The Wheel of Time: The Season 1 Ending Explained Is The Dark One Really Dead? Spoilers According To Books

The first season of The Wheel of Time, the Amazon series based on the eponymous fantasy literary saga by Robert Jordan, ended in a spectacular and engaging way with the eighth episode. The finale of the show with Rosamund Pike saw the anticipated clash between the protagonists and the Dark One and paved the way for the second season with the introduction of a new and mysterious enemy from the sea. In the article we will try to answer some of the questions left open by the final episode of The Wheel of Time.

How Does The First Season End?

The first season of The Wheel of Time involved viewers in an intense journey through the universe conceived by Robert Jordan and recreated in the series thanks to spectacular locations. In the eighth and final episode, we saw Moraine and Rand, who is revealed to be the new Dragon Reborn, making their way into the Blotch to reach the Eye of the World.

Once they reach their destination, the two find themselves face to face with the feared Dark One who first manages to overwhelm Rand, transporting him into a misleading dream and then depriving Moiraine of her powers. In this dream world, the young man finds himself living the life he has always wanted: he is happily married to Egwene and the two have a beautiful daughter and live in the Twin Rivers. The Dark One devised this vision to entice Rand to channel in his favor.

Just when it seems she is giving in to evil, the young Dragon Reborn realizes that she is not the real Egwene, because the woman really wants to be an Aes Sedai and he loves her for that very reason. Rand refuses to surrender his power to the Dark One and awakens by channeling the One Power and defeating the Dark One.

Meanwhile in Fal Dara, Nynaeve (Zoe Robins), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) are worried about their friend’s fate and look for a way to reach him. But things quickly fall apart: a vast array of Trollocs, led by the Myrddraal (the Without Eyes), is ready to storm the city.

Egwene and Nynaeve decide to join a small circle of female channelers to fight off the hordes of invaders, but they end up paying a high price: Egwene sacrifices herself to save Nynaeve’s life. The latter, shocked by the death of her wise friend, manages, almost unconsciously, to use the One Power and bring her back to life.

Instead, Loial and Perrin, who has now embraced the non-violence of the Leaf Path, make themselves useful by helping the Fal Dara warriors to take the mythical Horn of Valere, hidden in the city’s royal fortress. This ancient item will be key to the Dragon Reborn in the Last Battle with the Dark One. Shortly before being able to catch him, the group is attacked by Padan Fain, the fake peddler who turns out to be a faithful servant of the Dark One and is in possession of Mat’s cursed dagger, who manages to steal the Horn and then escape.

Is The Dark One Really Dead?

As we have seen, the season finale of The Wheel of Time seems to have finally shown the face of the evil Dark One , the main antagonist of the Amazon series. The mysterious and feared villain is defeated in the Eye of the World by the Dragon Reborn, Rand, but are we sure that he is the real Dark One and that he was actually killed?

While young Rand is convinced that he has fulfilled the prophecy of the Dragon Reborn and that he has killed the Dark One, Moiraine soon realizes that in reality this was not the Last Battle but only the first. The discovery of Aes Sedai is the sign that things are not as they appear.

In Jordan’s literary saga we know that the one we see in the Eye of the World, and who also appears in the dreams of Rand and the other boys, is not the real Dark One. Instead, it is Ishamael, a member of the Forsaken in the service of the Dark One.

Although Rand spoke to the Dark One in the Season 1 finale, the explosion he manages to cause by harnessing the One Power hasn’t killed the villain. This is because in reality the Dark One is still imprisoned and has only used one of his manifestations to deceive both Rand and Moiraine.

The enormous power unleashed by the One Power of the Dragon Reborn, in fact, caused the fracture of the Cuendillar , an almost indestructible substance created in the Age of Legends and used for the seals of the prison of the Dark One. This means that Ishamael lured both Rand and Moiraine to the Eye of the World to break the seal and free his master.

What Happens To Moiraine?

The eighth and final episode of Season 1 of The Wheel of Time seems to suggest that Moiraine has been “silenced” by Ishamael, ie deprived of her ability to channel and tap into the Source of the One Power. Regardless of whether it is a man or a woman, anyone who is “silenced” or “softened” is emotionally devastated by this deprivation and would rather die than live without powers. In fact, as we saw in episode 6, when Logain, after being brought in front of Amyrlin’s seat, begged the Aes Sedai to kill him.

The season finale gave the impression that a similar fate also happened to Moiraine. When Lan, her keeper, finally manages to find her, the woman is in tears and confesses that the Dark One has taken away her ability to touch the True Source.

If this were truly what happened to Moiraine, it would be a major blow to her character. Not only will he not be able to share his feelings with Lan, but the lack of powers will seriously jeopardize his place in the world as Aes Sedai. Obviously, nothing is certain at this point, and we expect to see her more in the second season.

Who Are The Seanchan, Who Appear In The Ending Scene?

The final scene of the season finale introduced a new threat coming to the west coast: a large fleet of ships threateningly approaches the beach, where a little girl is intent on playing. On board, we see what appear to be two Aes Sedai whose powers are controlled, against their will, by two warriors, who use their prisoners’ access to the One Power to cause a huge and devastating wave, ready to destroy. everything on the coast.

As fans of the literary saga will already know, it is the Seanchan , an empire founded thousands of years after the Trolloc Wars and survived for generations. The Seanchan have come to see the One Power as a tool that should be harnessed. They use necklaces made of cuendillar to control the channelers, turning them into puppets under their control.

After having lived isolated from the rest of the world for centuries, they are now determined to take back the Continent from which their ancestors came and to do so they have a huge army, made up of creatures of all kinds.

In Robert Jordan’s novels, the Seanchan actually manage to capture some of the most powerful Aes Sedai, bending them to their will, and among them is one of the five protagonists. It remains to be seen whether the Amazon series will follow the same approach or if the storyline will be changed in some way.

What Changes From The Book to The Screen? 

We anticipated that the adaptation of the end of The Eye of the World would have a lot of changes. In the series, Lews Therin Telamon is called “Dragon Reborn”. We’ve had hints of this lore shift throughout the season, with characters claiming that there is a dragon reborn in every age. This raises the question of who the original dragon was and when they first lived, but that’s probably not something that will be answered in the series.

Instead of everyone going to the Eye of the World as in the books, only Rand and Moiraine go there, with Lan following after them. This change makes sense in the context of knowing the characters in the series. Unsurprisingly, Aginor and Balthamel were cut from those scenes, with only Rand facing Ba’alzamon / Ishamael.

They also removed the “strings” from the book, instead taking inspiration from Egwene’s initiation, causing Rand to be tempted by a similar vision of a possible future. We believe the change has worked, but it will be interesting to see how this affects Egwene’s future acceptance test, as it may seem redundant.

We’ve heard of a couple of channelers notoriously killing themselves while drawing too much from the One Power – Lews Therin Telamon and Queen Eldrene of Manetheren – however, in the books, “getting burned” doesn’t guarantee death .

It is possible that these differences will be maintained in the series and that some lessons in the White Tower in season 2 will clarify what it means to run out. In any case, we are not sure how we will feel about the possible implications of burnout which means death. It would certainly raise the stakes, but the series has already established how devastating it is to be cut off from the One Power, so adding death above seems superfluous.

Speaking of things that need clarification… it’s impossible to heal someone from death in the books, but the episode definitely fooled people into thinking Nynaeve was dead. Having Egwene – who has never shown any particular talent for healing and can barely channel the fire at this point – bringing Nynaeve back from the brink of death really tests the limits of probability.

Rand walking away after The Eye of the World is a big change from the end of the first book, but it puts him in a similar place in his character arc as in the third book, The Dragon Reborn. Based on past information about a possible return to the Two Rivers in season 3, it has been theorized that season 2 of the series could combine the plots of the second and third books, and this change supports that theory.

According to Padan Fain, all five members of the Twin Rivers people are ta’veren. If this is true, this is a departure from the books, where only the three boys were ta’veren. This honestly doesn’t have much impact on the plot, since Egwene and Nynaeve have been able to accomplish seemingly unlikely things so many times in the books so frequently that other characters have even asked them if they’re sure they’re not ta’veren. Frankly, we would prefer it to be all five ta’veren instead of adding Egwene but not Nynaeve. It also suggests that Siuan may not have the talent to sense ta’veren.

Amalisa’s death has no future impact on the plot, but Agelmar plays a key role in A Memory of Light as one of the Great Captains. It’s a change that, while providing tension and drama through a character’s death, feels like it might be more annoying than it’s worth going through in the future. In terms of Loial and Uno, it’s pretty clear to us that this is a fake, since both actors appear to be back for the second season.