Who is this diva?
Lanfear is an antagonist in Robert Jordan's high fantasy book series The Wheel of Time and in the Amazon Prime adaptation of the same name. First introduced as a mysterious innkeeper named Selene, she is soon revealed to be one of the Forsaken - a group of powerful channelers who swore their oaths to the Dark One and fought on the side of the Shadow during the War of Power thousands of years ago. She and the others were then sealed into an eternal prison by Lews Therin Telamon (aka Lanfear's ex that she's obsessed with, yikes). The prison, however, proved to be not as eternal as originally thought... Now Lanfear is free again, pursuing her own agenda and being a menace to everyone around her in general.
Lanfear's defining characteristics are:
- Lust for power. Power is what she loves most, and she craves as much of it as she can get. I feel like hunger for more of not just power but pretty much anything in general is her main character trait. The woman has no chill. She just doesn't know when to stop. And I love her for it.
- Obsession with Lews Therin Telamon and, by proxy, with his reincarnation Rand al'Thor. The tragedy of Lanfear is that she simply can't get over a guy. As far as I understand, in the books it's unclear whether she was actually in love with Lews or just loved his power and status. In the show, however, it definitely seems like she had some feelings for him (which I love because it gives her more depth).
- Cruelty. She can blow up a guy's head with a flick of her wrist, throw fireballs at innocent people just going about their day, torture her ex's current girlfriend... The list goes on.
- Physical beauty. In the books Lanfear is hailed as being one of the most beautiful women of her time and is described by other characters as being the most beautiful woman they've ever seen. The show doesn't really draw much attention to Lanfear's appearance like that, but I think we can all agree that she is gorgeous. I would personally do anything for her.
In the Prime adaptation, Lanfear is portrayed by Natasha O'Keeffe. She appears in nearly every episode of seasons 2 and 3, except for s2e01 and s3e07.
I feel like this is a good time to talk about how I'm a show-only fan who hasn't read the books, but I know bits and pieces up to a certain point.
Lanfear's story