Wheel of Time’s new episode focuses on the Seanchan for good reason

The acclaimed actress has made several unforgettable appearances on The Wheel of Time season 2’s first four installments, the Prime Video series’ Seanchan invaders finally take center stage in episode 5, “Damane.” They make the most of it, too, showing off everything from their culture and politics to their fashion over the course of the episode’s hour run time. What’s more, “Damane” also hammers home what Wheel of Time’s second season has already made abundantly clear: The Seanchan are a major threat, and one whose motivations hit closer to home than your standard fantasy army with world conquest in its sights.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time season 2, episode 5.]

Seanchan You can also find out more about the following: want to conquer the world, and — based on the raspy proclamations of Daniel Francis’ High Lord Turak — they don’t care who knows it. It would be very easy to dismiss them as just another fictional military force bent on dominating the world. And to an extent that’s true, as producer Holger Reibiger acknowledged during Polygon’s recent Wheel of Time Set visit Reibiger describes the Seanchan as “evil” and “a new darkness,” which positions them as broadly in the same camp as the merciless minions of Mordor in another Amazon Studios production, It is important to note that the word “you” means a person. Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power.

However, that’s not the full story, and What is the best way to get in touch with you? Seanchan decided to change the Wheel of Time universe would be better off with them in charge is where things get more interesting — not to mention scarier. The Seanchan aren’t trying to run the show simply because they want to, but because they believe they The following are some of the most effective ways to improve your own language skills. to. As dialogue in “Damane” hints at, just like in author Robert Jordan’s original Wheel of Time These people were told as they grew up that it was their destiny to dominate the land across the ocean. Armed with this ruthless, self-assured conviction, they embody the very worst aspects of colonialism and exceptionalism, and that makes them just as dangerous as the Dark One’s Trolloc hordes.

Jan Thijs/Prime video

The reading of this article is supported by a number The Wheel of Time season 2’s directors, Sanaa Hamri, who draws direct parallels between the fictional Seanchan and various empires throughout history. “First and foremost, we’re in a world that is very special in Wheel of Time, Where women are in power. […] The Seanchan come and invade like colonial powers and take that power away,” she says. “And I think that is the big symbol of themes we’ve dealt with as humans on Earth as well as in the show.”

Hamri wasn’t the only member of the crew keen to lean into the Seanchan-as-colonizers take, either. Rafe Judkins also wanted to emphasize this link, said costume designer Sharon Gilham. “One of the things Rafe said [when discussing the Seanchan] is, it’s like when the first settlers came to the New World, and it’s that sort of [reaction] like, What is that thing I’ve never seen before?” Gilham added that she herself wanted to include visual cues to another of the Seanchan’s colonialist red flags — the slavery rampant in their empire — in the design of subjugated female channelers the Damane.

“The Damane have these gold mouth stoppers; that’s not in the books,” she says. “But when I was doing my research, one of the things I came across in pre-Aztec research information was an actual image of a big gold stopper, and I thought that was really cool. It also implies that the Damane have been silenced and they are the slaves.”

The moral surety with which the Seanchan gag and collar Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) and other women who can wield the One Power is just one way their exceptionalism presents itself. After all, you don’t force someone to wear a leash and parade them around in public if you consider them an equal. Some are more subtle, but still just as insidious.

Image: Prime Video

The supposed omens of the Seanchan Invasion are mentioned in The Wheel of Time season 2’s fifth episode — what is that if not their version of being guided (and endorsed by) the divine? Then there’s the structure of Seanchan society itself, which is presided over by the Blood. Distinguished by their shaved heads and scandalously long fingernails, the Blood are for the most part those directly related to the empire’s founder, Luthair Paendrag Mondwin, and his original armies — but they do occasionally elevate commoners to their level. The Seanchan lifestyle is based on the belief that, the closer one gets to the OG Seanchan status, the greater the influence they can have over others (and the rest of the world).

(Incidentally, the oversized fingernails Turak and Karima McAdams’ Lady Suroth rock in Wheel of Time season 2 were as much of a logistical headache as you’d expect where choreographing sword fights was concerned: “We did a lot of practice,” admits stunt coordinator Jan Petrina, with a grin.)

Why is there so much talk about Seanchan exceptionalism and colonialism? The Wheel of Time season 2’s three remaining episodes? Well, episode 5 seemingly removes any doubt that this season is headed toward a showdown between the Seanchan forces and series protagonist Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and his allies, as described in Jordan’s second book, The Great Hunt. The Seanchan will respond with vigor to any challenge that comes their way to expand the empire.

And no matter whether the Seanchan emerge as winners or losers, history (and Jordan’s canon) suggests that, like all colonizers, they’re unlikely to rethink the whole “rule the world” thing in future seasons. Why? After all, it’s their Right.