The Wheel of Time's Rand and Lanfear Have the Most Twisted Romance on TV

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of The Wheel of Time, "He Who Comes With the Dawn."]

Fantasy often goes hand in hand with romance, especially these days. The imagined excitement of exploring a new world, or discovering hidden magical powers within oneself, are not far removed from the pleasures of falling in love or building a relationship, and fans of both genres have recently been clamoring for the direct intersection of those feelings. Books like A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing have made "romantasy" the most popular portmanteau in publishing, and even Prime Video's The Wheel of Time show, though adapted from an earlier era of fantasy novels, has been at its best when exploring a deliciously unexpected romance. 

The Wheel of Time begins, like many post-Tolkien fantasy sagas, within the basic template that The Lord of the Rings established: A powerful magician comes to a small village and recruits a group of humble townsfolk into a harrowing journey across a dangerous continent to reach a special place where they can destroy the ultimate evil. That's familiar fare for fantasy fans, and it's not until that initial quest concludes (at the end of both Season 1 of the show and the first of Robert Jordan's novels) that The Wheel of Time really gets interesting. Instead of destroying the Dark One, the heroes inadvertently release his most powerful servants (known as the Forsaken) from their centuries-long captivity. The good guys, including messiah figure Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski), find themselves scattered to the winds. Suddenly nothing can be taken for granted. The story's European-seeming setting is thrown off by an invasion from the sadistic Seanchan Empire, while Rand discovers that concepts like "good" and "evil" (not to mention "love") are more complicated than they seem.  

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Separated from his childhood friends for the first time in his life, Rand starts hooking up with an innkeeper named Selene (Natasha O'Keeffe). She's older and more worldly than his childhood sweetheart from the village — much more so. When it is shortly revealed that Selene's real name is Lanfear and that she is actually one of the demonic Forsaken, you'd think that would mark the end of their relationship; Rand's magical mentor Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) certainly assumes as much. But instead, Rand only falls harder for Lanfear! Unlike Moiraine and the other Aes Sedai, she isn't afraid of Rand's power as the so-called Dragon Reborn; she loves it, because he reminds her of the previous Dragon, whom she loved in her past life. Unlike Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Rand's other village friends, she doesn't want him to stay the same forever; she wants him to embrace his destiny to change the world. Lanfear shows Rand what he can become, while he reminds her of who she used to be before she fell into darkness. 

There's a lot to reckon with there, and Rand and Lanfear's relationship thankfully gets a lot of screentime in both Seasons 2 and 3 of The Wheel of Time. That marks a change from Jordan's books, where the possibility of romance between them is only briefly touched on. But leaning into the most interesting elements of your story is exactly what makes a good adaptation! 

"That relationship doesn't get a ton of time in the books. It's moved over very quickly," showrunner Rafe Lee Judkins told TV Guide. "But to us, it felt worth leaning into and exploring because it's a relationship that you can't see on any other show."

One way to define what's so fun about Rand and Lanfear's relationship would be to call it the rare example of a "reverse Reylo." The similarly unexpected romance between Rey and Kylo Ren was the single most successful element of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, to the point that its influence has rippled into other media. A Court of Thorns and Roses really hits its stride when the heroic female protagonist falls in love with the brooding bad boy who prefers to hide his trauma, while several successful romance novelists (such as Ali Hazelwood and Julie Soto) got their start writing Reylo fan fiction. As a good guy falling for a bad girl, Rand and Lanfear possess a similar frisson as these zeitgeist-y romances, while also distinguishing themselves with different age and gender dynamics. 

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On top of tapping into the spirit of our times, Rand and Lanfear's relationship also helps flesh out the world of their own story. The Wheel of Time's cosmology is complex even by fantasy series standards, with many references to past lives, reincarnation, and the Pattern that connects them all. The Rand/Lanfear romance being not just intergenerational but inter-incarnation makes that cyclical timeline feel tragically real. 

"The idea that this woman has been in love with this man's soul before is so unique to The Wheel of Time," Judkins said. 

It also massively complicates Rand's relationship to other characters and makes him more interesting than just a generic "chosen one." We already knew Moiraine doesn't approve, but Lanfear takes that to another level by haunting the former's dreams throughout Season 3. What happens when the secret girlfriend you've been hiding from your normal girlfriend and your mentor starts killing them in their sleep every night? The twisted dynamic eventually forces Rand to a breaking point at the end of Season 3. But the whole experience with Lanfear teaches Rand that his purpose is more than just defeating evil. As Judkins previously told TV Guide, he has to destroy the world in order to save it. 

"She sees pieces of darkness in him and she loves those, whereas Egwene only wants to see the good in him," Judkins said. "So Rand, at the end of the season, is not with either of those women, because he has to embrace that he's both of those things, not just one or the other."

For now, Rand and Lanfear have gone their separate ways. But they've broken apart and come together before, not just in this life, and if The Wheel of Time gets renewed for Season 4 we'll hopefully see them reunite, for better or worse. In the meantime, there's plenty of fan fiction.

Season 3 of The Wheel of Time is now streaming on Prime Video.