We Desperately Need More Of This Character In ‘The Wheel Of Time’

The second half of The Wheel of Time Season 3 certainly lives up to the series’ refrain – the wheel weaves as the wheel wills.

Following roughly 10,000 storylines around the Westlands, it has woven characters, legends, and lore into an increasingly complex tapestry, barreling towards its unpredictable conclusion and leaving viewers’ heads spinning. Just like … a wheel spins! Whoa. If that was on purpose, then that was pretty meta.

However, the season doesn’t officially have a Big Bad that its characters can rally against. There’s the spectre of the Last Battle, sure – but against whom, exactly? We haven’t technically met the Dark One; we’ve only seen his minions and influence. Of course, there’s also the impending war against Padan in Two Rivers, but this still feels isolated from the rest of the series. Sure, Lanfear appears to be a primary antagonist in Moiraine’s visions of the future, but Lanfear hasn’t gone full Baddie yet; at the moment, she’s still in cahoots with Moiraine and toying with less charismatic Forsaken members. She’s something of a likeable deuteragonist at this point, unlike Fares Fares’ Ishamael in Season 2.

A series like Wheel of Time spins thanks to Zoroastrian themes of Good vs. Evil. It feels strange not to have a visible Big Bad. Not that it matters; there’s plenty happening to make up for this vacuum. And yet, wouldn’t it be nice if someone stepped up to the plate? Like, say, Moghedien?

We haven’t seen much of her, but Moghedien has left an impression. Just like the spiders from which she derives her nickname, she operates slyly in the background, weaving her ropy webs without making a sound. When she does emerge from the shadows, she is terrifying. As played by Spanish actress Laia Costa, Moghedien is equal parts inhuman, diabolical, petulant, and smarmy. When she squashes Liandrin’s assistant in Episode 6, she mimics the latter’s terror and pain with ironic glee. When she uses Compulsion on Nynaeve and Elayne, she feigns indulgent motherly curiosity with unnerving flair. She also comes steeped in some random and fascinating lore. According to the worldbuilding book Origins of the Wheel of Time, Moghedien’s name is a reference to Mogadon, a brand name for the sedative nitrazepam. Considering that she’s a Forsaken with notable powers in Tel’aran’rhiod, the Dream World, that’s an excellent deep cut. 

Now, I should say that I have not read the Wheel of Time books and have no idea what’s in store for Moghedien. But having watched this Forsaken operate in the background throughout the season, I’ve decided that she’s even more menacing than Ishamael was. At least, with Ishamael, I wanted to be his special friend in a self-destructive, don’t-tell-my-boyfriend kind of way. With Moghedien, on the other hand, I don’t even want to see her face. Her overly symmetrical bangs alone are enough to make my body tense up. In fact, if I were to ever meet Laia Costa in real life, I would probably fall to my knees and start crying at her feet, begging her not to gouge my eyes out, even in the middle of Whole Foods. For a villain, that’s a good thing. That’s why we need more of her.

Thankfully, the Spider has flaunted even more of her insidious powers in Episode 6, building upon her already terrifying abilities to trap Forsaken in webs of One Power and create Gray Men. Despite being a “weaker” Forsaken, she has successfully gotten into people’s heads and made a bid to destroy the Dragon Reborn. And now that Nynaeve has proven herself capable of combating the Spider’s more effective One Power moves, I can only hope that the show will set up some sort of major showdown between these two. The Wheel of Time would of course need to give Laia Costa more screen time to properly set up such a climactic battle, but I wouldn’t be mad at that. Sure, I wouldn’t be able to sleep or confidently step into dark alleys for a month afterwards, but it would be worth it just as long as the show doesn’t whiff the trump card that it plainly has in the form of this character.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to look into a prescription for nitrazepam, because I just spent an entire essay thinking about Moghedien and now I can’t sleep. Please do not visit me in the Dream World at this time.