#anti the darkling

[ofmonstersandmagicians]

Second block from a darkling apologist-- I'm just gonna keep track of them here now, for... pointing out that Genya was a victim of CSA and as such has really good reason to be scared of the darkling in S2 on a post that made fun of her fear and trauma. Blocked because they can't acknowledge that their fave has done anything wrong ever.

Edit: turns out it wasn't a block, they just deleted my comments off their post while leaving ones that made fun of Genya's fear because they... wanted to complain about the fear of a CSA victim without backlash.

#Genya Safin #Shadow and Bone #anti darkling #anti the darkling #Alina Starkov #Mal Oretsev #Tamar Kir-Bataar #David Kostyk #Tolya Kir-Bataar

[lilisouless]

Do u like darklina? If yes, why? If no, why?

i definitely don't

the reasons are many but i only need one: she doesn't want to be with him and she didn't even liked him that much as she liked the attention. She only went with him when she thought Mal has ignoring him, on the book version she never iniciates a kiss (like, their lack of chemistry as lovers on the books its quite amazing, they only have enemies chemistry at the very best) Alina just lies there like a puppet and makes it happen. He is like her self steem fueller and he was not only perfectly aware of that but makes sure she sees him as such by sabotaging her comunication with Mal, her only friend and having Genya spying on her as well (okay, that the other grisha soldiers her age besides David is ulterly obnoxious certainly helped but still)

Its a little better on the show because at least she shows some interest and book!Alina clearly saw herself as inferior to him while on the show she tries to stand up as an equal which is a nice change and a fix of something that i never liked on the books.

Anyway , neither version work because in both the darkling at the end of the day his attachment to her its awfullly self centered. he is a serious first class narcisist. For him, Alina´s value is always thetered to him, never her, its always what she does for him and thinks Alina having her own mind and morals as a betrayal.

Book darkling supposedly cares about her, but his level of writing is a thanos level of mess. Show darkling is a little better at showing afection towards Alina, but its definitely not enought, he still does horrible things and only sees her as an extention of herself. In short: he doesn't love her at all

And Alina doesn't even need Mal to not love him. In both versions she turns against him when she learns what he did, she needed almost nothing to stop trusting him. Even if you erase Mal´s existence this still would happen, in fact

-book version, Alina had a big fight with Mal and against her heart , choose to be done with him (only reconcilied when Mal´s virtues proven to be bigger than his flaws) so could as well be out of the picture. Mal didn't play a part, she turned against the darkling because she deemed him as untrustworthy despite his better attemps to make himself Alina´s most important person

-Show version, Alina by this point doesn't even know she will find Mal so he doesn't play a part either

To make an emphasis, i honestly think Alina suffers from tons of inconsistent writting on the first two books BUT i will pretend she doesn't: compare how she instantly choose to believe Genya had a good reason for lying to her, this is someone she actually loves (and yes, i have complained about this issue, i still do, but its canon so the point has to stick)

All of this to say: she is so not in love with him, the attraction is undeniably there but there is no love that isn't born of the false affection the darkling tried to build and failed (also, Alina´s natural compasion probably played a part) this girl choose death before being with him.

thats the conclusion to me: they are not in love

And sure i am probably biassed but i will still defend my case: other grishaverse ships that are on my notp territory along with darklina would be nikolai/alina and kaz/jesper.

I really wish i could say nikolai was not in love with alina (alina IS not in love with him, thats canon) or that Jesper was not in love with Kaz so the narrative works on my favor, but i can't, they were , thats canon regardless if i like it or not.So you can say i am at least trying to get bias away and at leas on my mind the statement that they (alina and the darkling) weren't in love makes sense

#anti darklina #hey wasnt planing on talk about it #but someone asked #anti the darkling #alina starkov #shadow and bone #netflix shadow and bone #look #the ask already said the ship name there is not a lot i can do about it beyond the anti tag #leigh bardugo #grishaverse

[sissytobitch10seconds]

I'm rewatching Shadow and Bone and I just got to the scene where Alina and Baghra have their first real conversation about Aleksander. The fact that Alina feels like everything new and powerful in her life is tied to him is exactly what he wants, which was why he isolated her from the others by encouraging her to dress in black. I think it's a really wonderful representation of what an abuser does, because he made her feel like all the wonderful accomplishments that she made were actually a gift that he gave to her. Baghra's guilt about her son being pushed away so that she can properly encourage Alina for once instead of just yelling at her is also amazing. It's really important to me that the abused daughter of an eccentric scientist and the victim of a tyrannical dictator get to have that kinship together and I wish more people talked about that.

#shadow and bone #sab #sissy writes too much #alina starkov #baghra morozova #anti darklina #the darkling #anti the darkling #aleksander morozova #alina has literally been through so much at his hand #and she managed to overcome it with so much grace and ferocity #even in the book when she was weak and recovering she still had so much strength #it honestly gave me a lot of faith that I could overcome my own abuse

[lady-of-the-spirit]

Is the Darkling wrong about how people treat Grisha? No.

Is the Darkling wrong about the Fold disappearing not ending Ravka's problems? No.

Is the Darkling an abusive piece of shit? Yes!

#i'm saying stuff #shadow and bone #anti darklina #anti the darkling

[brekker-by-brekkerr]

general messy thoughts about sab s2 (spoilers ahead)

Things I liked:

- Genya. Daisy Head SLAYED completely she was SO GOOD. I didn’t like them downplaying her scars and I wished we had gotten the line “I am not ruined I’m ruination” especially knowing how much that line means to so many people but other than that Genya was everything Daisy did an INCREDIBLE job of playing her. I actually got teary-eyed at several points this season (and me and my emotions are not at all close so that’s a feat) and they were all either Genya or GenyaDavid scenes, which brings me to…

- Genya and David. They were so good. So wholesome. The best part of this season IMO. Like their brief scenes, them hugging in the woods, the tiniest moments STOLE the show. I cried for these two and these two alone. Also, David was so well-portrayed like I loved these two so much. 

- Several soft Malina moments that gave me butterflies and I felt accurately showed their dynamic, more toward the beginning of the season but they were there.

- Jack Wolfe as Wylan. I have some not-so-positive thoughts about the aged-up crows in general, but I still think Jack was a convincing Wylan and you can tell from both the show and from his interviews that he really cares about Wylan and his portrayal. Every time he LOOKED at Jesper I was like…wow just WOW.

- Getting to see Nina interacting with the Crows was nice. Especially when they turn around and she has waffles and Kaz has that annoyed moment but then we find out Nina got them the info they needed because she’s a spy and she’s incredible? 10/10 and one of the few moments that felt accurate to the real crows. Also, that part where she was talking to the guard and pretending she needed to pee (idk that was a weird way to describe it I know) but that was so Nina

- Also, just them together in a restaurant vibing was what I needed

- “The barrel doesn’t belong to kings. It belongs to bastards.”

- Tolya and Tamar were so cool in their introduction like they’re so hot and cool and powerful ahh

- When Genya, Alina, and Zoya are all at the Darling’s funeral pyre that was chilling

- The slivers of foreshadowing with Zoya.

Things I didn’t like:

- The weird slow motion in some of the fight scenes was so unnecessary lol

- Okay I’m not a fan of the Darkling and I’ve made that quite clear in the past, but I do think he’s a good and interesting villain and I like the Flavour he adds to the story but this season the Flavour was just…not there. It’s funny how many Darkling stans I’ve seen angry about this season because for once we’re in agreement. Like he was so boring and weird and just creepy instead of interesting and creepy? I wanted to skip all his scenes. Also, they took out so many of the awful things he did in the books like what about him killing Ana Kuya? When he says “you’ll have no shelter but me” that line hits so much harder and is so much more chilling and awful because he’s literally killing off the people in her life. Turning Nikolai into a monster himself?? The moment Alina loses her powers in the books and the Darkling tells her she’s nothing is SO IMPORTANT because it shows he’s just interested in her for her powers, which is a big theme in the books. As wonderful as Nikolai is, he needs Alina for what she can provide for Ravka. The Apparat just sees her for her power. Everyone wants to use Alina for something except for Mal who just wants them to be happy and able to make their own choices. Anyways, the Darkling didn’t feel like the Darkling from the books at all. Also, he was just cringy. Like I was laughing when he was like “I have returned. And I’ve made some new friends” and stared at the camera it was so bad.

- Ruin & Rising is my favourite from the trilogy and I was so disappointed with how much was cut out for the most random crap, like hallucinating and eating butterflies?? Instead of the bonding time with the whole TGT crew? And no Oncat I’m crying. There’s so much character growth that happens and so many relationships that are deepened in Ruin & Rising and WHERE WAS THAT?

- Personally, I didn’t think Paddy was giving Nikolai. Like he seems like a good person and actor and all that jazz but he just didn’t feel like Nikolai and since Nikolai is my favourite, this kind of hurt.

- Erasing Mal from the story and his struggles. Look, Mal is not by any means a perfect character. And he doesn’t need to be. Let him be messy. Let him struggle and sometimes be rude and make mistakes because that’s real that’s compelling. They could have shown all the book!Mal haters that maybe they were being too harsh on him because he was struggling SO MUCH but instead they just turned him into Perfect Supportive Man. His character growth in Ruin & Rising is so good especially after you’ve spent Siege & Storm thinking “what is going on with this man.” Seeing him owning up to his actions and seeing him working on his flaws and seeing his support for Alina is so good and we deserved it especially considering how talented Archie is.

- Cutting Zoya almost completely out, especially since this is the book where she goes through a lot of growth. Also, the fact that Alina choices they’re making are cutting into Zoya’s future story >:(

 Things I HATED:

- Killing off David. WTF. Obviously we didn’t see a body so he might come back but like…what’s the point. We didn’t even get to see Genya and David get married.

- Almost all of the Crows content. The rushed Crooked Kingdom plotlines with none of the significance from the books. Rushed Wesper. Matthias working with Pekka. Nina’s character completely revolving around Matthias. Kanej focusing on Kaz’s trauma but not Inej’s and making her contract with the Menagerie all about Kaz and his vendetta against Pekka and killing off Tante. Actually, pretty much everything Kanej this season was so awfully handled. Also, just not a fan of the Crows being aged up and I tried to be okay with it but this season made me more upset with the casting choices. The Crows stuff was so so so badly done I want to cry. Comfort rereading the duology right now

- The ending. Just…frick the ending. I hate it. Too many thoughts I just hate it I can’t even talk about it

- I’ve already reblogged a lot of posts that go into things I hated but just in general it was such a mess they combined too many stories without doing them justice and there’s more I’m upset about but this is it for now

#anti shadow and bone #anti sab show #anti s&b show #shadow & bone #sab show #sab s2 #sab season 2 #shadow and bone s2 #shadow and bone spoilers #sab s2 spoilers #anti the darkling #anti darkling #anti darklina #malina #malyen oretsev #genya safin #genyadavid #six of crows #grishaverse

[wlwocprincess]

Very weird how That Man’s Stans act like the show is “anti Grisha propaganda” and treat Grisha as an actual oppressed group of people that exist in real life in order to take it as face value as an allegory for real life oppression when there’s already tons of reasons to criticize oppression allegories that are “people with supernatural abilities that can kill people are the most oppressed group and are headlined by mostly white cishet able bodied characters that’s been done to death” therefore Leigh must be anti liberation for actual oppressed groups of people (and then proceed to talk over her as a Jewish disabled woman and insist that she “should know better” and make oppressed Grisha edits with Holocaust movie clips) when it’s established in the Grishaverse that real life oppressions still exist such as ableism, classism, racism (made an even bigger theme in the show), and xenophobia still exist within the universe alongside Grisha oppression but are treated very differently and a huge part of why that man’s philosophy doesn’t work is bc he’s privileged in every other way and therefore doesn’t care, in the show, he is even condescending towards Alina about it and undermines the racism and classism she’s been facing her whole life to prop up his goals and his point of view as a white man who’s never been in the body of an orphaned woman of color.

#anti Darkling #anti the Darkling #Grishaverse

[dylanobrienisbatman]

me everytime that old hag bothers Alina in her dreams:

#anti darklina #anti the darkling #literally leave that girl ALONE you gross old hag

[azurecanary]

There is not one goddamn word of this that makes sense.

#friendly that the Darkling does not give a shit about the Grisha and only uses them to his own gain #me? #priveleged?! #for hating a rapist dictator?! #lmfao #i was never in the teen wolf fandom when it was airing #but is this how y'all felt?! #the idea that there must be two shows cause none of what people say about certain characters makes any goddamn sense?? #anti the darkling #shadow and bone #for the record i cheered Alina killed him #the only disappointment i felt was that genya and zoya weren't there to help

[ragnarssons]

alina, genya, zoya, baghra, that frugi girl... wow the darkling sure loves using and abusing girls/women

#shadow and bone #shab lb #shab spoilers #anti the darkling

[ofmonstersandmagicians]

Something I've been seeing a lot from darkling stans lately is the refusal to acknowledge that most of the wrongs they claim he's experienced are wrongs that he's done to others first. One of the most blatant examples I saw was a post about how the darkling was "mutilated by his mother." This is rich because (in book) he literally *blinds* her, and (in show) he chops off her finger first? Like this aspect of "mutilation" that they're looking at is literally just the exact same thing he did to her first.

Unfortunately, acknowledging that makes their arguments look weak, so they ignore it. This is just a general thing I see a lot in darkling stans/apologists-- "he was persecuted"-- yeah, and he persecuted other people? "He was attacked by Alina" Yeah and he presented himself as a threat to her first? In book he literally burned down the orphanage that was her childhood home and murdered the caretaker? "Genya betrayed him"-- yeah, after he put her in a position *as a child* where she was brutally and repeatedly SAed? Idk man.

#anti darkling #anti the darkling #anti aleksander morozova #genya safin #pro genya safin #genya safin did nothing wrong #alina starkov #shadow and bone #mal oretsev

[gotaturtle]

gagging at the darkling calling alina 'his'. ew.

#i know mal does it too but like ... the meaning in the ways they say it is NOT the same #shadow and bone spoilers #anti the darkling #i don't hate him but i don't like him #if he wasn't the gorgeous ben barnes

[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

[dcvina-claires]

alina starkov i am sorry that no one understands your character. i’m sorry that you have been reduced to the “boring female lead in a love triangle.” i’m sorry that they don’t understand that you were never in a love triangle, but a victim of abuse. i’m sorry they don’t understand the metaphor of the sunlight in your soul outweighing the darkness in your abusers. i’m sorry that they didn’t love you after your light burned out and i’m sorry that they didn’t want you to have a peaceful ending

#i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again #this fandom does not deserve her #grishaverse #gv #shadow and bone #sab #seige and storm #sas #ruin and rising #rar #alina starkov #anti darkling #anti darklina

[greensaplinggrace]

yeah you know what? I'm going to get into this. "don't humanize villains"/"this abuser is a monster" is some of the worst character discourse in fandom. abusers are not other. abusers are not always easy to recognize. othering someone who's done terrible things from humanity is an arrogant, poisonous idea.

that is a person who is doing those things, and you want so badly to be unable to fall into such patterns of harm and abuse that you will force that person into another category of species altogether, and in so doing you spare yourself from introspection and you give yourself a pretty little pedestal to stand on and you shame everybody who fell for a red flag that is surely so easy to recognize. and you give into prejudice you assign moral values to attributes outside of yourself and you think you are so above doing harm that you could never act in such a way, even as it is a capability within all of us to do so.

get off your self righteous high horse for a moment and use your fucking brain. I'm sick of people in fandom claiming to be the most moral members that are the "only people willing to discuss this" and then every statement out of their mouth is harmful and pervasive word vomit.

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #sab #aleksander morozova #the darkling #sab discourse #anti darklina bs #hannibal #iwtv #rdr2 #da2 #dragon age #btvs #antis are people who would miss the fucking point of lolita #anti anti #i guess idk i've never tagged anything as that before #myramblings #fandomcourse #abuse mention tw #abuse tw #negative

[theweeklydiscourse]

My reasons for disliking the Shadow and Bone Netflix adaptations had very little to do with its “book accuracy” and had more to do with it being a terrible adaptation. In fact, I would’ve preferred if the writers had taken some liberties and revised certain flaws of the original trilogy to create a more compelling narrative.

However, they instead made superficial changes that added little to the value of the show and were bandaid solutions to deeper problems with the source material. They didn’t expand on the original story, they only narrowed the scope. This, was its ultimate flaw that ended up culminating in a watered down version of what we once knew.

For example, the rehabilitation of Mal’s image seemed agreeable initially, but harmed the story in the long-run. The writers understood that book!Mal was disliked, but instead of re-examining that character and expanding (and perhaps improving) his arc, they refashioned him into a boring and frictionless character that offered little to the emotional stakes of the story. This choice, was a prime example of the dilution of the characters and story for the adaptation that ended up creating a weaker experience altogether.

The girlbossification of Alina, the lobotomizing of the Darkling to make it easier for the heroes to defeat him, cramming the Crows into a plot that didn’t concern them, blaming Grisha persecution on the Darkling, making Zoya a racist/the Darkling’s side chick, all of those idiotic flashbacks, were symptomatic of the writers inability to take risks.

#lb critical #shadow and bone #the darkling #alina starkov #s&b critical #s&b netflix #s&b salt #darklina #aleksander morovoza #anti leigh bardugo #zoya nazyanelsky #six of crows #malyen oretsev #netflix

[azurecanary]

Jesus Christ that scene with Alina and Baghra talking about the Darkling's abuse of her is just so frickin powerful. I don't care what y'all have to say about how bad you think this season was, that scene just fucking broke me.

First it's Jessie's voice cracks and body language that convey Alina's despair, anger and frustration over the Darkling's influence over her.

And then it's Baghra validating Alina's power and agency, telling her that she is who she is in spite of the Darkling. And that despite his age, Alina can defeat him. And even her reminder that the Darkling didn't just betray Genya and Ravka, but he also betrayed and violated Alina too.

And what drives all of it home is Baghra's final act is severing the Darkling's link with Alina. And on it's own it just seems strategic. But with the above scene with Alina, it really drives home to me that Baghra did what she did to free Alina. But that doesn't deprive Alina from the honour of killing him.

#the love that baghra had for alina just warms my heart so much #and so does the show's acknowledgment of the pain and trauma that the Darkling put her through #i love this show so fucking much #alina starkov #jessie mei li #baghra morozova #zoe wanamaker #the darkling #anti the darkling #shadow and bone #sab spoilers