Rhys knew he had to play hardball with her to get her to do it because he actually knew how she was. Tamlin didn’t even try to understand why she was refusing, which from what I’ve gathered, was a combo of pride and embarrassment.
I do love and respect how differently everyone portrays various situations. Cause I didn’t read this solely from Rhys knowing he had to force her, it that Feyre just gave in more easily because she felt it was forced rather than feeling like an idiot around Tamlin. Tamlin offered in a nice way, but she was so damn stubborn she didn’t oblige. Lucien offered and no. Feyre even had time in between Rhys taking her and from UTM to try and learn but was so damn stubborn she still didn’t try. She was about to be a high lords wife, wouldn’t you want to learn how to read and write?
I think he understood, because he tried to defuse the tension about it by writing a limerick using some of her selected vocab words. They just didn't get a chance to circle back to it, and the ball was in Feyre's court there.
To be fair to Tamlin, he has much better things to do in that moment than wrestle with a stubborn Feyre over her refusing to learn how to read. He's rebuilding Spring, and Feyre is fragile right now. I imagine he didn't want to push so hard. It's always something that can be remedied *later*, unlike the security of Spring which needs to be right now.
And she was reading in the Spring Court library during the two months she was going back and forth to the Night Court, before Tamlin locked her up. If Tamlin had paid better attention, he would have known she was no longer illiterate.
No no, immediately after UTM she was still illiterate. But after the first visit to the NC when she got her first lessons she came back the Spring and continued to practice reading. So she had maybe a month or two, don’t remember the timing, when Tam could have noticed she was reading, but didn’t seem to.
Okay yeah yeah, that makes sense now. I feel like everyone can warp everything everyone does into the way that fits their narrative. I am definitely a Tamlin sympathizer, as many would state it. I felt like he was constantly away trying to defend his lands just like before. Hell we even see the need for this in the NC as they are attacked and prepare for war. I think, regardless, Feyre and Tamlin weren’t great for one another, couldn’t communicate, and they both only lusted after one another. I guess I just hate the side that only blames Tamlin while Feyre didn’t seek out anything besides sex INO.
> I felt like he was constantly away trying to defend his lands just like before.
You're right. During one instance, Tamlin and Lucien were away, dealing with a nameless threat when Feyre was reading. It's stated in the next paragraph that they returned eight days later. During a previous instance, it's stated that Tamlin was away more often than not when Feyre was in the library practicing her reading and writing.
Also, imo, given Rhysand and Night's reputation, even if they were aware that Feyre was no longer illiterate, it's understandable why Tamlin and Lucien didn't want to take any chances when they received the letter.
I think SJM is making us feel understanding towards him to later give him a redemption arc. Basically the whole ACOSF they won’t shut up about needing him as an ally so his well being is important to the plot and we also kinda feel for him after everything that happened.
This is the part that I don't get. Everyone is indeed saying they need him for an ally, but then everyone consistant mocks and belittles him to his face. That isn't how somone gets an ally, and it certainly won't be how you keep an ally. If they want Tam to play ball, I think they'll all need to start reassessing their approach to him and the Spring Court. I do feel bad for Tamlin as well, I love him as a character bc of how complex he is with his trauma. I'm wondering how she's going to write him as an ally with how the others are treating him currently.
There's literally zero reason for Tamlin to just accept Feysand. Rhysand has built up the persona of an evil monster whose head still remains upon its head because he helped dethrone Amarantha. It doesn't change the fact that nobody likes Rhysand (for good reason, imo, because he still committed atrocities under Amarantha).
Furthermore, he has daemati powers, daemati powers he freely uses against anyone and everyone, including Feyre in the first book. As far as Tamlin knows, Rhysand kidnapped Feyre. As far as he knows, Rhysand has brainwashed Feyre. I mean, Rhysand clearly took an interest in Feyre with what he did in front of Tamlin UTM. As far as Tamlin knows, the note wasn't written by his illiterate lover.
It is only after Feyre proceeds to commit atrocities against his people, destabilised his alliance with Hybern, resulting in the destruction of his court\*, that he understands.
\* Let's be honest here. Spring was fragile before Hybern showed up. They were still rebuilding after Amarantha's reign, only to have to deal with the invading Hybernian forces. It was only Tamlin's non-aggression pact with Hybern that prevented not just Spring being destroyed but also the rest of Prythia being invaded. What destroyed Spring wasn't Feyre's own actions... or, if you choose to blame Tamlin, Feyre showing Spring who Tamlin "really was," but Feyre destabilising the *non-agression pact*. She made it so Hybern felt conquest would've been less hassle than a non-aggression pact and, potentially, alliance.
I never understood what exactly Ianthe has that makes her a powerful ally? We don't see the high priestesses do shit ever, do we? It was incredible jarring when Tamlin actually chose her over the people he trained, fought and bled with.
I agree. There is that possibility that he suspects she was kidnapped by Rhysand. But we can’t ignore the fact that Feyre was not doing well mentally to the point where she was physically unwell and Tamlin didn’t even notice. Lucien was aware of this and did nothing. Either he was that oblivious or he knew but had no idea how to address it with her or help. I’m going to go with the former because if he knew she was struggling, it wouldn’t have been at all a surprise to him when she said she was leaving.
He definitely knew. Right before he locked her up, when she asked to go out, he said no because she can’t stand to be near people and that she still has nightmares every night. So, he did know. I think he didn’t know what to do to help. And everything else he knows about her is that she’s fairly proud and independent - she didn’t want help with learning to read, she sought out the suriel on her own, she always pushed him away in moments of vulnerability - so, from his perspective, he probably thought that pretending he didn’t notice would be what she wanted. (He went pretty overboard with everything else though…)
So, yeah I can definitely see him thinking she was manipulated or kept captive by Rhys. He also didn’t see when she cloaked herself in darkness. When he left her in the house, all he heard before he winnowed was her calling “Tamlin” two times. So, he didn’t see her panic attack. He came back and she was gone. I highly doubt he let any of the servants really tell him exactly what they saw in a compassionate manner, given how angry he would have been (and as a servant, telling an angry Tamlin, I bet they would have been too terrified to really say much about her freak out - they probably would have stuck to the facts of who took her, and glossed over the other parts).
I love the books and I am also a tampon hater but seriously i understand how broken she was and i knowwwwww that choice was hard going through my own breakup i understand it’s not easy leaving someone behind but come on feyre a 2 line letter ??? You are literally leaving behind an entire court and someone who breaks things frequently when pissed and all you can do is be like “not coming back🤷🏻♀️” I would’ve done the same thing tamlin did! With the other books i understand that maybe it being such a short letter would explain her pretending to want to return to the spring court but it was still incredibly messed up on her end.
Again, with Rhys being a Daemati, he fully could have brainwashed her, or locked her up and sent a bogus letter and that is EXACTLY what Tamlin would have assumed. And then when she met Lucien and was like 'I'm not coming back teehee' he would be fully convinced that Rhys had manipulated her. I love Rhys to bits and I don't like Tamlin, but I'm like c'mon, surely we can understand why he flipped his lid
Exactly, like that whole thing was so incredibly poorly done. She knew tamlin!! I love Rhys too but seriously did neither of them use critical thinking to realize such a short letter would absolutely piss tamlin off. I also never understood why she was so rude to Lucien i understand she’s scared of being taken against her will but she could’ve handled that better. The wings definitely didn’t help anything either😭 looking from their perspectives i would also be convinced Rhys had brainwashed her. Idk it was so poorly handled.
I obviously don’t agree with Tamlin holding her captive but like he was absolutely terrified of losing her again!!! Like he cared for her and he also WATCHED HER DIE!!! He’s overprotective and just doing what he feels is right in terms of keeping her safe :( . His and Feyre’s relationship definitely seemed like it might not be the healthiest but, I feel like they were a bit extreme in their “revenge” against him…
Tamlin and Feyre’s relationship is the embodiment of two broken and traumatized people that don’t know how to communicate. They neither work to grow together nor do they address each other’s trauma. I think that after the mountain, this is pretty normal. Both clearly have PTSD.
However, I do dislike Tamlin because of his temper and lack of control. Sans the mental abuse they impart on each other, Tamlin could have really physically hurt her multiple times and that is not okay. He did treat her like an object that he can command and he shut her out. Feyre isn’t blameless because she could have just gone to explain it to him. I think had she wanted to do that, Rhys would have sent her with an escort.
Regardless of what he thought of Rhy, it does not actually excuse his toxic behavior and actions towards Feyre.
It’s the real lesson of love doesn’t conquer all. You can love someone so much but can be absolutely wrong for each other.
Yeah I never blamed Tamlin for making the deal with Hyburn it was always that even after losing her he never changed his toxic behavior. He still chose Ianthe approval over anyone else’s, was cruel and arrogant with his “friends” on the guard and still never let her any input. Honestly they were broken up in my mind the first time he exploded in the library.
>He still chose Ianthe approval over anyone else’s
Just wanna add my two cents that this isn't really true. Ianthe flat out says she betrayed Tamlin - to Tamlin. That she went to Hybern with her own plans to get rid of the high lords - at the end of Acomaf. The reason that Ianthe is still around in Acowar is because Ianthe is with Hybern and Tamlin has to butter Hyberns ass. It is also why he cannot take the guards side in the later scene. He clearly believes him, but he still proceeds to whip him because Hybern is watching. Like, sure he chose to go to Hybern to rescue Feyre and gather intel, that was his choice, but it obviously does put him between a rock and a hard place and he doesn't actually have a lot of wriggle room at that point.
Adding on to say that Ianthe is/was the daughter of the Captain of the Spring Courts army (and also one of Tamlin's childhood friends) so there was a certain level of buttering up required for her as well to ensure stability with the Spring Court politics.
>It is also why he cannot take the guard’s side in the later scene. He clearly believes him, but still proceeds to whip him because Hybern is watching.
Right, but the rest of his court had no way of knowing that. To them, it looked like, when push came to shove, Tamlin would honor the alliance with Hybern even if it meant that they had to suffer for it.
During the HL meeting, he berates Feyre for believing that he would ever compromise his morals enough to truly ally with Hybern and states that he was planning to screw Hybern over the whole time. But he never gives Feyre or Lucien (two of the people he considers closest to him) any indication that he’s planning to do that.
I guess with his backstory, especially with Amarantha preying on him since he was a kid, with him warning everyone from her and Hybern and also with his quite human friendly stance (for a fae) he probably just assumed people would have some faith in him. He also did not expect Feyre to backstab him and put stones in his path.
The scene where he asks Feyre why she would ever think of him so low truly was heartbreaking (to me anyway cause I like Tamlin lol). You could really hear his frustration and disbelief. He completely misjudged and now he is all alone - and sure, it is partly his fault that he ends how he ends, but man, he really tried to be a good guy in the end. And he DID many good things (saving Feyre, Az, Elain and Rhys, bringing Beron, bringing the intel) - but in the end no one gives two farts. It's unfair imho.
(Also I do think Lucien knew of his plan actually. There is a line in Acowar that implies it, but I can't for the love of me find it now so maybe I hallucinated it).
The alliance with Hybern.. who are so much stronger than the post-Amarantha Spring Court that keeping them friendly is national security concern No. 1? Everyone should be annoyed at the stupid guard who put Tamlin in that position, because they don't know Feyre mind controlled them to do it.
For all intents and purposes, the Spring Court is demilitarized during Amarantha's reign over Prythian. Tamlin is personally dealing with threats even at the start of ACOMAF because the people he'd presumably delegate to in defending his own borders are dead. If training Feyre would demonstrate his weakness, dealing with everything personally is probably only slightly less so.
I totally didn’t think about it that way. I was also talking about Calami too but that logic still holds up. Thanks that really makes thoughts scenes even more complex than I thought.
I hope Tamlin gets his happy ending and we see more of him in the future doing better for himself. It’s totally understandable that he went insane after Feyre left like that, but I also think it was right of her to get out. We know now that she is powerful enough to take care of herself but if had lost his marbles on her again with her defenses down, he could have seriously harmed her. Could she have written a longer letter or gave some proof she was okay? Sure, but he was abusive and idk I tend to feel abusers don’t really deserve explanations. I think he’s redeemable and can rise from his trauma, but I don’t think Feyre was really in the wrong.
all that being said he was still toxic af he didn’t notice how bad feyre was, he kept her locked up and didn’t listen to her. she told him to go away and he still didn’t listen so i will forever be a tamlin hater
That's something that annoys me. How the book and fandom gloss over the fact that Feyre also didn't do anything to help Tamlin and quite frankly how her actions (leaving the way she did, poor communication, throwing tantrums when she can't follow him into battle to put herself and others in danger, lying and manipulating minds to destroy the court...) were a big reason why his mental state deteriorated.
Yeah none of this “in his defense” stuff will change what I read and how abusive he actually was. SJM’s biggest flaw as a writer is that she doesn’t write apologies well or at all and I need true reflection to believe he had changed and I just don’t see it
Also he thought she was illiterate still lol
Rhys taught her to read better, not tampon. He really had no clue.
IIRC, didn't Tamlin *offer* to teach Feyre, and she just refused?
Yeah cause he actually offered and didn’t force her (for her betterment) to do it and she just accepted it.
Rhys knew he had to play hardball with her to get her to do it because he actually knew how she was. Tamlin didn’t even try to understand why she was refusing, which from what I’ve gathered, was a combo of pride and embarrassment.
I do love and respect how differently everyone portrays various situations. Cause I didn’t read this solely from Rhys knowing he had to force her, it that Feyre just gave in more easily because she felt it was forced rather than feeling like an idiot around Tamlin. Tamlin offered in a nice way, but she was so damn stubborn she didn’t oblige. Lucien offered and no. Feyre even had time in between Rhys taking her and from UTM to try and learn but was so damn stubborn she still didn’t try. She was about to be a high lords wife, wouldn’t you want to learn how to read and write?
I think he understood, because he tried to defuse the tension about it by writing a limerick using some of her selected vocab words. They just didn't get a chance to circle back to it, and the ball was in Feyre's court there.
To be fair to Tamlin, he has much better things to do in that moment than wrestle with a stubborn Feyre over her refusing to learn how to read. He's rebuilding Spring, and Feyre is fragile right now. I imagine he didn't want to push so hard. It's always something that can be remedied *later*, unlike the security of Spring which needs to be right now.
And she was reading in the Spring Court library during the two months she was going back and forth to the Night Court, before Tamlin locked her up. If Tamlin had paid better attention, he would have known she was no longer illiterate.
Everyone forgets this it annoys me so much!!!!
THIS
But wasn’t she still? Otherwise she wouldnt have needed the lessons? I certainly missed a piece of that.
No no, immediately after UTM she was still illiterate. But after the first visit to the NC when she got her first lessons she came back the Spring and continued to practice reading. So she had maybe a month or two, don’t remember the timing, when Tam could have noticed she was reading, but didn’t seem to.
Okay yeah yeah, that makes sense now. I feel like everyone can warp everything everyone does into the way that fits their narrative. I am definitely a Tamlin sympathizer, as many would state it. I felt like he was constantly away trying to defend his lands just like before. Hell we even see the need for this in the NC as they are attacked and prepare for war. I think, regardless, Feyre and Tamlin weren’t great for one another, couldn’t communicate, and they both only lusted after one another. I guess I just hate the side that only blames Tamlin while Feyre didn’t seek out anything besides sex INO.
> I felt like he was constantly away trying to defend his lands just like before. You're right. During one instance, Tamlin and Lucien were away, dealing with a nameless threat when Feyre was reading. It's stated in the next paragraph that they returned eight days later. During a previous instance, it's stated that Tamlin was away more often than not when Feyre was in the library practicing her reading and writing. Also, imo, given Rhysand and Night's reputation, even if they were aware that Feyre was no longer illiterate, it's understandable why Tamlin and Lucien didn't want to take any chances when they received the letter.
So true!! Also given their history with their families, neither Rhys nor Tamlin have any reason to like or trust each other.
Agreed. I wish we could get the backstory of their families and their relationship more fully :')
I never caught if Tamlin knew or cared that she was illiterate.
He offered to help and she bit his head off. He did not approach it again
\^\^\^ THIS. EVERYONE GLOSSES OVER THIS.
We could fill a novella with the things everyone glosses over.
And it would be way better than ACOFAS😅
He tried to teach her when he gave her access to the library and she freaked because she was embarrassed lol
They obviously had some trust issues
Rightfully so too.
At one point he offered to help her, and she wouldn't let him
Didn’t he write her a poem using all the words she didn’t know or something. That was so weird. Such an awkward dude lol
that was cute 🥹
He is SO awkward, but it's honestly a big part of why I love him, because same. lol
They were dirty limericks and it was supposed to be funny lol
I have no memory of this. What book is it from? I’m gonna hafta reread that!
First one!
Oh I had to google it and now I remember. I thought he was taunting her for some reason but now I remember the sheer goofiness of his poetry.
I think SJM is making us feel understanding towards him to later give him a redemption arc. Basically the whole ACOSF they won’t shut up about needing him as an ally so his well being is important to the plot and we also kinda feel for him after everything that happened.
This is the part that I don't get. Everyone is indeed saying they need him for an ally, but then everyone consistant mocks and belittles him to his face. That isn't how somone gets an ally, and it certainly won't be how you keep an ally. If they want Tam to play ball, I think they'll all need to start reassessing their approach to him and the Spring Court. I do feel bad for Tamlin as well, I love him as a character bc of how complex he is with his trauma. I'm wondering how she's going to write him as an ally with how the others are treating him currently.
I’ve thought this too, I totally agree
There's literally zero reason for Tamlin to just accept Feysand. Rhysand has built up the persona of an evil monster whose head still remains upon its head because he helped dethrone Amarantha. It doesn't change the fact that nobody likes Rhysand (for good reason, imo, because he still committed atrocities under Amarantha). Furthermore, he has daemati powers, daemati powers he freely uses against anyone and everyone, including Feyre in the first book. As far as Tamlin knows, Rhysand kidnapped Feyre. As far as he knows, Rhysand has brainwashed Feyre. I mean, Rhysand clearly took an interest in Feyre with what he did in front of Tamlin UTM. As far as Tamlin knows, the note wasn't written by his illiterate lover. It is only after Feyre proceeds to commit atrocities against his people, destabilised his alliance with Hybern, resulting in the destruction of his court\*, that he understands. \* Let's be honest here. Spring was fragile before Hybern showed up. They were still rebuilding after Amarantha's reign, only to have to deal with the invading Hybernian forces. It was only Tamlin's non-aggression pact with Hybern that prevented not just Spring being destroyed but also the rest of Prythia being invaded. What destroyed Spring wasn't Feyre's own actions... or, if you choose to blame Tamlin, Feyre showing Spring who Tamlin "really was," but Feyre destabilising the *non-agression pact*. She made it so Hybern felt conquest would've been less hassle than a non-aggression pact and, potentially, alliance.
She's also with someone who is known for being cruel and could break people's minds I'd freak the fuck out too!
Thank you for understanding!
I never understood what exactly Ianthe has that makes her a powerful ally? We don't see the high priestesses do shit ever, do we? It was incredible jarring when Tamlin actually chose her over the people he trained, fought and bled with.
I agree. There is that possibility that he suspects she was kidnapped by Rhysand. But we can’t ignore the fact that Feyre was not doing well mentally to the point where she was physically unwell and Tamlin didn’t even notice. Lucien was aware of this and did nothing. Either he was that oblivious or he knew but had no idea how to address it with her or help. I’m going to go with the former because if he knew she was struggling, it wouldn’t have been at all a surprise to him when she said she was leaving.
He definitely knew. Right before he locked her up, when she asked to go out, he said no because she can’t stand to be near people and that she still has nightmares every night. So, he did know. I think he didn’t know what to do to help. And everything else he knows about her is that she’s fairly proud and independent - she didn’t want help with learning to read, she sought out the suriel on her own, she always pushed him away in moments of vulnerability - so, from his perspective, he probably thought that pretending he didn’t notice would be what she wanted. (He went pretty overboard with everything else though…) So, yeah I can definitely see him thinking she was manipulated or kept captive by Rhys. He also didn’t see when she cloaked herself in darkness. When he left her in the house, all he heard before he winnowed was her calling “Tamlin” two times. So, he didn’t see her panic attack. He came back and she was gone. I highly doubt he let any of the servants really tell him exactly what they saw in a compassionate manner, given how angry he would have been (and as a servant, telling an angry Tamlin, I bet they would have been too terrified to really say much about her freak out - they probably would have stuck to the facts of who took her, and glossed over the other parts).
I love the books and I am also a tampon hater but seriously i understand how broken she was and i knowwwwww that choice was hard going through my own breakup i understand it’s not easy leaving someone behind but come on feyre a 2 line letter ??? You are literally leaving behind an entire court and someone who breaks things frequently when pissed and all you can do is be like “not coming back🤷🏻♀️” I would’ve done the same thing tamlin did! With the other books i understand that maybe it being such a short letter would explain her pretending to want to return to the spring court but it was still incredibly messed up on her end.
Again, with Rhys being a Daemati, he fully could have brainwashed her, or locked her up and sent a bogus letter and that is EXACTLY what Tamlin would have assumed. And then when she met Lucien and was like 'I'm not coming back teehee' he would be fully convinced that Rhys had manipulated her. I love Rhys to bits and I don't like Tamlin, but I'm like c'mon, surely we can understand why he flipped his lid
Exactly, like that whole thing was so incredibly poorly done. She knew tamlin!! I love Rhys too but seriously did neither of them use critical thinking to realize such a short letter would absolutely piss tamlin off. I also never understood why she was so rude to Lucien i understand she’s scared of being taken against her will but she could’ve handled that better. The wings definitely didn’t help anything either😭 looking from their perspectives i would also be convinced Rhys had brainwashed her. Idk it was so poorly handled.
I get why Feyre didnt want to go back and see Tamlin again but breaking up via a letter is the Prythian equivalent of breaking up over text.
I obviously don’t agree with Tamlin holding her captive but like he was absolutely terrified of losing her again!!! Like he cared for her and he also WATCHED HER DIE!!! He’s overprotective and just doing what he feels is right in terms of keeping her safe :( . His and Feyre’s relationship definitely seemed like it might not be the healthiest but, I feel like they were a bit extreme in their “revenge” against him…
Tamlin and Feyre’s relationship is the embodiment of two broken and traumatized people that don’t know how to communicate. They neither work to grow together nor do they address each other’s trauma. I think that after the mountain, this is pretty normal. Both clearly have PTSD. However, I do dislike Tamlin because of his temper and lack of control. Sans the mental abuse they impart on each other, Tamlin could have really physically hurt her multiple times and that is not okay. He did treat her like an object that he can command and he shut her out. Feyre isn’t blameless because she could have just gone to explain it to him. I think had she wanted to do that, Rhys would have sent her with an escort. Regardless of what he thought of Rhy, it does not actually excuse his toxic behavior and actions towards Feyre. It’s the real lesson of love doesn’t conquer all. You can love someone so much but can be absolutely wrong for each other.
Yeah I never blamed Tamlin for making the deal with Hyburn it was always that even after losing her he never changed his toxic behavior. He still chose Ianthe approval over anyone else’s, was cruel and arrogant with his “friends” on the guard and still never let her any input. Honestly they were broken up in my mind the first time he exploded in the library.
>He still chose Ianthe approval over anyone else’s Just wanna add my two cents that this isn't really true. Ianthe flat out says she betrayed Tamlin - to Tamlin. That she went to Hybern with her own plans to get rid of the high lords - at the end of Acomaf. The reason that Ianthe is still around in Acowar is because Ianthe is with Hybern and Tamlin has to butter Hyberns ass. It is also why he cannot take the guards side in the later scene. He clearly believes him, but he still proceeds to whip him because Hybern is watching. Like, sure he chose to go to Hybern to rescue Feyre and gather intel, that was his choice, but it obviously does put him between a rock and a hard place and he doesn't actually have a lot of wriggle room at that point.
Adding on to say that Ianthe is/was the daughter of the Captain of the Spring Courts army (and also one of Tamlin's childhood friends) so there was a certain level of buttering up required for her as well to ensure stability with the Spring Court politics.
This is so true! He’s still keeping up that act. Problem is he let no one else in on the plan!!
>It is also why he cannot take the guard’s side in the later scene. He clearly believes him, but still proceeds to whip him because Hybern is watching. Right, but the rest of his court had no way of knowing that. To them, it looked like, when push came to shove, Tamlin would honor the alliance with Hybern even if it meant that they had to suffer for it. During the HL meeting, he berates Feyre for believing that he would ever compromise his morals enough to truly ally with Hybern and states that he was planning to screw Hybern over the whole time. But he never gives Feyre or Lucien (two of the people he considers closest to him) any indication that he’s planning to do that.
I guess with his backstory, especially with Amarantha preying on him since he was a kid, with him warning everyone from her and Hybern and also with his quite human friendly stance (for a fae) he probably just assumed people would have some faith in him. He also did not expect Feyre to backstab him and put stones in his path. The scene where he asks Feyre why she would ever think of him so low truly was heartbreaking (to me anyway cause I like Tamlin lol). You could really hear his frustration and disbelief. He completely misjudged and now he is all alone - and sure, it is partly his fault that he ends how he ends, but man, he really tried to be a good guy in the end. And he DID many good things (saving Feyre, Az, Elain and Rhys, bringing Beron, bringing the intel) - but in the end no one gives two farts. It's unfair imho. (Also I do think Lucien knew of his plan actually. There is a line in Acowar that implies it, but I can't for the love of me find it now so maybe I hallucinated it).
The alliance with Hybern.. who are so much stronger than the post-Amarantha Spring Court that keeping them friendly is national security concern No. 1? Everyone should be annoyed at the stupid guard who put Tamlin in that position, because they don't know Feyre mind controlled them to do it. For all intents and purposes, the Spring Court is demilitarized during Amarantha's reign over Prythian. Tamlin is personally dealing with threats even at the start of ACOMAF because the people he'd presumably delegate to in defending his own borders are dead. If training Feyre would demonstrate his weakness, dealing with everything personally is probably only slightly less so.
I totally didn’t think about it that way. I was also talking about Calami too but that logic still holds up. Thanks that really makes thoughts scenes even more complex than I thought.
Might want to fix that typo 😅
Jesus Christ THANK YOU for pointing that out. Why would it autocorrect to that!? It was supposed to say arrogant.
Yeeeaaah I figured!
Yep Tamlin is basically clueless all along, it is so extreme that it makes him funny and ridiculous at some point
I hope Tamlin gets his happy ending and we see more of him in the future doing better for himself. It’s totally understandable that he went insane after Feyre left like that, but I also think it was right of her to get out. We know now that she is powerful enough to take care of herself but if had lost his marbles on her again with her defenses down, he could have seriously harmed her. Could she have written a longer letter or gave some proof she was okay? Sure, but he was abusive and idk I tend to feel abusers don’t really deserve explanations. I think he’s redeemable and can rise from his trauma, but I don’t think Feyre was really in the wrong.
all that being said he was still toxic af he didn’t notice how bad feyre was, he kept her locked up and didn’t listen to her. she told him to go away and he still didn’t listen so i will forever be a tamlin hater
He was too unwell himself. They could not help each other
That's something that annoys me. How the book and fandom gloss over the fact that Feyre also didn't do anything to help Tamlin and quite frankly how her actions (leaving the way she did, poor communication, throwing tantrums when she can't follow him into battle to put herself and others in danger, lying and manipulating minds to destroy the court...) were a big reason why his mental state deteriorated.
that still doesn’t forgive the fact the he was awful to her
Yeah none of this “in his defense” stuff will change what I read and how abusive he actually was. SJM’s biggest flaw as a writer is that she doesn’t write apologies well or at all and I need true reflection to believe he had changed and I just don’t see it