Wheel Of Time Reveals A New One Power Ability That’s Not In The Books

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Wheel of Time season 1, episode 4. 

Wheel of Time episode 4’s ending revealed a new One Power ability that’s not in the books. While the visual interpretation of the concept has been divisive in some aspects, Amazon’s Wheel of Time series has stuck largely to Robert Jordan’s ideas in terms of how the One Power works and the weaving of flows.

Since Wheel of Time has only just begun, the series is still in the process of fleshing out all the concepts and factions that exist in the fantasy world created by Robert Jordan. It made a significant change to the Dragon Reborn prophecy, but seems to be keeping the books’ rules as they pertain to the One Power. The force of energy that serves as the backbone of Wheel of Time’s story is dived up into male and female halves, which are called saidin and saidar respectively. By channeling saidin or saidar from the True Source, characters can create weaves of the One Power and use them to perform all sorts of attacks, including fireballs, gusts of wind, earthquakes, and more.

While all of the powers used by Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) in the Wheel of Time series premiere were pulled directly from the books, the show has added one that’s unique to the series. Wheel of Time episode 4 ended with the introduction of a new version of Healing. In response to Lan (Daniel Henney) being mortally wounded, Nynaeve (Zoë Robbins) unleashed a wave of energy that healed Lan and saved him from death. The other characters in her vicinity were also on the receiving end of Nynaeve’s healing energies. All of their wounds were instantly mended. What’s so interesting about that is that no one—Nynaeve included—is capable of such a feat in the books.

What Nynaeve did in Wheel of Time episode 4 is simply not how Healing works in the books. In Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, Healing is a Talent that involves weaving Spirit, Air, and Water into a flow that’s directed into a person’s body. The channeler then carefully repairs their wounds with the One Power flow. What Nynaeve did in episode 4, though, was essentially a wide-range blast of healing energy, rather than a complex, individual weave. In the books, a specific target is needed for Healing to be performed. Group Healing just isn’t feasible because that’s not how One Power weaves are utilized.

By bending the rules of the novels, Nynaeve has created a new Healing technique in Amazon’s Wheel of Time. And while the use of this ability breaks with the source material, the idea that Nynaeve can Heal people in ways that no one else can is consistent with how she was portrayed in the books. Nynaeve is considered to be the best Healer in Wheel of Time’s world, and for good reason. Based on how episode 4 ended, it’s become apparent that the show will lean heavily on that element of her Aes Sedai powers.

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