Critique: Wheel of Time (Series Two)

In this series, the friends are split up after Rand’s (supposed) death. They all do their own thing but invaders come which throws all their tasks out the window.

 

*****SPOILERS***** 

Egwaine is at the Tower learning magic with the Aes Sidai. Nynaeve is there but she won’t channel because she thinks no-one should have access to that kind of power. Perrin is hunting for the Horn that summons dead heroes to fight for the summoner. He doesn’t want it in the hands of the Dark.

Rand is the Dragon, the person who can fight the Dark. As all male channellers go mad, Rand is trying to get the False Dragon to teach him some control. He doesn’t want to hurt is friends which is why he’s gone far away from them.

 

 

Good Things

 

These were things easy to appreciate.

There’s a really lovely analogy about cooperation and togetherness. When you’re by yourself, the shield doesn’t protect all of you. when you’re together, nothing can penetrate the shield wall to hurt any of you.

Rand isn’t in the first episode. Considering he’s the main character, this would ordinarily be problematic. However, all his friends were struggling with the misery his supposed death brought them. The empathy of the audience would have severely curtailed if we saw Rand glaringly alive.

When Rand says he doesn’t know how much time he has left, Selene says something quite profound. “Same as everyone else: not enough.”

Moraine tells Lan he’s not her equal so, as Aes Sidai are unable to lie, Lan sulks. Later, Moraine tells him, “The only reason I could say we were not equals was because you are my better half.”

Moraine casts a fiery, eastern-looking dragon as a banner to announce Rand as the Dragon. Considering there had so far been nothing dragony about the Dragon for two series, this was a good addition. (Though eastern dragons are associated with water and air so a fiery one either showed a lack of knowledge or creative flare. Pun intended.)

 

 

Funny Things

 

This series didn’t disappoint on the funnies!

An Aes Sidai asks a guy to move aside, putting Lan in her line of sight. This made her say, “That’s better.” If this wasn’t chuckle-worthy enough, she asked Lan if wearing trousers whilst training was too hot! The subtle-est unsubtle way I’ve ever heard someone ask to get undressed.

Giving the novices dirty dish water, an Aes Sidai is teachin them how to purify it and says they can’t leave until they drink it. Nynaeve, refusing to channel, just drinks the disgusting water. So stubborn.

Moraine is distancing herself from Lan. This annoys him so when she says she’ll take dinner in her room, Lan tells her to make it herself. Hilarious.

 

 

Invaders

 

The invaders from the west were interesting. They are conquering the world so that the world can stand together in the Final Battle against the Dark.

Their leaders were silent, wore elaborate headdresses, used sharp gestures and had extremely long nails. Egwaine is collared by the invaders and her captor can control Egwaine’s power.

The captor cuts off Egwaine’s hair. Considering hair is the signifier of womanhood in the Two Rivers, this action was especially brutal.

The invaders are from the west, just like America is west of Europe. The landmass the invaders come from stretches from the top of the world to the bottom, just like the Americas do. So the fact that the invaders have American accents to top this off? Great decision making.

 

 

Problems

 

These were disappointing, to say the least.

Perrin is on the hunt for the Horn. But it feels like we’ve been dropped in the middle of the hunt with no real explanation as to why they’re hunting it or why it’s important. The explanation comes later than it should, leaving unnecessary confusion.

To become a full Aes Sidai, Nynaeve has to go through the Arches. These act as a portal and reappear only once. When the Arch reappears for Nynaeve, she takes a long time to talk to her daughter and then casually stroll through the Arch. If they only reappear once and you don’t know how long it stays available, why wouldn’t you make a run for it? Yes, she knows her daughter isn’t ‘real’ so won’t pass through the Arch, but Nynaeve had clearly made the decision to leave.

One time when Ran and Selene shag, the One Power wraps around Rand and she tells him not to be afraid. So he knows that she knows he can channel. Yet later, Rand uses magic to save Selene and she starts a whole drama, acting afraid and asking why he didn’t tell her. But it’s already established that he knows she know!

Rand and Moraine escape from Lanfeer, riding horses down a road. They hide, Lanfeer continues along the road, and they then walk in the opposite direction. Lanfeer gets to where Rand and Moraine’s horses are and she carries on in the same direction. But why would Rand and Moraine get off the horses to then walk in the same direction when that would be slower?

Once Egwaine is collared, she can’t touch anything she considers a weapon and, as such, can’t touch the water jug. Eventually her captor beats her for not being able to pour her water. If Egwaine wanted to attack you before, how is attacking her going to make her want to attack you less?

When Egwaine’s hair is cut short, we then see her with braided her. Yet her braided hair is longer than the length of her hair: considering braids are shorter than free flowing hair, this was problematic.

The leaders of the invaders, to begin with, never spoke in public. As the show progressed, they did start to talk in public. Other than for script and acting reasons, there was no internal reason for the leaders to change behaviour.

At the end, the invaders could see the attack coming for them and yet they stood there and did nothing. When they had many channellers on board that could have at least attempted to save them.

When Rand stabs Ishmael, Ishmael doesn’t defend himself or even run away. He just stood there. Yes, he spent the whole series not being keen on life because of the pain it causes. But because of this he wanted the Wheel destroyed so that no-one would be reborn to suffer again. Letting himself get killed guarantees he’ll suffer more and hence goes against his personality. (Not to mention he’ll be a baby and thus unable to get the Wheel broken any time soon.)

 

 

Questions

 

These four things started out as problems. But then my brain quickly found reasons to justify what happened. The questions (clearly) remained unanswered. Maybe they’ll be discussed in-show at a later date but, for now, I’m left to wonder.

Rand is in love with Egwaine, yet he’s sleeping with his landlady Selene. This seems wildly out of character, yet there are several things to consider. One: Selene says he’s behind with rent so maybe sex is the payment? Two: Rand wouldn’t want to piss off his landlady and risk being made homeless so he might feel obligated to comply. Three: Egwaine can’t be an option if she thinks he’s dead and he probably doesn’t want to be celibate.

If Ishmael wants Rand to break the Wheel, why not put one of the invader’s collars on Rand and then force him to break the Wheel? Although considering male and female magic is different, perhaps the collars can’t work on men? Still, it seemed like the easiest and most obvious solution so it should have been discussed.

Egwaine put a collar on her captor and could control her. Why didn’t the captor control Egwaine, like force Egwaine to stop controlling her? Maybe the pain was too much. Maybe Egwaine was controlling her captor not to control Egwaine. Maybe the more recent collar takes precedence. I’m intrigued as to the reasons why.

The Amalyn looked betrayed when Moraine followed Rand and Lanfeer into the Ways. But surely it’s better for a good Aes Sidai to be with Rand and a Forsaken than to leave Rand alone with a servant of the Dark? Or maybe from the Amalyn’s perspective, it looked like Moraine was in league with Lanfeer. That would be worth feeling betrayed about.

 

 

This series was definitely enjoyable. With all the characters off doing their own things, the plot could have felt disjointed, unconnected. But the invaders coming funnelled the storylines into the same direction. This allowed the lines to stay relevant to each other even though they didn’t actually intersect until the very end.