Here's how I've been comforting myself about Siuan Sanche in The Wheel of Time Season 3 Finale

Defiant and on mission to the end, the Amyrlin Seat left the show unbroken.

This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for all three seasons (so far) of The Wheel of Time.

Let me get this out of the way -- I wish The Wheel of Time had not killed off Siuan Sanche. It is not just because I love Sophie Okonedo, or that I have been hoping for a peaceful retirement for Siuan and Moiraine at the end of the series, for the two of them to finally be able to live a life of love together after years of duty imposed separation. As a show-only viewer (I have not read the books), I just think there is so much more that Siuan can contribute to the story, even and especially as a woman who has been cut off from the One Power and the power of Aes Sedai politics. I also absolutely dislike how Siuan was killed off in the show. The brutality was unnecessary and it left a bad taste in my mouth, especially considering that it was the grief of Siuan's death that fuelled Moiraine toward a temporary victory against Lanfear.

That being said, I do understand how the showrunners may not want to have the journey of a stilled Aes Sedai part two. Remember when season 2 started, and Moiraine thought she'd been stilled? Cut off from the One Power, or so she thought (she wasn't stilled, she was just shielded), she remained on mission. Having Siaun go through a similar arc may feel repetitive. We have already seen a woman push through an experience that had driven others, specifically male channellers who were stilled by the Red Ajah, to end their lives. Would it have helped the show to give Siuan this arc as well? (My heart says yes! Why oh why were we robbed of more Sophie Okonedo, of Siuan the character who rose from the humblest of beginnings to lead the Aes Sedai?)

In any case, what's done is done, and I can appreciate how The Wheel of Time gave us a powerful farewell to Siuan. I had seven different things in my head whilst I was watching the finale, but when it came to Siuan's final scene, I found myself crying, sobbing, my heart was just breaking. But, the Siuan that left was unbroken and on mission to the end, and I find some comfort in that.

The trail of blood on the floor mapped the suffering Siuan experienced in the hands of women she had once called her daughters. Go back to the first season and remember Nynaeve's clear dislike of the Aes Sedai, which she viewed as a classist institution. They turned away Nynaeve's mentor not because she did not possess enough power to become Aes Sedai, but because her accent and appearance spoke of her membership to the peasant class. Moiraine did not come to the Two Rivers with ill intent (for the most part), but she was part of an order Nynaeve viewed with suspicion, a powerful force, yes, but not necessarily a force for good. Yet, episode upon episode kept showing us cool Aes Sedai things, like Ryma Sedai using her knowledge of healing to fight the Seanchan or Alana in several battle scenes as a powerful member of the Green Ajah. Imperfect though it was, the Aes Sedai still seemed on balance to lean on the side of Light. The season 3 finale showed the White Tower as a profoundly dangerous seat of power in the hands of the wrong people. The classist institution Nynaeve heard about as a child tortured their former leader, who just happened to have risen from the poverty of the riverfolk. I wonder, under the same circumstances, would the aristocratic Moiraine have been subjected to similar treatment?

Yet Siuan was Siuan and she was unbowed. I thought it made sense that she declared her love of Moiraine first, on that final scene. The Aes Sedai cannot lie, and Siuan had spent a couple of decades choosing her words carefully to prevent her and Moiraine's secret from coming out. In her final minutes she finally gave voice to what her heart had sung for years. If only for a while, their love was public and proud. There must be some relief there for Siuan, especially with everything they had sacrificed to find the Dragon Reborn.

Siuan's next words were for the sitters, yes, including her defiant speech to Elaida. She was trying to reason with them. She was trying to persuade them that Elaida's path was not necessarily the best for the Aes Sedai. She wanted to show them that though Elaida had the power -- for now -- it was possible to defy her, to stand for something greater than the Amyrlin Seat itself. The oath to the One Power was separate from the tradition of obedience to the Amyrlin Seat. 'I defy you,' Siuan, powerless and bleeding, told Elaida. That was Mother transferring what was left of her strength to her once Daughters. This is how you stand up for what is right, she showed them. This is how you face power and even certain death, on your feet, with your sense of self fully intact.

That was Siuan's last stand, and it was magnificent.

I hope at least the writers use the seeds planted in that scene for the next seasons. As of this writing, no renewal announcement has been made yet. I remain confident and hopeful about The Wheel of Time's renewal, however.

I wish The Wheel of Time had not killed off Siuan Sanche. I wish they had done a better job at showcasing her character in past episodes and seasons. I think the brutality of her death was, to put it mildly, a poor choice. But, I have not given up on the show. For now, I will comfort myself. Siuan Sanche is gone. She waits for only one woman, and it is not Elaida Sedai.

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