"Fear isn't the only way to control people."

"No, but it's the quickest. I would know."

GUYS!!!! TAM IS AFRAID OF HIS PARENTS!!!!

Ok, you're probably thinking "well who wouldn't be? they're scary!" But hear me out.

Let's compare Keefe and the twins. Both of them have horrible parents, and neither of these is any way to raise a child. Buuuut.....

Keefe: He was verbally abused by both his mother and his father, but considered his mom to be the "better" parent, simply because she was kinder to Keefe than his father was. We have multiple memories and flashbacks from Keefe, plus several encounters with both Lady Gisela and Lord Cassius, in which they talked about Keefe and other things. His parents (mainly his father) placed extremely high expectations on him, and this gave him a very low opinion of himself.

Tam and Linh: It's been hinted several times that they were verbally abused as well, but most likely only by their father. Their mother probably took a passive stand and stood by and watched, which is almost as bad. I say "probably" and "most likely" because we don't actually know. We know their father lied about their age and expected them to do the same, we know that their parents allowed Linh to be banished, and we know that even when trying to reconcile with her children, Mai only wanted to see one of her children's paintings at a time. They also pushed Linh unnecessarily hard and refused to leave Choralmere when the council suggested it.

My point is, we know a LOT about Keefe's situation at home, both past and present. We know a decent amount of Tam and Linh's at the present, in the brief hours they spent at Choralmere. However, we know virtually nothing of Tam and Linh's past, except what Tam has told us, which is basically what I've said above. But honestly, I think Tam drops a lot more hints than we think.

1. Tam's self-esteem

Tam seems to have much lower self-esteem than Linh. She's simply afraid of her power and afraid of losing control, with very good reason. Her parents took her underwater way younger than they should have, and they blame her for what happened. That is not okay. And yet, she doesn't seem to have any other self-esteem problems. In fact, after Atlantis, she seems amazingly confident, as if that was the only thing bringing her down.

Tam on the other hand, not so much. When Lady Zillah approached him about controlling shadowvapor, he started coming up with reasons why he shouldn't do it.

"Isn't there someone with more training who should do that? I've only been at Foxfire a few months."

"And you've shown more potential in our sessions than any Shade I've ever worked with," Lady Zillah insisted. "And with the right discipline--"

"See, that's the thing though: I'm bad with discipline. Ask my Exillium Coaches. They hated me."

"From what I've heard about the conditions you endured in that struggling program, I'd say any defiance you demonstrated was both deserved and necessary," Magnate Leto assured him.

"Maybe," Tam conceded. "But...I still don't think I'm the right guy for this. I've seen what Linh deals with--and I know you're saying it won't be as bad as that. But the thing is: She's also way more determined than I am."

I don't know about you, but I've never heard Tam like this before. He seems to view Linh as much stronger than him, and I have a theory as to why that is that I'll get to later.

His selflessness also comes into play here. So far it's been pretty simple things, like waiting for Calla (who he'd never met before) to go onto the river in Ravagg before him, things like that. But then he does what he does in Flashback (*muffled sobbing*), and it could get to a much severer point. One possible reason for this? He doesn't view his safety as a priority. Mr. Forkle has said that he's broken several bones taking careless risks, and Tam himself has told Sophie constantly that he doesn't care about himself, as long as Linh is safe.

2. His protectiveness of Linh

Ok, hear me out. Have you ever noticed that Tam stays incredibly close to Linh whenever he doesn't trust someone? Like, close enough to shove them away from her if they come too close. But we've seen how unnecessary this is. Everyone he threatens with shadows seems at least wary of them, or downright scrambling away (cough, Keefe). I know he feels better being able to physically protect her as well, but it's interesting. Why take the time to get that close when you can just as easily, if not more effectively, protect her with shadows? Why give yourself the ability to be able to physically shove away someone who's getting too close, when it's likely no one will, unless they're used to his shadows.

3. Quan might be a Guster

Honestly, I think this fits perfectly. It's an elemental ability, giving Linh the chance of developing one as well without either of her parents being a Hydrokinetic, which I don't think either of them is. If they were, surely they would've known her limitations, having gone through that themselves, and wouldn't have brought her under Atlantis. They would've known how hard it was for her, and maybe not have been so hard on her.

And as we know, when elemental abilities lose control, crazy things happen--like flooding Atlantis....or things flying around the room.

We already know Tam is extremely rebellious. He enjoys making his parents suffer for what they've done to him and his sister. This has to be aggravating, especially when Tam turns it onto his mother. Quan seems very protective of her, and he loves her a lot. He gets upset when Tam rebels against him, but really angry when he brings Mai into it. He made Tam stay in his room for two days for spilling ink on her sleeve. He forces Tam and Linh to share a room as punishment for telling people they were twins. He physically blocks Tam from leaving his mother's studio when they brought Alvar.

Tam also has an amazingly developed hold on his ability, considering how powerful he is. Maybe he learned it at Foxfire, but he was only there for a short time, and it's hinted that other Shades don't have that kind of control. Maybe seeing Linh lose control scared him into training as hard as he could, but I don't think that's it. They don't use abilities in Exillium, so the only time he could practice would be when they got back to Wildwood, and without an instructor, he would have to teach himself everything. Or maybe he started training like that early, because he never wanted to be like his father, lose control, and hurt someone he loved.

Now again, you must be thinking, "But SilverBeams, this is Tam we're talking about! Of course he doesn't want to hurt anybody!"

Yet, he's never shown any hesitation packing lethal weapons to fight the Neverseen. It never said he had any problem with the surprise training exercise that Sandor set up. But when he tried to help Sophie with her "monster" and something went wrong, he was horrified. Heck, he was shaking. Because he thought he'd lost control, and he's hurt her. He isn't even that close to Sophie, and yet the reaction he had to hurting her was about the same as Lady Gisela threatening to hurt Linh, when they really shouldn't have been. Quan losing control over his Gusting when they were kids and possibly hurting his children has scared Tam in to latching his power into the tightest grip of control he can manage.

4."When I annoy, I annoy hard."

Tam loves to annoy his parents. Cool! Makes sense right?

Except Tam is extremely bitter about their treatment from their parents. Annoying just seems like something you do when you get into an argument with your parents over the TV.

When Sophie, Tam and Biana go to Choralmere, he seems strangely confident. He marches right up to his mother's studio after his father told him not to, and shouts "Can't stop me!" behind him. Quan's his father. I'm sure he could come up with a way to stop Tam. But maybe Tam's so confident because Sophie and Biana are here, and he knows Quan can't do anything.

When Mai tries to convince Tam to come home, there's one moment where he seems to forget everyone's there, and he says "I spilled ink on your sleeve once, remember? Dad made me stay in my room for two days." Mai replies with "things change" and he says "not enough." Mai obviously isn't the problem here. Quan is. And the fact that Tam needs to tell Linh that he's there and convince her not to come really gets me. He said she wouldn't be angry, but that definitely means she's gonna feel some sort of negative emotion about him being there--most likely concern, or worry.

Concern or worry???  Tell me that isn't suspicious.

5. My theory

My theory that I mentioned in my first reason is this--I strongly believe that Tam and Linh's parents viewed Tam's behavior as Linh's responsibility. She's the one they thought could go somewhere if she played her cards right. She was a Hydrokinetic, she had amazing Foxfire scores--that was why they pushed her so hard. Her only problem was her twin. He was a Shade, and rebellious, and constantly disobeying them. But he loved his sister. And so, it was Linh's job to keep him in line, and every time he spoke out or did something he wasn't supposed to, they viewed it as Linh taking his side over theirs. Maybe that's another reason he feels so strongly about Linh's safety and so little about his--he feels like he owes her for the disapproval from his parents, giving her more than she would've gotten already.

My other theory? I'm not quite sure what it is, just a feeling that things were worse than we think.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was a lot of writing. Phew! Sorry if that made no sense whatsoever, and let me know if I got something wrong.

Poor Tam and Linh