Review of S1 E5 of The Wheel of Time, “Blood for Blood.” Spoilers for the episode and light spoilers for the books.

This deep dive took me a long time to parse out. Something drastically shifted in my own opinion about this show after Episode 5, which felt more like the tone of Book 5. Over and over I keep thinking, “This is a retelling, not a portrayal, and more akin to the game of Telephone.” It’s bordering on fan fiction in some ways.

• It’s the events of Caemlyn, but in Tar Valon.
• We see Rand’s famous moment on the wall, but with Mat instead of the Trakand siblings.
• Not one but two funerals, whereas there are zero* in Book 1.
• *The one funeral we see is in a vision from Min, who isn’t in the show.

The one pure and positive element was meeting Loial, the Ogier. More on that in a sec.

There’s something very ominous with how this episode starts and ends with a funeral. It could be that it’s simply a Foretelling of the many battles to come. That’s certainly true of the books. But in the lore of the production of the show, there was wind that arose in the mountains of Amazon Studios. A wind where a whisper was carried, saying, “Find me the next Game of Thrones.” Is this episode the start of this fork in the road, where WOT becomes more like GOT?

I certainly hope not. The books, while containing all manner of fantasy battles, were grounded on hope. The “Light,” the “Pattern,” and even the Creator are spoken of often––in optimistic ways. Amidst a world undergoing a new Breaking, there was always the glimmer of renewal just around the corner.

What Episode 5 hints at for the future of the show seems very different. Observe these quotes:

“It’s like he swallowed her death.”

“The pain will never go away.”

“Love’s usually a bad idea, but we allow it to happen, or this life is intolerable.”

“Relieve us of our grief.”

I once attended a funeral for someone’s tragic and untimely death. The priest said something very wise: “Ceremonies are good, and help us when we don’t know what to do or say.”

So in the midst of my own budding grief about this show, let’s get on with our usual ceremony of analysis.

CHEERS

Even though I wanted to see Caemlyn, Tar Valon and the White Tower looked awesome. The island looked kind of small but I loved all the detail. They put a lot of work into this.

Rand saying, “I think I’ve seen that mountain before,” and later on picking up the Karaethon Cycle book…these were fantastic Easter Eggs.

Hearing, then seeing, Padan Fain in the background. I don’t know why, but I’m glad he’s roughly following his same trajectory. Things are going to get very spicy very soon with him.

We finally hear world-specific profanity (“Blood and ashes”). Not that I’m cheering for profanity, mind you, just accuracy. There’s been an odd thread of 21st century Earth invading this world…but more on that later.

Mat deteriorating from the dagger’s curse is spot-on.

Seeing Loial on screen genuinely made me smile. He’s the Data of WOT (head full of knowledge and talks endlessly). His conversation with Rand was accurate to the books. He had great lines like, “I like oddities.” When he mentioned the Jain Farstrider book, that was great. There’s something so fun about a TV show referencing a book. Naomi said, “Loial reminds me of the Ents in LOTR.” I’m willing to overlook some of the weird things about his makeup and hair. He’s a very lovable character and that came across perfectly.

We get to see novices (Aes Sedai initiates) as drummers in the parade of captured false Dragon. Logain laughs at Rand and Mat. I want to dive into the reason why he’s laughing, but I want to see how the show handles this. So I’ll just say for now it’s not what Mat thinks. My only other thought on this scene is that it’s amazing but unsurprising that the Aes Sedai made a new cage for Logain, identical to the one he melted.

Getting to see a bunch of Warders is always fun. By and large, Warders are a positive portrayal of masculinity in the books. The show has a big opportunity here.

The architecture and furnishings inside the Tower made it feel like a strange and magical world.

Nynaeve’s expertise with herbs and plants and medicine. Trying to figure out with Rand how to help Mat without involving the Aes Sedai. She’s loyal to the Two Rivers above all. Spot on portrayal of her.

The wolf attack, and Perrin getting his yellow eyes.

The Lan/Nynaeve dynamic is what most interests my wife. It’s being sped up for the show, but coming across pretty well.

We encounter more of the White Tower politics, which is a major dimension of the story.

GROANS

The show has now jumped the shark by embracing gender “equity.” Not equality, but rather a leveling, a zero-sum game. It’s adopted a familiar and unfortunate tendency: for women to be strong, men have to be weak. This comment goes a bit beyond this episode, but we have seen: men question their aggression, run away like cowards, cry like babies, and make suicide pacts. By contrast, we’ve seen (often in the same scenes) women “fight like demons” (to quote DUNE), stab without remorse, seize literal Power, and promise and enact revenge. There’s a very odd treatment happening here with gender and stereotypes.

The biggest groan goes to the portrayal of Lan at Stepin’s funeral. Some have said, “Well of course he cried, he lost a close friend. Of course he screamed, that’s the particular custom for this funeral. Of course he felt weak, he couldn’t prevent Stepin’s suicide.” But there are two major problems with all of these rationalizations. One, Stepin was never an important character in the books, and two, Lan didn’t act this way in the books. Observe:

“Warders, those half-legendary warriors who served the Aes Sedai, seldom showed emotion, and Lan showed little even for a Warder.”

The Great Hunt, page 4

Instead of this, seems we’re get The Last Jedi version of Lan. A Portal Stone reality.

Rand and Mat going to Thom’s friend’s inn was supposed to be in Caemlyn. This is going to cause continuity problems later.

How did Moiraine’s “eyes and ears” at the city gates miss Rand and Mat?

Mat joining Rand to watch Logain (instead of Rand going on a solo adventure), and no Elayne. This is a great meet-cute in the books that we will never get now, even if Elayne shows up later in the series.

Padan Fain should be half-mad by now because of all that he was supposed to have encountered while following the boys. He was way too smiley while watching them.

Alana’s Warder sharing how his father tried to kill him at age 12, presumably when he came out of the closet. This feels like the showrunner projecting his (or someone else’s) tragic backstory onto that character. He has threatened as much before. But moments like this are simply incongruous with the story world. It’s more like a CW drama.

Egwene’s “bathing scene” with the Whitecloaks, beyond being creepy and uncomfortable, was exploitative of the actress.

Seeing Perrin get tortured, on-screen, was beyond the pale. A friend of mine bailed on the show because of this. We’ve moved from horror vibe to full-on slasher film. This kind of “inquisition” was mentioned, but happened off-screen in the books. On screen, it’s torture porn. It’s also not entirely clear what kind of confession Valda is trying to get out of Egwene. He agrees at the outset she’s not an Aes Sedai, but still thinks she can channel, but why? It worked really well, though, to break Perrin and get him to confess to killing Laila.

Valda is simply not portrayed this way in the books. But here we see him as not just a zealot, but a psychopath.

A lot of focus on side characters, and a noticeable absence of important characters. It’s a well-developed character arc for Stepin, I guess, but I would rather have gotten to see characters I already know and care about.

Speaking of Stepin, we have to address the elephant in the room here: he decided suicide was preferable than being co-bonded with gay Warders. What exactly is the show’s message here through that? What are they unintentionally saying? This reminds me of how after episode 1, fans were criticizing the show for “fridging” Perrin’s wife. Seems that the more “updated for 2021” they try to make this show, the more it doesn’t really work out that way.

Speaking of Perrin, he growls but does basically nothing. In the books, he’s already axed several Whitecloaks, and actually talked to the wolves that saved them. His storyline fell apart because the show excised Elyas. This is another trend: lack of male role mentorship, which is huge in the books. We get some of that with Thom, but just barely. Rand and Mat still haven’t learned any of the gleeman’s practical skills.

RAMBLINGS

Color coded Aes Sedai rings, to signify Ajah: not in the books, but actually works well for a screen adaptation.

Lots of overhead shots of circles, tying into the re-design of the Wheel of time symbol.

Smart to see “One Month Later” at the beginning. They are traveling by foot or by horse across a vast continent:

A Warder delivering a dead Aes Sedai’s ring to be melted is show-canon, but a good way to show the heaviness of this. Even though the Aes Sedai are magically and politically powerful, they are actually few in number. And in the backstory to Book 1, they have been diminishing year over year.

Moiraine clearly doesn’t think Nynaeve is the Dragon Reborn. It’s annoying that the previous episode propped her up as a possible Dragon, but only as a red herring. Moiraine ruled her out as being too old in Episode 1. So the show is defeating itself in the whole “Who is the Dragon?” mystery.

The Tinkers facing off against the Whitecloaks by forming a human wall, and then literally turning the other cheek with Whitecloaks slapping them but not killing them. It’s weird but basically canon accurate. Perrin running away, on the other hand…

First the story of Thom’s nephew, Owyn, and now Stepin. Both deaths by suicide. Rand and Mat promise to take the other out rather than watch the other go mad from channeling polluted Saidin. Ultimately this draws attention to a plague in the real world: deaths of despair. Military veteran PTSD. The cost of war. The opiod crisis. Despite my criticism of Portal Stone Lan, I think it is a good thing for more awareness to be given to men’s mental health.

I kept waiting, though, for Lan to say his signature line, “Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.”

Stepin’s offering (smudging?) to ward off the Forsaken (who look like Sith Lords) was a weird adaptation. But I suppose it was the best way to drop in some exposition about the Forsaken.

Valda and Liandrin have an identical philosophy: there is no truth but power. I’m actually glad to see this kind of portrayal. This mentality is underwriting some ghastly political movements right now in the real world. It needs more sunlight.

THEORIES

Were those Portal Stones? I’m talking about what seemed to be ordinary signposts but with ancient scribblings on them, seen when the characters approached Tar Valon. These stones are an important component to Book 2, and it was said that season one would contain bits of the second and third books.

The Amyrlin Seat will show up in the next episode. That’s a gimme; the next episode is called The Flame of Tar Valon. But what I do predict will happen is the fatal power struggle from Book 2 to happen early. Related, Liandrin is going to absorb another character who we should have seen by now, and will challenge Siuan. 

Moiraine’s hidden painting is spycraft of some kind. It’d be even cooler if it was magical spycraft.

The brief mention of the Forsaken must be setting up Lanfear to enter the scene. And I’m wondering if Moiraine’s talk with Alana about Lan means we’re going to see the Aelfinn gate much sooner than later. 

Loial showing up means a Waygate in the next episode, or at the least, it’s going to happen. And him telling Rand he’s an Aielman means we’re going to get more of Rand’s backstory next. I would even wager we’re going to get a flashback to Tam’s experience on Winternight, and what he dreamed about then. So a flashback within a flashback.