Review of S1 E2 of The Wheel of Time, “Shadow’s Waiting.” Spoilers for the episode and light spoilers for the books.

Shadar Logoth is one of those strange places in the books that seems like a throwaway location, a convenient place of refuge and yet peril. But it has deep significance, both in later books and to our world today. Lan gives some of the backstory on screen, but the most important facet of the dead city is how it died. Once known as Aridhol, it “used an evil as great as the Shadow to fight the Shadow, corrupting itself” (The Wheel of Time Companion). Moiraine shares a bit more: “The victory of the Light is all. That was the battlecry Mordeth gave them, and the men of Aridhol shouted it while their deeds abandoned the Light…Suspicion and hate had given birth to something that fed on that which created it.” (The Eye of the World).

I can’t think of a better metaphor for certain philosophies today that profess to fight injustice or evil, and yet ultimately lead to destruction and division. Shadar Logoth stands as a stark reminder that, “Hate cannot drive out hate, darkness cannot drive out darkness.”

My review follows, as always, with mild spoilers––especially in the Theories section.

CHEERS

Here we see more clearly that the Aes Sedai are a mixed bag, just like the prophecies about the Dragon Reborn. The Wheel of Time specializes in this kind of moral complexity. Aes Sedai convince themselves they are righteous because of the Three Oaths, but constantly justify actions that bend the rules. Moiraine says it herself, that the truth she speaks is not the truth you hear. One of many reasons why people don’t trust them, and crucial to understanding the dynamics of this world.

Whitecloaks capturing and executing Aes Sedai once again shows that these magically empowered women are not all-powerful. It’s of course a horrible thing that the “Children of the Light” do, but it’s a natural reaction in a world where non-magic users are under the thumb of magic users. This particular opening scene is not in Book 1, but it was a fantastic way to show these conflicts.

The Whitecloaks are legitimately disturbing. It very much comes across that they are a radical militant extremist group. Like a combination of the Spanish Inquisition and the Klan. It also works well for them to have a multi-ethnic makeup, since they draw converts from across the continent. Their hatred is not race-based, but magic-based.

The opening credits sequence: wow! It has a double connection with both the weaving of channeling, and the weaving of the Wheel, i.e. how human lives and events work together to build the tapestry of history. The female Aes Sedai in the tapestry have a menacing feel to them, which is very on brand for the world.

For some reason, I love that the Dark One sent a gigantic army after the Two Rivers folks. I mean if you’re the biggest bad guy around and need to squelch your biggest threat, go big or go home am I right? The Myrddraal (aka Fade) is especially effective as an evil mini-boss.

The “bat dreams” (intentional pun?), and Moiraine’s line: “Dreams have power; more than you know.” Excellent, terrifying setup of the string of nightmares that begin to unfold, as well as hints at Tel’aran’rhiod, the Dream World. This was legitimately scary, and reminiscent of demonic nightmares that I’ve had. This element in WOT (supernatural dreams) has a strong connection to biblical stories. We’ll see more of the shadowy figure with glowing red eyes later.

The romantic tension between Rand and Egwene worked for me. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but their relationship was basically DOA in the books…only really talked about in the past tense, mostly in Rand’s thoughts. So starting out with a relationship in progress, that’s starting to unravel, is simply more interesting to watch. Makes you care about them a little bit, too, since they care about each other.

Even though they look more like mangy dogs, seeing the wolves interact with Perrin was fun, especially since we’ve been hearing them howl since the first episode. Perrin was really well cast, which is great because he’s probably my favorite character in the whole series. 

Everything about Shadar Logoth was so incredibly well done. I only have some minor quibbles about it I’ll get to later. Perfectly executed though. Creepy as heck.

GROANS

Moiraine should have stopped the ferry from sinking once Hightower jumped into the river. I get that she channeled the whirlpool before he tried to swim for it, so technically she didn’t use the Power to kill him. But she was callous towards his death. It makes her unsympathetic, which is very risky for a TV show, given that she’s the main character of the season (she’s the one driving the plot forward).

It kind of works, though, because it rightly shows how Aes Sedai always have their own agenda, and consider most everyone expendable pawns towards their goals. But I can imagine that a non-book reader would dissociate from her after this. “The Whitecloaks are right,” was a great line, and probably what some viewers are feeling––her explanation to Egwene notwithstanding.

The central conflict presented for Egwene is whether to become a Wisdom or get married to Rand. For some reason, I don’t remember celibacy as a requirement for Wisdoms. So I looked it up. In The Wheel of Time Companion, it only mentions that the Wisdom role is lifelong, and basically the counterpart to the Mayor. In the various wikis and fan forums that I frequent, there’s no definitive answer about this. It confused a lot of us. The best interpretation seems to be that since Wisdoms are typically able to channel––and this ability extends life by years, decades, or even centuries––many Wisdoms (like Aes Sedai) opt not to get married. So celibacy isn’t a requirement per se, just the norm. Unlike say, in Attack of the Clones, when we learn that Jedi must remain celibate. Still, their hook up scene should haven thrown a wrench into all this! (And that’s a holdover groan: that moment felt inconsistent with the traditional ethics I’d expect in a small village.)

When Moiraine teaches Egwene the basics of channeling the One Power, she doesn’t talk about the male and female halves––saidin and saidar, respectively. Although they are both part of the same True Source, they work very differently, like yin and yang. And importantly, saidin is what was corrupted by the Dark One when the Dragon battled against him 3,000 years ago. It’s why the male channeler in Episode 1 was going insane. I’ve heard rumors that they are making the Power androgynous in the TV series. I really hope those are untrue. The gendered magic system in WOT is not only unique and interesting, it’s central to a lot of plot points. I fear that recent gender ideologies are going to corrupt this aspect. We’ll see what happens.

RAMBLINGS

I’m liking the circular infinity serpent more and more (as opposed to the figure 8 serpent in the books) for the main symbol. The show has had some great shots of various circles, so it’s a cool visual through-line. And as the central feature of an Aes Sedai’s ring, it’s probably easier to film. It also sort of helps to separate the show canon from the book canon. But what’s missing is explanation of previous Ages in this world. They are showing that, however, with different ancient ruins––some of which looked like skyscrapers.

There’s more I would have liked to have seen in Shadar Logoth, but the important elements were there. The “monster” of the city is actually an intelligent fog, not a shadow, but it works. And when that horse got dissolved, oh man, it gave me chilly flashbacks to the “horse scene” in The Cell. Moiraine said it best: “You’ve killed us all.” Once again, strong horror vibes in this episode. 

THEORIES

I’ve often wondered how Whitecloaks would be able to capture an Aes Sedai in the first place, such that she would be unable to channel her way out of captivity. In the books, there is something called forkroot tea, which switches off a woman’s ability to channel, but the earliest reference I could find to this is in Book 5. (I thought it was used earlier than that.) Regardless, I don’t think we ever see the Whitecloaks using it in the books, but now I’ve got a hunch that this will be revealed as their secret weapon in the show. However, the show seems to be suggesting that if you just cut off an Aes Sedai’s hands, she can’t channel. That the hand motions are required for weaving. This would be show-canon, not book-canon. But this could be a setup for how Moiraine or another channeler might be neutralized at some point later in the season.

Rand starts to question and push back on Moiraine, far earlier than I expected. This is probably going to get more intense, rather quickly. The battle between the sexes, one of the central themes of the series, is really showing up in a strong way through their interactions.

Padan Fain, the peddler, is a minor but important character who we’ve briefly seen on screen. Previously, he slinked away in satisfaction when the Trollocs came to town. In the books, he then wanders into Shadar Logoth and has an important moment. Since they bothered to cast his character, I imagine we’ll see this development later. Especially because we hear his same whistling tune (from the first episode) while everyone sleeps in the haunted city.