Hmmm, I have to say, to me, he was indeed a hero. Oh, there were times that I raved at him, called him heartless, cruel, montrous, etc. Many times I wanted to strangle him, shout in his face "don't you know they need you!! Snap out of your self pity and do something!!" But, then, there were the times when he broke my heart. His attempt to make amends by bargaining with the Ranyhyn. The Rock Gardens of Mearl, when he tells of the woman in the Leprosarium. The trek thru Foul's winter when calls Lena his Queen. The confrontation in Foul's Creche when he tells Foamfollower to laugh, "joy is in the ears that hear." Caer-Caveral and the Dead of Andelian when he weeps at their feet, "What do you want, I'll do anything". And then, Coercri. His redepemtion of the damned in the wild magic caamora. If nothing else, that alone makes him my hero. That alone transcends all the heartache he caused, that alone rises him to the selflessness of hero stature. "Come! This is the caamora! Come and be healed!"
To me, his bitterness, his despair, his grief all make him a "better" hero. Not all heros are shining knights in armor with hearts of gold. Thomas Covenant sure doesn't fall within that category. But, he does grow. The person we meet at the beginning of Lord Foul's Bane, the one who rapes and seems so self absorbed that you just want to puke when you read his name, is not the same person who sacrifices everything, including his life, for the Land at the end of White Gold Wielder. What a master weaver Donaldson is. He made me LOVE this man!!
I used to talk with my brother about Covenant, my brother understood him better than I did, I think. He identified with him, having AIDS, he felt the same ostraciztion as Covenant did. Being feared, being hated, because of a disease he had no control over. I remember asking my brother, "If you were taken somewhere like the Land, healed of your disease and asked to save it from it's enemy, would you do it?" And he told me that he would feel like Covenant, that it was all a lie, a dream, he wouldn't be able to stand all the glory and hero worship thrust at him, he would probably tell them all to leave him the hell alone. And he also said. Covenant didn't want to do to anything because he didn't want to be responsible for the Land. He didn't trust himself, he loathed himself and loathed everything he did. Also, every time he tried, it failed or rebounded on him. Like the ranyhyn bargain. "I would just want to ride out the dream, like he did."
But, Covenant didn't do that. He did act, he did take responsibility. In all his grief and self-loathing, he fell in love with the Land, its people, its Earthpower, its beauty, its truth. And he did ultimately rise up and become its hero. Illender, Prover of Life, his was the Power that Perserves.
) for anyone who hasn't read TCTC and for those who complain about him mid-way through LFB. True you got some spoilers there but hey they can just quit their bitchin' and get on with the story. 
