Praise for this episode and especially for the whole show in this review: https://www.polygon.com/impressions/557477/wheel-time-episode-7-battle-episode-fantasy

They're definitely pulling forward the whitecloak trial and pushing back the Slayer/wolf dream arcs for Perrin. Would like to have seen some more explicit foreshadowing for those and I do consider it a miss at this point, but I'll be fully on board if they are able to make those sing in future seasons.

This is not true. There is no stedding in Tar Valon, and there is a waygate. They were built by the stedding AND the great Ogier-built cities with Ogier groves. Same for Manetheren

I hope we see this starting ASAP

Yes, exactly. It wasn't TAR, it was his own dream. Edited to what I originally typed, "dream" Hopper.

Yes, I wish there had been any wolf moments other than dream Hopper this season. A big miss for Perrin's arc, despite a lot of quality character development for him in other areas.

I don't see a red doorframe in the E8 preview, but agreed

WAFO! I'm with Digific, I think they're planning to go there. I don't foresee Rand and Min interacting in the show at all until well into S4 (knock on wood) at the earliest, but I love not knowing what happens.

I mean, what do you think the point was of Thom talking to Mat repeatedly about how the boys are tugging on the Pattern and he wants no part of it -- and then he finds himself completely swept up in it? It's not "luck" exactly, but it is explicitly the theme of ta'veren getting what the Pattern needs.

As Ali on the Wheel Takes podcast is fond of saying, unanswered questions are the lifeblood of television writing. Answer a question definitively and any plot points related to it can quickly become far less compelling. Leave people to wonder and speculate instead, and they get really interested.

Hills Boobs Bracelets I love that Thom followed up the song with the history lesson on the shackled man to connect it even further.

Totally agreed with this. A big issue is that WoT doesn't have a consistent tone the way LOTR does (haven't read ASOIAF). Jordan was just so good at writing different perspectives, and a Mat chapter feels different from and Elayne chapter which is different from a Graendel chapter, etc. Even in TEOTW, we'll have legit horror scenes with Ba'alzamon terrifying Rand in a dream chamber built of human skulls, and then Rand will wake up and be grumpy with Moiraine or something really mundane and silly.

Not sure where to post this, but here's a teaser clip from episode 6 of Lanfear and Moiraine having a conversation. https://awardsradar.com/2025/03/31/exclusive-wheel-of-time-season-three-clip/

I liked that part of the interview too, where Rafe described how excited Pike was to be able to play a character who doesn't wear "gay" or "straight" or other identities as a defining trait. And I disagree on the second point here. In my opinion, the show follows through on the idea of presenting queerness as a normal unremarkable thing. The characters DON'T view each other's sexual attraction as a defining trait, it's simply a personal preference that is barely remarked. For the most part, the show expands on Jordan's proposal for a largely sex-positive world with minimal homophobia, and we - the viewers - are the ones bringing our real-world baggage where it's not really appropriate.

This recent interview goes into detail on Rafe's perspectives on sexuality in the books, it's really intelligent and worth reading. Assuming the accuracy of the Robert Jordan quote asserting "30 to 50 percent" of the characters in the book are not straight, Rafe understands this point a lot better than people who are upset about queerness in the show. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/wheel-of-time-queer-universe-season-3-rafe-judkins-interview-1236173757/

Because nobody's mentioned the obvious, Alanna is also very likely to bond Rand like she does in the books. That's why they are making her a prominent character in the show instead of the relative nobody she was in the books. On Egwene's dreamwalking skills: We have seen one session. Rand says he hasn't spent a moment alone with her since Rhuidean. There is no reason to insist Rhuidean happened yesterday or two days ago between E4 and E5. I don't recall exactly how far away Cold Rocks Hold is from Rhuidean, but I remember days of travelling in the books... it's hard to indicate the passage of time on screen without obvious travelling montages, as Moiraine kind of called out with that "years ago" comment to Egwene. But it's clear enough to me that there have been multiple lessons, and they were consolidated on screen with that first one in Cold Rocks Hold. I did feel this episode was a bit of a let-down after E4, we're back to slow catch-up scenes connecting to future major plot points. But it was pretty well-done for that, and all of it was clearly working to set up plots from the books.

Unraveling the Pattern did the official Amazon recap pre-season 3, and this 30 minute "Director's Cut" recap of the first two seasons would probably be enough to get them up to speed.

I'm saying it's about the same level of clarity in both at this point of the story. Ok, point taken! I haven't read or watched much of any lore explainers outside of the books themselves.

Agitel said it as well, but none of this is really clear in the books at this point either, other than saidin and saidar. Honestly, finding out more about all those things was a huge motivator to keep reading the books, definitely things I wanted to know more about. For “The Dragon Reborn could be reborn as a girl” -- Nobody believed this in the books, but that Moiraine and other Aes Sedai believe it in the show doesn't change the story being that the Dragon was in fact reborn as a man. That false belief is the kind of thing Jordan certainly could have written. Also, there's nowhere I can remember where he says that there are eternal genders ascribed to all souls and everyone comes back as men or women every time. The ambient dread of men who can channel hasn't been drilled home through repetition the way it was in the books, sure. But the core elements of the story that you listed haven't changed.

Not really a news article, but an interesting piece... The TV fantasy gold rush is over. Now maybe Wheel of Time can finally be itself It can be something more than just the ‘next Game of Thrones’ https://www.polygon.com/fantasy/543441/tv-amazon-prime-wheel-time-season-3-best-episode-new

I think this is a fundamental theme of Robert Jordan's writing, and why I am so enthusiastic about the show.

One down, one to go!

Got up a little earlier than usual to watch this episode before going to work, and it was almost everything I hoped for. LOVE - Josha's performance in all his ancestor's lives. So powerful to see it onscreen, as my head-canon was never very clear on the characters' faces. - The time devoted to each scene, making clear what the point of each step on the road to the spear was. They skipped the gift of water scene with the Cairhienin ancestors, but the brief lore dump from Moiraine filled in that important piece. The look on Rand's face as he understood how deeply he and Moiraine are connected was priceless. - The cinematography for Moiraine's visions was great, the rotation and rapid-fire changes cut to her shocked face really worked to give a sense of that experience. - Latra Sedai! Oh man, I'm choked up just thinking of her off-screen experience through all those visions. And her scene at avendesora was so powerful, raising the glass columns and calling the Aiel oathbreakers. - The rescue scene where they pick up the spear and are then exiled was the best of the bunch. Such an emotional scene, I teared up there too. - Mierin unleashing the Dark One was incredible. Such a core memory for ME that I am still having first-watch quibbles with the execution on the show (BLACK FIRE!), but I can't wait to see it again, just like I read those chapters in the books dozens of times. MEH - Agreed on the need for extras in the earlier Aiel scenes. Even if they all set out separately, they clearly had a larger caravan in the books. - Agreed on the inconsistency with using the veil. They gave us a powerful intro to it, we should have seen it more prominently in the previous/later scenes. - Some of Josha's makeup was a bit overdone, it took me out of the moment briefly.

If you want some reactions from show-only fans, this reddit thread has some great ones.

I don't believe there were any NOT shady parts of Tanchico. It's consistently described as on the brink of collapse into civil war, aside from being a widely-known hive of scum and villainy.