The Wheel doesn’t want us to do better, it wants nothing. It is like saying the rain wants something.

— Moiraine

Nynaeve is the Dragon Reborn! The idea that Nynaeve numbered amongst the potentials had already been hinted at: she was young and already in a position of power as village Wisdom, survived two battles and could track Lan. Her power is ferocious – a ‘raging sun’ as promised – yet it is a healing rather than a destructive force. Almost getting eating by a trolloc and stabbed by Logain’s army couldn’t provoke her powers. Nynaeve knew Moiraine was dying but again…nothing. But seeing Lan’s throat slashed unlocks her identity. She cares for Lan, perhaps even romantically if those hooded looks are anything to go by, and this seems to make the difference. She respects him too, readily admitting that he is much more than the ’two-legged lapdog’ she originally took him for. When his death seems near certain, her agony allows her to tap into her power and restore his life. It seems it is the people we care for that inspire the greatest acts. Attested to first by The Traveling Woman’s vow of non-violence to honour her daughter’s death and then by Nynaeve’s transformation.

Of course the Dragon reborn had be a woman. If this world works in dualities, as the Dark and the Light would suggest, than a female dragon must follow a male. The gender flip also aligns with the legend surrounding the Dragon Reborn as healing the world rather than breaking it, like the first Dragon. Since The Dark One contaminated the One Power so that male channellers cannot wield it without going mad, a female Dragon seems the only answer.

Moiraine knows almost immediately that Logain is only a pretender and a shadow of the Dragon reborn. Unlike the King who Logain turned to his cause with mercy and vague promises for a better future, Moiraine cannot be so easily beguiled. She sees through the shallow optimism that The Wheel itself wants to do better this time. The Wheel is an impersonal force that shapes the world, much like the elements or nature itself, and to ascribe it an anthropomorphic will is nonsense. This feels like a direct dig against the monotheistic religions and the faith they place in a God who acts in the world. The Wheel of Time is more akin to ancient, and modern, spiritual thinking that understands our lives as structured by a kind of universal energy. As more is revealed about The Wheel, the less we know for certain. It is mysterious and potent; an endless flow of energy and life. But rather than an immediate cycle of reincarnation The Wheel is described as being the source and returning point for all conscious beings who will only eventually be reborn into the world (it took thousands of years in the case of the Dragon). Logain’s lack of wisdom exposes him for what he is – another male channeller on the edge of madness. Fitting then that the Dragon Reborn herself is known as a Wisdom, wise beyond her years.