The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.
âTamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the startâ: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved by his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.
âTamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used herâ: He improved her and her familyâs life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.
âTamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmaiâ: Out of duty and responsibility because he didnât want to force Feyre, who still wasnât sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, âLucien doesnât know what heâs talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone elseâ are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. Thereâs no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. Itâs just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of âWho was Rhysand fucking all these years?â and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Letâs be real for a second.
âTamlin didnât help Feyre under the mountainâ: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amaranthaâs consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didnât want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that thereâs no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didnât break the curse and Amaranthaâs magic didnât allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyreâs life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.
âTamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping herâ: He couldnât help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didnât want to raise suspicions, he wouldnât have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a masochist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that weâd all like him over Tamlin.
âTamlin ignored Feyreâs wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didnât let her be High Ladyâ: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amaranthaâs reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: thereâs no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didnât want that anyway.
âTamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm herâ: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand lock Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesnât want to harm her. Thatâs not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucienâs mother. Double standards I guess.
âTamlin is a bad and conservative rulerâ: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldnât put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.
âTamlin conspired with Hybernâ: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didnât harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysandâs alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.
âTamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Faeâ: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldnât have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.
âTamlin is less powerful than Rhysandâ: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysandâs dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.
All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldnât land a trilogy deal. She didnât know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but thereâs just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyreâs relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. Thatâs why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.
