This is a post I originally made on the /r/wot subreddit. Figured I would start moving over some of my high effort posts to the fediverse. There doesn't appear to be a big fantasy or Wheel of Time community yet so I thought I would post here
FULL SERIES SPOILERS AHEAD
Padan Fain gets ganked like a chump at the last battle. His incidental death disappointed many fans.
Yet if we peek below the surface of Fain's demise, I believe hints of a subtle design in the Pattern emerge that can be spun forward into implications about the Creator's deepest convictions.
The theory I'm about to lay out rests on an existing theory many of you will be familiar with: Fain as a backup Dark One.
Let's review:
In the depths of Shayul Ghul, Rand is grappling not just with the Dark One, but with himself. He enters the fray determined to destroy the Dark One for good, and throughout the battle is challenged with visions of the meaningless existence he would leave for the world, were he to achieve his goal.
At this point, the Pattern can't rely on what Rand will choose, so it has Fain on standby to take the Dark One's place if needed. And just like the pattern shanked the False Dragons it produced after Rand took up the mantle, as soon as Rand chooses not to destroy the Dark One, the Wheel unceremoniously disposes of Fain; it's clear the burgeoning God is no longer needed to spin the Pattern as intended. Mat is just a convenient nearby tool it has arranged to complete the task.
A few passages back this up:
[Padan Fain] was not reborn yet, not completely. He would need to find a place to infest, a place where the barriers between worlds were thin.There, he could seep his self into the very stones and embed his awareness into that location.
At that moment, Fain is going towards the Mouth of Shayul Ghul to kill Rand. Rand is at the perfect place for Fain to infest: the Bore. The Pattern aimed him like an arrow towards where it needed him at the Last Battle. And it did it all the way in book one, when it tricked the Dark One into imprinting Fain on Rand.
Let me say that again.
The Pattern tricked the Dark One into helping create and maneuver His own replacement.
I mean, just look at Faine's new name for himself:
Shaisam rolled onto the battlefield at Thakan’dar.
Shaisam. Looks a lot like Shai'tan, huh?
There's a few implications I LOVE about this theory. Let's look at another passage:
The process would take years, but once it happened, he would become more difficult to kill.
Right now, Shaisam was frail. This mortal form that walked at the center of his mind … he was bound to it. Fain, it had been. Padan Fain.
Still, he was vast. Those souls had given rise to much mist, and it—in turn—found others to feed upon. Men fought Shadowspawn before him. All would give him strength.
This snippet implies that although Fain is vulnerable, he's approaching the amount of power he can weild. His power is, if not equal to, at least comparable to the Dark One when the Pattern composts him. This makes sense. The Pattern's need for him was imminent if the Dark One was to be destroyed; there isn't a TON of time left for him to rank up his power.
Which leads to a conclusion: the Pattern could have also easily disposed of the Dark One at any point in the story. It just doesn't. Instead, it keeps the Dark One just contained enough to allow the universe's inhabitants to live their lives while having the choice to give into evil or not. If we think about it, walking that line likely takes even greater dominance than simply defeating the Dark One outright.
This solves another problem. We know that in other turnings of the Wheel, the Champion of the Light went over to the Shadow. In those turnings, the war was a draw. From the Crossroads of Twilight book tour:
Robert Jordan: Yes, the Champion of the Light has gone over in the past. This is a game you have to win every time. Or rather, that you can only lose once--you can stay in if you get a draw. Think of a tournament with single elimination. If you lose once, that's it. In the past, when the Champion of the Light has gone over to the Shadow, the result has been a draw.
That always struck me as weird. Can you imagine if god-tier Rand had gone over to the Shadow? How could that possibly end in anything other than a decisive loss on the Light's part? It strains credulity that the Light could eek out a draw from such a situation over and over again through eternity. Statistically, if the light has triumphed an endless number of times (because if they hadn't, the universe wouldn't exist) it' not an unlikely win, it's an inevitable one. It has to have a 100% chance of happening, because even a 0.00001% chance of the Light losing existed, it would have happened long before the turning we get to see.
The Creator stacked the deck. The Wheel could handle Darth Rand going over to the Shadow like it easily handled Fain. As easily as it could handle the Dark One. It's not fighting against The Dark One, it needs the Dark One to fulfill its purpose and spin the Pattern, because the Pattern is dominated by the interacting lives of those grappling between choosing the Light or the Dark. It's preserving the Dark just as much as it's preserving the Light. In fact, the Pattern needs the Dark so badly the creator set up the Wheel to spin out new Dark Ones the same way it spins out Champions to fight them.
Speaking of which, Fain's existence as the waiter-in-the-wings has a counterpart on the light. Nakomi's inclusion in the story may seem unrelated -- and often puzzling -- at first, but it plays directly into the worldbuilding here. If we accept that The Pattern has positioned her to take up the mantle of Champion should Rand fall — either to death, or despair — she and Fain as a pair reinforce that the conflict between light and dark is the greatest purpose of the Pattern, and must be kept going at all costs.
I'm not going to belabor how CLEARLY this paints the same picture Rand ultimately embraces: to the Creator, the choice between right and wrong is essential for being human to be meaningful.
Instead I want to examine the differences between Fain and the Dark One. The fact that they even are different is interesting. Fain is able to corrupt Trollocs and Mydrall with his power, and it changes their appearance and demeanor. From A Memory of Light:
[Faine's] drones stumbled down the hillside, cloaked in mists. Trollocs with their skin pocked, as if it had boiled. Dead white eyes. He hardly needed them any longer, as their souls had given him fuel to rebuild himself.
The Dark One's followers are fueled by greed and ambition to a tee. They want to dominate others to their will, they want Immortality to rule the world.
But Fain / Mordeth's / Shaisam's 'followers'... those he has touched like dagger-Matt, Shadar Logath, Faine's Whitecloaks -- they're disheveled where the Forsaken are polished, Paranoid where the Forsaken are conniving. Fevered where the Forsaken are cold. Isolationists where the Forsaken crave the spotlight. Give into base instinct where the Forsaken plot.
There are theories that Elaida and Masema were touched by the Dagger, and they exhibit these same tendencies which make them feel pretty distinct from the Forsaken.
If Fain really is meant as a possible replacement, then that means the Pattern might need that replacement. If there's even a miniscule chance Fain might be needed, then given eternity, there's an almost certain chance that the Dark One we know is not the first Dark One. And Fain is different from Shai'tan. So the Dark One before Shai'tan was likely different from Him as well.
Why would the Wheel allow variance in the Shadow and what it brings out in people if it needs things the way they are to spin the Pattern?
Maybe it isn't chance, maybe it's a design feature.
The Wheel of Time offers reincarnation as a way to help people get better in each life, to build on what they learned in the past.
Shai'tan tempts and stokes a very particular part of His followers: the hunger for power and acclaim.
Shaisam would stoke their paranoia and distrust.
And people would grow the most from experiencing both types of temptation and darkness. A rotating cast of Dark Ones makes the turnings of the Wheel varied enough that souls can keep growing.
And while I'm not sure this is what Jordan intended, I think it's an interesting possibility in the text.