The very first line of The Wheel of Time Episode 1 was huge, quote: “The world is broken.
Many, many years ago, men who were born with great power believed they could cage darkness
itself. The arrogance.” That is literally the first line of the show. And there are
endgame implications hidden within that line. So to avoid spoilers, for now, we will move
on. Moiraine also mentioned the Breaking of the
World. And as you can see in this shot here, there are very tall ruins that are overgrown
with flora. It is hard to tell whether these ruins were castles or if they were skyscrapers.
Either way, these ruins are evidence that the world was broken by a man whom the Aes
Sedai refer to as the Dragon. Here’s where it gets interesting. In this
world, reincarnation is real. And about twenty years ago, an Aes Sedai had a vision. She
saw that the Dragon was reborn. Although they have not said this yet in the show, they know
when and where the child was born, but they do not know where that child was taken. And
they do not know who that child is. All they know is that child is now coming of age. Twenty
years old in the show. Moiraine is a sister of the Blue Ajah. The
Blue Ajah tend to seek out righteous causes and justice. Accordingly, Moiraine and Lan
are looking for the Dragon Reborn in order to stand against the Dark One in the Last
Battle. Moiraine thought that the dragon might be
this guy. He was the right age and he could channel the One Power. Unfortunately for him,
Liandrin found him. Liandrin is a sister of the Red Ajah. The
Red Ajah have a different focus than the Blue Ajah. The Red Ajah typically look for men
who can channel the One Power. Why? Because the male half of the One Power is tainted.
The show may change that word. The male half of the One Power is corrupted. So men who
use the male half of the One Power go mad. That happened to this guy. There was someone
inside his head. And that person told him to use the Power against Liandrin. But he
didn’t do it. As a result, Liandrin either gentled him or captured him. Gentling is a
term for removing his ability to channel. Moiraine and Lan were there. So they saw this
happen. But Moiraine believes that the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. Since this man
was captured or killed, he must not be the Dragon Reborn. So they rode on to the Two
Rivers. When they got there, Moiraine eyed up five
kids: Nynaeve, Egwene, Rand, Mat, and Perrin. The first person that Moiraine investigated
was Nynaeve. Nynaeve told Moiraine that she had braided her hair 5 years ago. That means
that Nynaeve is around 25 or 26 years old. The Dragon was born 20 years ago. So Moiraine
determined that Nynaeve was not the Dragon Reborn.
That means that the Dragon is one of these 4. However, Moiraine did not have time to
figure out who the dragon was because Moiraine is not the only person looking for the Dragon.
The Dark One is also looking for the dragon. The Dark One sent this Fade to the Two Rivers.
And this Fade brought a few dozen Trollocs. The Two Rivers folk are tough. So the Two
Rivers folk killed a bunch of the Trollocs. But for the most part, Moiraine and Lan saved
the town. However, Moiraine was hurt very, very badly. And they could see fires of hundreds
more Trollocs coming down the mountains. So Moiraine did not have time to figure out who
the Dragon was. That is why she told all four of them that it might be them. And they had
to leave right away. The group rode off to Tar Valon, which is
the home city of the Aes Sedai. That’s how episode 1 ended.
But before we go, let’s highlight a few things:
First off, the Two Rivers is a very remote location. They actually have a Queen, but
they don’t even realize this because no one comes to collect taxes. At the end of
the episode, they could see the fires of hundreds of new Trollocs. That confused Lan. How could
the Dark One have gotten hundreds of Trollocs to the Two Rivers so fast? There is a reason.
There are several methods of fast travel in the story, which make things a lot scarier.
So stay tuned for that. Number 2. Nynaeve was taken by a trolloc.
But we never technically saw her die. Egwene effectively broke up with Rand. But
it all happened very fast. Perrin accidentally killed his wife. So he
now carries a massive amount of guilt. Mat has already begun gambling and stealing.
And last but not least, Rand has his father’s sword. A heron-mark blade. That is the blade
of a blademaster. Rand is not a blademaster. So Rand better start practicing.
There’s actually a lot of other great stuff in this episode such as Rand and Tam hearing
wolves. But if I discuss this kind of stuff now, it will spoil things for show-only watchers.
So stay tuned. The shape of these sheep means something. It actually means more than one
thing. We will refer back to this kind of stuff in the future. Hit subscribe. Episode
2 breakdown next.