an open letter to wheel of time fans
please stop picking on rings of power fans when we've done nothing wrong
One of the worst parts of enjoying television shows is the fear of the show getting cancelled, especially before the story has played out in a satisfying way. Wheel of Time fans got a taste of this a few days ago, when it was announced that after three seasons the show was coming to an abrupt end.
Wheel of Time is based on acclaimed fantasy novels by Robert Jordan in which time is cyclical and magic wielded by women spellcasters. With over eighteen hundred characters spanning over fourteen novels, the Wheel of Time is lauded for its attention to detail, many subplots, and mastery over its own magic system. I’ve never seen the show myself, and its recent cancellation doesn’t make it very tempting.
However, there is a bigger reason I’ve never seen the show, and I apologize for my candor, but…
Some Wheel of Time fans are so, so whiny. As episode after episode came out, my timeline had tweets that went something like: “I loved the new episode, but-”. The WoT fans always had some sort of gripe with a character, plot point, pacing, or something. In the same breath they would like the show, they would also name twenty thousand things the show got wrong from the books. Honestly, they made being a fan of WoT look even more exhausting than being a Rings of Power fan.
That, Dear Reader, is where I come in.
I only remain on the former bird app to keep up to date with my Rings of Power fanbase friends, acquaintances, and popular accounts. The community of TROP fans is largely on Twitter, a fact I’ve bemoaned. I even went as far as making a private group chat with a number of them on Discord so I could avoid going on X (the everything app) as much as possible. Many of them are jumping off of Twitter like rats on a ship, and I can’t blame them. The few who remain are staunch supporters of our beloved show and even have other fandom interests. Several of them also posted about Wheel of Time, which makes sense as both shows are in the fantasy genre and are based on popular books. Actually, a lot of my mutuals watch both shows, so I’d see content about WoT occasionally as I scrolled. Some of their complaints were perfectly valid (the last season finale had some sort of character death that really upset people - I don’t know what it was about but they seemed pretty mad about it). As I continued to read, Twitter suggested more and more accounts that had mutual followers that were strictly WoT or multifandom except Rings of Power. I wanted to be interested, but they seemed to gripe about just about everything and anything related to WoT, and I was too busy staying out of the Haladriel drama in my fandom (if you don’t know, don’t ask: you’re better off not knowing anyway).
Sure, Rings of Power isn’t perfect, but Rings of Power fans are too busy getting attacked by nasty trolls or bickering about ship wars to complain much. I have my own criticisms of the show, but I usually do something that some people online have a real hard time doing: keeping it to myself. I bite my tongue when it comes to the unsteady pacing of the first season, the overemphasis on the Halfling plotline, and the lack of focus on particularly important characters (cough, every Numenorean). I focus on the positives: season two was markedly better than the first, the costumes and sets are fabulous, and the pacing was remarkably improved. I only see the show on an upward climb, and it’s not even halfway through the contracted five seasons.
Back to Wheel of Time. After my social media hiatus through Lent, I returned to Twitter to the onslaught of discourse after the last episode of season three. I didn’t think much of it until last week when I caught a huge fight ensuing. Wheel of Time fan accounts were commenting on various Rings of Power syndication announcement posts, leaving nice and friendly comments like “Cancel Rings of Power! Give the money to Wheel of Time!” “Rings of Power sucks! WoT is WAY better!!” etc., etc.
These comments confused me. TROP fans are absolutely not the enemy. Rings of Power fans are not only vocally supportive of other fantasy shows; many of them are also Wheel of Time watchers. Why are WoT fans suddenly taking out their frustration on their allies? It makes no sense.
It only got worse last Friday when the other shoe dropped: Amazon cancelled Wheel of Time entirely. The vitriol wasn’t just pointed at Amazon for the recent comments of the success of Rings of Power: now it was pouring onto Rings of Power fans’ feeds, including mine.
While Rings of Power fans expressed their dismay over the tragedy, WoT accounts started hurling attacks against many of my Rings of Power mutuals. I picked my phone up a couple times, confused by the hateful things I read. It’s not our fault your show was cancelled - be mad at Amazon! It’s their fault, I thought to myself. If Amazon cancelled Rings of Power, I wouldn’t immediately jump to blaming fans of another fantasy show - or even another show. There are shows that are much more successful than Wheel of Time on Prime.
Better yet, why not blame the real villains: higher-ups at Amazon Studios? Heck, the viewers could also blame the enormous budget and the plummeting numbers: Wheel of Time costs over $120 million dollars to make per season and viewership dropped by over half during the second season. (Of course, $120 million is barely a drop in the bucket of Amazon’s overall intake of $638 billion-yes-with-a-b dollars. Every time they cite budget issues I roll my eyes.) One could argue that the same thing happened to Rings of Power, but TROP has several things Wheel of Time didn’t, including a five season plan and the largest budget ever seen on the small screen.
Trust me, I’m nervous that Amazon will give up on Rings of Power, but hear me out: it sounds like they actually have a plan for the five seasons. They have Sauron and the Good Peoples of Middle-earth in a plot that is only found in bits and pieces throughout Tolkien’s Legendarium. There is a limit to the story and the inevitable defeat of Sauron (oops, spoilers for Tolkien’s Second Age.) Now, imagine being an exec looking at Wheel of Time’s fourteen books, eighteen hundred characters, and eye-popping budget; not to mention the numbers in the red instead of the green. On the other hand, from my research for this Substack, I also saw that many people thought that while the show isn’t absolutely perfect and fantastic, it had found its groove and a reliable fanbase, making its cancellation a bit puzzling. The reviews for all three season are a mix of upliftingly positive and wildly negative, even going so far as to call it a Tolkien rip off (so is a lot of fantasy, but that is another Substack for another time).
Don’t read that paragraph and come away with the conclusion that I wanted Wheel of Time to end: that is the opposite of what I (and every other TROP moot I have) want. The more fantasy shows with artists excited about their craftsmanship and storytellers passionate about their work, the merrier. Cancelling Wheel of Time doesn’t make Rings of Power any safer, either. Any day they desire, Amazon could throw in the towel, shut down the recently begun production and cancel Rings of Power season three (please, God, please no). It always makes me sad when production companies see profit over fanbases and pull the plug. I was rooting for the Wheel of Time because it meant that Amazon Studios was getting better at the genre and producing not just shows, but good ones.
Wheel of Time fans, consider using all that keyboard warrior energy and putting it into gathering. Call for another company to pick up the show. Check out the petition I found here. Shows have been revived before. If there’s any lesson I’ve learned from any adaptation of Tolkien, it’s that there is always hope.
Bottom line: Sorry about your show, but stop picking on Rings of Power fans. We’re not the enemy. It’s not our fault. x
Sources
https://deadline.com/2025/05/the-wheel-of-time-canceled-prime-video-1236409657/
disclaimer: unfortunately I have to say this as there is no nuance on the internet anymore (especially on the dead bird app), but not every wheel of time fan is acting out or bullying other fans - this is a message to those who intentionally spread their own misery online, whether you’re a wot, trop, or any chronically online person. losing a show you love sucks, but you still have sunshine. summertime. go touch some grass. read a book, preferably something Tolkien. log off, for pete’s sake. xo, gossip girl