#tamlin is my bitch

[lucychanart]

My two cents about elainweek is that:

For those who came from the anime/manga fandom being bombarded with doujins, fics and fanarts from ALL possible ships, it’s still very strange for me to see a book so famous being so... poor(?) of fan content.

Acotar was the first book fandom I had contact with and seeing it was a shock. Despite all the problems, I find the books a gold mine to produce the best hcs and delight with them🥹

It's a little absurd that one day I felt AFRAID of daring to post Tamlin's art.

And I feel completely fulfilled when I met the fandom of 10 people who liked him hauahauaha

And in case you didn't know: you are sheltering a Brazilian fugitive from the Brazilian fandom of acotar. That's why I write everything wrong!🫵🏻

About Tamlin (I'll be quick):

I was promised a bad guy, two faced, VILLAIN and I came across this pathetic dog and I had to adopt him. But seriously, to me, Tamlin is a hard blow from the lack of media literacy.

And I don't like to justify my tastes, but I really identify much more with Tamlin's unhappiness and how he is a mixture of good and bad things. Mourning, mysteries and heartache. I like that and that's it✨

No one deserves to be attacked for liking something that doesn’t affect anyone.

[copypastus]

Nothing gave me more whiplash IN MY LIFE than going from acowar to acofas.

Remember when Feyre closed the chapter on her relationship with Tamlin and wished him well? Coz the Inner Circle sure keeps forgetting.

[merwgue]

Me core

[arson-09]

one of the many issues i find with sjms writing (and subsequently her fans) is that a character has to be perfect to be loved (this is acotar specific) hear me out ((apologies in advance for the somewhat rambling and nonsensical bits. its late lmao)

Just about everything Feyre and Rhysand do is justified. Rhysands entire list of evil actions from acotar is retconned. Him murdering those winter court children was suddenly by an unnamed daemati whos never brought up again, his sexual assault of feyre was “for her protection”, and in general the way he treated her UtM is okayed (sa is never justifiable, even in fictional media) and him keeping very important information about Feyres body from her is fine because he was doing it to spare her feelings (also never ok to keep information of ones body from the individual)

Feyre is allowed to destroy the spring court. No matter how you feel about Tamlins character the actions she took were extreme, petty, and useless. She collectively punished the citizens of the spring court because of her relationship with Tamlin and she believed him to be allying with Hybern. Which was hinted to her to be false and she could have read his mind at any point. Feyre also is a unreliable narrator but her word is taken as truth. When she has magical outbursts its nothing, she can treat her supposed friends like shit but shes still the better friend.

Together they constantly spout how perfect the other is. Especially Feyre about Rhysand, maybe its the mating bond but the bond is how sjm communicates her feelings about the characters (which i feel is evident in the Nessian bond) Feyre says rhysand is Good and Justified in everything he does, so you the reader must believe it too, right?

The rest of the Inner Circle also falls into this. Mor is allowed to unfairly treat Nesta like shit, Cassian is unquestioned when it comes to his mistreatment of his mate, azriel is a background tapestry, and amren is a whole different issue tbh.

Nesta is the outlier. She is not perfect and we know it because of how mistreated she is by the people that surround her. Cassian is a horrible partner, letting rhysand do and say what he wants to her, restricting her food and being very neglectful of Nestas mental health. Nesta is a flawed character but shes not an antagonist. Her flaws does not call for this sort of treatment. It is disgusting how sjm portrays Nestas character and her “healing arc”. Sjm says she loves nesta, but her treatment says otherwise.

Tamlin receives the brunt of this treatment. He is a flawed character but is not evil. Hes not even a real antagonist, just because he is not friends or on good terms with Feyre and Rhysand does not make him such. His allying with Hybern is used as reasoning for his mistreatment when its clear as day hes a double agent. Tamlin, while he struggles with emotional regulation, anger issues and communication is a very good high lord and his personal relationship with a character does not change that. His actions towards feyre are often called abusive but sjms writing fails to bring this observation to fruition. She fails to actually make him abusive and antagonistic because she accidentally writes her own outs by justifying similar behaviors from other characters.

If you have spent anytime on the majority side of the fandom you have seen the Feyre and Rhysand vs Nesta and Tamlin mentality. Nesta and Tamlin are hated while Feysand are treasured and its because sjm makes a perfect character for you to love so why would you root for the flawed characters hated by the narrative? Nesta and Tamlin are far more nuanced and interesting due to their imperfections, dislike by the narrative, and hatred from the majority fandom. (To note, Nesta and Tamlins characters are different ((although they have some striking similarities)) but their treatment is very equal. Which is why i, and many other people in the fandom compare and combine them so much)

Feyre and Rhysand through the narrative and fans are perfect and can do no wrong. Tamlin and Nesta are frankly evil and undeserving of love. Its intriguing to see this behavior and its almost unique to the acotar and booktok fandom. Which is why i find myself so focused on Tamlin and subsequently the fandom. its so odd and something i havent seen before that it gets stuck in my little adhd brain.

[praetorqueenreyna]

You're definitely on to something with Rhysand stans being against Tamlin's untraditional masculinity. I love that Tamlin isn't the masculine stereotype that is prevalent in so much romantasy. I think that is the extra fuel as to why so many hate him. I've also seen stans on reddit say that they hate him just because he's blonde. 🙃

The main thing I LOVED about the first ACOTAR book is precisely that: it's different from most other fantasy romance. Tamlin and Feyre are an untraditional romantic lead couple. And it feels like SJM/fandom want to like, idk, punish those of us who liked that about that first book. Like they're going "can't BELIEVE you would ever like a SISSY MAN like that, when the REAL HERO is TRADITIONAL MASCULINITY DARK BROODY MAN! Here are all the ways that Tamlin, with all his EMOTIONS, fail as a romantic partner."

Which like....I guess it's fine that SJM decided to go down the route of making feyre and rhysand like every single other het romantic lead, but idk why those of us who enjoyed Tamlin have to be yelled at over it.

And again, it exposes an ongoing problem in online spaces, which is shitty people utilizing social justice language to bully and berate people for having different opinions, and then feeling justified in their poor behavior bc they challenged sexism or whatever.

[lady-tortilla-chip]

I hate everyone who thinks Lucien did literally anything wrong ESPECIALLY to Feyre

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

me: i hate uber possessiveness in love interests

feyre: i’m so mad that tamlin has exes

me: OMG SHE’S SO MAD THAT TAMLIN HAS EXES🥹

[crackedship]

i wanna write feysand fanfic but i don't remember what they're actually like at all, so if i end up posting it i beg that no one complain that they're out of character, thank you

[dota2apologist]

DA2 has the highest percentage of companions that can SHOVE IT. bc they'd all sell you for one corn chip and just ruin my life all day long. how about you all grow up and support ME for a change.

[mossytrashcan]

love it when people unearth sage lore. like, yeah, I was one of the founding fathers of the gay tamlin conspiracy. yeah I was unmedicated and no one could stop me

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

Drea starts a book club when????

OMG NEOWWWW

[goldrushzukka]

finished acomaf. i get it now

[captain-of-the-gwynriel-ship]

How outlining every chapter of FM2M goes

Me: this should be a short chapter I don't really need to cover much here

*proceeds to write a 3.5 page single spaced chapter outline*

Me: I take it back this might be the longest chapter yet

[harmonicaorange]

i read acotar after avoiding it for 8 years because i assumed (and was correct) that the main characters would be dull. only to find out book 2 is STILL about feyre and tamlin !?! if i’d known multiple books were in feyre’s pov i wouldn’t have bought it

[acourtoflostandwanderingstars]

I’m back with another character song — spoilers below the cut if you haven’t read ACOMAF yet!

‘Behind the Mask’ by Ivy and Gold is totally Feyre singing to Tamlin, and you can’t change my mind

[praetorqueenreyna]

imagine how much better Nesta's life would be if she didn't sacrifice her power for her ungrateful rat of a sister and her trash mate??? there's a parallel universe where feyre, rhys, and nyx are all dead and nesta is living her best life <3