I first read the Wheel of Time in 2004. I was 12, growing up in a small town in rural Ontario. In those days, I was an easy mark for bullies then with glasses that magnified my eyes to almost cartoonish proportions; big, both width-wise and from the jump I was tall as an Aielman; and intensely nerdy. I read The Lord of the Rings when I was nine out of spite that my parents wouldn’t let me go see the first movie in cinemas. (My mum would never stop me reading and didn’t believe I would even finish the books – I read all three in under a month.)

On the playground, my best friend would never stop telling me about this other fantasy series that was like Lord of the Rings but bigger. There were three of us then: me and two other socially-ostracised big nerds. We LARPed Star Wars at every recess by a line of trees on the far side of the playground, far from the jocks on the basketball courts and soccer fields. Serendipitously, when my uncle heard that I liked Lord of the Rings, he gave me a copy of Eye of the World.

I read it during the summer when we were at my family’s cottage. I was immediately hooked. Within a year, I had read the everything that was out. I picked up the eleventh book, Knife of Dreams, as it was released.

I was devastated when Robert Jordan passed in 2007. Then, relieved Sanderson came in to give the series an ending. I finished reading A Memory of Light while working at the student newspaper in my undergrad.

In that time, Game of Thrones was swiftly becoming the world’s biggest tv show and my copies of those books passed through all of my friend’s hands, only the most dedicated readers picked up my copies of Wheel of Time after still needing their fix of long-form high fantasy. As much as I enjoyed Game of Thrones getting a big-scale adaptation (until the final season), I was hungry for one of my favourite series to be adapted.

“When this comes out, I’m going to be insufferably hyped,” I told my partner in 2020 when the Wheel of Time series was shooting. Sure enough in 2021, I hosted a watch party with some friends with themed cocktails.

Admittedly, I was not blown away by the first episodes. Moments that had stuck with me since I was young were skipped or changed, namely Rand’s plot during Winter’s Night and Shadar Logoth. I stuck with it – Wheel of Time is one of my oldest and favourite fantasy series and I will always be there cheering it on, hoping they find their voice (spoilers: they really do).

Things turned around as the episodes came and passed: the Darkfriend innkeeper and Thom in episode three felt so well drawn. Then came episode four, by making the identity of the Dragon Reborn unknown to the viewer (it’s really obvious in the books) the show had opened itself up to create a compelling mystery. My partner was hooked. My colleagues were hooked. Friends who hadn’t read the series were hooked.

The production challenges the series faced did not make for a great finale for the first season. Barney Harris leaving was a big loss for the show and the production challenges made it so that season two had to do a lot of work to course correct.

But it was having an impact. In the time in between season one and two, my partner read the entire series. One night, she woke me up at 1 am so I read the last chapter of A Memory of Light to her.

Season two dropped in 2023 and was a dramatic improvement on season one. They did a great job adapting and developing moments from the books.

Egwene’s episode as a damane. Nynaeve’s journey in the arches were very well done. Mat blowing the horn. Everything with Lanfear. The show was finding its footing.

Then came season three.

Watching Wheel of Time season three this year made me feel like how it felt watching Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings when they were coming out. It was a wonderful adaptation, landing some of the best moments of one of my favourite books in the series.

Episode four was an all-timer, not just the best episode of the show but the best episode of fantasy TV.

But the real one for me was Rand and Alsera. When Rand tries to bring back the dead girl from Shadow Rising, it is disturbing and memorable, but the child was not one Rand knew. Making Alsera a character, making her a person Rand knew but also owed toh to, made that moment the most devastating version of it it could be. The show was now not only telling the story but also finding ways to improve and elevate material from the books to make it more impactful.

Then the article about Wheel of Time not being renewed dropped on my birthday. I remain furious.

And it’s so clear, the love and passion and devotion that everyone involved as put into it and how much they’ve fought to tell the story. It’s incredible how collaboratively they’ve worked from actors to writers. It’s insane the number of production challenges they’ve faced, getting through COVID, losing an actor, and still figuring out how to tell this story. This is also a cast that understands and embodies their characters so thoroughly.

This show deserves a season four. It deserves a season five, six, seven, eight, and as many as it takes to find its ending.

Every turning of the Wheel is a chance to find love again. In this turning, that love may be taken from us too soon. Perhaps it is too late and the show will not be renewed, either by Amazon or another streamer, and that is how it ends. But it is not the ending. #SaveWoT