The Wheel of Time season three has wrapped, bringing a show-stopping finale and a long list of questions about the future of our favorite characters, especially the Dragon Reborn himself, Rand al’Thor. Rand has declared himself the Car’a’carn to the Aiel, becoming the leader of the so-called people of the Dragon, and choosing to accept his destiny as the person who will defeat the Dark One. This declaration sets in motion some of the most important events of the series, as Rand will have to build his army and alliances in order to defeat the armies of the Dark One.
Nerdist spoke to Josha Stradowski, Rand al’Thor himself, about Rand’s acceptance of his fate, his relationship with mentor and occasional manipulator Moiraine, and the incredible arc of Rand’s character in Rhuidean.
Nerdist: Rand has finally accepted his power this season, madness and all. How did it feel portraying that embrace of saidin, and what do you see as Rand’s biggest change this season?
Josha Stradowski: He’s finally grown into the role of the dragon reborn. We saw that shepherd who was running away at first, who was denying who he was, and now he’s really stepping into that role. I think throughout this whole season you see what he has to sacrifice for that. First, that’s saying bye to his friends and there’s a lot of resistance with Moiraine. He’s looking for his purpose and the trial of Rhuidean gives him that purpose in a real way, in a way that he can’t walk away from, because there’s so much truth in his face. After that, he’s really a man with a mission, especially after the break-up with Egwene and Lanfear, and the death of Alsara especially. That really sets him up to save the People of the Dragon and fulfill his duty and destiny.
Episode four, as someone who has read the books, was a true wonder to see. Can you tell us a bit about how that episode changed Rand and your portrayal of him?
It changed a lot for me, it was so profound. Within the short time that we have, I wouldn’t even know where to start. But I can say that it was a dream, especially working with Thomas Napper, the director. We worked so closely together and we really pushed it far. I remember we had conversations because as a book reader, you know that he just walks through the columns, and we were trying to look for ways to make the walking also more physical, like Moiraine, what she’s going through is physical, and then also how we could go from one thing to the other.
Then I realized, if it’s so physical – you find these moments, and you’re so happy, I remember we had these conversations with Thomas that when he goes down for the very first time, it might be interesting to have him come up as Janduin, and that’s kind of how we found our way through the whole ancestors’ columns bit.
We did shoot some ancestors, and some we didn’t, because they were so far in the past. So we had to guess at times and people around us were like, why is he whipping like that in the columns, it didn’t make sense. They were like “No you have to stop this,” and we were like “No it’s fine guys, just trust us.” We pushed through and it all turned into this episode. It really was a wild and super creative experience and I’m really happy with it actually.
Moiraine has been simultaneously a mentor and manipulator this season, especially in working with Lanfear – what was it like portraying the evolution of that relationship along with Rosamund Pike?
Well, it’s always good to have rallies with Rosamund. We had conversations at the start of the season with Rafe as to what was going to be the arc of their relationship, and how we wanted it to end this season. I really wanted it to end with full trust, throughout all this friction of finding trust and conflict, I really wanted to end on a good note. Because Rand, in Episode 1, says it – she asks him, “Where do you want to go?” As a joke he says “To the Two Rivers, because there are people that I can trust.”
That is really what he’s looking for. You can see that when he’s talking to Elayne, for example, “Oh, I can trust you.” At certain moments, it feels like he can trust Lanfear – turns out, he was wrong. But that’s why I think that last scene they have together is basically a goodbye. Finally, all the tricks and the games are pushed away, and they just have one flag of honesty. In a lot of words, they basically say thank you for everything you’ve done and I love you.
The Wheel of Time season three is streaming now on Prime Video.
Content shared from nerdist.com.