Why I prefer book!Darklina to show!Darklina based on several scenes. Scene #1. The name reveal
Anyone who has read the book will tell you that the reveal of Aleksander's real name is handled better in the book, but why? I'll tell you right now.
So first, let's look at how the name reveal scene is portrayed in the show and in the book.
In the show:
In the book:
Can you feel the difference? As important as this scene was in the book, it was just as insignificant in the show.
In the book, Aleksander only reveals his name in the middle of the third book, after he calls Alina his balance. The thing is, in the books, his name was Aleksander's most cherished secret, literally no one knew it except Baghra, and even she - his birth mother, mind you - didn't call him by his name. Literally everyone dehumanized him by calling him by his title - the Darkling, yet he himself has kept his real name - Aleksander - in his heart for centuries, which proves that he is still a man and not just a faceless monster. And he decided to show Alina that he was more than just a faceless monster that she feared, that he was a man, that's why he told her his name, trusted her with his deepest secret. If that's not proof that Aleksander truly loved Alina, I don't know what is.
In the show, this is said literally casually, like: “Hi, the weather is great today, by the way, call me Aleksander.” The show so devalues the importance of Aleksander's true name, makes it unimportant, although it is incredibly important to understand the Darkling's character. That's why I, as a person who initially read the books and only then watched the show, was so outraged by this scene.
But there is a scene that the show did better and which was necessary in the book, we will analyze it in the next post.
