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He never said any such thing. All he ever said was that the nature of the two forces is such they are equal in nature (he never spoke of power) and totally opposite at the the same time and could no co-exist in the same space. If you force a quantity of both together, they destroy each other. This is what happened at the Cleansing, the Taint of saidin and Mashadar/SL destroyed one another. All that remains of Mashadar/its taint is with Fain and his dagger that weren't there and weren't destroyed.

Mashadar was hardly the equal of Shai'tan. The taint on saidin was but a small portion of Shai'tan's total power and it was enough to destroy the whole of Mashadar. That Shadar Logoth was a match for the Taint is no coincidence, the Wheel made Shadar Logoth for that very purpose - the sacrifice to get rid of the DO's taint. Perhaps this weakened Shai'tan's power forever, but it changes nothing since Mashadar was a corrupted force from within Creation, so if Shai'tan made a permanent loss of his total energy then, so did the Creator.

Fain's corruptive powers are definitely growing, but he would have to corrupt all of Creation to match Shai'tan's power. The best Fain might "achieve", I would guess, is to have grown powerful enough that a clash with Shaidar Haran would destroy both Fain and SH. I think this is more or less the purpose of Fain and here's why: much like there was a taint on saidin, when Rand manages to make the Pattern impenetrable to Shai'tan again, there will be a residual amount of Shai'tan's "power"/influence etc. left trapped inside - which may very well include the very creature imprinted with Shai'tan's mind... Shaidar Haran. What he could do then is theorical. For all we know, what's left of the TP "inside" Creation, for instance that in Shadowspawn and such, in the Blight and so on might be enough for SH to draw it all (killing all Shadowspawn, absorbing all the maintains the Blight etc.) to attempt to drill a new Bore. Totally theorical, as I said. I don't know exactly why what has been touched by the TP remaining after the sealing (or at the very moment of the sealing) must be destroyed but it sounds very likely it has to, and that's the reason why Fain exists, I think. I think Fain's power by the time of the sealing will be equal to the residue of the True Power/Shai'tan left inside. They'll destroy each other, leaving Creation clean of the DO's touch again, as before the Bore (or even as before the weakness in the pattern appeared, if that weakness is not a permanent feature that remains there always. I suspect it is).


Thematically, Fain represents what happens when those who fight for Creation make themselves as evil as the Shadow to fight it. It gives them the power to destroy the Shadow, but this comes with the destruction of the Light at the same time. Fighting for Creation rather means embracing it fully, and find a way to restore the dividing line between Shadow and Light. Mashadar rather rejects life, and in death grows to absorb all the light to throw himself at the Shadow, destroying for good both forces.

Fain represents self-destruction, one of the two traps Rand very nearly fell into during TGS. First, he gave in to the Dark One to save Min, then he took the path of Shadar Logoth, of mistrust, hatred etc. to the point he nearly killed his own father and on Dragonmount he considered denying Shai'tan his victory by destroying Creation. For several books then, Rand more and more was embracing the ways of the Shadow to fight the Shadow. It had reached the point where he walked, he corrupted. This didn't come from Shai'tan or the True Power, this was Rand, and a power all too similar to Mashadar. Rand was becoming his own walking "Shadar Logoth".

Fain is not like Shai'tan, he's grown into something more like a Dark Dragon. "Dark Rand" is now gone with his epiphany and he's totally become the Champion of the Creator. Fain is what remains of that "theme", but unless he manages to turn the whole world in to SL, he won't ever be a match for Shai'tan, and he wouldn't take his place... Fain would corrupt Creation, and then Shai'tan an Fain would destroy one another.... It would be the end of everything... Shai'tan and Creator alike.