two things absolutely undo me about this:
1) unlike the books, the show makes their relationship one of near equals. the darkling has hundreds of years on alina, but those years are something she also has on him. all the waiting, all the loss and loneliness and bitterness, are transformed into absolute devotion to the one person he believes can ever be his equal. rather than detached and emotionally reserved like book!darkling (an understandable defense mechanism given his past and his mother’s teachings), show!darkling is a lovesick little idiot whose loneliness has made him as desperate to be loved as alina describes herself in the books. instead of feeling anger for his desire for her, that desire is a very different expression of the same hunger that drives him to seek the stag and the throne, born of an existence full of loneliness so vast it makes him fundamentally less human and more ruthless, but also capable of a kind of love that makes your eyes water in its intensity.
instead of an unformed ‘maybe’ that neither of them is sure they want, before baghra’s revelation alina and the darkling are a real and mutual ‘we’. it’s alina who makes the first move to make their relationship romantic, and the darkling is the one asking if she’s sure. for all his half-truths and hidden plans, it’s her who holds the power when it comes to their relationship, and there’s a sense that all of the power he gains with the stag means dramatically less to him if it’s not truly shared. in the books, there’s a feeling that his love for alina is an unintended side-effect that comes with his wooing of her and grows into an obsession over time, but this version of the darkling is enamoured from the moment he sees alina. when he says, “fine, make me your villain” it’s so much more heartfelt because he truly believed he was never a villain to her. the anger about loving her only comes after rejection, and he immediately intends to make amends for it over time.
2) despite all this, the darkling has the classic villain mentality of victory above all else, even if it’s a fairly hollow one without alina by his side. better to collar her and control her power than lose either, even if it makes her hate him. he’s waited too long to lose her, and better to stay in control of the situation at any cost, no matter how painful. he truly believes mal is beneath her, and besides that has the relative lifespan of a fly compared to them. he knows that with their power they have time enough for him to make it up to her, and in his overwhelming zeal for his cause believes that he is justified in what he does, which alina will see over time.
his dual principles of victory and control also apply to the way he approaches his relationship with alina, essentially foiling him from the start (did i mention he’s an idiot?). she’s too precious, so he has to do everything right to make her like him. if she finds out the truth about him in the wrong way at the wrong time, before he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt she will accept him, if she realises he isn’t a perfect dark prince with all the answers, he might lose her. so he tells half-truths, reads her letters to mal to understand her and keep them apart, finds out her favourite flowers and neglects to tell her her best friend has come to visit after all these months because what if she chooses him? better she be bound to him and hate him. she will learn as he has that everyone else dies, and only they will be left when the sands of time have shifted. but the fire and the spirit he loves alina for are also the reason she would never accept this, no matter how much she might have wanted it.
tl;dr the darkling is a lonely lovesick idiot who ruins the most precious thing in his long and depressing existence precisely because he couldn’t bear to lose it and i am going to lose my shit over it continually for the foreseeable future.
baratheonpilled
kianamaiart
ellievsbear
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
yousharknotpass
2087
