The Wheel of Time has made huge changes to the books - and we already knew season 3 looked set to go still further. The latest season appears to be merging events from The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising, while aspects of the story are even being told out of sequence.

To be fair, the sheer scale of Robert Jordan's narrative explains why many of these changes were made. Jordan originally pitched this as a trilogy, not the 14-book epic it would become (his editor knew he'd get carried away, and suggested a longer series; even he never expected 14 books, with the series completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan sadly ed away in 2007). But The Wheel of Time season 3's premiere included another major book change, a surprising new romance that rewrites a lot of the major arcs.

Aviendha & Elayne Were Not Romantically Involved In The Books

The Wheel of Time season 3 opens with iring glances between Elayne and Aviendha - glances that soon turn into something a lot more heated. Many viewers who are familiar with the books were surprised, but Ayoola Smart - who plays Aviendha - insisted to Polygon that it was all there in Jordan's novels. "Their relationship has a very strong structure throughout the books, and is a very beautiful relationship," she insisted. "It’s very much there on the page, and some people read into it and some people don’t."

She's perhaps overstating, because I haven't exactly seen a lot of discussion about Elayne and Aviendha in the fandom. In fact, the books don't really seem to stress the relationship between the two at all; the two women don't spend a lot of time together on the page, meaning their willingness to fight or die for one another by the end of the series seems a little abrupt. Both are more known for their polycule relationship with Rand himself.

Aviendha & Elayne's Romance Drastically Changes Rand's Love Story

The polycule moves this tale closer to the heart of Aes Sedai Warders, who mirror the dynamic Rand will become part of.

Speaking at JordanCon 2022, showrunner Rafe Judkins insisted The Wheel of Time would be careful to show multiple love stories as part of Alanna's. "We get to delve into [the relationship between Alanna, Maskim, and Ihvon in season 2]," he stressed, "and understand a little bit more how those three parts fit together. And how there’s not just one relationship happening there. There’s three relationships." Now we seem to be seeing the same thing play out with the main polycule, which is fascinating.

What Aviendha & Elayne Getting Together Could Mean For Rand's Future

I don't mind changes with the books; as good as Robert Jordan's novels are, they're not perfect, and this is particularly interesting in that it helps develop Elayne as a character. Judkins told Polygon it was his own idea, and partly a way to provide a window into her heart. "[In these early episodes] you start to see that Elayne is so much more than a princess in waiting," he explained. "We always talk about the princess that is Elayne, and beneath that, the lion that is Elayne. And so I think you get to see that duality in her come forward more in this season."

This moves the focus away from Rand alone.

This subtly changes the structure of The Wheel of Time's inevitable polycule, in that it moves the focus away from Rand alone. "I think [the writers] were keen — and we were keen — to establish the throughline of what this relationship is, independently of Rand, and [to have that] not be the focus of why they’re connected," Smart concluded. "Obviously it’s an element, but to give it its own life — which is there! But to make that distinction, I think, was really nice to do."

In Robert Jordan's novels, Rand feels a lot like the sun around which three planets orbit; that makes the polycule more than a little unconvincing. Amazon's The Wheel of Time adaptation is taking a different approach, building relationships between Min, Elayne, and Aviendha. That makes this a very different kind of story.