Wheel of Time’s showrunner wanted you to be ‘100% in love’ with those bad guys

polygon.com:

As author Robert Jordan observed, the Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. The same is true of prestige TV shows, including Amazon Studios’ Wheel of Time adaptation, which just wrapped up its second season. Ostensibly, the focus of season 2’s finale, “What Was Meant to Be,” is protagonist Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) taking yet another step toward embracing his destiny as world messiah/destroyer the Dragon Reborn.

But let’s be real here: The episode — like the rest of this season — really belongs to The Wheel of Time’s baddies. With that in mind, we caught up with showrunner Rafe Judkins to take stock of where the Prime Video series’ major villains are at the end of season 2 and try to tease out where they might be headed in season 3.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time season 2, episode 8.]

First up, there’s the Seanchan. These would-be world conquerors suffered their first big setback in “What Was Meant to Be,” forced to retreat by the unlikely combination of Rand’s allies, religious fanatics the Whitecloaks, and a spectral squad best described as the Avengers meets The Lord of the Rings’ Army of the Dead.

Ordinarily, such a thrashing would be enough to rule out an immediate comeback, but the Seanchan aren’t ordinary opponents. Based on what we’ve seen across The Wheel of Time season 2’s eight installments (not to mention the wider narrative outlined in Jordan’s original novels), it’s safe to say that the insectoid-armored invaders will remain as much of a threat as ever when season 3 eventually rolls around.

In a Zoom call, Judkins hinted that the Seanchan will remain a thorn in our heroes’ collective side for the foreseeable future. “One thing you hear [the Seanchan] call