History Trivia / Thewheeloftime

* IKnewIt: [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4975913/1/Sherlock_Holmes_Examines_the_Death_of_Asmodean THIS fanfic.]] It was written in the early 2000s, and got Asmodean's murderer right, down to the little details. Brandon Sanderson mentioned that it was in the notes on the end of the series, with one phrase handwritten on it: THIS IS RIGHT. It's the one RJ kept referring to when he said that someone on the internet has it right.

** The last four books feature a drastic acceleration in the plot, after the four books preceding them were widely criticized for moving too slowly. Jordan himself admitted ''Crossroads of Twilight'', which is pretty much universally considered the worst book in the series, was a failed experiment. Of course, the rapid increase in plot developments after that book may have had something to do with Jordan's diagnosis with a rare (and eventually fatal) blood disorder as well. In any case, by ''Knife of Dreams'' and especially by ''The Gathering Storm'' (which, unlike the two volumes that followed it, had more of its prose written by Jordan than by Sanderson), the pace of the plot ramps up massively.

** It was eventually revealed that "Taimandred" ''was'' the original plan. When, exactly, Jordan decided to change it isn't clear, though he definitely had by ''Winter's Heart'' which explicitly contradicts it[[note]]Demandred doesn't recognize some of Rand's Asha'man at the Cleansing. Taim, who ''trained'' the Asha'man, wouldn't have made that mistake[[/note]]. It's also unclear ''why'' Jordan changed it, though if one wanted to claim that he had given the game away by {{foreshadowing}} a little too well, one might not be wrong.

** The original idea was for the ChosenOne to be a middle-aged war veteran. Yes, like Tam al'Thor. But then Jordan decided to make the story more Tolkienesque, with younger hero, and split this character to Tam and Rand.

** It was eventually revealed that "Taimandred" ''was'' the original plan. When, exactly, Jordan decided to change it isn't clear, though he definitely did by ''Winter's Heart'' which explicitly contradicts it[[note]]Demandred doesn't recognize some of Rand's Asha'man at the Cleansing. Taim, who ''trained'' the Asha'man, wouldn't have made that mistake[[/note]]. It's also unclear ''why'' Jordan changed it, though if one wanted to claim that he had given the game away by {{foreshadowing}} a little too well, one might not be wrong.
** Similarly, at one point Taimandred was supposed to have been Asmodean's killer, before Robert Jordan changed the killer's identity to [[spoiler:Graendal]].

* TheWikiRule: [[http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/A_beginning The Wheel of Time Wiki]].

* TropeNamer For:
** LegendFadesToMyth
** SilkHidingSteel

** The Swedish editions followed suit, diving up each book into two, resulting in 22 books as of this writing (11 books have been translated).

** It was eventually revealed that the original plans for ''Lord of Chaos'' actually ''did'' have the infamous "Taimandred" theory be true. When, exactly, Jordan decided to change it isn't clear, though he definitely did by ''Winter's Heart'' which explicitly contradicts it[[note]]Demandred doesn't recognize some of Rand's Asha'man at the Cleansing. Taim, who ''trained'' the Asha'man, wouldn't have made that mistake[[/note]].
** Similarly, at one point Taim/Demandred was supposed to have been Asmodean's killer, before Robert Jordan changed the killer's identity to [[spoiler:Graendal]].

!!The books

!!The show
* AscendedFanon: Egwene being ''ta'veren'' and the existence of a female Dragon counterpart are theories that have circled in the fandom. Both of these ideas are given credence in the Amazon series, with Egwene explicitly stated to be ''ta'veren'' and the concept of the Dragon changed so that they can be reborn as either male or female.
* AshcanCopy: On February 9th, 2015 (at 1:30 AM!), ''Winter Dragon'', a 30-minute adaptation of the introductory chapter of ''The Eye Of The World'' appeared on [[Creator/{{Fox}} FXX]]. What keeps it from being just another OneEpisodeWonder are the circumstances of its production. [[https://twitter.com/Sedavision According to the director's tweets]], [[ChristmasRushed filming began on January 20th and post-production was completed on February 4th]]. The TV rights to the ''Wheel of Time'' series were set to revert from Red Eagle Entertainment (who has held them since 2004) to The Bandersnatch Group (which is owned by the Robert Jordan estate) on February 11th. Needless to say, [[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/02/wheel-of-time-pilot-harriet-statement Jordan's widow was not pleased]]. Lawsuits went flying and after being resolved, Harriet has announced that what would become the Amazon adaptation was in the works.
* CastTheExpert: The Aiel woman in 1x07 [[spoiler:Tigraine, Rand's mother]], who fights and kills several enemy soldiers while on the cusp of giving birth, is played by stunt actress Magdalena (Majda) Sittova.
* TheOtherDarrin: In Season 1, Mat is played by Barney Harris, who left the show after the first six episodes were filmed. For Season 2, Dónal Finn will be taking over the role.
* RealitySubtext: In the [[Series/TheWheelOfTime TV series]], the scene of [[spoiler: the Tuatha'an standing up to the Children of the Light barring them from reaching Egwene and Perrin and getting beaten for their trouble]] is eerily similar to recent real world issues of protestors getting beaten and/or gassed by police officers/military during the XL Keystone protests and the nationwide police brutality/race protests.

* AshcanCopy: On February 9th, 2015 (at 1:30 AM!), ''Winter Dragon'', a 30-minute adaptation of the introductory chapter of ''The Eye Of The World'' appeared on [[Creator/{{Fox}} FXX]]. What keeps it from being just another OneEpisodeWonder are the circumstances of its production. [[https://twitter.com/Sedavision According to the director's tweets]], [[ChristmasRushed filming began on January 20th and post-production was completed on February 4th]]. The TV rights to the ''Wheel of Time'' series were set to revert from Red Eagle Entertainment (who has held them since 2004) to The Bandersnatch Group (which is owned by the Robert Jordan estate) on February 11th. Needless to say, [[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/02/wheel-of-time-pilot-harriet-statement Jordan's widow was not pleased]]. Lawsuits went flying and after being resolved, Harriet has announced that a television adaptation is in the works.

* TheOtherDarrin: In Season 1, Mat is played by Barney Harris, who left the show after the first six episodes were filmed. For Season 2, Dónal Finn will be taking over the role.

* AscendedFanon: Egwene being ''ta'veren'' and the existence of a female Dragon counterpart are theories that have circled in the fandom. Both of these ideas are given credence in the Amazon series, with Egwene explicitly stated to be ''ta'veren'' and the concept of the Dragon changed so that they can be reborn as either male or female.

* RealitySubtext: In the [[Series/TheWheelOfTime TV series]], the scene of [[spoiler: the Tuatha'an standing up to the Children of the Light barring them from reaching Egwene and Perrin and getting beaten for their trouble]] is eerily similar to recent real world issues of protestors getting beaten and/or gassed by police officers/military during the XL Keystone protests and the nationwide police brutality/race protests.

* DividedForPublication: The initial German version saw this happen to every book in the series, resulting in a run of 37 volumes. A later release recondensed it to 14. Ditto for the Finnish version, which divided the first 11 books into 25 (the Sanderson-penned entries were not translated).

** Robert Jordan initially planned to write at least two more prequels (one about Tam, and a second about Moiraine and Lan), as well as a sequel trilogy following Mat and Perrin several years down the line (collectively, fans tend to refer to these as "the outriggers"). Unfortunately, AuthorExistenceFailure hit before Jordan produced much material on any of them, and it looks like they'll probably never get written at this point as neither Harriet nor Sanderson was comfortable working with such scanty material.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Robert Jordan died after book 11, and Creator/BrandonSanderson took up the mantle afterwards.

* DividedForPublication: The initial German version saw this happen to every book in the series, resulting in a run of 37 volumes. A later release recondensed it to 14.

* FanNickname: "Randland" for the main continent in the series (which WordOfGod never named before his passing but is referred to by The Guide as "The Westlands"), and "[[spoiler:Taimandred]]" for the popular theory that [[spoiler:Taim is Demandred]] (eventually {{Jossed}}).
** Crossroads of Twilight is often called "Characters Show Up", since that's pretty much all that happens all book.
** "Finnland" for the land of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, which didn't have a canon name for years until ''Towers of Midnight'' gave us "Sindhol".

* {{Jossed}}: The theory ([[http://web.archive.org/web/20031210122826/steelypips.org/wotfaq/1_dark/1.1_forsaken1/1.1.5_taimandred.html with plenty of arguments]]) that Demandred is masquerading as Taim ("[[FanNickname Taimandred]]"). Even the two pieces of evidence in ''Winter's Heart'' that contradicted this were not wholly believed until Jordan finally settled the matter personally.

* WordOfGod: Robert Jordan, occasionally putting long arguments to rest... when he didn't point the finger at [[ShrugOfGod RAFO]]. See {{Jossed}}.

* DividedForPublication: The initial German version saw this happen to every book in the series, resulting in a run of 38 volumes. A later release recondensed it to 14.