For the examples you gave (ending climaxes of book 1 and 2, bubbles of evil), I think it makes visual sense for television to tie those things to individual characters' actions. I do hope we'll start to explore the Dark One more this season, and I think they'll do that through unnatural weather like in the books. I don't necessarily think we'll get the full Bowl Of The Winds plot and the devastating winter that follows, but a condensation of that could work. Or we could just jump to food getting rotten unnaturally and the dead appearing out of nowhere. I like the forsaken figures and the shrine, as well as the funeral rites and the persistent use of seven-spoked wheels across several cultures. In those small ways, the show has given me a very solid sense of the spiritual background of this world without much exposition.

Unfortunately, I think they're going to have to mostly do that. Obviously Barney Harris leaving in S1 screwed up everything they were planning for Mat and the dagger, and after the cartoonish way it was handled in S2E8, it's not really at all compelling in the show the way it was in the books at this point.

Excellent clip of a Galad/Gawyn faceoff with thirsty novices, Accepted and Aes Sedai watching. Mat just oozing envy, Elayne with a hilarious comeback to Nynaeve, this a great prelude to Mat beating them with the quarterstaff. https://www.cbr.com/the-wheel-of-time-clip-season-3/

Since everybody else is ignoring it, I just want to say I appreciate you for making this joke.

Anecdotally, I've seen people from Europe sharing the same link on reddit and expecting to get in.

RSVP'd!

So much cool stuff out recently, not sure where to put it but hey, it's Wednesday! Awesome clip of Moiraine and Rand discussing where to go, pretty certainly S3E1 https://www.etonline.com/media/videos/the-wheel-of-time-sneak-peek-rand-tells-moiraine-she-cant-tell-him-what-to-do Great scene with the whole gang, perfect character moments from the boys and Moiraine Two Rivers cast show posters out too https://www.wotseries.com/2025/03/05/wheel-of-time-unveils-season-3-character-posters-featuring-perrin-loial-alanna-maksim-and-more/

There's a certain self-appointed spokesman in WoT that this comment reminds me of... Look, I've been lurking up a storm and soaking up as much of the S3 hype as I can, and I haven't seen even a single youtube or reddit comment implying that The Shadow Rising is a bad book in any way. I'm sure somebody out there must be, just statistically, but everything I see is more like this praise from Winter Is Coming: https://winteriscoming.net/why-you-should-read-the-shadow-rising-which-will-be-adapted-this-year-in-the-wheel-of-time-season-3

This is exactly the point that expat and king of nowhere are making in support of the position that the sneak peek battle is believable in the context of what we know about Aes Sedai. As an institution - and particularly among the individuals that are based in the White Tower - they are A+++ Mean Girls and mostly pretty big dunces at using the power in a situation like that.

GLASS COLUMNS SNAKES & FOXES everything else you mentioned, but blood and bloody ashes, if we get these two things in even a reasonably decent rendition, I am going to be a happy guy

I expect we'll get it through conversations, like Liandrin's accusations against Siuan in the sneak peek were a way to get the audience up to speed quickly.

This is a fantasy series where many of our heroes possess canonical plot armor as ta'veren and basically everyone else is covered under the oft-repeated mantra "the wheel weaves as the wheel wills." Suspension of disbelief is a core tenet of being a WoT fan (even more than other fantasy/sci-fi).

Saw somebody compare this to how magic battles should have looked like in The Witcher and some other shows, it's definitely a great opener to the season that's gonna grab attention from people who might not have cared otherwise. Excellent marketing to lead with this long clip.

First 11+ minutes of S3E1 released on Prime (including at the end of Reacher) and also here on YouTube in 4K

Entirety of S3E1!! Plus cast interviews from the London live screening perhaps? Maybe announcing greenlight for S4? I love that the production and marketing teams are this confident with the new season, this is a great sign.