Tam

Another Rant

"Fear isn't the only way to control people."

"No, but it's the quickest. I would know."

GUYS!!!! TAM IS AFRAID OF HIS PARENTS!!!!

Ok, you're probably thinking "well who wouldn't be? they're scary!" But hear me out.

Let's compare Keefe and the twins. Both of them have horrible parents, and neither of these is any way to raise a child. Buuuut.....

Keefe: He was verbally abused by both his mother and his father, but considered his mom to be the "better" parent, simply because she was kinder to Keefe than his father was. We have multiple memories and flashbacks from Keefe, plus several encounters with both Lady Gisela and Lord Cassius, in which they talked about Keefe and other things. His parents (mainly his father) placed extremely high expectations on him, and this gave him a very low opinion of himself.

Tam and Linh: It's been hinted several times that they were verbally abused as well, but most likely only by their father. Their mother probably took a passive stand and stood by and watched, which is almost as bad. I say "probably" and "most likely" because we don't actually know. We know their father lied about their age and expected them to do the same, we know that their parents allowed Linh to be banished, and we know that even when trying to reconcile with her children, Mai only wanted to see one of her children's paintings at a time. They also pushed Linh unnecessarily hard and refused to leave Choralmere when the council suggested it.

My point is, we know a LOT about Keefe's situation at home, both past and present. We know a decent amount of Tam and Linh's at the present, in the brief hours they spent at Choralmere. However, we know virtually nothing of Tam and Linh's past, except what Tam has told us, which is basically what I've said above. But honestly, I think Tam drops a lot more hints than we think.

1. Tam's self-esteem

Tam seems to have much lower self-esteem than Linh. She's simply afraid of her power and afraid of losing control, with very good reason. Her parents took her underwater way younger than they should have, and they blame her for what happened. That is not okay. And yet, she doesn't seem to have any other self-esteem problems. In fact, after Atlantis, she seems amazingly confident, as if that was the only thing bringing her down.

Tam on the other hand, not so much. When Lady Zillah approached him about controlling shadowvapor, he started coming up with reasons why he shouldn't do it.

"Isn't there someone with more training who should do that? I've only been at Foxfire a few months."

"And you've shown more potential in our sessions than any Shade I've ever worked with," Lady Zillah insisted. "And with the right discipline--"

"See, that's the thing though: I'm bad with discipline. Ask my Exillium Coaches. They hated me."

"From what I've heard about the conditions you endured in that struggling program, I'd say any defiance you demonstrated was both deserved and necessary," Magnate Leto assured him.

"Maybe," Tam conceded. "But...I still don't think I'm the right guy for this. I've seen what Linh deals with--and I know you're saying it won't be as bad as that. But the thing is: She's also way more determined than I am."

I don't know about you, but I've never heard Tam like this before. He seems to view Linh as much stronger than him, and I have a theory as to why that is that I'll get to later.

His selflessness also comes into play here. So far it's been pretty simple things, like waiting for Calla (who he'd never met before) to go onto the river in Ravagg before him, things like that. But then he does what he does in Flashback (*muffled sobbing*), and it could get to a much severer point. One possible reason for this? He doesn't view his safety as a priority. Mr. Forkle has said that he's broken several bones taking careless risks, and Tam himself has told Sophie constantly that he doesn't care about himself, as long as Linh is safe.