[weazlibs]

Cardinal north is a direction on a map. True north? True north is home. It is where you feel safe.  And loved. You have always been my true north Mal. And if I am to survive this, I need to be home again. With you.

Alina, if you get this letter, know that when I told you about true north, I was talking about you. You are my true north.

[userdilf-deactivated20210916]

[birdmans]

Shadow and Bone + Iconic Lines

[shadowandbonecentral]

David meets the Crows.

[mockingjayne12]

malina in every episode: 1.02

she’s worth it.

[malinaagenda]

Malina in the Shadow & Bone trailer

[lucys-key]

“How dare you get so big.”

I love them ong.

[comingoutofthecauldron]

on malyen oretsev as a character and a love interest

this might be slightly rambly and incoherent but i need to say it. malyen oretsev has been the underdog in this fandom for as long as i can remember. a little while ago it was the “malaria” jokes (very classy, folks), and then waves upon waves of mal antis and darkling stans/apologists, and even now a decent majority of the fandom is convinced he’s just boring or an asshole. and fair enough on that last account, if you genuinely don’t like him as a character, that’s fine. but there are a lot of accusations people throw mal’s way that i am really sick and tired of hearing, and hopefully this will help put a stop to them.

mal is not boring. mal is witty and charismatic and an easy friend, and he is also incredibly brave. when he thought alina was being tortured and brutalised by the darkling, he volunteered for a suicide mission to track the stag—which he didn’t even know existed—into fjerda because it was the only way he thought he could help her. that mission killed two of his best friends. people say mal is an asshole because of the way he treated alina when he saw her (months after she’d been dragged away from him against her will) happy and healthy in amongst the people who had looked down on the both of them their whole lives, after having just lost his best friends for her. i say his being upset was pretty understandable. and yes, he was a bit of asshole in siege & storm, but he’s a teenage boy and you cannot hold him to all these ridiculously high moral and behavioural standards (especially when you don’t hold other characters like nikolai or the darkling to those standards). everyone has their asshole moments. nikolai’s is ongoing. holding mal’s against him just because he’s not all-powerful like the darkling or royal like nikolai is bullshit, plain and simple.

as for malina, i have a lot to say on that front. a lot of people say that mal was only interested in alina after she got her powers, but that is blatantly untrue. the quote, “just you and me. it’s always just you and me, alina” literally happens in the first chapter of shadow & bone. mal himself said that he always loved alina, and her being taken away was the wakeup call he needed. if anything, alina’s powers only complicated their relationship—mal didn’t know how to deal with her becoming the very thing they’d both grown to resent after being treated like shit in the first army while the grisha were treated like royalty, which explains a lot of the tension in their relationship surrounding alina’s abilities.

people tend to say that mal didn’t like it when alina became powerful and less dependent on him, but that’s not right. mal never wanted alina to be less. he was afraid of what would happen to her if she became more. from his point of view, all that alina’s powers brought them was trouble; the darkling’s grooming of alina and his subsequent manhunt for them, nikolai’s proposal to alina (when he was an adult and alina was a minor), the apparat’s cult and imprisonment of them, the death of the only mother figure they’d ever known. in his mind, alina’s powers only ever brought them misery, and mal was scared of losing her to that misery. we saw how they were torn apart throughout the books, because mal was otkazat’sya, and he was not the only one who felt that that might never be good enough for alina. neither of them ever wanted the power that alina was given. that’s why it was so hard for mal to accept that alina wanted to keep it—he was scared it would corrupt her the way it had the darkling. he was scared of losing her.

the argument that really frustrates me is when people call malina abusive. say it with me, folks: malina is not an abusive ship. mal and alina loved each other unconditionally. even if he wasn’t happy about alina’s powers, he knew that it was important to alina that she use them to save ravka, and so he helped her. he owed ravka nothing. this was the country whose monarchy had essentially taken his life from him to force him into being little more than a foot soldier in their army; the country his friends had died for thanks to the darkling being placed in such a position of power; the country whose king let the people starve whilst he sat in his golden palace and wasted more money. mal helped alina save ravka not because he loved his country, but because he loved her. hell, he literally died for her.

whilst we’re on the subject, let’s talk about that quote that people like to say is abusive: “i love you, alina, even the part of you that loved him.” do you understand how monumental that quote is? mal found out that the darkling is the same darkling who made the shadow fold, the shadow fold that had taken numerous lives and that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. he was beginning to realise the extent of the manipulation alina had undergone at the hands of the darkling, the grooming and abuse. they both knew the atrocities that the darkling had committed, and yet mal has it in himself to tell alina that not only does he not care that alina ever thought she loved the darkling, he loves her all the same anyway? how is that abusive?

lastly, i want to talk about his most infamous quote: “i am become a blade.” this is one of my favourite quotes in the entire grishaverse, and i’m going to explain why. a lot of people think that it’s grammatically incorrect, but as your local grammar nerd, i’m here to tell you that it’s not! as alina notices, the actual tattoo is written in ancient ravkan: e’ya sta rezku. because of that, the quote translates with slightly strange phrasing, but that phrasing still makes grammatical sense. it’s sort of like how shakespearean english is still english, it just sounds different.

now, grammar aside, i want to talk about why the quote is so beautiful (to me, anyway). mal has been used all his life. when they were at keramzin, he tracked and hunted animals for them to eat. in the first army, he was used as a foot soldier and a tracker, and the darkling (and nikolai, to an extent) used him to track the amplifiers. he’d always had his agency taken away from him by those with more power, and he’d been used and mistreated almost every time. then he turns around and offers himself and his agency up to alina without a second thought. because he loves and trusts her that much. at this point, it doesn’t seem to him as though there’s any chance of him and alina ever being together or getting a happy ending. he’s not doing it for that. he’s doing it because alina wants to save ravka, and he loves alina, so he wants to help her do that. in all of his indecision about his life and what he is and who he is for alina, he is able to decide that to live in service of her, to live for her, is exactly what he needs to do. he is essentially saying, “i recognise your power and though i am afraid for you, i won’t hold it against you now. instead i’ll help you wield it and fulfil your destiny, even if that isn’t what i want/what i want for you and even if it gets me killed.”

mal is a teenage boy who had to mature very quickly under terrible circumstances. of course he’s not perfect and he makes mistakes, but i cannot for the life of me understand why he is hated on such a large scale. he was an asshole to alina at some points, yes, but alina was usually an asshole right back, and it was only because they were both pining and angry at their situation. if you still don’t like him, fine, but for the love of god, stop calling him abusive/toxic. he’s a good character and a healthy love interest (a rare sight in ya) and malina is a healthy romance. it’s that simple.

[nazyalenskyy-archive]

Alina was like yeah I have a choice between my childhood best friend who while flawed loved me for who I am and not what I can do for him or this Prince while my friend is only romantically interested in me because of the power it would bring and is also four years older than me or this genocidal tyrant who wants to use me for my power and murder all my friends and she choose the first one because she has a fucking brain

[wewillbehappyagain]

reasons why mal is good and has always cared for alina

- stayed by alina’s side when they were small, best friends who helped each other

- fell in love with, or at the very least got a crush on her when they were younger, but felt bad about it because she was supposed to be his best friend, so he got with other girls which is totally fine

- saved her from getting run over by the darkling

- tried to protect her the first time on the fold

- lied directly to the darling’s face bc his words to alina had been private

- felt bad about not trying to get her to stay when the literal darkling took her away

- thought alina had forgotten about him

- missed her every day and constantly looked for her to tell her about things he saw or just to hear her voice

- volunteered to find the stag and go to fjerda even though it meant almost certain death and his best friends got killed and he only blamed himself

- deserted without a second thought to find alina even though he had it really good as a tracker and fit it, and deserting meant certain death if he got caught

- found alina bc he will always find her

- apologized for what he said to her at the winter fete

- found the stag for her, then couldn’t kill her when the darkling found them

- was so brave when he was about to be executed

- left ravka with her

- found rusalye for her

- stayed at the little palace even though he was SO miserable. he lived with the rumors, the questions, the degrading words, being treated badly

- did kiss zoya but alina (who almost kissed nikolai) and his communication was horrible. he didn’t want to kiss her bc she flinched when he tried

- apologized for that and was forgiven. alina even said that she had asked something of mal that she hadn’t been willing to give him

- rescued and threw himself in front of her again and again and again

- tried to kill people so she wouldn’t have to bc he knew it would haunt her even though it already haunted him

- when they knew (thought) it couldn’t be them, he tried to distance himself from her, and only asked that nikolai made himself worthy of her

- wanted to show her the meteor shower and was so disappointed when he saw her with nikolai

- treated misha amazingly and helped him through trauma

- when alina got mad at him and said some hurtful stuff he only joked about her sour moods and the time she put goose shit in his shoes

- as a child he promised ana kuya that he would marry alina and he did just that!!! icon

- promised to only better himself and realized that wanting and deserving wasn’t the same thing

- mal and alina will always turn to each other first when they see something wonderful

- mal is the only person alina has loved, and the only one who has loved her

- sacrificed his life for her

- wasn’t happy about alina losing her powers

- lost his own

- told alina that it was okay that she grieved the loss of her powers even when others had lost their lives

- alina always wanted to go back and have a quiet life with mal, and she got just that

- they had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things — if love can ever be called that.

[shiikadai-archive]

mal, objectivity & character development

So, I finally took it upon myself to read @lbardugo‘s The Grisha Trilogy. Initially, I thought I was reading just because I’d found her other duology, Six of Crows, to be an impeccable tale and that her other works just had to be worth reading. But a few of my reasons for reading also concerned some of the fandom’s perceptions of the series, namely: 

an overwhelming hatred of the ultimate love interest, mal 

the elevation of the relationship between alina and aleksander 

the veneration of the many women in the series (perhaps one thing that I can agree with the majority of the fandom on) 

I finished Ruin & Rising today, and I have to say that my thoughts about the conclusion of the series differ a lot with the majority of the fandom’s, especially in regards to those first two bullet points. While I certainly don’t find Mal’s actions in some parts of the series to be inexcusable, I’m a little confused by some of the accusations made against him, so I’m going to try to look at them objectively under the cut. 

Keep reading

[blackracheldare]

nikolai saw alina as a political prospect, the darkling saw alina as an opportunity for power, and mal, mal who had been with her from the very beginning and was willing to DIE for her (more than nikolai OR darkles), saw her as the girl from keramzin who he grew up with and loves with every last breath in his lungs. he didnt see her as “the sun summoner”, he didn’t see her as an object capable of destruction, he saw her as a GIRL, as a HUMAN, one that does not deserve the suffering pushed on her shoulders or the responsibility of carrying his crap around so he tried to (stupidly) distance himself even though it broke his heart because while he didn’t only see her as the sun summoner, he knew that she WAS the sun summoner and he was getting in the way and he loves her!!! he loved her!!! he killed for her, lead for her, DIED FOR HER then

alina!! alina loved him despite everything. despite sabotage, despite weird teenage feelings and wars they are forced to fight. she loved him even when she wasnt sure he loved her back. she gave him his space to grow and learn and she did!! not!! take!!his!!! crap!! as she SHOULDN’T. alina was ready to let the last amplifier go, she was ready to let ravka fall for this boy. she refused to kill him, HE HAD TO CONVINCE HER TO DO IT. he made her laugh, he made her cry, he held through nightmares, he did EVERYTHING to make sure she knew she was not a monster. that she was not like the darkling. she grounded him. they remind each other where home is because they each carry a bit of the past and the future inside them and it’s what they need!! it’s what they deserve!!! they deserve each other and they deserve to be HAPPY and teenagers in LOVE

[cryptidlookingforlove]

You know how children of the big 3 are destined to clash and bicker because they’re too headstrong? it’s still so fucking funny to me that Percy met Nico, an adorable dorky child who was unclaimed and was like “gods you annoy me sm I wanna punt you across the sea” and didn’t suspect that maybe it’s bc he’s a child of hades

now that I’ve started talking about this, i think it’s very cool that the whole “fuck I hate you but ur my bro” dynamic that hades, zeus, and Poseidon have is passed on to their kids

Thalia would probably take a bullet for Percy and vice versa but they would also sell eachother for a pop-tart, and percy spends a lot of time worrying about Nico and making sure he’s not a corpse but also spends a lot of his time being 100% sick of his bullshit and wants to leave him for dead, and Nicos definitely had moments where he think “why did I ever feel anything for you, ur as dumb as a penny”

[bauliya]

i love the legend of korra i really do but listen. that katara which they give us is fake the real katara married zuko and had a dozen statues built in her honor and created tonnes of welfare programs in the fire kingdom and was in some newly discovered tundra researching and pushing the boundaries of waterbending and exchanging loving letters with her husband the entire time tlok was going on.

[ficklefackle]

it physically hurts me that even though munyeong is so terrified of her mom finding her, her first thought is to tell gangtae to run away with sangtae. she’s literally willing to give herself up just to protect the both of them

[hargreeveslove]

when diego started stuttering again because of r*ginald

[umbrellaacademyfun]

This is literally his one and only concern at all times and I love it.