This review will have spoilers for Season 3 of The Wheel of Time, including the finale, “He Who Comes at Dawn.”
Well, you all told me to watch The Wheel of Time, so I watched The Wheel of Time, AND NOW I’M SAD. What a heartbreaking final two episodes of the season! I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I cried again. And I’m delighted to report that this show is, as promised, pretty damn gay.
It has been a while since I went into a fantasy series not really knowing what was coming, especially one that was already three seasons in by the time I finally watched. I have never read the books, wasn’t part of the fandom since 2021 when the series first started, hadn’t watched any interviews or read any recaps. I went in a blank slate, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. As someone who has often read the books of a high fantasy series before watching the show, I was afraid I would be totally lost. But perhaps because I’m familiar with the genre, it wasn’t long before words and phrases like Aes Sedai, Ajah, and Amyrlin Seat sounded familiar in my ears. (I won’t lie, I did have to use Prime’s x-ray feature to get a handle on spelling, and on some of the names, but that also didn’t take as long as I feared it would.) It’s a rich, complex world of channeling weaves and seeing patterns and the dragon reborn, but it never felt too daunting to keep up with. The seasons ramped up slowly, until getting to the intensity and breadth of the third season. I quickly loved being in this matriarchal world, where the fight to take power from men happened centuries before our story began, and women are simply the ones who can wield the power without going mad. This story is largely about women, despite the fact that the main story does revolve around Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski.)
Across the three seasons, queer people pop up everywhere. It seems to be the kind of fantasy world that thinks beyond sexuality, and while heterosexual pairings seem to be most prominent, it’s never assumed. In fact, in most cultures in this world, monogamy isn’t even assumed. “Everyone is pansexual” is one of my favorite fantasy tropes, and while I can’t be sure that’s how it was in the books, I’m glad they went that way for the show.
At the heart of this show is a seasons-long, decades-long romance between Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), an Aes Sedai, and Siuan (Sophie Okonedo) the Amyrlin Seat, aka the leader of the Aes Sedai, who they all call “Mother.” Their dedication to their task kept them apart, but they stole beautiful moments together whenever they could, despite having to keep their relationship a secret from the rest of the sisters, lest the Seat be accused of playing favorites. Moiraine would visit Siuan through a secret magic door in her room, or even visit her in her dreams. Their love was what drove them, kept them going when the fight was hard. They promise to find each other in the next life, “again and again, until we get it right.” Their story is beautiful and tragic, and it was a treasure to behold.
If I had a nickel for every time a hot older sapphic couple broke my heart in the past month, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
The second season brought in Elayne (Ceara Coveney), “daughter-heir” of Andor, who has gone from a princess to a warrior over the course of her time on the show. At the beginning of this season, she shares a kiss on a romantic rooftop evening with Aviendha (Ayoola Smart), a maiden of the spear. We don’t get to see them together much before or after this moment, but it’s clear Elayne has been waiting for this kiss, and later in the season, when Egwene (Madeleine Madden) visits Elayne’s dreams, she’s with Aviendha again. (I won’t lie, I got vibes from Elayne from the start, but I thought she was going to go for Nynaeve (ZoĆ« Robins); I was half right. My personal crush on Nynaeve stands.)
This season also brought us the seer Min (Kae Alexander), who hasn’t officially been proven queer on screen, but the specific way she blows off Mat (DĆ³nal Finn) whenever he even jokes about them being together, and also her entire look, screams queer to me. I personally hope the two of them stay best friends, because like with al’Lan (Daniel Henney) and Moiraine, I like that they portray certain friendships as being just as close and important as romantic relationships.
In fact, that’s one of my only complaints about the show; at the beginning, I thought it was going to be the Twin Rivers crew against the world, but they spend much of the show apart, thrown to various corners of the world on their particular tasks. Which is all well and good, but it’s missing a bit of the found family bond I was hoping for when they set out for the White Tower on that first ill-fated journey.
Other queer and queer-adjacent news to report, we have Kate Fleetwood, who played queer on Harlots, here playing Liandrin, a former Aes Sedai who is one of the hilariously named “darkfriends.”
If being dark is bad, why does it look so good? (Photo courtesy of Prime)
The “Daughter of the Night” Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe) is shown in some of the visions of the potential futures as occasionally bedding (and killing) Moiraine. In some of those potential futures she sees, Moiraine is settled down and happy with Siuan as her fishwife by the river where she was born. And in one, Rand has a husband. Alanna Sedai (Priyanka Bose) has a beautiful polyamorous relationship with her two Warders that seems to start as a joke about her being horny but evolves into something truly beautiful. One of the original Two Rivers kids, Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) meets a woman named Faile (Isabella Bucceri), and they end up falling in love, but Faile gives huge queer vibes, so I’d bet she has at least one ex-girlfriend she left in the wake of her hunt for the horn.
I really want Faile and Perrin to be happy, I also really want someone to tell me I’m right on this one. (Photo courtesy of Prime)
And two of Aviendha’s fellow spear maidens love to play a game where they rate kisses by sword distance from your throat, and they both admit to playing with men and women. (Shout out to survivor of this game, Loial, played by Hammed Animashaun, the sweetest Ogier in all the lands. His name sings in our ears.)
Overall I really enjoyed this show. There are so many queer characters, and they all have such rich storylines and complex character development, even outside of their relationships. I do wish the queer pairings weren’t separated so often, but there’s also a lot going on and not a lot of time for many relationships at all. There are wars to be won and all that. To that end, I love that despite the “final battle” everyone is working toward and preparing for being literally called the battle of Light vs Dark, I love that no one is truly one or the other. Everyone is shades of grey. The people who are fighting for the Light have made some questionable decisions and fatal mistakes, some of the so-called “darkfriends” are complicated and their history makes you understand how they got where they are. The special effects are amazing, the costumes are incredible, and the acting is stellar, everyone really brings their A-game.
The story, as a whole, is dark and tragic, and main characters are getting killed off at every turn, including queer characters. Including, in the end, Siuan, whose death is what fuels Moiraine to have the strength to survive Lanfear’s attack that was meant to kill her. Siuan says in her final moments that she would die to protect Moiraine, and that’s exactly what she did. But what’s interesting about this show and this lore is that death is not the end. The titular wheel means souls are reborn again and again. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Rafe Judkins said, “It was important to us, especially with a history of lesbians being killed on screen 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 do think whatās beautiful about them is that their relationship is about something more and, if the show continues, itās not the final scene we intend to have between the two of them. I guess I can say that much.”
Given this promise, I hope that The Wheel of Time gets renewed so we can see more of the queer characters we have left, and so that Moiraine and Siuan can be reunited once again, in this life or the next.
Now that I’m here, I hope you’ll forgive me for being late and tell me all the hot goss about the Wheel of Time fandom. Which actors ship which queer relationships, who are you crack!shipping, what did you love and hate about this season? I’d also love to hear how the show is comparing to the books, if you read them! Tell me everything in the comments, I’d love to chat with you about this show I just dove headfirst into.
Movies have a unique way of bringing stories to life, letting us experience different worlds, emotions, and perspectives. Whether it’s a gripping thriller, a heartwarming drama, or a visually stunning sci-fi, there’s always something powerful about the way films connect us all.
Can we talk about Renna???
(And the actor who plays her.)
I love this show so much! Glad that you gave it a shot. I cried through the finale. Siuan’s monologue intercutting with Moiraine fighting for her life was peak television. Rosamund Pike and Sophie Okonedo were excellent together and apart. Their yearning was always so palpable and so gay. This show also has the most diverse and international cast I’ve seen recently and the costumes are stunning. Keeping my fingers crossed for a season 4.
I haven’t watched S3 yet, so I was super-interested to read about what the show did in regards to Moiraine and Siuan.
I know you said at the bottom that you’d love to hear about how the show is comparing to the books, but I’m about to give such massive book spoilers that I’m going to put some space here so that anyone can opt out.
MASSIVE
BOOK
SPOILERS
So, in the books, Siuan never dies and goes on to have this icky relationship with a man. It’s too long to go into here, but she has to do his laundry constantly as a form of punishment that we’re supposed to see sorta as character growth. I knew the show would at least remove the icky aspect from the relationship because Siuan was cast with a Black actress and to turn a Black woman who had been Amyrlin into a maid would be ridiculously offensive. But clearly the show has decided to skip that relationship altogether.
Moiraine does die in the books. It becomes clear after a short time that she’s going to come back, but it is so many books in between when she dies and when she returns that readers have been discussing since Rosamund Pike was announced in the role and positioned so centrally in all the promotional materials how the show was going to handle this: Is Pike really going to be absent for multiple seasons?
So what it’s sounding like to me is that the show is going to skip Moiraine’s death and instead essentially give a similar storyline to Siuan: Siuan is the one to die, and will be the one to return. And because it’s not tied to Rand’s storyline of growth, Siuan can return a lot sooner than Moiraine did. Robert Jordan removed Moiraine when he did so that Rand would be forced to stop leaning on her so much and come into his own more. (They had had an interesting arc before her death in which Rand initially listened to her a lot, then started rebelling and distrusting her, and then Moiraine really earned his trust and he started doing everything she wanted.)
Welcome to the WoT fandom Valerie! The show is much more queer than the books and many of the characters and relationships that were implied to be queer in the books (written by a progressive Southern gentleman in the 80’s/90’s) have been canonized. Aviendha and Elayne were always a popular ship and I’m so glad they are together in the show. Faile is a personal favorite and I’m hoping they introduce Berelain in Season 4 because they are my rarepair!ship.