Twigs - The Wheel of Time Season 2

Where is the Sun?

[Note: This review will discuss elements of The Wheel of Time Season 2 that were revealed in promotional material, such as trailers. If you’re someone who enjoys going into recent TV shows knowing as little as possible, you may want to skip reading this review.]

I feel most especially in reviewing The Wheel of Time Season 2 that context for my familiarity with the book series is vital.

My most recent encounter with The Wheel of Time series was when I read the second book, The Great Hunt, eight years ago. Due to some other literary commitments I ended up stopping my read-through, but it hasn’t kept me from saying “someday” as I glance over at The Dragon Reborn on my shelf every couple of weeks since then. While I’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to reading this beloved fantasy series, I do recognize its historical importance. Which is why I was disappointed with The Wheel of Time Season 1. Prime Video’s adaptation of the classic series felt like an odd mix of the book I’d read many years ago and an original story diverging from author Robert Jordan’s original vision. The series almost felt stuck to me, like it wasn’t sure if it wanted to use Jordan’s settings and characters to retell the books’ story differently, or if it wanted to retain general accuracy throughout. It didn’t help that many changes felt jarring and oftentimes pointless to the overall story. Especially the reveal that—surprise, surprise!—Rand is the Dragon Reborn.

Even so, I went into Season 2 with optimism that, after a years-long gap since there were any new episodes, those behind the series would learn from their initial mistakes and deliver a more gripping tale. And while I do feel like The Wheel of Time Season 2 is an improvement over Season 1, the series still wasn’t able to engage me with its many character-driven storylines or additional fantasy action scenes. Do keep in mind this is coming from someone who read The Great Hunt—the book this season is based on—almost a decade ago. As such, the only thing I remembered from the book was the general Seanchan plot. Other than that, I had no real reference to the series, which I believe has helped me to judge it on its own instead of as an adaptation. Sorry, book fans—I can’t comment on any changes, simply because I don’t remember Book 2 as well as I do Book 1.

I think the most notable difference with this season was the decision to split characters up into their own storylines. Rand is dealing with his new life in a far-off village because his friends now think he is dead. Moiraine is wrestling with the loss of her ability to channel the One Power, which in turn is souring her relationship with Lan. Nynaeve and Egwene continue their training at the White Tower, going off on their own storylines as a result. Perrin is trying to find out what happened to Padan Fain after he stole the Horn of Valere at the end of Season 1. And Matt is being held in an unknown location by a familiar foe. Because the main characters are scattered to the wind throughout the season, it allows for deeper character development and more personal stories to take shape. While this slows the main plot to a grinding halt for the first half of the season, it allows for some much needed character development. It also felt like a good idea from a consistency perspective, as it allowed the story to portray each character as an autonomous person within the wide tale instead of just a vehicle that will do whatever it takes to drive the plot forward. Stopping the plot was actually for the best when it came to making me care about the show’s ensemble cast.

However, these individual character stories occasionally cause Season 2 to feel bogged down by its own mission. Because Season 2 seems intent on making every single named character a fleshed-out, three-dimensional person. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with pulling your characters out of their archetypes. But doing so ended up taking away from the storylines of characters more central to the storyline than others. One example of this is Nynaeve, whose training to become an Aes Sedai results in a powerfully emotional storyline in the first half of the season. However, the themes of her story are soon dropped as she’s forced to go on a rescue mission that tentatively, tangentially relates to the themes established in the first half. But without any parallels being drawn and a general lack of focus on Nynaeve as newcomers like Verin or Lanfear take more of a spotlight, the series begins to feel too crowded for its main characters. There’s very little in the way of character stories following through. Instead, it feels like hopping from one stone to the next. As if to say, “Okay, that’s over, moving on.” It makes the overarching narrative feel scattered in both events and its exploration of characters.

But, adding to the mixed bag, the action scenes have mostly improved from the first season. Channeling is now differentiated using new color schemes. It happens faster than Season 1, allowing for more destructive fight sequences and exciting action. Hand-to-hand combat also feels more fluid, with some fights in the second half in particular piquing my interest. The decision to improve upon these aspects added a layer of excitement to the series that wasn’t there before. By adding thrilling sequences to almost every episode, it also helped to highlight the dangers of enemies like the Darkfriends, Whitecloaks, and Seanchan. It also helped to even out the series’ propensity for very lengthy conversations and dialogue sequences. Thus making the show feel more unique when it comes to series that have a heavy focus on their characters.

But, for whatever reason, even after finishing the series, it still felt like something was missing. As if there were an engaging element of the show that I wasn’t grasping. I thought about it for a while, and came to a realization that this series makes me think something continuously. Something that I haven’t really thought of with any other media I’ve engaged with as of late:

I have no idea where any of this is supposed to be going.

The main point of the series is, of course, for Rand to defeat the Dark One. It also appears to involve exploring the vast potentials of the people involved in the show, given everyone seemingly has their own power that makes them special. But I’m not entirely certain where all of this is going when it comes to that. The Dark One has yet to appear in the series. The Forsaken seem to be his underlings, but also have their own agendas. There are other factions seemingly unrelated to the main storyline that have their own part to play as well. The entire story feels like an enormous solar system of plotlines…but where is the Sun? I’ve been told there is one. I’ve even been shown what it looks like. But I only ever catch glimpses of its rays peering into the vastness of this one storyline. It doesn’t feel like it’s building toward something the way something like Game of Thrones did despite its own sprawling story. Defeat the Dark One…but how? Or, at the very least, what are the next steps? Not everything needs to be answered right away, and there doesn’t need to be a set path right from the start. But I do still feel lost when it comes to what all of this is building toward.

And maybe that’s why I had trouble engaging myself in The Wheel of Time season 2. Despite some much-needed character development and additional action scenes to make the series more exciting, it felt like “The Big Thing” the show is meant to center around was missing. Maybe I missed it somewhere between Perrin learning to communicate with wolves and Egwene befriending a Princess. But even after two seasons, I’m just not sure what defeating the Dark One is supposed to look like. The season felt excessively bloated, full of stories that probably make sense to people that read the books, but that I—as a general audience member—just didn’t understand the overarching importance of. Maybe Season 3 will engage a bit more with that, make it clearer what Rand is supposed to do in order to defeat the Dark One. For now, though, while I enjoyed parts of the journey, I’m not as engaged because I don’t know what the journey is really leading to. I have a general idea, sure. But “the world ending” feels very general. I want to know more. And, at the very least, my curiosity is a positive result of what I feel the show needs to improve upon.

Since third time’s the charm, I’ll probably give Season 3 the benefit of the doubt—and I do hope to find that missing piece so I can enjoy the series as much as so many others are.

***

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