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Today I watched the first episode of The Wheel of Time, season three. Some have claimed online that season three will be a closer adaptation of the books, and fans of the books that were not fans of the first two seasons may like season three more. All I can say after watching the first episode is, I fail to see how it could possibly pull closer to the books. Let me detail briefly why, but I will start out by saying, there was not one scene in this episode that could be traced back to the books.
The first major scene involves a large confrontation between Liandrin and Siuan in the Hall of the Tower. Siuan locks out the Red Ajah, and after some back-and-forth, openly accuses Liandrin of being Black Ajah. There is a large battle, where more sisters, presumably Sitters of the Hall, reveal themselves to also be Black Ajah, and fight the other Aes Sedai. The Black Ajah escape with Liandrin and fight their way through the streets of Tar Valon.
This is not something that happens in the books and would have resulted in major implications both for the Tower and for the city itself. Strangely enough, the city doesn’t seem to be in an uproar over Aes Sedai battling each other through the streets of the city, the Black Ajah being a thing, nor to the other sisters and warders, because a day or two later, they are acting like nothing happened.
Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Loial, Nynaeve, Avienda, Elayne, and two other Aiel are also just in Tar Valon with Moiraine and Lan. They walk around the city, flash the Horn of Valere at a tavern.
Rand is told by Moiraine that he needs to go to the Stone of Tear to get Callandor. This is a large departure from the books, where it is not Moiraine’s idea to go to the Stone of Tear. But it is revealed that Moiraine is actually conspiring with Lanfear on getting Lan to go to the Stone of Tear, and to break up the group so that they are not all together, going to the Stone, for some reason. That is correct, Moiraine and Lanfear are conspiring. In fact, there is even an event at the end of the episode that appears to be a bubble of evil, but is instead the work of Lanfear, which was planned by Lanfear and Moiraine as a way to convince Rand to go to the Stone of Tear and the other members to break away from him. During this event, Nynaeve almost dies meaning that Moiraine conspired to have an event occur that almost kills the Emond’s fielders.
Add to this, Avienda and Elayne are already such close friends, that they are actually attracted to each other and having sex with each other before either one shows similar interest in Rand. This is a huge departure from the books, and fulfills the suggestion that Rafe Judkins is more interested in showing polyamory than the polygamous relationship that was in the books with Rand, Avienda, Elayne, and Min.
We have Egwene giving ultimatums and talking back to Siuan, stating that she does not want to be part of the Tower and will only be part of the Tower if she gets to do her accepted test right then. She then succeeds in the test, gets her ring, and states that she is leaving the Tower because they cannot hold her there. This is both not how things happened in the books, not the dynamic that existed at this point in the books, nor in character for Egwene, how wanted to be part of the White Tower.
There are a whole host of other problems, including the One Power and channeling working in a very strange way, power levels being highly strange, and members of the Black Ajah revealing themselves in the way that they did being completely out of character to how they were portrayed in the books. A Black Ajah Sitter would be significantly more valuable where she was than standing up for Liandrin. Liandrin would likely not have been in charge of any of them either, since the Sitters were more powerful than more of the lower level sisters. Shields also work strangely.
My major takeaway is that this show is far from what happened in the books. I do not see how they recover. From what I can tell, the time spent in the Waste will be half the season, with Rand then leading the Aiel to Tear to get Callandor. That is backwards and completely different to how it should work. Moiraine is working with Lanfear. Elayne is in a lesbian relationship with Avienda. Rand is still interested in Egwene. This show is just too far from what happens in the books, and I do not see the people creating the show pulling anything to be back in line with what happens in the books.