Forsaken Turning back to the Light? Surviving the Last Battle?

[Wool-headed lummox]

I am 100% certain that none of the Forsaken will so much as seriously consider turning back to the Light, but I do hope at least one of them survives the resealing of the Bore. Seeing Graendal reduced from a smug voluptuous posturing witch to a mumbling groveling fool was satisfying. Seeing Moridin or Cyndane survive the Shadow's loss of the Last Battle, permanently cut off from their Master, having no future or prospects, all their countless plans and schemes turned to water and ash would be priceless.

 

messanna - shes just kinda vegging right now - if Egwene was smart she would balefire her ass

This isn't even necessary. Even if Mesaana is killed in an ordinary way, the Dark One will literally have no time to resurrect her, with the Last Battle days if not hours away from starting (and ending). Aginor's and Balthamel's resurrection took quite a bit of time, and we have no reason to assume that the Dark One can do it faster now that his hold on the world has grown.

 

Hopefully, Egwene will keep Mesaana alive and stable on life support. Make her a tourist attraction, sell tickets for people who want to see a living Forsaken.

[Stone Rocks Hold]

With respect to who might do that, IMO, Lanfear is the best guess. Her motivation for joining the Shadow in the first place always seemed to me to be too emotional to be well reasoned - meaning that her emotion could lead her back the other way.

 

I think she'd have to be very hard pressed, but Lanfear may very well have actual feelings for Rand/LTT (in a sociopath kind of way), and I could see her come to the Light if she saw someone (other than herself) in the process of killing him. She spends much of the early books protecting Rand and guiding him. She's by far the most independent thinking of the Forsaken, she's the only one that has talked openly of challenging the Dark One, and now she has a pretty strong/recent grievance against Moridin. We also have no idea what she learned from the 'Fins - but I imagine that the experience could have done something to reshape her personality though that remains to be seen. Even ignoring that, from a motivation to change standpoint, I've always seen Lanfear's power-obtaining behavior as a mechanism for trying to impress LTT - even if grabbing power meant joining the Shadow. She's trying to impress him by being his bad guy equal. "If only I can stand toe to toe with him, he'll notice me and love me." Sociopath reasoning, but it fits with Lanfear's behavior.

 

Per RJ she was "ripe for the shadows plucking" long before the bore was drilled and the character flaws that led her to join were exhibited throughout her entire life. It is no coincidence that in a time in which self sacrifice and public service were the most prized traits she failed to earn a third name despite being so powerful.

 

To your other points her protecting and guarding Rand had nothing to do with her feelings for him. It was merely an ends to a mean...

 

RJ

And Lanfear holding back and doing good for Rand's sake? Ha! She was psychically fixed on possessing a man who never loved her. Even with that, her desire for Rand was as much a desire for power as for him. To be the one to deliver the Dragon Reborn to the service of the Shadow; that would set her above the other Forsaken. And learning that the access ter'angreal for the two huge sa'angreal were still in existence....Sure, she wanted his love—not least because it had been denied her; Lanfear was a woman who claimed a right to anything she wanted—wanted his devotion, but even more than his body, Lanfear wanted power, the power possibly to replace the Dark One, even to replace the Creator. For Rand's sake? Not a chance.

 

In terms of her power "obtaining" behavior you have it backwards. All he ever was for her was a stepping stone to power and prestige.

 

BWB

Lews Therin broke off the relationship some years before the drilling of the Bore, partly because she loved her association with the great Lews Therin more than she loved the man, and partly because she saw him as a path to power for herself.

 

Rand tells us the truth of the matter himself...

 

TSR

You were mine long before that pale-haired milksop stole you. Before she ever saw you. You loved me!”

 

“And you loved power!” For a moment he felt dazed. The words sounded true — he knew they were true — but where had they come from?

 

Selene — Lanfear — seemed as startled as he, but she recovered quickly.

 

Notice she doesn't even try to deny it, she is just stunned her remembered.

 

Lanfear is a narcissistic sociopath. So yeah, she was ripe for the plucking. She went to the Shadow because it represented a path to power. Before and after doing so, she was obsessed with LTT because he represented a path to power. When she was freed from the Bore, she aided, protected, and taught Rand b/c he represented a path to power. She isn't loyal to the Shadow (at least not moreso than she has to be), and as the RJ quote says, she'd be willing to turn on the Dark One if the right circumstances were present (power in doing so). She's loyal to herself, first and foremost, and that makes her allegiances malleable.

 

Is the path to power closed with the Dark One? Her circumstance with the mindtrap makes that a bit unclear. Would Lanfear be willing or able to watch one of the other Forsaken kill LTT if she were free to stop it? My guess is no. I think she'd say his life and death belong to her. Plus, I don't think she could bear to see one of the others reap the reward.

 

If saving LTT (in a self-serving way) led to her imminent death, I imagine we might find out that Lanfear had actual feelings for LTT, even if those feelings were subservient to her more dominant lust for power. With no power left to grab, the feelings might come to the fore. Death bed confessions are ripe for things like that. Either way, it doesn't matter if what Lanfear confesses is the truth - it matters if she believes it to be the truth.

 

Is it likely? Not very likely. But her "conversion" would be the only one that might not hurt the story. Moridin turning to the light might be interesting philosophically, but it would be a terrible read. You can't have the chief antagonist switch sides at the end. Ishy/Moridin has been the chief antagonist throughout the series - moreso than The Dark One, Padan Fain, Shaidar Haran, etc.

 

Of the other living Forsaken, I'm not sure any of their conversions would be as compelling as Lanfear's could be. So I see it as very unlikely, also.

[nolirion]

She doe's not love LTT she love the power he represent and now she hate him more and more .

Only Morridin have a serious shot in doing an act of good in the fight and even then I don't think he would be redeemed .

I am always puzzled when people give Lanfear a shot at good , out of all the forsaken she is the less likely to return to the light . if by some hazardous chance she as been "tainted or corrupted "since the opening of the bore to the point her action are not truly her own it would be too easy .

I think people imagine her beauty give her a kindness she don't have or because of her action toward Rand , people forget Moraine letter , if she had had her way with Rand he would be a servant of the shadow by now .

She is not even close to been good

[Morsker]

A lot of the Forsaken don't have the basis in character-development to come to the Light. Ishamael would feel cheap, "Oh, I changed my mind." Lanfear and Graendel are so one-dimensionally evil; what would they even be like if they came to the Light?

 

I see a chance for Moghedian. She's firmly established as a coward, so if she did something truly brave defying the Shadow, it would be believable that she'd genuinely changed. Maybe Demandred could too, if he admitted that his grudge against Lews Therin is over-the-top ridiculously insane and pointless. I don't think either is likely, but at least they have the kind of character flaws I can imagine someone growing out of.