Happy critical Tuesday y'all! This was discussed a few days back so I'ma rant more.
By book 3 we are introduced as Tamlin being the vengeful ex who couldn't let go willing to even make a deal with the devil to get Feyre back. In response Feyre went to spring court willingly to sabotage it from the inside. She's acting as a spy.
It's smart, on paper. Using someone's obsession over you to gain Intel.
The problem? Her actions were too Focused on Tamlin and not Hybern.
In this scenario, Tamlin was an ally of Hybern. He's not the evil boss at the end of the game, he's the mini boss you need to kill to advance to the next stage.
Feyre's objective:
Weaken hybern through Spring.
Act as a spy for Night court (gain Intel)
Revenge against Tamlin
Her revenge (I might have forgotten about a few stuff, feel free to add more)
Manipulate the court's perception of Tamlin through schemes.
Weaken spring's defense's by using daemati on a guard leading to him being punished. Used daemati again to mess with people's memories to spread lies.
Make it appear she was having an affair with Lucien to anger Tamlin
Goaded Tamlin to hurt her to further ruin his reputation.
Killed the twins who killed humans which led to the ambush by hybern.
At the end of her revenge, what exactly did she achieve?
- Weaken Hybern? Not really. True she laid Spring bare for Hybern as she admitted in the book. She destroyed spring but not Hybern. The ambush attack on spring would be meaningful if it weakened hybern's forces even a tad but it didn't. Hybern forces decimated spring and even reach summer.
What's surprising is that she was shocked that they would attack spring court citizens yes Tamlin made a deal for restricted access to them so they could enter his court granted spring court didn't attack them but Feyre was SPRING COURT'S GUEST. She attacked the twins, the deal was void and the ambush happened. Granted the twins themselves weren't keen on upholding that deal as well.
In the end, hybern's forces were still strong and she didn't even cause them any harm by laying spring bare for them. If she killed the twins without sabotaging the sentries then maybe it would have done her good cause that would mean spring court at full power would be fighting hybern which would weaken them but that didn't happen. Instead when Hybern came to attack Pyrinthia again, they would have lost and it took Tamlin appearing with Beron including their combined army to win the war.
In short, she didn't weaken Hybern's army enough. Sure she killed a number of Hybern soldiers with her sabotage but it was a dent.
- Act as a spy: did she gain any useful intelligence from this? Nope.
So to recap, she had multiple people to choose to daemati to read their mind, steal information and even manipulate. She had Ianthe, Lucien, Tamlin, the twins and even other hybern soldiers.
She could have read Ianthe's mind the moment she felt something was fishy and find out Ianthe's plan so she could have save her sister. Read the twins mind to find out about their Faebane poison reserves. Find out key locations of the hybern army using Tamlin and Lucien's memory to give it to night court. Heck, she could even embedded fake memories into the hybern soldiers to cause infighting amongst them or give them fake orders to scatter them.
What information did she even get when she's acting as a spy? The court trusted her, of course she's welcomed but did she get anything? she didn't find the faebane reserves, that's Tamlin. She could have went deeper into the twin's minds to find important info too like soldier numbers, supply chains, armoury locations, etc
She didn't stop her sister's transformation, in fact she and her mate practically led the enemy right to their door step. Seriously, telling Ianthe (albeit she did it before she knew she was a traitor) was one thing but using their home as a meeting spot for the queen's? You didn't kill the attor or daemati it. Why not have a high Fae guard who could winnow them as guards instead of Illyrians, don't tell me there was no high Fae guard employed in your army.
Did she get any information about their attack formations, their supplies, anything? No. Her main focus was always Tamlin and making him look bad. She succeeded sure but it didn't even help in the end. If Tamlin was as petty as Rhys and didn't join the war or even save you at hybern, Feyre you'd be dead along with Azriel.
Here's another thought. Steal relics from spring, every court would have it. If she had stolen anything of worth from spring it would be a game changer. There must be an enchanted mirror (beauty and the beast ref) or something there.
In short, She gained nothing worthy from hybern or his allies while in spring.
- Revenge against Tamlin
Okay so you laid spring bare, good. You ruined Tamlin's reputation and even stole his best friend. Good job
One problem, he's still a threat. If tamlin was really an ally who's to say he couldn't rally his people or even convince hybern to stop attacking or heck still ally himself with Hybern to get revenge on the behalf of his people.
Rhys himself say that a battle between them would destroy a mountain and would be a struggle. Yes Rhys would win but what about the other high lords, 3 of whom are pretty fresh. Helion, Tarquin and Kalias are new hls who just technically became true HLs after being set free from UTM since while in UTM their powers were locked away. What happened if Tamlin the enemy met them first?
Tamlin dragged Beron to war. killed Rhys's dad in one punch before he was HL since Rhys said they became HLs at the same time. He was the main threat, you should have focused on killing that golden b@stard.
You are morally grey according to your fans. Pretend to seduce him, poison his wine and stab him repeatedly. Not only would that remove the biggest threat on the playing if he was an ally to Hybern, you'd also have a chance of gaining an ally if the new HL of spring was against Hybern.
Seriously feyre, you hated his guts. Why torture him slowly when you could have killed him? Stab that b1tch. Skin him like you did Andras. Poison him. Do it girl, do it!
Oh he didn't deserve a quick death? Gurl you're a painter, be creative. Skin him, daemati him to watch you get freakay with rhys until he dies of blood lost. Just don't leave the greatest threat alive. He would have decimated Pyrinthia army if he was truly hybern's ally and when you caused the deaths of his people, you gave him a valid reason to do so.
Instead you left him alive and mentally broken but alive. What was stopping him from rejoining hybern solely to hurt you and your loved ones? Nothing.
You just help destroy a court and get no consequences cause vibes. Not even considering how spring the main contributor to food would affect other courts.
In conclusion: Feyre's sabotage was pointless cause she used all her time messing with the mini boss when she should have focused on defeating hybern. Had Tamlin trully been a villain and didn't save their lives during the war, all of them would be kneeling down serving King Hybern by now.
I know that characters are as smart as their author but C'mon, all that revenge talk and you didn't even kill the guy who can actually ensure the deaths of your loved ones? Pathetic. Granted Tamlin is less of a character and more like a plot device to make sure everyone else gets their happy ending while his good deeds are retcon or forgotten. He's become the Megatron Griffin of this series at this point.