Unpopular Opinion : Tamlin
He doesn’t deserve to die.
He does not deserve to die, at all. Wanting him to die for hurting Feyre is more than a bit harsh. Amarantha deserves to die; she terrorized all of Prythian for over fifty years, she raped Rhysand, she tortured Faes, and she held the entire Spring Court under a curse that was pretty much impossible to break. She was evil. She deserved to die. She had no redemption coming for her.
Tamlin? No. He doesn’t deserve to die. Tamlin? He’s as broken as everyone else in this series is and just because he handles it a bit differently**, we’re all ready to kill him. Well guess what, you were probably ready to jump on Rhysand for what he did to Feyre in that cell Under The Mountain.
Oh well, it turns out he was her mate. Oh well, he did it for the better good. Oh well, he healed her anyway. Oh well, Oh well, Oh well.
No. Rhysand still hurt Feyre. But he’s been redeeming himself since the second task, when Feyre couldn’t read and he helped her pick the middle lever. Since he gave her a choice. Since he gave her a choice in loving him. Since he gave her friends that understood her. Since he gave her a choice in all this war. You don’t see it, but that’s a true redemption arc and character development.
When you forget the bad things they did and what a bad person they are. Because don’t forget that even though Rhys is a tiny baby bat, he’s the High Lord of the Night Court, Death Incarnate, and he’s done some pretty bad things over his 500/600+ years of existence. And the year that he’s been with Feyre, we’ll all throwing rose petals.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I recognize Tamlin has done some really, really bad things. But we, as a fandom, don’t even put our hate into perspective. I still won’t ever get how you want him to die, but maybe I can break it apart.
You want him to die because he hurt precious Feyre Archeron. The main character. Your pride and joy. The character we all relate to. We see it through her eyes. And because Tamlin hurt her, you want him to die horribly.
If you don’t see that as an extreme, I just, I don’t understand.
We find out there’s a reason Rhysand was so terrible to everyone in Prythian, he was keeping up a facade to save Velaris and all the people he loved that lived there. Bam. Immediately forgiven. Of course we get an entire book where we get to know him a lot better, but bam, already forgiven and now we’re just falling in love with Rhysand.
If Tamlin got that, you guys would roll your eyes so much, they’d fall right out of your heads. But it’s clear Tamlin had a reason for doing all that he did. Now, I’m not going to go back to the book and get sources, because I’m really just not good at that, but I can list a few things from memory.
1. Locking Feyre in the house. Extreme, yes, but understandable? yes. Very understandable. As we’re reading from Feyre’s POV, we understand she’s suffering from mental illness and being locked in the house is like being locked in the cell all over again. But if you think about it from Tamlin’s POV, he’s suffering from PSTD. The first time he let Feyre go back to the human realm (a very selfless thing) she ended up where he didn’t want her, Under the Mountain, going head-to-head to Amarantha. And any reasonable person would know human!Feyre Archeron would die a horrible death. And after three months and Tamlin finally has Feyre alive, a woman who he thought he was falling in love with, as soon as they get from out of the Mountain, Feyre wants to put herself in more danger. It’s not like she’s unaware of the fact there are dangers out there, she knows, and she wants to go out. Yes, she is a High Fae now, but that’s not something you just pick up. She’s still navigating that and she wouldn’t know how to run when she needed to, or use her strength, or even master her hearing and smell. Tamlin has every right to want to keep her in the house, where she’s safe. After all she’s been through, why would he let her go out into danger? He seems stupid and aggravating from Feyre’s POV, but reasonable from Tamlin’s
**Extra : Everyone is suffering from PSTD, depression, and loads of other things. But since Tamlin deals with it differently than our main characters, heroes, and favorites of the story, we don’t like him. People deal with their problems differently and Tamlin is a great example of how people can judge you on how you deal with it. You can’t say Tamlin dealt with it the “wrong” way because there’s no hand book. Plus, Feyre had Rhysand, Cassian, Azriel, Mor, and Amren. Tamlin had no one.
2. There are a lot of times when Tamlin just treats Feyre like trash. It’s mostly at the beginning-middle of ACOTAR where he just treats her like a human china doll and goes on his merry way. This? This is not surprising. The curse is basically, “Make a human girl that hates your kind fall in love with you. Ha. Good luck”. Feyre walked into that house, hating Faes. Reasonable. Tamlin just let a human girl into his house that killed his friend. He didn’t even want to try to break the curse anymore, because he saw how unreasonable it was. He’s pouting, sure, probably. I wouldn’t blame him. And he has to make Feyre fall in love with him. Showing off his abs, and doing a majestic shampoo commercial hair flips isn’t enough. He also has his mask as a barrier, so Feyre ultimately ended up falling in love with Tamlin. Just Tamlin. (I mean those abs probably helped). But back to Tamlin not treating women right; all of Prythian don’t treat their women right. The whole continent is sexist and only Rhys, Cassian, Azriel, Mor, and Amren stand against it because they have witnessed it first hand and are putting their foot down. Now I’m not saying because the whole continent is sexist, that gives Tamlin the right to be sexist too, no. I’m saying this is where he got it from. He never grew up respecting women. Male offspring obviously are attached to their father by the hip, learning and training how to be Heir. (borrowing this quote from @sparkleywonderful, I’ll be using this quote later too)
“Better than Beron’s brood at the Autumn Court. Tamlin’s brothers were equally bad, though. Worse. And they knew Tamlin would take the title one day.” –pg 448, ACOMAF
We learn that Lucien’s brothers are the worst sadistic, anti-feminists, murdering red heads you will probably ever meet and can give the Night Court a run for their money. So imagine Tamlin’s brothers being worse and they (probably) learned that from their father. Tamlin was raised by the same man so if his father hadn’t died, he would have grown up to be worse than Beron’s Bunch. And you can’t blame him for that, he was raised to be like that, and he had no one to show him the way. Rhys, Cass, and Azriel spent more time with Rhys’s mom than any other possible Heirs to the Courts ever had (just by what we know). They were shown so much maternal love, they had an undying respect from women from the start. That’s not something you can say for all the characters.
Those are two of the major things we hold against Tamlin and they also continue through ACOMAF. Mostly in ACOMAF, Tamlin is desperately trying to get Feyre back. So I’m going to talk about that too.
1. I Do Not Blame Him For Thinking Feyre Was Under Rhys’s Mind Control. Go to Rhys’s fandom wiki page and scroll down to powers, or maybe you already remember. But I’m going to quote it. Daemati Powers. To sum that up, mind powers. He can also change memories, which we saw him do in the Summer Court in ACOMAF and he can also read your mind and memories. Those are the two that are mentioned on the wiki page but it’s mentioned that Rhys can control minds as well. So given that, and given Tamlin’s rocky history with Rhys, and given he still thinks Rhysand is this Big Bad Wolf, I don’t blame Tamlin at all. Given Rhysand has these powers, I don’t blame Tamlin for thinking Feyre was under his mind control. He doesn’t know Rhys taught her how to block it, he doesn’t know anything we know. And even Feyre screaming, “I have my mind! I’m my own person! He isn’t controlling me!” that just sounds like someone is controlling her mind to say that. And after all Tamlin’s been through, still having to run a Court with his obvious mental illness, I don’t blame him for cracking.
2. Joining the King of Hybern. I’ve got nothing for this. That was so stupid I’m still laughing. I legitimately have nothing.
3. Trying To Get Feyre Back. 100% reasonable in Tamlin’s POV and just annoying in Feyre’s POV / Feysand shippers (aka all of us). I can actually explain this by saying it like this. Feyre is now in the Spring Court and obviously Rhysand is going to want to get her back. He’s the “hero” is our story and we’re rooting him on to get his High Lady back. Tamlin is the “villain” in our story and we just want to crush him under Thor’s Hammer. If you don’t get what I’m saying, think of it like this. If Rhysand was the villain, like we all thought he was going to be when we saw him in ACOTAR, and Tamlin was the love-interest-hero trying to save Feyre, we would have no problem with it. We would be cheering him on, begging him to get Feyre back. In Tamlin’s mind, that’s what he’s doing. He doesn’t know Feyre and Rhysand are mates and he doesn’t know she’s happier in the Night Court. All he knows is Feyre sent a letter and she never came back. That’s frightening. That is top-notch frightening, I would have a heart attack. Going back to Rhysand’s Mind Control Powers, that is frightening.
I answered an anon’s ask and you can find that here. I said Tamlin was slowly becoming my favorite character. I should have said “one of” but I didn’t, and oh well, opened myself up for hate on that one. But you know what, he is slowly becoming one of my favorite characters, and that’s what makes this whole post an unpopular opinion.
For a while now, I’ve sat down and I’ve thought about Tamlin, and I’ve thought about his redemption. I’ve thought about his past and I’ve thought about his traumas and what could possibly make him like this. What damage could possibly make him snap, could possibly make him want to get a stone heart, could possibly make him do everything he’s done.
And I keep going back to the conclusion: Rhys’s sister was his mate. Everything slowly ties back to this, if you’d let me explain.
I’m going to call her Chiara, because I have many fanfics in which I do that. Pain, Rhysand’s Parents 2, Wings Returned, and more.
I’m going to borrow another quote found by @sparkleywonderful (you can find all these in The Bond That Haunts Us and I recommend checking out her other posts filled with easter eggs and mind blowing discoveries)
Tamlin’s father, brothers and Tamlin himself set out into the Illyrian wilderness, having heard from Tamlin where my mother and sister would be, that I had plans to see them. I was supposed to be there. I wasn’t. And they slaughtered my mother and sister anyway. –pg 448, ACOMAF
I’m not saying these guys aren’t amazing trackers, I’m not saying it’s impossible to find the Lady of the Night Court and her daughter, but all I’m saying is it’s incredibly hard. Those mountain ranges are huge not to mention all the forest and all the nooks and crannies. It might as well be the Maze from TMR. On steroids. It would have been a lot easier with some tracking magic, and in that case, it would have been easy for Tamlin to get some of Rhysand’s blood, or…a mating bond.
Also, why would the Spring Court even bother with killing them? It’s not like they pose a threat to the Spring Court. Maybe, they hated the fact a daughter could be Heir, but given their sexist ways, I find it unlikely the High Lords would even think for a second a female would be stronger than any male.
So why in the world of Prythian would they even bother themselves with this when the High Lord of the Spring could have been training his sons harder, preparing them for being High Lord.
Oh maybe because she was Tamlin’s mate and they all expected Tamlin to be High Lord. Can’t have the High Lord of the Spring Court mating with the Daughter of Night.
Back tracing a little, it is highly possible for them to be mates. Rhysand mentions that when he was younger (for some reason the number 100 is stuck in my mind, so maybe he gave an exact number, but I don’t remember) he used to train Tamlin in the Illyrian war camps. (More quotes from @sparkleywonderful)
“Lucien never cared about it, never expected to be crowned High Lord, so he spent his youth doing everything a High Lord’s son probably shouldn’t: wandering the courts, making friends with sons of other High Lords” a faint gleam in Tamlin’s eyes at that – “and being with females who were a far cry from nobility of the Autumn Court.” Tamlin paused for a moment, and I could almost feel the sorrow.” –pg 160, ACOTAR
(I’ll be using this again later). But it’s canon that Lucien was skipping between Courts, making friends with sons of other High Lords. Obviously, his friendship with Tamlin was stronger since they’re all buddy-buddy bromance™ in ACOTAR. Tamlin did the same with Rhysand. He let the son of the High Lord of the Night Court train him. He made friends with him, and Cassian, and Azriel. He took Illyrian sized beatings just to be better. He also probably just wanted friends that weren’t his god-awful brothers.
And with three Illyrian brothers, comes a cutie Illyrian sister. And with liking that cutie Illyrian sister, comes three Illyrian brothers knocking you into the dirt. “Not my sister”. So I think it’s highly possible that Chiara may have gotten a little crush; first time seeing a boy, first time it’s not a stinky Illyrian, oh my god he’s even apart of another Court. crush mode activated. plus Tamlin was either probably sleeping over or just winnowing there every day. It’s possible they fell in love and it’s possible a mating bond came into play. (this could be another case for SJM to show that while the mating bond is a wonderful thing, it isn’t always rainbows and sunshine)
Here comes that quote again :
“Lucien never cared about it, never expected to be crowned High Lord, so he spent his youth doing everything a High Lord’s son probably shouldn’t: wandering the courts, making friends with sons of other High Lords” a faint gleam in Tamlin’s eyes at that – “and being with females who were a far cry from nobility of the Autumn Court.” Tamlin paused for a moment, and I could almost feel the sorrow.” –pg 160, ACOTAR
I’m high-key crying right now. If you weren’t convinced Tamlin was in love with another female from a different Court, aka Chiara of the Night Court, I hope you’ll think about it now. Chiara is definitely a far cry from nobility in the Spring Court. She’s nobility in the Night Court. It’s basically like being Crown Prince of one country and falling in love with a Princess from another. The original™ star-crossed lovers.
I’m not saying this is some Capulets vs. Montague but…
Neither Chiara or Tamlin would have told their fathers, I mean, duh, Grade A stupid right there. But I think Chiara would have told her Illyrian brothers and then for headcanon, “Our sister!?” “Can’t really control these things..”
They probably fell in love, unlike some mates of the mates we know (Rhysand’s parents for one). They appreciated the small moments they got to have, and they appreciated their mating bond. And they probably waited to actually mate, just to see if they would survive the next day. I’m not saying they would have been killed but… *sips tea*
This also explains a few things that Rhysand did. I forget when, @sparkleywonderful is so much better at finding quotes from the books, but Tamlin, Lucien, and Feyre found a head skewered on a fountain.
And either Tamlin or Lucien said “This is typical Night Court fashion. They find pleasure in these things. Bunch of sadists” and while I believe that’s true (The Court of Nightmares), Rhysand obviously did this. No one else was let out Under the Mountain except for Rhysand, for reasons we already know.
By why a head? I’m sure there are other ways to terrorize the Spring Court, for Amarantha’s bidding, reminding them that their curse was slowly coming to a deadline. Why would Rhysand choose the way his mother and sister died? The High Lord of the Spring Court cut off their heads and sent them down the river.
Why would Rhysand remind Tamlin of that, like a secret message. Why would Rhysand put himself through the pain. To remind Tamlin, even after all these years, Rhys would never forget he had his sister killed, had his own mate killed. That he didn’t fight. That he let her die, probably screaming for him, her brother.
And then again, a faerie who’s had his wings chopped off, finds his way to the Spring Court. I’m not saying Amarantha isn’t cruel enough, but what a coincidence, Tamlin is reminded of how he had to watch Chiara’s wings get ripped off. What a coincidence, amiright? Really, what are the odds, these two messages would happen so close together, and it would be exactly how Rhysand’s sister and mother died.
Tamlin was also thrusted into a position he never wanted. Where as Rhysand probably eventually came to terms with the fact he was going to be High Lord and he just ended up becoming High Lord a lot sooner than he wanted, Tamlin never came to terms with it and he never wanted it. He figured he had enough brothers to have a slim shot at never being High Lord, but no, they were all killed, along with his parents.
“But my powers kept growing, and I couldn’t hide it – not among our kind” -pg 177, ACOTAR
So much for not being Heir. But why wouldn’t he want to be Heir then eventually High Lord? I mean sure, it’s not an easy job, but he was practically born just for this purpose. Why would he choose he didn’t want it? Why would Tamlin rather have one of his brothers “worse than Beron’s broods” be High Lord instead?
Maybe being High Lord insured he wasn’t going to ever be with his mate.
“The shadows that flickered in his eyes as he nodded his thanks told me there was more–still more that he had yet to tell me about his family, his life before they’d been killed and this title had been thrust upon him.” –pg 219, ACOTAR
At this point, I think Tamlin told Feyre how his family died. But Feyre could sense more, she could sense more of a story than “Oh Rhysand and his father just slaughtered them all. I became High Lord. The End”. Sure there are probably a lot of reasons, but Rhysand has always been mama’s baby bat and he just lost his mother and sister. He hasn’t turned into this two sided person, struggling between High Lord and Himself. I think he was just following his father. Sure he wanted revenge, he probably just wanted to kill Tamlin’s brothers. But it was his father who slaughtered the High Lord and Lady and I don’t blame him. The story of how these two males became High Lords is a lot longer than “We killed each other’s families. The End” and Feyre has always sensed that.
“But darkness flickered in Tamlin’s eyes, and his shoulders seemed to curve inward ever so slightly.” –pg 177, ACOTAR
This is when Tamlin tells the story. Look how his body reacts. I’m crying again. Of course this is a natural fetal position, wanting to make yourself smaller, to be able to protect all of yourself. But I can’t help but stress ‘his shoulders seemed to curve inward ever so slightly.’ I’m sorry but this just seems too much how Illyrian wings curve inward, especially when you’re trying to protect yourself. Especially when someone is about to cut off your wings. It just seems too close for me not to add it in here.
(all of these quotes have been from The Bond That Haunts Us - @sparkleywonderful)
“Wherever he’d had to go in his mind to endure the fight with the Bogge. I met his feral and glowing stare. –pg 106, ACOTAR
the Bogge doesn’t have a wiki page, and if it does, I couldn’t find it. But if I remember correctly, it shows you your worsts fears and memories. When Tamlin fought the Bogge off, he turned feral. His guards dropped, his shield fell away, and he became feral. Whatever the Bogge showed him (*clears throat*) turned him feral. What could possibly turn his feral? Mmm, mm, hold on, it’ll come to me, watching his mate be brutally murdered all over again.
Back to his stone heart. I think all of this is enough for Tamlin to find away to make his heart of stone. “I failed you. I failed my mate. And I will never love another” While yes Tamlin was forced to find his mate and forced to watch her be killed, he still did nothing. And I think he’s punished himself ever since, making sure he never fell in love with anyone.
I want Tamlin to have a redemption arc.
I’m not saying what he’s done isn’t completely wrong, I’m not saying he isn’t an abuser, I’m not trying to cancel out any of that. Tamlin has done what he’s done and there’s no changing it. I gave possible reasons for him doing so, but I understand it doesn’t change what he’s done.
Which is why I want redemption not death.
Death = Redemption, is just not true. When Lord Voldemort died, did he redeem himself? When Kronos died (Percy Jackson) did he redeem himself? When Valentine Morgenstern died (The Mortal Instruments) did he redeem himself? When Gaea/Gaia died (Heroes of Olympus) did she redeem herself? When Amarantha died did she redeem herself? When Arobynn died, did he redeem himself? When Maeve and Erawan, and the King of Hybern die, HA, they won’t be redeemed. When any villain in any story ever died, ask yourself, did he or she feel redeemed in your eyes?
All the characters I listed, have something in common. They are the bad-guys. They are the villains in those stories. Tamlin is not the villain in the ACOTAR trilogy. He’s just a male, who has made some horrible mistakes, and has become some what of a bad (SPACE) guy. That doesn’t mean he deserves to die for it.
Imagine someone who has done nothing but terrible things. You know this person, they’ve hurt you, and so on and so forth. Do they really deserve to stop breathing because of it?
Death does not equal Redemption. Tamlin’s redemption could include apologizing to Feyre, explaining himself, going deeper into his past, turning against the King of Hybern, playing a double agent, putting himself in danger just to give everyone a heads up.
Cauldron, it could even start at the beginning of ACOWAR. Feyre notices a difference in Tamlin right away. He lets her go outside. He asks how she is, asks if Rhysand ever hurt her, he asks about her well being.
His redemption isn’t all about Feyre either. He could ask Lucien how he is after having to face the woman who tore out his eye. After being in a small space with his brothers. After almost dying in the Second Task.
He could go to Cassian, Azriel, and Rhys, and just for that moment, they can share that pain. They know he’s sorry, but they haven’t forgiven him. He could work towards that forgiveness.
There are so many small things that could happen in such a long book to redeem Tamlin instead of : Right before my eyes, the High Lord of the Spring Court dropped dead.
Unfulfilling, not redemption, sure you’ll probably cheer, but Tamlin wasn’t redeemed. He was just killed off.
Don’t get me wrong, Tamlin could die a hero’s death, but we all know our Queen Maas, and she tends not to do the cliche tropes and plots. So I don’t think she’ll do that to Tamlin.
And at the end of the day, Sarah said Tamlin is getting a redemption arc.
