The Wheel weaves as the wheel will! Welcome back to our discussion of the Wheel of Time!
Originally, when the Wheel of Time show came to Amazon Prime, I started a series of discussion in which I had watched the show, Matt Rensi had watched the show and read the books, and Aaron Esparza had watched the show, read the books, and play the game. We started out to compare our experiences of the show. Along the way, a whole variety of life circumstances came up along the way, and one whole episode was lost, and this one was much delayed.
Never fear, though - I have brought you the lost final episode of our discussion series on Wheel of Time season 1, just in time for us to launch into our commentary on season two!
Here, me and Matt talk about the aesthetics of the finale of Season 1(just in time for Season 3! We talk in depth on the character of Rand Al-Thor, and what his story says about heroism.
What is the most heroic thing that Rand does? He is young and in love, well infatuated really, with Egwaine, one of the powerful five. But he also suspects there is mutual love between her and Perrin, another of the five. Rand is given to jealousy, to hot-headed impetuosity, and rash judgment. He's quicker to draw his sword than use his words, and when he speaks, it's with bedrock conviction.
The way he is depicted in the show, he is a boring character for most of the season. He loves a girl, does what he's told, has nightmares about dark figures haunting him, and broods all day long. All his companions begin manifesting their magic abilities long before him, and he remains loyally ordinary...until the end when it is revealed that he's been channeling all along...he just hasn't realized it.
At least he's cute.
He's not particularly remarkable as a swordsman or a tracker or a healer or a wisdom. So what makes him a hero?
Rand is an ordinary hero in the way he steadfastly journeys with his friends. He is a quiet and reliable friend, and persistently able to struggle through with those he loves. He comes to his final showdown being tired and haggard, having gone through loss and fear, and still found a reason to persist.
His final confrontation with the Dark One is an internal one. The Dark One gets in his head and challenges his character. Is he the type of man who will take power for himself, to serve his own ends? Or is he the type of man who will resist power, struggle against desire, and consider the needs of others over his own?
In a way, he is both. He does end up declining the Dark One's offer, and resisting temptation, and he is able to do this because he loves and knows Egwaine. He wins by being grounded enough in reality, and open enough to her reality, that he can differentiate between the two, even in the depths of his mind. In that realm, he is able to recognize the vast difference between his fantasy of Egwaine, and the reality of the actual Egwaine, and his victory stroke is to prefer the real over the imagined.
In a sense, we could say his motives are still self-serving; he hopes to be with her...but we should moreso say his motives are driven by compassion. He wants her to be her, and to be with her as she is, not as he would shape her to be.
Rand's heroism is one of presence, made up of compassion, of knowing and loving others as they are, and being willing to give entirely of one's self in order that they might live.
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