Tam Inconsistancies

[Guest david_lavin]

Not sure if this has been discussed, but when reading ToM, it seems that there are inconsistancies as to where Tam is. In one chapter he's with Perin, then he's with Rand, then he's back with Perin, then Rand's sent him back to the Two Rivers. Is this error just a product of Brandon haivng to rearrange the chapters after the book was split in three? Or is this intentional? Is one of the Tam's a fake?

[moratcorlm]

It isn't inconsistent and Tam's not a fake. While I'm not entirely certain of some of the dates, the sequence of chapters at least is in my sig. The offset timelines just are not particularly elegantly written, and yes, it's probably an artifact of trying to create three narrative structures out of what was planned as one.

[trench]

The timelines are off between Perrin and Rand. In tGS Rand tells Nynaeve to find Perrin on a road near a big stone sword. Perrin's story line doesn't reach that far until ToM. Its a product of the split. Some folks are fairly upset by this, for most it threw them out off the narative. IDK why, some people demand a bit to much of their author's in my mind. All of the Perrin parts leading up to when Tam leaves are pretty boring and would have needlessly draged tGS out. Actually the timelines have been off multiple times durrig the series but there has ever been such a glaring example as this before.

[Durinax]

The consistancy of Tam is that he is universally awesome

[Sharaman]

This timeline thing also happened with Elayne.

First she appears in Egwene's timeline - VoG+2 and then, she appears in Mat's timeline (VoG-15/20).

It's irritating but not tough to figure out.

[capeta]

ya Timelines are tricky at times. The only problem I see with Tam's appearances is that Rand sent him to the two rivers after Tear and yet Perrin thinks to himself later that Tam is off in the two rivers gathering men. Yet we have no point where Tam returns to Perrin to let him know that Rand is sending him to the Two Rivers.

 

-Cap

[Harbin]

The main inconcistency is not the timeline itself but the fact that outside of Perrin's POV there is no mention of the gateway problem in his camp. When Tam departs, Grady has already found out about gateways not working and Perrin's army march is delayed because of this. At the very least Cadsuane should have found out that gateways don't work around Perrin's camp.