Prythian Lies East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Yeah, but there’s no reason not to think the B&B themes carried over into the second book, considering that ACOTAR had more than one fairy tale threading through it, so why couldn’t ACOMAF have more than one myth/legend/folkloric thingy in it too? In ACOTAR, not only do we have B&B, but we have “The Ballad of Tam Lin,” where a knight is kidnapped by a faerie queen and his lady-love has to go to the faeries and complete several trials in order to win him back.

Also, the B&B aspects of ACOTAR were heavily influenced by East of the Sun, West of the Moon - in fact, it’s far more similar to EotS/WotM than B&B, because in EotS/WotM, the beast-character is stolen from the main character, his awesome magical house-mansion is destroyed, and the the girl has to travel all over the world to where the evil magical queen is holding the dude prisoner - and then she has to accomplish several tasks set by the queen, while doing housework and getting help from a double agent, all while the prince-dude is pretending he doesn’t know her (in some versions it’s because he’s under a spell, in other versions it’s to protect her).

The only thing really missing from this is the MC getting help from the Four Winds, except that Feyre gets help from Nesta, Rhys, Lucien, and…the old lady fae maid…Ailis? We’ll say Ailis, all of whom could count as the Winds. Nesta is fiery and sharp-tempered? Southern Wind. Lucien is all warm and kind of friendly after being chilly and dickish? West Wind. Ailis is demure and sweet? East Wind. Rhysand is a bad@$$ mofo and the most powerful dude in Prythian? North Wind.

The other big thing? Although Tamlin becomes a bigger douche is ACOMAF, he is much nicer than most modern interpretations of the Beast in B&B usually are (thanks to Disney) in ACOTAR. But in EotS/WotM, the beast-dude isn’t much of a douche except when his beasty nature gets the better of him. Tamlin acts more like the Bear King/Beast King in EotS/WotM in ACOTAR and more like Gaston in ACOMAF.

So while SJM says ACOTAR is straight up B&B, it’s not. It’s mostly EotS/WotM with a huge side of The Ballad of Tam Lin (I mean, dude, even the name is the same) with some thematic elements of B&B that don’t really pop up until the EotS/WotM and Ballad of Tam aspects get shunted to the side in ACOMAF, and then we’re full on double-playe of B&B and H&P.

My Thoughts on Tamlin the Tool

Having finished ACOMAF last night, I have this to say.

1 - Tamlin isn’t sorry he abused Feyre. He’s just sorry that she left because of it. It’s obvious he isn’t sorry about how he actually acted because of how he treats her in the last two scenes we see her in.

2 - Because of the politics happening right now, there’s not enough room for Tamlin to redeem himself on such a personal level since the abuse aspect of his character arc is so divorced from the actual war going on.

3 - He’s so immature and oblivious, I don’t think anything Feyre could do in the next book would make him change what made him abusive to begin with.

4 - Because these books are in large based on The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop, I’m almost positive Tamlin will never get over the idea that anything Feyre does or says that he doesn’t like, or any opinions she has that don’t mesh with his view of her, is a direct result of mind-rape by Rhysand.

5 - Even if by some miracle he managed to pull his head out of his butt and stop being such a dick and let Feyre go, that doesn’t make up for the things he did separate from his obsession with Feyre - like the lion-queen, and Tamlin’s treason, and Cas, and her sisters, all that stuff. And the only thing in that that he’s sorry for is the sister-bit.

6 - Although I love Sarah J. Maas, I don’t think she has the literary skill at this point to fix Tamlin even if she wanted to.

Who Do I Ship Feyre With?

I don’t know yet. I mean, I’ve been given a lot of good evidence that Tamlin is a douche but I’m not there yet? Also usually I don’t pick sides in a ship and go with whatever the author has decided. I rarely choose sides. Exceptions are The Chemical Garden Trilogy, The Delirium Trilogy, and 50 Shades of Grey (they both need to be very, very single). Usually there has to be some form of abuse going on. So far I haven’t seen much of that in A Court of Mist and Fury but I’m only on like, page 20.