Thom and Mo? Really? Who saw that coming?

[Chivalry]

I personally didn't notice any affection between Mo and Thom but frankly speaking it was the most disappointing and perhaps even disgusting scene in ToM. Thom is OLD! excuse me RJ, but how could you make a couple of these two??????? YAK

 

The affection has been implied almost from the start. As for Thom's age, keep in mind, Mo is no teenager. And if this offends you, what about Siuan (who no longer has the ageless AS face) and her arthritic general?

[Elend]

Mo and Thom are around the same age, Thom being maybe 10 years older? Remember, both "made their bones" as it were, during the Aiel War or its immediate aftermath. Thom with Morgase during the Succession Crisis and Mo with the whole being raised to the shawl and hunting BA thing.

[David Selig]

Moiraine is 43 or 44 years old.

 

Thom must'be at least sixty since Morgase thought at one point about him "He had been twice her age then, yet she might have married him — marriages with commoners were not unheard of in Andor — but he vanished without a word, and her temper got the better of her.". The time she was thinking about must've been around 16-17 years ago, when Taringail was dead and before Thom went to help his nephew. Back then Morgase was around 25-26 (she and Moiraine are born the same year or with one year difference at most), so even if she exaggerated a bit, Thom is surely a lot older than Moiraine - 60-65, something like that.

[Kahsm]

So after ToM, I've started an audiobook 'read'through. I'm about half way through book 1 so far (they are quite well read as others have suggested). And given what I saw in ToM, this whole Thom and Mo thing has started to bother me more.

 

There's one scene in particular, mentioned in this thread as the begining of 'Thoiraine' or 'Moom' (lolol). It's the very first scene when Thom and Mo come face to face in the Two Rivers. It's a somewhat awkward encounter which some have cited as the start of their 'instant chemistry'. Since having heard the reader read it on the audio book, I've had a completely different opinion of this situation.

 

It seems to me it was simply a "stealth" conversation with Mo telling Thom to keep his mouth shut about her being an Aes Sedai, and Thom saying he wouldn't tell anyone. No relationship stuff or googly eyes at all. She says something about certain stories that would not go over well, and he says he'll keep to proper stories. All code speak for a simple:

 

Mo: "I know, that you know, I'm an Aes Sedai, but these people don't know that yet so keep your mouth shut."

Thom: "Yeah, yeah I won't tell them."

 

The stuttering and sluggishness of the lines is just because they were parsing the unspoken words, after having been startled to see each other in the middle of nowhere.

[anotherfingolfin]

Whatever foreshadowing may have hinted at it, I still don't buy it. As in, it's one of the most ill-concieved and least developed. Romance is one of the weakest facets in the writing in this series imho, especially in the fact that it's overdone. This relationship being one of the worst developed; its culmination around the ToG events really nailed in my view that RJ just thought- and very wrongly so- that every single character needed to find true love, regardless of how well he could play it.

[Finnssss22]

Morgase laid claim to the Lion throne at 16, won the succession and married Taringail at 18.

Taringail is killed in 984, Thom and Morgase are lovers just after this. Elayne is around 3-4 years old.

Tigraine disappeared in 972, her mother, Queen Mordrellen dies shortly after, placing the start of the succession at around 972-973. We know this to be accurate because Gitara Moroso was Mordrellen's advisor and went back to the White Tower after the Queen's death and would then become Keeper to Tamra Ospenya in 973.

This all places Morgase's birth to be around 956-957 and if Thom was twice Morgase's age in 984 then he is actually closer to 70-72 years old now.

[Aliriel]

By my rough calculations as of 1000 NE, Moiraine is 44 years old, Morgase is 43 and Siuan is 42.

 

As I cant find any dates connected to Thom or Gareth that would indicate an age, my best guess would be Thom would be mid to late 60's (64-69) and Gareth to be mid 50's to mid 60's (54-66). But those are just guesses.

 

A.

[PastorDeSemolaDeGranoDuro]

My suspicions on Thom and Moiraine were first raised during the chapter in The Shadow Rising, where she asked him to accompany the SG's to Tanchico.