Mazerin Tain

[VictorMark]

I was wondering what everyone thought of Mazerim Taim. I know he's a darkfriend, and he clearly becomes on of the Chosen, but I have a feeling he wasn't always evil.

 

Rand was always horrible to Taim, and not just because of LLT. I don't remember the exact line, but Rand said that even without LLT raving about killing Taim in his head, he didn't trust or like him.

 

So my question is this: was Taim a darkfriend before, or did Rand mistreat him to the point that he defected to the Shadow, recruited dreadlords and became M'hael of the Chosen?

 

Edit: just realized I posted in the wrong topic, sorry

Edited May 15, 2018 by VictorMark

[BFG]

Moving to the main discussion board...

[Sabio]

No he wasn't always a DF.  Basicly Dem gave him a choice when he was captured to join the DO or stay captured.  With Taim's personality and the thought of being gentled the choice was an easy one for him.  He was a DF when he went to Rand but he wasn't one until Dem freed him.  Rand wasn't horrible to Taim, Rude yes but for the most part he left Taim to do his own thing.  Even Rand didn't understand why he disliked Taim so much, but part of that was also the madness.  You also have to remember he kept disobeying Rand's orders.  He fired the guy Rand hired to teach the men the sword,  he never tried recruiting for the legion of the dragon, and he was way to open about his recruiting which Rand sort of wanted kept low key.  

Edited June 19, 2018 by Sabio

[BFG]

Rand disliked taim in part to foreshadow the demanded reveal which was a possibility until ~lord of chaos?

 

https://www.theoryland.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=8767

[BFG]

Assuming taim as an individual separate from demandred he displayed characteristics of the forsaken, ie self (importance) above others etc, he didn't like serving and wanted to be more important

 

That said training ashaman is arguably the most important thing at that time and a huge amount of trust so difficult to see what else he could have wanted

[solarz]

On 5/19/2018 at 10:15 AM, Sabio said:

 Even Rand didn't understand why he disliked Taim so much, but part of that was also the madness.

 

My opinion on this is that Taim was originally intended to be Demandred. There were clues when we first meet Taim, like how Bashere (who was responsible for hunting the man down) couldn't recognize him, how Taim get enraged (though he hides it) whenever Rand gives him an order, and how Lews Therin keeps wanting to kill Taim.

 

I think on a subconscious level, LTT recognized Dem, who was arguably LTT's most hated forsaken.

[Sabio]

We know from his notes https://dragonmount.com/forums/topic/96065-bits-from-rjs-notes/ that regardless of RJ's denials he originally had Dem and Taim the same person.  My guess is he changed it because so many guessed so quickly that they were the same person.