Yeah, if only it was accurate - Edit 1
Before modification by Sidious at 03/06/2010 01:52:11 PM
Some obscure beauty that briefly played the role of arm-candy to an important man and couldn't deal with him moving on...
Actually it's even worse. We know Mierin and LT were together then broke up while they were young and in training, not after LTT became "important". He realised she was with him not because she loved him, but because of his strength and talents, and he broke up.
Mierin was always nuts, and never got over a college fling.... LTT married Ilyena 50 years before the WOS and he has some grey hair, so that gives us an idea just how deranged Mierin Aronaille was.
Except for the fact that Lews Therin tells Lanfear that he turned away from her long before he met Ilyena, which implies that they were together when he met her. He says that her constant assumption that Ilyena 'stole him' is a lie. There's no evidence that they dated when they were in 'college' and hundreds of years later she was still after him.
Not only nuts but weak willed. Here is a woman with every advantage, clearly brilliant (she was a researcher after all), strong in the Power, beautiful. Yet so fundamentally flawed that even after living for well over 200 years she hadn't been able to get over being dumped. Not to mention how poorly she must have been viewed for being unable to earn the 3rd name despite her obvious advantages.
Beauty and strength have nothing to do with getting a third name. It was given for serving society, and we don't know how rare or difficult it was to get. You might as well say that every scientist who has never achieved a Nobel prize is a loser who hasn't used his gifts.
I have to say I think the reason Graendal became my favorite Forsaken was for this quote, which really highlights what we are discussing here.
tFoH
The First Sparks Fall
"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'."
tFoH
The First Sparks Fall
"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'."
Graendal - source of unbiased evidence. LOL