Tam in TofM...

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Currently re-reading TofM before January 8 and I've come across a nagging problem that I hope you might be able to shed some light on: there seems to me to be two Tams in this book....

Ch 1 Perrin sends the mercenaries down the line to find Tam and tell him to take them on for meals.

Ch 6 Tam tells Perrin that the lads put a lot of stock in the wolfshead banner.

Ch 13 Tam walks out of the Stone and hugs it out with Rand. Says it's been three days, of course I've met Min.

Ch 16 Faile asks Tam about Shanna'har

Ch 21 Tam asks Perrin about the refugees who do not want to use the gateways to travel back to their respective homes.

Ch 25 "Rand had sent his father-along with one of the Asha'man- to the Two Rivers to prepare and gather them for the Last Battle."

That's where I stopped and came here to post this. What gives? Is one of these Tams a baddie in disguise? Did I miss something somewhere? Thoughts?
 
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For others, Tam is a bit wiggly because the plot lines weren't synchronized, Perrin was quite a bit behind the others


Interview: Jul 21st, 2012

LibertyCon 2012 - AMOL Update Panel (Verbatim)
Phillip

One of the things that...okay, blasphemy: I've only read through the series once.
Jennifer Liang

At least you've read through it once...Jimmy.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, Jimmy!
Phillip

Anyway, in some of these later books, one of the biggest issues that I had was when the timeline got fractured, and there was a period of time when I was fully convinced that there was a Darkfriend impersonating Tam. It just had me really confused. What lessons did you learn from that experience as you're gonna carry forward into your future writing?
Brandon Sanderson

The timeline fracture in Towers of Midnight came because of the book split, and what needed to go in one book, had to go in...you know, and things like that, and after the fact of releasing The Gathering Storm, we had Towers of Midnight sitting there, and I hadn't finished Towers of Midnight completely, I'd written like...I'd basically, when we split it, I'd written one...like, Perrin almost all the way through, but not other sequences all the way through and things, and we released The Gathering Storm, and we had to like fix things in The Gathering Storm, when we were getting in that, we realized, "Oh no..." I mean, the timeline is fine, but it means that Tam has to jump back in time. And this was going to be a bit of a challenge even if the book were whole, because Robert Jordan had them off of time with one another at the start of The Gathering Storm; Perrin was several months behind everyone else. And so, once you start bringing people back together, you either had to...we either had to do some things like walls fall on them, which was famously how Jim got Mat back in sync with everybody else, when he'd been behind, is a wall fell on him, and then he left him for several months for him to heal, and then we come back, and Mat's like, "Man, I hated having that wall fall on me!" (laughter)
Jennifer Liang

"Good thing that was three months ago; I'm better now!"
Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. And that was the way that Robert Jordan, since people get off track from each other...some of the things you kind of have to do. I had to get Perrin stuck in the mud for a while. (laughter) Yeah. And this is just to get everyone synced up, and the Tam sync-up, as a writer, I think what I learned is, I think of timelines a little differently. Like I, being deep in the series and working on it, I knew where everyone was, and I'm like, "Everyone will know that we're flashing back to Perrin here." But of course not everyone knows that; they're not all following the timeline; they don't know that we're starting this book two months before The Gathering Storm ended, so to bring them back on track, that's why Tam ended up in two places at once, because he wasn't in two places at once; they were off track from one another, time-wise. And I guess I would just take more consideration of the fact that not everyone is steeped in the timelines like I am, and knowing where everyone is, and things like that, and I would have tried to find a better cue for the fact that we've jumped backward in time.

Jennifer Liang

"Three months earlier..."
Brandon Sanderson

Yes. "Three months ago..."
Jennifer Liang

"...back when dinosaurs ruled the earth..."
Brandon Sanderson

Mmhmm.

Footnote

Jimmy is Jenn's husband; he helps her run cons.
 
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Wasn't there a part in ToM when they see Tam taken from Perrin to Rand? Or talk about some Aes Sedai that came and took him? Or some such?
 
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Yes


"Perrin, son," Tam said, out of breath from running. "Something unusual just happened."
"The bubble of evil hit the village?" Perrin asked, alarmed. "Were people hurt?"
"Oh, no," Tam said. "Not that. The village was fine. They didn't even notice anything was wrong. This is something else." Tam smelled odd. Thoughtful, worried.
Perrin frowned. "What? What's happening?"
"I . . . well, I have to go, son," Tam said. "Leave the camp. I don't know when I'll be back."
"Is this—"
"It has nothing to do with the Whitecloaks," Tam said. "I've been told I can't say much. But it's about Rand."
The colors swirled. Rand walked the hallways of the Stone of Tear. His expression was dark. Dangerous.
"Perrin," Tam said, "I think this is something I need to do. It involves Aes Sedai, and I have to leave you now. I can't say anything else. They made me swear it."
Perrin looked into Tarn's eyes and saw the sincerity there. He nodded.
"All right, then. You need any help? Someone to go with you, wherever you're going?"
"I'll be all right," Tarn said. He smelled embarrassed. What was going on? "I'll try to get you some help, son." He laid a hand on Perrin's shoulder. "You've done well here. I'm proud of you, and your father would be too. Keep it up. I'll see you at the Last Battle, if not before."
 
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Yeah, I thought I remembered something like that. Sadly I'm at work and have no access to the books at the moment.
 

Toral Delvar

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This may have something to do with Sulin appearing in one of Rand's PoVs in the early printings of the previous book
 
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Yeah, it is Point of View. And actually that was a mistake by Team Jordan. They fixed it in later printings of the book to have a different Maiden's name.
 
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Sulin was a mistake indeed.

Interview: 2010

Twitter 2009-2010 (WoT) (Verbatim)
Rob Trotter (1 August 2010)

Any chance you could clear up Sulin in The Gathering Storm? Was her appearance a typo or deliberate (Varied answers exist on the web)?
Brandon Sanderson (1 August 2010)

Sure, you guys deserve an answer on this one.
BRANDON SANDERSON

Sulin began life as a simple typo. When I saw it, I shrugged, and had a good reason. Maria thought that reason would not work.
BRANDON SANDERSON

So we decided to retcon it out. Mistake was mine all along. Really nothing special to report there, I'm afraid.
 
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