Aww, you didn’t need to be anon for this! I like this question. (And for the record, you don’t need to be anon to ask me anything — in fact, if anyone is afraid of having their head bitten off, I have somewhat more of a filter between brain and keyboard when I’m talking to people I can identify. But obviously anyone is welcome to use the anon function, that’s why it’s enabled.)
I thought of this question and realised that I’ve usually just launched into a speech explaining his actions when asked… And I’ll try to take a different approach this time. I must say, though, that it’s been 12 years since I first read Lord of Chaos, so my memory of what went through my head then is not particularly fresh.
But, to get to the point. I’ve always said it was love at first sight. I’ve always preferred older & more competent characters over the farmboy heroes… which, at that point of the series, the Ta’veren Trio still are. And if you recall the scene where Taim is introduced, Rand guesses his age rather radically wrong. (Although to be fair, at 16 I would have probably thought “late twenties” as an “older” character, too… *rolls eyes*) And competent — Taim radiates competence. Whatever else he may be, you can’t say he wasn’t that. And he had the added flavour of being someone who’s experienced a fall from the heights… He had been a successful leader in his own right before he was captured, he has escaped from a really hopeless situation (we’ve already seen what happened to Logain and know that the same fate awaited Taim) and survived the desperate flight all the way to Andor avoiding Bashere’s entire flipping army. The proud & the fallen just appeal to me for some reason, mkay.
Then let’s take a step back and recall — painful as it is — what just happened at the end of the previous book. We’ve just lost Asmodean. There’s a void to be filled, the position of Rand’s channeller buddy & confidante of sorts. Of course, that didn’t quite work out with Taim (and there are many reasons for this, only some of which are Taim’s fault), but he had every potential to fill that spot. He was everything I wanted from a character at that point in the series.
And I guess I should also talk about why I didn’t stop liking him when he turned out to be a “bad guy”. First of all, I was up to my eyeballs in denial all the way up to the Raefar Kisman PoV in Winter’s Heart (in which it is confirmed that Taim did order the assassination attempt). And for a long time I was bitter and angry at RJ for taking away my morally-iffy-yet-not-outright-evil, badass Taim. But then… I accepted it. And I looked back to how his behaviour developed through the very few scenes he appears in, and it made sense that he’d turn. Because let’s face it, Rand had absolutely no idea how to deal with him. It’s not entirely Rand’s fault, I know Rand had a lot on his plate and I’m not saying he should have catered to Taim’s ego. But I am saying that were I Taim, I would have hated Rand by the end of LoC, too. (I’ve written about the cringeworthy Asha'man speech before, for example here, and in more detail elsewhere but I can’t find the other posts right now.)
And overall I just really (over)identify with Taim. He’s approximately my age, although he kind of had to grow up a lot faster than I ever did, but he’s still so much younger than I think a lot of people realise, both in-world and on the reader level. He’s proud and he has a temper and he doesn’t appreciate being embarrassed in public (seriously, I’ll forgive almost anything but if you make me look like an idiot before other people, I’ll never trust you again)…
If you think that Rand had no reason to trust Taim, think about this, too: What reason had Taim to trust Rand? He needed Rand way more than Rand needed him, and Rand was very obvious about how little he liked him. If you find it completely reasonable that Rand was expecting Taim to turn against him, isn’t it at least equally reasonable for Taim to expect Rand to be just waiting to get rid of him as soon as he’s served his purpose, considering how very obviously Rand (the one person who should have been an ally in a world that hunts down and executes male channellers) hated him?
It's funny how people forget that. Well, no, not forget, but. It's like being an "evil" character somehow stripped him of his Saldaean identity. Ingtar was allowed to keep his Shienaran honour in the end. Or to the end. Whereas Taim, even way before he's confirmed as Darkfriend (or before he turned to the Shadow, if we're going by my headcanon) people thought he must be a Darkfriend because he didn't get along with Rand. (Oversimplification, I am aware, but still.) His temper, his flair for dramatics. I refer back to the description of Tenobia that I quoted some time ago; "you expected showiness of any Saldaean" and "Saldaean tempers were legendary" and you guys have no idea how hard I resisted making that post about Taim.
I'm not sure I had a point here, so just consider this your friendly reminder that Taim was a Borderlander, too.
Those of you who have been following me for a while, or just generally stalking the Wheel of Time tag, probably know something of my headcanons regarding Taim. I'll stick this under a cut because I just can't seem to express myself briefly on this subject, and because there will be one very tiny AMoL spoiler.
So. Sanderson confirmed in a chat/interview thingy that Taim was recruited to the Shadow by the Forsaken, therefore obviously after they were freed. From a Demandred PoV passage in AMoL we know that he was the one to recruit Taim. We don't know when this happened, but I think must have been at some point between Dumai's Wells and the attack on Rand at the Sun Palace.
This would mean that during the events of Lord of Chaos, he's still not a Darkfriend. For one, as much as his ego keeps clashing with Rand's throughout the book, there are still a few instances where I believe he wouldn't have reacted as he did if he had been a Darkfriend.
His reaction, in chapter 4, when Rand tells him to watch out for any student who learns too fast, warning him against a Forsaken infiltrating the Asha'man (who are not yet called Asha'man at that point but still). Yes; he could be acting. But I don't think he's that good of an actor in the end. And even if he was, I don't think he would have feigned such a reaction - I think he would have been careful to hide any such reaction. His pride, arrogance, vanity are emphasised at every turn; surely, if he was such a good actor, he'd show this annoying al'Thor kid as little as possible?
No, I think keeping a marginally civil facade is just about the extent of his acting skills. Think about chapter 42, when Rand gives his little speech and names the Asha'man and gives Taim the sword & Dragon pins. He's furious and barely controlling it. Surely, if he was a master of deception, he wouldn't be letting Rand see that much emotion. And surely, if he was a master of deception and working for one of the Forsaken, he wouldn't be drawing attention to the fact that he hates what Rand is doing. No; he'd be playing along and playing nice.
In the same chapter we have the scene where Lews Therin tries to take over, and Taim's reaction to that. It should hardly matter to a minion of the Shadow whether the Dragon Reborn was sane or not. In addition, I should imagine that concern would be even more difficult to fake convincingly than submission.
Then, let's talk about the Forsaken that did infiltrate the Black Tower; Osan'gar aka Corlan Dashiva, formerly known as Aginor. Sure, the Forsaken were plotting against each other as much as against Rand, but I doubt that Osan'gar and Demandred could have been playing in the same sandbox unaware of each other. Taim certainly doesn't seem aware of Dashiva's true identity; after the Sun Palace incident, he declares the Asha'man who attacked Rand traitors, but he's surprised to find that Dashiva had any part in the incident. So. Not part of Team Shadow yet.
And now we finally get to the point. (I'm worse than an ogier when I get started about Taim. My apologies.)
I think that Dashiva took position at the Black Tower (either by his own initiative or by command) in order to influence Taim and eventually recruit him. He was the one who worked out all the Old Tongue titles for Taim (or so we're led to understand), and he probably did some prodding here and there, seemingly oblivious of the effects of his offhand comments, staring off into distance and muttering to himself... But making sure his mutterings are sometimes heard by people who would certainly repeat the ideas to Taim, probably even as their own in order to curry favour with the M'Hael. He would have to be more subtle with Taim than with guiding Flinn to the path of Healing, but essentially he would employ similar methods, making Taim think about how Rand is mistreating him. How the Black Tower has been neglected by the Lord Dragon, and how they don't need the Lord Dragon, how the only leader they need is Taim.
But before he could recruit Taim, Rand picks Dashiva for his Asha'man retinue. And this suits Dashiva just fine, and he abandons the plan of recruiting Taim, for now.
And at some point after that, Demandred comes along and picks Taim up. I haven't yet been able to pinpoint exactly when this is most likely to have happened; I've only just started A Crown of Swords on this reread, but I'm keeping my eyes open.
