After the disaster at the message board I wanted to post here some theories, that I posted previously in the forums and that were lost there.

When Perrin asks Moiraine about the meaning of the name Zarine, Moiraine explains that a mother will give her daughter such name only if she is sure this daughter will become sensational court beauty, who devotes her life to break the hearts of everybody. Most often specific types of fatal beauty are derived from names of heroines of famous legends or poetry (e.g. Isolde, Juliet). It's quite likely that for the Saldaean culture "Zarine" meant something very similar to the "la belle dame sans merci" for 12-17th century Europe.

Faile is known to dislike the image of "Zarine" - her given name, she hates to be called "Zarine", she is even ashamed of it. But she is not completely free from the "Zarine" ingredient in her complex character. "Zarine" is the name her mother insisted on, i.e. Deira Bashere wants to see "Zarine" in her daughter and has worked to that end. Faile prefers her father's influence ("Faile" was how he called her sometimes when she was a child), she has even struggled against her mother, but she is still dependent of her in some crucial things. Especially she is dependent on her mother for her beliefs of how the ideal married woman ought to behave. Faile explicitly thinks that her mother is a master in the art of being a Saldaean wife, and that she has to learn more from her how to do her own role in the best way. Deira is the supreme authority on, and the high standard of, the art-of-being-wife. And Deira the ideal Saldaean Wife, is fond of the "Zarine" archetype and wants her daughter be associated with it. The conclusion from both these facts is, that Faile will apply some Zarine-traits in her marriage policy, and that she even will do it consciously despite of all her unwillingness to be a "Zarine". It is significant that Faile, who always disliked to be called Zarine and insisted on calling herself Faile, one single time completely willingly and without a visible need called herself "Zarine": when vowing her marriage vow. After Perrin in his vow called her "Faile", she said in her vow "I Zarine Bashere..." I.e. she consciously enters the marriage as a "Zarine".

Faile, when becoming a huntress (i.e. leaving her Zarine-past behind) promised to herself never to touch a fan again. Fan-language was part of Saldaean aristocratic court behaviour and especially stresses signs that are to be given to men. I.e. the fan is the main woman's attribute in Saldaean gallantry, in the high art of poetical aristocratic flirting. As "Zarine" is described as a court beauty, she would definitely be associated with fans.

Another thing Faile shows an ambivalent and emotionally overloaded reaction about, is the sa-sara. When she said, she will dance the sa-sara for Perrin, she was in a short fit of jealousy, and in that moment she was prepared to use anthing to out-trump all other women in the world. But later she denied ever having mentioned the sa-sara, to say nothing about dancing it, and IIRC Perrin noticed in her a regret of saying that about the sa-sara, even with some nuance of being ashamed. Maybe the fact, that the sa'sara is forbidden in Saldea, especially by Saldaean queens as a factor in rebellions (having in mind that Faile herself is a heir of the Saldaean throne, i.e. her relation to the sa'sara is very meaningful for Saldaean inner politics), and that the sa'sara is known to be a really unbridled kind of dance, would be enough to explain Faile's displeasure. Maybe. But I would not expect that Faile would be so shy on this particular point, since she could remain a sa'sara denier in her public appearance and have the sa'sara in her intimate life, together with the Saldaean farm-girl stuff. But if the sa'sara is also an attribute of Zarine, this will explain Faile's dislike to have anything common with it.

Moiraine's explanation describes the legendary Zarine as a typical femme fatale. Furthermore, Moiraine's explanation (and Faile's expectation that Perrin could know what Zarine means) is an indication, that this Zarine was a famous femme fatale (historical or legendary - no matter what). Sa'sara dancers are known to be Saldaea's famous standard for a femme fatale. Sa'sara dancers caused riots and revolts in the past and it is apparently for this reason that the sa'sara is now illegal in Saldaea. This makes it very possible that the legendary Zarine was a famous (maybe the most famous) sa'sara dancer, who was also subtle enough to behave like a perfect Saldaean aristocrat, with all the references to fans, arts and politics, and influenced many mighty noblemen and that the story involving her most possibly had an impressive tragic end. If this Zarine manifested some high-poetical romantic motivation and not just plain egoism, she could remain an ideal character despite the negative consequences she caused.

But this Zarine was definitely connected with a tragic end. At least for the ones who were in love with her. Sa'sara dancers were known primarily for causing great troubles. Their immense influence meant that they caused men to do foolish things, and this silliness had devastating social consequences (rebellion and riots). The dancers' reputations are closer to the famous ancient hetaeras than to noble ladies. In order to cause riots using mainly an ‘entertainer's' position, these dancers broke social and matrimonial bonds rather than used them. The illegality of the sa'sara means that in Saldea it's associated with doom. But even if the legendary Zarine was not a sa'sara dancer, she was associated with seduction, bond-breaking and doom, and not with happy marriages and long blood-lines. Moiraine's description of the palace beauty who breaks many hearts, doesn't indicate the good wife type. Also Moiraine said, that only a mother who is sure that her daughter will fit in the requirements of the name, will dare to name her daughter so. That means that the name is not appropriate for any woman, that it is not convenient to have such a name, and that it manifests rather an extravagant taste of the mother, with some nuance of a challenge, a somewhat scandalous name.

Why would Deira, the expert about happy Saldaean marriage, insist on giving her first-born daughter (and possible heir to the Saldaean throne) a name that is associated rather with doomed love and broken marriages? Because according to Deira's standards of good marriage the wife must be really a great challenge for the ideal husband, so that only the best man would be able to cope with her. It's something similar to the Aiel bride who fights fiercely against the man she chooses to be her husband, to let him know how serious it is to marry her. Deira wants for her daughter the highest possible standards for marriage and for that purpose the daughter must be the highest possible challenge. If "Zarine" is the legendary cliché of a dangerous woman that does with men what she wants and leads them to doom, having such a name will show that this woman will be very difficult to "tame" by her husband, and therefore she is to be considered as the highest standard of a wife. Deira wants actually to raise the criteria as high as possible.

When Perrin meets Deira, her efforts are to put it into Perrin's head how dangerous Faile is for his free will and future, how difficult it will be to tame Faile and how much is wanted from him for this purpose. Faile in this scene is demonstrating how well Perrin has coped with the task of the taming, whereas before Perrin entered the room, Faile practically proved to her mother how hard-to-be-tamed she is. Actually the whole scene of Deira meeting Faile and Perrin were Deira's serious attempt to judge how well the new couple fit the stereotypes and standards Deira was dreaming about, when she gave her daughter the name Zarine.

So, Faile was expected by her mother to develope some traits of the legendary femme fatale named Zarine, to have them as a real danger for her husband's (and her own) happiness, and so to give her husband the opportunity to counter this traits with his own strength and to neutralize them. Deira wanted her daughter to develop these unpleasant traits so that they would be defeated in the marriage. Faile herself was not so enthusiastic about her mother's scenario, actually Faile hated this scenario. But this was an important part of her education, and she has some residue of it in her character, and she definitely is partially accepting of it concerning the role she has to play in her marriage (again she did her marriage vow as "Zarine Bashere" ). So something of the matrimonial relations between Faile and Perrin will be afflicted by the "Zarine" archetype.

One of the influences of "Zarine", IMO, is the way Faile is fighting against Berelain. I mean not her actions against Berelain but her actions to Perrin, these periods of acting in a cold and unreachable manner after a short period of demonstratively ardent relations. Faile knows how to win Perrin's heart, so her actions, apparently not good for the purpose of persuading Perrin in anything, are caused by another model of behaviour. When she came across rival, this turned on some stereotypes in Faile's mind, on how a rival is to be fought. I would bet, that the legendary Zarine would first show how attractive she is, and then she would show how deadly unreachable she would be if the man will act not in the way she is expecting him to act. This is most commonly the stereotype of a femme fatale. Another problem here is that Berelain also fits the image of the femme fatale and she fits well. Actually Berelain is acting like the "Zarine" but without the culturally specific requirements (Berelain understands not the language of fans, she would not speak about music when planning a defence from Trollocs, and she cannot dance sa'sara), i.e. Berelain is a voluntary "Zarine" without the outer cultural brilliance of "Zarine" but having a different sort of brilliance, a "vulgar" kind of flash, i.e. everything Faile herself doesn't accept in "Zarine". Actually Berelain is playing according to her own cultural stereotypes of a femme fatale, with some style differences, but with the same core structure, and so Berelain's actions fit very well into the "Zarine" model, and Faile is reacting accordingly (Faile understands very well what Berelain wants, she recognizes the "Zarine" type of woman in her). So Faile is in a situation when her stereotype tells her to be a Zarine against another even more zarineish "Zarine".

Perrin is in the situation of having to fulfil the requirements of a bunch of stereotypes. Both Faile and Berelain are driving him into a trap of expectations. Faile wants him to show himself as the living ideal of Saldaean husband against a "Zarine"-challenge (what would be the possible solution of Berelain's stereotype is the subject of another theory). I don't know how this cliché can be broken by Perrin. But if he doesn't break it, Faile will only be encouraged to put more and more of her "Zarine" ingredient in play (fortunately she is not with Perrin now, but after her eventual rescue...). And "Zarine" is a figure that promises doom rather than good.