Spending time with Sarissa may have touched the teeny tiny spark of Mab's mother love. I just can't reconcile the idea that Mab was fanning the wee spark of a soul into a little flame, by spending time with Sarissa, while at the same time she was visiting tortures beyond comprehension on Lloyd Slate. (NOT defending Slate or saying he wasn't due some serious punishment.) I just think soul-growth on weekends would be negated by torture through the work week.
Maybe...the WoJ does say that a human can lose their soul. I'm not sure if that was meant metaphorically though (see my note on the Denarians).
When Bob talks about soul sharing in WN he only mentions Harry sharing his souls with Susan, Murphy, and Lash. None of those are "bad" relationships so he probably wasn't losing his soul...
Bob says that it's soul exchanging so wouldn't that mean that even if interacting with Mortals gave you bits of soul you would swap some back?
Hmmm...
Previous WoJ stated that Mab have no soul, that she is unchangeable. After CD, I think it is possible to question the validity of that particular WoJ. When text and Woj contradict each other, I usually side with the text. WoJ is just Jim's ideas that is not yet put into cannon. He have the right to changed his mind. What is absolutely cannot happened is text contradict text. That will show that Jim is ill prepared. Jim has never make this mistake before and I hope he never will.
So, it is possible, just possible mind you, that Mab can be changed. Maybe, it is even possible to rekindle her soul. According to Mother summer, change in immortals did happened and as we can see with Odin/Santa, such evolution did happened, but it takes a lot of time. Is Odin transforming into Santa is a soul changed or a mantle change is anyone's guess but change in immortals did happened, that is for sure.
I expect that Mab have to be willing to change. Changing a vanilla mortal without his/her consent is already hard. Trying to changed Mab against her wil will be impossible. I don't expect the rules in the DV is not to much different from the real world in this regard, so it is just simple sense.
I did not believe however that just Sarrissa and Harry is enough to changed Mab, not in such short a time and with so little interaction. Especially if Mab don't really want it. She told Maeve that fulfilling your purpose is not slavery, so I assume she is quite satisfied with her current circumstances.
It's not stated anywhere in CD that Mab has a soul. The only mention of it was in the KC WoJ and he says he isn't sure. I'll grant that it's ambiguous.
The WoJ specifically does
not state that Mab is unchangeable. In fact it specifically states that beings without Free Will can become something more. That's the whole point of my theory.
I think that the change that Odin went through with the Kringle Mantle is waaay different than the "growing a soul" change. For one it doesn't really make sense it the context of MW's quote. After all she changed (she became Baba Yaga) so why is she dissing Mab for interacting with mortals too much? Also, neither Odin nor MW gained Free Will from their changes. It also doesn't make sense with the WoJ about the beings themselves not changing but our understanding of them changing. Gaining Free Will and a soul is very much a change of the being.
I don't think Mab has to be willing. The process of convincing a human and giving a being without a soul a soul are two very different things. The mortals aren't trying to convince Mab to change. That would be impossible. They are just unconciously giving a soul. No convincing involved at all.
I think folks took my statement incorrectly. I do believe that Mab tried to find a solution to Maeve before deciding to have her removed. I don't believe she wanted to have an experienced Lady replaced, be it her daughter or not. I believe that as a tool, Maeve was probably pretty good at it until Nemesis got to her.
Also remember that Mab couldn't confront Maeve about her infection until CD, because if she Nemesis knew that Mab knew, Nemesis would have done more to have Mab replaced. Then again, maybe that is what the gambit on DR was really all about. Getting someone to off Mab on Halloween, allowing Maeve to step up. Only Mab had already seen it coming and put things in motion to allow for a smooth transition of power. Having Sarissa hang out with Harry so she'd be in a position to receive the WL mantle. And having a back-up (Molly) in case that didn't work out.
I don't believe Mab being there when it all went down was actually part of the plan. I think Mab was saddend at the need to remove a good tool even more so than having her daughter killed. The fact that it's a two-fer just confuses things. "Mab would sacrifice everything in winter ... and not even have to add sugar to her tea..." is great, but it doesn't really mean that she wants to do it. And anytime someone is of that mindset, they usually don't expect to send their own family to the front lines.
As to her soul. I think she still has her soul. But if you look at it as though it's on a spectrum from light (heavely) to black (hellish), her search for and grasping for power has pushed her toward the black end of the spectrum. CAN she be bought back to the light end? Probably. But it'd take a GREAT DEAL of changes for it to occur, and according to the Mothers it would take a great deal of time.
The WoJ wasn't from Mabs perspective. It's not Mab herself saying that. It is a direct statement from the author that Mab wouldn't give a crap if she had to sacrifice
anyone in Winter.
As I remember there was some controversial problems with earlier book that bugs me, but I would have to look after them to get some proves. But one way or another as a good Catholic I decline sola scriptura philosophy and takes WoJ as part of canon itself Therefore I believe that Mab's behaviour in CD doesn't prove that she has her soul. She can have feeling - soulless doesn't mean emotionless, she can have memories of her mortal life. That isn't contrary to her mantle. After all in Winter lone wolf dies, but pack survievs. Winter is cruel, but it isn't mad cruelty. Maeve lost her soul too, but she didn't lose her feelings.
Mab can have feelings. Those feeling will be along the lines of appreciation or sadism. Not things like sentiment or love.
Maeves had feelings yes. They were feelings entirely in line with her Mantle. I didn't see Maeve being kind or sentimental.