Veins of Gold

Wheel of Time Book 12

There's a chapter in the 12th book of the Wheel of Time titled "Veins of Gold." I just pulled it out and read it again. It's about a man on the brink of madness who has no equal in the world, and how, for all his power, he is no different than any other person in the world. He holds in his hands the ability to end existence for everyone and everything and wrestles with whether there's enough meaning in life to let it continue to exist. By the end of the chapter I'm generally choked up because what he's actual grappling with in his head is what everyone grapples with: Why are we here? Why do we go on? What makes life worth living?

For twelve books this man makes choices and uses his power to do amazing and terrible things. He saves lives and he murders people and he cradles dead children in his arms and he puts his life on the line fighting things that are truly evil. When I read this chapter there is a weight to his deliberation that really defies words because I know this man. There is gravitas because of everything I've seen this Dragon do. The Dragon carries the weight of the world and that duty is heavier than a mountain and he longs for death. Death, as they say in the series, is lighter than a feather. So why not embrace it?

In many ways this is the end of the series for me, everything after that is just...details. There are some additional incredible moments and action and heartbreak but "Veins of Gold" stands as the epitome of epic fantasy for me. It's well over 100 hours of reading to get to this chapter and the journey is what makes it so powerful. Who the Dragon is makes it powerful.

Anyways, it's apparent now that the showrunners of the Wheel of Time TV show are actively opposed to telling the story of that Dragon. They don't actually like the man on the top of a mountain wrestling with his choices. They've spent two seasons entirely robbing him of any agency or power or impact to the story that, in the books, was actually a story written about him. It's really not a bad TV show. I mean, it's not a great TV show or anything but...Season 2 is leaps and bounds better than season 1. They've done a pretty good job of stealing lots of great ideas from an incredible author for their story so it's solid. But I guess that's my lament. They didn't just change the story but intentionally killed that story in favor of writing their own because they thought they could do better. Assholes.