I would say that the heros of the light were often reluctant heros, and ironicly fain had set up a lot of what was happening, particularly proving a interesting idea, if not for fain Rand may not have interfered with those where fain touched, the white cloaks may have even been a welcome allie from the start and forced the tower into a weird position where they had to submit peacefully or else let the dragon be supported by white cloaks which would be disasterous if he took their frame of mind, it would have forced suian to even be more supporteive and given more handle over the hall since they would be in an uproar over it, so you could argue fain was still a agent of the shadow preventing the white cloaks and the white tower from supporting him as they naturally would have given the facts of the matter and the fight against the shadow....

for instance rand did nothing to the borderlanders or countries where someone did not screw up the monarchie or laeadership, even shara was one where he did not really interfere with, which is odd but I guess he was paranoid that wherever he went that he would bring destruction, suffering, sorrow, so he was trying to avoid touching as many lands as possible lest he destroy the world by visiting the world as the dragon, which is why hes so free now to sail anonymously not even as the dragon, or in the body of the dragon reborn, but just a young man free, whose seen enough of war to be happy to just see peace.

and that is the truth of the ending of the series.