He said my name with such…intimacy. As if he weren’t a creature capable of killing monsters made from nightmares.
Tamlin consists of two juxtaposing sides: on the one hand, he is capable of deep kindness, emotional intimacy, and love both platonic and romantic. He has a strong sense of justice and responsibility and is a steadfast caretaker to both his friends and lands. On the other, however, Tamlin also has an animalistic penchant for violence and sex and can transform at will into a beast. When Feyre witnesses him in these frightening and powerful states, she feels both threatened by him and attracted to him. It is this contrast between gentleness and brutality that makes Tamlin—and other faeries—so fascinating to Feyre.
How do you think the human armies survived as long as they did, and did such damage that my kind even came to agree to a treaty? With ash weapons alone? There were faeries who fought and died at the humans’ sides for their freedom, and who mourned when the only solution was to separate our peoples.
Tamlin helps Feyre to deconstruct her prejudices about faeries by explaining that the only reason humans were able to escape slavery and negotiate a peace treaty with the fae was because many faeries fought beside them. Feyre had not been aware of this fact, and it helps her to understand that faeries, just like humans, come with a range of morals and values. While some faeries were violent and immoral, many were opposed to the exploitation and inhumane treatment of humans. Tamlin shocks Feyre when he tells her that he would have died protecting humanity’s freedom, as she isn’t sure she would have the courage to do the same. She gains a greater respect and understanding for him in discovering the depths of his morality and empathy.
Your human joy fascinates me – the way you experience things, in your life span, so wildly and deeply and all at once, is…entrancing. I’m drawn to it, even when I know I shouldn’t be, even when I try not to be.
From Feyre’s perspective, faeries are far more fascinating, beautiful, and powerful than humans. After all, they have incredible magical powers, live unbelievably long and storied lives, and are physically wondrous to behold. However, Tamlin upends this narrative by admitting that he holds similar feelings of fascination and wonder for humans. In his eyes, humanity’s short life spans give them an intensity of emotion and experience that isn’t shared by the bored, immortal fae. Humanity’s passionate, vivid, and brief existences are attractive to him because there is a vitality and fervor there that he as a fae will never truly experience.
“I’ve had many lovers,” he admitted. “Females of noble birth, warriors, princesses…But they never understood. What it was like, what it is like, for me to care for my lands, my people. What scars are still there, what the bad days feel like.”
One of the reasons why Tamlin and Feyre are romantically drawn to each other is because they both share an understanding of the burdens of being responsible for other people’s lives. For Feyre, she has had to sacrifice her own comfort and happiness to provide food and money to her father and sisters, in circumstances that were miserable and incredibly difficult. Tamlin faces the never-ending burden of being the Lord of the Spring Court, meaning that he must not only rule his lands from a political standpoint but also protect his lands physically, often being forced to put himself and his loved ones in dangerous situations. Although Tamlin could have his pick of beautiful, strong, and impressive faerie lovers, he’s interested in Feyre because he wants to be with someone who understands his emotional burden.
But he’d fallen in love with me despite all that – known I’d loved him, and let me go with days to spare. He had put me before his entire court, before all of Prythian.
Feyre is finally and completely convinced of Tamlin’s goodness and trustworthiness when she realizes that he sacrificed himself and his people to save her. Even though Tamlin knew that Feyre loved him back, he did not force her hand or try to wrest a confession out of her to break the curse. He chose instead to send her back to her family, where she would be safe from Amarantha’s wrath, even while knowing that he was dooming himself to be under Amarantha’s power forever. Feyre understands that his love for her must be incredibly strong, and that if she feels the same about him, she must also be willing to sacrifice her own life for his. It is this realization that leads her under the mountain and keeps her going even as Amarantha tries to break her.