The two of them [Magnus and James] were sharing one side of the carriage, as it had become quickly apparent on the first day of their journey that Will needed the entire other side for dramatic gesturing.
“I am somewhat insulted,” Magnus said, “that you went to Malcolm Fade to seek his advice on what to do about Jesse, and did not come to me. Usually I am the warlock you annoy first, and I consider that a proud tradition.”
Sometimes I think that I could be the beautiful sword wielding girl with a dark past then I have the misfortune of remembering that I'm a fucking nerd who uses books as escapism.
What’s one of Aleksander’s traits or canon moments that you wish were discussed more in fandom?
this is a really cool question! i had to really give it some thought, because one of the great things about the darkling fandom is that there are so many people on here who have interesting viewpoints and share that in meta and discussion, so i feel like most aspects of his character get a look-in. a lot of the time i’ll think of something and consider making a post about it, only to have someone else’s (excellent) post about the same thing come across my dash the same day! and lots of people also notice details i don’t or come at things from a different angle, so i’m constantly being surprised by things i didn’t consider myself.
but if i had to choose one section from the whole series to talk about in pretty much any discussion ever on aleksander, it would definitely be the part from when he finds alina and kills the stag and when he calls her to his tent the night before they enter the fold. i’ve read that section so many times and no matter what aspect of aleks’ character you want to talk about it shows something of it. i also think he comes across as so much more sympathetic than lb wants us to experience him as, which is always something i enjoy, but also shows the difference i see between him as someone whose sociopolitical goals are both righteous and justified and the wounded and destructive little boy he is when it comes to personal relationships. it’s just the whole package for me.
i think when it comes to aleksander, we all spend a lot of time pointing out inconsistencies between the way he’s treated by lb compared to other characters and how this relates to the sociopolitical reality of the grishaverse and his personal trauma that when it comes to the worst aspects of him as a character, specifically in relation to his treatment of alina, we tend to shy away a bit or just forget to talk about it. i definitely do this myself, partly because lots of it is self-explanatory and not as interesting to talk about, and partly because it plays into aspects of common anti-darkling arguments that tend to be used without nuance or appreciation for the fact that a character can be deeply flawed and still sympathetic. i am a villain stan after all, and if i really thought aleksander was just a fundamentally good but misunderstood character i wouldn’t be half as fascinated by him. it’s the play between the parts of him that are good and the parts that are ugly that i love most, and the way the worst of him is often what makes him the most loveable to me as a reader because they’re also the most human parts of him. and the tent scene in particular is just so wonderful because it’s written seemingly with the intention of making him appear as a cold and controlled monster, but the actual effect of it is to make him seem painfully weak and human.
at the very beginning of book one, he’s a sharp self-honed weapon; he knows what his plan is and what he has to do to get alina on his side. he’s cool and controlled, and from that very first moment in the grisha tent when he holds alina and whispers in her ear that she only looks like a mouse he switches on the charm and seduction with an end goal in mind. he’s trained himself to see other people’s emotions as tools, a means to an end. but throughout sab it becomes incredibly clear that he’s been seized with an all-consuming desire for her in the course of this play at seduction - for her to think well of him, to love him, to give herself physically and emotionally to him becomes his main preoccupation despite the fact that he resents it in equal measure. when he kills the stag and collars alina, he controls her power and has what he always set out to gain; but suddenly all of this seems a hollow victory because he loses her in the process. and it’s at this juncture in their narrative that he takes up the mantle of the villain and things really go downhill for him.
one of my favourite moments in sab is when alina flinches away from his touch for the first time since their aborted tryst in the little palace:
a few pages before, he taunts alina by asking her in front of mal if she told him about what they almost did together in the dark, but when she actually flinches away from his touch he’s obviously wounded and it becomes obvious that this isn’t an unfeeling manipulator who’s playing with her for fun - he’s got it bad and he hates it now more than ever. it’s like watching a wounded animal lash out ineffectually out of instinct. he’s spent lifetimes attuning himself to the value of power and dominance, and when he’s threatened he pulls his anger and hatred around himself like a shield.
as soon as he gets a chance to talk to her alone on the way to the fold, his only thoughts are about what he saw between her and mal:
he’s got it so bad. none of this is about his big plan anymore; it’s all about alina. what started out as a genuine idealistic plan for the betterment of grisha is just background noise, at least emotionally. he only has eyes for her.
moments like this, and later in sas when aleksander tells alina that mal will only resent and fear her, seem to be intended by lb to be read as out-and-out manipulation. the old “i’m the only one who knows you/no one else will love you” shtick. but lb has put her villain in the most perfect position to say this and absolutely mean it, and i read this moment as him reaching out to her before she makes a mistake, loving someone who will predictably come to prove his theory of oktazat’sya right. they’re predictable, and with the exception of him alina is just as alone in the world, just as singular, as he is. there is no one else for either of them. he wants to save her the disappointment that’s made him so bitter.
then, there’s when he has ivan bring her to his tent the night before they enter the fold. this might be my single favourite scene in the whole series. i just can’t get enough of it. i never love aleksander more than when he’s a mess, and this is him at his most wretched and destroyed, trying so damn hard to appear in control that it’s almost painful to watch. drunk, he makes her beg for mal’s life, but really it’s him who’s begging for her attention after she refuses to speak to him:
what’s worse is the vein of self-hatred that runs through the whole thing. for being the fool who loved her, who trusted her, let his desire for her overwhelm him in a way he had sworn to himself was impossible. added to this is that of all people, it was baghra who turned alina against him. i think it’s impossible to overestimate the importance of this to the intensity of his self-hatred and the rage it instills in him. there’s a reason that, after all these centuries, this was the reason he blinded his mother. she’s the one who’s called him a fool and treated him like a monster for carrying out the values she instilled in him. she’s the one who turned the woman he loved against his own will into his enemy, took away the one chance he had at finding someone like him to share eternity with. she created his difference, and she punishes him for it. that alina believed her only adds salt to the wound:
as much as he’s censuring her, he’s almost imploring her at the same time to tell him why it was so easy to believe that he’s evil, that he never really loved her. as if he’s wondering if maybe his mother is right. alina is the one person whose opinion of him really matters, and she finds him disgusting.
when aleks says, “fine, make me your villain”, when he agrees with alina when she calls him a monster, when he resigns himself to her hatred for him, there’s a part of me that thinks that on some level he decides to be what they think he is. what else is there left for him, really? if there’s nothing he can do to be the hero, he’ll be their monster.
he’s saying, fine, hate me. i’ll make myself deserving of it. in the end, you’ll break just as i have. i can wait.
i just find it hard to understand how this man is supposed to be seen as unfeeling and manipulative when his pain and betrayal and loneliness practically jump out from every page for the last third of the book. there’s just all these layers of emotion you can see in him here, but somehow we’re supposed to think it’s all a calculated performance. if it’s meant to be a performance then he’s completely botching it.
Me with fellow Darklinas: Obviously the Darkling is a very complex and morally grey character. He fulfills the role of the villain but has a heroic cause–fighting to protect his people, but he has been around for so long that he is caught in the big picture and fails to see the individual human cost of his actions. His relationship with Alina is so fascinating because she is the opposite, seeing primarily the human cost, and her compassion/idealism reminds him of who he used to be. In this essay I will…
Me with antis: The Darkling has never done a single wrong thing in his life. Every time he killed it was good and correct. I consider him both a role model AND good husband material. In fact, I wish he committed MORE atrocities. It would be sexy.
So you mentioned in another post that you have some strong thoughts on Baghra, especially about how the story frames her as one of the good guys. I would love to hear about it.
@youremotionallystablefriend: I would love to hear you rant about Baghra if you feel like it (and haven’t already)! Personally I don’t think she gets enough constructive critique in the fandom for being the one that brought Aleks up and for the way she treated her pupils and especially Alina :/
Anon: Hello! I love your thoughts on the grisha books. I'm actually interested to hear your take on Baghra
@misku-nimfa: If you are up for it, I would love to read your thoughts on Baghra or your full critique of society in the Grishaverse. Your analysis is really well structured and interesting! ^.^
Anon: Hi! I saw your recent post and was wondering if you'd share more of your thoughts on Baghra?
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Hello everyone! I was honestly very surprised to see so many people interested in my thoughts on Baghra? I'll share what I can, but please know that this is by no means a full breakdown of her character! It’s just some Thoughts I’ve had, and they’re mostly centered around show Baghra because that’s how I was first introduced to her character. Although IMO book Baghra might actually be even worse.
I’d like to preface this by saying that many of my issues with the treatment of Baghra as a character in fandom come from the wild double standard there seems to be regarding her and the Darkling. Darkling Antis and a vast majority of the people in this fandom who don’t like his character have a disturbing habit of absolutely ripping into the Darkling for all of his faults and then turning around and treating Baghra as some sort of pristine mother figure for the exact same shit.
They’ll talk about how badass she is, how strong she is, how they sympathize with her past (although they’ll continue to dehumanize the Darkling and refuse to sympathize with his own past) and sympathize with the fact that she has to deal with the Darkling (who’s always referred to as a monster she must corral or control, as if he is inhumane and beastly. These particular comments always take on the very distinct tone of victim blaming as well). They’ll laud her for all of these “powerful girlboss” moments as if they aren’t carbon copies of the Darkling’s own behavior - as if they aren’t things Baghra herself taught him. Which is why this is the wildest double standard of all to me, because every horrible action they praise Baghra for is something she taught the Darkling, and something they cannot stand to see in him as well.
It’s as if there’s a disconnect between their consumption of the literature when it comes to the two characters, and I’m of the opinion that it’s largely because Baghra is a woman and a mother and therefore infantilized in the fandom quite a bit. In fact, Bardugo herself often infantilizes many of her female characters in her writing. This is mostly through the process of excusing their terrible deeds, not allowing them to do anything remotely dark, or brushing any morally grey actions under the rug without ever touching upon them. Which puts me in the strange position of knowing I’m supposed to sympathize with Baghra for having to deal with the monster she’s created, and instead feeling resentful of the fact that this bitter woman is held up as this wise old strict teacher instead of the abusive mentor/mother she should have been.
Now, here’s what I said to make so many of you send me asks:
Last note, in reference to your first line, and also probably a pretty unpopular opinion. I do not like Baghra. And it legit has nothing to do with the Darkling or with Alina, I just don't like her "I'm going to hit you and berate you and emotionally abuse you and manipulate you and act like the good guy at the end of it" vibe she's got going on. At least Aleksander is acknowledged as the villain within the narrative. Idk wtf Baghra is on but it's absolutely wild to me that people aren't more critical of her actions. Which is, rather fortunately for you, another rant I will save for another post if anybody ever wants to hear it lol. (but like kudos to Baghra's actress. I loved the character as a character, I just don't like the way she's framed as a good guy. Weird. Uncomfortable. She literally set bees on the kids she was teaching).
This basically summarizes most of my thoughts on Baghra as a character and how she’s portrayed. I touched on it a bit above, but the way she’s able to get away with so much and not suffer under heavier critique is honestly baffling to me. There should be a lot more criticism of her out there in the fandom. This is the woman who abused her students and neglected her son. Although to be honest I don’t even know how to quite describe the emotionally neglectful yet unhealthily codependent bond she fostered in him from a young age. IMO, Baghra’s behavior around Aleksander is creepy, and I know she has a history that makes it more understandable, but it’s still incredibly disconcerting to witness.
But let’s get back on track! First of all, her students. Whom she physically, emotionally, and mentally abuses. She’s derisive, she’s insulting, she’s belittling. She works hard to strip them of any self confidence they may have. She uses pain as a means of triggering powers. And the strict teacher excuse doesn’t fly. The “it’s only a training method!” excuse is even worse. This is literal abuse she’s heaping on her students and it’s wretched.
The first thing she does to Alina when they first meet is insult her. Then she hits her. Then she kicks her out.
Second time they interact is a montage. Baghra hits Alina multiple times. She shames her. And then when Alina actually calls a light she tells her it’s not nearly enough, effectively wiping the smile off of her face and every sign of self confidence that had been building. Then we see the door to Baghra’s hut shut in Alina’s face. So now she has been bruised, battered, berated, stripped of all self confidence, and then banished again. As training methods go, this is not only entirely ineffective, but it’s also just abusive.
Then we get this interaction between Alina and her friends:
Marie: One time, Baghra released a hive of bees on me.
Nadia: Worst part is, it worked.
Marie: It really did. I could summon at will after that.
Which is fucking horrifying and not talked about nearly enough. That goes beyond hitting your students. Baghra used a fear tactic on a young girl to activate her powers. She literally tortured Marie to make her powers work.
Alina throughout this conversation is looking very disheartened. She’s lacking in any self confidence and the comment about the bees has clearly affected her. For someone who’s first words to Alina were “Everyone believes that you are the one. Come back when you believe it too,” Baghra doesn’t exactly seem keen on Alina actually believing she’s the one. If she did, she wouldn’t be stripping her of every positive emotion associated with sun summoning.
Let’s not forget that Baghra demeans Alina multiple times for her status as an orphan. How she utilizes what she knows of Alina’s emotional weaknesses to provoke her and discourage her and make her angry.
And then Baghra drugs her without consent. To take advantage of any information Alina gives her in that state. To use the way Alina reacts for her own ends.
Because why else would she say this?:
Alina: We planned to run away together.
Baghra: You had plans. Perhaps he never did, because where is he now?
Which is, strangely enough, the same sense of isolation and separation from Mal and her past that Aleksander is attempting to foster. Weird how mother and son are both using the same manipulation tactics.
In fact, why does Baghra never tell Alina about the letters until she’s already engaged with Aleksander? Baghra must have known he was taking them. Alina talks about it enough. Baghra must have known he was isolating her from Mal. How could she not, when it’s revealed later that she has spies in the Little Palace collecting information on him? How could she not, when she knows he’s the villain from the beginning - when she knows he’s manipulating Alina?
Baghra knows, and yet she keeps the same lies Aleksander does and furthermore uses that information to make Alina feel even more isolated and weak. Baghra literally just piggy-backs on Aleksander’s manipulation and then exacerbates it. She wants Alina to feel no attachments to her past because she wants to use Alina as well. But for some reason, because this manipulation and treatment of Alina as some sort of tool is done by the woman who opposes the Darkling, it’s suddenly okay. As if it still isn’t the same terrible shit but with a different perpetrator. I mean damn, at least Aleksander feels something for Alina. Baghra’s just cold.
So, point by point. Baghra mentions how Mal doesn’t care for Alina, she mentions Alina’s failings constantly, she mentions Alina being an orphan, she constantly hits her, she guilts Alina about orphans dying, she works to instill a sense of isolation from her friends and her family.
And when Alina finally comes to Baghra, having decided to abandon her attachments to her past and her attachments to Mal, the words that ring in her head are Baghra's words - “needing anyone else is weak.” Which is honestly just a horrible sentiment in general, but an even worse one when considering how hard these people are working to detach Alina from anybody who can help her or give her an outside perspective.
Strangely, it’s also similar to this line:
The problem with wanting, is that it makes us weak.
...which is spoken by Baghra’s son. You know, the Darkling? Our big bad villain? The one Baghra raised?
Which gives me the impression that Baghra’s teaching methods with her students are really not that far off from the teaching methods she used on him as he was growing up. It’s a horrifying thought, and leads into my problems with her relationship with Aleksander.
First of all, show wise. What the fuck.
Aleksander: They’re punishing us for being Grisha.
Baghra: Punishing you. You made him afraid. Now he wants you to fear him.
Aleksander: I won a war for him.
Baghra: And in doing so, started a war on us.
I get that she’s trying to convey how the king feels here, but it still feels incredibly victim blamey from a narrative standpoint. It isn’t Aleksander’s fault the king fears him when he used his powers under the King’s banner to help him win a war. Aleksander trusted this man who betrayed him and then betrayed his people, and we get a line from his mother, entirely unsympathetic, talking about how it’s his fault all of these people are dying.
Baghra: Where’s the girl, your healer?
Aleksander: Dead. She died because of me.
Baghra: She died because they always do. They’re not as strong as you and me.
Baghra’s use of the term ‘girl’ and ‘healer' here instead of Luda is pretty telling. She either doesn’t like Luda or doesn’t care for her. Either way, this is the woman her son loves, and Baghra talks about her so dispassionately. Then he comments on Luda’s death and there’s no reaction except to say that they always do.
Like, her son is literally broken up over here. Grieving. Desperate. Run ragged. Caged and hunted. Feeling guilty as hell. Mind running through a million different ways he could possibly save all of these people. And Baghra offers him nothing except a paltry “people die, get over it, we’re better than that, she didn’t matter anyway.”
Honestly, how is Aleksander even still functioning at this point? He has no support system and he’s working against a king and his army to protect a group of civilians he could easily abandon to save himself. The sheer amount of responsibility and mental strain keeping track of a group alone entails is already monstrous, but adding in every other factor? The recent death of Luda, the fact that they’re cornered and they’ve been hunted down while fleeing across the land, the fact that he was just a couple hours ago forced to his knees and entirely at these men’s mercy, begging for Luda’s life. And here his mother is, if anything a negative support system. Offering no other ideas, telling him to give up hope, not even offering the barest smidgeon of emotional support as he grieves, putting everything on his shoulders.
It pisses me the fuck off.
Aleksander: You’re the one who taught me how to kill, mother. Their blood is on your hands as much as mine.
Baghra: I taught you so you could protect yourself. Not them.
Once more, Baghra highlights how he needs to protect himself. How he should abandon the people he’s protecting. How he shouldn't help others and only ever himself. Once more, she says it’s my way or the high way. There’s zero effort to work with him. Zero effort to sympathize or compromise. She’s constantly pushing him to take the one option she knows he won’t take. The hell did she think was going to happen?
Also, Baghra taught him how to kill. Not necessarily great parenting, but understandable given the circumstances of his upbringing. But the level to which she takes it is honestly concerning. Like, look no further than this woman to see where Aleksander got it from lol.
Baghra also forbids him from using Merzost. Which is great and all, she gets to claim the moral high ground. But she doesn’t offer a single alternative except to flee and let everybody die. There was legitimately no other option to Merzost except for torture and death. If there was, Baghra sure as hell didn’t help Aleksander come up with one. Aleksander, who - by the way - is in no fit emotional state to be making any kind of decision right now.
So anyways, that’s just my tv show grief regarding Baghra, and it’s not even really all of it. I don’t want to make this an hour long read though lmao. But I’ll go over a few other things.
First of all, Baghra’s whole “We’re the only two that matter. We have to do whatever we can to protect ourselves,” mentality is one that she actively touts to Aleksander on a regular basis when he’s incredibly young. It’s honestly a wonder he grows up to care about other people at all. But the mentality itself is something Aleksander still heavily internalized in regards to protecting himself and those he deems worthy at any cost.
There’s a moment in the books when Aleksander is attacked and nearly drowned by some kids who wanted his bones (one of which was a close friend of his). He uses the cut in self defense and then blames the nearby Otkazat’sya village. Baghra knows he’s lying, and yet she allows an entire village to get slaughtered for harming him. This is a disproportionately violent act that Baghra approves of, and Aleksander as a kid is definitely internalizing that mindset.
Also, Baghra’s behavior around Aleksander has always been weirdly possessive and controlling. Especially when it comes to the people he loves. Her actions often come across as her trying to isolate him in order to keep him by her side, even when the relationships he has are clearly intimate. Which... is especially strange for a mother to be doing to her son.
She was also an extremely emotionally neglectful mother. Based on the show and what I gathered from her actions there, I’m actually half convinced she was physically abusive as well, in that “I think I’m being a stern, good parent figure when in reality I’m actually harming my child” kind of way. She fosters codependence with her son and then refuses to provide for any of his emotional needs. She drives it into his head that everybody dies, that he’ll always be alone, that love is useless and power is everything. She denies him the opportunity to be soft and works to harden him at a young age. She tells him he must never allow people to touch him, except she doesn’t work to supplement those physical needs in any way. She essentially abuses him.
Honestly, I could go on. But in reality the simple fact is that I just don’t like her. I think she’s a hypocrite. I think she’s abusive. I think she’s a terrible mentor and an even worse mother. And I think the fandom and the books are willing to brush aside so many of her faults simply because she opposes the Darkling.
I’m sorry if this isn’t what you guys were looking for! It sounds like a lot of you wanted a more of a sophisticated breakdown, but my thoughts on Baghra come with a heap of emotional baggage lol. It feels weird to say this now, but I actually do like the character as a character, I just,,, don’t like her in every other aspect. My feelings on Baghra are just a bit personal, to be honest. But hopefully this was at least comprehensible??
I don’t care how superstitious you are, reblogging those bait posts that threaten to hurt someone or their family if they don’t reblog it is a massive fucking dick move to people with anxiety or paranoia, and please know that if you’ve ever actually made one of those posts before I hold you in the lowest possible regard.
Anyways this is a protection post from all of those posts. You are not cursed. You are not going to suffer. Everybody you love is safe. Those posts hold absolutely zero sway over your life. And you don’t even have to reblog this for the protection. It is now granted. Please be safe and take care of yourselves, guys. I won’t allow a single threatening post to so much as look at you.
There is no ‘likes to charge reblogs to cast’ I will fuel this fucking shield between you and those curses for all of eternity through my own energy and not even death will stop me
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