#anti Zoya

[theweeklydiscourse]

I just have to laugh at readers who claim that the Darkling was Zoya’s abuser. The text and the Netflix adaptation does the barest possible minimum to allude to such an idea and then these fans proceed to reframe the shoddy writing and praise for it’s “brilliant” commentary.

Bardugo and the Netflix writers could’ve done that (with proper planning and thoughtfulness) but it’s obvious that they couldn’t be bothered to put the effort in. Sorry- Zoya’s just not all that interesting and cramming in some subtext about how she was supposedly the Darkling’s victim is pure fanfiction. Particularly when even in the show, we see Zoya pursuing him of her own volition and that relationship is never meaningfully explored or elaborated on after the fact.

#lol they literally just made Zoya into his side piece (sorry but it’s true) it’s all as shallow as it seems #What I’m saying is that I don’t think that the text has enough evidence to support such an interpretation and it all just seems like a grasp #for Zoya to have at least SOME shred of meaning in a series where she’s so….bland and irritating #shadow and bone #the darkling #lb critical #grishaverse #s&b critical #anti leigh bardugo #aleksander morovoza #fandom discourse #grishaverse fandom #anti zoya

[stromuprisahat]

Isn’t the status of Grisha much worse after TGT. How are the Righteous Gang claiming to be victors/heroes who made others lives better. From my pov, grisha are much worse off while the otkazatsya are in status quo. Also what was wrong with the grisha coming to LP to live. From the books, it seems that none of them had any connection to their parents/relatives. If so that can also mean that their family did not care enough to reach out to them after they left.

Or did the Darkling ban all communications.

I’m sure the Righteous Gang think that all the cons of their dumb decisions are in fact the Darklings fault. You know because he did this or he did that. They do bot think for a single moment that he was the only one doing anything for them. While the soldat sol (shouldn’t they have been doing some charity work in name of their Saint?) and all other grisha did not lift a single finger to elevate the position of grisha in Ravka through ANY means.

Ironically, the Gang's decision to abolish Grisha draft should serve to further alienate Ravkan commoners and destabilize Nikolai's reign.

"... His serfs will get a taste of money and education and start thinking about building lives and businesses of their own instead of praying for their master’s patronage. ... "

King of Scars- Chapter 11

Nikolai had abolished the practice of separating Grisha from their parents. There was no mandatory draft to pull children from their homes.

Rule of Wolves- Chapter 9

The fact they aren't able to offer protection to any Grisha in Ravka, therefore hardly to children scattered all over the country, AND there's no system of home education, therefore these children might either hurt someone by accident or suffer from wasting sickness, aside...

This should be a gigantic legal issue.

(Although there's plenty of questions regarding servitude in general.)

Pre-KoS Grisha automatically became serfs. Their families were compensated financially.

Let's say Grisha are no longer required to move to Little Palace, otherwise everything stays the same. Are there lists of Grisha serfs to keep track of them? And how do they serve? Why should a family that keeps the amount of pairs of working hands get any money? Does it mean that a family of free- albeit poor- peasants, suddenly include a child serf with obligations of their own? Do these "free-range" serfs get personal assignments? That sounds like a whole lot of extra bureaucracy.

The other option is much more disasterous. If Grisha are no longer serfs, there's no reason to pay their families. They should be recorded the same way other free Ravkans are, and these records don't seem to be particularly meticulous:

Another [Ravkan Grisha] had been hidden in a root cellar when the Grisha Examiners arrived to test her. “My mother told them I’d been killed by the fever that had swept through our village the previous spring,” the Tidemaker said. “The neighbors cut my hair and passed me off as their dead otkazat’sya son until I was old enough to leave.”

Siege and Storm- Chapter 7

A year here, a year there... who'll know if the missing Grisha moved away, died or got kidnapped? But don't worry, the worst is yet to come- otkazat'sya (serfs). Why are Grisha freed as soon as three of theirs start whispering their advices into young King's ear (One of them rumoured to be his mistress to boot!), while common Ravkans keep bending their backs under nobility's jeweled slippers!

This is a starving, war-torn country, through which a wave of pogroms swept only a few years back! The hatred won't disappear only because a dead Saint allegedly appointed three of Grisha to what exactly? Represent? Or rule in the puppet-King's stead?

Sure, Nikolai's (strange, innovatory) reforms lead to more food for the poor... BUT- serfs are still property of their owners, unlike Grisha. West was somehow forced to remain with the East- feeding them, losing money to them. Nobles lost some privilages and whoever's not a complete baffoon will figure out they're losing power. Church should be pissed, because their leader got deposed, religious cult with Crown-appointed head took over and Nikolai cut their incomes too! Anyone even slightly distrustful towards Grisha- and that means all through Ravkan social strata- has every reason to believe they are running the country, which no longer means one black boogeyman, but a Suli whore with the King-killer.

_____

Members of Second Army weren't discouraged from staying in touch with their families, quite contrary. To make it more... well, to make it more KoS-ish, we get some specific data from Zoya:

She’d written every week to her aunt and every week received a long, newsy letter back with drawings of chickens in the corners and tales of the interesting traders who came through Novokribirsk.

King of Scars- Chapter 25

Ivan doesn't mention his family in present time, but I'd like to imagine he used to visit his widowed, almost childless mother until she died of old age.

_____

The only reason all those barely adult Grisha are even theoretically allowed to be teenagers, is that they're safe enough, thanks to Aleksander's work.

He was thirteen, but he’d had a hundred names, a new one for every town, camp, and city ... He would have lived next door to a garbage gully if it meant a roof over his head, hot meals, waking up in the same room every morning without his heart hammering as he tried to remember where he was. ... Grisha living in camps and broken-down mines, hiding out in tunnels. ... No safe place. No haven. There will be, he promised in the darkness, new words written upon his heart. I will make one.

Demon in the Wood

If Grisha are faring better at the beginning of Shadow and Bone, it's his doing:

... though it was smaller than the Grand Palace, the “Little” Palace was still huge. It rose from the trees surrounding it like something carved from an enchanted forest, a cluster of dark wood walls and golden domes. As we drew closer, I saw that every inch of it was covered in intricate carvings of birds and flowers, twisting vines, and magical beasts. ... We passed door after door, until finally we reached a chamber where another uniformed maid stood waiting by an open doorway. Dimly, I registered a large room, heavy golden curtains, a fire burning in a beautifully tiled grate, but all I really cared about was the huge canopied bed. “Can I get you anything? Something to eat?” asked the woman.

Shadow and Bone- Chapter 5

While I can "excuse" some of the "heroes"- victim of otkazat'sya brainwashing institution, unloved privilaged kid with saviour complex, bigoted religious fanatics due to questionable parenting, universal punching bag... LB's new best girl's somehow coming out of it as the worst one.

Just the fact Zoya was saved by the very law she didn't mind abolishing, going from starving asset of her own mother to well-fed, respected soldier, who knows what do sable and silks look like... what a horrible life to lead! Such deterioration! If only the Darkling didn't bother trying, she'd be free to scrape along as she pleases!

Centuries worth of Aleksander's efforts are the reason Zoya gets to whine about her suicidal aunt instead of being maritally raped by some ancient creep, or outright dead after getting pregnant way too young.

#reply #Grishaverse #grishanalyticritical #The Righteous Gang™ #The Darkling #Second Army #Ravka #Second pseudoArmy #Nikolai Lantsov #Zoya Nazyalensky #KoS Chapter 11 #RoW Chapter 9 #S&S Chapter 7 #KoS Chapter 25 #Demon in the Wood #S&B Chapter 5 #books #quotes #Leigh Bardugo #anti Zoya

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

When I first read the book, I wondered, how Zoya being in the inner circle didn't know about the Novokribirsk plan. I believe, the Darkling saw how much of a risk she was when she attacked Alina and kicked her out of his trusted circle.

This made me think what would have happened if that Alina incident had never happened and he told her about the plan? Would she try to get him to change his plan? Ask for permission to write to her aunt to get away first? Would he have listened to any of this?

Thank you the question. I took a long time to think ponder over it.

Before going to the answer, let's consider Zoya's main personality traits. She is angry, jealous, vindictive, social climber and has a tendency to lash out on people when things don't go her way. She is also very particular about her position and how others view her.

So, let's assume, Zoya never attacked Alina in the training grounds. This doesn't necessarily mean she stops seeing Alina as a threat. So she would still continue to attack her verbally and find ways to bully her. She would try spreading rumours using her gang of followers or reveal Alina's inablity to summon. Or she would try to bring herself closer to the Darkling while bad mouthing Alina( like the one episode in season 1 where she does it post Winter Fell when Sasha was frantically looking for Alina).

Considering all the above, I don't think the Darkling would have kept her long in his inner circle. One way or the other, through her own rashness or insecurity, she would have revealed her hand making the Darkling see her as a threat. Not to mention Genya, who was faithfully reporting on Alina to the Darkling. So she definitely would have brought this to his attention. Either way, the Darkling would gave come to realise her true nature and would have excluded her from his plans.

#the darkling #anti zoya #shadow and bone #grishaverse #aleksander morozova #alina starkov

[wordsmith-storyweaver]

New Thought on Zoya from season 2: she tells Alina that she "wouldn't be here" if she had found her family after the destruction of Novokribirsk... so, she would have abandoned her position in the Second Army and left her fellow Grisha to be persecuted? Just like Alina?? ... LB, your "heroines" are just reluctant- their selfish assholes. (Even worse that both are doubly part of persecuted minorities, given their mixed-Ravkan heritage established in the show!!)

#Shadow and Bone #sab season 2 #sab season 2 spoilers #anti LB #anti Zoya

[illicthearts]

Look I don’t like Zoya but I do like Sujaya Dasgupta

#sujaya dasgupta #anti shadow and bone #anti Zoya #anti Zoya Nazyanelsky #anti lb #anti leigh bardugo #anti grishaverse

[innerloverwonderland]

I guess only thing TGT left me was confused, but okay. I dont get why LB keeps trying to make it look like things were getting better after killing the darkling, because after that things, objetivaly, only gotten worse. The grisha persecuition and the ravkan wars and economy have only worsen since the good guys have taken control. And she doesnt try to really solve this problems after, she just make up some bullshit about an age of saints and claim that everyone just stop hating grisha and that ravka is now stable (i wont even try to understad how that happend). Is frustrating reading theses books, nothing make senses lol

#shadow and bone #the darkling #anti zoya #anti leigh bardugo

[confusedbookworm]

Some days I really feel sad for the people who have to live under Zoya’s rule.

#anti zoya nazyalensky #anti zoya #she will make a terrible ruler

[suzieloveships]

Grishaverse series fundamentally being about teenagers taking back their own authority and committing revenge on adults that abused them and exploited them >>>>>>>>>>

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #six of crows #siege and storm #ruin and rising #crooked kingdom #alina starkov #mal oretsev #genya safin #zoya nazyalensky #nikolai lantsov #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #nina zenik #matthias helvar #anti darkling #jan van eyck #pekka rollins #malina #kanej #wesper #helnik

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Something something the volumes it speaks that the Darkling felt the need to put Zoya and Alina in competition with each other and put them against each other from the moment they met so that they wouldn’t be able to immediately acknowledge what was being done to them and unite against him something something

#the pitting of women against each other not only for a misogynist’s gain but also because the misogynist fears those women #and what they would be able to do together #says so freaking much #and the force we could have seen between the pair of them from the very beginning #if their dislike of each other hadn’t been effectively manufactured #ugh #like I just #keeps me up at night #you know? #grishaverse #shadow and bone #save shadow and bone #save the grishaverse #sab netflix #shadow and bone netflix #alina starkov #zoya nazyalensky #anti darkling #anti darklina #malina #Zoya and Alina #queens #leigh bardugo #grisha trilogy #siege and storm #ruin and rising #I hate the Darkling #i hate him i hate him i hate him #shadow and bone analysis #shadow and bone meta

[dcvina-claires]

“but the darkling’s mother abused him” literally shut up. wylan’s father abused him and he never groomed anyone. zoya’s mother tried to sell her and she never sexually assaulted anyone. genya was abused by the king and she’s not a manipulator. inej suffered inhumane treatment and she never wiped out a population. being abused isn’t an excuse to be an abuser

#and wylan zoya genya and inej are CHILDREN #the darkling is hundreds of years old #grishaverse #gv #six of crows #crooked kingdom #wylan van eck #shadow and bone #genya safin #inej ghafa #seige and storm #ruin and rising #king of scars #rule of wolves #anti darkling #zoya nazyalensky

[rosesfox]

(shadow and bone season two spoilers!!!!!!!!!!)

i, as a stan of zoya and zoyalai, couldn't have hated this ridiculous ending more. i don't know how they're going to separate nikolina, make zoya stand out as a general and nikolai's main and truest love interest. the way it looks, even if they were to adapt kos and row, it would look like zoya is a replacement for alina. they took the crumbs they could have from zoyalai and still didn't add, even knowing that the endgame is zoyalai and that zoya is the one who will become queen. it's just awful, and i really hated it.

nikolai never loved alina, alina never wanted to be with nikolai and always saw him as a friend, mal would never leave alina lol and most important of all zoya was the first person nikolai loved and chose for himself beyond of his duty as monarch.

they changed crucial things for the continuity of the story, there is no opening for even more of the crows (since crooked kingdom was poorly adapted) and kos and row are beyond my imagination. that was so bad. i think overall they managed to spoil all the characters, but i as stan da zoya am particularly enraged.

and also, my god, the changes with nikolai! they really didn't understand the importance of the sturmhond to him.

#zoyalai #zoya nazyalensky #nikolai lantsov #alina starkov #shadow and bone season 2 #shadow and bone tv #six of crows #crooked kingdom #kanej #wesper #helnik #malina #nikolina #anti nikolina #darklina #the Darkling

[theweeklydiscourse]

What are your thoughts on Zoya from grishaverse?

Zoya is an interesting case for me. On one hand, I feel like I should like her, because she seems like the kind of of character I would usually find myself connecting with. Also, she’s kinda has the Grishaverse equivalent of Indian heritage which is a detail I could see myself relating to her because of. However, Zoya fails to compel me and tends to annoy me more than drawing my attention. I especially detest her show counterpart, a character that accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of irritating me even more than before

It’s just…Zoya in KOS and ROW becomes such a mouthpiece for the author’s gripes about the audience not interpreting her story the way she’d like them to. Her attitude is so pompous and arrogant, especially when the narrative is interested in exploring her relationship with the Darkling and what she (+Leigh Bardugo) thinks of him. It’s wild, the story treats anything the Darkling touched as inherently corrupted by his supposed “greed” and evil nature. So, despite Leigh Bardugo reiterating that the Darkling’s actions were based on genuinely noble ideas multiple times, we are subjected to a stream of hand wringing about how he’s EVIIIILLLLL to the core.

Rapid fire: I’m not compelled much by Zoyalai either, I want to like it, but I can’t because I’m just so bored by it. I don’t like hotheaded characters whose tendencies are never confronted by the text and are instead glorified. Like Alina, her selfishness is framed as nobility. The fanart is beautiful though, even though her Suli heritage was retconned in.

#zoya nazyanelsky #shadow and bone #king of scars #anti zoyalai #anti Zoya #lb critical #the darkling #s&b critical #aleksander morovoza #anti leigh bardugo #grishaverse #rule of wolves

[stromuprisahat]

Siege and Storm- Chapter 15 (Leigh Bardugo)

She truly sees no difference, does she?

Grisha aren't Saints and Saints aren't Grisha. If you want to get the better one out of the ordinary, you have to martyr them first. There's no safety in being revered.

It puts Zoya's attack on Alina in previous book into perspective. It's as if she didn't even realize they're two different people with completely different status and level of importance.

She doesn't even seem to understand that "Alina" or "THE Sun Summoner" doesn't mean "all Grisha". Not only the narrative doesn't bother to correct her, in next books it ensures the human nature bends to her view, when proclaiming a Grisha "Saint" doesn't take more than a bit screaming at the correct moment.

#Grishaverse #S&S Chapter 15 #Zoya Nazyalensky #Grisha #Grishaverse Saints #Alina Starkov #Second pseudoArmy #grishanalyticritical #Siege and Storm #Grisha trilogy #V #books #quotes #Leigh Bardugo #anti Zoya #anti Leigh Bardugo

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

Fun Facts about the Grishaverse - Antis version

Did you know that the Darkling's true form is a smoke-worm? Yes, whenever the situations are not in favour of the Darkling. He sends out his almost invisible smoke-worms which then crawls into people's ears and reach their brains. The Darkling then plants his thoughts into the person and operate them like puppets.

Did you know you can play a variation of 'Six degrees of Kevin Bacon' with the Darkling too? Don't believe me? Pick any random Ravkan problem. Let me show you an example - 'The coffers are running dry in Ravka'. Easy - Tatiana loved the Darkling's fashion sense so much that she kept making gown after gown to capture his magic. She wanted to out-dazzle the Darkling. So she kept throwing parties to show off her newly crafted gowns but she always came second to the him. Fed up with failure, she kept trying till the coffers ran dry. She wanted to outdo the Darkling atleast once! See, got it in first degree itself.

Did you know the Darkling was secretly responsible for Vasily's horse addiction? - When Vasily was a child, he saw the Darkling pet a random horse once and Vasily was never the same again.

Did you know the Darkling can teleport? - Yes, it is a very lesser known fact, hidden between the lines of the Trilogy. In Shadow and Bone we can see the Darkling not being in the Little Palace but he was still able to manipulate Alina, Zoya, Genya and every woman in Ravka. It was all through his teleportation ability. Mind-blown right!

Did you know the illegal dog fighting ring in Ketterdam was linked to the Darkling? - The Darkling had kept his involvement hidden but Nina was able to unearth the truth by his slight oversight- a dog in the fighting ring was named 'Shadow'. There! you saw the connection right? So subtle that you almost missed it.

Did you how the animosity between the Darkling and Nikolai first started? - When Nikolai was a boy, the Darkling was working near the Fjerdan borders. But one night, Nikolai had a nightmare and dreamt of a shadowy presence under his bed, making him wake up in sweat and tears. That day he decided that the Darkling was not a friend of his and they split ways. They never met again till the day of the Spinning Wheel attack. (I have always wondered how their relationship would have turned out if Nikolai had not had that dream. *long, pondering sigh*)

Did you know that the Darkling was directly responsible for Pyotr/Aleksander III's incompetence? The Darkling sent one of his smoke-worms to make the head chef undercook the King's chicken. This caused Pyotr to have a salmonella infection which rotted his brain and turned him to be so incompetent ruler. It was one of the Darkling's earlier attempts at the throne.

Did you know that the Darkling was a time-traveler who loved wars? Yes! This is once again a lesser known fact. Ravka, Fjerda and Shu-Han were once peace-loving countries whose rulers were besties. They loved Grisha like crazy. They gave Grisha high positions in their courts and revered them. However, in the original timeline, this did not help the Darkling to become the most powerful man. He wanted to play the saviour so badly that he went back in time, destroyed the friendships, created the Grisha-otkazat'sya rift just so that he could become the most feared man in history! This was such a shocking discovery and I found in my 278th read. LB is such a genius!

These are some of the interesting facts I discovered. Share me yours!!!

#sarcasm incase people missed it #inspired by the recent growing trend of outrageous antis post #pro darkling #pro aleksander morozova #grishaverse trilogy #incorrect grishaverse #grisha critical #shadow and bone #seige and storm #ruin and rising #demon in the wood #the darkling #nikolai lantsov #zoya nazyalensky #anti zoya #called it smoke-worm as a homage to season 2 writers who fought nichevoya with squallers #satire post

[aleksanderscult]

The fact that Leigh Bardugo totally nerfed and butchered her most interesting characters (the Darkling, Nikolai) and gave happy endings to her most boring and annoying ones (Mal, Zoya) is the most bizarre and fucked up thing to do as an author.

#the darkling #nikolai lantsov #i don't know how she fucking did that #but it's the first time I'm encountering such a thing as a reader #grishaverse #shadow and bone #grishaverse trilogy #anti nikolai duology #aleksander morozova #pro darkling #pro aleksander morozova #anti alina's wasted potential #anti zoya nazyalensky #anti mal oretsev

[blues-valentine]

As messy as this season was the scene with Alina, Genya and Zoya watching Darkling, their abuser — burn, was a really powerful moment.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #zoya nazyalensky #alina starkov #genya safin #anti darkling #anti darklina #grishaverse