So you've heard about this "Wheel of Time" TV series that is on Amazon Prime and you got curious about it and did a web search and ended up here. This site is huge, and has information on everything in the books and show, but where do you start? Here's a guide to help you understand the Wheel of Time and where to go from there.
- The show is based on a set of "high fantasy" themed books. Fifteen of them, and each one is thick, with an average of 800 pages each and a total of about 4.4 million words. The covers of those books are on the main page of this site. Click on one and you can get to the chapter summaries of each book, which is NOT recommended unless you've already seen the show or read the books.
- We also have episode summaries available on the main page by clicking on the Amazon image.
- The authors, Robert Jordan and then Brandon Sanderson after Jordan passed away in 2007, created a huge and very detailed world. You don't need to know about all, or any, of it beforehand to enjoy the show or books, and you probably don't remember everything anyways, and that's where this site comes in handy.
- But if you'd like to learn more about the Wheel of Time setting, you should be able to browse this site safely, without spoilers, as long as you don't click on chapter summaries or anything labeled "Possible Spoilers".
- The show is an adaptation of the books, and therefore will not be exactly like the books.
- The Wheel of Time has an advantage over Game of Thrones in that all of the books have already been written.
- The plot of the series is the classic Good vs Evil on a global, apocalyptic, scale. The bad guy is the Dark One, Shai'tan, and the good guy was the Dragon in the last Age and is the Dragon Reborn this Age. We'll be watching both sides trying to win. Part of the trick for us viewers is determining who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
- The setting is sort of a mix of Medieval/Renaissance time periods. It's tough to say exactly what it is because...
- This is not the first time this fight has been fought. There's the concept of a rotating "wheel of time", divided into seven spokes, with each spoke being an Age. The events in the books happen in the 3rd Age. Each Age comes around again in time and is bookended by some huge event. This fight has happened in many of the Ages.
- The series focuses mostly on a core group of characters, Egwene, Rand, Perrin, Mat and Nynaeve, (aka The Emond's Field Five) but they're not the only focus.
- The series starts in Emond's Field/Two Rivers, where the main characters live. Visitors (Moiraine, Lan, Padan Fain) come to the village right around Bel Tine (an annual festival) and events explode soon after they arrive, thrusting the main characters into that overarching fight and forcing them to leave the only home they've ever known.
- Magic exists and plays a huge part in the plot and there's a system to how it works.
- Watch these videos:
- Reading the Welcome page may help a bit.
- From here, you can go to the book summaries starting on the main page or the episode summaries.