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anarmel · 3 years

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six of crows gang my beloved

what is fanart without me complaining about a thing i like

as a person who read SoC duology a long time ago, my SoC only related thoughts

-did they make Jesper gay and not bi?do not support that decision. that scene in a stable was kinda unnecessary (but i’m not a big fan of those kinda scenes in general) and felt like they just wanted something gay in this season and sort of a nod that they didn’t forget Jesper’s attraction to men but in process of that forgot that he’s bi. i think he should’ve had flirtatious interactions with everyone(he flirty).especially that we know that his main love interest is a man and his light crush on Kaz he should’ve flirted with a woman in this season. and i know that bi people are not obligated to date several people of all gender spectrum to know or like affirm that they’re bi but that’s in real life and SaB is a piece of media that communicates through visuals and limited dialogue and not a book where you have access to mention it in characters thoughts soo....yeah....not invisible bi representation where?and Nina is taken with her romance with Matthias already

-Nina(my beloved) and Matthias...yeah that’s the start of their story

-i liked “more soft” Kaz he felt less like an archetype of a character that he is(a traumatised bad boy who doesn’t care for anything or anyone but will eventually be “fixed” by love for a girl). book version of him works because we have his inner thoughts and machinations if he was on screen like he was in a book it just wouldn’t work as well he needs to emote and show a little bit of feelings that he experiences to work in a given medium and to not be a brick character on screen

-and Inej, my girl, my beloved . i don’t think she would sass tante Heleen while still being under a contract. i don’t understand why they took out her having panic attacks near the menagerie, and she refused Jesper’s backup(girlboss of her to do that but not being alone in that place is beneficial for mental stability !buddy system!). maybe because she is in that situation where she is still under indenture and she didn’t feel real relief and still is to take her first breath as a free person so she doesn’t feel constant fear of being robed of her freedom by the same place again? idk maaan...maybe i’m wrong but that’s jus how i feel. she is the strongest character in the series but that doesn’t mean she should be “strong” in every situation she is still a human who was treated so terribly by so many people and the menagerie represents it. ooof. in a book her strengths and weaknesses were established so well. i appreciated her fangirling for Alina though and that they didn’t brake her character in that way.her beliefs are still intact and she is apprehensive about kidnapping a saint. nice. love her

as a viewer of Shadow and Bone content without a book base but with basic knowledge of the universe and characters:

-(speaking as a slavic person in predominantly slavic society) didn’t like Zoya’s racist comment towards Alina like at all. like she is asian herself different part bur still. and i felt like her problem with Alina wasn’t race related then why throw that in? if my rival was poc i wouldn’t throw a slur at them and go a racist rout because that will not who i am(and i’m not that lazy at insulting/j) and it’s not even a part of my problem with them, i would go for something more personal and connected to the root of the problem to be a full bitter bitch. like Zoya feels useless and like she’s being replaced (right?) she could’ve commented how useless Alina is, how she can’t be strong by herself without help of darkling to reflect her own insecurities on Alina? why drag race into that problem? why? i know they had asian writers working on the script and in my opinion they did a good job at war era racist propaganda and how it ostracised Alina in society but making Zoya on a personal level a racist was kinda dumb. she’s a bitch but not a bigot

-i’m afraid of saying my thoughts on darkling/alina/mal situation because that part of the fandom really scares me. and that was not really my interest in this show

-not enough Genya(i really like her character)

as a person who was born in russia and will die in russia(not by choice) my russia related thoughts:

(i know that it’s only inspired and not based on imperial russia but i wanna nitpick and bitch about things)

-for imperial russia not lavish enough(yeah budget and stuff but it’s true) those bitches only knew how to burn gold on luxuries and wars

-Alina’s last name is Starkov. so in russian usually last names that end in -ov/-ova -ev/-eva are gendered her version is “male”. i don’t care for gendered stuff but in russian every word is that way. as a gender abolitionist i don’t care as a russian speaker kinda not right but eh. i(nb) go by my -ova last name because it flows with my name better like Alina Starkova i kinda like how it has an A at the beginning and on the end. Alina Starkov is still a cool name because fuck grammatically correct things

-i don’t understand why they decided to call uniforms kefta and not kaftan, kefta sounds more like kofta(casual shirt) and kaftan is a real thing and a nicer word in my opinion(and isn’t kefta a dish? but then again we have a dish named “herring under a fur coat”)

-do not understand the name of an episode “otkazat’sya” it means “to refuse” as in like a verb, kinda weird, “otkaz”(refusal) would suit more as a name because it’s a noun and less confusing and a cooler looking word. it just doesn’t work in russian and was kinda jarring to see it. and didn’t they call a food taster an “otkazat’sya” like huh??? he would be just a low ranked “pridvornyy”(courtier) or a “sluga”(servant) or if you want a fancier word it would be “mundschenk”(world of german origin used in imperial russia under Peter the First) but they were only for vine and drink tasting

-there is like three words in russian and pronunciation is funny. o to pronounce ц like ц and not like ts. there is no need to be soft

-and it’s so funny that magic users called Grisha it’s just a slavic name Grigori in short form. imagine a world where magic users are all called like Josh in all seriousness

-(did they have at least one russian speaking person to consult on language usage or pronunciations?they merged two books together couldn’t they change some words to more correct ones?)

-so mad that they killed of my main man Ivan he was THE russian representation of that show. such a single minded serious bitch. i connected to him so much (i love me some unimportant background characters) and that goth bitch(darkling) lives on. i only can be satisfied if one of those shadow monsters is Ivan(i only jest...unless?....)

general:

-found family is top tier, love triangles are in hell(not fun kind) but that’s my general hiccup with this franchise (it has so much potential but choses to focus heavily on romance, like romance is good and great and all that but friendship is magic)

-in conclusion i really liked the story as a separate being and it’s one of the better book to screen adaptations i’ve seen but it’s not without flaws

-i’m always critical of things that i love. it’s my passion to scrutinise and see flaws. i am but a miserable being

🖤only my personal opinions and feelings,hope you enjoyed my art despite my tirades🖤

#grishaverse #six of crows #shadow and bone #soc fanart #art #my art #souring my art with my thoughts #blue eyed white boys on top(#why wylan has blue eyes leigh why not brown-amber #brown eyes are so much better #aaaaa

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tubercloset · 3 years

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9, 17, 24? for the salt :D

spoilers for grishaverse under the cut (9 and 17)

24: Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?

Well, Alex, there are two things I keep trying to recommend to you, so I'll go with Alice Oseman, specifically Radio Silence, Loveless, and I Was Born for This. She's just,,,,so good at writing platonic relationships!! And those feature heavily in these three books where the friendships are so strong and well-written and people don't always have perfect friendships and not everyone was friends in the beginning but also she just writes friendships in ways that mean they're equally important if not more important than romantic relationships. And I'm not saying that romantic relationships are bad, but she strikes that perfect balance of romance amount in books where the romance is supposed to be the beauty of relationships, whether romantic and platonic.

Also the plots are really good too and they're really relatable and the characters' insecurities could be yours too. Like in iwbft the main character has no idea what to do with her life yet so she just submerges herself into the life of a fangirl and makes that her identity because she can't face the imperfection of her life so she tries to absorb the perfection she sees in the band she loves until she realizes that they're not that perfect either. And in Radio Silence the two main characters want to make beautiful things and not just go to a good college for the sake of going to a good college and in Loveless the main character doesn't know how she is supposed to find love if she can't love anyone and when she screws up she believes that no one can love her either but it's all friendships and she learns to love herself too and idk read some osemanverse books they're so good I tried not to spoil lol. Also kinda make me wish I had those friendships but read the books they're really great You also told me you wanted me to talk about If We Were Villains and idk how to talk about that without spoiling everything but it kinda messes with your brain a little and it's also gay and I can reread it multiple times and notice new things and ... well I'm burnt out from writing all that in the cut below so I can't write much about If We Were Villains but I love that book so much. I love the character dynamics, I love how the fact that the characters' personalities became the roles that they played for three years created their inevitable shattering in the year Oliver is thinking back on. I can rant about this another time but not now I guess :|| (also if people really do not want to be spoiled for grishaverse don't look at the cut!!! please!!!)

9. I think I told you already but Matthias is my least favorite character purely because he's so boring. He kind of became less bigoted throughout soc and made leaps and bounds in terms of his bigotry and also response to sexuality (Nina's lol) but he was just really boring. Idk. And also his death was written horribly and hilariously imo so that kinda contributes to my dislike of him probably. My least favorite character used to be Wylan but I don't remember the feeling of disliking Wylan anymore so it's Matthias now. Matthias was written even worse than like Jan Van Eck and Heleen Van Houden which really says something I guess but Leigh is generally really good at writing villains except for that stunt she pulled off with the Darkling in King of Scars/Rule of Wolves which I am very very pissed at and well. Nikolai Duology sucks it was 100% fanservice and I don't want to read any more Leigh Bardugo but I probably still will lol

17. darn it I want to talk about if we were villains but you have not read it!! Ok let's talk about King of Scars instead. I wish the series never happened, or not in the way it did. Or specifically rule of wolves because as plotless and actionless as KoS was, there was really rich character development with Nikolai trying to overcome and become the monster, Zoya reconciling her past and her present and her powers and how the Darkling irrevocably altered her and of course their romantic feelings toward each other and the issue of Nikolai's marriage and succession. And all that was good and the first really bad thing was the resurrection of the Darkling. And I can't remember anything redeemable from Rule of Wolves. Reality (in the sense of what kinds of events playing out are realistic) went out the window and the book dissolved into a stew of fan service, inserting the Grisha Triumvirate, murdering one of them (and in a horribly and anticlimactically written death), putting in Mal and Alina just so they could power up the Darkling somehow? I was confused, and also inserting all of the Crows and making them participate in some attempt at a heist that was pretty much a red herring and did not really contribute much to the plot. And also finally actually saying Zoya was half-Suli but with the disclaimer by her mother that she looks white enough and she can pass as Ravkan because I do not believe at all that Leigh originally imagined Zoya as Suli. Like I appreciate her making it canon and I don't know how else she would've done it but something still sits wrong with me in the way Zoya has apparently passed as white for... Seven whole ass books. The last thing is the Darkling's redemption arc and I fucking hate it because reusing an antagonist is already lazy and then giving him a redemption arc? And having the people he has wronged and permanently traumatized forgive him? Part of what made him such a well-written villain in the Grisha trilogy was how evil he was but also the complicated side where people still rallied behind him and he loved his country and he wanted the Grisha to have more rights but he still let the aging and revolting king rape Genya and then he disfigured her. The idea that a noble character must forgive their enemies should be dispelled. Sometimes the noble thing to do is to recognize that despite how complicated someone is, you don't have it in yourself to forgive them ever. Honestly if they told him they'd make him a story and then just not did that I'd giggle a little but I'd be happy. Also the Darkling's personality just changed to awfully sophomoric so that sucked.

Wait wait I remembered what I actually wanted to put here, which is how quickly Nina got over Matthias and went with Hanne. She literally was burying him and then she saw her and was like :0 u hot Also these aren't my thoughts exactly but I fully agree with them. A friend told me their thoughts after finishing Rule of Wolves and they thought that Hanne's transgender thing was not written well...the fact that she basically now looks like a very toxic and gross guy who was really toxic to everyone around him and also Hanne and was planning to marry her and probably abuse her....eeeehh. I think Nina getting in another relationship is fine, idk what Leigh could do differently but there surely is something, and anyway it wasn't written well and of course neither was Zoya's Suli identity. And the other part of the ending that could be changed. I'll just point to this fic here (links to my blog bc im on desktop and can't use tumblr on desktop lol). The point is that the Ravkan monarchy is bad. It was after all the cause of all the corruption and the problems and the past and the way people were like... Ok!!! Zoya our queen! I don't care about anything! That's not how people work ok a couple people calling assent is not representative of the entire population. Anyway I'll stop I'm not part of the entire Grishaverse fandom but I love Six of Crows and If We Were Villains and Alice Oseman so ,,,,

#tw rape #tw abuse #not sure if im tagging these right #soc #anti kos #iwwv #osemanverse #read them u guys #soc and iwwv and alice oseman #iwwv is my favorite book #soc comes after #and i love the alice oseman stuff ive read and alice oseman is just really cool #asks #oplishin #much salt

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leah-jeffries · 7 years

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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Founded through The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten is about showcasing a list of some of our favorite things. For July 25, 2017, we’ll talk about our Top Ten YA Fantasies.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo I remember SoC being one of the biggest anticipated releases the year that it came out. And it lived up to all the hype that was created around it. Leigh Bardugo practically destroyed me with her amazing Grishaverse that has turned into its own empire and how can you not support a band of misfits, all incredibly unique, banded together by the seduction of kruge and the greater good of their greed? I mean, granted they all had really tragic pasts and all of my problematic faves deserved happiness. They are so unique and Leigh Bardugo is no stranger to having her female characters outnumbered by the boys, but tower over them in terms of their own prowess and heroism (can it be called heroism?).

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir I have no idea how to form into words my love for AEITA. I remember reading it and not really having it sink in until it did and then I fell madly in love. Maybe it was because I was in love with Elias. Or maybe because of the slow burn that was about to happen between Elias and Laia. I could have survived on a story completely Laia's own, but having the core three and the antagonists, the Nightbringer and the Commandant just gave me so much to look forward to in the rest of the Ember Quartet. I think for a debut from Sabaa Tahir, she shattered the expectations of the young adult and fantasy genres.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu TYE was the first series I read from Marie Lu. I don't know I never really got into her LEGEND series, but I just didn't and I don't know if I can go back and read anything before TYE. Her writing is wonderfully dark and calculated in the way that Adelina is in the books. How can anyone not be interested in a story where the main character who is usually the good guy, the antihero? Adelina is definitely a harrowing villain in her own right, but when you get past the superficial villainy, how can you not appreciate and resonate with her beyond the exterior? She has so many complexities and I loved the ending for her - it was so perfect and unimaginably like anything else.

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh SOLD ME WHEN IT WAS MARKETING AS A MULAN-RETELLING. Now, it's not really a Mulan-retelling, but it definitely nods to the best Disney movie in all the land. I feel like it did have a sense of magical realism to it and I loved how the fantasy elements didn't overwhelm the story. Those elements made for such a good story, but having Mariko be the main thing to pull it all together was kind of awesome. Give me a cross-dressing heroine any day and totally give me scenes of needing to distract handsome boys with kisses. I go for that all the way.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas I was really struggling to put down ACOMAF instead of ACOTAR because I am such a fangirl for ACOMAF and Rhysand. Hah. But I just decided to stick to the first books rather than just go about being confused and conflicted. Sarah J. Maas has a knack for destroying my expectations in men. But what makes the ACOTAR series so great is the beauty in her writing when it comes to both the worlds she builds and the romances that bud with steam and magic. I am always captivated by how she words things and how she can immerse her readers in a fey/human world without completely forcing one or the other to disintegrate. I know that Maas is not everyone's cup of tea, but I love her leaves. :D

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo I'm pretty sure it was this series that got me hooked into fantasy. I think that if if she had written some wild contemporary, I would have fallen in love with that and gotten myself insanely hooked into that genre first. It took me a long time to get into contemporary since I was/am wild about fantasy stories. I certainly loved reading about Alina's journey to discovering herself as an ordinary girl, a legendary Sun Summoner, and then an ordinary girl once more. I think a lot of readers expect the glory of that sort of character to stick with the Sun Summoner, but I found that Alina's character was far more developed and explored because of her connecting to ordinary.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab I have a real sweet soft spot for books that are able to transport me beyond its pages. And I am such a fan of Schwab's work in all of her writings, but ADSOM has a special place in my heart. It is so imaginative and nuanced - people always talk about how worlds would be different through different dimensions and Schwab just takes it to that level where I am completely immersed in the four Londons and the characters that exist in them. I think Kell is the most excellent character to bridge through those settings and provide such strong characterization when it comes to the overall plot. There is just so much awesome magical realism that it's making me rather happy to think about while I write this.

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting THE PLEDGE was one of the earliest works of fantasy that I remember reading. When I first started blogging on Tumblr, I made a bunch of edits for it because I really liked the idea behind the world that Derting built. Having something so universal as language as the base of what surrounds THE PLEDGE's conflict is what really drew me in (besides the romance, haha). For using something so basic, it's something that really carries weight in the book and ties together the characters of the book. Plus, I love a historical setting with some magical elements attached.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard I'm so angry with the RED QUEEN series because there's still so many unanswered questions and STILL ONE MORE BOOK TO GO. On one layer, there's the age old story about feuding high and low classes. On another layer, you've got these cool X-Men-esque abilities forcing the separation of classes even farther. And then you whip out Mare who's both low and got powers - so where does that leave you? RED QUEEN! Behind this really cool historical setting fantasy, there's a crazy awesome heroine who is a heroine that many can aspire to. And then there's Maven and Cal who just devastate so much - not just because they're princes and handsome, but because their relationships and sorrow just WOUND ME. You should pick up this book if you want your soul ripped in two and then crushed.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber TALK ABOUT TRANSPORTING. CARAVAL just came out this year and already it's become one of my favorite fantasy reads of all time. You've got Scarlett writing to the legendary...Legend about wanting to bring her sister, Tella, to the also legendary Caraval where everything is claimed to be just a big elaborate performance. But upon arriving at Caraval, led by a mysterious and handsome sailor, Scarlett realizes that there is more to Caraval than just illusions and tricks. This story made me feel like magic really exists - that despite the skepticism surrounding it that it is something that takes me out of a reality that sometimes I want to escape (much like Scarlett/Tella and their father). And beyond the fantasy and magic, there's definitely some meaningful exploration of relationships between lovers and family. This story is just wildly creative and imaginative.

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