Corien is everything the Darkling was supposed to be, but Bardugo forgot to write him as
A sole leader of a wronged group of people, who says that he just “wanted to secure them a future”, but “went too far with his methods”?
Except, it was Kalmaroth who started the angelic wars that ended with angels banished into the Deep, because he deemed humans lesser and undeserving of elemental power, while both Grisha persecution and Ravka’s unending wars were very present since long before Aleksander was even born.
The angels were creatures much mightier than humans, and it was them who started the conflict, while Grisha were a minority that got easily excluded from the society and forced to hide away, unable to truly defend themselves even with their powers.
Yes, the angels were deceived and they were right to be angry with humans, but Corien plainly wanted every single human to suffer for Saints’ lie, while Aleksander just wanted Grisha to be able to live in peace and safety, and not a word was ever said about enslaving otkazats'yas in return.
Corien’s “revenge on humans” quest appeared only after angels were defeated in a war he started out of jealousy, while Aleksander’s dream of creating a place of safety for Grisha was born after he was nearly killed by other Grisha, because of conditions otkazats'yas has forced them to live in.
The Northern Reach, first angelic home after centuries, was a place where humans and godsbeasts were tortured and experimented on, while the Little Palace was literally the only place on earth where Grisha could sleep without fear of being slaughtered at any moment.
Corien was kidnapping, torturing, and experimenting on creatures of any species, and creating armies of ungodly hybrids just in the name of revenge, while the only thing the Darkling did was announce that now Ravka has a magic equivalent of an atomic bomb that he didn’t even use.
A man overly powerful, not a soul around to match his strength?
Kalmaroth truly was born exceptionally powerful, his mind unlike of any other angel, while the fact whether or not Aleksander was born the most powerful Grisha, become the most powerful Grisha in time, or was merely one of the most powerful Grisha both at birth and the moment of death is changing accordingly to what point the narrative wants to make right now, and what will make him looks worse.
A cruel, and fearsome tyrant?
Corien is abusive and pointlessly cruel every time he appears on a page, he murders his own generals because they dared to question him, has an alliance formed against him, and whole bunch of wraiths working with the Prophet, while Darkling’s soldiers were shown to be comfortable with him, he himself is shown to listen to those who wants his attention as a king, and with his supposed enemies he is so awfully lenient you want to seize him through the page and give him a big shake.
He went mad with power?
As for “getting mad with power”, Corien already was obsessed with magic, the possibilities of traveling to other worlds and conquering them way before the events of the books. He also “wore his mind thin” because of paranoia and petty need to prove his strength to other angels and to himself. As for the Darkling, he resorted to merzost as a form of last resort, and was tearing his soul apart because he didn’t want his people to die. He also wanted all the wars to stop, not to spread them to other worlds too, and reached for the crown only after centuries of trying to play diplomacy.
A monster who steals children and grooms them into becoming his loyal soldiers?
Corien had Adathrox, humans with brains mutilated and controlled by angels, had an Order of Invictus that was brainwashing children into absolute allegiance to him and schooling them to become heartless assassins, and the original version of crawlers (laboratory-mutated women) were literal elemental children, kidnapped and forced to bind themselves with equally tormented godsbeasts, while in Ravka the draft was created to save Grisha children from wasting away in unfriendly otkazats'ya’s families, the families were paid for the child’s absence, and until KoS no one was forcing foreign Grisha to come and serve under Lantsovs’ rule, they were coming on their own will, and were loyal to the Darkling solely because of what he was providing them with.
A man of exceptional beauty that can win him anyone, full of vain, a master manipulator, who uses his charms to win foolish girls’ hearts?
Corien actually liked to use his beauty and smooth speech to maim humans, used his look and position to get his way with any willing angel, while the Darkling was said to doesn’t even notice most of the Grisha around, especially in a romantic/sexual manner, and his beauty never won him anything, except maybe objectification from the narrative.
Also, Corien was roaming around Avitas for months before he found himself a body he deemed pretty enough to possess (absolute diva), and panicked when Rielle saw him burned, while Aleksander didn’t give a flying fuck about volcra’s scars, and neither seemed bothered by being forced into Yuri’s body. And as for all Darklings being pretty, Saints forbid a man want to be pleased with how he looks when he wears an alien face as a whole new person.
Corien was shown to cloud Rielle’s judgment, contributing to her feeling alone and alienated, making her think herself a monster only he is capable of accepting, what resulted in her actually coming back to him again and again, while the Darkling didn’t manipulate shit out of Alina, and even with the tether he wasn’t doing anything useful.
A man who abandoned his true name, for it belonged to someone inferior to his current self?
Except, Coried did changed his name because “that angel was a prisoner, and the one that escaped the Deep was a visionary”, while Aleksander was forced to change his name constantly, first in the name of safety by Baghra, and then as he was coming back as another Shadow Summoner in Darklings' lineage. However, he never stopped thinking about Aleksander as his true self, and in the end that was the name he chose to refer to himself as.
