issues. First, if he just wanted to die and was satisfied with not taking reality with him, why put up a fight at all or make efforts such as illusions? Second, why have a scene saying the Forsaken are immortal and implying that they could wait another three thousand years for the next cycle if he is just going to be killed in a relatively mundane manner in the very same episode? Biological immortality (the ability to live forever as long as some outside force does not kill) is possibly what was meant, but given how people spoke of the immortality, it seemed to be intended as truly unkillable monsters. Even barring all of that, the way it was handled is bizarre, as it is basically Rand walking forward while holding the sword out, without any resistance at all even from basic physics. Ishamael did not need to fight back for it to be at least a bit hard; a sword impaling him should have had at least a bit of resistance from a purely physical perspective, even having Ishamael lurch forward or something.
After Ishamael was impaled, he seemingly died by turning into ashes. However, the reality is uncertain, especially given he was supposed to be the strongest.
Earlier, Lanfear (who is confirmed as the source of the broken cuendillar) spoke with Bayle Domon in Falme, asking him to find what are clearly the Seals for the Dark One’s prison and throw them in the ocean. What is she planning? An extension of the war, or a loss of a means for the Dark One to escape?
Continued belowAfter the battle, Lanfear meets with another of the released Forsaken: Moghedien (named for a particular species of spider that had a poison that could kill within seconds). Moghedien may be the weakest in the Power of the Forsaken, but she is exceptionally skilled in the use of Tel’aran’rhiod, able to make constructs of spiderwebs to momentarily hold Lanfear in place. Evidently, Ishamael had released all of the Forsaken, despite Moiraine’s claim they would never be able to survive all free at once.
2. Seanchan as Plot Devices
Many problems with this episode come from deliberate changes, but that’s is not to say the source was perfect either. Much like in the books, the presentation of the Seanchan in this finale makes them seem less like agents of their own accord, and more like plot devices to move the story forward for the actually important characters.
With exception of Egwene and Maigan’s experiences with the sul’dam, and to a smaller degree Nynaeve and Elayne’s as well, there is very little personal conflict at stake. Ingtar and his force were captured, but they only really interacted with the Seanchan as a collective, with a little more to Suroth. Perrin encounters them once, then escapes and spends his time trying to catch up, so he does not actually have much stake beyond having a friend in the conflict.
Rand is perhaps the most egregious, as while he kills High Lord Turak, he has no idea who Turak even was, beyond being someone of high authority, with him not really getting much out of the confrontation. In fact, he gets even less out of it than in the source, as there he could not channel anything more complicated than a sword made of fire, and had to get into a true sword duel to win. Said duel was one of the highlights of the second book, and was the way the books showed Turak is formidable, not to mention at all memorable. Here, he just summons a collection of daggers of saidin (male channeling) and slits the throats of almost everybody present at the same time (except one survivor who kills himself). In the process, Turak is made to look far weaker, since if nothing else he was a rather competent swordsman in the source material, but cannot even show that here. In fact, the Weave used to kill them is rather complex, despite Rand having essentially no training at all.
Mat is a little less overt, as while he does sound the Horn, he does not kill any named, quasi-important members of the Seanchan forces, and his sounding is implied to be very important.
The use of the Seanchan does partially extend to misuse in Renna and Egwene’s arc. In the prior episode, we saw Nynaeve attach an a’dam collar to Seta, with it activating. In this episode, she did not even show disbelief. Nevertheless, Egwene gives her triumphant explanation, to a shocked, disbelieving Renna, as if the viewers had not already seen it before. Furthermore, with the lack of the clasp seen in the books, we have no confirmation on how Renna taking off her bracer frees Egwene, especially since a) she did not know she could channel until that moment and b) we had previously heard it was irreversible, up until death. It may seem triumphant in the moment, but in practice it makes no real sense and is a failure of storytelling logic.
Beyond that, there is also her ability to hurt Renna at all. She herself says that a damane cannot hurt her sul’dam, but while her a’dam was still on, she managed to hang Renna, ultimately lethally. Did the rules of the magic just suddenly decide not to work for no reason? Renna explicitly stated back when training Egwene that the damane feels the pain of the sul’dam twice over, so by all right, Egwene should have been suffocating worse, likely causing a feedback loop to kill them both.
On a related note, while it may connect to her loss of station, Maigan’s use (or rather, lack of use) in this episode shows how pointless it was to add her collaring in the first place. And even beyond that, what happened to Ryma? Since her collaring, she was never seen again, despite all damane needed in the assault. Unless she somehow escaped (unlikely) it seems she was just fodder added to the plot for shock value.
Continued below3. The Grave Is No Bar To My Call
When Mat sounds the Horn of Valere, we see the members. Whereas there are “a little over a hundred” in the books, befitting a small army to fight the Dark, here it seems to be about twenty, which has reasoning that can be explored within the context of the show and within its existence as a production. In the show, it may be that many of the Heroes have already been reborn, such as Lews Therin. In terms of production, it likely allows them to limit how many costumes they need to make and how many actors they need to hire. That said, in practice it feels bizarre, as having a group of about twenty people be the last hope is about as plausible from a mathematical perspective as the “far off land” of the Eye of the World being a day’s ride by horse at a leisurely pace.
Each of these Heroes has some kind of counterpart from myth and legend. We already discussed Artur Hawkwing at length, so let’s address the others.
Amaresu, with the Sword of the Sun in her hand, is an interpretation of the Shinto goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu. In Ages where a female chosen one is needed, rather than a male one, Amerasu is reincarnated, rather than the Dragon.
Birgitte Silverbow, perhaps the most important of the Heroes to the overarching plot aside from Lews Therin Telamon, is an archer famed as never missing.
Otarin is one about whom very little is known, except that he is known as Oscar as well as by the name Otarin.
Uno Nomesta is part of the group, which is particularly odd for several reasons. First, he was never one of the Heroes in the books at all, just being a normal soldier (albeit a rather vulgar one). Second, he isn’t particularly notable, without any real “legendary” status to make him feel worthy of a place amongst those who are practically immortal. In practice, it seems like it is just a way to keep the actor around after killing his character off for no reason. Uno himself seems to recognize how ridiculously contrived it is, as he asks Perrin if it is so surprising that he was one of the Heroes of the Horn. It was, and not for positive reasons.
Mat himself seems more open to the idea of being a hero in this incarnation, unlike how in the source, he was adamant about not being a “bloody hero,” on top of at least one member outright saying he is not one of them. The only real justification would be that this is another version of the Third Age from that which the books relay, but something happened to Hopper in the books, as well as to several Forsaken, that makes that unlikely unless it was a prior turn.
Other Heroes that may yet appear, but have not directly shown themselves, include:
- Blaes of Matuchin
- Buad of Albhain
- Gaidal Cain, the husband of Birgitte
- Rogosh Eagle-Eye
- Shiva the Hunter and Calian the Chooser, who are reborn as one Age turns to the next
- Mikel of Pure Heart (Saint Michael)
- Paedrig the Peacemaker (Saint Patrick)
- Hend the Striker (John Henry)
As a side note, Mat’s proclamation before they charge, “Dovie’andi se tovya sagain,” can be translated as “It’s time to toss the dice.” Something of a catchphrase of his down the line, it is most famous as being said by Gaius Julius Caesar as he crossed the Rubicon River, essentially meaning “Let’s take a chance and see what happens.” Which, mind you, itself isn’t so much a battle cry as a general statement, regardless of how certain other franchises use the term as “the die is cast”.
Furthermore, it seems rather weird that they believed that they could not open the container for the Horn, when Turak clearly opened it with mechanisms on the sides in the fifth episode of the season. If he was so easily able to figure it out at first glance, were all of the protagonists that ineffectual that they couldn’t do the same? Did people in the show itself not check to see if it had been opened before at all recently?
Continued belowAnd another thing: the presentation of the Heroes feels like it falls flat. Yes, the blur effect was somewhat interesting in showing them as supernatural, but rather than turn the tide of an entire battle, the twenty or so Heroes of the Horn just save Mat in a bridge and then separate out and do a handful of things on the side, with the Whitecloaks seemingly doing most of the actual fighting. If they are just there to save a handful of people from mundane soldiers without any magic, why do we need such legendary forces at all?
4. Whitecloaks and Wolfbrother
The Whitecloaks are not heroes, but they are not intentionally antagonistic this time around, being focused on defeating the Seanchan invasion, ostensibly being the army to fight them off. Unfortunately for them, this story is not about “glorious witch hunters,” so their efforts lead to as much harm as good, if not more. Yes, their actions allow Egwene to kill Renna, though they also kill every other damane on the tower, including Maigan. On the other hand, their assault also lead to the death of Hopper (though whether or not that really counts depends on who you ask) and Ingtar (who is killed by Seanchan in the attack, albeit as a truer hero than he was in the source material as an undercover Darkfriend). Furthermore, they don’t really care about channelers’ rights, just about the general slavery and murder by the invaders.
Geofram Bornhald’s disbelief in prophecy is laughable, as even if they were “lies of long dead witches,” every single one of these true prophecies has come to pass, with fate being an actual force in the story.
Of course, the Aiel are not innocent. They outright admit that they will likely kill many people as they approach Falme, and do take part in the fighting. And none of this is to say the Seanchan were not monsters. But in all cases, it came down to the potentially ill-advised and poorly thought-out attack.
In general, rather than fighting to protect the good, the Whitecloaks focus all of their attention on destroying evil, making them a bit hard to root for even while agreeing the Seanchan should be stopped. After all, their battle cry in the fight is to “kill the witches,” not “save the slaves.” Yes, Geofram calls out to the Falmen to help, but by that point it is clear violence is the main focus, not defense or saving people, especially with crossbowmen firing at anyone who looks remotely like Seanchan or their followers, which happens to include shooting the Daughter-Heir of Andor in the knee.
In comparison to the source material, it is decidedly harder to care about what happens to Hopper here. The fact that, rather than translating images into word for convenience, Hopper exclusively communicated through images in earlier episodes when communicating at all, and is told to stay as if he were a pet rather than a partner, makes Perrin’s reaction to his death feel disproportionate. In the source material, it was when he was held captive by the Whitecloaks, so he could not react much, but here he murders a man for killing what, by the experiences presented, is essentially a normal wolf with no ability to truly think. Beyond that, Geofram killed Hopper not out of malice, but to save Valda, who was in the process of being mauled, one of the few cases of actually trying to actively save someone that the Children showed in the battle. In general, it seems the Bornhalds are more considerate than the rank and file, but with the elder member dead, that is likely to change.
In theory, we probably are supposed to feel bad for Perrin. But really, given he witnessed a wild man kill his father for what, by all accounts, was barely a reason at all, it is easy to feel for Dain Bornhald far more, and to root for him to bring a murderer to justice despite being in an antagonistic faction.
In the books, Dain merely thought Perrin killed his father, having been told as such by a Child affiliated with the Shadow, be it under Compulsion or as a willing Darkfriend. In truth, the man had actually died in the fight between the Heroes of the Horn and the Seanchan, charging into battle while believing he was beset by the Shadow on all sides (ironic, considering neither side was deliberately affiliated as such). It was part of Dain’s character arc to realize that Perrin was innocent. By changing the context, a key part of Dain and Perrin’s stories is changed to such a degree that it is hard to see how it could be replaced or made as effective.
Continued below5. The Proclamation and Broken Oaths
Even with her channeling restored, Moiraine is still lacking in confidence. But vulnerable as she is, she admits to Lan that she sees him as her better, not the other way around, and so she restores the Warder bond (despite us already having been told she didn’t remove it in the first place).
As a show of her renewed conviction, Moiraine’s channels what could be considered Fire-based torpedos to annihilate Suroth’s Seanchan fleet, all to break the shield on Rand. However, her ability to use the One Power to deliberately harm, and likely kill, not in defense, but to hurt those not of the Shadow, nay, to deliberately note she will sacrifice innocent people on purpose and use the Power to that effect, flies in the face of the Three Oaths, specifically this one:
“Never to use the One Power as a weapon, except in the last extreme defense of her own life, or the life of her Warder, or another Aes Sedai.”
There was no Aes Sedai present for her to defend, and she was on what was apparently a deserted island with Lan, so she was not defending herself, her Warder, or another Aes Sedai. As such, what she did broke the third Oath, which was previously shown as impossible unless they were Black Ajah (which she is not). Much like how she possibly left said island by way of sea turtles and human hair from Lan’s back (okay, we kid there), perhaps these ironclad, unbreakable oaths are more like guidelines than actual oaths.
Following the defeat of Ishamael, Moiraine’s declares Rand as the Dragon Reborn by channeling a massive construct of a dragon (complete with roaring somehow) composed of fire. This turn of events is bizarre, as the prophecy was that he would proclaim himself as such according to Verin’s repetition of the line in the prophecy, meaning they changed the order for seemingly no real reason. They changed the wording as well, which was completely different one episode ago, in which Moiraine’s deliberately told Rand, “The Dragon is supposed to proclaim himself there.” To be clear, here are the changes in the words of the prophecy, underlined:
One episode ago, according to Verin Sedai: “Above Toman’s Head shall he proclaim himself, bannered ‘cross the sky in fire.”
According to Moiraine and Dain in this episode: “Above the Watchers shall the Dragon be proclaimed, bannered ‘cross the sky in fire.”
Wording in prophecies is very important and very specific, so changing it, let along changing it from one episode to the next, stinks of a lack of care. As originally written, it was already odd, as it pointed to a specific location name that could change. But by changing it to a passive voice, the intention seems to be to force Moiraine to be more of an active force than she probably should be.
Even stranger, there are multiple logical holes in the use of the prophecy even as it is worded. In the source, he was “bannered ‘cross the sky in fire” by being projected into the sky for all at Falme to see. Here, not only do no people outside of his friends (and Elayne) see it, but the construct of a fire dragon is nowhere near large enough to be seen as “bannered ‘cross the sky”. The source also indicated that the concept of a dragon as a mythical creature does not exist in the Third Age (to the point of being confused what was on the banner they found with the Horn at the Eye), so why would she make one? Furthermore, as rewritten, anybody could have made a dragon construct there any time they wanted to similar effect, so why is hers special?
In general, this finale was, to put kindly as possible, not great, and even less so for book fans than other episodes have been. Even beyond that, structural issues and what seem to be retroactive continuity (retcon) scenarios muddy the waters churned by the Wheel.
Until next the Wheel wills.
