Full Series Tam Ryvora

I think it was pretty true to life. I’ve watched people that I thought were great, caring and intelligent turn into strident and hateful Trump supporters. It happens.

 

It's crazy how one simple mission and one simple lie to protect Tam (and Neeku) ended up doing way more harm than good. I hope Tam comes to her senses and comes back to Team Fireball.

I kind of feel like Tam and Kylo parallel each other: both considered someone their parental figure, and were "replaced" by a Resistance pilot (Kaz and Poe, respectively).

 

I may be in the minority here...but want to see her suffer for he decision. I really want to understand why Kaz did not tell her that the FO destroyed Hosnian Prime. You would think that if you are trying to convince her that the FO are scumbags then you would use that.

 

Tam has been frustrated this entire season and she's totally justified. A new employee gets hired who has no idea what he's doing because he's not a mechanic. He sneaks off and skirts his responsibility and his boss turns a blind eye. It makes no sense to her. She complains and gets no where. If I were her, I'd be applying for jobs elsewhere.

What's heartbreaking is that she looked to Yeager, not just as her boss, but as a father figure so she feels betrayed and lied to the entire time since Kaz showed up. Again, I believe she's totally justified in feeling that way. Keeping her in the dark may have protected her against being imprisoned, killed, or sent off platform, but unfortunately when given the choice, she chose with what made sense and that was the First Order. They didn't lie to her and she could see that their way of running things was efficient and orderly. People are held accountable when her co-worker was not.

She's probably the most interesting character study of the season as she has the most depth. Unfortunately characters like Torra, Neeku, BB-8, and Poe got more screen time and speaking lines than her.

As a viewer, Tam didn't push the plot anywhere as she opposed Kaz and he was our window into anything "interesting" happening on the platform. If we had followed Tam the whole season it would have been very boring so it was hard to care about her. We finally got a small window into her desires/dreams with the Hype centered episode, but it felt there was more invested interest in Synara at that time so Tam's story suffered.

I'm definitely interested to see what choices she makes next within the FO. Will we have a "Fulcrum" situation or will she be completely rehabilitated for a life in the FO? Only time will tell.

 

Of course she's not "justified." The First Order is a fascist organization and there's no justification for joining it. However, her decision is understandable given her lack of knowledge about the First Order's atrocities, hurt feelings and lack of trust with Yeager and Kaz. She ultimately decided to join a fascist organization because they seemed to value her (though it was, of course, manipulation). And as the old saying goes, she decided it was better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. She knows the First Order is not so great, even though she has less of a problem with it than other. But she wants to fly and be somebody. And being a pilot with the First Order seems to be a better choice for her than being a mechanic in the employ of untrustworthy people. So yeah, perfectly understandable. And really true-to-life characterization, and excellent writing by the Resistance team. But shes' not "justified."

 

Unfortunately Tam doesn't know the FO like we do, so with her limited knowledge I don't blame her for the decision she made.

In AOTC, Anakin's mother was tortured by Tusken Raiders to the point of death. I don't condone his actions of killing an entire village of Sand People, but I don't blame him for doing so either.

 

Right, but she has witnessed their authoritarian tactics. It’s just that she kind of supports those tactics. She’s a bit of an authoritarian apologist, though a low-information one. So I understand why she did what she did. But it’s not justified.

Who else is there to blame? He murdered them. Again, understandable, but not justified.

 

I don't justify them, but I'm sure the characters have to justify their decision in their mind and I understand it. In Star Wars fashion, you'll find going to find that many of the truths the characters cling to depend greatly on their own point of view.

 

That's true...from a certain point of view.

 

Only a Sith deals in absolutes!

 

As for Tam, I'm sure when she finds out about Honsinan system she'll rationalize it. Cuz it would be a weird character arc if it was "Boo! I'm leaving! Ahh! system blown up, get me back!" like after a single episode.

 

Well, that's a big thing though. It's the equivalent of someone with a decent moral composition joining some shadowy organization without really knowing what they were all about, finding out that they just nuked a country. Pretty plausible that she would try to get out at that point.

 

I don't disagree it could be a big turn for her, it would just be a hellova fast turnaround from an episodic pacing POV. Unless they keep Tam away for several episodes cuz then it would be a turnover from good guy to FO to back to good guy that lasts, like, minutes of screentime. Admittedly, they did sort of the same thing with Kallus but he was off screen for a few eps in between for it to happen.

 

Oh, sure. But I don't see any signs that they'll be going for that quick of a whiplash. We'll see.

 

If I am to be honest I hope she never joins back up with the rest and stays with the FO, but I doubt they will go that far with this story, but I am very intrigued to see where this goes.

 

No, she'll redeem herself in one way or another. Wouldn't want the show to seem to affirm joining a fascist organization as a legitimate choice.

 

I'm thinking she'll stay with the First Order for most of Season 2, despite if she wants in or out, but just so we have a POV character of the inside the First Order as opposed to the random fleeting First Order scenes we got through the season. I'd like to say that would mean more Phasma but she is kind of locked on a continuity perspective, after the destruction of Starkiller Base she has her own side mission from the Captain Phasma comic but to the fair it's vague how long Phasma was lost after SKB exploded.

 

I think she may leave the FO, but I do feel that having her stay or not come back does not necessarily make joining seem like a legitimate choice. If she is shown heavily to be in the wrong and just getting more cruel, or is like if Kallus stayed after he felt empty and was left utterly depressed, or if she gets defeated these would all still indicate to kids that her choice was wrong and will only lead to bad consequences. I love Tam and hope she comes back in like 2 seasons, but part of me also kinda wants to see her stay FO

 

Personally, I want her to stay with the FO, without question. Its about time we get an inner look at how the First Order works, and to know them a little more. Tam can later on try to escape and go rogue, or spy on them (too much like Kallus, I reckon), but she does have motives for staying, as well. As long as we get to follow her getting more and more indoctrinated by Tierny, Pyre or others, I'm all in for it...

 

I'm just curious: Kaz seems to really care for Tam and values her as a friend, but does (well...did) Tam consider Kaz a friend (maybe not in the beginning, but eventually)? It just seems like she barely tolerates Kaz.

 

A standard coworker relationship

 

I don't think she ever really thought of him as more than a co-worker...and a lazy one at that. Always vanishing when work needed doing, doing sub par work when he did do something....not to mention her feelings about The Fireball. Yeager promised it to her if she got it up and running but Kaz was always flying off in it.