The finale of the first season of The Wheel of Time is here, and yes, there will be spoilers. In a big way, it feels as though this has been a sprint through the first part of a very long series that has culminated in a slightly anticlimactic moment that saw the continuation of a story that’s going to have to hit another level as it leans into season 2. The Wheel of Time has been an interesting show to watch at this point, but it’s also been something that many can admit that has been kind of annoying in some ways simply because some might love every single character, while others might find that they’re likable in some ways, but definitely not in others. Having traveled to the Eye of the World, Moiraine and Rand have a task to complete, which is to defeat the Dark One and determine if Rand, as the Dragon Reborn, will destroy the world, or save it. The trouble with this is that at this point everything has been so condensed that even those that are still reading the books or have never read them before are likely to recognize this fact.
This is an issue since as it happens with many stories that are adapted from novels, much is often left out, things are changed, and the story is shortened in order to fit the timeframe that’s been given. Such a thing is usually necessary, but it’s uncommon to see a perfect transition that fans will appreciate since too much has to be removed or changed for many to accept the series as it is. To their own credit, a lot of Wheel of Time fans have been content to keep watching in order to see what will happen. But the fact is that things still feel as though they were rushed in a way that might have been better had the final battle come in the second season.
Of course, that might not have worked either since too much information might have been called boring, and a lot of people might have felt that the series wasn’t doing the books any justice. But getting right into it, the main thrust of the finale has to do with Moiraine and Rand traveling to the Eye, with Lan hot on their trail after learning how to track Moiraine without their link thanks to Nynaeve, who continues to be one of the most annoying characters in the group thanks to the fact that she can’t tone her salty attitude down just a little. The fact that she’s still around since her death would be a huge blow to the story, is enough to make it obvious that there are more of her infuriating moments to come. One thing that she did do right, even if it became meaningly only moments later, was that she protected Egwene from being used up by the magic like the rest of the city’s protectors. It’s easy to state that this was her most selfless moment in the series thus far, and would have been a fitting end, if only she weren’t necessary throughout the rest of the story. Imagining the fan reaction to her actual death would be easy, people would no doubt be outraged.
As far as the final battle of season 1 goes, it felt a little too easy, as though it was a buildup to something that was meant to be a knockdown, drag-out brawl, which became more like a mental slap fight that didn’t solve anything. The fight that the series had been building to was essentially a temptation by the Dark One to Rand, who chose the Light instead, and then made his way into the wilds, away from his friends, while Moiraine had to struggle with the idea of not being about to touch the One Power any longer thanks to the Dark One. On top of this, Padan Fain did return, but in the service of the Dark One as he admits, and with two Fades in tow, as he secured a powerful artifact that will no doubt come into play later on. As far as the second season goes, it was already announced before the first season had started, which means it might very well arrive sometime in 2022, perhaps near the latter half of the year.
All in all, the first season of The Wheel of Time has been a lot of fun and worth watching, but there is a certain quality to it that makes a person wonder if the next season is going to up the stakes, or if the story has hit a plateau that it’s going to continue to travel along for a while. In season two it does feel as though more is going to need to happen, as the ending of the first season does imply that something else is coming, something worse in fact. But until season 2 is closer to being released, it feels that theories and gossip, and what happens in the books, will be what we have to go on.
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