Wheel of Time Ep. 6: THEY WERE PILLOWFRIENDS
Also, a meta moment weaves the Pattern in a different direction.
This is a little bit later than the other posts because there’s a lot to wrap up this week before we start holiday vacation- lots of end-of-the-year stuff to do!
In general though: not only is this a topic I can spend a lot of time writing about, but the show has also flushed out so many book readers among my friends and acquaintances, as well as people new to the show who are discovering the world for the first time. Thank YOU for wanting to chat about my favorite series! It’s a bit easier for me to put thoughts in one place though juggling threads has been fascinating since several people are at various completion levels in the series. For this post, the book spoilers section covers specifics to The Great Hunt and mention of fast travel logistics.
General Thoughts
The Wheel of Time was progressive for its time, but very much still a product of it. New Spring first appeared as a short story in 1999 and expanded to a novella in 2004, and queerness is subtly there for characters in this episode. A reader once asked Robert Jordan about if “pillow friends” were really just good friends and he replied in a 2005 blogpost,
And for MJJ, as posted by DomA, pillow friends are not just good friends. Oh, they are that, too, but they also get hot and sweaty together and muss up the sheets something fierce. By the way, pillow friends is a term used in the White Tower. The same relationship between men or women elsewhere would be called something else, depending on the country.
Unfortunately, like most queer subtext this may have been too subtle for readers, and one of the things adaptation can do is to make subtext text, partly because we don’t have time to be that indirect (and also because this is a visual medium so it’s harder to hide implications behind turns of phrase). The small-but-vocal section of viewers who believe these are “political agendas shoved down their throats” should consider a closer rereading of the books. We’re no longer in the era of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and we do not need to hide LGBTQ+ characters in the background (or in easily excisable scenes for foreign export…)
This episode also pulls Aes Sedai politics into the story much earlier than when we find out about it as readers, which does work for worldbuilding future spaces for plot expansions.
We’ve also reached the end of episodes that were given early to critics for review- the next two weeks are new to everyone! Really looking forward to what we’ll see.
Show Thoughts
Sophie Okonedo (Liz Ten to you Doctor Who fans! lol this clip resonates with her being Siuan) commands the screen as Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat, the Watcher of the Seals, the Flame of Tar Valon. Think of her as magic pope among the Aes Sedai (thus why she calls them Daughter and they call her Mother), which is why it’s such a big deal that she and Moiraine have been conspiring these last twenty years. Popes having personal lives has had consequences in our world, so if other sisters in the Tower find out about Siuan & Moiraine’s relationship and plotting, the consequences could be serious. From an academic standpoint, I really appreciate that Moiraine is skeptical about the translation on 3,000 year old Prophecies. “We’ve been searching for the Dragon Reborn for 20 years; I know less now than I did then!” very much feels like the paradox of higher learning, where the more we learn the less we realize we know. Consider the interpretations we have today on ~2,000 year old documents in the Bible, or on medieval literature.
Also, the “On your knees” bookend was an ad libbed line! Amazing.
Much like the books, this show rewards rewatches/rereads. I just connected the shot focusing on someone placing a towel next to Moiraine with her picking up that after the bath discussion, transitioning to the shot where Moiraine goes to a healing house run by Yellow sisters. Also: what’s up with those ships disappearing on the west coast, or the Aiel crossing the Spine of the World? The Wheel of Time’s strength is in its world building, and these tidbits hint at a larger world we will explore eventually, as fast as our protagonists’ feet can carry them. One of the still images for this episode shows Loial looking at what I assume is a map with Moiraine and Lan, and I really wish we’d gotten that scene expanded.
The gang’s all back together! The ending feels abrupt, but I do not think it was originally filmed that way. The end of the filming block for episodes 5 and 6 coincided with the shutdown for COVID in spring of 2020. Filming resumed in the fall for episodes 7 and 8, but by then Barney Harris had apparently exited production (and abruptly deleted all his social media) though we didn’t know until Dónal Finn’s casting was announced. We do have an in-world explanation that would work here, where maybe there’s still a touch of the dagger’s darkness pulling at him (or given that he said he was a horse trader, maybe he’s going to go find everybody’s horses to make sure they’re taken care of). This closing scene does feel like a pick up shot for the remaining villagers reacting to footage of Mat brooding on the hill, but maybe it’s the best they could edit together given circumstances. Adam Whitehead outlines the timeline and compares a similar filming change in The Expanse’s fifth season on a post over at Dragonmount to cover a sudden core cast departure. Due to the fact that cast and crew have nothing but good things to say about Barney Harris, his departure is likely more due to personal reasons that he doesn’t owe us, like Michael O’Hare’s departure from Babylon 5 or Chadwick Boseman keeping his cancer diagnosis quiet, and I sincerely hope he’s doing alright.
I end this section with the fun fact that the Nether in Minecraft was inspired the Ways, as one means of fast travel in this world.
Book Spoilers
Ter’angreal! At first I thought “Hmm, this is early to have Traveling, a weave that was only rediscovered later…” but then noticed the matching picture frames in Moiraine and Siuan’s rooms. The debate I’ve seen among readers is whether these were limited ter’angreal that Travel to a shared spot, or if they open into tel’aran’rhiod, the Dream World given the ethereal nature of that fishing hut. The fact they go off to sleep makes me think it might not be TAR, though. The podcast Tar Valon or Bust did an interview with Rosamund Pike today where she described it as a portal going to a different world, but that doesn’t make it clear if this is a dreamshard, something akin to a Portal Stone, or something else entirely
How about those ships disappearing on the western shore that Maigan wants to investigate? I’m guessing we’ll see her collared in the finale. We also saw the Stone of Tear peaking between the cliffs in the Siuan prologue, which if we combine The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn into season 2 we’ll likely see next season!
If I can get into theorycrafting, I suspect Siuan’s being influenced by Ba’alzamon in her dreams into believing the Eye of the World is his prison (there is a seal in the chest at the bottom, after all). Dreams are dangerous, and maybe we’ll have more of those next episode and compare to Min’s visions as she seems to have been moved to Fal Dara in the show.
Idioms still exist- Siuan mentions that Liandrin “took the shawl many years ago” as a way to say when she was raised, which makes me think shawls may still be involved (but would look silly on screen, I think). I’m also pleased to see Liandrin with full braids and Moiraine’s keseira- it makes sense to me that both of these are too fussy to wear when on the road, but in a formal setting such as facing the Hall of the Tower? Sure.
The Waygate is different, but Moiraine’s weave is shaped like a trefoil leaf which feels like a nod to the leaf pieces to open the gates in the books. I do wonder about having to channel them open- does that mean that Forsaken and Black ajah sisters helped move trollocs around, or maybe the Myrddraal have their own way to enter?
We’ve seen most of the scenes that were in the trailer with the exception of the Aiel and the Illianer fighting in the Blood Snow. Given the use of flashbacks in the cold opens, I’m betting that might be our cold open for episode 8, the season finale after Rand has his reveal at the end of seven. But what does that leave for episode 7’s cold open? We could potentially have a further flung flashback back to the Age of Legends when the Ways were crafted by male Aes Sedai (or if we’re going there, a Lews Therin Telamon flashback in general with notes of the EotW prologue though I have no evidence for this). Siuan did mention Gitara’s Foretelling, but maybe that will be paired with Blood Snow since those happened simultaneously.
I dunno! In general, I’m pleased to be able to do theorycrafting again! It’s fun to have new WOT. :)