There is a lot to love about the trailer for The Wheel of Time. Near perfection. I even like some of the things that others don’t, like the CGI of the weaving. Invisible channeling would have been lame.

But there’s one glaring problem: when Moiraine says, “And it’s one of five of you.”

Five. Referring to Rand, Mat, Perrin…and Egwene and Nynaeve.

If you’ve read the books, you already know the problem. If you haven’t, I’m going to spell it out. Beware, there shall be mild spoilers.

Right before Moiraine addresses the “Five,” she says this: “The Dark One is waking. But there will be one who can stand against him.”

So we’re led to believe that one of these five young adults is the prophesied Chosen One who will fight the Dark One. A Chosen One is a common thread in a lot of YA fantasy. Most people wouldn’t blink at this. A generic Chosen One can be male or female, whatever the story requires.

But the Chosen One in The Wheel of Time is undeniably, unapologetically male. This Chosen One is called the Dragon Reborn––the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon, called the “Dragon” in the previous Age. He was the most powerful Aes Sedai (male channeler) who led an assault against the Dark One.

Important note: men and women basically use different magic in WOT. The magic is called One Power, and is divided into a male half (saidin) and a female half (saidar).

Lews Therin was foolhardy and left behind the female Aes Sedai in his last stand. He successfully fought back and imprisoned the Dark One, but there was a price. The Dark One poisoned saidin, the male half of the One Power. It made all the male Aes Sedai instantly insane.

Lews Therin and his insane friends then proceeded to nearly destroy the world and kill everyone they love. And since then, men cannot be trusted with channeling. But it was prophesied that he would return, to break the world again, but also save it again from the Dark One.

In the trailer, Moiraine mentions that she’s been searching for the Dragon Reborn. That’s because she was present when another Aes Sedai, Gitara, had a Foretelling (vision) that Lews Therin had been reincarnated. This happens in New Spring, the prequel to Eye of the World. Interestingly, I think they will feature this scene, because of the brief glimpse of the Aiel fighting in the snow by Tar Valon. That’s when and where Lews Therin is reborn.

I hope so, because the Aiel are awesome, and we don’t otherwise really see them until Book 3.

Gitara’s Foretelling:

“He is born again! I feel him! The Dragon takes his first breath on the slopes of Dragonmount! He is coming! He is coming! Light help us! Light help the world! He lies in the snow and cries like the thunder! He burns like the sun!”

Clearly, a male.

Fast Forward 20 years to when Moiraine says, “It’s one of the five of you.” In the book she only refers to the three boys, and also words it differently: “In one of you,” Moiraine said, “or all three, there is something the Dark One fears.”

The three: Rand, Mat, and Perrin.

Bottom line: Egwene and Nynaeve––although they are important, awesome characters––cannot be the prophesied Dragon Reborn. Female channelers use saidar, which was not polluted like saidin.

Not only would a gender-swapped Dragon Reborn be confusing, it would be less dramatic. What’s dramatic is a male channeler who’s coming to save the world, because of the very real possibility that he’ll go crazy first and destroy everything.

It’s also dramatic because it sets him against the (female) Aes Sedai, who hunt down male channelers and “gentle” them. So the Dragon Reborn has to fight the pollution of saidin, not go crazy, convince the Aes Sedai to not erase his ability to channel, unite the world, and defeat the Dark One. That’s the tension of the whole series. And it’s awesome! A female channeler as Dragon Reborn also wouldn’t buck the status quo, as women hold most of the power in this world.

By implying that the Dragon Reborn can be a female, all of this drama goes away. It would also completely break the canon. There is no reason to imply a female Dragon Reborn and every reason to not do so. It’s illogical and nonsensical.

I really hope this mistake only lives in the trailer, not the show. There is so much good that I see in the trailer, a TON of hints that they are being faithful to the books, enough that I am cautiously hopeful that they aren’t going to get this crucial point wrong.

But let’s face it: male heroes are out, female heroes are in. No need to rehash this, but just look at nearly all the recent SF/F. A female Dragon is a category error, though. And a male Dragon doesn’t preclude other crucial characters. The prevailing trends about gender shouldn’t be treated as sacrosanct, because to submit the canon to them would unravel the story.

With the Wheel of Time novels, you get both great male heroes and great female heroes. There’s actually a lot of balance and respect. A consistent thread in WOT is: men and women need each other. The entire cause of the Breaking of the World caused by Lews Therin was when he disregarded the importance of female Aes Sedai. And that is a big part of what the Dragon Reborn has to redeem.

The story doesn’t need to be “updated” or anything for a 2021 audience. In fact, the story as it was written is already a fantastic celebration of gender, as Shane Morris has written.