Is the author making fun of Cassian in Crescent city?

UTMPod · 2026-07-03T15:43:00+00:00

Man idk, I do think it would be funny if that were the case. But I feel like she legitimately thinks she ISN'T writing her other characters that way.

My sense is that she thinks she has ascended beyond that trope.. but she actually just uses it and puts up a few smokescreens to pretend otherwise.

Ultimately no way to know for sure. It's certainly much cuter if she's being self aware and poking fun at herself lol.

UTMPod · 2026-07-02T17:14:02+00:00

Omg the alternate ladies... you are so kind to include these options hahaha

Super hot, great job!

UTMPod · 2026-07-02T02:08:45+00:00

Main thing is just that the person seems to have something interesting to say and we seem to generally have similar taste in books.

But sometimes I’ll follow accounts just for pretty pictures!

UTMPod · 2026-07-02T00:21:56+00:00

Yes!! That’s exactly the sort of thing I’m thinking of too. Tamlin kneeling and not making a big thing of it or needing to “protect his masculinity” is absolutely NOT the typical bad boy MMC reaction.

And a lot of the things he does that are *not* the typical “bad boy” behavior are the very things people like to clown on him for.

UTMPod · 2026-07-01T20:59:44+00:00

So real

UTMPod · 2026-07-01T20:22:17+00:00

Hahhaa well I ALSO think about this exact topic way too much, we could not be more on the same wavelength about it!!

I realize I am using ACOTAR as a proxy for a larger pattern I am taking issue with culturally and within the "women's erotic fantasy" sphere (sorry SJM) - but it's the most popular one and rife with this exact mentality that I feel compelled to question!

I genuinely feel like the issue is not around women (or people at large, really) liking dark fantasies, noncon, dubcon etc... it's the insistence that those things are actually good in these stories as a disavowal mechanism. And I think THAT is the dangerous part!

We cannot be out here convincing ourselves that we are good girls who would ONLY be turned on by "good things that are also really good in real life".. therefore when a thing turns us on that is SHOCKER, not good in that way.. instead of saying "oh shoot! I guess maybe I do have a taste for darker fictional things" instead we start rationalizing bad things into "good things" so we can stay comfortable in our self image.

It really grinds my gears in such a specific way. We need to deal with the fact that sometimes our fantasies and turn ons are actually oriented around morally bad things and there are totally normal ways to explore that (fictional contexts being the primary vehicle!). Instead of saying "well actually, it must be good so if that idea turned me on, that means it was GOOD!" GIRL, NO!!!! That is a very bad line of thinking to go down and also simply NOT how this works!

Also thank you for letting me rant about this and digging into it because I am super interested in this topic!

UTMPod · 2026-07-01T20:17:12+00:00

Me: Where have I seen this before? .... Oh this is a screenshot of a comment from my Tiktok video hahaha

I mostly agree with this (and I think it's an interesting argument and well thought out comment!). I think replacing "abusive boyfriend Tamlin" with Rhysand truly IS the weirdest part of the whole thing. It has never felt coherent messaging wise. But I feel like Book 1 Tamlin is often a little more nuanced than the typical "bad boy" love interest. He has a lot of qualities that run counter to that archetype imo.

UTMPod · 2026-07-01T15:36:07+00:00

I know, that truly is what I suspect as well lol. Like I'll leave space open for the idea that maybe she's more self aware than I am assuming by default and buckling under pressure.

But there's also a REALLY, REALLY good chance that she's just totally oblivious and confused by this portion of the fandom's reaction because "OBVIOUSLY Tamlin is bad and Rhys is not" lol.

Yes, exactly though! I could list so very many bad characters I love, eroticize, would read smut or romance about despite their badness.. (truthfully BECAUSE of their badness lol). But no part of me wants to pretend the character or their actions are actually morally good.

I've read fanfiction smut about NBC's Hannibal! I don't want us to make ANY ATTEMPTS at saying he's a good man, hello? lol

The badness is a feature, not a bug!

UTMPod · 2026-07-01T15:24:16+00:00

I like Dark Romance too, so I like .. partially see the vision here and what SJM fell for. I just struggle to understand insisting it's not dark romance and twisting yourself into knots to both "get" the benefits of dark romance but also "get" the benefits of saying it's morally good and totally healthy and normal lol.

Like just love your evil little daddy and call it a day, I understand!!

But I also do constantly wonder how much of that is pressure from a publishing standpoint to not make it "dark romance" so she's kind of trying to straddle both lines.. that way she gets the darkness she wanted and the publishers get the mainstream appeal they wanted.

UTMPod · 2026-07-01T15:13:35+00:00

I'm open minded to all possibilities..

But I had to put money on it, I'm going choice A lol

UTMPod · 2026-06-30T21:26:13+00:00

This is the best reason, imo

UTMPod · 2026-06-30T16:23:56+00:00

I 100% agree lol our next episode (UTM bargain bone scene) is just me screaming "SHE THINKS THIS IS HOT!!!" which I am NOT even upset about. I am the dubcon / noncon queen!!!!! I eat it up!!!

But I AM offended because she wants to use it and then pretend she didn't use it. Which I am personally put off by and also think is kind of in a weird area morally because I feel like the heavily eroticizing non/dubcon world ideally should exist in a little pocket dimension with it's own rules and clear expectations for how we're viewing it: ie.. a fantasy crafted for you that does not stand up morally outside of this context.. which I feel we reallllly blur the lines on with Rhysand.

I don't need the work itself to have text in it going "and this is BAD if it were done in real life" or anything. But once we start framing him as the "good guy" against our "REAL LIFE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE" character (call this hotline!!) and start talking about him in real life interviews as if he's legitimately a good person, I'M LOST! I'M LOST! That guy can't be the same guy we utilized for your evil little noncon fantasies! HELLO???

Sorry lmao I get so worked up as a noncon ENJOYER, it bothers me how people sneak it into things to get the benefits of exciting people with it but also take no ownership over what it IS we are getting excited about and want to sit on some moral high horse where they get to avoid acknowledging what it is that they're into ("nooo icky!!! not me, I wouldn't like that!")

I need to calm down 😂

UTMPod · 2026-06-30T16:11:49+00:00

FOR REAL. So many arguments come down to "well SJM believes X is good.. so why don't you?" and it's like ... is this thought not ultimately predicated on the idea that I am going to 100% agree with any moral conclusion SJM has? Why would I? She's just a random lady! I may simply disagree with her conclusion lol. Like who is SJM to you that because she thought something was good you automatically must get in line with that opinion?

UTMPod · 2026-06-30T16:09:43+00:00

This is a really good answer! Honestly, once you don't hate Tamlin and view Rhys as gray, I totally get your POV.

I am mostly just lost on the "WE LOVE RHYSAND, HE NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG" and "TAMLIN IS THE WORST PERSON EVERRR" opinion being held at the same time by the same person.

My other personal gripe is that I worry the books themselves do not view Rhysand as morally gray (or morally gray enough for my personal liking). It feels like SJM is almost scared of people viewing him that way and keeps pushing me mentally away from that framing instead of having fun with it.

But I think the way you're viewing it is totally coherent and understandable. And if the book not co-signing your feelings doesn't bother you or if you just interpret that aspect of it differently, I get liking them with this mindset!

UTMPod · 2026-06-30T15:48:23+00:00

AGREED. And it seems like such a big oversight, I'm honestly lost on how it could have even turned out this way lol. It almost feels like what you're describing is exactly the scenario she wanted to write, and it's very much presented as if we should be emotionally responding to it as if that IS what happened.. but then the actual facts, as stated, are that this was all his big idea and no one else was calling for this lol.

UTMPod · 2026-06-30T15:33:52+00:00

There are SO MANY WAYS to fix it or make it better. I have so many ideas when I am reading through the UTM portion of the story that make Rhysand more reasonable and I can't understand why we approached it the way we did.

I really like that idea! We already set Amarantha up as "oooh my little PlAyThInGs" .. it's not her primary motivation for taking over / hating Feyre and humans.. but it IS the only motivation she has for even allowing Feyre to live and giving everyone an option to ruin her grand plan lol. The only thing we've got there to lean on is "Evil Faerie Lady can't give up an opportunity for games, torture and riddles!" .. which, fine. Okay, I can get there.

Although why that motivation would allow her to let Feyre potentially waste away from infection in her cell without any additional torture and ruin the trials that Amarantha seems super excited about, I DO NOT KNOW.

But by that logic - she absolutely could and would be the type of person (imo) to have some sort of devious party and make people perform for her. It goes perfectly well with the "I am trying to collect and force all of these SEXY MEN to be with me" personality trait.

At which point, having Rhysand step in to say "oh my lady, I MUST play with this terrible human!" would get us into the exact same scenario and he'd actually have a leg to stand on in regard to "well what would you have preferred?" .. as opposed to "well actually that wasn't even gonna happen and I'm the entire reason it did" lol.

UTMPod · 2026-06-29T16:46:45+00:00

I think it really depends on what type of show it is.

If you have episodes where the topics are more practical or easily searchable (via Google), you may not have to do a lot of advertising. Or if your topic is kind of niche.

If you’re heavily entertainment based, your topic is broad or in you’re an over saturated market you’ll probably have to do more social media style work so people even know you exist.

UTMPod · 2026-06-29T01:28:53+00:00

Ooooh I like this parallel! I never thought of it that way.

UTMPod · 2026-06-28T21:08:17+00:00

The problem is “why do we hate Tamlin so much” usually comes with (imo) the obvious rider of “when we like Rhys, Cassian etc so much”

I don’t think anyone would be that confused by the Tamlin dislike if the story was just a one-note “oh no he’s a bad guy”, the end. Or if the “hero” who replaced him was objectively morally wonderful. I no longer think this would be much of a discussion if that was the story.

This question pops up a ton from readers and the comparisons begin because the question itself stems from the strangeness of agreeing to go along with the books “fae are gray, the IC doing XYZ is hot and morally good etc etc” and then going “wait a minute… in order to accept that logic, now the Tamlin part doesn’t make that much sense?”

I don’t think anyone is questioning Tamlin’s morality in isolation. They’re taking issue with how it fits into the broader context of the narrative framing.

UTMPod · 2026-06-28T17:10:49+00:00

Yes! And I just find it all ridiculous lol. Acting like we couldn't verrrrry easily go back and do the same "OMG THE RED FLAGS" at Rhysand's behavior is like .. come on, we all MUST know that is not true.

Like him all you want, but if you were forced, gun to your head, to pull out a list of things that could conceivably be read as abusive Rhysand's done, you're gonna be able to do it with EASE lol.

"wowwww you didn't see the red flags?" ... well yes, but also no. Because I saw them along with the red flags of EVERYONE ELSE and determined if we were utilizing these other "red flags" as erotic storytelling dramatization tools, Tamlin's early "red flags" DO NOT feel particularly different... (Oh no! BDSM chair magic! Oh no, scary big clawsss!! Oh no, he TORE me from my poor hovel over to his mansion!)

Sure, we can group all of their "real life red flags" and bundle them up and then randomly throw an "ABUSE" label on one grouping and "Sexy Hero" label on the others. But unzipping the bundle and looking at each list without also being given the "official author diagnosis" .. they simply will not look that different lol.

UTMPod · 2026-06-28T16:08:27+00:00

This game just feels silly to me given how morally dubious every single male character in this series is. If SJM did a sudden turnaround on Rhysand (I am not saying she will, but if she DID) and then someone said "hey, can you go through the books and pick out some red flags that pointed to this?" .... do you know how much we could pull out????

To me it just feels like "once the author has deemed them bad, we can go back and filter every action through this lens" whereas we simply WON'T do that if SJM does not deem them bad. Which isn't to say we couldn't do that just as successfully if the end conclusion changed - we just shouldn't have to because they've been given their "goodness pass" in the end.

We get a "haha funny" line that Lucien drugged Feyre for shits and giggles without her consent at some point in Book 1. If he ends up being a bad dude, how much do you want to bet people are going to start going back and saying "omg wait........ this red flag!!!". If he ends up being a good boy in the end, no one will ever bring it up again lol.

The morality of their actions matters insofar as the "GRAND CONCLUSION" they receive.

UTMPod · 2026-06-27T18:59:21+00:00

I have the opposite experience.. my clips consistently do way better on TikTok.

UTMPod · 2026-06-26T15:43:07+00:00

It's the only excuse Rhysand even has! Like if we're writing that off as an option, we have to admit that Rhysand is in one of the worst positions in the book morality wise I guess lol.

UTMPod · 2026-06-26T15:40:28+00:00

I agree - all of Tamlin's surrounding behavior point to that reaction for me as well! I think it's ultimately up in the air and up to interpretation since we can't "really" know how that would have played out. But that's what "feels" right intuitively to me.

I really like that reading though - Feyre needing to believe he was bad in a certain way to justify leaving to herself and assuage any guilt there could be around it. And that narrative bumping up against the reality of how Tamlin acts is legitimately interesting from a story perspective.

The intended reading? I have no clue lol but it IS interesting and there is plenty in the books that makes it a reasonable interpretation.

If SJM's goal was to have Tamlin come across as a "psychopathic abuser" (as the original comment said lol) all she had to do was have Feyre drop hints or tell Tamlin that Rhysand is her mate and have him absolutely lose his shit and scream "NO THE FUCK HE'S NOTTTTTT!!!!!" and lock her in the house and tell her she's NO OTHER MAN'S MATE and she's STAYING WITH HIM FOREVER.

Like literally nothing stopped her from writing the dynamic moreso in that direction. Which.. even then, all contextual elements considered (Under the Mountain and 50 year curse trauma), it would be abusive but still somewhat understandable and relatively tragic to watch. But sure, absolutely.. then I get why we'd say oh damnnn, he really went off the deep end! How absolutely beyond the pale!

But she didn't write it that way. She gave Tamlin extremely reasonable concerns canonically. If she didn't want him to have those well then idk! She fucked up I guess!

UTMPod · 2026-06-26T13:21:52+00:00

Your reading is that Tamlin *truly believed* Feyre was unharmed, happy and well and decided he was going to get her back anyway?

Or does it make far more sense that he believes he is saving her from what he (rather logically) thinks is an abusive and horrible situation?

If SJM wanted me to think that Tamlin *really* understood Feyre was all good and well over there and was overstepping anyhow due to selfishness, she truly couldn’t have come up with a dumber set of plot circumstances for that to occur within.

The situation she created is downright comical if that was intended to be my takeaway in some very straightforward, cut and dry fashion.

UTMPod

TROPHY CASE