We have another exciting scoop for fans of Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time today. We found an audition tape we believe is for the role of Gawyn Trakand. The video has since been removed, and we will not be providing the name of the actor who auditioned out of respect for their privacy. However, we do have a transcript of the audition below. Like the Aviendha audition tapes, we have substituted code names with the Wheel of Time names and terms we believe they represent in brackets. However, unlike with Aviendha, we are unable to say with certainty which other character(s) Gawyn might be speaking with.
Finally, while audition tapes may not be indicative of the final dialogue that will appear on the show, please only read on if you don’t mind possible spoilers!
Scene 1
???: No. I’m sorry. I told [Alanna], nobody younger than me.
Gawyn: I’m [Gawyn Trakand]
???: The Queen’s son?
Gawyn: I brought you breakfast.
???: Are these raw?
Gawyn: All food is until you cook it. And one for me, if you would.
???: So you brought me breakfast, which I’m cooking for you?
Gawyn: Happy to take over you at the stove, but your stomach won’t be. Palace cook tried to give me lessons once, but we ended up changing the subject matter.
???: I assume there’s something else I can do for you this morning.
Gawyn: The last time I shot a bow, I put an arrow through our mistress at arms.
???: Not everyone’s a soldier.
Gawyn: Well, happily I’m an excellent swordsman. I came here to be a [warder]. I’d like your help.
???: (laughs)
Gawyn: I know what people see when they look at me: rich, beautiful, useless idiot.
???: Are you?
Gawyn: I’ve killed men before. Brigands who tried to kidnap my sister and me. I was twelve.
???: Where were your guards?
Gawyn: They were our guards. Plan was to ransom my sister as the heir to the throne. I was disposable, so I fell to my knees, cried, begged, snatched a dagger from one of their belts. Should’ve expected a little deceit and murder. After all, I am a [Damodred].
???: [Damodred]. As in [Moiraine Damodred]?
Gawyn: The aunt who ruined my life. But that’s a story for another day. Maybe I’ll bring you dinner to cook us later
Scene 2
Gawyn: You gonna set this place on fire?
???: No, but [Light] trust I’m not going to let those [trollocs] get their hands on any of this.
Gawyn: Do [trollocs] drink?
???: Not concerned about your brother?
Gawyn: If he gave a toss about me, he’d be here, wouldn’t he?
???: He’d know you’re here, in an empty bar, in the middle of the morning, as the city’s preparing to be sacked?
Gawyn: You’ve heard the story about [Ishamael], right? The Last [Dragon’s] best friend.
???: Everyone knows that story.
Gawyn: My mum always used to tell it to me. Over and over again. Ever since I was tiny. She talks about the other [Forsaken] sometimes, but [Ishamael]…that was the one she thought I needed to know. She said, “Some men are just born weak. They got something broken inside of them.” And the day the Last [Dragon] went to face the [Bore], when he needed his best friend the most, [Ishamael] sold him out to the [Dark One] himself. Everyone always said it was for more power, but my mum, she said it wasn’t that. She said it was because [Ishamael] was one of these men who needed others to be weak to make himself strong. And I was, too.
???: Is she right?
Gawyn: Save that last one for me, will you?
Analysis
While we don’t know for sure who Gawyn is talking to in each scene, the mention of Alanna and Gawyn’s desire to improve his bow skills leads us to believe that he may be talking to Alanna’s warder Ihvon (played by Emmanuel Imani) in the first one. Ihvon’s preferred weapon during season one was a bow, and according to his character information in X-Ray, he is from Andor. Because he’s Andoran, Ihvon would know who Gawyn Trakand was by name, if not by face.
This initial scene seems like it could be one in which we are first introduced to the character, and if he is indeed talking to Ihvon, than this probably takes place at the White Tower, where Gawyn goes to train to be a warder in the books.
The lack of information in the second scene makes it harder to discern where it might be taking place and to whom Gawyn might be talking to. However, he does reference a brother, so we can assume that this is a sign that both Gawyn and his half-brother Galad Damodred will make it to the television adaptation.
The second scene also reveals a bit more of the character’s inner thoughts and fears while simultaneously providing some exposition on the history of Ishamael in relation to Lews Therin Telamon. Book fans may also appreciate the character’s inability to think rationally in this scene as a possible hint of what may be to come in the character’s future.
It could be Egwene. At least nothing here indicates it’s not and those two will need to start building a relationship fast.
So cutely oblivious.
He calls himself Beautiful and a Damodred. Wouldn’t that make him Galad?
Taringail Damodred was his and Elayne’s father still, and the dialogue makes it seem his mum wasn’t as affectionate with him as in the books. Might make him more prone to his daddy than his mum
Could “Trollocs” = “Seanchen”? I’m wondering if, given the circumstances, it’s possible Gawyn and Galad end up in Falme too.
That first scene feels way more like a Galad audition. Saying he’s an excellent swordsman, saying he’s “rich, beautiful, useless” and saying he’s a Damodred. Am I missing something?
I mean, Galad’s mother is not the Queen.
It appears to be Mat he’s talking to the second time. It’s someone in a bar in the morning drinking *and* pouring out booze — hence “set the place on fire” and “save the last one for me.” The tone is consistent with how Mat has been written on the show and it’s hard to imagine another character responding to a siege or upcoming sack this way.
Interestingly, the Judas Iscariot-like nature of Ishamael is being played up which confirms to me it’s Mat, who may also be concerned with whether he’s betrayed Rand in some way.
The bigger question is, what city is being threatened by Trollocs? Not Tar Valon and presumably not Falme.
Are we certain that both of these scenes are Gawyn? Could this actor have submitted auditions for more than one character? Because while that first scene definitely reads like Gawyn talking to Ihvon, the second scene reads to me not as Gawyn at all but as the show’s version of Mat.
I mean yes, there’s a reference to his “brother,” but why would the show be making a parallel to Ishy and Lews Therin’s relationship with Gawyn and Galad? If “brother” is a code/replacement for “friend,” or possibly imagine a scenario where this other character thinks Mat and Rand are brothers, then put together with the show’s pushing of the notion that Mat has an “inherent darkness” that might lead to his joining the Shadow, then the scene just make more sense. To me at least.
I mean he’s even talking about how his mother used to compare him to one of the Forsaken, which fits with how we saw Mat’s mother telling him what an awful person he is.
The books could have and should have paralleled Gawyn more with Demandred, so paralleling Gawyn with a tweaked Ishamael story does not bug me. And Gawyn in the books does have an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Galad, it’s just swamped because he also really likes him and then transferred to Rand, whom he probably subconsciously recognizes as Galad’s blood relative.
First scene feels more like he’s talking to Maksim, not Ivhon, given the dialogue they had in season 1 ( limited I know).
I wonder if these are perhaps Mat sides given the second scene? They’ve gone to such trouble to give characters fake names in the past- why would they use Gawyn instead of a fake name, unless they were trying to trip us up?
They used a fake name. As we mentioned in the article, everything in brackets is “translated” from a codename. We know these aren’t Mat sides because they’re from the same audition and the actor auditioning clearly stated the character’s name. It was a codename, and it was not the codename for Mat.
Could that audition tape be for season 3? I wonder whether the city in the second scene might be Cairhien, and the attackers Shaido instead of trollocs. That would be consistent with the notion of the city being in danger of being sacked. Is it possible that “???” in the second scene is Mat?