The Wheel of Time keeps on turning, turning, turning, into the future.
Okay, I lied, we’re going to cover
the first few episodes of The Wheel of Time, and then Dune, before we do
Eternals. Why? Because I set the schedule and I want to talk about them, that’s
why. Don’t give me that look, this isn’t the first time I’ve changed up the
schedule just cuz. So, as I covered at length all of October, The Wheel of Time
on Amazon is an adaptation of the book series by started by Robert Jordan and
finished by Brandon Sanderson. They’re some of my favorite books, so now we’re
going to talk about the adaptation. I hope I can convince you to watch it if
you’re still on the fence about it. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Episode 1: Leavetaking
We open with Moiraine Damodred
suiting up while giving us the gist of her story. Namely, that 3000 years
prior, the world was Broken by a man known as the Dragon and the male
Channelers. She’s currently on a mission to find the reincarnation of the
Dragon, who’s rebirth was prophesied twenty-ish years before. She meets up with her Warder, her mystically
enhanced bodyguard, Lan Mandragoran and they head out.
Red Ajah Sisters are out in force.
We then cut to a pair of men
running as fast as they can from a group of women in red riding after them.
These women are Aes Sedai, like Moiraine, but are of the Red Ajah. The Reds
whole mission is hunting down and Gentling (magically castrating) men who can
channel. They’re led by the blonde Liandrin. The two men almost make it to a
mountain pass, but Liandrin reaches out with the Power and causes a rockslide,
knocking the men to the ground and trapping them. The older of the two men
tells the other that he can stop them. The younger man begs the Sisters to
leave his companion alone, but then Liandrin tells him that he’s the only one
there.
Refresher for you, male channelers
at this point in history are constantly exposing themselves to the Taint,
possibly called the Corruption in this version, whenever they tap into the True
Source and use their half of the One Power. Which drives them mad, sometimes
slowly, sometimes quickly. It looks like this fella is going fast, as he’s
already having full auditory and visual hallucinations.
Liandrin wraps him in weaves of air
and forces him up on his knees. She tells the young man that the Power is meant
for women, and that men who touch it taint it. She then uses her powers to,
apparently, painfully Gentle the man, cutting him off from the Power for the
rest of his short life. Channelers who lose access to the True Source, be it
from Gentling/Stilling or from accidentally burning them out, universally fall
into a deep depression and with rare exception die within a few months of
losing it. Above, Moiraine and Lan are watching. Moiraine concludes that this
man wasn’t the one, despite Lan saying that the man was a nearly perfect
candidate. They head for the Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers, Moiraine hoping
that the Old Blood has left the people there prepared.
Not sure if I'd ever trust someone standing behind
me again after this.
In the Two Rivers, we’re shown the
hair braiding ceremony of one Egwene al’Vere, presided over by Wisdom Nynaeve
al’Meara. This is a coming-of-age ceremony that involves braiding the young
woman’s hair, simple, and then shoving her off the side of a cliff into a
raging river… less simple. She struggles in the water for a few minutes before
relaxing and going with the flow until she’s washed ashore. Neat.
We then jump to a mountain pass as
Rand al’Thor, and his father Tam, are making their way down from their farm in
the Westwood. They have a cute chat about how as a child, Rand used to run
around the mountain, gathering strawberries for his little crush Egwene. They
make it to town, unload their wares, and spend the afternoon drinking and
visiting with their friends. We get a nice line about the Congars and Coplins,
two families so intermarried it’s impossible to tell them apart, worrying
they’d run out of booze without the al’Thor’s brandy. What? Whenever they’re
brought up in the books, the Coplins and Congars are the hillbilliest of
hillbillies, so I like the nod. Rand meets up with his friends Mat and Perrin.
Mat tries to win some money off them in a dice game but loses the roll. This is
funny, but most of ya’ll won’t get why for a while. They chat for a bit,
revealing that in this version Perrin is married and that Rand is still known
to be mooning over Egwene, just before Egwene comes in, showing off her braid. Oh,
and they mention there is a war in Ghealdan.
We flashforward a few hours.
Everyone seems to be having a good time, except Rand who is moody that his
girlfriend hasn’t come to talk to him since getting back. Perrin tries to
reassure his friend, but it really doesn’t work. They’re interrupted by a man
in black walking in with his hood up. No, it’s not a Fade, it’s Lan
Mandragoran, announcing the arrival of Moiraine. Nynaeve demands to know their
business, but Moiraine doesn’t acknowledge her. They get a room from Marin
al’Vere, Egwene’s mother, who announces to the room that Moiraine is an Aes
Sedai. When they go up to their room, everyone is clearly uneasy. Rand mentions
a story to Perrin he heard of a single Aes Sedai being able to turn the tides
of a battle before Nynaeve come over to tell them to stop their foolishness.
She mentions that the forge fires are burning, implying that Perrin’s wife Leila
has been at the fire all day. Perrin goes to talk to her, and Rand keeps
brooding.
Perrin goes to his wife, who is
busy working metal. There seems to be… something, going on here, some tension
between them that neither wants to say aloud. Maybe someone who gets people
could figure out what is happening here, but I can’t. He says he loves her, and
they cuddle a bit.
The Fade is coming and he is pissed.
Mat goes out and finds his mom
standing by herself. Natti is clearly drunk, and it seems to be because she
sees her husband, Abell, being a tad too chummy with another woman. Before any
sort of domestic dispute could crop up, though, Mat forces his mom back to
their house. There, he tells his little sisters Bode and Eldrin that Mama’s
just sick, and that they should probably sleep with him tonight instead of with
mom and dad. His mother makes the incredibly hurtful comment that he’ll be just
like his dad, a Prick. I should note that in the books, Nattie and Abell Cauthon
are loving parents, and are nowhere near this dysfunctional. Just sayin’.
Back at the inn, the al’Vere’s and
Tam are uncomfortable with an Aes Sedai here, but there isn’t much to do for
it. They leave Rand and Egwene to tidy up. Mama Marin clearly is trying to make
them talk to each other. The two have a bit of an awkward moment as they try to
figure out how to talk about her test without talking details. The moment
breaks, though, and he ends up kissing her, giving her a strawberry that he
picked, and they end up making out on a bench. 1000% more physical contact than
these two had in the first THREE books, by the way.
Upstairs, Moiraine and Lan are
bathing. Stop! Stop right there. Stop picturing what you’re picturing. This
isn’t a sexy scene… although you do get to see Lan’s rather nice butt as he
gets into the water. They are just two friends washing off the dirt in the only
big tub the Winespring Inn has. We clear? Good. Moiraine heats the water a
little with her powers, and they try to relax for a second. After, that second,
though, Lan asks which of these kids does Moiraine think it is.
Downstairs, Rand is getting redressed…
(I take back what I said, it’s 10,000% more physical contact between them than
in the whole damn book series) and joins Egwene by the fire. He asks her again
what’s been bothering her. She reveals that Nynaeve asked her to train under
her as a Wisdom’s apprentice. This is a bigger deal than in the book, as
apparently a life without a family is a rule for Wisdoms, instead of just a common
practice for them. She assures Rand that Nynaeve just asked, but he still seems
worried that asking is all it’d take, and so he leaves in a huff. Outside in
the rain, we hear a loud whistle as a man on a black horse with a skull on its
head rides into town. Oh… that’s not good.
Padan Fain is king of the shit eating grin.
The next morning, traveling
merchant Padan Fain is whistling as he rides into town. (Real subtle guys). Egwene
runs some breakfast out to Tam, who can tell without asking what she’s
wondering, and tells her that Rand was gone when he got up. Egwene looks… perplexed
and anxious, so that’s not what she was hoping to hear.
Mat comes up to Fain and offers him
a bracelet he’d stolen from a friend from the night before. Fain clearly cheats
Mat out of what the bracelet is worth, but Mat takes it as he really doesn’t
have options. Moiraine and Lan come down, Moiraine noting that Lan is worried
that a Fade might already be on their trail, and the two split up to do their
tasks for the morning.
Sigh, they have no idea what is coming.
Egwene joins Rand on a rock a little
way out of town, where he’d been sitting, brooding. Probably for hours. Because
that’s what Rand does, regardless of Turning of the Wheel, when a problem comes
up. He’s the King of Brooders. He tells her that while on that rock he often
wonders about the life he will have in the Two Rivers. He says without saying
that he imagined Egwene as his wife and mother of his kids, which visibly makes
her tear up. She starts telling him that she is going to be Nynaeve’s
apprentice, but he cuts her off, saying he knows already, and they just hold
each other for a bit as she starts crying just a bit.
Moiraine finds Nynaeve scrubbing a
sacred cave pool in the outskirts of town. Nynaeve clearly hates Moiraine being
in this place and demands that she leaves, but Moiraine doesn’t seem to listen.
She asks about Nynaeve’s past, pointing out that this version of Nynaeve was
brought to Emond’s Field by the old Wisdom after her parents died when she was
an infant. (Book Nynaeve at least had her unnamed father until she was a
teenager.) Moiraine seems to suggest something… more about Nynaeve’s parentage,
but Nynaeve isn’t interested in talking about it. Nynaeve has enough of
Moiraine’s prodding and reveals why she has a problem with Aes Sedai. The old
Wisdom, (Doral Barran, I don’t know why they can’t say her name) knew she could
listen to the winds at 13 and realized that meant she could channel. She walked
across the country of Andor and the wild lands (A LONG walk, I assure you) to
the White Tower in Tar Valon but was turned away due to her peasant garb and
accent. Or so she believed. Moiraine says that people say that Nynaeve is too
young to be the Wisdom, but she disagrees. She mentions that Nynaeve is 26,
clearly believing her age is important, but Nynaeve isn’t interested in hearing
any more. She tells her to piss off in the politest way possible, “Enjoy your
walk.”
Rand, Perrin, and Mat have a drink
outside the Winespring Inn. Mat, weirdly perceptive Mat, realizes that
something is wrong with Rand without prompting and asks. But Rand doesn’t talk.
We quickly cut over to Nynaeve walking up to Egwene on a bridge. They listen to
the wind together and hear something… wrong in the air. Neither knows what it
means, which is troubling. Lan, walking in the woods on his own, finds a bunch
of sheep butchered and eviscerated, their bodies laid out in a pattern that
resembles the Dragon’s Fang. Picture a Yin Yang, it’s literally the black Yang
without the white circle in it. It’s the symbol associated with the Dragon and
scrawling it on someone’s door is accusing them of being a Darkfriend. So…
yeah, seeing that in sheep carcasses is bad. Very, very bad. More so than just
finding sheep carcasses.
Back at the inn, Moiraine watches the Emond’s
Fielders from her upper floor room. Perrin and Rand got some money together and
give it as a gift to Mat. They noticed he lost a LOT of money gambling the
previous night, and this is there way of trying to help him. He doesn’t want to
take it, at first, but they convince him. Rand leaves to go back home with his
dad, and Mat tells him to not stay up mountain too long. Back at the al’Thor
farm, they prepare a little candle boat, part of ceremony to invite the spirits
of the departed back to see them. Obviously, this is for Rand’s late mother,
Kari. Rand asks how long it takes for the Wheel of Time to weave someone’s
spirit back into the world, but Tam doesn’t know. We see cuts of the other
Emond’s Fielders doing the same boat as Tam tells his son that the Wheel keeps
turning, and people keep trying, and they’ll keep doing that for as long as
they must. Egwene sees Moiraine watching the ceremony from a distance, the two
locking eyes before they keep walking. Back in town, a big dance breaks out,
the people trying to show their departed loved ones something to come back for.
Egwene pulls most of her friends into the dancing and everyone has a grand ol’
time.
Lan catches up with Moiraine,
telling her that there is a Fade, aka a Myrddraal, here and that it has dozens
of Trollocs. He insists on leaving, but Moiraine doesn’t know who the One is,
so they can’t just bail. They rush back toward town.
The merry dancing is ended abruptly, when Egwene’s partner takes an arrow to the chest. Trollocs, hulking beasts with massive horns, sharp teeth and claws start rushing in, killing, and destroying indiscriminately. As everyone rushes around, trying to escape, we’re shown Padan Fain laughing before striding away. (Real subtle guys)
Yeah, no that definitely looks like it eats people.
Mat returns home, and realizes his
parents lost his sisters, so he runs out into the fray to find them. Nynaeve
and Egwene try to save an old man (Cenn Buine?), but he dies of his injuries.
Back that the al’Thor farm, a Trolloc with a Wolf muzzle bursts in. Hi Narg.
The two men try to fight it off, but the beast is too vicious. Tam grabs a
sword from under his bead and duels with the Trolloc, but he’s a man in his
late forties to early fifties fighting a hulking monster. It was never going to
end well. Tam loses his grip on the sword and gets pinned and cut by the
Trolloc’s blade. Rand gets Tam’s sword and kills the beast, though. Bye Narg. Tam
tells Rand to run, but Rand refuses to leave his dad, he makes a litter and
carries his father down.
In the village, a Trolloc with a
boar’s snout runs up to Nynaeve and Egwene, intending to kill them. Nynaeve
stabs it in the gut a few times with her little knife, but it just seems to
piss it off. It’s suddenly ripped to pieces by a white light. Moiraine’s come
to play! And by play, I mean kill Trollocs. The Aes Sedai and her Warder start
killing the Trollocs left and right, Moiraine hitting them with weaves of fire
and wind and Lan killing the ones that get close to her with his sword. They
kill several and encourage the Congars and Coplins to kill a Trolloc with
pitchforks, but there are a lot of Trollocs. One breaks in to where Perrin and
Leila and several others are hiding. Perrin tries to hold it off while Leila
leads the others away. Once they’re out, Leila grabs and hammer and helps him
fight it.
Mat finds Bode and Eldrin and tells
them to run for the tree where they used to play hide and seek. The Trolloc
nearly gores Leila with its horn, but they fight it off her. Moiraine weaves a
lightning strike, killing more Trollocs and setting a tree on fire. Nynaeve and
Egwene try to pull people away, but a Trolloc runs by and grabs Nynaeve to
Egwene’s horror. Perrin and Leila drop the Trolloc, Perrin going into frenzy as
he chops it repeatedly with his ax, a ringing getting louder and louder. He
turns when he sees something in his peripheral vision, and hits Leila in the
gut. She drops the hammer she’d been holding over her head; he grabs her and
tries to get her to hold on, but she dies in his arms. Perrin sits back and
starts sobbing.
Well... all things considering that went pretty
well. What? Trollocs eat towns this size every
day.
Egwene tries to find Nynaeve, but her mother grabs her and pulls her aside. Moiraine is trying to weave more attacks but takes a dagger to her shoulder. The Trollocs mass for another attack, and Lan tells her that they’re too many. But Moiraine isn’t done, she pulls the knife out (Bad idea with piercing injuries) and gets back up. Lan goes to fight more Trollocs coming from the rear and Moiraine asks the Light to give her strength. She starts weaving a mass of threads of Saidar (female half of the True Source) and pelts the Trollocs with fire and stone from the very Winespring Inn they’re in front of, killing the horde.
Rand rides into town the next morning
and finds everyone in shellshock. Egwene runs over and hugs him. He tells her
that Tam needs help and asks after Nynaeve. Obviously, she’s gone, but Egwene
is going to try to help. Meanwhile, the Cauthons reunite, Mat looking strung
out as hell, and he sees Perrin carry Leila out. Moiraine walks over and tells
them that Tam is suffering from Trolloc poison. She uses a weave to heal the
wound, but her shacky hands and power make it clear that she’s fading fast.
Rand, obviously pissed, accuses her
of bringing the Trollocs. Moiraine reveals that they’re here for the same
reason. She tells them that 20 years ago, an Aes Sedai (Her name is Gitara Moroso,
I don’t know why she didn’t say the name) predicted that the Dragon had been
reborn, and that it’s one of them. Mat doesn’t believe it, nor really do any of
them, but they see an even larger horde of Trollocs riding down from the
mountains. It’s either stay and die or go with her, and they choose to follow.
As they ride out, Moiraine gives the classic opening line of every book in the
series. “The Wheel of Time turn, 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, a
wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The Wind was not the beginning. There are
neither beginnings nor endings to the Turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was
a beginning.”
Oh my God, I got chills writing
that.
Okay, so as premiers go, this was
only so-so. I liked Moiraine’s entrance into the Winespring Inn, her
relationship with Lan (ie life partner and confidant but with virtually no
sexual tension that I could pick up) and her general snooping around the town. I
also liked how we were introduced to each of our main characters, Nynaeve and
Egwene at the ceremony, Rand on the road with his dad and then Mat and Perrin
at the inn. I even liked seeing their new backstories and local conflicts…
well, Mat and Perrin’s are new, regardless of version it seems that Rand and
Egwene are having relationship issues and Nynaeve hates Aes Sedai. Mat being
reimagined as the de facto parent to his now much younger sisters (both were
only a year, or two, younger than Egwene in the books) and the buffer between
them and his dysfunctional parents was an interesting choice. In the source
material Abell and Natti Cauthon were good albeit fairly generic parents and
Mat’s gambling, carousing and pranks stemmed more from boredom than anything
else. Perrin and his wife Leila I’ve got mixed feelings about. Does it make
sense that an older Perrin would be the first of his friends to settle down?
Yes, but I’m just not a fan of setting up this character just to get fridged.
Fridging, for those new to the term, is killing, raping, injuring, or otherwise
making a woman character suffer to motivate a man. I’ve read that in other
drafts, Perrin was still an apprentice and the one he accidentally killed in
his battle frenzy was his master, Haral Luhhan. I think that might have been a
better version of Perrin’s origin, not going to lie. The CGI I think is okay,
but inconsistent. Moiraine’s channeling was good, and the make up and practical
effects for the Trollocs and Fade were good, but the CGI mouths were
consistently bad. I’m not even sure the actors were opening their mouths when
they were roaring. I really liked the effect of Moiraine using the stones of
the Winespring Inn to finish off the Trollocs in town. While the show didn’t go
into it, the Inn is one of the oldest structures in town, its foundation is
thought to be hundreds if not thousands of years old, so it’s like the very
town itself is saying “Not today, people eaters!” Yes, it did cave the front of
the inn in, but these are Two Rivers Folk, they’ll have it rebuilt in a month
or two. I’ve heard that the producer Rafe Judkins and most of the production
people were hoping for a two-hour premiere, which they couldn’t get. I know
nothing about editing in a technical sense, but it does feel like the episode
was heavily pared down to fit the shorter run time. I assume the longer episode
included more of Perrin and Leila’s marital problems, as I could definitely
sense something was weird between them, but I could not put my finger on it. So
yeah, it was a good starting episode, but not great. Thankfully, episode two is
worlds better, and I can’t wait to talk to you about it. Have a good night,
everyone!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59114368
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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