The Wheel Of Time Mirrors Harry Potter’s Unbreakable Vow Scene
Moiraine swears an oath in The Wheel of Time that mirrors Snape’s Unbreakable Vow in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in both look and meaning.
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Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead For Wheel Of Time
A mirroring of the Unbreakable Vow from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is seen in The Wheel of Time season 1, episode 6 “The Flame of Tar Valon,” when an important oath is sworn. A nominee for Best Special Visual Effects at the British Academy Film Awards the year of its release, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince offered many visuals that revolutionized the high-fantasy genre. In both Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Wheel of Time, the oath is visually gorgeous and potentially deadly, highlighting its significance as a narrative device within both stories.
In The Wheel of Time, Moiraine has come before all her Aes Sedai sisters and their leader, the Amyrlin Seat, on trial for crimes of secrecy. A blue Aes Sedai, Moiraine is known for keeping secrets, but Moiraine refuses to answer the Amyrlin Seat when she is questioned about Nynaeve, bringing judgment down on Moraine. Moiraine and the Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche, share a bigger secret, however, one of a forbidden passion between them. Regardless of this, Moiraine must be punished for her insolence, and she insists that her punishment be exile, as she has an important mission and cannot be trapped and watched at the White Tower. Siuan agrees and the pair swear a vow on the sacred oath rod—a visually stunning scene in which magical white wisps unfurl from Siuan’s arm and spread through the carvings in the oath rod, then encircle Moiraine’s wrist as she completes the vow.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a similar oath is made between Narcissa Malfoy and Professor Severus Snape. For the oath, called the Unbreakable Vow, the pair lock arms at the forearms, and pale magical wisps wrap around them, binding them as they speak their promises. Similar both in visuals and meaning, neither of the oaths sworn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Wheel of Time are what they seem, with both Moraine and Severus swearing to give away their reputations—and potentially their lives—in pursuit of the greater good.
Much like The Unbreakable Vow, Moiraine’s oath is a devastating promise for her to make. While Moiraine asked for exile, she is still pained when all the color tribes of her Aes Sedai sisters shun her, and by having to leave her love Siuan, not knowing when or if she will see her again. Moiraine sees the bigger picture, however, and knows that without her, the Dragon Reborn (whichever of the five that is) will never make it to the eye of the world and stop the Dark One. As she and Siuan discuss, Moraine is unlikely to live through the battle with the Dark One but sacrifices her life for the greater good. This significance is made plain through the scene’s sumptuous visuals, which serve to emphasize what a seminal moment this is both for Moiraine personally and within the wider Wheel of Time narrative.
Likewise, Snape’s vow with Narcissa is not the whole story. Snape lives much of his life as a double agent between Dumbledore and Voldemort, and though his vow seems evil, Snape has already made arrangements with Dumbledore (like Moiraine does with Siuan, the leader of the Aes Sedai) that lend to greater meaning in the fight of good against evil. Like Moiraine, Snape knows that the Oath is necessary and that carrying out his oath will bring pain, grief, and likely death. Both moments are therefore stylistically similar because of the importance that they have to convey.
Though there is no object (like the oath rod from The Wheel of Time) between Narcissa and Severus in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the visuals used in both films work to add greater significance to the oaths. As the white wisps wrap both parties’ wrists, they help to clue the viewer into a magical binding that signifies the weight of the agreements. Furthermore, the wisps create the idea of omnipresent justice—an instant magical reckoning that could happen anywhere and take any form should the oath-taker become the oath-breaker. In many ways, The Wheel of Time and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are vastly different stories. However, the similarities between these two scenes highlight the universal themes that both works address.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/wheel-time-sacred-oath-mirrors-harry-potter-unbreakable-vow-scene/