Road to Tar Valon : The Wheel of Time Podcast

Beware bouts of loud laughter, boisterous commentary, and a genuine good time.  Oh, and spoilers the whole way through.  Consider yourself warned :) We are joined by the delightfully raucous crew of The Black Tower Podcast in our discussion over something that makes The Wheel of Time stand out when it comes to the world of Fantasy; battles. Whether it's a siege, skirmish, or all out war,...

Ah yes… Elaida “I am Tower law!” do Avriny a'Roihan. She is a very special character just because we can’t think of someone we love to hate any more than Elaida. This will be another Westlands 101 episode, so we will be keeping the first half of the episode as spoiler free as possible. There will be a few moments from Eye of the World, and New Spring included, but no major spoilers until after the...

The presence of saidin and men who can channel in the Wheel of Time series is...complicated.  Moving along in the 101 series and going into depth on the male half of the One Power.  We feel like it’s time to give some of our focus to saidin along with the consequences and condemnation that followed the men who had the ability to wield its awesome power.   Everything up to the break is spoiler free...

With this episode we prove our love and dedication to fully understanding this series by taking on a topic that, approached any other way, would make us glaze over like a batch of donuts, but our approach to the 101 series really felt like it would benefit from a deeper dive into the Prophecies of the Dragon.  Everything up to the break is spoiler free and then we dive into spoilers, theories...

WoT-A-Good-Time! Couldn’t resist.  We also couldn’t resist a chance to promote a good cause...for the second time! We were able to grab the audio from our video segment during the WoT-A-Holiday fundraiser for The Lightweaver Foundation , the charity promoting literacy, filling up libraries and providing video games for those who benefit greatly from these services, that was started by Brandon...

This week we couldn’t resist the pull of Laras, Mistress of the Kitchens in the White Tower. We talk about her unknown history, do a little speculating, and fan casting in the first half, then push on to the nitty gritty details for our long time readers. With New Spring wrapped up we came up with the idea of launching a Westlands 101 series. So if you see a "101" in the title, we start each episo...

We are thrilled to have Cheyenne Sedai, our Discord Angel, from the Weaves of the Wheel community join us to discuss the Fourth Age!  Cheyenne was kind enough to share her enthusiasm and information about the histories that have been developed within the community for their role playing game set in the Fourth Age, after The Last Battle.  Amber and Traci have their own ideas on what might...

We ended the book last week, but we definitely still had things to say about New Spring.  So here we go, favorite moments and quotes, the Black Ajah (of course), things we hope to see in the show, and The Vileness, as well as comments from fellow New Spring readers to round out our impressions of this sadly underappreciated novel. Next week we are thrilled to have a member of the Weaves of the Whe...

We made it!  It’s the end of the road for New Spring, but it’s still early days for The Road to Tar Valon.  We’ve got plans for upcoming episodes, including doing a recap of the full series (because, gosh darn it, we just HAVE to read the series together now!), but we also have plans for many other topics to help ourselves and our listeners attain a fuller understanding of the series as well as mo...

Attempted kidnappings, horse thievery, and another visit to the seamstress for Moiraine and Siuan; our favorite gal pals are together again, dodging danger and scheming a way into the Aesdaishar palace to hopefully find the Dragon Reborn. An extra special thank you to the Weaves of the Wheel community and everyone else who contributed for sharing your secret weaves with us. This is exactly the kin...

We’re still on the road to Chachin and we get a perspective from Lan and Moiraine and the culture clash that has them under each other’s skin. After facing bandits and disappointment on the road, the party finally reaches their destination and Lan gallops away from Moiraine as fast as he can, but he knows he only has one destination; a dangerous haven of sorts that would potentially keep Moiraine...

This is a fun one, because Lan and Moiraine finally cross paths on the way to Chachin.  Chapter 19 is from Moiraine’s point of view and chapter 20 is from Lan’s.  It was a spectacularly fun read and we had a great time chatting it over.  We split the book up into spoiler free at the beginning and after the ad we dive into theories which frequently cross over into spoiler land. We ar...

Chapters 17 and 18 brings us back to a Moiraine POV.  She’s landed in the Borderlands after her flight from Tar Valon and has begun her personal search for the Dragon Reborn.  Surprise encounters find Moiraine while she stays in Canluum. Next week is a fun one, because Lan and Moiraine finally cross paths on the way to Chachin.  Chapter 19 is from Moiraine’s point of view and chapte...

Full disclosure, there are some spoilers for the series in this recording.  This past Sunday, we absolutely had to disucss the new audio teaser trailer that was recently released.  We’re publishing this snippet now because we record a week ahead of time and didn't want to wait to share our opinions and reactions to what we heard and saw. Thanks for joining us!  If you want to get in...

It’s a Road to Tar Valon first: we have a guest joining us!  We are quite excited to announce that Rob of Malkier Talks joined us for a discussion about the Shadowspawn. The three of us had a lot of fun discussing our favorite shadowspawn, the best moments we found in the books, how they might be done in the shows, and theorized over things like whether or not Shadowspan have souls (thanks, Z...

We agree, these are the best two chapters of New Spring so far. Lan and Bukama are back in the Borderlands and everyone’s on edge. We had a fantastic time discussing our appreciation of how amazingly well written these two chapters are and where they are taking us. This episode is broken up into spoiler free in the first half, and the second half we theorize and discuss the importance of certain t...

We did it again.  As much as we try to be brief when chatting over these chapters we just get lost in the Wheel of Time world and end up talking for hours.  We've trimmed it down, but there was just so much to still cover in those last four chapters that trimming this down too far felt a bit too challenging.    That said, we talk about Black Ajah, the life-span issues of a...

Spoiler free recap!  We realized that maybe four chapters per episode was a bit much so we split up what we wanted to talk about into two episodes; this one being spoiler free and next week being more full of spoilers and theories.  Although, we did take a few minutes at the start of the episode to do a little theorizing around the direction the show might take when it comes to portrayin...

We were maybe a little extra chatty this past episode, when you’re on a roll and talking about something you love...well, time flies!  We hope you enjoy this extra long episode.  We were feeling ambitious and possibly took on a bit too much but we are finding our stride and encourage you to take breaks as you need them while listening.  We do have this split into a beginning portion...

Today we are wrapping up our history of the Forsaken.  We start with Traci’s favorite among the Chosen, Lanfear, and wrap up with the Spider herself, Moghedien.  We also respond to a message from WishBrother from the Weaves of the Wheel community and discuss a question that piqued our interest on Twitter posted by Forsaken Bob asking what people thought WoT’s chances of doing as well as...

What do you think of the Forsaken, the Chosen Ones, the Shadowsouled? This week we go SPOILER FREE on a dig through the history of the Forsaken.  Because, let’s be honest, they play a huge role in the books but their back story, for the most part, has to be pieced together throughout the series.  While this has its own level of fun, sometimes it’s just downright confusing.  Traci an...

New Spring is gaining momentum as Siuan and Moiraine take further steps to find the Dragon Reborn.  Traci and Amber recap these two chapters which end with Moiraine feeling hounded by several prominent Aes Sedai who hint at her taking the throne of Cairhien after the death of her uncles leaves a power vacuum with no set person to fill it.  Moiraine feels her hesitation at being tested for the shaw...

So, we agreed, these two chapters were...uneventful but they laid a trail of breadcrumbs we couldn’t resist following.  Hosts Amber and Traci do a little Black Ajah uncovering, discuss the test for the Shawl for Aes Sedai, and try to figure out just what the heck does the White Tower DO with all its wealth and power.  SPOILERS abound in this episode past 20 minutes in, just so you are aware. We wo...

Ever wonder what happened before the adventure of the Wheel of Time took off in The Eye of the World?  How did Moiraine find her way to the Two Rivers?  What was she like as an accepted?  And what about Lan?  How was Moiraine able to bond a warrior like him as her warder? In this episode Amber and Traci dig into the first two chapters of New Spring, the prequel to the Wheel of...

Hello friends!  We are thrilled you've chosen to join us on our journey down the Road to Tar Valon. This is a Wheel of Time podcast recapping the books, uncovering fan theories, discussing the upcoming TV show on Amazon prime, and unpacking the many intricacies of this incredible series. In this episode we focused on the magic system that runs central to the series along with the groups and i...