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.

Her show poster definitely looks a little more sultry, though not exactly how I picture her 2.0 persona

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).