Did Lanfear love Rand?

[ryanphlp2002]

I think it would be a tad arrogant to define love, the world is full of people we may detest yet are loved by someone. As Plato (or was it Jerry Maguire?) said, it is someone who completes you, for Lanfear it was one thing alas for her Rand did not agree, he was right? But then he "loves" Elayne, explain that...

[Zentari]

Well, as someone has pointed out she felt attraction to him, that's for sure.As to how "pure" that love was , it's up in the air.

 

 

Only if you are incredibly shallow. Though I admit most men are, when it comes to that.

This coming from a feminist who fights against gender stereotypes ? The irony...

[francy]

I think she loved LTT in her own way. She transfered that love to Rand but she didn't really know or love Rand himself. But I don't think that she would have ever been into LTT if he didn't have power so that was certainly part of his attraction to her.

 

Yep!

 

You took the words out of my mouth! :-)

[mb]

Just to make sure, does the poll have a certain kind of love in mind?

If so, which kind? (agape, eros, philia, storge, xenia, etc)

[sleepinghour]

"If this Rand al'Thor really is Lews Therin Telamon reborn," Graendal went on, settling herself on the man's back where he crouched on all fours, "I am surprised you haven't tried to snuggle him into your bed, Lanfear. Or would it be so easy? I seem to remember Lews Therin led you by the nose, not the other way around. Squelched your little tantrums. Sent you running to fetch his wine, in a manner of speaking." She set her own wine on the tray, held out rigidly by the sightlessly kneeling woman. "You were so obsessed with him you'd have stretched out at his feet if he said 'rug'."

She would have faced the Great Lord--faced the Creator!--with him. She would have shared the power with him, let him rule the world at her side. And he had spurned her love, spurned her!

Graendal called it an obsession, and maybe that's a better word for it than love. Lanfear at least believed herself to be in love with LTT.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

crazy love is still love. not usually a great idea in the long run, and often ends with a slo-mo machine gunning, but that would be where the crazy part comes in.

 

i think the definintion's indefinite, mb.

 

maybe cs lewis knows.

[Finnssss22]

She's an extreme narcissist, pretty much text book in fact. She's not capable of loving anyone else.

 

An obsession with what she can't have is not love, it's just what she believes it to be.

[Mr Ares]

Lanfear loved power, and LTT was a means to get power, as was Rand - she loved the ends, not the means. She was obsessed with them as well, but obsession isn't love. But there is really nothing to say that she loved them, unless we are to use her own definition of that word. Which I'm not.

[Terez]

Agreed, obviously (since I voted option one). But it seems many think the definition of 'love' is mutable.

[Ananta]

Word 'love' is quite often used way too loosely. Anyhow, I'd say that at most she had a crush on Rand. She might have loved Lews Therin (and even though Rand is Lews Therin reborn, they are still not "the same person".) And she definitely found the power they both, Rand and Lews, carry/carried very arousing.

[Ala Rubra]

Assuming everything said about Lanfear in the books is true(and there is no reason not to), then I believe that Mierin did love Lews Therin, and Lews Therin did love her, at least in the beginning. After all, it seems that they were together for a very long time before Lews dumped her.

 

Of course, I don't think that Lanfear really loves Rand. I think she loves not just the power he could bring her, but also the idea and the memory of what she had when she was younger. In other words, she hasn't gotten over the break-up. It's possible that the time they were together was the closest thing to happy she'd ever been. But then, I'm a bit of a romantic.

[Entreri]

She was going after THE Alpha male of the Age, of any Age. What woman wouldn't want a chance at LTT? Women craved him, men envied him.

 

 

 

She loved him in her own special way, but clearly she was inadequate for LTT.

[ina sakhanskaya]

Lanfear loved Lewis Therin and that's that. She was just a woman who was irritated and humiliated by the fact that the man she loved chose another woman instead of her. this has nothing to do with Rand personally. But i hope she'll be included in the last battle to torture Rand a bit...

[Nightstrike]

Lanfear loved Lewis Therin and that's that. She was just a woman who was irritated and humiliated by the fact that the man she loved chose another woman instead of her. this has nothing to do with Rand personally. But i hope she'll be included in the last battle to torture Rand a bit...

I can't help but wonder if you've read this:

Letter to Carolyn Fusinato from RJ - 1 February 1994

 

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.

[Nightstrike]

Note the year RJ said that. It was 1994!

[RelentlessAttack]

Lets pretend that attraction in the real world isn't influenced at all by perceptions of appearance, status, wealth, etc. Actually, let's not, because that would be completely retarded!. Even if part of her attraction for LTT was generated by his power/wealth/status, that doesn't mean she doesn't love him. People in the real world are initially attracted to one another for all kinds of shallow reasons, and then more meaningful relationships develop over time. Now, she may be violent, crazy, delusional, whatever, but she obviously felt that she loved LTT and I don't see her mental instability as a valid reason to discount this. What you feel is what you feel, but if you're crazy and have weird mood swings or have anti-social/manipulative tendencies that dominate at certain times, that doesn't mean that your previous feelings didn't exist and won't in the future.

 

If it was all about power, why didn't she go for Ishy (pre-TP destruction of his appearance, or Demandred, or some other powerful individual. She remained attached to LTT/rand for an incredible amount of time, and the extremely jealous and violent way she reacted suggests that she was deeply hurt by the fact that she was rejected in two lifetimes. So basically, she loved him, she just also happened to fit the Crazy/Hot scale to a T.

 

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110205005948/himym/images/a/ab/BlogHotCrazyScale.jpg

[farthammer]

What are you, Dr F***ING PHIL??

[Nightstrike]

Sexuall attraction is not love. There are lots of people that have sex without actually loving each other.

[farthammer]

For example, myself and Nightstrike's father.

[mb]

sexual attraction could actually fall under eros.

[Pandemonium]

Well, she almost rode Rand like the cowboy that he is back in TSR. Asmodean got in the way and cock-blocked her though. But no one ever said that lust=love

 

Ah, getting sigged

 

 

Also, I voted for option 1. I don't see it any other way. She could 'love' LTT himself, but but he way she is described in the book I just can't see any other but option 1 for her.

 

I'm very flattered by your signature :P

[Nightstrike]

sexual attraction could actually fall under eros.

Yes, but not under the question asked in the beginning of the thread.

 

Edit: Don't get me wrong, eros is part of loving someone, but the question was whether she actually loved Rand. Not whether she was sexually attracted to him or obsessed with "owning" him.

[FarShainMael]

Lanfear loved LTT in her own, distorted way - she was crazy, after all.

Wow, I'm really surprised about the result from this poll. Just out of curiousity - how do you define "love"?

 

Here's what the NIV Bible has to say..

 

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=NIV

 

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 

Lanfear? Nah.

[Elan Tedronai]

Love is overrated. Nothing is better than pure unadulerated raging lust.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

there are all kinds of love and all kinds of ways to love, delusion et al.

 

my cats love mice. they truly, madly, deeply love them. they sometimes develop relationships than can last for weeks and months. it's not a godly or a goodly love, but it is passionate and true and appears to be satisfying for all parties while it lasts. it is a lustful, playful, crazy love. it usually ends badly for the mice, but not always. i think most predators love their prey.

 

anyhoo, to sum up - i don't think you can get too many people to agree on the specific definition of love. it's as subjective a thing as can be.