The wheel of time begins with a question that feels quiet radically: what if the most powerful people in the world were women?
Based on Robert Jordan’s extensive fantasy novels, the series transports us to a rich world in which magic exists, but only certain people can use it. And in this world it is the women – especially the AES Sedai – who practice most of this magical force.
The wheel of time follows five teenagers – edge, Egwene, Mat, Perrin and Nynaeve – from a small village called Two Rivers. Your life changes overnight when you are swept on a dangerous journey by Moiraine Damodred, a mysterious Aes Sedai (played by Rosamund Pike). They are told that one of them is born with the kite – a powerful enough is to either save the world or to destroy it.
When you go separate ways, fight personal demons, make alliances and be exposed to betrayal, we see that a world is slowly shaped. But through all of this, the wheel of the time dares to ask: What happens if women not only keep power, but also define them?
Where the books stalled, the series occurs
Robert Jordan’s original books were groundbreaking for their time, but also deeply faulty. Many readers I pointed out the obsession of the books of the physical beauty of women, the lack of queer characters and a rather rigid binary approach to gender. The novels also tend to extend and often reduce Powerful women for their appearance or romantic potential.
Source: IMDB
Fortunately, the Amazon series corrects a lot of it – in a quicky but effective way. While the core act of Jordan’s vision remains close, the focus changes: the show is more interested in strength, sisterhood, trauma and emotional intelligence of women than what they wear or how attractive they are.
It also introduces the dynamics of the gender -specific fluid and the relationships with subtlety and care and refuses to make them a butt of jokes or dramatic action. Instead, only the queerness exists – as in real life.
This tone shift gives the show a wealth that the books often lack.
Moiraine Damodred: Cold, complex and completely you yourself
One of the most fascinating characters in all three seasons is Moiraine, the Aes Sedai, which begins the journey with our main cast. The performance of Rosamund Pike is often distant, reserved and even repulsive-maybe that is exactly the point.
Source: IMDB
Moiraine is not here to be liked. It is neither a maternal figure nor tries to be the “strong female main role” in the traditional sense. She is a strategist, a manager, a mystery and a woman who is completely shaped by the duty. She does not mitigate her gender – it strengthens her.
Through it, the show calls the idea that powerful women either have to promote or be seductive. Moiraine is often cold, sometimes manipulative and has always committed herself for your cause.
But under all this armor we catch an insight into the deep vulnerability – especially if your own magic is pulled away and she has to face without it.
Your bow is not that you become softer. It is about redefining the strength – what it means when it is taken away and what is left behind.
Women’s magic, women’s rules
In the world of time, only women can use the one force safely – the magical force that formulates reality. Men who try it are either destroyed or crazy. This choice for world education is a familiar dynamic: instead of men as protectors and women, women protect the world here and carry their stress.
The AES Sedai are not perfect. In fact, they are often faulty, political and shared. But they are also trained, disciplined and respected. The white tower, in which they are trained, acts as a deep matriarchal space-a sharp contrast to real institutions in which men still dominate decision-making.
The show dives deeply into this dynamic and shows how different political groups within the AES Sedai approach. Some use healing. Others use strategy. Some use manipulation. However, none of them are inherent in their actions. Instead, the wheel of the time invites us to look at power as nuanced and female as diverse.
More than a kind of stronger
Where the wheel of the time shines the most, it is in its selection of female characters – insufficiently in their own way. Egwene al’vere, played by Madeleine Madden, is brave, idealistic and deeply spiritual. Your journey is about learning when you bend and when you should be firm. Nynaeve Al’Meara fights with her temperament and her need for control, but her strength as a healer comes out of compassion. Lanfear, one of the abandoned, is smart, dangerous and fascinating. It is just as much a force of chaos as every male villain – and it is exciting to watch.
Source: IMDB
These women don’t just exist to support the male characters. You have your own goals, defects, fears and triumphs. They are chaotic and entirely.
It is important that the show does not ask us to choose a kind of strength. Instead, it shows that strength such as tenderness, anger, ambition or grief can look. And for a fantasy show this is revolutionary.
The boys learn too
That does not mean that the men fail. In fact, the male characters also complete considerable emotional trips – but in a way that questions the traditional masculinity.
Source: IMDB
Rand Al’thor (Josha Stradowski) is perfect when the kite born reborn – conflict, sensitive and constantly questioning what it means to wear the fate of the world. He is powerful, yes, but also afraid to become a monster. Perrin wrestles with guilt and grief and is attracted to the wolves – creatures that represent intuition and connection. Matte is sarcastic and skeptical, but loyal. His bow often asks: What does it mean to be good in a world that punishes friendliness?
These characters are not emotionless warriors. They cry, fail, break down and rise again. The show does not mock its vulnerability – she honors her. That too is part of his feminist heart.
Leaving and the female
This season presents the abandoned – the old enemies who almost broke the world. Among them is Moghedia, whose spider presence is terrifying, and Collectiona and Rahvin who bring chaos everywhere.
But the most fascinating is Lanfear (Natasha O’keeffe), which runs the border between ally and enemy. It is seductive, but not sexualized, powerful, but not invincible. Your past gives layers of her motivations, but it is never reduced to “the ex”.
Lanfear may be complex, manipulative, frightening and strange. In a genre that women often fight in “good” or “evil”, she is neither – and neither.
What about gender and strangeness?
One of the most refreshing parts of the series is how it deals with gender and strangeness – not as a spectacle, but as part of the world.
Gender roles were often rigid in the books, and there was hardly any queerness. But the show, led by Showrunner Rafe Judkins, is based on the idea that the expression of gender between cultures is different.
Some characters wear gender clothing. Others operate same -sex relationships (even the protagonists). None of this is played for shock value.
These decisions are important. They open the world to the viewers who don’t always see themselves in the imagination.
What else does work need?
While the bike of the time gets a lot right, there are areas where things could go on. For example, some storylines still fall back on trauma as an abbreviation to depth – especially for women. And despite improvements, there is space for more explicit strange representation, especially among the main characters.
Source: You
Moiraine’s sheet in season 3 also felt a bit uneven. Although Moraine remains convincing, other female characters like Nynaeve and Egwene spend a large part of the season with manipulating or eliminating. It is hoped that future episodes will give them the space they deserve to win back their voice.
A story that lets women finally be
The wheel of time is anything but perfect.
But – really trying to try it – it tries to build a world in which power is shared in which women lead without apology and in which the queerness is not deleted.
This is a world in which women are strong and soft, cruel and friendly, wise and lost – and always fully human.
And maybe that’s the kind of magic that we need the most!
Anushka Bharadwaj is a graduate of journalism at SCMC Pune. She is an intersectional feminist with deep interest in gender, caste, politics and mental health. If she does not write or reads, she is usually lost in poetry, dances to her favorite songs or discovers new music – always thinking about the world after stories.
