Rafe Judkins says The Wheel of Time needed to make Moiraine and Siuan’s relationship explicit: it matters to the plot and to a television story that places more emphasis on Moiraine. In Gizmodo’s March 27, 2025 coverage of Judkins’ interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he also described an aim to make queer people feel like a natural, central part of the series’ world—not an exception to it.
Why the series makes Moiraine and Siuan’s relationship explicit
Gizmodo reports that Judkins considered the relationship essential to the adaptation’s story. As the show gives Moiraine more emphasis than she receives in the books, he said, the story would not make sense without making her relationship with Siuan clear.
That choice makes the relationship legible as part of the series’ text, rather than leaving its meaning to implication. The coverage describes the books’ “pillow friends” wording as less overt; the show, by contrast, makes clear that the women are in love. This is a distinction in explicitness, not evidence that the books and series tell the relationship in identical ways. Gizmodo’s account of Judkins’ comments is the available source for this comparison.
Why the characters keep the relationship hidden
Judkins’ explanation, as reproduced by Gizmodo, separates secrecy from sexual orientation: Moiraine and Siuan hide their relationship for reasons other than being gay. That framing makes concealment part of these characters’ circumstances and the story, rather than presenting queerness itself as the reason they must stay hidden.
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Queer people as part of the world, not an exception
Judkins described the adaptation’s broader aim as building on Robert Jordan’s writing while bringing queerness into the series more overtly. He said the show should make queer people feel like a natural and central part of its fictional world, rather than an exception to a presumed rule.
Gizmodo also relays an estimate attributed to Jordan by Judkins that 30 to 50 percent of people in the fictional world are probably not straight. That is a secondhand estimate about an imagined setting, not a real-world prevalence figure. Because the text reproduced in Gizmodo contains an apparent wording error, it is best not to treat the number as a precisely verified quotation.
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What this says—and does not say—about the books and show
The clearest supported comparison is that the television adaptation makes Moiraine and Siuan’s love explicit, while the books’ “pillow friends” description is less overt. Judkins’ comments also connect that adaptation choice to plot and the show’s focus on Moiraine. The available coverage does not establish a comprehensive comparison of the novels’ and series’ queer representation.
Gizmodo says the linked Hollywood Reporter interview also addresses queerness in Aiel culture, but its account does not provide enough detail to explain that discussion. No specifics about it can be established from the accessible coverage.
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