#inner spring

[mywhisperscollector]

[spacerockfloater]

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: 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.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t 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, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” 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. There’s 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. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s 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 didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t 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 Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t 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 didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a sadist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: 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 Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s 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 didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: 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 locks Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s 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 Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: 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 wouldn’t 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.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t 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. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s 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 couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t 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 there’s 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. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

[lady-selenee]

Something I will never understand is how some people claim that Feyre destroying the Spring Court was some sort of girlboss moment.

Because it definitely wasn't. What she did caused instability and allowed Hybern to take control of the Spring Court.

And people say this was okay because of Tamlin? Forgetting that he's not the only one who suffered but also probably the majority of his court. Because I doubt that people weren't hurt when Hybern took over. And most of those people were innocent.

[silverflameataraxia]

The IC feared that Nesta, in a fit of rage, would lose control of her magic and hurt someone. They didn't want to leave her alone with Feyre because of it. They felt like she needed to be restrained because of it. Yet it was Feyre - not Nesta - who threw a temper tantrum, lost control of her magic, and burned the LoA.

The IC didn't want to tell Nesta the truth that she could Make magical weapons because they worried that she would Make something to spite them. They thought that she was plotting against them, that she was a threat to their court. Yet it was Feyre - not Nesta - who plotted against and destroyed an entire court out of spite.

The IC judged Nesta for being prejudiced against the Fae. Yet it was Feyre - not Nesta - who killed an innocent Fae with hate in her heart.

The IC hated Nesta for being cruel. Yet it was Feyre - not Nesta - who caused an innocent guard to be whipped. Feyre didn't check in on him afterward because she cared or because checking on him was the right thing to do. She visited him to make Tamlin look bad. (I don't think Feyre understands that ACOWAR doesn't just make Tamlin look bad. It makes her look bad, too.) It was Feyre - not Nesta - who tortured Ianthe. It was Feyre - not Nesta - who displaced innocents out of their homes because they committed the crime of living in the Spring Court or living in the same apartment complex as Nesta.

The IC wanted to punish or execute Nesta for giving Bryce the Mask because they thought her actions would benefit the enemy and risk Prythian. Yet it was Feyre - not Nesta - who benefitted the enemy by destroying an entire court on the cusp of war. It was Feyre who gave the enemy a stronghold in Prythian. It was Feyre who risked Prythian by releasing a death-god and Fear itself. It was Feyre who lost control of Bryaxis.

Feyre is the monster the IC fear Nesta to be.

[wallflowers-in-the-wind]

Tarquin going off on Feyre will always be my favorite scene in this series. Mainly because he tells Feyre off for her horrible actions and refuses to allow anyone to defend her. The attack on his court was caused by her. She brought the war to his home because she was too busy getting back at Tamlin and destroying the Spring Court to think that her actions may hurt someone else. Even Rhysand’s pitiful attempts to defend his ‘High Lady’ don’t work because there is no excuse for the Night Court’s actions against the Summer court.

Unintentionally or not actions have consequences and for the brief moment of Feyre realizing how much she messed up I was happy to see someone else not bowing down to every little thing Feyre did.

[thefatesofspring]

Another thing I’ll never understand about the ACOTAR fandom is why playing an instrument is an ick!!

Tamlin playing the fiddle which is just a violin basically (believe me I’ve seen art depictions of people confusing a fiddle with a flute) is honestly amazing to me, the violin/fiddle is also one of the most difficult instruments to master & yet Tamlin plays it so well it captivates EVERYONE!!

You know what is icky THE BAT BOYS.

Tamlin has ACTUAL hobbies: playing the fiddle, writing poetry, a few times it’s been eluded to that he likes gardening

meanwhile the flying rodents do nothing but drink, gamble, fuck, lie, steal, beat, bully, torment, harass, exploit, abuse, imprison, gaslight & manipulate, dress their partner in clothes made by their mother, breed, force people to secrecy, attack, buy more homes than need be. There’s probably more but off the top of my head that’s the basics & none of which are hobbies or anything to fall in love over.

[flat-neines]

There was a missed opportunity in not having the ic disagree with rhysand during the demon baby plot. Especially if you kept how self congratulatory they were about making fun of lucien for caring about tamlin and not "opening his eyes to the truth". Like, imagine that they all vote no because not telling a person about their body is abusive and even if the ic didn't really care about feyre on a personal level, they weren't going let their friend do something so horrible to their partner. Rhysand forces them not to say anything and they have to (reluctantly) go behind their friend's back to not only save feyre's life, but his.

And while they try to find a way to discreetly inform feyre, nesta is the one to reveal it to her, angered by the violation of both thier autonomies. Rhysand, who already hated nesta, finds out and threatens/tries to kill her but the ic close ranks against rhysand for the first time in centuries.

So now rhys is locked in the river house to prevent him from doing anything else and cassian is explaining this to lucien (as they need his help) who's just like:

[littlefeltsparrow]

Schrödinger’s Feyre: Where Feyre is simultaneously a cunning and badass girlboss with a mind of steel and a fragile little lamb who doesn’t know any better. When they’re proud, she’s a skilled strategist and competent High Lady, but when it comes to facing the consequences of her actions and the implications of her power, suddenly she’s a little baby waddling through fairy land.

[wannabewriterlol]

I want tamlin and Nesta to start a therapy group and just work through the copious amount of gaslighting they’ve faced by Rhysand, Ferye, and the his merry band of idiots.

[margaretkart]

A moment to relax..

[starscreambbymama]

Y'know how in fairy tales there's lil small pixies and fairies that are like super small or fit in your hand like Tinkerbell? Since usually pixies and fairies are associated with spring what if there were little pixie people living in the Spring Court with their own little village? Like they live in little elaborate houses with and live in flowers Thumbelina style 😭

[photocyclelog]

Low tide: stranded.

Photo: 1st May 2025

[bellavida-loll]

I'll start

Tamlin is the most lovable high lord. He and Rhysand are the only ones we get insight into the lives of, and I have to say I much prefer fiddle playing and limerick writing to whatever it is Rhysand does apart from bang, drink and gamble. His hobbies are just so cute, like him!

Secondly, he's so much sweeter. Rhysand actively withheld information from Feyre that literally meant the end of her life. Rhysand explained away all he did to her under the mountain without so much as a sorry. Rhysand made her into the very thing she said she hated at the beginning of the series- a domesticated, crown-wearing breeding machine.

But Tamlin? All he ever did was try to protect her. He might have gone about it in a better way, but he was going through his own stuff too. Locking her in the house might have aggravated her trauma, but he had no way to know that would happen-because unlike rhystupidslut he does not have direct access to her brain. I can promise you he wouldn't have gotten Feyre without being a daemati- after all the powers don't seem to have any actual use. Tam baby did nothing that would warrant Feyre choosing the tear-licking predator with an Oedipus complex over the cute lord with a lute.

That's all for now, might add more later. Y'all have anything else to add?

[silverflameataraxia]

The IC want to hate how Tamlin treated Feyre after she saved Prythian, but yet they treat Nesta even worse after she just saved all worlds. They hate Tamlin for locking Feyre up, but yet they did the same to Nesta. They hate Tamlin for ignoring Feyre's well-being, but yet they do the same thing to Nesta. They hate Tamlin for letting Feyre become withdrawn, but yet Nesta is in an even worse emotional state in HOFAS because of them than Feyre was in ACOMAF.

The Night Court is to Nesta what the Spring Court was to Feyre. At some point, the Court of Dreamers need to realize that they're Nesta's Court of Nightmares.

[lainalit]

Honestly I wish Tamlin would enter the high lords meeting, sit down, let's risotto and air fryer yap about how important & cool (tm) they actually are, stand up, tilt his head back, laugh like a maniac and leave the meeting room

[thefatesofspring]

Me when someone on the other side of the fandom says:

“If YoU dOn’T lIkE tHe MaIn ChArAcTeRs In ACOTAR wHy ArE yOu ReAdInG tHe SeRiEs”

It’s almost as if every other character isn’t 10x more interesting & actually more intelligent than Feysand & The inner circle🤭🤭🫢🫢🤫🤫