Ilargizuri

Bücher, Schreiben, Sims und mehr

[ilargizuri]

Introduction

Hello,

I am new to Tumblr. I am still not sure how everything works on this Site, but I will do my best to figure it all out. I came to this Site because I was tired of Twitter's character limit and even if that very rich Man Child will make it bigger, I won't start writing bigger messages than I do at the Moment.

I will continue to be on Twitter because I made some friends there which I don't want to lose.

But enough about that, more about me, I love to read, Books, Comics, in short everything that is written in a language that I can read, I read it. I don't take everything at Face value and I am most critical about nearly everything, my Grandma always said: Your Problem is that you think too much and worry about things you can't change.

My Favourite Authors are ... let's be chronological: Jane Austen, Jules Verne, Lyman Frank Baum, Arthur Conan Doyle, Erich Kästner, Astrid Lindgren, Llyod Alexander, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Ende, Bernard Cornwell, Terry Pratchett, George R.R. Martin, Cornelia Funke, Neil Gaiman, Kai Meyer and much more, these are just those who should be more prominent and therefore more well known. Or at least you can find them with a Wikipedia-Page. I didn't read every Book of these Authors, but some of their Works are my all-time-favourites which I always at some time reread.

I usually like it when Books have some tropes, but I really hate the Prophecy-Trope. At least when it makes sense in-universe, so that the Characters can interpret the Prophecy and act accordingly. So there are cases in Stories where Prophecies don't bother me, it would be a better Book without it in my opinion, but in General, I don't care that much about it.

I love to play the Sims 4, and I really love to build Houses. I don't think I have a specific Style, but I think I am a decent Builder. Sometimes I create Houses for Characters out of Books or Houses based on Books. For Example, I tried to build a Russian Dacha after I read Shadow and Bone. A Book series I don't like that much, giving the only PoV to what I would call a female Love Interest, instead of the male protagonist, just to make sure it could sell more Books to women was a problem during my read. At least it felt like that to me (personal Opinion! There is nothing wrong with that and if you have a different one, good for you), because I got the impression the Author became more and more frustrated with that female Character. In my Eyes that was confirmed after I read how she was portrayed during the last 2 Books in that Universe, holy moly that was a different Character. But If I was together with a Womanizer I would probably change like that too. To all those who want to scream at me, that the Male Protagonist changed because he loved his Female Love Interest, I recommend reading "A Game of Thrones" there is a female character who says:

"Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it can not change a Man's nature."

And if you do that as a Rule for your Antagonist, do it for your Hero as well, I hate inconsistencies where "Rules for thee, but not for me" is at play. Which happened in these Books more than once. But I like to watch how Authors evolve and change during their Careers and the Author became better since that Debut. So my advice for her would be: To kill that Character in the next Book, if there is one more. If a Character frustrates you get rid of it.

This leads me to my next point, I love to write myself. I am Nanowrimo-Participant and Winner for several years. I started writing because my Father died when I was 10 years old. So it started as a therapeutic measure, but it became a lot more over the years. I thought about publishing, but I made a bad choice and today I am not so sure anymore. But I have some WIP's of my Fanfiction on AO3, which I occasionally update, I mean, when you see that no one reads it, you can update it whenever you want. At the moment I work on 3 Original Novels at once, they are all in one World and because there are references to different Parts, I write them simultaneously. And on top of that I write 3 Fanfictions and plan one more.

So I think that is enough for an Introduction about me, if you have any questions, ask them, I try to answer, it would at least help to find out how this site works.

[taragreenfield]

What I wanted to learn about the Darkling from the books:

How and why he created the Shadow Fold

How he created the Second Army and the Little Palace and how they actually function

What he has been up to for literal centuries

What his actual political and ideological views are and how he envisioned the future for Ravka and Grisha.

What I learned about the Darkling from the books instead:

The color of his eyes. They are grey, which is stated about 250 times in case someone is still not sure what color grey looks like.

the state of his hair at any given point in time.

He has a bEaUtIfUl face. Yes, it's also repeated 250 times in case you suddenly forget that he is handsome.

His laugh sounds sexy

His bare chest is irresistibly hawt

The books are cursed with a shallow, ignorant protagonist who keeps focusing on wrong things.

No, being sexually attracted to a "bad" guy and berating herself for it doesn't make the heroine complex. Moral complexity would require her to actually engage with the political climate around her, consider the actions of her enemies and allies and their impact on objective reality instead of how they make her feel, and, most importantly, reflect on her own choices rather than judging someone else's. Emotional complexity would require her to be torn between her lingering attachment and empathy for the antagonist and her judgment of his methods and actions. The closest she gets to empathizing with him is noticing that he sometimes looks "like a boy," which is purely visual.

Salivating over the guy's chest and feeling bad because of it doesn't make her a nuanced and morally complex protagonist. It makes her a horny prude.

Sexual frustration doesn't equal complexity. Sexual attraction doesn't have anything to do with morals—it's morally neutral. It's just hormones. The fact that Alina was tempted by his body is not a moral failure. Being attracted to a handsome man is one of the things she shouldn't feel guilty about. She'd do better if she felt guilty for her bigotry; her supporting rapists, oppressors, and various hateful violent bigots; her committing a mass murder and other war crimes; or her tendency to abandon everyone and care only about herself and her dishrag friend, or at least for being a cunt towards everyone who is not the said dishrag friend.

Instead, she is shamed for having a libido and only feels guilty when Mal looks like something crawled up his ass. And we are supposed to be impressed by her virtue, purity, and humility because she a) won't fuck an evil guy and b) would rather stay powerless and miserable than use her power for the collective good.

[ventresses]

This is a perfect time to read the brilliant and unforgettable graphic novel(s) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, about growing up in Iran during and after the Iranian Revolution, and the rise of the oppressive theocracy that persists to this day.

Both graphic novels are available free online (Persepolis vol. 1, Persepolis vol. 2)

It also was adapted to a wonderful film (co-directed and co-written by the author) which is available to watch for free on Sundance Now (sign up for the free trial)

[medschoolash]

It’s actually funny that Darkling was supposed to be evil for expanding The Fold but they showed us that the West had a whole army waiting to kill all the folks crossing so was he really in the wrong there?

[ladymelisande-deactivated202407]

Also, West Ravka sent an assassin to kill Alina because they wanted to be a separated country. They are in a war, nobody is the good guy.

[the-abominable-sociopath]

I love how some ppl love saying we only stan the darkling bc of pretty privilege and Ben Barnes, but the first thing my sister said when I told her about his plan was “oh he’s smart”

Idk if this makes us worse people, but we stan him bc he was the only one with an interesting personality and actual motives. He didn’t give a fuck who he killed. He had a plan, and he tried executing it the best way ke knew how. And don’t come to me about “finding a better, less violent” way. He’s immortal. He’s lived for centuries. Don’t you think he would’ve found such a way already?? Get the morality police off my feed. All is fair, this is war.

[yototothelalafell-deactivated20]

If you take the title “General” seriously, he’s just acting out the part of a good strategist.  

His deception in regard to The Fold falls pretty neatly under the very first of the Thirty-Six Stratagems:  Deceive the heavens to cross the sea (瞞天過海, Mán tiān guò hǎi) 

This stratagem means that you can mask your real goals, by using the ruse of a fake goal that everyone takes for granted, until the real goal is achieved. Tactically, this is known as an ‘open feint’; in front of everyone, you point west, when your goal is actually in the east. By the time everyone realized it, you have already achieved your goal. [Source.]

In this case the ruse was, “The Fold must be destroyed.”  In a perfect world, without Baghra, this would have bought time for Kirigan to train the Sun Summoner, convince her with logic and reason, and then provide the means and opportunity to enter and change The Fold into something that could protect the Grisha.  

As for deceiving the King of Ravka, who is an enemy of The Grisha, Kirigan’s actions fall under the classic stratagem:  Hide a knife behind a smile (笑裏藏刀, Xiào lǐ cáng dāo).

This of course won Kirigan the resources and opportunity to collect and support his people in the open rather than working as an underground resistance force.  This is absolutely brilliant on his part.  He gave the Grisha access to education, training, and supplies, and he took these things from his enemy.  He made his enemy spend resources on his own army, which by its very existence gives the Grisha a unified identity and a cause.  

What about Kirigan’s plan to “weaponize The Fold?” 

Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good… Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. [Source.]

Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a tactic based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight. [Source.]

Being able to deploy The Fold at will is the equivalent of holding a nuclear arsenal in your hand.  In our own world countries scramble to create nuclear weapons and advance their own military technology because it guarantees sovereignty.  (This is a great video illustrating why the US remains a world power aka we have the most innovative military.)  In the case of Shadow and Bone, The Fold surpasses the usefulness of atomics because it is not a technology that can be copied.  Even if Kirigan cannot force world peace, he can at least carve out a free nation for the Grisha. 

“He who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven.”

He clearly intended one demonstration to be enough by having a boatful of diplomats as his witnesses and yet for reasons that I can only understand as poor writing, politicians decide to oppose him and even attack. This…does not happen in the real world.  They’re politicians! What politician has not heard that all warfare is based on deception?  What ambassador would declare enmity at such a disadvantage?  In the real world, Japan surrendered six days after the bombing of Nagasaki.  

Honestly, the show has yet to show me a villain outside of actual slavers and witch hunters.  Kirigan’s actions thus far line up well with other military leaders throughout history and I really can’t find fault with his ultimate plan for The Fold.  Am I supposed to be upset that he wants to be effective?  Should he sacrifice more of his people in a war of attrition? 

The fact that he is a good general is part of what makes the character appealing!  

[ladymelisande-deactivated202407]

We are supposed to assume he is evil because Alina and Co think he is 🤷‍♀️

[ackermental]

And he didn’t even destroy the whole town? We are only told that he is doing it by Crows, but we only see him sending the Fold on Zlatan and his army in the harbor?

This show really wishes for me to take the words of some randoms who don’t even see what is going on (because they are below the fucking deck) over the “show, don’t tell” rule?

And even if he did send the Fold on the whole Novikibirsk… Am I to believe that Tsar’s army would have been better?

Because that army would have come.

And you know what? If Darkling was not a part of the story, both Mal and Alina would’ve probably be right there, killing all those people themselves. You know why? Because they are fucking soldiers!

Also just let me tell you, as a citizen of the country that has fought endless wars with Russia, I would take god damn volcras over Russian soldiers any day.

[ladymelisande-deactivated202407]

Somehow the filmmakers know the show don’t tell rule but the narrative doesn’t want to address it.

It’s like the show has a multiple personality or the directors and writers and actors are basically fighting with each other 🤷‍♀️

[nettlesdefensesquad]

Oh yeah,I think something like that’s def going on.We’ve already ahs cases of both B*rdugo and Eric admitting they lost some of the battles they fought so I think there’s def a camp of people supporting Ben’s effort of humanzing Aleksander hence the whole West Ravka plot that’s not in the books and on the other we have B*rdugo trying to fight to get her way with ehr shitty plotting and one dimesnional villains and ggod vs bad.

Frankly I can’t believe anyone would tkae tehse book seriously especially when you read the final battle in the thrid books but pretty much all of the trilogy are one dimensional characters like Malaria(wiht flashes of inetersting secondary characters that get to develop in future stories)fighting the namelss Grisha army and the big evil dictator  and leaving ravka in utter chaos because they have no plan other than to keep the status quo going.

I think B*rdugo tried to appeark feminsit by changing that in the Nikolai duology what wiht him abdciating and a Grisha(Zoya)beocming queen but by the time there’s so much  contardictions,plot holes,hypcricy,preahcing and laying fan favourtism that you can’t really take it as a victiry for the Grisha at all.

[stromuprisahat]

the-abominable-sociopath:

I love how some ppl love saying we only stan the darkling bc of pretty privilege and Ben Barnes, but the first thing my sister said when I told her about his plan was “oh he’s smart”

Idk if this makes us worse people, but we stan him bc he was the only one with an interesting personality and actual motives. He didn’t give a fuck who he killed. He had a plan, and he tried executing it the best way ke knew how. And don’t come to me about “finding a better, less violent” way. He’s immortal. He’s lived for centuries. Don’t you think he would’ve found such a way already?? Get the morality police off my feed. All is fair, this is war.

#he was never wrong baby

darkling-er:

His methods are not perfect, but in war I think it’s perfectly necessary. In the books it was supposed to be innocent civilians.

And meanwhile they still them in West Ravka, the show did make a point of: yes, there are innocent people there, but also a whole army ready to kill the Sun Summoner and everyone else on the skiff.

[scentedmiracleobject]

I don’t know what kind of war they are trying to fight without blood?? It doesn’t make sense. The man just said that he wants all wars with Ravka to end, and he gave the ambassadors the chance to go tell their superiors what they’ve seen, and answer back to Ravka. Instead i’m supposed to think this is the evil guy, who is power-hungry and wishes to destroy the entire world Oh No.

He could have expanded the fold without any warning if he was really evil as the narrative is trying to convince us. Instead he tried to oblige his enemies to sign peace treaties. Oh No let’s interfere and ruin it.

What’s even more funny is that the “good guys team” are supposed to preach about how bad killing people is and yet:

Alina burnt important military maps+ because of her, the entire team got send to their death+ blinded a man with her light (It was well deserved but still it doesn’t align with the message our MC should carry)

Mal killed the girl Baghra sent ( It was in self-defense but still, good people aren’t supposed to kill)+ Killed a Fjerdan soldier (if i remember well, when his friends died)+ Shot a soldier on the skiff.

Zoya killed her teammate on the skiff (That’s murder+treason)

The crows are straight up criminals lmao.

“The Darkling is killing people and hurting them. He is evil”

The narrative is trying  to send this message to the viewers and get us to root for what the authors believe are the good guys but the characters they are using  as a mouth-piece for that message are criminals and soldiers who have resorted to killing at least once.

Yeah sure.

[taragreenfield]

What I wanted to learn about the Darkling from the books:

How and why he created the Shadow Fold

How he created the Second Army and the Little Palace and how they actually function

What he has been up to for literal centuries

What his actual political and ideological views are and how he envisioned the future for Ravka and Grisha.

What I learned about the Darkling from the books instead:

The color of his eyes. They are grey, which is stated about 250 times in case someone is still not sure what color grey looks like.

the state of his hair at any given point in time.

He has a bEaUtIfUl face. Yes, it's also repeated 250 times in case you suddenly forget that he is handsome.

His laugh sounds sexy

His bare chest is irresistibly hawt

The books are cursed with a shallow, ignorant protagonist who keeps focusing on wrong things.

No, being sexually attracted to a "bad" guy and berating herself for it doesn't make the heroine complex. Moral complexity would require her to actually engage with the political climate around her, consider the actions of her enemies and allies and their impact on objective reality instead of how they make her feel, and, most importantly, reflect on her own choices rather than judging someone else's. Emotional complexity would require her to be torn between her lingering attachment and empathy for the antagonist and her judgment of his methods and actions. The closest she gets to empathizing with him is noticing that he sometimes looks "like a boy," which is purely visual.

Salivating over the guy's chest and feeling bad because of it doesn't make her a nuanced and morally complex protagonist. It makes her a horny prude.

Sexual frustration doesn't equal complexity. Sexual attraction doesn't have anything to do with morals—it's morally neutral. It's just hormones. The fact that Alina was tempted by his body is not a moral failure. Being attracted to a handsome man is one of the things she shouldn't feel guilty about. She'd do better if she felt guilty for her bigotry; her supporting rapists, oppressors, and various hateful violent bigots; her committing a mass murder and other war crimes; or her tendency to abandon everyone and care only about herself and her dishrag friend, or at least for being a cunt towards everyone who is not the said dishrag friend.

Instead, she is shamed for having a libido and only feels guilty when Mal looks like something crawled up his ass. And we are supposed to be impressed by her virtue, purity, and humility because she a) won't fuck an evil guy and b) would rather stay powerless and miserable than use her power for the collective good.

[darklinaforever]

Or how to say that you have no imagination in a falsely intellectual way.

[nizaberry]

My mermaid lives at a small park in Strangerville. She discovered catching and breeding frogs..

[maudit]

[profeminist]

RIP Marjane Satrapi, author of the amazing graphic novels Persepolis about living during the fundamentalist revolution in Iran in the 70’s and 80’s. She also created the animated movie based on the graphic novels, which is where these gifs come from.

Gifset source

[creativepromptsforwriting]

List of Superpowers

An incomplete list of powers that can be used for good and evil.

amalgamation – ability to merge existing creations

attack powers – blasting, shock waves, object projection, fire breath, laser vision, etc.

creation – ability to create out of nothing

dream manipulation – ability to change dreams

echolocation – ability to determine locations through reflected sound waves

elasticity – ability to stretch their body in any way

element control - ability to control the elements

emotions manipulation – ability to manipulate the emotions of others and themselves

empathy – ability to feel and replicate the emotions, moods, and temperaments of others

energy absorption – ability to absorb energy from people and objects and use it

enhanced physical skills – like senses, stamina, strength, accuracy, intelligence, speed, etc.

fear inducement – ability to evoke extreme fear and horror in others

flight – ability to fly

hypnosis – ability to hypnotise and manipulate others

immortality – not being able to die

immutability – not being able to get altered by outside forces

invisibility – impossible to see

invulnerability – being immune to all forms of physical harm

knowledge replication – ability to replicate the knowledge and skills of others

levitation – ability to levitate in the air

magic – conjuring things

mind control – having control over another’s mind

omnilingualism – ability to speak and understand every language

portal creation – ability to create portals for transport

psychokinesis – ability to move energy and matter

reality warping – ability to manipulate reality

regeneration – ability to rapidly heal

replication – ability to replicate people (including themselves) and objects

self-detonation – ability to self-explode

shapeshifting – ability to change their appearance

telekinesis – ability to move objects with their mind

telepathy – ability to communicate through their minds

teleportation – ability to instantaneously travel

temperature resistance – ability to survive extreme temperatures

vocal mind control – ability to control people with their voice

x-ray vision – ability to see x-rays

More: Hero & Villain Masterpost

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[snoopyoftheday]

snoopy of the day

[marinersubmariner]

fortunate son

[howtostandinsilence-deactivated]

darkling fans: in depth discussions about the harmful depiction of persecution in the novels and the racist and antisemitic ways the darkling is written, highlighting how the darkling could have still been a villain if the grisha as a persecuted and marginalized people had been handled better and the story was more aware of itself and the problems it was discussing. detailing where leigh bardugo’s inability to understand politics and oppression led to a damaging puritanical framework for her story that flattened her characters, distracting from the message she was trying to tell and forcing her to rely on ‘tell don’t show’ to convey themes she had no real grasp of.

explaining how they sympathize with the darkling’s efforts to achieve freedom for his people, even if they don’t agree with his methods, and see themselves in the suffering he’s faced at the hands of his oppressors. saying they like the potential he had as a character even as a villain if the story had only been better written.

finding fault in a narrative that champions the return to the status quo and the support of an oppressive monarchy. citing the canonical ways the grisha suffered worse after the darkling’s death and talking about how zoya’s depiction as queen was even more harmful for it’s shallow dismissal of how bigotry and persecution actually works within a system and the very real harm that was done to her people for thousands of years. providing detailed analysis of racism within the grishaverse and how leigh bardugo inadvertently ends up championing forced assimilation for her persecuted fantasy race.

antis, with reading comprehension so fatal they can’t even understand basic literary analysis and critical thinking: darkling fans think of the darkling as a left wing hero! shadow and bone is so so subversive. he represents the most evil men and he is the worst there is! people only like him because he’s so hot… even though mal is also described as hot, and nikolai is too… 

[btsunyeondan]

this. it’s also what i got from those pro darkling blogs i went through. the argument that the darkling is a master manipulator falls apart when we see that his ‘tactics’ kinda… fail. a) he couldn’t manipulate alina to his side, she never fully fell in love with him (see how easily she believed baghra), and b) if he was so good at manipulation, why couldn’t he manipulate his way to the crown for 4 centuries. and on a tangential note, while i support alina leaving, i don’t begrudge aleksander not telling her he was the OG. one, she was extremely recalcitrant and held a deep anti-grisha bias (whether or not she wanted to admit it) and two, it would’ve made no sense for him to tell her his biggest secret when he’s only known her for a few months. a secret that if revealed could take his people, whose genocide he’s been fighting against for centuries, from endangered to extinct.

[taragreenfield]

if months of “clever manipulation” fall apart in a minute because some rando told the manipulated person that they are being manipulated, it was an embarassingly bad attempt at manipulation.

Another point is that Aleksander’s alleged manipulations are conflated with his political goals. Manipulators in personal relationships do so for their own entertainment, to enjoy the power they have over their partner. He and Alina did not have a relationship to speak of, and he tried to make her join his side and help him fulfill his political plans. And brings an absolutely different context. I don’t know at which point I’m supposed to clutch my pearls here. Recruiting people to your cause always includes manipulative elements. Every political force and movement uses manipulation and propaganda to a certain extent. Am I supposed to believe that people joined the side of an ignorant teenage brat with no experience in warfare and no grasp of the geopolitical and socioeconomic situation in the country without some serious manipulation and religious brainwashing?

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

YA authors and their failing protagonists:

YA authors more often than not butcher their female characters. These characters often range from utter passiveness to ultimate girlbosses or remain tragic victims. Even male characters are not spared from this idiocy but they suffer much less indignity than the female characters. Very rarely we see a well-written and balanced female protagonists in YA novels. In an attempt to make these characters 'relatable' the authors do them a massive disservice, especially in fantasy and chosen one tropes. YA authors create these massive, dystopian societies and then unleash a bunch of teenagers to handle its problems and then coddle them from their own consequences. And in recent times, I'm finding many readers, especially on the younger side, echoing the same idealogies which is truly disheartening.

A YA fantasy novel is not about the person undergoing the hero's journey it's about the cause they're representing. And while fulfilling the cause they also overcome their personal struggles and grow but ultimately the story is about the cause. A passive or undecisive female character can be relatable in a romcom or a high school world but not in a war-torn, genocidal universe. If these audiences find the passivity and ignorance of a character in dystopian worlds 'relatable' then I'm truly worried about the morals they uphold in their real lives.

Unable to raise to the occasion is not an adorable quality. Katniss, Primrose, Hermoine, Harry, Percy were all teenagers too but what makes them memorable and relatable even after 20+ years is their strong moral code, bravery and fierce need to do the right thing to protect the innocent. Their journey was filled with losses and sacrifices which ultimately made them kinder and they taught me, as a reader, to be braver when faced with an adversity. Which is why I'm hating this current trend of passive heroines and girlbosses and their 'relatable' audience.

The Grishaverse is ripe with such characters.

Alina:

Alina is a protagonist who is about as useful as a fur coat in summer heat. She is stagnant and has nothing going on in her life beside Mal. She has no morality in her and possess zero ability to think. She is at best a doormat and at worst a bulldozer wrecking havoc without a forethought. She is the only protagonist who starts her journey and ends it the same way without an ounce of personal growth. She starts as an orphan with no self esteem and ends up as a nobody with no self esteem. She has no higher purpose in her own story and for all the no nuance Nellys calling it being 'relatable', this is not Highschool Musical, it's a political fantasy with the Chosen One trope. Her biggest gripes in the whole series are- being away from Mal, not being attractive enough for Mal and not being able to be with Mal. The other characters around her literally has to push her from plot A to plot B.

While being a reluctant protagonist makes sense at the beginning she doesn't do anything to improve her situation beyond that. She is entitled, extremely judgemental, has no empathy for others(remember how she blamed Genya for her situation in book 1), doesn't connect with people and any minor improvements she undergoes in immediately undone. She had the whole library of books to educate herself, people to take help from and train herself better. And yet chapter after chapter after chapter she undoes any progress she makes. Not to mention how much of an unreliable narrator she is throught the whole series. I was beyond exhausted being stuck inside her head for 3 whole books.

Zoya:

To all the people people hailing Zoya as their queen, I ask of you to genderswap Zoya then you'll understand the issues with her character. She represents every toxic masculine trait that we hate seeing in typical male characters. Her 'tragic' back story( and ulltimate powerup) was a rip off from Danny from GoT which was only added to 'justify' Zoya's bullying nature because it's okay if an abused person abuses in return. The backstory did nothing to her character other than act as a point of appeal to the readers to ignore her toxic traits because she was hurt.

Genya:

Genya was the only female character I loved in the series besides Inej. Without glorifying her abuse, Genya had the potential to be Natasha Romanoff but LB tragically restricts her progress to be a tragic victim instead. She was brave, fierce, possesed the right amount of cunning and kindness. She had all the traits of a protagonist but LB ruins her character like no other. I've explained this before in several posts. She was reduced to a shock factor- scars, David's death etc. In LB's own words, Ravka is a war torn country with drafts starting at age 15. Grisha has to join frontlines or serve in wealthy households. So, Genya would have been sent to a household either way. It was trolley problem situation and Aleksander took a gamble. For those screaming that Aleksander did nothing, I suggest you read 'The Tailor' by LB. Anyway, LB had such a impactful character and utilized her so poorly in the name of 'relatability'.

I don't want to make an already long post longer. Many YA authors need to take a step back before building worlds with massive adult issues. If their focus is on being relatable to young readers then I suggest them to not use heavy topics like genocide, war and abuse. If they cannot handle such adult topics with the sensitivity and respect it deserves then they're better off not writing it. I'm strongly against using such topics as shock factor and making a fool of the readers ( looking at you dragon zoya climax and everybody clapped moment 🤢🤢🤢). For readers, who are unable to comprehend the authors true motives maybe heavy YA fantasy tropes are not for you.

[taragreenfield]

Alina's story could have been a story of a girl/young woman who comes to accept her identity, grow into her power, learn to leave her comfort zone (that actually makes her miserable), overcome her insecurities, and learn to think for hersef. Instead, it's a story of a silly girl who was "corrupted" and manipulated by the Darkling evil jawline or whatever, and has to be punished for wanting things for a hot minute and go back to the place where she was mocked and alienated to be mocked and alienated some more.

Genya story could have been a story of a woman who, having gone through abuse, refused to remain just a victim and decided to take justice in her own hands, punishing her rapist, avenging herself and protecting his other potential victims. Instead, she apparently wanted to kill the King only because the Darkling manipulated her into doing so, and she doesn't really care that her rapist is alive and well and probably busy abusing another unfortunate maid.

Zoya's story could be a story of a brash, rude, overly ambitious girl who wanted to be the first and the best in everything, but when she's actually getting power, she struggles with it, realising the weight of responsibility and the inevitability of hard decisions and sacrifices. Maybe she would even manage to become a decent person by the end. Instead, she is yet another victim of the Darkling, he made her believe she had potential (what a terrible thing to do, truly) and she's actually always right and all her mean-spiritedness and callousness is a result of the big bad Darkling hurting her feelings.

In their quest to paint Alekssander as an ultimate evil LB and antis reduce those three characters to perpetual victims. It's like every action they take is either a result of his manipulation or a reaction to his actions. They don't seem to have their own thoughts (except for thinking how eeevil the Darkling is), aspirations or goals. If they do something questionable, it's obviously not their fault; the Darkling made them do it! They either feel sorry for themselves about how much the Darkling made them suffer or vibrate with righteous rage for the same reason.

And I'm not saying it because I'm salty they try to vilify my boy; if instead of the Darkling there was any other character (the Apparat, Jarl Brum, any other absolutely despicable creature), I'd still say that infantilising your female characters, denying them any agency on their own and reducing them to victims whose identity revolves exclusively around the man who wronged them is a terrible choice and does no favour to the aforementioned female characters.

[aleksanderscult]

Favorite Darkling fanarts

Since this fandom has such talented people, I thought to share with you my favorite Darkling fanarts! (for my favorite Darklina fanarts here) And maybe you too might discover some new drawings of him.

(I'll give credits of every drawing and picture to the respective artist of course 🖤)

(Credits to @nirusky)

The blueprint. The most iconic. The one which gives me the most book!Darkling vibes because there is a certain mystery and magic on it which I absolutely love. The way the pool of darkness comes out of his hands, the facial expression, are all 😚

(Credits to @morgana0anagrom. Go check her drawings by the way. She's talented af!)

Another famous one. The poise, his smirk, the glow in his eyes, the depiction of his power coiling around him. Sexy. Iconic.

(Credits to @morgana0anagrom)

This one reminds me of the Darkling the most. Thanks to his boyish look and how the artist made his features so perfect. Actually this is how I imagine him when he appears again and again through the tether on S&S (don't know why).

(Credits to @morgana0anagrom)

Isn't he the moment or what? 🫴

Takes you back on his attack on the final chapters of S&S:

“Stand down, Alina,” said the Darkling.

His cool voice echoed through the chapel, cutting through the noise and chaos.

“Stand down, and I will spare them.”

(Credits to @morgana0anagrom)

The Russian vibes that comes from it 😩🤌🏻

(Credits to @staciaches.art on Instagram)

“At the head of the table was an ornately carved, high-backed chair of blackest ebony, and upon it lounged a figure in a black kefta, his chin resting on one pale hand.”

If that drawing doesn't remind you this quote. That moment.

(Credits to zzombiecat)

(ALSO THE OUTFIT DESIGN AND CLOTHES!!)

Incredible and he's sooo accurate to the book.

(Credits to RinaMintaArt on DeviantArt)

The clothes! The poise! The smirk!

(Credits to RinaMintaArt on DeviantArt)

One of my most favorites. I just LOVE the vibes and colors from it. And he looks so accurate to the books again.

Also, can we acknowledge how the Darkling has the best aesthetic? The solar eclipse, the black and gold and gray colors that are always associated with him, the vines, flowers, trees and wild animals that are carved to his doors and chambers *chef's kiss*

(Credits to RinaMintaArt on DeviantArt)

The cold and ruthless look on his face. Again the colors!

[clearance--s]

In Stanisław Lem's "Fables for robots" there's that one story, "Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon", and it goes more less like this: on one planet's moon appeared a dragon that noone could defeat, so the Computer suggested creating another dragon, a superdragon, more powerful than the dragon that lives on the moon right now. The superdragon will defeat the current dragon, and there will be no more dragon! But, a monarch of the planet asked, what will become of the superdragon? How will they then get rid of him? And the Computer's answer was, that they will have to create a super-superdragon, that will defeat the superdragon, and so on.

I remembered this, when I read how Alina needs all three amplifiers to become stronger than the Darkling in order to defeat him, and how Zoya needs to claim the Dragon's power in order to defeat Elizaveta.

Bardugo's solution for dealing with tyrant is creating a new, super one

[justwithlu]

Darkling: sacrificed a small town to protect an entire race of people he’d spent several life times watching suffer

Alina: sacrifices a skiff full of people to save one (1) man she spent an entire book thinking didn’t like her very much

[stromuprisahat]

#and who treated her like the gum on the bottom of his shoe!! #am I supposed to understand why the darklings in the wrong here? #i don’t think LB even registered the parallel she was making there as she made it

... and back in the day of the first book, Novokribirsk was only a village and according to some lines only docks were destroyed, so yeah... it’s about the scale...

[black-rose-writings]

So, some definitions:

Village: usually between 500-2500 inhabitants

Small town: 2500-5000 inhabitants

Midsize town: 5000-10000

Sometimes, the definitions are broader (with village being as small as 150 people and as large as 5000 etc.), but for the purpose of this excersize, I’ll use the deifnitions above.

Let’s say Novokribirsk is a village on the upper end of size with 2500 people and about half of it gets consumed by the Fold (so about 1250), and say that’s the lowest we can go.

And on the top end, let’s say it’s a medium-sized town (again, on the upper end of population) that gets wiped out entirely, so about 10000 people.

So, at most, we’re talking about cca 10k people (for context, the IRL atomic bombings has about 200k deaths).

10k people, for the goal of stopping all wars and a world-wide genocide, the combined death toll of which is likely within the hundreds of thousands each year. Even if it saved just 100k people, that’s a ration of 1:10 (sacrificed : saved).

Alina’s ratio is 60:1. Sixty(ish) people sacrificed so that one POS deserter can live.

The Darkling sacrifices people for the greater good, with the expectation that the few thousand deaths now will result in hudnreds of thousands or millions of lives saved going forward.

If I wanted to be super generous to Alina, I’d say she’s doing this to kill the Darkling and thus, in her mind, saving the entire world from being destroyed by him. But her thoughts don’t indicate that, and even if they did, she should have fucking aimed better, then.

[aleksanderscult]

Hello! I loved your post about Baghra and how she is a glorified egoist and super toxic!!!

I would like to know your opinion about Ana Kuya, the terrible woman who screwed and oppressed Alina when she was still a child!!!

⚠️TW!: Domestic violence and abuse!⚠️

Thanks, anon!

Apparently that's a similarity that they share, the Darkling and Alina. They both had shitty, abusive mothers. And in Ana Kuya's case it's pretty much the same. She was physically abusive and Alina and Mal remember her fondly. And that's the problem. Instead of having the characters admit that she was a horrible mother figure, we have them look back on her punishments as something...worth to be remembered fondly??

Let's dive in her most fucked-up moments.

Talking shit about the children she's assigned to look after. Alina and Mal both heard her but she's still an icon in their eyes! 😍

No 'cause imagine comparing your mother figure to some blood-thirsty creatures with sharp claws and teeth that live and thrive in darkness.

Uhh...

Excerpt No. 1, in which the protagonists talk about Ana Kuya's physically abusive behaviour.

A LETTER?!

Girl, if I were you I would say adiós and never look back. What letter are you talking about?? 😭

Ana Kuya being responsible of Alina's shame for wanting to get it on with a man. This woman and her morals are imprinted in her mind.

Imagine having to spend your last day with your love and choosing to talk about her. And the memory is again toxic 🥹

Other couples: "Let's talk about our happy memories"

Malina: "Let's talk about how our mother abused us"

They have literally zero good memories from her. Only shouting and beatings.

Now that's a woman to admire!!

Do you hear that Alina?? You must kiss their shoes otherwise you would be like that poor girl on the road! 😠

Excerpt No. 2, in which the protagonists talk about Ana Kuya's physically abusive behaviour.

Excerpt No. 3, in which the protagonists talk about Ana Kuya's physically abusive behaviour.

Excerpt No. 4, in which the protagonists talk about Ana Kuya's physically abusive behaviour.

If a child refuses to eat a food, beat it!

Aha! So she does acknowledge it, huh? But what does it matter? We forgive her in this house😍❤️

(also can we talk about how they wanted one of their friends to meet her? Like guys whyy??😭)

Thank the heavens actually.

In my opinion, children need mostly love and understanding. But they also need discipline, yes. But NOT through physical violence. NOT through constant screaming. This is wrong but it's very possible that in Ravka it's accepted and forgiven? Because I also remember reading somewhere that when Nikolai was a child and misbehaved, they were punishing his best friend physically (I haven't read the duology so please correct me if I'm wrong). So even the royal family found it normal.

But having the characters look back to it as something that was okay? And they adored her?

I'm sorry but I didn't shed one tear when she died. Botkin's death affected me more than hers ever did.

Alina when she died: "Oh my God!"

Me when she died: "Oh thank God!"

[stromuprisahat]

stromuprisahat:

Even of we look at it through era-appropriate lens- there's no GOOD memory. Sure, slap your kid a little- this is 19th-esque century- but screaming and punishments shouldn't be the ONLY thing they remember! How much more interesting could Alina's relationship with AK be, if she remembered switch AND warm hugs. It could be more complex, nuanced- loving "mother", still subjected to age-appropriate mentality and values! But no, we got Anne Cunt, Baghra 2.0...

[black-rose-writings]

The orphanage is super cult-like, too, so it sort of makes sense.

Religion is a peasant superstition, but the kids do need to pray and "keep the Duke in their prayers", which is super sketchy on its own.

I actually think the show's treatment of Ana Kuya was a lot more in keeping with the way Alina and Mal view her in the books - strict and not exactly the warmest of people, but ultimately well-meaning and trying to help the children have the best life they can have (by having them hone skills that could help them secure a non-frontline position. "Put a pencil in your hand before someone puts a rifle in it" and making Mal hunt animals for food both work to that end).

But in the books, she's just a cult-leaders helper, who makes sure the cult of orphans is kept in line and obedient.