Grr. I had a whole bunch of stuff all typed up and then I accidentally exited X:-/
Alright.
I think at this point, the possibility of Ariel's 'redemption' depends on your deffinition of the word. Afterall, 'redemption' can mean anything from being avenged to having a change of heart: it's a wide scale.
The closest Ariel can come to any form of redemption is through the revelation of some terrible past that makes us look at him and go: 'oh, well it wasn't entirely his fault.' Because he's too far gone to have any sort of believable change of heart or other turn around as a character.
That being said, I think Ariel's madness is a birth defect. Maybe there is a tragic childhood on top of that, but there's something Dameon says in the first book:
Isobelle Carmody:
'...what do you feel when you're near him?' I asked.
'Lots of things, and none of them good. The ugliness is deep down in him. It's like being near something that smells sweet, and then you realize it's that sweet smell that rotten things sometimes get,' he said... (p. 149)
As far as I'm concerned, this sounds like the 'ugliness' is in the core of his personality; it's not a facade adopted to hide the pain of childhood trauma, or a affectation taken on to protect himself from such trauma, it is IN him. It is something in his brain that didn't quite develop (my mom mastered in developmental phychology and actually knew a kid that was born with a lump in his brain the prevented him from developing a consience; he had to be locked in his room at night, and one day he actually attacked his father with a kitchen knife because he thought it would be funny: it's more common than you'd think.
There was one thing that this thread drew my attention to: Ariel's hatred of misfits.
Sure, in the first book, he is annoyed by having to deal with all the 'useless dreamers' etc. and by the end of it he probably hates those at Obernewtyn for driving him out into the storm, but I've never got the impression that he actually hates misfits. I mean, he treats them terribly, tortures them, turns them into nulls, but is that hatred? Or is he just doing what he's alaways done: making use of what he has. I think there is no doubt that he hates Elspeth for her role in Obernewtyn, and then later for her role as the seeker, because he needs her to get what he wants, and he's not used to having to rely on other people to the point that he actually has to protect them from harm, especially not someone who has thwarted him so many times. He might even hate Rushton, though he has less reason to.
So my question is: why do we think he hates misfits? Did I miss something? Are my fan-girl glasses blinding me to the truth?
Also, I agree with KaylanR: A truely redeemed/remorseful Ariel would be no fun at all. I love him the way he is. As twisted as that makes me sound.
EDIT: for a 'joke' thread, this discussion has been going on a long time. I hope nobody minds that I bumped it again. But with all that's been revealed in The Stone Key, I'm curious as to people's thoughts NOW.