alinaxstarkov

[alinaxstarkov]

You know, sometimes I like to think that LB wrote Shadow and Bone from genuine concern for young girls. She allegedly had abusive relationship behind her and she to comfort her own emotions wrote this little fairytale to make herself feel better. And then this little fairytale became world-wide bestseller.

But at its heart it forever stayed a little comfort fairytale.

LB makes this mistake of... I don't want to use "overrating" but it feels like it, like she overrates her work. She created this narrative that this is a warning tale for young girls to not fall for the tall dark handsome guy with power who will manipulate her, use her and leave her, heartbroken. She put herself on this pedestal of a preacher for fair maidens and she seems to be very upset when her audience shows her that this narrative is false.

It's 2021. We live in era of Internet where information spread fast and world-wide. We have tumblr articles, twitter threads, tiktok series, youtube series. Now girls at age 13, 14 and 15 watch things like "how to spot a sociopath?", "three signs you date a master manipulator!" and "make your marriage happier than the one your parents had". And I'm not joking because I was watching materials like this, mostly to amuse myself, subconsciously learning things about this topics. Now more youth than ever is interested in psychology. More often I hear 20 y/o women speak about how to get out of abusive relationship rather than 40 y/o.

It's 2021 and young girls don't need warning tales about how handsome men potentially can be abusive. They know that from real life. Their mother just divorced her abusive husband. Their sister ended relationship with toxic boyfriend. Their best friend is in therapy because of horrible parents. Their favourite celebrity just made an interview about their evil ex and now shares "tips" how to escape from situation like this.

They don't need little fantasy fairytales to teach them that. It's no longer 1820s and they don't need to chose between marrying their poor childhood friend whom their love since they met or 10 years older man with 10 villages and 20 servants, who can help her family. They don't need next Jane Austen teaching them about risks of those choices.

Shadow and Bone has its flaws but if it would be treated (also by its author) as light-hearted fairytale about defeating evil instead of real life allegories to abusive relationships, no one would feel the need to mercilessly bash it in this whole hashtag. Because on one hand we have LB yelling at her readers about how to read her books, what interpretations are the only true ones, that this is the evil one and those are good guys, but on the other the same author pairs her heroine with a boy that feels belittled and endangered by powerful heroine, so she makes the moral of the story that its better to have husband who whines when you eat too much, than powers able to save the whole world.

LB tries very hard to push her own narratives on her readers, but she isn't doing it through her storytelling, but interviews and social media.

And I'm just tired of the next "I need to tell young girls that handsome men can be abusive and manipulative, because they don't know better and they will end up in toxic relationships!". It feels very vicitim-blaming to victims of abusive relationships. Because the truth is that sometimes you don't know that you are dealing with manipulator and you are in toxic affair before it's too late. And this whole "you should know better!" thing is just another way of patriarchal society pushing the blame of "naive young stupid girls" instead of their abusers. At the end of the day, I know S&B is just fiction.

And I don't mind the fiction. I didn't like the ending? Fuck it, I will read fanfic or find a better book. But I do mind belittling and moralising young women, especially when it comes to such a delicate topics like abuse.

#anti leigh bardugo #tw abuse #tw toxic relationships #im just tired man #i just want my lil comfort story #not another morally pure caution tale

[alinaxstarkov]

Friendly reminder that if you will come under my post or on my page to be xenophobic, homophobic, racist, ableist or in any other way - a bigot, I will delete your messages and block you.

#tw: racism #tw: xenophobia #tw: homophobia #tw: ableism

[alinaxstarkov]

I think people should talk more about the fact that in Shadow&Bone, russian-inspired-tsarpunk-tsar-culture-slavic-fantasy, there was no Russian actors. In all the cast that you can remember, only two people are Slavic in general (Alexei and Fedyor). There is not even a half-Russian. The show is full of roles that could be played by Russian actors and yet, noone was casted.

I checked it all on IMDB so maybe I'm wrong, correct me if you know something.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #anti leigh bardugo #grishaverse

[alinaxstarkov]

Ummm...I've seen a lot of people here and on Twitter be like "let's collectively ignore what LB did with Zoya's heritage". I'm going to do the opposite and TRY to show how much Bardugo f*cked up (I'm doing this mainly for myself. I need this out of my system). So let's start:

The Shadow and Bone Trilogy - Crooked Kingdom (2014-2016)

Zoya is white. Yes, LB never describes her skin tone, but she is the type of author who describes a character of color, no matter how background they are. I distinctively remember Paja, a Suli (the first one in the grishaverse if I'm not wrong) Grisha in Siege and Storm, whose heritage was mentioned outright even though she wasn't a really important character (she also literally died in the same book). But with Zoya? She appears in 4 books before King of Scars, and we get nothing. Apart from that, LB has reblogged this fanart in 2016. There (I will never be sick of showing it because it's the proof of the retcon) Zoya is very pale and LB has written under it this:

"Zoyaaaaaa!!! This is pretty much exactly how I pictured her."

King of Scars (2019)

This is the first book in Nikolai's, no comment, Duology. It has 39 chapters and 4 different PoVs (not counting the prologue one). One of them is Zoya's, she has 9 chapters from her point of view. In chapter 25 out of 39, we get this:

"She [Zoya's mother] had married for love - a handsome Suli boy with broad shoulders and few prospects"

That's it. That's all we get about Zoya's heritage in King of Scars. A retcon happens in one vague sentence, which someone easily can miss if they are even slightly not attentive. She is biracial in canon now (thanks for the rep, LB). I just want to point out that if Zoya hasn't been retconned, all the four PoVs would have belonged to white characters. I personally think that it was a last-minute change to somehow diversify her PoVs, especially considering how small and vague the mention was.

The Rule of Wolves Waiting Period (2019-2021)

Obviously, the canon biracial Zoya inspired even more fanart of brown Zoya, and LB herself has reblogged them and has put them on her stories. This had led a lot of people to believe that Zoya was indeed a visibly brown-skinned woman, to the point of believing that she was described as that (even tho back then we had only her hair and eye description, and that damn sentence). What made this idea even stronger? Official fanart like this, this and this, which LB has commissioned herself. The last one actually was part of the preorder offer of Rule of Wolves. Why would anyone believe otherwise after that? Even I would have believed it if I hadn't known better.

Then on February 17, this Kirkus review was posted. The part that matter for this post is this one :

"The multiethnic cast that includes queer characters and relationships showcases a White-passing biracial character grappling with identity and another character’s trans-coded journey."

Fans were worried that this white-passing character was Zoya, but what calmed them down was the fanart of the preorder. Because of course, LB would never do that, she would never commission a fanart with brown Zoya and then write her as white-passing (that's actually hilarious, because it's a LB type of thing to do).

Rule of Wolves (2021)

Zoya IS the white-passing biracial character grappling with her identity.

“Because I’m Suli.” Simple words, but she’d never said them aloud. She could feel her mother’s hands combing out her hair, placing a hat on her head to keep her out of the sun. You’re pale like me. You have my eyes. You can pass. The family had kept her mother’s name so that they wouldn’t draw attention. Nabri, her father’s name, was rubbed away like a stain.

We do get more stuff concerning her identity, how she feels about hiding this part of herself, and we get to know what she has experienced because of being biracial. I did identify with a lot of parts and they did speak to me, but it was so obviously done for diversity points (see the official fanart fiasco) that I just couldn't feel comfortable while reading the book.

Yes, a white-passing Zoya does make sense considering how Suli are treated in Ravka and how no one else ever mentioned her Suli heritage, but I think that LB handled it very badly. Her fans, especially brown fans, didn't deserve to be baited, and I believe that the fandom should not collectively ignore another Bardugo f*ck-up.

#shadow and bone #zoya nazyalensky #anti leigh bardugo #all she knows how to do is baiting over and over

[alinaxstarkov]

just gonna leave this here

#txt

[alinaxstarkov]

call me by y/n

#meme #txt

[alinaxstarkov]

I hate how little asexual rep there is in books, and if there is any (often not even openly ace but ace-coded), fandom quickly makes a lot of them allosexual or "asexuals with that one special person heheh" or gets mad when someone headcanons the character as ace.

Like, 99,9% characters are allosexual. Let asexual readers have anything.

#six of crows #all for the game #the foxhole court #vicious #shadow and bone

[alinaxstarkov]

The fact that Eric used reddit out of all his platforms (twitter, instagram, official S&B accounts) to apologize for this situation is honestly pathetic, disgusting and cowardly. Once again he refuses to take responsiblity for his own show and that just further proves that he doesn't care about its fans, only money they will get him. Once again also he uses women in the show as shield for his fragile ego. It's not one time thing - he did it before, he put his female coworkers in front line, to hide behind them. It's purely disgusting. If he cannot take responsibility for the mistakes of the show, he shouldn't take praise for success of the show.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #grishaverse #the grisha trilogy #six of crows #crooked kingdom #anti shadow and bone netflix

[alinaxstarkov]

hate when you reblog a random cropped aesthetic post and some fool comes in your inbox like “this is from an incest hentai ye wee cunting man and if it isnt deleted by 2 pm yer callout will be strewn about the daily post” like aye how was i supposed tae know, and a better question why do you know this sire

#txt #meme

[alinaxstarkov]

How can you advertise your tv show preaching about diversity, anti-racism, equality, empowering minorities, giving chances to marginalized groups and then have a brownface scandal? How?

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #grishaverse #anti leigh bardugo #cw: brownface #tw: racism

[alinaxstarkov]

So Alina had to give up her powers because "she was greedy for power" but in the RoW Zoya runs around as grisha-avatar, turns into dragon and becomes a queen and that's okay?

Okay, Leigh, tell me you have favourites without telling me you have favourties.

#rule of wolves #anti leigh bardugo

[alinaxstarkov]

Controversial opinion: when authors make all motives of "the evil guy'" something along the lines "he does it to protect his people" it's the clearest sign the author hates minorities.

[alinaxstarkov]

Honestly, rn social media make enjoying your favourite fandoms/books/tvshows/movies so much more difficult. Like they suck all the fun out of fiction.

[alinaxstarkov]

Since Shadow and Bone disappointed me AGAIN, does anyone have recommendations of fantasy books with plus-size heroines unapologetically being themselves?

#shadow and bone #six of crows #crooked kingdom #nina zenik #plus size #ya books #fantasy books #books recommendations

[alinaxstarkov]

I don't even want S&B tv show to be good anymore... I just want to have 8h of Ben&Jessie's content to stare at...

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #alina starkov #the darkling #ben barnes #jessie mei li

[alinaxstarkov]

aesthetic tag ✨

tagged by @follow-thewhiterabbit-hatter

soft 🌸 15/20

baby pink / iridescent / glitter is always a good option / no bra / minimalistic tattoos / cherry patterns / sweet scented perfumes / wearing generous amounts of blush / doodling hearts / getting excited to pet an animal / fun nails / rewatching old barbie movies / hair sticking to glossed lips / heart shaped sunglasses / taking pictures of the sunset or sunrise / stuffed animals / protecting nature / stickers everywhere / teen movies / the light rain that falls from a clear sky at the beginning of the night

dark academia 🌸 13/20

neutral tones / masculine outfits / studying languages / worn down copy of books / grey skies / turtleneck sweaters / loose fitting pants / hair tied with a silk ribbon / trying to remember a cool difficult word you read somewhere to use in a convo / thick belts / minimal makeup / windows fogged by rain / vintage jewelry / blouses with cuffed sleeves / reading a murder mystery and trying to solve it / oxford style shoes / sweater vests / subtitled old movies in a language you don’t speak / leaves crackling as you walk / annotating books to express your emotions about the story

edgy 🌸 9/20

closet full of dark clothes / fishnet tights / makeup sweating off / neon signs / searching for unknown songs / chokers / band tees / doodling on old converses / finding smoking aesthetically pleasing but not doing it / weird humor / accidentally very dramatic / dim lights / layered outfits/ chain belts / chipped nail polish / messy hair / low quality pics / piercings / combat boots / scribbling on desks

70's 🌸 9/20

colorful wardrobe / doodling flowers / wearing short shorts / using a bikini top or bra as a normal top / listening to ABBA / flowers in your hair / diying everything / jamming to songs alone in your room / drunkenly telling your friends you love them / patterned bandanas / mid heeled shoes / messy braids / flared sleeves / walking barefoot on grass or sand / bold sunglasses / the good kind of tired you get after doing something you enjoy for hours / feeding stray animals / fun patterned socks / room decorated with succulents and other plants / likes to go roller skating or skateboarding

preppy casual 🌸5/20

collared clothes / drinking juice out of a champagne glass / getting excited to see the met gala looks / thick headbands / small pastel cardigans / making your friends take your ootd pics / plaid mini skirts / tweed two pieces / watching reality tv to pass time / frilly tops / watching old hollywood movies / academically driven / long manicured nails / new year’s eve fireworks / colourful tights / layered golden jewelry / yearns for luxury brand items / decorating your room with fairylights / cursive and neat handwriting / lace details

tagging anyone who’d like to do it!

#tag games #aes

[alinaxstarkov]

saw that on @mostawesomepineapple blog!

sage green or baby blue | moon or stars | paperback or hardback | piercings or tattoos | drawing or writing | saturn or jupiter | ancient greece or ancient egypt | prague or amsterdam | dark academia or light academia | indie aesthetic or cottagecore | stargazing or late night drives | strawberries or watermelons | rings or necklaces | extrovert or introvert | dragons or griffins | ocean or mountains | silver or gold | dawn or dusk | early bird or night owl | cook or bake | dagger or sword

tagging @follow-thewhiterabbit-hatter and anyone else who wants to do this

#tag game