#And apologies to Alina but I simply did not care for the original trilogy as much : | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

memento-morri-writes · 2 years

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SoC is such a good book tho!!! I could NEVER make my family read it so kudos to you!! The relationships in between the characters are elite imo and the complexity of them made me really happy when I read it!

have you watched Shadow and Bone on Netflix?? if so what did you think of the mashup in between SoC and S&B??

if you don't mind me rambling, rn I'm reading The Atlas Six which if you don't know is about six of the best magicians (called medeians in the book) of the world and how they are selected to pass a bunch of trials for two years, the prize being working in the archives of the Alexandria's Society! But the catch is that only five of them will be admitted and the sixth one simply has to die for not being selected

I have only read a couple more of a hundred pages but so far I'm loving it! It's packed with action and you have povs of the six of them which always makes a book better imo

- @/ink-fireplace-coffee

Carmen, Carmen, Carmen!!! <3333

The Atlas Six is literally the very next book in my TBR, ajdkasjdak. I'm excited about it!! I've heard good stuff about it, and your endorsement makes me even more eager to read it!! I just have to finish A Darker Shade of Magic first.

Also, about SoC. I made my entire family read it, ajsdkakjdsa. My mom read it, then for some absurd reason waited like 4 months to read CK, even though I was basically following her around with a copy begging her to. That pissed me off.

My sister didn't read it, but that's because she's convinced that if she takes a break and reads ONE book in English, she will die and forget everything she's ever learned in 13 years of taking Spanish... 🙄 I'll make her read it one day.

Stuff about S&B Netflix under the cut, because I have Too Much To Say.

As for S&B, the TV Show, I'm not really a fan. Controversial, but I am a stickler for things being accurate to the books as possible. Honestly, I haven't even finished the show. I'm only about halfway through. Part of the problem is that I've never cared one bit about Alina or Mal. The only character I cared about in the original trilogy was Nikolai, lmao. Also, this is really stupid, but I think a lot of people fell in love with the Darkling, partly because he's played by a conventionally attractive man, ajdkjas.

RANT INCOMING

I could go on for hours about how you're supposed to follow Alina's path: which is confusion > idolization > attraction > HATRED, but people get stuck on the idolizing him and thinking he's hot (I mean, yes, he's described as attractive, and Ben Barnes is good-looking enough). But he's so very, very manipulative and clearly abusive and it terrifies me how many people genuinely ship him with Alina. I know that wasn't Ms. Bardugo's point at all, but people will do what they want, I guess.

P.S. - I do know that also the Darkling is supposed to be human, not an evil monolith. He's supposed to be scary partly because you can sympathize with him and feel things about him. But that doesn't erase his toxic and abusive nature. (or at least it shouldn't if your braincells are working.)

OKAY, RANT OVER.

Basically, I wish they hadn't tried to smash two stories into one. I know that the ending of season one sets up well for the actual canon SoC plot, but they've already used so many of the SoC plot points (Kaz selling his crow club shares, etc.) that it would just feel repetitive to do them again. So, I'm a little conflicted.

Okay, sorry, you stumbled into something I have very strong feelings about, ajasjdks. I apologize.

#ethereal-carmen #Morrigan replies #Carmen ☕#morrigan rambles

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serpenteve · 3 years

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So I ship Darklina, but I actually...don't hate Mal? Sure, he was a dick sometimes (so is the Darkling, in different ways), but he was also like 17 or 18 right? And, to me, he'd changed by Ruin and Rising. He went through a lot of character growth. He's not my favorite character by any means. He's probably one of my least favorite, simply because of how boring he is, and I think him and Alina would have been better off as friends or siblings for a platonic familial type thing. But he's also a teenager. That doesn't give him an excuse for being a dick but I feel like from what I've seen from Darklina stans (and what I myself have done in the past) is we hold him to such a high standard but we excuse everything the Darkling does. Yes, he's the villain, but he's also a love interest, which means he does need to be somewhat held accountable. I love the Darkling, he's my boy, and he makes Mal look like a piece of cardboard in comparison, but if we're able to love a centuries old villain and forgive his mistakes, shouldn't Mal at least get some grace? Heroes are allowed to mess up, especially teenage ones. Hell, when I was 17 I was a wreck. It just feels weird to write off everything a centuries old man does but tear apart everything a teenager does, you know?

But I also understand the Mal hate and I don't expect people to love him (I don't even love him lmao). I just wanted to see if some Darklinas are more open towards Mal because I understand most Darklinas hate his guts (understandably so).

Sorry for the long ask. What are your thoughts on Mal?

I don't think all Darklinas hate Mal but a lot of people who hated a number of things in the books happen to be Darklinas. If you hate the book romance, then you're more likely to criticize other aspects of the storytelling like the plot and writing choices.

I definitely think people's perception of Mal hinges on whether they feel like he redeemed himself in Ruin & Rising and/or whether or not they were exposed to the fandom discourse and reactions surrounding the characters. For example, if you read the Grisha trilogy after seeing people endlessly simp for the Darkling and talk about Mal like he's the Worst Character Ever™️, then probably you will think book!Mal really isn't that bad and people excuse the Darkling's actions despite him like.........destroying an entire town for funsies and terrorizing Alina across the country 😂

The whole Mal vs Darkling debate originally arose out of audience expectations. Mal was presented as a heroic love interest while the Darkling was basically a false romantic lead turned villain who Alina kinda still had the hots for but had to heroically resist lest she become seduced to the dark side. The Darkling wants to control and exploit Alina and will stop at nothing to do so. Therefore, we expect Mal to embody the opposite of this: support Alina in doing what she wants and not treat her like a trophy he's entitled to. Instead, Bardugo---perhaps unintentionally---set the opposite in motion.

I actually really don't mind Mal in Shadow & Bone. Yeah, he was kind of an ass to Alina at parts, but he apologized and helped her get the stag and most of his faults can be overlooked as dumb teenage boy things. The problem arose in Siege & Storm when Mal grew entitled, possessive and emasculated because Alina had this power he did not and Alina had this great destiny that didn't revolve around him. Regardless of what Bardugo intended with this lover's quarrel, many readers interpreted this as Mal wanting Alina to be weak and dependent on him. And now, when readers look back at his more annoying traits in Shadow & Bone that initially didn't bother us that much, it holds more sinister implications. It wasn't that Mal and Alina were drifting apart, it was that Mal doesn't care about Alina until someone else cares about her and then he realizes "oh shit! my biggest fangirl that i took for granted has been taken away and has a life of her own??? unacceptable!!11". This combined with the Grisha being coded as any marginalized group and Mal's bigotry towards Alina and then her ending where she lost her powers so the author could pair her with Mal also left some.................IMPLICATIONS 👀

And listen, it would be one thing if I was the *only* reader who was whining about how Mal's character drives me up the wall......but like literally 3/4 of the fandom hated his ass because Bardugo accidentally made him toxic in a very *familiar* way that the Darkling's toxicity is not---at least for that part of the fandom. And this clash between reader expectations and what was actually on the page is what gave rise to a lot of Mal hate. You mentioned that readers hold Mal to a higher standard than the Darkling and that's true. But it's also because Mal is supposed to be a hero, not a villain. The expectations we had for the Darkling were literally on the floor after he decided to randomly massacre Novokribrisk. Whereas Mal being toxic in exactly the same way a chauvinistic garbage IRL man would be toxic was way too much for some readers and we just ended up shipping Alina with the Darkling out of pure spite. Especially when said villain is saying things like "I've seen what you truly are and I've never turned away? Can he stay the same?" or "He’s otkazat’sya. He can never hope to understand your power, and if he did, he’d only come to fear you."

ALSO, I'm a big believer that the reason the Darklina shippers grew in number is directly because the Darkling and Alina are never in a romantic relationship. The failed and wasted potential was indeed a huge draw, but the fact that we never got to see what their canon relationship would be like allowed us to fantasize about an ideal situation in which the Darkling comes to the error of his ways and learns to treat Alina as an equal. The quotes I mentioned above are up for interpretation. He says he will never turn away and that he would be able to understand Alina's power...........but he also proved that he isn't above using her as a weapon without regard for what she wants. Because we never get to see the Darkling and Alina in a real romantic relationship, we can now choose to interpret that line seriously in fanworks, regardless of whatever the hell Bardugo intended with it.

#viv answers #i could probably write an entire essay on this but i feel like ive rambled long enough lmao #anti mal

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