🌹 Is Tamlin actually the Villain, or Did We All Just Stop Caring About Him When the Author Did?
Let’s talk about Tamlin. No, seriously. Not Feyre’s Tamlin, not the fandom’s Tamlin, not villain arc Tamlin — just Tamlin as a character. Because I think something strange happened to him narrativamente… and it’s worth unpacking.
When you reread A Court of Thorns and Roses, something becomes glaringly obvious: Tamlin isn’t evil — he’s uninformed. Like, painfully, repeatedly, narratively left out of every important thing that happens. He doesn’t know about the curse specifics. He doesn’t know what Lucien knows. He doesn’t know Feyre can read. He doesn’t know how to communicate. He doesn’t know how to process his trauma, either. He’s not malicious — he’s stuck. Emotionally, developmentally, narratively.
And what makes it all more telling is that he starts strong. The first few chapters are trying to make you like him — the wounded fae lord with the tragic past, the slow-burn protector, the mysterious-but-gentle stranger in a beast’s mask. We were going Beauty and the Beast-coded! And then… mid-book… the tone shifts😬 And the shift is NOT subtle: there's no awkward moment of silence here, no vague discomfort there, but rather, suddenly, the writer decides that Tamlin is not a viable option. And we never really get him back.
Let's be clear: Sarah J. Maas does improve her writing as the books go on, and in the beginning, the development of most characters is pretty weak. In my opinion, the first book is written around two major events (meeting the fae and the Under the Mountain arc) that are somewhat awkwardly stitched together. That's probably where a lot of the poorly handled of Tamlin as either a villain or a morally gray character comes from. In fac...
🧍♂️ Ironically, his moment of greatest developmenthis is the one where he stops speaking entirely — the Under the Mountain silence. He’s paralyzed by fear, guilt, helplessness — and it’s frustrating, yes. But it’s real. It’s the closest he gets to an arc, and we skip over it. Because the narrative doesn’t stay with him. He becomes an obstacle to Feyre’s growth — not a participant in his own.
So is Tamlin the villain? Narratively, sure. Emotionally, he’s a failed promise. A character who could’ve been complex and tragic and redeemable — but instead was dropped halfway through the book, never fully picked back up, and handed to the discourse with a “do what you will.”
😔 And it’s a shame, because the story could have explored something deep and painfully real — the kind of people who, while believing themselves to be good, end up sustaining toxic relationships. But instead, we’re left with someone who’s simply never told anything, never given any real explanation, and therefore can’t logically be expected to act differently.
[Art by Madschofield]