The Seanchan in the Wheel of Time are the primary antagonists due to noble justifications

17 Sep at 17:54

Seanchan representatives and the Dark One walk in a still from Wheel of Time season 2

After making numerous unforgettable looks in The Wheel of Time season 2’s initial 4 installations, the Prime Video collection’ Seanchan invaders ultimately take spotlight in episode 5, “Damane.” They maximize it, also, displaying whatever from their society and also national politics to their style throughout the episode’s hr run time. What’s a lot more, “Damane” additionally hammers residence what Wheel of Time’s second season has actually currently made generously clear: The Seanchan are a significant danger, and also one whose inspirations strike closer to residence than your conventional dream military with globe occupation in its views.

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

Of training course, the Seanchan do wish to dominate the globe, and also — based upon the scratchy announcements of Daniel Francis’ High Lord Turak — they don’t care that recognizes it. So it would certainly be very easy to compose them off as one even more fabricated armed forces power set on international supremacy. And to a degree that’s true, as manufacturer Holger Reibiger recognized throughout Polygon’s current Wheel of Time established check out. Reibiger explains the Seanchan as “evil” and also “a new darkness,” which places them as generally in the exact same camp as the unforgiving minions of Mordor in one more Amazon Studios manufacturing, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

However, that’s not the complete tale, and also why the Seanchan have actually determined the Wheel of Time world would certainly be much better off with them accountable is where points obtain even more intriguing — in addition to scarier. The Seanchan aren’t attempting to run the program just due to the fact that they wish to, however due to the fact that they think they have to. As discussion in “Damane” mean, similar to in writer Robert Jordan’s initial Wheel of Time stories, these individuals matured being informed it was their colonialism to rule the lands throughout the sea. Armed with this callous, fearless sentence, they personify the extremely worst facets of manifest destiny and also exceptionalism, which makes them equally as unsafe as the Dark One’s Trolloc crowds.

A shot of the Seanchan standing at the front of their ship with channelers and their masters

This analysis is supported by among The Wheel of Time period 2’s supervisors, Sanaa Hamri, that attracts straight parallels in between the imaginary Seanchan and also numerous realms throughout background. “First and foremost, we’re in a world that is very special in Wheel of Time, where the women wield the power. […] The Seanchan come and invade like colonial powers and take that power away,” she states. “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 participant of the team eager to lean right into the Seanchan-as-colonizers take, either. Showrunner Rafe Judkins was additionally eager to accentuate this organization, according to outfit developer 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 included that she herself intended to consist of aesthetic hints to one more of the Seanchan’s colonialist warnings — the enslavement widespread in their realm — in the layout of ruled over women channelers the damane.

“The damane have these gold mouth stoppers; that’s not in the books,” she states. “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. And it also suggests that the damane have been silenced and they are the slaves.”

The ethical guaranty with which the Seanchan trick and also collar Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) and also various other females that can possess the One Power is simply one method their exceptionalism emerges. After all, you don’t compel somebody to use a chain and also ceremony them around in public if you consider them an equivalent. Others are subtler, however no much less perilous.

Take the expected prophecies that guided the Seanchan intrusion pointed out in The Wheel of Time period 2’s 5th episode — what is that otherwise their variation of being directed (and also supported by) the divine? Then there’s the framework of Seanchan culture itself, which is supervised by the Blood. Distinguished by their cut heads and also scandalously lengthy finger nails, the Blood are generally those straight pertaining to the realm’s owner, Luthair Paendrag Mondwin, and also his initial militaries — however they do periodically boost citizens to their degree. In method, this suggests the Seanchan way of living is built on the concept that the closer you are to being taken into consideration OG Seanchan, the a lot more qualified you are to put in impact over those around you (and also by expansion, the globe at huge).

(Incidentally, the large finger nails Turak and also Karima McAdams’ Lady Suroth rock in Wheel of Time period 2 were as much of a logistical migraine as you’d anticipate where choreographing sword battles was worried: “We did a lot of practice,” confesses feat planner Jan Petrina, with a smile.)

So, what does all this broach Seanchan manifest destiny and also exceptionalism mean for The Wheel of Time period 2’s 3 staying episodes? Well, episode 5 relatively gets rid of any kind of uncertainty that this period is headed towards a face-off in between the Seanchan pressures and also collection lead character Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and also his allies, as explained in Jordan’s 2nd publication, The Great Hunt. As such, customers ought to anticipate the Seanchan to react to the initial genuine difficulty to their dogmatic empire-expansion strategies with gusto.

And despite whether the Seanchan become champions or losers, background (and also Jordan’s canon) recommends that, like all colonizers, they’re not likely to reassess the entire “rule the world” point in future periods. Why would certainly they? After all, it’s their right.

Source: Polygon