Dear cast and crew of The Wheel of Time TV show,

The Wheel of Time books have shaped my life in a profound and undeniable way since I was a weird little middle schooler who was feeling more and more isolated as the years passed by. The audiobooks in particular created a comforting white noise I could be protected by, listening to the story over and over and over again as puberty and relationships and parental conflicts swirled around me.

When I got into college and started getting tattooed, it was only natural that I would decide one of my pieces should be a tribute to the books; my right calf is emblazoned with the snake&wheel logo as well as the phrase “the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.” Sharing a photo of the healed result on Instagram in 2017 brought me my first contact with the fandom, starting with the Wheel of Time Spoilers podcast that I immediately inhaled like water on dry sand. While I struggled to complete my earth science degree on a fraying neurodivergent nervous system, I was drawn into a community of kind and weird people who were just as obsessed with Wheel of Time as I was. They were a support system, giving me a level of acceptance for my encyclopedic knowledge of exactly what happened in the books that I never expected in my years of solo listening to the audiobooks on endless repeat. And our Discord servers held so much more than discussions about the books! We have helped each other through physical and emotional distress, planned get-togethers, shared advice on living life, and have even successfully played matchmaker among ourselves.

From hardcore fan of the books to a rabid podcast listener, I was content that WoT had changed my life for the better. And then I got invited to become a co-host of said WoTSpoilers podcast! Now I consider the content creators of the fandom to be colleagues as well as friends, I have an established reputation rewarding me for my meticulous immersion in the books, and I’ve gained skills and confidence in myself in ways that my college degree didn’t provide. It was at this point in my personal arc that the TV show was announced.

Anticipating the TV show was a profoundly intense and exciting experience for the whole part of the fandom that I inhabit. We were terrified, ecstatic, ambivalent; we fought about what we thought would happen and what we hoped wouldn’t happen; we made grand proclamations about watching schedules and deal-breaking adaptation choices; we organized events around teaser trailers and produced content for hours based on single images that were released. New content creators entered the arena, established creators carved out new slots in their content to talk about the show exhaustively, and our friends and family were suddenly being evangelized at in a way they had never experienced before.

The experience of watching the show itself was a mixed bag, I assume this isn’t news to you. Season 1 in particular was hard, between radical departures from the books and COVID we had a lot to adjust to, and we complained volubly while also demanding more. The fandom reaction to the show was distressingly divisive, and many relationships were permanently sundered by vitriolic disagreements. Season 2 was better, both in the production sense and in the sense that we were more experienced in pushing out the unsavory members of our communities and protecting our relationships through having these vigorous aesthetic debates. But we still weren’t totally happy, there was so much more room to improve in.

And then season 3 came out. I am in the majority of people who believe that book 4 is the best book of the entire 15 book series, and was determined that this season was the make-or-break for me. Rhuidean and the Battle of the Two Rivers are peaks that you had to get right, nothing mattered to me as much in all the rest of the series. And you did get them right, not exactly like I would have but close enough for me to feel that I could forgive any other choices you might make. I finally didn’t feel worried about the show getting renewed, it was clear that you’d hit your stride.

Oh the irony. The hubris. The arrogance.

I’ve always maintained that the biggest villain of the show were the constraints imposed by episode and runtime limits. I’ve always believed that the people most deserving of our vitriol are the ones making the most money with the least emotional investment in the craft. I’ve always known that if the people who care passionately about art were given full agency to do what the show needed it would be a stunningly successful project. And we all know that the age of streaming is hell on finishing shows. So I don’t blame you for what happened. I am furious, heartbroken, despondent, but none of that would have been possible without your efforts to make this the best it could be under these circumstances. If the cast and crew hadn’t cared so deeply, we in the fandom who are melting down wouldn’t have cause to melt down.

The way that the show engaged with us in the fandom was special, we felt special, and no matter what happens next we will always have the memories of these years parasocially interacting. You showed up to WoTIdol, you attended WoTCon, you’ve signed autographs at non-WoT stage productions where we tracked you down just for one more glimpse of your talent. You’ve let us feel more involved in the BTS than any show ever has, you even let us help inspire a casting decision! No matter what happens in the future, those events happened and will be treasured by us.

I hope the show will be picked up by another streaming service, and be allowed to expand into taking up the space it needs to tell the story properly to completion. I hope we don’t lose the momentum of what we have built together. Most of all, I hope that you know we appreciate your efforts over these last several years. I found these books as a lonely 12 year old, and in adulthood they have given me my friends and the skills I use to share myself with the world. Rising to the challenge of witnessing a show like this come into fruition, warts and all, has been an important chapter of my life. Thank you for putting in the effort to make this chapter what it was for me. Thank you for caring so much about this work of fiction that inspired me to get ink carved into my skin before I knew anyone else who loved it. Thank you for fighting back against the worst impulses of the industry in which you work to tell the story as faithfully as they would allow.

Each and every one of you has my gratitude. The turning of the Wheel of Time will never stop, and we will never lose this time together. Whether this interruption is just a chapter break or the final end of the book, we all know it isn’t THE ending, just AN ending.

Tai’shar storytellers, tai’shar creatives, tai’shar artists, tai’shar crafters.

-Aradiapedia | WoTSpoilers podcast